Virus Cast Timing.

[Bitte]

I've mained a scholar since launch and I just realized maybe I've been misinformed about when to cast virus.

I had always thought that the cast of virus needs to go off BEFORE the boss's cast begins for it to take effect. For example, for Gigaflare, Revelation, Critical Rip, Nerve Cloud, etc. I've always been predicting when those attacks will be coming up.

However, someone told me today that you can cast it during the boss's cast, as long as the virus effect takes effect before the cast finishes.

Maybe I've been gimping myself out/stressing about predicting big attack timing. Can someone please enlighten me? Thanks!

[Lyrinn]

Virus before cast finishes.

[KikoriL]

As far as I know, Virus' effect has to be active as the cast bar completes to get the effect of the stat reduction on the cast's damage.

[CycLee]

its the same issue as many instant skills suffers from - Lag.

[Sleigh]

As far as I can tell, Virus has to be applied something like .75 to 1 second before the cast bar finishes or the game will have snap shotted the non-Virused damage. Same thing about damage mitigation buffs on the tank, you will occasionally see the buff active on the status bar before the attack is done casting and it will have no effect.

It definitely can be applied mid-cast though. The only snap shot that happens before the cast of an attack is which target is attacked (IE you can't Provoke a tank killer attack after cast to take the hit for whoever the boss aimed it at originally).

[Bitte]

Thank you all for the replies. Makes things a lot easier for me -.-

[Selli]

Don't beat yourself too much over it, all the SCHs I've ever healed with usually apply it half a second or so before the bar pops up. Imo, that shows me that they know when to mitigate and prepare accordingly.

I'm just glad I get add virusing duty. Lets me pretend my WHM virus is useful. :3

[Risvertasashi]

If it's a really short cast bar... well, as others have mentioned, 'lag.' Think of it as like locking in the boss's stats for the ability... if you don't apply it soon enough, it won't get calculated in.

If it's something with a really long cast bar, well, take your time. FWIW, with revelation I usually adlo *then* virus (an as example). Technically I should probably get in the habit of doing it the other way around, but the cast bar is long enough that virus at 25~50% still takes effect without problem.

[Zohar_Lahar]

On a related note, does Virus affect signature attacks such as Flood of Darkness?

[Risvertasashi]

On a related note, does Virus affect signature attacks such as Flood of Darkness?

I haven't tested on this attack specifically (and I'm staying away from WoD for a while)... but it's generally safe to assume anything that's not an instakill (i.e. can be mitigated by tank LB or shields) is affected. For bosses that go invulnerable/untargetable in some phases it may not be possible to apply, however.