PURGATUS Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 Guys, first off, it's a pain for an guy like me to break out the smartphone and type my security code in and stuff, so I do this as a cry for help... w.t.f is up with wither? I figured it was gonna be the pimp-mack-a-licious-ness. yet I'm underwhelmed. DON'T GET ME WRONG. I've been reading those INCREDIBLE guides in these forums (the stickies), and I've been loving them! But my rotation is pretty 'meh' with wither in there now. IN FACT, I think I get a ton more mitigation with electrocute (due to the straight up no-attacking-me action it provides). As a result, I'm looking forward to spike to help, but wither is a little 'meh'... Okay now the reason I posted (no it's NOT to assist me in figuring out which companion is t3h l33t DPS). It's to say: does the mitigation get better after yer fully geared up at 50? or will electrocute/spike ALWAYS be your best form of damage mitigation. If so, we should prolly update the rotations in those stickies... Thanks in advance! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nToxiK Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 (edited) What does interrupts have to do with your damage rotation? Assuming you are talking about PvE tanking with 31/0/10 Get 3 stacks of HD up by using Shock/Wither/Shock then use Force Lightning (with Recklessness when up). Edited March 21, 2012 by nToxiK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astarica Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 Wither reduces damage taken by 5% and it does what it claims. For an effect that is essentially always on the enemy I"m not sure what more you expect out of it. No it's unlikely you'll ever have a case where you survive with 100 HP and say 'if the enemy did 5% more damage I'd have died!' but I can assure you it is better to take 5% less damage than not. It also helps all your teammates too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordbishopX Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 Whither is just a debuff and part of your rotation that hits 5 peeps it not huge on the damage scale at all it's slow and 5% that's all. In pvp it pads numbers nicely lol... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PURGATUS Posted March 21, 2012 Author Share Posted March 21, 2012 AH, thanks for the speedy replies. I should clarify. When I refer to PVE tanking, I naturally assume we're talking about damage mitigation... 'cause, lets face it, I'm not there to DPS. I'm there to hit well enough to keep mobs on me and make easy work for the healer. When I refer to the 'meh' of wither, I'm specifically referring to the damage mitigation. I actually feel that I'm taking MORE damage by trying to weave in electrocute into the mix of (wither, discharge, thrash, thrash, shock, wither, assassinate, etc). versus a pre-wither combination somewhat like: electrocute, tumult, discharge, thrash, thrash, shock, etc.... am i doin' it wrong, or is wither < the damage mitigation of spike and electrocute? woven into the rotation? Thanks in advance peeps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astarica Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 Let's say a mob lives for 20 seconds on average. Stunning it for 2 seconds (Spke) reduces its damage output by 10%, and that's already more than Wither. So of course on relatively weak stuff Wither is never going to prevent as much damage as a stun. In general stun is always the best damage prevention ability on anything it works on. The problem is that it'll rarely work on the things you really wish it'd work on. Wither, on the hand, does work on everything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AetherMcLoud Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 Wither also gives harnessed darkness which gives you lots of selfhealing, don't forget that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
am_luckystar Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 Also, bosses cannot be stunned, so Wither is automatically better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
verfallen Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 (edited) Lets clarify something. Wither is an AoE attack with a debuff and high threat generation. Electrocute/spike are CCs. Why the heck are we making a comparison there? With that logic, we could say merc and sorc with their 60 second CCs are beast at mitigation. Thats comparing apples to oranges. Mitigation is reducing incoming damage via armor, shielding and abilities. Basically not taking the full damage of an attack (the name is pretty much obvious imo) CC is locking an enemy out of combat for x time. The two do jot have the same function at all. In solo PvE against an elite/champion (altough many are immune to CC) its about giving you a break. In group, its about locking a powerul enemy out of the fight while you and your team gun down its allies. Wither is about keeping threat on you, which it does EXTREMELY well a d as a bonus also mitigate by debuffing enemies. It also as a bonus grant you a stack of HD. Wither does not change the CC's usefulness who are on long CD, and mostly situationnal. Your regular rotation gets improved. Seriously, go to the juggernaut forum, and post you think wither sux, and see how hard you'll get trolled. Edited March 21, 2012 by verfallen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nToxiK Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 As what was said above, Electrocute is not part of your tanking rotation. It is a CC and not usable on bosses anyways. Generally there are two rotations for Assassin Tanking, one that includes Thrash and one that does not. There is still a debate on which one is 'better' however the Thrash-less rotation flows much easier. Basically Dark Ward>Shock>Wither>Shock> (to 3 stacks HD) Recklessness>Force Lightning>Saber Strike The Thrash version adds Thrash in the rotation to proc Energize so that your next Shock Crits however the downside is that it does Focus starve your rotation more while yuo are thrashing which then means you are not getting 3 charges of HD as fast which also means you are using Force Lightning less (Force Lighting heals you for 12% of your HP). At less than 30% you would prioritize Assassinate right after Dark Ward. