I) Formatting and Version

Guide Version (0.5.2) Beta 10/25/08 (Quick Fixes)
Updated to Game Version 3.3 Beta

So there are things you can ignore. Suggestions to Mythic, BUGS, TODO, and maybe a few other things are probably not a big part of this guide. I wanted to throw out a few suggestions to what you guys think and some noteworthy bugs. They aren't all the bugs or all the suggestions I have rather the important ones. Some parts of this guide may not be finished and I apologize as I haven't had the time to do it yet or are simply waiting for some changes I cannot disclose.

Beware I'll likely go through this often and change things. I don't know if I plan on making you aware of these changes. There are times I've been a little... shall we say tipsy while creating this so if something doesn't make any sense don't hesitate to point it out. If you disagree that is great, please inform me of how you can use something effectively or something I can do to improve my play.

III) Mechanics and Basics

The Sorceress is a Magic DPS archtype. Note that there is a difference at least to Mythic in comparing a Ranged DPS and a Magic DPS especially when it comes to morales and tactics that each of them receive. The other big fundamental difference is one uses physical damage and the other uses primarily magical damage. The Sorceress uses primarily Corporeal and Spirit damage. More often then not your big spells will consist of Corporeal although the Sorceress is pretty well balanced in using each damage type so it's only a slight edge.

Specifically the Sorceress is the unofficially named the Glass Cannon type. It's mirror is the Bright Wizard for the Empire. This gives us a mechanic in our case called Dark Magic. Simply put you build this mechanic while you are casting spells. Each spell gives a varied number of Dark Magic depending on the spell. As you build in Dark Magic depending on the level you are at you will gain a bonus to critically hitting the opponent as well as a bonus to your critical damage. The side effect is the higher your Dark Magic level the higher chance and higher damage of a backlash. A backlash can only occur upon casting a spell of which builds Dark Magic which is the majority of spells in your arsenal. There are three ways to dispose of Dark Magic. The most common will be Dhar Wind. This ability returns your Dark Magic to zero upon use. Another method is to just not cast anything for a moderate amount of time. The least desired method is death. I can assume you would much rather use the first two. There is a chart below as to what the levels are.

Dark Magic Table

You should notice that it's an exponential growth. As you approach maximum Dark Magic you will deal an exponential increase in damage. You will also take an exponential increase in damage. If you simply sit at high Dark Magic levels you absolutely will kill yourself off. You will take damage very, very rapidly. So there are two ways to deal with this. One is to pace yourself and use Dhar Wind whenever you reach 70+ Dark Magic. The other is to receive healing. I won't lie to you, your damage is much higher at high levels and your burst damage is all the more feared. You can gamble a little with it if you need to finish someone off in RvR but without a healer I would advise you get rid of that Dark Magic as soon as the globe turns redish. (71+ is where I see a red tint)


Don't take this as necessarily gospel rather as an introduction to the mechanic. It is very advantageous to take a gamble for that extra damage. You can do much more damage at the higher levels and taking a few backlashes is often a good idea to output that extra damage before dropping down.

I myself like a less self-damaging approach. I've lived for an entire scenario without a death without scraping more then two hots by a Disciple. In that particular situation I had to minimize the self damage at all costs and I did that by running below 70+. In other words, that would be a very sustainable area to deal damage without injuring oneself too often.

It is a gamble in the end since you are chancing extra damage while you are chancing damage to yourself. If you bring yourself too low without a healer some Witch Hunter or Shadow Warrior could virtually one-shot you. You could very likely be doing some impressive damage though in return. You can go a little more wild too with Absorb Vitality and a lot of Wounds gear. It's very situational. I would recommend jumping above 70+ in situations to kill someone off or extremely close match ups but that's not always the case. I just prefer to stay above half health personally although I know for certain other players don't mind getting low and letting loose all that extra damage.

Now this mechanic makes it so that your base damage is a little lower then most. No one thinks it impressive when you are at low levels of power. Bouncing between low and moderate levels of Dark Magic is optimal for natural DPS. If you can afford a few heals then your damage output will be the highest in the game. This is at a great price even with healing however. Causing constant damage to yourself along with having the absolute lowest armor type of four in the game (Cloth) makes you the squishiest there can be. Base toughness values are pretty low as well making any enemy target see you as a target that makes their numbers look huge and mobs burn through your health quicker then anyone would ever expect.

Early on while leveling in your career you will have access to very scarce crowd control options making your character the most vulnerable career type in the game along with the Bright Wizard. As a Magic DPS it's natural that Melee DPS will absolutely destroy you if they contact you and have a massive advantage against you. The only chance is to catch them off guard at range and fully concentrate on them and even then it'll require careful use of crowd control. Tanks mostly harass you – although if you ignore them they can cause immense damage as well. Generally you can destroy a Tank around your strength especially if you catch them at a range. Tanks do not have options to catch you if they aren't within melee already. If they have support however then you are going to need to look for your own support as well. Ranged DPS have an advantage against you simply because you are weak to Physical damage. They will typically out damage you in a standoff but it's generally pretty even. Melee Support is a monster truck. Unless you have the strength to break their heals they are extremely tough to beat without assistance. You can best one but it's best to keep away and kite as they share the same weakness as a tank and have difficulty catching you. I'm not sure whom has the exact advantage in this case though. I'll have a more detailed analysis on RvR in another section. Just remember that your fragility is your downside and if you can keep yourself from ever taking damage from an opponent in the first place then all you have left is your strengths.


Advice on Attributes

Whether it's renown points, armor, weapons, or some other methods of gaining power through attributes you will always be striving to better yourself. What does a Glass Cannon Magic DPS do? Damage. What improves damage you may ask... it's Intelligence. It is the single simple key to improving how much damage you deal. When it far outmatches an opponents toughness then even your minor skills do impressive damage. Of course other things that factor into improving your damage are valued as well. Any bonus to crit is of course helpful especially at high Dark Magic. Any bonus to mastery levels is probably highly valued as well. Anything that increases damage is a number one priority in my book.

