Is Blazing Scarab really that useless?

It's reasonably useful vs Wood bosses and in some cases Metal bosses. If nothing else it generates more chi than Venomous for about the same damage. I'm not sure if it overrides a Wizard burn effect, so keep that in mind when you're with one.

Maybe at PvP for killing a barb? To make charm tick? Something all your skill are in cooldown, I dont. I have it mostly for chi and bosses, its like almost non levelled.

Literature - Harshlands wrote: »

i got it and maxed it at like lvl 50 by mistake. Used to be bummed out about the lost gold but now I make so much gold....it doesn't really matter. You will max everything later anyway. ;o

You have Herc Literature, I hate you!!!!!!! b:chuckle

i think level 3-5 is fine at around 50 to have it at, its not all that bad for pve maybe it is kinda useless for pvp aside from hitting tanks with it but i have mine at 2 right now and i only use it on metal and wood mobs or one of those increased life mob
its not a "DONT GET IT!!!" skill its more of a "balance its level as you go" skill cuz it is useful in some aspects..but i wouldn't max it early..

Tearvalerin - Sanctuary wrote: »

i have both legendary pets, hate me more, i enjoy hate

How'd you get a nix? So far I'm at 13m of my farm. b:laugh

I really like Blazing. First of all, you'll be hard-pressed to kill 3-4 mobs your level in 30 seconds solo. I've timed it and typically it takes about 15-20 seconds to kill one. Lower level stuff or those super-easy enthusiasts maybe you can do in 10 sec, but those tend to be exceptions. The quests tend to send you after mobs higher than your level.

Level 10 Venomous (attained at level 45) does wood damage equal to 100% of base magic damage + 966 for 68.8 mana.

Level 6 Blazing (attained at level 44) does wood damage equal to 100% of base magic damage, and 2316.2 fire damage over 30 sec (77.2 per sec) for 71.3 mana.
It achieves the same damage as venomous in 12.5 seconds, and better mana efficiency (damage per mana) in ~13 seconds (varies slightly with your base magic attack).

Level 10 Blazing (attained at level 64) does 100% of base magic damage + 3927 over 30 sec for 103.7 mana.
It achieves the same damage as venomous in 7.4 seconds, and better mana efficiency in ~20 seconds (varies considerably with your magic attack).

So most of the time in regular grinding, opening with a Blazing + Ironwood or maybe even Ironwood + Blazing combo is better than a Venomous + Ironwood or Ironwood + Venomous combo. Basically, if the Blazing comes close to recycling (15 sec) by the time the mob dies, you've gotten your damage and mana's worth out of it. If it recycles before the mob dies, you've almost definitely done better than Venomous.

It's really useful against increased life mobs, or in higher level FBs and TT, especially solo, where the mobs have a ton of hp and take a lot longer to die. And of course in boss fights. It usually runs its full duration, which gives close to if not the best damage per cast and damage per mana we can do.

I use it all the time with my herc against multiple targets. Have the herc bash the first target as you toss Blazing on it, then switch it to another target and start your Ironwood + Venomous combo on that target. By the time you kill the 2nd target, Blazing has done good damage (a lot better than venomous) against the 1st target.

As near as I can tell, only the DD portion seems to give aggro. That is, the DOT portion does not seem to give any aggro. There may be a bug though where if you've tossed a DOT on one target, when a second target dies the first target immediately aggros on you. I'm still trying to figure this one out, not even sure if this is how it happens, but it's happened often enough that I feel I should warn you about it.

Hmm, you're right about the + weapon damage. Hadn't noticed the "and" in there. I'll have to recalculate later. No time to do it now.

I only found use for ironwood, venomous, and lucky, because for PvE at least, I only hit max of 3 times before the thing is dead. Mostly the same for PvP, cooldown time is enough for me. I never had the extra spirit/money for skills that I wasn't going to use. Level 1 blazing

Venomeow - Sanctuary wrote: »

I only found use for ironwood, venomous, and lucky, because for PvE at least, I only hit max of 3 times before the thing is dead. Mostly the same for PvP, cooldown time is enough for me. I never had the extra spirit/money for skills that I wasn't going to use. Level 1 blazing

Would agree, unless going with an arcane build, where you end up having quite a bit of excess spirit, it usually doesn't make sense in pve. Sure, takes 7.4 seconds to do the same damage as venomous, but if you're killing in 2-3 casts of venomous (less than 7 seconds), you really aren't gaining anything.

Long story short, if you have the spare coin and spirit, it can't hurt. If you're tight on both, you can live without it. The advice to skip it is really done because it makes teaching someone how to use the class easier, and leaves them with more options later.

Otani - Dreamweaver wrote: »

yeah I was eyeing this too as so far all I have are spells that do wood damage.

The guides say it's **** but as came up in this thread, it's hard to sort out for sure whether the advice in the guides are aimed at what's useful for pvp, or what's useful for pve. Pvp seems emphasized...sometimes it's mentioned in an analysis of a skill, sometimes not.

Can't really ever trust guides for pvp since situations always change (genies), and in a game like this you kinda need to know how to play your own character right, rather than expect a handful of skills to be the sole means of doing anything (stunlock rogues in wow - b:faint). As is veno has phoenix, which almost fits with that description.

The best venos are those that find their own way of doing things, and take advantage of the versatility that the class offers.

Technically speaking, since this is a long DoT with most of the damage being fixed regardless of stats, it could even be useful when maxed to fox form builds as an opener.

Combined with extreme poison and magic defense debuffs, it can also be rather potent since the damage for the dot is calculated at the time of contact, instead of individually, so you'd be doing 32% or more extra damage per tick. Might not be worth it based on your own personal build and routine, but not exactly worthless if used right.