Jar_Ek wrote: »

So let's try to get some level of consensus as to what sorcerer skills should be, which are good and which are bad and for which specs. What should change and how.

@Snit @Grao @Reykice @Erock25 @loki547 @pppontus @Gil.Galad @TehMagnus

Would you like to contribute please?

I will bite as well @Jar_Ek, though I think I've posted this before. I guess I can update my impressions a little though.

Daedric Summoning

Summon Storm Atronach
Status: Good
Comment: This ultimate gives good DPS for Single target fights or AoEs depending on the chosen morph. If anything should be improved is its Utility. Currently the Synergy only affects the Atronach and the one person activating the synergy. If the entire group got the buff its use would be far more significant, even if the buff duration had to be shortened for balance reasons.

Unstable Familiar
Status: Needs Improvements
Comment: Pets in general are problematic because they are toggles (must be on both bars). My suggestion would be to make both morphs of this pet Melee and give us control over the pet ability (costing the summoner Magicka or Stamina depending on the chosen morph). Making Volatile Familiar Melee (and Magicka based) would ensure the pet was positioned well to release its AoE and since using the pet's ability would have its own cost, there be no need to kill the pet for the effect to take place. As for the Clannfear, having control over its charge / Taunt (Stamina Based) would add incredible utility to sorcerers, not to mention making sorcerer tank not only a reality, but even desirable. (remove the Heal from this ability, move it to Hardened Ward)

Daedric Curse
Status: Ok
Comment: 1.6 made this ability a lot stronger, no doubt about it, but I'd still like to see at least one version of this spell be a real DoT and not a delayed Heavy Hit. Besides that, another interesting change could be made to Daedric Curse, so targets cursed would always be the pet's target.

Summon Winged Twilight
Status: Needs Improvements
Comment: This ability's damage is good, so I'd maintain that as it is and work on Flexibility and Utility. Once more, give the summoner the ability to choose to activate the pet's ability. Twilight Matriarch should be able to heal not only its summoner, but also allies, similarly to Mutagen - the heal should probably be instant instead of a short channel. As for the Restoring Twilight I'd suggest having a clear indicator of its range, besides making the pet restore not only Magicka, but also Stamina (Major Buffs) for 10 seconds. If the cost for this active is great enough, there would be no abuse.

Bound Armor
Status: Needs Improvements
Comment: Because this ability grants a % value of the sorcerer's armor and spell resist, the bonus is simply not worth 2 slots. I'd love to see this spell change to have one morph for tanking, granting extra Armor and Spell resist and one for DPS, granting extra Weapon Damage and Spell Damage, or simply Damage Dealt with both heavy and Light attacks (picture having your weapon changed instead of your Armor as it is currently - It would be awesome). Increase in base status is also a good idea, so Bound Aegis would offer both protection and extra health, while Bound Armaments would offer Damage and Magicka or Stamina depending on the greater resource pool.

Conjured Ward
Status: Good
Comment: This spell is just fine, if not a little too strong. My only suggestion would be to have Empowered Ward heal the pets affected to max health with every new cast. That would finally allow the developers to make pets immune to any other source of healing, therefore stopping pets from stealing heals during trials. Oh, with a cost increase and maybe weakening the size of the shield, I'd suggest Hardened Ward healed the caster for 35% of the Sorcerer's health - Refreshing the shield would not heal the caster, so there would be less potential for abuse.

Rebate
Status: Needs Improvements
Comment: Please return this passive to what it used to be. As it is on Live the passive is useless and not worth the 2 skill points spent on it.

Power Stone
Status: Perfect
Comment: No idea why this passive is on a Summoner School Tree, yet it is probably our best passive.

Daedric Protection
Status: Needs Improvements
Comment: Pretty simple fix, instead of providing Health Recovery make it increase or the Sorcerer Resource Pool or Resource Recovery. Stamina or Magicka depending on their greater resource pool.

Expert Summoner
Status: Needs Improvement
Comment: Contrary to some of my fellow sorcerers I don't believe this passive is horrible, I just think it should affect Bound Armor and its Morphs and affect different morphs of each pet differently, increasing its utility. For Volatile Familiar, increase AoE range, for Unstable Clannfear increase the duration of Taunt, for Twilight Matriarch increase the potency of the heal and for Restoring Twilight increases the duration of the buffs.

Dark Magic

Negate Magic
Status: Needs Improvement
Comment: I understand why this ability was so heavily nerfed, it was too strong in PvP and permitted ignoring too many Trial and Dungeon Mechanics. That said, Negate was always the Sorcerer's greatest Utility, like Nova is to Templars and Veil is to Nightblades. Give Suppression Field 30% Damage reduction instead of 8% and change Absorption Field to grant Major Heroism (extra Ult regeneration).

Crystal Shard
Status: Good
Comment: 1.6 put this ability in a good spot. If I were to change anything it would be making Crystal Blast an instant cast with a shorter animation (and likely lower damage or greater cost), finally giving Sorcerers a single target instant DPS attack to replace Force Pulse / Crushing Shock. It would be up to each player to chose between Using Crystal Fragments for the procs with low cost or use Crystal Blast as their main source of damage.

Encase
Status: Ok
Comment: Not an amazing ability, but it has its uses in Solo play and on AoE Fights. I am not sure what could be changed to make this more useful, except maybe if it could affect bosses (not as a snare) but simply as a damage source (target Immune to CC takes x% more damage from this ability).

Rune Prison
Status: Ok
Comment: Again an ability that works well for certain situations, the Defensive Rune can be useful in PvP and Rune Cage can be useful in PvE. If anything I'd suggest that Rune Cage cannot be broken by pet attacks on top of the DoTs.

Dark Exchange
Status: Needs Improvement
Comment: Possibly one of the most useless abilities in the game, which is sad for there is a lot of potential for such a spell, all we need is to be able to cast while using it. My suggestion is to make the morphs of this spell into toggles, to balance it out a little, make so that the morphs still root you as Dark Exchange does, but allow us to cast other spells (yes, even Bolt Escape) with it toggled on.

Daedric Mines
Status: Needs Reworking
Comment: Another ability I don't quite understand as it doesn't fit on Dark Magic alas, here my suggestions on how to change Mines and make them a little more interesting. Change Daedric Minefield to Daedric Boundaries, a wide wing around the caster that stuns AND snares any enemy that crosses its limits up to 5 targets. The Second morph should be a ground targeted rearming Mine that can rearm up to 3 times and both stuns and damages the one who activates it. Remember, for this ability to have any use in PvE, the damage on it must be high enough to compensate its cost and occupying a bar slot.

The passives for Dark Magic are surprisingly good though (trying to make this a little shorter). The only exception would be Persistence which, again, is useful for Solo play, but does little for PvP or late game PvE. Maybe Persistence could restore a small amount of Magicka and Stamina with each Dark Magic Spell cast, similarly to Blood Magic.

Storm Calling

Definitely our best Tree, so I have very little to say here.

Endless Fury: Make this morph return Magicka every time it "explodes" instead of on kill.

Lightning Form: Make Thundering presence a Stamina ability and give Boundless Storm a wider AoE Range.

Lightning Splash: On first press, have this ability reveal all Visible Enemies Hit Boxes within its range. It is very hard to use this skill as a DoT without knowing where to place it to affect certain targets, at least in PvE.

Surge: This ability used to be great, but it pales terribly in comparison to Entropy. The least Riot needs to do is considerably reduce its cost.

Expert Mage: This passive is great on 1.6, but losing its previous incarnation did increase the cost of every Storm Calling ability considerably. Please review those numbers, not all buffs must be hammered with a nerf.