Do Soc have to be healers

[orpionrulez]

DO I have to be a healer as a soc or can I just due lightning/madness any advice

[Ghost_Spectre]

DO I have to be a healer as a soc or can I just due lightning/madness any advice

 

A sorcerer is not pigeonholed into any single spec. If you don't want to heal, play a DPS spec. If you want to play Lightning, you'll be rewarded by what that spec can do. Madness kind of took a big hit with 2.0. A hybrid spec (Lightning/Madness) is pretty good to use too. However, you do not get to use Thundering Blast if you go that route.

 

Personally, I recommend using Lightning. Learn how the spec plays and its nuances. Lightning does require a higher skill to play it effectively because of its limitation on movement and casting among other things. When you get that down pat, the other specs seem easier to play. For any of the spec it comes down to an effective rotation and how you use them. This applies in PvE as well as PvP.

[chaosmadness]

Lightning for PVE and Madness for PVP.

Or healer for both

Edited June 6, 2013 by chaosmadness

[orpionrulez]

Thanks that will help but what is best lightning or madness

[Ghost_Spectre]

Thanks that will help but what is best lightning or madness

 

Both have their proponents. Therefore, there is no true answer to your question that will satisfy you. I prefer Lightning because I never have issues with force management, especially in a long drawn out battle. With Madness, force management is a huge issue. Take that for what it is worth. Try them both and see what your own preference will end up being. Only you can make that decision. Whatever you choose, I'm sure you'll enjoy playing your spec, that's what matters the most.

[Pearasite]

With Madness, force management is a huge issue.

 

Sorcerers who heal can have force management issues. Madness sorcerers do not have any issues with force management. If you do, your rotation is seriously wrong.

[orpionrulez]

Thanks everyone:) I like healing but I do not wanna be *****ed at or yelled at during a flashpoint mission for not healing or not healing fast enough. Even though I only picked damager before the flashpoint started:confused:

[Maelael]

Thanks everyone:) I like healing but I do not wanna be *****ed at or yelled at during a flashpoint mission for not healing or not healing fast enough. Even though I only picked damager before the flashpoint started:confused:

 

You're gonna get yelled at. It's okay though, they're just jerks.

http://www.thatvideosite.com/v/2822

 

Check the symbol at your toon's image, it will let you know what role the GF put you in. I've clicked DD by mistake being in healer spec, etc. You could have misclicked, they could have misread, etc.

 

Madness and Lightning are different styles, have different rotations, and have different pluses and minuses. So does healing. Ideally try out all three, see what you like and is the most fun and master it and enjoy it.

[Ghost_Spectre]

Sorcerers who heal can have force management issues. Madness sorcerers do not have any issues with force management. If you do, your rotation is seriously wrong.

 

Yes, yes, a Madness sorcerer never runs out of force management...especially after a LONG drawn out fight. Yeah, right. Next time, look at the context of which I speak.

[Pearasite]

Yes, yes, a Madness sorcerer never runs out of force management...especially after a LONG drawn out fight. Yeah, right. Next time, look at the context of which I speak.

 

My response did consider context. Even after being battle rezzed, I just start back into normal rotation and never have force issues.

 

I'd love to hear how others have force management issues as madness but I don't think I'd get many responses.

[rlamela]

My response did consider context. Even after being battle rezzed, I just start back into normal rotation and never have force issues.

 

I'd love to hear how others have force management issues as madness but I don't think I'd get many responses.

 

I havent played Balance/Madness since before 2.0 went live, but when I did there were plenty of times in PVP matches where I would end up with no force begging for someone to kill me The main reason is I would use Project in my rotation for the much added burst. And that could really drain my force in prolonged battles where I couldn't get out of combat. But for the most part I was usually able to maintain my force.

[Yeochins]

Sorcerers who heal can have force management issues. Madness sorcerers do not have any issues with force management. If you do, your rotation is seriously wrong.

 

Typical PvE response.

 

If you're using the Madness spec to its fullest potential in PvP you will be dry on force all the time. The difference between having energy and having no energy is the difference between being able to put out burst using madness versus a baddie who gets his damage healed over all the time.

[dcgregorya]

Sorcerers who heal can have force management issues. Madness sorcerers do not have any issues with force management. If you do, your rotation is seriously wrong.

 

In PVE that's true. In PVP it's very easy to get force starved because you regenerate mana from using FL which you don't have the luxury of using nearly as much in PVP as PVE. My one big problem with madness sorcs in 2.0 (aside from the loss of the insta-whirlwind) is that I hate the new mana regen mechanics.

