I do want to squeeze the most out of my class, which is why I made this spreadsheet that will clearly show you that Solar Flare is literally the second worst offensive spell you can cast in your whole spell book. Like I said, math is really hard. You can try to spin it any number of ways and give me all the scrub reasons you want as to how it's situationally useful in a sad attempt to save face. But here's the thing, it's not useful, ever. If you ever cast that on a level 95 wizard you are bad. It should not be on your hotbars, you're wrong. Checkmate. Edit: This is actually the one from last xpac. But I have a new one, and guess what? Solar Flare IS STILL USELESS. It's in the exact same spot on the spreadsheet I made for this xpac too. You're welcome for the free tip.
implying using 10 hotbars means you do more dps is rich things I can say that don't belong on a wizzy hotbar. non damageable dehates, ranged auto attack button, most of the pet moves still even though they got boosted, and probably solar flare. I probably just cut down 1-2 hotbars
Every wizard who wants to parse well has one of those spreadsheets, as do I. You can try to spin it any number of ways, but clearly you haven't thought of reasons to cast spells beyond your narrow conception of this class; your brain is obviously unable to break out of its mold and find ways to improve your class beyond a basic understanding of wizardry. I have also never said Solar Flare is higher than any other spell in terms of general DPS efficiency. What I have said is that you are too green to have thought of the reasons that you would want to cast various spells in your repertoire over others given various scenarios that confront you during the course of an encounter. What I have also implied is that your ability to cast spells in quick succession is probably too low to ever make Solar Flare the last spell up on your hotbars, and this is another reason why you are unable to believe this spell should be present. And that's ok, TBH. You can't change what you can't change. I didn't say you necessarily need all 10 hotbars to maximize DPS, but OTOH It's not just damage buttons that should concern you, einstein. There are a bunch of other peripherals that are most effective when hotbarred instead of having to search through your bags. Potions, activateable charms/ranged, cure self/other, mana regen spells and temp (conj/necro) items, self-heals, buffs, etc. etc. etc. You must think all that matters to overall DPS is spells that cause damage. Good luck with that. Clearly you need to go back to WoW where that kind of layout will cut it. Just sayin.
My first character was a wizard and even after all my alts, it's my favorite class and gets the majority of my play time. Everyone's learning and play style is different, but I will tell you what helped me with my spell rotation and survival pre-merc era. I level locked at lvl.70 and did Battlegrounds for about 6 months. This helped me immensely. The following is what helped me. 1. Unstable group make-up. 2. Getting chased by scouts, all of them. 3. 1on1 matches on-top Gears platform. 4. Having to make quick decisions, react. 5. Focus dps and spike it as high as possible. 6. Get ACT Parser 7. Dummy training. 8. Researched AA trees, tried several diff specs. I also joined a level locked guild to work all this out in a raid scenario. It was here I memorized most of my spells, and as Wizards we do have a lot. I've never used a macro for my spell rotation, and everything I cast during solo, group, and raid encounters is based on situational awareness. For example, single target encounter spell rotation should look a lot different than multi-encounter. Since the release of mercenaries I RARELY root. It's usually a straight DPS fest with my Archon merc, unless I'm trying to solo a triple heroic. THEN you might want root. I use my numbing cold and AoE root a lot more than my single target root. Numbing cold will allow you to kite several mobs at once, blasting BoD, Eci's, Fusion, Firestorm. BTW, Solar flare hasn't been on my hot bar for years. Take advice as a grain of salt, and try to learn from your own experiences. If you want to be a great Wizard, you will need to get your hat knocked off a few thousand times. You can find plenty of info on Fiery Blast, however it sounds like you need the basics first anyway. Good Luck!
It is IMHO a tough class to play, not because it's hard but because it has a ton of spells and each encounter is different, each fight has a bad, better, best answer. It is further complicated by ones personal play style, how risky and fast are you, or are you very slow and steady in style? Every wizard is a little different, every stage of wizard leveling is a bit different. Your go to spells will change (a lot); what looks fine at thirty seems laughable later on. I solo and molo'd a bunch. I died. A lot. Lol. It's a learning curve.
