Tried my luck in the gen section and had no replies

I’m posting this for a non sub friend who is looking for a good Sorc guide to use Elemental Convection tactical with Gathering Storm gear.

Also, she knows Storm Watch is supposed to be better. She isn’t looking for a debate on which is the better tactical to use.

She plays pvp and flash points and no operations.

Not a guide, but probably the closest thing to one right now for using elemental convection.

It depends if you want to do pure aoe, or a sort of hybrid. First you have to decide how many people you want to put affliction on. Put it on as many as you think you can refresh with chain lightning. If they're ops or sins, best not to bother unless they're who you're focusing (because they'll constantly reset the dot with roll, shroud and stealth).

When I use elemental convection, I go affliction, thundering blast, chain lightning, volt rush, chain lightning, lightning flash, crushing darkness, shock, thundering blast, chain lightning, volt rush, chain lightning, etc. The second time through, you'll have to throw in some lightning bolts because it doesn't line up perfectly (or perhaps bubble, self heals, etc). Volt rush does pitiful damage, so it's really only useful to proc the second chain lightning in my opinion.

If you want pure aoe, take the utility for 25% increase on force storm and do force storms instead of lightning flash, crushing darkness and shock. But to be honest, if you just want to do aoe, you're better off playing madness and using slow mercy. Personally, I only use elemental convection against 3 or more melee, but that's fairly common in regs, so it's probably a good tactical there most of the time.

Not a guide, but probably the closest thing to one right now for using elemental convection.

 

Would be more helpful with some cometary. As it is, it’s pretty useless as a guide because it’s by a keybinder and someone learning can’t see what abilities they are using.

If you are using elemental convection, you basically need to have a cleave mindset: your job is to do as much cleave damage as possible by maximizing your use of Chain Lightning and refreshed Afflictions while looking for opportunities to burn people down with your single target moves.

TL;DR: Apply affliction on anyone in the stack who is going to live for a while, and use a volt rush in the block between your Thundering Blasts to get a second chain lightning proc.

For instance:

Affliction + Thundering Blast + Instant Chain Lightning + Volt Rush + Chain Lightning + Lightning Flash/Crushing Darkness/Filler until Thundering Blast is back up, then rinse and repeat. This keeps you a four-GCD proc sequence that is neat and tidy and gives you space between for your other moves.

One of the secrets to doing 20k+ as lightning, and something I employed in about 90 percent of the warzones in which I reached 20k+, is a triple chain lightning rotation for cleave.

Hardcast chain lightning + Thundering Blast (or half channel of Force Storm) + Instant Chain Lightning + Volt Rush + Instant Chain Lightning + filler until regular cooldown of Chain Lightning is done, then rinse and repeat.

Really, though, you can only do that if you are freecasting and if there's consistent stacking. It's also a pretty significant sacrifice of your single target DPS.

One of the best uses of your filler slots is to apply affliction to targets in the cleave that are going to survive for a little while. Affliction gets reset whenever the target is hit by Chain Lightning, so you'll ideally have Affliction rolling on multiple people in the stack.

Use force speed on Chain Lightning for maximum overall damage, or on Thundering Blast for maximum single target burst.

For Recklessness, don't use Chain Lightning until it's time to burn the second charge; it'll consume both charges otherwise. Use your first charge on Thundering Blast or a channel of Force Storm. Force Speed with a Recklessness Chain Lightning is brutal cleave damage.

If you are using elemental convection, you basically need to have a cleave mindset: your job is to do as much cleave damage as possible by maximizing your use of Chain Lightning and refreshed Afflictions while looking for opportunities to burn people down with your single target moves.

 

TL;DR: Apply affliction on anyone in the stack who is going to live for a while, and use a volt rush in the block between your Thundering Blasts to get a second chain lightning proc.

 

For instance:

 

Affliction + Thundering Blast + Instant Chain Lightning + Volt Rush + Chain Lightning + Lightning Flash/Crushing Darkness/Filler until Thundering Blast is back up, then rinse and repeat. This keeps you a four-GCD proc sequence that is neat and tidy and gives you space between for your other moves.

 

One of the secrets to doing 20k+ as lightning, and something I employed in about 90 percent of the warzones in which I reached 20k+, is a triple chain lightning rotation for cleave.

 

Hardcast chain lightning + Thundering Blast (or half channel of Force Storm) + Instant Chain Lightning + Volt Rush + Instant Chain Lightning + filler until regular cooldown of Chain Lightning is done, then rinse and repeat.

 

Really, though, you can only do that if you are freecasting and if there's consistent stacking. It's also a pretty significant sacrifice of your single target DPS.

 

One of the best uses of your filler slots is to apply affliction to targets in the cleave that are going to survive for a little while. Affliction gets reset whenever the target is hit by Chain Lightning, so you'll ideally have Affliction rolling on multiple people in the stack.

 

Use force speed on Chain Lightning for maximum overall damage, or on Thundering Blast for maximum single target burst.

 

For Recklessness, don't use Chain Lightning until it's time to burn the second charge; it'll consume both charges otherwise. Use your first charge on Thundering Blast or a channel of Force Storm. Force Speed with a Recklessness Chain Lightning is brutal cleave damage.

Thank you for the detailed response. I’ll pass it on.

If you are using elemental convection, you basically need to have a cleave mindset: your job is to do as much cleave damage as possible by maximizing your use of Chain Lightning and refreshed Afflictions while looking for opportunities to burn people down with your single target moves.

 

TL;DR: Apply affliction on anyone in the stack who is going to live for a while, and use a volt rush in the block between your Thundering Blasts to get a second chain lightning proc.

 

For instance:

 

Affliction + Thundering Blast + Instant Chain Lightning + Volt Rush + Chain Lightning + Lightning Flash/Crushing Darkness/Filler until Thundering Blast is back up, then rinse and repeat. This keeps you a four-GCD proc sequence that is neat and tidy and gives you space between for your other moves.

 

One of the secrets to doing 20k+ as lightning, and something I employed in about 90 percent of the warzones in which I reached 20k+, is a triple chain lightning rotation for cleave.

 

Hardcast chain lightning + Thundering Blast (or half channel of Force Storm) + Instant Chain Lightning + Volt Rush + Instant Chain Lightning + filler until regular cooldown of Chain Lightning is done, then rinse and repeat.

 

Really, though, you can only do that if you are freecasting and if there's consistent stacking. It's also a pretty significant sacrifice of your single target DPS.

 

One of the best uses of your filler slots is to apply affliction to targets in the cleave that are going to survive for a little while. Affliction gets reset whenever the target is hit by Chain Lightning, so you'll ideally have Affliction rolling on multiple people in the stack.

 

Use force speed on Chain Lightning for maximum overall damage, or on Thundering Blast for maximum single target burst.

 

For Recklessness, don't use Chain Lightning until it's time to burn the second charge; it'll consume both charges otherwise. Use your first charge on Thundering Blast or a channel of Force Storm. Force Speed with a Recklessness Chain Lightning is brutal cleave damage.

What a great breakdown of the Ling sorc in PVP. I wish we had access to every class breakdown in PVP like this.

Hop, if you ever got bored maybe you could create such a breakdown of Arsenal Merc. With nerfs etc., a clean rotation and higher knowledge of class abilities would be a huge help for Arsenal Mercs. I am sure it would be amazing just like this little condensed guide is.

I find when great PVPers share tips and breakdown class abilities they always drop nuggets of knowledge that not everyone is aware of. Even if someone only gets one thing from such a guide it can have pretty big impact on a players performance in PVP.