[4.0] - MAELSTROM - Go Hard or Go Home - MAELSTROM - [PVE]

[Gilgad]

Hello, I am Munchmatoast, and this is another propeller hat primalist production, we present to you....

xXxMAELSTROM - Go Hard or Go Home - MAELSTROMxXx

This spec is the highest DPS spec for Primalist if and when played correctly. It is also the highest ST DPS spec in the game. There's a lot of thinking and thoughts that go into this spec and making many many many fast split second decisions, there is a lot of accuracy and memory required to push this spec to the max.

The reason we use this certain build is basically because Maelstrom, as the title says, is a go hard or go home spec. Maelstrom shines when you get good RNG and you hit hard. This spec is quite frankly really annoying to play, it is the hardest build in the game to play right now, and is really atrocious for any fight with mechanics that make you move, or stun you, or knock you back. However the damage gain from all these negatives is huge.

Like I said, hardest spec in the game by far, hard learning curve, but the rewards are there... Go Hard or Go Home!

The spec: - https://rift.magelo.com/en/soultree#...kll554/!0|_vPg

Legendarys: - Thresher, Vaporize, Effervescent Blast, Vorpal Salvo, Molten Wave

Buffs: - Apply Font of Sublimation from the Maelstrom tree.

Things to go over:
-- What makes Maelstrom, Maelstrom?
-- Going from Fury, to Cunning, to Harmony, to Fury over and over again in a 5s window while maintaining dots & channelling. (I'll discuss this in the Boiling Rage section).

Building Pressure:
Personally I don't watch this or track this very much, your attention is on so many other things, however it is a relatively important mechanic. Basically each stack you have your Effervescent blast is increased damage by 1% and Vaporize by 10%. It stacks up to a maximum of 20, and you gain building pressure stacks through a certain formula, not sure if it's broken but I figured it out, also here's the table:

- Vaporize = 5
- Scald = 4
- Effervescent Blast = 3
- Precision Bolt = 3
- Pressurize = 2 initial + 1 per tick + 1 per font proc
- Excoriate = 2
- Searing Plasma = 2
- Vorpal Salvo = 2

The way it works is it adds pre-initial ticks of damage+Initial ticks of damage+direct buff changes. So lets say Pre-ticks (Pt) + Initial-ticks (It) + Direct Buff Changes (Bc) = BP Gain.

Example: Vaporize, has 2 hits of damage, when you cast it, you get 2 Building Pressure stacks for pre ticks, when Vaporize lands, you get another 2 stacks of Building Pressure, when any buff you gain has been calculated, you gain another, so Vaporize increases your crit power, when you get that buff you gain another stack.

Another example, Precision Bolt. Pt = 1, It = 1, Bc = 1. 1 Tick pre cast of Precision Bolt, 1 tick when it lands, and you gain Precise Aim.

It's just nice to simply know how it works, it isn't necessary to track, but simply understanding it helps learn the spec.

Singed Spirit:
This is a buff that I track regularly as it makes a very very large difference of outcome to your damage, specifically in PVP, but also in PVE.

So every time you crit, you have a 30% chance to proc Singed Spirit, which makes all of your damage for the next 8 seconds ethereal. Singed Spirit also has a 35s ICD (Internal Cooldown) so can only be procced maximum once every 35s.

Using a DoT while you have Singed Spirit will carry over, for example, using Excoriate or Fury Blast or Pressurize during Singed Spirit will make all subsequent ticks Ethereal. Savage Blow however, because it's already Ethereal, does not benefit from Singed Spirit. There is a conspiracy that it double dips somehow in some form of calculations, but no testing has been done about it.

Just knowing that this is there helps - because if you're tracking it and the k-alert suddenly pops up after you use an ability, well you know that that abilities going to crit.


Explosive Potential:
Good old Explosive bloody Potential. Alright lets crack into it then. Explosive Potential is basically the key thing to make Maelstrom shine. Explosive Potential allows you to cast Vaporize and not let it go on Cooldown (CD). It also allows you to cast Effervescence Blast without it consuming a charge of Effervescence, but because of how broken Burst of Steam is, it makes the bonus from Explosive Potential more negligible for Effervescent Blast then it originally should.

A bug it has is when you begin to CAST, not instantly cast with a Font proc, but actually CAST either EB or Vaporize, it will consume the EP (Explosive Potential) proc you currently have at the time of beginning the cast. If you gain another stack of EP while you are casting, the EB or Vapoirze that you are casting will not consume the stack you just gained, but however will consume the previous stack that was overwritten thus allowing you to cast multiple, however with legendarys this bug is prevented.

Boiling Rage:
Boiling Rage is a mechanic you should pay a HUGE amount of attention to. Currently it also has a bug where it is actually calculated from Full Fury, to the end of Harmony. Meaning at Perfect Harmony, you get +15% damage static regardless, and considering Boiling Rage only pushes you to Perfect Harmony, you will always have, +15% damage.

So your Fury is always decaying and getting pushed into cunning (toward harmony), that's just how it works. Why does this suck? Because this entire spec revolves around having 100% up time on Molten Wave for a 75% damage boost on your target. Molten wave requires you to be in fury.......... but Boiling rage pushes you out of fury. So in a nutshell, boiling rage really sucks and is going to grind your gears for a very long time. You need to 1 tick a molten wave every 5 seconds. In between these 5 seconds you need to:

1) Refresh dots.
2) Use hard hitting stuff.
3) Manage to get back to fury deep enough so that when you molten wave, it actually goes off.
4) Position yourself so molten wave wont miss.
5) Not get stunned, knocked back, simply miss your molten wave, or screw up boiling rage.

