Ok after some extensive testing with many SK's and a couple groups, we're going to move forward with this.
The results looked pretty good. For the solo trials, we had three primary tests, on a test mob with no resistances. In no particular order these tests were:
- Use your typical 'serious' hate cycle
- Use a 2 or 3 (depending on latency) terror cycle exclusively
- Go all out without Terrors
1 was a mixture of terrors, taps, and anything else the individual SK thought was good hate. 2 and 3 are self explanatory. In all 3 cases the SK was allowed to melee, bash, and stance to their hearts content. In nearly all cases 1 > 2 >> 3. These results were expected.
We then took the SK's on test to try out the new terror of Kaezul.
Terror of Kaezul
Cast time: 1 sec
Recast: 0 sec
Mana cost: 165
Effect: 675 initial hate followed by 500 per tick
Duration: 3 ticks
Terrors do
NOT block one another
The SK's were told to use only Terror of Kaezul, and only cast it twice throughout the fight, depending on taps, spears, and all the rest for the rest of the aggro. The SK used the same buffs, same gear, LESS tomes, and in at least 1 case LESS AA's (test server can be a bit out of date).
The result? Well by just the numbers SK's averaged 20% more hate via this method and the mana costs were negligibly different (favoring the old method when it was measurable). But What does that really mean?
The test mob had low resists and was level 65. Assuming the mob isn't immune to your taps/spears/resources etc, 20% resist seems very high, but possible resist rate. I believe it's a safe bet that once resists and bad luck are taken into account, at the current values, the SK's will see a small aggro gain using an 'optimal' hate cycle. Furthermore they will see a substantial gain in DPS and hp returned by not depending on their terrors.
In the case that the mob is immune to your taps, etc, you'll be able to maintain hate levels by cycling between Kaezul and Marlow as before, but with less spam. This is not optimal. If you decide to continue to spam terrors with this change in, you'll do around 2% more hate, for 3x the mana cost, and of course no further utility. (That's the reason for not blocking terrors, btw. I feel if an SK REALLY wants to be bad, I shouldn't baby sit them into being good. Learn an optimal cycle!).
This change, unless some quality arguments against it occurs, is due to go live in the next day or two.
[Nathasar won the high score btw. But he cheated and used a 2h weapon. Minlas was second, but cheated by having spell casting subtly already started.]
Blah forgot the group results.
While less hard data and controls were possible for the groups followed, suffice it to say the SK didn't lose aggro any more frequently. Further observations will have to be saved for field testing though.