Some thoughts for the 20 level cap on a sorc.

Disclaimer: these are from my personal experiences in the game and will be most applicable to those who mainly play end game raid heavy.

1. Extend - Is it necessary any more? At lvl 20 we will be hitting the magical 2 minute number for our important short term buffs. Haste and displacement. Given that 99% of the time you will have a bard for raids the onus is taken off the caster IMO to give 4 minute hastes. Extend seems somewhat superfluous. It will benefit web and firewall but I'm thinking that it will be unnecessary in favour of more specialist feats.

2. Displacement. I swear by displacement over blur. Seeing as we have most of our high levels twinked to the gills displacement in my mind has become more specifc in use. For example - my barbarian has in the vicintiy of 4-8 full guards + minor guards going at any one time. Displacement and blur is anti guard methodology in alot of situations. Certainly I will never lose it because their are situations where it just makes everything better. But for the low ac many guard types I will likely just stoneskin instead as that enables guards and offers damage mitigation. Similarly my sorc runs with 3 (soon to be 4 - 3 runs) concordant ops and the torq. Displacment/blur is anti sp regen. Sure situations where im taking extensive damage very fast it is invaluable but it has become counterproductive to the way I run my sorc now. Stoneskin and pro energy to mitigate incoming bad damage but im leaving the displacement off more and more now to take advantage of the sp regen.

3. Focuses and feats and races - next mod I suspect the specialised caster will be the way to go. Middle ground is likely a thing of the past in the new content.

My sorc is human and i believe that the human/drow will end up being superior next mod for many situations. The wf was one of the two(along with human) best up to the new content but Im thinking that they will lose their power. DC's will be very important on shavarath. Focuses will be very important.

Im thinking my feat line up will be this

Max
Emp
Heighten
SP
SP2
Focus(necro initially but maybe enchantement or evocation depending on prestige classes and quest formatting/mobs.)
Focus
Toughness

Toughness im not so sure on - I dont have it now but the more i think about and the more i run without displacement on full time the hp will let me run longer and do stupider things. I have never regretted my decision to play human over wf and I beleive it will be reinforced next mod with the cap increase and more dificult dc's. If nuking becomes more viable again (and i still nuke to this day its just not effective as it once was) wf will rise in power again.

4. Enervate/energy drain and trap the soul.

Running out of time but I thought id throw this out there. For the double focused sorc enervate might be the way to go over energy drain. Its cheaper and depending on the dc's will mix better with trap the soul/holds (will save) and wail/finger(fort). I think choosing targets will definately be more important next mod. Enervate might be enough. Im thinking il start out with wail and mass hold pick up trap the soul and choose targets better using a low sp cost enervate as opposed to energy drain.

Bit of a mash and there were some other points I was going to comment on but im outta time will continue when i get home tonight.

N