At launch succession sorc was considered too strong in terms of damage and abyssal flame range. But even after nerfs, succession was doing better in PVE. Although awakening was always superior in PVP as it is more versatile. But after the massive buffs of the awakening PVE, the difference between awakening and succession became similar(Awakening being slightly better) in PVE. Then awakening side got core skills and a new skill. It is good that awakening got buffs to be viable at end game grinding spots. 

That however leads to one conclusion that awakening sorc is now superior in all aspects than succession.

I personally enjoy succession more than awakening and as a succession player I want to share my opinion regarding the drawbacks of playing succession sorc. 

Succession side suffers from stamina issues. Crow flare used to regenerate shards which reduced the stamina problem a bit, it does not regenerate shards anymore. Prime midnight stinger and rushing crow both cost 10 shards. Also, the ability of spamming abyssal flame is a normal thing for succession sorcs. But that also stops the stamina regen. So iframe > abyssal flame > iframe is quite risky specially if low on stamina.  

Succession sorc cannot block which is a big problem. Succession cannot go invisible or have secondary iframe skill that doesn't cost anything like awakening. Succession protected skills are also less reliable than awakening. 

I've also noticed in PVP, awakening skills do crazy amount of damage compared to succession. Succession also lacks the amount of CC which is understandable since it has less skills.

I'm not saying awakening sorc needs nerfs. It is in a good spot. In PVP however, succession needs good amount of tweaking.

What kinds of things would you like to see done about these issues you see with Succ Sorc?

Just some ideas here.  For me, I'd like to see Sinister Omen and Shard Explosion tweaked on Succession Stance.  Currently, these are among the "useless" abilities Sorc has - basically, moves that never (literally) get used.  Maybe if they were tweaked for the Succession spec to be actually functional.

IE:  Sinister Omen - Casts this blob that follows enemies around, slowing them and dealing damage when it explodes.  The slow isn't much and the damage is seriously irrelavant.  Add to that the unprotected cast-time, simply an unused ability.  A wasted slot in Sorc skill tree.

> Beef this up for Succession Spec.  Thinking, keep the cast-time unprotected (risk), while ramping up its effectiveness if successfully casted (reward).  While the Omen is following your target, your target receives additional damage from magic based abilities.  The slow can remain as is.

Shard Explosion - In the beginning, Shard Explosion was quite good.  Sacrificing our much needed shards into one, single target, ranged nuke.  It's been nerfed into oblivion, and I do not see many Sorcs even quick-slotting this anymore, since it's so ineffective.  Maybe for Succ Stance, Shard Explosion buffs can be explored.  Succession is a bit more capable at range as opposed to Awakening, due to Abyssal Flame spam.  Shard Explosion could be a nice compliment to Succ's prowess over Awakening at range.

> For Succession, would like to see Shard Explosion to be relevant again.  It's a great feeling to build up shards, to then make the decision to sacrifice them for a non-hit-scan, aimed, slow projectile, yet hard hitting ability.  This ability retains the relatively slow projectile speed, but has massively cut it's best usage -- being a single target, non-hit-scan, aimed, ranged nuke.  Maybe it could be buffed for Succ!

IMO to reduce the stamina issues,

>>The shards costs should be removed from rushing crow and midnight stinger. 

>>Stamina should continue to regenerate when using abyssal flame.

Succession should have forward guard when moving backwards. This way it would be possible to survive a bit better when out of stamina. 

And the PVP damage of Prime skills needs some adjustments. It should be ramped up to the point that the damage ouput matches awakening counterpart.

4. Succession also needs some of core skill mechanic like awakening that will give bonus protection to a prime skill. For Example, prime dream of doom core gets SA or FG etc. 

I also agree with you about sinister omen being a pointless skill. However, In PVP and PVE I actually use Shards explosion and with other ranged skills it kind of helps with the DPS. But it's true that it doesn't do nearly as much damage as it should for a skill that costs 30 shards.

Only way I think of sinister omen being useful is it actually summoning something that does some sort of attack and can take hit for 15-30 seconds lol.

Overall those are the things I think that need fixing.

Yeah these would def help for sure.  I like the first three things, S block, the stamina usage adjustments, and buffing PvP damage. 

Those things alone, I feel, could really help Succ for pvp.  Core skill would be cool too.  Seems like they're taking our feedback about class balance into consideration with the latest balance patch, albeit, somewhat incomplete and slow to push out.  But it's going along.  Core skills on Prime abilities sound pretty lit.

