How does Spell Damage affect DoT abilities and bar swapping?

Saphayla

Let's say I have 2000 Spell Damage when on my first bar, and 3000 Spell Damage when on my second bar. I spend most of my time on my first bar, but I have AoE DoT abilities like Elemental Blockade slotted on the second bar. If I cast the spell from the second bar and come back to the first bar, will the Blockade deal damage as if I had 3000 Spell Damage, since that's the damage I had when I cast it, or will it deal damage as if I had 2000 Spell Damage, since that's how much Spell Damage I have when the ability deals damage to enemies? Furthermore, how do such abilities react to Spell Critical? It is a damage over time effect, that deals damage once every second. Does Spell Critical come into play all the time, giving each tick a chance to crit, or does is the whole ability affected, meaning if you got a crit while casting it, every tick will be a crit, and if you didn't get a crit, then not a single tick will be a crit?

Also, is it possible to switch other pieces of gear, like Jewelry, when swapping bars? Could I have different item sets equipped for each action bar?

Lynx7386

As far as I'm aware, most duration abilities update in real time, so if you cast them and then go to a lower damage bar you'll end up dealing less damage with the dots. It can work in your favor if you put dots on the back bar and have higher damage on your front bar though.

code65536

Don't quote me on this, since I could be remembering wrong, but the general rule is that ground-AoE DoTs use the stats of the bar that you're on and DoTs that "stick" on your target use the stats of the bar they're cast from.

Merlin13KAGL

Damage determined by stats on active bar.

Each tick has its own separate check for crit, status effects, chance to proc enchants, etc.