In a future patch during this PTS cycle, we will be increasing the total damage of any Damage over Time abilities that were adjusted in PTS v5.2.0 by approximately 20% to reduce situations where many of the abilities felt difficult to maintain outside of nanosecond perfect rotation. This means there will be an overall reduction in damage from DoT abilities of approximately 33% compared to what is currently on the Live megaservers.

In response to much of your feedback, we have increased the standards of our Damage over Time abilities by 20% compared to the original pass in PTS v5.2.0 to better encompass the fact that there are many “dead-zones” of time where these abilities fall off before you can reapply them.

I want to start by quoting something that I think highlightsyou've missed the mark, again, on DoTs:Ignoring the fact that your percentage math makes no sense at all, I'd like to pick on this implication that thereason DoTs are underperforming is that people aren't skilled enough to have "nanosecond perfect rotations". That's hogwash. The reason that DoTs are underperforming is because"Nanosecond perfect rotations" are not the crux of the issue; that's just one small part. You're missing the point. Your DoT values are simply too low.Here's a simple demonstration. I've created a PTS character and tried to reduce variance as much as possible. 100% crit rate, no glyphs or poisons, no proc sets.: DoTs suck: On a stamblade, Rending Slashes is not worth using and I'm better off spamming Surprise Attack again: Four setups, all using the same gear (5 x Leviathan, 5 x Hunding's Rage, 2 x NMG; Divines armor w/ Stam enchants; Infused jewelry w/ Weapon Damage enchants; Precise weapons; Thief Mundus; Lavafoot food; Weapon Power pots; CP evenly distributed in Thaum/MaA except in the final test).1. Spam LA + Surprise Attack 10 times2. LA + Rending Slashes then LA + Surprise Attack 9 times3. Replace Rending Slashes with a Fighters Guild ability, repeat test #14. Optimize CP by taking it out of Thaum, repeat test #15. With the CP from test #4, test with Rending Slashes again: In the most naive possible test, using Rending Slashes does result in slightly higher DPS (~3.12%). However, using more realistic test scenarios such as replacing Rending Slashes with a skill that grants a passive stat increase and optimizing CP around Direct Damage, higher DPS is achieved by simply spamming one skill.: because it's impossible to ensure that parses are all exactly the same duration, it's important to look at the total damage done and mean damage of each cast rather than simply comparing DPS.: Your DoT values are still wrong and it's not hard to see. I don't know what the correct DoT to spammable ratio should be, but what you've got now is wrong. It is not sufficient for DoTs to bestronger than spammables; they need to be significantly stronger. Because, it's not just about "nanosecond perfect rotations". You also have to consider opportunity costs: I can simply slot some skill that grants a passive increase (Fighters Guild, Mages Guild, Animal Companions, Assassination, Grave Lord, etc), I can better optimize CP if I reduce my DoT damage, there are fights with phases where DoTs simply stop working, etc.