Optimizing AoE DPS for PVE

ebriel127

I am a new level 70 with item level around 7800, so I’ve got a ways to go with gear. But I wanted to try to optimize my powers/rotation and I’m looking for advice.
I have been running Chains, Sunburst, and Daunting Light (DL). I love DL, it has been my go to boss killer. But in the Epic Dungeons the bosses just seem too mobile. I miss far too often and end up wasting a fully empowered shot.
I decided to try swapping it for Divine Glow. It is a massive drop in direct damage. But some damage that hits is better than high damage that misses, right?
Anyone have better suggestions? I don’t know how to test the numbers so maybe someone more tech savvy can advise. Thank you.

pitshade

If you run Daunting, you need to learn the mob and boss animations so as to time it properly. Learn to recognize the start of a long attack so that there is no chance of the target moving. It really helps if the tank knows how to do their job as well.

Lose sunburst if you are in a group. I wouldn't run it even solo, but that is up to you. Simply put, scattering mobs is always a DPS loss unless you are 1 shotting them and then it is irrelevant. Also, your party will hate you for using it.

clericalist

For epic dungeons you should ideally not be using daunting light, boosting the dps for the others is going to yield higher damage overall for the party, so you should not be going for a dps build is most cases. For parties that are lower geared slot in healing and (de)buffing encounters, for high geared parties you can often go for just buffing encounters. Bastion of health, divine glow, forgemasters flame is a good default set of slots to go for, but be willing to adjust appropriately for what the is best under the current circumstances.

For soloing I also go for exactly those encounters you mentioned, make sure have a gotten to 60% armour penetration (joining a guild is a good idea as most will have the armour penetration boon) or else you are squandering damage output on the harder mobs. For extra damage and divinity, use brand of the sun as one of your at wills, try to make it a habit to use this about every six second to get the most out of it. If you are a divine oracle then you obviously will need to slot terrifying insight to get the extra dps. Finally you did not mention your dailies, I am assuming you are using flame strike on mobs, and hammers on single bosses, I am also assuming you have the avatar capstone feat for your solo loadout, you probably do but I just in case I had to mention this...

ebriel127

I usually used Sunburst for the healing effect if my potions are on CD. I’ve found it beneficial during “run around like an idiot” stage of bosses like at the end of Malabog, Lostmauth, or Valindras (btw I hate Valindras just for that stage). But I can see how that would hurt my DPS.
So Chains, Daunting, and Glow and just Get Good with Daunting?

pitshade

Divine Glow has a good heal effect as well. Also, if you have good reaction time, swap in Healing Word for those emergency heals in the lightning phases. VIP helps with this, no cooldown, but isn't necessary. HWs 3 charges are more forgiving than potion CD and as long as 1 charge remains, you can swap the power as if it was not in Cooldown.

As for Daunting, it does take some practice but ultimately just learning to see good windows of opportunity. Some places it just isnt worth slotting IMO like Chult. Better to use a direct fire power. I like Forgemasters for this. Great for Lifesteal or pairing with Astral Seal.

60% RI isn't a realistic assessment IMO. Shoot for 30 in the early campaigns, 45 in Level 73 areas and 60 to 75 in Chult (as much as you can as get!)

ebriel127

Personal auras are Terrifying Insight and then I will play around with the other. Either the Holy Fervor or Hastening Light lately.

Dailies had been Flamestrike and Hammer, but I have been really disappointed with FS so I’m planning on putting in Hallowed Ground. It seems like an empowered Chains or Daunting does more damage than Flamestrike. But I could be wrong too.

I need to respec my feats/boons. Looking back I didn’t know what I was doing on those. I have Avatar but I think that’s the only thing I did right. Need to put in some power sharing and more action points. I focused on regen, defense, and power (in that order) while leveling.

ebriel127

Said Holy Fervor, meant Divine Favor. My go to was spamming chains against mobs and Daunting against bosses, so quicker empowerment was always a plus.

clericalist

I just want to emphasis again that you should separate your solo and your party play. For party play you should not be trying to boost your dps, but rather the dps of the party and increasing their survivability chances. One can really hit some big dps numbers if you start to really get geared up high, but I believe that if you have features in your class that can boost your parties chances of success you should use those above just trying to boost your own damage. I have been in some party wipeouts where I was playing a non cleric where the cleric did not provide the party any heals or clutch saves like divine armour where it would have made a difference. Even in monster parties where everyone else is 16k+ and they can do everything without any help needed, I still don't think you should be using chains or daunting light, slot in some buffs and still have something like bastion of health (which is also great to boosting AP) just in case of the occasional emergency (which I have encountered more than once in even BIS parties).

