Starting new sorc at lvl 7 - need advice

[HardRobble]

Just got veteran II so i can start characters at lvl 7. Now I want to try my hand at a sorcerer since I'll skip the most squishy stage. I've never played a sorcerer (or any other spell caster other than paladin)

I know I want to go fire/air. I don't know if I'll want to multiclass - will i lose meteor swarm if I do? I've read about several builds and just got confused and most of them were talking about after TR'ing/past lives and 36 point builds. This is for a first playthrough.


Any tips? What race and stats should I start with? I will have 32 points. What feats should I go for? I don't need it detailed out to lvl 20 yet but but to level 10 would be fine for now. What will be my main spells etc..


Of course I want DPS and survivability when I start taking aggro.

thanks for any suggestions!

[cru121]

new sorc, air fire

human sorc 7
maximize, empower
sf:evo
gsf:evo

spells:
sonic blast, jump; two of exp.retreat, shield, detect secret doors
scorching ray, blur, knock
fireball

enhancements @7
air savant for Electric Loop SLA (maxemp for free), next start investing into fire tree for SLA

hot bar: sonic blast, Electric Loop SLA, the other air sla, scorching ray, maxemp fireball when dumping mana/overwhelmed... csw pots

[HardRobble]

new sorc, air fire

human sorc 7
maximize, empower
sf:evo
gsf:evo

spells:
sonic blast, jump; two of exp.retreat, shield, detect secret doors
scorching ray, blur, knock
fireball

enhancements @7
air savant for Electric Loop SLA (maxemp for free), next start investing into fire tree for SLA

hot bar: sonic blast, Electric Loop SLA, the other air sla, scorching ray, maxemp fireball when dumping mana/overwhelmed... csw pots

Thanks for the reply. Would human really be better than war forged? If I went warforged how would you change the lineup?

Thanks!

[MRMechMan]

Thanks for the reply. Would human really be better than war forged? If I went warforged how would you change the lineup?

Thanks!

Warforged is fine. Take the 2nd level repair (no need for 1st as can use pots, too many good 3rd level spells). Maxed and emped it hits enough to hold you over till reconstruct. Keep an unmetaed version on your hotbar as well for use outside of battle, as it will save you tons of SP.

I usually go acid or fire specced but fire/elec is good as well-elec IS more DC based though so WF is a slightly worse choice (but still strong).

Scorching ray, fireball, wall of fire will be your main offensive spells, jump/haste/displace/rage/nightshield are main buffs, knock/invis for utility. Korthos boots of 2x5min are plenty of expeditious retreat.

Get Max and Empower asap. Try and group mobs up as much as possible before AOEing them and your SP will last much longer. Often new arcanes play like melee and try and take down mobs 1 at a time. On a sorc that's slow and inefficient. Zerg more. Profit.

[HardRobble]

good stuff so far.
another question..

it seems obvious to max chr at 16 and work on con.. how should i distribute exactly on a 32 point build? I played around last night putting everything to 10 (except maybe dex - can't remember), maxing chr at 16, and getting con to 17. that was only giving me 2 skill points per level though. should i sacrifice some con to raise int for more skill points? I get one more point by the time i hit level 7.

[Cardtrick]

good stuff so far.
another question..

it seems obvious to max chr at 16 and work on con.. how should i distribute exactly on a 32 point build? I played around last night putting everything to 10 (except maybe dex - can't remember), maxing chr at 16, and getting con to 17. that was only giving me 2 skill points per level though. should i sacrifice some con to raise int for more skill points? I get one more point by the time i hit level 7.

Here's a basic 32-point warforged pure sorcerer air/fire build. 12 int is pretty much the minimum I'd go these days, unless tomes are available. (You want as much Concentration, Spellcraft, and Repair as you can get.)

Spell list is pretty flexible, but this is decent. It's the kind of list I'd go for with my playstyle (mostly soloing, but grouping enough that I want to make sure to have the essential group buffs). For whatever it's worth, I actually prefer fire/earth for leveling, but this is fine too.

