Quote Originally Posted by Shurrikhan View Post
They're almost the opposite of auto-attacks, though? A DoT is a snapshotted high-ppgcd attack with strength per use diminished if used too frequently and total contribution finished if used too infrequently -- essentially a soft-CD attack. Except, also, whereas AAs can only strike one enemy at a time and traditional CDs cool only one charge per action, DoTs can be present and can cool on as many enemies as they are placed.

And then there's the remaining target lifespan (TTK, time-to/until-kill) consideration, too...
Oh yeah, forgot about snapshotting. Oops. But then dots are just another skill to use when buffs are up be they personal or party buffs. The decision making between like current Goring Blade, and Sonic Break are basically the same other than maybe using Sonic Break early in No Mercy. And to be honest, I feel like dots encourage padding which I don't find interesting at all, whereas burst damage is better at like, I don't know, killing stuff. Which given that it seems like they want fights to be faster, maybe seems it should be a little more important.

While I'm not super keen on dots, I do think there is more room for debuff based mechanics that ask players to pay attention to what's happening on an enemy's debuff list, especially if they keep teasing chemist.