Incapacitate

[bham]

If I pull 2 mobs, I use it on the one Im going to kill second. The mobs DPS is reduced for twice as long that way.

I also use it for aggro when tanking and when soloing tough mobs.

When I was 62 I worked a lot of AAs in PoN, either solo or duo'd with a 58ish pally friend of mine. Casting incapitate gave a noticible improvement to downtime and kill rate compared to spending the mana on a nuke, dot or saving it for heals.

[Tastian]

Hrmmm I wasn't going to post anything as I was starting to do a bunch of tests, but I just haven't had any time latly.  Here are the results from a couple parses I was starting to do.  

Tests took place in Halls of honor.  Mobs were the valorian guardians, level 62.  Buffs were constant.  For the initial tests AC was 1346 and atk was 1655.  Max well everything lol.  In the first tests I used sha's + incap, in the second tests I just used sha's.  The samples for these parses are small and I need to go back over my logs and rip the data I wanted, but again I appologize for simply having no time latly.  8(  

VGs w/incap:
2:00:37 duration

Warder - 69.92 dps  58.7% hit rate, 69 average hit
Me - 77.76dps 51% hit rate, 71 average hit

VG 69.12 dps (that's me getting hit hehe) 308 avg hit

VGs wo/incap:
1:15:06

Warder - 66.25dps  56.8% hit rate, 68 average hit
Me - 76.51dps   51.2% hit rate, 69 average hit

VG 70.22dps (again that's me getting hit) 313 average hit


The defensive samples are small since even over an hour I only got ~800 hits in the non-incap parse.  If I can find some time I'll dig up other parses I did at other atk/ac values and post what I can find.  Don't really think I'll have time for awhile though.

[Xarilok]

Even with a smaller than hoped for sample size, it looks VERY solid.

Both, you and your warder gained ~1DPS, with you getting slighty more, likely due to the insanely high ATK of pets not getting as much of a bonus from the -AC from Incapacitate.

The VG also hit you slightly less hard, not overly so, but around what would be expected.

[Tastian]

Fight duration plays a big part in me even considering incap personally.  The guardians I can usually kill right around the time plague would wear off solo.  Mobs in a normal LDoN on the other hand die in ~30 seconds.  I'm still trying to do some more tests and at different AC/atk values as well seeing if maybe incap would make a more noticeable or less noticeable change at say 1200 or 1400 AC or 1500 or 1750 atk.  With everything else going on atm though I just don't have the time.  8(

[Rarrum]

Solo I throw it out once at the start if I'm fighting tougher stuff, and if it doesn't land, don't bother trying again.  In groups I'd never use it unless I was the tank due to agro; as tank in a group though it's nice for getting agro, especially if your concerned about possibly breaking a mez.

On raid bosses that are slowable I put it in at the start, as the shaman are all focused on slowing for a short while.  It usualy gets ovveridden within a minute, but worst case it might put me higher on the mob's agro list than a healer, should a tank die early.

[a_moss_snake_001]

Its worth using in most situations but your milage out of it really depends on the mob you are fighting. Some tough mobs have really low natural ATK and casting Incapacitate (or Cripple) on these can make BIG difference, others have such high ATK they barely notice the loss. The same goes with the AC component. Try using it on the big golems in GoD, it pretty much wrecks what little dps they have to start with.

Its something I will nearly always cast when soloing as it usually makes some difference on the fight (especially when split tanking using the pet), in groups I will use it if the mob will last a while providing I know the tank can handle the additional aggro it generates on top of slow.

Its part of my standard battle spells lineup. Also handy for pulling aggro if you need to (though tainted breath does a better job of that).

[Aneya]

I find that it helps my pet stun cleric mobs in Siren's Grotto. This might be due to the fact that mobs need to land a hit in order to proc.

My usual solo style involves Slow/incapacitate and maybe 1 dot. I find this to be a very efficient way to kill dark blues. I only start unloading dots and nukes if I get a mini named.

