Q1: I thought it would be good to max LoV because it's instant, zero cooldown, should be good to reveal folks in pvp, and combo's well with frost nova. I suppose all that true at level 1...but is the damage difference that significant? Or is this just a minor skill that's not really worth considering much?
Zero cooldown, but the real cooldown is the long animation. LOV is a 3 second animation skill, and that long animation sometimes can really mess you up especially during lag moment where you might pressed the LOV hotkey several times. 99% sorcs (including me) in SEA left LOV at level 1, because it won't have any impact at higher levels, and in dungeon we usually leave the mobs clearing to Knight with their Grand Cross skill.
And also, i knew that NA players love to play in party, which makes Frost Nova + LOV a highlight, but then you might wanna skip that idea because its very risky, and not worth it.
Q2: Maxing Earth Arms sounds like it'll be pretty great for healing (here's looking to you Stryfek), but what should be cut to max it out?
Max Earth Arms only if you guys in NA server receive the Sorc's heal nerf, which cuts ALL Sorc's heal skills (Land of Recovery, Deluge, and the 2 single target heal skills which i forgot the name) by half, and increases the Earth Arms effect by 2x at max level.
<<This comment here assumes that NA server isn't going to get the nerf patch>>
Besides the 10% heal power isn't really that good. Its not going to make you any better in supporting party, when Sorc is already a great supportive class with skills like Land of Recovery and Deluge. You can leave it at lvl 1, and go for Water Arms (my personal favourite in raid party before the nerf) or Wind Arms (making skill casting alot faster) instead of using Earth Arms.
First, question: Is JT Mastery 7%, 13%, 15% in game or 5%, 10%, 15% like says in RO2skillsim?
In SEA, ots 7/13/15. Not sure if NA gonna have that or follow the one stated in the skill sim.
They favor Earth Arms over Deluge, say as an emergency skill, deluge isn't really all that helpful in a raid situation.
No cooldown reduction for res, say most likely once per use in 5 man, and there are other means to reduce the cooldown.
FD max, use with Foresight and lightning skills. It also helps to trap some annoying mobs in raids.
Deluge is affected by Earth Arms in SEA. Without maxing Earth Arms, Deluge's heal power will be halved, and sometimes that can be fatal especially if you got hit by strong attack that puts DOT debuff on you (mostly on high level raid dungeon). Deluge is definitely useful as emergency healing skill, to counter boss's AOE attacks. It boosts your HP accordingly, and applies strong HOT on your party for 10s, which is always good for certain boss that has a habit of using AOE attacks consecutively. Just get it despite of what those in SEA forums said. Every Sorc regardless of their build will definitely want Deluge in their build, even if not maxed.
No cooldown reduction for res, say most likely once per use in 5 man, and there are other means to reduce the cooldown.
Res as in ressurection? If NA server is going to follow the kRO setup, then its going to be 3/4/5 minutes which is too good for us at SEA. But if you guys get the horrible 30/40/50 minutes cooldown like us, then you might wanna follow the following
- Not sure what NA server is going to name it, but in SEA its Vigor, which reduces your CD. You can get Vigor from rare (blue) and epic (purple) gears. By standard, at level 50, its going to be like 10-20% cd reduction only you can possibly get from epic level gears (PVP epic gears give you enough Vigor to reduce about 15-20% cd of all your skills.).
- Using Guardian, which reduces your CD for all skills by 30%. This buff will be added directly to your current vigor rate, making it possible to get -50% cd rate using vigor + guardian.
Frost Diver is worth maxing, even at lvl 50. While all bosses in raid dungeon/dungeon are immune to FD, making Wind Arms a better choice for inflicting more damage, but still it may come in handy especially when the mobs are summoned out. And in PVP, you just can't say no to FD. With higher MATK, critical rate and maxed JT and Vspear, FD > JT > Vspear is likely going to be OHKO combo for non tanker classes.
As for the stat, just like RO1, most people will definitely aim for having higher VIT first to get more HP. Once they're used to the raid dungeon, they will shift their VIT to other stats, mainly the AGI or STR/INT to increase the DPS power. It doesn't matter what you going to plan for your base stat, because your end stats will definitely be determined by the gears and runes.