#395 "Devouring Contagion" interaction with "Unconscious Dig Rat"

Status: Awaiting review · Area: Classes & Specs · Priest

Devouring Contagion can spread out from critters like the Unconscious Dig Rat, which can be exploited in boss fights.

Current behavior

Devouring Contagion already avoids jumping to critters, but it doesn't mind jumping off critters. This enables some very annoying and degenerate strategies where one could farm a unique, tradable "Unconscious Dig Rat", dot it with Devouring Plague (at which point it flees in a random direction) and hopefully kill it in range of a multitarget boss fight to have Devouring Plague instantly double and spread to two targets. This might be an oversight, but it introduces a very awkward, very high rng pre-pull ritual to get a significant advantage if it works out. Maybe this emergent interaction is wanted, but I think it's likely unintended.

Expected behavior

There's many ways one could change this: Dig Rats could become immune to disease. Alternatively, since Devouring Contagion already avoids jumping to critters, maybe it can just avoid jumping from critters too? One could make Devouring Contagion only jump if the dying target gave honour or experience, but i think that would destroy it's usefullness in fights with lots of small adds or summons which do not fall in that category. I am sure there's more ways to tackle this if deemed necessary.

How to reproduce

0. Have the talent "Devouring Contagion" on a priest, ideally 2/2 points for more range
1. Get an "Unconscious Dig Rat"
2. Place the "Unconscious Dig Rat" by using it, close to some AoE scenario or hypothetical multi-target boss
3. DoT it with Devouring Plague, followed up by whatever is available to kill it as fast as possible before it moves too far from the intended Plague targets
4. As it dies Devouring Plague doubles and spreads to nearby targets