Top Tier Sorc DPS Rotation

After being through some elite boss fights AFTER switching to a Flamestrike Rod, I realized that keeping all spells charged, released and on cooldown perhaps wouldn't be the best damage output. Here are a few reasons why:


1) Charging disallows normal attacks -- therefore the charge must more than make up for the loss of normal attack damage.
1b) The 2 - 2.5 attacks lost during a charge more than makes up for the increased charge damage.
2) If you don't charge, you fire off more spells in the same period of time.
3) Attacking more procs more fire damage debuffs.
4) The more attacks/spells you get off in that 4 sec window of pet ability burst (Aspen/Ribbit etc), the more you benefit.
5) Frost Bolt DoT stacks, so you want to have as many DoTs going as possible.

Furthermore, the following spells do NOT require charging to proc a secondary, increased damage effect:

1) Fireball -> DoT still applies (charging adds stun / scorch)
2) Frost Bolt -> DoT (and extended stun + damage) still applies (charging adds 20% chance to AoE)
3) Lightning Strike -> 15% still applies, 250% crit still applies (charging adds chance to spread on kill / stun)

The following spell's damage is benefited by charging:

1) Time Shift -> Clock Bomb not affected, but charge required for DoT and root [which makes it the only spell where charging brings it on par with cast+normal attack]
2) Curse -> Additional 5% damage taken by mob when charged

The one spell that SHOULD be charged is Heal, to heal more and to trigger mana restore / heal over time.

The following spells are terrible in any serious encounter:

1) Gale Force -> it's a fun spell, that's about it.
2) Arcane Shield -> if your party is doing it right, you can run with 0 strength and not need this either.

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TL:DR, unless it's an AoE encounter where stun and CC is needed, there is very little reason to charge as damage is lost, with the condition that you have a Flamestrike wand. It's more damaging to just tap at everything that's on CD-- especially right after you trigger your damage-boosting pet arcane.

Any discussion / insights?

Tested against Elite Jarl with definite results (2-man run):

Not charging brought him down faster (and pulled more aggro).

In the same set of tests I've pioneered and highly recommend this single-target build for all your bossing needs.

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Primaeva's Endgame Sorcerer Build

Fireball 4/5 - Everything but scorch. You still need the AoE stun for those trash packs before a boss.
Lightning Strike 3/5 - (+15% damage, 250% crits) Self-explanatory.
Frost Bolt 3/5 - (Jagged Ice for DoT, Shiver for DoT duration)
Curse 3/5 - (+5% extra damage, +2s curse duration)

Heal 2/5 - (+Mana Restore) [What's this? 5 skills? Yes. Drop Curse from your bars when not running elites and doing dailies. Curse isn't that useful in Hauntlets/Tombs because bosses drop too damn fast anyway. Better to have a free heal on hand.]

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Pros
- Unparalleled single target damage build
- 15% party-wide damage buff
- Retains CC from Fireball and Frost Bolt
- Switch to Heal for regular instancing / dailies

Cons
- Requires a Flamestrike Wand
- VERY MANA INTENSIVE. Expect to pop 5-10 pots a fight.
- Losing Time Shift / Gale Force weakens the AoE of this build. (It is after all crafted for bossing.)
- You need a good tank. This is highly bursty (particularly when you time curse + pet passive and 3 nukes), so you might catch aggro that's hard to shake.
- You're going to be tapping so much that it looks like you're playing Tap Tap Revenge.

Method:


Engage with taps on frost and lightning instead of fire to avoid AoEing secondary mobs.
Once in position, start a cycle where you keep lightning and frost on cooldown, fireball in between the gaps, and normal attacks in between the gaps.

Charge curse when all 3 of your nuke spells are on CD-- then straightaway pop your pets arcane damage booster (Aspen/Ribbit etc) after the curse and release your 3 nukes, tapping primary attack all the way.

If you hate specifics: Keep everything on cooldown, while spamming normal attack.

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That's all! Any feedback is appreciated :))

P.S. Do NOT use this build for levelling up. AoE damage is far more useful when grinding the XP! You have been warned.

Definitely pushing out the most damage this way. Pretty straightforward.

And as shown, you will have points left over, for things like heal or whatever.

i have use this now and even with a lot of mob,this build is efficient but you have to drink a lot though :D. i haven't got the fire wand, just the dark pact one and the +25int and the others thing i don't remeber now.

on elite, it works well with a tiny group ( 3 or 2 avoid the boss of course ) .

Hmm Kirat, it works okay with regular wands, but the difference from charging won't really be enough to justify drinking all the mana pots. D:

As of 2nd Dec, testing has confirmed that Frost Bolt's DoT component stacks, making it in most cases the highest single-target DPS spell, contrary to the conventional Lightning Strike, even with boosted crit from a Ribbit pet.

At any point in time, you can have 3 stacks of rolling DoTs on a target (another reason to NOT charge frost bolt) --> FB at 0, 3, 6 seconds.

For an example:
183 damage Sorc
Frost Bolt - hits for ~150.
7 ticks of 12-13 = 84 - 91 damage
Total: 234-241 damage.

Lightning Strike - hits for ~170
That's it.

Even with a 100% crit rate up all the time, the gap is only closed slightly.

Frost Bolt should thus replace Lightning Strike as the first off cooldown with this build.

:))

I love the skill spec and strategy. Works great!