So last night I was doing SM Denova with my guild mates for the first time since I've become active again.

 

We were doing zorn and toth and me and a sniper were standing 30m away just DPSing - we were all mumble and a red circle comes down and the sniper gets up and runs away. So I said "why don't you just entrench that?" and he's like "Why?" I go well entrench has that AOE thing that was designed so snipers wouldn't have to get up and move and lose damage since they are staionary.

 

So the next red circle happens and he entrenches and gets hit and goes straight from 100% to 5% instantly.

 

Now I will say he may have been undergeared (i don't know to be honest) but I know he did use entrench and he is marksman...so I just wanted to know.

 

If entrench does not deflect the damage from these attacks why does it exist? i was under the impression the point of that was since marksman can't move and do damage at all that you would be able to just eat boss aoes and survive...but since he was at 100% and goes to 5% in a SM denova it just seems that the ability is useless.

 

Comments?

What spec was he?

entrench has nothing to do with damage reduction-- it just keeps you from being knocked out of position

 

marksman has hunkerdown which mitigates some damage (i only use it in pvp to blunt the monkey smash) but one of the holy grail pieces of wisdom in pve is -- "see that red targeting area being planted at your feet?-- well, better **** of it..."

It's called siege bunker in in the marksman tree - it reduces ALL aoe damage by 60% while entrench is active

The idea is that if a sniper moves for a red circle as a marksman his damage is GONE - siege bunker was "suppose" to fix that...but it doesn't it seems s:

He was probably not specced for Entrench to reduce AoE damage. Even if he was, not ALL of the damage would have been mitigated and he still would have lost a chunk of health. Unless the healer is really bored and asking for people to take damage or something, he should just move regardless of spec. Edited March 1, 2013 by Pubsam

he was probably not specced for entrench to reduce aoe damage. Even if he was, not all of the damage would have been mitigated and he still would have lost a chunk of health. Unless the healer is really bored and asking for people to take damage or something, he should just move regardless of spec.

 

this, big time!!!!

One can be even full marksman spec, without having spent any points to this talent.

 

And even if they had it, just sitting on one spot with entrench would still be a bad idea, as it only reduces the damage by 60%, and there's a good chance that the same player gets circle under them 2 or 3 times.

And most importantly, your healers will not be healing very much during that phase since they need to be running away from circles too.

My slinger can keep decent dps during the circle phase by running, just drop vital shot (dot) and shoot on the run crouching when i can to pop of instant CB's (or snipes for the sniper) and followthroughs. Sure my dps dips but my healers can focus on tanks/others and thats a huge overall win for the team

 

Also the point in the fight where I pop my DC's (as its really the only time I take damage anyway) and med packs

Edited March 2, 2013 by Athena-Nike

Interesting, I've never tried to use CDs to survive ground shatter.

 

I just keep moving and use all my instant-cast damaging abilities.

 

Seems the simplest approach. That phase doesn't last very long, if you're hitting enrage there are likely other ways you can bring the overall dps of your group up that doesn't involve standing still at 60/20.

It shouldn't even reduce your damage much. Use an instant/finish your cast (depending on how far through you are), step out of the circle, go straight back into cover, continue DPSing.

 

If you're constantly moving for the whole phase... I don't know what to say really.

i dont know if is or not a bug but entrench\hunker down spec with 60% damage red. dont work, you will get full hit, try many times, SM, HM even in NiM

maybe because that is not a AOE attack, realy dont know, the only this i know is that dont work

in EC, is like when kephess pull all the ops group to him and we have to run out the circle, i use hunker down and kephess cant pull me in, but the big mob right before the tree brigde before the tanks can while using the same abilitie, makes perfect sense, a mob can do something that the final boss of the op cant

As a sniper and a healer, I would not be happy if someone tried that noise in an operation I had to heal.

 

AoE damage reduction is nice (you're taking damage even if you move out of the circles), but sitting in avoidable AoEs to get a couple extra hundred damage is a bad idea. You'll force your healers to burst heal through a phase that's designed to be light healing immediately before a swap that may require additional burst healing. Effectively, you're forcing your healers to burst longer than they should for no real benefit.

 

Ultimately, if your healers can handle it, go for it. But just don't make it a habit - pulling this nonsense with a PUG or another guild will likely get you asked to leave the group. That you suggested this to someone else without understanding the mechanics in play is almost worse.

I don't run as Marksman spec so I don't have that talent. A good portion of Snipers in Ops are Lethality.

 

Even if I did, I guarantee you it's not enough damage reduction to make it worthwhile to just stand there and take hits. Especially in that case because I'm pretty sure the red circles that are actually a spike that comes out of the ground is not considered an AOE effect. Those spikes on HM and NiM can nearly one-shot most people. I always have Shield probe going during that phase because there is a lot of other AOE damage going out in addition to the spikes and my health generally ends up at 1/3 even without getting hit.

Edited March 4, 2013 by chuixupu