Post#33 » Fri Apr 06, 2018 12:50 pm
The only reason why Sorc keeps working in AoE spec/bombing is because the Disrupts become "diversified", that is, the risk of having your dmg disrupted is divided between so many targets that even if 4 out of 9 are Disrupted on landing, the remaining 5 still dish out some dmg. Though I've seen cases where I shoot out Infernal Wave and I get back 9/9 disrupts which is comically sad. (pure RNG tbh, good days, bad days, luck varies)
Go-to abilities:
Infernal Wave, you shoot dmg out forwards 65ft, no primary target required to no initial "main" Disrupt check
Ice Spikes, DoT 65ft feet frontal cone, deals mostly fluff dmg but starts adding up when 3-5 Sorcs all do it so those 200-400 ticks become more combined together
Surging Pain, 30 feet radius around Sorc, deals okayish dmg but costs Dark Magic, doesnt require primary target so no main Disrupt check
Pit of Shades, targeted area gets AoE dmg, mediocre dmg and doesnt work if too many people PoS same area (doesnt stack so out of 10 sorcs PoSing one area only 1 does dmg, not sure how chosen)
Disastrous Cascade, 30 feet radius around player, deals okayish dmg, again doesnt require primary target so threat of Disrupt is divided amongst many targets
more meh;
Shadow Knives, decent dmg, has absurd long CD (with 16 sec meaning basically thrice per minute), and if your primary target has high Disrupt/Block it fails to launch properly meaning no dmg to other targets (not sure if working as intended or if it varies depending on lag)
Shattered Shadows, 3 sec cast and if primary target disrupt/block it does no aoe dmg - standing 3 sec still in large fight that requires SS is suicidemode
Black Horror - looks cool, 3 sec cast is suicide and if primary target check fails 0 dmg to everyone, does less dmg than SS and even the debuff of -80 init is easier done by a SH in Conq gear
Gloom of Night, bit meh as it requires primary target and 2 sec cast is also high risk in rvr, was more fun to get rid of enemy tank Challenge debuffs with this ability back in the days when you could actually cast on tanks with decent success rates
Still, it works often enough I guess, because if you stack 4 sorcs and each does Infernal Wave expecting 50% of Disrupts, out of 36 hits 18 would still hit home and wreck enemies considerably.
Now if only AoE spec would work in Scs and in smallscale...
In smallscale, you would have troubles because if 20-60% of your supposed burst fails to land on target, you don't "half-burst" someone to death, in which case its a miss. Another great issue is being that healers are able to laugh off most of your attempts at focusing them due to your DoTs requiring multiple checks before hitting home.
Obviously it can work because quite many players play without guard or without heals and cleanses, but against solid enemy groups where healers can notice WoP and Sorc rotation starting, easy pre-hotting and targets self awareness to break LoS or detaunt Sorc; - another failed burst rotation.
With melee classes you can always go behind enemy backs to avoid being parried or blocked, with Sorc you just pray to RNGesus, sometimes with more success, sometimes with less - leading to occasionally quite frustrating encounters.
Maybe Devs will eventually take a look at the class, but Sorc being just 1 of the 7 magical dmg dealers in game, they would have to rework the whole Disrupt thingy back to how it was before last October.
