SWTOR 7.0 Sorcerer Changes Preview and Analysis (PTS)

SWTOR 7.0 PTS Sorcerer Changes are up now. Time to outline and analyze the changes to the Combat Style as a whole and individual Disciplines!

I have also included translations so Republic players can still follow along.

General Sorcerer and Sage class changes

The only ability that Sorcs and Sages will outright lose is Force Slow. I’ll certainly miss the animation, it was really cool to finish enemies off with that ability, but it’s not like it was ever actually consequential to damage output, so whatever.

At level 70, Sorcs have to choose between Force Barrier, Extrication / Rescue, or Volt Rush / Telekinetic Blitz. At first glance, you might think that this is an obvious choice to always pick Force Barrier, but the fact that Storm’s Succor / Metaphysical Mender’s healing effect is built into Volt Rush / TK Blitz makes this choice a bit more complicated. In PvE, Force Barrier does have specific use cases as a cheese in some fights, but most of the time, it goes completely unused.

Meanwhile, Volt Rush / TK Blitz with the healing component has the potential to be far more consistently useful. The DPS loss over Lightning Bolt / TK Burst is insignificant and results in a net DPS gain if it allows healers to then spend a GCD on dealing damage rather than healing. In PvP, Volt Rush / TK Blitz offers improved mobility and grants you a decent amount of survivability while allowing you to simultaneously deal damage. Force Barrier will still be better when you face insurmountable odds or just need to stall, but I don’t think the choice will always be so clear cut, especially for Lightning / TK.

The real loser here is Extrication / Rescue. Even with the 25% DR from the Dark Resilience / Valiance utility built in, it will be extremely hard to justify ever taking that ability over Force Barrier or Volt Rush / TK Blitz. The only time Extrication / Rescue sees actual consistent use in combat is in Huttball matches, but even then it’s only valuable with bad players since you can still just pass the ball.

Everywhere else, it’s extremely situational and really difficult to effectively use, so there’s no reason to ever take it over the other two more reliably useful options. Thankfully, we will still be able to use our pull for trolling whenever we like since we will be able to switch individual choices on the fly rather than need to reset and reapply all of the choices.

Cloud Mind now has the 25% DR built in, but you now have to “choose” between that ability or 1 of 2 passives at level . The options you have for passives instead of Cloud Mind are all garbage, which is fine considering how important that ability is to Sorc / Sage defensively. It really kind of defeats the purpose of having that be a choice though

Sorcs and Sages also have to choose between Unlimited Power / Force Empowerment (raid buff) and 2 other passives. The other passives seem pretty minor, either offering some sort of damage mitigation or a tiny DPS / HPS increase. It seems the rationale here is to make it less wasteful when you have multiple copies of the same raid buff since you only need one group member to have it. This lets the other players get a small bonus instead while the person who does take the raid buff isn’t missing out on too much. It also means that players don’t get stuck with an ability they can’t use in Ranked PvP.

I really like this idea and hope they do this sort of thing for all of the raid buffs. Including tweaking Operative / Scoundrel choices to where they get Tactical Overdrive / Hot Streak as a baseline ability and have to choose to take the raid buff instead and swapping Predation / Transcendence with Bloodthirst / Inspiration for Marauders / Sentinels.

Sorcerer is also notably missing the Shapeless Spirit / Mental Defense utility effect that provides 30% DR against AoE damage and while stunned. It is especially concerning that there isn’t a great spot within the Discipline tree where this could be offered as a choice since all of the other utility effects offered are quite important. Hopefully, they choose to add it as a Combat Style passive rather than turn something else into a non-choice.

Finally, there are some PvP-related utility changes. Inquisitors / Consulars now have Electric Bindings / Force Wake as a baseline effect of Overload / Force Wave, and Backlash / Kinetic Collapse is now a much easier choice to make for PvP since it’s either that or Lightning Barrier / Telekinetic Defense or Sith Defiance / Jedi Resistance (3% DR lol).

Sorcs no longer have access to Haunted Dreams / Containment (instant Whirlwind / Force Lift), while it is given baseline to Assassins / Shadows that pick the ability.

To be clear, Assassins / Shadows have to choose Whirlwind / Force Lift, while Sorcerers / Sages get it for free. The end result is that Sorcs and Sages get access to a bit more powerful CC than they do now, though PvPers will have to pick between Surging Speed / Metaphysical Alacrity and Emersion / Egress.

