Drones of doom 287 mana. Creeping Crud 167 mana Stinging Swarm 71 mana Now I know at higher levels that the druid revamp was cool. However; at lower levels the cost is just insane. 287 is 1/3 of my mana pool. If I twinked out my toon great, but starting at low level it's just too much. Either druids need more mana, more mana regin, a way to get mana, or lower the dots to resonable mana cost. Before we could stack them and choose how much mana to spend while stacking. Now we have no choice we can't stack them and the mana cost are way too much.
In the last couple years I've leveled a Druid on both TLP and Live. The first was on TLP, and believe me, I kinda felt the same way you feel. The mana cost is pretty steep in normal settings [meaning you might not always even get the 8 ticks worth of damage] with a mana pool. But for the Druid on Live, that was not even remotely the case. I threw out the highest one on practically every mob with no regard for mana efficiency whatsoever - even if just adding damage for 2-3 ticks. The spells have to be balanced for both TLP and Live settings. That line of DoTs is less attractive on early TLPs with a limited mana pool, but it is not completely out of line. They are very effective 48 second DoTs if you maximize the damage potential [getting all the ticks, having focus effects like Mana Pres and Burning Affliction, etc.] So 71 mana at 10, 167 at 24, and 287 by.. 32ish? That's not awful on TLPs, and on Live it almost seems OP. TLDR; Must be balanced for both TLP and Live, and they haven't even revamped the DoTs for Necros yet.. so re-evaluating the existing revamps aren't likely to be a priority.
They have incredible resist mods that make them worth it plus they are unique in that they get very relevant clicks starting with tradeable ES vambraces. The trick is just to know when to nuke rain or dot. Most groups you can't dot until you get a free click.
Wait until you get Winged Death - thats like 470 mana! But I think the general sentiment is that the swarm dots have such a low dmg/mana ratio because they have that super nice -100 resist mod. Here's a little snippet of a spreadsheet I made with all the dots and only the higher level DDs: Druids have the ability though to root/rot like crazy - none of their dots have a DD component to break the root and you can easily get a free root clicky (assuming you were smart enough to pick Tunare): http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=5684 As others have said, there's really no reason to use dots in groups - stick with the Cold-based DDs as they are our most mana efficient.
Drones of Doom used to be level 34, 141 mana and 34DMG/tick. Drones of Doom is now level 32, 287 mana and 156 DMG/tick Yea, they doubled the mana cost. But they increased the damage by 4.5x. It’s well worth the mana cost on longer fights or when root rotting. Many mobs can be killed with a single DoT at that level. It becomes even more amazing once you get ES Vambraces, Velious Wrists or PoTime Orb clickies because those all are mana free but still have the inflated damage values. They aren’t to be used in most group content when they can’t run their full course. But in your mid 30s, even at half duration, you can load and cast level 10 Stinging Swarm for 71 mana have it deal 42/tick and dish out 210 damage over 30 seconds. Meanwhile your best Nuke is Combust which is 85 mana for 182 damage. If you’re fighting content that lives that long it’s worth it especially since the -100 MR check makes it basically unresistable. These spells are fine and fill the purpose they are supposed to fill.
Personally I like the difference, more mana + more damage, vs having to stack 3 DOTs i.e. Stinging Swarm, Creeping Crud, Drones of Doom, to get the same effective damage. This has a lot to do with my play style. I seldom root rot and often don't even bother to snare MOBs. I have to use a lot of focus items to make up for MOBs closing distance and not being able to med. Extended Range so I have enough distance between me and the MOB to cast before I get thumped, Affliction Efficiency, et al. Only time I root rot is when there is no space to run and am solo. AC is unimportant since I only get thumped when I make a mistake and with all the focus stuff in place, more then enough mana to take out anything but a higher level healer type MOB.
This is why you do not want druids as dps in your pugs unless they are charming an animal. The vast majority still insist on casting dots instead of nukes and as a result are absolutely terrible DPS in a fast killing group.
