Brand of the Sun vs. Sacred Flame

mjonis · August 2013

So I have Brand of the Sun and Sacred Flame at 3 points each.
I'm only level 42 DC.

Based upon the tooltip for BoTs, it should do way more damage than Sacred Flame (yes,I know it's DOT, but in a game that's all action-paced, more than 2 seconds is "too long").

Yet, it seems that BoTs does like 1/2 the damage (against a rotter) vs. Sacred Flame.

Is the at will bugged? Or are the tool tips just horribly wrong?

seisem2 · August 2013

I prefer Sacred Flame. BoTs has zero healing output and I build my class around full healing. The dps is so minimal on clerics that it is worthless. The DP build up is not necessary either as you gain so much of it anyways from using your encounters.

fondlez · August 2013

mjonis wrote: »

Yet, it seems that BoTs does like 1/2 the damage (against a rotter) vs. Sacred Flame.

Is the at will bugged? Or are the tool tips just horribly wrong?

BotS is not bugged for me. Just did a quick check out in the field (so take it with a pinch of salt), but it does 7 ticks totalling the tooltip damage.

EDIT. Yes, I have both BotS and Sacred Flame at Rank 3 too.

echokazul · August 2013

I've read nothing but good things about Brand of the Sun, but for the life of me, I can't see it. Maybe it's better when you're in a group? Or maybe it's supposed to be the alternative to Astral Seal or something.

Personally, I love my Sacred Flames. I think Lance of Faith does a bit more damage, but Sacred Flames is quicker and makes it easier to dodge, as well as throwing temp health on self and allies.

diogene0 · August 2013

Sacred flame is a lot easier to use, makes deepstone blessing proc, and generates a lot of divinity power. I mostly use brand of the sun in pvp, dots are better there. Most of the times, easy to use spells are better, because you better focus on positioning your team, managing the progression through astral shield use, taking care of the wizards, and so on.

xunxan · August 2013

My main usage of BotS is when I know I will be kiting a lot. Fire and forget, and let the ticks fill AP/DP while remaining mobile.
Astral seal, then BotS whenever it is possible.
Side note, if the initial BotS hit is crit, all of the ticks will be crit also.

vverg · August 2013

BoTs generates Divine every second it does damage, by using this on more enemies gives also more Divine. It also generates AP and it's a DoT.

I use it on my build 24/7, in the Virtuos path there is a feat that gives a nice effect on BoTs (target has 1-5% less crit hit and 1-5% less damage) which is actually pretty nice. I'm using it with the Lance of Faith, first hit them with BoTs and than spamming Lances. It does nice damage with me, but than I picked the DPS path (and builded mostly for DPS). If you're a full healing Cleric than I probally would pick Sacred Flame.

dustwiper · August 2013

Does BoTs stack? It seems like I kills targets faster with Sacred Flames.

gokkens · August 2013

I most say I find it rather useless, I completed all the dungeouns in this game and I have yet to see a place where you really need mobility.

I prefer sacred and deepstone

if your running around all the time something is wrong

morsitans · August 2013

Boss fights? I need to run around all the time in boss fights because the floor is made of red.

I rarely have the luxury of standing still and waving my sacred flame anims, so that's when I use BotS.

spani4rd · August 2013

BoTs is really better, in terms of both dmg and DP generation. It takes a lot more effort though as you are constantly having to DOT up the mobs and if you keep slapping BoTs on the same mob you're not really getting any benefit. Additionally when you have a mob with bot BoTs and Astral Seal you'll be getting some passive healing in return also which is nice.
The only real reason to use Sacred Flame over BoTs is for the Temp HP, even though they're minimal, but if your using Deepstone then it's a bit more beneficial. It's also just a lot less labor intensive which appeals to a lot of people.
Personally I tend you to use BoTs for the reasons I stated, primarily the DP regen and because it allows me to have more mobility. For trash a lot of times it's not that important, although there are some stuff you want to get away from, primarily knockback effects. Since most bosses spawn so many **** ads on top of their own attacks I find the additional mobility very hands. Also, since a lot of DC spells have such terrible cast times I find it very useful for getting out of a red circle/cone after I've cast SB or HG or something like that with the super slowmo cast animation.

vorphied · August 2013

In PvE you rarely need BotS. Sacred Flame builds DP more quickly and easily while synergizing with Deepstone Blessing provided that you can stand still for a few seconds at a time.

In PvP you might consider BotS when the enemy team is focus-firing you to the extent that you can almost never stop moving long enough to complete a rotation of Sacred Flame. The DP gain does add up if you have multiple targets Branded, but is fairly minimal if you're only getting one or two with it at a time.

A nice feature of BotS combined with Astral Seal in PvP is that, provided you have the feat for it, you are constantly buffed to resist 80% of combat advantage bonus damage against you.

Brand of the Sun vs. Sacred Flame

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