Caltrops vs Weakness for Portal

Bitter_Apple21

I am DK tank. Working on learning Z'Maja portal work. Think I am getting confident enough to add the Crystal "debuff" job into my list of tasks when downstairs. Can Caltrops (or its morph) do the same benefit to the crystals as Ele Drain does?

TheGreatBlackBear

Bitter_Apple21 wrote: »

I am DK tank. Working on learning Z'Maja portal work. Think I am getting confident enough to add the Crystal "debuff" job into my list of tasks when downstairs. Can Caltrops (or its morph) do the same benefit to the crystals as Ele Drain does?

You could. But I wouldn't recommend it. Ele drain is free, unlike caltriops. the magickasteal is important for your own sustain a tank down there as well as potentially the DD's.

CP5

Plus you can only have 1 caltrops out at once, as opposed to being able to debuff each crystal one after another.

Plectro

The main point of using Ele Drain instead of Caltrops is what CP5 said. Caltrops can only target one crystal. If you cast caltrops again on another crystal, the first caltrops will disappear.

This is not the case for Ele Drain as Ele Drain will stay on all crystals and you can just debuff every single crystal, significantly increasing the damage output of the DDs.

Also, I would recommend you don't use Ele Drain, but the other morph instead, if you can. Ele Drain will help with magicka sustain and it's nice if people need it. But the other morph will apply status effects such as burning / chilled / concussion which will further increase the damage done

Bitter_Apple21

Thanks. Yeah, since I originally posted the question, I became "educated" that although it can work, it is not what I should be doing. I was initially considering it, cause upside, I was running trops with PA (RL choice), so I figured I could easily cast trops (do not need to be particularly accurate in aiming), and try to help the DPS done below.

I did not research its duration, nor the benefit to the rest of the magicsteal.

Gonna baby step and try some normal runs with ele drain (on one) and see how it affects my shade blocking/taunting/bashing, etc. My original thoughts are that I should not "blink" from blocking, etc but maybe for time down below, one cast will speed up the DPS clearing, and I might just need to take a shade LA hit or 2 to support that objective.

Thanks folks.