Is Lightning Strike now part of your Madness rotation?

 

DPS

Recklessness FL -> LS = 1750, 1625, 1615. I stopped when Recklessness came back off cooldown.

Recklessness FL spam = 1600, 1595, 1570. I stopped when Recklessness came back off cooldown.

Recklessness LS spam = 1600, 1570, 1531. I stopped when I ran out of energy (not sustainable).

Edited February 26, 2013 by paowee

LS is about to become Madness Sorcs best friend! You can interchange it with CD in your rotation and probably have a lot of fun. Like do your normal rotation and if Deathmark is still up use LS for burn lightning. Once DM is down and you still have wrath use CD in the interrum then back to rotation. I will say that now all Madness and Hybrids will have to choose btwn what they use with Wrath and I think CD will start getting neglected so I would say CD could have better Wrath usage in pvp

It looks as though Crushing Darkness will still be the priority with Wrath. From what I'm reading of those who have been testing different specs on the PTS, lightning strike is still a DPS loss. Because of the increased cost, it also makes you force negative. It might be worth using to keep focal lightning up or while on the move as shock used to be, but I don't see it being a regular part of the rotation. Unless, of course, the info I've been reading is wrong. Edited February 24, 2013 by SoonerJBD

It looks as though Crushing Darkness will still be the priority with Wrath. From what I'm reading of those who have been testing different specs on the PTS, lightning strike is still a DPS loss. Because of the increased cost, it also makes you force negative. It might be worth using to keep focal lightning up or while on the move as shock used to be, but I don't see it being a regular part of the rotation. Unless, of course, the info I've been reading is wrong.

 

1.) LS is being hailed unilaterally by actual testers (i.e. posters dropping actual parses) as a perfectly viable if not preferable use of Wrath.

 

2.) The increased cost and this fear of being "Force Negative" is simple paranoia. People, like the above poster are forgetting, or more likely simply ignorant of, one of the two changes to the core game mechanics that 2.0 is heralding:

 

A.) Shield now applies to force & tech attacks (this is HUGE) and more to the point...

 

B.) Alacrity now directly affects resource regen on a 1:1 % ratio.

 

So the people crying about being "Force Negative" can calm down. These changes, as well as soft cap revamps, are going to change itemization as we currently understand it. There's a lot of exploration to do and Sorc/Sages are in a far better position now then they have been in a long time.

 

What players SHOULD be thinking about is the actual need for Sorc/Sage to start stacking accuracy.

Edited February 24, 2013 by Gankstah

Why doesn't everyone go to the fleet dummy and just spam FL and Procced LS till they run out of force? Then post the parse over here and we can see which did more dps. Only factor would be gear and accuracy and lag. There is no buffs outside of the crit chance and actual proc for LS so I think it would work out fine

Lightning Strike is hilariously useful in Madness builds now. Every time you use it, you get a stack of Polarity, meaning your Alacrity increases by 1% up to four times for 15 seconds.

 

If Lightning Burns procs off of it, you instead get TWO stacks. This is important. Every percentage point of Alacrity is an increase in our Force generation as well. Rolling in just the gear they offered on the PTS, I was able to keep up around 12-13% Alacrity pretty much at will boosting it all the way up to an absurd 37-38% with Polarity Shift when I went below 75% Force. That meant that for the duration of Force Polarity, my Force regen was close to 12 Force per instance of regeneration, plus Force Lightning feeding me back Force, all the while with my dots rolling, and rolling, and rolling.

 

It's like electric Sithmas. I've had to intentionally screw around to get below 60% Force.

1.) LS is being hailed unilaterally by actual testers (i.e. posters dropping actual parses) as a perfectly viable if not preferable use of Wrath.

 

2.) The increased cost and this fear of being "Force Negative" is simple paranoia. People, like the above poster are forgetting, or more likely simply ignorant of, one of the two changes to the core game mechanics that 2.0 is heralding:

 

A.) Shield now applies to force & tech attacks (this is HUGE) and more to the point...

 

B.) Alacrity now directly affects resource regen on a 1:1 % ratio.

 

So the people crying about being "Force Negative" can calm down. These changes, as well as soft cap revamps, are going to change itemization as we currently understand it. There's a lot of exploration to do and Sorc/Sages are in a far better position now then they have been in a long time.

 

What players SHOULD be thinking about is the actual need for Sorc/Sage to start stacking accuracy.

 

Neither my sorc nor my sage are on the PTS, so I am not speaking with any sort of authority. But Elidhu, whom

I respect, did some testing with his sage and found Disturbance was still a DPS loss. I would love to see some further testing on this.

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=602013

Any class with the ability ti increase alacrity must stack alacrity. The more you have, the more it scales.

 

The damage increase from 0% alacrity to 10% alacrity is ~11%

to 20% alacrity is 25%

to 30% is 43%

to 40% is 67%

 

Without the limit of GCD, your burst is going to be OMGWTFBBQ amazing once you have enough alacrity.

