This is embarrassing to admit ...

[roadrunnerNM]

... but I don't get anything like the DPS numbers that I see other folks quoting. I'm a lightning spec sorcerer with a mix of Rakata and Columi (1831 willpower with Mark of Power and a stim), and I seem to top out at about 950 DPS against the training dummy. I've read Daellia/Kaedis's excellent guide, and I *think* I'm doing it right, but obviously not. I tried out the madness/lightning hybrid and went UP to about 1050 DPS (still pretty low). I really have no idea ... can anyone give me a hint towards becoming less bad?

 

Oh, and before anyone says anything about keybinding: I'm not a "clicker." I keybind *everything*, and I'm a touch typist; so I know where those keys are.

[pureeffinmetal]

You're going to have to give me more information before I can help you out. Your rotation, your gear, etc.

 

For now, here is a couple EC HM Parses you can study and compare to what you're doing. I'll get up a dummy parse later too that you can compare with yours.

 

7/17

7/10

 

Note that I have considerable better gear than what you described so the spell damages won't be similiar, but you can at least look at rotation / percentage of damage, etc.

 

If you can give me more detail on what you are or aren't doing I can help you out further.

Edited July 19, 2012 by pureeffinmetal

[xstortion]

What's your rotation?

 

Are you sure you are using PVE dummy and not the PVP?

[roadrunnerNM]

My gear: http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/character/13eda9db-2b4e-45de-8f45-0e11601330e8

My build: http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/skills/Sorcerer#i-1vj26d2e3f-2023

 

I start with Affliction, and try to keep it on the target at all times.

Then Thundering Blast, followed by Crushing Darkness. Then Force Lightning.

Then Lightning Strike when everything else is on cooldown.

TB and CD every time they come off cooldown. I also try to take advantage

of every proc of Lightning Storm and Lightning Barrage.

 

Thanks for posting your logs, Fallschirmjager . The biggest difference I see between your damage distributions and mine is that your number one damage dealer is Lightning Strike, with Force Lightning down the list. For me it's the other way around. I was under the impression that FL did better DPS then LS even without a proc of Lightning Barrage. Is that not the case?

 

 

Are you sure you are using PVE dummy and not the PVP?

 

D'oh! I didn't know there was a difference. I've been using the dummies on the Zioist Shadow. I was originally using the "Combat MK-5" and then switched to the "Operations MK-5", which seems to be a bit tougher.

[chaosme]

Thanks for posting your logs, Fallschirmjager . The biggest difference I see between your damage distributions and mine is that your number one damage dealer is Lightning Strike, with Force Lightning down the list. For me it's the other way around. I was under the impression that FL did better DPS then LS even without a proc of Lightning Barrage. Is that not the case?

 

FL does indeed do more DPS than LS, but LS has the chance to proc instacast CL which is a great boost to DPS. The optimal rotation appears to be alternating FL and LS when using your filler spells as can be referenced from the SimC priority list in the 1.3 BiS thread.

[pureeffinmetal]

My gear: http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/character/13eda9db-2b4e-45de-8f45-0e11601330e8

[/Quote]

 

Ok problem number one! You have far, far too much Crit and not enough power. 533 Crit is WAAAAY over the Soft Cap (350~). Furthermore because Thundering Blast (which should make up 20-23% of your overall DPS) auto-crits, crit become devalued for us Lightning Sorcs.

 

I would suggest swapping those numbers. 533 power and 144 Crit is much better than 144 Power and 533 Crit.

 

My build: http://swtor.askmrrobot.com/skills/Sorcerer#i-1vj26d2e3f-2023

[/Quote]

 

This is perfect, nothing wrong here.

 

I start with Affliction, and try to keep it on the target at all times.

Then Thundering Blast, followed by Crushing Darkness. Then Force Lightning.

Then Lightning Strike when everything else is on cooldown.

TB and CD every time they come off cooldown. I also try to take advantage

of every proc of Lightning Storm and Lightning Barrage.

 

 

Thanks for posting your logs, Fallschirmjager . The biggest difference I see between your damage distributions and mine is that your number one damage dealer is Lightning Strike, with Force Lightning down the list. For me it's the other way around. I was under the impression that FL did better DPS then LS even without a proc of Lightning Barrage. Is that not the case?

Open your rotation with Crushing Darkness and then cast Affliction. You will get a slight DPS increase in your opening rotation because you will cast Crushing Darkness out of combat, and then begin logging afterwards.

 

Thundering Blast next. Keep both it and Crushing Darkness on cooldown.

 

So here's the thing with Force Lightning. It is a DPS increase over Lightning Strike however Lightning Strike procc's Chain Lightning, so unless CL is on cooldown (10s Internal CD) you shouldn't be using Force Lightning unless Lightning Barrage is procc'd.

 

There is some slight DPS to be gained using Force Lightning more than just with the procc, but its tricky. Frankly just stick to using it only with your Lightning Barrage procc and you'll be fine.

 

So instead of Force Lightning after Thundering Blast, start spamming Lightning Strike and cast your procc's as they happen, keeping Thundering Blast and Crushing Darkness on cooldown and maintain Affliction on the target at all times.

 

Here is a dummy parse for you to look at. Was a bit laggy unfortunately, otherwise my normal parses are 1600+. But it will suffice.

