To bring the Lightning Sorcerer / Telekinetics Sage to their DPS target, we reduced the critical damage bonus given from Reverberating Force / Reverberation by 5% and increased the damage dealt by Shock / Project while Crushing Darkness / Mind Crush is on the target.

You already nerfed the guaranteed crit of thundering blast. Now you reduce the crit damage of three hardest hitting attacks of the lightning spec. This does not fit the concept of an improvement.

- Convulsing Currents now gives Shock a 35% damage increase when the enemy is affected by Crushing Darkness, up from 20%

This doesnt look like a real improvement either. Shock is really bad with crits so buffing its bonus damage when its not very high in the priority list doesnt appear to be a buff either. Especially after nerfing the other abilities that usually crit more often and much higher.

Im not a math expert but improving 1-2 shocks for each crushing darkness by 15% is something we should be looking forward to? Really?

Those numbers are both inaccurate and outdated; they don't reflect recent nerfs. Lightning's AVERAGE parse is even higher than 9350; in full min-max 248's with datacrons and optimal force speed use, you should be averaging about 9500 on a dummy, not 9350. Arsenal should be averaging about 9200 on a dummy, not 10.1k. This nerf will put average Lightning parse at anywhere from 9200-9400, or pretty much right where Arsenal and Marksman will be. Heck, the peak parse might even be close to 9500 still.

Maybe leave out the dummy numbers. They only cause confusion and people think this is something they can achieve in heavy movement fights.

They want Arsenal, Marksman, and Lightning at around 5 percent below their target DPS (which seems to be around 9750 based on top parses for specs). That puts it firmly in the 9200-9300 range, which is where all three of these specs will be (barring good or bad crits).

This would be nice. But its more likely wishful thinking on our part. If they knew what they were doing they would have balanced classes over a year ago. Or during beta testing.

I'm not a fan of their choice to nerf everything instead of buffing and rebalancing content (you want people to feel like they are progressing, not regressing) but Lightning is better than people think.

Balancing by buffing weak specs and abilities is something people like and need. It doesnt just sound like an improvement, it gives players the feeling of getting stronger which is exactly what will happen. Getting nerfed at one end, getting a tiny buff on the other is just not that. If a dev cant grasp this after 2 decades of MMO history then that person is incompetent. Yet thats exactly what we see in every patch here.

If I were a full time raider I would have quit this game a long time ago. And given their level of incompetence I probably wont aspire a raiding career here either.

It just hurts to love a game thats being ruined by a bunch of incompetent devs.

Wont it make a new fotm lol? Almost everyone got harsh nerfs while lighting gets a good buff... isnt this too much?

Lightning was at the bottom and has already had a defensive nerf a few months ago. They were over due for a small buff.

It's funny how they were afraid to actually come out and call it for what it was like with the other classes, that the class was overperforming and bringing their DPS down, but talk around it like this.

I dunno, I see someone saying that this is needed to bring them in line with MM and Arsenal, but right now I'd already much favor MM or Arsenal in any and all PVE content that is not a dummy parse or solo play. This feels like yet another big mistake to me.

It's funny how they were afraid to actually come out and call it for what it was like with the other classes, that the class was overperforming and bringing their DPS down, but talk around it like this.

 

I dunno, I see someone saying that this is needed to bring them in line with MM and Arsenal, but right now I'd already much favor MM or Arsenal in any and all PVE content that is not a dummy parse or solo play. This feels like yet another big mistake to me.

That's what I don't get. The sorcerer has mobility issues with casting its attacks so standing at a dummy is ridiculous. Mara and assassin can basically move/jump to the targets instantly now and just keep running and attacking but if the sorc has to move it limits its damage a lot. If your going to drop the dps again then allow lightning bolt and crushing darkness to be cast on the move or reduce the cast time by 50%.

That's what I don't get. The sorcerer has mobility issues with casting its attacks so standing at a dummy is ridiculous. Mara and assassin can basically move/jump to the targets instantly now and just keep running and attacking but if the sorc has to move it limits its damage a lot. If your going to drop the dps again then allow lightning bolt and crushing darkness to be cast on the move or reduce the cast time by 50%.

Logic. That just won't happen with Bioware. They just want to make the game unfun to play, which I will say, is one of the first things they may actually succeed at. Sorc DPS going on 2 years now of being complete trash. GG.