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astarica Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 Stuns are a form of damage prevention, and pretty much better than any form of damage prevention on the stuff it works on. The only problem is that in PvE, there's a lot of stuff stuns don't work on for precisely this reason. If something's stunnable then you might as well stun it, especially in PvE. But you won't be able to do on most stuff that matters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
verfallen Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 Stuns are a form of damage prevention, and pretty much better than any form of damage prevention on the stuff it works on. The only problem is that in PvE, there's a lot of stuff stuns don't work on for precisely this reason. If something's stunnable then you might as well stun it, especially in PvE. But you won't be able to do on most stuff that matters. Sure. But its not damage mitigation, its locking an enemy out of the fight, and is therefore unrelated to the discussed ability that is wither. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
novakheng Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 As a leveling skill, Electrocute is useful. But it loses it's usefulness in Flashpoints or Operations. Tanking trash in Flashpoints or Operations are never an issue, only the bosses. So no, Wither is always better. It's nice to have Electrocute if you have to stun an add mid-fight, but other than that, it's pretty worthless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PURGATUS Posted March 22, 2012 Author Share Posted March 22, 2012 fair enough. thanks for the info all Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrSteak Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 Wither is more or less just a free stack of Harnessed Darkness. It's good for healing you, assuming you don't get knocked back instantly and thus interrupted on your "immune to interrupt" specced lightning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noctari Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 not to go off topic, but does "Chain Shock" give 2 stacks of HD when it procs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
am_luckystar Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 No, it does not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noctari Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 damn :-/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katahn Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 AH, thanks for the speedy replies. I should clarify. When I refer to PVE tanking, I naturally assume we're talking about damage mitigation... 'cause, lets face it, I'm not there to DPS. I'm there to hit well enough to keep mobs on me and make easy work for the healer. When I refer to the 'meh' of wither, I'm specifically referring to the damage mitigation. I actually feel that I'm taking MORE damage by trying to weave in electrocute into the mix of (wither, discharge, thrash, thrash, shock, wither, assassinate, etc). versus a pre-wither combination somewhat like: electrocute, tumult, discharge, thrash, thrash, shock, etc.... am i doin' it wrong, or is wither < the damage mitigation of spike and electrocute? woven into the rotation? Thanks in advance peeps Are you using Dark Ward? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cichard Posted March 23, 2012 Share Posted March 23, 2012 AH, thanks for the speedy replies. I should clarify. When I refer to PVE tanking, I naturally assume we're talking about damage mitigation... 'cause, lets face it, I'm not there to DPS. I'm there to hit well enough to keep mobs on me and make easy work for the healer. When I refer to the 'meh' of wither, I'm specifically referring to the damage mitigation. I actually feel that I'm taking MORE damage by trying to weave in electrocute into the mix of (wither, discharge, thrash, thrash, shock, wither, assassinate, etc). versus a pre-wither combination somewhat like: electrocute, tumult, discharge, thrash, thrash, shock, etc.... am i doin' it wrong, or is wither < the damage mitigation of spike and electrocute? woven into the rotation? Thanks in advance peeps first off you wont be able to use electricute on a boss fights and electricute has what a 1min cd. so even if you can use it its 4 seconds ofno damage once every 1 min. Or 5% less damage over 5 min fight. Wither has a Threat modifier on it as well so it helps hold threat and you take 5% less damage from everyone couple that with discharge putting a 5% chance to hit debuff you are sitting pretty well on aoe damage reduction. also you will find that Tumult will be all but usless as well because you cannot use it on Elites or Champions or bosses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astarica Posted March 23, 2012 Share Posted March 23, 2012 The hardest hitting mob that's still stunnable is probably the Proto Acklays in EV. They might live for 20 seconds before they die so stunning it with a Spike + Electrocute for 6s total negates 30% of their DPS and is a very considerable. So of course stuns can be considered a form of damage mitigation. Problem is that's pretty much the only mob in the game that hits hard and is stunnable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts