Thread: Corruption Sorcerer (M1 build)

So the M1 build, as I am calling it, is the standard (aka: build that most of the community has agreed upon) sorcerer healer skills build. It is a 31/7/3 allocation and is, based on my experience and some light theorycrafting, the most efficient build so far. Below is a detailed breakdown for every choice requested by jd-inflames.


**- Denotes prerequisite. *- Requires prerequisite.

Corruption (Healing)

Tier 1 (7 Points)

Dark Mending 2/2: Reduces the activation time of Dark Infusion by 0.25/0.5 seconds.
Dark Infusion is our “big/long/expensive” healing spell. Any reduction on it’s cast time will make healing a tank, after a huge hit, less stressful. Be careful with this spell later on, it will drain your force fast.
Seeping Darkness 3/3: Increases Force critical chance by 1/2/3%.

Crit has never really been a most favored stat by healers in the past, but for the sake of regen, we’re going to take all 3 points of this. It doesn’t makse sense at first, but later on when combined with other talents and abilities, additional crit chance will help our regen. I wouldn’t put all 3 in immediately, I’d just start with one to move to the next tier and allocate the other 2 later.

Haunting Presence 2/2: Increases total Presence by 3/6% and all healing done by 1/2%.
This is one of those “obvious” choices. A raw bonus to healing is always a good thing AND it comes with presence to help you when you’re in flashpoints with a companion or doing missions solo. My first 2 points will probably go here.
Tier 2 (5 Points)

Lucidity 3/3: Reduces the pushback suffered while activating healing abilities by 25/50/75% and lowers the threat generated by healing abilities by 5/10/15%.
Any time you’re casting and you take damage you suffer pushback (which means your activation time gets “push”ed “back” and takes longer to complete), and that is bad! Another obvious choice, pushback reduction is just raw benefit. The lowered threat will also help you not get healer’s aggro from new/under-geared tanks.

Empty Body 2/2: Increases all healing received by 4/8%.
Both and PvP and PvE utility talent. I don’t plan on standing in fire, but on the off chance I do, I’d like to receive more healing when I get out of the fire. Or when there is unavoidable damage. Much like +healing out, +healing in is also never a bad thing. Plus it’s better than taking 2 in Dark Resilience because Consumption regen can become free, which comes up later in the tree.

Force Suffusion 2/2: Increases the damage and healing of area effect abilities by 5/10%.
Another healing boost, but a little more specific. This will boost he output of our AoE spell, Revivification, which we’ll get later on via talents. If you’re in a smaller Operation group, you might want to reconsider these points (maybe into Empty Body) but since I’ll be running 16-man Ops, I will be using AoE healing more often and want the boost.

Tier 3 (7 Points)

* Force Bending* 2/2: Your resurgence has a 50/100% chance to grant Force Bending, which increases the effect of your next healing ability.
Dark Heal: Force cost reduced by 50%.
Dark Infusion: Activation time reduced by 1 second.
Innervate: Critical chance increased by 25%.
Revivification: Force cost reduced by 30%.
This talent requires 1 point in Resurgence before you can allocate points in it, but you’ll have Resurgence anyway. The different effects can be used whenever, but you’ll most likely be utilizing the +Crit to Innervate since it, later on, helps your regen. The other effects will get use though I’m sure.

**Resurgence** 1/1: (Instant, Force-30, Range-30m): Immediately heals the target for X plus an additional Y over 9 seconds.
This talent is actually a new ability. Not only is it a nice little insta-heal+HoT, but it activates the aforementioned Force Bending. A nifty heal that we’ll be using quite often for it’s side-effect talent.

**Dark Resilience** 0/2: Reduces the health spent by Consumption by 1/2%.
Consumption is essentially our “Life tap” which means that we can use it to trade health for force, but at the cost of a temporary force regen reduction. This talent might want to be grabbed early on if you’re having mana issues and not taking too much damage in PvE, but I’d suggest avoiding it if possible. Consumption sucks less later on so keep going up the tree (and down the page).

Efficacious Currents 2/2: Reduces the force cost of Static Barrier by 15/30 and reduces the cooldown of Static Barrier by 1.5/3 seconds.
Static Barrier is a “bubble” that absorbs a set amount of damage before dissipating. Reducing cost and CD means we can use it more often on more people more quickly. We’ll most likely have SB on tanks at all times so it’s good to not have to spend so much on it.

