SMN target swap - how many GCDs to break even?

Essentially, the question is, how many GCDs does it take before setting up 3 dots is superior to just spamming ruin?

The answer is...~5 GCDs.

Math: it takes 3 GCDs to set up 3 dots. 1 dot applied at 2.5 sec, 1 dot applied at 5 sec, and Bio being applied at roughly 5.5-6 sec depending on animation delay. During that time, only Bio II gets to tick once. At the end of 3 GCDs, you will have roughly "half" a tick of time with 3 dots, so this is averaged out to (35+40+20)/2 potency.

Opportunity cost is 3 ruins, which is upfront 240 potency. We then subtract the simulated dot damage from the first 3 GCDs, then divide by the total dot potency to see how long these dots will take to equal the deficit. Turns out to be about 1.65 ticks or 5 seconds, so 2 GCDs after the 3 GCD setup.

If you can set up all 3 dots and fester, you will obviously win out...but at the cost of severe mana consumption as well as loss of potential dps (because you could've festered the boss instead, without losing the setup dps).

Another solution is to attempt different combinations of DoTs. Obviously since Miasma's contribution sucks, we will drop that first.

Bio II > Bio will overtake Ruin spam at roughly 9.4 seconds or 4 GCDs.

Pure Bio will overtake Ruin spam at roughly 6.5 seconds, or 3 GCDs.

So it takes planning, but you can find the optimal target swap rotation on small targets.

<2 GCDs, spam Ruin
3-4 GCDs, Bio > Ruin
4-5 GCDs, Bio II > Bio > Ruin
>5 GCDs, full setup

I would still use Bio + Miasma for shorter kills. Less MP, more damage. (Bio first since it's instant cast and can start ticking sooner and Miasma is 20 initial potency + 35 Potency Dots)

Another thing to consider is Bane VS Fester.

Like if you have more than 9 Seconds on all Dots is it better to Bane to a single mob or to just apply a couple new dots and save that Fester for the main boss.

All those decisions could be worth 1000's of damage.

Miasma's damage contribution on initial tick simply isn't enough to overcome its tick damage loss vs Bio and Bio II, after just one tick it does less damage.

Again, fester is worth it only if the target needs to die asap, you lose overall dps using fester on a target that would die in less than a couple GCDs however.

Its pretty easy to calculate when bane is superior to fester, and that is since your dots do 95 potency a tick, and fester is (max) 300 potency, it requires ~9 target*seconds before bane is superior.

So bane > fester at

1 additional target - 4 GCDs
2 additional targets - 2 GCDs
3 additional targets - 1-2 GCDs
4 additional targets - 1 GCD

Bio ii is quite potent given the entire duration of its usage, however miasma has upfront 20 potency damage with the same dot damage on a shorter duration. Would it not make more sense to use miasma over bio 2?

Im really unsure why miasmas contribution sucks.

Miasma is better.

I think OP thinks Miasma dot potency is only 20. Both Miasma and Bio II dot potency is 35. Miasma just does an initial 20 potency on use.

Combined Dot potency of BMB2 is 110

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Originally Posted by pandabearcat

Again, fester is worth it only if the target needs to die asap, you lose overall dps using fester on a target that would die in less than a couple GCDs however.

Its pretty easy to calculate when bane is superior to fester, and that is since your dots do 110 potency a tick, and fester is (max) 300 potency, it requires 9 seconds before bane is superior.

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That's easy enough. But if you factor in the potency of casting your Dots instead of Baning and then using Ruin, of which you could have saved that Aetherflow stack for an additional Fester on the boss.

I guess it's a case of comparing the Dot windup VS Bane and then factoring the 300 Potency of Fester.

