The Sorcerer's Handbook: A Guide to Building and Playing Sorcerers

[Aspenor]

THIS POST IS EXTREMELY OUTDATED. FOLLOW IT IN TODAY'S GAME AT YOUR OWN RISK.

The Sorcerer's Handbook: A Guide to Building and Playing Sorcerers
By: Aspenor the Beholder Slayer

Why do we play sorcerers? Because in DDO, sorcerers are the true arcane powerhouse. In pen and paper D&D, the wizard has the upper-hand on the sorcerer due to his vast array of choices and versatility. In DDO the versatility advantage is drastically reduced due to several reasons:
- There aren't really that many spells that are useful.
- The sorcerer is a charisma-based spellcasting class, and charisma powers the UMD skill.
- There aren't enough useful skills in DDO to give intelligence-based spellcasters a worthwhile benefit.
- The spell point system of DDO favors the sorcerer greatly.

Racial Comparison
From an OP perspective, there are really only 3 races to choose from when building a sorcerer. These races and their benefits are as follows:
- Human - The human sorcerer has the advantage of extra skill points. There are only a few useful skills for a sorcerer, but having the extra skill points makes it easy to optimize. Additionally, the bonus feat humans receive at level one can be a major bonus throughout the course of the life of the build.
- Warforged - Although the warforged sorcerer suffers a penalty to his primary casting stat, he also gains a racial boost to his second most important stat, constitution. Additionally, the warforged sorcerer finds his racial immunities and arcane magic-powered self-healing to be extremely useful.
- Drow - The drow sorcerer gains a racial boost to his primary casting stat, a "free" skill point for his racial boost to intelligence, but suffers a penalty to his constitution.

My opinion -
In my honest opinion, there are only two races from which sorcerers should be built, from an OP perspective. These races are human and warforged. The drow sorcerer will be quite a bit more squishy than either of these racial choices, and only gains +1 DC over a human and a few spell points for his lack of hit points. He gains +2 DC over the warforged, but will be quite a bit less survivable due to the warforged's easy self-heals and racial immunities/toughness. These DC advantages have changed slightly since the release of the Ring of the Silver Concord and the Cloak of the Silver Concord. A human can now have the same DC as a drow with equal, maxxed out gear, but the drow saves 6 AP on the last tier of Sorcerer's Charisma that they won't have to purchase.

This, of course, assumes that you have 32 point builds. If you don't, you may want to choose a drow.

Stat allocation
A sorcerer will almost always want to max his charisma, unless you are building a melee/sorcerer hybrid. This thread is not going to discuss these hybrids. The second most important stat is constitution. Constitution governs the sorcerer's hit points and fortitude saves.

From a min/max OP perspective, these are the main two stats to be worried about. You can forget almost everything else.
- Strength: Strength gives bonuses to melee to-hit and damage. What kind of idiot full spellcaster hits anything with a weapon? The only use for strength to a sorcerer is to prevent being rendered helpless by strength damage. This can easily be avoided by drinking bull's strength potions at low levels, and wearing a strength item at the higher levels. Don't waste those precious stat points.
- Dexterity: Dexterity gives a sorcerer a higher armor class and higher reflex saves. However, beyond the lowest levels, the sorcerer is wasting his time by trying to have armor class and reflex saves. He has resistance and protection spells to make up for his clumsiness. He has stoneskin and displacement to make up for his lack of armor class. The ranged touch attack does not exist in DDO, thus making dexterity useless for all those ray spells.
- Intelligence: A sorcerer should only take enough intelligence to have enough skill points to max ranks in 3 or 4 chosen skills. My recommendation is 3 skill points/level, you may wish to have 4. Five skill points per level is a waste of stat allocation points.
- Wisdom: Wisdom gives a bonus to will saves for a sorcerer, and that's all it offers. Sorcerers have the high will save progression, and thus allocating stat points to wisdom is more often than not a waste. If you are really worried about those will saves, take Force of Personality to add your charisma bonus to will saves instead of wisdom.

