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Sorcerer Ability, Tactical Item, and Set Bonus Feedback


EricMusco

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Hey folks,

 

Let's talk about what Spoils of War has in store for the Sorcerer! Below you will find the Sorcerer's new ability, the set bonuses that are planned for them, and a list of their new Tactical items. You may see bonuses which refer to charges. We are introducing new tech in Onslaught which will allow abilities to have multiple charges, meaning you can use them more then once (per charge) and the cooldown will simply add a charge up to the maximum.

 

Keep in mind that all of this is subject to change

 

New Ability - Volt Rush

Deals energy damage to your target and energizes you for up to 5 seconds. The Energize effect can stack twice, with each stack increasing Volt Rush damage by 30%. The ability has 3 charges and a recharge timer of 10 seconds.

 

Set Bonuses

These bonuses will likely have the high end of piece requirements, such as requiring 4 or 6 pieces. The smaller piece bonuses will be more passive in nature (stat benefits, etc).

 

  • Endless Offensive - (4) Volt Rush deals 10% more damage. (6) Energize now stacks up to 3 times. Force Speed immediately recharges one Volt Rush ability charge.
  • Gathering Storm - (4) Force Speed makes your next Force attack deal more damage. (6) Activating Force Speed reduces the cooldown of Polairty Shift by 5 seconds. Using Polarity Shift immediately after extends its duration.
  • Dark Consumption - (4) Dark Heals' Crit chance is increased by 10% (6) Dark Heal heals more if you have a Weary or Reverse Corruption stack and consumes 1 stack upon use.
  • Revitalize - (4) Resurgence heals for 5% more. (6) Healing a target with another ability while Resurgence is active on them has a chance to cause an extra Resurgence tick for half. Refreshing Resurgence on a target refunds some force.

 

Tactical Items

This a new item slot coming in Onslaught. You can only wear one Tactical Item at a time.

 

Sorcerer

  • Dark Cleanse - Consuming Darkness lowers the cooldown of Expunge by 3 seconds.
  • Liberate - Extrication now heals you and the target and makes your next Resurgence free.
  • Preserve Self - Activating Unnatural Preservation removes Static Barrier's Deionize effect from you.
  • Dark Return - Returning to your Phase Walk marker causes a force explosion around you, dealing damage to any enemies around.

 

Corruption

  • All For One - Revivification heals more for each ally it affects.
  • One For All - Revivification heals more the fewer allies it affects.
  • Extra Mend - Roaming Mend can now heal up to 5 targets instead of 4.
  • Healing Volts - Damaging an enemy with Volt Rush causes your ally closest to the enemy to be healed, scaling with how many Energized stacks are on the enemy.

 

Lightning

  • Death Channel - Forked Darkness now has a greater chance to activate and Crushing Darkness deals more damage each time it ticks.
  • Volt Flux - Volt Rush triggers Lightning Storm when activated. Chain Lightning spreads the Energized effect and causes your next Volt Rush to arc to nearby targets.
  • Convection Burst - While under Convection, activating Lightning Flash grants an additional Convection stack. 3 Convection stacks allow Thundering Blast to be activated instantly, consuming all stacks.
  • Stormwatch - Lightning Flash applies Stormwatch to it's targets. Anytime this target it critically hit in the next 10 seconds, a weaker Lightning Flash is applied to them.

 

Madness

  • Exhaustion Field - Death Field does 10% more damage to all targets spreads Force Slow's effects.
  • Ruthless Demolition - Demolish deals 20% more damage on initial hit. Additionally, under Polarity Shift, Demolish resets the cooldown of Force Leech, and causes the next Force Leech to activate instantly.
  • Writhing Terror - Creeping Terror has a 10% chance to tick an additional time whenever Force Lightning deals damage.
  • Wrath Rushdown - When Force Lightning generates 4 stacks of Wrath, you gain Wrath Rush, allowing your next 3 Volt Rushes to deal 25% more damage and cost 50% less Force. Volt Rush consumes all stacks of Wrath.

As a note, if you are a Consular player, you can expect to see these set bonuses mirrored for you as well, they are still in process.

 

Let us know your thoughts! Here are the types of feedback we are looking for. XX seems too strong or too weak. XX Set Bonus combined with XX Tactical seems too strong or too weak. I wish there was a Set Bonus or Tactical that had a specific effect or modified a specific ability not listed. Be as specific as possible in your feedback.

 

-eric

Edited by EricMusco
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Gathering Storm - Activating Force Speed reduces the cooldown of Polairty Shift by 5 seconds. Using Polarity Shift immediately after extends its duration.

