Ranged DPS dominating Slaughter Mode

[Red_Wolf]

Let's see. LB has charge time,animation lag, and lag after it ends. If the MNK was going to run in and LB someone, more likely than not they'll have Fetter Ward activated, so stun wouldn't work anyway.

So 4 ranged based off of awareness?

You are completely missing the point here. He is a decoy.

Piety isn't really needed on vit acc cuz... what's the reason tank have MP? To spam flash? tho healer won't burst all their MP to spam healing their allies since they can manage their MP much much better with their MP skill and pvp skill.

I understand why tank gear doesn't have Piety, but thanks. You can never have too much MP as a WHM in PvP.

[zeopower6]

After a lot of practice [which sucked], I've gotten to the point where I rarely ever die from Cometeor spam. This week I've only really gotten caught about a few times in my near fifty matches. Most of them because I was out of cooldowns. However, I wish I could say the same for most of my teammates. We -have- had a match or two where only a few people died thanks to spreading out which is nice. Mostly veterans in that match though.

[Hyrist]

I understand why tank gear doesn't have Piety, but thanks. You can never have too much MP as a WHM in PvP.

A dead healer has no MP. So yes, if you are sacrificing vitality that would enable you to survive in order to stack Piety, yes, technically you can have too much MP. Same policy for Damage Dealers. Again, my benchmark for Mages having enough Vit is whether or not they can survive two cometeors or one Raw Destruction from full HP.

Lots of damage gets spread around in Slaughter Frontlines, and while it's fine to want more MP to heal with ,you do have plenty of MP recovery tools. The point is living long enough to which MP becomes an issue. If you don't, you're going to need MP recovery anyways if you get raised. So it's not so much having a lot of MP but having a lot of MP recovery. Stack up on those pots!

It's getting to the point where I'm watching the market for TP feathers gone cheap cause I'm surviving more as well.

After a lot of practice [which sucked], I've gotten to the point where I rarely ever die from Cometeor spam. This week I've only really gotten caught about a few times in my near fifty matches. Most of them because I was out of cooldowns. However, I wish I could say the same for most of my teammates. We -have- had a match or two where only a few people died thanks to spreading out which is nice. Mostly veterans in that match though.

I'm getting to that point to. But as a tank, I'm typically forward enough to not be targeted by the volly. I've stunned a few Cometeors and Raw Destruction, though I take the most pride in using my Adrenline rush to make a Cometeor volly pretty weak.

[Buff_Archer]

I think I'm pretty much going to have to give up Summoner for Black Mage in Slaughter Mode because Summoner is just way too gimped vs Black Mage right now from a 'kill' perspective, and I don't see that changing. I know, I know, 'cry me a river' you might say if you're a Monk. But I'm not saying SMN doesn't have advantages over non-Cometor classes, but whereas physical DPS classes have skills that proc off low HP, and Black Mage gets instant Firestarter and Thundercloud procs, with Summoner's DOT based attacks and the basis for applying them under the effect of offensive buffs like Raging Strikes, and extending with Contagion while in their stronger form, and spreading with bane... well good luck with that once the other team's LB gauges start filling and the DOT's get removed from the party constantly. It can take like 5 or so casts to even get the three main DOT's up because of motion and autoattack interruption, and I'm not complaining about the fact we can't cast a ton of instant dot's, just saying it's too easy for the bard/healer LB to negate that for the entire party. Fester is useless without the three main DOT's up, and using Bane to spread to the party isn't that helpful if the hard/healer lb just removes them all anyway.

Also- my settings have it giving the status ailments I inflict dispay priority on target healh bar, but with the first node I usually just see two of my 3 DOT's, and recasting doesn't make a difference. Does anyone know if there's just an issue with them not displaying when too many are active, or do some truly get ignored?

[kisada]

it's a display error. when i played smn if i baned on a "2" dot node, it would spread 3.

also your reasoning is mostly why i don't play smn anymore for slaughter. i leveled blm to 50 actually just for it. i could still do really well on smn but i felt like the impact/kill ceiling was higher on blm.

if we were going back to secure or WD, though, i'd never pick smn over blm. but those days are long gone.

[Nyalia]

Also- my settings have it giving the status ailments I inflict dispay priority on target healh bar, but with the first node I usually just see two of my 3 DOT's, and recasting doesn't make a difference. Does anyone know if there's just an issue with them not displaying when too many are active, or do some truly get ignored?

