Shadowbringers RDM Wishlist

[Archwizard]

Yeah but as far as we know, we'll use Scorch less often than we currently use (Jolt II and) Impact. That's a potency loss and a Mana gain loss (resulting in a DPS loss too). I'm not sure about the maths here, but even if our finisher now gives us 18-7 Mana (virtually making it faster to get into Melee), I think Impact is a better option (also in proc preparation when you go into melee)

Yes and no. Since we still have Jolt II and it retains the same effectiveness (potentially with +10 potency), we can subtract the value of all Jolt II's from any Impacts we may have lost -- making the effective value of each individual Impact a mere 20 potency and 1/1 Mana over the Jolt.

So if we measure the value of Scorch as a result of that -- its Mana gains being 7 "effective" Impacts -- it needs to outweigh the number of Impacts we would theoretically cast leading up to the melee combo, or else we call it a loss.
Bear in mind that in a proper rotation of alternating Impacts and Jolts with longcasts, assuming zero procs of Verstone/Verfire so as to maximize the number of Jolts you would use, we're talking about 27 GCDs (including 7 Jolt IIs and 13 longcasts) to reach 7 Impacts -- by which point you've generated 126/115 Mana, so we can safely say it does not require that many casts in order to reach the melee combo (which assuming worst case conditions requires only 20 GCDs, or 5 Impacts).
My math may be a little off since I'm doing it in my head. Feel free to double-check, but should be in the right ballpark.
And again, that's assuming zero procs pushing back Impacts -- if we factor in the average proc rates, we get me doing math at 4am and giving up to go to bed.

Point is, Scorch's net value is still a gain overall, just not as much as it looks like at face value.
(Also, doesn't our Verfinisher give 21 Mana and a proc? Which combined with Scorch to be 37/7 Mana? Or did I miss a Verfinisher nerf in the demo? I know he used it at 100/100 so it wouldn't have given a proc...)