I dunno... favors TK/Lightning over Balance/Madness.

 

I wish there was a Set Bonus or Tactical that had a specific effect or modified a specific ability not listed

I wish I could trade DoT spread for critical damage bonus. Something like this:

 

"Increase Creeping Terror, Death Field and Affliction critical damage by X%, but only one Creeping Terror can be active at a time(so Death field spreads only one DoT - Affliction)"

 

(tactical Item)

 

Energized Overload - Overload energizes you. Volt Rush deals more damage when you are under the Energize effect

Force Speed would be better.

Edited by EmperorRus
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Sorc Healer options look really nice!

 

I do agree with @EmperorRus though, I think Madness could use a bonus that removed your ability to DoT Spread in favor of higher single-target damage. (And conversely have one similar to the 'All For One' Healer bonus where your DoT's do more for being spread around).

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Hey folks,

 

New Ability - Volt Rush

DDeals energy damage to your target and energizes you for up to 5 seconds. The Energize effect can stack twice, with each stack increasing Volt Rush damage by 30%. The ability has 3 charges and a recharge timer of 10 seconds.

 

-eric

 

Eric what were you thinking when you wrote "DDeals" lol anyway does Volt rush replace Lightning strike ?

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So, two things here:

 

1: I play mainly as a Madness sorc, so firstly, thanks (Heavy sarcasm voice) for an additional ability. That spec was already a bit bloated, so I was really looking forward to trying to cram another thing into it.

 

2: The tactical items were meant to be "Build defining". Tell me, how is death field doing a tiny bit more damage and spreading another ability I have no intention of putting on my bar "Build defining."?

 

I know that this is just the first phase of them, and they are obviously subject to change, but I just find that most of that is quite underwhelming. The healers got off nice with the few things about resurgence. That would change how they used the ability. Meanwhile, 10% more damage to something doesn't change how we use it at all.

 

The next question that I have is not in relation to set bonus/ tacticals, but for the new ability. Is Volt Rush going to be off the GCD? Honestly that would validate it for me, but if it is going to generate a GCD then I am going to swap to lightning so that I don't get a disease from the new Madness rotation.

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Tbh i don't see a lot of good things in the setbonusses for dps sorcs...

 

the first two are okay at best, still better for lightning and making use put overload in a rotation? cmon...

last two are for healers but dps HAS NO USE for em...

 

Yea I was suggesting they atleast increase the range of knockback. But we dont know what the skill trees or the amplifiers are going to offer.

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So, two things here:

 

1: I play mainly as a Madness sorc, so firstly, thanks (Heavy sarcasm voice) for an additional ability. That spec was already a bit bloated, so I was really looking forward to trying to cram another thing into it.

 

2: The tactical items were meant to be "Build defining". Tell me, how is death field doing a tiny bit more damage and spreading another ability I have no intention of putting on my bar "Build defining."?

 

I know that this is just the first phase of them, and they are obviously subject to change, but I just find that most of that is quite underwhelming. The healers got off nice with the few things about resurgence. That would change how they used the ability. Meanwhile, 10% more damage to something doesn't change how we use it at all.

 

The next question that I have is not in relation to set bonus/ tacticals, but for the new ability. Is Volt Rush going to be off the GCD? Honestly that would validate it for me, but if it is going to generate a GCD then I am going to swap to lightning so that I don't get a disease from the new Madness rotation.

 

Yea they shouldnt have used the word "build defining" LOL. Build defining is increasing the dmg on force lightning significantly while other abilities do 50% less dmg. But to be fair, Madness will do a LOT more dmg to single targets and well watch a lot of people melt and most likely ask for nerfs.

Edited by Delani
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Want to add my concern about ability bloat with the additions of new abilities. Heidyn talked about the Madness rotation already feeling a bit bloated, which i agree with, but there are definitely other dps specs where this could be a problem also. Is this something the team is taking into account and keeping an eye on?
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No.

Stop.

Please, seriously stop attaching things to overload. And extricate too for that matter, but I doubt that will see much use anyway.

 

Seriously no one wants mobs needlessly being flung around constantly. As a melee player this is beyond annoying.

 

Please! Stop incentivizing trolltastic behavior! PLEASE

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New Ability - Volt Rush

DDeals energy damage to your target and energizes you for up to 5 seconds. The Energize effect can stack twice, with each stack increasing Volt Rush damage by 30%. The ability has 3 charges and a recharge timer of 10 seconds.

