Serpent Sting Question

[timoseewho]

I play a shadow priest and Shadow Word: Pain is something like Serpent Sting that gets automatically refreshed by Mind Flay, which for hunters is like Chimera Shot (think MM). One main problem with SWP is that I need to manually refresh it when I get damage modifying buffs or when a target gets some sort of debuff that increases the damage taken by it (as MF doesn't refresh SWP with the damage modifiers). My question is, is this the same with SpS and CS? Or does CS actually refresh SpS while updating it's damage with whatever new debuffs is on a target? I also hear that there is a bug with the 2pt10 proc, that I should recast SpS when that procs? Any help is appreciated, thanks!

[Elam]

You're correct.

All dot mechanics that are refreshed by another ability currently work like this. %Damage Modifiers (such as the 2Pct10 bonus) and %crit modifiers (such as an Iron Dwarf DBW proc for a hunter or a Nevermelting Ice Crystal use) are calculated using the damage from the original cast. Haste and Attack Power/Spell Power are calculated when the ability is refreshed. The reasoning behind this is that Haste rolling was a terribly broken mechanic that did really bad things to dps and was hard to change, while %Crit and %Damage are broken mechanics that increase dps by a small amount and are terribly hard to change.

[Antisocial]

Reapplying sting to roll a 2pt10 bonus sting isn't always the right thing to do, but for example early festergut/rotface, the first 2pt10 proc after p3 on sindragosa makes it worth refreshing.

[timoseewho]

Thanks for the inputs! I guess my follow-up would be, is it worth waiting a couple of seconds into a fight to ensure that everyone has put up their respective debuffs before I start rolling the SpS? Thanks!

[Mcwrath]

Thanks for the inputs! I guess my follow-up would be, is it worth waiting a couple of seconds into a fight to ensure that everyone has put up their respective debuffs before I start rolling the SpS? Thanks!

Since the damage is modified by %damage or %crit, you shouldn't need to wait very long before other raid members have their debuffs on the boss (if this even applies; I'm taking a shot in the dark here). It's takes most classes a second or two to get their %damage or %crit modifying debuffs onto said target. Hope this halped ^_^