Mind Flay / Sear is it a Direct Hit Ability or a DOT?

Classes Priest
1

Hello Devs -

I am confused by that question. Hear me out here.

Mind Flay / Sear cannot kill totems or Psyfiend or any other “minion” objects in Arena, because they are not “direct hit” abilities. In contrast, the initial damage from SW: Pain IS a direct hit and it kills totems like Skyfury and Grounding.

So what are Mind Flay / Sear, if they are not direct hit abilities? Are they technically DOTs? When I channel them on an enemy player, I do see an additional DOT underneath their health bar. And if that’s the case, why shouldn’t this additional “DOT” buff my other DOTs on the target, benefiting from Mastery-stacking?

You, as developers, can help us define Mind Flay / Mind Sear by making one of the following changes: 1) allow Mind Flay, Mind Sear to be able to kill totems and Psyfiend - by that, you clearly define them as direct hit abilities and not DOTs, or 2) allow Mind Flay / Sear channel to buff existing DOTs damage on the target because Mind Flay / Sear are DOTs as well - by that, Mastery can actually mean something to spriest damage.

Thank you!

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2

I feel you, because sometimes its hard to tell what mindflay works on, as you’ve described.
But a few things just for info, mindflay damge and Dot damage are both “periodic damage”. Except sw:pain deals regular shadow spell damage on the initial cast, but the following ticks are periodic dmg. Also our mastery description doesnt say “all dots”, it specifcally lists the 3 spells: sw:pain, vamp touch, and devouring plague. Mind flay is a channel cast that applies a debuff with no spell type so it cant be dispelled, whereas dots are disease/magic type debuffs which are dispellable.
Some extra info :^)
Mindflay and dots scale with haste in a slightly different way. Dots duration remains the same but more haste gives you more and faster ticks. But mindflay has a set amount of ticks and haste instead reduces its total duration.
Both mindflay and dots share dot mechanics such as the pandemic mechanic which is where dots retain up to 30% of the previous cast duration, and their tick rate flows into the next cast.

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