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SC/Lock vs SC/ele post 1.2

Just another image/parse dump:

SC/lock:

 SC/Ele:

1.2 Stormcaller Survival Guide

Note: Click on the images to make them a readable size.

This is an in depth look at Static Discharge post 1.2. 

The upcoming 1.2 patch has the following change in the patch notes:

Static Discharge: Fixed an issue causing the damage portion to retain the effect of buffs that were active when the ability was cast but no longer active when the damage portion triggered. Damage is now attributed to the person triggering the damage instead of the caster of the buff. Static Discharge now triggers off of damaging spells and abilities and no longer triggers off of auto-attacks.

This means a few things for us mages who have been enjoying the incredible DPS Static Discharge has been giving us. The damage from SD (Static Discharge) will no longer be attributed to us on the DPS meters, which sucks but worse things have happened to better people.
This also means all our buffs/debuff will only effect our own SD procs. This is potentially a huge DPS loss. This is a parse from a rogue procing SD:

As you can see what used to be close to 400 damage per tic, is now a max of 46.

However, there was a pretty major change that was not mentioned in the patch notes. SD can now crit just like any other spell. It also appears to be correctly accounting for the crit additional bonus damage (Tempest) and chance (High Voltage).
Sorted by Critical true/false:

As you can see when I crit it was for around 500 damage which is a 180% increase, up from 285ish damage. Which means Tempest is working correctly.

Unfortunately the crit chance is based on the Spell Crit of the person causing the proc. Just like the damage.

SC/Ele and SC/Lock are still good specs, even with this change. Post 1.2 to really min/max raids will need to stack all their SCs in 1 party. In the likely case that you don't have 5 SCs stack your mages, followed by your clerics in the party with your SC[s]. It is better to have casters with no pets, then non casters with pets.

Earth Elemental pet SD damage:

Air Elemental pet SD damage:

Damage from a caster with no DPS cooldowns:

(This crit 9/10 times which is rare, the numbers are roughly accurate though)

Non caster pet does 43 non crit damage, non caster does 31. Caster does 105. So again, having a caster in a group with an SC is better then having a non caster pet class.

 If you stack SCs like this you will have to stagger your CDs which means you won't get Intensify Elements or Sacrifice Life: Damage when someone else uses their SD. The crit partially makes up for this but still a substantial loss.

With Intensify Elements:

 Without Intensify Elements:

4,574 vs 3,742 damage from Static Discharge.

Review:
Static Discharge is getting nerfed.
SC is still likely the best DPS spec for end game content.
Stack SCs with other SCs and casters.
Non caster pets are useless for SD.

Sorry this post is kind of a big number dump.. although its not like you people are paying me... cheapskates.

Recommended Leveling Guide... Hey guys, if you are needing a good leveling guide that will get you up to 50 fast then I would recommend using xerxes guide. Most of the same leveling paths and quests lines that I used to level up are written out in this guide. I bought it a little while ago to check it out and see if it was any good and I was really impressed. Its too bad I didn't have this guide when I was leveling up, it would have saved me days of headache. Click Here to check it out

Some necro/lock and pyro/ele parses.

Necro/lock:

Pyro/ele:

Some from the 1.2 PTS:

Necro/lock:

Pyro/Ele

Mostly just using this post as an image dump..

How Lightning Field Works

Lightning Field is a 14 point root spell in the Stormcaller tree. It is augmented by the 25 point Stormcaller talent "Charged Field". Without the talent this is a very simple instant cast AoE that hits all targets with 1 - 3 stacks of Electrify. With the talent this becomes my favorite spell in the game.

For everything I do to test this I used: http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0zyvq.V0xt0tcsbo.xx0V0VVx.m. This is your typical Warcaller, PvE, no-pet DPS spec.
My stats are:
847 SP
569 Crit

Now consider the following situation:

Note: To fully understand this you need to be exactly, and I mean EXACTLY like the mage in this picture.

