AoE DoT etiquette

[Geron_Slevin]

Okay so I have been doing lot's of Wanderer's Palace runs recently and as SMN I had a few question mainly aimed at tanks.

Seeing as alot of our DD comes from DoT it makes SMN a bit slower any sort of bust dmg, so to counter that I like to AoE DoT if our mob groups are smaller (usually 2-3). Lots of people get mad at me if I do. Now when starting a run I ask if I can AoE which I have to get a reply to until I get AoEs up and start ripping into me.

[Geron_Slevin]

So I was wondering how everyone else weighed in on this?

[Riko_113]

Generally, I would say it depends on the team makeup. Always wait for the tank to get full aggro and you can dot up his target until he has group aggro and you can spread the dots to everyone else. If there's a BLM on the team find out if tank wants them to AoE sleep each mob or not. Otherwise, it tends to be better to focus on one target at a time unless it's large groups of weak enemies. But if the mobs, especially most in WP, take a minute or two to down it's better to focus targets.

Thinking about your situation with SMN though, I'm not sure if your aoe DPS is lower per enemy or not which could change things. I know for BLM they do less damage per enemy with their AoE since they are actually built to burn single targets faster. It may actually be more beneficial for you to AoE depending on that.

IF you can get dots in before the sleep, you're golden, as they tick and don't break sleep (I think).

And you're correct. If you put DoTs before an enemy is slept they will stay asleep and keep ticking away.

[pandabearcat]

If you have a good tank, if you bane about 10 seconds in (after your dots, shadowflare, and contagion) you should be okay.

With a bad tank, I don't bane until the 2nd set of dots (or, as usually is the case, the first add is dead).

Shadowflare is a safe dps increase and if the tank can't hold over that he can't hold over the healer either.

Also this entirely depends on whether the healer/BLM sleeps the adds or not.

IF you can get dots in before the sleep, you're golden, as they tick and don't break sleep (I think).

[LegoEgo]

sounds like a shit tank to me.

if i have a smn in my party i AOE enmity everything within the first couple secs of the fight then alternate my enmity attack chain on each mob and let the dps take care of the rest.
ill hold aggro on every mob the whole fight with no problems

[Vanidin]

Depends on the group. Depends on the ability of the tank and healer to maintain threat and heals if all mobs are being kept awake. So basically it's situational based on the group. I think what you're doing now, asking at the start is the best route to go. Killing them faster is good but only if it doesn't cause a wipe, if the tanks hp is getting to the "one crit away from death" point during pulls then aoe might not be the way to go ;p

[Crica]

what the previous poster said

work within your current groups abilities

if the tank needs one of the mobs killed asap because of gear, then focus fire one mob down quickly

if the tank can handle everything till the sun goes down, aoe to your hearts content

if the tank is having issues holding agro, focus fire down mobs in the same order the tank is focused on them

if the healer is having issues with MP, again, focus fire...

the more adaptable you are to your healers and tanks, the more runs you will be able to complete

have fun!

[DNO]

SMN are aoe DOT attackers. tanks need to keep hate. that's all there is to it. However SMN Dmg can be very good single target also. so while the tank needs to know how to kept hate with a SMN a SMN also needs to be able to do Dmg Aoe or single target.

[Crica]

SMN are aoe DOT attackers. tanks need to keep hate. that's all there is to it. However SMN Dmg can be very good single target also. so while the tank needs to know how to kept hate with a SMN a SMN also needs to be able to do Dmg Aoe or single target.

not all players are skilled enough to always be able to keep hate on all mobs perfectly nor always be able to perfectly manage MP while healing nor have awesome gear yet

however, all players do not need skill nor awesome gear to simply focus fire in order to always be able to help out the tanks and healers that may be less then perfectly skilled or less then perfectly geared

being adaptable when it requires no skill nor gear to do so is always the best option, imo, if you need other players help in order to reach your personal goals in an MMO game

[Alkar]

Bane doesn't break Sleep nor does Shadow Flare. I use both even on SCH but there i have a fairy curebombing me. Either way make those lazy tanks work a little bit.