Useless DOT spells?

[Myxzptlk]

<DIV>I have a serious questions about some of our spells, especially the DOT spells, like the lightning flash and heat stroke and even breath of the tyrant. I'm only level 31 so i don't kow all the ins and outs of the prof, but what i do realize is that a lot of our dots seem next to useless a lot of the time, at least at my level. I have adept 1's for all my spells, and a high int, but basically i see very little that these spells do. I mean, yes, they help when all the decent spell timers are down, but other than that they seem a waste of a timer run to cast. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Is there a more effective way to use them than the "ehen all the timers are down, hit breath of the tyrant" strategy i have now? </DIV>

[Parasite]

<DIV>I don't have the data on the low level spells since the revamp, but I know that the line starting with breath of the tyrant is one of our better lines. If you calculate the total damage that it can do after 8 seconds it is usually close to double that of the strike line. Obviously, if the DoT doesn't go full duration (i.e. the mob died less than 8 seconds after you cast it) then it's not as good, but if you know that it will go full duration it's very good. Think about it this way: it takes 2 seconds to cast and does more overall damage than the strike line. Heat stroke only takes 1 second to cast and will do about the same amount as a strike which takes twice as long to cast and about half of hand of the tyrant which takes twice as long to cast and about a third of ball of fire which takes 3 times longer to cast. These 3 spells are your best damage dealers for the time it takes to cast them if the 2 DoT's are going to go full duration.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The lightning flash line is a different story. It is very underpowered in my opinion. Still, on 4 or more targets it is going to do more damage than any of the single target lines (except Ice Comet and Surging Tempest). It also has a short reuse timer so it can be used multiple times per fight if all of the mobs were ever to live that long (that very rarely happens to me). The wind line (not sure of the name at low levels, but I'm using Glacial Wind at 70) is an excellent area effect DoT - our best AE in fact. It is better than any of our single target lines with only 2 targets, and is incredible with 4 or more. The downside is that it has a very long reuse timer.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV>