Ground DOT base timers need to be longer

WuffyCerulei · November 12

What the title says. I feel ground DOT base timers need to be 5 seconds longer than they are right now. So many morphs are set at 10 seconds, but they're overshadowed by the 15+ second morphs as they require less casts to keep them up. Ground DOTS like Arrow Barrage, Unstable Wall of Elements, Lightning Flood, Boneyard+morphs, Spear Shards+morphs, Winter's Revenge, Twisting Path, and Caltrops all are neglected because they're too tedious to cast every 10 or so seconds. So let's increase these skills' timers to 15 seconds, and the longer-timed morphs to be 20 seconds. 15 seconds give DPS more time to do their thing, but could also open more skill choices as their rotation won't have to stick to the longer morphs. The 20 second time for longer-timed morphs also times better with single-target DOTS.

Now let me preface this:ONLY increase the timers, DO NOT reduce the damage of the ground DOTs. We've already had Scalebreaker do that in 2019, and it homogenized DPS so bad that EVERYONE was only using single-target dots.

Vaqual · November 13

I agree that quite a few ground DoTs have been treated a bit unfairly in the last years. Outside of static parse fights they can easily lose huge amounts of value per cast compared to regular AoE spammables or regular DoTs, both due to target expiration (shared drawback with sticky dots) as well as movement (unique disadvantage). The forced 10ish second timer combined with the tick-rate and damage equalization (but not generally related buff duration adjustment) have left many of them in bad spot. They are not strong enough to contest an area and the value hinges on effective duration too much for frequent relocation. Warning colors in PvP make them the most easily avoidable type of damage.

I do not think that making the timers longer will make them generally nicer to use. It will be a flat damage per cast injection that will almost only benefit PvE fights. Appropriate maybe for some, but not for all. More individual adjustments (even by morph) may be more sensible:

1) Tick scaling like Hurricane
2) Reverse tick scaling for front-loaded damage (ideal for PvP while maintaining total damage per cast)
3) Increased status proc chance
4) Portable AoE on first affected target
5) Lingering duration on old AoE even after recast and new placement (limiting hits per target to block stacking)
6) Resource refund if no targets are hit

....etc....

Probably computationally heavier, but also much more interesting. These abilities should be worth using outside of static fights or pull-based strategies. Of course they should not be so strong that melee builds are becoming unplayable, but we are currently incredibly far from that point, considering average speed and the new standard melee distance.

Yudo · November 13

But then everyone holding HA and beam even more?

ZhuJiuyin · November 13

I think we should first standardize the duration of these DoTs (including those on the ground, the target, and oneself). For example, Sun Fire has a duration of 22 seconds because it is passive, Twisting Path has a duration of 12 seconds because it is also passive, Hurricane has a duration of 20 seconds, Venomous Claw has a duration of 24 seconds, Elemental Blockade has a duration of 15 seconds, and Elemental Susceptibility has a duration of 30 seconds. Such a large number of different durations not only cause management difficulties, but also make it difficult to smoothly combine subclasses for many skill lines.

Soarora · November 13

ZOS did this as part of U35– they “standardized” a whole bunch of DoTs and made them longer. People were upset as it made rotations more boring (more time just hitting spammable). U35 wasn’t just “our damage went down”, there’s nuance.

Realistically, you can’t have the damage stay the same and the duration be increased. When ZOS increased timers, they decreased the damage per tick so that OVERALL the damage was the same. Whether we think this is right or not, ZOS has shown that they will defend their spreadsheet with everything they’ve got.

ESO_Nightingale · November 22

Would be keen to see winter's revenge have an extra 3 seconds of duration, that's for sure.

WuffyCerulei · 12:41AM

ESO_Nightingale wrote: »

Would be keen to see winter's revenge have an extra 3 seconds of duration, that's for sure.

Yeah, 12 seconds is a WEIRD time for a ground dot.