5.0 Class Guides/ SWTOR

SWTOR 5.0 Corruption Sorcerer PvE Guide by Seetsu

Seetsu 74 Comments Dec 26, 2016

SWTOR 5.0 Corruption Sorcerer PvE guide written by Seetsu.

Intro to Corruption Sorcerer

Sorcerer healers have always been good at single target burst healing or triage, it’s your job to keep people alive and bursting people up quickly, though your AOE isn’t as good as our other healer friends Mercenary and Operative, we are able to keep up in nearly all aspects.

Though personally you will be best at quickly bursting someone up with a few healing combos you and your friends will be sitting pretty on health and you are nearly endless in your energy regen as you can sit fairly low and be fine.

In my opinion this class is a lot easier to play than other healers just due to the easy energy management with hardly any drawbacks from your energy regen, but there are definitely some tips and tricks that I will fill you all in on – on how to make yourself a better Sorc healer!

Gearing

6 peice Force Mystic set bonus.

Stats, you will want to look under ‘Force’ not melee. Experiment with your Critical and Alacrity, there is really no ‘Right’ or ‘Wrong’ here but here are some of my suggestions.

• Critical: Shoot for 40% Critical; and 67-70% Critical Multiplier, can go higher or slightly lower, this is mainly up to your personal preference.
• Alacrity: This is mainly up to personal preference, though I recommend at least 8-10% alacrity minimum, I personally run 15+% , Alacrity but this is just my personal preference, because it simply feels like it flows better.
  • As if fairs right now you want to aim for both Alacrity and Critical to be in similar stats, but you can definitely favor one more than the other.
• Accuracy: Your heals will never miss!
• Shield Rating, Defensive Absorption: Completely useless to healers.
• Relics: Serendipitous Assault & Focused Retribution are the great relics for healers. If you have to prioritize upgrading one before the other, Focused Retribution is impacted by your alacrity and therefore has greater up time. However the click Relic Boundless Ages (Power) Can be also used in tight heal checks, , however it has about a minute cooldown and lasts 30 seconds, so you will have to use it wisely. I prefer Serendipitous Assault over Boundless Ages simply because it has a chance to activate more during a fight.

Mods:

Mods are fairly easy to understand, as a healer and most classes will want mods that have a higher power rate than endurance, specifically the purple mods will have higher power v endurance. Always go with the higher power!

Enhancements:

For Enhancements you will be balancing between Critical and Alacrity enhancements. For Alacrity you will want to go with Quick Savant for the higher Alacrity rating and Adept for your Critical Rating

Augments:

Similar with mods and enhancements, you will be using Alacrity and Critical Augments! Hitting that DR rate while gearing will definitely take awhile because you will need a lot of it to hit there.

Stim:

Advance Polybiotic Versatile Stim specifically the red stim! This stim will give you 240 Mastery and 99 Power for 8 hours!

Utilities

SKILLFUL

Force Suffusion: Overload heals you and 7 affected allies for ‘X’ amount of healing. (X being dependant on gear) Useful	Sith Defiance: Increases damage reduction by 3% Useful	Tempest Mastery: Increases the damage dealt by Force Storm by 25% Useless.
Empty Body: Increases all healing received by 5%. Does not affect redistributed life Mandatory	Dizzying Force: Reduces target’s accuracy by 20% for 8 seconds after Whirlwind ends. Additionally, your Whirlwind affects up to 2 additional standard or weak targets within 8 meters of the target Completely Useless.	Dark Speed: Dark Heal increases the movement speed of the target by 50% for 6 seconds. This effect cannot occur more than once every 12 seconds Somewhat Situational. but useful

MASTERFUL

Suppression: Activating Cloud Mind grants Suppression, which increases damage reduction by 25% for 6 seconds Useful	Corrupted Flesh: Reduces the damage taken by all periodic effects by 15% Very Situational.	Dark Resilience: Reduces the damage taken by the target of your Extrication by 25% for 6 seconds after you Extricate then. Additionally increases the healing done by Unnatural Preservation by 30% Useful
Conspiring Force: Targets affected by your Affliction are slowed by 30% for its duration Completely Useless.	Lightning Barrier: Your Static Barrier crackles with electricity, shocking attacks for energy damage when it absorbs direct damage to you. This effect does not affect Static Barriers placed on allies and cannot occur more than once each second Useful	Torturous Tactics: Reduces the cooldown of Electrocute by 10 seconds. In addition targets stunned by your Electrocute deal 25% less damage for 10 seconds when Electrocute wears off. Useless, but can be situational.