Character Plan by DDO Character Planner Version 04.20.01
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Pure Sorc 
Level 20 True Neutral Warforged Male
(20 Sorcerer) 
Hit Points: 200
Spell Points: 1875 
BAB: 10\10\15\20
Fortitude: 11
Reflex: 5
Will: 10

                  Starting            Ending          Feat/Enhancement
Abilities        Base Stats         Base Stats         Modified Stats
(32 Point)       (Level 1)          (Level 20)           (Level 20)
Strength             10                 10                   10
Dexterity             8                  8                    8
Constitution         18                 18                   20
Intelligence         12                 12                   12
Wisdom                6                  6                    6
Charisma             16                 21                   25

                  Starting            Ending          Feat/Enhancement
                 Base Skills        Base Skills        Modified Skills
Skills           (Level 1)          (Level 20)          (Level 20)
Balance              -1                 -1                   -1
Bluff                 3                  8                    8
Concentration         8                 28                   28
Diplomacy             3                  7                    7
Disable Device        n/a               n/a                   n/a
Haggle                3                  7                    7
Heal                 -2                 -2                   -2
Hide                 -1                 -1                   -1
Intimidate            3                  7                    7
Jump                  0                  0                    0
Listen               -2                 -2                   -2
Move Silently        -1                 -1                   -1
Open Lock            n/a               n/a                   n/a
Perform               n/a               n/a                   n/a
Repair                2                 11                   11
Search                1                  1                    1
Spellcraft            5                 24                   24
Spot                 -2                 -2                   -2
Swim                  0                  0                    0
Tumble                0                  0                    0
Use Magic Device      n/a               n/a                   n/a

Level 1 (Sorcerer)
Skill: Concentration (+4)
Skill: Repair (+1)
Skill: Spellcraft (+4)
Skill: Tumble (+1)
Feat: (Selected) Maximize Spell
Spell (1): Nightshield
Spell (1): Sonic Blast


Level 2 (Sorcerer)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Repair (+0.5)
Skill: Spellcraft (+1)
Spell (1): Expeditious Retreat


Level 3 (Sorcerer)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Repair (+0.5)
Skill: Spellcraft (+1)
Feat: (Selected) Empower Spell
Spell (1): Jump


Level 4 (Sorcerer)
Ability Raise: CHA
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Repair (+0.5)
Skill: Spellcraft (+1)
Spell (2): Scorching Ray


Level 5 (Sorcerer)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Repair (+0.5)
Skill: Spellcraft (+1)
Spell (2): Blur


Level 6 (Sorcerer)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Repair (+0.5)
Skill: Spellcraft (+1)
Feat: (Selected) Spell Focus: Evocation
Spell (3): Fireball


Level 7 (Sorcerer)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Repair (+0.5)
Skill: Spellcraft (+1)
Spell (3): Displacement
Spell (2): Web


Level 8 (Sorcerer)
Ability Raise: CHA
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Repair (+0.5)
Skill: Spellcraft (+1)
Spell (4): Wall of Fire


Level 9 (Sorcerer)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Repair (+0.5)
Skill: Spellcraft (+1)
Feat: (Selected) Heighten Spell
Spell (2): Knock
Spell (3): Haste
Spell (4): Repair Critical Damage


Level 10 (Sorcerer)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Repair (+0.5)
Skill: Spellcraft (+1)
Spell (5): Eladar's Electric Surge


Level 11 (Sorcerer)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Repair (+0.5)
Skill: Spellcraft (+1)
Spell (3): Rage
Spell (4): Dimension Door
Spell (5): Niac's Biting Cold


Level 12 (Sorcerer)
Ability Raise: CHA
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Repair (+0.5)
Skill: Spellcraft (+1)
Feat: (Selected) Quicken Spell
Spell (6): Reconstruct


Level 13 (Sorcerer)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Repair (+0.5)
Skill: Spellcraft (+1)
Spell (4): Solid Fog
Spell (5): Prismatic Ray
Spell (6): Chain Lightning


Level 14 (Sorcerer)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Repair (+0.5)
Skill: Spellcraft (+1)
Spell (7): Delayed Blast Fireball


Level 15 (Sorcerer)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Repair (+0.5)
Skill: Spellcraft (+1)
Feat: (Selected) Enlarge Spell
Spell (5): Cyclonic Blast
Spell (6): Disintegrate
Spell (7): Protection from Elements, Mass


