Strategic Uses for Damage over time

Hi guys...

I"m an Ele/N, a combo that doens't get much attention, and I'm trying to find unique uses for this char. What I'm discovering is that he has marvelous Damage over time spells. Lots of necro stuff has good DoT, and while the burny things from the fire stable (inferno, incendiary bonds, searing heat, etc.) don't last very long, they cause enormous health degen. So you can stack health degen curses, and then cause burning to give them at i'de say 8-12 arrows, probably more.

This soudns prety significant, but it just doens't seem to be very effective. A good healer can overcome this easily. Do you guys think there is strategic value in a character that causes massive health degen? Under what circumstances do you think this char would shine?

First of all, the all degen cap at 10 max.

Also, You should take a close look to the skills listing here : http://www.guildwarsguru.com/skill.php

I'm sure you can find something that would be usefull, else i'll give you some help ( can't now )

Also Tell me if it's for PvP or PvM

Death wearer, thanks for responding. I know what all the skills do. I'm just noticing that between Necro and Ele stuff, there can be a lot of degen going on. Degen doesn't seem as useful as insta- damage spike spells.

I was just curious about some of the more postive strategic elements of DoT in both PvP and PvM, as i try to do both.

Also, does burning stack? For example, if I hit a guy immolate, incendiary bonds and searing heat on a character, will they take 3x burning dmg? Or is it better to wait for one to wear off before casting the next?

First, to your question of does burning stack, the answer is no.

I only really play PvE, so take my advice with that in mind. I've found that on low armor enemies spike damage always seems better than health degen. However, when you start dealing with high armor enemies health degen becomes far more powerful. Additionally, if you can spread health degen among multiple enemies (as with many of the necro's skills) and stack these AoE health degens, it becomes extremely useful. While I can see a good monk in PvP stopping a lot of health degen, the fact of the matter is that most PvE enemies can't or don't do it. The big exception are necros with Plague Touch or Plague Sending (as can easily be found in the desert).

Degen is useful at times, since it's usually a lot more energy efficient than straight up damage. Also, Hex DoTs can be useful to cover up more important Hexes. A guildie of mine has a build that puts a single enemy at a constant -10 health degen for about 15-20 seconds, in addition to doing high damage. It kills much quicker than a build that uses direct damage instead of DoTs.

Also, there are certain Monk skills, like Reversal of Fortune, Protective Spirit, and Shielding Hands, that do very well against direct damage, but badly against DoTs.

I would balance it out. Focusing only on DoTs will help at times, but if you find a monk with regen and protect spells, they'll render you useless. The same rules apply as they do for all builds: Have a backup plan and alternate damage sources. I would take a few health degens, and combine that with a few other spike damage or other skills. Look at the skill page, and see what skills would compliment each other. Also, find a skill that seems to fit well, and experiment with it. If you're focusing on both pvp and pve, your skills setups will generally change.

eventhough the max degen is capped at 10, it will still be useful to get it beyond 10 as it will cancel out the healing breeze cast by the monks. let's say you have stacked -17 degen on a foe, and a monk cast a healing breeze with +8 degen, that foe will still experience -9 degen.