Now then there is your defensive stats. Armor, Resistances, Toughness, Wounds, Initiative, Willpower and a variety of other methods of gaining protection. Above all Toughness, Wounds, and Resistances are likely the best way to protect yourself. If you can find a decent Armor value (on Cloth) then by all means that would be the best defense since Order primarily consists of Physical Damage. Wounds is very effective in reducing the percentage effect of backlashes on your health as well. Backlashes do not scale with hp and rather scale with level. So the more Wounds gear you carry the longer you could gamble your damage at maximum Dark Magic without a healer.

Resistance choice is fairly difficult. Bright Wizards pride themselves on Elemental damage and Corporeal damage. Engineers do a fair amount of Corporeal. Shadow Warriors do Elemental and Corporeal but they can choose to ignore your resistances. Nearly all the melee classes do some form of Spirit damage from light to moderate. So it's up to you and how the game progresses to see what types you should specify.

Initiative is much better then Willpower simply to reduce the chance you are crit. The bonus dodge is helpful against the Engineer and Shadow Warrior. Willpower give s you disrupt. While disrupt is highly useful as many, many careers have magic effects this is very undervalued stat and you should probably choose all others before it.

If it were me, usually Intelligence, Wounds and Toughness are more then enough to concentrate on. Of course nabbing any +% crit is important as well. Often my Intelligence is double, triple, or even higher then that compared to my other stats. It really makes me a Glass Cannon but I can do some impressive damage in return especially with Dark Magic amplifying it.


One way to do it is a Renown build like this as an example, but it would certainly be a lot of personal taste.

IV) Abilities


Dhar Wind

Your Dark Magic dump. It's damage isn't particularly great, although it is nice when Gloomburst is on cooldown as another 1s cast ability. It's primary weakness is that you have to be standing still to cast it and it's fairly meager damage. The damage is undefendable so you can pierce crazy defended tanks with it. Be wary of the cast time – you can't expect to spam your Surging Pain for example and clean up your Dark Magic.

Suggestion to Mythic: Make it instant cast and/or deal more damage. Currently it's very difficult to use in some situations such as kiting or running away and it makes you feel pretty useless in that state. I honestly just think making it instant cast would be perfect but some have said it could use a damage buff too to encourage it. Although I think the damage buff would be better served in it's respective tactic Empowered Dhar.


Doombolt

The primary skill used for damage comes at a hefty cost. Not action points however, cause that is dirt cheap in terms of the amount of damage. A 3 second cast can be difficult to pull off on some targets especially in RvR. If you are getting hit in melee you better find a way to prevent setback or you will suffer trying to cast this spell. Also watch for when people pull out of LoS. May as well cancel it at that point and reposition or retarget. With all it's downsides however it hits extremely hard compared to most spells and it comes without a cooldown allowing it to be chain cast. With Agony powered up this is a spell to fear getting hit with and is probably the single most efficient spell to spam while at maximum Dark Magic if you wish to gamble your health due to it's long cast time. This spell can be used to create some powerful combos with other morale, masteries, and core abilities as well and is the standard nuke you will use throughout your career as a Sorceress.


Chillwind

So a nine second dot does have it's disadvantages in that it's duration is so low. It's less AP efficient then Doombolt and costs you half the time to setup – although you can move during the global cooldown. It does wonderful damage for a DoT though, especially powered with Calamity. It's also extremely safe to use at low Dark Magic and powerful once you built it up. I use it primarily as I move around positioning myself – although I'm careful when I need to mind my Dark Magic. Spam casting it can destroy you if you do this at high Dark Magic levels. It's very useful with Grasping Darkness to AP drain and debuff the enemy as well. No matter what the spec a DoT has it's uses. From using it as a primary source of damage with Calamity to simply throwing it beforehand while getting into position as Agony it is your staple DoT that lasts forever (well 9 seconds of it anyway).


Gloomburst

A spell laced with Dark Magic. It oozes Dark Magic into you and is a very quick cast with a high damage per second. It also leaves you .4 seconds of freedom to move (with global cooldown) but you are more likely to simply chain a spell right after it. Taking it as a 1.5 second cast spell its a little above Doombolt in damage, hits the target instantly, and skyrockets your Dark Magic. Without healing, Dhar Wind might be the next cast if your Dark Magic is brought to Tier 4 or 5. Combined with Doombolt this makes an extremely low level efficient combo. Doombolt → Gloomburst hits at nearly the same time for a decent chunk of health. Use it pretty much anytime the cooldown is up unless your worried about Dark Magic.


Shroud of Darkness

Defensive spell plain and simple. Use it anytime you are being attacked by magical damage or anticipate it. Bright Wizards, Archmages, and Runepriests do it primarily. Most non-siege AoE is magical as well. A lot of melee classes are sprinkled with Spirit damage types (Swordmaster, Warrior Priest, Witch Hunter and White Lion) and the Engineer carries a lot of Corporeal. The Shadow Warrior comes with Festering Arrow and Flame Arrow but they can take a tactic to negate resistance - but throwing up a defense doesn't hurt I guess if you know if he doesn't have it as undefendable. You can save it for the Bright Wizards or simply chuck it out whenever one of the above engages you. It's a powerful effect and is not to be taken lightly. It single handedly allows you to beat Bright Wizards one on one and allows you to stick your nose out in a zerg without dying a horrible death.


Dread Aspect

Smart use of this ability can keep you alive especially coupled with healing. Doesn't prevent setback however so you can either make the choice to escape or cast at a reduced pace of damage. Use it on Shadow Warriors or Bright Wizards trying to pick you off. Be wary though – if you have Stricken Limbs or Grip of Fear do not use Dread Aspect immediately against a Witch Hunter whom has revealed themselves or a White Lion whom has pulled you to him. The exception is if you have to use Grip of Fear and the attacker is under heavy damage himself, in which use Dread Aspect so Grip of Fear doesn't break. You have to entirely prevent the damage first and foremost – if you do not have access to that then Dread Aspect should be your last choice. Should be more then capable of keeping you alive with support however. One trick you can attempt to use in a close fight is to Dread Aspect them and charge a Doombolt face to face with a melee. During the cast time you take 50% less damage and any bit can help in a duel. Remember you don't have to be facing the target to use it.


