U38 Sorcerer changes

Turtle_Bot

With the U38 patch cycle already underway and it looking very likely that this round of changes for sorcerer will be exactly like the last bunch, nice to see, but ultimately won't do much to help the class. Now, lets discuss the changes that have been proposed.

@ZOS_Kevin, @ZOS_GinaBruno, @ZOS_BrianWheeler I hope you can have a look over this feedback, take it on board and hopefully look into making some changes for the class that will actually help it where it's needed, in both the short term and long term.

For context, the changes for U38 are:





First off, the change to dark exchange + morphs:

I agree with the Dev comment that sorcerer has been lacking behind in buff access for a long time now, but these 2 buffs, while not the worst options to be given, weren't what the class needed access to, was not what was asked for and certainly not needed on this ability.
Buff access was also not what was wrong with this ability and not why it isn't being used for PvE and why it's frustrating to use in PvP (to the point its only used in PvP due to how horrible the other option for healing is in PvP).

The issue with dark exchange is the cast time. Plain and simple.
It makes it very clunky to try and weave into PvE rotations, and for PvP it makes trying to heal when under pressure extremely punishing and unfun to play.

Secondly, the atronach changes:

This change looks like it is simply making up for a huge oversight when this ability was reworked (see nerfed) back in U35.
This ability should have always provided the buff to the entire group, not just the closest half of the group.
However, it needs to be noted that this change does not make Major berserk part of the classes reliably available buffs. The main reason is that this ability still requires another allied player to activate the synergy, fine for group content and organized raids in PvP, but still essentially non-existent for solo play and unorganized group play in PvP.

Third, the changes to volatile familiar

Not sure what to make of this change, it does nothing to help the ability in PvP and it still conflicts with tanks in PvE by giving enemies CC immunity which blocks the tanks pulls. Pets have also been the only way to truly play sorcerer at a high level (for PvE) for far too long now, so a buff to pets was definitely not something that was needed at this point in time.

What are some simple, easy changes that could be done in the short term while we wait for a patch that focuses on bigger balance adjustments and skill reworks:

A fix to healing:
Dark Exchange + morphs:
- What this ability needed was the cast time removed. That's it, nothing else was needed for this ability.
- What this fix does is allow it to be weaved into PvE rotations much smoother without losing that light attack weave when using it and for PvP it allows sorcerer the ability to finally have access to a block castable heal that will allow it to have some defensive options that isn't just running away with streak until the enemy gives up and you can safely heal.
- If we are concerned over an instant cast heal + sustain ability, then keep the 1 second delay on the heal such that the heal will apply 1 second after the ability is cast, but make the cast time itself instant to prevent this over-punishment of sorcs trying to simply survive in PvP.

Buff access:
- The buff that is needed the most on this class is access to major prophecy/savagery (crit chance). That's it.
Having access to this buff in the class kit allows for the class to have an easier time proccing crit surge in PvP while not changing crit surge for PvE.
- Where to place this buff? On lightning form + morphs.
- Why on lightning form + morphs? Mag-sorcerer currently runs the Mighty Chudan monster set because it lacks the bar space to fit lightning form to provide major resolve. Having major prophecy/savagery on lightning form + morphs streamlines the class kit, allowing the class to fit the required utility access and have room to try out other abilities or monster sets, something that has been missing ever since the removal of overloads 3rd bar that essentially removed 3 bar slots from sorcerers skill bars.

In the short term, this is what the class needs, a more reliable heal that isn't punishing/detrimental to use and better access to crit chance to better tie its kit together.

What are the long term fixes/changes for the class:

For the long term, there are a few big things that need to happen for the class.

1. Redistribute the power of the class away from the pets and into the other areas that have been neglected for far too long now.
- Pet builds should remain viable for those that enjoy that playstyle, but with so much of the class's power budget tied up in the pets and daedric prey, the class has become very niche and only really feels like it has 1 viable build now (that even stamina sorcerers run pets for PvE), a very far cry from where it used to be with both pet and no-pet builds being equally viable.