Edited June 10, 2013 by dcgregorya

[bryceman]

DO I have to be a healer as a soc or can I just due lightning/madness any advice

 

I dps on my sage and I pull the most dps out of all our ranged dps. Also pretty close to our top sent during ops. The only negative thing about sage/sorc dps is that we do not have an armor debuf BUT if you already have a guardian, commando (dps), or gunslinger in your ops then you don't have to worry about that because you only need one and they don't stack on top of each other.

[AceMidnight]

I play Madness for PVP, because the DOT's seem to work better on the Heavy armored classes, as well as the 2 sec snare at the top of the talent tree is great for keeping the enemy at bay. To solve the force management, I don't use shock unless it's to finish someone or on the move, and don't reapply the affliction too often, and I don't use lightning strike on wrath proc every time crushing darkness is on cd.

[Devinia-Hex]

Wrathfull/Lightning is a nice spec with a bit of everything and to me is the most overall damage spec that you'll get because your getting those 30% bonus +4 % on Lightning Strike/Crushing Darkness you get bonus to dot/force lightning chain shock regen for days. Big bonus on chain lighting. with instant proc. 1.9 second cast on Thundering Blast is just to long and easy to interupt in my opinion and a wrath proc lightning strike will hit as hard as thundering blast and is up nearly just as often.

 

You just keep a very steady stream up and then proc proc burst . It is softer than madness and I usually run it if I have healer support if I'm solo I run heavy madness. iIf they fixed the force issues with Madness I'd play that over Lightning due it being tanky (as a sorc could be) and having more control. The root is pretty huge vs melee or for runners.

[XantosCledwin]

A sorcerer is not pigeonholed into any single spec. If you don't want to heal, play a DPS spec. If you want to play Lightning, you'll be rewarded by what that spec can do. Madness kind of took a big hit with 2.0. A hybrid spec (Lightning/Madness) is pretty good to use too.

 

Unfortunately from what I understand, Lightning is currently bugged (as is TK on the Sage). So actually if you want to play a reliable DPS, you kind of are pigeonholed into playing the Madness (Balance) Spec, because while playing Lightning it is possible to have all your abilities freeze on you at a certain level.

 

Typical PvE response.

 

If you're using the Madness spec to its fullest potential in PvP you will be dry on force all the time. The difference between having energy and having no energy is the difference between being able to put out burst using madness versus a baddie who gets his damage healed over all the time.

 

I am consistently one of the highest ranking DPS dealers when I play in Huttball, and Voidstar (the two PvP scenario's where I don't have to guard a base). I use Balance. And I have yet to actually encounter a situation in PvP where I have run out of my Force Resources. Of course the fact that I only just hit level 26 today on my sage might have something to do with it, but the point still stands.

 

P.S. I am posting in this thread, because sentiment is something that can easily be applied to both the Sorcerer and the Sage equally.

Edited June 21, 2013 by XantosCledwin

[Brittaany_Banks]

Typical PvE response.

 

If you're using the Madness spec to its fullest potential in PvP you will be dry on force all the time. The difference between having energy and having no energy is the difference between being able to put out burst using madness versus a baddie who gets his damage healed over all the time.

 

Typical PvP response from someone giving spec advice that apparently only PvPs in the majority. I got news for ya there Charlie Brown... this is not a purely PvP game. The PvP mini-game (and it is exactly that a mini-game. I expect more from a $200m MMO) is just a tiny sliver of what this game actually is.

 

Whether you, and your mouth breathing PvP friends want to believe it or not this is a PvE game. If he wanted to know a PvP spec he would have asked for it OR posted in the PvP forum.

Edited June 21, 2013 by Brittaany_Banks

[Gondolindhrim]

Unfortunately from what I understand, Lightning is currently bugged (as is TK on the Sage). So actually if you want to play a reliable DPS, you kind of are pigeonholed into playing the Madness (Balance) Spec, because while playing Lightning it is possible to have all your abilities freeze on you at a certain level.

I have a lot of PvP time logged on my Sage since 2.0 and not once have I seen this bug occur (and yes, I play Lightning or a 0/30/16 hybrid if I'm not healing). Even if it does happen, it seems to be tied to the Chain Lightning proc, which you can simply right-click off your buff bar and you'll be good to go again.

 

Honestly, lightning (or the hybrid mentioned above) is the better spec for PvP at this point. You gain an immense amount of utility from the Lightning tree, and you can produce extremely high burst damage that Madness can't even get close to. You can't just look at numbers on the scoreboard; Madness might be able to top total damage dealt, but that's mainly from DoTs that won't kill anyone or pressure any remotely competent healers.

[XantosCledwin]

I have a lot of PvP time logged on my Sage since 2.0 and not once have I seen this bug occur (and yes, I play Lightning or a 0/30/16 hybrid if I'm not healing). Even if it does happen, it seems to be tied to the Chain Lightning proc, which you can simply right-click off your buff bar and you'll be good to go again.

