Update 16 Beta 1.1 Release Notes – PRELIMINARY AND NON-FINAL - BULLROARER ONLY

[Nimrinoth]

The best way to look at +duration bonuses for a warden is in how many more gambits can be used than previously while keeping the same buffs/dots/hots that you would without the bonus.

In PvE land with no movement/cc considerations, a good warden's dps rotation without the set-bonus will be 20-21 seconds (re-applying DoTs right after they expire). A quality rotation will be able to get up the 6 best gambit DoTs in this timeframe, while an excellent one will be able to get up the 7 best dps gambits. +2 DoT pulses means a warden's rotation will extend to 28-29 seconds, and on average allow for 3 more gambits to be used. There aren't 3 more amazing dps skills in a warden's gambit arsenal anymore, so it would be an exaggeration to say their dps would be 40% better, but 15-20% would be more than reasonable. The loss in dps due to losing 2 essence slots would be maybe 5% tops, but more build dependent. Its also very much significant to note that if the warden is traited for 15s HoTs, with 28s DoTs they would be able to forgo this 15-20% dps bonus, and be able to add in roughly 45% of their peak heals-per-second output (wardens have 4 HoT gambits, on a 15s duration, 3 out of 4 is worth 80-85% of the total hps output, 15s of HoT uptime out of 29s gives a rough 45% mark)

For HoTs, +2 pulses only buys a warden an extra 6 seconds, off a base duration of 15s for HoT pulses, which most wardens with all their trait points will be using. This is a slightly more complex bonus to fully illustrate, since there are only 4 HoT gambits, which there are already spare time to keep up plus additional gambits in the 15s max healing window. Generally speaking, this current 15s window would allow a warden to use all 4 HoT gambits for max heals per second, plus another gambit of their choice (if they are also trying to dps, SoV would be the prime choice). Adding 2 HoT pulses opens up time for 2 additional gambits, and if we stick to the HPS+DPS paradigm, this means time for say, piercing strike and surety of death all while HPS remains unchanged. So in a HPS+DPS scenario, this set-bonus allows a warden to Maintain their previous peak HPS output (not counting morale taps here, which are entirely dependent on # of foes you face), while providing a roughly 175% boost to their dps.

Where things get extra sticky is when you consider the possibilities of running both the +2 HoTs and +2 DoTs. Rather than get into all the possibilities, lets just go with the most abominable options. A warden running both sets would be able to maintain 100% of their dps output from no set-bonuses (which in u15 roughly ties them with a fire RK as the top single target dps class in the game, maybe slight warden dps advantage here), while also maintaining around 62% of their peak hps output. Conversely, the warden would maintain 100% of their peak hps output, while maintaining 72% of their peak, non-setbonus dps.


TL;DR
DPS Set gives 15-20% dps bonus or equal to nonbonus dps and 45% of peak hps
HoT set gives no additional healing value, but +175% dps bonus
Both sets can give either equal non-bonus dps and 62% peak hps, OR equal peak HPS and 72% of non-bonus DPS

I was quite literally just about to say the exact same thing. Beat me to it.

[infinitewhimsy]

A good rotation...an excellent rotation, what these sets really do is increase the room for error. It'd be pretty much impossible I imagine to not maintain your dots with +4 pulses.