(2.34 GCD)

Dots = 3 GCD (B2, M, B (Instant) and the mob can't die prior to 15s (475 Potency(Dots) + 260 (Ruin X 3 + Miasma Cast) + Fester) (1035 Potency)

VS Bane (550 Dots @ 5 ticks for 15s) (480 Ruin @ 6 casts) (1030 Potency)

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So, single target, it's pretty much always better to re-apply your dots, unless for some reason you need to Bane and then Fester, which is a huge waste.

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Originally Posted by Judge_Xero

Combined Dot potency of BMB2 is 110


That's easy enough. But if you factor in the potency of casting your Dots instead of Baning and then using Ruin, of which you could have saved that Aetherflow stack for an additional Fester on the boss.

I guess it's a case of comparing the Dot windup VS Bane and then factoring the 300 Potency of Fester.

Dots = 3 GCD (B2, M, B (Instant) and the mob can't die prior to 15s (475 Potency(Dots) + 240 (Ruin X 3) + Fester) (1015 Potency)

VS Bane (550 Dots @ 5 ticks for 15s) (480 Ruin @ 6 casts) (1030 Potency)

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I love to be the devil's advocate here, but in the event you have multiple targets todeal with also, using your aetherflow for bane instead of fester can also be a great contribution.
For instance, say Leviathan Orbs. It would be more efficient to dot either Levi or the orb, then bane onto the other as opposed to using fester on leviathan (or heaven forbid, on the orb), then continue to another orb (again, to bane the tail from the orb as opposed to festering the orb or the head again).


I've typed too much and I see a second edit actually showing the 15 increased potency of bane over fester given the full duration.

Additionally on the subject, regardless of add uptime, if there are 4 or more targets, it is most efficient to drop Bio2 from the adds entirely.

For an example, hourglasses in WoD, or nails in Ifrit. the most efficient use of your dots will actualyl be Misam, Bio, next target Miasma Bio, etc, returning to the original target to reapply Bio then Miasma.
I think Bio 2 is only efficient given the add lasts for longer periods, and there are no more adds to continue dealing with. There are very few of these situations in game that I can think of that this occurs where the add has a sufficient uptime window to allow your dots to run their duration without some sort of consequences, in which case Bio 2 would be applied mostly due to increased potency for whatever duration the add exists, and further to increase potency of Fester.

Edit, I noticed judge xero edited another time and I absolutely agree.

To anyone doing math, remember that the server tick can happen any time from the second you apply (it will even take the timer down a couple seconds on the initial duration to compensate!) to the full 3s later. This means something like Bio can be worth 80 potency within almost exactly 3s rather than a static 6s from the time you cast it, if lucky enough.

Probably best to assume a 1.5s average first tick from application when calculating any numbers.

You just prorate the tick, so if its 0.5 seconds till GCD from the application you just say its 0.5/3*potency.

I'm a bit confused by what Xero put down but I understand the idea of it.

Ideally bane saves you 3 GCDs that are used to apply dots.

Applying dots during those 3 GCDs gives you what is approximately 35 (1 Bio2 tick) + 20 (miasma application) + 110*0.5 (roughly all dots applied at 6 sec, we stop at 7.5 sec) = 110 potency

3 Ruins instead (because of bane application) gives you 240 pot, and you're saying 410 > 240 for single target. Mana costs and ramp aside, this makes sense and for double target bane is never worth it.

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Originally Posted by pandabearcat

I'm a bit confused by what Xero put down but I understand the idea of it.

Ideally bane saves you 3 GCDs that are used to apply dots.

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Basically, I think what it comes down to is casting DOTs is stronger than casting Ruin. (80 Potency)
Bio - 240 Potency (@18s)
Miasma - 300 Potency (@24s)
Bio 2 - 350 Potency (@30s)

So while you are saving having to cast your Dots by using Bane, that only allows you to cast extra Ruins (3 x Ruin is only 240 Potency VS Fester 300 Potency). Overall the DOT windup is not that bad since Bio is instant Cast and becomes part of the dot ticks before the GCD is over. Even at the full 2.5s GCD you can have all your DOTs running before the second Dot tick (obviously dependant on when the server tick happens).