HEROIC

Emersion: Force Speed grants Emersion, removing all movement-impairing effects and granting immunity to them for the duration. Very Situational.	Shapeless Spirit: Reduces all damage taken while stunned by 30%. Additionally reduces damage taken from area effects 30% Very Useful, but also situational	Surging Speed: Reduces the cooldowns of Force Speed by 5 seconds, Force Slow by 3 seconds, and Force Barrier by 30 seconds. In addition, Force Speed lasts 0.5 seconds longer, Polarity Shift increases your movement speed by 100% while active, and the active cooldown of Force Speed is finished when Force Barrier ends. Useful
Backlash: Static Barriers you place on yourself erupt in a flash of light when they end, blinding up to 8 nearby enemies for 3 seconds. This effect breaks from direct damage. Completely Useless.	Haunted Dreams: If your Whirlwind breaks early from damage, the target is stunned for 2 seconds. In addition, Whirlwind activates Instantly. Completely Useless.	Electric Bindings: Overload binds its targets in electricity, immobilizing them for 5 seconds. Direct damage dealt after 2 seconds ends the effect prematurely. Completely Useless.

LEGENDARY

Force Mobility: Thunder Blast, Innervate, and Force Leech can be activated while moving. Mandatory	Galvanizing Cleanse: Expunge grants Galvanizing Cleanse, making your next ability with an activation time activate instantly. The effect cannot occur more than every 30 seconds and lasts up to 15seconds. Very Situational	Corrupted Barrier: Your Static Barrier, Force Barrier, and Enduring Bastion heal you for 1% of your total health every second for as long as they last. This scales up to 4% with the charges for Enduring Bastion. Completely Useless.
Unnatural Vigor: Unnatural Preservation increases your damage reduction by 15% for 6 seconds. Additionally, reduces the cooldown of Unnatural Preservation by 5 Seconds Useful	Shifting Silhouettes: Using Phase Walk to return to its marked location grants Shifting Silhouettes, keeping you from being leapt to or pulled and making you immune to interrupts and ability activation pushback for the next 10 seconds. Additionally the cool down of Phase Walk is Reduced by 15 seconds and all defenses are increased by 30% for the duration of Shifting Silhouettes Useful	Enfeebling Strike: Lashes the Target with your lightsaber, dealing x weapon damageand immobilizing it for 3 seconds. When the Immobilization effect ends, the target is slowed by 50% for 5 seconds.Replaces Saber Strike. Completely Useless

SUGGESTED BUILDS

Build A:

• Skillful: Force Suffusion , Sith Defiance , Empty Body
• Masterful: Suppression, Corrupted Flesh (If fight has dots, if not then Dark Resilience)
• Heroic: Shapeless Spirit, Surging Speed
• Legendary: Force Mobility

Build B:

• Skillful: Force Suffusion, Empty Body
• Masterful: Dark Resilience , Lightning Barrier
• Heroic: Shapeless Spirit, Surging Speed
• Legendary: Force Mobility, Unnatural Vigor

Build C:

• Skillful: Sith Defiance, Empty Body
• Masterful: Dark Resilience , Suppression
• Heroic: Shapeless Spirit, Surging Speed
• Legendary: Force Mobility, Shifting Silhouettes

*Utilities can be changed around slightly for each fight but it’s not that necessary to change for each fight but it can definitely help.

Think of it like this, Will there be dots? Corrupted flesh is helpful to reduce some of the damage of dots! Will there be a lot of AOE in the fight Then take Shapeless spirit,Shifting Silhouettes and Suppression to reduce some AOE damage or simply reduce damage in general!

Abilities & Rotation

Cooldowns

Offensive Cool Downs:

	RecklessnessCooldown: 90 seconds.	Two charges of Recklessness increase Force Critical Chance of your direct attacks and heals by 60%Stacks are consumed with each force ability.Good combos:Resurgence <Recklessness> + Roaming Mend<Recklessness> Dark Infusion + Insta Dark Heal (especially good with the set bonus proc of Dark Infusion)<Recklessness> Innervate, this will not only build stacks quickly without using your resurgence buff, but will also do a great amount of healing!
	Polarity ShiftCooldown: 120 seconds	Increases Alacrity by 20% and eliminates push back, good when you need to do a lot of healing at once and quickly. Recommend activation attempt whenever encountering a sustained incoming damage.