2. Untie the class's main burst heal from matriarch.
- Having both of the class's burst heals tied to the pets has severely hindered the class in PvP, where the pets stats and effects just aren't up to par anymore. Only 1 burst heal should be tied to the pets.
- Either make the AoE heal (matriarch) a regular heal ability or the self burst heal (clannfear) a regular heal ability, leave 1 for pet builds, the other for non pet builds.
- By uncoupling 1 of the heals from the pets, this also frees up dark exchange to be an actual sustain skill instead of the pseudo burst heal that it is currently forced into being due to no other available options for the class in PvP.

3. Updates to passives.
- There's 5 passives of note that are either outdated, don't synergize with the class or are awkward to utilize. These are Capacitor (outdated), Expert Mage (outdated), Energized (does not synergize), Persistence (does not synergize) and blood magic (awkward to utilize).

- Capacitor: 10% mag recovery, this is possibly one of the most outdated passives we have. NB gets 15% for all 3 recoveries for simply existing via the refreshing shadows passive, meanwhile sorcerer requires slotting an ability from 1 of its class lines (not even any class ability) to get 20% to health and stamina, but not magicka recoveries and skilling a second passive to get only 10% to magicka recovery.
Merge capacitor passive into daedric protection passive, having it grant all 3 recoveries at 18-20% for having a daedric summoning ability slotted and use this now free passive slot for something new (maybe something to do with shields?)

- Energized: increases physical and shock damage, it's good on paper and thematically fits with the class, but the reality is, the class spammable (frags) and class delayed burst (curse) deals magic damage (not shock) so this passive is useless for a magicka sorcerer outside of overload or pets.
Either change this to also include magic damage, or change the damage types of frags/curse to shock damage to better synergize with this passive.

- Expert mage: 2% for sorcerer ability slotted, the fighters guild passive slayer does 3% per fighters guild ability slotted, aren't class abilities supposed to outperform generic abilities?
At least match the 3% of the slayer passive here.

- Persistence: This passive wants sorcerers to block enemies attacks to reduce the cost of their next ability, but the sorcerer playstyle revolves around high mobility and avoiding damage, not reducing or blocking it and this is mostly due to the lack of healing and mitigation in the class kit.
Have this passive also proc off avoiding an enemies attack or blocking an enemies attack with a damage shield as well as regular blocking so that it ties in better with how the class wants to play.

- Blood magic: This passive synergizes nicely (healing on offense), is fairly decent even now, so what is wrong with it, well it requires hitting an enemy with a directly applied dark magic ability. The issue here is that the only ability that can proc this passive and is worth slotting is crystal shard/frags. The other ability, Rune cage has not been worth the slot ever since it had the 3 second delay added to its stun attempt. With both of these abilities obeying the GCD rules (1 cast per second), both can be dodged (i.e. they don't "hit" the enemy) this passive becomes very awkward to get its full potential.
This is the least important of the 5 passives, but still something to consider, by reducing the heal amount and allowing it to proc off any class ability hitting or being applied to an enemy (with the 0.5s cd kept) it would make this much less awkward to utilize.

olsborg

While I agree with many things in this post, and the general idea that sorcs (magsorcs specially) needs other buffs then what is currently on the pts, however I do not think it would be a good idea to leave dark exchange without a cast time and everything else as it is, that would give this ability far too much sustain and survivability all in one instant cast skil.

Dark Exchange + morphs:
- What this ability needed was the cast time removed. That's it, nothing else was needed for this ability.

Magsorcs needs access to more minor and major buffs and a reliable selfheal that does not require a living pet that takes up 2 slots, shields are also still very weak.

jaws343

I definitely agree with Atro needing to allow self synergy.

Honestly, at this point, all class synergies should be self activated. I think the necro really opened the door for it and there really isn't a good reason not to. Especially for an ultimate. And especially for a skills that provides a class sourced buff. That a player cannot get that buff in solo play from their own skills is a bit underwhelming. Even more so when you lose an entire portion of a skills functionality just by running in solo arenas or other solo content.