Hitting 2+ Mobs with Bane is obviously better.

I'm mainly talking about the situations where a single add spawns. You will often see SMN's that will Bane to that mob and then blast it with Fester. Sure it looks cool, but you just lost like 600 Potency worth of damage, to do 300 Potency.

(300+ from Dots ticking, 300 Potency for using Bane which could have been a fester)

You could have easily cast Bio and Ruin II spammed while auto attacking, for more damage in only a few extra seconds + had 2 Aetherflow stacks to Fester something.

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Originally Posted by pandabearcat

You just prorate the tick, so if its 0.5 seconds till GCD from the application you just say its 0.5/3*potency.

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This I'm confused about. You get the full potency of a dot tick whether you cast it 2.5s or 0.5s before the server tick happens. There is no prorating.

I actually redid the math, and with 3 GCDs with bane up you get 2.5 ticks, which is 275 potency.

Adding it to the triple ruin damage, bane will beat out fester even at 1 target, at 515 vs 410 potency. However this ONLY works if you bane a full rack of DoTs.

Xero you forgot that with bane you get the dot ticks going while you ruin.

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Originally Posted by Judge_Xero

This I'm confused about. You get the full potency of a dot tick whether you cast it 2.5s or 0.5s before the server tick happens. There is no prorating.

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In theorycrafting a DoT with some sort of time cutoff (e.g. clipping the DoT or considering a burst period), it is often a useful abstraction to consider its damage probabilistically, as if the timing of your cast and subsequent cutoff is so unrelated to the tick timing that you have an equal chance of landing it anywhere inside the 3s window.

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Originally Posted by SunnyHirose

In theorycrafting a DoT with some sort of time cutoff (e.g. clipping the DoT or considering a burst period), it is often a useful abstraction to consider its damage probabilistically, as if the timing of your cast and subsequent cutoff is so unrelated to the tick timing that you have an equal chance of landing it anywhere inside the 3s window.

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Oh interesting. But how do you chose this value? Does it matter just as long as it's a value between 0.1-3? Since there is no way of actually knowing where the tick will land between casts?

How does that relate to instant cast dots vs others?

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Probably best to assume a 1.5s average first tick from application when calculating any numbers

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Is that what Sleigh meant here? Best to just cut it right down the middle?

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Originally Posted by pandabearcat

Xero you forgot that with bane you get the dot ticks going while you ruin.

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Fester - 3 GCD (B2, M, B (Instant) and the mob can't die prior to 15s (475 Potency(Dots) + 260 (Ruin X 3 + Miasma Cast) + Fester) (1035 Potency)

Bane - (550 Dots @ 5 ticks for 15s) (480 Ruin @ 6 casts) (1030 Potency)

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I did consider the dot ticks going while you Ruin. Since you can have all 3 Dots hard cast before 6 seconds of that second Dot tick, theoretically you would only lose out on the 75 Potency from not having Miasma (35) and Bio (40) up for that initial tick.

Also consider that you do not get the 20 Potency from hard casting Miasma when you Bane.

So here is what you are left with in the end.

3 x more ruin + 75 Potency from that initial tick (315 Potency) VS 20 Potency from a hard cast Miasma + Fester (320 Potency)

Also, if the mob lives past the life of Bio2 and Miasma then you are losing the extra damage it took you to set up the dots you baned from.

~2.5 GCD (slight wait to make sure Bio registers before you Bane) ~ 3 seconds or 35 Potency from Bio 2.

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Edited: So considering probability......

Should the first Bio2 Cast be 1.5/3*Potency (17.5) - where each other Dot cast after that has 100% probability to fall within the server tick timing?

