Is Dirge as bad as I think?

[karl_k0ch]

Dirge is a DoT which takes a while to apply. It does mediocre damage. It heals undead. Am I missing something neat about this ability?

[threefeetunder]

Dirge is a DoT which takes a while to apply. It does mediocre damage. It heals undead. Am I missing something neat about this ability?

Well, it's aoe, so effects everything around you, and on a bard can last up to 43 seconds.
That said, the damage is so mediocre due to the whole not-affected-by-spellpower thing. If it was, i'd have no complaints. As it is, I mainly use it on bosses for slight added damage and 5% slow (minor, I know, but every little bit helps).

It could REALLY use being affected by spellpower... *looks hopefully at Breca*

[MrToby]

I mainly use mine instead of fascinate to apply masked ball, 20+Tumble/Jump/2+ stacking Cha/1d6 SA + 2 to hit SA which is semi useful, if nothing else, its nice to keep it up every 4th min or so, and adding a bit of dps while standing there singing in melee range like you dont even give a darn is great, and it's not like there's much better available options, the inspire courage reflex buff is morale so it doesnt stack with GH.

[junta74]

I mainly use mine instead of fascinate to apply masked ball, 20+Tumble/Jump/2+ stacking Cha/1d6 SA + 2 to hit SA which is semi useful, if nothing else, its nice to keep it up every 4th min or so, and adding a bit of dps while standing there singing in melee range like you dont even give a darn is great, and it's not like there's much better available options, the inspire courage reflex buff is morale so it doesnt stack with GH.

It can replace fascinate in those groups that don't want to attack one mob at a time when they are fascinated.

Instead of run in, fascinate, and pick them apart; it's run in, Dirge, and watch all the DOT's go off.

[katz]

it's kinda meh. i use it for a little extra DPS. but i wish it either did a bit more damage.. or was faster to sing... or both.! both would be good!

[thunir]

Its just a bad way to grab aggro... Kill nothing.. and get yourself killed in the process as you P/O the rest of your party untill they come and help you or you waste all your SP healing yourself.

To me they should bump the damage back up a little... and make it a single target dot insted of an AOE, or let it be Effected by spell power so you can actually kill something with it again. Not to be a Grinch. Sorry

[katz]

Its just a bad way to grab aggro... Kill nothing.. and get yourself killed in the process as you P/O the rest of your party untill they come and help you or you waste all your SP healing yourself.

To me they should bump the damage back up a little... and make it a single target dot insted of an AOE, or let it be Effected by spell power so you can actually kill something with it again. Not to be a Grinch. Sorry

why am i suddenly invisioning the ultimate bard/fighter tank.... *rushes off to the character planner*

[junta74]

Its just a bad way to grab aggro... Kill nothing.. and get yourself killed in the process as you P/O the rest of your party untill they come and help you or you waste all your SP healing yourself.

To me they should bump the damage back up a little... and make it a single target dot insted of an AOE, or let it be Effected by spell power so you can actually kill something with it again. Not to be a Grinch. Sorry

They have a single target DOT with Chord of Disruption.

[phalaeo]

I love Dirge. Granted, I wish it did more damage (about halfway in between Lama and live would have been good), but I use it all the time. And it's got decent range, so you can target a mob and start singing as you run in.

As far as the aggro? Displacement, Stoneskin and HP.

[Blank_Zero]

I love Dirge. Granted, I wish it did more damage (about halfway in between Lama and live would have been good), but I use it all the time. And it's got decent range, so you can target a mob and start singing as you run in.

As far as the aggro? Displacement, Stoneskin and HP.

I love it.

Only a few things I'd change.

1. Spellpower
2. Change Negative energy for something more useful, like Untyped.
3. Longer duration. I have to use a song to use it. 40 seconds isn't quite long enough.

[Tuney]

When I solo , I use it tons. It gives me the damage I need to take out a group faster then any other method I have open to me. It still provides a 5% slow that can be useful even with inflated HP. But If It ever got boosted by spell power I'd go woot!

[phalaeo]

I love it.

Only a few things I'd change.

1. Spellpower
2. Change Negative energy for something more useful, like Untyped.
3. Longer duration. I have to use a song to use it. 40 seconds isn't quite long enough.

I'd be happy just if they stopped it from healing enemy undead and added spell power. I'm curious- you say that you have to use a song to use it like that's a bad thing? With Fatesinger, I've got 31 songs on a 16/2/2 split... I haven't run out yet.

[Qezuzu]

I find it extremely powerful when you're alone/in a small party and there are tons of mobs that would massacre you if you don't kite them (eg. Belly of the Beast).

