Sorcerer Changes Brainstorming

Doesn't take much to fix lightning in PvE, spec can be in a very good place right now. What could help however:


-Static barrier off the global cooldown, with a cooldown to offset ( can be 3-6 sec with a talent to get it back to 1,5 sec in corruption tree)

- Pushback protection for Crushing Darkness. Spec casts it on cooldown, on hardcast. Madness doesn't need it. Get it out of Sith efficacy and into subversion.

-Lightning barrage proc immune to pushbacks. Simply taking a hit or using it in burn phase you lose half the damage on it.

-Add a talent giving armor penetration to lightning strike and possibly Chain lightning.

-Add a sort of execute, increasing damage dealt by lightning strike or shock on target under 30%.

Some people also ask for instant thundering blast. I'm on the fence with this one, since instant TB would mean they would have to considerably lower the damage in order for it not to be overpowered due to the auto crit.

And last : add some darn utility to the class. If sorc is about knowing when to heal or when to deal damage, well the question is easily answered in some instances : never heal or group risk hitting an enrage. In PvE at least.

It would make much more sense to add blink to the "skirmisher class" that bioware intended for dps sorcs as well...considering the leap/obliterate/hydraulic short+speed/roots you can't dispel/predation(just to spite lol) that negate this "skirmisher class"

But no, give this blink idea to snipers

I don't heal much, and so I will be focusing my discussion purely on the lightning tree in pvp, which is horrible in arenas, so much so that I am forced to play only madness in pvp. It is my understanding that the developers want sorcerers to survive, not with passive mitigation, but through LoS, CC, and healing. Therefore, I will not suggest adding more passive damage reduction, but instead I will suggest ways to improve sorcerer's survivability via talents in the talent trees.

My first suggestion is to fix backlash so that it doesn't break on damage and stuns enemies when the bubble you apply to yourself breaks. This won't be as overpowered as before 2.0, when you could stun the entire team by placing bubbles on other people. In order to avoid abuse from other hybrid specs, this talent should switched with Force Haste, the talent on the 2nd highest tier on the lightning tree.

If the above change seems TOO overpowered for you there is another solution! Make it so your own affliction does not cause the mez from the Backlash bubble (that only works when applied to yourself) doesn't break! If I am dpsing a target, I have to put affliction on him so Thundering Blast can crit, and by doing so, I am screwing over my ability to use my Backlash Bubble to escape when he jumps on me because 1-2 seconds after he does, affliction will just break the mez. I am also screwing myself over when I need to use Electric Bindings to knockback also, as affliction breaks this effect before you can make good use of the root time. Which brings me to my next suggestion...

Modify the suppression talent so that affliction doesn't cause Whirlwind to end early! In an oh crap moment if you need to CC a target or escape from a target that you have been dpsing, you can't do it because your affliction, which again you must apply for Thundering Blast to crit, will cause it to end early. I understand that lightning is supposed to survive via CC instead of passive damage reduction, however, it is counter-intuitive to require us to place dots on our targets which will cause all of our CC to end early.

Next issue. It is impossible for Lightning Sorcerers to kite melee classes. For example, Focus Sentinels, have 5 slows. Force Leap, Zealous Leap, Twin Saber Throw, Leg Slash, and Force Exhaustion. Lightning Sorcerers have only 2 slows, one of which is proc based on Chain Lightning, and is unreliable in a pinch. It is near impossible for a lightning sorcerer to kite a focus/rage tree, which is one of the most popular dps trees in arenas at the moment. We can't LoS and heal to full as you have intended when we are stuck running at 50% movement speed, while the melee beats on us and almost all of our CC escape tools breaks early (see above discussion.) I understand that melee classes need this many slows and gap-closers so that they can stay on target, but Lightning Sorcerers should have at least ONE effective escape.

Replace Fadeout with Force Suffusion in the Corruption Tree. This will allow the Lightning (and Madness, but Lightning needs it more) to escape every 15-20 seconds. This change will not be game breaking as Melee still would have more slows and leaps to catch up (Force Leap is on a shorter cooldown than Force Speed) but it would at least give the Lightning Sorcerer the chance to LoS and heal before they do. This change is especially needed since force leap and zealous leap can root during force speed, which negates the use of force speed entirely.

I sincerely believe that the above changes would more or less fix Lightning's survivability in arenas, however there is one more issue that Lightning (and corruption) have in common. This issue is one of the main reasons most sorcerers in pvp use madness or a hybrid spec with madness for dps. This issue is that the spec is EASILY shutdown by interrupts. Every class has one interrupt move, which on paper may not seem like much of an issue, however you have to also consider the fact that stuns, knockbacks, and leaps interrupt targets too. When you take this into consideration, classes end up having like 5 or 6 interrupts.

Consider this scenario:
In the Lightning Tree I start casting Thundering Blast on a Focus Guardian. He sees this and so his response is Force Leap me (1 Interrupt). I start casting it again immediately since Force Leap doesn't have a lockout timer on the move that it interrupted, his response is to Force Kick me (2nd Interrupt). With my unused Thundering Blast Now on a lockout, I have no choice but to start running, lest I get eaten alive. I use Force Speed, the Guardian's response is to Zealous Leap me. When this is done I start casting Thundering Blast again, the Guardian responds with force push (3rd Interrupt). I Get back up and start casting Thundering Blast for the 4th time, the Guardian's Force Leap cooldown is now refreshed and he leaps me again (4th Interrupt). As there is no lockout from getting interrupted by Force Leap, I start casting Thundering Blast again, the Guardian Uses Force Stasis stunning me (5th Interrupt). When force stasis expires I immediately begin casting Thundering Blast again, but by this time the guardian's Force Kick is off cooldown (6th interrupt). I run and/or cast something else, when my lockout from Force Kick expires, I cast Thundering Blast for the 7th time, and the Guardian uses Awe (7th Interrupt). After Awe expires, I run I try casting Thundering Blast again but by this time his force leap is off cooldown and I am interrupted for the 8th time..... etc, etc, etc.

As you can see from the above scenario, Lightning is so easily shut down by interrupts, so much so that Sorcerer's are Forced to play specs that allow them to do damage on the move, i.e. Madness or Hybrid. Which brings me to my next suggestion. Either make Thundering Blast Immune to interrupts, OR (preferably) Increase the Cooldown of Thundering Blast from 9 to 12 seconds and Make it Instant cast! Mercenary's Heatseeker's are instant cast, and snipers are immune to interrupts, so I don't see how giving an instant, or uninterruptible Thundering Blast to Sorcerer's would ruin game balance, if other ranged classes can already do one of the above.

This ends my suggestions for Lightning Sorcerers in pvp changes. I do play Lightning in pve, and the only change we need there is for Subversion to reduce the pushback on Crushing Darkness. The only other obvious change for pve/pvp is to fix the Force Regen Bug on Forceweaver, which grants 1% or 2% Alacrity but doesn't increase the force regen rate.