Help a new sorceress out?

[Osharan_Tregarth]

Are you guys talking about quest on "solo" mode? Then perhaps. But I simply can't believe a pure breed mage soloing a lvl10+ quest on normal or better. Heard many times of ppl saying they solo this and that on elite ... but it's all talk. Try soloing any long lvl8+ (with traps and/or mob rooms) quest on hard or elite then we talk.

Peace.

Well... Why don't you pick some level 8 quests, and we'll see how many people can solo them on their sorcerers and put some screenshots here? Personally, I think you're putting the bar too low, but that's where you seemed to draw an arbitrary line of disbelief, so that's what we'll go with.


Personally, I've been soloing Cult of the Six on my (now level 10) sorcerer for exp, but I started at level 8, and have just been running them on normal.

Now, if you'd like to pick some higher quests, I'll have to bring my pure Wizard to run through them....

[liamfrancais]

Just have fun.

/signed

[bobbryan2]

Are you guys talking about quest on "solo" mode? Then perhaps. But I simply can't believe a pure breed mage soloing a lvl10+ quest on normal or better. Heard many times of ppl saying they solo this and that on elite ... but it's all talk. Try soloing any long lvl8+ (with traps and/or mob rooms) quest on hard or elite then we talk.

Peace.

Uh... not talk at all.

My sorc has 270 HP, combined with heavy fort, greater spearblock, stoneskin, displacement... she can survive plenty of things like getting despaired all by herself.

Sorcs are the absolute best soloers in the game. I love to solo the Crucible on elite all the time. Just have someone else tag along for the chests and to hit the levers for me in the maze.

[Pellegro]

To get back to the OP:

For feats, alot is up to you and your style.

Here are a few that are solid choices:

Mental Toughness (more SP)

Improved Mental Toughness (yet more SP)

Spell Focus / Greater School Focus - despite the name, you can take either of these in any order.

Each raises the difficulty of a save against your spell by the bad guys. This is called the spell's DC. So without it, the spell save may be like ... say 20 (Will). You can see this info in the tooltip when you hover your mouse over the spell icon. On my example, the bad guy would need to make a "save" over 20 using his Will save, or else he fails his save. Some spells don't have saves, others do. The effect of failing a save also varies for each spell. Anyway, when you take this feat, it increases the save for all spells of a certain "school" by one. So if you take Spell Focus (Enchantment) your enchatment spells, on our example, would require a save of 21 instead of 20. If you take both Spell Focus (Enchantment) AND Greater Spell Focus (Enchantment), it would be 22 instead of 20. By looking at the tooltip when you hover over the spell you can see the school of each spell.

Spell Penetration / Greater Spell Penetration - These are proving to be "must have" in the level 15/16 quests, but until then most people said they were useless.

Metamagic feats - You'll hear different things but I like the following, in descending order:
1. Maximize - doubles your spell damage. Nice.
2. Heighten - treats whatever spell you're casting as if it were the highest level spell you can cast. So a Heightened level 1 spell is cast as if it were a level 8 spell (if you're level 16). This is important because, again, the mobs "save" against the spell is based in part on the level of the spell.
3. Empower - like maximize, but increases just 50%.

There are others but I don't really like them for sorcs - enlarge (increases the spell's range); quicken (cuts down on the time between when you push the 'cast' button adn when the spell is actually cast, but doesn't cut down on the timer between casts ... not too useful to a sorc as you are a very fast caster as it is). Maybe others still I'm not remembering.

A relatively safe bet until you learn the complexities of the game even better would be to take Mental Toughness, Improved Mental Toughness, then pick a school and take the spell focus feats in that school.

GL.

[bobbryan2]

You absolutely don't need the MT and iMT. If you just want them, go for it... but with 2100 sp without either one... I find them to be a completely worthless waste of a feat.

SF : Necro and GSF : Necro are popular choices to help out the DCs on FoD and a few other choice spells.

Empower and Maximize are a necessity.

Extend is nice for displacements, hastes and firewalls. A lot of sorcs pass over extend, but I do think it's more useful than a lot would lead you to believe.

Some swear by heighten, but I can't stand it... truth be told. If you have decent (read: maxed) charisma, it shouldn't really be that bad.

Force of Personality is a nice boost to will saves if you min'ed your CON.

---------

And like others have said. You don't need dex... you'd be far better off max'ing charisma and putting everything else into CON.

[toord]

Uh... not talk at all.

My sorc has 270 HP, combined with heavy fort, greater spearblock, stoneskin, displacement... she can survive plenty of things like getting despaired all by herself.

level? race?

[bobbryan2]

level? race?