That's what I don't get. The sorcerer has mobility issues with casting its attacks so standing at a dummy is ridiculous. Mara and assassin can basically move/jump to the targets instantly now and just keep running and attacking but if the sorc has to move it limits its damage a lot. If your going to drop the dps again then allow lightning bolt and crushing darkness to be cast on the move or reduce the cast time by 50%.

I agree, but it's not just sorcs...all range burst classes have a channeled attack necessary for their burst rotation which is constantly interrupted in pvp and also in pve by a variety of raid boss mechanics. It's also a fallacy to say that range classes especially burst classes can instantly switch targets and maintain their dps. The devs need to play all classes and see how totally screwed up this so called balance has been since 5.3

Logic. That just won't happen with Bioware. They just want to make the game unfun to play, which I will say, is one of the first things they may actually succeed at. Sorc DPS going on 2 years now of being complete trash. GG.

They've already succeeded at making it unfun. Their next goal is to see how fast they can get people to unsubscribe so they can close the game and all move onto Anthem

Looking at the parse numbers from https://torcommunity.com/guides/miscellaneous/class-rankings Lightning Sorcerer is already the worst performing PvE spec with ~1400 dps lower then the top performing spec. It sits at the bottom of the dps charts and everybody knows this to be true. How on earth do you justify dropping the dps by another 200-300?

 

Even with some of the nerfs to the other classes, this will keep Lightning Sorcerer firmly at the bottom and with a wide margin. All the classes should be within ~500dps max of each other. I would just like to understand why the devs and some in this thread think this is ok? I am strictly looking at it from taking a dps role in PvE, our dps is already pretty bad and now it will be worse?

This nerf, is Bioware catering to the PVP community. My question is, which population, PVP or PVE is more important?

Which is larger. EAWARE listens to the pvp community because they are more vocal.:D:D:D:D

https://braxwolf.com/2015/02/10/gamer-demographic-survey-results-play-style/

If they catered to PvP, they would increase the base damage of thundering blast and lightning flash by 10 percent, decrease the damage of Chain Lightning and Affliction by 20 percent, and keep the shock increase. Recklessness would be paired with TB/LF/Shock for a burst window somewhat comparable to Arsenal and Marksman, albeit less frequently due to recklessness's cooldown.

Let me clarify. They cater to PVP cry babies.:p:p:p:p:p:p:p:p:p:p:p

I don't want to play after reading this news. +15% Shock damage after all nerfs, really?

It would be really nice if we didn't lose 5 percent surge on the other heavy hitters. The more I think about this, the more I regret saying what I did on the first page. Smoothing out burst specs turns them into sustained. IO will have better burst than Lightning or Deception.

It would be really nice if we didn't lose 5 percent surge on the other heavy hitters.

Precisely. This class still somehow held its crits. Now it will become more useless. Just try to do something in a pile of mobs, while a melees hits one and does not care that you are going to die. Developers try to balance the classes, based on ideal group conditions. But there are no ideal conditions. The groups are understaffed: with no healers, tanks are played as DPS, and one or two low-level players in trash gear. This is reality of group content and imaginary balance.

These changes will bottleneck this class even more. Why?

Nerf on the top abilities and some buff on a skill that is meaningless with it's damage?

Guess,I'll put my sorc finally on the shelf. If it was useless now in pvp,now it's useless in pve as well. I really hoped for fine adjustments to this class,for so much time we needed buffs.This hurts. Deeply.

These changes will bottleneck this class even more. Why?

Nerf on the top abilities and some buff on a skill that is meaningless with it's damage?

Guess,I'll put my sorc finally on the shelf. If it was useless now in pvp,now it's useless in pve as well. I really hoped for fine adjustments to this class,for so much time we needed buffs.This hurts. Deeply.

Don't worry, I think you're not alone on this. It's sad to see that they found another way to nerf even more Lightning Sorc. Honestly, I wasn't expecting this at all. Still, many of us just quit the game because they couldn't find any enjoyment for playing their main character (myself included, my only main since I began playing was a Deception Assassin, it really hurts to see that it will become useless, even if you took the time to grind a full 248 stuff :/ ). I still play as a non suscriber, on a 236 rating burst Powertech in PvP with my wife when she wants to play... But that's it. I prefered to waste my money somewhere else, where it could be actually usefull.