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"What should I spec as a sorc?"


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#1 rainraingirl

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Posted 12 May 2013 - 05:10 AM

Since there seems to be quite a few speculative threads, I thought I'd give my $0.02, as well as the efficiency breakdown I did.
First, it completely depends on what role you want to play.
There is no 1 ideal build for everything, that needs to be said straight off.
Some of what I've written might come off as common sense to you, just skim ahead if that's the case.
I didn't want to alienate new players on purpose, that's all.

Deluge is a must +5 regardless of situation, however.

Stat-wise, some permutation of Agi-Int. Agi is the only innate source of +critical you'll get. There's various other threads on the merits of 40/40/8 or other builds.
I use 51/26/6, so all my links reflect that. Disregard it~

For Solo PVE / leveling to 50 / casual dungeoning, I'd suggest this:
http://ro2base.com/b...310731.22310731
Wind Arms, Frost Diver, Cold Bolt, Jupitel Thunder (and mastery), Varetyr are the engine skills.
Summon Aqua is a cast & forget skill primarily used for sustained dps on bosses.
Deluge is your 20% hp boost, aoe heal, "oh f%ck" skill. It is not instant cast, despite what the skill tool tip says. There is a lead-in animation that needs to be accounted for, but it is one of the most useful skills in your kit regardless.
Earth Shield is a 20% defense boost. This is mostly taken for the benefit of your party. It does little for you when soloing in quest gear & crap defense. This can be allocated elsewheres if you want. The last point can be thrown wherever.

Why these skills? Well, given solo - your ideal rotation will be something like:
Frost Diver - Jupitel Thunder - Varetyr - Lightning Bolt - Lightning Bolt - Cold Bolt until proc - more lightning
I've found, given range, you can also start with JT or CB before FDing a mob, giving you a headstart before your FD freeze starts ticking.
Your best dps is reliant on freeze procs. Frost Diver at L3 allows 6s of freeze status, although given latency & anims, you'll likely only get 5s ish of skills off. Just needs to be considered when planning your rotation. Freeze gives your lightning an automatic 2x damage boost from Thunder-based skills. L5 Wind Arms, apart from the +20% Haste rate (faster casts!, more dps), gives you a 30% chance to trigger a 20s buff that allows your next 2 thunder attacks to do 2x damage. This buff does not stack with freeze status, that is, you can't get 4x damage, but it will persist and not be consumed if you happen to proc it before a Frost Diver cast. In short, you will be spamming Cold Bolt a lot. It's only natural to max it, yes? 4 points gets you a 12% damage increase per cast, 0s cooldown.

But wait you say, what about Lightning Bolt? You use it in the rotation, why not level it? Lightning bolt starts at 15% damage, and increases +2% per point, compared to Cold Bolt's 26% +3%/pt. Even if you somehow managed to 100% freeze every mob you came across, giving LB an effective 4%/pt, LB would only be 2% higher damage than CB for that 4 point investment. Which will not be the case, especially on boss mobs. Additionally, it doesn't have the same innate property of triggering Wind Arms, meaning that you'll still need to spam CB, else be even further crippled dps-wise. It's a lower base damage, it's lower %/point, it's simply not efficient, nor worthwhile to level Lightning Bolt for PVE.

If you want to play fire, roll a Wizard. There's just no fire synergy with Sorceror.

The 2nd point into Jupitel Mastery (passive) gives you +6%, whereas the 3rd only +2%. It's somewhere to toss a spare point, but not a priority to max.
Jupitel Thunder itself is a fat ball of lightning damage, good efficiency, a must-have 3/3.

Why not level the aoes?
Thunderstorm is just a big-fat no. Terrible dps, limited to 3 targets. Between using the target reticule, cast animation, naturally terrible damage, it's just not a skill you'd consider using. It also consumes both of your Wind Arms proc charges. Not to mention the terribad targeting system where you click the ground & it aoes an invisible ceiling because there's no visible indicator for depth of field/elevation when targeting with it.

Lord of Vermillion has its uses, but mainly just for mobbing. It's decent damage at L1, but other skills just take higher priority. Somewhere to toss a spare point if that's your thing. The main downside is you have to be in the middle of everything (close-range local aoe) and are locked in position for the duration of the cast, not exactly the safest spot to be.

Continuing the %breakdown, Varetyr Spear vs Summon Aqua. For this spec, you'll want both. But efficiency should still be considered for the future.
Varetyr L1 starts at 54%, rising to 80% by L5. 6.5%/dmg/pt, although with a 30s cd. Because of the cd, it's all the more important it's only cast after freeze or a 2x proc, to double the efficiency of your points, giving you +52%/30s, or +1.73%dmg/s cd.

Summon Aqua starts at 26%, raising 3%/pt to 38%, similar to CB. It casts once every 2s, giving you 15 attacks per cast, with a 120s cd. Effective 45%dmg/pt, 180%/120s, or 1.5%dmg/s cd.

What does this mean? Well, Varetyr is more efficient when the enemy can be frozen or applied on a 2x proc. Soloing, PVP, Varetyr is especially ideal because of its burst nature. In situations like boss fights, especially if you plan on playing a support-centric sorc, you won't be able to freeze the bosses, and it would be too improbable to rely on a 2x proc 100% of the time. Summon Aqua would probably be the more suitable choice in this situation, since you can just hit the button & forget about it for another 2 minutes.