 

My concern here is how much damage this ability is going to do and by what passives from each skill tree it will be affected. In order for us to truly give any meaningful feedback, this is information we need to know. What is the base damage of the ability? Is the 30% increase per stack additive or multiplicative?

 

Clearly the goal here is to provide an ability that provides ramping damage. However, I foresee a big problem with the energize duration and the effective cooldown of this ability. Sure, it recharges every 10s, but the only way that you are going to want to use this optimally is when you can use all three charges, which means even if you are spacing out each Volt Rush activation to maximize the duration of the energize buff/debuff then it still has an effective cooldown of 20 seconds. If not, then its cooldown will be as high as 30 seconds. Additionally, if the damage is subpar with the first 2 hits, then it is going to feel really bad to be using 2 low dps gcds just to get 1 good or even great gcd.

 

For Lightning, I can see how this ability will slot in, assuming the damage numbers are there. This ability has to hit harder than Lightning Bolt with no stacks of Energize, and should hit harder than both Chain Lightning and Lightning Flash with max stacks of Energize. If it doesn't, I don't really think this is going to be that great an ability.

 

For Madness, this ability becomes a rotational nightmare at first glance. With only a 5 second buff/debuff duration on Energize, this is going to force Madness to use Volt Rush in spots that are going to feel awkward. On top of that, Force Lightning is incredibly important for force management, so you are not going to want to replace that with this.

 

My overall recommendation upon seeing this ability, is to change the duration of Energize to longer than the ammo recharge. So in its current form, I would suggest a 15s duration for Energize with the 10 second ammo recharge. However, I recognize that without damage numbers currently available, this could be providing too big a burst every 10 seconds. Therefore, if that is the problem, my suggestion is to increase the ammo recharge time to 15 seconds, and make the Energize buff last 20 seconds.

 

Set Bonuses

These bonuses will likely have the high end of piece requirements, such as requiring 4 or 6 pieces. The smaller piece bonuses will be more passive in nature (stat benefits, etc).

 

  • Energized Overload - Overload energizes you. Volt Rush deals more damage when you are under the Energize effect.
  • Gathering Storm - Activating Force Speed reduces the cooldown of Polairty Shift by 5 seconds. Using Polarity Shift immediately after extends its duration.
  • Dark Consumption - Dark Heal heals more if you have a Weary or Reverse Corruption stack and consumes 1 stack upon use.
  • Revitalize - Healing a target with another ability while Resurgence is active on them has a chance to cause an extra Resurgence tick for half. Refreshing Resurgence on a target refunds some force.

 

These all look ok for the most part. However, forcing overload as a means to Energize is just not a good design if Overload's damage is going to remain where it is. Either have this set bonus also increase the damage of Overload massively, or just make Force Speed trigger this because it has a similar cooldown and would fit better.

 

Tactical Items

 

Sorcerer

  • Dark Cleanse - Consuming Darkness lowers the cooldown of Expunge by 3 seconds.
  • Liberate - Extrication now heals you and the target and makes your next Resurgence free.
  • Preserve Self - Activating Unnatural Preservation removes Static Barrier's Deionize effect from you.
  • Dark Return - Returning to your Phase Walk marker causes a force explosion around you, dealing damage to any enemies around.

 

I don't really see these being used too much given the discipline specific. Dark Return could be fun in some scenarios if it does enough damage though.

 

Corruption

  • All For One - Revivification heals more for each ally it affects.
  • One For All - Revivification heals more the fewer allies it affects.
  • Extra Mend - Roaming Mend can now heal up to 5 targets instead of 4.
  • Healing Volts - Damaging an enemy with Volt Rush causes your ally closest to the enemy to be healed, scaling with how many Energized stacks are on the enemy.

 

Healing Volts is a great idea. Sorc healers need to be able to do more damage, and being able to heal at the same time is a very cool idea so this one is awesome. The two Revivification tacticals could be fine, depending on numbers. These aren't super exciting for "changing how you play your class", but if the numbers are there I think that it's fine. Extra Mend is similar. It isn't exciting, but it is going to add more healing so I guess it's okay.

 

Lightning

  • Death Channel - Forked Darkness now has a greater chance to activate and Crushing Darkness deals more damage each time it ticks.
  • Volt Flux - Volt Rush triggers Lightning Storm when activated. Chain Lightning spreads the Energized effect and causes your next Volt Rush to arc to nearby targets.
  • Convection Burst - While under Convection, activating Lightning Flash grants an additional Convection stack. 3 Convection stacks allow Thundering Blast to be activated instantly, consuming all stacks.
  • Stormwatch - Lightning Flash applies Stormwatch to it's targets. Anytime this target it critically hit in the next 10 seconds, a weaker Lightning Flash is applied to them.

