Touch of Death - Monk - Use or not?

[Steady]

So our static monk, who brings great numbers, tells me that he sees a dps loss when using this ability. Though I'm curious if anyone has a number breakdown on it?

Is Touch of Death only something to apply when your moving from a target?

[Ricdeau]

You should always be using Touch of Death unless you are running low on TP and need to conserve while waiting on Invigorate or Paeon/Goad. The only other time you should refrain from applying it is if your target is not going to last for majority of the duration.

I've done parses to show people runs with and without ToD usage, but I just cleared out 300+GB of parses so I no longer have them on hand.

Edit - I should have mentioned that you should try not to clip ToD as well. So refresh at like 1-2 seconds left ideally. Basically you just use it on command as it's falling off. Also refreshing while under the effect of a buff/debuff (Internal Release, Blood for Blood, Trick Attack) so long as you aren't clipping it by a significant degree is also ideal.

[Hakmatic]

What Ric said. If your static monk is pulling great numbers without it, his numbers will only go up with good ToD application.

[Nutz]

It's a MNK's second strongest ability (Demolish being the strongest) at 270 total potency so it doesn't make much sense to see a DPS loss from this unless he becomes tp starved.

[SunnyHirose]

Short answer is use it. A longer answer is as follows:

Basic rotation without ToD is: DK-Twin-Demo Boot-True-Snap DK-Twin-Snap Boot-True-Demo DK-Twin-Snap Boot-True-Snap.

GL3 and FoF are taken as a given in the below calculations. The true effect of critical hit rate makes things too complicated for this demonstration, so we'll consider some nubcake who thinks Bootshine is a flank attack unusually often but is otherwise okay.

Steps: 18
Total potency: 3x150 (DK) + 3x200 (Boot) + 3x140 (Twin) + 3x190 (True) + 2x310 (Demolish, full duration) + 4x180 (Snap) = 3380
Potency per GCD (until skill speed is somewhere in the 490s and clips Demolish): 187.777778

ToD potency (full duration): 270

Two major problems that people see when trying to compare the effect of DoTs in the monk rotation: (1) since it's inserted rather than replacing anything, it makes the main rotation a weaker contribution to the complete rotation and (2) ToD is only more potency than the main rotation if you get 7 ticks (21 seconds) out of it and even then just barely. But it's obviously got a higher potency than the average in the main rotation. When considering limited-time buffs like Blood for Blood and Internal Release, having a high potency for a single GCD is a serious advantage. That you can have Internal Release for every other ToD under ideal conditions is pretty sweet.

What if we add ToD a very lazy way, slipping it after every other Demolish or something? That will be 19 steps and 3380 + 270 potency = 3650, making 192.11 potency per GCD.

What if we use ToD so that it is always applied right after it falls off? That's 14 steps of the main rotation (we'll use the average GCD figure here) for 2628.88889 potency + 270 potency = 2898.88889. In 15 steps, that's 193.26 potency per GCD.

What if we clip ToD a little bit every time? That will change a little depending on skill speed, but at 400 skill speed (clip every 29.078s) we can estimate the average potency of ToD as 262.316667. 13 steps of the main rotation for 2441.11111 + 262.316667 = 2703.42778. In 14 steps, that's 193.10 potency per GCD.

Bonus: If you have the spare TP, how do you use Fracture? One lazy way is: ToD, 9 steps, Fracture, 9 steps ([3380 + 270 + 220]/20 --> 193.5). Another lazy way is to alternate Snap Punch and Demolish in the main rotation (taking it down to 12 steps) and clip the hell out of Demolish and ToD. At 400 skill speed:

2x150 (DK) + 2x200 (Boot) + 2x140 (Twin) + 2x190 (True) + 2x263.875556 (Demolish) + 2x180 (Snap) + 220 (Fracture) + 262.316667 (ToD) = 2730.06778 in 14 steps --> 195.00 potency per GCD.

Fracture can conceivably be used less rigidly but that's too JFM to be confined by mortal mathematics.