I agree that quite a few ground DoTs have been treated a bit unfairly in the last years. Outside of static parse fights they can easily lose huge amounts of value per cast compared to regular AoE spammables or regular DoTs, both due to target expiration (shared drawback with sticky dots) as well as movement (unique disadvantage). The forced 10ish second timer combined with the tick-rate and damage equalization (but not generally related buff duration adjustment) have left many of them in bad spot. They are not strong enough to contest an area and the value hinges on effective duration too much for frequent relocation. Warning colors in PvP make them the most easily avoidable type of damage.

I do not think that making the timers longer will make them generally nicer to use. It will be a flat damage per cast injection that will almost only benefit PvE fights. Appropriate maybe for some, but not for all. More individual adjustments (even by morph) may be more sensible:

1) Tick scaling like Hurricane
2) Reverse tick scaling for front-loaded damage (ideal for PvP while maintaining total damage per cast)
3) Increased status proc chance
4) Portable AoE on first affected target
5) Lingering duration on old AoE even after recast and new placement (limiting hits per target to block stacking)
6) Resource refund if no targets are hit

....etc....

Probably computationally heavier, but also much more interesting. These abilities should be worth using outside of static fights or pull-based strategies. Of course they should not be so strong that melee builds are becoming unplayable, but we are currently incredibly far from that point, considering average speed and the new standard melee distance.

I think we should first standardize the duration of these DoTs (including those on the ground, the target, and oneself). For example, Sun Fire has a duration of 22 seconds because it is passive, Twisting Path has a duration of 12 seconds because it is also passive, Hurricane has a duration of 20 seconds, Venomous Claw has a duration of 24 seconds, Elemental Blockade has a duration of 15 seconds, and Elemental Susceptibility has a duration of 30 seconds. Such a large number of different durations not only cause management difficulties, but also make it difficult to smoothly combine subclasses for many skill lines.

Would be keen to see winter's revenge have an extra 3 seconds of duration, that's for sure.

As it stands it's not just Winter's Revenge. There are so many ground DoTs that have either short timers or effects that are different from the ability's duration.

If we are to use the abilities from different skill lines they need to be able to work in conjunction. That means the same timers, tick rates and effect durations.

It sounds like homogeneity, but it is a necessary standardisation. You can't expect a machine to work smoothly, when the cogs have different teeth.

They did it with update 35, turns out, hitting the same button 10+ times in a row is not a fun rotation. Aside from that, leaving the same damage per second with increased duration means increasing damage per cast, meaning increased total DPS, meaning even more power creep.

Zodiarkslayer wrote: »

As it stands it's not just Winter's Revenge. There are so many ground DoTs that have either short timers or effects that are different from the ability's duration.

If we are to use the abilities from different skill lines they need to be able to work in conjunction. That means the same timers, tick rates and effect durations.

It sounds like homogeneity, but it is a necessary standardisation. You can't expect a machine to work smoothly, when the cogs have different teeth.

Oh no imagine if the rotation isn't fully static, what a tragedy...

Zodiarkslayer wrote: »

Vaqual wrote: »

Oh no imagine if the rotation isn't fully static, what a tragedy...

It's no tragedy. Its just that skill lines from different classes will not work together very well.
That cannot be the objective if you want Subclassing to finally balance.

How about tweaking literally every other aspect to make usage worthwhile? Not saying that identical timers are bs, but they are not nearly as important as you made it out to be either.

MindOfTheSwarm wrote: »

Personally, I think this is a terrible idea because it will simply result in each individual tick being reduced resulting in a nerf to DPS and causing main spammable skills being the main point of damage.

Asking for each tick to not be affected just isn’t going to happen period.

It might work if some sets got adjusted to accommodate the change. Silks of the Sun and Ysgrammor Birthright for example could have their 5 piece bonuses increased to 450 and then changed to Flat Damage depending on their element. This would make DoT’s decent and offset the inevitable reduction in damage that would come by increasing the duration.

That is a fantastic idea for those old elemental sets!

MindOfTheSwarm wrote: »

Personally, I think this is a terrible idea because it will simply result in each individual tick being reduced resulting in a nerf to DPS and causing main spammable skills being the main point of damage.

Asking for each tick to not be affected just isn’t going to happen period.

It might work if some sets got adjusted to accommodate the change. Silks of the Sun and Ysgrammor Birthright for example could have their 5 piece bonuses increased to 450 and then changed to Flat Damage depending on their element. This would make DoT’s decent and offset the inevitable reduction in damage that would come by increasing the duration.

Noooooo! You're forgetting that "every set has its place". Ysgramors and its ilk belong in the trash! Don't make them viable!!!