Questions about Value of Curse

[Nytehawk]

Hello all,

For the elite tower runs I have respeccd into the following:

Stats: All Intelligence

Fireball (Engulf, Ignite, Impact, Scorch)
Lightning (Empowered Bolt, Positive Surge)
Frost Bolt (Jagged Ice, Shiver)
Lifegiver (Empower, Regrowth, Recharge Mana)
Knowlege (+25 Int)

Pet: Ribbit (Active then cast Lightning, Frost, Fire)

I have not used Curse even though many say that it is the best for elite runs. I run with a good Warrior and mana-hungry rogue. Please check my assumptions to make sure I am not missing something as I am not sure I see how Curse makes sense:

Charged Up:
In play 5 sec out of 17 (15 sec cooldown and 2 sec Charge Up), or 29.4%. 29.4% x 15% = 4.4% overall damage per person. The improvement in total party damage 4.4% x 3.7 (Warrior only 70% of Rogue/Wiz DPS) is the equivalent of boosting my individual DPS by about 16%.
Since I would have to charge 2 secs out of 17, I'm giving up almost 12% of my casting time. While not perfect since this does not take in to account the use of Lifegiver, I'm estimating my net DPS improvement is now less than 5%.
I can spam my 3 short cooldown damage spells (fireball, lightning, Frost bolt) uncharged without need to use the standard attack more than offsets curse from a damage perspective.
We dont have issues with survivability so the 10% damage reduction (which is actually only 10% x 29.4%, or 3% overall) which isn't that useful. Plus I charge fireballs when clearing the trash.
Rogue needs Lifegiver for Mana support to blow stuff up.

Non Charged:
Actually a better option than charged but for my purposes and if my earlier assumptions are correct still inferior to a third damage low cool down damage spell.
In play 3 secs out of 15, or 20%. 20% x 10% = 2% damage per person. 2% x 3.7% is just over 7.4% individual damage without giving up any time for charging up.
However now I only have 2 spammable damage spells on short cooldown.

Please help me out if I have made some false assumptions or miscalculations. I want to make sure I am not undervaluing Curse.

[primaeva]

Firstly, no offense to warriors, but if you're talking about the best party setup you might as well use a rogue as a tank.

Secondly, you equated your personal DPS with that of your other party members. The fact is that rogues deal far more damage to a single target than a sorcerer ever can. I have both a sorc and a rogue (my first was a sorc) and it is the harsh truth.

Given the ideal party setup of one wiz (inevitable due to the premises of the thread) and three rogues, 12% casting time for the sorc is more than worth it for a 4.4% increase for the other three rogues.

I used to trigger Aspen (15% party wide damage buff) right after landing a Curse. Combinations like that really make the spell much more viable and important than most realize. The only thing: useless for AoE.

[primaeva]

To answer the question more directly: The value of Curse is thus highly dependent on your party setup. Three warriors and one mage might mean its a bad idea to run Curse. You get the idea. Naturally you might end up in a party which simply won't make full use of the spell.

But the idea of one person sacrificing a little cast time to increase damage for three others (and himself) is a simple concept that should work out well if everyone is doing their role right. I'll be the first to agree that the spell could use a little buff in terms of duration:cooldown ratio though.

[Nytehawk]

Thanks for the reply Primaeva. Your comments make sense.

I've never been able to parse my bro's (rogue) damage separately from mine but I'm sure you are right that Rogues do a lot more single target dps. Now to find more rogues to group with...

[quaziest]

I think primaeva has a good point here ... if someone creates a Rouge with a HIGH STR to be a tank, It should make his point correct. I'll try that on my Rogue ... thanks for that thought.

[Energizeric]

I have the exact same setup as you except I got only 3 points in passive INT and instead added another point in Frost and maxed out Heal.

As for curse, that would probably work well if you had at least 2 rogues that you run with as it would make them deal more damage.

[CosmoxKramer]

I probably should have posted it in the Sorc thread, but i did in General Discussion. I made a calculator to try and show you DPS changes between charging a skill or not, which skill do you do as priority, etc. Sorry i didn't build in pet CD's or curse yet. there are too many pet Arcanes to program right now, and i don't know the de-buff duration of curse yet...hopefully it's not 3 seconds and more like 8, etc..

http://www.spacetimestudios.com/showthread.php?82384-Sorcerer-dps-calculator