Turtle_Bot

olsborg wrote: »

While I agree with many things in this post, and the general idea that sorcs (magsorcs specially) needs other buffs then what is currently on the pts, however I do not think it would be a good idea to leave dark exchange without a cast time and everything else as it is, that would give this ability far too much sustain and survivability all in one instant cast skil.

Dark Exchange + morphs:
- What this ability needed was the cast time removed. That's it, nothing else was needed for this ability.

Magsorcs needs access to more minor and major buffs and a reliable selfheal that does not require a living pet that takes up 2 slots, shields are also still very weak.

That's why I kept it as a short term fix and the heal (and resource return) is still delayed by 1 second too.

Long term, the heal needs decoupling from the pets, but in the short term that change to dark exchange + morphs would at least give sorcs a reliable heal they can use while zos works on how best to spread sorcs power budget across the entire class kit better instead of leaving it entirely in the pets.

i11ionward

I play on stam sorc (rather a hybrid). The only thing I'm missing is major prophecy/savagery in the class set. I'll show you with an example.
At the moment I'm using this build


If I have a major prophecy/savagery class skill my build will turn into this


or this


or this


Yes, in fact, this buff opens up many possible builds for the sorcerer, in which there will be both survivability and damage

This build will allow me to have a Hardened Ward (almost a burst heal) and regen hp/stam from the class passive on every bar.

At the moment I can't use Hardened Ward, i don't have space for it. And yes, I think Hardened Ward is a great ability, but it just doesn't have a place on bar in most sorc builds right now.

Just let sorc major prophecy/savagery get feedback/stats on the live server and only then continue balancing.

xylena_lazarow

i11ionward wrote: »

Just let sorc major prophecy/savagery

Agreed, major crit buff on a Sorc class skill (not pets) would feel 9999x better than being forced into Camo/Mage.

Lucifer9th

First of all, the Buff on dark deal is really nice, it reinforces the identity of sorcerer as damage dealer, many players like this aspect, It's ok (not the best but ok) to have a cast time for a such skill (buffing + restore ressources) but the heal is pretty low,
Increasing the heal and make it proc blood magic will be nice for reward the risk

For access to major prophecy/savagery, some people use pots but having a new pot which give regen mag, regen vig and major prophecy/sauvagery will save the case for many

ps: please add a debuff on curse, minor brittle will be a good choice (already so many access to breach)

acastanza_ESO

The cast time on Dark Exchange is rough yeah, but the ability to exchange one resource for another and a heal is pretty powerful. I think they should have gone forward with Major Berserk instead of the actually useless Minor buffs though, Sorcs need a more flexible way to compete with the damage from DKs and NBs without needing to crutch Wrecking Blow. That would've done it, and it would make the cast time trade off on Exchange a very worthwhile tradeoff. If doubling down on the glass-canonness of Sorc is what they wanted to do, they should've been fair to what they gave DK (and NB, although NB's is unnamed).

As to the atro, it really has a simple solution - let Sorcs take their own Atro synergy. Buff access solved. If they did that then Sorcs would have a reliable source of Berserk and then we could explore alternative changes to Dark Exchange, like Major Prophecy like you suggest.

A whole package of
Self-synergy Breserk on Atro
Prophecy on Exchange
Breach on Curse

Would go a long way towards making Sorcs actually good again.
But I'd settle for just Major Berserk on Dark Exchange (both morphs) if ZOS is insentient on that route.

