smn: dreadwyrm trance. To me it is useless. Help me to understand how to use it.

[kuikui]

So upon reaching lvl 58 and acquiring dreadwyrm trance I see absolutely no use for this skill. Let me explain.

The way I understand it, you have to build III stacks of aethertrail attunement. In order to build these stacks you have to use bane, fester, or energy drain. Well, according to my rotation, these skills are situational and never used abundantly.

Let me explain my rotation: As we all know dungeons have two components, multiple trash mobs and boss's, that's it. Lets take a walk through a typical dungeon and observe a smn in action.

dungeon starts, typical pack of mobs 3+. First I use tri disaster (inflicts bio, bio II, and maisma). Next I use bane to spread that across the pack. Next is shadow flair for aoe. At this point further damage becomes determined by what pet I have out and how the other dps is attacking. Usually I have Garuda during pack mobs so I use arial slash for aoe. I also use maisma II for additional aoe. If dps is good, I use blizzard II for even more aoe. In between all that I will use ruin II and ruin III depending on how mobs are dying. Painflare is even more situational. Depending on how dmg is flowing, I'll throw it in right before aetherflow is about ready to re activate.

During that scenario, Dreadwyrm trance is not an option to be excecuted because as you can see, I only use fester during the encounter. Now, when we get to a typical boss, This rotation doesn't change much, but it does change. I typically use Ifrit and keep him on sic so his dmg is just going off as he feels the need. the only thing I adjust in a boss scenario is starting with tri-disaster, but instead of using bane to spread the dots, I use fester to increase the dmg on single target of those dots. the rest of the rotation is similar.

So in both encounters, I am not spamming bane, fester, and rarely, if ever, use energy drain. I just don't run out of mp, even if I lock down and spam blizzard II, which would be the only ability that would drain mp quickly used in succession.

So tell me, when, and how, do YOU use dreadwyrm trance? If it solely is used later, in conjunction with, deathflare (lvl 60) then I have 2 lvl's to go to use it, but even reading the tool tip, it seems like you would be forced to waste, or prematurely activate aether stacks to use it.

I talked about this with my LS and they said it is a smn godsend. Even what I've read on the forums suggest the same. However, I don't see it this way and I implore you to prove me wrong so I can improve and utilize it accordingly.

[MisterLucie]

I'm confused. Are you not using Fester on CD during boss fights? You should be blowing through aetherflow pretty quickly.

[Zetsumei_Tsunarashi]

Dreadwyrm trance increases your damage dealt by everything you do by 10% while it is active. Also it lowers the cost of ruin 3 to be equal to the cost of ruin. So at the very least you should reapply all your DoTs and then spam ruin 3 while Dreadwyrm is active. Once you get 60 you will gain access to death flare which is smns most powerful attack and it can only be activated while in Dreadwyrm trance.

Also painflare also build aether attunement stack and it should be used anytime there is more than one enemy. Fester is not situational. You should use this anytime you don't have something else you need aether flow for it is smns second most powerful attack.

[NorthernLadMSP]

Dreadwyrm Trance and Deathflare are amazing, and I do not understand why you would not use them. Added 10% damage, Ruin III dropped from like 800 something MP down to roughly 178, plus Deathflare (400 potency AOE) right before it wears off.

[Jeckyl_Tesla]

Let me explain to you a good rotation to use with your Dreadwyrm Stance.

You'll start off with 3 AF stacks and 0 AT (aethertrail), we split up your "rotation" into 1 minute segments.

00:00 - AF 3 : AT 0
00:10 - Three DoTs applied (hold Tri disaster for Dread Wyrm Trance) + Fester - AF 2: AT 1
00:20 - Fester - AF 1: AT 2
Now, do not use your last Fester or AF until you're running out on the timer of your Aethertrail stacks. If you do this properly, you'll be able to get to around;
00:45 - Now you HOLD your Dreadwyrm Trance until your Aetherflow is back up.

Then you pop Aether Flow, Dreadwyrm Trance and you now have 10% increased damage on your Festers. At this point, I'd use Tridisaster, Fester, Shadowflare and Fester + Ruin III spam. (Once you hit lvl60, you get Deathflare, which will be a 400 AoE nuke that will bring you out of your Dreadwyrm stance, so you use this when you literally have 1/2 seconds of Dreadwyrm left.)