Skill Point Allocation
First, you will want to make choices on which skills you wish your sorcerer to have. The following skills are, generally speaking, the only useful skills for a sorcerer.
-Concentration: This skill is of utmost importance to any sorcerer, despite the availability of the Quicken Spell metamagic feat. Quickened spells cost a lot of extra spell points, and you don't get hit every time you cast a spell. Running around with Quicken on all the time is a ridiculous drain on spell points for little benefit. Maximize your concentration skill at all times.
-Use Magic Device: Use Magic Device (or UMD) is probably the single most powerful skill in DDO. A sorcerer uses his UMD skill to have access to divine spellcasting via scrolls. A sorcerer, with his high charisma, can easily raise dead, or with UMD boosting loot resurrect his party members. A fleshy sorcerer with high UMD can easily heal himself with heal scrolls at high levels, and at lower levels can use wands for cheaper healing (and faster healing, when used in combination with potions).
-Diplomacy: Diplomacy is the twitch-players backup for armor class. Diplomacy drops the sorcerer to the bottom of a monster's aggro list for 6 seconds, and it has a 6 second cooldown. You'd have to be dense to not see the synergy there, and the usefulness of the skill. Sorcerer's get a lot of aggro throwing fireballs all over the place. With the simple press of a hotkey the sorcerer can shed all aggro onto either a more sturdy party member, or a charmed monster lackey. It's charisma-based, and thus sorcerers can use it to great results even though it's not a class skill.
- Intimidate: You, as a player, may decide that you WANT aggro. You may want to be able to grab it all to group monsters up for one big blast. You may want it to keep monsters cooking in your walls of fire. Whatever the reason, intimidate is another great skill. It's not for everybody, but can be supremely useful. It's charisma-based, and thus sorcerers can use it to great results even though it's not a class skill.
-Balance: Many other players swear by having balance on a sorcerer. Personally, it's not my preference. What the skill will do, though, might be save your ass. Balance helps you stand up quicker when tripped or knocked down.

Now that we have the essential building blocks of the sorcerer, we discuss different types of sorcerers, playstyles, and spell lists.

Please PM me the link to your sorc build if you'd like to be sponsored by this thread. I am aware not all players want the same sorc, I want to give people some options.

[Aspenor]

In this section I will discuss the various feat choices of a sorcerer. Luckily, in DDO, we have feat respecs which make it easy and beneficial to make your feat choices as you level up based on what you need *right now* since you can just change all of them later.

Your choice of spellcaster "type" is important for determining your feat selection. Some schools of magic don't require caster level checks to pass spell resistance, for example, and if you're exclusively a buffer/conjurer/evoker, you might as well not bother with spell penetration feats.

The Generalist

Remember that humans get a bonus feat at level 1.

This progression is for new players that don't have feat swap shards lying around.


Level 1 - Empower Spell
Empower spell is much less costly than Maximize Spell, and at the lowest levels it functions just as well. The spell points you conserve could be the difference between winning and dieing. You take this feat at level 1 to dump out the damage when you really need to.
Recommended human bonus feat: Force of Personality
This feat puts your will save out of reach for nearly any enemy to get a will-save spell to stick. You will need to roll a 1.

Level 3 - Extend Spell
You might as well take extend spell at this level. Your buff spells, if any, will be pretty short duration without it and you will have to recast them, which is annoying.

Level 6 - Extend Spell / Maximize Spell
If you didn't take extend spell at 3, take it now at 6. You now have haste, and you want to extend this spell as often as possible. If you took extend spell at 3, take maximize spell at level 6. Turn on maximize when you're looking for massive damage output in the least amount of time with little regard for your spell point pool. This will often occur during a fight with the BBEG right after you've rested (e.g. Stormcleave).

Level 9 - Heighten Spell
This is your chance to flesh out your metamagics. If you haven't by now, dump your mental toughness feat if you took it. Use heighten spell on your lower level spells to increase the DC to that of your highest level spells. Spells that this works great on include: charm person, hypnotize, web.

Level 12 - Spell Penetration
At this level we take spell penetration in preparation for the highest level enemies, most of which have high spell resistance. If you're planning on casting any spells that aren't conjurations or evocations, you had better have this feat. If you're going to be exclusively casting buffs and conjurations/evocations, mental toughness is acceptable for this feat.

Level 15 - Greater Spell Penetration
Take this feat to further increase your caster level checks vs. enemy spell resistance. This assumes, again, that you're planning on casting other spells that aren't conjurations or evocations (neither of which require caster level check rolls). Again, if you're going that route, improved mental toughness is an acceptable feat for this level.

Level 18 - Toughness / Force of Personality / Your choice of Spell Focus
If you don't have FoP yet, you may want to take it now. If you don't want to take it, a few more hit points couldn't hurt. Additionally, you may wish to take a spell focus in some school of magic. As most of the bases are already covered, the feat at level 18 is very open-ended.

End-Game Feats at level 20
Make sure you have Empower, Maximize, Extend, Spell Penetration, and Greater Spell Penetration. After that, everything else is just gravy.

For the Veterans

This progression is for veterans that have feat swap shards banked.

