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Lightning / Telekinetics Set Bonuses and Tactical Items


EricMusco

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Hey folks,

 

Following our Onslaught announcement at SW Celebration we want to start diving into feedback right away. I want to use this thread to talk about Tactical Item effects and Set Bonuses for Lightning and Telekinetics Disciplines. Our goal for set bonuses is to introduce new bonuses, and potentially with even new sizes so you can mix and match. Tactical Items are a new item type that is meant to be build defining and most likely to directly impact how an ability works. For inspiration here are two completely made up Chain Lightning Examples:

  1. Chain Lightning now does all of its total damage to only one target, and no longer jumps.
  2. Chain Lightning now jumps even more and does additional damage to secondary targets.

 

That would allow you to take a standard ability and allow it to be modified to fit your playstyle. Please use this thread to brainstorm ideas and make as many recommendations as you would like! For context:

  • Tactical Items: These should modify one of your Advanced Class/Discipline abilities to work differently. The goal is for you to use the ability in situations you previously wouldn’t (more often, against specific targets, etc)
  • Set Bonuses: These should be focused on the broader “kind of tools” your class uses, but not specific abilities. Some examples are sets that center around bleeds, force damage, lightning, shields, cover, and so on.

Set bonuses, tacticals, both, let us know what you would like to see. I may not respond frequently in this thread but know that I am going to be compiling everything and sending it over to the team.

 

-eric

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I'd like something that'll boost all Inquisitors/Consulors so they aren't so squishy.

Hear, hear. My main is a lightning sorcerer and in PvP I'm the easy and quick kill target every single match I enter and my gear is excellent. I would like to be able to deal out decent damage to other players and spend much less times casting heals on myself.

 

My ideas for what the Tactical Item could do:

a) Makes Crushing Darkness instant cast. Currently I only use this ability in fights where a rotation is required such as boss fights (and I mean world bosses on Ossus and such since I do not raid) and long fights I encounter while doing general PvE stuff (Champions and strong gold elites). I want to be able to use Crushing Darkness in PvP

b) Makes Static Barrier reflect x amount of damage at attackers for x amount of seconds (but does not alter or affect the utility "Lightning Barrier" if chosen) or the cooldowns for static barrier.

c) Makes Unnatural Preservation heal to full and reflect ALL damage for x seconds BUT increases it's cooldown to 1 minute (up from 30 seconds)

d) Gives the passive Transmission could have a damage increase added e.g. also increases the critical chance of shock by x amount

e) Adds damage reduction OR a heal over time to Cloud Mind for 6-8 seconds making it useful outside OPs and Flashpoints

 

For the Set Bonus I'd like to to be able to choose a set that increases (doubles) the damage output of our burst abilities shock and lightning flash. I would choose this set because it would be beneficial for use in PvP.

 

I may add more if I think of anything else.

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Something to make Force Lightning not totally useless would be nice :) At least ability to cast it while moving.

 

Something to make Force lightning useful would be very nice. Maybe a tactical item that makes force lightning do double damage once you have 5 stacks of focal lightning.

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First of all, do not buff the survivability of Lightning Sorcerer. It is quite overpowered in PvP due to the massive damage reduction from Static Barrier (10%) and the DR stacks 3x 5%. It's even more tanky than mercs in specific situations.

 

My experience is based on a long time spent in both solo and team ranked PvP.

 

One demand I do have is for sorcerers in general: If Phasewalk cannot be used, it should not be removed from its placed position. It simply shouldn't be triggered.

The easiest example here is if you get netted. In the second you get netted you wanted to bubble. Bubble just doesn't activate.

If you phasewalk in the exact same second when you get netted or while you're netted, Phasewalk is removed from its position. The same applies to Deception Assassin Low Slash and the Juggernaut Forcepush.

Another general wish I'd have: Generally deal more damage, but decrease the damage mitigation / reduction / absorption that Lightning Sorcerers have right now (15% DR Fulgurous Fortification, 10% DR Convection, 25% DR Suppression, 15% Unnatural Vigor)

 

Suggestions - Can be applied for both Set Bonuses or Tactical Items

 

- Chain Lightning turns into a single target ability but deals X % increased damage. (My suggestion something between 50 and 100 %)

- After pulling a friendly target with Extrication, the target cannot be leapt to or pulled away from any enemies for 4 seconds

- Turns Extrication (Pulling a friendly target towards your position) into an offensive ability, pulling an enemy instead of a friendly target, such as the pull Assassin Tanks have

- After Force Barrier (3m CD) ends, Overload becomes more powerful, doubling the range enemies are knocked back as well as its damage dealt

