Are damage focused sorcs useless?

[TheBlueFox]

I see alot of sorcerers taking the following line of magic use:

Enervate (or any other level drain)+ save or die. It seems like aside from Haste, GH(often scrolled), Resist, and firewall, These are the only two spells i see sorc's using at level 16+

Do any sorcerers use high powered magic, good magic crit rate, and 'splodey spells? Are they just...not worth it?

Are any of you sorcerers taking Greater spell focus: evocation rather than Great Spell Penetration?

[Visty]

25sp for enervation + 40 sp for fod for a total of 65sp to deal 100% of the hp as damage (ergo dead)
35sp chainlightning + 25 maximise + 15 empower for a total of 75sp to deal about 5% of the hp as damage

that is the reason why ppl go for instakills, its cheaper

[dragonruler]

however if you like to do mass death with a little pizazz then firewall, web, and chain lightning/fireball is always a fun thing to do

[TheBlueFox]

25sp for enervation + 40 sp for fod for a total of 65sp to deal 100% of the hp as damage (ergo dead)
35sp chainlightning + 25 maximise + 15 empower for a total of 75sp to deal about 5% of the hp as damage

that is the reason why ppl go for instakills, its cheaper

wow thats... so lame. It just leads to all sorcs doing the same thing. Even with the capstone >.<.

Only bossfights are slightly different since they cant be insta killed.

[Bardicus]

That's the nature of the beast. People tend to do what's better. So if dealing damage was better all the sorcs would be going that route and the instakill spells wouldn't be used.

[sirgog]

That's the nature of the beast. People tend to do what's better. So if dealing damage was better all the sorcs would be going that route and the instakill spells wouldn't be used.

Wait till you hit 20 and (in endgame content at least) all the instakill spells don't work. Then you'll see some changes in playstyle.

My sorc isn't quite up to scratch for Epic content (they were my second character and I made a lot of mistakes while building them, will be reincarnating soon). But in the easier epics (which this character can handle), I use a combination of these offensive spells: Firewall, (heightened and extended) Mass Suggestion, (heightened) Web, Otto's Irresistable Dance, and Energy Drain/Trap the Soul (this combo does work through Epic Ward), and against some bosses, Meteor Swarm and Incindiary Cloud.

[Rice]

At high levels the saves AND hp for many monsters get to be quite unreasonable for nuke spells, so you are forced to resort to instant-kill spells. You can get a fat crit with a ultra-juiced DBF (max+empower+full enhancements+gear) and maybe take 1/2 to 2/3 of their HP away. If you get past their reflex save which half the time will also include the evasion feat, which is super fun to nuke against.

Of course you're forced to use damage spells for bosses but we all know there's only one reasonable spell for that and that is polar ray, because it can get past the 9001 reflex saves that bosses have. Spending 70-80 mana for a juiced up nuke just to have it either negated completely or do half damage is just a very inefficient way of using your mana.

It basically boils down to instant-kill and crowd controlling (charm, FtS, hold, etc) monsters for the most mana-efficient way of dealing with mobs at high levels.