Multiple targets and dots

[Over ez]

While playing Scoville, I noticed that his dps was a lot lower than some other necro's dps.  When I sought out why, one thing I learned was that some necros dot multiple targets (basically deviating from MA calls in a big way).  This will increase a necro parse, but it makes me wonder, when raid mobs likely have a high hp regen rate, are necros who do this really doing the smart thing for the raid?

It seems like the more dots you have going the better at a glance, but when raid mob hp regen is factored in, you might be less effective spreading out dots as opposed to maxing out the MA target.

[Scornfire]

Typically we do so with Furro's prior consent, otherwise we just stick with the MA. As far as effectiveness goes, if you're casting at a good pace you should pretty easily be able to keep your DoTs up on 2-3 targets without them lapsing. If you're using 2-3 spell sets worth of DoTs that's another issue entirely and a pretty old argument that still hasn't been settled apparently. All I know is I do 1 Spellset +3 changeouts on each mob and I've been pretty happy with the results

[Over ez]

Hey Scorn, to make my point a bit more clear I'll add:

When I am referring to "maxing out the MA target" I mean to include direct damage, or any other necro tricks as well.  In other words, a necro can either spread his total casting time over multiple mobs (that, as I mentioned are likely regenerating at a very high rate), or the necro can DoT, DD etc just one mob full time as it were, which results in less fighting the regeneration rates of raid mobs.

On the surface it seems at least plausible (if not highly likely), that focusing on one mob results in more realized dps (ie not regerated away dps) than spreading out the casting over multiple mobs.

I'm fairly curious to know the real math here, but I don't think it's something practical to parse.  Given raid mob regeneration. I fancy that I'm right, unless there's something I haven't considered.

[Scornfire]

I'm really not sure how to answer you here. The short of it is, that yes, obviously focusing on a single mob will result in more realized DPS, but our class is built to be a lot more versatile than to be relegated to a single target


I don't have any particular numbers on what Loading an exorbitant amount of DoTs on a mob would add (though my experience is that in place of Chaotic procs the number is negative), but Chain Nuking a mob would add about 15k DPS in the best of circumstances (assuming max aa and not factoring in the time that needs to be allocated to refreshing DoTs). Chain Swarm pets would add about 40k once established (with max aa, also factoring out DoT refreshing/chaotic) I can /sleep my way to upwards of 70-80k DPS (each) on 2-3 targets without burning/accounting for my pet. If the mob(s) are capable of completely negating our DoTs via regen, your DD rotation will hardly put a dent in them so why bother trying to make headway with a single mob when you can presumably hamper a second one's regeneration just as capably (Note that this is pretty much relevant only to events where we're engaged with multiple mobs at once, not kiting/offtanking them etc). Going swarm pet crazy will do a fair bit more but require you to essentially do away with half of your spell set, which will hamper that added dps considerably. So the choice essentially comes down to adding a tiny/perhaps respectable amount of dps to a single mob, or adding a lot to the overall encounter. I can't recall any mobs outside of crazy regen Anashti who can even come close to out regening our DoTs, this is especially true for add based events like Tita's Ghost where DoTing up every legalus is a heeeeellllllll of a lot more useful than following the MA.

It's hard to really come to any solid conclusion, as most of this debate is pretty circumstantial, but I've raided pretty much everything in EQ when it was either current or at least still relevant, and there have been very very few encounters with multiple mobs that I wouldn't endorse the tactic of Necros DoTing multiple targets

[Over ez]

Yeah, thanks for the reply Scornfire but I guess I don't have too much more to add.  If you can really out dps raid mob regen rates, and keep a relatively maximum amount of damage on the MA mob, what you're saying sounds right.  If not, what I'm saying sounds like it's the way to go.