Guide pt III - Nuker

[Aspenor]

Asp, Why Diplo and not Bluff?

Well, bluff is a class skill, and can be put to great use by a sorceror. I chose diplomacy, a non-class skill, really for the reason of the functionality of these skills in DDO. Diplomacy pushes aggro away from you onto other party members, or your charms. I have several charm spells, and diplomacy even works on some undead and most golems. Using diplomacy I can charm and run through a lot, and solo and short man many quests very easily, nuking heavily when I need to.

If you feel you can sacrifice some hit points for the bluff skill, you can use bluff to make a target prone to sneak attacks for your friendly rogue. However, in DDO bluff is a target skill and diplomacy is an AoE skill effect.

[transtemporal]

Aspenor, what is your diplomacy at and what are you getting it from (items etc)? I have a lvl 11 sorc w 22 diplo and it doesn't seem to dissuade the creatures I've nuked a whole lot!

[Aspenor]

Aspenor, what is your diplomacy at and what are you getting it from (items etc)? I have a lvl 11 sorc w 22 diplo and it doesn't seem to dissuade the creatures I've nuked a whole lot!

I wear at minimum a +10 diplomacy item pretty much at all times. My skill mod is in the low to mid 30's, doesn't always work flawlessly but works well enough.

[transtemporal]

I wear at minimum a +10 diplomacy item pretty much at all times. My skill mod is in the low to mid 30's, doesn't always work flawlessly but works well enough.

Cool, thanks.

[Sutek]

Any suggested spell swapage for new content?

[Aspenor]

Any suggested spell swapage for new content?

Current spells for mod 5:
Level 1 - Jump, Nightshield, Expeditious Retreat, Chill Touch
Level 2 - Blur, Resist Energy, Scorching Ray, Control Undead
Level 3 - Haste, Fireball, Protection from Energy, Displacement
Level 4 - Phantasmal Killer, Charm Monster, Firewall, Stoneskin
Level 5 - Break Enchantment, Cone of Cold, Symbol of Pain
Level 6 - Disintegrate, Flesh to Stone
Level 7 - Finger of Death

various choices exist here.....
You might want to have enervation instead of charm monster, if you care less about short man runs and more about easy kills in full parties.
You might want something like teleport or cloudkill instead of symbol of pain, I use the Symbol for debuffing raid bosses.

[Cold_Stele]

Aspenor - masterful thread.

Many thanks.

[Pfamily]

Hi y'all,

Noob Sorceror here has a Q about the advancement lined out at the beginning of this thread. I've checked the numbers and I can't make the progression as stated work out, let me explain...and feel free to point out any errors.

The overall goals are:
Charisma I-III
Energy of the Dragonblooded I-IV
Ele. manip I-IV
Lineage of elements I-III
Lin. of deadly elements I-III
Force manip I
Lin. of force I
Concentration I-III
Imp. heighten I
Spell pen. I

There are two problems I have found. First, the total adds to 58 ap, don't we only get 56? Not a real prob if true as it's easy enough to eliminate something, but the real problem I find is that the progression doesn't work.

Lvl 1 starts easy enough with:
Dragonblooded I
Ele manip I
Conc I
Force manip I

At lvl 2:
Charisma I
...then the problem; so far you have only spent 6ap and the next two in the progression (lineage of elements I & lineage of force I, both available at level 3) require at least 7ap spent. All other target enhancements require even more prerequisite ap.
This forces you to take "something else" at level 2 just to spend the required ap for the next target enhancements, which in turn limits what you have available at higher levels.

I've checked the ap point and level requirements in-game and believe they're correct.

Any thoughts...did I miss something?

[Aspenor]

Hi y'all,

Noob Sorceror here has a Q about the advancement lined out at the beginning of this thread. I've checked the numbers and I can't make the progression as stated work out, let me explain...and feel free to point out any errors.

The overall goals are:
Charisma I-III
Energy of the Dragonblooded I-IV
Ele. manip I-IV
Lineage of elements I-III
Lin. of deadly elements I-III
Force manip I
Lin. of force I
Concentration I-III
Imp. heighten I
Spell pen. I

There are two problems I have found. First, the total adds to 58 ap, don't we only get 56? Not a real prob if true as it's easy enough to eliminate something, but the real problem I find is that the progression doesn't work.

Lvl 1 starts easy enough with:
Dragonblooded I
Ele manip I
Conc I
Force manip I

At lvl 2:
Charisma I
...then the problem; so far you have only spent 6ap and the next two in the progression (lineage of elements I & lineage of force I, both available at level 3) require at least 7ap spent. All other target enhancements require even more prerequisite ap.
This forces you to take "something else" at level 2 just to spend the required ap for the next target enhancements, which in turn limits what you have available at higher levels.

I've checked the ap point and level requirements in-game and believe they're correct.

Any thoughts...did I miss something?

Some of the enhancements' costs have changed since I wrote the thread. I'll work on it.

