Has anyone tested Necropotence vs NMA vs Julianos etc for pet sorcs post patch?

Larcomar

Maybe a bit behind the times I note that the last big patch changed the way pets behave - scaling off spell damage as well as magika. My 2 pet petsorc's still running necropotence + mother's sorrow and I'm wondering if I should finally switch out the former. I saw a couple of posts talking about it before the patch dropped and don'tread's about pet sorc viability in general, but I wondered if anyone had parsed to test the different sets now it's live.

I'm not into trials so mainly looking at dungeon / overland / crafted. Running (maelstrom) shock back bar so don't get enough uptime for BSW, afaik Ele succession doesn't buff crystal frags, and Spell strategist obv just single target so was thinking the best choice might be NMA. But then that got nerfed too, and I noticed alcast now recommends julianos for his intermediate build (ie non trial). Slightly surprised me - always seen julianos as a starter set tbh.

- Have any petsorcs tested NMA, julianos, necropotence etc and reached any conclusions about which sets might be better for a pet sorc to run alongside mother's sorrow? (afaik MS still bis)

- Does that equation change if you're running a back bar maelstrom staff? - I wondered briefly about a proc set on front bar but struggled to think of one - I thought about scathing mage but reviews seem a bit sceptical and uptime lower than expected

- Bonus q - assuming you wind up with something like NMA + MS or Julianos and MS, does it make a alot of difference which is body and which is front barred? - I sort of wound up with necro body and mother's sorrow front bar (inferno) and stuck with it as the magika didn't yoyo up and down.

Thanks in advance for any advice

larcomar

DontTread

Following

Oreyn_Bearclaw

I have not specifically tested, but this is my general understanding of where things are currently at:

First, if you can get a trial set do it, and pair with either MS or maybe Medusa. Minor Slayer is a very powerful buff.

If not trial set, I believe that generally NMA>Julianos> Necro, but they are all very close. NMA is probably going to cause you some sustain issues, especially if your support is not great. Flip side of course is that if you dont do trials, most 4 man fights dont really last long enough for sustain to matter too much. Julianos I believe has moved ahead of Necro for the exact reasons you stated. If you already have a gold set of Necro, and dont have one of Julianos, honestly, I probably wouldnt bother changing unless you have gold mats burning a hole in your pocket.

If there is one set that makes sense to run on the body, it is probably Necropotence. I really hate having max magic being drastically different between the two bars. A lot of people run MS on just their front bar. When paired with a trial set, its better to have MS on the body, but I dont think the difference is that drastic. The trick of course is getting a trail fire staff to drop.

TLDR: If you dont have a trial set or a VMA staff, I doubt you will notice all that much difference between the 3 sets in question.

Larcomar

Oreyn, thank's that's handy to know. I figured it would probably be something like that - feels like NMA must still logically be at least some improvement over julianos. I mean, even with the nerf you're still getting what, an extra 230 spell damage *1.2 and 1400 pen (3%?) vs 1000 mag and an extra 833 crit (4%?) on julianos. I guess the question is sustain - but 5% shouldnt be that big a deal. Even if I had to swap a damage glypg for a reduce cost one, the equation is probably still breaking even. As you say tho, the differences are prob pretty marginal. I think I will swap, if only because NMA / Julianos would be more flexible - I run pet less sometimes and occasionally pick up healing a guild group. Necro obv a no no there

cheers

larcomar

Zodiarkslayer

You could also try dropping Mother's Sorrow...
I personally think its not best in slot. At least not anymore. I find that ending up with more than 50% crit is not necessarily the best decision.
MagSorcs have better crit than other classes via passives. So if any class can do without MS than its MagSorc.
My Sorceress has 59% crit after she cast a dark magic ability. Without Mother's Sorrow. That feels more than enough.
If I can get steady 4000 or more spell power in exchange for that? Seems to be a no-brainer, doesn't it?
Anyways, you would probably only frontbar New Moon Acolyte so the sustain issue is not that great....

Bobby_V_Rockit

I ditched necropotence for Bright Throats Boast a while back, close-ish magicka boost along with regen. I eithee use medusa for DD or bright throats for healing, paired with eithe trial set, siroria or olorime

BeamsForDemacia

if we talk about non meta not optimised,u could also try to get infaliable aether from crag trials and use it with necropotence for a heavy attack rotation,

BXR_Lonestar

I'm still rolling Crafty Alfiqi and Necropotence and my petsorc is still crushing it. I did flip my mundus from the Mage to Apprentice to give me ~ 320 extra spell damage. And I may experiment with upgrading my jewelry to infused with spell damage glyphs, or I could switch to destruction mastery to see how things roll. Either way, the changes weren't so severe that my pet sorc is so hampered that he can't burn through content quickly still, so I don't see a reason to make wholesale changes on him.

Danksta

BSW is a guaranteed proc now, though they did lower the spell damage a bit.

Oreyn_Bearclaw

Zodiarkslayer wrote: »

You could also try dropping Mother's Sorrow...
I personally think its not best in slot. At least not anymore. I find that ending up with more than 50% crit is not necessarily the best decision.
MagSorcs have better crit than other classes via passives. So if any class can do without MS than its MagSorc.
My Sorceress has 59% crit after she cast a dark magic ability. Without Mother's Sorrow. That feels more than enough.
If I can get steady 4000 or more spell power in exchange for that? Seems to be a no-brainer, doesn't it?
Anyways, you would probably only frontbar New Moon Acolyte so the sustain issue is not that great....

Not sure the math agrees with you on that. But also, min/maxing to the nth degree is not always necessary. In a good raid with all the crit modifies running around, crit is king.

If not in a good raid, we are all splitting hairs. You can put on Juilianos and Seducer and clear everything in the game. If you want to maximize DPS, its Mother's Sorrow and Siroria. Everything else will be less, it's just a matter of degree.

WastedJoker

Magden here but I switched from Necropotence & Julianos with Maelstrom Inferno Staff backbar to NMA & Julianos with Maelstrom Inferno Staff backbar and noticed a fairly big jump in my DPS as well as just getting much better crits for bursting.

I only do overland/dungeon/quest pve and BG though so my take is probably not all that worth.

IneedaDollar

Basically the same as any Magclass:
Combine Siroria, Master Architect or False God with Mothers Sorrow, Medusa or New Moon Acolyte.
There are other niche sets but these 6 are the most important right now.
Perfected Sets have an additional bonus, the 5 percent bonus from trial sets is very good and critchance/damage is the best Stat in the game.
Siroria for static fights without sustain problems.
Master Architect for optimizing groups or burst fights.
False God in most situations.
New Moon Acolyte in situations without sustain problems.
Mothers Sorrow if you get the Critbuff from another source already.
Medusa if you don't get the Critbuff from another source.
Monster Set Maw of the Infernal.
If you don't have access to trial gear combine Medusa with Mothers Sorrow.
Crit is broken.