Tannus15

xylena_lazarow wrote: »

i11ionward wrote: »

Just let sorc major prophecy/savagery

Agreed, major crit buff on a Sorc class skill (not pets) would feel 9999x better than being forced into Camo/Mage.

put major prophecy / savagery on the twilight tormentor and remove the stupid activation that no one uses.
alternatively put it on bound armaments / aegis and i don't think anyone would be crying foul.

universal_wrath

Tannus15 wrote: »

xylena_lazarow wrote: »

i11ionward wrote: »

Just let sorc major prophecy/savagery

Agreed, major crit buff on a Sorc class skill (not pets) would feel 9999x better than being forced into Camo/Mage.

put major prophecy / savagery on the twilight tormentor and remove the stupid activation that no one uses.
alternatively put it on bound armaments / aegis and i don't think anyone would be crying foul.

Or it could be a passive added to surge, boundless, or aegis base skills.

Tannus15

universal_wrath wrote: »

Tannus15 wrote: »

xylena_lazarow wrote: »

i11ionward wrote: »

Just let sorc major prophecy/savagery

Agreed, major crit buff on a Sorc class skill (not pets) would feel 9999x better than being forced into Camo/Mage.

put major prophecy / savagery on the twilight tormentor and remove the stupid activation that no one uses.
alternatively put it on bound armaments / aegis and i don't think anyone would be crying foul.

Or it could be a passive added to surge, boundless, or aegis base skills.

surge would be too much. major sorcery and brutality plus passive healing is already a lot.
boundless would be too much. passive aoe, movement buff and major resolve.

aegis makes sense. since it's most a slot for passives skill anyway and max resources is less valuable than it used to be.

Afterip

Guys, right now Sorc has class access to Minor Prophecy, Minor Intellect, Minor Endurance, Minor Protection, Minor Expedition, Major Brutality/Sorcery, Major Resolve and will have Minor Berserk. And you askin add more buffs...
Please share some buffs with my class, because i can buff myself only Major Resolve.

Turtle_Bot

Tannus15 wrote: »

universal_wrath wrote: »

Tannus15 wrote: »

xylena_lazarow wrote: »

i11ionward wrote: »

Just let sorc major prophecy/savagery

Agreed, major crit buff on a Sorc class skill (not pets) would feel 9999x better than being forced into Camo/Mage.

put major prophecy / savagery on the twilight tormentor and remove the stupid activation that no one uses.
alternatively put it on bound armaments / aegis and i don't think anyone would be crying foul.

Or it could be a passive added to surge, boundless, or aegis base skills.

surge would be too much. major sorcery and brutality plus passive healing is already a lot.
boundless would be too much. passive aoe, movement buff and major resolve.

aegis makes sense. since it's most a slot for passives skill anyway and max resources is less valuable than it used to be.

The issue with adding it to bound aegis/armaments is that doesn't fix the fact the most prominent issue with inner light/camo hunter. That being that there's no room for those skills on the bar without giving up on something else as/more important.

Putting it on tormentor would only serve to further pigeonhole the class into pet builds (something that is not needed, wanted or asked for).

I agree that crit surge doesn't need the buff added to it as it's a very strong ability in PvE and still decent in PvP as it is, that's why I suggested adding it to lightning form.

Hurricane is used in PvE and stamsorcs for PvP, but magsorcs have long since taken off lightning form and slotted chudan instead so they have room for inner light/camo hunter for that buff, so giving that buff to lightning form means they can slot their armor skill again and have options for monster sets (or even non monster set pieces) for the head and shoulder slots.

It won't make a difference for PvE either since most PvE builds already have access to that buff as it is (via pots, inner light/camo hunter and have the flexibility for those other skills/potions since they don't need as much self healing and defense as is required for PvP.

Turtle_Bot

Afterip wrote: »

Guys, right now Sorc has class access to Minor Prophecy, Minor Intellect, Minor Endurance, Minor Protection, Minor Expedition, Major Brutality/Sorcery, Major Resolve and will have Minor Berserk. And you askin add more buffs...
Please share some buffs with my class, because i can buff myself only Major Resolve.

Not asking for more buffs, asking for buff access that better synergizes with what the class wants to do/how it plays.