 

A couple things to remember!

 

1) Never clip your Affliction! Wait for it to fall off before you reapply it.

 

2) Remember Polarity Shift! Use on it on CD, and try to use it when you're going to be chain casting (IE not refreshing Affliction, waiting on your CL Procc, etc)

 

3) Recklessness is best used when you have both a Lightning Barrage and Lightning Storm Procc up and can use them together.

 

4) Your two proccs have a 10s internal cooldown, therefore you must use them within 10s to avoid losing DPS. You don't have to cast them immediately and I would prioritize casting Thundering Blast and Crushing Darkness over the proccs as long as you're within the 10s window.

 

5) Try to anticipate movement in Operations and have a Chain Lightning Procc ready, refresh your Affliction or worst cast scenario Shock.

 

GL with your Parses! Please let me know if things work out!

Edited July 19, 2012 by pureeffinmetal

[Larry_Dallas]

You're going to have to give me more information before I can help you out. Your rotation, your gear, etc.

 

For now, here is a couple EC HM Parses you can study and compare to what you're doing. I'll get up a dummy parse later too that you can compare with yours.

 

7/17

7/10

 

Note that I have considerable better gear than what you described so the spell damages won't be similiar, but you can at least look at rotation / percentage of damage, etc.

 

If you can give me more detail on what you are or aren't doing I can help you out further.

 

Mortar Volley?

[pureeffinmetal]

Mortar Volley?

 

Yeah IDK Either. Musta had logs on when I was playing my trooper or something.

[Fireswraith]

All I can say is go to the link below, read the Sorc/Sage BiS and Sorc/Sage DPS threads to find out what you should be working towards in terms of gear and what you should be doing as far as rotations. You're not doing anything wrong either. Pushing 1k DPS in your parse isn't bad at all given your gear.

 

Also, if you're just using a DPS parser then don't worry about comparing what you get to what Daellia et all list in the above threads; since they aren't using DPS parsers. They are using a simulation program, so there's undoubtedly going to be some number variance.

 

[EDIT] Lol forgot the link

http://mmo-mechanics.com/swtor/forums/Forum-Sith-Inquisitor-and-Jedi-Consular

Edited July 19, 2012 by Fireswraith

[roadrunnerNM]

Thanks for the advice, everyone! It is much appreciated. I've changed my rotation and swapped some mods, and my parses have gone up a bit. Hopefully they'll go up a bit more with practice. I do still have a couple questions:

 

I would suggest swapping those numbers. 533 power and 144 Crit is much better than 144 Power and 533 Crit.

 

Is this even possible at the Columi/Rakata gear level? All the sorc stuff comes loaded with Crit., and just counting the stuff I can't modify (earpiece, implants, focus), that's 233 Crit. OK, obviously 444 Power and 233 Crit would be an improvement, which brings me to my 2nd question: Where the heck do I get the mods? I can make Columi-level Power/Surge enhancements, so that's fine. I can buy extra Columi pieces with tokens and pull the mod mods from them ... but the Rakata mods/enhancements are scarce on the market.

 

1) Never clip your Affliction! Wait for it to fall off before you reapply it.

 

How do you handle this with multiple sorcerers? If I see 3 Afflictions on the boss, it's hard to tell which one is mine.

[Fireswraith]

As for your multiple Affliction issue. I believe they will appear in the debuff window in order that they were placed on the target, at least that's what I've seen in raids I'm in with more than one DPS Sorc. If I put my Affliction on a boss and then another Sorc puts Affliction right after, mine will be first and his will be second (left -> right). So I guess all I can say is keep track of your targets debuff window and see if you put Affliction on first second or third.

 

As for your gear concern I'll be honest. I personally wouldn't worry too much about making sure your Columi/Rakata pieces are all modded perfectly. Just make sure to get decked out in all Rakata Force-Master/Mystic pieces that have the highest Willpower. Worry about getting the best mods best implants etc etc for your "Final End Game" Black Hole/Campaign template; it'll save you a lot of time because you'll have to go through the trouble of re-modding your BH/Campaign stuff anyway. Story mode Eternal Conflict is easily done with basic Rakata gear, un-augmented and un-perfectly modded.

 

Of course it's your gear so you can do what you want, just my 2 cents. When I started doing Story EC, my gear (all Rakata) was a combo of highest Willpower Force Master/Mystic, power use relic, dmg proc relic, Stalker offhand (I think), Stalker implants, Force Master earpiece (I think), and whichever FM/Mystic weapon had more Willpower. Didn't change any of the mods, no augments except for the weapon (which was craft augmented pre 1.3). So I didn't have anything really special.

[hatterson]

How do you handle this with multiple sorcerers? If I see 3 Afflictions on the boss, it's hard to tell which one is mine.

 

By becoming omniscient.

 

Honestly if you have multiple sorcs putting the debuff on the target it's going to be very hard/impossible to keep track of which one is yours with the current UI. My best suggestion is to look at other long term cooldowns and gauge it based on that. If your adrenal has 45s left on the cooldown when you cast affliction you should be casting your next one with ~24s left, etc.

[KorrigTS]

Check the "Dot Tracker" link in my signature for help with tracking affliction.