Feldon Assassins, Rangers, Brigands, and Swashbucklers get as much as 40% of their damage through the use of poisons. However Bards (Troubadours and Dirges) cannot use them.
These poisons not only cause additional damage but also debuff the mob which is the most important factor to allow the other classes to maximize their own DPS.
Scout classes can use 3 types of poisons at one time. Poison damage can be affected by AAs. The specific numbers below are for level 72 Mastercrafted poisons.
Damage (Red) — Top the parse!
- Caustic — Inflicts 749 poison damage on target.
- Vitality Breach — Inflicts 524 poison damage on target and heals caster for 399. (Lifetap)
- Mental Breach — Drains target of 749 power and increases power of caster by 332. (Powertap)
- Hemotoxin — Inflicts 317 poison damage on target ever 4 seconds for 24 seconds (2,219 total).
Notes: Hemotoxin does more damage over time than the other 3 Red poisons do, but note that multiple Hemotoxin effects will not stack on the mob, so multiple scouts using Hemotoxin may cancel each other’s DPS. Raids should coordinate which poisons will be used by which players.
Special (Blue)
- Ignorant Bliss – Decreases threat to target (De-agro) by 1501.
- Essence of Turgur – Decreases targets attack speed by 25%.
- Fettering Poison – Slows target by 44%.
- Stupefying Poison – Stuns target.
Debuff (Purple)
- Enfeebling – Decreases Strength of target by 82. Decreases Crushing, Piercing, Ranged and Slashing ability of target by 31.
- Warding Ebb – Decreases Wisdom of target by 82. Decreases Mitigation vs all magical damage by 1051.
- Cerebral Ebb – Decreases Intelligence of target by 82. Decreases Ordination, Disruption, Subjugation and Ministration of target by 31.
- Gracelessness – Decreases Agility of target by 82. Decreases Parry, Defense and Deflection of target by 31.
Just as multiple Hemotoxin (Red) poisons will not stack on the same mob, the Special (Blue) and Debuff (Purple) poisons will not stack on the mob either. Scouts need to coordinate before the raid to make sure they are using non-conflicting poisons.
Hey Feldon, I just created a new heroic ranger and am wondering what your take is now on poisons since I know you have a ranger.
I was doing some searches and found your 2009 guide here says they can do up to 40% dps, but in 2011 you posted on the soe forums that poisons were now less than 1% dps:
forum link
Have poisons just dwindled in effectiveness over the years? Is it even something I should worry about getting/using now?
Thanks!
I really need to update my 2009 guide. It’s hopelessly out of date.
Unless they come up with some poisons that do 10k or more per hit, I don’t see them being a significant damage dealer at this point.
Ok cool, ty sir!
Hey Feldon,
I am finding that the tooltip for my hemotoxin in my inventory says it does 6k every 2.3 seconds yet when it is seen as a buff on my character it says it does approximately 50k every 2.3 seconds (this obviously accounts for potency and crit bonus).
However the parse shows up as only 6k hits of hemotoxin which equates to a very poor contribution of literally less than 1% of my dps.
I know there have been changes to poisons over the years according to a lot of old posts but the 2015 posts all say that the poisons should be either topping my parse or a close second. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Do you know what I am doing wrong as I have all the poison boosting AAs on my assassin? Is the poison nerfed again?
This whole article needs a rewrite as it is VERY old and out of date.