Getting this out of the way: Don't bother cluttering the thread if you have not reached 45 in C-Aion or 50 in K-Aion.
I do not want people who have barely reached lv30 on this class to pretend like they know the status of the class.
Here goes:
-Scaling. A large portion of our damage comes from pet commands and servant spells. Neither commands or summon servant spells benefit from magic boosting power, at ALL.
That leaves you with Erosion, Wide Erosion, Vitality Absorption, Weaken Spirit, Tornado of Wrath, and Chain of Earth receiving benefit from magic boost.
Of these spells that do receive benefit, Vitality Absorption does absolutely terrible damage for its cast time and costs a lot of mana, Weaken Spirit only does respectable damage when the target is feared (and fear spells we have are respectively on a 30 sec, 1 minute, and 5 minute cooldowns). Chain of Earth is not a spell you use for damage, since it's very low damage as a consequence of having a snare component.
Pets remain extremely weak due to scaling itself. At 45 in C-Aion, for example, a pet does ~70-80 damage autoattacks to a player. Its average hits respectively with the commands : thunderbolt claw, disturbance, and detonation claw do ~270, ~450, and 640 damage respectively. A same level sorcerer lands a spell for a minimum of 1.2k damage. Rangers' instant shots will usually hit an average armor target for 800+ damage, and crit for more.
We have pet buffs to boost their numbers. With Command: Wrath Position, my water spirit's numbers go up a bit. From 70-80, it does 100-110. Thunderbolt Claw, Disturbance, and Detonation effectively do 350, 580, and 740 damage respectively. This buff has a 2 minute cooldown, and is only effective for the pet you cast it on; the buff lasts approximately 30 seconds.
We then have Command: Erosion. It reduces elemental defense corresponding to the elemental that casts it by 200. Small DoT component on this debuff. Roughly, add around 100-150 extra damage on each command. This buff has a 2 minute cooldown, and is only effective for the player you cast it on; the debuff lasts 30 seconds. This is also the overhyped skill Liv mentioned in the SM interview that increases drop rate by 20%. Not additively, but multiplicatively; an item with 1% drop chance will increase to 1.20% drop chance if the 30 second debuff is on him. Meaning, you have to save this debuff for the estimated 30 seconds you expect the mob to die.
We then have the DP buff. Costs 2k, and only applies to the pet you buff after it drains 2k off you. My DP-buffed pet with all the aforementioned buffs aligned (meaning I pop all those cooldowns and DP buff my pet, and Erosion will only affect one opponent) does 550, 800, and 1.2k damage with each command on a target THAT I HAVE PUT EROSION ON. Every other target, it hits for around 450, 670, 900ish damage. Autoattacks hit for 200-230ish.
Your DP buff should be very neat, but with the constant gliding of rift parties and in abyss, rarely will your pet remain summoned for more than 3-5 minutes. Your pet will desummon ALL THE TIME while gliding and in the abyss because NCsoft has neither implemented flying pets nor a teleport upon distance limit function to your pet. If you're walking faster than your pet, it will desummon. If your pet gets blocked, it will desummon.
So this DP buff is actually very ephemeral.
Speaking of buffs, it may seem like the DP buffed with all cooldowns popped pet might help the SM touch Sorcerer numbers. Sorcs are constantly hitting for 1k-3k with several chains and combos, not to mention an instant cast spell that hits like a truck at short range.
What we did not include is that a sorc can buff himself like we can buff our pets. He can gain 300 magic boosting power for 15 seconds, halve his casting times for 15 seconds, slap on robe of flame buff for another 100 magic boosting power for 30 minutes, his class passives that boost magic boosting power and gives them +5% damage while in flight.
If you thought SM numbers with those buffs were respectable, a sorcerer with these buffs slapped can cast a 3k Flames of Hell in 2 seconds or their new advanced stigma, Flame Strike, for 4k in 1.5 seconds (Flames of Hell has 2 minute cooldown, Flame Strike 30 sec cd).
They can even use the halved cast times to make their sleep 1 second cast, curse:tree .5 seconds, silenece .5 seconds, and aerial shackle 1.4 seconds.
Our CC is Fear, 2.5 seconds; AoE fear, 1 second; Silence, 1.5 second (and ours does no damage and requires a stigma slot, unlke sorcs who get silence as a core spell); Disarm, 1.5 second; AoE slow, 1 second. SM's have no spells to shorten their cast times nor personal buffs to increase their own spells.