I would like to know how to accurately graph the optimal spell usages to use within each estimated time frame for mob life. I did a graph a while back, but it was based off the server tick always starting @ 1 (and it was a huge visual mess by the time I was done)

You can break timings for spells down to a few factors:

- Cast time: instant or percentage of GCD
- Activation of the skill: For instant skills, the moment it goes on cooldown. For casts, the moment the cast ends.
- Animation delay: The time after activation for the effect to actually happen. For many skills this is just plain damage. For DoTs, buffs, and debuffs, this is also when it is displayed on the status bars (ignore the timing of any floating text, that's just aesthetic). I never took that close a look at ACN, but on MNK, for example, some animations have noticeably different animation times.
- Effect duration: Best I can tell, when there is an effect, you get the full listed duration of an effect from the moment the animation ends and the effect begins.

Therefore, if you let Bio tick all the way out, you get its full potency. If you let it tick most of the way out but you clip it at 0.03 seconds before the effect ends, then there is a very small chance you will lose a tick... 99% chance you won't, 1% chance you will. Over a bunch of attempts, that 17.97s Bio is 240 - (.01*40) = 239.6 potency (or 240*.99 + 200*.01). If you were to somehow clip it at 3.03 seconds beforehand (d'oh!), you could say it's 199.6 potency because 1 tick is always lost, and 1 tick has a 1% chance of being lost.

Instant or casted doesn't matter if you only consider time till the next use; the animation is supposed to be the same (I believe, and latency does affect this a little), so the timings of the effects will be that number of GCDs apart. If you're running it against a timer of some sort, however, I think you'd need to factor in the animations somehow. Bio is an instant cast, for example, but the animation is pretty slow. Like, it wouldn't be accurate to end a test with Bio + Ruin and conclude that you got 2 GCDs of Bio ticks of that last one; it was more like 1.4 GCDs or so.

I think we were talking about two different scenarios.

If you have 2 long term targets that will live for the entire duration and longer of a full rack of dots, then fester is technically a dps gain because the dots from 2 additional ticks is not as much as miasma cast + fester.

What I was talking about is if you get an add to bane to that you need to kill - at what lifetime of the add will bane be higher dps, and thats the 9/6/4 seconds that I came up with.

However, for long term two target, I would still recommend bane, because it saves you hundreds of mana which is pretty significant. If mana is not an issue, or your dots aren't lining up for reapplication (as is often the issue in midfight banes) then it is worthwhile to instead use fester.

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Originally Posted by pandabearcat

I think we were talking about two different scenarios.

What I was talking about is if you get an add to bane to that you need to kill - at what lifetime of the add will bane be higher dps, and thats the 9/6/4 seconds that I came up with.

However, for long term two target, I would still recommend bane, because it saves you hundreds of mana which is pretty significant. If mana is not an issue, or your dots aren't lining up for reapplication (as is often the issue in midfight banes) then it is worthwhile to instead use fester.

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Yeah, that's the complicated part I was referring to. If at the point you Bane, you get a server tick for your 110 Potency, on top of your Ruin spam you would be higher than the time it takes to set up your dots, ruin + fester, but only up to a certain point.

But the part about Summoner that sucks is it's ability to burst damage (outside of wasting resources like Bane -> Fester -> Energy Drain). So in those cases where the mob would die quick, what you would end up doing is Miasma, Bio, Ruin, Ruin. Which is less damage on the mob, but if it is going to die quick you are still technically ahead if you consider the Fester 300 Potency that wasn't used as a Bane.
So you would end up doing slightly less damage on the add compared to using Bane, but overall you are ahead in total damage.

So I think in all cases where you would Bane to a single target, there are better alternatives, which ties back to you looking at, to which point you should Ruin spam, Bio + Ruin, Bio Miasma + Ruin, etc.

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Originally Posted by Whiston

Additionally on the subject, regardless of add uptime, if there are 4 or more targets, it is most efficient to drop Bio2 from the adds entirely.

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I might actually try this on T10 just to see how it does.

Edited: Nope - Baneing to so many adds is just too good. But yeah, I could see that being good in an scenario like you stated in WOD.

