DoT questions

[elemental10]

Don't know where to post this, so I would just put this where it's most relevant.

1) How do DoT ticks work? I know its 1 tick every 3 secs and each tick delivers the potency amount of damage but overall, how much say... a DoT that lasts 15 seconds with a potency of 30?

2) Is overlapping really that bad? I can't really snag the point in which a DoT finishes and a new one should be applied, so I will always apply it before the last tick, or the last 3 secs of the DoT, so it will continue on.

3) Can DoT's crit?

4) If a buff is applied before the DoT is applied but the buff vanishes before the DoT finishes, does the rest of the DoT's tick get affected?

5) While we are on the topic of DoT, how much does poison potions affect gameplay? Is it good?

[Viridiana]

1) 15 seconds divided by three is 5 ticks of 30, 5 times 30 is 150. So if it runs the full duration (give or take) you get 150 potency.

2) It's very situational. Generally, you want to clip ("overlap," as you called it) as close to it running out as you can, but within the last 3 seconds is usually close enough. At that point, you're deciding between a tick lost to overlap and a tick lost to not refreshing in time.

3) Yep. Otherwise, BRDs would never get River of Blood procs.

4) Whatever buffs (and certain debuffs) are up when the dot is applied will affect the entire duration.

5) It's a few extra dps, but most groups will only use it for progression.

[Roxas_Andrade]

4) Whatever buffs (and certain debuffs) are up when the dot is applied will affect the entire duration.

Let's say I use Cleric Stance, cast Aero, and switch back, will the Dot apply the damage with 'full cleric power' every tick? Same goes for Raging strikes?
If I use Bio, Miasma and Bio II, and then cast Raging Strikes to start spamming Ruin, will it be 'wasted'? Should I cast it before the Dots?

[Ricdeau]

Let's say I use Cleric Stance, cast Aero, and switch back, will the Dot apply the damage with 'full cleric power' every tick? Same goes for Raging strikes?
If I use Bio, Miasma and Bio II, and then cast Raging Strikes to start spamming Ruin, will it be 'wasted'? Should I cast it before the Dots?

When you cast a DOT it will retain your current stat, buff, and debuff effects. So you'd want to use DOTs with Raging Strikes up because it will snapshot that buff on the DOT for it's full duration. If you cast a DOT and then use Raging Strikes it will not retroactively buff the existing DOT.

[Viridiana]

Let's say I use Cleric Stance, cast Aero, and switch back, will the Dot apply the damage with 'full cleric power' every tick? Same goes for Raging strikes?
If I use Bio, Miasma and Bio II, and then cast Raging Strikes to start spamming Ruin, will it be 'wasted'? Should I cast it before the Dots?

Correct, if you have Raging or Cleric on when it's cast, the full duration is buffed. If you want to buff Bio, Miasma, and Bio II, you'd want to do it before casting the dots. Further, you can Contagion the RS'ed dots to get well beyond the Raging duration out of them.

[Roxas_Andrade]

Correct, if you have Raging or Cleric on when it's cast, the full duration is buffed. If you want to buff Bio, Miasma, and Bio II, you'd want to do it before casting the dots. Further, you can Contagion the RS'ed dots to get well beyond the Raging duration out of them.

OMG. I feel like I've been doing this wrong all the time. Thank you!

[Roxas_Andrade]

I may be repeating myself here, but I'd like to thank you guys for teaching me the right way to apply my DoTs. ^.^

Up till last week I thought I had to maintain Cleric Stance during the full time of the dots or else I'd loose the power CS gives. My mistake. And I didn't even tested to see if this theory of mine was true.

Now I fell like I'm a better SCH, applying the dots in CS and coming back to heal. I don't need to be afraid of going in cleric, cause it will just last as long as I aplly the DoTs. The tank won't die so easily and I don't need to hold damage back.

[Koyuki38]

6)
Do ticks have a chance to crit
or
are ticks all crits if the spell is a crit when it is cast ?

[elemental10]

Nice, thanks.

So, in fact DoT actually deliver the full potency over a period of time. If I hit that 15 seconds DoT, potency 30 = 150 potency for a total time of 15 seconds?

What about auto-attacks? I know that AA potency depends on the weapon's damage but it hits around +-3 secs right?

I'm thinking in terms of SMNs, this is quite a good thing because only SMNs would have an "AA" spell called Ruin (Cast spell for +-3 secs, comparable to AA) with a flat potency of 80.

So if I apply that Dot (30 potency) and cast ruin right after (80 potency), for every tick I am in fact doing a total of 110 potency for 15 seoconds MINUS one tick of ruin (supposing that DoT ticks RIGHT ON THE SECOND IT IS APPLIED).

So... 550 - 80 = 470 potency. A huge improvement.

Therefore, 5 ticks of DoTs + 4 ruins would result in that. But what if my spell speed is less than 3 seconds, say... 2.5 seconds, I would sneak in approximately half a ruin right? It would hit it back up to 550 potency.

[Viridiana]

6)
Do ticks have a chance to crit
or
are ticks all crits if the spell is a crit when it is cast ?

Each tick is its own chance to crit. The only exception is a NIN using Kassatsu (force next Ninjutsu to crit) followed by Doton, which will make all Doton ticks crit.

Nice, thanks.

So, in fact DoT actually deliver the full potency over a period of time. If I hit that 15 seconds DoT, potency 30 = 150 potency for a total time of 15 seconds?

What about auto-attacks? I know that AA potency depends on the weapon's damage but it hits around +-3 secs right?

I'm thinking in terms of SMNs, this is quite a good thing because only SMNs would have an "AA" spell called Ruin (Cast spell for +-3 secs, comparable to AA) with a flat potency of 80.

So if I apply that Dot (30 potency) and cast ruin right after (80 potency), for every tick I am in fact doing a total of 110 potency for 15 seoconds MINUS one tick of ruin (supposing that DoT ticks RIGHT ON THE SECOND IT IS APPLIED).

So... 330 - 80 = 250 potency. 100 potency more than only with DoT. An improvement.

Therefore, 5 ticks of DoTs + 4 ruins would result in that. But what if my spell speed is less than 3 seconds, say... 2.5 seconds, I would sneak in approximately half a ruin right?

Auto attacks are, roughly speaking, 100 potency per three seconds, regardless of the delay stat.

Also, you flubbed your math there. Just the four casts of Ruin would be 320 potency, plus the 150 potency of the dot. Then figure that you should be able to fit another Ruin in there (because it's a 2.5 cast instead of 3.0) for 400 potency.