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[Sorceress] Calamity and Destruction

Structured balance proposals should be posted here. Posts in this section will be taken into account during class balance reviews.
Aezron
Posts: 93

[Sorceress] Calamity and Destruction

Post#1 » Mon Apr 05, 2021 3:20 pm

These past months I have been thinking a lot about the problems facing the Sorceress, and come up with some ideas in different parts of the forums. I realized though that any proposals needs to be written here, so I will compile my ideas here.

Scope
This thread will focus mostly on the Destruction (AoE) and Calamity (DoT) trees and on some base abilities, I also believe the Agony (ST) tree, all Morale 4, and some base tactics could use some improvement but that is for another thread.

First I want to mention that I have read this recent post by Caduceus viewtopic.php?f=95&t=44428 and mostly agree with what he says, however I believe that a Sorceress generally should not be as mobile as e.g. melee classes and I would not want to see e.g. Disastrous Cascade being casted on the move.
Instead my proposals focus on lessening the weaknesess of the Sorceress by other means, and having the abilities themselves worth being cast while stationary. I will not repeat the Sorceress weaknesses here as I believe Caduceus described them well enough in his thread.

Sorceress in my opinion should be high risk and high reward, currently it is unfortunately mostly high risk and mediocre reward.



Proposals

- Shadow Knives
Issue:
Shadow Knives (SK) in its current form is very lacking, it fills a very similar role as Pit of Shades (PoS) but it does less damage per second (DPS), cost more AP per second, offers no added utility and is also the 13 point Destruction ability (while PoS is baseline).
Damage comparison:
SK ~840 damage/2 second = 420 DPS
PoS ~700 damage/1,5 second = 467 DPS
screenshot here https://imgur.com/a/KZiwBCy
Spoiler:
Stats used while testing
All testing has been done with offensive Sovereign +15% crit damage set bonus and at 100 Dark Magic and each tree at full spec (giving ability level 40, which is often uncommon using a "real" spec), with the stats of my character seen here https://imgur.com/a/7bYmzx9
Proposal:
Move initiative debuff from Black Horror to Shadow Knives
Rescale Shadow Knives from 6 second channel that hit every 2 second, to a 3 second channel that hit every 1 second.

Reason:
Gives Shadow Knives some utility besides damage, also fits thematically with knives cutting target and reduces initiative/increases chance to be crit
Makes Shadow Knives more bursty, both increases damage per second and reduces Sorceress immobility
13 point ability should be impactful.

- Gloom of Night

Proposal:
Move from 5 point Calamity to 5 point Destruction
Possibly reduce cast time from 2 seconds to 1 seconds

Reason:
Switch place to AoE tree
Help reduce Sorceress immobility and make it easier to actually use Gloom of Night

- Black Horror
Issue:
The 3 seconds cast time of this ability really makes it unusable in almost all occasions.

Proposal:

Move from 5 point Destruction to 5 point Calamity
Change Black Horror to a Sorceress mirror of Playing With Fire, but being a Curse (instead of Hex) and dealing Spirit damage (instead of Elemental).

Reason:
Adding the utility of a Heal Debuff for the Sorceress would improve the Sorceress competetiveness in small scale fights and help the Sorceress burst down healers/targets getting healed.
Adding HD to the same place and with the same function as BW should be fine balance wise, even though I (also) don't really like mirroring between realms.

- Absorb Vitality
Issue:
Not very impactful for a 13 point ability, low damage, low healing (which is also easily negated by bubbles/shields, cleanse, damage reduction etc.), and long cooldown.

Proposal:
Increase damage so it is also a competetive DoT (this would also help increasing the healing part that manages to go through e.g. bubbles etc.)
OR
Make it hit/apply to targets within 20 ft of your target

Reason:
Absorb Vitality is a very fitting skills for Sorceress thematically, I would like it to be more potent as it is a 13 point ability. Compared to other life-tap DoTs this one is really weak overall.
Having it hit targets within 20 ft of your target is an inspiration from M4 Soul Stealer, which would increase Absorb Vitality's potency without affecting its impact on any single enemy.

- Shroud of Darkness

Proposal:
Now also reduces chance to be set back while casting by 50%

Reason:
This would improve the Sorceress ability to handle being pressured for a short while (or until the Enchantment is Shattered)
BW get this same bonus on their "mirror" ability (although theirs last 10 seconds with 30 second CD instead of the Sorceress lasting 20 seconds with 60 second CD, and BW giving armor while Sorceress giving resists)

- Obsessive Focus
Issue:
Not impactful enough to be worth casting most of the time, it is usually more damage casting any other skill than "wasting" a GCD on Obsessive Focus.

Proposal:
Increase bonus and penalty to +20% damage on target and -20% damage on other targets

Reason:

This would improve the Sorceress ability to focus down a target in small scale fights and make it woth casting this Sorceress specific ability, while keeping the penalty balanced to the bonus given for balance reasons.


The last two proposals (below) I have are mostly identified as inconsistencies, and not really as balance issues, I will still offer proposals though.

- Disastrous Cascade (and possibly Annihilate too?)
Issue:
Not consistent with other channeled direct damage abilities, only hits 3 times during the 3 second channel instead of the "normal" 4 times.

Proposal:
Now hits immediately when pressing the ability (second 0), and then every 1 second for 3 seconds. Hitting for a total of 4 times (instead of 3 times)

Reason:

All other channeled direct damage abilities, that I know of, hits once immediately when the skill is activated, then each X second according to its description. Disastrous Cascade (and possibly Annihilate) does not follow this "rule" and is therefore inconsistent, the proposal is made to fix this inconsistency. It would also increase the PBAoE damage a little bit, which adds a little more reward to the high risk and high reward playstyle.

- Hand of Ruin
Issue:
Being a supposed mirror to BW Withering Heat, Hand of Ruin lacks the snare component.

Proposal:
Add a snare component similar to BW Withering Heat

Reason:
As I understand it Hand of Ruin and Withering Heat are supposed to be direct mirrors between BW and Sorceress, being in the same spot in the same tree and with similar damage and debuffability (Shadow of Disaster for Sorc, Ignition for BW).
Adding the snare component would complete the skills mirroring and also help the immobility of the Sorceress by having easier access to an instant snare (although it is stationary channeled).


Thanks for reading!
Ithala, RR80 Sorceress

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