Magus AoE vs. Sorc AoE, which one is better?

[nat3s]

Magus has a few different ways to do AoE damage, and can do both spike and fluff.

In the right build a good magus will preform on par with most semi decent sorcs, but it requires a lot more effort to get a subpar result.

But the key thing the remember as a magus is that your job is not doing dps as much as it is CC. getting that pulls / knock downs, staggers / interrupts. Providing utility with AP daemon tactic.

One of the reasons you don't see many AoE magus or Engi pulling in big kill numbers in WBs is not because they cannot push some high level dps, and provide nice burst in AoE builds. It is because they have to focus a lot of their attention, movement, and ability rotations for CC and support that let Sorc / BW get even more kills.

If I were to say the biggest weakness when comparing sorc to magus for AoE is that magus has trouble keeping up dps and moving. You are not going to get / keep stacks in rolling fights even if you focus on dps, and many of your key dps skills in AoE builds are longer duration ground targets, so if enemies move your damage is gimped.

Magus has Rift which is deep Daemonology, a stagger and an interrupt. It doesn't have a knockdown to my knowledge (maybe pet explosion? i forget). Magus is basically a toned down sorc/bw, it has a burst spec (Havoc) and an AoE spec (Changing) but both are poor compared to the reliable burst of a Sorc/BW.

The power of a Magus comes from being able to do some average dps whilst being very tanky compared to a sorc/bw. A magus can reach 3.5k+ armour and 900 toughness. Combine that with their 2k self heal, 2.5k healpot, 4k rejuv pot and the absorb tactic and you've got an insane tank. My deftard Daemo magus is a beast in 1v1, destroys WLs (and we all know how much people complain about WLs in 1v1!!).

[peterthepan3]

While you can spec uber defensively on demo magus, if you have a dedicated tank, good heals, and a great setup, there is no reason for you to not try and put out as much PBAOE DPS as you possibly clan.

Rift is one form of CC, and it's very easy to do both CC and AOE DPS at the same time.

[adamthelc]

Lots of what I am saying has already been said by different people.

Magus can do a lot of AoE damage, but the down side is they have to use a lot more GCDs to get there. They are also less mobile, which can be harder to manage with their shorter range AoE. Also given they still have a close quarters type tactic, which isnt a bad thing, but given how immobile they are it can be harder to take advantage of. Rift can mitigate that to a certain extent.

Sorcs do good damage, most of it is direct damage so they dont have a lot of ramp up. The only dot they are using is Ice spikes which you are probably spamming a little bit for dark magic anyway. Gloom of night could theoretically increase your AoE burst, but in practice it's not very good to use.

So sorc is more mobile, easier on demand AoE but much softer. Magus is more resilient, much more utility, but less mobile and more cumbersome to get highest damage output.

[chazwozza]

Magus was good when firestorm was worth a wank

[Orontes]

Magus was good when firestorm was worth a wank

Firestorm got moved to the Change Mastery, then the fellow who did it forgot to add in a Change Mastery tactic option (that had been the case in the Havoc Line)* that gave Firestorm a cooldown reduction that would keep it on par with BWs and Sorcs. This was a mistake that needs to be corrected. Some on the Balance Team agreed this needed to be changed. In returning the spam option, they thought to remove the slow, which I think would be fine. Unfortunately, this hasn't happened yet, so Firetorm is less than it was, and the Change Mastery subpar, still. Engi Phosphorus Shells now acts like Firestorm. It should also be given the same spam feature with a tactic. This would make the Change and Grenadier Mastery Lines much more viable.



*The tactic Chaos Unleashed, also allowed for a 10 second cooldown that made Firestorm spammable, like Pit of Shades or Rain of Fire.

[TwoBlades]

Nothing beats T-Blasting ppl of a tower with Shades.

[fungame211]

Wild Changing (15% to path of changing skills) feels bugged too. It feels like it's actually giving x 1.15 crit rate to the overall crit rate instead of flat +15% to pat h of chagning skills specifically. Or it might be both.

The devs should Wild Changing tactic (it's actually adding crit rate when you equip it on the character stats)

[DanielWinner]

Wild Changing (15% to path of changing skills) feels bugged too. It feels like it's actually giving x 1.15 crit rate to the overall crit rate instead of flat +15% to pat h of chagning skills specifically. Or it might be both.

The devs should Wild Changing tactic (it's actually adding crit rate when you equip it on the character stats)

You can test it yourself. Just use Enemy addon and its logs. Hit dummy for like 100-1000 times with approptiate abilites and see the crit chance. It will look like this.

Spoiler:

[vianiznice]

As someone who has played both of them a lot in WB enviroments, I much prefer Sorc for her AoE burst/Rotation.
This goes for Organized, PUG and WB surfing.