Sorcerer Newbie

[mcross]

OK total Sorc newbie. I'm not the best in the world at clickfests which probably makes me a poor candidate to play a sorc but you just can't duplicate the feeling of being a human flamethrower ; ).

I have a host of very basic questions and here are a few. I've got the whole burning hands thing pretty well down but area of effect spells are a problem. Whats the best way to target them. Since they don't affect your party members do you just pick out someone in the middle of a mob, click them then the spell? I took hypnotize as a crowd control spell. From the description it made it sound like you just needed to click the spell and it would automatically target nearby enemies but everytime I do that I get a message something like "spell usage failure not target selected". So it appears I need to target someone? Spells like Niacs seem difficult to use in big combats since you have to have a specific target and nobody will stand still ; ). Any suggestions on the basics of spell casting would be appreciated. Thanks.

[MrWizard]

aoe spells that leave an effect, like fog, ckill, or symbols, I usually try not to target anything because if it dies while you are casting, you usually lose the cast and points. I use the mouse look to 'point' my toon in the desired location, down long way aways, etc..(takes time to learn that) and then cast. Once cast If I do not change position or facing, I can cast multiple AOE in that same exact spot to layer (like mind fog, cloudkill, soild fog, firewall, etc)

AOE spells that are one timers, like hypnotize, I use the tab key to pick a dude in the middle of a big group and click it. If I am being run down by a huge mob I use the ~/` key to pick closest and then cast. This usually gets the closest one and those around him. And also blocks the rest.

If the party is fighting and another group is coming in to attack them, I try to 'tab' through or click on one of them and hypno or whatever them, so they do not break upon my comrades. This allows them to finish their fight and then take on more.

Always good to concetrate on a caster or archer first for a one shot deal as many players will ignore them in combat, even though they should not. In a big melee, I tab through until archer or caster comes up.
Good caster spells- feeblemind, hold person/monster/ FoD, FtS, blindness, PK, charm (for archers only).
Archers usually have precision or other cool stuff, so a good charm will dice up the enemy really good. Chamring casters is scary and they break quicker it seems.

Really, the best thing to do is just try out lots of spells. I always say a wizard is the best type to try first as you can really check out all spell types and change all the time....Just enjoy and be prepared for some people to diss you on spell selection.

There are enough spells to pick many crowd control, direct damage, and aoes of all types...so just enjoy.

[Kargon]

Yup kargon think the key are tab buttomon. tab generamally starts with the closest enemamy first and the more times hit it the farthermer away enemamies get targettamed. so if are having trouble with lots of targamets in a big chaotamic battle and suddenly some big ogre come charging straight at you and have to targamet it quick, hitting escape to clear current targamet and then tab to start again at nearamest enemamy work pretty well for kargon.

Kargon tab targamet for ray spells like niacs, most of the time if enemamy are bunched up use it for aoe spell like burnaming hands or firemaball or cone of cold (but try to tab to somemabody in middle of group rathermer than front), tab or click enemamy from long range for instakill spells, and for cc spells depending on spell eithermer tab target to somemathing in middle of group or hit escape to make sure not target anymathing and hold mouse button down to bring up circle targettaming reticle then cast spell at spot on floor kargon want it.

[DelScorcho]

tab with insta kill, mouse with any spell where bad placement will get me killed.

[mcross]

OK, I've seen some posts that talk about sorcs taking a lot of points in jump to use to get away from the inevitable aggro your spells will engender from the adoring monster public. I've also heard people discuss Diplomacy as an alternative. How do you use Diplomacy on a mob (or even a single monster) and what's the effect?

[Merkinsal]

40 is the max jump and you can get that at higher levels with the jump spell and some boots of +10. Any points in jump are probably not needed. The spell and whatever gear you find until you get to +40 should be good enough.

Don't forget to take umd at every level.

Diplomacy, target the dude who has agro on you and push it. Will want that if do not have Quicken feat. I have alot of it and can count on one hand the number of times I have used it lol. I prefer to duke it out lol, weave like a butterfly sting like a bee to steal a phrase. In other words, jump.