Damage proc in auras, how do they REALLY work?

I'm just curious about how the damage procs work in certains powers.

As I understand in toggle powers they have a chance to fire every 10 secs or so against every target in range of the power. In a click power they have a chance to fire every time the power is clicked based on the # of villians hit as in a target AoE or straight AoE. I assume this is correct?

The reason why I'm asking about this is because I have a lvl 50 fire/kin troller with 4 damage procs slotted into hot feet. I constantly see the procs firing off.

Level 8: Hot Feet
(A) Eradication - Chance for Energy Damage: Level 30
(13) Armageddon - Chance for Fire Damage: Level 50
(15) Obliteration - Chance for Smashing Damage: Level 50
(15) Scirocco's Dervish - Chance of Damage(Lethal): Level 50
(17) Scirocco's Dervish - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance: Level 50
(27) Multi Strike - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance: Level 50


I just finished slotting out my lvl 50 spines/dark scrapper and he has 4 procs slotted into quills and 4 slotted into death shroud. I rarely see them fire off.

Level 18: Quills
(A) Eradication - Chance for Energy Damage: Level 30
(19) Impeded Swiftness - Chance of Damage(Smashing): Level 30
(19) Obliteration - Chance for Smashing Damage: Level 50
(21) Scirocco's Dervish - Chance of Damage(Lethal): Level 50
(21) Scirocco's Dervish - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance: Level 50
(23) Multi Strike - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance: Level 50

Level 2: Death Shroud
(A) Obliteration - Chance for Smashing Damage: Level 50
(3) Eradication - Chance for Energy Damage: Level 30
(3) Armageddon - Chance for Fire Damage: Level 50
(5) Scirocco's Dervish - Chance of Damage(Lethal): Level 50
(5) Scirocco's Dervish - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance: Level 50
(7) Multi Strike - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance: Level 50

The powers are slotted so that I have 42.4% Acc/Dam/End. Figuring that having double the procs I would at least see them fire off as often as in hot feet but I literally only see them fire off once or twice every few mins.

Is there something with quills or death shroud that make them inherently bad choices to slot damage procs into?

It has to do more with ATs I think.

With your controller I assume you already have them locked down when you enter range of Hot Feet, and you don't move much once you get Hot Feet on them.

With a scrapper on the other hand, you are constantly moving and repositioning for better use of Spine Burst and Throw Spines, and things are moving in and out of range of your auras on their own. (the fact that Hot Feet is a slightly larger aura might have something to do with it as well)

I don't claim to have any definite knowledge of the matter, but perhaps your target needs to stay within the aura for the full 10 seconds to be an eligible target for the proc, which happens more often in the controller's case than the scrapper's case.

Just a guess there, but it's food for thought.

Hot Feet has a 20ft range, which is gigantic. Even Blaster PBAoE nukes are only 25ft range, and most melee damage/debuff auras have a tiny 8ft range, which is just barely farther than the distance you can punch them at (7ft). Death Shroud will only catch a fraction of the enemies that Hot Feet will, and correspondingly you will see far fewer procs going off.

Also, Fire/Kin Controllers tend to do very little single target damage (not that they don't hit hard with single target attacks, they just don't use single target attacks as often). They use AoEs to roast large groups and tend to save single target attacks for bosses. That means most minions will all die at close to the same time, so Hot Feet has plenty of targets until they all drop.

Scrappers, even Spines Scrappers, have a fair amount of single target and frontal arc melee cone damage. That means you're taking out some enemies faster than others, so you tend to move from clump to clump and take each clump down in stages. Depending on when the procs fire off, there can be a lot fewer possible targets (for instance, if you just mowed down half the minions with Ripper and are turning around to finish off the rest when the 10 second mark hits).

Stryker.... I'm not sure I totally agree with you about killing at different speeds. I can kill a +3 level mob at the same speed on either my spines/dark or my fire/kin. Obviously the minions die first then the lt's then the bosses. Other than that everything being the same I'm leaning more towards the fast that the radius must be smaller on my scraps auras.

I'm gonna check out a few sources on the size of the auras to verify but that sounds like the most probable cause.

EDIT: I just checked out Red Tomax and sure enough... Death Shroud and Quills have an 8ft radius vs 20ft for Hot Feet. I think I'll rethink the damage procs in those powers after seeing that.


Thanks Laevateinn for the heads up on that.

Also of note is that damage procs have similar DPS to a straight damage IO/SO in the aura until you hit 95% damage enhancement.

I understand what you're talking about now. All things being said... How would you slot Death Shroud and Quills?

I was thinking of slotting them like this:

Level 18: Quills
(A) HamiO:Nucleolus Exposure
(19) HamiO:Nucleolus Exposure
(19) HamiO:Microfilament Exposure
(21) HamiO:Microfilament Exposure
(39) HamiO:Microfilament Exposure


Level 2: Death Shroud
(A) HamiO:Nucleolus Exposure
(3) HamiO:Nucleolus Exposure
(3) HamiO:Nucleolus Exposure
(5) Endurance Reduction IO: Level 50
(5) Endurance Reduction IO: Level 50


Any better ideas out there?

In response to the OP which would account for what you see.

Hot feet is a huge radius
Death shroud is a smaller radius
Quills is a medium radius, however it's lacking the armageddon proc, which has a higher % chance to proc.