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[GUIDE] Awesome pve/pvp dps spec guide for 1.2!


Garricus

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*UPDATE 4/16/12* DPS Guide for 1.2

 

First introductions,

 

I play a Sorc named Stellvia on the pvp server Black Vulkars. I switch between healing operations and dps for pvp. I really like Sorc's, they are a very strong class.

 

I'm writing this guide to show how to play the sorc class to its fullest potential that I know how. I've messed with numerous builds in the last couple nights, doing combat logs and talking with fellow sorc guildies to also have them test them out. I will provide the best DPS build for PVE/PVP.

 

I will update my screenshots of my stats and warzone screenshots in the next few days, just wanted to get this guide out there.

 

PVP Stats:

 

PVE Stats:

 

Voidstar:

1/12/28 Build

328k damage in 1 round, would have been over 500-600k if it went to a full game.

http://i.imgur.com/kcm9O.jpg

 

Hutt Ball:

 

PvP Build:

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#201ZccMrbMbZcrcRsMkb.1

More info on it soon.

 

Madness/Lightning:

 

1/12/28

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#201oZfcM0bZcMcRsrkrc.1

 

Combat Log Parse 6min Fight:

http://www.torparse.com/a/808?q=MXw4MDh4NTM4ODM1N2E1MzkwMzYyeDE=

1158.98dps @ 6m:32s

 

Madness: 28 points

Calcify - 6% damage increase to Force Lightning, Shock, and Affliction.

Will of Sith - 6% willpower = bonus damage, heals, and crit chance.

Chain Shock - 45% chance for a second shock, doing 50% damage. Good finisher.

Disintegration - 6% crit chance to Force Lightning.

Madness - "Unlimited Powa!" No cooldown on Force Lightning.

Sith Efficacy - Reduced pushback, and needed to regen force through Force Lightning.

Death Field - Big damage aoe skill, used with Death Mark for nasty dots

Wrath - Instant Crushing Darkness and Lightning Strike.

Haunted Dreams - Instant Whirlwind, great as CC or interrupt.

Lingering Nightmares - Crushing Darkness duration increased by 2 seconds.

Force Horrors - 15% damage increase to affliction.

Deathmark - 20% damage increase to next 10 DOT ticks

Creeping Death - 30% crit damage increase to dots and Death Field.

 

These 2 points are optional, Oppressing Force is good for pvp, Corrupted Flesh is very good for pve.

 

Oppressing Force - 10 off Electrocute cooldown, handy for stunning people over fire pits.

or

Corrupted Flesh- 15% damage reduction from dots.

 

Lightning: 12 Points

Electric Induction - Force cost reduced by 9%.

Reserves - 100 extra force

Convection - 6% damage increase to Crushing Darkness.

Exsangunate - Extra 6 seconds to Affliction

Lightning Barrage - A very important talent. You can currently "double dip" this effect with Force Lightning, making the case time twice as fast x2. This is how you keep your force regen up, and do some great damage with this.

 

Corruption: 1 Point

Seeping Darkness - Extra crit

 

 

Rotation:

 

Single Target:

You open with Affliction(15% Bonus from Force Horrors + 20% Bonus from Deathfield w/Deathmark) > Cast Force Lightning until Wrath procs > Cast Deathfield w/ Deathmark on target (20% damage increase for DOTS) > Instant cast Crushing Darkness (20% damage bonus from Wrath proc + 20% Bonus from Deathfield w/Deathmark) > Force Lightning until Wrath procs > Instant cast Lightning Strike(20% damage Bonus from Wrath proc) > Rinse repeat. You can use Force Lightning, an instant Lightning Strike, or Shock to finish someone off that is close to death.

 

Multiple Targets:

Since we were nerfed with Chain Lightning, our AOE comes from Death Field and Force Storm. In pvp, when there are a bunch of enemies bunched up, I use Death Field, and throw affliction on as many of them as I can. Sometimes I use Force Storm, but I feel that dotting everyone up with affliction, gives you higher chances of getting procs from Lightning Barrage.

 

Useful Tips:

 

Extrication - can be used to pull a party member to you in Huttball, this can help with quick scoring. You can pull someone over a fire pit, or up from the bottom put area to the goal line. You can also yank someone to you to save them if they have multiple enemies beating on them.

Recklessness - is mainly used when I have my relic and adrenal(pve) / expertise adrenal(pvp) up to throw out hard hitting Death Fields and instant Crushing Darkness. This is a killer combo.

Jolt - interrupt heals and high damaging skills (ambush, grav round, etc.)

Purge - remove negative effects dots and speed reducing effects.

