SMN target swap - how many GCDs to break even?

[Judge_Xero]

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?

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.

[Havenchild]

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.