Defensive Cool Downs:

	Static Barrier Cooldown: None, but can only be placed on a target every 15 seconds.	Absorbs a large amount of damage for 30 seconds, with a 15 second lockout.When placed, applies 10 charges of Sustaining Darkness to the target. If the barrier breaks before duration ends without using it’s full ten stacks the target will healed for whatever stacks they had left over.Charges are removed whenever you heal the target directly. (All but Revivification will affect this)
	Force BarrierCooldown: 3 Minutes.	Makes you completely immune to incoming damage, however you cannot move or do any abilities while this is being channeled or it will break prematurely. Grants stacks of enduring bastion, which absorbs a massive amounts of damage based on how long you hold it and lasts shortly after used. Should be saved as a last resort defensive due to it’s long CD.This can be used to cheese certain one shot mechanics! Such as dread guard’s doom! Or simply there will be a lot of incoming damage at the time. Shouldn’t be used as a last resort if most of the team is down as it would be most likely already be a wipe.

Healing Abilities

	Dark Heal	Short cast, heals for a moderate amount.Can be instant cast with a proc from Dark Infusion, Lightning Strike, Crushing Darkness or Revivification.
	Innervate	Healing over a channeled cast, builds Force Surge , which can be used to restore your Force
	Dark Infusion	Long cast large heal, has the chance to proc an instant cast Dark Heal.
	Revivification	AOE heal that heals over time, can affect up to 8 targets. Once Target receives healing effect they can leave the AOE and still receive healing, used with Force Surge will reduce the cast time of this ability, it will Reduce the activation time by 0.25 seconds for the first two Charges and at 3 stacks it will be instant, this however will consume all charges of Force Surge.
	Roaming Mend	Instant Cast heal that bounces from target to target once they take damage, grants resistance which grants a 3% resistance to internal and elemental damage
	Resurgence	Instant cast heal over time, grant’s Force Bending , and protected which grants target a 10% armor increase for 45 sec
	Unnatural Preservation	Powerful off-gcd self heal with 30 sec cd; should be used to top off whenever available and you’re missing more than 20% health so you can focus on the party/raid

Resurgence grants Force Bending for 15 seconds, which will be consumed but increase the effect of your next healing ability in the following ways:

+	Resurgence + Dark Heal will give Dark Heal a 60% Critical Chance Increase.	Not the best to use on it’s own, used best when Dark Heal is able to be instant cast, because it will do a surprising amount.
+	Resurgence + Innervate, Critical chance increased by 25%	This is the best way to build Force Surge which is used to regenerate your energy without penalty, great sustained heal.
+	Resurgence + Dark Infusion activation time is reduced by 0.5 seconds	Not as great but can come in handy if both Innervate and Roaming Mend is on cool down.
+	Resurgence + Revivification the force cost is reduced by 30%	Probably the least used, as your Force Bending stacks can be used best else where during encounters.
+	Resurgence + Roaming Mend, instantly bounces between its targets without having to wait for said target to take damage.	This will be your most used, this effect is great for burst healing. Always pair Resurgence and Roaming Mend together. Only certain fights will easily allow you to use Wandering Mend with all stacks without the proc. This is from alot of AOE damage, Brontes Final Phase, Styraks dog 2nd time around, and Dread Council burn phase…

Force Regeneration & Optimal Force Management:

When your Innervate crits, either simply on it’s own or with Resurgence it will build stacks of Force Surge, which stacks up to three times, these can be spent to to activate Consuming Darkness without reducing your force regeneration rate and will apply Reverse Corruption (2 force/s regen buff over 10s) . If no Force Surge stacks are available, you can also purge your Reverse Corruption buff as an additional stack, it’s recommended to do this near the end of its duration if the need arises.

On average you will need one Consuming Darkness per Innervate to maintain force-positive rotation or 2-3 when catching up after a burst phase. During healing downtime, you should attempt to maintain force above 80%. During burst phases you may need to skip some Consuming Darkness, but keep in mind that falling too far behind will lead to Revivification (causing missed gcds) and longer heal down times as you recover.

Using Consuming Darkness without stacks of Force Bending will cause you to become Weary (25% reduced force regen, stacks up to 4 times) and should be avoided at all costs as the Weary debuff will end up costing you more healing loss over time. If you find yourself in a stressful situation and debuff gets stacked, Force Barrier can be used to purge the debuff. This tactic can be useful for reliable Regen between tight burn phases or after being revived during combat.