There is a hard limit to the number of DOTs that will display on a target's status bar. This maximum is checked BEFORE applying the setting that filters out the DOTs of others. So, if your DOT is applied past the display limit, you will never see it, even if you are set to only see your own effects. I find it kinda annoying, honestly - when I have that setting on as BLM, I sometimes cast Thunder on a target and the debuff icon doesn't show despite the target showing ZERO other debuffs on my screen.

I should post that to the bug forum at some point. I know exactly why it happens, but that doesn't make it any less of a gameplay-affecting bug.

[Red_Wolf]

A dead healer has no MP. So yes, if you are sacrificing vitality that would enable you to survive in order to stack Piety, yes, technically you can have too much MP. Same policy for Damage Dealers. Again, my benchmark for Mages having enough Vit is whether or not they can survive two cometeors or one Raw Destruction from full HP.

It sounds like people are taking bits and pieces of the Vitality accessory argument and going off on tangents. So here it goes again:

Healers need vitality accessories to avoid dying to the Melee LB Raw Destruction. It hits for 3.8k+. A typical PvE geared healer will enter the instance with ~3.5k health. So even with buffs and stoneskin an average melee player can essentially one shot you. You want at least 4k health to avoid better melee’s that will stun and do two hit combos to kill you. Having a tank in party for the extra vitality is also extremely helpful.

I think I speak for most healers when I say Cometeors are not a concern. They are a slow cast. They are telegraphed on the ground. And, they are almost always cast on one of 2 spots (middle of your side’s octagon or the platform at the top of the ramp). It is all about surviving the melee LB Raw Destruction. Dying to cometeors is usually a team spacing issue when your team is weak, broken and would probably die anyway.

Lots of damage gets spread around in Slaughter Frontlines, and while it's fine to want more MP to heal with ,you do have plenty of MP recovery tools. The point is living long enough to which MP becomes an issue. If you don't, you're going to need MP recovery anyways if you get raised. So it's not so much having a lot of MP but having a lot of MP recovery. Stack up on those pots!

WHM’s get one extra MP recovery tool in PvP for a grand total of two. Even Mana Surge is pretty bad until you enhance it with PvP experience. Mega-Ether pots give 270 MP and 350 MP (HQ) with about a 4m cooldown. So you get one extra Cure II or Medica every 4 minutes… yeay. Not to mention at 1k gil a piece on my server those Mega Ethers can add up.

I can’t speak for SCH, but playing WHM is all about MP management. In a PvE scripted encounter you learn when to time heals and shroud. You know when you need burst heals (and you know who the weak links are in your static ). In PvP, I don’t have that luxury. I can’t keep going for some optimal MP management. If I have to spam Medica three times to get my team back up after a multi-stack of cometeor, then I’m hurting for a while. This isn’t a Dev created encounter to space the needed burst healing every few minutes. The other teams aren’t going to give me a chance to recoup. I am completely reliant on my team to not to stand in stupid, over-extend, and retreat when focused. You could argue my MP management is probably the best indicator of how strong the alliance is as a whole.

I haven’t had more than one death in a FL in a while (outside of one horrible showing in a 24 man two nights ago, ugh). Honestly, I usually don’t die at all since I am somewhat capable, fear melee like the plague, and I don’t stack dead center of my side. So I “live long enough” for MP to become a factor in every single match. The only times I don’t feel MP starvation in a match are when I have a really good SCH in my party.

Stacking Piety increases my MP pool thus increasing the tick of MP recovery. So I’ll take every point of it I can and cry for more.

It doesn’t sound like you completely disagree with me, but you’re basically saying my two biggest concerns (surviving the melee kill caster button & MP) are not a big deal. I am really sacrificing my MP to survive one stinking ability that every melee player gets and is the definition of OP. So in that sense you are wrong. They are a very big deal to me.

[Red_Wolf]

Also excited to hear there are two less SMN's spreading DoT's and breaking out all those CC'd enemies. woot.

[zeopower6]

They should probably add a bit of piety onto all PvP fending accessories much like how dexterity was added to all pre-120 MNK gear. It only makes sense since most PvP healers use those in PvP, so why not? I mean I use the Garuda ring too but that doesn't need to be changed.

Oh, and about the MP thing... if we have any tanks or melee at all, I kiss my MP goodbye in the first part of the match, lol.

[Iagainsti]

A lot of Confirmation Bias in this thread.