[Tastian]

"This might be due to the fact that mobs need to land a hit in order to proc. "

Here are some rips from a log I had open hehe...

[Sat Aug 21 18:48:01 2004] You try to hit A Valorian Guardian, but miss!
[Sat Aug 21 18:48:02 2004] Taunting attacker, Master.
[Sat Aug 21 18:48:02 2004] Tastian`s warder begins to cast a spell.
[Sat Aug 21 18:48:02 2004] A Valorian Guardian is consumed in a raging wind.
[Sat Aug 21 18:48:02 2004] Tastian`s warder tries to bite A Valorian Guardian, but misses!
[Sat Aug 21 18:48:02 2004] You hit A Valorian Guardian for 69 points of damage.

Pet started off with proc, then missed, then hit...

[Sat Aug 21 18:48:14 2004] Taunting attacker, Master.
[Sat Aug 21 18:48:14 2004] You try to hit A Valorian Guardian, but miss!
[Sat Aug 21 18:48:15 2004] You hit A Valorian Guardian for 70 points of damage.
[Sat Aug 21 18:48:15 2004] You hit A Valorian Guardian for 44 points of damage.
[Sat Aug 21 18:48:15 2004] Tastian`s warder tries to bite A Valorian Guardian, but misses!
[Sat Aug 21 18:48:15 2004] Tastian`s warder begins to cast a spell.
[Sat Aug 21 18:48:15 2004] A Valorian Guardian is consumed in a raging wind.
[Sat Aug 21 18:48:15 2004] Tastian`s warder tries to bite A Valorian Guardian, but misses!
[Sat Aug 21 18:48:15 2004] Tastian`s warder tries to bite A Valorian Guardian, but misses!
[Sat Aug 21 18:48:15 2004] Tastian`s pet hits A Valorian Guardian for 94 points of damage.
[Sat Aug 21 18:48:15 2004] You hit A Valorian Guardian for 93 points of damage.
[Sat Aug 21 18:48:16 2004] Xarobn crushes A Valorian Guardian for 35 points of damage.

In this snip it the pet missed, proc'd, missed missed and didn't land a hit at all in that attack round.  

One more...

[Sat Aug 21 18:48:45 2004] You hit A Valorian Guardian for 36 points of damage.
[Sat Aug 21 18:48:46 2004] You hit A Valorian Guardian for 43 points of damage.
[Sat Aug 21 18:48:46 2004] Tastian`s warder begins to cast a spell.
[Sat Aug 21 18:48:46 2004] A Valorian Guardian is consumed in a raging wind.
[Sat Aug 21 18:48:46 2004] Tastian`s warder tries to bite A Valorian Guardian, but misses!
[Sat Aug 21 18:48:46 2004] You hit A Valorian Guardian for 108 points of damage.
[Sat Aug 21 18:48:47 2004] You hit A Valorian Guardian for 102 points of damage.

Again we have pet proc, then miss, and that's it for the round

[Aneya]

So what that would indicate is that pets don't proc the same way as regular mobs? Arn't mobs supposed to be only able to proc on a successful hit, unless its a timed proc?

[Coprolith]

So what that would indicate is that pets don't proc the same way as regular mobs? Arn't mobs supposed to be only able to proc on a successful hit, unless its a timed proc?

Yes. Actually this has been known for quite a while. The mechanics of pets procs are exactly like us PCs and not like NPCs.

/hugs

[Eatbugs]

So what that would indicate is that pets don't proc the same way as regular mobs? Arn't mobs supposed to be only able to proc on a successful hit, unless its a timed proc?

Mobs and players can both proc on misses.  It's noticeable when fighting mob spawns that have procing weapons - for instance, I used to notice it occasionally while farming Velk's if the Frenzied Velium Stalker spawned with the Venomous Axe of the Velium Brood.

Hm, come to think of it I could probably find an instance in my logs of solo fights in GoD.