Surging Pain

A PBAoE nuke. Tread carefully however as this can earn you a quick death by spam casting it. Maxing out your Dark Magic in 5 or less casts coupled with using it every 1.5 seconds earns you A LOT of backlash damage. It's damage isn't exactly incredible either. Use it sparingly when surrounded by enemies (you probably should be getting the heck out of there too!) unless you have some very capable healing support. I have used it in particular moments I know I'm going to die – but don't always give up hope and kill yourself off since a heal can be just around the corner. Combined with Piercing Shadows it can do some impressive damage but the cones do much higher damage so be sure to use them first. Pit of Shades and Shattered Shadows are so much safer to use though so don't TRY to use Surging Pain.


BUG: Currently generates Dark Magic and deals backlashes without hitting the target or dealing any damage. This includes spells that are disrupted or blocked. I believe it is a bug that this occurs.


Frozen Touch

One of the best buffs in the game. Gives your entire group extra damage including you. It's fairly simple to use just keep it always up and try to catch your group entirely with it. Can be dispelled but is fairly easy to recast and since the Action Points regen in 2 seconds you should always have it up before battle. In case it's not clear, this will trigger upon any successful cast of an ability including any DoT. It will not however trigger upon each tick of a DoT.

NOTE: Currently make sure in RvR that you gain the Bolster buff before casting it as it's level doesn't increase until that is cast.


Word of Pain

A lot of people love this ability to death. I have a different take on it. I do see it's uses for preparing a target for burst damage or destroying targets on the run, but after that I don't use it. The Willpower debuff is to say the least pathetic and the fact that it takes it's damage at minimum 13s to come through with a x3 stacking is a long time in RvR. Maybe I'm too spoiled at the higher levels where combat feels much faster and CC can change the day at any given time. Honestly, whenever I try to use it the target usually gets away or is killed prematurely. Even then it's damage is honestly NOT that impressive without Calamity specialization. I do more damage with a Doombolt → Gloomburst combo then I do with x3 Word of Pain. That's not to say it's not useful! If for some reason it all does follows the plan I can set up some very impressive simultaneous damage with x3 Word of Pain. It's main use to me however is when I'm chasing someone with instant cast spells since it can be used while moving. I'm not impressed with this spell in its' current form but it can be used well especially if you build your Dark Magic up quickly afterwards.

Suggestion to Mythic: Change the Willpower debuff to a bonus to crit the target affected and/or rework it so that it does x1.5 the damage and effect it does now except it cannot stack. Willpower is a terrible stat to debuff unless it was much, much stronger and although the x3 cast stacking is intersting once you realize the actual mechanics of it then it's no longer any fun to use except in very certain situations. Besides we shouldn't be able to time that much damage at once or people are going to freak out when they are “1-shot”.


Shattered Shadows

Once you get Pit of Shades this spell loses a fair bit of use but it does get used in between the castings of Pit of Shades. It's long cast time prevents it from being a rapid use spell and makes it difficult to position correctly in RvR sometimes as you have to guess where the target will be in 3 seconds. It does less damage then Pit of Shades per second as well. It's useful in between castings but it's not your gospel AoE. Also, be careful with the 80 range as you do have to stick your neck out in front of a group if there is a standoff to use it.


Obsessive Focus

Consider a 1.5s global cooldown (I know it's 1.4s, just simpler). You lose 1.5s worth of time (you can move while using it thought) to cast this spell to gain +10% damage. You should make up for that in 15 seconds worth of DPS. I know you can't quite make it that simple and there are other things to take into consideration but, the point remains that this ability should only be used if you can focus for nearly the full duration or you are setting up for some powerful burst damage. It's not worth using regularly however at least in my practice. If you can prove me wrong please do so, I can't figure out the right way to use it.


Suggestion to Mythic: Increase the strength to +20% damage and -25% damage on unfocused targets and/or make it not affected by the global cooldown. It's not very effective, noticeable, or even penalizing in it's current incarnation. Besides it'll give Vengeance Of Nagarythe a mirror of sorts.


Grip of Fear

Absolutely essential escape ability. Some may cry it breaks too much or is not long enough. I don't find that being too much of a problem since if the target is under attack they usually are being killed and 5s is more then enough time to get 3s of distance and turn around to use another spell. One thing to notice is this is a Hex which means things that require hexes (see skill below) can be used on this. While escaping to your party make sure you use this skill and don't look back. As far as I know this doesn't break during your dots and rather when they are cast but I could be wrong. If someone could verify it that would be awesome.


Arctic Blast
The 2s cast on this spell hurts is more then anything – the curse component isn't so bad. Makes it very difficult to use in PvE though. Use this snare to assist someone's escape (like your healer buddy!) or when the target is dilly dallying on his way to you. Chillwind is the easiest curse to throw on them beforehand but make sure you look across all your spells like Ice Spikes, Vision of Torment, and Absorb Vitality since they are curses too. The best way to use this in a solo situation is to have them cursed and then after you Grip of Fear them take 2.5s worth of steps away and turn around to whip this at them so it breaks and they are snared to boot. I actually don't use this much in practice other then solo situations and in aiding an ally.

Suggestion to Mythic: Decrease the cast time to 1s or 1.5s. It's very difficult to use and I acknowledge that it shouldn't be too easy but a small reduction in cast time would be great for the ability since it has a decent cooldown to it as well.


Ice Spikes

The first cone ability is unique in that it's not of the Destruction line but rather the Calamity line since it's a DoT. It ticks for a little over 3/5 of what Chillwind does and costs the same. If the target is in range you may as well cast it although you probably can find something better unless your Calamity. If there are two or three in range you should cast it. If there are any more... you probably should not be where you are without support or at least hope to be lucky – but cast it anyway since it's fun to see all the pretty numbers. Pretty effective in combination with Infernal Wave when you get a little close to a group of people.


