Sorceress - Igniter Raid Build

Intro

The Igniter Sorceress has High Burst Damage, High Weak Point Damage, No Positionals (back/front attack) and is a Ranged dps character that is fun to play for those insane damage numbers. She is however very Squishy, has Low Moblity, Long Cast Times, and limited Push Immunity available. And because of that she has a very low skill starter level but extremely high to master due to her lack of mobility and being stuck casting her hardest hitting abilities. If you learn to deal with this she has one of the highest bursts in the entire game. She will slam dunk those Doomsday's shoot those Explosions and Punishing Strike her targets straight to hell.

Skill Points Progression

• At 256 Skill Points level up Inferno to level 4 and add Inferno, Rift Acceleration
• At 284 Skill Points level up Rime Arrow to level 10 and add Rime Arrow, Ice Pick.
• At 312 Skill Points level up Seraphic Hail to level 10 and add Seraphic Hail, Weak Point Detection.
• At 328 Skill Points level up Inferno to level 7 and add Inferno, Charge Flame.
• At 356 Skill Points level up Blaze to level 10 and add Blaze, Weak Point Detection.
• At 384 Skill Points level up Inferno to level 7 and add Inferno, Firepower Supplement.

Alternatives

• You can use Esoteric Reaction with Esoteric Reaction, Quick PrepEsoteric Reaction, Enhanced StrikeEsoteric Reaction, Stabilized Crystal instead of Seraphic Hail for a ranged option with similar damage but less gauge and higher cooldown.
• For counter replace Inferno for Squall with Squall, Quick Prep or Ice Shower with Ice Shower, EnlightenmentIce Shower, Tenacity as a alternative counter with gauge generation and Push Immunity.

Skill Breakdown

• Blaze Your main debuff skill with quick cast time.
• Seraphic Hail Low cooldown good identity gauge generation ability.
• Frost's Call Generates a lot of identity gauge with long range and decent damage.
• Rime Arrow Main Identity Gauge Damage Ability. Does high damage. Used to animation cancel Punishing Strike, Doomsday or Explosion.
• Explosion This is your 2nd hardest hitting ability. Slow cast and travel time, small AoE and Weak Point level 2. After casting has a big recoil animation that can be canceled with either spacebar, Punishing Strike, Doomsday or Rime Arrow
• Doomsday This is your hardest hitting ability. It has a delayed landing time after the long cast with a reasonable sized AoE and Weak Point level 2. You can animation cancel after casting it with either your spacebar, Punishing Strike or Rime Arrow.
• Punishing Strike This is your 3rd hardest hitting ability. It does great stagger and is easy to land, but has long cast time. The animation after casting can be canceled with either spacebar, Doomsday or Rime Arrow.
• Inferno Damage filler and Part breaker (Weak Point). Can be enhanced to Weak point lv.2 with tripods if necessary.
• Enviska's Might Awakening Ability with Super Armor.

Skill Variations

Swap out Inferno for Squall or Ice Shower if you need a counter ability.

Instead of Seraphic Hail for a ranged option you can use Esoteric Reaction with Esoteric Reaction, Quick Prep Esoteric Reaction, Enhanced Strike Esoteric Reaction, Stabilized Crystal

• Note: If the fight requires a significant amount of Weak Point damage use Inferno with Inferno, Weak Point Enhancement.

Gameplay & Skill Rotation

• Try to maintain your debuff on the boss with Blaze whenever it's available. The Lingering burn on the ground allows the debuff to last 10-11 seconds before it needs to be reapplied.
• Build up your identity gauge with your normal rotation. In particular with, Seraphic Hail, Rime Arrow and Frost's Call to give you the most gauge per skill.
• Blaze, Inferno, Squall and auto-attacks also give some gauge, so you should weave this into your rotation when everything else is on cooldown. When fighting a Counterable boss, try not to use Squall when a boss hasn't been countered recently. However Counter has a 30 seconds internal cooldown, so if a boss has been Countered recently, you can freely use your Squall as a filler.
• Doomsday should always be your last big skill to use in a rotation while building up identity gauge. If you've used everything and Arcane Rupture is available, then you can use your Doomsday into Arcane Rupture into everything else if they're on cooldown.
• If Explosion and Punishing Strike are also not on cooldown, then you could save them for after the Arcane Rupture They do not have to be on cooldown first.
• You can optimize your Arcane Rupture by using it right before the Doomsday impact instead of the moment you finish the channel. This is a minor optimization/adjustment and benefits you mainly in Tier 2/Tier3 gameplay.
• Try to allign your big burst combo with the support's major synergies. Supports have two main buffs that can stack together, ideally your burst is whilst you have both of these buffs available. This would greatly increase your damage.
• Explosion should cancel into Punishing Strike which should cancel into Rime Arrow This rotation is the same with or without Arcane Rupture available. Your Doomsday has a very long cooldown, and you don't want to be waiting on your opening skill when Arcane Rupture is available. If you almost filled up your Arcane Rupture, refrain from using Doomsday. Because of the buff that Igniter gives to Arcane Rupture, the other abilities can be on cooldown since they'll come off of cooldown within the 15 seconds of Arcane Rupture for you to cast them.