Level 1 - Spell Focus: Conjuration
Boosts DC on Niac's Cold Ray and Acid Spray.

Human Bonus Feat - Force of Personality
For near immunity to will-based effects.

Level 3 - Empower Spell
For dumping out the DPS when you really need it (like boss fights).

Level 6 - Maximize Spell
Because a maximized fireball pwns everything at this level.
Feat Swap: Spell Focus: Conjuration for Extend Spell

Level 9 - Spell Focus: *Your chosen spell school*
Personally I take evocation, but to each their own of course.

Level 12 - Heighten Spell

Level 15 - Greater Spell Focus: *Your chosen school* / Spell Penetration

Level 18 - Toughness / Greater Spell Penetration

[Aspenor]

This is only a loose guide for spell choices. You may want other spells depending on what you want your sorc to do. Also, please note that this run-down is not especially party-friendly. You may choose to take Haste earlier because you want to buff up your party with it. You may choose to take other CC spells in favor of the damage spells I prefer. It's all a matter of preference.

Spell choices: 1st level
Acid Spray, Niac's Cold Ray
Niacs is for single-target damage output. It is the highest damage spell for first level available, and it works well on early mobs, especially casters.

Spell Choice: 2nd level
Hypnotism
Will save spell, useful for making groups of mobs stand still. A sorceror can spam cast 2-3 hypnotisms and render entire crowds immobile. I recommend taking this at 2nd level to help control crowds.

Spell Choice: 3rd Level
Charm Person
At early levels you will want to be able to short-man quests, and you will want to be able to take control of the baddies to fight for you. Charm Person works on kobolds and hobgoblins, the common enemies in the early game.A sorceror should remember melee mobs have low will, and caster mobs have low dex, so charm the fighting types and kill the caster types.

Spell Choice: 4th level
Web or Resist Energy
Web is the fundamental crowd control spell in the game. Learn it, use it, and master it. Being able to use this spell effectively will help you use others later down the line. Resist energy is a MUST HAVE for a sorceror. Taking this spell early also makes your sorceror more able to short-man quests for quicker experience. You can make due with your first level spells for CC and damage. A veteran may also prefer to take Resist Energy first, since they should have experience with the types of energy enemy spell casters will use on various difficulty levels, and for being prepared for traps.

Spell Choice: 5th Level
Web or Resist Energy
Whichever one is not chosen at 4th, take it at 5th.

Spell Chice: 6th Level
Fireball, Haste or Acid Blast
Everybody loves haste. You know you can't live without it. At low levels there is nothing like hasting a fighter. Alternatively, like in my case, I solo a lot through lower levels and prefer having fireball. I don't need to attack fast, and I can use striders to run past monsters and gather them up in a group for a single mass kill with a well-placed fireball. Acid Blast is Fireball with the acid damage type. I actually prefer Acid Blast to Fireball, as it damages pretty much everything in quests.

Spell Choice: 7th Level
2nd Level - Blur
3rd Level - Fireball / Haste / Lightning Bolt / Acid Blast
Blur will be your first defensive buff. KEEP YOURSELF BLURRED. You have no AC. Damage avoidance is your only way to survive. I chose to add Lightning Bolt here as an alternative to magic missile for killing the boss in Stormcleave, as well as for use on other fire immunes if Niac's isn't landing for you. Alternatively, you may use Acid Blast the same way you use Fireball, for the same things you'd use Lightning Bolt. Lots of options here.

Spell Choice: 8th level
8th level spell selection is very subjective. It depends on your build. Are you an instant-death build? You want PK. Are you a direct damage build? You want Wall of Fire. Are you a charm build? Charm monster.
My chosen spell at this level is Wall of Fire.

Spell Choices: 9th level
W00T!! We get 3 spells this level!
2nd Level - Scorching Ray
3rd Level - Displacement
4th Level - Wall of Fire
Displacement is a MUST HAVE for a sorceror. 50% miss chance will save your tail regularly. Use this spell, and use it often when you get aggro.
Scorching Ray - staple single-target damage spell. At low levels it is less useful, due to 1 ray only. It now has 2.
Wall of Fire - Staple damage over time, area of effect spell. Learn to love it. You'll be jumping around in it like a jackrabbit on crack.

Spell Choices: 10th level
5th level - Hold Monster or Ball Lightning
Hold Monster is your new Melee destruction spell. Being attacked by a fighter type mob? HOLD THEM. Will save spell. Ball Lightning is like a lightning Fireball with higher damage dice cap. It can replace Acid Blast.