Infernal Wave

Ah the direct damage cone ability. This makes it so you have two of them which is very handy when you are in range. Make sure you use this far before you consider using Surging Pain but you should probably use it after Ice Spikes. It's somewhat okay at quick instant cast damage but in comparison Impending Doom carries almost twice it's damage and even Gloomburst does plenty more. Make sure you use the cone AoEs when you can and don't forget about them for your AoE. Before Pit of Shades they are extraordinary useful and retain most of their power even after the fact being instant cast on the move.


Daemonic Chill

A blessing/augmentation to accompany Frozen Touch. These two give you a signature of sorts in a group since anyone will know when you have given them these buffs. The damage isn't all so great (even with Calamity) but it's something at least and is pretty much free to cast. It's most effective on tanks since you will be beaten down relatively quickly if this starts to cause a lot of damage to someone while a tank should survive with their toughness and wounds. At the very least it's dispel fodder.

Suggestion to Mythic: Increase it's damage a little so it's more noticeable. Taking low damage 25% of the time isn't a great combination. If it's 25% of the time then make it felt when it hits because currently it does very little damage in my experience and when it does you are usually dead fast enough before it does much. Something along the lines of a x1.5 to x2 damage increase would be far more fun and make us wanted.


Frostbite

The almighty 1s instant -travel disarm. It's what separates us from the Bright Wizards in my opinion. Use it intelligently but use it often. Witch Hunter just pop up on you with Sudden Accusation? This is the answer. Then nuke his face while hopefully you have support to take care of him. Shadow Warrior trying to pick you off? Warrior Priest feeding off the damage into healing? Tank disrupting your healer? It has many, many uses and my favorite of all of them is defending the healers or other Ranged DPS in the zerg by making them regret ever attacking. Watch out for it's cooldown however it's 30s of weakness once you don't have it.


Pit of Shades

This makes us the queen of AoE for Destruction. It's a GTAoE of doom. Positioning it correctly is key but it's fairly simple – catch as many as you can with it. Preferably somewhere you are sure they will stick around; the middle of a melee conflict, keep doors & hallways, or in the path of resistance. To use it most effectively build up to maximum Dark Magic and then cast it. You only suffer the chance of a backlash once right at the beginning of the cast and gain the benefits of super powerful crits throughout the channeling. Afterwards, your Dark Magic will likely be dropping back to safe levels. In a sense it's the safest way to use maximum Dark Magic there is although you are still likely to take a bit of damage. This is one of our defining abilities and should be used often when there are groups to AoE and the reason we should always place high in scenario for damage.


Reckless Gathering

Oh such a wonderful ap recovery ability. 3 seconds and you regain 210 AP which is nearly full (out of 250). While repositioning in RvR combat you probably won't be out too often, but in a focused attack such as killing off a tank you might run a fair bit low. Often it's all you need in RvR to keep your action point flow enough to where you never will run out. Remember it's considered “burst dps” while you have action points, and “sustained dps” while you are out just scraping for action points. This ability helps you keep in the “burst dps” phase for as long as needed in RvR only costing you 3 seconds of recharge time. If you would ever need more we have Devour Energy and Recover Energy to pick from as well – making action points one less thing you have to think about.


Vision of Torment

Just as a delayed nuke it's a little weak. The damage is far less then half of what Chillwind provides at the same cost, although it's effect comes in 5 seconds rather then 9. Also quite a bit weaker the Impending Doom in a straight comparison. What it's used for is Action Point denial. With Grasping Darkness you can effectively bring someone into “ap lockdown”. It works best on people with cast times, such as Support Casters and Magic DPS. You don't use the Action Points until you've cast a spell – if someone is low on action points and combined with casting a spell they have no ap regeneration. Combined you can lock out someone from casting spells. It's only really effective against someone standing through your nukes... such as a healer however. Also, 30 AP loss over 5 seconds is very meager and will only effect them if they are spam casting at zero action points – likely need to be affected by Grasping Darkness during this cast. I only use it on any support or if I'm deep in Calamity.

Suggestion to Mythic: Make this a 10s duration with damage equaling x1.5 what Word of Pain currently is and/or increase the AP drain per second. Currently the AP drain is barely worth it as you won't even notice the effect. I honestly do it simply because I think it has to be having some effect on support classes. Matching it with a 10s duration with a revised Word of Pain would be excellent having delayed nukes as a class feature.


Stricken Voices

Such a wondrous ability. AoE silence for 5 seconds. Dirt cheap at 25 action points. Only problem is the cooldown and 2s cast time. You will probably use it on that pesky healer healing themselves or others. You will probably use it on the Bright Wizard attacking you. Of course, if you can catch multiple healers under the effect then do so as soon as you think you have a chance at killing someone while they are silenced. I can only imagine what this could do in coordinated battles although the range of 80 makes you exposed and warns them of the possibility. Using this on a single target is viable as well as a ranged silence. Such a tragedy one has to wait until rank 40 for it...


V) Still to come: Morale Abilities


VI) Tactics


Dark Blessings

Useful when you have a healer although it's not the most effective tactic you can usually slot. 10% healing received is such a small bonus to take up a tactic slot you will most likely abandon this in a few ranks as soon as you get Devour Energy. Unless you are getting spam healed every few seconds it's probably not worth slotting.


Suggestion to Mythic: Increase this to 15% as 10% is simply to meager of an effect and it'll be thrown out compared to any other tactic. I do know that it's a racial tactic for the Dark Elves and would like to see a racial tactic have more use. I know that racially the Dwarves are more resistant to stuns with a tactic – why can't Dark Elves simply be noticed for the extra heals they can scrape up?


Devour Energy

Extremely useful in any PvE group environment. Often useful in RvR as well if you find yourself running out of action points at any time. Combine it with Recover Energy and Reckless Gathering to become a human (er dark elven) action point recovery machine. A key ability to sustained damage.


