Howl 3 vs Yowl 1

[Adruger]

I have 25% Mana Preservation Focus for Howl Rank 3 vs 13% Mana Preservation Focus for Yowl Rank 1.  Extended Swarm.  Just wondering if I am better off using the highest level spell, or better with the lower spell higher chance of swarm and more mana preservation.

[kindarring2]

Not sure... I used howl rk 3 until I got Yowl rk3.... Yowl did not take long its from killing some mob (forgot) in void.

[Adruger]

Yowl rank 1 is Void F, which I have, rank 2 is Kith which I'm working on, Rank 3 is a FoS raid which I don't see in the near future for our server.

[Kanan]

Kith faction tbh is hella easy.

Yowl rk2 = 7% chance of 4 pet swarm

Howl rk3 = 9% chance of 4 pet swarm.

Check my logic on this, but really, the dps difference could be determined by taking the Howl pet's dps x 1.06 and comparing to Yowl pet's dps (2% difference x 3 add'l pets on big swarm).

I'm unsure of how the MP works precisely, but I'm assuming it is a flat %, rather than the variable that dmg foci are.  So Howl3 mana cost = 640 mana and Yowl 2 with your focus = 849 mana, a difference of 209, or in ten casts of yowl's mana, you'd get 13 casts of howl.

on the surface, howl looks marginally better, but /shrug.. how many fights are you ending up oom at 30, 40% and wishing you had more mana to blow on yowl?  (I'm getting more & more than I like in that situation, hence why I'm going back to mana regen AAs once again ;p)

[Khauruk]

They're not going to be drastically different, I don't think.  But, I'd use Yowl on higher con (raid) mobs.

Mana pres foci are like damage foci - it will average out to 1/2 of the displayed focus value...sadly.

But yeah...in general, use Yowl when you want better accuracy, and higher hits, and use Howl for the long run (for now).  Yowl 2 I'm guessing will be better overall damage per mana, however.

[Kanan]

Mana pres foci are like damage foci - it will average out to 1/2 of the displayed focus value...sadly.

thanks for clearing that up.. feh.. seriously feh.. oh well.. it's better than coupla years ago when I had none of these foci ;p

[Khauruk]

Yeah, the foci system is kinda lame.  Supposedly, they were putting in foci the last couple betas that had a floor...so you could have a focus that was 20-65% Fire vs. 0-75% Fire...they were even coded (foci code as spells), but not itemized.

[Kanan]

/shrug.. least itemization last few expansions has made things extremely easy to plan gear upgrades.. since they're all cookie cutters of the previous expansion's gear. ><