DoT's, Global DoT Damage Timers, and the Resulting Nonsense

[Tex_Mex]

Does anyone besides myself find the DoT system in this game really odd? Every other MMO I have played has let each tick of damage be on its own timer? Never before have I seen just one massive DoT damage number that only ticks on a Global 3 second timer.

This system causes some very peculiar problems. These issues range from minor inconvenience issues to massive stat weight balance problems. Here are a few that I feel are most prevalent:

1) Rotation Timing
Because you never know where you are in the 3 second timer when you start a DoT ability, it is impossible to develop 100% efficient rotations. DoT clipping and the effects of spell/skill speed, further muddy up this issue. And for some classes, it actually makes Skill Speed a big detriment.

2) Spell/Skill Speed Stat Weights
This is a big issue for some classes (cough SMN) because Spell/Skill Speed cannot effect the DoT tick time due to the constant 3 second global timer. This makes the value of spell/skill speed wildly different for each class and leads to gear balance issues when gear is shared between classes.

3) DoT instance Limits
Because all DoT's have to tick together, SE implemented a maximum number of DoT abilities that could be on a target at once. This really only ever becomes an issue during hunts, but it is definitely an inconvenience for heavy DoT damage classes when the amount of reward you get is proportional to how much damage you do.

Does anyone else agree that the game would be better off if they followed a more traditional route for DoT damage? If I had my way, I would implement a few changes:

1) Allow every DoT to produce its own damage number and have its own timing and instance. The DoT could start as soon as your ability hits the target, easing the variability in DPS rotations.

2) Update skill tips to say Bio: Damages the target for 40 potency every 3 seconds for 18 seconds. Then, you could allow these numbers to adjust with skill/spell speed, and ease the huge differences in stat weights between classes. You could also give different DoT abilities variable DoT instance timers. Like Bio2: Damages the target for 10 potency every 1 second. Lasts 30 seconds. You could even then add individual cooldown skills that half DoT timers or you could add in procs that adjust them. This seems like a fun way to implement new mechanics.

Lastly, I want to discuss some of the negative issues that could be caused if they implemented changes like what I mentioned above:

1) Performing these actions would require more computation power due to the additional items that would have to be kept track of. I do not know how extensive this negative effect could be. It could be completely unfeasible, but it seems like other games can handle it just fine.

2) Screen clutter: A million tiny numbers would be on the screen during 8 man, 24 man, and hunt content. That clutter would could be pretty annoying. But a simple option to turn off other players DoT damage in your display would fix it without issue.

What do y'all think? Is there something I am missing? Has SE stated why they went with this system that seems to be inferior?

[Brianmj]

I always assumed it was to conserve server processing power. Wasn't FF11 the same way - a global server tick? I don't know why Square chose this model, but hope you at the very least get an official response. I'd like to see spell speed affect dots. Yoshida did say skill speed will have a more important role in 3.0. Many of us assumes that includes spell speed.

[Tex_Mex]

Conservation of server processing power seems like the only viable reasoning I can think of. It just seems to me like such a simple thing in other games. If it is a server processing power issue, why is the game engine so taxed for processing power?

[MrCookTM]

Conservation of server processing power seems like the only viable reasoning I can think of. It just seems to me like such a simple thing in other games. If it is a server processing power issue, why is the game engine so taxed for processing power?

#PS3 (ten chars)

[Tex_Mex]

#PS3 (ten chars)

ahhhhhhh ya that is something I didn't think of. 9 year old hardware definitely makes some things more challenging. Oh well, I guess that is the price we pay for being able to cross platform.