Grasping Darkness

Makes you a debuff machine. Drops an opponents damage by a considerable amount of whomever you hit with Doombolt or Chillwind not to mention makes it drain ever so slightly the AP of someone every time one of those spells land. Useful if you spam Chillwind around and useful if you Doombolt nuke a target – probably an RvR only tactic unless you really need to reduce the mobs damage.


Alignment of Naggaroth

Spirit Damage is the most common damage type from the Order. It is not used by the classes that excel at ranged damage such as the Bright Wizard, Engineer, or Shadow Warrior however. The classes that deal Spirit primarily is the Runepriest and Archmage. Classes that deal it in addition to physical damage are the Swordmaster, Witch Hunter, White Lion, and Warrior Priest. Most of the melee classes usually don't deal very much spirit damage however. So as modest protection against the enemy healers and an minor tool of survival against the melee of the Order equip this. I however, don't often use it simply because I try not to get hit in the first place and the ones that do hit me are usually not doing spirit damage.


Endless Knowledge

A pretty good boost to damage and anti-disrupt mitigation. Always the perfect tactic to equip when you need filler. In fact, I would only leave it out of very specialized builds. If and when we determine what the soft cap is for Intelligence then I imagine this tactic will become less useful as you fill out with gear letting you free up a tactic slot.


Infernal Gift

This is why you will be wanted for groups. Notice it doesn't effect yourself but you will probably still be dishing out more damage then them anyway if your healer loves you enough. Stick two Sorceresses in one group and it's nearly always up not to mention you can gain the benefit as well. Key to doing massive coordinated damage spikes.


Bathing in Blood

Hardly even useful for PvE. It's useful somewhat while AoE'ing if you are in danger of dying and begin killing off targets - but if you are that in danger of death it's likely a single tick of Bathing in Blood wouldn't save you. There are a lot of reports of it getting bugged while killing multiple mobs at once as well.


Sleight of Hand

If you pull aggro then use this. If you never do then don't. It's that simple. I'm sure tanks would want you to use it however, so keep that in mind. Obviously has no effect in RvR unless you pull aggro against Keep Lords or Heroes guarding the objectives. Course even then I doubt it's needed. Personally I'd suggest a tank Guard you, you get in Close Quarters, and give them as much aggro as you can.


Empowered Dhar

If you dump Dark Magic often with Dhar Wind and are in sustained fights then use this. Generally this will only happen without a healer in RvR. I would see it as counter intuitive that a healer couldn't give you a hot or two in PvE (unless he can't keep the tank alive). It'll probably happen though. PvE by yourself fights go too quick so you don't have to worry about it. You don't even need to Reckless Gathering much at all if you use this in RvR.


Close Quarters

A miracle bonus for when you can fight close up. Think PvE where you don't worry so much about being close – unless it has some crazy AoE in which the Melee DPS get to suffer from. It is possible to use this in RvR but from experience it'll earn you a faster death. It excels at “dueling” a Melee DPS and any solo conflict with one will be considerably easier. Such a damage bonus is nothing to sneer at while doing PvE alone either as I've killed mobs much higher level with this on and it is absolute excellent to use while AoE'ing in these cases. Although it's quite dangerous again and did get me killed once in a long while.


Manic Obsession

If Obsessive Focus was more worth it then this tactic would be pretty neat allowing you to keep one up indefinitely. This however is not quite the case. A 10% boost in damage using 1.5 seconds of every 20 seconds is hardly worth it. Instead I'd just slot Endless Knowledge and notice the effect without having to constantly use it.


Triumphant Blasting

It's amazing. Not as amazing as you probably think, but it is amazing. Knocking people around is great. You probably know by now that you crit a lot at high Dark Magic and therefore you will knockback a lot. Great with cone AoEs and Surging Pain to try and get someone off of you as well as pushing back the enemy with Pit of Shades. If however you want to do pure damage and kill the enemy you will be a fair bit disappointed as this will knock the enemy out of your Pit of Shades or out of any AoE range you cast it in. That's not to say it's not good because it is very, very good. Just not as good as it's first made out to be!


Hastened Fear

If you find you need Grip of Fear and Dread Aspect quicker then utilize this. I never felt I needed either as often as the cooldowns permit since I simply got used to the idea of preventing the instances in which I needed them most often. Of course, there will always be times I used them but when I needed them I very rarely noticed their cooldown ticking. So take it if you need it although I imagine this would be quite useful in a more dual type setting.


Glorious Carnage

Another on crit ability for the crit class. I never actually tested this as I was too hooked on other builds and to be honest I forgot about it. I'm not sure how much 200 points of Morale is but I can gather that is a fairly large bonus. Combined with a high Dark Magic setup you will likely do quite well with this active allowing you to reach Morale 3 and 4 much easier. If someone has a more exacting rate at which 200 points travels through the Morale meter (I know that it's slower at the end so it's not quite %) then please let me know.


Umbral Fury

Triples the damage from Frozen Touch for your entire group. Pretty interesting really and especially useful on a career that hits in rapid succession (Marauder, Disciple of Khaine, Witch Elf). Remember Frozen Touch only applies to being hit with an attack and does not occur within ticks of a skill so keep that in mind. Very powerful tactic in groups and I can only imagine what it can do in tandem with Tapping the Dark. The DPS increase is not considerable (If you average a single hit every 1.5s at max Agony it's only a 50 DPS increase by yourself) alone but in a group it must be weighed in.


VII) Masteries

Agony

These skills focus on doing the most damage while you still have Action Points in your system. Directly effecting a single target with massive damage to dispose of them quickly and effectively. Builds Dark Magic extremely quickly with Impending Doom and Gloomburst and is often quite damaging to oneself especially with Swell of Gloom slotted. These Sorceresses will be feared for the burst damage they can output while empowered with Dark Magic.


