Power Surge vs Degeneration

Deep_01 · January 2018

I have been using power surge on mag sorc (non CP, so my crit chance is at 35.8%) so far. Works as a wonderful heal so far. My question is:

1. Does power surge heal work against a shield user? Since shields can't be crit.
2. How efficient are both the skills when outnumbered?
3. Your ideas on when to use when and where in PvP?

@Derra @Irylia (Only players who main msorcs on forums afaik

)
Please help a fellow msorc.

Minalan · January 2018

1. Shields can be crit, but they’re considered completely resistant to the additional damage. Keep this in mind because if you attack a shield user with wizard’s riposte you’ll still earn yourself a minor maim debuff because your first light attack will likely crit their shield.

2. Outnumbered your best skill is the resto ultimate for a few second of not dying? Seriously, the heals on surge and degeneration are fairly immaterial in open PVP. You use them to top up your health a tiny bit when you take 10-20% bleed through health damage from your shields. If you get hurt in PVP, you either heal Ward or mutagen. The former is nice in a shield stack, but the latter removes a bad effect and helps against shield breaker spammers.

3. Personally I prefer surge on a staff build, and degeneration on a dual wield Sorc build. The difference is that you use degeneration in a fight to actively proc the mage guild empower 20% damage bonus passive to line up burst (curse, rune cage, degeneration/frag with ani cancel). The extra damage from that combo makes to for the lack of light attacks or force pulse spammables. It’s also telegraphed and easy to counter.

Staff users usually surge or just use a pot for major sorcery. Power surge has the benefit of lasting longer, working out of combat, and even from stealth without revealing you. It also grants another spell damage bonus since it’s a slotted Sorc skill.

Degeneration is used as part of an offensive rotation for empower damage bonus, and you get the additional magicka bonus for having it slotted.

Irylia · January 2018

^ you are right. Crits do apply to shields but the damage doesn’t.

You receive a heal.
To maximize your heal potential boundless storm is a pretty solid way to achieve constant heals when outnumbered because it procs on everyone around you thus increasing your chance of surge proc every second.

I assume you have inner light.
I like bs amber willpower for no cp with master destro and vma resto.
Up to you to use mutagen for the vma sustain which procs on both bars isn’t staff specific and it is 800 sustain every 4 seconds (if mutagen crits every 4. May be delayed to re 5th/6th sec)
Then serpent mundus and dark conv

Frag flame reach curse inner light fury (db/atro/meteor)
Hward ward mutagen surge streak ol

Ol bar: boundless ward dark conv mines streak

Alternatively resto ult is strong and you can swap things around.

Derra · January 2018

Oh sorry i missed that one.

Personally i tend to prefer empower + the dot from entropy over surge when i´m soloing (and in duels).
In groups i usually slot surge.

The exception to this being amber + julianos on which i´d always run surge.

technohic · January 2018

1. Shields actually are crit, but just do not receive damage modifiers. If wizards riposte works when getting hit on the shield; I'd expect crit surge to.

I'll defer on the other 2.

Subversus · January 2018

Irylia wrote: »

^ you are right. Crits do apply to shields but the damage doesn’t.

You receive a heal.
To maximize your heal potential boundless storm is a pretty solid way to achieve constant heals when outnumbered because it procs on everyone around you thus increasing your chance of surge proc every second.

I assume you have inner light.
I like bs amber willpower for no cp with master destro and vma resto.
Up to you to use mutagen for the vma sustain which procs on both bars isn’t staff specific and it is 800 sustain every 4 seconds (if mutagen crits every 4. May be delayed to re 5th/6th sec)
Then serpent mundus and dark conv

Frag flame reach curse inner light fury (db/atro/meteor)
Hward ward mutagen surge streak ol

Ol bar: boundless ward dark conv mines streak

Alternatively resto ult is strong and you can swap things around.

You can also put your resto ult on the overload bar, it's not that bad of an idea.

Minalan · January 2018

Subversus wrote: »

Irylia wrote: »

^ you are right. Crits do apply to shields but the damage doesn’t.

You receive a heal.
To maximize your heal potential boundless storm is a pretty solid way to achieve constant heals when outnumbered because it procs on everyone around you thus increasing your chance of surge proc every second.

I assume you have inner light.
I like bs amber willpower for no cp with master destro and vma resto.
Up to you to use mutagen for the vma sustain which procs on both bars isn’t staff specific and it is 800 sustain every 4 seconds (if mutagen crits every 4. May be delayed to re 5th/6th sec)
Then serpent mundus and dark conv

Frag flame reach curse inner light fury (db/atro/meteor)
Hward ward mutagen surge streak ol

Ol bar: boundless ward dark conv mines streak

Alternatively resto ult is strong and you can swap things around.

You can also put your resto ult on the overload bar, it's not that bad of an idea.

Actually it’s bad because you have that delay to activate it. Resto ultimate is a HEAL NOW HOLY CRAP LOOK AT ALL THESE POTATOES! Skill...

