[Sorc] AoE Builds Discussion
Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2020 11:31 am
Hey everyone,
The sorceress as a class seems very straightforward. A group-oriented damage dealer with good options for both single-target and AoE damage. However, having played my sorceress a fair deal, primarily in RvR (rr62, so nothing special), I have realized that the Path of Destruction and the sorceress' AoE builds are still a great enigma to me. In this post I would like to outline the things that I find hard to understand about the Path of Destruction tree and the sorceress' AoE in general.
The Enigma
The first thing that caught my attention when considering the Path of Destruction is the sheer amount of AoE abilities the sorceress has.
Even without any career points spent one could argue the sorceress already possesses over a variety of AoE abilities that allows her to tackle any situation:
We have the semi-long range (80ft) Shattered Shadows and Pit of Shades,
The medium range (65ft) Ice Spikes and Infernal Wave
And the close range (30ft) Surging Pain.
A respectable arsenal of five spells, which, given the lack of long cooldowns (PoS being the exception) will give the sorceress something to cast at any range, at any time.
It should be noted that Frozen Touch, especially with the Frozen Fury tactic, can almost be considered a 6th AoE spell, since it procs of AoE damage and significantly increases the sorceress' damage output. Consider then that the sorceress' AoE arsenal is spread over all three different paths.
Looking at the career trees we can see that the sorceress is able to greatly bolster her arsenal with another four spells, one from the Path of Calamity and the others from Path of Destruction:
For semi-long range (80ft) we gain Black Horror, Shadow Knives and Gloom of Night,
For close range (30ft) we gain Disastrous Cascade.
And this is where my confusion deepens.
How does the sorceress benefit from these four additional spells?
I felt my toolkit was already fairly complete, and these abilities do not seem a significant improvement in terms of damage, nor do they seem to be particularly synergetic with each other or anything else within the sorceress class.
Black Horror seems alright, providing some AoE debuffing that the sorceress is otherwise woefully lacking.
But the others?
Shadow Knives is horribly AP intensive, and does comparable damage to Pit of Shades.
Disastrous Cascade seems hardly an upgrade over Surging Pain, with the caveat that it does not consume Dark Magic. On the other hand, it also does not benefit from Lengthening Shadows which increases Surging Pain's radius by 33%. I also have trouble seeing how either of these stand up against the combination of Shattering Shadows and Focused Mind and/or Close Quarters to simply hammer the foe into oblivion. This combination is powerful and works at any range.
Finally, Gloom of Night. This spell is located in the Calamity tree, which makes it awkward to say the least. It's damage per second falls horribly behind other AoE spells, but it makes up for it with it's long duration. Together with Pit of Shades this spell finds use in sieges where it allows the sorceress to hit targets on walls or behind cover, by targeting players next to them, or turrets, etc. The issue is the cooldown, which makes it unreliable.
All in all, these spells feel underwhelming. In fact, not just the spells, but also the tactics in the Path of Destruction tree seem underwhelming.
Currently I'm trying to find a reason not to simply put 15 points in the Path of Destruction and all the rest in Path of Agony (not picking any spells or tactics), to max out the damage dealt by Shattered Shadows, Pit of Shades and Frozen Touch.
A point could be made for including Black Horror. Perhaps a point can be made for including Lengthening Shadows and Neverending Agony so Infernal Wave can be part of my rotation, but that would also cost two tactic slots....
Honestly, I am at a loss. Can someone explain to me what I am missing?
Thanks for reading.
The sorceress as a class seems very straightforward. A group-oriented damage dealer with good options for both single-target and AoE damage. However, having played my sorceress a fair deal, primarily in RvR (rr62, so nothing special), I have realized that the Path of Destruction and the sorceress' AoE builds are still a great enigma to me. In this post I would like to outline the things that I find hard to understand about the Path of Destruction tree and the sorceress' AoE in general.
The Enigma
The first thing that caught my attention when considering the Path of Destruction is the sheer amount of AoE abilities the sorceress has.
Even without any career points spent one could argue the sorceress already possesses over a variety of AoE abilities that allows her to tackle any situation:
We have the semi-long range (80ft) Shattered Shadows and Pit of Shades,
The medium range (65ft) Ice Spikes and Infernal Wave
And the close range (30ft) Surging Pain.
A respectable arsenal of five spells, which, given the lack of long cooldowns (PoS being the exception) will give the sorceress something to cast at any range, at any time.
It should be noted that Frozen Touch, especially with the Frozen Fury tactic, can almost be considered a 6th AoE spell, since it procs of AoE damage and significantly increases the sorceress' damage output. Consider then that the sorceress' AoE arsenal is spread over all three different paths.
Looking at the career trees we can see that the sorceress is able to greatly bolster her arsenal with another four spells, one from the Path of Calamity and the others from Path of Destruction:
For semi-long range (80ft) we gain Black Horror, Shadow Knives and Gloom of Night,
For close range (30ft) we gain Disastrous Cascade.
And this is where my confusion deepens.
How does the sorceress benefit from these four additional spells?
I felt my toolkit was already fairly complete, and these abilities do not seem a significant improvement in terms of damage, nor do they seem to be particularly synergetic with each other or anything else within the sorceress class.
Black Horror seems alright, providing some AoE debuffing that the sorceress is otherwise woefully lacking.
But the others?
Shadow Knives is horribly AP intensive, and does comparable damage to Pit of Shades.
Disastrous Cascade seems hardly an upgrade over Surging Pain, with the caveat that it does not consume Dark Magic. On the other hand, it also does not benefit from Lengthening Shadows which increases Surging Pain's radius by 33%. I also have trouble seeing how either of these stand up against the combination of Shattering Shadows and Focused Mind and/or Close Quarters to simply hammer the foe into oblivion. This combination is powerful and works at any range.
Finally, Gloom of Night. This spell is located in the Calamity tree, which makes it awkward to say the least. It's damage per second falls horribly behind other AoE spells, but it makes up for it with it's long duration. Together with Pit of Shades this spell finds use in sieges where it allows the sorceress to hit targets on walls or behind cover, by targeting players next to them, or turrets, etc. The issue is the cooldown, which makes it unreliable.
All in all, these spells feel underwhelming. In fact, not just the spells, but also the tactics in the Path of Destruction tree seem underwhelming.
Currently I'm trying to find a reason not to simply put 15 points in the Path of Destruction and all the rest in Path of Agony (not picking any spells or tactics), to max out the damage dealt by Shattered Shadows, Pit of Shades and Frozen Touch.
A point could be made for including Black Horror. Perhaps a point can be made for including Lengthening Shadows and Neverending Agony so Infernal Wave can be part of my rotation, but that would also cost two tactic slots....
Honestly, I am at a loss. Can someone explain to me what I am missing?
Thanks for reading.