 

Honestly, lightning (or the hybrid mentioned above) is the better spec for PvP at this point. You gain an immense amount of utility from the Lightning tree, and you can produce extremely high burst damage that Madness can't even get close to. You can't just look at numbers on the scoreboard; Madness might be able to top total damage dealt, but that's mainly from DoTs that won't kill anyone or pressure any remotely competent healers.

 

yes, it is all well and good that you can side step the bug by removing the proc in question before it actually triggers itself. But then again, if your Spec were working as intended you wouldn't have to circumvent that proc, and your total DPS would be significantly higher. Not to mention clicking on that tiny icon every few seconds is an extremely inefficient use of your time and by itself reduces your total APS.

 

The thing that differentiates Madness (Balance) from Lightning (TK) is that Madness has a way superior APS, where Lightning at the moment has a much slower APS. Now you may be confused by my use of the term "APS" in a game that is so often focused on "DPS" But APS is a term that is common in a couple of other MMORPG's. Most recognizably is the Perfect World Entertainment Namesake, Perfect World International.

 

APS basically refers to Attacks or Abilities Per Second. The way the Lightning Spec is currently set up, it would be very limited in the number of attacks it can successfully get off in a given number of seconds. The Madness Tree however can arguably get off way more attacks per second because you aren't fumbling around trying to negate a proc while also attacking.

 

APS is tied to DPS. While it is possible to do more burst damage in a given second with the Lightning Tree, it is not however possible to do more DPS than the Madness Tree is capable of because the Madness Tree is also capable of issuing more attacks per second than the Lightning Tree is currently capable of (continuous rapid fire Force Lightning (Telekinetic Throw) tends to do that). There is nothing similar to the Rapid Fire Force Lightning (TK Throw) in the Lightning Tree, and because of that, there is no way that the Attacks Per Second can ever be matched by the Lightning Tree.

 

P.S. I never thought I would have to explain the concept of Attacks Per Second in a game so heavily reliant on DPS classes. That is like DPS Attack Theory 101.

[Gondolindhrim]

yes, it is all well and good that you can side step the bug by removing the proc in question before it actually triggers itself. But then again, if your Spec were working as intended you wouldn't have to circumvent that proc, and your total DPS would be significantly higher. Not to mention clicking on that tiny icon every few seconds is an extremely inefficient use of your time and by itself reduces your total APS.

You make it seem like this bug occurs every time Chain Lightning is procced. I've procced Chain Lightning literally hundreds of times since this bug was discovered and I still have yet to see it happen even once. Playing a weaker spec to avoid a bug that might happen once a week at most *and* has a viable workaround just doesn't seem worth it to me.

 

As for the rest of your post:

 

I don't know on what grounds you're assuming that I don't know what APM or APS means, but it's irrelevant anyway. How many attacks you can land per second or minute has absolutely zero significance if said attacks aren't dealing enough damage to reliably kill your targets and/or pressure healers and tanks. Would you consider a spec that can crank out 10 attacks per second, each dealing 50 damage, superior to one that averages one attack every 2 seconds, dealing 10k damage per hit? I don't think so. Burst damage is what kills in PvP, and Madness lacks burst damage whereas Lightning has excellent burst (Thundering Blast > Recklessness > Force Lightning w/ Lightning Barrage > Chain Lightning w/ Lightning Storm > Shock is an incredible amount of damage in the span of less than 5 seconds).

 

If you have parsed Force Lightning spam (Madness' main filler) versus Lightning Strike spam (Lightning's main filler), you'll know that Lightning Strike parses higher by about 10%. This gap is closed by Madness having access to a second DoT, but DoTs can be cleansed and competent players will do so. You mentioned that your Sage is level 26? It's worth noting that the vast majority of the opponents you'll encounter in the 10-29 bracket don't even have access to a Cleanse ability yet (trained at level 24), let alone possess the experience and insight to use it effectively (or at all). It's a completely different picture at higher levels and against teams that are actually halfway competent.

 

And let's not even talk about the utility of Lightning versus the utility of Madness.

Edited June 21, 2013 by Gondolindhrim

[Devinia-Hex]

I think most of the time it's happening because your trying to jump the gun and spamming Chain Lighting after a TB or LS because people know it will proc . So due to having in the rotation ASAP your queuing the move before it has proc'd and this maybe because the proc is coming from a second LS/TB proc and not the initial which causes you to already be casting the CL. A way to avoid this 100% is use shocjk project right after TB or LS in the event you forsee a proc it comes on the heels of shock/project.

 

 

I have avoided this bug all together by doing this.