2 questions (dot dmg, balanced stats for SMN/SCH, exp CHAIN bonus)

Hi everyone.

1) How exactly does the dot dmg work? Let's take an example Bio (40dmg / 18s) - does it do 40dmg every 2 seconds (that's my best guess)? I hope all dots work the same so you can calculate the dmg it does per certain time.

2) What's the "best" balanced stat allocation for an Arcanist if I want to play both SMN and SCH later in the end game? I can't decide, both classes are appealing and I don't want to sacrifice one for another.

3) How does this whole thing work? How long do you have to continue the chain? Is it enough to be in combat to keep the chain or the the certain duration takes into account only the time between kills? Also, I've noticed I'm not getting the CHAIN bonus exp once I hit 1 level higher than the mobs I hunt, does that mean it works only for same and higher lvl mobs?

1) the DOT (and HOT if you play SCH or WHM) tick is pegged at 3s, and it's set to a global tick, instead of when you cast. So it's possible to get that first tick of damage 1s. Some DOTs, I should note (both Aero and Thunder, iirc), land for a higher potency than they tick for.

2) Oh lord. Literally, the most "balanced" would be 15/15. However, there's three threads I know of in recent memory in the Healer Roles subforum arguing this with almost no consensus.

3) The chain timer should be listed on the bottom right of your exp bar when it's ticking. It'll start at the death of a mob your level or higher, and you have until it ticks down to kill the next mob. As you chain more mobs in a row, the timer gets shorter too. While you might have 90s after the first kill, you'll only have 60s after the second, 45s after the third, etc... (numbers not accurate, but they show the idea).

Cant help with 1) sorry.

2) SCH is a healer and healing uses Mind attribute, while SMN is a DPS and uses Intelligence so no matter how you add points you will 'gimp' one job or the other... or even both. Best to decide which one and prioritise that one OR at best a 50 / 50 split between Int and Mind and really work hard to get the best gear and materia to 'make up' the difference.

3) The exp chain works by killing a mob at equal or higher level than you in a certain time (ie quickly), then you get a chain and under your exp bar it will say how long it lasts for, each time you kill another mob that will gain you another chain it adds a few seconds to the timer ... so you dont need to remain in combat the whole time but to get the most of the chain bonus it is needed to attack another mob as soon as possible ...or if you are good at dots and CC, while finishing off one mob start on another.

So numbers 1 and 3 were answered pretty well.
To elaborate a tad on 1 though:
Your DoT damage is fairly constant, with the exception of crits, the Potency rating is not a hard damage value though so basing your math of that could lead to bad numbers. Also when watching DoTs tic off on a mob you will only ever see 1 value appear, this value is for ALL of the DoTs you have on the mob during that tic. It can also lead to some misconceptions as with alot of DoTs up you could see values like 354/tic for a few tics then when a DoT drops off 300/tic then 250/tic then when reapplying some back to 350/tic. There is no hard/fast/good way to figure out which one is doing what on a per mob basis other than by actually only using 1 at a time and mathing it out.

Number 2 is clearly a matter for a TON of debate, but the Grand Companies all sell an item that will allow you to respec your stat allocation for a class, that said.
A SCH friend of mine went through alot of testing with me as a vic ... err subject.
Testing between full MND and full INT and a 50/50 split he found that while his healing effectiveness was increased by about 1% w/ a full MND allocation his damage output went up by around 5% with a full INT allocation. The effective return on heals from SCH w/ mnd is tiny, like 1hp/10mnd. The effect of INT on his DoTs was significantly better, increasing them by 2~3 damage a tic (each DoT) for the full 30. Sadly our testing was some time ago and I don't remember all the hard numbers now.
I believe though that a SCH's overall effectiveness is far less dependant on MND and as a result you can "safely" spend all your points in INT.

As a side note, this testing was done w/ relic+1 and full DL, not tested in Coil and perhaps there the few extra hp per physick/adlo/embrace will make the difference between life/death. I don't believe it will though, and your DoTs will be used even there.

3 just one note, the actual death of the mob has to happen before the timer reaches 1, the time for travel to/from server for data can be deceptive and will often lead to it appearing that you have 1 second left to kill the mob and then not receiving the bonus, this of course depends on your latency/lag and location too. Of course if your getting down to 1 second your probably not making another chain anyway.

A bit of elaboration on #1. You'll notice that, if you divide the duration by 3 and multiply by the potency (to get the full damage of the Dot), it's quite a bit higher than other options. This is by design. DoTs take longer to deal all their damage, but are very efficient in terms of how much effort and MP you put in for how much damage you get out.

Secondly, it's worth noting that DoTs only carry about stats WHEN THEY ARE APPLIED. This means you can temporarily use a buff that increases your damage (Cleric's Stance, Raging Strikes, etc.), place your DoTs, and they'll still have the enhanced damage when the buff wears off. This also works for HoT spells (Divine Seal + Regen + Medica II is a rather potent trick. Just watch out for hate!)

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Originally Posted by Ozpa

1) How exactly does the dot dmg work? Let's take an example Bio (40dmg / 18s) - does it do 40dmg every 2 seconds (that's my best guess)?

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Since no one detailed the damage part, I'll do that. Bio is not 40 damage, it's 40 potency. Since your Ruin is 80 potency, your Bio will do exactly 1/2 of Ruin's damage every DoT tick (3 seconds).

Long story short, Ruin sucks and for ACN (and respective jobs), DoTs are the best thing to apply until you've laid all your DoTs, then you can spam Ruin.

Here's a video about DOT/HOT ticks, which you will probably find useful: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQGGTKgL8-g

Thanks guys. Regarding my questions:

1) Sorry I mean potency not dmg. But it's good to know that potency(dmg) is dealth every 3 seconds, so for example Bio(40pot, 18s), does 40 potencys every 3 seconds? 6x40=240 total potency in all the spell? (let's say you time the spell in regard to the global server ticks this way).
2) Probably best to dump all points into INT and only to respec to full MIND for end game dungeons then.
3) I had my exp bar removed from my HUD since day 1... lol.

1: Yeah that's what it works out to, though due to timing wierdness you will occasionally (read: almost always) end up losing a tic for DoT/HoT effect. Your DoT/HoT will land midway between tics and wear just before its final tic is applied. I don't believe this has been fixed yet.

2: you can probably even stay full int even in endgame, unless your going to go dedicated sch at which point cleric's stance will do the respec for you.

3: yeah, it's fairly useless other than leveling, if you (while in the HUD adjustment screen) click on it and press ctrl+home it will cycle through 3 sizes, you can make it tiny and shove it in a corner so you can still see the timer but it's not obtrusive. the ctrl+home thing works for all(most?) HUD elements too if you weren't already hip to that.

Edit: Yeah I said, "Hip to that" lol can't believe I used that ever anywhere.

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Originally Posted by Enfarious

2: you can probably even stay full int even in endgame, unless your going to go dedicated sch at which point cleric's stance will do the respec for you.

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I hope you mean "go full MND as SCH and let cleric's stance give you the INT for your DoTs". I keep seeing folks recommend that scholars just allocate full intelligence, then heal in cleric's stance. Especially at endgame, that is just straight up wrong. Even discounting the 20% penalty to healing under Cleric's Stance, it re-allocates ALL intelligence and mind, including from gear. Which means a decently geared scholar is going to have nearly twice as much mind as intelligence, even if they fully allocated to INT. No matter how you look at it, that's gonna go be a bad idea.