Where does SK DPS come from?

[Lance Berg]

I know, SK and DPS are not synonymous. But to whatever extent I can do
some damage, I'd like to work in that direction.

The strategy I've adopted thus far is one of improving my lifetap
output. This plan is twofold; I can do more damage, and get more
healing coming in.

TO this end, I went with the AA that give me crit DD and crit heals, and
the ones that increase the size of my lifetap procs.

I'm using a weapon which has lifetap III, and I put a lifetap II augment
in it. I constantly run my best lifetap proc buff, and I have the first
level of touch of the cursed, which gave me yet another lifetap proc,
without eating a buff slot or an aug slot.

I also have a focus item that improves the size of magic based damage
spells, which works on both DD (Lifetap) and DOT (Lifetap over time) but
the latter doesn't improve the heal size of the LOT, just the damage size.

I put a +3 damage aug in the remaining slot in my weapon, but I could
dump another lifetap aug in instead, or some sort of DD aug or something
else.

I'm going to get my 1.5 epic shortly, and I'll see less DPS increase
putting that +3 damage aug in it than in my current 42/30 weapon.

Another SK in my guild swears by his devotion to a DOT strategy, he's
pumped his dot crits and so on, and runs a mana tap proc rather than a
hp tap; I spend as little time casting as possible to increase my DPS
from swinging weapons and my various procs, while he attempts to chain
cast DOTS as fast as possible and could care less about his weapon based
DPS.

Any thoughts?

[Lance Berg]

Current weapon:

Battle Deep Spear
Base Damage 42, augged to 45
Magic Damage augged to 1
Delay 30
Dmg Bonus at 70: 43

Combat effect Life Sap III: 150 point lifetap
Combat effect Life Sap II: 125 point lifetap

Shroud of Discord, currently at 364 lifetap proc
Touch of the Cursed, currently at 158 lifetap proc

Relevant AA:

Weapon Affinity 1
Combat Fury 2
Critical Affliction 1
Fury of Magic 0
Spell Casting Fury 3
Soul Abrasion 4
Theft of Life 4
Touch of the Cursed 1

[Prelgor]

Post by Lance Berg
Another SK in my guild swears by his devotion to a DOT strategy, he's
pumped his dot crits and so on, and runs a mana tap proc rather than a
hp tap; I spend as little time casting as possible to increase my DPS
from swinging weapons and my various procs, while he attempts to chain
cast DOTS as fast as possible and could care less about his weapon based
DPS.

I can't directly speak to most of your concerns. However, your
guildmate may not be losing as much DPS as you might think. I believe
that hybrid classes, unlike pure int or wis casters, do not have their
swing timer reset by casting a spell. If a shaman (for example)
swings a speed 20 weapon, then 1.5 seconds later starts casting a
spell, the next weapon swing will happen 2.0 seconds after the spell
completes. By contrast a hybrid (like a SK) in the same situation
would get to "remember" those earlier 1.5 seconds and get a weapon
swing only 0.5 seconds after completing the spell. With a
sufficiently slow weapon and fast spell, you might be able to time
your spell so as not to reduce melee DPS at all.

I've never actually parsed this or have any reason to believe it than
having once read it somewhere. Can anyone confirm or refute?

- Prelgor

[Lief]

Post by Prelgor

Post by Lance Berg
Another SK in my guild swears by his devotion to a DOT strategy, he's
pumped his dot crits and so on, and runs a mana tap proc rather than a
hp tap; I spend as little time casting as possible to increase my DPS
from swinging weapons and my various procs, while he attempts to chain
cast DOTS as fast as possible and could care less about his weapon based
DPS.

I can't directly speak to most of your concerns. However, your
guildmate may not be losing as much DPS as you might think. I believe
that hybrid classes, unlike pure int or wis casters, do not have their
swing timer reset by casting a spell. If a shaman (for example)
swings a speed 20 weapon, then 1.5 seconds later starts casting a
spell, the next weapon swing will happen 2.0 seconds after the spell
completes. By contrast a hybrid (like a SK) in the same situation
would get to "remember" those earlier 1.5 seconds and get a weapon
swing only 0.5 seconds after completing the spell. With a
sufficiently slow weapon and fast spell, you might be able to time
your spell so as not to reduce melee DPS at all.
I've never actually parsed this or have any reason to believe it than
having once read it somewhere. Can anyone confirm or refute?

You are correct, hybrid swings are not reset by casts...if that was the case
I'd never use nukes on my ranger.

Anyone is does effect is fairly irrelevant (exception maybe war with disc /
clickies? not sure if they count as spells though)

[Tony]

Post by Lief
Anyone is does effect is fairly irrelevant (exception maybe war with disc /
clickies? not sure if they count as spells though)

It does have one major setback - defensive procs. Spells like Lassitude
provide people with defensive procs, which case an instant effect of
some kind. Lassitude is a slow + chance to self cast a heal over time.
Reptile skin is a heal, Sloth is a slow, etc.

Because warriors don't benefit from the hybrid no swing reset, every
time the defensive proc fires, the warrior swing is reset. Since the
more mobs you have hitting you, the more chances your defensive proc
have to fire, it's possible to reduce warrior swing rate to virtually
nothing by engaging 10 to 15 mobs.

The bug has been pointed out to Sony, but as yet, no apparent fix is in
the works.