Thaum Rotation

daswooly

One thing I've noticed about playing Thaum is that the pure damage potential seems very high with frozen power transfer and destructive wizardry. But in practice I'm wondering if it's worth it. Running with other skilled wizards the damage output in DDs seems so high that I'm losing lots of potential damage trying to line up the perfect buffs (CC, CoI, SP) then dumping my encounters onto half dead mob packs. How are some of the other Thaum wizards handling their rotations involving trash an general encounters?

Another thing I'm questioning is the effectiveness of storm spell, eots, and evocation. Which two seem to be best? Currently running Gvorpal, 2500 ArP, 2400 crit, and 4700 power or so.

j0shi82

In a general sense, don't be too determined to line up the buffs but go with the flow of the fight. Frozen Power Transfer is always there because you're hitting mobs with CC unless you're doing something else. Mix in SP whenever somebody drops a Singu or opponents are gathered for some other reason and use CoI constantly. You'll still be getting plenty out of the buffs and I personally like to begin with a set of encounters (you can also charge a Pillar to start the fight), because they are on a cooldown and if necessary I want them ready for the same fight as soon as possible. So most of the time I'm getting Frozen Power Transfer and Destructive Wizardry for the second set of encounters and/or the daily.

At least I wouldn't do a full rotation of CC up front, it just takes too much time. In most situations where you're running with 2-3 CWs the pure setup of the three buffs then encounters is simply not necessary. Mobs die too fast.

vorphied

daswooly wrote: »

One thing I've noticed about playing Thaum is that the pure damage potential seems very high with frozen power transfer and destructive wizardry. But in practice I'm wondering if it's worth it. Running with other skilled wizards the damage output in DDs seems so high that I'm losing lots of potential damage trying to line up the perfect buffs (CC, CoI, SP) then dumping my encounters onto half dead mob packs. How are some of the other Thaum wizards handling their rotations involving trash an general encounters?

Another thing I'm questioning is the effectiveness of storm spell, eots, and evocation. Which two seem to be best? Currently running Gvorpal, 2500 ArP, 2400 crit, and 4700 power or so.

If I know the encounter can be ended very quickly, I won't waste any effort setting up the perfect "rotation" and will frontload the damage. As you've observed, there's no need to spend time ramping up the damage potential with elaborate control setups and debuff application if everything is going to die in two seconds.

Thaumaturge path truly shines in encounters with many high-hp enemies and/or sheer waves of adds, since it will be to your benefit to set up and maintain your ideal rotation, providing maximum damage and solid control at the same time.

As for Class Features, nothing has persuaded me to deviate from Storm Spell + EotS thus far.

I have Storm Pillar on my second CW, but I'm not in love with it even with the associated feat. Not difficult to keep up in big dungeon pulls, but the small AoE combined with having to stand still and charge it even for a moment annoys me and interrupts my flow.

petpet2

i'm surprised Chilling Presence isn't a popular choice among many people!

drscone

petpet2 wrote: »

i'm surprised Chilling Presence isn't a popular choice among many people!

I'll slot it if I'm running Icy Terrain and CoI (on tab), but SotEA is proving too good for that to get much of a look in these days

uurbs

I'm using it even on my Renegade, if I go full single target damage--but honestly, never did a comparison if it actually does more damage in that case.

focusman

My rotation if someone else uses Singularity:
CoI(tab) > Cast shard (dont push it) > sudden storm (when singularity ends so mobs are packed together) > push shard > steal time > Opressive Force. At the end of the rotation you can cast sudden storm almost again. Then repeat it. It is possible to get 70-80k crits on all mobs.

If I am the one who uses singularity: Entangling force on tab, CoI, Steal Time, Shard. If played well this also has a huge dmg potential when casting OF all the time.

At Draco: Repel tab > ef > shield(or shard) > ST. Adds Gone? RoE on tab > shard > CoI > ST (if archers) otherwise Icy Rays. And ray of frost as second at will to apply chill.

EotS + Storm Spell (most dmg giving passives as far as I know and tested it).

I tried using Storm Pillar but I just don't like the playstyle because in the 6 seconds 10% boost you can cast 1 or 2 encounters if lucky. I just stick to chilling cloud en and got the Bitter Cold feat instead of Critical Power (which is bugged since it procs to much). Which added up gives +10% dmg always and not for 6 seconds. (if mob has chill on him, which is almost always with CoI on tab)

And keep moving to get as much as Combat advantage as possible...though I must admit this is not my strongest point .... Dont end up running behind the party then for sure it happens mobs are already down to 50% hp. Boss dead > go on! why wait. Still 2 adds left from the fight > go go go run to the next fight. those 2 adds will follow and die there.

Add me if you wanna run CN sometime: Wizard of Oz@focusman84

banaanc

for dps chilling cloud x3,coi, ss/icy(depending on how long i assume mobs will live) shard, steal time

usually im running before tanks though and go shard > coi > steal time/ss/icy > chilling cloud x3, loses dps on 1st rotation but mobs are ccd all the time and if u crit shard u can get malevolent

ironzerg79

Here's the thing. Your best damage and control is going to come from firing off as many encounters as quickly as you can. If you're waiting to fire off encounters because you're trying to build the FPT bonus, you're going to end up doing less damage.

The FPT bonus should be looked at as just that: A bonus. If you spend time trying to line up the perfect 25% damage bonus before firing off your encounters, you're going to fall way behind on the damage charts.

caexar

Slot Arcane Presences and Chilling Presence. Rotate powers like this; at mid range from adds, manifest SoEA, use EF (in tab slot) to suck mobs into a tight ball. push SoEA into mobs to damage all and explode it. Cast CoI on mob in the center of the group now getting up and approach. Cast Steal Time from within melee range to stun mobs that just stood up. Cast storm pillar at the center of the stunned mobs.
By now, EF should be close to being off cooldown for you to bundle them up into a nice little cluster again around your pillar and your action points should be getting nice and full for a sing to pull them up while the rest of your powers come off of cooldown. Rinse and repeat.
It'll take some practice, but once you get used to it you'll be amazed at how much damage you rack up in a very short amount of time.

Arcane Presence can increase the damage of all of your spells (arcane and cold) by 15%. Chilling presence can increase the damage of all of your spells by up to 18% with 6 stack freeze (though it would be only temporary at that point as they'd freeze which I do not recommend you ever do) or 15% with a 5 stack chilling cloud renewal.
Conversely if you are having a hard time managing your Arcane Mastery Stacks and your Chill Stacks, you could slot in Evocation which will be a flat 15% boost to all of these spells I mentioned without having to build anything up.