Changes to Lightning and Telekinetics Disciplines

Lightning / TK gets to choose 1 passive out of 3 options that pertain to Chain Lightning / TK Wave and another choice for passives that pertain to Thundering Blast / Turbulence. For Chain Lightning / TK Wave, the options are:

Chain Lightning / TK Wave only affects 1 target, but deals additional damage.
Critical hits with Chain Lightning / TK Wave build stacks of Preserved / Mended (my made-up translation), increasing the healing done by Unnatural Preservation / Force Mend and reducing its cooldown.
Chain Lightning / TK Wave applies stacks to all targets it hits. The next Force Storm / Forcequake detonates these stacks dealing additional damage depending on the number of stacks. (no animation for the detonation is currently present)

These options seem neat, you have a clear choice for PvP, single-target, and AoE.

PTS Lightning UI - SWTOR 7.0 Sorcerer Changes

For Thundering Blast / Turbulence, the options are:

Thundering Blast / Turbulence grants a stack of a buff that increases your damage reduction by 4%, stacks up to 3 times.
Thundering Blast / Turbulence immobilizes the targets for 2 seconds. This can occur once every 9 seconds. (not sure why they included a rate limit that’s the same as the cooldown on the ability)
Thundering Blast / Turbulence deals bonus damage to stunned targets. (so far, this damage seems to be over 100% and is applying as a second hit)

These options seem much less refined. The DR stacks seem like the clear winner here, though they aren’t quite as strong as one might think. That DR will take a while to build and if it ever falls off, you have to rebuild it. It will still be better than the other two effects pretty much all the time though. If the other two effects were combined, it might be a more competitive option for PvP. An alternative third option could make it so that Thundering Blast / Turbulence now always autocrits, regardless of whether Affliction / Weaken Mind is on the target, which would be nice on fights with a lot of target swapping.

Another idea for a third option could turn Thundering Blast / Turbulence into an AoE very similar to Smash / Force Sweep in Rage / Focus and Fury / Concentration where you fire Thundering Blast / Turbulence into a spot on the ground (using a placeable reticle) and anyone within 5m gets hit and knocked down, targets affected by Affliction / Weaken Mind still receive the autocrit, though since it is an AoE, damage would be reduced accordingly.

Changes to Madness and Balance Disciplines

Madness and Balance’s two ability-specific upgrade choices pertain to Death Field / Force in Balance and Creeping Terror / Sever Force. For Death Field / Force in Balance, the options are:

When a Deathmark / Force Suppression stack is consumed, there is a 50% chance for it to not be consumed.
Death Field / Force in Balance becomes a stronger, single-target ability called Death Brand / Force Stabilization (my made-up translation). Lifesteal / “Redistribution” is increased by 5%. In addition, Death Brand / Force Stabilization now applies the Internal / Elemental damage debuff, rather than the AoE damage debuff.
When a Deathmark / Force Suppression stack is consumed, you are healed for 1% of your maximum health.

Just like the Chain Lightning / TK Wave options, these are pretty straightforward. You have one option for each of AoE, single-target, and PvP. Interestingly, the single-target version of Chain Lightning / TK Wave does not appear to change the AoE debuff to something else like Death Brand / Force Stabilization does. I imagine that this will be fixed before it goes to live (PLEASE BIOWARE, MAKE IT THE ARMOR DEBUFF!!!)

PTS Madness UI - SWTOR 7.0 Sorcerer Changes

For Creeping Terror / Sever Force, the options are:

Critically hitting with the initial hit of Creeping Terror / Sever Force reduces the cooldown of Force Speed by 3 seconds.
Applying Creeping Terror / Sever Force reduces the cooldown of Recklessness / Force Potency by 2 seconds. Can only occur once every 5 seconds.
Dealing damage with Creeping Terror / Sever Force utilizes and consumes 2 stacks of Deathmark / Sever Force.

Unfortunately, these options are less exciting, just like they were for Thundering Blast / Turbulence. It seems like you should be able to get multiple cooldown reductions on Force Speed by DoT spreading, though there isn’t a clear benefit to doing this beyond being able to run away from a group you just DoT spread to. The crit effect makes it so it’s really only reliable and useful in DoT spread situations.

Meanwhile, I assume the rate limit on the Recklessness / Force Potency cooldown reduction is to prevent it from getting the benefit from DoT spread. The only real option I see is the double stack consumption, which pairs nicely with the Death Field / Force in Balance passive that gives you a chance to not consume one.

Honestly, it seems like Force Leech / Force Serenity would be a more exciting ability to get to choose buffs for. Right off the top of my head, here are a set of ideas: you could have one choice make it a multi-target ability that also triggers Dark Echo / Resonant Pulse (1 leech stream per enemy all to you, which would look EPIC), another that turns it into a DoT that heals for more than it damages but gives you the health as it deals damage rather than all at once, and finally an ability that also heals players near you upon activation (multiple leech streams from the same enemy to nearby players, would also look EPIC).