Burst window combo goes as follows.

1. Doomsday
2. If at full gauge Arcane Rupture
3. Explosion
4. Punishing Strike
5. Rime Arrow
6. Seraphic Hail (if not using Seraphic Hail use Esoteric Reaction)
7. Frost's Call
8. Doomsday

If you do not have a Blaze debuff up before casting Doomsday and Arcane Rupture you can quickly cast it before [Doomsday lands.

Stats

The Igniter Sorceress prioritizes Specialization. For secondary stats for the highest damage output you want Critical, for more comfort go Swiftness.

The highest damage setup is is Specialization with Crit in a 70/30 balance format. If you find yourself struggling you could go Swiftness for a more consistent burst window to easier fit in the extra Doomsday at lower gear.

Jewelry should be the following for a optimized stat spread.

• Necklace Specialization + Critical/Swiftness
• Rest Specialization.

Engravings

• For starter engravings you want to focus on Igniter level 1 and All-Out Attack 3.

Endgame Engravings

• Hit Master is a strong engraving for your overall damage. It has the same benefits as Cursed Doll with no drawbacks.
• Precise Dagger is used for added crit chance. Since all of your damage is focused into a small burst window scoring critical hits will be essential. The -12% Critical Damage is easily mitigated by the build. [Precise Dagger is used due to the high cooldowns of the Igniter build.

Advanced Engravings

Once you get more familiar with the game the following engravings will outweigh their drawbacks and are easily the Best in Slot in most setups for Tier 3 content. They are typically chosen later on in the build after you have your core 2-3 Level 3 Engravings.

These engravings are not to be used unless at Engraving Level 3.

• Grudge is difficult to fit into the build since a lot of the engravings are for comfort to fit the build. However it still gives the most efficient damage once you can overcome its drawback.
• Cursed Doll is often chosen as the last engraving. It increases your damage, but reduces healing received. This can be partially counter-acted with the Forest of Giants 3 Set card set that boosts your healing from potions by 15%, however once you outgrow this set replacing it you will notice a vast difference in healing received.

Optimal Setups

The following setups are in order of importance.

Standard Setup Crit

• Igniter Level 3
• All-Out Attack Level 3
• Hit Master Level 3
• Cursed Doll Level 3
• Grudge Level 3

Alternative Swiftness #1

• Igniter Level 3
• All-Out Attack Level 3
• Precise Dagger Level 3
• Grudge Level 3
• Cursed Doll Level 3

Alternative Swiftness #2

• Igniter Level 3
• All-Out Attack Level 3
• Precise Dagger Level 3
• Hit Master Level 3
• Grudge Level 3

Alternative #1 and Standard are easy to change over from where as Alternative #2 is hard to transition from to the Standard setup which is deemed the most optimal once you get used to things such as boss mechanics enough. As not to be suffering from the drawbacks as much.

Gems

Gems grant bonus damage and cooldown reduction to specific skills. You can only equip 11 of these Gems at a time so it is recommended that you prioritize the Gems for your most important skills.

Attack Gems:

• Doomsday
• Explosion
• Punishing Strike
• Frost's Call
• Seraphic Hail
• Rime Arrow

Cooldown Gems:

• Doomsday
• Rime Arrow
• Frost's Call
• Seraphic Hail
• Blaze

Runes

Runes enhance Skills with extra bonuses. All rune obtained runes are account bound and have limited availability, so placement of Runes on the correct Skills is very important. Below are the recommended pairings.

• Blaze Quick Recharge,3
• Frost's Call Wealth,3
• Esoteric Reaction Wealth,3
• Seraphic Hail Bleed,4 or Wealth,3
• Rime Arrow Wealth,4
• Doomsday Galewind,3
• Explosion Galewind,3
• Punishing Strike Overwhelm,4 or Galewind,3
• Squall/Inferno Rage,4

For Seraphic Hail the Bleed,4 can be used in case you do not have a good Wealth,3 available for it, otherwise prioritize Wealth,3.