 

Death Channel is going to either be extremely strong or completely useless depending on how much more of a chance Forked Darkness has to proc and how much more damage Crushing Darkness is dealing. I don't foresee this being good enough to take over Stormwatch for single target.

 

Volt Flux look amazing for AoE. I have one question though. How is it spreading Energize though if Energize is a buff and not debuff? As you say here:

Deals energy damage to your target and energizes you for up to 5 seconds.

 

I don't see anyone taking Convection Burst over these other 3. It just doesn't provide enough.

 

Stormwatch is cool and I like this idea. Is it any time the target is critically hit, or just any time you critically the target though?

 

Madness

  • Exhaustion Field - Death Field does 10% more damage to all targets spreads Force Slow's effects.
  • Ruthless Demolition - Demolish deals 20% more damage on initial hit. Additionally, under Polarity Shift, Demolish resets the cooldown of Force Leech, and causes the next Force Leech to activate instantly.
  • Writhing Terror - Creeping Terror has a 10% chance to tick an additional time whenever Force Lightning deals damage.
  • Wrath Rushdown - When Force Lightning generates 4 stacks of Wrath, you gain Wrath Rush, allowing your next 3 Volt Rushes to deal 25% more damage and cost 50% less Force. Volt Rush consumes all stacks of Wrath.

 

Similar to the overload set bonus, I don't understand the desire to push terrible dps abilities into dps rotations under any circumstance. Even if it is useful in the new operation, it won't be useful anywhere else except maybe pvp sometimes, though I honestly doubt it. I would suggest changing it to applying force slow to all targets it hits. Having to actively use Force Slow is just not going to feel good, and the damage amp for Death Field isn't high enough to justify taking this in my opinion.

 

Ruthless Demolition looks really cool and decently strong. I think this could create a new interesting rotation for madness.

 

The percentage on Writhing Terror is just too low to justify taking this over Ruthless Demolition or Wrath Rushdown.

 

Wrath Rushdown also seems interesting and could be good depending on how good Volt Rush is. Also please change the name to just Wrath Rush. Rushdown just sounds bad.

 

My final thoughts regarding these changes:

I think that there are some good ideas here. I don't like that we have no numbers to go along with them because it makes feedback incredibly hard to give. I am disappointed that this isn't on PTS to test right now as was originally said. Please provide some damage and healing numbers so we can give better feedback on all of these changes.

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can we get a set bonus or tactical to take consuming darkness off the gcd if we have 1 or more stacks of reverse corruptions...(use charges or soemthing so people dont abuse or accidently kill themselves). or something that gives sorc healers an ability that regens health (like diagnostic scan etc.) (i would love a tactical that makes force lightning or force storm regen force on crits)

 

this is only for healer sorcs...

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Hello,

 

just wanted to throw in some feedback from the point of a noobish player.

I only play Lighning Sorcerer DD in PvE content, so i will judge every proposed Set Bonus and Tactical Item solely for its usefulness in this content. Also I only did storymode Operations and mastermode Flashpoints, so i have no experience in higher difficulty gameplay. If you have and find my thinking to be completly off, feel free to correct me.

 

(So why do I even care about endgame gearing? Yeah good question, dunno what to tell you, I just like to theorycraft? Is that even a thing in SWTOR? Anyway atleast I plan to attend higher difficulty content someday.)

 

So here are my thoughts:

 

[*]Energized Overload - Overload energizes you. Volt Rush deals more damage when you are under the Energize effect.

 

Not sure about Overload. To me it seems its an PvP ability (in combination with the Utility that roots people), can't really think about a fight where you want to use it, i never do. (again correct my ignorance pls)

Using Overload, and therefor an GCD, which you could have used for a damage ability, just to generate an stack of Energize seems doesn't seem worth to me. (again correct me)

So basically an useless bonus.

 

[*]Gathering Storm - Activating Force Speed reduces the cooldown of Polairty Shift by 5 seconds. Using Polarity Shift immediately after extends its duration.

 

Well, this means basically a higher uptime on the offensive CD in fights where you want/need to move a lot anyways.

Honestly don't know how many fights that are. But Bioware balances dps of melee classes higher, because they have to move more to deal with mechanics, so ranged can't be required to move that often.

(Yes you probably guesed right, i don't really like that design approach, but again who am i to judge? Maybe i got it all wrong.)

In fights where you don't need to move, it would again be a wasted CD you could have used for a damage ability.