Oh, I forgot to put the condition of being unable to bane onto the adds, such as hourglass, etc. Then dropping bio II entirely is beneficial. Something like ifrit you could bane the closest nails (multiple by second and third adds) then miasma bio rotation the other nails up to about 6?

I don't think there would be a situation where more than 6 adds completed isolated from each others exists, but after that I guess you're just multi dotting a adds and letting the perviosu dots fall off entirely without bother to put them up again since there are more adds to dot up. I couldn't actually imagine a scenario like this existing in the game though.

More edit: I guess as per the OP post, 5 GCD's is a valid point where ruin spam becomes less potent for sure. 4 GCD's Miasma/Bio plus two Ruin's is more efficient than simply 4 ruins, by a potency of 5, under the assumption that 3 of your ticks from Miasma and Bio land within that 4 GCD window.

Ultimately trying to set up some sort of time graph with dots in relation to GCD's actually started to make my head hurt, so my closing thoughts before I go lay down in the dark are, obviously getting the maximum duration of your dots is best for damage, and in the event something is going to die in 4 or 5 GCD's, it probably is entirely insignificant whether you 2 dot, 3 dot, or just ruin spam, as the potencies fall within a small percentage of each other.

Here's an updated one I made using 0.5s spacing.

Dot Ticks starting @ 3s with a 2.5s GCD.

http://cdn.guildwork.net/albums/imag...2973406e56.jpg

I started looking at this a while back before the MP changes, since I was trying to get the most damage out of SMN for the most efficient MP usage. At this point though it's all about the damage.

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Originally Posted by pandabearcat

3d graphs impossible to read and useless!

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There - Just a 2D model, as plain as it looks now ;p

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If I have time, maybe I'll modify it to put up one with the dot ticks happening at 1.5s instead of 3s as well.

3d graphs impossible to read and useless!

EDIT: the new one is much better, but you should estimate tick-fraction dps so its a smoother ramp.

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Originally Posted by Whiston

Additionally on the subject, regardless of add uptime, if there are 4 or more targets, it is most efficient to drop Bio2 from the adds entirely.

For an example, hourglasses in WoD, or nails in Ifrit. the most efficient use of your dots will actualyl be Misam, Bio, next target Miasma Bio, etc, returning to the original target to reapply Bio then Miasma.
I think Bio 2 is only efficient given the add lasts for longer periods, and there are no more adds to continue dealing with. There are very few of these situations in game that I can think of that this occurs where the add has a sufficient uptime window to allow your dots to run their duration without some sort of consequences, in which case Bio 2 would be applied mostly due to increased potency for whatever duration the add exists, and further to increase potency of Fester.

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You gave a bad example. The WoD hourglasses on average will last over 9 seconds which is when Bio 2 begins to go + over a single ruin. Something that would die fast you should forgo DoTs according to the mobs HP and general speed of decline. The faster it dies, the more you forgo. Assuming 9 - 12ish seconds lifetime, you are already in the positive over Ruin Is. Panda's OP post is correct.

Using your example, Ifrit Nails which die extremely fast you would, drop Bio 2 altogether however that's more on nails your other DPS are rotating on. If you were to consider that Ifrit's nails that can be baned onto and nails your other DPS aren't currently hitting, Bio 2 should be used because unless it gets killed by a DPS in the area, those DoTs will run a positive duration.

The case changes slightly when you talk about something that needs to be burned asap. It all really depends on what in question needs to die.

To an extent even if you don't have Fester and something is kinda meaty and needs to die fast, IE: T8 Dreadnaught, even if you don't get the full duration, you should still use all three DoTs as you cannot Bane onto it either.

Which also leads to my next point of the number crunching in this thread in regards to using what. All of this changes in real time, depending on your fellow DPS no?

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Originally Posted by Havenchild

Which also leads to my next point of the number crunching in this thread in regards to using what. All of this changes in real time, depending on your fellow DPS no?