We have 4 enemies with 3 stacks of Electrify each. If you cast a Lightning Field on one all 4 of them will immediately take roughly equal damage (it varies as each one has a separate chance to crit). Now each target will do a separate AoE that hits his buddies again. However, this AoE removes stacks of Lightning Field from each target it hits. This means:

1. Lightning Field hits all 4
2. Charged Field from A hits B, C, and D.
3. Charged Field from B hits A, C, and D.
4. Charged Field from C hits, A, B, and D.
5. Charged Field from D hits, A, B, and C 

Now each target has 0 stacks of Electrify. 

This means if you have 4 or more targets you have to apply 3 stacks of Electrify (Forked Lightning) before casting Lightning Field again. 

If you have less then 4 targets, but more then 1, you can cast Lightning Field multiple times before reapplying Electrify. Pretend D does not exist:

1. Lightning Field all 3.
2. Charged Field from A hits B and C.
3. Charged Field from B hits A and C.
4. Charged Field from C hits A and B

Each target is hit by Charged Field twice so now each target has 1 stack of lightning field. Now you can cast Lightning Field again:

1. Lightning Field hits all 3.
2. Charged Field from A hits B and C.
3. Charged Field from B hits A and C
4. Charged Field from C hits... nothing.

Because the final stack from A and B were removed previously the Charged Field from C has nothing to hit.

This causes a debate. With 3 targets do you cast Lightning Field twice or just the once before casting Forked Lightning again. The rotations are:

Cast Lightning Field once: 

Forked Lightning x3 > Lightning Field > Repeat: (Forked Lightning x2 > Lightning Field)

Cast Lightning Field twice: 

Forked Lightning x3 > Lightning Field x2 > Repeat.

And here are the official results:

The first one, Lightning Field once: 1950.77 DPS

The second one, Lightning Field twice: 1661.70 DPS

Now what if you have 2 targets?

1. Lightning Field hits both targets.
2. Charged Field from A hits B.
3. Charged Field from B hits A.

Now both targets still have 2 stacks of Electrify on them, so you can cast Lightning Field 2 more times. Since the normal rotation for a SC/Lock or SC/Ele is:

Raging Storm > (Ice Shear > Lighting Strike > Lightning Field x5)

With two targets you can easily adjust the rotation to:

Forked Lightning x3 > Lighting Field x3

You will do more DPS then the single target rotation. This is great on fights that have a single add, or web or crystal one of your teammates (Majolic the Bloodwalker, Glubmuk, or Tegner Deepfang).

It is also worth noting that the UI is bugged and does not correctly show stacks being removed when you cast Lightning Field. Until they fix this you have to keep track of how many stacks you have yourself. 

There ya have it folks, little longer then I expected but what the hell. 

Recommended Leveling Guide... Hey guys, if you are needing a good leveling guide that will get you up to 50 fast then I would recommend using xerxes guide. Most of the same leveling paths and quests lines that I used to level up are written out in this guide. I bought it a little while ago to check it out and see if it was any good and I was really impressed. Its too bad I didn't have this guide when I was leveling up, it would have saved me days of headache lol. Click Here to check it out

Mage Leveling

I keep getting asked so heres my answer:

Your first 3 souls should be Necro, Warlock, Chloro. In that order.

The only thing you want from the Chloro tree is Radiant Spores.

Your first 8 Points go in the Warlock tree to Improved Life Leech, Improved Void Bolt and Lingering Pain.

By level 10 your souls should look like this:
http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=1zwvR.x.ccM

Your rotation is going to be:

Radiant Spores > Life Leech > Necrosis > Spam Void Bolt > Refresh Radiant Spores and Necrosis.

On bigger mobs, like Rift bosses you'll want to through in Dark Touch before spamming Void Bolt.

By level 20 your souls will look like:
http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=1zwvR.xxcL0z.ccM
Now you have Soul Purge, welcome to immortality.
Your rotation now is:
Radiant Spores > Life Leech >  Necrosis > Essence Link if you need more heals > Void Bolt untill you have 80+ charge > Soul Purge.
Soul Purge is your bread and butter. You can chain pull mobs by alternating Void Bolt spam and Soul Purge.