Recover Energy

Amazing tactic if you are an Agony Sorceress as you will be using a lot of Agony abilities. Used in tandem with the previously mentioned Devour Energy and Grasping Darkness you should boost your sustained damage considerably. It remains to be seen if you can exceed the sustained damage of a Calamity Sorceress but I can't imagine it being too far off.


Echo of Power

In it's current incarnation it's quite weak. It does far less then Impending Doom and has a requirement to be cast as well. Did I mention it costs the nearly same AP? I imagine if a target would disrupt often then it could be of use since it has no cooldown... but that doesn't happen enough because you are stacking a lot of INT right? I've never taken this ability other then to see if I could find a use for it.
Suggestion to Mythic: Make it proc on a chance to block as well, increase it's strength to make up for it's rarity, and/or give it a debuff to the enemies disrupt/block chance upon activation. Right the damage isn't much to be felt in comparison to Impending Doom and this carries a requirement. It has no cooldown but the requirement makes it so rare it's hardly ever used. Making it a better mechanic in taking down tanks wouldn't be such a bad idea, as we could use a better method of dealing with block in some form.


Tapping the Dark

Pretty neat ability. You become a pseudo support. I was never sure if it worked though even while trying to use it (I never noticed a new buff on my allies). Remember in it's current form it boosts only your allies an not yourself. With Umbral Fury I imagine your group keeping a shield up quite often to the point I hope it has a hidden “can only occur once every 3 seconds” tag in there somewhere. I don't often take it however since I want other things and it takes up a tactic slot. Besides... I kinda want some benefit to myself for a mastery ability.

EDIT: THIS DOES WORK ON ONESELF!

Suggestion to Mythic: Let it proc on ourselves. It'd be most powerful on any dual-wield dps anyway and not us. As long as the skill is capped to be only occurs once at most every 3 seconds then it should be fairly balanced to be on ourselves as well. Give us some form damage mitigation in our direct combat tree since that's likely where I should be.


Impending Doom

Very strong burst damage. Builds a ton of Dark magic and it's cooldown isn't too significant. Perfect when coupled with a healer or if you plan to use Empowered Dhar a lot. It will allow maybe favorite quick chain of spells which is Doombolt → Gloomburst → Impending Doom. (The Triple Nuke! Rawr!) It'll bring you up high in the Dark Magic levels though (it builds 75 Dark Magic!) although it's relatively safe at low levels of Dark Magic for what it outputs since the highest generation is backloaded. Especially useful while on the run although it's difficult to discharge the Dark Magic while doing so. No Agony Sorceress should ever be without it.


Swell of Gloom

A very powerful tactic as long as you are willing to suffer the consequences. Doombolt → Gloomburst → Impending Doom is a wicked combo with this tactic and you can bring people to their knees with a crit streak. It does come at that price though as you absolutely must have someone healing you. I'd take this tactic just so when the chance arises you can slot it. It makes Gloomburst just that much more to be feared. Swell of Gloom hits separate to Gloomburst so it triggers a separate hit and can crit just like any spell but will not be cast if the initial Gloomburst has killed the target.

BUG: Currently this only backlashes for around half of what you usually get hit with. Perhaps this is intended I'm not sure. I'm fairly certain I submit this bug however I'm a little tipsy right now so I can't be certain.


Shades of Death

It's not too impressive at first glance. Maybe it's not too impressive at all being a Master Ability Level 13. But I find it quite useful for a few things. The damage is triggered when anyone strikes the target and each trigger can crit. In other words, that's a good chunk of instant cast damage when a target is being focused upon as the five charges will be used up instantly. Often it will kill targets that are nearly dead and being attacked by anyone else. Also, it builds no Dark Magic. That means it can't backlash as well but still gains the bonus from Dark Magic. When you are fully charged on Dark Magic you can throw this out relentlessly (before you begin to drop levels of Dark Magic anyway) and not worry about causing harm to yourself while it is still extremely effective with it's frequent crits. The other use is prepping the target before you Triple Nuke it by getting 4 charges to trigger from it (Doombolt, Gloomburst, Swell of Gloom, and Impending Doom for those who question my math!) I've heard tale of this ability being too weak on damage and maybe it's true for a 13 point mastery ability but I find use enough for it anyway.


Calamity

Damage over time is a wondrous tool for those whom enjoy it. Coupled with the only way to recover health through an ability it enhances your DoTs to be the most that they can be. Technically, this is supposed to increase your sustained damage by a considerable amount. I'm not completely sure about it, although I could imagine Word of Pain, Chillwind, Vision of Torment, Gloom of Night, Shadow Spike, Absorb Vitality, and Hand of Ruin doing all the damage for you in some sense. Not all the DoTs are terribly efficient however. Having said that, they still do considerable damage allowing you to mostly be on the move and pepper a wider array of targets at the same time as compared to Agony. At low Dark Magic this is the safest line to progress in, but at high Dark Magic rapidly casting instant casts is very dangerous as you can trigger a lot of backlashes in quick succession. If you can cast at low Dark Magic and build up to high Dark Magic safely while your dots are still active... well... that's awesome because you played Calamity perfectly.


Vision of Domination

Currently this gives you 50 Action Points in return for the 40 you spent on it and the meager damage and minor AP drain. I suppose if you find a certain instance you use it relentlessly it could be of use. Currently however I honestly cannot find a time I'd not find another tactic of more value. Not to mention you will have access to the tactic FAR before you can get Vision of Torment.

Suggestion to Mythic: Scrap this and instead make a tactic that increases the duration of Chillwind, Absorb Vitality, Ice Spikes and/or Gloom of Night. It would really boost the sustained dps of the sustained dps tree to have a method of increasing the duration of the dots by a larger amount increasing the efficiency and therefore sustained dps.


Gloom of Night

Dirt cheap to cast, does a little more damage per second then Chillwind, and did I forget to mention it's an AoE effect around the target? Does have a 2s cast time however, so it has that minor flaw coupled with a 10s cooldown and 80 ft range. Use it when you can. It's very useful in adding to your array of DoTs and a centered AoE DoT is nothing to sneer at especially one stronger then the primary DoT you carry. Stack as many DoTs on your primary target that you can and make sure to use this before you throw out Pit of Shades.