Tier 4 (3 Points)

Sith Purity 1/1: Lowers the force cost of Purge by 15. In addition, Purge now removes negative physical effects and heals the target for X.
Purge is our “cleanse”. Untalented, it will only remove force and mental effects. The little heal is hardly anything to write home about, but it is nice to quickly dispel a DoT and give a mini-heal to make up for some damage. In larger groups, you might have others in charge of cleansing, but it doesn’t hurt to have extra utility.

*Reconstruct* 2/2: Increases the duration of Resurgence by 3/6 seconds. In addition, Resurgence has a 50/100% chance to increase the target’s armor rating by 10% for the duration of Resurgence.
More armor = less damage, longer duration = more healing. Need I say more?

*Fadeout* 0/2: Static Barrier increases the target’s movement speed by 10/20% for 3 seconds.
This is certainly a fun talent, but nto one that I will be taking for a main build. I might decide to switch it up for a high-movement fight, but not if talent respecs become too costly. An entertaining talent, not worth 2 points imo.

Tier 5 (3 Points)

Conspiring Force 0/2: Targets affected by your Affliction are slowed by 10/20% for its duration.
This is more of a PvP talent. Being able to slow mobs may have use in a PvE setting, but not enough to justify 2 points. Don’t bother with this

**Innervate** 1/1: (Channeled, Force-40, Range-30m): Immediately heals a target for X and a further Y per second for 3 seconds.
Remember when I was telling you about good crit, well we’re almost to the sense-making part. Innervate ties in because it’s a piece of the regen puzzle. Even if it weren’t beneficial to our regen, it’s still a good ability. A short-n-sweet channeled HoT. Another obvious choice and a new spell for the toolbox!

Life Surge 2/2: Increases your force critical chance by 1/2% and reduces all damage taken by 1/2%.
Crit again AND a damage reduction. Do want! Raw benefit talent, take it for sure.

Tier 6 (5 Points)

*Force Surge* 2/2: Innervate critical hits have a 50% chance to make the next Consumption activate without degenerating force or consuming health.
See, I told you it was useful! Consumption is our only source of regen (other than the base 8 force per second). When activated, it consumes 15% (13 with talents), rewards 8% maximum force and places a debuff that reduces force regen by 25% for 10 seconds (stacks up to 4 times). NOW when our Innervate ticks crit, we can “Consume” for 8% force at the cost of a GDC instead of HP and degeneration. I still don’t think we’ll be stacking crit, but it certainly has more value than in past MMOs for healers.

Penetrating Darkness 3/3: Increases your bonus healing by 2/4/6% and chance to hit with all abilities by 1/2/3%.
The hit chance is not extremely attractive, but provides a nice addition to the bonus healing. Like I said, raw +healing = obvious choice.

Tier 7 (1 Point)

Revivification 1/1: Heals all allies within 8 meters of the targeted area. Targets remaining in the area heal for an additional X over 10 seconds.
This is a lovely AoE/HoT. Especially useful for “group-up” fights with consistent raid damage. Again, a spell that probably has more use in larger groups, but still worth getting for 8-mans. Plus it just looks cool!
Lightning (Damage)

Tier 1 (5 Points)

Electric Induction 3/3: Reduces the force cost of attacks and healin abilities by 3/6/9%.
I know this is the dps tree, but the initial talents are generally beneficial to the class as a whole. Like this one, reduces cost for attacks AND heals. As with raw +healing, cost reductions are also need-to-have talents.
Reserves 2/2: Increases your total force by 50/100.
AGAIN, an obvious benefit. More force = more healing, more consumption return, more happy Ops.
Tier 2 (2 Points)

Subversion ?/2: Reduces the pushback suffered while activating Lightning Strike (…) In addition, Lightning Strike has a 50/100% chance to increase your force regeneration rate by 10% for 10 seconds. Stacks up to 3 times.
I’m on the fence about this talent. The additional regen might be good but at the cost of 4.5 seconds (3 GCDs)? I’ll have to toy around with it and see for myself if it’s beneficial. EDIT: I've actually run the numbers on this and have a post explaining it, link to the post at the bottom.

