Greetings everyone!

Yay! My first post, and I will say, I love the druid community. A little background, I've been an enchanter all my EQ life, and often had a friend play a druid as my partner. Charming etc is great fun! However, my friend doesn't play so often any more and recently I created my own little druid and oh what fun I am having!

I'm just amazed at the DoT effectiveness that druids have. Starting out as a non-DPS class (enchanter) and seeing what real dmg classes can do...well, it just amazes me (no commentary from the peanut gallery about druids not being DPS in this day and age, hehe)..

So, being that my background is in mana efficiency (read : I played an enchanter for too long) I'm curious about DoT stacking order. Now, my current druid is only in the 40's, and I've looked through some threads, and I'm sure this was covered many years ago but...

How do you stack, and what is most DPS? What is most efficient? I've come up with a few various techniques, and I'm sure some number-crunchers can figure out the DPS efficiencies...or perhaps it all equals out in the end?

ethod 1 - Stack highest to lowest
ethod 2 - Stack longest to shortest duration
ethod 3 - Stack lowest to highest

Ok, those are the basics, and of course, it gets tricky once higher spells have shorter durations. It kinda makes my head spin a little bit.

Ok, now here comes the curveball....clickies. Drones of Doom click, plus epic click (plus Sporecaller if available, or any others I'm missing?). I would assume to maximize efficiency, you would cast a spell, then immediately click a clicky, then cast a spell. Thereby taking advantage of the (2) 2.3 second grey-out periods (that would have been there if you had cast a spell, instead of click). Essentially knocking off ~4.5 seconds off a click cast time, as if it were a spell (read : a 7.5 second cast time clicky woudl be essentially a 3 second cast time spell, because you've eliminated the 2.3 second grey-out period before and after the spell, which is why I'd find it usefull *in-between* spell casts, not at start).

Anyway, so, advice : How do YOU stack, what is best, most efficient? Most DPS? How do these dynamics change as you get higher in game. And just toss in any other advice you can to make me love my druid even more!

Thanks again!

Thornes

Efficiency:

As a general rule, the magic based swarm dots stick like mad to everything. If you are going to get resisted DoTs, its typically going to be on the fire based DoTs, particulary on the debuff DoTs (immolation line). I have zero experience with the lower level curse DoTs (vengeance line) as I was already max level when the line was first introduced with LDoN, but you might want to stick with landing immolation first before attempting to cast vengeance. Also, overkill is bad. You are wasting mana if the mob dies with 5 dots still running on it. There are efficient means to kill a mob at 5% life, and adding yet another DOT to the pile isn't one of them.


Stacking:

Debuff DoTs (immolation line) do not stack. Higher level spells overwrite lower level spells in the line.

General DoT stacking a non-issue unless you intend to fully level the druid and buy AAs. In that case, you might as well get into the habit of stacking DoTs from highest level spell to lowest level spell. This will enable you to get the most benefit from those Gift of Mana procs when they occur.

Epic takes a long time to click - I think I'd rather just have the 2 ticks back to med instead, but this could be level and gear related, and until you hit 60+ your epic might still help you get through the tougher/longer fights.

Our short curse-based dots (vengeance line) are awesome, they drain mana quicker but they're worth it, however you typically need to fire debuff (immolation) first because a resist hurts your dps and mana pool significantly - they have shortish recast delays embedded into the vengeance line.

Unless a fight is only going to last about a minute (or less) I will open up with immolation and vengeance (current flavours being Torrid Sunray and Sunsear), then NBW which you'll get with TSS+ spells, the next lower vengeance (Sunscorch) if you're lucky to have more than one, then magic dots.

When I was a younger druid though, I remember stacking 3-4 magic dots (including epics) on mobs as my primary means of death, because for long-haul fighting they are efficient, and I could get myself into a routine where I could 'fight endlessly' (no downtimes) though the fights were long. With Out Of Combat Regen I'm not sure this is the smart play anymore, and Burn / Med / Burn / Med may be better, if counter-intuitive to smart and efficient play thinking.

I never picked up Mith Marr's clicky dot sword from PoP, that was one of my only regrets for damage efficiency, as it's like an upgraded and faster casting dot than the epic has.

At the higher level, if a fight is only going to last about a min max then I'll either open off the bat a magic swarm dot (else it'll be mostly wasted anyway), or just not use them at all, and then stick with immolation / NBW / nukes.

For my part, efficiency is unimportant for non-raid mobs anymore. Regening a mana pool takes less time than a bio break. I throw my nastiest DPS at mobs and then take a med break, which I typically have to do every 3 or 4 mobs (killing in Fort Mech). Medding in battle is redundant.