Before I answer the survey, I'd just like to say that I think the biggest thing you could do to help with the skill system is to disclose more about how various skills work. Right now much of it is a mystery and many of us are confused which skills upgrades actually work in PvP or only in PvE, and many of the descriptions are very vague. I'll give more details below...
What class do you primarily play?
Sorcerer
What are your current builds for PvE? PvP?
PvE for tombs: Fireball, Time Shift, Gale Force, Lifegiver
PvE for elites: Fireball, Lightning, Time Shift, Shield
PvE for arena/bosses: Fireball, Lightning, Frost, Shield
PvP: Frost, Lightning, Curse, Shield
Which skills/upgrades do you like using and why?
Which skills/upgrades do you dislike using and why?
Fireball
Engulf - good upgrade (I wouldn't change this one)
Ignite - good upgrade (I wouldn't change this one)
Impact - good upgrade (I wouldn't change this one)
Scorch - does this upgrade work in PvP or is this a PvE only skill? Just as the pet description for Samael explains that banish does not work in PvP, I think it would be nice if the skill upgrade descriptions also gave similar information.
Lightning Strike
Empowered Bolt - good upgrade
Electrical Discharge - this upgrade would be more useful if the percentages of triggering it were higher. As it is, most lightning strike attacks will not kill the target, so the real chance of triggering the effect is much less than the stated 15%/25%. Perhaps this effect should be triggered 15%/25% of the time regardless of whether the main target is killed by the attack. That would make this a much more useful upgrade.
Positive Surge - good upgrade
Shock - again, 25% just is not enough of a chance to make this a worthwhile upgrade, especially since Fireball has a much higher stun chance, and with stun immunity in PvP, you can only stun the target so often. This would be more useful if it were a 40% stun rate or perhaps if some other debuff was added along with the 25% stun rate.
Gale Force - this is probably the least used sorcerer skill, and I will explain why below...
Outward Squall - see below
Protective Current - see below
Speed of Wind - see below
Weighted Wind - good upgrade
Regarding Outward Squall, Protective Current, and Speed of Wind, these upgrades by themselves are all fine, except they do not function well together. For Gale Force to be a useful skill, I have to be able to use the speed burst at times when I'm trying to save time (such as flagging or running back to the boss after dying), but I also have to be able to use the AoE attack (Outward Squall) and the armor boost (Protective Current) when fighting in elites WITHOUT the speed burst. The problem here is the way these upgrades are laid out, if you charge the skill you get the AoE attack, armor boost AND the speed burst. If you don't charge, then you don't get any of them. Unlike all other sorcerer skills, this is the one skill where having all the upgrades makes it NOT be useful. So depending on which upgrades you take, it becomes a skill that is not useful in multiple areas.
So here is my suggestion on how to change the upgrades:
Outward Squall - this upgrade should trigger AoE attack whether or not the skill is charged.
Protective Current - this upgrade should trigger the armor boost whether or not the skill is charged.
Speed of Wind - this upgrade does not need to be changed provided that Outward Squall and Protective Current are changed as stated above.
Frost Bolt
Ice Welder - even though the description says there is only a 20% chance of this happening, it seems to happen almost 100% of the time. I suggest the description be changed to indicate what this upgrade really does. But other than that, this upgrade is fine as is.
Jagged Ice - good upgrade
Shiver - good upgrade (please clarify if this works in PvP or only in PvE)
Arctic Shatter - the least useful upgrade of any sorcerer skill - as with the Electrical Discharge upgrade to Lightning Strike, the chance of triggering this is so low because most attacks do not kill the target. To make this useful I suggest making it trigger 20% of the time regardless of whether the target is killed.
Arcane Shield
Extended Shield - good upgrade
Displacement Wave - not a very useful upgrade, in fact I don't know anyone who uses this upgrade. Most sorcerers lead with their shield into the battle, so no enemies are near them when they charge the shield. How about instead if enemies that attack you while your charged shield is up (any time during the 15 seconds) have a 20% chance of triggering the displacement wave which would then push everyone back at that time.
Static Resonance - good upgrade, but needs some clarification. Does this upgrade increase the damage reduction from 30% to 45%? Or does it increase the 30% amount by 15% resulting in 34.5%? Please make the description more clear.
Hardened Shielding - good upgrade
Time Shift
Dodge and Death - good upgrade, but unclear if the dodge reduction works in PvP, please clarify
Time Bomb - this upgrade would be more useful if the damage done by it was higher and closer to the damage of a regular attack. As is the damage is barely noticeable.
Countdown of Pain - good upgrade
Freeze Time - good upgrade for PvE, but seems to not do anything in PvP. Please clarify what effect, if any, this does in PvP. My opinion is that in PvP it should not stun, but should cause targets to be slowed even more than they already are by Time Shift without this upgrade. But this must be explained in the skill description.
Curse
Words of Weakening - problem with this is that it seems to lower the damage inflicted, but also the damage reflected back at the target. It should do the first, but not the second. This upgrade needs to be changed or else it is not useful as the whole point of curse is to reflect the damage.
Penetrating Curse - good upgrade
Lingering Curse - good upgrade
Sweeping Curse - good upgrade, and while it explains that the amount of affected targets is increased by 2, the main skill never says how many targets are affected by this skill without this upgrade. Same for range, this upgrade claims to increase the range by 2 meters, but the skill never states what the range is without this upgrade. Please add this info to the main skill description.
Lifegiver
Increased Ranged - I think to make this upgrade more useful, the range should be increased to be 10 meters, not 8. 8 is not enough of an increase to make it worthwhile, and often times players on your team are not close enough.
Empower - good upgrade
Regrowth - see below
Recharge Mana - see below
For Regrowth and Recharge Mana, I think instead of a fixed regen amount like 10 health/sec or 5 mana/sec, it needs to be a percentage increase, otherwise as we go up to higher levels it becomes useless, and if you make it higher to be useful at higher levels then it will be OP at lower levels. Instead how about the regen be 3% per second for both health and mana, meaning you get 30% over 10 seconds. Then it would actually become useful at end game.
As for what to do going forward, I think more passive upgrades need to be added. I suggest an 8th passive which is "health" and boosts heath 100 points for each skill point, and I suggest a total of 7 points allowed for each passive. This will solve the current problem that we have too many skill points and not enough places to put them all. It will also give end game players some extra health which I think we all agree is needed considering the current "one shot and dead" PvP environment at end game.
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