Mechanics of dots question

[Tons of Phun]

Was wondering with the new dot mechanic is there limits to when you can refresh and get the benefit of the dot being added on to your current dot.

For example: if I casted VT, SW:P, and DP then did a MF and got 3 orbs and used MB. VT would be about at the 4 or 5 sec mark or at least in teh range that it would be refreshed very soon after gaining the buff from the orbs. However DP would still be up at like 14+ or so. So if I refreshed DP at that high of a duration or even longer does it still get all the goods of the new dots mechanic?


TLDR: VT and DP full duration just MB'd with 3 orbs (those casted VT or DP were with 2 or less orbs). Dps gain or loss to recast VT and DP right away?

[zenkai]

When you refresh any dot it gets the benefit of what you have currently buffed.

So if you threw up your dots and you got 3 orbs and MB your 3 wouldn't get the benefit of your mastery buff until you recast vt/db and swp wouldn't get it until you MFed again (not to mention your 5 stacks of evangelism). This is why some people open up with 2 MFs before they dot, I personally just go ahead and dot up because I am usually running in position and I want to burn up my instant cast or because not having my dots to me is counter productive than the minor dps increase they would get in 15 seconds.

[Tons of Phun]

MY bad.....I might have worded my question wrong. The mechanic I meant was how dots cannot be clipped anymore. So if I casted VT and it went on at 2 sec left on the original that 2 gets added to the new one and so on. So using my example up top if I recasted the DP and VT would the originals get added on and not clipped or is there a limit as to your time window to refresh dots and not have them clipped?

[allaiva]

The wording is a little confusing still, but I think i understand where you're going and to be sure I'll be going from scratch sorta so bare with me here...

Basics nowadays are that dots benefit from both haste and crit naturally. Haste makes them have a shorter duration between ticks, but the spell still lasts the full duration (15s for VT for example, but instead of 3s between a tick, they're shortened based on haste).

When you cast a dot, it will start and tick on at it's given duration based upon the haste, crit, and damage modifiers present at the time of being cast. So recasting dots when Bloodlust has been cast will decrease the time between ticks so as to benefit from the haste given during that timeframe.

Now, getting onto your question with refreshing. Taking VT for example, the time til the next tick of the dot is left as is, and from there the new 15s will be applied. So from what I have gathered and saying each tick is 2.5s after haste, at 5s after the first cast you have put on your second tick, if your recast ends at 6.5s you will still have the next 1s until the 3rd tick of the original cast which will continue on giving a 3rd tick from the first cast, and 2.5s later the first tick from the second cast will have gone off, which would lose the 2 ticks from the first cast (mana inefficient) but would not lose the 1.5s by restarting at 2.5s until another tick which would have happened in the old way dots were recasted on.

The theory of current to benefit the most from your dots in a most mana efficient way is to land your cast before the last tick of your dot so that it will refresh without losing any damage from the prior cast where possible.

On a side note from your original post you mentioned casting MB at 3 orbs. Currently waiting for 3 orbs is viewed as a dps loss since you will generally wait a bit of time between when MB comes off cooldown and when a 3rd orb has proc'd for you. The empowered shadows buff is gained with the same % bonus regardless of how many orbs you had at the time of their use. So if your orbs increase MB damage by 20% per orb, your Empowered Shadows buff will ALWAYS increase dot damage by 20% be 1, 2, or even 3 orbs used. So as long as you have an orb up, keep MB on cd. The only time you should wait on casting MB is if you have no orbs which it is then not prefered as there is a chance to lose the empowered shadows buff.

[Worshaka]

MY bad.....I might have worded my question wrong. The mechanic I meant was how dots cannot be clipped anymore. So if I casted VT and it went on at 2 sec left on the original that 2 gets added to the new one and so on. So using my example up top if I recasted the DP and VT would the originals get added on and not clipped or is there a limit as to your time window to refresh dots and not have them clipped?

It sounds to me your assumption here is wrong...

What you appear to be saying (in my mind at least) the remaining duration of a DoT is added to a full duration of the DoT on refresh, ie. Assume your VT is 15 sec in duration, it has 2 sec left to go when you refresh it meaning the duration is now 17 sec... this is not the case.

If you refresh a DoT the duration stays at 15 sec (in this example), however you will not clip DoT ticks, if a tick is supposed to occur every 3 sec it will continue to do so. In the past overwriting a DoT with 2 sec left would mean you would clip the last tick and extend the duration between ticks by 1 sec.

So to answer your question, the refreshed DoT will now on the next tick deal damage according to the buffs that were present when you refreshed it.