Starting new Sorcerers

[HolyCrusaider1]

I started a new Sorcerer (Arcane Canon) and found out that she was completely outmatched on Korthos Island. When I finished the first quest, I chose the wand (finger of fire) with 50 charges. This weapon is seriously underpowered compared to the rest of the weapons that you could receive as other characters. It takes three or so shots from the wand to kill a brown spider and many, many more for a zombie or skeleton. I found that I ran out of spell points in the Heytons Rest quest on solo, had no pots to heal, and was stuck with a underpowered wand to try and bail me out. Needless to say, it didn't work and I died countless times. I started so many different toons and pretty much breezed through the Korthos quests, but as a supposed natural arcane caster I found it more difficult than some of the later quests on Stormreach. Is there a way to correct this error?

[FluffyCalico]

I started a new Sorcerer (Arcane Canon) and found out that she was completely outmatched on Korthos Island. When I finished the first quest, I chose the wand (finger of fire) with 50 charges. This weapon is seriously underpowered compared to the rest of the weapons that you could receive as other characters. It takes three or so shots from the wand to kill a brown spider and many, many more for a zombie or skeleton. I found that I ran out of spell points in the Heytons Rest quest on solo, had no pots to heal, and was stuck with a underpowered wand to try and bail me out. Needless to say, it didn't work and I died countless times. I started so many different toons and pretty much breezed through the Korthos quests, but as a supposed natural arcane caster I found it more difficult than some of the later quests on Stormreach. Is there a way to correct this error?

3 things
1) CON
2) Spell selection
3) Castng stat

If you mess up in any of those you are going to have a hard time.

By the way what spells were you using?

[Uska]

3 things
1) CON
2) Spell selection
3) Castng stat

If you mess up in any of those you are going to have a hard time.

By the way what spells were you using?

A 4TH Thing I would take a weapon instead of that wand like a ember rapier, I did with my starting sorcerer and did the whole island thing solo up to hard until I got bored and joined a ww group.

[weyoun]

A 4TH Thing I would take a weapon instead of that wand like a ember rapier, I did with my starting sorcerer and did the whole island thing solo up to hard until I got bored and joined a ww group.

No matter what kind of toon I roll they always take the ember greataxe first.

[DragoonPenguin]

A 4TH Thing I would take a weapon instead of that wand like a ember rapier, I did with my starting sorcerer and did the whole island thing solo up to hard until I got bored and joined a ww group.

wrong. take the axe. there is nothing else youll find on the island to even think about putting in your offhand. 10 str sorc + the axe = korthos to elite

[DragoonPenguin]

the thing you have to remember is that korthos is not an accurate representation of the difficulty of the rest of the game. there are shrines every two **** feet and all the mobs have ac below or around 10. so dont worry about the nonproficiency

[HolyCrusaider1]

I started my toon as a Arcane Canon which gives you the Niacs cold Ray, and the burning hands for starters. Also walking this path did not automatically give me mage armor; so I was short on protection and pots. The wand that you receive at the end of the first quest is horrible. It is a 50 charge wand of finger of fire and hits for 1-3 hit points usually; so how is a new Sorcerer supposed to stay alive when you are out of spell points; by the way the stat for my spell points is 220 and even that don't help when your casting 2-4 hit points of damage from a burning hands shot. The Niac's Cold Ray is a total hit and mostly miss spell since the Sahaugin seem to be saving all the time when I cast it.

[FluffyCalico]

Magic missle and burning hands work well to start with.

Also at level 1 you can swing almost as good as other classes. Take the rapier instead of the wand and you can whack stuff with it.

Also note historically in DnD and DDO a caster starts off weak and gets stronger quick.

You can also look for a partner for the first level or 2.

[Lost_Leader]

Sorcerers are not an easy class to solo, especially at low levels. It warns of you this when you are first rolling the character.

But, to help yourself out a bit, I would recommend having both the wand option for softening things up at range, and then having a melee option for when things get close. This may work better for you.

Also, take your time and try to get small amounts of enemies at a time as much as you can. Pick up all those starter potions that are on the ground and in breakables. Or, if you have the option to leave Korthos (by having skipped the tutorial) invest a little coin in a hireling.

[HolyCrusaider1]

It seemed not too long ago when you had the tutorial ie. the pre Korthos Island mod; that you could make it at least to level 4 on your own. But now with the prechosen paths to walk, it seems to me that the Sorcerers are lacking the proverbial punch they once had. The spells are weaker, and on these paths you don't get mage armor and you are so squishy that if a skeleton or zombie breathes harshly, they'll kill you. I know in the beginning that the Sorcerers are supposed to be weak, but come on, I'm out of spell points and relying on whatever I have in my bag to save me? Is this what Sorcerers are supposed to do or cast more death with less spell points usage than a wizard? Maybe for the first few quests, the end items can actually boost the sorcerers sp or increase their damage potential and do something about that aim and flame zippo lighter wand.

[FluffyCalico]

If you mean all the prechoosen paths suck yes they do.

I actually hate the prechoosen thing it gets in the way.

They need to have a yes/no box at start that says do you want to see prechoosen paths or build your own? All that fluff they have now that wants to build it for you is a pain in the butt.

[Nightsun33]

I just had a look at the compendium page for the Arcane Cannon. One thing you did not say is that if you were using the feat that is granted to you at first level. You do get the Maximise feat. It would make a difference with the damage of your spells, but alas, not for wands.

Also, I agree with the others with getting a melee weapon and using it at the start. Quarter Staffs should be fine. Sorcerers and Wizards do typically start off quite weak with damage and spells, but quickly ramp up to be powerhouses.

