My First Sorc - Air Savant - Half-Elf (Usually play wizards)

[Failedlegend]

Ok I may be misreading how a Sorc works but the way I understand it is their pure elemental DPS especially when using your Savant Element (in my case Air) as opposed to the insta-killing, CC and buffbotting (with a side of I can't die cause I'm a PM but clerics hate me) that my Palemaster Wizard is prone to..yes?, no?

Anyways here's what I came up with for my Sorc..I know the DMs are kind of unconventional but my builds are rarely conventional and it does grant me access to the only way to get "Call Lightning Storm" although I am curious if they get boosted by Air Savant powers, Metamagics and enhancements....also the +2 to Balance is nice

As far as attack spells the plan is to use Air/Force (My wiz uses Acid/Cold and as I understand it an air savant gets penalties to Earth spells anyway) but I'm open to suggestion...also will prob put 1 point in fire for the times when firewall will actually work (not immune or absorbent)

Edit: I've decided to go Cold/Air and have my Wiz go Acid/Fire

Pure Half-Elf Sorc 20
Str 10
Con 16
Int 12
Cha 18 (Lvl ups here)

HE Pally Dilly (+5 Saves & Free Divine Wand/Scroll Use FTW)
1 Toughness
3 Empower
6 Maximize
9 DM1
12 DM2
15 Heighten
18 DM3

Skills: UMD, Concen, Diplo

Spells:

1 (4) No
2 (4) Idea
3 (4) Gonna
4 (4) Wing
5 (4) It
6 (3) Got
7 (3) Plenty
8 (3) Of
9 (3) Dragonblood

[voodoogroves]

(1) I don't think non-WF sorcs need Quicken. Personal opinion; I want Quicken on all self-healers.
(2) I think Call Lightning Storm is still bugged.

[Failedlegend]

(1) I don't think non-WF sorcs need Quicken. Personal opinion; I want Quicken on all self-healers.

Didn't think so..changed..not sure if replacement feat is good or not but its pretty much the IR for Sorcs right?

.

Heighten is great for air savants, since our SLAs are very DC based (+7 to that electric loop SLA means my air savant is dazing pretty much all the monsters in some epics).

Ok cool I only occasionally use actual damage spells on my Wiz so I've never payed attention

Balance isn't really necessary on an Air Savant, since the only effects that can trip us require will or reflex saves.

Oh I didn't know that and I guess w/ Pally Dilly I won't really have to worry about saves than...I already have UMD & Concen any other skills you'd recommend or should I lower Int to 10 and only take the two (stick two more points in Str I guess)

Speccing Air/cold is a safe choice, since that boosts both DoT spells - these are your bread and butter. Force is nice for disintegrate, but not much else.

I want to avoid having the same element on my Sorc and Wiz...My wiz is acid/ice but I guess since I use Disintegrate so much on my Wiz I could go Acid/Force (Acid/Fire...Burning Blood FTW??) and make my Sorc Air/Cold (too bad Lightning/Force feels very Sith-like :P)

Call Lightning Storm is supposed to be boosted by enhancements/metas/items. Whether or not it actually is is up to interpretation (one HE air sav I know says that it is critting in the 500-600 range, when it should be up nearer to 1k).

So unconfirmed one way or the other...oh well doesn't sound game breaking at least.

Whatever you do, don't completely ignore necro/cc. Sometimes, nuking is an incredibly inefficient way to kill things - being able to mass hold them for the melees to kill or wail them all cuts down a lot on SP usage. My air savant doesn't have a stellar necro DC (34 FoD, iirc) but can still get most epic mobs with it just by Energy Draining them a few times first.

Don't plan to ignore it but I going to assume my Sorc won't be as effective as my PM at it

[voodoogroves]

Define bugged? ie. bugged as in it hurts allies, it does a little less damage than it shoud, casting it causes game to crash, it somehow heals the enemies?

Not getting boosted appropriately, doing less damage than it should.

[Xenostrata]

Not getting boosted appropriately, doing less damage than it should.

It used to be a lot worse; pre-u11 being an air savant actually LOWERED the damage from the storm, resulting in ~10 damage bolts. Now, it seems that they've simply forgotten to code in one of the bonuses, since they are hitting for about half of what they are supposed to regardless of air sav/non-air sav

[Xenostrata]

Ok I may be misreading how a Sorc works but the way I understand it is their pure elemental DPS especially when using your Savant Element (in my case Air) as opposed to the insta-killing, CC and buffbotting (with a side of I can't die cause I'm a PM but clerics hate me) that my Palemaster Wizard is prone to..yes?, no?