16, human

26 con (with +2 tome) could get to 28 with a +3

[Arnya]

16, human

26 con (with +2 tome) could get to 28 with a +3

Nice bro!

Torche has 192 HP with 18 CON (+3 tome, +5 item)

Elf 1clr/15sorc

EDIT: OP - can you see the difference? I used CON as a dumpstat to get the rest out of the gutter

[toord]

16, human

26 con (with +2 tome) could get to 28 with a +3

Nice stats! Can you solo any of the new Vale quests?

Peace.

[Osharan_Tregarth]

Nice stats! Can you solo any of the new Vale quests?

Peace.

Here's a link to one of the "Achievment" areas of the forums, from one of the WF sorc's...

http://forums.ddo.com/showpost.php?p...0&postcount=55

[transtemporal]

So no dex? I had put into dex thinking that with the drow ability to mitigate armor loss she could wear a mithril BP and get ac up to pretty solid levels so that she'd be able to stay in fights and be a lot less 'squishy'... wouldn't the added AC outweigh the few extra hp that 4 extra con gives?

Heh, I thought the same thing when I built my elf sorc but the amount of resource you have to put into keeping your AC at a useful level throughout isn't worth it. Leave the tanking to the tanks. If you're defensively minded, get spells like blur, displacement, stoneskin, jump, shield, haste, grab the diplomacy skill, get a fortification item and try to pump up your HP as much as possible. Those will do more for you as a caster, at a cheaper price, than armor and a shield ever will!

[Arnya]

What TT says...

I made the same mistake.

Reflex save doesn't even rate either

[Bragnor]

Thanks guys! Great advice in here. Appreciate it.

[sirgog]

My suggestions for building a Sorc:

Race: Drow if no 32-point builds. Perhaps consider Warforged if you have 32 point builds, but that's a tough one to play.


Initial Stats (before build points) 8/10/6/10/8/10

Spend 16 build points for a 20 Charisma (12 build points left).

Spend 10 build points for a 14 Con (2 points left).

Put both into either Strength or Intelligence. I'd recommend Intelligence. This adds valuable skill points.


Base stats: 8/10/14/12/8/20.


For skills, invest in Concentration and Use Magic Device. UMD will be useless until you reach high levels, but will be invaluable then. For your third skill, choose between Balance, Jump or Spot (I'd recommend Balance).


For low levels, take the spells Charm Person, Niac's Cold Ray, and Hypnotism. You'll keep these three for a while (Niac's will eventually be useless, but that's a long way off). Scorching Ray at level 4 is the best choice, and Blur is good at 5. Then at level 6 take Haste or Suggestion, and the other one at level 7.
Once you hit level 8, pick between Wall of Fire and Phantasmal Killer. This is where you start to become strong. At level 9 pick up the other one, level 10 Cone of Cold, and at level 11 Stoneskin, and this is the point at which you'll stop dying so easily.

[Blind_Skwerl]

Although I haven't tried it yet, I'm pretty sure I could solo a few of the new dungeons with my sorc. I'm gonna wait until they start to become boring running in group to try it though. If you have 32 point builds, I'd definately consider going with a WF sorc. I don't have one, but a guildie of mine does, and it's an absolute beast! The guy just cannot be killed by dps. Then there is Cowtech. On Thelanis, everyone knows Cowtech and his ability.

[DemonMage]

Even if you don't have 32-point builds, I'd strongly consider going with Warforged. You really don't lose a lot only having 28 point builds. You don't have to spread your stats out, so the gains in the important things are smaller.

Your Charisma is going to be 2 lower than a Drow, so it makes it less ideal for CC/Insta kill, but still completely viable. The self-healing aspect is huge, then throw in the immunities too, and it's just so nice.

[toord]

Alright .. after looking at Mr. Cow's screenshot ... someone plz own up Yes, I can now believe that sorcs can do solo well. However, what's the "trick"? How do you deal with traps? Mob rooms? Do you kill everything in front of you or you charm/stop and then move on? What about end-game tactics? The final enemy should be plenty a challenge, how do you deal with the last guy's cronies/henchmen? I guess I'd like to see more of a "chronicles of a self-sufficient sorc" than just looking at raw stats.

Peace.

[Blind_Skwerl]

It depends on your style of play and the quest objectives, etc. Pay close attention to quest objectives. Sometimes almost no killing is necessary. Run like Forrest Gump to the end, past everything, and take care of business there (big firewalls, acid fog, etc.). Or invisible and sneaking can do it too. Charming occasional mobs can also keep the heat off of you so you can get through casually. Or if there are plenty of shrining options (inside OR right outside the instance), PK/FoD/Banish everything along the way.