Fire Ice and Acid Electrical Enhancements

[Merkinsal]

Wondering if a CC, fire/cold, and acid/electric combo would be successful. This strips the enhancements down to the bare bones. I have not come up with a spell list to go with this because I was just attempting to discover if I could get enough dps out of the two schools to make this worthwhile versus what was lost in other enhancements. Whenever I look at Acid Cloud, Chain Lightning, or Ball Lightning, I inevitably end up at the 1.4 times manipulation modifier I don't have, that I do have for fire/cold in my current build. This attempts to address that but at what cost? I very much would like to hear what you all think about this build pros and cons.


Character Plan by DDO Character Planner Version 2.85
DDO Character Planner Home Page (http://www.rjcyberware.com/DDO)


Enhancement: Human Adaptability Charisma I
Enhancement: Human Adaptability Constitution II
Enhancement: Human Improved Recovery I
Enhancement: Human Versatility I
Enhancement: Sorcerer Concentration I
Enhancement: Sorcerer Lineage of Energy I
Enhancement: Sorcerer Lineage of Energy II
Enhancement: Sorcerer Lineage of Elements I
Enhancement: Sorcerer Lineage of Elements II
Enhancement: Sorcerer Lineage of Deadly Energy I
Enhancement: Sorcerer Lineage of Deadly Elements I
Enhancement: Sorcerer Energy Manipulation I
Enhancement: Sorcerer Energy Manipulation II
Enhancement: Sorcerer Energy Manipulation III
Enhancement: Sorcerer Energy Manipulation IV
Enhancement: Sorcerer Elemental Manipulation I
Enhancement: Sorcerer Elemental Manipulation II
Enhancement: Sorcerer Elemental Manipulation III
Enhancement: Sorcerer Elemental Manipulation IV
Enhancement: Sorcerer Spell Penetration I
Enhancement: Sorcerer Spell Penetration II
Enhancement: Sorcerer Spell Penetration III
Enhancement: Sorcerer Energy of the Dragonblooded I
Enhancement: Sorcerer Charisma I
Enhancement: Sorcerer Charisma II
Enhancement: Sorcerer Charisma III

[Pellegro]

I personally prefer to go one or the other.

While I think 90%+ of the sorcs out there go fire/acid, I often contemplate going elec.

Chain lightning does *nice* damage ...

Anyhow, the reason I say go 1 or the other is that you can go deeper in the relevant lines.

There's no real reason (I can see) to have 2 mediocre damage spells where 1 great damage spell will do.

[Merkinsal]

Well, that was a good idea. NOT

Seems you have spec'd the Fire route but use Chain Lightning. How effective has that been for you?

To anyone who has gone the Elec/Acid route, does Firewall fit into the Electrical Acid build? I can see where Acid Fog could have a high SP cost with maximize, empower and extend turned on. Does that replace the combo Firewall and Solid Fog? I understand Solid Fog and Acid Fog stack the slowing effect and have you seen that yourself? I feel I'm asking way too many questions but a make over of spells will take 2-3 weeks I'm guessing, take mucho plat, and handicap a character during the process with incompatible spells.

I suppose the Big question is how well an Elec/Acid spec can fit into Mod 6 content parties. What do you tell someone who asks you to lay down a firewall? Will parties invite an Elec/Acid build back? I saw one post back in the forums where someone said to put up a firewall because it makes people happy even if it doesn't do any damage. lol. But, if Acid Fog will work I want to replace Firewall with Fear, Fire Shield or Charm Monster.

The thing which brought this all up for me was a Running with the Devils quest, and other times when there are a lot of devils. I feel less than effective and spending way too much SP with only Solid fog, Dancing Ball, FoD, Dismissal, Cone of Cold, Otiluke's, and whatever. Irresistible Dance is awesome for CC but hard on SP too. I can't see a Sorc casting a spell for every mob and lasting long. The Firewall that fighters and I normally pull mobs thru is not there (devils after all) and when fights get spread out the area of effect of other spells seems too small. Solid Fog by itself does not seem to slow down teleporting nearly enough and Acid Fog seems easier to pull them around in.

Anybody share some ideas and experience with me?

[Oreg]

I use both. Maxed fire/cold and 3 levels of the electric enhancements on dmg output. Two levels of crit modifiers. Means you have to sacrifice elsewhere. Like only taking spell pen 2, energy 3, charisma 3 and a few others just to fill in slots. I personally dropped dex and carry cats grace with no dex item. Can't remember offhand what other concessions I had to make but all in all I like having the extra electric modifiers in addition to max fire/cold modifiers.

in terms of devils runs I still use predominantly banish except for elite and the nameds. then i use stone to flesh or holds and chain lightning.

[Yvonne_Blacksword]

blackbone skeletons+fire/cold spells=0 DMG....
So I have ball lightning...and superior mag and superior lightning lore...

And yes...it is effective..without the enhancement line...

[Angelus_dead]

blackbone skeletons+fire/cold spells=0 DMG....
Blackbone skeletons = no good reason to ever fight them, except for Kai-Teng, whom you should Disintegrate.