As for the buffs you mentioned, they aren't really as good as the options many other classes have for those same buffs.
- prophecy - this is sorcs 'unique' group buff option, mediocre at the moment with DK being BiS and NB providing minor savagery that synergizes much better with DKs minor brutality.
- intellect/endurance - this is on the weaker morph of ward that still uses the unbuffed shield values making it virtually useless outside of selected group play, also already provided for the group by templar (and I think a couple other classes)
- protection - warden does this already for the entire group on their armor skill that also provides major resolve for the entire group
- expedition - NB gives major expedition to the group for free and also gets minor for itself passively on its spammable, zorc has to choose between major or minor and only gets it for itself
- brutality/sorcery - this is a standard buff that should be on every class, DK also provides these to the whole group for free for much longer than sorc gets it for itself.
- resolve - again this is a standard buff that should be on every class
- minor berserk - this is passively available to everyone on camo hunter that has better passives associated with it or on slimecraw 2 piece.

Currently the only reason to bring sorcerer into a group (outside of heavy attack build) is as a support dps whose sole goal is to provide high up time on major berserk for the group and this is something that will only really become common next patch now that they have realized that atro should have provided berserk to the entire group, not just half the group like it currently does.

I assume you play a cro? I suggest asking for some of the DK or NB buff/debuff access to be shared around better, those 2 classes currently have over twice the amount of buffs compared to sorc and cro and way more buff access than every other class except maybe warden. (If I recall correctly, DK and NB both have mid to high 30's in the number of buffs/debuffs they have access to in their class kit while sorcerer and cro are both well under 20 each).

Cro also has major vulnerability, AoE breach and a lot of unique (unnamed) minor passive buffs attached to many of their skills that sorcerer doesn't have. Not saying this makes the class better or worse, but it is something that cro has over sorcerer. It would also be better to try and bring all the bottom classes up instead of the bottom classes trying to tear each other apart and leaving the top classes to remain on top.

StaticWave

Honestly Dark Exchange should've just given Major Savagery/Prophecy instead of Berserk.

Caribou77

PvP Magsorc needs a non-pet instant heal. Of the many pain points on Magsorc, for me this one is top priority.

100% support Turtle’s suggestion to make Dark Deal instant and lose Berserk buff.

Turtle_Bot

Caribou77 wrote: »

PvP Magsorc needs a non-pet instant heal. Of the many pain points on Magsorc, for me this one is top priority.

100% support Turtle’s suggestion to make Dark Deal instant and lose Berserk buff.

The heal itself doesn't even have to be instant, just make the cast of it instant to prevent it being so easily denied and open up some of the better defensive mechanics for sorc, it can still delay the heal + sustain for 1 second after its cast since it gives a good amount of sustain as well so the actual effect stays like it is now, just more reliable/less punishable.

i11ionward

StaticWave wrote: »

Honestly Dark Exchange should've just given Major Savagery/Prophecy instead of Berserk.

A good option. But I also agree if it is passive on Haunting Curse

ZhuJiuyin

Maybe they can rework the Dark Magic Skill lines,
Encase, Rune Prison, Daedric Mines are not as useful as before
Let Encase, Rune Prison give new debuffs, such as Breach, Enervation, Vulnerability, make the style of Dark Magic Skill lines clear
And indeed as mentioned above, Sorcerer's passive also urgently needs to be updated
Too many skills need to be reworked

Tannus15

there are 2 lots of problems with sorc.

1 is that non pet sorc under performs
2 is that pet sorc has no bar space

non pet sorc has bar space for slotting something like camo hunter
pet sorc doesn't

this is why, in my opinion, major proph and sav should be added to twilight tormentor. this fills one of the big gaps with pet sorc.

non pet sorc needs buffing, or pets need nerfing and then all of sorc gets buffed in some way. this is a separate issue.