Recommended spell swap:
Hypnotism for Jump
With your casting speed on hold monster, hypnotism is not necessary. Use web for group control, if necessary.
Acid Blast for Haste

Spell Choices: 11th Level
3rd Level - Protection from energy
4th Level - Stoneskin
5th Level - Cone of Cold
Displacement and Stoneskin are your armor. Use it, love it. Live it.
Protection from energy may seem like it is unnecessary, but you won't think so when you get hit with 100 damage lightning and 180 damage polar rays. Damage mitigation is your friend. Cone of Cold is your new burning hands, except much better. Especially useful on fire monsters.

Spell choices: 12th level
6th Level - Flesh to Stone or Disintegrate
This spell is your new caster-stopper. It is a fort save, and clerics/caster types have low con. Use it, and love it. Spam it, if you must. Damage dealers may choose disintegrate, which kills golems easily and damages other constructs. It also can kill many caster enemies in one shot.

Spell Choices: 13th Level
4th Level-Enervation
5th level-Break Enchantment
6th Level-Flesh to Stone
Enervation is your debuff spell. Hit tough mobs with an enervation (it has no save) and then PK to your heart's content.
Break Enchantment is great for clearing away enemy AoE effects.
Flesh to Stone is a nice spell to have for situational purposes, and is also a great enemy caster stopper.

Spell Choice: 14th Level
7th - Finger of Death
Single fortitude save or die, consider to replace PK unless you LOVE instant kills. This spell will kill caster monsters instantly 95% of the time.

Consider swapping PK for Dimension Door. Dimension Door scrolls are rare and valuable, and it's a great utility spell to have. Another option is Fire Shield, which makes you immune to webs and reduces fire/cold damage by 50%.

Spell Choice: 15th Level
5th - Protection from Elements OR your choice - It's nice to cast protections just once, and since our choices at level 5 are thin, you can also decide to take any other spell that catches your eye. Replaces Protection from Energy, swap this for Rage (+2 Strength, Constitution) for more hit points
6th - Reconstruct - You will be expected to have this spell to heal warforged tanks in raids. You need not invest in the enhancements if you don't feel like it.
7th - Waves of Exhaustion or Delayed Blast Fireball - Waves is a great debuff spell. Minus 6 to strength and dexterity AoE. Gives -3 to hit, damage, and armor class for enemies and slows them down. Works great on BBEG types. Delayed Blast Fireball is a 20d6 capped Fireball. It should replace many of your AoE burst damage spells, with exception for when monsters are immune.

Spell Choice: 16th Level
Polar Ray - Ice damage ray spell, no save. Works great on fire elementals, and BBEG types that have high saves and/or evasion.


Spell Choice: 17th Level
Incendiary Cloud - lower fire damage damage-over-time. Works well on the Abbot. Burns for a very, very long time.
or
Otto's Irresistable Dance - Great spell, no save single-target crowd control. It's only drawback is the casting range, which is touch, and is subject to spell resistance.

Spell Choice: 18th Level
Wail of the Banshee - Area of Effect Finger of Death centered on the caster, fortitude save or die and subject to spell resistance. Extremely useful for killing groups of low fortitude monsters like fire bats in VOD, or mephits in Genesis Point. Also great for favor running.

Spell Choice: 19th Level
9th level - Energy Drain - 2d4 negative levels, just like enervation. It effectively replaces enervation, therefore:
Swap Enervation for Fire Shield, which has two options, fire and cold versions. Each version reduces damage from the opposite element by 50%, and does a small amount of damage when you are hit. It also makes you immune to web.
8th Level - Trap the Soul - will save or die, bypasses instant death wards. The only problem is that it has very expensive components, and is subject to spell resistance (you dont want to waste components on this one)
or
Repair Critical Damage - Mass - For repairing lots of warforged

Spell Choice: 20th Level
This one is a big toss-up. Make a personal decision here. I currently favor Mass Hold Monster.

[Aspenor]

The enhancements you choose are highly dependent upon the type of sorcerer you want to play. Instead of posting lists of enhancements actually taken, I will explain enhancements and their usefulness for a sorcerer.

Sorcerer Class Enhancements

[Spell Damage Type] Manipulation - These increase the damage output of your spells of the type designated by the damage type descriptor. The available choices are: Fire/Ice, Electricity/Acid, and Force/Repair. Typically a sorcerer will always take fire/ice to the max, because your staple damage spells are usually fire or cold based. Electricity/Acid is useful for a sorcerer that wishes to be a pure nuker all the way through the game, since electricity spells work well on devils. Force/Repair is useful for a sorcerer concerned about casting magic/force missile type spells, and for repairing friendly warforged.