Force slow - cast on melee that is on you so you can kite, or people running away from you.

Electrocute, Overload, and Whirlwind - Use to interrupt skills, or gain distance from an enemy.

force speed - to run away from melee, chase down someone, or run through a fire/acid pit in Hutball.

Force Barrier - Should Always be up on you, and cast on a teammate if you can spare the force.

 

Combos:

 

Fighting Healers:

When fighting a healer you can use some powerful combos to kill them easily. It is all about interrupting their heals. Lets say you have wrath up, your rotation should look like this.

 

Affliction > Death Field > Instant Crushing Darkness > Electrocute.

 

Now you cast Electrocute right after, so they can't cleanse your dots off, they have to site there and eat the damage for 4 seconds.

 

Force Lightning (hope to get wrath) > Jolt (interrupt heal) > Death Field > Instant Crushing Darkness > Instant Whirlwind (interrupt heal) > Force Lightning + Shock

 

So hopefully you guys get the idea of the rotation to deal with healers in a 1 vs 1 fight. You want them dead shortly after you use whirlwind to interrupt a heal, because you will have Jolt up 1 more time to interrupt a heal so you can finish them off. Obviously this will not happen most the time, but wanted to give you guys an idea on how I kill healers, and use whirlwind as an interrupt while Jolt is on cooldown.

 

Electrocute + Instant Whirlwind

I use this combo a lot in hutball, especially if I have the ball, and I am running across the last fire pit to the enemies goal. Sometimes when I am running across the fire put I will see 2 enemies leaving their starting area, heading towards me. If you are quick, you can tab target 1 + Electrocute, tab target the other + Instant Whirlwind. This has bought me time to score numerous times when my sprint was down.

 

Recklessness, Power Relic, Power Adrenal, Wrath

If all 3 of these are up and off cooldown, and you have a wrath proc, a favorite combo of mine is to pop all 3 cooldowns, cast Death Field, instant cast Crushing Darkness. This can be used on a single target, or 3 targets for Death Field part, then single target for Crushing Darkness. This combo can do huge damage to someone. Your Death Field can crit for up to 4k + and your Crushing Darkness will crit for 2K+ initial and tick hard for the dot.

 

Key Bindings:

I have a Naga mouse, a very good investment for MMO's.

 

Here is my layout. I have my S key unbound from "backpeddling" or moving backwards, and it is bound to Jolt. A and D are bound to strafing instead of turning. I turn with my mouse. All Num keys are Naga mouse buttons.

 

In either spec, I can switch between my top bar 1 and 2 for heals or dps, so 1 bar is strictly heals and the other dps. It makes it very easy for me when playing healing for ops, and dps for pvp.

 

Top Bar 1 DPS:

1 - Affliction

2 - Crushing Darkness

3 - Force Lightning

4 - Lightning Strike

5 - Shock

Num 5 - Static Barrier

V - Overload

Num 1 - Electrocute

Num 6 - Death Field

Num 4 - Force Speed

Num 2 - Unbreakable Will

Num 3 - Whirlwind

 

Top Bar 2 Heal:

1 - Affliction

2 - Resurgence

3 - Innervate

4 - Dark Infusion

5 - Dark Heal

Num 5 - Static Barrier

V - Overload

Num 1 - Electrocute

Num 6 - Revivification

Num 4 - Force Speed

Num 2 - Unbreakable Will

Num 3 - Consumption

 

Bottom Bar:

Q - Rakata Medpack

E - Rakata Power Adrenal

R - Rakata Power Relic

F - Warzone Expertise Adrenal

S - Jolt

Num 7 - Force Slow

Num 9 - Purify

Num 11 - Throw Hutt Ball

 

Any other questions don't hesitate to ask me in forum pm. I try and read all the responses in this tread to reply, but if I do not reply, please send a pm instead.

 

If you use this guide, please lmk what you guys think.

Edited by Garricus
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CREEPING DEATH: Increases the damage bonus of Death Field and your DOTS by 30%.

 

So when you hit a target with Deathfield, and dot them up, your dots do 50% more damage due to Creeping Death and Death Mark.

 

That's incorrect. Creeping Death increases DOT's critical damage by 30%, not total damage.

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This is a pretty standard build that has been around since beta, it works fantastically in both pve and pvp. I suppose it was only a matter of time before someone put it in a "[GUIDE]", I'm sure it will be helpful to those looking for pvp guidance.

 

On to the build that you linked though, you have Sith Defiance at 1/2 and Chain Shock at 2/3, I'd move that point out of Defiance and into Chain Shock. 1% damage reduction is 10 points reduced for every 1000 damage, which is completely meaningless. Not that Chain Shock is the be-all-end-all mind you, but you get the idea.