3+ is the lacking of healing options, lack of cleave, lack of unique debuffs, the terrible state of lightning staffs outside HA builds, how useless concussive is as a status, how annoying frags cast time is, how weak the execute in in PvE while also being too strong in PvP, the lack of class dots and so on.
they have laid out that they are not doing big changes this update, so we'll just leave the list of grievances here for next update i guess.

as for this update:

the atro change is great. it's a strong group buff for trials.

dark exchange buffs are a good, low impact buffs. usually if i need to run dark deal i have to drop trap for it, so at least not losing minor force is nice.

just get rid of the scamp stun entirely. the current change is a half measure that doesn't really help the problem the stun causes. the extra concussive proc chance is a joke. as in it's laughable. do something better with it or just don't bother.

Marcus_Justicia

Add major savagery and prophecy at bound armaments / aegis and breach at crystal weapon for stam sorc in PvP
it would give identity to the class and avoid using camouflage hunter and weapon skills for the breach

Aces-High-82

I would be OK with the cast time on Dark Ex and morphs If the heal could scale bc rn why even bother when vigor has 4x the tooltip.

Turtle_Bot

Week 3 changes and nothing for sorcerer. It seems Week 4 is where the majority of the big changes will be. Have to wait until then to see if they have listened and will do something meaningful to look at fixing sorcerers issues in PvP.

Heymexa

Need more AOE damage in PVE. The sorcerer is not competitive in PVE trials.

Turtle_Bot

Tannus15 wrote: »

there are 2 lots of problems with sorc.

1 is that non pet sorc under performs
2 is that pet sorc has no bar space

non pet sorc has bar space for slotting something like camo hunter
pet sorc doesn't

this is why, in my opinion, major proph and sav should be added to twilight tormentor. this fills one of the big gaps with pet sorc.

The issue with giving the buff to the pet is that it just reinforces pets as the only way to play the class. The Pet build also doesn't need the buff, they are currently so far ahead of non pet builds that there is currently no other way to play the class (even stamsorc runs pets in PvE) outside of HA builds and even that build runs the pets.

By putting the buff on the tormentor:
- Pet builds get easy access to a buff the whole class needs (not just pet builds).
- Non-pet builds are now forced to either also run a pet or not get a buff at all.

With how far behind non pet builds already are compared to pet builds, this just further exacerbates this problem with the class and further pigeonholes the class into pets being the only way to play.

It's why I had the buff added to the armor skill (base skill + both morphs).
- PvE pet sorcs and stamina sorcs already slot hurricane for that skills DoT anyway and as such will get that buff added to their kit for free without needing to find room for it.
- No-pet and Magicka builds (especially for PvP) will now have a good way to get both resolve + prophecy/savagery without giving up the monster set slots or multiple bar slots to get both buffs which allows for some build variety and needed flexibility in non-pet kit.

This way it still gives the buff to pet builds but provides much bigger indirect buff to non pet builds which is where the class needs much more help.

A popular misconception is that non-pet builds have more bar space than pet builds. More frequently they tend to have the same or less bar space since they need to slot multiple DoTs, a heal and haunting curse to make up for what pets + prey provide. So while they technically might have more room, often they don't unless they sacrifice 1-2 abilities worth of dps, something they are already lacking compared to pet builds as is.

Turtle_Bot

Heymexa wrote: »

Need more AOE damage in PVE. The sorcerer is not competitive in PVE trials.

true, sorcerer does need some help with AoE, and they technically got some last patch with mages wrath becoming entirely AoE, but this is very low down on the list of issues facing the class right now.

I'd rather see them focus on the more pressing issues first before looking into low priority QoL issues.
- providing a reliable self burst heal for no pet sorc.
- fix up the out of date/non synergistic/awkward passives.
- give the class access to a staple buff in major prophecy/savagery (it's a dps class, with a heal over time that requires critting to proc, without inherent access to crit chance buff to make it semi-reliable? This makes no sense, especially from a design standpoint).
- a general buff to non-pet builds which have lagged so far behind pet builds and all other classes for far too long now that they are practically non-existent outside of roleplaying and overland questing.

Then, after these pressing issues are fixed up, look into giving the class increased AoE access to better suit it for modern content design.