Shadow of Disaster

This ability is largely valued by it's power in comparison to Daemonic Chill. It helps degrade the ranged defenses and is especially useful at damaging any AoE sources of damage. However, since Daemonic Chill does not have much of an effect this skill doesn't much either. I've heard of some sources claiming it does respectable damage against enemy AoE attacks but in my experience against a Bright Wizard whom carries the mirror tactic I didn't think the damage taken was much of a bother at all.

BUG: This ability has not yet reflected the text change and still says Demonic Chill.


Absorb Vitality

Oh sweet, sweet healing. It's not terribly much but it's enough to offset a backlash or two over the course of it's duration. Besides it is extra damage at the same price as Chillwind and it does nearly the same amount of damage as well per tick. This ability alone probably makes this tree one of the safest trees to utilize Dark Magic with, especially if you can use Dark Magic as described in the Calamity section above.


Chilling Gusts

Increases the Chillwind tick by about 50%.. 33% of the time. What is that, 16-17% increase in damage? On a skill that does maybe 60 DPS (Int vs. Tough not included) this doesn't really seem to amount to much as you are really only boosting yourself by 10 DPS. My advice? Don't take it in it's current incarnation. You are welcome to try and convince me the other way and I really wish that I could see the value in it. But currently I just don't think it's worth it.

Suggestion to Mythic: Give this some added effect for when it procs such as Toughness debuff and/or AP recovery and/or have it affect some other DoTs. Make this the crown jewel of sustained DPS in the tree since currently the tactics don't seem to provide that terribly much in that department.


Hand of Ruin

Raw damage that ticks 4 times. Great for adding in a pseudo direct damage for Calamity that is extremely safe to use when at maximum Dark Magic since it only chances a backlash once in the beginning of the channel. It's damage is high and it's cost isn't so bad either. It's also a fantastic source of Spirit damage for when the are Corporeal protected. Only in comparison to Withering Heat which does equal damage and snares in return for only costing 3 AP per second more. Not to mention it's much easier to get access to. I wouldn't really compare these two but they are nearly identical except for the snare, position in tree, and slight cost increase.

Suggestion to Mythic: Maybe consider increasing the damage by 10-25% when the target is Hexed and/or Cursed. I don't want it to be a direct mirror of the Bright Wizards and I think it should be the source of efficient and high damage for a Calamity Sorceress. Besides we already have a snare – I just want this ability to compare to a nearly direct mirror of an ability that our mirror class possesses. I know it's frowned upon to compare but Hand of Ruin could use something to differentiate itself damage wise for being such a difficult ability to get.


Destruction

This makes your area of effect abilities not only feared as they were before but respected as you can crit your Pit of Shades for damages that no one wishes to be within. This will make you an AoE powerhouse if you simply put the points into the tree for strength and ignore the skills. Remember increasing the baseline damage of a skill by 50% when you max it out is nothing to sneer at. The abilities are interesting to say the least but out of all three trees are generally not the most exciting. I often find my ability as an AoE caster just fine without Destruction but with it I become a tool for deflecting groups of enemies and killing any of those whom let themselves dwindle too low.


Piercing Shadows

Okay so this is a situation you don't want to be in pretty much ever where you Backlashes are close enough to injure the enemy. It also presumes you are killing yourself quickly. If you do intend on using it however it does do excellent damage. Over 300-400 damage AoE attacks are nothing to sneer at. Of course, you absolutely require healing support unless you want to die quickly. Surging Pain is useful in causing quick backlashes and doing a fair amount of damage itself although I still recommend using the cone skills. I've never had the chance to really test it with a pocket healer so I'm not sure how actually effective it is.


Black Horror

Replaces Shattered Shadows. It only costs 5 more AP for a nifty Initiative debuff and it builds less Dark Magic while dealing Corporeal instead of Spirit. The Dark Magic is up in the air, but usually it's a safe bet if you want to keep it low that this will keep it lower. If you want it high... well it will keep it high anyway. Make sure you prep any area with this if you plan on using Pit of Shades since the Initiative debuff is well worth the 3s cast time. It's a pretty large portion of crit chance you just gave yourself and all your allies assisting you. (Of course that is assuming you aren't alone fighting a group of enemies...) Just kinda wish it had more umph in some sense since it does the same damage as Shattered Shadows and doesn't even have a cooldown.

Suggestion to Mythic: Rework this ability so that it does a larger chunk of damage, has a lower cast time, and/or bigger debuff effect coupled with a cooldown associated with it. That way it doesn't completely replace a core ability and becomes more of a defining move in the repertoire of a Destruction Sorceress.


Lengthening Shadows

It increases Surging Pain to a radius 39 and Infernal Wave to a distance of 86.7. It's most useful for Infernal Wave but it does not increase the length of Shadow Spike. Infernal Wave will now reach targets at the 80 range which is helpful when you are trying to distance AoE. However, as a tactic it's not terribly useful as you probably can find something else to slot that will be much more useful. I never found it useful in helping Surging Pain in practice of course I didn't exactly like getting in that close.

Suggestion to Mythic: Standardize the increases so that Surging Pain is 40 radius, Infernal Wave is 85 distance, and Ice Spikes is 85 distance. I'd also consider increasing the other AoE's to say 25 radius, but I'd be hesitant to add too much. Ice Spikes absolutely must be added to this even if it is a Calamity ability. Infernal Wave and Ice Spikes are twin spells that simply must be used in tandem so they must be affected in the same way in terms of mechanics. Surging Pain needs all the help it can get and is already within the ability – I'd consider having Piercing Shadows increase to 40 radius as well though too to make a fun tactic combination.


Disastrous Cascade

It ticks 4 times in rapid succession during the channel. I'm sorry you can't move while channeling this it irks me too. This does very good damage and is comparable in a sense to Annihilate although it's higher in the tree and thus just a little bit better. Make sure you remain motionless while you cast it – although that penalty alone makes it iffy at best for a choice to take it.