 

EDIT: I'd also have Lightning Barrier 2/2 instead of 1/2, no idea why you would pass up 10% absorb on your shield. Take the point from Lightning Spire, 5 extra meters on exactly 1 spell in your rotation is nowhere near as valuable as the extra shield absorb.

 

Also Reserves > Electric Induction and that should just be common sense mathematics.

 

Here's how I run the 0/13/28 build: http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#201ZdcMMdZcrcRsMkrc.

 

The point in Electric Induction can be moved to Lightning Spire if you prefer, that's really just personal preference. It's a bit more streamlined and all around useful, I'd suggest changing the build in the OP.

Edited by spellegren
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This is a pretty standard build that has been around since beta, it works fantastically in both pve and pvp. I suppose it was only a matter of time before someone put it in a "[GUIDE]", I'm sure it will be helpful to those looking for pvp guidance.

 

On to the build that you linked though, you have Sith Defiance at 1/2 and Chain Shock at 2/3, I'd move that point out of Defiance and into Chain Shock. 1% damage reduction is 10 points reduced for every 1000 damage, which is completely meaningless. Not that Chain Shock is the be-all-end-all mind you, but you get the idea.

 

EDIT: I'd also have Lightning Barrier 2/2 instead of 1/2, no idea why you would pass up 10% absorb on your shield. Take the point from Lightning Spire, 5 extra meters on exactly 1 spell in your rotation is nowhere near as valuable as the extra shield absorb.

 

Also Reserves > Electric Induction and that should just be common sense mathematics.

 

Here's how I run the 0/13/28 build: http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#201ZdcMMdZcrcRsMkrc.

 

The point in Electric Induction can be moved to Lightning Spire if you prefer, that's really just personal preference. It's a bit more streamlined and all around useful, I'd suggest changing the build in the OP.

 

I prefer the extra range on my chain lightning from Lightning Spire, but yes that point could go into Lightning Barrier for 10% absorb.

 

However Reserves is utterly useless in this build, and is not better than Electric Induction imo. Extra 100 force when force regen is insane. I have yet to go OOM in a boss fight or pvp match, and thats with healing myself for the 75k medal. It really is personal choice, and I prefer my build and have no problems with it working.

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Does anyone know if, once you get 16 points in Madness, it's better to continue in Madness to 28 pts or switch over to Lightning in order to get Chain Lightning the fastest and then go back and finish Madness.

 

I find myself with only one ability to spend my Wrath procs (crushing darkness) and it's cooldown is causing me to waste a lot of procs.

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Does anyone know if, once you get 16 points in Madness, it's better to continue in Madness to 28 pts or switch over to Lightning in order to get Chain Lightning the fastest and then go back and finish Madness.

 

I find myself with only one ability to spend my Wrath procs (crushing darkness) and it's cooldown is causing me to waste a lot of procs.

 

You can also use the proc for lightning strike.

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Does anyone know if, once you get 16 points in Madness, it's better to continue in Madness to 28 pts or switch over to Lightning in order to get Chain Lightning the fastest and then go back and finish Madness.

 

I find myself with only one ability to spend my Wrath procs (crushing darkness) and it's cooldown is causing me to waste a lot of procs.

 

I went 16 into Madness, got Chain Lightning and Lightning Barrage, and am now working back up the Madness tree. Seems best this way, as picking up Reserves is nice (more Force = more return from Sith Efficacy), Lightning Barrier helps immensely when soloing, and Exsanguinate is nice for dealing with Elites.

Edited by KelbornX
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Going to try this build, however I agree that you should take 2/2 Lightning Barrier, and 3/3 Chain Shock.

 

I made this post when the servers were down, when I logged in I am 3/3 chain shock, but only 1/2 barrier.

 

Lightning Spire or Barrier is personal preference.

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Barrier would be better imo. It only benefits one spell while barrier is a whole 10%

 

Can't count how many times the extra range has come in handy when chasing someone down, or just having that extra reach from atop the catwalks in Hutt Ball. Like I said personal preference.

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is that how the inquisitors end-game armor looks like?

 

Looks like the bastard child of Optimus Prime and a knight...

 

pvp armor yea.. but is that really howt he end game pve armor loooks like? ugh **** armor.

