Hello fellow Sorcerer's!

 

I've been leveling my way up the Madness tree (level 26 at the moment) and since I no longer have a cooldown on force lightning I've noticed I am using shock less and less...

 

I feel like having an instant cast move like shock should be integral for a little bit of extra burst here and there but force lightning just feels.. i don't know.. better? I've even stopped using shock to finish enemies off. Even in PVP I'm using shock less.

 

I guess I'm wondering how other sorcerer's are feeling about shock. Are you finding it harder to use? Is it a rare situational skill? Am I just doing it wrong?

 

Can someone help me put Shock back on my keybindings? =)

 

Cheers.

I mainly use it while on the move. Kiting, chasing or when you got a melee in your face and don't wanna risk an interupt. Playing full Lightning, though, so I don't have as many opportunities to instacast my abilities, like Madness do. Found it to be a great way to finish someone off, especially if they're at 25+ range, and stopping to cast anything will mean you're out of range. It's definitely not a high priority skill, especially as you move up in levels and get more, but it'll still have its uses. I would still keep it on your hotbar for whenever you do need to move and can't count on Force Lightning procs to help with your damage.

You're doing it wrong. Shock is more dps efficient than either force lightning or lightning strike. On single targets that will live long enough for dots to tick out, I typically go crushing darkness, affliction, force lightning, shock, lightning strike. I realize that, given my previous statement, I arguably should cast shock before force lightning, but for some reason doing that doesn't feel quite right. I can't quite put my finger on it. Maybe I'm just being dumb.

In PvP you should be using shock every time it's available. It's instant burst DPS that can be used on the move.

 

For PvE you should also pretty much use it every time it's available. It's instant burst DPS...

 

Seriously, I don't think it has a downside.

Should we interrupt a force lightening to cast it though?

Should we interrupt a force lightening to cast it though?

 

Do you have the talent Madness? If yes, then interrupt away since FL has no cooldown.

Force Lightning is great, especially when you Reckless it and make all those Channels Tick. But sadly it is a Channel, a 3 second channel for 4 ticks. My level Warzone ticks are for about 500.

 

Shock does more than 1 tick of force lightning, and has a chance (with Points) to throw another shock at half damage. My level Warzone hits are typically around 850-1000. I use Shock everytime it is up in Warzone, Stupid Great Burst.

 

SO are you doing it wrong? For PVE, not at all, spamming force lightning is the easiest way to do things, but for elits and such, I'd still throw the Shock in there becuase it can do more damage in the GCD than Force Lightning.

Shock is a burst skill. Since there is a GCD you can easily compare it to a skill like Lightning Strike. Shock does it's damage at the start of the GCD, while Lightning Strike does it's damage at the end. Shock is less efficient (damage per Force used), but has higher damage and mobility. Lightning Strike is more efficient but requires you stand still and has lower DPS, however it also has talents attached to it which further improve it's efficiency.

 

If you're in a situation where you're not worried about losing Force (a normal quest fight, PvP, boss mobs which need to die quickly) use Shock. If you're worried about running low on Force you should avoid it since you'll do more steady damage by utilizing your tree's "Force Regen" based skills (Lightning Strike & DoTS for Lightning, Force Lightning for Madness).

 

Note: Assassins get an innate boost to Shock's damage, making it significantly more efficient for them to use. But given their limited Force pool this makes sense.

Edited December 23, 2011 by Dastion

Sounds like you're on about PvP so I'd say uou're not doing it wrong, you're doing it right really. Shock just becomes a situational skill in PvE, like when you need something on the move, or you want to finish something off quicker, or need a bit burst, or your FL is on lockout due to an interrupt or soemthing. I find it a bit of an annoying skill it's not useless enough to stop using, but it's not useful enough to be a priority skill but it still hangs around on your action bar waiting for it's 5 seconds of fame again.

 

In PvP though it's more useful, you're moving around a lot and you'll be using it way more than you would in PvE because there are lots of times where you just can't stop still to use FL.

I use shock as my instant burst finisher in pvp. I usually start with a force lightning and if I see them trying to run or heal I hit them with shock.

 

In PvE against more than one mob I pretty much constantly tab through them while I am using an ability that channels. If I see something that is close to death I will interrupt my 0 cool down force lightning to finish it off with shock. Then ill go back to lightning whatever is still alive.

In PvP you should be using shock every time it's available. It's instant burst DPS that can be used on the move.

 

For PvE you should also pretty much use it every time it's available. It's instant burst DPS...

 

Seriously, I don't think it has a downside.

 

There is a downside, its only 700 odd damage for a global cooldown.

 

Any one of your dots is double that, force lightning is also more than that (instant damage +1st tick).