Flame Lick - You doing it wrong?

[Stonewallx39]

I'm definitely not a min/maxer, though only from the perspective that I've never maxed anything. I am kind of a nerd for efficiency though. When I started playing EQ I thought Flame lick was a joke. 1 DMG dot for 10 mana? Get out of here.

I've since come to realize that this is one of the most efficient dots in terms of DMG/mana available in the sub 30 level range. For a level 8-29 druid or 9+ ranger using this dot can increase DPS for basically no extra mana investment.

Here is my break down:
Level
1-3 Don't bother, maximum of two, two dmg ticks for a DPM of 0.4
4- Now we are getting somewhere. You get t3 ticks for 3 dmg. ticks for a DPM of 0.9. This is more efficient than burst of flame (DPM 0.71) and add an extra 0.5 DPS
5- At level 5 you gain burst of fire which as a DPM 0.75. As you are probably soloing at this point it would be beneficial to use these your both your dot and nuke as the situation dictates
6- Flame lick gets an additional tick now 4 ticks of 3 dmg. This puts your DPM at 1.2
8- 5 ticks for 1.5 DPM
10- 6 ticks for 1.8 DPM
12- 7 ticks for 2.1 DPM
14- 8 ticks for 2.4 DPM for a total of 24 damage, but now you have stinging swarm so flame lick should but put in the back of the spell book and written of as "just a phase," right?
Not so fast! By using flame lick & stinging swarm you increase your DPS by a full .5 DPS and you make your overall Dot damage more efficient.

At level 14 your get 7 ticks, of 13 dmg for a total of 91 dmg for 65 mana. A DPM of 1.4

Add in Flame lick and you get a total of 115 dmg for 75 mana for a DPM of 1.53.
Additionally you tick for 16 dmg vs 13 and increase DPS by 23%!

Conclusion: for levels 4-13 Flame lick is situational but can be used to increase dmg when soloing.
After level 14 flame lick should be used in tandem with stinging swarm/creeping crude to increase DPS and overall dot efficiency until 29 when you gain Immolate. This is basically only true when soloing, if you group the dynamic changes drastically.

Yes i realize it's 3 dmg per tick, but efficiency is efficiency. Also rangers should always be using flame lick when soloing. It's basically free dps however small.

[RDawg816]

Don't forget the huge aggro from the debuff. Most use it soloing, especially when charming.

[Pyrion]

When you compare flame lick to stinging swarm dont forget resists. Stinging swarm is basically unresistable while flame lick has the normal resist rate. And don't forget that you are casting a spell instead of medding, which may be leading to missing a tick.

I won't argue that you shouldn't use it. As you pointed out, it can still be usefull even later. Especially if you want to aggro kite. But don't overstate its usefullness.

[Jimjam]

Casting spells makes me feel like a boss.

If you are in a group you can root the mob on inc, pop a flame lick on it. This gives a big aggro lead for the tank to taunt off and ride to ensure the other dps don't out aggro him... Just hope a successful taunt lands before root fades!

[Stonewallx39]

That's definitely true about missing a med tick and the high rate of resists. There is also the issue of major aggro from the debuff.

I just love the idea of squeezing a little extra dps and efficiency out of the class.

All great points and thanks for the responses.

[Xaanka]

Casting spells makes me feel like a boss.

If you are in a group you can root the mob on inc, pop a flame lick on it. This gives a big aggro lead for the tank to taunt off and ride to ensure the other dps don't out aggro him... Just hope a successful taunt lands before root fades!

if your tank isn't 100% paying attention you will die. 1 fuckup cancels out any efficiency this strategy would net you. as a charmer/backup healer/emergency evac, which is a druid's role, you aren't really doing your job throwing out flame licks. 50+ you won't have room for it on your bar you'll already be using med time to switch in and out other spells.

[Jimjam]

Come on, the melee will have sufficient aggro at 50+ to outweigh flame lick by the time root breaks at 50+. Perhaps a better strategy for rangers by this level.

Besides which, I was under the impression the OP was talking about the early levels, not grouping pillar dragons or whatever else will 1 round a druid 50+.

[Pyrion]

Not true. Duoed with my 50 druid and a rogue and i could easily outaggro the rogue with constant flame lick spam. You *need* to spam is though, just casting it once or twice wont do the trick.

Come on, the melee will have sufficient aggro at 50+ to outweigh flame lick by the time root breaks at 50+. Perhaps a better strategy for rangers by this level.

Besides which, I was under the impression the OP was talking about the early levels, not grouping pillar dragons or whatever else will 1 round a druid 50+.

[Xaanka]

first of all as a druid, you should not be concerned with dps unless you are root rotting, which you wouldn't use flame lick for because of the DD component. fire dots aren't worth using while root rotting unless you have an outside source of clarity, until higher levels, even then it's not efficient just quicker. in a party u shouldn't even have that shit on your bar.

so to begin with, by doing this you're already wasting mana on things you don't need to be doing. if you have a free clicky dot, great, but otherwise i wouldn't use them grouping at low levels.

but in addition you're relying on melee players getting aggro on the CC targets, risking breaking CC, making your enchanter's life a nightmare if there is one. in some group compositions you could do more net harm than good by being there by flame licking shit.

you're making more work for everyone else in the party by playing like that. sure it might work in a theoretical situation where everyone in the party is compensating for your playstyle, in the right zone or whatever. but for the most part it's a bad+dumb strategy that will cause more problems than good.

also gaining the flame lick aggro can make you risk pulling aggro when snaring, which is 1 of your roles much more important than a shitty fire dot. like all i can say is play a rogue at low levels and you'll know right away how worthless that druid dot is.

[SDWV]

Doesn't flame lick check grasping roots each time it ticks? I would think this would make it cancel grasping roots faster. If you are root/rotting, that could be a problem

[Xaanka]

yep. i haven't played a druid or eq in forever but i'm pretty sure the first tick counts as DD which has an even higher chance of breaking root. regardless of if that's right or not, the dot ticks messing with root and mez's are a big reason not to cast flame lick.

>putting your party at constant risk of a wipe for 4dps

[Jimjam]

There is no dd on flame lick, so don't worry about root breaks from that! It is why root rot is such a popular tactic for druids (unlike shaman who often like to melee rot since their dots all have nuke components).

The real point here is these druids should have got a primal before sleeper awoke ;).