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Yep, but generally you have a good idea of how fast things are dropping.

You start casting Bio II or Miasma and by the time you finish, its already at 75% hp? Drop the second dot, immediately bio then Ruin II
You finish 1 dot and its close to 50%? Ruin + Ruin II.

Since generally melee combo is strongest on last hit, if you have a good sense (based on animation, the last hit has a huge flashy animation, or if you play those classes, you'll know) you can also tell when a mob is going to spike down.

The actual dps difference is marginal - without a doubt if an add is blowing up we're going to suck hard on it, but if you want to optimize you could.

And yea I realized I was confused on Miasma and Bio II, just swap the two in my OP.

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Originally Posted by Havenchild

You gave a bad example. The WoD hourglasses on average will last over 9 seconds which is when Bio 2 begins to go + over a single ruin....

To an extent even if you don't have Fester and something is kinda meaty and needs to die fast, IE: T8 Dreadnaught

Which also leads to my next point of the number crunching in this thread in regards to using what. All of this changes in real time, depending on your fellow DPS no?

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I think they were referring to the Hourglasses as, since there are 4, which are all separate, it would require 8 GCD in order to dot them all with B+M before having to return to the first one to dot again. B + M are your highest potency/s compared to Bio 2 so I guess it makes sense that you would only rotate those two over 4 separate adds. (changes in a good WoD party where you wouldn't have the option to return to the last one, since it's dead so I see where you are coming from in that regard)

T8 is my favorite example of a SMN trying to be bursty and losing a ton of resources, by Baning/Fester. Where as even Doting it up when it spawns (Facetarget) and Ruin is pretty efficient, and saves 2 Aetherflow for the boss, or 2 for the Dread if your party dps is slow.

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Every different pug I join for random FCOB farming I have to change my rotation. As annoying as it seems, it's probably my favorite part of SMN, with how versatile it is in so many different situations.

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Originally Posted by Havenchild

You gave a bad example.


Which also leads to my next point of the number crunching in this thread in regards to using what. All of this changes in real time, depending on your fellow DPS no?

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No, I gave a great example.
The hourglasses do last over 9 seconds and that's why multiple miasma/bio rotation works. The 9 seconds as indicated by Xero's graph (Amazing BTW, that really clarifies a lot!) is for single target where you have absolutely nothing better to do after you've set up your dots. In the situation of the hourglasses this is NOT the case, because you have three other hourglasses to dot up. If you put three dots on each hourglass, bio would be falling off the first one by the time you hit bio on just the third one. The idea there is you constantly rotate your most potent skills and drop the least potent one from the rotation. By the time you've finished miasma/bio on the last hourglass and return to the first, bio will be just falling off, so there is a moment where you had a single tick of 8 dots for 300 potency, and since you then refresh that rotation a further time, you maintain 300 potency worth of ticks until one of the three dies.

But yes, undoubtedly SMN is the class that really is affected by the rest of the party.
Honestly in most situations where an add exists for a brief amount of time (Bennu's for instance), it's not really worth a summoners time unless the main target is already dotted and, again, you really have nothing better to do but throw out a few ruins.

Er, DPCT is as follows:

Bio II: 350 dpct, 11.7 dps
Miasma: 300 dpct, 12.5 dps
Bio: 240 dpct , 13.3 dps

If a thingy lasts more than 27 sec Bio II will outdpct Miasma...so if you're tabbing between 4 targets which last 30 seconds or more, Bio II is worthwhile to cast first.

Otherwise...yes drop it. Our dots are very easy to figure out, longer duration is more dpct, shorter duration is more dps.