- Thundering Blast also automatically critically hits targets affected by Crushing Darkness DoT (not only Affliction) - This will open new possibilities to burst targets with low HP where applying Affliction would end in a DPS loss, as well as new opportunities for hardswapping in PvP with Lightning Sorcerer

- Lightning Storm will grant a buff to Force Lightning: The next use of Force Lightning deals targets with less than 30% of their max. HP 100% more damage, deals all its damage at once and activates instantly, without a channel or cast time

- Convulsing Currents reworked: Shock deals 50% (up from 35%) more damage to targets affected by your Crushing Darkness

- Decrease damage dealt by Lightning Bolt, Shock and Crushing Darkness but increase damage dealt by Lightning Flash, Thundering Blast and Chain Lightning

- Using Recklessness will grant X charges of a buff to Thundering Blast, making the next Thundering Blast being activated instantly instead of casted

 

------

 

I will be adding more suggestions in the next days if I have any.

Edited by rolandps
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I posted this to the other class thread first because I am stupid and I thought that was the recently created thread. lol.

 

Note: this is mostly for Lightning Sorcerer with PVE and PVP in mind, but focused on PVE content.

Currently, sorcerer struggles in comparison to other classes with single target damage and survivability. With the addition of tactical items, new set bonuses, and a new ability at lvl 75, these problems could be easily fixed.

1. Defensive cooldowns (DCDs). Sorc has few dcds. For PVE, phase walk has relatively niche uses, mostly to position yourself better or get to the next area of the fight faster. Force barrier (god bubble) is the only other major dcd, and definately has its uses. It was proposed pre 5.0 that sorcs would be able to move while castings god bubble. This would certainly help, especially for PVP, where you could go invulnerable and reposition yourself. Another dcd that would work well would be a reflect, which many other less squishy classes already have. This should probably be a new separate ability, and could be the lvl 75 ability sorcs recieve. A reflect would significantly boost sorcs’ survivability, and would also act as a defensive counter to electro net, which is a problem for sorcerers in ranked.

2. Single target damage. Currently, sorc is the lower overall parsing class. Madness pulls slightly higher than lightning, but sorc is significantly below its rdps counterparts, merc and sniper, in single target damage over a long period of time. The idea of making chain lightning either super aoe or hit all of its damage single target is interesting. If cl’s current damage is kept the same, TB + single target spec CL would be a >100k burst (with polarity recklessness), essentialy turning it into a taunt. Sorc tank when?

Lightning could theoretically use another core ability to replace some of the lightning bolt filler, but the current class’s priority system is fine, imo. As for set bonuses, here are some suggestions:

- Chain Lightning makes your next Lightning Flash deal X bonus damage in the next X seconds

- Shock critically strikes targets affected by Affliction or;

- Shock makes your next Lightning Flash deal X bonus damage

- Chain Lightning spreads your affliction to targets it hits

- Lightning Bolt grants a charge of [Name]. At 2 charges of [Name], your next Crushing Darkness critically strikes

Force Lightning (Lightning spec) reworked. Currently, Force LIGHTNING is basically not on your quickbar.. in LIGHTNING spec. It’s not part of any rotation, but FL could be changed while in lightning spec to be usable. Since Lightning already has 2 different instant cast lighning-like abilities, making FL into an instant cast (which seems like the simplest thing to do) would just make it very monotone. A more creative solution would be to make it some kind of niche abulity. Perhaps having it apply Trauma for its duration, or some other debuff that could be useful in certain scenarios. Consuming Darkness: this ability is not used on sorcerer except for healers. This could be turned into something useful by perhaps making it grant some kind of buff, maybe for 60 minute similar to the class buffs.

Utility: utility for static barrier to only be able to barrier yourself but off GCD.

The Sorc utility that replaces saber strike (currently roots target): change to a stun. Cool idea, but nobody takes this utility, it’s useless. If it was a 4? second hard stun, it might see use. Combine 15% dr on unnatural preservation and 25% on cloud mind into same utility (perhaps 20% or 25% for both).

Gearing: GCD (global cooldown [how fast you can activate abilities on quickbar]) reduction: the lightning 5% alac bonus is good. Getting ~1550 alac (for smooth rotation with crushing darkness proc off lightning flash) instead of 1859 (like most other classes to get to 1.3s gcd) helps a lot, and allows more crit/mastery. Keep this. Any bonuses that grant alacrity should also be optimized so that they allow a GCD reduction, not just random "oh here's 1% alac bonus for 5 seconds, enjoy the tiny CDR!". For Accuracy, make it possible to get exactly 110.00 as opposed to the current 110.10 (gloves and feet enhancement 258 + acc stim) or the 109.99 thing with augments (terrible build, can miss interrupts/knockbacks).