Not sure if this is worth. More uptime on 20% alacrity will improve dps quite a bit. Someone with math skills needs to investigate if the shorter GCD time equals (or excels) the lost GCD.

 

[*]Dark Consumption - Dark Heal heals more if you have a Weary or Reverse Corruption stack and consumes 1 stack upon use.

[*]Revitalize - Healing a target with another ability while Resurgence is active on them has a chance to cause an extra Resurgence tick for half. Refreshing Resurgence on a target refunds some force.

 

Both Bonuses are obviously aimed at healers, which is of course not a bad thing, but useless for my DD sorcerer.

 

From the general inquisitor Set Bonuses:

 

Decelerate - Force Slow now has 2 charges. Using Force Slow on an enemy already under the effect of Force Slow slows them by an additional 20% and extends the duration.

 

Its an PvP Bonus as you can't sloe bosses.

 

Gyre - The cooldown of Whirlwind is reduced by 10 seconds. In addition, killing any enemy before Whirlwind ends resets the cooldown of Whirlwind.

 

I only use whirlwind when soloing H4 heroics, don't see much other use, so meh.

 

Seething Power - Overload increases your damage reduction by 10% for 10 seconds. Getting attacked during this time causes your next Force attack to critically hit. This effect can only occur once every 10 seconds.

 

Basically an interesting option, damage reduction and guaranteed crit don't seem bad. (Compared to the rest)

But why Overload? Same problem as above, don't think its worth using Overload for this.

 

Powered Electrocute - Electrocute's stun lasts an additional 2 seconds.

 

Seems to be pretty much a PvP thing, as you can't stun bosses.

 

Tactical items:

 

Sorcerer in general:

 

Dark Cleanse - Consuming Darkness lowers the cooldown of Expunge by 3 seconds.

Liberate - Extrication now heals you and the target and makes your next Resurgence free.

 

I think these are intended for healer, not really usefull for DD.

 

Preserve Self - Activating Unnatural Preservation removes Static Barrier's Deionize effect from you.

 

Very defensive. I don't think sorc should be about defense, as they are no tanks, but that could just be me.

 

Dark Return - Returning to your Phase Walk marker causes a force explosion around you, dealing damage to any enemies around.

 

Who uses Phase walk to get back into the fight?

 

Specifically for lightning:

 

Death Channel - Forked Darkness now has a greater chance to activate and Crushing Darkness deals more damage each time it ticks.

Volt Flux - Volt Rush triggers Lightning Storm when activated. Chain Lightning spreads the Energized effect and causes your next Volt Rush to arc to nearby targets.

Convection Burst - While under Convection, activating Lightning Flash grants an additional Convection stack. 3 Convection stacks allow Thundering Blast to be activated instantly, consuming all stacks.

Stormwatch - Lightning Flash applies Stormwatch to it's targets. Anytime this target it critically hit in the next 10 seconds, a weaker Lightning Flash is applied to them.

 

I think the devs did a great job with these, really like them, all of them would be useful, if I continued to play like i do just now (so not even trying to make to best out of it).

No need to change anything here.

 

 

So i critizised like all of the Set Bonuses, but what would i like to see instead?

Maybe something like this:

"Upon dealing critical damge, there is a chance of X% to gain Buff Y, which allows you to instant cast Thundering Blast."

Or something like that, that enhances the main damage abillities of the sorcerer.

 

That's it. Explanations why i am wrong are encouraged.

 

PS: Sorry for incorrect english

 

 

tl,dr:

Lightning specific tacticals are good, everything else is meh for lightning sorc dps

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Preserve Self - Activating Unnatural Preservation removes Static Barrier's Deionize effect from you.

 

So bubble stun (3s cc) -> less than 12s of hitting the sorc (assuming healer with the 15s deionize) -> bubble stun -> unnatural preservation -> bubble stun (6s of cc) -> less than 12s of hitting the sorc -> bubble stun (3s cc)-> less than 12s of hitting the sorc -> bubble stun -> unnatural preservation -> bubble stun (6s of cc)? Please no.

 

Bubble stun only gives 300 resolve so it can hit 4 times in a row before you're white barred. Or twice + hard stun or whirlwind. So basically every 30ish seconds you can get hit with a 10-14s stun chain.

 

Can we either adjust how resolve works or stop adding more slows and stuns to the game? Please?

 

Exhaustion Field - Death Field does 10% more damage to all targets spreads Force Slow's effects.

 

Again, either adjust resolve or stop adding more slows/stuns. It's not fun!

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I am not especially happy about getting a damage ability as a healer. I think that healers could've benefited from an AoE cleanse or new healing ability.

