Heroic only sorcerer

[Xathris]

I have 6 past lives: Barbarian/Bard/Pally/Warlock/Ranger/Druid, and 4 EPL feats (3 Brace and 1 Fast Healing). I am looking for a heroic only sorc, and I would like it to be warforged. I don't care if it is multi class, as long as it is a sorc past life. Most build I see are for Epic content, any ideas for 1-20 only? (Obviously capstone won't matter.)
Thanks!

[Rawrargh]

I have 6 past lives: Barbarian/Bard/Pally/Warlock/Ranger/Druid, and 4 EPL feats (3 Brace and 1 Fast Healing). I am looking for a heroic only sorc, and I would like it to be warforged. I don't care if it is multi class, as long as it is a sorc past life. Most build I see are for Epic content, any ideas for 1-20 only? (Obviously capstone won't matter.)
Thanks!

Pure sorc is one of the strongest classes in heroics. Go for maximize, empower and spell focus evocation. Fire savant is amazing for everything but vale and and Amrath. Dip into lightning or earth depending on your preference.

on a wf 20 con, 16 charisma, rest in whatever you feel like.

Either you stick to SLA's and take it slow, or you run until the little skull turns red and you drop fireballs until the room is clear.

[PsychoBlonde]

A surprisingly effective combo is to take 2 levels of Favored Soul and go fire sorc--Angel of Vengeance tree in Favored Soul gets a tier 2 ability that generates temporary sp whenever you crit with a fire, light, or force spell. This will also help you kick up a bit extra in the saving throw department. Go fire/force spells and you have a combo that works in any content. Get 8 levels of sorcerer before you take any Favored Soul, though, you want to get Wall of Fire as soon as possible for heroic content.

It is actually best NOT to use metamagics most of the time until you're level 15+ (or use them only on spells that hit a lot so you get the most bang for your buck)--make sure you get some heavy spellpower items and just spam the spells--sorcerers cast very quickly and it's usually cheaper to cast the same spell 3 times than to cast one maximized empowered version of it. Scorching Ray is actually one of your most valuable spells as it has no saving throw and gains multiple hits rather early.

You can use *wands* of fireball before you can actually cast the spell and Wand and Scroll Mastery is a Tier 2 enhancement on Eldritch Knight--this can get you through early content when you don't really have the spell points or area spells to really lay waste.

[Eth]

Fire/Acid, max charisma, take 1 or 2 barb levels (1 = 10% base run speed, 2 = sprint boost). Pretty straight forward.

[Xathris]

A surprisingly effective combo is to take 2 levels of Favored Soul and go fire sorc--Angel of Vengeance tree in Favored Soul gets a tier 2 ability that generates temporary sp whenever you crit with a fire, light, or force spell. This will also help you kick up a bit extra in the saving throw department. Go fire/force spells and you have a combo that works in any content. Get 8 levels of sorcerer before you take any Favored Soul, though, you want to get Wall of Fire as soon as possible for heroic content.

It is actually best NOT to use metamagics most of the time until you're level 15+ (or use them only on spells that hit a lot so you get the most bang for your buck)--make sure you get some heavy spellpower items and just spam the spells--sorcerers cast very quickly and it's usually cheaper to cast the same spell 3 times than to cast one maximized empowered version of it. Scorching Ray is actually one of your most valuable spells as it has no saving throw and gains multiple hits rather early.

You can use *wands* of fireball before you can actually cast the spell and Wand and Scroll Mastery is a Tier 2 enhancement on Eldritch Knight--this can get you through early content when you don't really have the spell points or area spells to really lay waste.

This sounds interesting.
1. Aren't the meta-magics for the SLAs?
2. I assume the force spells are for devils/demons?
3. So FVs gives you saves and the Tier II ability, anything else?

Thanks!

[PsychoBlonde]

Well, favored soul also lets you use all healing wands without a UMD check, but this isn't that big a deal if you plan on going warforged. You can also get some extra HP/PRR/AC out of the Warpriest tree if you have the points for it. And it gets you some armor proficiencies. (although you still need to deal with arcane spell failure) I don't play warforged much so I tend to forget some of the details there.

Force spells are for anything that's immune or highly resistant to fire--devils, fire elementals, red dragons, fire mephits, whatever. A very large number of quests will have at least a FEW mobs of this kind.