Over its duration, it can easily exceed 1.5k damage iirc. And that's on every. Single. Mob. If you have enough affected mobs, it is quite incredible damage.

[threefeetunder]

I find it extremely powerful when you're alone/in a small party and there are tons of mobs that would massacre you if you don't kite them (eg. Belly of the Beast).

Over its duration, it can easily exceed 1.5k damage iirc. And that's on every. Single. Mob. If you have enough affected mobs, it is quite incredible damage.

1.5k seems way too high... let's do the math:
at lvl 20 (it doesn't count epic levels), 10d8 negative and 10d12 sonic
average tic = 100 damage every 3 seconds (keeping in mind it starts ticking at the third second, not the first, and the last second doesn't get a proc either if it was supposed to)

with no lingering song enhancement
18 seconds means 5 procs
500 damage on average over 18 seconds

with bard full lingering song enhancement
32 seconds (18 x 1.8) means 10 procs
1k damage on average over 32 seconds

with virtuoso 2 / echoes fatesinger enhancement / bard capstone / full lingering song enhancement
43 seconds (18 x 2.4) means 14 procs
1.4k damage on average over 48 seconds

Doesn't look too bad (certainly doesn't easily do over 1.5k though), but problems with this:
-you waste 6 seconds singing it during which time you're completely vulnerable
-If you're not a bard with song enhancements, you'd do more damage hitting the target in the time it would take you to sing this
-trash doesn't stay alive for that long especially when grouping, you won't have the full damage besides on bosses. Realistically, mobs die in , what 10 seconds unless something went drastically wrong, 6 of which you're singing doing nothing
-on bosses it's decent, but come on, any caster can do in a single spell cast what you do in 30-40 seconds with this thing
-it costs a song (for a bard, not that big of an issue, but a non-bard won't have that many songs)

If you're soloing (therefore taking longer to kill stuff) and fighting large groups, it can be nice to soften up mobs before you go for the kill, but that's a specific situation. I DO use it since I happen to solo a lot, but I almost never use it in a group.
It's a tier 1 enhancement, so I'm not looking for triple stacked divine punishment kind of damage, but being affected by spellpower would go a long way to improve this.

[Azre]

Dirge is a DoT which takes a while to apply. It does mediocre damage. It heals undead. Am I missing something neat about this ability?

Except pale masters.

Even with a lot of negative damage amplification, the dot wont even come close to the damage of a necrotic blast.

[katz]

i thought it would be better than it is, but i do use it situationally. observe room full of mobs. do i think i can take em? yes - charge in as i sing dirge, pull out the weapons and go to town. no - charge in as i sing fascinate, pull out weapons and whittle them down one at a time at my leisure.

[junta74]

If you're a bard, what else are you going to use those 30+ songs on between shrines? In epic levels, you can almost sing constantly between shrines and still not run out of songs with anthem on.

[Qezuzu]

1.5k seems way too high...

1.5k was a guesstimate, and I rarely run in full 6-party groups.

I recently used Dirge in Trial by Fury, in one of the challenges of might where you get a lot of spiders. I mean a lot. Instead of, well, dying, I could kite them around while singing Dirge, and kite them around as Dirge whittled them down.

It's only a TierI ability. In specific situations, it's very powerful. But if it were affected by spellpower, I'd actually think it would be too powerful.

[cru121]

My experience with Dirge is that it's a pretty nice tool, particularly for soloing, or (I admit it) soloing with Albus. It nicely grabs aggro from hireling to my displaced self, allowing him to heal me without interruption. And, well, it's the best AoE DoT that bards have. I am actually happy that it's not boosted by spell power, because I don't have to worry about any sonic/neg.energy boosting gear. Obviously I would not complain if it dealt more damage.

BTW I have noticed Dirge's negative energy heals zombificated cultists at the end of the Lords of Dust. Intended?

[CoasterHops]

Dirge isn't terrible, I kinda like it.

I run a 16bard/2fighter/2rog, virt (yeah virt) dual weilding khopeshes.

Chances are I could do just as much damage in the time it takes to sing the song with my weapons, but like others said it's a tier I ability so you can't expect too much from it.

When I like it:
-As mentioned when lots of mobs are chasing you and you can displace, haste, dirge, kite them.
-On mass held mobs.
-On bosses, especially if you are also the healer for the group.
-If I could on my bard (which I can't) on a cc specced Spellsinger, Dancing ball and Dirge.

What would be awesome:
-If Dirge didn't automatically break fascinate but had say a 10% chance per tick to break fascinated mobs. Fascinate, Dirge then pick off the ones that break first with Melee, would be awesome.
-Negative energy changed to untyped.

It's pretty much good enough for a Tier I ability, but could have been a teensy weensy bit better.