Pressurize:
Pressurize is pretty much the key thing that makes Maelstrom, Maelstrom. Pressurize gives you a constant flow of Building Pressure, Effervescent Charges, Explosive Potential Procs and Font of Sublimation Procs.

How to play:
First place the Flashpoint Beacon, wait until you have 5 stacks of Flashpoint.

- Opener: Vaporize>Excoriate>Pressurize>Savage Blow>Molten Wave (Full 3s channel)

If you have EP at this point, cast Vaporize then use Thresher mid air, so you gain another 20 stacks of Building Pressure for free. Afterward you just need to do the correct priority.


Priority:

Spoiler!

- Flashpoint
V
- Savage Blow
V
- Molten Wave (Full channel if required, else 1 tick)
V
- Pressurize
V
- Excoriate
V
- EP + Vaporize
V
- Vorpal Salvo while in cunning after Molten Wave
V
- Vaporize
V
- If MW in 1 GCD & in high Harmony, Alt F4
V
- If MW in 1 GCD & in low-mid Harmony, SoB/LW/VS
V
- If MW in 2 GCD's & in low-mid Harmony & Font Proc, EB
V
- If MW in 1 GCD & deep enough into Fury & Font Proc, EB
V
- If MW in 2 GCD's & in high Harmony, SoB/LW/VS
V
- If BR pushes you into Harmony from Fury, and you try to Molten Wave but it doesn't work, Alt F4.

Macros:


Macro things however you are comfortable, for me these work:

#show Vaporize:
suppressmacrofailures
cast Vaporize
cast Effervescent Blast
cast Stroke of Brilliance
cast Lashing Wind
cast Scald

#show Effervescent Blast
suppressmacrofailures
cast Effervescent Blast
cast Stroke of Brilliance
cast Lashing Wind
cast Scald

#show Vorpal Salvo
suppressmacrofailures
cast Vorpal Salvo
cast Stroke of Brilliance
cast Lashing Wind
cast Scald

#show Summon: Flashpoint Beacon
target @self
cast @gtae Summon: Flashpoint Beacon
targetlasttarget


Final Notes:

Eventually when you perfect the spec, you will be able to play it at range, otherwise when you start, to get the hang of it, you need to be in melee for Lashing Wind.

It's tough, annoying and really makes you mad at first, but practice practice practice.

Hopefully you all enjoy!


Parse in the LFR Queens Foci instance today against decent players. No Scalds, No support, Molten Wave fell off 5 times so had to full channel for large dps loss.

[MusclPig]

**** munch delete this guide. ROFL

I'm inspired by alt+F4

/clap

[Scourge]

"No support"
Coda of Jeopardy


Nice spec though. Should be good for cleave fights since that is something aftershocker lacks.

[Artewig]

"No support"
Coda of Jeopardy


Nice spec though. Should be good for cleave fights since that is something aftershocker lacks.

Musclepig was in Bardphys so still no Orchestra.

[MusclPig]

two thing to consider -

1. Of course MW debuff should be kept as possible as it can, but I doubt about keeping it 100%. In my case usually VS(Only use it with MW debuff) > scald (with MW debuff) > MW (with 3stacks of MW debuff) > MW(without MW debuff) > Stroke of Brilliance (with MW debuff) > lashing wind

This makes me consider whether I should try to keep MW 100% or not. If I try to keep it 100%, I must use SB or lashing wind during MW debuffs instead of scald or more dmg skills. So I think effort to keep it could be dps loss. I'll test it more and collect stats about it.

Of course if I full cast it, I lose 2 gcd but.. tbh nothing to use at that moment if RNG fails.

2. In same context, we don't need to use Pressurize and Savage blow in MW debuff (it doesn't affect to pressurize and SB) so only Excoriate must be used in debuff. Additionally, SoB dmg is so low and still low even with MW debuff. It means it's not the must skill between debuffs. These all bring you INNER PIECE when you give up keeping MW 100%. I bet people will know how INNER PIECE is important for maelstrom dps if they dig this spec more and more.

Let's discuss about it.



For the last, one pro tip.

When you want to cast MW around 45~55 fury, SUPER SPAM IT and STOP SPAMMING IMMEDIATELY when cast bar appears.

You all will thank to me for this tip.

[Calisha]

Is this spec still working after 4.1?

[Gilgad]

Is this spec still working after 4.1?

Yeah, just dont use stroke of brilliance.

[theeph]

Is it possible to get Kalert info for this build?

I struggle making Kalert work, at all, and with the complexity of the build it would help quite a bit.

Also, is there any reason this would not work in 4.1?

[mokg]

Is it possible to get Kalert info for this build?

I struggle making Kalert work, at all, and with the complexity of the build it would help quite a bit.

Also, is there any reason this would not work in 4.1?

what kalerts do you want? and what resolution is your screen

[theeph]

what kalerts do you want? and what resolution is your screen

Timers on debuffs/dots, timers on proc/timed buffs.

Essentially, the things I am needing to monitor in order to effectively play this build. There are usually 20 buffs on me, so finding, recognising, and monitoring the ones of import is proving difficult.
I am aware and willing to accept that I may be doing something wrong, but, if so, please include a remedy.

Resolution is : 1920x1080