Yeah, you should HAVE metamagics for your SLA's, I just don't turn them on and leave them on for general spells. You'll eat SP too fast. Sorcerer SLA's short of the tier 5 one tend to be kinda short on the range, too, and many of them have reflex saves that allow for evasion.

[unbongwah]

A surprisingly effective combo is to take 2 levels of Favored Soul and go fire sorc--Angel of Vengeance tree in Favored Soul gets a tier 2 ability that generates temporary sp whenever you crit with a fire, light, or force spell. This will also help you kick up a bit extra in the saving throw department. Go fire/force spells and you have a combo that works in any content. Get 8 levels of sorcerer before you take any Favored Soul, though, you want to get Wall of Fire as soon as possible for heroic content.
FvS splash is largely unnecessary for a heroic-only build; front-loading your sorc spells ASAP is more useful, IMO, at least until you have Delayed Blast Fireball (sorc lvl 14). At that point, it depends on your secondary element: if acid, you really want Black Dragon Bolt (pure sorc thru lvl 16); if lightning, lvl 8 spells are less important and splashing is fine. Unless you're planning to run Necro4 @ char lvl 16, in which case having Sunburst might be more useful.

You can probably skip lvl 9 spells, though, so maybe sorc 1-16, then FvS 1-2, hold at 18 to XP farm like usual; something like 2 APs WF (-5% ASF), 11 APs AoV, 33 APs Fire Savant, 26 APs Air or Earth Savant.

It is actually best NOT to use metamagics most of the time until you're level 15+ (or use them only on spells that hit a lot so you get the most bang for your buck)
Metamagics apply to SLAs free; you should have two SLAs by lvl 2, 3 by lvl 7, 4 by lvl 12, 5 by lvl 14-15. Which is another reason to stay pure sorc for most lvls; all of your APs go into two Savant trees until then.

[Xathris]

At that point, it depends on your secondary element: if acid, you really want Black Dragon Bolt (pure sorc thru lvl 16); if lightning, lvl 8 spells are less important and splashing is fine. Unless you're planning to run Necro4 @ char lvl 16, in which case having Sunburst might be more useful.

You can probably skip lvl 9 spells, though, so maybe sorc 1-16, then FvS 1-2, hold at 18 to XP farm like usual; something like 2 APs WF (-5% ASF), 11 APs AoV, 33 APs Fire Savant, 26 APs Air or Earth Savant.


I think I'll stay pure then. I thought I read somewhere fire/lighting isn't as valuable anymore, so I thought I'd go acid (if that is better).
What does "hold at 18 to xp farm" mean? Do you mean go to cap 19?

[PsychoBlonde]

I think I'll stay pure then. I thought I read somewhere fire/lighting isn't as valuable anymore, so I thought I'd go acid (if that is better).
What does "hold at 18 to xp farm" mean? Do you mean go to cap 19?

Acid's a little tough because there aren't as many spells, and many of them are kind of inferior compared to the fire versions. It works fine in conjunction with ice or fire, though. It has the advantage that there are only like 3 mobs in the entire game that are immune to acid.

Things change up a bit here and there as you level, but for heroics you can pretty much do as you like and make it work.

A lot of people will not take any levels past 18 until they hit 20 so that they can get maximum xp out of level 16 content.

[Xathris]

A lot of people will not take any levels past 18 until they hit 20 so that they can get maximum xp out of level 16 content.

I try to do that every level. For instance, I am 12 now, and xp wise, I try to wait until I max 13. Should I only do that at certain levels?

[Artagon]

Heroic only I truly enjoyed my 16/4 Sorc/Pally. I played it with mixing up melee and magic pretty much only using SLAs and pally cleaves. If you want to mix melee attacks in with your SLAs then you desperately need quick draw, as that drops the time after casting before you can swing your weapon again. I used Acid Rain and Firewall when I was surrounded and Reconstruct/LoH to keep my hp rolling. Oh.. and Divine Might allowed me to get some pretty solid strength, as you can imagine.

Once you hit Epic.. well.. you add energy burst into your rotation.. if you have enough fate points I recommend snagging energy burst as a twist and running in divine crusader.

[PsychoBlonde]

I try to do that every level. For instance, I am 12 now, and xp wise, I try to wait until I max 13. Should I only do that at certain levels?