On the solo encounters, the reason I prefer flamestrike over say hallowed ground is that it provides a bit of crowd control which is at times needed for the hardest hitting solo mobs, this is the reason why I also prefer to slot sunburst for solo content, it provides a useful cc on top of its heal and damage.

putzboy78

in party i use chains to paint bear your sins, at least on the mob parts, personal choice though

As for slotting dps powers in party, it depends on the party, ex last night I ran an fbi where i was 2nd in dps but only about10% shy of 1st (thanks to the turtle killing my companion who holds all my armor pen). In those scenario's I stay slotted for dps. For 1st and 3rd boss in fbi use FF over DL, because they don't stand still at all, it's a waste of empowerment to try and hit them with DL

onlymat

ebriel127 said:

I am a new level 70 with item level around 7800, so I’ve got a ways to go with gear. But I wanted to try to optimize my powers/rotation and I’m looking for advice.

I have been running Chains, Sunburst, and Daunting Light (DL). I love DL, it has been my go to boss killer. But in the Epic Dungeons the bosses just seem too mobile. I miss far too often and end up wasting a fully empowered shot.

I decided to try swapping it for Divine Glow. It is a massive drop in direct damage. But some damage that hits is better than high damage that misses, right?

Anyone have better suggestions? I don’t know how to test the numbers so maybe someone more tech savvy can advise. Thank you.

if the Boss moves too fast then I use FF.

I play a full righteous DO DC 15.3k very high crit but Frost enchant - I want to maximixe buffs and debuffs.
recovery I get from my companion my hollowed ground is up 90%

Normally I run:
Divine glow normal - Divine glow divinity - 2 times daunting light divinity - empored break the spirit and 1 daunting light again - the damage is very high because break the spirit on the boss also helps my daunting light

I'm not a dps class so I maximize for the group. But if people are wrong specced or lower lvl I easily out DPS them - so my DPS helps the group also to be fast.

pitshade

Holy Fervor is the best class feature to slot (apart from TI of course) as you will want your Offhand artifact feature set to it, 5% more damage after a critical strike. To be honest, none of the other features are all that great for DO, buff or DPS spec.

ebriel127

What are thoughts on Break the Spirit? Not great when running solo but seems good in a group run. Or is FF just better?

arazith07

Bts has a slightly higher damage bonus to allies and lowers targets outgoing damage. FF is spamable and has a small heal around the target.

pitshade

Break the Spirit is THE standard buff encounter. The only time it won't be on your bar is basically when you are the second DC and the other is running it - then you run Forgemasters. That might be different if you need more healing and mitigation, but even so, the damage debuff may still be needed for your tank in lower geared parties.

mebengalsfan

ebriel127 said:

I am a new level 70 with item level around 7800, so I’ve got a ways to go with gear. But I wanted to try to optimize my powers/rotation and I’m looking for advice.

I have been running Chains, Sunburst, and Daunting Light (DL). I love DL, it has been my go to boss killer. But in the Epic Dungeons the bosses just seem too mobile. I miss far too often and end up wasting a fully empowered shot.

I decided to try swapping it for Divine Glow. It is a massive drop in direct damage. But some damage that hits is better than high damage that misses, right?

Anyone have better suggestions? I don’t know how to test the numbers so maybe someone more tech savvy can advise. Thank you.

If you are going full on DPS I recommend using Chains of Blaze, Daunting Light and Divine Glow.

When in Divinity I use Divine Glow followed by 2 Chains of Blaze and I use my empowered on Daunting Light.

When in groups swap out Daunting Light for Break the spirits. If you are a Divine Oracle I also swap out Chains of Blaze for Prophecy of Doom.

As for dailies I keep on my Anointed Champion build Hollow Ground and Anointed Army for solo or group play. On my Divine Oracle I run Hollow Ground and Hammer of Fate.

If you are going for a pure DPS DC build your abilities are not the only thing to consider. You have to look at your full character build. This includes stats from enchantments, Insignia, Insignia Mount Bonus, companions, etc...

I have ran with a 16K DC and he made a 14K GWF look bad. So you can do good damage on a DC it just takes more than if you played a pure DPS class.

DC at end game is all about group buffing. Your best bet is to build a buffing DC for end game content. Power, power and more power should be your focus along with high recovery. All other stats are not really needed for an end game DC.

ebriel127

I’ve been practicing as an AC/DC for pugs this weekend and getting the swing of it. For now I think I’ll use the DODC for solo/grinding zones.
I was running Illusionists last night and got put in with a very high level DODC. At the end they had more damage dealt than the rest of the party combined. So it is definitely possible.