MagSorc DPS Parse, what am I not doing? (8k gain so far from your help!)

ArchMikem · December 2018

https://youtu.be/pfM5Cuk7GPc

Sorcerers have always been the most difficult class to get a good parse from for me and even some of my Guildies even when we see others here get parses in the 40's and 50's. Judging from the builds I've seen and my own practice with rotations I'd assume my own setup "should" easily be in the 30's at least. But I'm lucky to hit the joe average of 25k. You mind analyzing my parse and tell me what I may or may not be doing to up the number?

Rontabs77 · December 2018

I'd replace Julianos and Ilambris with Spell Strategist and Zaan, respectively.

Asmael · December 2018

Crushing shock is the utility morph compared to Force Pulse. Elemental weapon usually wields in highest damage done assuming proper weaving
You are missing quite a lot of light attacks, usually before casting ground AoEs or when you are about to swap. Not sure if console has it, but you should have an option to cast ground AoEs in a single button, in case you didn't check it out. Try it out and see which is smoother
Funnily enough, even though you are using a Khajiit, blue food and have a non-infused Absorb magicka enchant, you have no sustain issues whatsoever, due to how many heavy attacks you are doing.
Using Surge and having Inner light on 1 bar is going to result in less damage than using potions, since you have to cast a pure utility ability every so often, same goes for Elemental drain. See if you can have Inner light on both bars and have a DK giving you Major sorcery and Elemental drain if you want to do more tests while still only using cheap potions. If you don't usually run crafted potions in dungeons, see if you can at least have someone apply elemental drain for you.
Inconsistent ground DoT applications, you are sometimes casting Liquid Lightning twice in a row
A fire staff on both bars is going to perform better for single target as a whole. Also, it will help proc the fire part of your Ilambris, since you don't have that much fire damage
Infallible Aether is a pretty odd choice, since it applies Minor vulnerability, but you are already running Shock staves on both bars and most likely applying it the majority of the time.

Overall, it needs to be smoother, there are times where it takes a lot of time for your to weapon swap or apply an ability, and times where you chain abilities pretty fast, there are a few issues with the build itself that are pretty easy to correct as well.

I might try to jump on the PTS with a similar setup to see how I fare.

Asmael · December 2018

@ArchMikem

Ok, so I did a few some extra testing and found a setup extremely close to what you showcased, see the spoiler below:

Also using crafted potions, but only with magicka return.

I don't know what your CP setup is nor what is your backbar enchant but this is close enough to make a comparison. From this, I did a few initial tests, and here's one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUXriFkoVS4

There are quite a few mistakes (I don't usually play mag sorc), quite a bit of messups with the lag, but the result is pretty similar. A more experienced mag sorc would probably get around 32k or so DPS there.

At which point made a few changes to the build, with the explanation for each:

I changed staves from both shock to both fire, since the destro passives result in more single target DPS (also bonus points for not having to that horrible shock heavy animation that gets stuck half the time)
I changed both staves' enchants to Infused, with Absorb on backbar and fire on front, since it's also a setup that performs similarly to Nirnhoned in single target, but the extra fire means more Ilambris procs and Infused means more magicka return from the Absorb Magicka enchant

It resulted in both much easier sustain and a nice boost to damage, as can be seen below:

The other big change is that I went from using the Mage mundus to the Lover and Thief. The Mage mundus isn't that bad of a choice, but Lover is the absolute best choice for raw damage when there is still some spell resistance to go through, or Thief when it's not the case.

Redoing the tests:
Lover: 33.060 DPS
Thief: 32.508 DPS

That said, the sustain felt noticeably harder, requiring to do more heavy attacks early on, although in your case, you do those early enough to not run into sustain issues.

From there, I replaced Crushing Shock by Elemental Weapon, since it costs less and is more overall damage.

I wanted to find a good replacement for Infallible Mage which isn't too hard to farm, so I picked imperfected Siroria, since you only need to complete the trial in normal mode. Plus, if some parts are too bothersome to farm, you can craft Julianos for anything you are missing. No golding out the jewelry either.

So it ends up looking like this:

And performing as such:

Still some lag, a very experienced mag sorc can definitely reach 40k with this setup.

Well we went a long way so...