By Level 30:
http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=1zwvR.xxcLVzk0c.cfMo
You now have some new pets, Skeletal Stalwart and Skeletal Zealot. Put simply the Stalwart is a tank, the Zealot is DPS. Use the Zealot for lots of damage, and the Stalwart for tanking or off tanking. The Zealot will kill things faster but you can pull more, and faster with the Stalwart. Your rotation has not changed.

By level 40:
http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=1zwvR.xxcLVzk0c.ceMhzVR
In the last 10 levels you had some choices. You could go:

• More pet health with Master Chirugeon 
• More health on yourself with Vitality
• Lich Form for a burst damage cool down
• Or you could just do what I did and go for more damage with some nice "Oh shit" buttons with Shadow Life and Draining Bolt

A few other options in there as well. I prefer taking a beeline to Warlock Armor because it is sex. That means after 28 in Necro put all your points in Lock untill:

By level 46:

http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=1zwvR.xxcLVzk0c.ceMhzVqx

And with that you are basically done. I don't care where you put your points after this. Your rotation hasn't changed since level 20, but who needs it to? Your a fuggin Necro/Lock. 

By level 50:

Grats on 50! Now read this.

Recommended Leveling Guide... Hey guys, if you are needing a good leveling guide that will get you up to 50 fast then I would recommend using xerxes guide. Most of the same leveling paths and quests lines that I used to level up are written out in this guide. I bought it a little while ago to check it out and see if it was any good and I was really impressed. Its too bad I didn't have this guide when I was leveling up, it would have saved me days of headache. Click Here to check it out

Rift Spell Efficients

Spell efficients are the rate at which Spell Power is converted to damage. If a spell has a 50% efficient and you have a 100 Spell Power, 50 damage will be added to your spell (50% of 100 SP).

To find a spell's efficient you need:
Spell Power(SP): Your spell power, listed in Stats on your character screen.
Base Damage (BD): The spells base damage, listed on the tooltip.
Real Damage (RD): The damage the spell is actually doing with non crits, and no buffs.

Then use this formula:

Spell Efficient = (RD - BD)/SP

You are basically dividing the difference of the Real Damage and the Base damage by your Spell Power.

Always have all your gear on to do any math!

Rift rounds numbers down right before they are displayed on the screen. This means if you do 29.9 damage it will actually only do and display 29 damage. If you have all your gear off you'll do very low damage which means the amount that you lose when rounding is a much higher ratio to the total damage which completely screws up your math. It will still screw up your math with all your gear on but to a much lesser degree.

The list I have so far:

Some of these are out of date, will have an updated list soonish.

Vile Spores 24%
Void Bolt 40%
Plague Bolt 24%
Fireball 40%
Crystalline Missiles 28%
Thunderbolt 27%
Pillaging Stone 40%
Neural Prod 24%
Electrocute 55%
Flame Bolt 30%
Searing Vitality 34%
Life Leech 24%
Ignite 28%
Lightning Strike 45%
Dark Touch 32%
Necrosis 30%
Dark Armor 3%
Draining Bolt 39%
Neddra's Grasp 9%
Devouring Shadows 78%
Charged Shield 4%
Thunderblast 30%
Inferno 45%
Flame Jet 32%
Firestorm 57%
Arctic Blast 40%
Ice Shear 19%
Raging Storm 69%
Flash Freeze 24%
Icicle 22%
Cloudburst 16%
Lightning Field 37%
Withering Vines 26%
Nature's Touch 40%
Ruin 24%
Stream of Reclamation 82%
Defile 35%

Recommended Leveling Guide... Hey guys, if you are needing a good leveling guide that will get you up to 50 fast then I would recommend using xerxes guide. Most of the same leveling paths and quests lines that I used to level up are written out in this guide. I bought it a little while ago to check it out and see if it was any good and I was really impressed. Its too bad I didn't have this guide when I was leveling up, it would have saved me days of headache. Click Here to check it out