Thoughts on PLD changes

[Booden]

but having just fairly freshly come out of leveling through the low level dungeons where I didn't have the gear to chain pull multiple groups, I can say you're not actually correct here, at least not when you're just pulling small groups.

Oh, I had just assumed you'd be level synced to the max since you were talking about doing Baelsar's wall, didn't think about under level 50 + undergeared. Yeah I guess it can help newbie tanks, I wouldn't bother using it myself though.

However, you have just pressed the pause button on the fight, basically, allowing the DPS you're with to essentially get in two extra GCDs in each. Now, this of course depends on the DPS you have, with Dancer, Bard and Machinist being among the better options. But even with, say, a Monk, using a 110 potency AoE, that's 660 free potency during a time when the enemies are no longer doing any damage. And that's just *one* of the two DPS. If you had two MCH with you using Spread Shot, that's 2160 free potency in a period where the enemies are not doing any damage to you.

You aren't ending the fight faster, no, not at all. But you also aren't taking more damage. As a matter of fact, you are taking *less* damage, as the extra damage your DPS is throwing in during a period where the enemies are doing 0 damage will more than likely make them die a hit or two earlier.

Wait that sounds wrong, because whether the mobs were stunned or not, the DPS would still be doing their aoe rotations, so it's not free potency, and there's no extra damage coming from the dps here because the mobs are stunned. So there's just the aoe potency loss from the pld.

[Hezzlocks]

Wait that sounds wrong, because whether the mobs were stunned or not, the DPS would still be doing their aoe rotations, so it's not free potency, and there's no extra damage coming from the dps here because the mobs are stunned. So there's just the aoe potency loss from the pld.

I was more referring to how you said the mitigation you gain from stunning the mobs won't match up to the "mitigation" you gain from just killing them faster. With larger pulls where you can't stun them all without sacrificing many GCDs, you're absolutely right. With small pulls where you can stun everything for effectively 2 GCDs, it's like you pressed a pause button on the fight. 0 incoming damage whatsoever (barring dots, i guess). The DPS getting in two GCDs worth of damage during a time where there is 0 incoming damage, so long as it's more damage than you sacrificed to stun them (and it bloody well better be more or they are terrible DPS), it's basically increasing the damage done vs damage taken ratio in your favour.

Basically, the smaller the pull, the more valuable a stun is, as each stun is eliminating a large percentage of the incoming damage, and the less damage there is lost on each AoE you aren't doing. The larger the pull, the more valuable doing damage is, as a single stun is barely affecting incoming damage at all, and you're losing considerably more damage on each AoE you don't do. Stunning a single mob for 6 seconds in a single target situation is very valuable in that regard, though obviously single target situations are usually situations where either the mob is immune to being stunned, or you want to save it for stopping an ability. And obviously you don't want to use Shield Bash mid combo, either.