Endgame Sorcerer Spell Selection

[elricken]

[QUOTE=Tyrande;2864108]Drop GH and stoneskin. GH can be scrolled very well and stoneskin can be wand real cheap. (cheaper than the spell component, BTW) Stoneskin can also be had from a shroud item or a DQ item as clickies.

Price of casting stoneskin with 34 haggle (with +11 haggle item on) is 244 per cast and 420 per wand charge. Also take into account that the wand charges have shorter duration and less damage absorbed meaning you will have to cast more often.

2438 Gold for a stack of 10 stoneskin components meaning 244~ a cast.

21000 Gold for a wand of stoneskin divided by 50 meaning 420~ a charge.

[DDO_User1]

Human Sorc 20
1 - Jump, Nightshield, Protection from Evil, Magic Missile
2 - Blur, Resist Energy, Scorching Ray/Knock, Web
3 - Chain Missile/Halt Undead, Displace, Haste, Rage
4 - Ddoor, Fire Shield, Stoneskin, Firewall
5 - Break Enchantment/Ball Lightning, Cloudkill, Cone of Cold, Protection from Elements
6 - Flesh to Stone/Acid Fog, Disintegrate, GH
7 - DBF, Finger, Ottos
8 - Mass Charm/Incendiary Cloud, Ottos, Polar Ray
9 - Mass Hold/Meteor Swarm, Energy Drain/Hezrou, Wail

[RuneStriker]

Just curious about all those who listed Tumble in their 1st lvl selections. Could someone elaborate on why?

[binnsr]

Just curious about all those who listed Tumble in their 1st lvl selections. Could someone elaborate on why?

Tumble skill affects damage taken when falling -- in the Reaver raid, he reverses gravity and feather fall does not work. The bonus to tumble from the spell helps mitigate that damage to some extent, and since there aren't a plethora of lvl1 spells that are viable later in life, it's easy enough to just keep it around.

[RuneStriker]

Gotcha. Thanks for the insight.

[Velexia]

Spells:
Level 1
Shield (Because Nightshield only gives +3 max, and doesn't stack with a Resistance Item)
Jump (Essential)
Grease (Party Buff)
Merfolk's Blessing (More useful than Tumble)

Level 2
Blur (Essential)
False Life (HP for SP)
Invisibility (The Anti Dungeon Alert)
Resist Energy (Essential)

Level 3
Displacement (Very nice to have)
Frost Lance or Chain Missiles (Great damage output)
Haste (Essential)
Rage (Adds to overall DPS, among other things)

Level 4
Enervation (Lube for your spells)
Fire Shield (Nearly Essential)
Force Missiles or Dimension Door(If Force Spec'd)
Firewall (Essential)

Level 5
Cloudkill (Essential)
Cone of Cold (Nice damage output, sometimes)
Mind Fog (Great for Will Save like Mass Hold)
Teleport (This is why you chose an Arcane Caster, really)

Level 6
Disintegrate (For those pesky Constructs, also great vs. Undead)
Flesh to Stone (Essential)
Greater Heroism (Your party will thank you)

Level 7
Finger of Death (Essential)
Greater Teleport (Your party will thank you occasionally)
Waves of Exhaustion (Essential)

Level 8
Otto's Irresistable Dance (Essential)
Sunburst (Blinds, kills, etc.)
Polar Ray (When fully spec'd and geared, amazing damage)

Level 9
Hold Monster, Mass (In conjunction with Mind Fog, Wow)
Summon Monster IX (The only Summon that is better than a soulstone)
Wail of the Banshee (Essential)

[Logic]

If by "gobs" you mean "not very much" then yea.

You'd do tons more damage with delayed blast.

Mostly due to a major bug with meteor swarm:
Due to sorcerers fast casting, the meteors impact each other in mid air ,causing severely collision detection issues.. Meanings on 99% of casts only 1-3 of the meteors will hit..

Doing it point blank like you describe is a good way to ensure that no cast will ever result in more then 2 hits.. You only ever get 3 for long range casts.

2 hits = 6d6 x2 (double fire resistance cutting the dmg and double saves) vs 20d6 single on DBF.

Yeah I tried meteor swarm on my 20 sorc and it's terrible. I didn't know sorc's fast cast was the reason for only getting 1-3 meteors. Does it work properly with wizards?

[Hathorian]

So, I broke down and purchased a Lesser Reincarnation for my antique sorceress (mostly to fix her 19 starting Charisma and a couple of skill fowl-ups) who's been parked for the last few months since I capped her.

While I'm doing a do-over, I figured I'd take a look at her spell list and see what needs pruning.

Spells:
1 jump, magic missile, night shield, tumble
2 blur, knock, resist, web
3 dislace, halt undead, haste, suggestion
4 ddoor, pk, stoneskin, FireWall
5 Ball Lightning, CK, Protection from Elements, Teleport
6 Acid Fog, F2S, GH
7 DBF, Finger, Disco ball
8 Mass Charm, Irresistable Dance, polar ray
9 Energy Drain, Summon, Wail

I'm thinking that maybe I want to drop StoneSkin for Enervation and possibly PK for FireShield and use wands or scrolls for stone skin.

Other than that, since I'm a bit of a n00b when it comes to castering (and haven't been playing a caster much recently), what spells am I missing for end-game content (tod, epic, etc)?


oh .. and feats after the LR:
Spell Penetration
Maximize Spell
Greater Spell Penetration
Empower Spell
Extend Spell
Heighten
Toughness

I am a lvl 12 drow sorc nuker (with buffs) and I haven't seen any need for Heighten or Maximize so far (Empower already gives huge damage with enhancements and damage clickies and doesn't burn all my spell points in 30 seconds). what should i be heightening and when should i use maximize?

I love extend, empower, toughness, spell focus. will also likely take spell pen.

any expert sorcs or wiz out there that can help?

[EnjoyTheJourney]

It would help you to look for more recent posts about how to build a sorc. In particular, learning about the different Savant prestige enhancements (earth, air, fire, and water) would likely be helpful, and you would need more recent threads to find good information about them.

The Savant prestige enhancements change many things about how to "optimize" your sorc, if that's your goal.

[Absolute-Omniscience]

God **** necro...

[Jsbeer]

I am a lvl 12 drow sorc nuker (with buffs) and I haven't seen any need for Heighten or Maximize so far (Empower already gives huge damage with enhancements and damage clickies and doesn't burn all my spell points in 30 seconds). what should i be heightening and when should i use maximize?

Just answered this question in another threat also.

Anyway, maximise for sorcerers is very useful as it can bee used for free on your spell-like abilities making these an extremely efficient way of dealing a lot of damage for very low SP cost.