 

Certainly hope ther is way to rejig it into an orange piece for looks or something, i'm a picky little bastard about my asthetics :<

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A good thing to get in the habit of doing, is when you Death Field + Deathmark, throw instant crushing darkness, then affliction, use Electrocute on them right away if they have no resolve. If their CC breaker is down, they are going to sit there taking that damage. I've finished off a few people at half health that way.
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This is a pretty standard build that has been around since beta, it works fantastically in both pve and pvp. I suppose it was only a matter of time before someone put it in a "[GUIDE]", I'm sure it will be helpful to those looking for pvp guidance.

 

On to the build that you linked though, you have Sith Defiance at 1/2 and Chain Shock at 2/3, I'd move that point out of Defiance and into Chain Shock. 1% damage reduction is 10 points reduced for every 1000 damage, which is completely meaningless. Not that Chain Shock is the be-all-end-all mind you, but you get the idea.

 

EDIT: I'd also have Lightning Barrier 2/2 instead of 1/2, no idea why you would pass up 10% absorb on your shield. Take the point from Lightning Spire, 5 extra meters on exactly 1 spell in your rotation is nowhere near as valuable as the extra shield absorb.

 

Also Reserves > Electric Induction and that should just be common sense mathematics.

 

Here's how I run the 0/13/28 build: http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#201ZdcMMdZcrcRsMkrc.

 

The point in Electric Induction can be moved to Lightning Spire if you prefer, that's really just personal preference. It's a bit more streamlined and all around useful, I'd suggest changing the build in the OP.

 

Where or when do you have time to cast shock in a madness rotation. Normally the way the rotation works, on elites you start with death field and then go to affliction followed by 3x force lightnings, throwing in Crushing Darkness with your first Wrath proc and Chain Lightning when Crushing Darkness is on cd and it procs.

 

I ask this because I have seemed to be struggling with the overall dps of this build. I have used this build since I hit 50, in several hard modes as well as on many heroic missions. The inability to have a parse and see what kind of damage you are doing can make it hard to tell, but I get the idea my damage is a bit below par. Anyone have any thoughts or is it simply a matter of fine tuning the rotation.

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Where or when do you have time to cast shock in a madness rotation. Normally the way the rotation works, on elites you start with death field and then go to affliction followed by 3x force lightnings, throwing in Crushing Darkness with your first Wrath proc and Chain Lightning when Crushing Darkness is on cd and it procs.

 

I ask this because I have seemed to be struggling with the overall dps of this build. I have used this build since I hit 50, in several hard modes as well as on many heroic missions. The inability to have a parse and see what kind of damage you are doing can make it hard to tell, but I get the idea my damage is a bit below par. Anyone have any thoughts or is it simply a matter of fine tuning the rotation.

 

Hi Canarith,

 

I can answer this question for you. It is a matter of fine tuning the rotation, but you are correct, I only use shock to finish people off. My chain shock is 3/3, I made an error on my initial guide while the server was down, I went off memory and made mistake. So for me, for pvp only I use shock to finish someone off. For pve I don't touch shock.

 

Force Lightning is your main dps skill in pve, along with your dots and instant chain lightning. A good way that I have found to test my damage against others, is the 4th boss in Eternity Vault, the one where each member has to solo their own boss.

 

Last night, we had myself, a very geared and skilled operative, geared marauder, and a geared lightning spec sorc, fight the Marauder bosses with 78k hp. I finished first, following 12 seconds after me was the operative, then the marauder, then 30seconds later the lightning spec sorc. Since we don't have damage meters, that is how I gauged the damage by. Hope this helps, its a great build.

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Hi Canarith,

 

I can answer this question for you. It is a matter of fine tuning the rotation, but you are correct, I only use shock to finish people off. My chain shock is 3/3, I made an error on my initial guide while the server was down, I went off memory and made mistake. So for me, for pvp only I use shock to finish someone off. For pve I don't touch shock.

 

Force Lightning is your main dps skill in pve, along with your dots and instant chain lightning. A good way that I have found to test my damage against others, is the 4th boss in Eternity Vault, the one where each member has to solo their own boss.

 

Last night, we had myself, a very geared and skilled operative, geared marauder, and a geared lightning spec sorc, fight the Marauder bosses with 78k hp. I finished first, following 12 seconds after me was the operative, then the marauder, then 30seconds later the lightning spec sorc. Since we don't have damage meters, that is how I gauged the damage by. Hope this helps, its a great build.

 

Yah, that fight is exactly what I was basing my assertion that my damage seems to be a bit low. While I have no truouble getting the marauder down in time, i seem to lag behind other people in the raid.

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Yah, that fight is exactly what I was basing my assertion that my damage seems to be a bit low. While I have no truouble getting the marauder down in time, i seem to lag behind other people in the raid.

 

Could be a gear issue, but if you follow the rotation I posted, you should do pretty well.

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