the lightning question

[Starkey]

Hello all!

Y'all will have to excuse me for seeming a bit noob-ish on this subject, but I've been reading up on the forums and I've been wondering where the love is for lightning.

Yes, it seems fire/ice is the most efficient/damaging way to go, but I'm really engaged towards a build that is geared towards acid/lightning. My main fear is finding groups that would be willing to accept my build, notably pugs, which I'm usually in 99% of the time.

My question is that would it be foolish of me to follow through? I know there's a build that allows to "almost have it all" but would you guys consider it really dumb to make acid/lightning my primary damage output? Would I be judged negatively or even dropped if I chose a lightning spell over firewall or CoC?

I guess I'm just really confused. I haven't much experience on the high end, and kill kill kill isn't exactly my mechanic moreso than teamwork.

Any advice/feedback would be appreciated - thanks!

[Desteria]

There is nothign Wrong with a acid lighning sorc, frankly in some of the current(ish) [shroud is tecnicaly gettign long in the tooth but realyl it;s still current], you will actualy out perform a fire/cold sorc.....

That being said what I'd do is go for primarly acid/lighning with a touch of fire/cold....
What i mena by that is take your 40% acid/lighnting, get most/all the acid/lighning crit AP's, BUT still take at least 30% fire/cold damage, and i'd suggest takign FW and maby one cold spell... really FW is simply to insainly efficent damage and MUCH faster then the acid spelsl that can do huge damage btu take 3 and a half years to do it, and if stuff has resist 30 for the acid spelsl it;s a HUGE hit to there damage...
FW is dubble damage on undead and that makes it insainy efficent against them.
I fell you can safly skill all teh fire/codl crit AP's but takign one level of the crit chance would definely not hurt you either

really nukign is ONLY a small part of what sorcs do and really mostly only on boss mobs we cant use other stuff on CC or instakill or buffing the party are much more eficent and a better usage of your time most of the time

[Mistinarperadnacles]

I used to be Necromancy, Acid, Lightning specced in spells, enhancements and equipment.

After getting sick of people whinging to various degrees that I didn't have Wall of Fire or Cone of Cold/Polar Ray and discovering how very very far behind in damage anything not Wall of Fire is, I had to make some changes.

Some Necromancy debuff spells, whilst very cool weren't effective (Contagion (doesn't hit hard enough - 1 minute resave timer. Waves of Exhaustion - cast from a scroll is exactly as effective as it has no save etc.) So I reassigned some spells to carry Wall of Fire and reassigned some enhancements to make use of it.

I still have Spell Focus (and Greater) Necromancy and still have Acid Fog. When I get some more speel slots at level cap, Chain Lightning will be back too.

The other problem is resists and bonuses. Wall of Fire does double damage to undead. This is huge. Yes, some things are resistant or immune to fire damage, but that's what Cone of Cold is for as they mostly take double from cold in that case. Much more things are immune to electric damage and acid damage whilst less resisted won't stack. I can Wall of Fire something and then Fireball it and get both damage, but I can't Melfs Acid Arrow it and drop an Acid Rain on there too - the acid type tick damage just won't stack.

Both electric and acid don't have any double damage effects on certain creature types (maybe one monster, ut not a whole category as prevelant as "undead")


I'm really hoping that the Elemental Savant prestige enhancements feature the Elemental Substitution aspects - i.e. As an Air Savant, I can make Wall of Fire into Wall of Electricity and so on. Then I'll be happy to go fully Electric/Acid once again.

[Merkinsal]

You can easily get to third level enhancements in damage and 2nd level in both crit lines for both fire/ice and acid/elec, and still max out your spell penetration. With both Superior Potency and Superior Lore items you will be hitting for a lot of damage in both lines. You mention pugs but no one but you knows your build. You will be doing well enough they won't know the difference. Carry cone of cold and firewall because there are no better spells and leaving them out really hampers your effectiveness, but you can still take acid fog and chain lightning for example and be very effective there too. You don't really need more than two lines of Energy of the Dragonblooded and that will give you 7 more points to spread around. The number of nuke spells you throw is not nearly as important as the correct spell at the correct time and often times a well placed web or fog for crowd control is better than 10 firewalls or bolts of lighting. Let the melee have their day and use those spell points wisely. You will have plenty to do the job.

[Desteria]

You can easily get to third level enhancements in damage and 2nd level in both crit lines for both fire/ice and acid/elec, and still max out your spell penetration. With both Superior Potency and Superior Lore items you will be hitting for a lot of damage in both lines. You mention pugs but no one but you knows your build. You will be doing well enough they won't know the difference. Carry cone of cold and firewall because there are no better spells and leaving them out really hampers your effectiveness, but you can still take acid fog and chain lightning for example and be very effective there too. You don't really need more than two lines of Energy of the Dragonblooded and that will give you 7 more points to spread around. The number of nuke spells you throw is not nearly as important as the correct spell at the correct time and often times a well placed web or fog for crowd control is better than 10 firewalls or bolts of lighting. Let the melee have their day and use those spell points wisely. You will have plenty to do the job.

Agree with everthign in teh wall of text above..... EXCEPT Cone of cold... some of the lightnign spells replace it VERY well ball/CHAIN both do a godo job I agree carry oen cold spell BUT polar ray with no save for stuf fliek elite harry who will evade all the lightning spells and has enough acid resist to render acid spells basicaly points less, is imo a better choice... that and level 5 spells ATM can be semi tight IF you want a lit spell there....