Lineage of [Spell Damage Type] - These enhancements increase the spell critical chance of your spells of the energy descriptor type. A typical sorcerer has full ranks of all fire/ice spell critical chance to maximize their damage output. If you are a pure nuker type sorcerer, it can be extremely useful to maximize your investment in lightning/acid as well. A sorcerer concerned about utilizing force spells will invest ranks in this enhancement for force, but personally I do not take them since force spells are not exactly a high DPS option.

Lineage of Deadly [Spell Damage Type] - These enhancements increase the spell critical damage of your spells of the energy descriptor type. The higher your investment in these, the more damage your spells will do on a critical spell roll. Usually a sorcerer takes full investment in fire/ice damage enhancements, and chooses their investment in the others based on their build plan (explained a bit above in the spell critical chance entry).

Sorcerer's Charisma - These increase your charisma score, manipulate your investment in these enhancements to make sure your charisma score is always as high as possible, and always on an even number to get the most bang for your buck.

Wand and Scroll Mastery - These enhancements increase the damage done by your wands and scrolls. They also increase the healing offered from cure wands and heal scrolls, which is their primary use to a sorcerer. I recommend taking at least 2 ranks of this enhancement, taking more may or may not be worth the action points to you.

Wand Heightening - These enhancements are a waste, do not take them for any reason.

Sorcerer Bluff - These enhancements are a turkey, just like the bluff skill. Do not take them.

Sorcerer Concentration - Useful as a filler enhancement if you find you need to spend ranks to qualify for other, more useful, enhancements. I don't recommend spending more ranks here than you absolutely must to qualify for other enhancements.

Improved [Metamagic] - These enhancements help your spell point pool go further. I like improved heighten and maximize, but wouldn't bother with the others. I only spent action points on one tier of Heighten, and at most 2 ranks of Maximize. There are too many useful enhancements and a sorcerer has too many spell points to be especially concerned with maximizing these enhancements.

Improved Spell Penetration - Take these enhancements if you often cast spells that call for a spell resistance check on monsters. If you don't often cast spells with caster level checks for spell resistance, it doesn't make much sense to be worried about these enhancements. They are highly dependent on your spell list.

Subtle Spellcasting - I would never invest in these enhancements, there are better ways to manage monster aggression than spending action points.

Drow Racial Enhancements

Drow Enchantment Resistance
Nice for a drow without Force of Personality, to up those will saving throws.

Drow Spell Resistance
These enhancements are a turkey. Don't take them for any reason.

Elven Arcane Fluidity
Armored spellcaster? Yeah right. Don't bother.

Drow Weapon Attack/Damage
Haha yeah right.

Racial Toughness
I would recommend opening both tiers of this. Take Toughness and max out this line. You gain 42 hit points.

Human Racial Enhancements

Human Improved Recovery
This is a nice enhancement to have one or two tiers in, but putting in the maximum is not necessary and could be considered a waste of action points.

Human Versatility
Nice for the boost to skills, but the short-term bonus makes it not as useful for things you'd like to have all the time (like UMD).

Human Adaptability
Always take the first tier of this in Charisma. The second tier is pretty expensive, and if it puts you on an even number you might choose to take it in Constitution. Not essential in second tier, though.

Racial Toughness
I would recommend opening all 3 tiers of this. Take Toughness, take Greater Human Adaptability Con, and max out this line. You gain up to 72 hit points depending on gear and modifiers.

Warforged Racial Enhancements

Warforged Healer's Friend
A tier or two is nice for getting healed by others. This won't happen much, though, so don't max it out.

Warforged Construct Thinking
Nice to pad your will saves on a warforged without Force of Personality.

Warforged Tactics
No way.

Warforged Improved Power Attack
No.

Warforged Constitution
More hit points? Yes please.

Warforged Inscribed Armor
Take the first tier for 0% ASF, then stop.

Racial Toughness
I would recommend opening all 4 tiers of this. Take Toughness, take both WF CON enhancements, and max out this line. You gain 82 hit points.