Level 16 (Sorcerer)
Ability Raise: CHA
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Repair (+0.5)
Skill: Spellcraft (+1)
Spell (8): Greater Shout


Level 17 (Sorcerer)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Repair (+0.5)
Skill: Spellcraft (+1)
Spell (7): Otto's Sphere of Dancing
Spell (8): Incendiary Cloud


Level 18 (Sorcerer)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Repair (+0.5)
Skill: Spellcraft (+1)
Feat: (Selected) Greater Spell Focus: Evocation
Spell (9): Wail of the Banshee


Level 19 (Sorcerer)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Repair (+0.5)
Skill: Spellcraft (+1)
Spell (8): Symbol of Death
Spell (9): Meteor Swarm


Level 20 (Sorcerer)
Ability Raise: CHA
Skill: Bluff (+1)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Spellcraft (+1)
Spell (9): Energy Drain
Enhancement: Warforged - Improved Fortification (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Warforged - Warforged Constitution (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Warforged - Improved Fortification (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Warforged - Warforged Constitution (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Warforged - Inscribed Armor (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Air Savant (Sor) - Air Savant (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Air Savant (Sor) - Air Affinity (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Air Savant (Sor) - Greater Air Affinity (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Air Savant (Sor) - Conduction (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Air Savant (Sor) - Light on Your Feet (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Air Savant (Sor) - Elemental Apotheosis (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Air Savant (Sor) - Shocking Grasp (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Air Savant (Sor) - Shocking Grasp (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Air Savant (Sor) - Shocking Grasp (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Air Savant (Sor) - Spell Critical: Electric (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Air Savant (Sor) - Electrocution (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Air Savant (Sor) - Electrocution (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Air Savant (Sor) - Electrocution (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Air Savant (Sor) - Efficient Maximize (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Air Savant (Sor) - Efficient Maximize (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Air Savant (Sor) - Efficient Maximize (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Air Savant (Sor) - Spell Critical: Electric II (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Air Savant (Sor) - Alternating Current (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Air Savant (Sor) - Alternating Current (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Air Savant (Sor) - Alternating Current (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Air Savant (Sor) - Spell Critical: Electric III (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Air Savant (Sor) - Charisma (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Air Savant (Sor) - Electric Loop (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Air Savant (Sor) - Electric Loop (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Air Savant (Sor) - Electric Loop (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Air Savant (Sor) - Feather Falling (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Air Savant (Sor) - Spell Critical: Electric IV (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Air Savant (Sor) - Charisma (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Air Savant (Sor) - Lightning Bolt (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Air Savant (Sor) - Lightning Bolt (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Air Savant (Sor) - Lightning Bolt (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Air Savant (Sor) - Awaken Elemental Weakness: Electric (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Air Savant (Sor) - Wind Dance (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Air Savant (Sor) - Evocation Focus (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Air Savant (Sor) - Power of Flame (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Fire Savant (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Fire Affinity (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Greater Fire Affinity (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Immolation (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Spell Critical: Fire I (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Conflagration (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Conflagration (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Conflagration (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Efficient Quicken (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Efficient Quicken (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Efficient Quicken (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Spell Critical: Fire II (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Spell Critical: Fire III (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Charisma (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Charisma (Rank 1)

Depending on how you're doing with spellpoints, and what kind of gear you have access to, you might consider dropping GSF: Evocation and Enlarge in favor of Mental Toughness and Improved Mental Toughness. The other feats are pretty much non-negotiable, though.

Note that the build above has the enhancements listed at level 20. As you can see, it's Air primary with Fire secondary. While leveling, at least up through level 16 or so, I would say that going Fire primary is dramatically more powerful.