Lmfao any Madness who doesnt use LS after 2.0 is just dumb. Btwn the burn and alacrity it gives off its an increase to our dps and our regen. Besides in an operation you have to be really bad at your rotation to allow your force to go below 60%. In pvp its different because more just toss dots at any guy or gal they see but figure 1v1, 1v2 and you should not have a force problem at all using LS and you can use its benefits

Lmfao any Madness who doesnt use LS after 2.0 is just dumb. Btwn the burn and alacrity it gives off its an increase to our dps and our regen. Besides in an operation you have to be really bad at your rotation to allow your force to go below 60%. In pvp its different because more just toss dots at any guy or gal they see but figure 1v1, 1v2 and you should not have a force problem at all using LS and you can use its benefits

 

You might be right, but I'd like to see more theorycrafting to back up these definitive statements. That thread I posted from the Sage forum has parses to back up what is being said. I'd love to see something similar to back up what's being said here.

PVP is different than sitting in front of a dummy and and test firing you will be using alot of different abilities cc aoe spamming to burn a target. Dummy numbers are for PVE when you planting your feet and doing the same thing over and over.

Thats fair SoonerJBD and I would like to see how much an actual difference LS does now but I dont think itll be a damaging force cost either just from what ive seen. Electric Induction lowers force cost by 9% , Sith Efficacy allows regrn through FL, and if alacrity is going to work as it should then between Polarity Shift and Focal Lightning we should get quicker regens time. But we should see the numbers to see how itll really work.

 

 

On a side note: since LS is going to be used a lot more does anyone think there is a real point to putting points into Chain Shock for the 30%/45% extra shock or just put points in Reserves for 100more force?

Thats fair SoonerJBD and I would like to see how much an actual difference LS does now but I dont think itll be a damaging force cost either just from what ive seen. Electric Induction lowers force cost by 9% , Sith Efficacy allows regrn through FL, and if alacrity is going to work as it should then between Polarity Shift and Focal Lightning we should get quicker regens time. But we should see the numbers to see how itll really work.

 

 

On a side note: since LS is going to be used a lot more does anyone think there is a real point to putting points into Chain Shock for the 30%/45% extra shock or just put points in Reserves for 100more force?

 

These are exactly the kinds of questions I have. That sage thread includes several people who have been parsing various specs with and without distrurbance (the Sage mirror ability for LS). So far, I've yet to see a definitive answer on how and when it should be used in either a full balance/madness spec or a hybrid. I'm not even sure what the best hybrid is going to look like yet.

 

When I first saw the changes, I suspected LS would take the place of shock in a madness rotation, meaning you wouldn't use it on cooldown, but you would use it with wrath both for the procs it gives and for some added DPS over force lightning. Now I'm reading some information from people parsing that says it may still not be a DPS gain and it may cause force regen issues.

 

The problem is that the fundamentals of the game have changed so much with the way alacrity works and the need for accuracy that it's hard to tell exactly what is best.

I dont see how there can't be a dps gain (PvE wise). Sure picking between LS and CD may not be what everyone wants to do but the added dot and alacrity should allow for more dps in a rotation, excluding all the boost and changes madness has already received. If a normal rotation now is DF > CT > Afflict > FL (x2) > CD repeat then you can use LS earlier in your rotation with wrath to ad to to deathmarks boost and use CD on a second proc or wait til the end of the rotation to use LS, increase alacrity for more FL yo get proc then use CD.

 

 

Okay a thats terrible example lol since i was just playing it over in my head but you know what I mean. In any event LS has now become very viable in our rotations and i think should be used

Thought I should post this here as well. I parsed on the ship dummy (L50 ops dummy) for less lag so i can compare both specs as accurately as i can.

 

No stims, no adrenals, companion/legacy buffs only, both DG relics, wearing Arkanian gear with no augments

 

LIGHTNING SPEC

~Opener - CrD, Aff, Thundering Blast, (Recklessness on first Lightning Barrage proc)...

2368 DPS http://www.torparse.com/a/142691/time/1361706473/1361706773/0/Overview

2332 DPS http://www.torparse.com/a/143236/time/1361742663/1361742963/0/Overview

2294 DPS http://www.torparse.com/a/143198/time/1361741976/1361742276/0/Overview

2227 DPS http://www.torparse.com/a/143170/time/1361740657/1361740957/0/Overview

 

2.0 HYBRID SPEC

Opener - CrD, DF, Aff, Recklessness FL...

2340 DPS http://www.torparse.com/a/142636/time/1361700601/1361700901/0/Overview

2320 DPS http://www.torparse.com/a/142636/time/1361701482/1361701782/0/Overview

2313 DPS http://www.torparse.com/a/143498/time/1361748608/1361748908/0/Damage+Dealt

2303 DPS http://www.torparse.com/a/142691/time/1361705042/1361705342/0/Overview

2250 DPS 11 mins http://www.torparse.com/a/143521

 

Hybrid rotation is same as 1.7 rotation but I use LS on Wrath procs when CrD is on cooldown. To be more specific I use LS once per FL, and when FL has reached the end of its channel. Sometimes I tweak around and just spam LS whenever Wrath pops up, but i've done too many parses and I can't find which one uses what.

 

They're all showing that Hybrid (with LS on Wrath proc) does comparable DPS to Lightning. DPS that is easier to maintain and be consistent with.

 

Lightning is still harder to play due to the procs and buffs you have to watch out for every at least 10 seconds. It is also a bit harder to do consistent DPS because that is just the nature of this spec, one mistake and your DPS drops a lot... Add that to the raid mechanics you need to be aware of and this makes Hybrid FL spam for me once again, a very preferrable choice in raids simply because it is easier and does comparable single target DPS. When they buffed Lightning by increasing the damage of Lightning Strike, they buffed Madness or Hybrid's Wrath talent as well.

Edited February 26, 2013 by paowee