Lightning Barrier 2/2: Increases the amount absorbed by your Static Barrier by 10/20%.
Depending on how often I use SB, I might swap this for Subversion. For now, I’m going to keep it, but again, will see for myself how it shakes out.
Madness (Damage)

Tier 1 (3 Points)

Sith Defiance 1/2: Reduces all damage taken by 1/2%.
Taking damage is bad and the less you take, the better. -Keish

Will of the Sith 2/2: Increases total Willpower by 3/6%.
Willpower boosts our force healing/damage and will be the primary stat found on all of our gear. Obvious choice is obvious.

Edit: To view this build on Torhead go here: http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#20...0dGzZf00MZoM.1
To view it on The Niquisition go here: http://theniquisition.com/skills/
My Aversion To Subversion: http://theniquisition.com/2011/12/11...to-subversion/

Enjoy! If you have any questions/comments/concerns, please feel free to email me at Admin@theniquisition.com

Thank you for adding this, Niq! Tagging.

Great write up, this will come in handy.

Since I've added the bbcode, I'll embed this for readers pleasure.

Your post was extremely well thought out and very professional, but as opinions differ i must post my two cents on the issue. I have been a healer in many mmos in the past and my current tree is shaping up to look like this Skill Calculator - Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR) Database.



My thoughts below:

[**Dark Resilience** 0/2: Reduces the health spent by Consumption by 1/2%.
Consumption is essentially our “Life tap” which means that we can use it to trade health for force, but at the cost of a temporary force regen reduction. This talent might want to be grabbed early on if you’re having mana issues and not taking too much damage in PvE, but I’d suggest avoiding it if possible. Consumption sucks less later on so keep going up the tree (and down the page).]

The purpose of this talent is to allow us to continue casting with a minor damage decrease in various PVE and PVP situations. I can see how dropping it would be acceptable to some, sadly in both PVE and PVP situations you must be able to get out of things in an expedient manner. This talent is the gateway to our means of doing this not only for ourselves but for others as well. [*Fadeout* 0/2: Static Barrier increases the target’s movement speed by 10/20% for 3 seconds.] is exceptional for doing this.

[Empty Body 2/2: Increases all healing received by 4/8%.
Both and PvP and PvE utility talent. I don’t plan on standing in fire, but on the off chance I do, I’d like to receive more healing when I get out of the fire. Or when there is unavoidable damage. Much like +healing out, +healing in is also never a bad thing. Plus it’s better than taking 2 in Dark Resilience because Consumption regen can become free, which comes up later in the tree.] If you are taking an amount of damage that causes you to need 8% healing to yourself in a PVE environment you are doing it wrong. PVP wise its a great talent.

Sith Defiance 1/2: Reduces all damage taken by 1/2%. <-No

Taking damage is bad and the less you take, the better. -Keish [Avoidance will cause this in a more effective manner] But Right

Thank you for taking the time to read this and I wish you all well,
Havoc
Iron Citadel

Havoc, thanks for the post on this build. Its always good to get other peoples views on these kinds of things.

Okay so I wanted to wait a little while to respond to this because I knew we'd be hitting Operations this week. The spec you're running with looks great on paper Havoc. I had actually revisited the idea of changing my spec after I read your post. But, after 2 nights of Eternity vault, I can safely say that the M1 build is sufficient.

Once you get to a certain amount of crit (still determining, probably about 20-25% ish before Agent/Smuggler buff), one of your four Innervate ticks is practically guaranteed to crit, tack on a Resurgence and you've basically got 100% chance. This means that you're never using Consumption when it's not free. If you are having to use it more than every 9 seconds, your problems probably extend past a need for 2% damage reduction. Force is just a total non-issue on normal mode between 2 healers so using it non-free is very rare.

There's also not a high demand for expedient movement so speedy bubble is also useless in normal mode. It might have some use on Annihilation Droid XRR-3, but you's only be able to help (crutch) 1-2 people who are slow to LoS the boss.

I still think this is a sensible spec and might be more useful in later Operations or in later difficulties. But from what I've experienced in all 5 bosses normal and XRR-3 on hard-mode, force and speed are not issues. In fact, XRR-3 hard-mode can actually be solo healed with no force issue as well. I know because we had to do it last night. His enrage timer is very strict so Keish (other healer/BFF) had to go lightning just to make the timer. We all died except the tanks, who killed him... mind you we are mostly in blues and PvP epics so nowhere near geared yet.

Again, totally sensible spec and would probably work just as well as M1, but you just do not need Dark Resilience or Fadeout. You probably don't need the extra 4 points I allocated, but they're (to me) the "lesser of two evils".

Niq <Wrath>
Vulkar Highway-PvP