The reason I say you are a newb despite you having played since day 1 is because you still talk like a newb, which is terrible given how long you have played this game. A DPS table is the BEGINNING of good DPS, not the end-all be-all of DPS. This is something you should have learned long ago, but obviously never have. I can give you many reasons why I would choose lower DPS spells to cast over higher DPS spells, given a particular situation. These are reasons that are foreign to you because you are green, as I said, and do not truly understand either your class or how to DPS in general. Just in terms of Solar Flare: I would cast this over all DOT's except Hailstorm (also 1 sec casting time) if the mob were about to die, as in about 1 sec or maybe slightly more. I would cast this if during that rare FB in which the only ST up left to cast is Solar Flare; this situation arises in some situations in which I am obligated to cast my AE's because adds had arrived and are actively melting around me, but FB is not yet up. I would cast this over slower spells with higher DPS efficiencies if a set of adds is incoming imminently and I want to tick up my increments as fast as possible in preparation for an imminent FB sequence, as well as using it as a filler spell because I want to save my AE's for imminently incoming adds. And of course I would cast this spell if the mob has plenty of health but there is no other higher DPS spell up. I'm sure I can think of more reasons why I would cast Solar Flare or some other low DPS spell over a higher DPS spell given the right situation, but I've given you plenty already. You obviously have never thought of these situations and considered what is the most appropriate spell to cast; it's not always whatever the highest DPS spell is up. That is why you are still green after all these years, friend.
lol at you saying you cast Solar Flare during Fiery Blast. If every one of your single target spells are down it's because you're bad at this game and didn't do it right. Clearly there's no reasoning with your level of stupidity. Enjoy your terrible parses and I will continue to ignore your ******** advice, and this conversation in general since you have nothing useful to say whatsoever. Post your parses on flames if you think you're so good and I will guarantee you that not only I, but any other decent wizard intelligent enough to not cast Solar Flare, will take a giant deuce all over your parses. I not only have though of all the situations you have listed, but have been in them and there are exactly 0 times I've casted Solar Flare. You clearly have decided to go the route of hunches and gut feeling rather than doing what's right there in black and white to do better dps. I'm sorry you're too dumb to grasp how this game works, may you find better fortunes in your next MMO. I'm done with this thread, there's no point in proving how bad you are at this game any further considering the damage you've already done. It's comical at best that you're giving advice in a thread called "How does a wizard work?" when you clearly have no idea.
I did not say I regularly do this, but only point out that this is an available option if extreme circumstances dictate that you cast your big hitters out of the FB sequence, which admittedly is rare, but it sometimes happens. Like I said, life doesn't always go according to script. If you are trying to claim it does, then you are a liar. Illies can be off with their TW's, off-tanks or bowshots can pull adds just out of range, you may get killed, AE's may come early or late, adds may come early or late, a whole range of things can happen which do not fit into your hi to lo DPS cast order. That rare situation sometimes happens with adds that are melting down to zero by the second but that FB is still seconds away and your Illy is early with his TW and you've got to E'Ci and Blast these adds before they disappear but you know that when FB comes back up you will still have some big hitters back up to make it worthwhile and you want to get back on track with your Illy and the rhythm of the adds, etc. etc. etc. I could go on and on with situations that are rare but still sometimes happen, and where that Solar Flare is sitting there ready to be cast, with the alternatives being that you either cast something less useful, or you do nothing for that second. You don't even seem to be aware of all the possibilities that can happen during a raid. And that is what makes you a total scrub. I guess I would have to call you a veteran scrub with all the years you've put into this game LOL I have found that when internet badasses are badly losing a debate, they stop talking specifics and start the personal attacks, because they know they have nothing else left to offer. They back away from the details, which really are the meat of the argument (the devil IS in the details), and start the trash. I understand, kid. You go on with your bad self. You clearly have NEVER thought of ANY of the situations I listed, such as casting an ST being better than a DOT at the end, using fast-casters like Solar Flare as fillers and/or as increment-ticking spells to set up prior to the real fireworks (FB), casting Solar Flare when nothing else is left up, etc. Any real raiding wizard will know by now that you are a true newb and a half, still a greenhorn after 9? years of this game. You adhere rigidly to a hi DPS to lo DPS cast order and thus miss out on obtaining the full potential of the class, which in no way can be achieved by such simplistic views of DPS, ESPECIALLY on a wizard. Based on what you have said here, you are no doubt a detriment to your raid and should go back to your basement room and think carefully about how not to keep screwing up your class in the future.
