vanilla sorc

[Verdant_Force]

Hey guys, I've been thinking about dabbling into the arcane arts - this will be my first spellcaster. I know about all the feats, but I don't know which ones to take for a general sorc that is good at everything.

I was thinking of starting with FoP and taking extend (?), quicken (?), perhaps a maximize (?). Are there feats that add to your SR penetration or just enhancements?

Should I consider any spell focus?

[Kavel_Havae]

yep there are 2 spell pen feats, sorcs are low on feats as it is but you can fit them in in the end of the build. getting Extend early is nice when you have to self buff, and for the early hastes. Max and Empower are nice in the mid range of feats to pick up. as for a spell focus, never used it, never needed it.

-Kav

[elraido]

mmmmmm vanilla

[aurus33]

In my experience with my sorc:

Extend is nice to have, if you want to be a buffer to the group, works great since you can use half your mana on buffs, the other half nuking stuff, so this will depend on your playstyle, I didnt take it till level 16, when I respeced.

Maximize is very good, my sorc has it active all the time but just cause I like tu nuke stuff.
Spell Penetration and Greater is very good on high level content, imo its a must if you want to do a very good job on the vale, these two feats go with the SR enhancements.

Force of Personality, I just took it at high level.

When I was leveling my sorc I took Spell Focus: Illusion and Greater Spell Focus: Illusion, this with the maxed cha made me PK king, was very rare for something to save on pk, even at higher levels it was working very good, then I respec to take extend and FoP just cause FoD is enough :)

Mental Toughness/Imp Mental Toughness helps with mana a little bit, I know some sorcs that get rid of it, specially when they craft a mana item from the shroud.

[boldarblood]

What I ended up taking was maximize, empower, extend, heighten, spell pen, and greater spell pen.

[frugal_gourmet]

[disregard]

[Varr]

I think you will find most will agree that of your 6 feats, extend, empower and max are in. Of the other three at least one spell pen is taken by most. There is a taste preferance between heighten, quicken, and enlarge (seems like most have one of them but preverance varies (I like enlarge personaly.)) And Spell pen 2 vs force of personality fights for the last spot (I have fop here, planning on spell pen 2 at 18.) Make sure you have the first three and hard to go wrong with the last three. Dont recommend mental toughness feats though, or if you must have them early, prepair to trade out at higher level. The mana piles up to fast to keep those feats in my opinion.

[cyadra]

Heighten is good to get at the beginning. That aids you more IMO than Max does in taking down end bosses, reds, etc early in the game.
You wont need extend until you get haste. Extend helps for haste, blur, hero, etc.
Maximize is a mana sucker. You probably wont need that until after you get extend.
Lastly I would get spell pen and greater spell pen. Which really dont come into play until much later in the game.

Don't spell focus, a huge waste. Quicken is a waste on a sorc. Most spells, except scorching ray, cast fast enough.
You might want to consider force of personality, since your wisdom should be 8 or 6. Mental toughness is ok early on, but be prepared to swap that one out once you pick up +spell points. I wouldnt get empower. Since heighten is much better and you should only use it early on sparingly. If you go the halfling route, I would strongly suggest getting the dragonmark of healing. I wouldn't do enlarge either, you hit a monster at a long range and wham you have aggro, which is not a good thing.

[Varr]

Hehe, if you can spare the level 6 slot for mass suggestion, you enlarge cast it at range and never see agro again. Again, my preferance, but it vs heighten vs quicken seem to get one slot for most sorcs.

[Thailand_Dan]

It's funny how varied the opinions on this are. When I hit lvl 16, I swapped out extend. Your buffs last 16 minutes, and that is usually more than enough until you get to the shrine. Your haste doesn't last 3+ minutes, but hey, what are bards for? :D

I like having maximize and empower so I can choose 4 different levels of damage: 1) No M, No E 2) E only 3) M only 4) Both M and E

This helps tailor how many kilatons you throw out when you are nuking, thereby making your sp usage optimal. I'm not suggesting you try and switch out for every mob you hit, but if you know a quest is going to have the same types of monsters, you know which option is best, so you are not getting them down to 5% each time with 1 shot, and have to waste another shot to kill them. And at the end boss, you have serious nuking power with both maximize and empower on.

Mental Toughness and Improved Mental Toughness are great for sp boosts on the come up, but become less of a problem the higher you get. Once you are over 2000 sp, you probably want to swap out for something more useful.

Quicken seems like a waste unless your concentration is horrible. Plus it wastes more sp.

Enlarge seems like a waste unless you solo a lot. This can help with PK/FOD in the dessert, vale, Ochard. You'll kill them before you see them. Also good for mass suggestion, if you are looking to zerg. The ones that don't charm, start fighting the ones that are charmed, and you keep running by.

The nice thing of course is you can always swap it out if it doesnt fit your playstyle. Sure it costs some plat, but atleast you don't have to reroll.

[Alavatar]

Mental Toughness and Improved Mental Toughness add 85 SP each. I have them on my sorcerer, but since I have 2280 SP I am thinking about swapping them out for Spell Penetration and Greater Spell Penetration.

My other feats are (in order of acquisition):
1. Extend
2. Maximize
3. Heighten
4. Empower

[boldarblood]

Mental Toughness and Improved Mental Toughness add 85 SP each. I have them on my sorcerer, but since I have 2280 SP I am thinking about swapping them out for Spell Penetration and Greater Spell Penetration.

My other feats are (in order of acquisition):
1. Extend
2. Maximize
3. Heighten
4. Empower

Without a doubt I would swap out the MT & IMT. Especially at end game content with the incredible SR of mobs, every point helps. Much more so than the extra spell points imho.