Damage Over TimeFollow

Which DOT are worth the cast?

I'm actually hesitant to cast most DOT spells because the time it takes to cast them are usually best spent casting other spells.
From some testing, I saw that Thunder 1 was about equivalent to 1 cast of Fire 1.
The potency and length of time of each type of DOT spell varies from eachother.
Is it worth using a cross class ability slot to fill them in with DOT spells?
Other than utility, like Aero's instant cast to mark targets for classes that don't have a range attack yet,
I'm not sure which spells are effective.
The new class ACN's main way of dealing damage is through DOT spells as well.
I do know that it's not a good idea to cast DOT spells on targets that die too fast before the spell runs it's course such as in FATES.

This is the kind of thing parsers are for. Though that does mean you're going to have to wait until early access at least before you get an answer.

It's definitely a question that needs answering.

Note that in the case of Thunder, eventually you gain a passive trait which makes Thunder always worth having on because it has a chance to proc a free instant cast of Thunder with greatly increased damage.

It is. It's kind of slow in coming out but definitely elicits a "WTH?" reaction from people.

Good to know

For ACN I opened most fights with Miasma -> Aero -> Bio

Aero and Bio are great since they are instant cast and therefore make kiting that much easier

In FATEs, as ACN i generally just Bio/Aero then switch targets, Bio/Aero, etc etc unless its a real zergfest and targets are dying too quickly...then it was mostly Ruin spam.

AFAIK, each DoT ticks each 3 seconds. So a 35 potency DoT over 18 seconds, is 6 ticks of 35 potency damage - an effective 210 potency attack for 1 GCD. Few attacks or spells boast that kinds of stand-along power, without a combo charging it.

Others have an initial component of damage, plus a DoT (e.g. Venomous Bite, Thunder). This is just a simple sum. Venomous Bite is a 100 potency attack (so normal damage), plus 35 potency DoT for 9 seconds (3 ticks of 35% normal damage) - a 205% damage attack in effect.

ACN is seemingly the only class built around DoT damage at the moment, but many classes have them. For usefulness, a simple calculation you can make it: (Total Potency) / (Resource Cost), as many effects (at low levels) are either instant, or 2.5 sec cast time, so no effect beyond GCD. THM having unlimited MP makes this calc a little irrelevant for them, but I found that (when I played one in P3) sticking a Thunder cast post-Transpose, at the start of my Umbral Ice cycle, was useful, as the DoT was more potent overall than my Blizzard I. Once MP was full, I would Transpose back, but with Astral Fire already up, Thunder (at this stage) was a DPS loss compared to Fire spam. As others have said, once you get Thundercloud, your highest Thunder spell should be up at all times.