DoT questions

[elemental10]

I'm bringing back this thread

Because Spell Speed becomes useful again comes Heavensward

[Alberel]

I'm bringing back this thread

Because Spell Speed becomes useful again comes Heavensward

From what I understand the spell speed fix is going to be rather counter intuitive. The way dot ticks work in this game with everything being processed according to a server-side clock every 3 seconds means that spell speed can't directly affect the speed of the ticks (unless they rewrote the entire mechanics behind dots). Instead what we're likely to get is a frontloading of the damage whereby the damage of each tick is increased proportional to spell speed in such a way as to simulate a faster tick speed. The overall effect should be the same though, just more complex than it needs to be due to 'server limitations'.

My one question at this point is, if they implement it as I suspect they will, will dots still run for their full duration with higher tick damage or will they end prematurely after dealing the total damage they ordinarily would (thus dealing the same damage per MP cost, just faster)? The former would potentially make spell speed our most potent stat but it would seem a little unbalanced to me.

Either way I'll be happy.

[Almalexia]

My one question at this point is, if they implement it as I suspect they will, will dots still run for their full duration with higher tick damage or will they end prematurely after dealing the total damage they ordinarily would (thus dealing the same damage per MP cost, just faster)? The former would potentially make spell speed our most potent stat but it would seem a little unbalanced to me.

Changing DoT duration would alter rotations and increase complexity--not just for players, but for the devs in terms of balancing. I have no doubt DoT duration will remain fixed and the only change we'll see is increased damage/tic.

[Alberel]

Changing DoT duration would alter rotations and increase complexity--not just for players, but for the devs in terms of balancing. I have no doubt DoT duration will remain fixed and the only change we'll see is increased damage/tic.

I agree it certainly seems the more likely course the developers will take due to it being simpler mechanically. Having the dot durations remain static despite the added tick damage will cause spellspeed to behave identically to determination though. We may see some balancing issues with this depending on how big an effect the stat has. For all the other non-dot dependent jobs their speed stats cause them to burn through their resources faster. SMNs, however, will see an increase in damage with no proportional increase in MP consumption (on our dot upkeep at least). I'm just curious to see how this will turn out.