Anyways here's what I came up with for my Sorc..I know the DMs are kind of unconventional but my builds are rarely conventional and it does grant me access to the only way to get "Call Lightning Storm" although I am curious if they get boosted by Air Savant powers, Metamagics and enhancements....also the +2 to Balance is nice

As far as attack spells the plan is to use Air/Force (My wiz uses Acid/Cold and as I understand it an air savant gets penalties to Earth spells anyway) but I'm open to suggestion...also will prob put 1 point in fire for the times when firewall will actually work (not immune or absorbent)

Pure Half-Elf Sorc 20
Str 10
Con 16
Int 12
Cha 18

HE Pally Dilly (+5 Saves & Free Divine Wand/Scroll Use FTW)
1 Empower
3 DM1
6 Maximize
9 Heighten (Do Sorcs need heighten?)
12 DM2
15 Quicken (Do non-WF need quicken?)
18 DM3

Skills: UMD, Concen, Balance

Couple comments.

Heighten is great for air savants, since our SLAs are very DC based (+7 to that electric loop SLA means my air savant is dazing pretty much all the monsters in some epics).

Balance isn't really necessary on an Air Savant, since the only effects that can trip us require will or reflex saves.

Speccing Air/cold is a safe choice, since that boosts both DoT spells - these are your bread and butter. Force is nice for disintegrate, but not much else.

Call Lightning Storm is supposed to be boosted by enhancements/metas/items. Whether or not it actually is is up to interpretation (one HE air sav I know says that it is critting in the 500-600 range, when it should be up nearer to 1k).

Whatever you do, don't completely ignore necro/cc. Sometimes, nuking is an incredibly inefficient way to kill things - being able to mass hold them for the melees to kill or wail them all cuts down a lot on SP usage. My air savant doesn't have a stellar necro DC (34 FoD, iirc) but can still get most epic mobs with it just by Energy Draining them a few times first.

Edit: I find quicken indispensable on my Drow air savant. In certain fights like eMalicia, eVoN6, etc. you will be taking damage while casting, and losing a triple stacked DoT due to a failed concentration role sucks. However, that lack of toughness is going to hurt in the long run. I'd toss a coin over the two.

[Alex301]

I'd reconsider the DMs; sorcerers are tight on feats as it is. The savant prestige also requires you to have either spell focus evocation or conjuration.

You don't have a toughness feat either, how many hit points are you expecting to have, nor do you have a spell pen feat. I'm not sure if a spell pen feat is really needed; there aren't many targets with a decent SR but I do find it a pain when my spells fail to penetrate spell resistance. I have considered dropping it for spell focus necromancy.

Quicken isn't needed for a non WF but there are definitely times when it's nice to have on. Heighten is needed though imo. Many of your offensive spells still have a save, even if it is for half damage, and instant killing is sometimes more effective than nuking. There are also times when some CC ability is very useful too. My atrocious enchantment DC is still enough to make epic trolls dance for me

[Xenostrata]

I'd reconsider the DMs; sorcerers are tight on feats as it is. The savant prestige also requires you to have either spell focus evocation or conjuration.

You don't have a toughness feat either, how many hit points are you expecting to have, nor do you have a spell pen feat. I'm not sure if a spell pen feat is really needed; there aren't many targets with a decent SR but I do find it a pain when my spells fail to penetrate spell resistance. I have considered dropping it for spell focus necromancy.

Quicken isn't needed for a non WF but there are definitely times when it's nice to have on. Heighten is needed though imo. Many of your offensive spells still have a save, even if it is for half damage, and instant killing is sometimes more effective than nuking. There are also times when some CC ability is very useful too. My atrocious enchantment DC is still enough to make epic trolls dance for me

You can skip the SF:evoc/conj if you have the dragonmarks for air savant; they can fulfill the requirement.

Yeah, toughness is going to hurt. You can live without spell pen, so long as you have a wide range of useful spells, but I'm kind of conflicted over whether quicken or toughness would be best.

[Failedlegend]

You can skip the SF:evoc/conj if you have the dragonmarks for air savant; they can fulfill the requirement.

Yeah, toughness is going to hurt. You can live without spell pen, so long as you have a wide range of useful spells, but I'm kind of conflicted over whether quicken or toughness would be best.

