I went heavily back into my magsorc (non pet) last night for the first time since the changes. As a disclaimer, these are my initial thoughts. I will obviously play more and reflect as I try to adapt.

I ran a random vet dungeon, the pledges and two trials, so I have a good idea of what were dealing with now (I only pvp for casual fun).

Ive mained my magsorc as a dps for around 4 years gradually improving, upgrading and honing him. Easily my most trusted and played character from the 14 that I currently have.

Last night was a horrible experience and I felt like a noob again. It was very clear how much more squishy my sorc is now and how much harder it is to stay alive and put out consistent dps. Remember, I have 14 characters, its not like I dont know how to play without Power Surge heals.

My magsorc used to have excellent survivability and dps. Last night I had to swap and change several skills. I had to spam shield and health to remain alive during difficult content. While that is an accepted style of play on some of my other characters, it is a complete and total change in play style for my magsorc. Less skills available on my bars, less survivability, less dps as a result of those skill changes and due to more time spent on shields/health.

Clearly the objective is to have one dps line, one tank line and one healing line, as we can see from more recent classes. But this massively removes class individuality and variation in play style and build. On one hand balance wise I can see how this may be more desirable for Zos. But from a boots on the ground player base stance, this isnt what we want, is it?

I imagine my dps will be pretty similar on a dummy... but in actual game play, it feels like its going to take a fair amount of practice and adaptation to get back to anything like where I was before. That is extremely frustrating. It feels like Zos has gimped one of my favourite and most effective characters that Ive been using for 4+ years across all content.

Perhaps through further practice and adaptation I will come to terms with these changes. I can only hope.
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Grianasteri wrote: »

Clearly the objective is to have one dps line, one tank line and one healing line, as we can see from more recent classes. But this massively removes class individuality and variation in play style and build. On one hand balance wise I can see how this may be more desirable for Zos. But from a boots on the ground player base stance, this isnt what we want, is it?

Speaking for myself, blatantly, inarguably, absolutely not. This ship left port 5 years ago. The skill lines aren't designed around this paradigm. Trying to refit them to retroactively achieve the paradigm is destructive to class flavor, to the character experiences that are part of why we keep coming back to the game day after day, and to enjoyable gameplay in the future. It's a bad idea, and choosing to implement it regardless of its badness will only cause it to be a wellspring of other bad, bad, bad ideas.

The_Lex wrote: »

There's a serious problem when you have to drop Liquid Lightning (a signature Sorc skill since beta) in favor of guild skills in order to hit an end game parse.

Edit: on PTS

Exactly my problem. Our trial group tamks have put Alkosh in bank and DDs started using Lover mundus all the time, because we have no Warden healer/tank and Sorcs refuse to use Lightning Flood. But we completely understand them.

For single target you just slot Degeneration. More damage, less cost, increased magicka for slotting and Empower after every use. What do you want more? :-D.
For AoE you slot Mystic Orb, more AoE damage and also a high damage AoE synergy usable more times in a row.