Suggestion to Mythic: Allow us to channel it while moving. I had a lot of difficulty deciding to sit down and use it properly. I'd likely choose never to take this ability as it's too much of a hassle at the cost of a point.


Neverending Agony

Makes Pit of Shades chain-castable and Infernal Wave had a modest 5s cooldown. Being such a high tier tactic I wish it had more, but I suppose the ability to chain cast Pit of Shades is often worth it as it is superior to any ranged AoE we have. If you use Pit of Shades a lot I'd consider taking it although you often have stuff to cast in between Pit of Shades anyway besides likely needing to reposition against all the new threats within the 10 second channel.

Suggestion to Mythic: Add a 40% snare to Pit of Shades and/or some other fun effect. The tactic needs more umph being so high up in the tree and this is perfect. Possibly drop the reduced cooldown for Infernal Wave (or even Pit of Shades itself) but a snare ability within a tactic would be absolutely fantastic. Make sure it doesn't stack with itself and this would be a tactic worth choosing for a Destruction Sorceress.


Shadow Knives

Very interesting ability but it has one problem. It's extremely similar in damage to Pit of Shades. For those with the unkeen eye, this is a targeted, channeled AoE.. It ticks 4 times within 6 seconds but ticks for the same damage that Pit of Shades does. For being that high of an ability, you likely don't NEED this but it can be useful to fill in time in between Pit of Shades or if you find a moment you want the Pit of Shades to follow the target. It's a little lackluster but if someone can spot what I'm missing please inform me.

Suggestion to Mythic: Add something unique to Shadow Knives such as 100 range, 30 ft radius, higher damage, and/or some debuff associated with it. It's like Hand of Ruin except AoE and does the same damage as Pit of Shades. Make it more unique and fun to use!

VIII) Stilll to come: PvE

Damage, damage, damage...

IX) Still to come: RvR


X) Still to come: Mastery Ideas


25 Points

15(4)/5(1)/0 – High Agony Triple Nuke Build




XI) Suggestions & Bugs


Suggestion to Mythic: Healing Debuff


We need one. I really need to stress that this is very, very important! I'm not sure exactly whom has Healing Debuffs and whom doesn't, but it sure feels like the Order gets one on every Ranged DPS and some Support cousins, while Destruction get a meager few on their Melee DPS and maybe somewhere else I'm unaware of. The Sorceress could really use one, in fact it really should be standardized across the factions as to whom gets it as CORE abilities, not something you spec for. I think it should be limited and at least be accessed by the Glass Cannons of both sides - the Bright Wizard and the Sorceress. Either make it Core with a nice cooldown or on two or so Morale abilities on different levels to allow some choice on when to have it.

This solves two things. They really make us the tank destroyers we are meant to be. Healers usually focus their heals on the tanks keeping them up, which is basically their survival mechanic in group RvR and what makes them nearly unstoppable. If we can coordinate some focus fire and cut their healing in half then we can effectively counter them with our Magic DPS. It makes the chain of Magic DPS > Tank more of a reality. It also makes the stalemates of the near indestructible healers less frequent. Healers should eventually die even if they are focusing all their heals on themselves, this is certainly not the case now in practice. It's a careful timing issue with a Healing Debuff to kill off the healer. Not only do you have to worry about their morale heal being unaffected, but you have to be able to burst them down before it wears off. A 50% strength heal is still pretty powerful when most healers are pretty Magic Resistant. It gives us a chance to beat them, not enough of a chance be the favored in a duel, but it gives us a chance to take them off guard or get lucky with burst damage.


Suggestion to Mythic: Willpower Resistance Reduction and Staff DPS

Something to be concerned about is gear scaling in accordance to casters. As you get better and better gear later on, you are going to get more Int, Weapon Skill, Strength, Toughness, Armor, Resistances, etc. Int, Str, and Ball all balance out with Toughness pretty much equally. Armor is combated by more Weapon Skill. Essentially that help cut back the extra armor everyone will be experiencing. The problem is resistances and weapon dps bonuses are pretty much stand alone. Nothing counters them and as people get more and more gear it'll simply reduce magic damage with nothing to compensate it. The weapon dps will increase weapon-users damage as gear expands, but that can be expected to match Wounds. Thus we need something comparable.

Put simply, the higher in progression you get as long as you fight equal geared enemies you will be doing less magic damage because people will have more base resistances on their resistance pieces simply because they are stronger pieces of armor. This will result in people having more and more resistance % against your type of magic damages. Getting more and more Intelligence is simply countered by someone getting Toughness to compensate not to mention there will be a soft cap in which getting all the more Int would be less effective. There needs to be a mechanic that counteracts this.

The easiest way, is to put a Resist Piercing mechanic on Willpower to somewhat relate it to Weapon Skill. This will make healing classes more effective at piercing resistances as well, which isn't really that much of a problem considering it will reduce the insane length of battles between a Healer v. Healer fight. A small re-balance of the resistance system would have to be done, but this is vital to keeping the game scaling at a proper pace. If this doesn't occur, the longer the game continues the less damage any caster will do.


In the same way, Staff DPS needs to be worked into spell damage as a equal damage mechanic to mirror a weapon-users upgrades. A rework of all the spell damages would have to be done, but this is important to ensure that our damage scales just as a weapon-users damage scales throughout the game. If you would add say 200 points to every stat in two opponents then you would find that the Magic DPS does less damage due to not having anything to work against resistances and the Weapon DPS careers would simply do more damage because their weapon dps would be increasing and allowing them to do more damage. Considering more wounds equally the Magic DPS will take a much lower percentage of health from their opponent and the Weapon DPS should be balanced into doing around the same percentage damage.


It's imperative that something such as Willpower gives us resistance penetration and staff dps added to the spell damage. I awknowledge that it would be a fair amount of work having to increase the base resistance given by resistance points and reducing the base damage of spells to compensate for the added staff dps on average. Overall it would be for a much improved system in terms of a balancing act.


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