Other Abilities

	Consuming Darkness: Force management on gcd. Restores 40 force and applies regen debuff unless used with stacks of Force Bending (read above for more on force management)
	Static Barrier:Likely the most forgotten ability in fights. Static Barrier is an instant cast and low cost. It will remain on the target for 30 seconds or until it absorbs approximately 13k, but it can be put on any player every 15 seconds. As of 5.0, placing Static Barrier on a target also applies 10 charges of Sustaining Darkness which will heal the target if the bubble collapses for 6-11k (depending on gear/crit). Charges are removed whenever you heal the target directly, so it’s best to swap targets or start a cast after placement to ensure effective use.Take advantage of this ability, place liberally on targets who are actively taking damage and currently missing some health or in anticipation of a big hit on the target. It can also be effective as a precast or during healing downtime (but ensure force % is high first) on any targets expected to take damage or as simply a filler. So bubble my friends! Bubble them all!
	Reanimation: Combat-rez; only one can be used raid-wide every 5 minutes, If Reanimation is down, notify your co-healer just in case. CD proceeds through death.
	Phase Walk: Teleport. Mainly used strategically but can also be used to get away from something if you have it already placed. It marks a location for 10 minutes, when the ability is activated and if you are within 60 meters of the location, you will return instantly to said location. If you are 60 meters away from the location the ability will not activate and the location will be lost, resetting the cooldown.Should be set strategically to improve mobility in certain ops or in pvp, it should be set out of LoS before engaging an enemy* If you click it while too far away, or you manually click off the buff from your buff bar, it will not go on cooldown.
	Expunge: Cleanse on 12s CD, can be used to remove up to 2 negative status effects including certain DoTs in pve and force stuns/roots/slows in pvp
	Unlimited Power: Raid buff- increases mastery/endurance/pres by 5% raid-wide for 10 seconds (5 min cd)
	Jolt: Interrupt – used to stop the cast or channel of enemy abilities most bosses are immune, but it is use occasionally for pve mechanics, if you are to interrupt something as a healer you will usually be notified on what.
	Cloud Mind: Threat drop on 45s cd (can also be used as a dcd, mitigating 25% dmg for 6s if you take the Suppression utility)
	Extrication: Friendly pull with 30m range that will lower threat of target (and reduce their damage taken by 25% for 6s if you take the Dark Resilience utility)
	Overload: Knockback cone on 20s CD – typically used defensively for kiting in pvp (especially w/ Electric Bindings utility for root) or as an aoe heal in pve w/ Force Suffusion utility (effective when 4 or more players within the cone of effect are missing health)
	Whirlwind: 8 second stun, this stun can be broken if target takes damage, used to manage certain adds, don’t be afraid to use it on certain trash packs, it can make everyone’s life a little bit easier.
	Electrocute: 4s hard stun on 60s cd; can be used offensively to lock down a target or defensively to get an enemy off you (especially melee)
	Force Slow: Another valuable kiting tool, slows target by 50% for 6s (12s cd), bosses are immune to this effect.
	Force Speed: Increases movement speed by 200% for 2s (30s cd); should be saved for when you need to escape or quickly reach a player who needs healing
	Unbreakable Will: CC breaker (2m cd) should be used to avoid mechanics in certain ops or when resolve is filled (white bar) in pvp and you need to escape

Priority System:

Primary

#1 Resurgence on cd for Force Bending buff
#2 Proc’ed Roaming Mend with next available Force Bending
#3 Innervate
#4 Consuming Darkness (Force Regen, see notes above on proper force management)

AoE

#1 Revivification
#2 Overload (position yourself to hit the most targets) * If taking the utility, if not skip.
#3 Resurgence Proc’ed Roaming Mend
#4 Instant Dark Heal (Will be proc’ed off of Revivification, on lowest health target.)
#5 Static Barrier
#6 Innervate (If Low on force Priority will move up)
#7 Consuming Darkness

Single Target

#1 Resurgence proc’ed Roaming mend.
#2 Resurgence Proc’ed Innervate or not.
#3 Dark Infusion
#4 Instant Dark Heal (Should be proc’ed off of Dark Infusion)
#5 Static Barrier (Priority will move up if target is taking Active Damage)

Healing Rotation Examples:

Primary Healing Rotation:

Static Barrier -> Resurgence( Force Bending Proc) Roaming Mend -> Innervate(Force Surge) – > Consuming Darkness

• The Primary healing rotation focuses mainly off of a good balance of single target healing and force management, always keep an eye on your force and make sure you do not drop to low or you can put yourself in a corner, try to keep yourself around 40-50% force.
• You can bubble more than one person in the Primary Rotation, try to always keep bubbles up on your tanks and dps that seem to be taking damage , or have an uncleanable dot on them.

