The_Carrot wrote:
Just my 2 cents,
but for duo rdm+thf
2x bio 3 merits, with at least 6 dark skill merits
( no need for the torque or capped merits, hitting 212 dark skill as far as I know is the highest bio tier a rdm can get anyways, would take 251 for the next tier),
At least 3x upgrades into slow 2, ( this should get you around 36% slow on mobs when you can cap dMND)
Then finally 5 into phalanx 2 (warlock tights, duelist gloves, enhancing torque, and merciful cape gets you +42 skill +256 skill at cap = 298 so you would only really need 1 merit to get to the 300 skill threshold to drop dmg by 28 per hit on phalanx 2, ofc capping enhancing for stoneskin is still a thing last I checked.)
Using 100 damage taken every 3 seconds by a mob, (using imaginary numbers) if we apply just the rdm mitigation I mentioned here, you drop the 100 dmg every 3 seconds, down to 55~ish every 4.08 seconds. Which will carry you over twice as far with the same resources, thus making those marathon kills as a duo, more survivable in the long run (and that long run counts for alot with that stuff ^^).
This (to me) maximizes static mitigation from a rdms bag of tricks. Para is nice when it procs but it's still r.n.g. to a degree, and dia 3 can add a bit of dps, but the dots from bio 3 ticks, and it's -20% atk, to me are more valuable, when trying to do things in smaller groups. However you choose to play enjoy yourselves ^^
Personally if I were running with this general idea I'd go 5/5 bio, 1/5 slow II 4/5 phalanx.
Your math assumes that the thief is blood tanking which is far from the norm. I think it's safe to assume the thief can get out of 80% of hits the mob is directing at them via evasion, parry checks, and shadows. With any form of slow that number is going to go to 90-100% evaded. With the extra merits in Bio III it won't lapse as often which will probably be a net positive vs the 1 missing phalanx merit. You'll also feed less TP having to recast it, save more MP, and it'll be more useful in a zombie or DOT kite situation if the thf goes down.