Horror Vs. Blood of Thule

[Recluse]

I've been enjoying this site for several weeks and I decided this may be a useful discuss for necro's entering their 60's and wondering if it's worth shelling out the 30-60k for BoT when they can get Horror for 650 (?) adventure points in Everfrost.


I just recently bought BoT on the Karana server and have spent the last couple of days running around trying them out on various mobs and these are the conclusions I have reached (all matter of opinion:).


My overall conclusion is that both spell are best for the zones of their respective expansions. In a good LDON group Horror will ast just long enough to get it's full damage in. I find that typically BoT will rarely gets it's sixth or seventh tick in (if dps is really good, not even fifth). For these types of mobs that don't have a lot of hit points Horror is the hands down choise. It's quick and hence will almost always run it's full course.


For planar mobs I'm more partial to BoT. In a good dps group in Bastion of Thunder Horror typically runs out when the mob is around 30% health (and i mean good dps grp, not ubber:). This puts me in a pickle: I don't like waiting for the mobs to run down to 20% health to toss in a dose of neuortoxin and lifetap but conversely recasting Horror is futile due to it's long casting time. By the time it lands on the mob it will only get 1 tick in at best. This is where BoT is especially handy. The extra two ticks BoT lasts will take the mob down to 20% health and do more overall damage. Through a nuke and a tap and you've just done around 5.5k worth of damage not including what your pet has done. Well done:) This also true of PoV and PoS.


Now, if you're in a planar group and don't have a nuker, things get really fun:) There's nothing better than stacking BoT and Horror on Bastion mobs and watching their hp's drop by around 5% every tick:) You've just done almost 25% of the damage to the mob and shown thr group they really didn't need that wizard or mage after all:) Be sure to feign death as soon as the second one lands though because you will get summoned:)


For the solo necro I would say having both spells in your book is a most. FPoK is the bomb but I can't deny mobs topple faster in PoV with BoT. Whidle them down to 20% then have a seat to med and enjoy watching your pet finish the job.


Another interesting thing I've noticed about BoT is that it seems to crit more often than Horror. At first I thought it may have been because the crit hit seems to be score with the weakest dot you have cast. When i stacked Horror with Imperfection, Imperfection crit'ed much more often. However upon using BoT itself I realized that it did seem to crit more often than a solo casting of Horror as well. Keep in mind I only have the first rank of critical affliction so that may be a factor. Any information on this would be much appreshiated.


So, in conclusion, is BoT worth it: A big hell yes. I like at them like the 63 and 65 pet. I use the 65 pet more often now but the rogue is still very useful for a lot of situations. Same applies to Horror and BoT. Acces what your group has or what you will be soling and go with the spell that best suites the situation. Sometimes it will be one or the other and sometimes it will be both.


Anyway, I hope this post was semi helpful:) Enjoy:)

[Jebasiz]

Horror and BoT have similar crit rates in my experience, horror is more dps...I almost always use horror and bot(and/or nightfire), mana was meant to be spent, afterall. I don't really see the "pickle" your in, it's true using bot in ldon is pretty stupid, and if your group is killing that slow you lost anyway, but...you can root rot adds, or even kite if you go back a room in MOST ldon adventures, so...if you get an add and just happen to have both those dots memmed, Embracing darkness, fpok, and bot on a mob that's rooted while your group is killing something your casted horror on and put your pet on, isn't a bad idea.

The Bastion of thunder thing....depends on resists, some giants there BoT will not land on, same for nightfire or pyro or fpok. Some resist horror well, but it WILL land some of the time on anything there. Use both in any group there, or tactics, I don't really see a problem with getting 90% of a dot duration, it's still more efficient then a nuke, and if the dot crits it's more dmg then a non-crit nuke. There's also Saryrn's Kiss for bot..which I use too.

Basically let your mana dictate what you cast and how many you stack. Alternating 2-3 dots on successive mobs for a fast pulling group isn't a bad idea if you have mana "issues". There's no rule saying you HAVE to cast the same spells on every mob for dps.

[Recluse]

Excellent point on LDoN Jeb, bad negelction on my part. If you're in a grp with no cc BoT is an excellent spell to have memmed because you will be doing off tanking.

I think a lot depends on the make up of the grp -imho if you're in a grp with a mage or wizard it's not really worth stacking dots in Bastion. I find that if I stack BoT and Horror in grp with a heavy nuker the mob will die far to fast for both dots to be effective and it's better to stick with 1 or the other (depending on resists) and neurotoxin. My mana pool is not great though -my gear is focused on hp's over int.

Now that I have the second rank of crit affliction I'm almost convinced BoT procs more. Horror really doesn't seem to crit anymore often now than it did with the first rank -very disappointing:(

[Demetrii Spiritdrinker]

Coincidence.


All DoT spells have the same chance to have a 'critical' tick. Once the CA skill is maxed, each DoT in a stack has an approx. 10% chance to critical. DoTs with a longer duration will naturally have more chances to critical. This does not mean the DoT itself has some innate bonus -- it simply means that a DoT with 8 ticks will have more chances to critical than a DoT with 6 ticks.