P.S. please make Legacy Left-Side pieces

P.P.S. Sorc Tank.

P.P.P.S. Please fix this class, it hasn’t been good since 3.0.

P.P.P.P.S. Remove Electro Net.

Thank you for reading, if you for some reason did.

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I would definitely be for an ability that makes Chain Lightning be a "super AoE" as it has been called.

 

I would also, personally speaking, love something that makes CL always have zero-cast time.

 

I usually do solo content, such as dailies (I really like dailies in general, lol, I'm a bit obsessed), so something that is great AoE and/or can be cast without as much trouble would be really nice.

 

Oh! Speaking of which... UN-NERF Force Storm, please! I don't need the Slow effect back, I just want it to be a full 6-second channel and/or have the -25%-less-damage-per-tick removed. (I'd want this as a base change that all sorcerers get, not as a Tactical Item, but if the only way you all are willing to consider doing this is as a Tactical Item, that'd be more or less acceptable.)

 

Thanks :)

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Any chance that this "Tactical Item could make it so DS-Sages could use Lighting and LS-Sorcs use Telekinesis?

 

Would love a tactical that turned Forcequake into an AOE root, for example.

 

Bring CC back into the mix, it adds another dimension to combat.

 

 

PS: I know you've always hated CC, especially on Bosses, but how about having a CC Types, and CC Temporary Immunity.

 

So that if I had used a Stun CC on a Boss, once it had worn off it would be immune to Stun CC for, say 30 seconds, but could still be susceptible to a Root based CC.

 

Just a thought.

 

 

All The Best

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After giving some time and thought about the proposed tactical items and new set bonuses, I have come up with some ideas that I think would go along with what i perceive the team wants from these changes. Additionally, since it has already become a topic of discussion in this thread, as it has long been in others, I will also try to give my thoughts on the problem with Sorcerer survivability and its cooldowns.

 

Tactical Items:

 

I don't know whether those Chain Lightning/Telekinetic Wave ideas are really just random thoughts or secretly potential changes, but I actually like the concept a lot. It will entirely depend on numbers of course, but I think that that would be quite unique and add interesting changes to the play style, especially for certain endgame bosses.

 

One concept I thought of, and it is kind of a meme (and possibly impossible with how the background coding works), but it would be interesting if there was a tactical item that allowed Thundering Blast/Turbulence to be turned into a cleave. This could be done a few ways. 1) Keep it a targeted skill, and allow it to simply deal damage to everything it passes through on its way to its target. 2) The same as 1, but allow it pierce through the target, continuing to hit everything beyond it in a line. 3) Make it essentially a line skillshot. I would prefer 1 or 2 personally if this were implemented, but idk the logistics of the underlying code.

 

Another idea I had also involves Chain Lighting/Telekinetic Wave. It already refreshes Affliction/Weaken Mind on every target it hits that already has it, but what if it also applied Affliction/Weaken Mind to all the targets it hit so long as one of them already had it? :tran_cool:

 

I don't have any more tactical ideas for now. Most of the other changes I will suggest fall under, imo, set bonuses as they don't so much as change play style as make the discipline flow better.

 

 

Set Bonuses:

 

These will focus on the set bonus style that currently exists. I understand that Bioware is attempting to make multiple set bonuses for different aspects of the game. MIGHT I SUGGEST YOU USE THIS TO HELP TO ADDRESS DISCREPANCIES IN PVP AND PVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Let's start off with the current set bonus.

 

 

2-piece: Turbulence and Force Serenity or Thundering Blast and Force Leech increase damage dealt by 2% for 15 seconds. Cannot occur more than once every 30 seconds.

 

Ok, this is the one that is currently the most boring, and yet it cannot be just plain removed from the game without compensating buffs to classes, especially those that are already towards the bottom. 2% for 15 seconds every 30 seconds isnt massive, but it's something that needs looking at.

 

4-piece: Reduces cost of Lightning Bolt and Force Lightning or Telekinetic Burst and Telekinetic Throw by 2 and reduces the cooldown of Polarity Shift or Mental Alacrity by 15 seconds.

 

The first part of this set bonus is ok, and Madness/Balance may have uses for the reduction in cost for Force Lighting/Telekinetic Throw, but Lighting/Telekinetics doesn't really see much benefit out of Lightning Bolt/Telekinetic Burst cost reduction due to the overwhelming Force positive nature of the rotation. Of course this could change with set bonus and tactical items so I see no reason to dispense with it out right. The second half of this set bonus however is pivotal, and if anything from the current set bonus is to be kept it should be this. The lowered cost of Polarity Shift/Mental Alacrity is extremely important and should be kept.