AOE Rotation:

Revivification-> Overload (If taking utility) -> Static Barrier -> Instant Dark Heal (Will have proced off of Revivification, on target with the lowest health) -> Resurgence -> Roaming Mend.

• Static Barrier in AOE situations is greatly beneficial, our party members will receive Sustaining Darkness and even if you do not directly heal them they will receive a moderate heal from the bubble bursting even with full stacks.
• Sustaining Darkness stacks are affected by anything except Revivification and Overload heal, This makes it a lovely ability in AOE situations because it is low cost and spammable, don’t be afraid to throw out many bubbles!
• Even when doing AOE remember to throw in a Innervates to build Force Surge stacks to sustain AOE healing

Single Target Rotation:

Static Barrier -> Resurgence -> Roaming Mend -> Dark Infusion -> Dark Heal (Proced) -> Resurgence-> Innervate

• Even if you do not have the Dark Infusion set bonus and it does not proc, Dark Infusion is still a good way to get a good chunk of health left, and after a Resurgence proc’ed Roaming Mend your target should be in a decent place
• Following up with a Resurgence and Innervate to build Force Surge is always a great option in case you need to restore force or quickly switch to AOE healing.
• If you don’t have the time to wait for Resurgence to come off cool down to use with Innervate, you can use it un-proc’ed as it will still heal for much.

Of course these rotations are simply examples and recommendations, there will always be adjustments in your ‘rotation’ simply because healers don’t necessarily have rotations simply guidelines they should follow, such as Resurgence and Roaming Mend or Innervate for large burst or sustained healing, always make sure you are using your Force Bending buff in one way or another.

There will be times where you accidentally dry yourself out of force, I have done it on more than one occasion, but don’t panic because force is easy to get back, even if you have to spam Consuming to get it back you can easily drop the stacks by using your Force Surge stacks as they will remove a penalty stack one by one.

Before fights always expect some sort of damage and try to bubble up your team before engaging in a fight.

DPS

AOE: You necessarily don’t have that much powerful AOE in your arsenal, however you can spam Force Storm on adds with low health, and tab target (Rotate between targets) and place a Affliction on said targets. However this can drain your force surprisingly fast so use with caution while spamming.

Single Target:

 

Shock -> Crushing Darkness -> Affliction -> Force Lightning -> Force Slow

• With dpsing , you can easily drain away your force without realizing it. Keep an eye on your force.
• When you can, and at the minimum it is good to keep a Affliction on the boss or larger targets, even though it is low hitting it will add up over time.
• Try to always use abilities that either have short casts or are instant, your dots Affliction, and Crushing Darkness and your instants Force Slow and Shock
• Lightning Strike is not really a good damage ability for you as a healer, it has a slightly longer cast and the damage is a lunch bag let down, always prioritize your instant damage abilities and dots, or abilities that start damage as soon as you cast (Force Lightning and Force Storm)
• Force Storm is fairly reliable because it starts instant damage and can be canceled with little drawback in case of needing to heal suddenly.

Acknowledgments

Special thank you:

Thank you Chess for always always encouraging me to be a better healer and looking over this to fix my grammatical and spelling errors and also for keeping my head on straight, because I’d sure as heck would lose it.

Thank you to Process, for helping me write this or simply adding in things and helping me work out the numbers when I was too busy to work on it on my own

A even bigger thank you to Rydarus for letting me join Aisthesis and making me an overall better healer with endless fun and laughter.

Also a thank you to Neheon for introducing me to Rydarus and noticing me in pvp and encouraging me ever since to be a great healer and a better person, you’ve been a constant instance of encouragement and good vibes, you made me into such a great healer by introducing me to others.

Thank you to everyone who gave me a little advice here or there , I love you all!

About Writer:

I am Seetsu from the Ebon Hawk Server and mainly a Republic Player though I have a Imperial side toon named Clementiné, I currently reside in the Aisthesis Guild and am often seen trailing behind Rydarus and co. and this is the first guide I have written, and I really hope someone somewhere learned something.

I have cleared much NIM 4.0 content , including 4.0 nim Brontes with Ebon Hawk’s Shadow Council, thank you for wanting me to heal with you Chess and thank you for graciously giving me my first set of wings at the end of our progression.

Though I really started to seriously raid in late 2.0 I like think I have progressed to be a fairly good healer. I’ve been sage healing since I started playing in 2.0 , it’s been a long road but I have gotten a handle of the class through endless support, and I look forward to continue to improving my skills.