Taking a different path with my sorcerer

[Phylitia]

I always loved wizards and sorcerers and I play those kind of classes, but in DDO I first tried many different classes before a wizard / sorcerer. What I learned to love about them was their crowd control! Every class was different, and they had the unique ability to deal with crowds really well and prevent parties getting raped. So, I decided to make a crowd control sorcerer.

First I wanted to go conjuration and enchanting, the ultimate crowd control machine. But then everyone else was also using enchanting a lot so I went necromancy, which provides a good balance of spells including debuffs vs bosses.

So here is my sorcerer
Drow
8 str
10 dex
14 con
12 int
8 wis
20 cha

My spells each level consist of summon monster, the best necromancy debuff spell, some type of poison cloud (love those!) and whatever remains. Very few direct damage spells. As I level, I can replace the old summon monster with other spells.

I'm actually level 5 now, with feats in spell focus : necromancy and toughness. I also found a really nice mithral chain shirt that has only 10% arcane magic failure, and I'm seriously thinking about taking light armor proficiency. Thoughts?

How would this stack up?

[Tyrande]

I would advise against it. That armor bonus may look good now, but its a trap.

After level 10+, when you venture into the GiantHold area or Vale, AC does not matter unless you have high 50s. At late teens, it would require high 60s. If you are a tank, some quests/raids even require 85+ armor class.

Its good to have good AC, but burning a feat for it is not; especially on a feat starved class like sorcerer.

You are better to take the toughness feat than the light armor proficiency feat. If you want to experiment, make sure you talked to that blue haired Dragonmarked lady, Lockania to get a free feat swap so that you can swap it out if you don't like it.

[Kza]

To say that ac below 50 aint matter as you hit gianthold/vale are plain wrong. My str monk have ac 47 selfbuffed and he easy solo all gianthold/vale (except raids ofc and tor dragons) (at 14). He get hit some but easy to pot heal.

But advice against armor prof on a sorc are sound. Skip all forms of ac on your sorc, go for hits and dc/dam boosts and if can fit in + in resists. Learn to avoid hits by moving around etc etc. Going for ac on a caster if not experienced and knowing exactly what to do gives a big risk making a subpar character that aint performing so well.

[Tyrande]

To say that ac below 50 aint matter as you hit gianthold/vale are plain wrong. My str monk have ac 47 selfbuffed and he easy solo all gianthold/vale (except raids ofc and tor dragons) (at 14). He get hit some but easy to pot heal.
[...].

I was not talking about the explorer areas only; I was talking about the quests on ELITE in those areas; especially if OP thinks about soloing.

[Tyrande]

To avoid hits, get blur, stoneskin, displacement (extended) and haste. If having a high DC caster like drow, take finger of death and/or PK.

[sirgog]

I would advise against it. That armor bonus may look good now, but its a trap.

After level 10+, when you venture into the GiantHold area or Vale, AC does not matter unless you have high 50s. At late teens, it would require high 60s. If you are a tank, some quests/raids even require 85+ armor class.

Its good to have good AC, but burning a feat for it is not; especially on a feat starved class like sorcerer.

You are better to take the toughness feat than the light armor proficiency feat. If you want to experiment, make sure you talked to that blue haired Dragonmarked lady, Lockania to get a free feat swap so that you can swap it out if you don't like it.

In Gianthold elite, an AC of 48 is a pretty solid defense. You're still getting hit, but on a minority of swings. (Generally, you are making a mistake to run GH elite before level 14, however).

In Vale elite quests, or Shroud normal, low 60s is useful (in Shroud elite, mid 70s, VoD hard/elite you need low 80s).

In Epics, you currently need mid 90s, but apparently that's changing to low 80s next patch.


All that said - don't bother with AC on a Sorc. It's really good at low levels, but just cannot keep up with the ever-increasing demands for AC as you level.

[Phylitia]

Lol, the conversation got derailed by AC XD

Truth be told, I would be 10x cooler with a chain mail than a robe, so that was also taken into consideration. I will probably have to go back to finding a good robe...

And I would never think of soloing! I am so terrible at it, I need meat shields like any other wizard / sorcerer. I provide crowd control or boss debuff when desperately needed.

[darkforest]

I was not talking about the explorer areas only; I was talking about the quests on ELITE in those areas; especially if OP thinks about soloing.

Don't think you implied elite originally.

Anyways, take human for example. After maxing charisma and adequate cons, there is no clear consensus for the remaining points. Why not put into dex?

Higher reflex saves and dex AC aside, ability to take full advantage of good gears such as mithril twilight armor allows for high AC build. When the AC creep overwhelms such as elite, can always switch gears.