tbh sorry to break it to you, but overall dps is all that matters to you if you are a wizzy, you have no other goal to achieve in the class. you shouldn't worry about mana regen, you shouldn't worry about self heals, you shouldn't worry about cures, those are all other classes issues it's just dps. just so you know, buffs/temps/charms/potions, count as dps but really, any top wizzies I know make jokes about casting solar flare. jokes that lesser guilded people take serious I guess. it's just like when paladins joke about their rez spell considering how many people have come and said solar flare is awful, and you are the only one saying you use it. I would take that advice that the majority probably isn't wrong
*gets out popcorn* This is pretty entertaining, keep it up I haven't played a wizzy much, so I can't say, but I've found that most abilities in the classes I do play have their uses. The strange thing is, those abilities tend to be the ones that only make a difference if you use them RIGHT NOW! so if you don't have them on a hotbar, you've gimped yourself pretty bad. I'm a guardian, and I play solo, which means I don't have to worry about aggro management. I've still got six hotbars up, and try to figure out how I can choose the best 18 and next 18 for the 36 abilities I can use on my gamepad, and which I have to leave to my mouse. But I'll sit down now and get back to enjoying the show. *eats more popcorn and grabs a Dr. Pepper*
Your healer never dies? Your illy never dies? You never have a situation where your healer is stunned/stifled/mezzed/whatever but you're not? You never have raid nights where one coercer is trying his/her best to feed 4 groups? Do you like, not ever, raid? Because that's exactly how you're talking. Sorry to break it to you, but being prepared to live (and rarely, to help your healer heal), contributes to overall DPS. Being prepared to regen your own mana when no one else can do it for you, contributes to overall DPS. I don't think you and I are even talking on the same plane here, friend. I don't see any top wizzies making jokes here about Solar Flare; only scrubs. Considering the people that have come here and have said what they have said, there is no reason to believe they are at any kind of level where I would feel like I need to actually take their advice.
I keep Solar Flare on my hotbars and do find uses for it, though generally rare. The main thing you have failed to take account of in your spreadsheet (at a quick glance) is the effect of additional damage procs on your efficiency numbers (from guaranteed 100% proc chance sources) - this includes the likes of Frigid Gift, PoM, VC, PotM, etc. Once you factor these in, it does basically skew the efficiency numbers on the faster casting abilities upwards (relatively). Does this mean it should get used regularly? No, but cooldowns are a continuous juggling affair, and the occasion can crop up. Also, with regard to Solar Flare, if you ever spec down the left side (as I have done on the very rare occasion for something), suddenly Solar Flare does carry more weight. I saw Storm of Lightning commented on above too - that also has its uses in high-number linked target encounters (as above with procs, and/or the generation of Frozen Solid increments). And as far as the whole thread goes, there is more to playing a wizard these days than just picking whatever is highest on your spell rotation efficiency listing. Knowledge of relative importance of abilities is still important, but you do have to weigh it up against other ever-evolving factors. Really, the most important thing for a wizard these days (and where most wizards stumble) is on the issue of "timing" ... Timing vs the script, timing vs your allies temps/cooldowns, juggling of increment counts, and basically juggling your own cooldowns for maximum effect, as well as well placed FB windows (relative to script opportunities) while ensuring that doesn't result in wasted potential in the lead up. Playing a wizard at the top of the game requires a lot more flexible thinking than most people are apparently capable of. That's why you have a handful of wizards setting the bar competitively, while the average wizard underperforms the average of most other dps classes. If you want combat a lot more simplified, play a summoner (warlocks lately have moved towards wizards in playstyle). Edit: And I should probably also mention for you spreadsheet types, that the cross-over between ST and AE abilities can be a bit blurred by the debuff and vulnerability multipliers - it is rare that all mobs are equally affected.
sigh, where to begin I don't worry about my illy for mana regen, and no I have never been in a place where 1 coercer was having to do 4 groups in a power intensive fight, because I have never been in a guild that struggles that badly. I have never been in a situation where the healers were mezzed/stunned/stifled where they couldn't cure themselves cause they aren't bad. it sounds like the raids you are in are bad in general. or just low in number cause eq2 is dying out. and not on here, because this isn't a website where the tops usually hangout, cause this is the official forums, which means Everyone comes here, which isn't really good. try to go to the website where all the tops are and see. it's really sad, you won't take the advice of what many people have said but will take your advice which only you agree to
Yeah I went in depth a bit more on flames talking about the exact purpose of the chart. It's not exact and it's not just the cut and dry order in which you should cast things. The procs and lack of AE debuffs are going to skew it in a way that I don't know exactly how to calculate and display on a spreadsheet. It's meant to be taken as a baseline for a cast order to work around and nothing more. I don't understand how you could run out of things to cast that would cause you to hit solar flare though Daray. With capped reuse I never find myself without a better option. I am stuck at work right now and can't recall off the top of my head, but isn't Firestorm the same cast time as Solar Flare? If so, it has a super short reuse and does more damage than solar flare. And if there's ever a situation where you need 2 of your lesser filler spells forcing you to cast, say Firestorm and Solar Flare for argument's sake, then I can't help but think it's because something wasn't done correctly. I'm not trying to call you out considering you're one of, if not the best wizard ww, but I want to know the thought process so I can do what gets the most dps moving forward. Maybe you know something I don't? It wouldn't be the first time or the last. Edit: Yes Firestorm does have the same cast time and does more damage. And I think I have been in a situation maybe twice this whole xpac where I have had to cast that on 1 target.
I think you wrote this before Daray wrote his post, or you would have hightailed your *** out of this thread for obviously looking like a fool. Too late, my friend.
