I just made it to level 57 as a shaman on Coirnav. Yet, I'm still using the level 37 poison DOT (~200 base mana) for damage due to mana issues in every decent XP group. The level 49 upgrade (~400 base mana) costs double the mana for only +50% to +60% damage. I can't afford the mana cost of the level 49 poison DOT, although I'm finally getting close, assuming Clarity buff. I suspect with Luclin mana regen and mana cost reduction AAs, I'll finally be able to use this spell. But, the level 56 upgrade (~800 base mana) doubles the mana cost again. I'm not sure how I'd even justify using that spell until much, much later in levels. I have zero urge to even scribe it if I had it. I'm averaging 8 seconds between Cann 3 cast over a 30-minute time frame to apply slow and VOTS to each mob when duoing with a box mage. That's about as fast as I regen hitpoints with 63 hitpoints regen per tick as a troll shaman. Is this typical, or is there a better way? I'm certainly getting plenty of mileage out of the level II DOT spell foci.
how often does your dot get the full benefit in a group? You are doing it correctly with regards to mana pres, use the lower level dot or nuke depending on your sustained mana regen... also, before you get the ancient canni in OOW and the canni AA in luclin... expect to canni much more than you currently do to reach max potential, they do not call it the canni dance for nothing, it is almost chain cast (not quite as you need the sitting tick), but very close. My strat in a group back then was similar to a necros, dot stack anything not mezzed and not the main assist target (assuming you aren't pulling singles), slow everything, send in your pet on main assist target when you hit it for slows. If you are only fighting singles or mezzing ... then I would not dot at all, they should not live long enough to make it worth it and you don't have the fast dots yet, look at your poison/cold nukes if anything, if they do live long enough to get full benefit from your poison dots... then your dps group members are afk or a bit lacking, or you have an odd group makeup and then maybe I would consider dotting... either way, mana should never be an issue for a shaman... do the canni dance, get good at it so its second nature, you will regen a good bit faster once you understand how to mix canni and sitting regen ticks.
Thanks for the reply! VOTS (level 37 poison DOT) needs 2-3 ticks to equate to and crush my best DDs. Getting the full 6 ticks isn't needed at all to make it worthwhile. How often do I get 3 ticks out of it? Every mob I cast it on as I cast it quite early. I definitely know how to do the Cann-dance. That was a staple of life between fights with Cann 1 and Cann 2 just to be able to afford to use the level 37 poison DOT as often as I did. Egads, I had to do that a lot. Cann-dance is actually equal to or less mana (and more headache) than chain casting Cann 3. That's good, because I cannot Cann-dance with VOTS cast as I will yank aggro from the tank almost every time. To top it off, I also attack in melee while chain casting Cann 3. It's free damage more or less since I can't sit down anyways. With Banestrike potential these days, it's quite lucrative to attack. Don't get me wrong. I think the new DOTs are rather nice. I'm okay casting the level 37 poison DOT at level 57 to get the most bang for the buck. It's just that it feels the jump from 200 mana (@ level 37) to 400 mana (@ level 49) and then to 860 mana (@level 56) is extreme. Bridging that exponential mana cost has proven exceedingly challenging. Hence, I came to get others' thoughts. Curious, for live servers, do shaman cast the level 100 version in groups rather than the level 110 version of DOTs? Is the level 110 version 40-50% less damage per mana than the level 100 version?
