Flame Lick - You doing it wrong?

[Stonewallx39]

I'm definitely not a min/maxer, though only from the perspective that I've never maxed anything. I am kind of a nerd for efficiency though. When I started playing EQ I thought Flame lick was a joke. 1 DMG dot for 10 mana? Get out of here.

I've since come to realize that this is one of the most efficient dots in terms of DMG/mana available in the sub 30 level range. For a level 8-29 druid or 9+ ranger using this dot can increase DPS for basically no extra mana investment.

Here is my break down:
Level
1-3 Don't bother, maximum of two, two dmg ticks for a DPM of 0.4
4- Now we are getting somewhere. You get t3 ticks for 3 dmg. ticks for a DPM of 0.9. This is more efficient than burst of flame (DPM 0.71) and add an extra 0.5 DPS
5- At level 5 you gain burst of fire which as a DPM 0.75. As you are probably soloing at this point it would be beneficial to use these your both your dot and nuke as the situation dictates
6- Flame lick gets an additional tick now 4 ticks of 3 dmg. This puts your DPM at 1.2
8- 5 ticks for 1.5 DPM
10- 6 ticks for 1.8 DPM
12- 7 ticks for 2.1 DPM
14- 8 ticks for 2.4 DPM for a total of 24 damage, but now you have stinging swarm so flame lick should but put in the back of the spell book and written of as "just a phase," right?
Not so fast! By using flame lick & stinging swarm you increase your DPS by a full .5 DPS and you make your overall Dot damage more efficient.

At level 14 your get 7 ticks, of 13 dmg for a total of 91 dmg for 65 mana. A DPM of 1.4

Add in Flame lick and you get a total of 115 dmg for 75 mana for a DPM of 1.53.
Additionally you tick for 16 dmg vs 13 and increase DPS by 23%!

Conclusion: for levels 4-13 Flame lick is situational but can be used to increase dmg when soloing.
After level 14 flame lick should be used in tandem with stinging swarm/creeping crude to increase DPS and overall dot efficiency until 29 when you gain Immolate. This is basically only true when soloing, if you group the dynamic changes drastically.

Yes i realize it's 3 dmg per tick, but efficiency is efficiency. Also rangers should always be using flame lick when soloing. It's basically free dps however small.