[Aspenor]

*will do lower levels when I get around to it*

End-Game Targets
Head: Minos Legens
Neck: Torq of Prince Raiyum / Noxious Embers / Smedgar's or Shiona's Necklace
Goggles: Supreme Tyrant Green Steel Goggles of Positive Energy (or Air) : Wizardry VI, +150 SP, +6 Charisma-based skills
Trinket: Head of Good Fortune / Litany of the Dead
Robe: Blue Dragonscale / Dragontouched 1 (Greater False Life, Constitution +6, Greater Spell Penetration VIII) / Dragontouched 2 (Greater False Life, Constitution +6, Glacial Assault) / Dragontouched 3 (Greater False Life, Constitution +6, Potency VIII) / Dragontouched 4 (Greater False Life, Constitution +6, Earthen Guard)
Bracers: Bracers of the Glacier / Bracers of the Demonic Consort / Tier III Green Steel HP item (Recommend Tempered with Con skills for +13 Concentration)
Gloves: Gloves of the Glacier / Seven-Fingered Gloves / Vile Blasphemy
Cloak: Stormreaver's Napkin
Belt: Rahkir's Sash / Vorne's Belt / Full Set of Savant Belts
Boots: Feather Falling Boots / Green Steel Boots of Useful Effect (Negative boots for immunity, fire absorption boots for Abbot, Healing Amplification, or Concordant Opposition, etc.) / Kundarek Delving Boots / Firestorm Greaves
Ring 1: Rahkir's Ring (+6 Intelligence, +1 Exceptional Intelligence, +2 Exceptional Constitution) / Full Set of Fire/Water/Earth/Air Savant Rings (+6 Charisma, +1 Exc [who cares], +2 Exc. Charisma)
Ring 2: Gnawed Ring (+6 Strength, +1 Exceptional Constitution, + 15% Healing Amplification)
Main Hand: Skiver / Superior Potency VI / Greater Potency VII
Off Hand: Supreme Tyrant Green Steel [Weapon] of Air (or Positive Energy) : +6 Charisma, +1 Charisma, +2 Charisma

The above items can all be worn in different "suits" for different situations, needs, and optimal use. For example:

Spell Point Regeneration
Head: Minos Legens
Neck: Torq of Prince Raiyum
Goggles: Supreme Tyrant Green Steel Goggles of Positive Energy (or Air) : Wizardry VI, +150 SP, +6 Charisma-based skills
Trinket: Head of Good Fortune
Robe: Dragontouched 4 (Greater False Life, Constitution +6, Earthen Guard)
Bracers: Tier III Green Steel HP item (Recommend Tempered with Con skills for +13 Concentration) / Bracers of the Demonic Consort (if you've got a GS HP item somewhere else, I highly recommend wearing this for spell point regeneration since it essentially grants stacking DR 6/-
Gloves: Gloves of the Glacier / Seven-Fingered Gloves / Vile Blasphemy
Cloak: Stormreaver's Napkin
Belt: Vorne's Belt
Boots: Green Steel Boots of Useful Effect (Negative boots for immunity, fire absorption boots for Abbot, Healing Amplification, or Concordant Opposition, etc.)
Ring 1: Rahkir's Ring (+6 Intelligence, +1 Exceptional Intelligence, +2 Exceptional Constitution) / Full Set of Fire/Water/Earth/Air Savant Rings (+6 Charisma, +1 Exc [who cares], +2 Exc. Charisma)
Ring 2: Gnawed Ring (+6 Strength, +1 Exceptional Constitution, + 15% Healing Amplification)
Main Hand: Skiver / Superior Potency VI / Greater Potency VII
Off Hand: Supreme Tyrant Green Steel [Weapon] of Air (or Positive Energy) : +6 Charisma, +1 Charisma, +2 Charisma

Standard Nuking
Head: Minos Legens
Neck: Noxious Embers
Goggles: Supreme Tyrant Green Steel Goggles of Positive Energy (or Air) : Wizardry VI, +150 SP, +6 Charisma-based skills
Trinket: Litany of the Dead
Robe: Blue Dragonscale / Dragontouched 1 (Greater False Life, Constitution +6, Greater Spell Penetration VIII) / Dragontouched 2 (Greater False Life, Constitution +6, Glacial Assault) / Dragontouched 3 (Greater False Life, Constitution +6, Potency VIII) / Dragontouched 4 (Greater False Life, Constitution +6, Earthen Guard)
Bracers: Tier III Green Steel HP item (Recommend Tempered with Con skills for +13 Concentration)
Gloves: Seven-Fingered Gloves
Cloak: Stormreaver's Napkin
Belt: Rahkir's Sash / Full Set of Savant Belts
Boots: Feather Falling Boots / Green Steel Boots of Useful Effect (Negative boots for immunity, fire absorption boots for Abbot, Healing Amplification, or Concordant Opposition, etc.) / Kundarek Delving Boots / Firestorm Greaves
Ring 1: Rahkir's Ring (+6 Intelligence, +1 Exceptional Intelligence, +2 Exceptional Constitution)
Ring 2: Gnawed Ring (+6 Strength, +1 Exceptional Constitution, + 15% Healing Amplification)
Main Hand: Superior Potency VI / Greater Potency VII
Off Hand: Supreme Tyrant Green Steel [Weapon] of Air (or Positive Energy) : +6 Charisma, +1 Charisma, +2 Charisma

The items of course can be mixed up for the same situations, depending on what you have or what extra benefits you wish to use...Since many of these items effects overlap.

