Summoner: Improving your DPS by making the GCD work for you

[Freyt]

When I got Ruin II I didn't know why it was an upgrade. Just realizing it was instant cast was enough to convince me about the ability.
It's a DPS increase. The time you save not casting IS used for other things, and you never cancel your spell to avoid AoE's.

It's true you might lose out on Fester usage, but I kinda think it's worth it. Energy Drain is already instant damage itself, it's not as if you're only using it to heal your mp, and it requires very little setup compared to Fester. Not to mention I generally have 3 ticks of Aetherflow ready for when the skill itself comes off cooldown, then I'll just use Energy Drain > Ruin II > Energy Drain > Ruin II > Energy Drain > Ruin II > Aetherflow, only cutting into that if I need to reapply a DoT. It's a bit of instant damage for the SMN which it normally lacks, so it's a nice change of pace. Fester probably will result in more damage in the long run, though I'm not sure about that when you're comparing using Ruin instead of Ruin II.

[CarmenSandiego]

When I got Ruin II I didn't know why it was an upgrade. Just realizing it was instant cast was enough to convince me about the ability.
It's a DPS increase. The time you save not casting IS used for other things, and you never cancel your spell to avoid AoE's.

It's true you might lose out on Fester usage, but I kinda think it's worth it. Energy Drain is already instant damage itself, it's not as if you're only using it to heal your mp, and it requires very little setup compared to Fester. Not to mention I generally have 3 ticks of Aetherflow ready for when the skill itself comes off cooldown, then I'll just use Energy Drain > Ruin II > Energy Drain > Ruin II > Energy Drain > Ruin II > Aetherflow, only cutting into that if I need to reapply a DoT. It's a bit of instant damage for the SMN which it normallylacks, so it's a nice change of pace. Fester probably will result in more damage in the long run, though I'm not sure about that when you're comparing using Ruin instead of Ruin II.

Thanks for the reply, Energy Drain will hit for around 400 whilst Fester will hit for circa 800, it is double the strength. Also there isn't much of a point in using an Energy Drain followed by a Ruin II because it's mana inefficient and defeats the purpose. You should not have to use Energy Drain unless you're resurrecting people left right and centre (and a SMN should always Swiftcast+Raise instead of a healer to save them the mana/aetherflow stacks if available). I would recommend you don't use Energy Drain and just keep a closer eye on when Ruin I or II is more appropriate. If you use Energy Drain you are significantly gimping your DPS, quite a few Ruin IIs+Off-GCD abilities are required to make up for the loss of time and dps from not using Fester instead.

Hope this was helpful.