 

6-piece: Increases Recklessness or Force Potency charges by 1.

 

While useful, this one really needs to go. The first problem is that it doesn't add anything interesting to the class. The second problem, is that Assassins/Shadows get this as a masterful utility.

 

 

Here is what I would suggest:

Keep in mind that I will not be including Madness/Balance aspects to this. I may post a similar thing for Madness/Balance later, but these suggestions are purely focused on Lightning.

 

 

2-piece:

 

Affliction/Weaken Mind critical hits cause your next Force Lightning/Telekinetic Throw to channel and tick twice as fast.

 

Those of us who have played the game since before 3.0 will remember that this was a passive that Lightning/Telekinetics had that was called Lightning Barrage/Psychic Projection. I have campaigned to bring this back into the game for some time now, and I think this might be a good method of doing so. My overall desire is to get Force Lightning/Telekinetic Throw back into the rotation. I would prefer this method, but inspired by Ryann (Shyroman), here is another way of doing that:

 

Force Lighting deals 100% more damage (ie double damage) while you have 5 stacks of focal lightning.

 

4-piece:

 

I would keep the current 4-piece.

 

It might not be as exciting, but I feel that it is central to how Lightning/Telekinetics plays and should be kept as it makes sense to the speed of the rotation.

 

6-piece:

 

During Polarity Shift/Mental Alacrity, Force Storm/Forcequake can be placed instead of channeled and deals 100% more damage (ie double damage). Only one Force Storm/Forcequake may be active at a time.

 

Some people may recognize this set bonus from some "leaked" information a while back. I made some changes to it. As an additional thought, if it were possible, this Force Storm/Forcequake should be unaffected by Recklessness/Force Potency to avoid the abusive problems that were present from 3.0-3.3. The damage numbers may need tweaking, but I think that a good range to look at would be 50-100%.

 

 

Additional thoughts:

 

 

While I think both specs could survive with only 2 charges of Recklessness/Force Potency, I would suggest giving Sorcerer/Sage a utility similar to the Assassin/Shadow utility in the same tier.

 

With regards to the 2-piece elimination, and this applies to all specs, a 1% across the board damage increase could solve that problem. Attach it to dps specs if that is necessary. It wouldn't be the same, but it would amount to about the same damage.

 

 

Defensive Cooldowns:

 

 

While defensive cooldowns were not specifically mentioned as being addressed by the devs at the cantina, there has been some talk about them here so I would like to address what the problems are with Sorcerer/Sage dcds.

 

The first thing I would like to say is that it isn't that Sorcerers/Sages don't have enough dcds, it is that the kinds of dcds they have do not lend them to be exceptionally useful in pvp, and in some cases pve.

 

Let's take a look at the dcds individually.

 

Static Barrier/Force Armor

 

This absorbs ~10-15k damage, had a 20s cooldown, and in Lightning/Telekinetics gives 10% damage reduction while deionized.

 

Aside from the fact that the absorb is very small amount of damage, the long cooldown adds to the lackluster nature of this ability, and 5% damage reduction is nice, but nothing amazing.

 

 

Suppression/Blockout

 

Suppression allows Cloud Mind to give 25% damage reduction for 6 seconds on a 45 second cooldown.

 

This works really well for PvE content because it can be used to mitigate an upcoming large hit. It does less well in situation where there is sustained damage or in PvP where 6 seconds is a very short time to be mitigating large amounts of damage.

 

 

Unnatural Vigor/Valorous Call

 

Unnatural Vigor/Valorous Call allows Unnatural Preservation/Force Mend to give 15% damage reduction for 6 seconds on a 25 second cooldown.

 

This has the same drawbacks as Suppression/Blockout.

 

 

Phase Walk

 

Phase Walk allows you to teleport to a previously marked location location up to 60 meters away with a 1 minute cooldown.

 

Phase Walk has a few inherent issues with it. The first is that it has to be pre-planted. This is mostly a problem in pvp, though not really a major problem. The biggest problem with Phase Walk is that if it is unable to be used (ie you are hindered from net or gore), and you do use it, it will go on cooldown. This renders it completely useless because it has to be replaced before it can be used.

 

 

Force Barrier

 

Force Barrier grants immunity to all damage, control, and negative effects while channeled for up to 8 seconds and grants a shield which increases in size based on the duration of the channel. It can be used off the gcd and while controlled (except net because reasons).

