Confused

[Eluzay]

So I have am alt coercer and I have looked at all the stickies and a bunch of other posts.   I understand the root/mez/drain/stun part of the class well enough to get by for now but I am curious when I hear about our BIG dps... is it from the pets or is it from the nukes?There is no general guide/description anywhere that I can find, just "spell lists" (without damage mind you grrrr)<div></div>

[Stuge]

In general situations reactives make up a large chunk of your damage.  In some situations there are a few select charmable pets that can really dish it out for you too.<div></div>

[Alaeth]

The majority of our damage comes from reactive spells, specifically Spell Scourge and Auspex (or earlier spells in those lines, obviously). That means that we'll do more damage on more difficult mobs, since easier mobs aren't going to hit with their attacks or land their spells as often, and it also means that in groups, we'll do more damage with a plate tank than with a bruiser or monk tanking. We do get two fairly decent AoE nukes, but they're both on such long recast timers that they unfortunately don't end up contributing all that much to our overall DPS. Basically, if you're in a situation where you can be riding the recast timers for Scourge/Auspex along with maintaining the two DoT spells and throwing out Ego/Sonic when they're up, your DPS is going to be pretty high. If your reactives regularly time out with several procs left, your DPS probably isn't going to be that great no matter what else you do.For pets, it's highly dependant on the zone you're in. Most zones have at least one decent type of pet, but sometimes they're buried deep in the zone or are otherwise inconvenient to get to. The best rule of thumb for most of the game--assuming you have master charm--is to look for a caster. Virtually any mage or priest will put out at least decent DPS, and some have the potential to do incredible DPS, depending on their casting scripts. On the other hand, sometimes you can get a pet of the same type as you had earlier that was doing great, but your new one has an awful script and so it's not doing much at all. In that case, you're better off dropping charm and trying to find a new pet rather than dragging around a bad one, since scripts are static and won't ever improve.

[Eluzay]

thank you both for your input<div></div>

[Catsy]

What Alaeth and Stugen said. I would also add, and emphasize, the importance of debuffing. You have several spells that lower the enemy's resistances, and this significantly increases the effectivenes (and dps) of all of your damage spells.<div></div>