Again, if you do this properly, you will always have Tridisaster and And 2 Aetherflow stacks to use within your Dreadwyrm stance.

As for AoE, do th following:

DoT (hard cast or Tridisaster) > Bane > Shadow Flare > Run in while pain flaring > Miasma II > Blizz II spam > Pain Flare/Bane depending on the HP of the mobs. If you've painflared, you'll have Dreadwyrm up for next AoE pack, where you can DWT > Tridisaster and then Bane and the same as above. If you've baned the prior mobs before hand, you can then pop into DWT and enjoy 15 secs of increased DPS on Blizz II and Miasma II and Shadow Flare.

It's an amzing spell.

[bideogames]

In order to build these stacks you have to use bane, fester, or energy drain. Well, according to my rotation, these skills are situational and never used abundantly.

[FreeLancer4]

I personally use Garuda in dungeons so this is my typical rotation when dealing with trash pulls.

- TRASH PULLS -

TRI-DISASTER > PAINFLARE > CONTAGION > BANE > SHADOWFLARE > MIASMA II > PAINFLARE > TRANCE > BLIZZARD II or RUIN III (Assuming its not dangerous to stand near) > DEATHFLARE (Obv when your 60, use it when things will probably die from it or when trance is about to fall off)

I believe this should be optimal trash pull ability use. I should add that you should not need to use 2 stacks of aetherflows on one group of adds. The above should adequately murder them, if still kicking then just fill in with ruins and such as you see fit.

- BOSS -

Boss's will vary, some may go invun/hop off screen so it may need slight changes. Theres a few openers one can do, but essentially you want to aim to have your abilities line up in a loop, so that your able to fit two festers when you pop trance and have tri and contagion up and use them before it ends. This loop will require you not just shit out your last aetherflow when able but to instead hold it before aethertrail expires so u can refresh your aethertrail stacks, thus allowing time for your aetherflow to come up before popping trance and repeating the cycle.

When unable to Fester due to mechanics such as boss hopping off screen thus not allowing you to refresh dots, using Painflare to save your aethertrail stacks is preferable to outright losing them as a general tip.

[BakaWakka]

So in both encounters, I am not spamming bane, fester, and rarely, if ever, use energy drain.

So tell me, when, and how, do YOU use dreadwyrm trance? If it solely is used later, in conjunction with, deathflare (lvl 60) then I have 2 lvl's to go to use it, but even reading the tool tip, it seems like you would be forced to waste, or prematurely activate aether stacks to use it.

I talked about this with my LS and they said it is a smn godsend. Even what I've read on the forums suggest the same. However, I don't see it this way and I implore you to prove me wrong so I can improve and utilize it accordingly.

I'll try to explain this as simply as I can.

Aetherflow has a 60s cooldown. Every 60s you get a free 3 Aetherflow stacks to use as you please.

By not using all three of your Aetherflow stacks before Aetherflow's cooldown comes up you are effectively wasting your Aetherflow stacks, since you can get 3 more by using Aetherflow again.

Each of these stacks are highly valuable.
Fester is your highest single-target burst ability at 300 potency, only beaten by Deathflare's 400.
Painflare deals 200 potency of AoE, which is better than Fester when used on 2 or more enemies.
Bane is for spreading DoTs.
Energy Drain is highly situational.

Now, while I can agree with you that Energy Drain is a situational ability, Fester, Painflare and Bane are not. By not using them you are wasting aetherflow stacks.

[Jeckyl_Tesla]

Oh god I'm dying.

[kuikui]

I'm not saying I am not using band and fester. Let's not get ahead of ourselves here. I am using them. I use Bane on packs to spread my dots and I use Fester mainly on boss's to increase the potency of those dots. When I say I use them situationally, I mean, during a trash mob pack The group is dead before I could apply another round of dots plus bane to spread them around. By then, there is one, maybe two mobs left so I'll spam blizzard II, ruin, ruin III, and painflare. During boss's, I re apply fester every time I add another cycle of dots.

I'm going to take what you've all said to the drawing board and experiment with more dungeons. I guess I'm the only smn in Aorzea that's got it wrong lol.