Nonscaling servant spells hit for around 300 a piece at their max rank with erosion debuff on the opponent. 1800 damage total spread over 3 second ticks, each servant striking twice 3 times. 9 seconds to deliver nonscaling damage in what a sorc can inflict 1400 with a Flame Harpoon instantly on a 2 second cast.
We have 2 personal DoT's over a sorc; Wide Erosion, Tornado of Wrath (not counting Chain of Earth; its damage is insignificant and you save it for the snare utility). Their Burn DoT matches our Erosion spell.
They can debuff fire resistance by 150 every 10 seconds and all magical resistances by 45 every 30 seconds. Or debuff is on a 2 minute cooldown tied to a command. We also got a crappy advanced stigma with a 1 second cast that debuffs resistance and attack speed, dealing no damage, on a 30 second cooldown.
Needless to say, the SM sees some trouncing in the damage and burst department by a sorcerer.
So let's go to the meme of "debuff" class.
The SM does not possess a wide array of impressive debuffs.
-We have a -200 resistance debuff on a 2 minute cooldown, single target on pet command.
- An AoE slow.
- Attack speed debuff on a 1.5 second cast (worthless, costs a crapload of damage, single target). 10 second cooldown.
- 100 physical defense debuff if you're using the fire spirit.
Needless to say, physical debuff is already covered much better by Chanter and Gladiator debuffs.
AoE slow can be done by the Sorcerer as well.
That leaves us with the terrible attack speed debuffs as our "specialty".
Dispels
Only class with Dispels:
1- One requires a stigma slot, removes 3 buffs and does damage. 30 second cooldown.
2- Removes one buff from opponent, 10 second cooldown.
3- 3k DP spell, removes 3 buffs from your target and people 25m within him. Very crappy DP spell, save DP for your elite spirits, DP buffs, and AoE DP DoT.
To people who expected SM dispels to be similar in power to purge and dispel magic from previous MMO's, keep dreaming. Dispel capability is very limited and most buffs can easily be put up in a few seconds.
-Crowd Control
Supposed CC kings. Fear is perceived as a valuable spell, and it is. Only that the cooldowns are rather large and the cast time for the shortest cooldown fear is longer than any average 2 second nuke (Fear, single target, 30 sec cd has a 2.5 cast time).
Sorcerers bring shorter cast length CC, but most of it is fragile to damage. Nevertheless, a well-coordinated group will have no trouble preventing CC breakage, so this is hardly a problem. Tree/sleep a cleric, murder his team.
Sorc has:
-Sleep, 2 sec cast, 15 second cooldown.
-Tree, 1 second cast, 30 sec cooldown.
-AoE sleep cloud, 3k DP spell.
- AoE 4 second stun centered on the caster. 5 minute cooldown.
-Ranged AoE sleep, sleeps up to 7 people within x range of your target.
Judge by yourself whose CC is more easily cycled and practical. Should be obvious who wins yet again.
Then we go to disabling skills.
SM has Silence and Disarm. 1.5 second cast, 20 second cooldown. Does no damage, requires stigma each. Lasts 2~8 seconds.
Sorcerer has Soul Freeze. 1 second cast, does ~800-1k damage, silences for 8 seconds. Aerial Thrust, 2.8 second cast time, puts foe in aerial shackle for 3 seconds, 2 minute cooldown. During Aerial Shackle, the Sorcerer can cast 3 spells, 2 which do ~800 damage, Magic Fist does ~1400-1500. Aerial Shackle itself does like 700 damage.
DoT Mechanics
-DoT's do not stack. An SM attacking the same target with another SM is losing damage. No other class suffers from this.
-While our dispels are on long cooldowns, a Cleric can spam cleanse our DoT's off anyone.
DP Spells
-We have an excellent 2k DP spell that is hampered by horrible pet mechanics.
- Our 3k DP spell is subpar. Aoe 3 buff removal does not begin to compare to its 3k DP counterparts from other classes in importance.
- 4k DP spell. 648 damage aoe DoT initial and 648 every other 6 seconds for 54 seconds. Damages 5% of a target's HP upon casting an offensive spell on the SM.
By comparison, the Cleric's Voice of Destruction does 655 damage initial, and 655 every other 3 seconds (roughly double the ticks we get on ours) for 57 seconds. -50% heal debuff on all affected. Immensely superior to our 4k DP AoE DoT, for no reason.