Well, at that point we are reaching the "definitely not budget" part, so prepare to shed tears of sweet monies going away from your pocket and grinding to death. That includes:

Replacing Ilambris by Zaan
Golding out the jewelry
Upgrading to Perfected Siroria (I didn't find it on the PTS though)
Using crafted potions so that we can finally drop Surge

Using crafted potions helps our sustain. A LOT. It means we don't have to cast Surge and can cast a much cheaper ability. We also don't lose crit while on our backbar. If we don't want the extra healing from Surge, we can also replace it with Inner Light for instance.

https://youtu.be/xzwNVq1G0xg

Ok, at this point that's another level. You'd have to:

Use spell strategist on the front bar only
Use a maelstrom staff on the backbar
Use only Bloodthirsty / Infused jewelry
Use golden food
Race change to Dunmer or Altmer Non sponsored by PETA

Thought at this point you are pushing damage to the point where you are already playing in a group, so you should be playing with a group composition in mind, with someone providing orbs and various debuffs while you focus on the damage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiMqWVnLhdU

And that, at last, is enough to rock the dips.

Joy_Division · December 2018

@Asmael 's post is about as comprehensive and clear as it gets.

All those small changes (using infused rather than Nirn, spellpower pots over surge, fire instead of lighten) add up.

Taleof2Cities · December 2018

Any Khajiit Magicka Sorcs that are out there ... this is required reading.

ArchMikem · December 2018

So, i farmed vet trials for Infall...for no legit reason?

Does an infused staff really give a better result even when missing 200 base damage from Nirned?

How are you supposed to make do without any self healing if you're also without a Healer that's on top of their game?

Can Netch's Touch be a viable poor man's substitute for Infallible?

FrancisCrawford · December 2018

ArchMikem wrote: »

So, i farmed vet trials for Infall...for no legit reason?

Does an infused staff really give a better result even when missing 200 base damage from Nirned?

How are you supposed to make do without any self healing if you're also without a Healer that's on top of their game?

Can Netch's Touch be a viable poor man's substitute for Infallible?

Since he's recommending that you switch some of your lightning damage to fire, there's no chance Netch's Touch will be good.

Camb0Sl1ce · December 2018

@ArchMikem infused is better than nirn because of the reduced enchantment cooldown and the increase in,enchantment potency.

Without a healer I just replace inner light on my back bar with power surge.

And netches touch isn't that great, to make it worthwhile you would have to slot boundless storm which would mean you youll have to play in a melee spot, just my opinion of it though.

ArchMikem · December 2018

What im asking for then is a good magic set that isnt from Cloudrest.

Camb0Sl1ce · December 2018

@ArchMikem well I still use mechanical acuity, with force pulse/crushing shock and perfected inferno its still pretty solid 51k my best, thats of course no pet though. Never used a pet though, so someone with better knowledge of pet sorc would have to recommend something.

Kikke · December 2018

Zaan, perf siroria, spell strat + vma backbar

Use elemental weapon instead of force pulse, perfect weaving. There, close to 50k solo parses xD

ArchMikem · December 2018

Thanks to Asmael for the lengthy tips and suggestions, you guys have helped me accomplish something I couldn't do on my own for the last several years. And all with just small changes too.

I broke 30k on a parse on my MagSorc.

Yes, I know saying that in this day and age of the game makes me sound really noobish and I guess that's just the kind of player I am. Even with practicing my rotations and using end game builds as guidelines for my own I still struggle with getting high parses. The most I could do with my Stamblade was 34k and I spent two dozen runs trying to get that 30.4k parse tonight. But then again because of you guys this was a 6k gain on my usual parse, so I consider that a huge achievement.

My only changes for now was putting a gold shock damage enchant on the backbar with shock blockade, replacing Ilambris with Zaan's, and putting Rearming Trap on the front bar for Minor Force. I was gonna try replacing IA with Netch's Touch, but I had forgotten I'd gotten rid of my rings a while ago to make room in the bank, so now I have to farm those again, or wait till they're in the vendor. I don't know what other magic set to use that isn't Trial gear, but I can go ahead and craft some Acuity and see what that does. That set always put me off cause the 2pc bonus is a waste and the 5pc has a long cooldown.

MLGProPlayer · December 2018

You're heavy attacking. That kills your DPS.

Slot Spell Symmetry instead for sustain and chug potions.

ArchMikem · December 2018

I DID IT AGAIN.

Decided to log on today before work and did a test. What was it, am I fresh from sleep? Dunno don't care my MagSorc parse is now on par with my StamBlade this is awesome! Oh I'm happy. I'm glad I asked for help.

adeptusminor · December 2018

ArchMikem wrote: »

I DID IT AGAIN.

Decided to log on today before work and did a test. What was it, am I fresh from sleep? Dunno don't care my MagSorc parse is now on par with my StamBlade this is awesome! Oh I'm happy. I'm glad I asked for help.

Congrats! This community really does a lot of helpful people. Also, I don't know if you use discord, but Alcast's has a lot of people that are more than willing to help you as well. Sometimes the more "realtime" nature of discord can be a bit more helpful for getting quick replies.

https://discord.gg/Etaaw6G

(Not to downplay Asmaels and everyone else's very informative and insightful posts, of course!)