Need some advice! {the DPS struggle is real}

vincentlaw · October 2016

Hello guys

The last three months I have been trying to increase my DPS on my main character which is a stamina sorcerer with no actual results. Through various conversations i heard people talking about their DPS being 30-45k unbuffed when my DPS is limited to 22-24k with TBS, with Hundings, with NMG and kept listening to people who told me that my rotation might not be good enough, that 400+ cp is not enough, that my second maelstrom weapon iis not sharpened etc. It is easy to find something wrong with a build or someones gameplay but I cannot believe that the gap between 22k-37k is a matter of details considering that we are talking about 15k difference. Therefore I made records of 2 DPS tests on BS and took a screenshot of my gear in order to share it with you and listen to your thoughts.

My question is: Why I cannot increase my dps from 22-24k to ....eh even 30k would be okish

Attached videos of my roation and screenshot of my gear.
https://youtu.be/ikYlZv4M48U
https://youtu.be/RJNcHnkQLG8
https://postimg.org/image/gb5fkqk4t/

PS4_ZeColmeia · October 2016

have you tried cookie cutting someone's build and gear to baseline from? It helps sometimes just to get a feel for bar setups and synergy.

TBH I've never played sorc, so I can't help more than that.

ethanthefox · October 2016

From what I see, you gotta work on your rotation(2nd was better but tank was moving a lot for a stationnary dps/rotation check),not max cp, purple gear, 2 pieces are infused wich matter since you are using tbs, you cannot substain your rotation, no crit pots, imperial?,has you said 1 of your weapon is not sharp, maybe cp placement also.
Rotation is the huge part then all the little things add.

Vorcil · October 2016

Make your gear gold, get maelstrom sharpened inferno staff; after I did that I got a 10k boost

JKith · October 2016

I had a similar experience on the PTS,.. i created an EXACT replica of a 30kdps build i saw and I was only getting 17k dps... basically it was the rotation, and I was able to go from 17k to 28k dps with the SAME GEAR... rotation, animation canceling, and knowing when to exactly refresh your DoTs will give more DPS than making something gold IMO,.. especially if your rotation isn't super tight.

PS4_ZeColmeia · October 2016

On the gold thing, gold your weapon first. That will be the biggest DPS boost, even with TBS

vincentlaw · October 2016

Thank you for your comments guys I will consider all of them in order to improve my gaming!

DHale · October 2016

I can't see your vids as work blocks them. For my rotatation: I crit surge hurricane, throw caltrops, heavy bow attack into poison inject, endless hail, weapon swap trap beast, rending slashes light flurry light. Then repeat all but caltrops. I pop weapon power pots at 50 percent stam. Occasionally deadly cloak will be in there from duel wield line. Pretty standard rotation. I use srendarr to keep track of buffs. Watch Alcast enough and you will get an idea. Good luck.

Oreyn_Bearclaw · October 2016

This is a really easy one. Your gear is fine. Sure it would be better if it was gold.

The Problem:You are reapplying your DOTS way too early. You were recasting hail and poison injection when they had 4 or 5 seconds left. You need to stay on your front bar longer. A stam sorc is going to have time to spam rapid strikes 3-4 times in each rotation.

What you need to understand about DoTs (damage over time abilities), is that they only make sense in a DPS rotation if they do more than your spam skill. As a general rule, DOTs only add DPS if they are allowed to run their full duration.

Consider 3 scenarios

First: Lets say your spam skill does 10k, and your DoT does 2k initially and 6k over 10 seconds. In that scenario, the DOT is a bad choice for your rotation. You are forgoing casting your 10k spam skill for 8k total damage from the DOT. This obviously makes no sense.

Second: Same scenario with 10k spam skill, but now we are talking about a DOT that does 2K up front and an additional 10K over 10 seconds. Here, it makes sense to cast the DOT in your rotation, because you are getting 12K total Damage from the DOT instead of 10k from your spam skill.

Third: Same exact scenario as 2, but here you recast your DOT 5 seconds in. You spam skill does 10k, which is your baseline for a skill. You cast the 12K dot (2+10), but reapply after 5 seconds instead of 10. In that scenario, your DOT only did 7K (2k initially, and 5k over time). You just left 5k Damage on the table. This is exactly what you are doing.

TLDR: Overcasting your DOTs is a huge DPS loss. Fix that and watch your DPS skyrocket.

vincentlaw · October 2016

That sounds promising

Oreyn_Bearclaw · October 2016

My rotation on stam sorc (not saying its perfect). First, my bars are slightly different than yours. I use this in most content.

DW: Rapid Strikes, rending Slashes, Hurricane (i like this on front bar), Steel Tornado, Bound Armaments, Flawless Dawnbreaker (Rend might be better now)
Bow: Poison Injection, Endless Hail, Rearming Trap, Crit surge, Bound Armaments, Flawless Dawnbreaker.

If trying to absolutely min/max single target DPS, I would swap Hurricane and trap, replace surge with caltrops, and tornado with evil hunter. This gives more weapon damage on your front bar, and requires potions.

Rotation: The opening depends a bit on how you pull the boss.

Ideally you Buff Hurrican and Crit surge (or potion) out of combat, and try to put trap and hail where the boss will be before he spawns. You then charge a full heavy and immediately cancel with PI when he spawns and bar swap.

If you cant put down Hail and Trap before the fight, buff yourself with surge and hurricane and Charge a full heavy attack with your bow, and put down Trap, Hail and PI (get used to doing those in that order). Then its rapid strikes > Flawless>Rapid Rending Slashes>Rapid spam until your Hail is at about one second, swap> Trap >hail>PI> repeat. Cast hurricane and surge (or potion) on cooldown (not before). Cast your ultimate on cooldown, but be sure to empower it with rapid strikes.

You want to add a light weave before every skill if you can. You also want to make sure you cast rapid strikes before you go to your back bar. The order I mention is important. Trap takes a second to arm and will benefit from the VMA buff but NOT consume it. Hail does not benefit from the DW buff, but casting allows time for your trap to fire. Then your Posion injection will actually get the buff AND consume it. So basically you are empowering two skills with one Rapid Strikes. If you go hail>Trap>PI, only one of the last two wont get the buff.