[dopey69]

I just had a look at the compendium page for the Arcane Cannon. One thing you did not say is that if you were using the feat that is granted to you at first level. You do get the Maximise feat. It would make a difference with the damage of your spells, but alas, not for wands.

Also, I agree with the others with getting a melee weapon and using it at the start. Quarter Staffs should be fine. Sorcerers and Wizards do typically start off quite weak with damage and spells, but quickly ramp up to be powerhouses.

then why is there no fameing ember q staff as newbie wepon on korthos I wondered the same thing ? come on turbine even up the playing field for the sorcs and wizzies on korthos .why wand of cigarette liter and no q staff of flameing uberness ?

[VirieSquichie]

I started a new Sorcerer (Arcane Canon) and found out that she was completely outmatched on Korthos Island. When I finished the first quest, I chose the wand (finger of fire) with 50 charges. This weapon is seriously underpowered compared to the rest of the weapons that you could receive as other characters. It takes three or so shots from the wand to kill a brown spider and many, many more for a zombie or skeleton. I found that I ran out of spell points in the Heytons Rest quest on solo, had no pots to heal, and was stuck with a underpowered wand to try and bail me out. Needless to say, it didn't work and I died countless times. I started so many different toons and pretty much breezed through the Korthos quests, but as a supposed natural arcane caster I found it more difficult than some of the later quests on Stormreach. Is there a way to correct this error?

3 things
1) CON
2) Spell selection
3) Castng stat

If you mess up in any of those you are going to have a hard time.

By the way what spells were you using?

I started my toon as a Arcane Canon which gives you the Niacs cold Ray, and the burning hands for starters. Also walking this path did not automatically give me mage armor; so I was short on protection and pots. The wand that you receive at the end of the first quest is horrible. It is a 50 charge wand of finger of fire and hits for 1-3 hit points usually; so how is a new Sorcerer supposed to stay alive when you are out of spell points; by the way the stat for my spell points is 220 and even that don't help when your casting 2-4 hit points of damage from a burning hands shot. The Niac's Cold Ray is a total hit and mostly miss spell since the Sahaugin seem to be saving all the time when I cast it.

Well, first of all as you have already noticed Niac's is not worth having when you're playing solo...if something saves, it will likely kill you while you're trying to whittle it down. SP down the drain followed by your own HP down the drain.

CON is one of those somewhat hidden things about sorcs...often that few extra HP it will give you are the only ones you'll have left after a challenging fight. I don't know how the premade is on CON, but likely they splash more points in the other stats than they should. DDO is, unfortunately, about min/maxing stats. For a Sorc, that's CHA followed by CON with a few points in INT if you want skills (UMD and Haggle come to mind, besides your casting concentration which I *still* suspect is somewhat borked) or STR if you don't care much about INT. Mine tend to have 14+ INT and a somewhat low STR...I compensate with a STR item or a Bull's (wand, potion or even scroll, whatever's handy) if I find myself getting overloaded.

Maximize is only efficient on spells of at least 4th level - below that, the boost you're getting is less than the cost of the metamagic, so you're better off casting two standard 1st level spells than one maximized. Most monsters will let you live long enough to get that extra spell off. Also, that wand isn't useless it's just limited...you can shoot it once per monster, and use spells for most of the other damage. At first level, don't be afraid to use a melee attack for the finishing blow, and save a few SP. If something has only a couple HP left, your staff or dagger will do just fine. In a group you don't have to worry about this, but solo it makes quite a difference. By 3rd or 4th level you shouldn't have to worry about it so much, just use MM or something similar to finish stuff off...but at 1st level, each and every spell point counts. Of course, if you're with a group and find yourself not depleting your SP between shrines, go ahead and turn maximize on...but solo, efficiency counts.

Shrines are plentiful in the Korthos quests on Solo and they're still fairly adequate on Normal when you're alone. Don't be afraid to use 'em. They'll also reset really quickly (considering you're moving slower alone than you would with a group) so don't be afraid to backtrack and reuse a shrine now and then.

I'm quite good at sorcs so my experience may have been atypical, but my Korthos Experience character was a sorc and had absolutely no problem soloing all the dungeons (on Solo) and the outdoor area, and once she hit 3rd she was taking names quite easily even without being careful about how encounters got triggered. She was 3rd when she went through Misery's. (solo, easily) The harbor was harder, slightly, but that's because it's scaled for groups and not soloists. Korthos really is scaled for soloists. I should probably note that Korthos was easier on a melee I took through it than it was for the sorc, but it wasn't hard as a sorc...it was pathetically easy on the melee.

AC on a sorc is, for most builds, laughable. I wouldn't lament the lack of it on Arcane Cannon...actually I think if they included it they'd be doing a disservice to the players who unknowingly tried to rely on it. Your strength is what the name says...you're a living weapon...your defense really is a strong offense.

Oh, by the way...burning hands is limited range and the arc doesn't always hit things that are clearly within it. I'd recommend sticking to magic missile with shocking grasp for point defense, to start with. Shocking grasp does great damage, there's no save, it's fast and very little in the game is resistant to lightning. They'll take one or two MM shots on their way to you and be finished off as soon as they're in shocking grasp's range. My level 14 sorc still has shocking grasp within reach of a finger at all times, even though the spell caps out at 5d6, because it's an efficient way to remove those last few HP without aggroing everything else around. (most of what he casts are AoE, he's not particular about targets, but sometimes you just want one thing damaged...) When you hit 4th level, Scorching Ray will become your mainstay though Shocking Grasp can remain for point defense. My two high-level sorcs both keep Scorching Ray handy for single-target immolation...even though it's not efficient to maximize it and they nearly always have maximize running, it's a great spell throughout the game.