Yeah I've decided to drop quicken...even on my Wiz I didn't use it very often when I did have it and that's when he was a Warforged AM and using Recon (still is according to MYDDO...he's also a lvl 1 rogue too :P) I really do miss the boatload of SP AM gave me though.

I do wonder how useful Force of Personality is...my Cha bonus to Will that's amazing...but is it as good as Insightful Reflexes is for a Wiz.

[Xenostrata]

Yeah I've decided to drop quicken...even on my Wiz I didn't use it very often when I did have it and that's when he was a Warforged AM and using Recon (still is according to MYDDO...he's also a lvl 1 rogue too :P) I really do miss the boatload of SP AM gave me.

I do wonder how useful Force of Personality...my Cha bonus to Will thats amazing...but is it as good as Insightful Reflexes is for a Wiz.

Step away from FoP!

Seriously though, that feat has only one use - Walking through ePartycrashers and not taking trap damage from the spike room. Pretty much everything can be blocked by a buff.

If you are dropping quicken, I'd go with toughness - hp is always useful, and you'll get 3 toughness enhancements to use if you do.

[Failedlegend]

Step away from FoP!

Seriously though, that feat has only one use - Walking through ePartycrashers and not taking trap damage from the spike room. Pretty much everything can be blocked by a buff.

If you are dropping quicken, I'd go with toughness - hp is always useful, and you'll get 3 toughness enhancements to use if you do.

Oh ok...never had a High Cha character and I ALWAYS take IR on high Int characters...is Will just a less used save?

Also I though H-Elfs only got two HP enhancements and Sorc got zero...making for only 42hp (22 From feat + 20 from H-Elf Toughness) doesn't seem like much

[Failedlegend]

I'd reconsider the DMs; sorcerers are tight on feats as it is. The savant prestige also requires you to have either spell focus evocation or conjuration.

The DMs also qualify for the pre-req for Air Savant

[voodoogroves]

Plus your dilettante choice is a good enough boost to saves.

[Failedlegend]

Oh ok no Fop than I'll stick toughness there...any comment on the order of my feats?

Also since I'm dropping balance cause Air Savant are immune to knockdown/slippery surfaces is there another skill (aside from UMD & Concen) I should take or should I make Int 10 and bump Str to 12 for early level THF and later level Carrying capacity?

[voodoogroves]

Bluff is a class skill; not sure if you've played with it much - but it can be fun.

Diplo can also be handy if you find you're pulling too much aggro.

[Failedlegend]

Bluff is a class skill; not sure if you've played with it much - but it can be fun.

Diplo can also be handy if you find you're pulling too much aggro.

Never used Bluff before but doesn't it just make it so you can get sneak attack...which is irrelevant with a Sorc.

As for diplo would half ranks be enough for it to work I know Intim is an all or nothing thing is diplo the same?

Why specialise in force too? Water is worth it for Niacs biting cold alone.

Partly because I've never tried Force before and partly because my Wiz is already Cold specced but I'm thinking of switching him to Acid/Fire and rolling this Sorc as Air/Cold.

[voodoogroves]

Never used Bluff before but doesn't it just make it so you can get sneak attack...which is irrelevant with a Sorc.

As for diplo would half ranks be enough for it to work I know Intim is an all or nothing thing is diplo the same?

Bluff can also be used to single-pull a target ... even from beyond line of sight. It also gives you a threat reduction capability (25% iirc) right after you use it.

Half ranks in diplo with your CHA is likely to be plenty for most times when you switch to "shed aggro" mode.

[Alex301]

Blood of the dragons allows you to change any spell without cost or timer for 1 hour. I usually farm gianthold tor or prey on the hunter if i need one.

[Failedlegend]

I think that's pretty much all my questions.... So thanks to all of you that has helped me so far I was wrong or misinformed about some things but you all explained why in a polite and accurate manner and sometimes that's a rarity around here (especially since my builds tend to be a little unconventional or even outright flavor/experimental builds) so +1 to you all.

If I'm missing something feel free to say so. For now I think I'll be rolling up my Sorc..for a spells though I'll just wing it as I have a few Dragonbloods in my Shared Bank and if I get stuck I'll refer to your list Xeno

[Alex301]

Some of the best spells have spell resistance though; PWS, PWK, OID, OSD, enervate (which is very good in epics as it lowers all saves and lowers their hp by a considerable amount), FOD, wail etc are all very useful. I carry them all on my air sorcerer.

I didn't know you could qualify for air savant with the DM feats but I'm not sure they're worth what you're giving up for them though.

Why specialise in force too? Water is worth it for Niacs biting cold alone.