Spell Penetration
Head: Minos Legens
Neck: Torq of Prince Raiyum / Noxious Embers
Goggles: Supreme Tyrant Green Steel Goggles of Positive Energy (or Air) : Wizardry VI, +150 SP, +6 Charisma-based skills
Trinket: Litany of the Dead
Robe: Dragontouched 1 (Greater False Life, Constitution +6, Greater Spell Penetration VIII)
Bracers: Bracers of the Glacier / Bracers of the Demonic Consort / Tier III Green Steel HP item (Recommend Tempered with Con skills for +13 Concentration)
Gloves: Seven-Fingered Gloves / Vile Blasphemy
Cloak: Stormreaver's Napkin
Belt: Rahkir's Sash / Vorne's Belt / Full Set of Savant Belts
Boots: Feather Falling Boots / Green Steel Boots of Useful Effect (Negative boots for immunity, fire absorption boots for Abbot, Healing Amplification, or Concordant Opposition, etc.) / Kundarek Delving Boots / Firestorm Greaves
Ring 1: Rahkir's Ring (+6 Intelligence, +1 Exceptional Intelligence, +2 Exceptional Constitution) / Full Set of Fire/Water/Earth/Air Savant Rings (+6 Charisma, +1 Exc [who cares], +2 Exc. Charisma)
Ring 2: Gnawed Ring (+6 Strength, +1 Exceptional Constitution, + 15% Healing Amplification)
Main Hand: Skiver / Superior Potency VI / Greater Potency VII
Off Hand: Supreme Tyrant Green Steel [Weapon] of Air (or Positive Energy) : +6 Charisma, +1 Charisma, +2 Charisma

An Epic Sorcerer's Gear
Head: Minos Legens
Neck: Epic Torq of Prince Raiyum-de-II (+6 Constitution) / Noxious Embers
Goggles: Supreme Tyrant Green Steel Goggles of Positive Energy (or Air) : Wizardry VI, +150 SP, +6 Charisma-based skills / Epic Spectacles of Spirit Sight
Trinket: Litany of the Dead
Robe: Epic Red Dragonscale Robe (+6 Constitution, +2 Luck Bonus to skills and saves)
Bracers: Supreme Tyrant Green Steel Bracers of Concordant Opposition (Hit Points)
Gloves: Seven-Fingered Gloves / Vile Blasphemy / Gloves of the Glacier
Cloak: Stormreaver's Napkin / Epic Cloak of the Zephyr (Blindness Immunity) / Epic Cloak of the Silver Concord (+1 Exc. Charisma)
Belt: Rahkir's Sash / Full Set of Savant Belts / Epic Lion-Headed Belt Buckle
Boots: Firestorm Greaves / Epic Kundarek Delving Boots (+6 Strength) / Green Steel of Useful Effect (Tempered perhaps for concentration, with +3 con skills on third tier) / ConcOpp HP Item
Ring 1: Epic Ring of the Silver Concord (Greater False Life)
Other Ring 1: Thamor's Ring (+6 Charisma, +1 Exc. Constitution, +2 Exc. Constitution)
Ring 2: Ann Velsing's / Band of Syberis / Lorinthor's Ring (+6 Strength, +1 Exc. Charisma, +2 Exc. Charisma) / Epic Ring of Spell Storing
Main Hand: Skiver / Epic Green Blade / Upgraded Death's Touch
Off Hand: Supreme Tyrant Green Steel of Air (+6 Charisma, +1 Exc. Charisma, +2 Exc. Charisma)
Two-Handed: Staff of the Petitioner
================================================== ================================================== ====================

Other things to remember:
- You don't need to have a Tier III Glacial Assault item, you can use the Water Savant clickie for the same effect for 9 minutes total. Usually more than enough between shrines. Combine this with a Rahkir's Sash, and you have 12 minutes total between shrines.
- Currently the crit chance/multiplier on the TOD sets does not stack with current gear/enhancements. However, they can be used in tandem with Greater Arcane Lore to have Major Arcane Lore, negating the need to swap lore items altogether.
- Epic gear upgrades are very subjective and depend on your current gear and build needs. Don't take my suggestions blindly, figure out what YOU need and where it needs to go.

