Which Necro skills are 'dots'?

Ghostextechnica · June 2020

Seems like a silly question - in most games you would head to your skillbook and it would say "Direct Damage" or "Damage over time (Dot)" or "Aoe", however, as far as I can tell there's no easy way to work out which skills are classified as dots and would therefore benefit from putting CP into 'Thaumaturge' (increases dot damage).

Is boneyard a dot? It seems more like AOE to me, but I hear it's a dot? What about shocking siphon? It seems to tick over time?

Would love to know for the following skills:

Mystic Siphon
Stalking Blastbones
Unnerving Boneyard
Unstable Wall of Elements (destro staff skills)

tsaescishoeshiner · June 2020

There are 4 categories: AoE DoTs, AoE direct damage, single-target DoTs, single-target direct damage

Mystic Siphon: AoE DoT
Stalking Blastbones: AoE direct damage
Boneyard: AoE Dot
Unstable Wall of Elements: the DoT portion should act as a DoT, but the "esplosion" damage should be direct damage
Source: common knowledge, this is how these skills SHOULD behave. if they're not, my b

I believe Skellington Arcanist should count as an AoE direct damage, since other pets are direct damage ... don't cite me on that lol

Nova_J · June 2020

Ghostextechnica wrote: »

Seems like a silly question - in most games you would head to your skillbook and it would say "Direct Damage" or "Damage over time (Dot)" or "Aoe", however, as far as I can tell there's no easy way to work out which skills are classified as dots and would therefore benefit from putting CP into 'Thaumaturge' (increases dot damage).

Is boneyard a dot? It seems more like AOE to me, but I hear it's a dot? What about shocking siphon? It seems to tick over time?

Would love to know for the following skills:
Mystic Siphon

Stalking Blastbones

Unnerving Boneyard

Unstable Wall of Elements (destro staff skills)

Mystic ayphon is a Dot
Blast bones is DD(Direct damage)/Aoe
Boneyard is a Dot
Unstable wall is a Dot

willjones1122 · June 2020

So in general dots are damage over time (the tooltip says x damage over x seconds) and it doesn't matter if they are aoe or single target. Thamaturge will apply to all damage dealt with those skills. There are dots with a direct damage component (tooltip says deals x damage then an additional x damage over x seconds) and thamaturge will only apply to the second part of the damage. Heavy attacks from lightning and healing staves are also considered dots.
So direct damage is simply doing all the damage at once (tooltip says deals x damage) and again it doesn't matter if they are aoe or single target. These will be affected by the appropriate cp nodes, (but not thamaturge).

Hopefully this makes sense, if not i am sure someone who can explain this better will come along and help out.

*edit all lightning and healing staff heavy attack ticks are affected by thaumaturge.

Sergykid · June 2020

why is wall of elements a dot? it says it deals X damage every Y seconds, not X damage over Y seconds. So it's a series of direct damages, like Solar Barrage. The Boneyard is dot because it says X damage over Y seconds.

willjones1122 · June 2020

Wall of elements is a dot. It's phrasing is different due to the spell creating a sort of hazard area a target could get in and out of (unlike a bleed or burn type effect which can only be cleansed) So the tooltip can't say do x damage over x second because it doesn't know how long the target will actually be in the area. It for ease of understanding/maths. And as for solar barrage it works in a similar way as you never know how long things will stand in stupid. BUT i believe solar barrage used to be considered a dot and was changed due to the fact that everything a templar did was basically a dot. They revamped it so templars had to spread out their cp a bit... Could be misremembering as i didn't play templars when this change happened and so didn't pay that much attention to it.

Stx · June 2020

The number of skill types and the wording on the tooltips of abilities in this game are very confusing and often inconsistent.

You just have to learn which is which.

Sergykid · June 2020

willjones1122 wrote: »

Wall of elements is a dot. It's phrasing is different due to the spell creating a sort of hazard area a target could get in and out of (unlike a bleed or burn type effect which can only be cleansed) So the tooltip can't say do x damage over x second because it doesn't know how long the target will actually be in the area. It for ease of understanding/maths. And as for solar barrage it works in a similar way as you never know how long things will stand in stupid. BUT i believe solar barrage used to be considered a dot and was changed due to the fact that everything a templar did was basically a dot. They revamped it so templars had to spread out their cp a bit... Could be misremembering as i didn't play templars when this change happened and so didn't pay that much attention to it.

looks like you didn't read the final part of my comment. Both Boneyard and Wall are aoe abilities. Boneyard has written in the tooltip deal X damage over Y seconds, while Wall has written in the tooltip deal X damage every Y seconds. How are both considered dots?

willjones1122 · June 2020

I did. And i explained why woe was originally written the way it was. Boneyard is a new(er) skill and was added after they codified some of the language for dots. They just didn't go back and reword some of the older skills tooltips. Why? Maybe they didn't feel it was necessary, maybe the tooltip guy got bored copy and pasting text, or maybe it's on a to do list they haven't gotten to yet with skill rebalancing. No idea. But woe is a dot, so is boneyard. I don't make the rules, i just play by them.

*Also i just tested and solar barrage is in fact a "dot" as it's damage is improved with thaumaturge.
Removed all gear (except lightning staff) and cp and hit 6m testing dummy with solar barrage/blockade of storms:
No cp
Bos- 296 dmg/tick
Solar-530 dmg/tick

100pts in thaumaturge only
Bos- 407 dmg/tick
Solar- 726 dmg/tick

I tested both skills separately as i did not want exploiter passive to affect solar damage ticks.