 

The first problem this ability has is that it is made useless by hinder (net or gore). This goes against what the ability says (can be used while controlled). As this is the Sorcerer's/Sage's only major dcd, having one ability completely make it unusable is very punishing.

 

The second problem is that it renders the Sorcerer/Sage immobile and unable to act. No other class has a dcd like this. In PvE, this means that you are doing no damage during this time, which no other class has to sacrifice in order to stay alive (except for concealment operative roll, but i argue that is also a problem ability). In PvP, you are still exiting Force Barrier at most likely very low health. Enduring Bastion will shield you for a time, but it doesn't last forever.

 

 

The overall point I make here is that Sorcerer/Sage does have a single dcd that lasts at least 12 seconds, something that both of the other ranged classes have. I don't think there is much reason to compare to melee classes, as there are more design differences there than between the ranged classes. Sorcerers/Sages also lack a major dcd that also allows them to still deal damage. I am not suggesting that Sorcerers/Sages be able to sit there and face tank damage, as I don't think that is healthy for the game, but I also don't believe that the current state of Sorcerer/Sage dcds is healthy either. If Sorcerers/Sages would get another dcd, I think it would be fine so long as it addresses one of these 2 problems, but I think that the current dcds could simply be adjusted to fix these problems.

 

As to Lightning/Telekinetics damage reduction. It is very useful in PvE, but due to the nature of how it is gained, it is very unlikely to constantly have 3 stacks of Fulgurous Fortification/Telekinetic Refuge up, especially while kiting.

 

Edited by DarthCognusSion
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I am going to refrain from the set bonus conversation in this thread, as it sounds like the set bonuses are heading into being used by like disciplines, and will no longer have class specific buffs on them. I mainly wanted to post some ideas that I have for the Sorc tactical items.

 

So, from my understanding, each Spec is going to have some amount of tactical items to promote diversity of play, while also updating the way that each spec feels without adding to ability bloat. So, from that understanding I think some multiple of 3 would be the way to go.

 

For example, if you had three for Lightning, you could have one that increases defensive abilities to promote survival, one that promotes DPS (or in other specs the efficacy of the role) and one that is a happy medium between those.

 

My specific examples are such:

 

1. Firstly, I wanted to look at the DPS side of the tactical slots. What I was thinking is something along the lines of this:

 

Static barrier can no longer be used on friendly targets, and now has a 25 second cooldown. You can now apply your static barrier to an enemy target. Once applied, your next direct damaging ability used on that target will "detonate" the barrier, dealing x amount of damage, and stun normal or weak enemies for 1 second.

My reasoning for this is sort of the "Glass cannon" that I've always seen the sorc as. You would sacrifice one of your stronger defensive abilities for something that could be used in the same way as explosive probe.

 

2. Secondly, I will take a look at the "Survivable" one, for people that want to live through the fight.

 

Unnatural preservation 1% more for every 2% of missing health you have, also using UP places a static barrier on you that is irrespective of the current 'Deionized' debuff.

 

This will give you an "Off-GCD" heal and static barrier, increasing survivability without sacrificing uptime.

 

3. Lastly, we will look at the "Versatile" one.

 

Increases the amount of damage absorbed by your Static Barrier by x%. Also, while "deionized" increase the damage dealt by Lightning Bolt, Thundering Blast, Chain Lightning, and Shock by x%.

 

 

My thoughts for all of these are simple: as a DPS in PVE content, I feel that Static Barrier is underutilized. Being that it costs a GCD to do, and provides only moderate protection I find myself pushing my DPS to a limit to beat enrage timers with little extra time to use defensives such as SB.

 

My argument is not that SB is or is not good currently, but that it is hard to justify the cast when boss enrage is on the line. If I was to have a favorite of the three that I have listed, it would be the "Static Barrier as an Explosive Probe" option. There is something alluring to me about being a squishy-burst-god, instead of trying to make sorcs more survivable.

Edited by kerplunkcatt
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What about something that also changes force lighting color based on your alignments if you're lightside it will look like arcann's force judgement if your neutral it'll be white if you hit the first level of darkside it turns blue until the 3rd lvl darkside purple lighting and if your full darkside red sith lighting.
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in my opinion, the actual lightning sorc doesn't really fit in the game meta.

it is no real dot and no real burst dps. so this could be a part, we could work on.

 

more dot'y lightning sorc:

there are 2 dots you are playing with. affliction and crushing darkness.