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Originally Posted by Judge_Xero

I think they were referring to the Hourglasses as, since there are 4, which are all separate, it would require 8 GCD in order to dot them all with B+M before having to return to the first one to dot again. B + M are your highest potency/s compared to Bio 2 so I guess it makes sense that you would only rotate those two over 4 separate adds. (changes in a good WoD party where you wouldn't have the option to return to the last one, since it's dead so I see where you are coming from in that regard)


T8 is my favorite example of a SMN trying to be bursty and losing a ton of resources, by Baning/Fester. Where as even Doting it up when it spawns (Facetarget) and Ruin is pretty efficient, and saves 2 Aetherflow for the boss, or 2 for the Dread if your party dps is slow.

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Every different pug I join for random FCOB farming I have to change my rotation. As annoying as it seems, it's probably my favorite part of SMN, with how versatile it is in so many different situations.

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Originally Posted by Whiston

No, I gave a great example.
The hourglasses do last over 9 seconds and that's why multiple miasma/bio rotation works. The 9 seconds as indicated by Xero's graph (Amazing BTW, that really clarifies a lot!) is for single target where you have absolutely nothing better to do after you've set up your dots. In the situation of the hourglasses this is NOT the case, because you have three other hourglasses to dot up. If you put three dots on each hourglass, bio would be falling off the first one by the time you hit bio on just the third one. The idea there is you constantly rotate your most potent skills and drop the least potent one from the rotation. By the time you've finished miasma/bio on the last hourglass and return to the first, bio will be just falling off, so there is a moment where you had a single tick of 8 dots for 300 potency, and since you then refresh that rotation a further time, you maintain 300 potency worth of ticks until one of the three dies.

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I feel like I better understood what you were trying to say after reading this tidbit. In a good party where the first add will die in 8 GCDs, the M / B setup is likely better.

However wouldn't this change if they are alive past 8 GCDs as well?
For example if you only dotted the 3 hourglasses not focused by the horde with all 3 DoTs (9 GCDs), you would be doing 330 potency universally in one tick by the time the final bio lands on the third add.

The first Bio would be at about 2 seconds or so. From here on you could technically ignore Bio II falling off on the first add (about 10 seconds or so left here, because your assuming it will die in those 10 seconds) and just refresh Miasma and Bio on the hourglasses, and overall that would give you more potency universally no? For about an additional 10 seconds or (3 to 4 server ticks depending on where you land on the server timer) you are doing 330 potency. Unless my math is completely wrong here.

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Originally Posted by pandabearcat

Yep, but generally you have a good idea of how fast things are dropping.

You start casting Bio II or Miasma and by the time you finish, its already at 75% hp? Drop the second dot, immediately bio then Ruin II
You finish 1 dot and its close to 50%? Ruin + Ruin II.

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This is more or less the way I make those calls as well. Although assuming we keep the same DPS as well, in repeat attempts yes, it would be Miasma over Bio II for that little bit of potency.

Yeah, I think I would concede that getting maximum uptime on three adds would be more beneficial than contributing to a first add being taken care of by others. Especially in the event that there is minimal time constraints on the adds. Especially if there she less than four targets, in such a case that you can setup the less efficient bio II without having the more potent bio drop off.

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Originally Posted by Whiston

Yeah..

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Probably what you would see in that instance is.

1st Hourglass - B2MB (greater than 12s) MB (less than 12s)
2nd Hourglass - MB (if you only cast MB on the 1st add then B2MB on this one)
3rd Hourglass - MB
4th Hourglass - MB
Ahriman - B2MB
2nd Hourglass - B
3rd Hourglass - MB
4th Hourglass - MB

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Maximum uptime doesn't matter so much compared to "Is this spell going to do more than 80 Potency" So at the very least you will want to throw Bio on something, since being Instant cast has a very high chance of doing 2 ticks in less than 6 seconds.

But overall I think you make a very good point about only rotating MB over that many spread out adds, and is not something I think a lot of SMN considered. Or even the fact that you can rate your Dots as their Potency/s for those instances. (Potency/s > Dot duration)
Even considering that you could fit a couple Ruins in because the combination of Bio2 and Miasma tick longer, you are still further ahead using B+M