 

If not an actual new AoE cleanse, then something like the following.

After activating unnatural preservation, expunge clears all debuffs from a single target or 2 debuffs from all allies in a 10 meter radius.

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I'm maining sorc healer for last 4 years(mostly HM/NiM PvE, but occasionaly PvP). And I'm kinda disappointed by those tacticals and set-bonuses. You've said those would be build-defining, yet we're simply getting some new utilities.

 

Still, here's my opnion on them

 

New Ability - Volt Rush

DDeals energy damage to your target and energizes you for up to 5 seconds. The Energize effect can stack twice, with each stack increasing Volt Rush damage by 30%. The ability has 3 charges and a recharge timer of 10 seconds.

This *might* be interesting, but how much damage it deals compared to regular shock/lightning strike?

 

Set Bonuses

These bonuses will likely have the high end of piece requirements, such as requiring 4 or 6 pieces. The smaller piece bonuses will be more passive in nature (stat benefits, etc).

 

  • Energized Overload - Overload energizes you. Volt Rush deals more damage when you are under the Energize effect.
  • Gathering Storm - Activating Force Speed reduces the cooldown of Polairty Shift by 5 seconds. Using Polarity Shift immediately after extends its duration.
  • Dark Consumption - Dark Heal heals more if you have a Weary or Reverse Corruption stack and consumes 1 stack upon use.
  • Revitalize - Healing a target with another ability while Resurgence is active on them has a chance to cause an extra Resurgence tick for half. Refreshing Resurgence on a target refunds some force.

 

Now this's just underwhelming.

Dark Consumption may be nice for force management, but it's not like we have problems with it. Unless it's buffing Dark Heal by 50+%, I don't think I'll consider using it.

Revitalize - really depends on that chance.

 

I think I like my current "-1,5 seconds to Innervate cooldown" more.

 

Sorcerer

  • Dark Cleanse - Consuming Darkness lowers the cooldown of Expunge by 3 seconds.
  • Liberate - Extrication now heals you and the target and makes your next Resurgence free.
  • Preserve Self - Activating Unnatural Preservation removes Static Barrier's Deionize effect from you.
  • Dark Return - Returning to your Phase Walk marker causes a force explosion around you, dealing damage to any enemies around.

 

Corruption

  • All For One - Revivification heals more for each ally it affects.
  • One For All - Revivification heals more the fewer allies it affects.
  • Extra Mend - Roaming Mend can now heal up to 5 targets instead of 4.
  • Healing Volts - Damaging an enemy with Volt Rush causes your ally closest to the enemy to be healed, scaling with how many Energized stacks are on the enemy.

 

Liberate - might be useful in PvP, depending on amount of healing received.

Preserve self - same, I see how it can be used with sorc PvP utilities for static barrier, but in generic scenario I would take something more healing-oriented.

 

Now, the healing tacticals are nice, but again, they really depend on numbers.

All for one should give atleast +10% for each affected target.

One for all something like +100% if it's healing one target, +50% if it's healing 2 targets and so on.

Extra mend is nice, but definitely not build-defining

Now healing volts is a really interesting one. If we would get Dark Heal - level healing with 0 stacks, I'd certainly consider it, cause I love dealing some damage with my sorc, even when Crushing Darkness is on CD.

Edited by ddttor
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The set bonuses don't seem to be really that mind-blowing, they're kind of underwhelming. Madness tactical items are definitely good though. Wrath is the only one I'm iffy about but its mostly because we don't know much about the new ability.
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First of all, I’d like to point out that the following feedback is from the perspective of a PvE player, specifically a Nightmare/Master Mode raiding guild.

 

 

Set Bonuses:

 

Energized Overload:

Doesn’t sound like it changes the gameplay a lot. The damage that would be the result of this set bonus would need to be higher than the damage that is lost by using overload over any other ability. Right now this sounds not only clunky but useless and maybe even hindering in raid scenarios.

 

Gathering Storm:

First of all, I am unsure as to what is meant by “Using Polarity Shift immediately after extends its duration” - which duration?

However, this set bonus does sound intriguing as it could seriously buff the damage output of the lightning sorc, especially in combination with Death Channel. To be honest, I see this more as a possible tactical than a set bonus.

Additionally, this definitely has a bigger impact on lightning (where you currently do use Force Speed) than on Madness. Is it your plan that set bonuses will be designed for one spec with 6.0 instead of the way it is right now, where there is one set bonus for all DPS specs of one class.

