Starting new Sorcerers

[HolyCrusaider1]

I started a new Sorcerer (Arcane Canon) and found out that she was completely outmatched on Korthos Island. When I finished the first quest, I chose the wand (finger of fire) with 50 charges. This weapon is seriously underpowered compared to the rest of the weapons that you could receive as other characters. It takes three or so shots from the wand to kill a brown spider and many, many more for a zombie or skeleton. I found that I ran out of spell points in the Heytons Rest quest on solo, had no pots to heal, and was stuck with a underpowered wand to try and bail me out. Needless to say, it didn't work and I died countless times. I started so many different toons and pretty much breezed through the Korthos quests, but as a supposed natural arcane caster I found it more difficult than some of the later quests on Stormreach. Is there a way to correct this error?

[FluffyCalico]

I started a new Sorcerer (Arcane Canon) and found out that she was completely outmatched on Korthos Island. When I finished the first quest, I chose the wand (finger of fire) with 50 charges. This weapon is seriously underpowered compared to the rest of the weapons that you could receive as other characters. It takes three or so shots from the wand to kill a brown spider and many, many more for a zombie or skeleton. I found that I ran out of spell points in the Heytons Rest quest on solo, had no pots to heal, and was stuck with a underpowered wand to try and bail me out. Needless to say, it didn't work and I died countless times. I started so many different toons and pretty much breezed through the Korthos quests, but as a supposed natural arcane caster I found it more difficult than some of the later quests on Stormreach. Is there a way to correct this error?

3 things
1) CON
2) Spell selection
3) Castng stat

If you mess up in any of those you are going to have a hard time.

By the way what spells were you using?

[Uska]

3 things
1) CON
2) Spell selection
3) Castng stat

If you mess up in any of those you are going to have a hard time.

By the way what spells were you using?

A 4TH Thing I would take a weapon instead of that wand like a ember rapier, I did with my starting sorcerer and did the whole island thing solo up to hard until I got bored and joined a ww group.

[HolyCrusaider1]

I started my toon as a Arcane Canon which gives you the Niacs cold Ray, and the burning hands for starters. Also walking this path did not automatically give me mage armor; so I was short on protection and pots. The wand that you receive at the end of the first quest is horrible. It is a 50 charge wand of finger of fire and hits for 1-3 hit points usually; so how is a new Sorcerer supposed to stay alive when you are out of spell points; by the way the stat for my spell points is 220 and even that don't help when your casting 2-4 hit points of damage from a burning hands shot. The Niac's Cold Ray is a total hit and mostly miss spell since the Sahaugin seem to be saving all the time when I cast it.

[FluffyCalico]

Magic missle and burning hands work well to start with.

Also at level 1 you can swing almost as good as other classes. Take the rapier instead of the wand and you can whack stuff with it.

Also note historically in DnD and DDO a caster starts off weak and gets stronger quick.

You can also look for a partner for the first level or 2.

[Lost_Leader]

Sorcerers are not an easy class to solo, especially at low levels. It warns of you this when you are first rolling the character.

But, to help yourself out a bit, I would recommend having both the wand option for softening things up at range, and then having a melee option for when things get close. This may work better for you.

Also, take your time and try to get small amounts of enemies at a time as much as you can. Pick up all those starter potions that are on the ground and in breakables. Or, if you have the option to leave Korthos (by having skipped the tutorial) invest a little coin in a hireling.

[HolyCrusaider1]

It seemed not too long ago when you had the tutorial ie. the pre Korthos Island mod; that you could make it at least to level 4 on your own. But now with the prechosen paths to walk, it seems to me that the Sorcerers are lacking the proverbial punch they once had. The spells are weaker, and on these paths you don't get mage armor and you are so squishy that if a skeleton or zombie breathes harshly, they'll kill you. I know in the beginning that the Sorcerers are supposed to be weak, but come on, I'm out of spell points and relying on whatever I have in my bag to save me? Is this what Sorcerers are supposed to do or cast more death with less spell points usage than a wizard? Maybe for the first few quests, the end items can actually boost the sorcerers sp or increase their damage potential and do something about that aim and flame zippo lighter wand.