[Tallyn]

Ok, I'm going off memory here, but these are the enhancements I believe I have on my Drow Sorcerer:

Enhancement: Sorcerer Lineage of Energy I
Enhancement: Sorcerer Lineage of Energy II
Enhancement: Sorcerer Lineage of Elements I
Enhancement: Sorcerer Lineage of Elements II
Enhancement: Sorcerer Lineage of Deadly Energy I
Enhancement: Sorcerer Lineage of Deadly Energy II
Enhancement: Sorcerer Lineage of Deadly Elements I
Enhancement: Sorcerer Lineage of Deadly Elements II
Enhancement: Sorcerer Energy Manipulation I
Enhancement: Sorcerer Energy Manipulation II
Enhancement: Sorcerer Energy Manipulation III
Enhancement: Sorcerer Energy Manipulation IV
Enhancement: Sorcerer Elemental Manipulation I
Enhancement: Sorcerer Elemental Manipulation II
Enhancement: Sorcerer Elemental Manipulation III
Enhancement: Sorcerer Elemental Manipulation IV
Enhancement: Sorcerer Spell Penetration I
Enhancement: Sorcerer Spell Penetration II
Enhancement: Sorcerer Spell Penetration III
Enhancement: Sorcerer Energy of the Dragonblooded I
Enhancement: Sorcerer Charisma I
Enhancement: Sorcerer Charisma II
Enhancement: Sorcerer Charisma III


I've got a few other points thrown in there but honestly cannot remember them at this exact time.

Fire/Ice/Acid/Electricity Spells I use:

Scorching Ray
Wall of Fire
Cone of Cold
Acid Fog

Thinking about picking up Ball Lightning as well...

[Merkinsal]

heh.

1. Nice to know don't have to respec to an emphasis on elec/acid to get some benefit.

2. But looking at the elec/acid, I find alot more spells than fire/cold, or it least it seems that way. 6 spells to swap out that I see I like if I went all the way. That's alot of plat.

3. lmao. I can just hear the fighters now, " I Can't See" in the middle of a solid fog, acid fog, acid rain, firewall, and CK storm. Of course that's going a little overboard, but would be fun just to see the reaction :) "Yes, please pull all three named at once. Don't worry" *Emote* <run for cover> <laugh so hard tears in my eyes>

4. I thought I had too many spells in too few slots before. Now I throw all those elec/acid into the mix which I had somehow managed to avoid up to now. Brings tears to ones eyes.

5. New level 6 conundrum. Acid Fog, Chain Lightning, and Flesh to Stone. But I lose my Disintegrate, one of my go to spells aganst those skeletons and such. Sure liked those big numbers.

6. Fixes level 5 conundrum. Always wanted feeblemind and can replace cone of cold.

Man, this game is fun.

[DemonMage]

5. New level 6 conundrum. Acid Fog, Chain Lightning, and Flesh to Stone. But I lose my Disintegrate, one of my go to spells aganst those skeletons and such. Sure liked those big numbers.


Would definitely swap Flesh to Stone for Disintegrate. Or possibly acid fog, even maxed out it's damage isn't too impressive (but it's nice for fire immune devils to some extent). Disintegrate is also a great anti-golem spell, of which the options are few as a caster, and not having it can really limit you far more than not having Acid instead of Solid fog, or Flesh to Stone.

[Geonis]

For my Sorc, I went:

40% for both
9% crit chance for both
2 ranks crit multiplier for both
Cha +2
Spell Pen 2 ranks


Can't remember the rest.

[Merkinsal]

For my Sorc, I went:

40% for both
9% crit chance for both
2 ranks crit multiplier for both
Cha +2
Spell Pen 2 ranks


Can't remember the rest.

The rest is a big concern to me and there are many enhancements I think I would miss. Human Versatility for example is as powerful as Greater Heroism (if I would remember to push the button every 20 seconds lol). I don't think I can give up Cha +3 since I already need a +3 tome to get to 34. I was thinking of putting the 1750 favor +2 tome into Con to bump that to 22, an even number, rather then Cha which would give me 33, an odd number. Hard to really tell how much some of this makes a difference. Sometimes it seems a few bad rolls is all it takes.

[Desteria]

IFyou have very strong UMD ie heal scolls at 90+% I suggest tryignto fit in 2-4 levels of wand/scroll mastery, you would be amazed how much nicer 154 pt heal scrolsl are then 110 point ones :)
Made this change recently my self sicnei hit +40 umd and I'm absolutly loving it, you cna really support that cleric a lot if stuff gets ugly and your low on SP to jus destroy every thing, and soem tiems it;s just fun to play cleric sorc :).

[Merkinsal]

IFyou have very strong UMD ie heal scolls at 90+&#37; I suggest tryignto fit in 2-4 levels of wand/scroll mastery, you would be amazed how much nicer 154 pt heal scrolsl are then 110 point ones :)
Made this change recently my self sicnei hit +40 umd and I'm absolutly loving it, you cna really support that cleric a lot if stuff gets ugly and your low on SP to jus destroy every thing, and soem tiems it;s just fun to play cleric sorc :).

Wow. That is nice. I like that. Y'know, the more I look at this I'm thinking that while an elec/acid spell here and there may fit in, there is no way to combine them heavily into a fire/cold spec Sorc and very difficult to create an elec/acid build at all. Maybe this is better suited for Wizards who have space for all those spells. Sorcs have few spells that have to fit every situation, all the time, and I can't do without disintegrate or flesh to stone for example, at least not the way I play.

[roughdoughnut]

nuking is simply not effective enough in this content to warrant all these enhancement points
i wouldnt spend more than 12 pts tops
mobs have too many hitpoints to make nuking effective
the devils in new content are resistant to ice and immune to fire
the acid/elec spell are very weak compared to cone of cold, firewall, and scorching ray

i might switch to acid/elec just to be more efficient against the pit fiend
the only other time i find nuking to be useful in the new mod is part 2 of the shroud where fire/ice might have a marginal advantage over elec/acid

[LeLoric]

Ive had an acid/elec specced char for quite a while.

Acis fog on crit is 100+ dmg per tick not firewall but yeah i can throw a firewall in the midst of that for some pretty crazy dmg that mobs cant get out of. Ball lightning/chain lightning are right now 2 of the best nuke spells high dmg little that resists them. I still use polar ray and firewall yeah its less effect but they are still pretty strong without the enhancements.