Class dot abilities for mag chars are useless now

RiskyChalice863 · July 2019

I don’t really think this is right. Or at least it’s not entirely right.

Most magicka classes have a powerful single target DoT that got buffed and that they should probably use if they’re wanting to maximize single-target damage. For instance, Fetcher Infection for Wardens is going to do much more damage than any non-class DoT can do. Vampire’s Bane (or Reflecting Light) for Templars got buffed overall and should still be used for single-target damage (its damage is going to be similar to the non-class DoTs, but with more damage upfront, a longer duration for Vampire’s Bane, a snare, a minor sorcery proc, and free ultimate). Crippling Grasp (or Debilitate) got buffed and having it slotted will ensure you have the 8% increased max magicka on that bar and using it builds ultimate, so this is probably worth slotting over one of the non-class DoTs. Necromancers got a massive buff to Skeletal Mage, and having the summon up gives them 200 magicka and stamina recovery, so they should likely still be using that over one of the non-class DoTs. I’m not really familiar with DKs so I can’t say for sure but it looks like Burning Embers got a big buff, so that may be the same.

And that’s not even mentioning that some of the class-based AOE DoTs should definitely still be used against single targets. For instance, Blazing Spear is still going to do a ton of single-target DPS and provide a valuable synergy for others. Solar Barrage is probably still worth using against single targets due to the Empower. Boneyard is still going to do great damage to single targets if you feed it corpses, and its got a valuable synergy. Liquid Lightning should probably still be used in a group due to the synergy.

So here’s the difference. Before, with most classes, you’d run probably two or three class-based AOE DoTs. Now you may only run one or two class-based single-target/AOE DoTs. In a way, this will lessen class diversity a little bit, since I think people will probably be using 1 or maybe 2 more non-class abilities when against single-target enemies. But in exchange, you’ve got a lot more setup diversity in different engagements. The ideal setup against a single target will no longer be the same as the ideal setup in an engagement against lots of enemies. So, overall, I think there will probably be more diversity of builds that are useful, and there may even be more diversity in terms of how many class skills are useful in at least some situations.

RiskyChalice863 · July 2019

ecru wrote: »

Tooltip on Boneyard without consuming a corpse is like 17k, and it's a fairly small aoe, vs like 27k on Entropy. Mystic Siphon again is 21k, vs 27k on Entropy. All 12s dots. It's pretty disappointing that in single target situations (or even aoe situations, in soul trap's case), these "new and improved" dots get priority over class abilities.

Evito wrote: »

Magdps feels like a game of whack-a-mole now, at the very least it's hilarious.

This is exactly what it's like, yeah. Parsing on my mag necro, I used my spammable a total of 8 times in a 3:56 parse. In between Blastbones, all I'm doing is refreshing dots over and over and over and over again.

They're just way way too much of my dps at this point, with some of them being equal to or better than my class abilities. You can see that the "new" 8 second ele blockade is actually out damaging my class aoe (boneyard) when you add up the damage from both sources, so another issue with this is the fact that the other morph of ele blockade is better now. Since it's 8 seconds instead of 12, you have to refresh it much more often, making it really annoying to use. I really don't like this style of whack-a-mole gameplay and I don't want it to go live. Average players will absolutely not be able to keep up with these rotations either, I was having enough trouble getting good uptime on them as it is.

You say you only used your spammable 8 times, but you used Blastbones 72 times. I understand when you say “spammable” you mean the Richochet Skull ability not Blastbones, but Blastbones was plainly functioning as a class spammable for you there. You’re basically complaining that you rarely got the chance to cast a class direct-damage ability more than once every 3 global cooldowns, which just strikes me as a bit silly.

josh.lackey_ESO · July 2019

AoE dots will only be worthwhile against other magicka characters now anyway (if any are left in PvP) because every stam build will be running major evasion now with 100% uptime now.