[Cold_Stele]

I've rolled a few casters to 4 or 5 and given up cos I just wasn't enjoying them as much as my melees. I'm having a great time with this guy though! Up to 6 and going strong, can't wait to cap him.

For anyone rolling one of these there are a couple of suggestions I'd make to take the gind out of the lower levels (up to lvl 6).

After watching a guildie at work I'm now using Shocking Grasp as my damage spell of choice. The huge advantage it has over the other 1st and 2nd level damage spells is the insanely quick casting time. No more casting at a mob and being tripped or someone else killing it whilst I'm still on the casting animation. Aggro management is very easy as it's selective and AOE not really necessary as you can tab thru and insta-kill a bunch of trash mobs in no time. At lvl 5 with a greater potency item and maximize it hits for about 80pts of damage - just enough to one hit kill an arcane skelly in Deleras on normal, probably one of the most dangerous mobs to a party at this level.

The other thing I've done (possibly as a temporary measure) is use a dragonshard to swap out MT for Extend at lvl 6. I have enough mana to nuke and still Haste the party all the way through Deleras and Stormcleave. All that Haste helps to take the grind out a little, especially if you have questionable melees in a PUG. Like it or not melees>casters at these levels so make them work faster and harder at leveling you.

Once again thanks for posting the build Aspenor - it's a blast!

[Oreg]

Have to agree with Cold Steele. I just hit 10 last night having started this character about 10 days ago and I am loving it. This is my first arcane caster build and I have been playing since beta. I too took MT, Maximize, Extend and Empower so far in that order. I am undecided if I will take Heighten or IMT but am leaning towards Heighten.

The enhancement progression did need to be tweeked a bit but I have found that the main goals are still feasible. I don't think I will hit Energy of Dragonblood maxed but the damage enhancements are more important to me than 40 more spell points. I have other means of getting sp through equipment.

Thanks again for posting this Aspenor. I was not inspired by other builds to start a sorc and I am glad that I waited for this one.

[transtemporal]

I am undecided if I will take Heighten or IMT but am leaning towards Heighten.

Heighten heighten heighten! Turn it on once and never turn it off! Heighten increases the chance that your lower-level back-end direct damage spells will do full damage and therefore remain useful as you level. Ideally you want your spell DCs to keep pace with, or preferably outpace mob saves. Heighten, along with cha (or int for a wiz) increases and school focus(es) gives you the best chance of zorching those mobs for full damage every time.

[Oreg]

Can't argue with that. Heighten it is. In which case I will probably exchange out the MT feat I took.

[Aspenor]

Can't argue with that. Heighten it is. In which case I will probably exchange out the MT feat I took.

I have since reworked both feats and enhancements for this guy, made him a bit more party-friendly at the cost of a few sp.

Original feats in this build were MT, IMT, Heighten, Maximize, Empower, and Spell Pen.

I've decided to currently roll with MT, Heighten, Maximize, Empower, Extend, and SF Necromancy (fingers of death and commanding undead). I might change the necromancy, IDK.

Oh yeah, I'm rolling Human, so I have an extra feat too.

[Oreg]

I would have loved to add SF:Necromancy but I can't respec MT to Heighten so I will have to take Heighten at 12 (soon, a few days ) and SF:necro at our next feat level. Which is when btw? 15?

[Aspenor]

I would have loved to add SF:Necromancy but I can't respec MT to Heighten so I will have to take Heighten at 12 (soon, a few days ) and SF:necro at our next feat level. Which is when btw? 15?

Yeah level 15. I'll probably just take that other mental toughness feat at 15. It was kinda nice having 1900 SP for a day or so. By then it'll be like 2100 or more...if I ever get skyver, definitely.

[Averroes]

I would have loved to add SF:Necromancy but I can't respec MT to Heighten so I will have to take Heighten at 12 (soon, a few days ) and SF:necro at our next feat level. Which is when btw? 15?

You could always swap out MT for SF:Necro and then grab heighten at 12...

Heighten has a prereq of being able to cast level 3 spells IIRC -- none of your other feats have prereqs that are going to bother you.


And for what it's worth, I'm not at all a fan of heighten. Cast a few 40 mana hypnotisms or chill touches and let us know how you like it.

[Zephyriah]

Some of the enhancements' costs have changed since I wrote the thread. I'll work on it.

Hi, I ran into the same thing with the enhancement costs/progression. Any update would be great as I have 8 action points that are unused and I'm not sure how to spend them.....thank you for the thread, it helps a lot!

[Dark-Star]

This seems more like a necro build using fire wall, and what sorc build doesn't use that?

If we are talking true pure nuker, your 7th level spell should be delayed blast fireball, and your feats should be maximize, empower, heighten, sf: evocation, gsf:evocation; the last three to reduce reflex saves on fb and and the last two for dbfb.

Nothing at all wrong with the build, it certainly has more versatility and situational effectiveness, but it's more in the camp of a generalist than a pure nuker.

[Cowdenicus]

Daddy needs to bookmark this for Nukesalot