Depends on which quests you like to do. I generally don't hold levels until I hit the level 11 quests any more.

Back in the day before bravery bonus and before they adjusted the heroic xp curve (making cap for 3+ lives 3.8M xp instead of 4.36M), holding levels was practically mandatory. The changes to quest ransack mean that quests don't drop down to 0 xp any more, either. So you can pretty much pick any leveling strategy that suits you.

It's popular still to skip the post-16 content for some people though because there's an enormous difficulty spike between level 16 and 17 content. That's when you find out if your build has any problems with it.

[JOTMON]

I try to do that every level. For instance, I am 12 now, and xp wise, I try to wait until I max 13. Should I only do that at certain levels?

for the most part I only hold on 16 and 18.

16's can stick with the 14-16 crowds and hit the 16-18's.. essentially Giantholds and Vales, amarath, wheloon, Eveningstar, etc..

Hold 18 to cap. taking 19 just blocks you out of the 16-18 groupings, and doesn't offer you any real added benefits.

[unbongwah]

Acid pros: two no-save single-target DoTs (Melfs & BDB - "2.5" if you include the acid half of Burning Blood) and one no-save AoE DoT (Acid Fog), good SP-to-DPS efficiency, relatively few acid-resistant/-immune mobs (http://ddowiki.com/page/Monster_DR_and_weaknesses) compared to fire or electric

Acid cons: no high-burst-DPS AoEs like DBF or Chain Lightning, most spells are Conjuration while other elements are Evocation (so it splits your Spell Focus)

For most heroic content, I prefer Air+Fire combo; which element is primary depends on content and (at lvl 12+) how badly I want Wind Dance. :cool: Force is always my tertiary spell focus. But you can make any allowable combo of Savants work for heroic leveling, since every element shines in certain content. It's mostly a matter of choosing the right spells to complement your Savants, since resetting Enhancements is a lot cheaper than swapping sorc spells.

[Eth]

Acid pros: two no-save single-target DoTs (Melfs & BDB - "2.5" if you include the acid half of Burning Blood) and one no-save AoE DoT (Acid Fog), good SP-to-DPS efficiency, relatively few acid-resistant/-immune mobs (http://ddowiki.com/page/Monster_DR_and_weaknesses) compared to fire or electric

Acid cons: no high-burst-DPS AoEs like DBF or Chain Lightning, most spells are Conjuration while other elements are Evocation (so it splits your Spell Focus)

For most heroic content, I prefer Air+Fire combo; which element is primary depends on content and (at lvl 12+) how badly I want Wind Dance. :cool: Force is always my tertiary spell focus. But you can make any allowable combo of Savants work for heroic leveling, since every element shines in certain content. It's mostly a matter of choosing the right spells to complement your Savants, since resetting Enhancements is a lot cheaper than swapping sorc spells.

Don't forget acid rain. Probably the best acid spell in heroics. You can stack it with wall of fire, which is one reason I prefer Fire/Acid over everything else.

That being said a lot of the new quests might be a bit rough on acid/fire, because of abishai. Past Necro IV is probably a good point to switch to something else (Electric/Cold, Electric/Fire).

[PsychoBlonde]

Yeah, but you don't generally run those new quests on heroic for XP, because they're kinda bad.

[zehnvhex]

Yeah, but you don't generally run those new quests on heroic for XP, because they're kinda bad.

There's enough content in the game that you can safely avoid the 'bad' quests. Hard part is just knowing what those are. They do feel stupidly overtuned though. The Amrath trials at level without an OP build is just brutal. Only thing 'old world' I can think of that compares is Running with the Devils.

[PsychoBlonde]

There's enough content in the game that you can safely avoid the 'bad' quests. Hard part is just knowing what those are. They do feel stupidly overtuned though. The Amrath trials at level without an OP build is just brutal. Only thing 'old world' I can think of that compares is Running with the Devils.

Hah, yes, Running with the Devils right after the spellpower update when those light spells were landing for 300 damage.

The first time I joined a group for the newer quests on heroic elite I got to watch in awe as a group of experienced geared characters ran around the corner and were reduced to a greasy smear by some black abishai who proceeded to yell "LOL NEWBZ!" and teabag the soulstones.