- affliction, no changes

- thundering blast, no changes

- crushing darkness now is dealing the damage within 4 seconds and grants forced darkness

- chain lightning delivers and arc of lightning up to 8 targets in range; spreads afflicition and crushing

darkness. if affliction is on the target, every hit is critically. the damage is 100% on the first target and reduced by 25% each next hit. (100/75/56/42/32/24/18/13%),

 

single target lightning sorc:

- affliction, no changes

- thundering blast, hits critically with affliction on it. sets a debuff lightning collector bomb, stays 18 second.

renews lightning capacitor

- lightning capacitor collects 10 charges on an enemy. by reaching 10 charges, the capacitor explodes and deals 285% damage of chain lightning (loads are calculated with 75/56/42/... ). exploding capacitor will add capacitors on up to 8 enemies within 8m range

- crushing darkness now deals the damage directy, grants forced darkness

- lightning flash additionally adds 1 charge to lightning capacitor

- lightning bolt additionally adds 1 charge to lightning capacitor

- shock overcharges lightning capacitor and makes it explode all current charges.

- force lightning charges 1 charge per hit

- chain lightning charges 7 charges, hits critically with affliction on it.

- recklessness charges lightning capacitor with 10 charges

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Static barrier can no longer be used on friendly targets, and now has a 25 second cooldown. You can now apply your static barrier to an enemy target. Once applied, your next direct damaging ability used on that target will "detonate" the barrier, dealing x amount of damage, and stun normal or weak enemies for 1 second.

Plus 1 for this. I love this idea.

<rudeness idiocy snipped>

This is exactly what I want. It's a suggestion forum and extreme suggestions if accepted can be altered. That's what suggestions groups are for. You seem incapable of understanding that and have resorted to insults rather than constructive criticism. And I'm not your "mate". Another for the ignore list.

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I’d like this class being a bit more bursty so here’re some ideas for Tactical Items.

 

Mental Alacrity / Polarity Shift:

  • Both CD and duration of MA / PS are descreased (e.g. CD: 30 sec, duration: 5 sec) and it makes every casted / channeled ability instant
  • OR both CD and duration of MA / PS are descreased (e.g. CD: 1 min, duration: 10 sec) and it grants immunity to all controlling effects

 

Mind Crush / Crushing Darkness:

  • When Telekinetic Throw / Force Lightning is used on target affected by MC / CD its damage output is significantly increased
  • OR when Telekinetic Burst / Lightning Bolt is used on target affected by MC / CD it has 100% chance to hit the target twice, and 2nd hit would damage the target for 70% of the 1st hit.

 

I also like that Chain Lightning example.

 

One demand I do have is for sorcerers in general: If Phasewalk cannot be used, it should not be removed from its placed position. It simply shouldn't be triggered.

Yes please!

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I'm going to put this here but I think this could apply to all Sorcerer/Sage disciplines.

 

Dark Side Nexus - Placing your Phase Walk down creates a Dark Side Nexus on the ground with a 3m radius. While standing in the Dark Side Nexus you gain 1% increased critical chance, critical multiplier, and alacrity every 3 seconds, stacking up to 10 times. You lose all stacks upon leaving the Dark Side Nexus.

Edited by DarthCognusSion
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Notes: Some of these ideas conflict with each other. I'm just providing options. I have also included some desired QoL changes. These ideas are primarily based on PvE content and based on my experience as a sorc main nightmare raider.

 

Tactical Items

- Lightning Arcs: When your lightning attacks fork, they now also deal this forked damage to enemies within 8m of the original target and the base chance for forks is increased by 25%. In addition, Chain Lightning now spreads Affliction.

- Barrage of Lightning: Bring back some form of the original Lightning Barrage proc where Force Lightning channels and ticks twice as fast but have it proc whenever Affliction's duration is refreshed instead of being RNG based. The proc should also apply to Force Storm.

- Raging Thunder: When Thundering Blast critically hits, the target is knocked back. Overload also now knocks back targets further.

 

QoL Improvements

- Shock needs to be better integrated into Lightning's discipline passives including: Forked Lightning (and subsequently Chaos Nexus and Conduction), Focal Lightning, Reverberating Force, Charged Reaction, Fulgurous Fortification.

- The need to apply Affliction in order to use Thundering Blast makes target swapping much worse while there is already enough incentive to apply affliction based purely on the DPS it does and how it gets automatically refreshed. Affliction needs to deal some base damage up front like Retractable Blade on PT. Alternatively, Thundering Blast could also autocrit on any enemies lower than Champion level but still require affliction for

- Lightning Storm should not proc off of Lightning Strike/Bolt. This almost always ruins the rotation (since it should be proccing off of Thundering Blast.