 

Dark Consumption:

Depends a lot on the numbers, seems fine for a 4 piece bonus. Might make force management for sorc heals even more of a joke. I personally feel like consuming Weary stacks should have a negative impact as well, like giving the target you heal a small DoT in exchange for the bigger initial heal. On the other hand, Reverse Corruption could give another small HoT to the target.

 

Revitalize:

Seems a little bit boring, in addition to this you could maybe give Resurgence two charges, might become too strong though.

 

Tactical Items:

 

Sorcerer:

Dark Cleanse:

Seems very weak and very situational.

 

Liberate:

Seems like a meme, the free resurgence isn’t really needed for force management. The heal granted through pulling someone towards you has to be very big in order to justify the incoming flame from the sad melee dps.

 

Preserve Self:

Seems a little bit weak for PvE

 

Dark Return:

Depends on the tuning, seems like a fun new AoE Ability, especially since you don’t really need the Phase Walk for movement.

 

Overall these general tacticals don’t really feel like they actually change the gameplay a lot and I feel like they should be buffed a lot more.

 

Corruption:

All For One & One For All:

This either gives you an additional single target heal, but greatly reduces your AoE healing capability, or buffs your existing AoE heal. One For All doesn’t really seem good when you have melee DPS in the raid, All For One however just buffs the ability.

 

Extra Mend:

It doesn’t sound very interesting or game-changing, and I can’t see anything that would make a healer decide to use his tactical slot for this one item.

 

Healing Volts:

In principle a damaging ability that causes an ally to be healed is, IMO, a very welcome addition to the gameplay. Still, the way I see it at the moment it would have to be a strong burst heal for it to be prefered over other tacticals since it must be an improvement to your healing output and not only a fun addition to the way your class works, at least for a player who is interested in optimizing your character and playstyle like me.

 

Lightning:

Death Channel:

Could be a good buff to the damage output of a lightning sorc, especially when combined with the aforementioned Gathering Storm. Still in its design it sounds more like a passive in your skill tree than a tactical that is supposed to change your playstyle or optimization for specific encounters.

 

Volt Flux:

This does sound very promising (maybe even a bit OP, although that is to be judged on PTS). It could be good tactical you swap in for aoe heavy encounters.

 

Convection Burst:

This does sound like a PvP tactical. I can’t see any use for it in PvP anyways.

 

Stormwatch:

Basically the same as with Death Channel, a passive damage increase.

 

Madness:

Exhaustion Field:

While a 10% damage buff on your Death Field is certainly quite nice, the second part of the description does again sound rather like a PvP passive. I deduce that it is intended for PvP.

 

Ruthless Demolition:

I like this one. It would definitely impact your playstyle and could offer some decent burst damage.

 

Writhing Terror:

This just adds RNG and doesn’t impact your rotation at all. This shouldn’t be a tactical.

 

Wrath Rushdown:

This tactical sounds like it has enough impact on gameplay and damage output that it is in the range of what I imagined a tactical would be. However, the 50% less force cost doesn’t have any impact if the force management stays the same as it is right now.

 

Generally speaking, most of these tacticals don’t really live up to the expectations that my guild had for them. Most of them are either too weak or they are simply passive. There also aren’t really any outstanding synergies that I can think of and right now I feel like these tacticals just add something small to your gameplay but they don’t actually define it.

What I’m also unsure about is the new ability, because it just doesn’t make sense to me to give it to the Corruption spec if it’s only really useful for healing if you have the Healing Volts tactical.

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First of all, I’d like to point out that the following feedback is from the perspective of a PvE player, specifically a Nightmare/Master Mode raiding guild.

 

 

Set Bonuses:

 

Energized Overload:

Doesn’t sound like it changes the gameplay a lot. The damage that would be the result of this set bonus would need to be higher than the damage that is lost by using overload over any other ability. Right now this sounds not only clunky but useless and maybe even hindering in raid scenarios.

 

Gathering Storm:

First of all, I am unsure as to what is meant by “Using Polarity Shift immediately after extends its duration” - which duration?

However, this set bonus does sound intriguing as it could seriously buff the damage output of the lightning sorc, especially in combination with Death Channel. To be honest, I see this more as a possible tactical than a set bonus.

Additionally, this definitely has a bigger impact on lightning (where you currently do use Force Speed) than on Madness. Is it your plan that set bonuses will be designed for one spec with 6.0 instead of the way it is right now, where there is one set bonus for all DPS specs of one class.

 

Dark Consumption:

Depends a lot on the numbers, seems fine for a 4 piece bonus. Might make force management for sorc heals even more of a joke. I personally feel like consuming Weary stacks should have a negative impact as well, like giving the target you heal a small DoT in exchange for the bigger initial heal. On the other hand, Reverse Corruption could give another small HoT to the target.

