Sorcerer Skill Tree for PVP/PVE?

pvp seems like lightning is the obvious choice. something along these lines:

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#201hZfcrbdoMutzZcM0M.1

as for pvp. madness is the way to go hands down. more instants, MUCH more control, and the ridiculously OP top tier skill. i reiterate, sorc has SO MUCH CONTROL

http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#201hZf00MZfbfosMkrfz.1

there is still some tinkering i have to do for the pvp spec, but it is quite fun

I assume you meant "PvE seems like lightning is the obvious choice."
I disagree. Deep Lightning will certainly be a strong option but there are serious concerns about its force usage on long fights and they have no significant "low force rotation" to swap to when things get tight.

A 0/13/28 Madness spec provides very strong, sustained damage with excellent force conservation because the filler spell (Force Lightning) is actually force positive - generating more force during the channel then it uses to cast it.

My point is, don't assume there's nothing but the obvious choice! ^_^

Lightning specced Sorcerers do have a low force rotation, which is "LS, LS, LS, LS, LS, instant Chain Lightning, LS, LS, LS". I went to solo The First as level 41 or 42 and it took me around 20 minutes. I had to slow down twice (casting one spell in 6-7 seconds to keep 30% extra force regen buff up), but with Lightning Strike as main filler spell you can keep going forever. Most of the time while questing my force meter doesn't drop below 85-90%.

I have yet to see high level dungeons and raids though to check how things work there.

That's my point. LS spam is still (I think) force negative so long fights require you to stop or Saber Slash and instant Chain Lightnings still aren't free making that a very inefficient spell (unless on multiple mobs).
Meanwhile the Madness spec I linked only has to drop Chain Lightning and they have a rotation that can go all out for 30mins before running out of force and if they drop both Chain Lightning and Deathfield they have a full rotation that comes out as force positive but barely loses output.

I don't want to criticise Lightning too much - it's clearly a very strong spec and it's uncertain right now how much we'll have to worry about efficiency (from what I've seen at 50 harsh enrage timers force fights to be surprisingly short) but there's definitely more than one option for DPS Sorcs. That's what I really hope people take away from this discussion.

I removed melee abilities from my bars at around level 30. Unless you're in a melee, they're useless and the sheer damage output is next to nothing though of course it's better than just standing there. Chain Lightning isn't very efficient. However once you invest 3 points into Forked Lightning at level 32-33, there is a 30% chance that your Chain Lightning will do 30% more damage. And by level 39 you also have a chance to crit with that spell for (at least) 200% damage. And the most important thing is Lightning Effusion - a 2 rank talent in tier 4. Makes things that seemed like a waste of Force very sexy all of a sudden :)

I have 2 points in Electric Induction and that solved my force starvation issues which I had pre-30. If I level another Lightning specced Sorcerer, I will go for the third rank of that from the start.

I wish there was some sort of a training dummy just to check for how long I can go before I go out of force completely. It seems that the only option right now is to practice on The First as he has 230K HP and misses on you all the time.

At the moment it seems to me that Lightning Sorcerer wants to go for this rotation (priority list):
1. Affliction (as it benefits Thundering Blast - guaranteed crit for (at least) 200% and grants Lightning Barrage on Affliction's own crit which reduces Force Lightning channel time by 50%)
2. Thundering Blast (cause it's your most powerful spell with a pretty long CD and you want it to always stay "greyed out")
3. Lightning Strike (it's your filler spell which has a 30% chance to hit the same target for 30% extra damage, has a 30% chance to activate instant Chain Lightning, grants you 30% extra force regeneration (have to keep those stacks rolling) and increases your damage by 3% when Forked Lighting activates - in first three casts if you're lucky)
4. Chain Lightning (you only use that spell if you get an instant cast proc, otherwise it's a waste of time)
5. Force Lightning (only when you get a buff from Affliction which reduces channelling time by 50%)

I can't find a way to include Shock or Crushing Darkness in my rotation. I bet I'm not supposed to since associated talents are in Madness :)

Please when you review this post, don't point me at numbers that Torhead shows on tooltips. I see VERY different stuff in game because of the talents. Especially don't troll if you're an Assassin :D

I got to 50 last night and had a chance to try the earlier described rotation on the First. By the time he died I was at 476 Force out of 600, so after 10+ minute single target almost Patchwerk fight I hardly used any Force. I'm either doing it wrong or that extra Force from talents is useless for raiding and I get two free skill points. There is a chance that third point in Electric Induction can be used somewhere else as well. Unfortunately there are no damage increasing talents left in Lightning tree, so I can only choose something that has very situational use.

Spec used: 3/31/7.

The one thing that's amazing about the 0/13/28 Hybrid spec is that you can never run out of Force. Same with a Madness build. Dat Sith Efficacy so OP. +18 Force on a 3 second Force Lightning channel and +2 Force on 1.5 second Lightning Barrage hasted Force Lightning. So you can always just Force Lightning spam your way back up. While yeah it's less DPS than a full rotation, at least you're doing DPS and not twiddling around smacking things with your saber.

Lightning appears to be a much better burst damage spec, full Madness of obviously a DoT based spec... but this Hybrid takes everything that's great about the two and mashes it together. And man do those Wrath boosted Chain Lightnings hit HARD.

@Kelborn:
With my spec and rotation I don't have to do any weird Force Lighting spam or even remove spells from my rotation to let the regen kick in. For 15 minutes I go with the rotation that I've described earlier and I drop to 476/600 force. I admit that in about 50 minutes I will probably have to stop casting my spells and keep to Lightning Strike spam for 1.5 minutes just to let my force get back to 600/600, but I doubt that we will see such long fights in game. Even Lich King enraged after 15 minutes :)

I bet that in fights with multiple adds your spec might be better than the one I'm using, 'cause I only plan to DoT targets with Affliction and then Lightning Storm or instant Chain Lightning them until they're dead with possible Force Lightning thrown in to use the buff from Affliction crits.

I don't do any "weird spam" either... and the only time I remove spells is when I've had to backup heal and "Oh hey.. I'm at 10% Force now... time to do something about that".

For the Hybrid (and full Madness) builds, where we Force Lightning is where a Lightning spec uses Lightning Strike - it's just a filler. What I was saying is that since in those two specs Force Lightning actually gives you Force, you can spam it for an always positive gain... but unless you're backup healing and spending way more Force than a normal "rotation", you won't ever need to. Even with Subversion (increases Force regen to 10.4/s at 3 stacks, which is probably rounded down to 10), Lightning Strike is still Force negative. It goes positive (I think) with a Lightning Effusion proc and if you take the Electric Induction talent... but it's by no means as big a Force gain as, or as consistent, as Force Lighting is for the Hybrid and Madness builds.

Lightning will run out of Force eventually, and you will have just smack things with your saber while you wait for regen since Lightning Strike spam is rarely positive. When this is, I have no idea because we don't have training dummies or dual spec yet for me to play around with it.