2010-08-31, 02:37 PM
@AM videos: 
Still weaker DPS than everyone else, but it's a step in the right direction. Though it's rather annoying to see our damage potential shattered by a damage cap due to strong one-hit skills. tl;dr: QFT.
My philosophy on the DoT mechanic so far is that it's not as good as everyone is making it out to be, simply due to the fact that to boost the DoT damage you have to take precious time out of spamming Paralyze, which greatly detracts from the overall DPS. On top of that, there are realistic situations at bosses that make this time even more valuable, such as the fact that when one is casting various skills one after another as opposed to spamming the same skill, it's easier to get screwed up for half a second here or there with different cast delays, and thus one may find themselves going more out of their way than believed just to boost DoT damage by a negligible amount. Plus, anyone wasting the time to boost DoT damage during the last few seconds of Infinity when they could be hitting max hits is just stupid, but that's what it would take for DoT to have a worthwhile impact.
The only situation in which I can actually see DoT being useful would be in cases using Mist, simply because the cloud hangs around and doesn't need to be recast every now and then. At places such as Papulatus, it's a great way to continue dealing damage while it's down in invincible mode, and in combination with the DoT from the Paralyze spam beforehand, it would be quite a decent amount for those few seconds. I can also see Poison DoT useful at bosses that MDEF up, in that such a situation would be a great time to multi-cast every poison DoT skill in your arsenal in order to keep up some kind of DPS. Finally, I can also see fire DoT useful at fire-weak bosses, provided Elemental weapon bonuses affect DoT damage and the ArchMage is using a fire weapon. In that case, as it has been predicted by many, it may even be more worthwhile to use Big Bang, as the massive 1.75x bonuses from weaknesses and elemental weapons may be enough to offset the charge time.
So tl;dr? Every DoT skill is worthwhile, but because the system is so much more complex than before, it will be very difficult to determine which skills to fully max and which to leave a few points short without actually testing the skills ourselves.
Because every 3rd Job skill caps at Lv. 10 or 20 now, I'm actually going to max Resistance and take 9 points away from Seal. My question to LOLAMs is how often do we use Seal after reaching 4th Job? I can safely say I haven't touched the skill in over two years, since the old misting days, because it's just not worthwhile. Considering every AM also has the ability to freeze/stun, AND a Lv. 11 Seal still works at a decent 56% rate, it makes more sense to have more passive defense against the elements one encounters every now and then, as opposed to a higher success rate on an obsolete skill.
Otherwise I also agree with leaving MP Eater at Lv. 3.
Still weaker DPS than everyone else, but it's a step in the right direction. Though it's rather annoying to see our damage potential shattered by a damage cap due to strong one-hit skills. tl;dr: QFT.
Dusk Wrote:That's a poison-weak boss, and don't assume mages are still weaker than other classes.
I'm really confused by what skills I should be getting once BB hits, since the whole DoT mechanic is still up in the air. I'm assuming Paralyze spam with maybe Poison Mist and Fire Demon would cause max damage, but I keep hearing about Composition and Breath. I REALLY do not want to get those skills.
My philosophy on the DoT mechanic so far is that it's not as good as everyone is making it out to be, simply due to the fact that to boost the DoT damage you have to take precious time out of spamming Paralyze, which greatly detracts from the overall DPS. On top of that, there are realistic situations at bosses that make this time even more valuable, such as the fact that when one is casting various skills one after another as opposed to spamming the same skill, it's easier to get screwed up for half a second here or there with different cast delays, and thus one may find themselves going more out of their way than believed just to boost DoT damage by a negligible amount. Plus, anyone wasting the time to boost DoT damage during the last few seconds of Infinity when they could be hitting max hits is just stupid, but that's what it would take for DoT to have a worthwhile impact.
The only situation in which I can actually see DoT being useful would be in cases using Mist, simply because the cloud hangs around and doesn't need to be recast every now and then. At places such as Papulatus, it's a great way to continue dealing damage while it's down in invincible mode, and in combination with the DoT from the Paralyze spam beforehand, it would be quite a decent amount for those few seconds. I can also see Poison DoT useful at bosses that MDEF up, in that such a situation would be a great time to multi-cast every poison DoT skill in your arsenal in order to keep up some kind of DPS. Finally, I can also see fire DoT useful at fire-weak bosses, provided Elemental weapon bonuses affect DoT damage and the ArchMage is using a fire weapon. In that case, as it has been predicted by many, it may even be more worthwhile to use Big Bang, as the massive 1.75x bonuses from weaknesses and elemental weapons may be enough to offset the charge time.
So tl;dr? Every DoT skill is worthwhile, but because the system is so much more complex than before, it will be very difficult to determine which skills to fully max and which to leave a few points short without actually testing the skills ourselves.
MorbidMagus Wrote:Why not?
Just sacrifice a bit of MP eater and Resistance like current mages do now, both skills are very lolworthy, Poison Brace and Comp are pretty essential for DoT DPS. Also iirc you cant use Fire DoT with Poison DoT.
Because every 3rd Job skill caps at Lv. 10 or 20 now, I'm actually going to max Resistance and take 9 points away from Seal. My question to LOLAMs is how often do we use Seal after reaching 4th Job? I can safely say I haven't touched the skill in over two years, since the old misting days, because it's just not worthwhile. Considering every AM also has the ability to freeze/stun, AND a Lv. 11 Seal still works at a decent 56% rate, it makes more sense to have more passive defense against the elements one encounters every now and then, as opposed to a higher success rate on an obsolete skill.
Otherwise I also agree with leaving MP Eater at Lv. 3.