Improving The Ailment/Damage-Over-Time Damage Systems

[Heavy]

If you generally like the idea of ailments builds, i would definitely give bleed another shot.

Bleed, Poison and Ignite are all very viable and scalable.

Always remember. There are 3 major pillars of scaling ailment builds:

• Damage per stack (general % increases to the damage type, increased duration and increased effect)
• Application Amount (how many stacks per hit)
• Application Rate (how often do you hit/apply)

[grimlock9999]

There is a pretty cool interaction that should be a part of this equation:
Maelin’s Hubris gloves can turn bleeds into ignite - which changes base damage from 53 down to 35. Why do this? Well, it means we can also use torch of the pontifex, which gives us some AOE to our DOT. It also means we have some legitimate choices on the items and tree to ramp up fire damage and damage over time - which bleed currently does not have. The net result is a fun synergy between items, skills, passives, discussed more in this thread.

This makes me think that with the potential release of a few more items, DOT is in a good space. It is only when you compare it to crit that it falls behind. Hence, I find the below post super spot on (with just one exception: I think all this is evidence for a nerf to crit, rather than a buff to DOT).

@Mastersword

Overall I think the main issue is that when compared to Hit-Crit builds, DOT builds fall off hard in end game content (empowered monos & High level Arena Push). Hit-Crit builds can increase their damage by building to 100% crit chance and 300%+ crit multi, which allows them to do 3X damage. In comparison DOT builds don’t have as many ways to incorporate more damage into build/item rolls outside of certain skill specific affixes, which are not always available depending on the build. This is supposed to be balanced by the differences in defensive mechanics in the game like dodge chance, glancing blows, etc which should favor damage output for DOT builds. However, after playing both DOT and Hit-Crit builds, it definitely doesn’t feel like the defensive mechanics make a noticeable impact in favor of DOT builds. Cuz if your HIT gets dodged or glanced, what do you do? Oh, you just hit again and again and again until they die. In my gameplay experience, those mechanics only matter when you are pushing end game monos and choose certain modifiers.

Obviously there isn’t a “quick” way to remedy the damage difference since there are so many stats that impact damage output between different classes. However there needs to be either some sort of damage modifier added to benefit the BASE damage of DOT builds to compensate for Crit Multi OR the defensive mechanics need to be more emphasized in such a way that they are more impactful. I personally would favor the former rather than the latter.

[SobeDragon]

I mean I seems like it could be a good mechanic, I just think the way the character sheet is currently, and the way bleed stacks and other stacks don’t tell you the stack rate per hit or how many stacks are currently on an enemy, it makes it hard to min/max bleed builds.

The other thing is with bleed you HAVE to consistently hit, but with a crit build even if they occasionally dodge you still get big damage. If they dodge too many hits with a bleed build your stacks start falling off and your damage takes a massive hit.

[Heavy]

@SobeDragon

The other thing is with bleed you HAVE to consistently hit, but with a crit build even if they occasionally dodge you still get big damage. If they dodge too many hits with a bleed build your stacks start falling off and your damage takes a massive hit.

I think ailment focused builds will loose the same overall damage from mobs dodging attacks than any hit build.

On top of that ailment builds can take CSA and GB mods for basically free.

Also Ailment Builds still do damage, when they need to Dodge telegraphs or step away from the fight for a second.