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Quote from Sythrasz

And correct me if I'm wrong here, but I don't believe LS has an 8 second duration... under the impression that it's 3 seconds. if that's the case think about how many GCD's you've gained...

According to the unofficial patch 15 changes LS has an 8 second duration now :). We'll see. It seems blizzard is trying out the extremes of nerfs / buffs in order to see what works.
*edit: another interesting change is that the jump rune now has a 100% chance to allow LS to jump to 2 targets.

Probably having problems with constant reapplication... well - we'll see if that makes it in. I'd be happy with that.

Anyways, we kind of went off on a tangent there. Overall the point is, the WD isn't weak - at worst it presently lacks good burst but it makes up for it in other ways. Not everyone should frontload their damage, DoT classes FTW.

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Quote from Sythrasz

I'd guess the duration rune simply adds two additional ticks of damage, not reduce the overall damage per tick. Doesn't make much sense otherwise.

Not necessarily, it could be an increase to duration only (lowering per tick damage) in order to allow you to use those extra 2 seconds to cast other spells. If you use the skill as suplemental damage then it *should* net you an overall dps gain.

I would hope however that it also increases the damage proportionately as a 2 second increase length (solely for the purpose of allowing more cast time of other spells) feels somewhat lackluster...

That makes no sense whatsoever. You didnt gain 2 seconds to cast additional spells.

It obviously will increase the dmg based proportionally to the previous dmg.

It makes perfect sense... in fact it's a mechanic they used for DoT's in WoW so I wouldn't put it past them to use it here. There's a massive thread on shadowpriest.com talking about elongated DoT's with no extra ticks and their resulting return on overall DPS.

This isn't WoW. In WoW, you are refreshing the DoTs, because the boss is going to be alive for like 5 mins. And regardless, you are still not gaining 2 seconds.

Ok, in a 40 second window you could cast standard locust swarm 5 times for 100% uptime. You would cast it 4 times with the extended duration. That means you gained only a SINGLE GCD, which is less than on second, in a 40 second window!

So no, you are not going to gain 2 seconds, and there will hardly ever be a reason to use this more than once.

Obviously we're not talking about WoW but we are talking about a similar set of mechanics so the point remains unchanged. Beyond that, arguing that we won't be attacking any given target for 5 minutes solid is really just flatout wrong - in appropriate gear against appropriate level mobs, there will be (as noted in the gameplay footage against the siegebreaker) at least one (likely MANY more) mobs where prolonged fights will take place. Putting all that aside, if you're looking for a single target DoT then you're really better off with Haunt anyways as it's a long duration DoT. Locust swarm looks like it was designed as a short term DoT for use as something more spammable in big crowds - and THAT is where a short duration increase would shine, even if it doesn't increase the overall damage of each cast, it allows more time for the affected mob to die and thereby allowing more jumps of LS without the need to reapply over and over again. Using LS against MANY mobs would only amplify the utility of an extended length rune, not decrease it.

And correct me if I'm wrong here, but I don't believe LS has an 8 second duration... under the impression that it's 3 seconds. if that's the case think about how many GCD's you've gained...

Quote from Sythrasz

Yeah could've been wishful thinking on my part Picturing a cow level-esque scenario the locusts could swarm a ton of cows, softening them up for your choice of finishing move. The video we have from blizz on locust swarm suggests it jumps every second to nearby enemies. Now add that mechanic to the equation they're discussing in regards to sw: p we have ourselves a dps gain.

Is it every second or each time a mob dies? In either case the extra 1 second or 2 seconds (whatever the rune actually is) gives it more time to jump and less need to reapply. Win/Win IMO - but will it be better than other Runes - I imagine that depends on how you use it...

We shall see.

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Quote from Sythrasz

I'd guess the duration rune simply adds two additional ticks of damage, not reduce the overall damage per tick. Doesn't make much sense otherwise.

Not necessarily, it could be an increase to duration only (lowering per tick damage) in order to allow you to use those extra 2 seconds to cast other spells. If you use the skill as suplemental damage then it *should* net you an overall dps gain.

I would hope however that it also increases the damage proportionately as a 2 second increase length (solely for the purpose of allowing more cast time of other spells) feels somewhat lackluster...

That makes no sense whatsoever. You didnt gain 2 seconds to cast additional spells.

It obviously will increase the dmg based proportionally to the previous dmg.

It makes perfect sense... in fact it's a mechanic they used for DoT's in WoW so I wouldn't put it past them to use it here. There's a massive thread on shadowpriest.com talking about elongated DoT's with no extra ticks and their resulting return on overall DPS.

Every class is going to have benefits and drawbacks, the best way to address this is to diversify your group composition in order to maximize utilities... I would think this is common sense. If you went with a group full of characters fixated on doing only massive damage, then you're going to fail.

"If you overspecialize, you breed in weakness." - Major Motoko Kusanagi (Yep, that's right - a little Ghost in the Shell reference)

That being said, I don't think that any one class is going to lack the power to efficiently produce damage or crowd control where needed but some will clearly be better at certain aspects than others - which is a good thing right? If we wanted all the classes to produce identical results, why not just do away with 4 of them and keep only 1?

The WD is not presently weak he just lacks some of the burst of the other classes - I don't see this as being "underpowered" at all.

Quote from Sythrasz

I'd guess the duration rune simply adds two additional ticks of damage, not reduce the overall damage per tick. Doesn't make much sense otherwise.

Not necessarily, it could be an increase to duration only (lowering per tick damage) in order to allow you to use those extra 2 seconds to cast other spells. If you use the skill as suplemental damage then it *should* net you an overall dps gain.

I would hope however that it also increases the damage proportionately as a 2 second increase length (solely for the purpose of allowing more cast time of other spells) feels somewhat lackluster...

There's no doubt in my mind that all the tuning we see end centered around end-game, it'd be stupid to base it otherwise.

I'm just saying - they're not even truly underpowered at the moment so even the adjustments to what we'll see in beta content don't have me all that worried in the short-term.

I don't really feel that the WD's have been that weak in the beta...

They don't have the same bursting capability of the Barb or Wizard but they're sustained DPS capability is on par with both (if not slightly higher). With the buff to haunt and firebats, along with the "nerfing" of other skills, I'd say all-in-all this was more of a side-step for the WD.

I'm excited to give it (this new patch) a go - I liked previous iterations of haunt and with the damage re-increase, I'm excited to see what it can do.