The Complete Elemental Master Guide by Goldie: Difference between revisions

Gone are the 3rd job days where every magic classes, with the exception of Performers (and to some degree Soul Reaper), have the problem of being elementally-locked behind with whatever skills they have available. Sorcerers had it worst because while they have skills with different elemental properties, these are all hindered by their long cooldowns (CD). Their main skill '''{{#skill:2449}}''' and its companion skills like '''{{#skill:2447}}''', '''{{#skill:2446}}''', and '''{{#skill:2454}}''' all suffered the same fate, and are locked behind an agonizing 5 seconds CD each. While their cooldowns can be reduced with Shadow Gears, and some equipment like {{#item:550012}}, it still wasn't enough to have Sorcerer enter the meta as a main DPS class. Also it's important to point out that even though Psychic Wave can be endowed to the 4 basic elements (<span style="color:red;">Fire</span>, <span style="color:blue;">Water</span>, <span style="color:green;">Wind</span>, & <span style="color:brown;">Earth</span>), the old elemental table wasn't exactly in favor of them. For instance, any monsters that was either Holy 4 or Dark 4 would resist your magical attacks and so most of the time you'll either stick to <span style="color:gray;">Neutral</span> Psychic Wave or "overgear" your Sorcerer just so you can deal an okay amount of damage to those monsters.  

** One of their main skills called '''{{#skill:5371}}''' has great coverage against the 4 Basic Elements. Monsters with either <span style="color:red;">Fire</span>, <span style="color:blue;">Water</span>, <span style="color:green;">Wind</span>, or <span style="color:brown;">Earth</span> property that can't be hit, evade, or receive decreased damage from '''{{#skill:5372}}''', '''{{#skill:5370}}''', '''{{#skill:5369}}''', and '''{{#skill:5373}}''' will be taken care of by Venom Swamp; thus, learning this skill will remove elemental weakness from the class.

* Psychic Wave ('''PW''') by default is <span style="color:gray;">Neutral</span> property but it can also be endowed to the 4 basic elements <span style="color:red;">Fire</span>, <span style="color:blue;">Water</span>, <span style="color:green;">Wind</span>, and <span style="color:brown;">Earth</span>, depending on the active modes and levels of the summoned Elementals.

* Frequently disregarded once the leveling phase is over, this skill will still have its uses once you've transitioned to Elemental Master. This is your widest AoE skill, your 4th job High Elementals would still give you ability to endow this skill's property to the 4 basic elements + <span style="color:purple;">Poison</span> eventually. Oftentimes you'll find yourself finished with your set-ups but the MVP is too far away and you want to maintain distance between you and him as much as possible, PW is there to reach and lure him towards you, and besides with 4th job traits and gears PW will still deal a considerable amount of damage so consider adding this to your skill set.

* As a <span style="color:purple;">Poison</span> property skill, it provides great coverage against the 4 basic elements. Poison deals increased damage against <span style="color:red;">Fire</span>, <span style="color:blue;">Water</span>, <span style="color:green;">Wind</span>, and <span style="color:brown;">Earth</span>. Level 1 monsters of these properties receive 150% more damage against <span style="color:purple;">Poison</span>, while Level 4 monsters receive 125% more damage. For more info, refer to the [[Elements#Elemental_Attribute_Table|elemental table]].

*In Depth 2, all the mobs, with the exception of the Valkyrie, are made up of <span style="color:red;">Fire</span>, <span style="color:blue;">Water</span>, <span style="color:green;">Wind</span>, and <span style="color:brown;">Earth</span> properties, and if you still remember from the previous section we've talked about how <span style="color:purple;">Poison</span> is strong against the 4 basic elements. Levels 1 & 2 monsters of these elements take '''150% damage''' against <span style="color:purple;">Poison</span>, while Levels 3 & 4 mobs receive '''125% damage'''. <span style="color:purple;">Serpens</span> is perfect for this dungeon.

*<span style="color:purple;">Serpens</span> outside of Depth 2 is not technically bad; you may still use him but there are just better High Elementals for those areas. <span style="color:purple;">Poison</span> element is also mostly for coverage where it's there to hit the mobs that the 4 basic elements resist.

Upon transitioning to Elemental Master, it is inevitable that you will solely use 4th job skills from then on, and that's because 4th job skills have higher '''MAtk'''% scaling, and they all scale with your '''SPL'''. However, your widest AoE skill is attached to the 3rd job skill of Sorcerer and that skill is called '''{{#skill:2449}}'''. PW like your '''{{#skill:5380}}''' can be endowed to the 4 basic elements—<span style="color:red;">Fire</span>, <span style="color:blue;">Water</span>, <span style="color:green;">Wind</span>, or <span style="color:brown;">Earth</span> plus <span style="color:purple;">Poison</span> and unlike your 4th job AoE skills, PW is easily more spammable as its CD can be reduced by up to 3.5 seconds with the proper gears which only leaves you a total of 1.5 seconds. You may think it's still a bit long but actually it is not. Instead of cycling 4 to 5 skills, you can only do 2 to 3 skills with PW. You can start a rotation similar to this one:

In the 3rd example, you will have three (3) <span style="color:red;">Fire</span> AoE skills that will benefit from your cards and modifiers focused on the <span style="color:red;">Fire</span> property. The Elemental Buster here is situational and you don't really have to cast it repeatedly as it will consume 15 AP each use. When a pack of mobs surrounds you that's when you use it. Conflagration can either be Venom Swamp or Lightning Land depending on your choice of element, but the main idea still remains that you will cast PW as soon as it's available to maximize its wide AoE. You can even throw in some '''{{#skill:6517}}''' if you so desire which is only fitting since both are psionic skills! I would like to call this build as '''Farming build''', as this build is only realistically used for farming low to mid game dungeons such as [[Thanatos_Tower_Revamp|Thanatos Tower Flr. 12]], [[Niflheim|Niflheim 2]], [[Clock Tower Unknown Basement]], and [[Mjolnir Underground Cave]]. For end game dungeons such as [[Varmundt's Biosphere]], [[Varmundt's Biosphere Depth]], and [[Varmundt's Biosphere Depth 2]], PW build falls flat and you're better off using your 4th job skills here. You don't really need to follow this build if it is not your cup of tea but if you're among those people who played the class as a Sorcerer in the past and played PW build like me. Well, this is genuinely my love letter to them; as of today this is still my favorite build to play despite being here now in the 4th jobs era. I hope you'll consider this build and have fun with it just as I do!