For encounters where extra stagger is very important you can opt to use Overwhelm,4 or 1 tier lower for Punishing Strike instead of Galewind,3 same case for availability to make the best use of higher runes for a more optimal setup whilst building our rune deck out.

Gear Skill Tree and Tripods

Once you enter Tier 3 there will be gear that starts dropping to enhance your abilities through the tripods. Tripods levels go up to a maximum of 5 (+4 on gear) and each level can enhance the effect of the tripod for example, damage, cooldown, buff intensity and mana cost.

Recommended tripods to focus on for the Sorceress are the following:

• Punishing Strike Punishing Strike ,Mind Enhancement Punishing Strike, Electric DischargePunishing Strike, Magick Amplification
• Frost's Call Frost's Call, Enlightenment Frost's Call, Unstable Rule Frost's Call, Enhanced Strike
• Seraphic Hail Seraphic Hail, Enlightenment Seraphic Hail, Additional Explosion Seraphic Hail, Weak Point Detection
• Explosion Explosion, Ignite Explosion, Weak Point Detection Explosion, Magick Amplification
• Rime Arrow Rime Arrow, Enlightenment Rime Arrow, Piercing Strike Rime Arrow, Ice Pick
• Doomsday Doomsday, Mind Enhancement Doomsday, Asteroid Doomsday, Magick Amplification

Card Sets

Cards are an endgame system to maximize your characters potential. Below are some of the recommended sets/setups for this class. You have a total of 6 card slots available and can create several combinations until you start working on Awakening piece sets and reach their minimum requirements.

• Beginner Card Sets
• Field Boss II 4 Set. This will give you +8.00% Max Health.
• Romanticist 2 Set. Lowers your Movement Skill Cooldown by -10%.

Or

• Forest of Giants 3 Set. This increases the Effectiveness of your recovery items by +15%. (Best Value non-awakening card set).
• We'll Meet Again 3 Set. This will give you -12% Damage taken while below 50% max Health. And at 9-Awakening an additional -18% Damage taken while below 50%.

You can also combine the Forest of Giants 3 Set with a Field Boss 2 Set for the +4.00% Max Health boost instead or Romanticist 2 Set for Cooldown reduction on your dodge.

These sets are obtainable early on in the game and give you a slightly better time playing as you learn and get better and until something better becomes available as the ones mentioned below.

• Budget Card Set
• Lostwind Cliff 6 set (12-piece Awakening) This will give you Crit rate +7.00%.

The Lostwind Cliff card set gives you a nice Crit bonus at a more acceptable rate of awakening, leveling this up beyond 12-piece Awakening doesn't have enough investment value. It might take you a while to get it however the Seria and Solas cards are to a degree farm-able instead of being purely luck dependent. (Note: Requires full 6 piece set to be equipped).

• Optimal Damage Card Set -Light of Salvation 6 Set(12-piece Awakening) Converts your damage type to Holy. -Light of Salvation 6 Set(18-piece Awakening) Holy Damage +7.00% -Light of Salvation 6 Set(30-piece Awakening) Holy Damage +8.00%

This card set will increase your raw damage output by a total of 15.00%, a added bonus to that is the +30.00% Dark Damage Reduction it gives. The Light of Salvation card set is the best damaging card set for all DPS characters in the game but will take very long to complete to a 30-piece Awakening stage. This is a super-long-term goal. (Note: Requires full 6 piece set to be equipped).

Summary

• The Igniter Sorceress deals heavy burst damage by building up her identity gauge.
• Her Identity skill Arcane Rupture is an extremely powerful buff that scales off of Specialization. This buff grants additional damage, increased Crit Rate, increased Crit Damage, and reduces Active Cooldowns by 50% upon activation. It also increases cast speed, part break (weak point for Fire abilities), and stagger damage (for Lightning Abilities).
• You have to build your identity gauge up, align it with your support's buffs, and then position yourself carefully with a boss opening to cast all of your main damage skills and hope that the boss doesn't move.
• However good you get, there is always randomness involved when unleashing your burst, you will miss it, it will happen, its fine.
• Your rotation is largely the same when you're building up gauge, but don't cast Doomsday if you almost have 100% Arcane Rupture] ready to go, or you will be waiting for it to come off cooldown before you can commit to activating your buff.
• Blink is good mobility from your identity. However, since it consumes a portion of your identity gauge which is your main damage source in this build, you should only use it in life-or-death situations such as wipe mechanics that have to be followed.