[FluffyCalico]

If you mean all the prechoosen paths suck yes they do.

I actually hate the prechoosen thing it gets in the way.

They need to have a yes/no box at start that says do you want to see prechoosen paths or build your own? All that fluff they have now that wants to build it for you is a pain in the butt.

[Nightsun33]

I just had a look at the compendium page for the Arcane Cannon. One thing you did not say is that if you were using the feat that is granted to you at first level. You do get the Maximise feat. It would make a difference with the damage of your spells, but alas, not for wands.

Also, I agree with the others with getting a melee weapon and using it at the start. Quarter Staffs should be fine. Sorcerers and Wizards do typically start off quite weak with damage and spells, but quickly ramp up to be powerhouses.

[HolyCrusaider1]

Ugh, if they would just release the Druids into the world then all may be forgiven. LOL. I have yet to finish with a Sorcerer and thinking that they are supposed to be more powerful than a wizard; I find that hard to believe. I have a level 15 almost 16 wizard and she rocks!!!!! Now how about some love for the Sorcerers guys? Give them some performance enhancing stuff to make them kick!!!!!

[FluffyCalico]

Ugh, if they would just release the Druids into the world then all may be forgiven. LOL. I have yet to finish with a Sorcerer and thinking that they are supposed to be more powerful than a wizard; I find that hard to believe. I have a level 15 almost 16 wizard and she rocks!!!!! Now how about some love for the Sorcerers guys? Give them some performance enhancing stuff to make them kick!!!!!

If you have a high level wiz you should be having no issues. I thought you were a new person. A sorc is just a fast casting higher spell point wizard with a few less spells that can't change them every 2 seconds.

[HolyCrusaider1]

I thought I would try something new since that's what the news ticker said to do and submit suggestions. I had other Sorcerers i built in the past but ended up deleting them because I have so many toons and needed to make room to experiment. The Arcane Canon does offer the maximize spell, but it eats up so much more sp and then you are really in the dog house running through out the dungeon. Just a suggestion to the developers, make the spellcasters mighty like the other classes and watch the sparks fly.

[FluffyCalico]

I thought I would try something new since that's what the news ticker said to do and submit suggestions. I had other Sorcerers i built in the past but ended up deleting them because I have so many toons and needed to make room to experiment. The Arcane Canon does offer the maximize spell, but it eats up so much more sp and then you are really in the dog house running through out the dungeon. Just a suggestion to the developers, make the spellcasters mighty like the other classes and watch the sparks fly.

Max shines about level 8-9+

[Hakushi]

If you already reached 1750 favor on any of your character, do not choose any of the prechoosen paths because they're all 28 pts builds, even if you have the ability to create a 32pts character, the path will create a 28 pts build for you. This information is not available anywhere in the character creation process and a lot of people made the mistake, thinking the paths were also considering if you had 32pts builds unlocked. As for the sorcerer path, I think some of the choices are really bad, Maximize is definitely not something you will use at level one, there's some other stuff you can take before Maximize that will actually be more useful. You'll eventually take Maximize when you level up, but taking it at level one is not the best choice imo.

As for the sorcerers in the new player experience, I'll give my own experience. I like to start as much untwinked as possible, and work my way where at lvl 10 or higher, a lot of nice stuff is waiting for me. I first did the tutorial on my monk, and at lvl 1-2, I soloed pretty much everything up to elite except 2 quests, the one you free and convince Lars Heyton, I soloed it on norm and hard, but on elite I used a hireling, he is acting so much like Coyle, he's hiding from the Sahaugins but once they show up and attack, he blindly charges, just like he decided to commit suicide. I also soloed Miserys Peak on norm at lvl 1 and on hard at lvl 2, but was unable to complete it on elite so I joined a group for that one, but I'm sure if I would have really wanted, I would have managed to get it done probably.