Deep_01 · January 2018

Thank you for the answers @Minalan and @Irylia

I am running pirate skeleton, amberplasm, willpower, master inferno, tri food, mage, dark conv back bar and overload with spell critical from pots. My regen is at 1.7k unbuffered which I don't find to be much of a problem. I think Resto ult might help better since, I am tanky even at execute range due to vamp and pirate.

Will stick with surge. I don't see a way to fit in boundless without changing my gear. Thank you all, once again.

Minalan · January 2018

Deep_01 wrote: »

Thank you for the answers @Minalan and @Irylia

I am running pirate skeleton, amberplasm, willpower, master inferno, tri food, mage, dark conv back bar and overload with spell critical from pots. My regen is at 1.7k unbuffered which I don't find to be much of a problem. I think Resto ult might help better since, I am tanky even at execute range due to vamp and pirate.

Will stick with surge. I don't see a way to fit in boundless without changing my gear. Thank you all, once again.

Sorc with pirate skeleton or riposte is a straight cockroach build.

Pugs try to stomp you, but you keep running around!

Deep_01 · January 2018

Minalan wrote: »

Deep_01 wrote: »

Thank you for the answers @Minalan and @Irylia

I am running pirate skeleton, amberplasm, willpower, master inferno, tri food, mage, dark conv back bar and overload with spell critical from pots. My regen is at 1.7k unbuffered which I don't find to be much of a problem. I think Resto ult might help better since, I am tanky even at execute range due to vamp and pirate.

Will stick with surge. I don't see a way to fit in boundless without changing my gear. Thank you all, once again.

Sorc with pirate skeleton or riposte is a straight cockroach build.

Pugs try to stomp you, but you keep running around!

I didn't like wizards personally. If not pirate, shackle+amber with witchmother seems best. Any suggestions?

Subversus · January 2018

Deep_01 wrote: »

Minalan wrote: »

Deep_01 wrote: »

Thank you for the answers @Minalan and @Irylia

I am running pirate skeleton, amberplasm, willpower, master inferno, tri food, mage, dark conv back bar and overload with spell critical from pots. My regen is at 1.7k unbuffered which I don't find to be much of a problem. I think Resto ult might help better since, I am tanky even at execute range due to vamp and pirate.

Will stick with surge. I don't see a way to fit in boundless without changing my gear. Thank you all, once again.

Sorc with pirate skeleton or riposte is a straight cockroach build.

Pugs try to stomp you, but you keep running around!

I didn't like wizards personally. If not pirate, shackle+amber with witchmother seems best. Any suggestions?

Shackle amber domihaus is a good choice. My personal favorite right now is lich/shackle/domi/master staff. You can also go with riposte instead of lich if that's your playstyle, but instead of turtling up I like to kite my opponents.

Alteration mastery, seducer, engine guardian, lich, amber, shackle are all viable sets on sorc this patch imo.

Lord-Otto · January 2018

Shackle+Amber is a bad combination. You need both active at all times, so you're wasting a set piece, probably Domihaus.

Take Lich over Shackle or Amberplasm.
Shackle+Lich is a great combo, prefer it for small fights. But in the big war, you need to help your shields. Otherwise you'll get focus fired to death in seconds. Kiting isn't an option when you're fighting for objectives.

grannas211 · January 2018

Lord-Otto wrote: »

Shackle+Amber is a bad combination. You need both active at all times, so you're wasting a set piece, probably Domihaus.

Take Lich over Shackle or Amberplasm.
Shackle+Lich is a great combo, prefer it for small fights. But in the big war, you need to help your shields. Otherwise you'll get focus fired to death in seconds. Kiting isn't an option when you're fighting for objectives.

Shackle/Amber I like in no cp.

But yeah the meta of shackle, domi, master + either lich or riposte back bar is hard to beat at the moment.

Deep_01 · January 2018

Sometimes, I feel like streak/BoL is taking me for small distances and at other times I feel like I have moved a mile. Any tips to have a successful streak away?

Edit: since you all mention kiting to be so easy. I just waste mag doing so, I feel.

Derra · January 2018

Deep_01 wrote: »

Sometimes, I feel like streak/BoL is taking me for small distances and at other times I feel like I have moved a mile. Any tips to have a successful streak away?

Edit: since you all mention kiting to be so easy. I just waste mag doing so, I feel.

Probably because sometimes you keep your momentum when streaking (your runspeed does not slow) and sometimes streak stops your char dead in the tracks and you start running after the cast finished.

Best advice for kiting is usually - start early enough. Anticipate situations that might get sticky. Once you have 3 people in melee happily chopping away on you there is no getting away usually.

Biro123 · January 2018

Basically you have start running before you need to.

Also you can also dodge immediately after a streak without loss of momentum. Doing that to the side can be useful to los.

Deep_01 · January 2018

Biro123 wrote: »

Basically you have start running before you need to.

Also you can also dodge immediately after a streak without loss of momentum. Doing that to the side can be useful to los.

Learnt it from yt video. Also, I found when being chased and enemy is close, roll dodge back wards and streak through the player. If Lucky enough, the other player might have burnt his resources and you can finish them.

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Power Surge vs Degeneration

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