Spirit of Decay almost completely useless?

[limaxophobiacq]

With damage over time effects still being bugged (do we know if this will be fixed in 2.0?) and not affected by elemental damage talents, and all the good Corrode spells doing damage over time (Corrosive Siphon, Autumns Decay, Rot Skulls) is there any reason to take this currently?

 

I guess if you REALLY want noxious burst and necrotic lance to do an extra 6-7 damage?

[Nobear]

With damage over time effects still being bugged (do we know if this will be fixed in 2.0?) and not affected by elemental damage talents, and all the good Corrode spells doing damage over time (Corrosive Siphon, Autumns Decay, Rot Skulls) is there any reason to take this currently?

 

I guess if you REALLY want noxious burst and necrotic lance to do an extra 6-7 damage?

 

Can you link something about DoT spells being bugged and not affected by elemental damage talents? I'm not aware of this, if it's true.

 

That said, even operating under the assumption that DoT spells would work as intended, Spirit of Decay was the one elemental talent I did NOT take for my druid. His most common spells are Tanglefoot and Nature's Mark (debuffs, no damage), then the level 1 shock and fire spells, then the level 2 frost and fire spells. And for hard fights, Relentless Storm as well. I like those spells better than any of the corrode ones, whether they work as intended or not.

[limaxophobiacq]

Don't remember where I originally saw it but have tested myself casting Autumn Decay on poor Aloth and with 19 might 17 int on hit damage over time is always 70.5 with or without spirit of decay, both in combat log and when looking at his character sheet and seeing how much health he's lost.

 

Autumns Decay would push 100 from initial damage + DoT in a cone as long as Fan of Flames if Spirit of Decay actually applied (though 90% instead of 120% but that is sometimes even beneficial) over 8-ish seconds vs Reflex +10, which is exceptional damage for a level 2 spell, Rot Skulls are probably the best 'weapon' in the game (which as a 6th-level weapon-summoning they probably should be).

 

Relentless storm I feel is cast more for the stun than the damage since the damage is quite low and probably eaten by DR, returning storm does enough to punch through DR but takes to long to cast to be worth it in a serious fight once you have access to higher level spells.

 

Personally I'd say druid should pretty much almost always take fire damage buff just because sunbeam is so crazy good for 1st level, and personally I'd take corrode if it actually worked.

 

Here's a bug report fo Autumns Decay specifically: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/79960-105-multiple-bugs-with-autumn-decay-druid-spell/ from 1.05 but it seems to apply to all DoT.

 

Here's an even older one from beta about DoT in general: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/71355-480-some-damage-over-time-spells-still-have-problems/

 

So it seems like it's an issue they're having problems fixing, though now it does seem to match description, just not affected by elemental talents.

Edited August 5, 2015 by limaxophobiacq

[Nobear]

Thank you very much for the info!

 

And yes, I guess Relentless Storm's stun is more useful than its damage. I didn't start using Hiravias in my party until level 11, and I realized how good druids were and how he'd probably make a better contribution to my party than Kana, since most of my ranged were now spamming spells more than auto attacking, so the Sure-Handed Ila chant was seeing less use.

 

So TBH I did not even give all the higher-level druid spells a good look until I fought Thaos, where I used Relentless Storm for the first and only time so far lol. What I really liked about it is its large range and the fact it keeps going while Hiravias can do other things, so I find it to be a nice boost given that. With the lightning talent, it might not do a lot of damage still, but against enemies who don't have too high DR, I figured at least a little would get through, though I can't say I double-checked this.

 

That said, I still like the lightning talent for the level 1 lightning spell that has a decent area and does NOT do friendly fire, which makes it a nuke I can very easily spam to decent effect in a wide range of situations. And yes, I do also use Sunbeam and love it, and Blizzard to further debuff, and Burst of Summer Flame to spam if enough enemies are close enough together to make it more effective than the level 1 lightning one.

Edited August 5, 2015 by Nobear

[limaxophobiacq]

In related news, reading the description of Autumn's Decay creating 'a cone of putrefaction' lead to me google-image searching putrefaction as it was not an english word I was familiar with.

 

I wouldn't recommend it.

 

Between that and Infestation of Maggots I guess druids can really be kind of gross.

[lameover]

I've tested it a minute ago.

+% damage talents still doesn't apply to DoTs.