For group PVE / raid content
The core necessities are: http://ro2base.com/b...310731.22310731
From here, it depends on what you'd prefer to spec, more support, or more dps.
Frost Diver is a 1-pt from a DPS perspective, as its usefulness declines when bosses resist it 100%. You cannot rely on it to maintain your freeze, and if dps, must rely on WA's CB procs. While it may still be of minimal use on adds, in competent groups, most adds will be aoed or dealt with before you're able to get your combo off. It's simply low priority here.
e: It does have utility use for kiting suicidal adds, as mentioned by RaidenQc, so if not playing with a static, consider the investment.

First, the efficiency breakdown. Summon Aqua for reasons stated above. Earth Shield for the group. Deluge because Deluge.
Earth Seal is the single most important skill to raise after Deluge, for a support sorc. L5 effectively doubles the efficacy of your heals, as well as applies a 30% matk HoT on critical. No other skill gives a greater boost to your healing capacity than Earth Seal.

Healing Wave is a single-target point/click type heal spell, starting at 12%, it only increases +5% over 4 points, maxing at 17%. I wouldn't raise this skill unless you were playing as a full support sorc, and had totally foregone the lightning tree. Points just better spent elsewheres. Likewise, the "instant" cast Rejuvenation, starts at 18% rising to 27%. Better per-point efficiency, but with a 8s cd, questionable. The initial animation affords this skill an effective 0.5s-1s cast time, too.

Land of Recovery - starts at 7%, rises 1%/pt to 11%. Heals every 2s for 10s, so 5 ticks. Effectively gives you +5%/point aoe heal, can be recast before the skill finishes. By far the most efficient sustained heal you'll get. I would not bother leveling this unless I was taking Earth Seal, however. If there are only 4 spare points in your build, you will get greater result putting them in ES than you would directly leveling LoR.

Soul Cleansing is something to consider for any spare points. Removing stun from your DDs when the Priest is unable to cleanse them all will be a larger dps boost than points sunk into Cold Bolt.

With this in mind, for hybrid support, I would do something like this:
http://ro2base.com/b...310731.22310731
The remaining 3 points into cleanse, cold bolt, or a single target heal.
For hybrid dps focus, I would use this:
http://ro2base.com/b...310731.22310731

For PVP http://ro2base.com/b...310731.22310731
While you would not normally spec foresight in PVE, it's your free kill skill in PVP. Unparalled burst. While you shouldn't rely on it, it does open up so many more opportunities to you.
I'd not take the defense buff, as it has little effect on you as a clothie with naturally crap defense. Other sorcs will almost assuredly have it maxed as well.
You could even go so far as to forego everything after Resurrect, opting to put the points into Lightning Bolt, or another skill.
http://ro2base.com/b...310731.22310731

Edited by rainraingirl, 12 May 2013 - 03:56 PM.

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#2 RaidenQc

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Posted 12 May 2013 - 06:51 AM

Hi, first of all, I really appreciate your guide.

I got questions on your hybrid DPS focus (what I'm planning to do as well)

Would it be better to use this build on raid.
  • I heard that Frost Diver is really good to block some suicidal monster, so did you consider it?
  • So even with Seal of Earth at level 5, you would suggess to only take Land of Recovery level 1 because level 5 Deluge is more important for hybrid DPS forcus Sorc?
  • Also, would it be better to max Cold Bolt, since its the most frequently used skill?
Thanks =D

Edited by RaidenQc, 12 May 2013 - 06:53 AM.

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#3 rainraingirl

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Posted 12 May 2013 - 03:51 PM

Frost Diver does have utility use in Bapho HM, kiting the bomber summon, so that is something where you might decide to swap 2 points from somewhere else.
It would make that encounter easier, especially if pugging. In regards to your build link, I see nothing out of place.

Deluge is a must +5, the hp buff & HoT push you beyond the OHKO threshold for various aoes.
In regards to LoR, you would have to decide whether to trade off dps for more heal. I'm not suggesting LoR be taken at L1 necessarily, but that Earth Seal should be leveled before LoR. If you've only enough points to level ES, and not LoR, that's simply how it will end up. LoR gets auto 2x heal bonus from ES, as long as ES is active - that is, it doesn't need to crit, but it also won't trigger ES' 30% HoT proc.

3. In regards to Cold Bolt, that was a mistake on my part. It would be more efficient per point to max CB than AS. If you wanted a 3pt FD, the additional 2pts could be siphoned out of AS as well.
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#4 Tlaltecuhtli

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Posted 12 May 2013 - 06:18 PM

Nice guide and one on point of being a sorc to which maximizing all utilities given!

i just noticed tho,

1 pt in CB is pretty fine and that 4 points should be on LOR. higher raids require priests to focus on tanks(both MT and OT), LOR is a good skill to constantly heal range dps or what i call range line.

A good sorc can switch to heal and dps at any given point, that means switching to Earth seals and Wind seals while doing so.

FD is very useful on higher raids specially on COA`s Ratmaster`s Abysses and Aromine`s Toads/Kobugi, and with a good timing with varetyr spear you can have 8sec minimum disable for that particular summon. It can also be applied during PVP and COLO!
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