 

Revitalize:

Seems a little bit boring, in addition to this you could maybe give Resurgence two charges, might become too strong though.

 

Tactical Items:

 

Sorcerer:

Dark Cleanse:

Seems very weak and very situational.

 

Liberate:

Seems like a meme, the free resurgence isn’t really needed for force management. The heal granted through pulling someone towards you has to be very big in order to justify the incoming flame from the sad melee dps.

 

Preserve Self:

Seems a little bit weak for PvE

 

Dark Return:

Depends on the tuning, seems like a fun new AoE Ability, especially since you don’t really need the Phase Walk for movement.

 

Overall these general tacticals don’t really feel like they actually change the gameplay a lot and I feel like they should be buffed a lot more.

 

Corruption:

All For One & One For All:

This either gives you an additional single target heal, but greatly reduces your AoE healing capability, or buffs your existing AoE heal. One For All doesn’t really seem good when you have melee DPS in the raid, All For One however just buffs the ability.

 

Extra Mend:

It doesn’t sound very interesting or game-changing, and I can’t see anything that would make a healer decide to use his tactical slot for this one item.

 

Healing Volts:

In principle a damaging ability that causes an ally to be healed is, IMO, a very welcome addition to the gameplay. Still, the way I see it at the moment it would have to be a strong burst heal for it to be prefered over other tacticals since it must be an improvement to your healing output and not only a fun addition to the way your class works, at least for a player who is interested in optimizing your character and playstyle like me.

 

Lightning:

Death Channel:

Could be a good buff to the damage output of a lightning sorc, especially when combined with the aforementioned Gathering Storm. Still in its design it sounds more like a passive in your skill tree than a tactical that is supposed to change your playstyle or optimization for specific encounters.

 

Volt Flux:

This does sound very promising (maybe even a bit OP, although that is to be judged on PTS). It could be good tactical you swap in for aoe heavy encounters.

 

Convection Burst:

This does sound like a PvP tactical. I can’t see any use for it in PvP anyways.

 

Stormwatch:

Basically the same as with Death Channel, a passive damage increase.

 

Madness:

Exhaustion Field:

While a 10% damage buff on your Death Field is certainly quite nice, the second part of the description does again sound rather like a PvP passive. I deduce that it is intended for PvP.

 

Ruthless Demolition:

I like this one. It would definitely impact your playstyle and could offer some decent burst damage.

 

Writhing Terror:

This just adds RNG and doesn’t impact your rotation at all. This shouldn’t be a tactical.

 

Wrath Rushdown:

This tactical sounds like it has enough impact on gameplay and damage output that it is in the range of what I imagined a tactical would be. However, the 50% less force cost doesn’t have any impact if the force management stays the same as it is right now.

 

Generally speaking, most of these tacticals don’t really live up to the expectations that my guild had for them. Most of them are either too weak or they are simply passive. There also aren’t really any outstanding synergies that I can think of and right now I feel like these tacticals just add something small to your gameplay but they don’t actually define it.

What I’m also unsure about is the new ability, because it just doesn’t make sense to me to give it to the Corruption spec if it’s only really useful for healing if you have the Healing Volts tactical.

 

To be honest, I agree. The question now is, what could they do to actually define the gameplay though? I was making suggestions in the forums as to new abilites but thats beyond their capabilities. I beleive that they should have tacticals that increase your primary attack by 400% but decrease your other abilities or have tacticals were you can make pure speed builds or control builds. A control build would include roots/hardtuns and ccs and a speed build would include reduction of cooldown on force speed, and high alacrity. Maybe even a distance build were your entire build is based off of roots and knockbacks, allowing players to maintain there distance from melee classes. Or even include high damage intake builds were you take a lot more dmg but your dps is reduced. Those would be better tacticals imo ie, your armor rating is increased by 200% but you do 50% less dmg. Or your movement speed is increased by 175% but your armor rating is decreased by 25%. Something like that.

Edited by Delani
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Perhaps try adding something an ability for dps sorc/sages where force bubble grants impairment and hardstun immunity to hardstuns, slows and cc. Or force speed grants immunity to all movement impairment, cc and hardstun abilites while active.
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I wish there was a Set Bonus or Tactical that had a specific effect or modified a specific ability not listed.

 

What I would REALLY like to see - as a Madness Sorcerer main - is either removing the target limit for Death Field or vastly increasing its radius. That, I think, would really define the playstyle for me, as we are a spec that thrives on DoT.

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