- The Convulsing Currents passive should grant a proc that increases the damage of the next Shock instead of requiring the target to currently be affected by Crushing Darkness. Sometimes Crushing Darkness is cast on one target but you need to switch targets before using Shock. This is not necessarily due to the target dying, Shock currently does not have a high enough spot in ability priority so you either miss out on the buffed Shock, delay Crushing Darkness, or do awkward fast target swapping.

- RNG from the forks and the influence of this on reducing the cooldown of Polarity Shift cause the spec to vary in output quite a lot, basically 6.25% of the damage of each ability is up to RNG. The spec should deal slightly more damage than its less RNG centric brethren so that this is less costly in a raid. Alternatively, some of the damage could be migrated away from the forks and into the primary ability damage, so maybe attacks do 5% more damage normally and forks have a 25% chance to do an extra 5% damage.

- Focal Lightning is dumb, all the alacrity increasing specs are dumb and should be removed and replaced with something else. It's especially dumb for Lightning because you still end up wanting to take a bit more alacrity than you should need to anyway. You could solve this and the forked RNG issue at the same time by replacing Focal Lightning with a new passive: Storm Brewing. When an ability fails to fork, the next time that ability forks it will deal an additional 25% damage and the chance to fork for that ability is increased by an additional 25%. Basically the chance to fork should be a question of when not a question of if.

- Non-consumable procs that are not dependent on an ability being active need to be toned down across the board (mainly damage reduction procs). If they're intended to have 100% uptime if you're doing the rotation correctly, then give them 100% uptime by making them passives. In Lightning, this would mean making Charged Reaction force regeneration, Fulgurous Fortification damage reduction, and Focal Lightning alacrity (especially this one) procs passive bonuses instead of procs that can fall off. It just clutters your buff bar. Procs like Lightning Effusion and the damage reduction active during Deionized can stay.

 

Lightning Barrier and Force Barrier

- If you try to bubble yourself while you still have a bubble from someone else (deionized has fallen off), activating the bubble will not provide you with Lightning Barrier as it should. The Lightning Barrier shows up for a second and then gets immediately removed.

- Force Barrier has transformed from being one of the strongest "cheese abilities" when it came out to being one of the worst since everyone else got reflects. I only use it if I am fairly certain I will die because you lose DPS when you use it. To remedy this problem, Lightning Barrier Should be active while Force Barrier is being channeled and during Enduring Bastion and should deal 1.5x damage so that it isn't a DPS loss.

- Sage needs a different animation for the Lightning Barrier equivalent, it looks ridiculous and entirely out of place for the class. I think it would even look better if they had the Republic equivalent of Pyro Shield animation.

- Force Barrier could also have some sort of additional AoE effect to players/enemies within 8m depending on the discipline. In heal spec it could provide some AoE healing. In Madness it could provide some sort of pulsating AoE damage like the Styrak and the Dread Council do in their burn phases alongside some sort of slow. Lightning could have a super electrified barrier that could knock enemies far away (like Force Push far) and deal a substantial amount of damage.

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QoL Improvements

- Shock needs to be better integrated into Lightning's discipline passives including: Forked Lightning (and subsequently Chaos Nexus and Conduction), Focal Lightning, Reverberating Force, Charged Reaction, Fulgurous Fortification.

- The need to apply Affliction in order to use Thundering Blast makes target swapping much worse while there is already enough incentive to apply affliction based purely on the DPS it does and how it gets automatically refreshed. Affliction needs to deal some base damage up front like Retractable Blade on PT. Alternatively, Thundering Blast could also autocrit on any enemies lower than Champion level but still require affliction for

- Lightning Storm should not proc off of Lightning Strike/Bolt. This almost always ruins the rotation (since it should be proccing off of Thundering Blast.

- The Convulsing Currents passive should grant a proc that increases the damage of the next Shock instead of requiring the target to currently be affected by Crushing Darkness. Sometimes Crushing Darkness is cast on one target but you need to switch targets before using Shock. This is not necessarily due to the target dying, Shock currently does not have a high enough spot in ability priority so you either miss out on the buffed Shock, delay Crushing Darkness, or do awkward fast target swapping.

- RNG from the forks and the influence of this on reducing the cooldown of Polarity Shift cause the spec to vary in output quite a lot, basically 6.25% of the damage of each ability is up to RNG. The spec should deal slightly more damage than its less RNG centric brethren so that this is less costly in a raid. Alternatively, some of the damage could be migrated away from the forks and into the primary ability damage, so maybe attacks do 5% more damage normally and forks have a 25% chance to do an extra 5% damage.