So these are the enhancements I'd have at level 7, when your vet status guy starts:

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Enhancement: Warforged - Improved Fortification (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Warforged - Inscribed Armor (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Air Savant (Sor) - Air Savant (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Fire Savant (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Fire Affinity (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Greater Fire Affinity (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Burning Hands (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Burning Hands (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Burning Hands (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Spell Critical: Fire I (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Conflagration (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Conflagration (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Conflagration (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Spell Critical: Fire II (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Fanning the Flames (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Fanning the Flames (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Fanning the Flames (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Spell Critical: Fire III (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Charisma (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Scorch (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Scorch (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Scorch (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Charisma (Rank 1)

I think there are 2 reasonable places to swap to Air Savant -- either at level 16, when you get Delayed Blast Fireball (which is fairly cheap for the damage it does and can replace the fire SLAs as your primary room-clearer), or at level 18, when you really start running a lot of content with fire-immune devils.

Assuming you swap to air primary at 16, my final set of fire enhancements (at level 15), would look like:

Character Plan by DDO Character Planner Version 04.20.01
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Enhancement: Warforged - Improved Fortification (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Warforged - Inscribed Armor (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Air Savant (Sor) - Air Savant (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Air Savant (Sor) - Air Affinity (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Air Savant (Sor) - Greater Air Affinity (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Air Savant (Sor) - Spell Critical: Electric (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Air Savant (Sor) - Electrocution (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Air Savant (Sor) - Electrocution (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Air Savant (Sor) - Electrocution (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Air Savant (Sor) - Spell Critical: Electric II (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Air Savant (Sor) - Alternating Current (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Air Savant (Sor) - Alternating Current (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Air Savant (Sor) - Alternating Current (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Air Savant (Sor) - Spell Critical: Electric III (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Air Savant (Sor) - Charisma (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Fire Savant (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Fire Affinity (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Greater Fire Affinity (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Immolation (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Burning Hands (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Burning Hands (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Burning Hands (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Spell Critical: Fire I (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Conflagration (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Conflagration (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Conflagration (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Efficient Maximize (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Efficient Maximize (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Spell Critical: Fire II (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Fanning the Flames (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Fanning the Flames (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Fanning the Flames (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Spell Critical: Fire III (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Charisma (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Scorch (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Scorch (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Scorch (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Spell Critical: Fire IV (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Charisma (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Fireball (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Fireball (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Fireball (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Awaken Elemental Weakness: Fire (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Evocation Focus (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Power of Lightning (Rank 1)

Notes on stats/skills

It might be better to lose the 2 points from STR and add them to INT, and then put skillpoints into UMD. I probably would do this myself. I hate going with 8 STR, though; it's too easy to become burdened and helpless. Those extra 2 points make a big difference. Warforged arcane casters are literally the only type of characters I don't feel like it's mandatory to have UMD on, though; you have access to almost everything you need innately. Raise Dead / Resurrect scrolls are the exceptions, especially since this is a first lifer and won't have Greensteel clickies. So it's up to you.

Notes on spells

I mostly didn't choose spells that you can cast almost as effectively from scrolls. So no Invisiblity, no Teleport, no Fire Shield, no Greater Heroism, no True Seeing, etc. Those are obviously still immensely valuable spells, but you can just carry stacks of scrolls.

Generally speaking, I tried to choose spells in an order that will prevent having to swap them a lot. But there are still a couple of obvious spells to swap out over time. You will eventually want to remove expeditious retreat (once you get better striding items/clickies/etc., or if you have enough SP and patience to just keep Haste up all the time). Protection From Evil is by far the best replacement there; it's worth casting even at cap, and I've heard that the immunities don't always work properly when applied from other sources. You'll almost certainly want to replace Repair Critical with something else -- Force Missiles is one unexciting but useful option, for enemies that are immune or heavily resistant to everything else (Shroud portals . . .).

If you group most of the time, you should consider replacing Knock with Resist Energy. I used to consider Resist Energy mandatory, but now with ship buffs and pretty easily accessible Resist 20 potions, I prefer being able to open chests when I'm soloing. (Note that I say this even as someone who doesn't use ship buffs -- I'd rather just drink potions than not be able to open chests.) I guess Blur would be another option to drop, now that it's become much more easily available as an item effect for non-casters, but I still like to keep it; I really like the duration even on myself for when I forget to re-cast Displacement in time.

Keep Sonic Blast. Seriously. Have it set to all metas always off and an easily accessible key. It is by far the best breakables-smasher in the game, and its daze effect works on almost everything and remains shocking useful even in elite content in the high heroic levels. I have good gear, but my warforged fire savant was running in heroic elite Shadows Over Wheloon content last night and regularly getting dazes against large groups with Sonic Blast.