StaticWave

Turtle_Bot wrote: »

Week 3 changes and nothing for sorcerer. It seems Week 4 is where the majority of the big changes will be. Have to wait until then to see if they have listened and will do something meaningful to look at fixing sorcerers issues in PvP.

I doubt anything will be done, but I'm always eager to be proven wrong.

Turtle_Bot

StaticWave wrote: »

Turtle_Bot wrote: »

Week 3 changes and nothing for sorcerer. It seems Week 4 is where the majority of the big changes will be. Have to wait until then to see if they have listened and will do something meaningful to look at fixing sorcerers issues in PvP.

I doubt anything will be done, but I'm always eager to be proven wrong.

Agreed.

I would hope that they have been listening to the feedback, but I highly doubt it after their response to sorcerer last patch.

My guess is they only base their balance decisions on year+ old data from the live servers, which means at best sorcerer can hope for something next patch and DK better play while they still can until the data from U35 and U36 finally comes through proving to the devs exactly what we've all been telling them for nearly a year now.

Zodiarkslayer

I think that Major Savagery/Prophecy is already available to every Sorcerer. Putting them on an ability that everybody uses anyway seems redundant. Doubly redundant, actually.

Sorcerer needs more reliable sources for more crit damage, not crit chance. Ideally from a passive, not an ability.

If you want to improve the class, you need to add things that are currently unavailable, come at too high a cost or are simply inefficient/ineffective in their current from.

I don't know if Major and Minor Berserk are the best solution for the classes damage problem. Especially slamming these on a disliked ability with such a long cast time, combined with these durations seems counterproductive.

Instead, more synergy with the Lightning Element would be a real benefit. A higher proc chance for concussed status effect from class skills, like the Warden has.
Or flat damage increases like the Dragonknight has.
A ground DoT in the heavy weight class, like Templars or Nightblades have, would diversify the damage options away from the pets.
The same goes for the scaling of the execute skill. Just bonus damage is the wrong way. It needs to be at least as powerful as Impale. Maybe not as much as Radiant Oppression, but definetly follow an effectiveness standard for ranged Magicka executes. Which, btw., the entire game doesn't have!

Chilly-McFreeze

Zodiarkslayer wrote: »

I think that Major Savagery/Prophecy is already available to every Sorcerer. Putting them on an ability that everybody uses anyway seems redundant. Doubly redundant, actually.

Sorcerer needs more reliable sources for more crit damage, not crit chance. Ideally from a passive, not an ability.

The mentioned lackluster synergy in class design is that sorcs staple hot (surge) depends dealing crit damage but there is no major crit chance improving passive. Being forced to slot e.g. camo hunter further tightens the bar space (another pain point of mag sorcs). Adding major prophecy to lightning form etc. frees up 1 slot + possible 1 monster set for mag sorcs who now could use something other than chudan. And finally Hurricane/ Lightning Form is an AoE DoT that could reliably proc Surge (at least when it ticked every second).

It isn't a flashy solution but it does make a lot of sense from a design standpoint.

Zodiarkslayer

Chilly-McFreeze wrote: »

...
It isn't a flashy solution but it does make a lot of sense from a design standpoint.

No. Doesn't make sense. It doesn't give one percent more chance or damage.

If anything you are calling for an unnamed buff to crit chance, that stacks it further up, but not Major Prophecy.

It also doesn't free any bar space in group content, because one is required to use spell power potions anyway.

Plus 5 and even ten percent more do not make any difference to how often crit surge procs. Because, even at 50% it is the parallel damage instances that come from DoTs that will guarantee the one crit damage per second needed for the Crit surge heal proc. Need an example?
You have two pets, wall, hurricane and caltrops. That makes 5 DoTs plus light attacks and a spammable (eight with the poison or burning). That is a total of six damage instances within one second plus hurricane every two seconds. Only one of these six/seven needs to crit in order to proc the crit surge heal.
That crit surge argument is outdated. And obviously wrong.