master_vanargand wrote: »

Jabs is AoE.
The rules of world cannot be changed.

virtus753 wrote: »

Rykja wrote: »

Which brings me to a question, why even slot thaumaturge when you can get 10% damage increase to all of your damage and then still be able to do 25% more crit damage (which will be most of your damage no matter how many times they try to nerf crits). Unless you are doing solo content where everything faces you one of those stars will be left in the dirt cause it is not relevant as long as biting aura and deadly aim increase both direct damage and dot damage.

No CP node increases direct damage specifically. There are buffs to single-target damage, AoE damage, and DoT damage. Some single-target and AoE skills are direct damage, while others are DoTs. Some skills can benefit from two of the three nodes, while others can only benefit from one. No damage component of a skill can benefit from all three nodes at once, as the same damage component can't be both single-target and AoE. But the three nodes do cover every damage skill in game, as any given damage component will be either single-target or AoE, even if it's direct damage and therefore not covered by Thaumaturge as well.

Clarifying this leads to the bigger issue: as a single-target DoT, Flurry can benefit from both Deadly Aim and Thaumaturge, while other spammables can't benefit from more than one of these three nodes. (I just confirmed on PTS that Biting Jabs - the stamina morph - is only affected by Biting Aura, not by Thaumaturge or Deadly Aim.)

A Flurry-user can use both Deadly Aim and Thaumaturge to buff Flurry twice as well as light attacks once. They're then free to slot both Fighting Finesse and Backstabber and don't lose out on much at all by ignoring Biting Aura. Deadly Aim and Thaumaturge would cover the spammable twice (being a ST DoT), light attacks once (ST), and then other single-target DoTs (e.g. Barbed Trap) twice and AoE DoTs (e.g. Volley) once. If Thaumaturge were dumped in favor of Biting Aura, then everything on that previous list would only get buffed once. If Deadly Aim were dumped in favor of Biting Aura, then light attacks wouldn't get buffed, which would be a decent hit to dps, while Flurry and other single-target DoTs would get buffed once and AoE DoTs twice. So Biting Aura is pretty safely ignored in favor of the crit stars.

This is also why if only 2 of the 3 +10% damage nodes are taken, then ideally the pair should not be Deadly Aim and Biting Aura, as that automatically limits skills to being buffed once at most rather than potentially twice. Deadly Aim + Thaumaturge or Thaumaturge + Biting Aura should cover almost everything at least once while also allowing for certain skills to be buffed twice. The one exception for the first pair (DA + Thaum) is an AoE direct damage skill, and Jabs is the number one concern in this category in light of it being the greater part of a stamplar's power and class identity. (Stone Giant might also fall into this category.) Leaving out Deadly Aim, however, results in light attacks going unbuffed, which is a big problem when they contribute a significant amount to dps; there's also the matter that no skill can be buffed by both Deadly Aim and Biting Aura at the same time.

The Jabs-user, then, is stuck slotting that less-than-ideal pair of Biting Aura (primarily for Jabs) and Deadly Aim (primarily for light attacks), then both Fighting Finesse and Backstabber. That leaves the rest of the rotation, including Barbed Trap, Ritual, Volley, and possibly Power of the Light, to benefit only from one of those two nodes rather than doubling up with Thaumaturge too. The alternatives are to sacrifice the buff to Jabs or the buff to light attacks in order to get anything to double dip. Otherwise Jabs-users are limited to buffing each skill only once, whereas replacing Jabs with Flurry allows for buffing some twice -- at which point, however, one has given up the single most defining skill of a stamplar.

If Thaumaturge were expanded to include channeled skills, then the Jabs-user would have the following additional options, none of which is a clear-cut solution:

1) take Thaumaturge and Deadly Aim so Jabs is buffed once, light attacks once, single-target DoTs twice, and AoE DoTs once. This is similar to the Flurry setup above, albeit with the spammable only benefitting once. It still wouldn't represent an equivalence in terms of CP benefits in comparison to the Flurry-spammer.

2) take Thaumaturge and Biting Aura so Jabs is buffed twice, light attacks not at all, single-target DoTs once, and AoE DoTs twice. The loss of buff on light attacks probably makes this a non-starter.

3) take Thaumaturge, Deadly Aim, and Biting Aura so that Jabs is buffed twice, light attacks once, single-target DoTs twice, and AoE DoTs twice. But this sacrifices significant crit damage in the name of giving (a bit under) 10% extra damage to Jabs and any AoE DoTs (like Volley). The difference with the Flurry setup above is only (a bit under) 10% extra damage to those AoE DoTs. Even with the Maelstrom bow, is that one extra buff to that one category going to make up for a loss of 10% crit damage and heals or 15% crit damage while flanking?

But this isn't just an issue of Jabs vs. Flurry: several other class spammables are also skills buffed by only Deadly Aim or Biting Aura, like Surprise Attack and Stone Giant. So even if the system were expanded so Jabs could be covered by two +10% damage nodes, wouldn't those have to be as well? At least a nightblade can use Deadly Aim + Thaumaturge, though, while a DK running Stone Giant is stuck with the Templar Special: Deadly Aim + Biting Aura, which ensures no skills are buffed twice.

At any rate, it seems that Flurry is at least part of the problem here in that it double dips while other spammables don't. That means that Flurry-spammers (currently Necros and Wardens) are getting a leg up from these CP nodes in a way that Templars, Nightblades, DKs, and Sorcs don't. While I wouldn't begrudge stam wardens a little pick-me-up in terms of power, I think that should be coming from their class, not from double-dipping in CP based on a non-class questionably-categorized spammable.