Newcomers to World of Warcraft wouldn’t be blamed for not knowing what DoT is. For a game stooped in decades of meta changes and backstory, a lot of game mechanics aren’t immediately clear to fresh faces. However, if you want to get into WoW, you’ll need to learn all about DoT when configuring your attacks. As such, we’re here to explain what DoT is in World of Warcraft?
What Is DoT in World of Warcraft?
DoT stands for damage over time. In World of Warcraft terms, it’s used in reference to certain attacks or debuff spells that continue to deal damage after the initial hit has landed. These can be really useful ways of doing bleed damage, to hurt your enemies even if they’ve taken you out.
DoT is a common mechanic in MOBAs, so it’s no surprise to see it featured in World of Warcraft. It’s attributed to plenty of attacks and spells, which will display their individual DoT stats for your perusal. Moves with higher DoT will, unsurprisingly, cause more damage once the initial encounter is over, as a sort of long-lasting effect on your opponent.
When applied to a physical attack, DoT takes the shape of bleed damage. This is where your opponents constantly bleed HP after the fact. When applied to magic characters or spells, the chances are debuffs come into play. These include temporarily reducing an enemy’s resistance for a set amount of time. In either case they can have a strategic impact, by leaving your rivals considerably worse off, even if they’ve managed to heal up after an initial encounter.
As such, damage over time is a concept that new World of Warcraft players will no doubt become very familiar with. It’s a really useful way of seeing the long-term impacts of an attack. This can greatly help you plan your builds accordingly.