SCH question Sacred Soil vs Shadow Flare

This question is mainly for DF dungeons, specifically of the faster pull varieties.

I personally prefer to use Shadow Flare and save my Aether Flow stacks for Lustrates. It lasts longer than SS and applies a constant slow which may or may not be better than the 10% less damage SS gives.

What do you all think? Am I doin' it wrong?

SF the whole way. The slow and DoT is much more helpful than SS can be. Plus if you save your Aether stacks for Lustrate you never have to swap out of Cleric Stance.

Depends on situations.
VS one strong boss about to use a skill followed by healing needed afterwards, I'd say SS. Primal attacks etc.
VS 3+ mobs I'd use SF due to slow, which will reduce their damage output.

On speedruns SF is the way to go for sure; the reduced damage output from slow plus the dot, plus saving your stacks for Lustrate.

SS is best for DR against burst damage, as the above poster said; boss attacks that damage the whole party especially

Take WP for example:

My group, we usually pull the first (5) sets of mobs. I typically, depending on who is tanking, will pop a SS followed by a SF after its duration is done. That personally gives me some lead way in reducing to damage while the pop CDs or healing abilities as I keep them close to topped off.

On your average well geared tank, say a pld with 6k hp, your lustrate will hit for 1.5k. In order to make ss equally efficient as lustrate per aetherflow stack, the tank needs to take 15,000 damage throughout the duration of ss. If that much damage isn't flying around, you're better off with a shadowflare.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Seryl199

On your average well geared tank, say a pld with 6k hp, your lustrate will hit for 1.5k. In order to make ss equally efficient as lustrate per aetherflow stack, the tank needs to take 15,000 damage throughout the duration of ss. If that much damage isn't flying around, you're better off with a shadowflare.

---

Then that would honestly make SS obsolete in most cases. Not a whole lot of instances where the tank is taking 1k damage a second, given the GCD even for trash mobs. Only place I could think of that, that kind of damage is being thrown around potentially would be Coil and even then it's pushing it. Most bosses don't even touch that amount unless the cleave multiple party members.

For dungeons I don't heal and let Selene handle everything. The odd occasion I'll throw out a lustrate the rest of the time I spend dpsing. I don't need to remove cleric stance even for bosses. I am full BiS, Embrace is more than enough to heal the party.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by NRhodes

Then that would honestly make SS obsolete in most cases. Not a whole lot of instances where the tank is taking 1k damage a second, given the GCD even for trash mobs. Only place I could think of that, that kind of damage is being thrown around potentially would be Coil and even then it's pushing it. Most bosses don't even touch that amount unless the cleave multiple party members.

---

SS isnt entirely obsolete. It's absolutely stellar when it comes to raid wide damage. If everyone is taking around 2000 damage, then soil is worth your time. Also, I do find it handy for those heavy trash pulls since, while it may not be the most efficient use, it has the added benefit of generating no enmity. If you notice your tank hasn't scooped up all the mobs yet, SS will help overcome that initial healing burst without raining mobs down on your head

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Deceptus

This question is mainly for DF dungeons, specifically of the faster pull varieties.

---

I assume with "DF dungeons" you mean something like WP / AK / etc. . Then, yes SF > SS. If you include primals like Titan HM, etc. then SS > SF.

Since you specifically said that your concern is for Speedruns, I'd say Shadow Flare all the way. Is there even a boss below Titan HM difficulty wherein you need Sacred Soil? Guess none.

I have a bit of lag so I am a DF hero! But I thought I was playing correctly. The reason I asked is that when I tank and I get SCH healers I never see them put it up and was wondering if I was mistaken. Hence why runs always go better when I'm healing vs when I'm tanking. . . Vindication!

SS is better when it comes to ability based damage, like say Geo-crush, but Shadowflare generally works out better for non-ability, aka mass trash auto attack, since the damage is low enough as it is, and the damage just add's up pretty well.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Deceptus

The reason I asked is that when I tank and I get SCH healers I never see them put it up and was wondering if I was mistaken.

---

Most people that play SCH aren't particularly exceptional at it. There's a lot of little things to do as a SCH to optimize your play, so they might have just not got to the point of Shadowflaring yet. Or they're lazy.