- Focal Lightning is dumb, all the alacrity increasing specs are dumb and should be removed and replaced with something else. It's especially dumb for Lightning because you still end up wanting to take a bit more alacrity than you should need to anyway. You could solve this and the forked RNG issue at the same time by replacing Focal Lightning with a new passive: Storm Brewing. When an ability fails to fork, the next time that ability forks it will deal an additional 25% damage and the chance to fork for that ability is increased by an additional 25%. Basically the chance to fork should be a question of when not a question of if.

- Non-consumable procs that are not dependent on an ability being active need to be toned down across the board (mainly damage reduction procs). If they're intended to have 100% uptime if you're doing the rotation correctly, then give them 100% uptime by making them passives. In Lightning, this would mean making Charged Reaction force regeneration, Fulgurous Fortification damage reduction, and Focal Lightning alacrity (especially this one) procs passive bonuses instead of procs that can fall off. It just clutters your buff bar. Procs like Lightning Effusion and the damage reduction active during Deionized can stay.

 

I'm not trying to start an argument, but these are not QoL improvements you are asking for here, they are just things you personally don't like about lightning. I agree with your first comments about shock, and to some extent the fork procs, but everything else here just seems to be your personal pet peeves about the discipline.

 

Focal Lightning is not dumb at all. 5% free alacrity is huge. I think it would be cool if the alacrity aspect of lightning were highlighted even more, not taken away. It is part of the spec's identity.

 

The issues with affliction for thundering blast and shock with crushing darkness are all about optimizing play. As someone who plays Sorc at a NiM level as you say you do, these should be trivial things to do at this point. Being able to do these things is a matter of proper target swapping, keeping affliction on multiple targets up at a time, and effectively using your procs to maximize damage. This spec doesn't need to be dumbed down, it needs new and interesting mechanics added to spice it up again. General rule: add, don't take away.

 

As far as non rotational buffs such as damage reduction and force regen, they are just that, buffs. They are not procs, and they shouldn't just be made passives. The rotation needs other abilities such that keeping them up is more of a reward for correct play, but lightning shouldn't just get 15% free damage reduction and 30% increased force regen for nothing. It isn't like it's currently hard to maintain them, so I don't understand what the problem is with self buffs as a result of correct rotation execution.

 

Lightning has problem areas that need addressing. I'm not saying it doesn't need some love because it definitely does. Overall damage, effective raid damage, raid utility, rotation complexity (it's too simple and unrewarding) are all issues that this discipline has, along with some others. I'm just pointing out the things you bring up shouldn't be considered priorities, or in my opinion problems at all, when there are clearly more pressing concerns with the spec.

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At the end of the day, players in the star wars universe want to feel powerful. They want to feel like Gods, so why not make them feel like that. Lightning Sorcerers should be given the same aoe lightning attack that Vaylin has when you fight her in the final chapter right before the Valkorian fight. That animation is amazing and allows the player to feel dominate. While that ability is up, the player using the ability should take 20% less damage and do 5%dmg to all targets that are within her 10 meter diameter. Let the players feel like they truly are the emperor of the Eternal Throne and the Supreme Dictator of the galaxy.
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In my opinion sorcs lack melee abilities, so in my wishlist a couple of not useless melee saber abilities is the top priority.

 

Other suggestion specifically for Lightning:

 

1. Crushing darkness now insta-cast and deals 25% more damage.

 

2. Thundering blast now insta-cast and knock target down for 3 seconds

 

3. Damage done by force lightning increased by 50%, force lightning now deals trauma.

 

4. Force storm now have 10 meters radius and deals 30% more damage.

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1) Force Storm procs Lightning Storm without the 10 sec. cooldown.

2) Force Speed lasts twice as long.

3) Ability to freely mark the location for the Phase Walk, in some radius around the character. :p

Edited by Solarmind
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In my opinion sorcs lack melee abilities, so in my wishlist a couple of not useless melee saber abilities is the top priority.

 

 

 

2. Thundering blast now insta-cast and knock target down for 3 seconds

 

Like in Gnost Dural's fight in the Ossus campaign, that would be nice.

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One thing that I think needs to be addressed is if there is going to be class balance changes along with the new tactical items and set bonuses. Eric, can you let us know what the situation is with regards to that? We don't need specifics, just whether or not there is going to be changes to damage/healing/survivability because that changes, for me at least, how to approach some of these suggestions.

 

For instance, if Sorc dps is going to be buffed, then suggestions can focus more about play style, but if not then they need to incorporate aspects to make up for that. I know you just said give ideas, but I think that what kinds of ideas we give actually hinges on whether or not there is going to be separate class balance or not.

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