Ive played both quite a bit, and i gotta disagree with you in many of your points.
PVE wise they are pretty even, with some spots being better and more comfy for succ while some others for awak, overall nothing to complain here like at all.
Stamina issues are indeed real, but also the core mechanic of succ, succ sorc isnt really supposed to linger around with a bunch of stamina to spare, you are kinda forced to keep going and its more about shard management than stamina management to the point that on scenarios where you always have a target to hit you can pretty much keep going non stop while awak does eventually run out of juice.
Its quite thougher in 1v1s vs iframe classes for sure as you cant regain shards but other than that i dont feel they need any change, its just a different playstyle with its ups and downs as for example in a 1v1 vs a SAblock class succ has way WAY more pressure than awak will ever have.
As extra, succ has better and more responsive protections, succ darkflame and violation frontals are AMAZING in comparison to awak FGs, Dark trade and Bloody SAs are also quite good and tbf you do get CCed out of the start of shadow leap WAY more than from rushing crow->iframe, in fact, the flow:nightcrow iframe is way less responsive and more prone to desync than the preawak one for whatever reason.
Damage and CC wise they are pretty even, succ having a WAAAY better combo from float than awak making succ way more fit for current meta. Overall i would say Succ sorc is still slightly stronger than Awak in most scenarios, just worse in the 1v1 against iframe based classes and small battles full of skimirsh classes (which barely happen anymore as meta is really centered in blob fighting where sorc awak is completly useless while succ still has some ranged damage to help a bit).

So yeah.. doubt Sorcs needs many changes anymore, just some QoL and bug fixes.

What sorc needs to be relevant, as most other melee/close ranged classes, is a bunch of nerfs on some of the more meta classes, specially on sage which pretty much outclasses sorc in everything she can do.

Some tips for your stamina issues: Use Dark trade often both for SA and for shards, Use DoD to regain shards more than for dmg specially if they let you fully cast it at some point (save imminent for CC attempts but also dont be afraid of using it for insta shard regen if you feel you need 2-3 more iframes), Try to find gaps to fit an abyssal after iframes for more shards, try to use engulfing and crowflare agressively for shards and debuffs, linger calamity throw SA for CD control...

And for damage.. you probably use black wave too early in the combo, you can pretty much always fit a crowflare abyssal or vio after any CC and if your first CC is a KD you can always black wave in first CC and react to downsmahes before landing the second CC (you lose the reset potential but regain CDs for a better second CC dmg). Overall succ shouldnt really have issues killing anyone, in fact it is easier for a succ sorc than for an awak sorc to kill a geared target specially if there are adamantines involved.

And before you ask it, if you see more people playing awak than succ is because both are quite off meta, people who want the strongest simply rerolled to either nova or sage, people left on sorc play whatever they find more fun and awak feels, for most, more rewarding as it is more CC and combo based than succ.

It's fine. We all have our opinions.

I agree they are similar in PVE(Awk being a bit better)

Most of the classes are IFrame classes, others have decent kits to protect or to deal with IFrame classes. And like you said, shard management becomes almost impossible when your skills don't hit. Your only options left are engulfing shadow, rushing crow and midnight stinger to disengage. I use abyssal blow instead of engulfing because I tend to kite out as much as I can until my target is CCed. So I only have RS and MS. As an experienced sorc player you are fully aware that most of the classes can catch up with sorc in terms of mobility. While awakening offers skills that are used to linger around or to get out of fights to recover. With succession however, it is always a struggle. That's why Shards costs can be removed from RS and MS in order to give succ a good chance to flee also recover stamina/shards a bit.

Absolute DF has FG. Awakening violation core gives FG. They are same as succession. Plus awakening has superior SA than succession. For a succession in PVP these frontals break almost instantly. Only truly differential thing about succession is that BC has a unique ranged attack and abyssal flame cancels. Awakening can still fight in ranged distance with proper rabams while still being strong in close quarters.

 Like you said for PVE both awk and succ are in a good place. IMO in PVP succ definitely needs improvements. The suggestions regarding the stamina issues are really small changes but they can hugely reduce the struggle succ players face in PVP.

I mostly utilize the things that you mentioned. I also tried the DoD part, it does help in 1v1 situations.

Awakening getting new skill, core mechanic with all the buffs in damage while succession being roughly the same can also be a factor for players choosing awakening over succession. Most sorc mains will say in this meta awakening > succession in PVP(1v1, Small and Large scale), PVE. 

So yeah, awakening is in a good spot now. Succession needs the buffs.

Nope, Iframe classes are ninja, kuno, sorc, tamer, DK and sage pretty much everything else spends most of the time in SA or FG and its quite easy to hit in fact most of the worst matchups for sorc are better as sorc succ (matchups like warrior, valk, mystic, striker, guardian and such, pretty much all the meta) and sorc succ has way less trouble vs tanky adamantine players like the classic full resist zerker.

Overall i doubt sorc succ needs any kind of buff, sorc awak buffs came only to equalize both stances and i think they did a pretty good job at that even tho i hate the game balance shifting towards more protections instead of less (i would much rather prefered succ getting some nerfs than awak getting buffs but welp)

To weigh in on the stamina issue. My thought was to lower the stamina consumption on iframe from 250 to 200, or stop freezing the stamina refill. This seems to be a bit of an issue on both succ and awak, but awak can deal with it (for the most part) by lingering the frontal.

Agreed. PA did add succ sorcs +100 stamina in the passive, I don't feel the difference though. Removing Shard costs from Rushing Crow and Midnight Stinger will atleast save succ sorcs some shards to spare IMO.

I have no idea why you would think succession sorc needs a nerf when classes like hash, nova, sage, ninja, tamer, dk exist.