The cleric also has a normal spell that debuffs heals received. That alone makes the Cleric a far better debuffer than any SM with his poor debuff arsenal. Why they chose to give the Cleric a heal debuff instead of the supposed debuff class, SM, I can't grasp.
Stigmas
- Most of our core utility and survivability spells require a stigma slot (damage transfer to pet, aoe fear, silence, disarm).
-Despite stigma status, we have stigma abilities that are subpar to the core spells of another class. How is it acceptable that a sorcerer gets a silence we have to stigma for that casts .5 seconds faster, does damage, and whose silence effect does not oscillate?
- The new advanced stigmas are haphazard. They do not address distinct needs of the class, and have been deemed as fluff by the Korean community.
-Case in point, Whirlwind's Wrath, a damage spell ideal for PvP, requires Enmity Swap as a pre-req stigma. Enmity swap itself is worthess, only being useful in solo PvE, and being utterly worthless in group PvE with no effect at all in PvP.
-A class defined by gimmick spells with no essential niche status rarely turns out well, and it shows in this class's abysmal representation both in C-Aion and K-Aion.
Survivability
So most of our damage is over time, and yet we are the caster with the fewest survivability tools.
We have:
-Pet damage transfer. Transfers damage done to you unto the pet as long as the pet is 10m within your range, duration of 2 minutes; 10 minute cooldown.
Let's look at how limited this ability is. The buff goes away if your pet wanders 11m away from you. As a caster, you always want max range to kite and cast spells. If you want this spell's effect with a spirit any other than the water spirit, you'll have to get dangerously close to a melee. If you use the water pet, the water pet has the least HP of them all, and thus the least mitigation for you.
In flight combat, you can't even use this ability.
So, seeing as how you're using the water pet if you want to maintain range and the buff, should you be the target of focus fire, you'll at best absorb 3-4 attacks from 2-3 people before your pet dies from the damage transfer. Then you become wet toilet paper outside of the aoe fear, provided the focus fire does not CC you and prevent from casting it.
And that's pretty much it in terms of defense against focus fire by several people if your AoE fear has been exhausted.
On the other hand, the Sorcerer gets an iceblock, 8 second duration. 5 minute cooldown. Makes you immune to damage to ALL sources, stuns you for that duration. They get a 5 second melee damage immunity, 1000 resistance to knockback/stun/aerial shackle, an aoe 4 second stun, a blink (removes target and ports you to safety range, avoiding damage is always better than mitigating it as a low armor class) ability, instant aoe root,instant aoe snare, and 2 guaranteed melee dodges with new stigma aling with 1 debuff removal in that ability.
The survivability tools a sorcerer gets against focus fire is incredible compared to the few escape tools a SM gets.
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CLASS PASSIVES
-The SM receives +Concentration (less chance for spells to be interrupted when hit, a worthless stat for a class that can;t stand and cast while getting beat on or they'll die, not to mention that SM spells have naturally low cast-times, making concentration of little value) passives. It's flight passive is a meager +10 mana regen.
- The Sorcerer by comparison receives +magic boosting power and +5% magic damage while flying.
PLEASE, change these horrible SM passives. If you don't want to match them with the sorc, just give SM +HP or +magical/CC accuracy. The flight passive could be longer duration on debuffs.
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Flight Combat
It is unconscionable that a key aspect of the class, spirits, also becomes its key detriment in flight because NCSoft couldn't bother to work on implementing flying pets in a timely manner.
Yes, we get a crash and a wing root. Crash is on a 20 second cooldown, requires the water spirit, requires that the target be within the spirit's range, and only affects one target. Wing Root has a minute cooldown, and the person can drink a flight pot to recover the instant loss. A cleric can recover flight time to the affected target, countering our spell.
What happens when you constantly need to shift targets and move the battle further up into the sky? You're screwed. You lose your pet, about 60% of your total damage. All your damage comes from cleansable and slow-acting DoT's, whose damage is mitigated by any HoT's Chanters and Clerics are slapping around.
No class suffers more distinctly in flight than the SM does. If you don't want the class to go extinct, you cannot punish it with flawed mechanics that single them out specifically for lower performance.
The SM is the least played and most underrepresented class in C-Aion and K-Aion (Korean tournaments as well). This is no coincidence. It is my hope that the developers have already taken notice of this and are working on fixes for a class so pestered with mechanic pitfalls.
