Calculating Spell DOT's

[hunzi2010]

Hello everyone,

I would just like to ask for some info on how to calculate the creeping cold DOT on my Druid.

I have a spell power of 400 when I hover over the purple icon in the character sheet, yet when I dot a mob the dots are very poor.
what should I be expecting or am I missing something, past lives??
I have 2 fvs, 2 cleric and 3 sorc lives under her at the moment.
this used to be my healer but we all know clerics are useless now...lol
any feedback would be great.

Cheers everyone.

Hunzi.

[Thalone]

clerics are useless now

Wut.

http://i57.tinypic.com/2h49a3o.png

On topic: I haven't played Druid seriously yet, but since no one's taken a stab at your question yet, I'll give it a shot. I don't believe there's a save on Creeping Cold, so your past lives don't have an effect. Epic Arcane PLs may help with your crit chance, so are you holding crit gear when you cast?

The wiki says Creeping Cold is:

First phase: 1d4 Cold damage +2 per 3 caster levels (max +12 at caster level 18).
Second phase: 2d4 Cold damage +4 per 3 caster levels (max +24 at caster level 18).
Third phase: 3d4 Cold damage +6 per 3 caster levels (max +36 at caster level 18).


And Greater CC is:

First phase: 2d4 Cold damage +4 per 2 caster levels (max +40 at caster level 20).
Second phase: 4d4 Cold damage +6 per 2 caster levels (max +60 at caster level 20).
Third phase: 6d4 Cold damage +8 per 2 caster levels (max +80 at caster level 20).


Where each phase is two ticks over four seconds.

Now, if you're comparing these to an arcane's Niac's (1d6 cold damage + 1 per caster level, call it +20 to compare with GCC), the numbers look pretty anaemic during the initial two ticks (and worse when you consider Niac's can triple-stack). But the tail end of CC eventually pulls even with/exceeds a single stack of Niac's.

So: is stuff dying faster than you can observe the later CC ticks? If you're using the CC SLA, are you aware that you can apply metas for free? Are you debuffing with Freezing Spray in Water Elemental form for an extra 25% damage?

[hunzi2010]

Yes I have a thunderforge weapon.
I spray and I have a 22% on the weapon. I have my metas running on the spell also.
so with creep and greater creep my ticks are hitting around 400-700 and then if im locking ill crack 1100-1500 on the final.
so I want to check if three is a way to see what you should be getting.
I created one of the most famous awesome sharadi castors, you know the easy button pew pew one. I have all the gear and have the right build and right enhancements and yeah it was a fizzer. even had a few friends check the toon out, we concluded that it was possibly my toon life was bugged, so I went back to my cc wiz.

just hoping I don't have to tr the toon again...

and yes my cleric was rubbish after all the nerfs. to do any damage I need to max out all the metas, and wow was she a mana sucker.... and also why concentrate on turn undead as a cleric (which is supposed to be a main function) for all the undead in forgotten realms when my caster can go undeath to death and bang all gone. yet the cleric cant turn anything....
so I switched to a druid. and I do enjoy it a lot more. quake is awesome :) oh a ribbit. mass frog :P hahaha

[Xahtep]

Those dont triple stack like other dot spells, but you can use creeping cold and gcc in same mob, as thalone said, those spells are back loaded, start slow and hit hard near the end so if you are refreshing them asap you ara wasting a huge dps potential.

Use cc from the herald tree as sla, its extrmely eficient as cost/damage when you use maximize empower and quicken in it (remember, the sla).

I find this spells overkilling on eh and below and work fine in ee. To be honest my druid life was a brezee, used the slas from season herald, all of them: creeping cold and gcc on a mob, then run and cast call lightning in a second, word of balance in a 3rd and by that time the 1st should be already dead. or cast storm of vengance sla on top of a earthquacke,body of the sun soul (requires fire elemental form) and just see them die around me good prr and concealment dont hurt)

Past lifes are not a must but the 3 sorc lives are awesome for earthquake, and if you have good gear you should be on no fail crowd controll with that.

I recomend you the gingerspice build as a reference: https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/427398-Gingerspyce-s-caster-healer-quasi-tank-build?

[SealedInSong]

this used to be my healer but we all know clerics are useless now...lol


for your spells. The nice thing about the creeping colds is that they are cast-and-forget, so you'll never get them to be the same amount of DPS as a triple stack of eladar's/niac's/divine punishment because they're inherently easier to manage while you switch to other forms of DPS, i.e. melee/herald SLAs/sunbeam/fire seeds/etc.

Re: clerics, they're amazing.

No, your standard evocation cleric is probably not imploding everything in sight and is probably unable to compete in spell DPS with savants/shiradis, etc., but being able to burst self heal, reach full BAB, wear heavy armor, and hit things with a TF weapon = win, no matter what the class or race.

Re: turning undead, people have always been able to create effective undead-destroyers via turn undead, but the problem is that investing in it is inefficient. It's more efficient to just invest in being able to beat down trash ALL mobs (undead or not) quickly with a weapon, blade barrier them, or implode them, than focus on being able to destroy undead instantly.

[hunzi2010]

Thanks guys for the feedback.
No I am not casting creep and greater creep and then spamming again. just so your aware.
its 3 ticks so I wait for the 3rd tick then hit him again.
but my tics are very low.
with the update my character sheet now shows spell crit and crit chance. sitting on 437 cold spell power I have a 38% crit chance and a zero multiplier.
and im still hitting for 300-400 first tick, 500-800 2nd tick and 900-1500 3rd tick.

other guildies have less spell power and multipliers and doing more damage.
im guessing ddo doesn't like me as a caster, as I seem to have the same issue when I was a sharadi (on a different toon) all the gear I could get and the "UBER" build everyone uses. and no damage. I was so annoyed. so went back to my wiz, which I live.

maybe I need to tr my druid, it may have a bugged life.

[Theolin]

Thanks guys for the feedback.
No I am not casting creep and greater creep and then spamming again. just so your aware.
its 3 ticks so I wait for the 3rd tick then hit him again.
but my tics are very low.
with the update my character sheet now shows spell crit and crit chance. sitting on 437 cold spell power I have a 38% crit chance and a zero multiplier.
and im still hitting for 300-400 first tick, 500-800 2nd tick and 900-1500 3rd tick.

other guildies have less spell power and multipliers and doing more damage.
im guessing ddo doesn't like me as a caster, as I seem to have the same issue when I was a sharadi (on a different toon) all the gear I could get and the "UBER" build everyone uses. and no damage. I was so annoyed. so went back to my wiz, which I live.

maybe I need to tr my druid, it may have a bugged life.


Try taking off all your gear and putting it back on, sometimes there are glitches so it forgets what you have on including weapons.
I have had this fix things for me more than once.

[hunzi2010]

yeah done that and switched destinies and also switched stances.
my quake works fine and by cold bursts do around 7-11k damage, so something isnt working some where...