[Archive] Sith Sorcerer/Jedi Sage Lightning/Telekinetics Compendium

[Kierran]

This post is slightly off-topic, but I can't seem to create a new topic and I didn't see an existing thread for Balance/Madness discussion.

I've been playing around with the talent tree while waiting for my Early Access calculator, and the Balance/Madness tree seems to have some serious potential as a pure DPS-focus spec (versus a PVP-focus). Here's the build I'm considering.

Objective
Maximize overall DPS with a focus on damage-over-time spells while ensuring long-term sustainability for boss fights.

Key Features

• Damage Enhancement: Clamoring Force, Disturb Mind, Empowered Throw, Assertion, and Drain Thoughts buff damage for the key spells (Weaken Mind, Mind Crush, & Telekinetic Throw).
• Synergy: Mental Scarring and Force Suppression boost all DoT damage. Weaken Mind crits proc Psychic Projection, increasing the likelihood of an instant-cast Disturbance/Mind crush (single target) or Force in Balance/Telekinetic Wave (AOE) from Presence of Mind.
• Sustainability: Psychic Barrier means that spamming Telekinetic Throw is actually Force-positive, allowing regen on-demand. Additional regen is possible via Concentration from a triple-cast of Disturbance. Further, every DoT crit provides 1% health via Focused Insight. With three DoTs rolling more or less constantly, this means less strain on Operation healers.
  

Spell Priority

1. Weaken Mind - Should be rolling constantly. Crits should be immediately followed by a Pyschic Projection-enhanced Telekinetic Throw when available.
2. Force in Balance - Boosts all DoTs via Force Suppression. Initiate with Presence of Mind, if possible.
3. Mind Crush - Initiate with Presence of Mind, if possible.
4. Telekinetic Throw - Spam away. Substitute Disturbance [single target] or Telekinetic Wave [AOE] after Presence of Mind procs if all higher-priority DoTs are ticking or on cooldown.
   

Having not made it into the game yet, this is essentially pure theory-craft. However, I wanted to get the discussion going and would be very interested in comments and recommendations.

See you in-game!

[Asmiroth]

This is discussed on page 22 under the Madness build, with the same point allocation.

Of note - Presence of Mind does not affect any instant cast ability or channeled. That leaves Mind Crush, Telekinetic Wave and Disturbance, with your build. The only DoTs you have are Mind Crush and Weaken Mind in your build - TThrow is a channeled ability.

I've tested that build a few times now and the following seems to come out

- Concentration / Subversion kept at 3 stacks increases up-time by about 30 seconds. It's a DPS loss, between 5-15%, depending on the rest of your priorities.
- Force In Balance / Death Field, if cast should be done so before Mind Crush / Crushing Darkness. Significant DPS increase and force loss.

The highest DPS priority rotation I've found for this build seems to be (pardon the abbreviations, they are Sage/Sorc)
- FiB/DF if PoM/W has procced and MC/CD has less than 1.5s left on cooldown
- MC/CD if PoM/W has procced
- TW/CL if PoM/W has procced
- TT/FL if PP/LB has procced
- WM/A if not active
- FiB/DF if MC/CD has less than 1.5s left on cooldown
- MC/CD
- TT/FL

It only lasts about 2.5 minutes before you're out of Force and is on par with a 31 Balance / Madness in terms of damage, which is admittedly MUCH easier to manage than this rotation and has minimal force issues.

That being said, I've yet to see a single boss go down in under 2.5 minutes unless you overgeared them.

[Kierran]

I feel silly for not searching the thread for this information first, but pleased that I arrived at a similar conclusion independently.

Reading over the earlier discussion, it looks like this could be viable, but depends greatly on some subtleties that will need to be tested in-game. Something to look forward to!