i really don’t understand what is the point of this talent. I see it as a dps loss. It only gives 20% increase in dmg for 12 seconds every 1.5 min, + free chi consumers/cd 100% faster. Ok, i get it. It could be good if you need to burst someone down really quick, so it might have some purposes in PvP?
Lets take a look at Storm Earth and Fire: 35% dmg increase for 15 seconds, can be used 2 x per 1.5 minutes + you can take Whirling Dragon Punch or Spiritual Focus.
Whatever math i have been using i just can’t find a logic behind Serenity.
It’s like a Slice and Dice for Outlaw Rogue: it lowers your dps significantly (about 10%), but makes your rotation easier. Not sure if that’s the case with Serenity: just to get an easier rotation for a cost of dps?
I use Serenity in pvp so I don’t have to faff about when I want to burst.
But I think Serenity used to be 40% dmg increase, I was curious about the apparent dps loss behind Serenity vs SEF too.
I use it for PvP in order to get a stronger burst, and because it increases healing spells quite a bit.
Sure Whirling Dragon Punch is good too, and it adds an additional attack you can use to keep your combo mastery going, but it really depends on personal playstyle.
I like to use Serenity with Touch of Death to set up a powerful burst which completely overwhelms my opponent. I’m pretty much un-killable during my burst because Serenity also increases my self-heals. And because damage is so overwhelming it sends my opponent in defense mode.
And most importantly, it is great to rotate with Karma (our main Def spell) so it doesn’t feel like we only have Karma as a major defensive CD to heal ourselves up again.
So, Serenitiy usage is limited to PvP only? But is burst really that great? SEF also provides good burst TWICE per 1.5 minute + 35% stronger heals, while Serenity gives you 20% stronger heals only. Well, anyway, i will give it a try, a Serenity in reality might response way better then Serenity in theory
What do you mean with 35% + 20% = 55% healing? How do you get this numbers? Am i missing something?
Serenity is 20% additional dmg and healing.
Storm, Earth and Fire is 3 x 45% dmg and healing which gives 135% dmg and healing, if my math is correct, that’s 35% increase in dmg and healing. So, an attack which would hit an opponent for 1000, hits him/her for 3 x 450 instead with SEF up. I would expect exactly the same math for the healing part, but healing from SEF is very buggy in my experience: especially when out of combat my elemental spirits don’t copy my Vivify, so i don’t get any increase in healing. Is this a bug or intended?
Serenity is a complex talent. It doesn’t simplify your rotation instead it can make it more complex due to the free chi spenders and lower cds, which means during it you only need to manage energy and CD.
With proper usage you can get two FoF off and 3 RSK during serenity. With SEF you can manage 1 FoF and 2 RSK. 240% of FoF damage is greater than 135%, same for RSK.
Now SEF has two charges of course. You need to bear in mind however that when serenity ends your CD Chi Spenders are probably nearing being ready to use again, and you have maximum Chi so your dps output in the immediate period thereafter is higher than coming out of SEF. You also ideally enter SEF with max chi whereas with Serenity you can enter with half chi as your spenders don’t degrade future spends whilst it is active, so it requires less setup (cds only, not chi too)
Hard to say which comes ahead, but proper serenity usage offers far superior burst damage, and greater self healing than SEF (I’m not sure they mimic heals at all). This is particularly effective when running CaS as the Reverse Harm heal (which you can cast twice during it) jumps up to nearly 10% of your/targets maximum health per cast. I’m ensure if this damage further double dips (as in the buffed healing amount then gets the 20% dmg boost) but if it does, that’s almost 12% of max hp as dmg. I’m not quite sure how well RH works on SEF I need to test it more.
When it comes to single target however Serenity is better than WDP due to the chi it offers after the CD ends. At ieast that’s how I’d see it. I’m unsure how it works with vision of Perfection. If it does indeed proc free Serenity and additionally lower its CD this could raise the viability as all of those extra FoFs and additional chi will add up over a fight.
I love seeing how Monk can be played in so many different ways. I can tell I didn’t fully understand how Serenity vs SEF worked when it came to the buffs they gave.
I have played Serenity all my time as a Monk and haven’t really given SEF any long thoughts, and as Jinjo mentioned, I mainly focused my bursts around the free chi by getting as many FoF and RSK in as possible.
But after seeing this thread I decided to give SEF a go, and ended up with a stronger burst from what I could tell, than if I had used Serenity.
I think I will play with SEF a bit more and see how I feel about it.
Whirling Dragon Punch in my opinion should be baseline to wind walker monks, and Serenity should be what Vendetta is to rogue, because it really is a no brainer to which talent you would go for