[Aspenor]

Work In Progress

[Aspenor]

Merlocke's Evasion Sorcerer

[Tap4black]

Groan...........

[Aspenor]

Groan...........

hey, it's easier than finding and bumping 3 or 4 different threads every time they do a forums dump.

[Kalari]

Good start Aspenor I wont lie I have yet to build a sorc I like have only gotten one out of korthos before scrapping her. Id like to see how to build one that didnt make me yawn at it. Being an arcane powerhouse sounds like fun but playing wizards have spoiled me.

[bobbryan2]

Good start Aspenor I wont lie I have yet to build a sorc I like have only gotten one out of korthos before scrapping her. Id like to see how to build one that didnt make me yawn at it. Being an arcane powerhouse sounds like fun but playing wizards have spoiled me.

That's like saying, "being poor and homeless have spoiled me."

[Darth_Sizzle]

um...

Step 1 - Delete Sorcerer

Step 2 - Roll a Warforged Wizard

'nuff said?

P.S. (to the OP) You should put the "My Opinion" at the top of your post, as well as a disclaimer about your post being an oversimplification.....not to mention (apparently) flame bait. I would think that someone with over 14k posts would know this already, but I guess that's what I get for thinking.

[Aspenor]

P.S. (to the OP) You should put the "My Opinion" at the top of your post, as well as a disclaimer about your post being an oversimplification.....not to mention (apparently) flame bait. I would think that someone with over 14k posts would know this already, but I guess that's what I get for thinking.

Um, no.

What's oversimplified?

and i'm not sure what you mean by flame bait. it's a handbook for people that don't have the knowledge.

[Dark-Star]

You have some gooed info, and some that could be improved on.

Before I take time, are you going to keep this just to your opinions or are you open to input from the community?

[Aspenor]

You have some gooed info, and some that could be improved on.

Before I take time, are you going to keep this just to your opinions or are you open to input from the community?

constructive input is welcome.

posts like this one:

um...

Step 1 - Delete Sorcerer

Step 2 - Roll a Warforged Wizard

'nuff said?

P.S. (to the OP) You should put the "My Opinion" at the top of your post, as well as a disclaimer about your post being an oversimplification.....not to mention (apparently) flame bait. I would think that someone with over 14k posts would know this already, but I guess that's what I get for thinking.

should be reconsidered before pressing the "submit" button.

[Kalari]

That's like saying, "being poor and homeless have spoiled me."

ha ha you I like wizards I play them well sorcs are too limited at low levels for me im sure upper levels they rock though but at high levels I find my wizzies can do their part and thensome as well

[Kalari]

And hmm ive seen really great human sorcerers Id like to find a elven build though I like elf build tends to go with the theme ive got. I tried a drow but their faces look pinched and I find they make better clerics for my purposes. I dunno I think im going to work with any info you put on here Asp id like to try to make a sorceress I can stand to play.

[Dark-Star]

Ok then.

You left off the fact that humans get an extra feat, and that is a huge advantage for that race on a feat starved class.

On skills, balance should be high on the list. Being put on your back is one of the few ways that sorcs can die. A solid balance skill score is far more valuable than intim or diplo, which are both optional.

Intim is really best for a WF sorc.

There are plenty of posts debating race superiority, and I don't think it's productive to derail your helpful post with that discussion (though someone will anyway).

That being said, WF's ability to self heal on the fly is such a collasal advantage that it really should get some major play in your post.

[Aspenor]

Ok then.

You left off the fact that humans get an extra feat, and that is a huge advantage for that race on a feat starved class.

On skills, balance should be high on the list. Being put on your back is one of the few ways that sorcs can die. A solid balance skill score is far more valuable than intim or diplo, which are both optional.

Intim is really best for a WF sorc.

There are plenty of posts debating race superiority, and I don't think it's productive to derail your helpful post with that discussion (though someone will anyway).

That being said, WF's ability to self heal on the fly is such a collasal advantage that it really should get some major play in your post.

interestingly enough, i've never found balance to be a major factor at all. IMO, a sorc shouldn't be getting hit or tripped in the first place.

i did mention the self heals....btw

IIRC the balance DC to stand up is what, like 10?

[Lorien_the_First_One]

um...

Step 1 - Delete Sorcerer

Step 2 - Roll a Warforged Wizard

'nuff said?

P.S. (to the OP) You should put the "My Opinion" at the top of your post, as well as a disclaimer about your post being an oversimplification.....not to mention (apparently) flame bait. I would think that someone with over 14k posts would know this already, but I guess that's what I get for thinking.

Um,nope...

/delete wf Wiz
/roll WF Sorc