[tinyelvis]

There is nothing wrong with choosing Acid/Electric instead of Fire/Cold. No where is it written in stone that you have to play a super effective sorcerer. Have fun, play how you like.

[dormetheus]

I have recently rolled a lite sorc just to play something "a bit different". I know that in early/mid levels (when you wouldn't have WoF anyway), quite a few of the bosses are immune/resistant to fire.

I enjoyed walking away from a norm SC (i was the highest level at 6) after 3-shotting the giant (screw pulling the earth ellie), or blasting the marut in Von3 to nothing (thanks for the DVs, though).

Mostly, I get tired of pugs telling where I need to throw a firewall.

At higher levels, I dunno. I will take WoF, if for no other reason than the lack of lite spells at that level.

And, it seems to me, for a nuke type sorc, acid fog would be the ideal fog to have in your arsenal.

Again, my sorc is only 7, we'll see how the later game plays out....

P.S.

I'll tell you one thing though. DDO is really buggy when it comes to line-of-site targetting. Get used to throwing bolts into random geometry (especially floors/ledges) if you aren't eye-to-eye level with the mob.

NEEDS FIX

[Samadhi]

First, the lines are - not counting one exception - pretty equivalent to each other in terms to DPS potential. The exception is the persistent AOE firewall which - like blade barrier - hits with the force of an instant but with the possibility of repeated hits with proper mob positioning. If firewall was available with a "choose your element" distinction, I would hazard to say that all of the lines of damage are reasonably close to each other. This is not the case however.

More to the point of your question - spec'ing for acid/lit is not going to make you gimp in any way shape or form. Not taking the firewall spell, for many quests, will. Spec for acid/lit all day long. Just remember to still take firewall because its unique properties make it too useful to skip.

[shores11]

Hello all!

Y'all will have to excuse me for seeming a bit noob-ish on this subject, but I've been reading up on the forums and I've been wondering where the love is for lightning.

Yes, it seems fire/ice is the most efficient/damaging way to go, but I'm really engaged towards a build that is geared towards acid/lightning. My main fear is finding groups that would be willing to accept my build, notably pugs, which I'm usually in 99% of the time.

My question is that would it be foolish of me to follow through? I know there's a build that allows to "almost have it all" but would you guys consider it really dumb to make acid/lightning my primary damage output? Would I be judged negatively or even dropped if I chose a lightning spell over firewall or CoC?

I guess I'm just really confused. I haven't much experience on the high end, and kill kill kill isn't exactly my mechanic moreso than teamwork.

Any advice/feedback would be appreciated - thanks!

My wizard is lightning/acid speced and has been for a very for almost 3 years now. I have never had a problem in any group or finding one. A lightning speced wizard will critical hit for around 1100 to 1200 hp of damage with both lightning ball and chain lightning thats not to bad. Plus lightning gets you RED numbers against the Pit Fiend as well so there is no minus to it. I also use acid fog, melfs arrow a lot and like the results very much.

Note: I do keep firewall learned though as it is needed. Not being fire speced I do not damage as much as a fire speced wizard but I do about 400 hp damage per pulse using empower and maximise.

[shores11]

First, the lines are - not counting one exception - pretty equivalent to each other in terms to DPS potential. The exception is the persistent AOE firewall which - like blade barrier - hits with the force of an instant but with the possibility of repeated hits with proper mob positioning. If firewall was available with a "choose your element" distinction, I would hazard to say that all of the lines of damage are reasonably close to each other. This is not the case however.

More to the point of your question - spec'ing for acid/lit is not going to make you gimp in any way shape or form. Not taking the firewall spell, for many quests, will. Spec for acid/lit all day long. Just remember to still take firewall because its unique properties make it too useful to skip.

I agree nice post.

[Pyromaniac]

If we get the opportunity to change our element (crosses fingers) on spells, then we won't all have to be fire/cold based

[dormetheus]

I've also noticed that acid rain's duration seems to be broken and lasts only 5 seconds, even if you extend it.

Theoretically, acid rain has more damage potential than firewall (aside from a shorter, apparently broken duration), since it does base 3d4 to all within it, rather than firewall's base 2d6 to those mobs that "pass through it" (center wall damage).

Some feedback on this discrepency would be awesome.

[Desteria]

I've also noticed that acid rain's duration seems to be broken and lasts only 5 seconds, even if you extend it.

Theoretically, acid rain has more damage potential than firewall (aside from a shorter, apparently broken duration), since it does base 3d4 to all within it, rather than firewall's base 2d6 to those mobs that "pass through it" (center wall damage).

Some feedback on this discrepency would be awesome.

Fire wall does 2d6+LEVEL (max at +15 i belive) to those that pass through it acid rain will never beat FW.

[Damionic]

In relation to the (will 99% dump me if I go E/A) If you play like a idiot then it wont matter what spec you are.. (not suggesting you play like an idiot)

There is still a lot of hypocrisy regarding E/A builds..but on the whole most people are forgiving..some people will just dump anyone that hasent got wall of fire..out of spite/ignorence

but play it your own way..once you get a reputation for knowing how to play..then most walls will crumble...

Elec/Acid builds are great fun to play..thoe i'd suggest going wizard first..then picking sorc for a challenge..