Now, the second character I get through, and do the tutorial is my sorceror, the diffedrence is huge, I'm taking the beating of my life in a lot of the quests on normal, but I managed to do a few ones before going in the island area. This time, I soloed on normal, and not on a higher difficulty, and I was decided to complete on normal, and not solo mode. For untwinked characters, especially using the prechoosen paths which lacks of common sense in some choices, doing the early stuff on solo can become quite a challenge, unlike some other classes.

[Arianrhod]

Unlike some other games, wands in DDO are not a viable weapon choice. They can be a fun toy to play with, but the tutorial should never have tried to pass off a wand as a weapon on a par with a sword or bow. Sorcerors should be casting their spells to kill things with (Niac's Cold Ray is a nice choice at first level, or Burning Hands, if you can survive the "round them up and nuke several at once" approach. In combination with single-target spells like Niac's, Hypnotism works wonders: freeze 'em in place, then pick 'em off one by one).

The Eternal Wand of Finger of Fire is not a viable weapon for killing things with. It's ok for zapping things with when you're in a group and want to pretend you're doing something useful without using any spellpoints, but for soloing you should really just put it away; you'd be better off with a staff or crossbow.

[edit - btw, the Heyton's Rest quest has 2 shrines on solo. In fact, all Korthos quests on solo have shrines right at the beginning. If a sorc gets low on spellponts they can just go back to the entrance and shrine. Not that that does anything to teach them proper spellpoint management....]

[edit 2 - the robe casters get at the end of the tutorial is a mage armor clickie]

[William_the_Bat]

Honestly, i'd wait until mod 9 before starting a new caster on korthos. The wand fires -much- faster, and it recharges as you go, and insetad of a potency I robe, you get a robe that increases your effective caster level by one for first level spells.

Of course, if you picked Warforged for your race, you get a really junky docent instead of the uber robe, so you are just out of luck.

I tried starting a wizard on the prieview server, and was -amazed- by how much easier it is.

One thing though, I almost always agree that if you can play a wizard well, a sorcerer is only going to be easier. More SP and faster casting are more than a fair trade off for the flexibility that the wizard gets. But it does depend on your play style. If you are used to casting a lot of defensive spells and getting up close and personal with your opponents, then a "dust off and nuke them from orbit" build is different enough that you'll need to get used to it first.

[Arianrhod]

One thing though, I almost always agree that if you can play a wizard well, a sorcerer is only going to be easier. More SP and faster casting are more than a fair trade off for the flexibility that the wizard gets. But it does depend on your play style. If you are used to casting a lot of defensive spells and getting up close and personal with your opponents, then a "dust off and nuke them from orbit" build is different enough that you'll need to get used to it first.

Using the premade characters can make soloing tough, though - the Arcane Cannon apparently started with ONLY offensive spells - no Hypnotism, no Shield....just Niac's and Burning Hands. Someone accustomed to the flexibility of a wizard could indeed have some trouble with a spell selection like that

[ghettoGenius]

Any player can solo Korthos with an 8 str. Just choose the Ember Greataxe at the end of the Grotto quest and pretend your a barb. I discovered this by mistake after rolling a rogue/pally with 18 dex and realized I wouldnt have Finesse until lvl 3. The axe carried me all the way to Stormreach.

Re-Edit: I realize some classes may not have access to that weapon in which case this might not help. Although Im fairly sure I used it at lvl 1 with a penalty until I hit lvl 2 and picked up pally.

[dopey69]

I just had a look at the compendium page for the Arcane Cannon. One thing you did not say is that if you were using the feat that is granted to you at first level. You do get the Maximise feat. It would make a difference with the damage of your spells, but alas, not for wands.

Also, I agree with the others with getting a melee weapon and using it at the start. Quarter Staffs should be fine. Sorcerers and Wizards do typically start off quite weak with damage and spells, but quickly ramp up to be powerhouses.

then why is there no fameing ember q staff as newbie wepon on korthos I wondered the same thing ? come on turbine even up the playing field for the sorcs and wizzies on korthos .why wand of cigarette liter and no q staff of flameing uberness ?

[Laxxis]

IF you have already run the tutorial, you can always go grab a few LvL 1 hirelings - a fighter or pally. It might make things a little easier for ya.

-Lax