Madness / Balance was also given the “Static Barrier / Force Armor heals you for 1% of your maximum health per second for as long as it lasts” effect from the Corrupted Barrier / Life Ward utility. This is a nice little survivability buff to the spec.

Changes to Corruption and Seer Disciplines

Sorc / Sage healers’ two ability-specific upgrade choices pertain to Dark Infusion / Deliverance and Innervate / Healing Trance. For Dark Infusion / Deliverance, the options are:

Dark Infusion / Deliverance also applies a 12 second HoT. (good for sustained, predictable healing)
Dark Infusion / Deliverance also hits one additional target within 10m. (good for AoE healing)
Dark Infusion / Deliverance grants a proc that makes your next activation of Dark Infusion / Deliverance instant. Can only occur once every 10 seconds. (helpful for spikes and mobility)

I like that they’re adding more functionality to Dark Infusion / Deliverance, since it always seemed like a rather bland filler big heal. Each option seems to have a clear use case as well, the only thing of note is that the 10m range on the second passive should be increased to 20m so it is in line with the heal range of Roaming / Wandering Mend and Volt Rush / TK Blitz.

For Innervate / Healing Trance, the options are:

Innervate / Healing Trance spreads your Resurgence / Rejuvenate to friendly targets within 20m. ( good for AoE)
Polarity Shift / Mental Alacrity increases the healing dealt by Innervate / Healing Trance by 3%. (burst?)
Innervate grants stacks that increase the healing done by your next Dark Heal / Benevolence or Dark Infusion / Deliverance by 3% per stack, stacks up to 3 times. (good for sustained)

The Polarity Shift / Mental Alacrity one is complete garbage. I’m not sure why they thought that would be good. It would be more interesting if they made the effect that whenever a stack of Force Surge / Resplendence is generated while Polarity Shift / Mental Alacrity and/or Recklessness / Force Potency is active, it is automatically and immediately consumed and grants 45 Force, basically applying the effect of Consuming Darkness / Vindicate without having to spend the GCD. The other two passives seem pretty great though.

Note on the Long Discipline Passives Texts

I want to point out that the amount of text that is being crammed into many individual Discipline passives is insane on the PTS right now since they’re being combined from the current 15 into 9. It needs to be improved.

That’s way too much text for a single passive. I do think it’s possible to fix some of this though by doing some mechanic simplifications that don’t impact balance. The double tick effect of Forked Darkness on Thundering Blast and Crushing Darkness could be completely removed in favor of just increasing the damage dealt by the base ability proportionately (so Thundering Blast now deals 6.25% more damage baseline) on the back end. The Force regeneration rate proc could just be a passive 30% increase rather than a proc. This would make the new effect text of the Forked Darkness proc:

“Crushing Darkness makes its target vulnerable for 45 seconds. Vulnerable targets take 5% more damage from Force attacks. In addition, direct damage dealt by your Crushing Darkness and Chain Lightning abilities refreshes the duration of Affliction on your affected targets. In addition, your Force regeneration rate is increased by 30%. (on the back end increase damage dealt by Crushing Darkness and Thundering Blast)”

50 words vs 94. No balance implications. No loss of functionality.

Similar improvements could be made by merging the Convection and Subversion proc since they both make the same ability instant. Many passives that provide flat damage / healing boosts could be baked into the base ability as well with little to no impact on balance, depending on whether it is a discipline-specific ability.

Concluding thoughts on the Sorc and Sage 7.0 changes

The Sorcerer changes mostly seem fine, though nothing really wowed me. A couple of improvements should be made that I have outlined, but at least there is a viable choice everywhere and it doesn’t feel like we’ve lost anything major. As much as it pains me to say it, I think I would probably be okay if the changes for this class went live as they are now (assuming everything was fully functional of course).

In terms of balance implications, I think Sorcerers and Sages will be a fair bit stronger in PvP than they currently are, especially if the nerfs to other specs stick around since our survivability has generally improved. In PvE, it comes down to mostly backend ability damage / healing tweaks, though Lightning Barrier / TK Defense will continue to give Sorcs and Sages a huge DPS boost on many fights. Hopefully they will change its effect to just do a single larger hit to whichever enemy breaks the bubble so that it can be more consistent in its damage output. It will also come down to what new set bonuses and tacticals we have access to since those have had a major impact on balance as well.

You can now read my analysis of the Assassin and Shadow changes for SWTOR 7.0 as they were made available with this same PTS build that was released earlier this week.

SWTOR PTS for 7.0 The Legacy of the Sith expansion has been up for a while. Check out the previous phases, what was added, when and my analysis on all already released new Combat Styles:

And here are a few links to my class guides for all of the disciplines discussed in this article:

If you want to test some of these changes on PTS yourself, here is a handy guide on how to access SWTOR PTS. It will also show you how to create a new character or copy an existing one.