Keep Scorching Ray. It may not look super impressive when you just read the description, but with solid spellpower it's ridiculous. High damage, low SP, easy targeting, double range, short cooldown. I spam it all the time in between SLAs. Probably my most used spell.

For the veterans out there, no, I don't take firewall myself anymore. But my sorcerers have an Archmagi ioun stone at L5 and a greensteel SP item at L11 -- I can afford to lose a little SP efficiency in favor of speed. This character is a first life build, and it needs a way to do efficient damage over time in long quests in the mid levels, many of which are undead heavy (Wiz King, Necro3, etc.).

I took Meteor Storm because you specifically mentioned wanting it. I wouldn't actually select this -- even without being Necro/Enchantment specced, I'd rather have Energy Drain, Wail of the Banshee, and Mass Hold Monster as my level 9 spells. I get enough DPS from the lower level spells and SLAs; I'd rather have the irreplaceable effects of the other good L9 spells. (Note that, although your DCs won't be great, with equipment and judicious use of Symbol of Death / Energy Drain to remove levels, you will be able to use Wail and MHM to good effect. Also, Wail is useful even if the enemies save -- it still drains levels.)

If you do decide to go for MHM, you'll probably want some additional way to debuff Will saves. Swapping Firewall / Repair Critical / Force Missiles for Crushing Despair and then swapping either Prismatic Ray or Cyclonic Blast for Mind Fog would be the way to go. (You cast Crushing Despair first, which gives a -5 to Will saves even if they save against the primary effect, then Mind Fog, which gives a further - 10 if they fail their initial save. Then you cast MHM. Optionally, kite through a Symbol of Death first to drain a few levels.)

Notes on Play

All the metas are primarily for your SLAs. Drag them to your hotbar, right click on the SLA, and choose to turn each meta to "Always On". Other than that, most of the metas will be off most of the time.

When you get Reconstruct, set Quicken to "Always On". Bind that somewhere easily accessible and use it as an emergency "oh no" heal. I have Reconstruct bound to my "f" key. My SLAs are always 2, 3, and 4. Scorching Ray is 1, Sonic Blast (all metas set to Always Off) is 5. Experiment with bindings and find something that works for you.

Always have good spellpower and lore items for your primary and secondary elements. Ideally, also for Repair, although that's less important. Bear in mind that the Cannith Challenge items (Bracers of Wind, Ring of Master Artificer, Cloak of Flames) can be very useful to accomplish this if you're having trouble finding appropriate weapons to do it.

Learn to jump-cast. Jump is an absolutely essential spell that you'll keep running all the time. You'll pretty much always be jumping. For ray spells, this is to get a good line of sight. For AOE spells (fireball, DBF), it's because often the best way to hit multiple enemies is to get a bunch of guys chasing you and then jump back and shoot straight down.

Don't rely too much on your SLAs. It's nice, because they're basically free. But the cooldown is quite slow and at higher levels the damage is good but not great. It's more SP-efficient to open with a DBF followed by an SLA fireball, then mop up with scorch / burning hands SLAs and scorching ray, than it is to just use your SLAs and kill so slowly that you get hurt and have to Reconstruct yourself a couple of times. Reconstruct is awesome, but it's not free. Better to kill guys so fast you don't get hurt.

[unbongwah]

I don't know if I'll want to multiclass - will i lose meteor swarm if I do?

Only if you drop below sorc 18. The most common splashes are pal 2 for Div Grace (+CHA to saves) and FvS 2 for AoV bonuses (see Scorcher for one example).

[Ancient]

At low levels, I would suggest going both Earth/Fire savant, even if you don't take spells in that area.

For a minimal investment of AP, you can have both burning hands and acid splash SLAs which gives you a nice set of low cost hard hitting area of effect SLAs. The SLAs let you use empower/maximize for free.

[Ancient]

Keep Scorching Ray. It may not look super impressive when you just read the description, but with solid spellpower it's ridiculous. High damage, low SP, easy targeting, double range, short cooldown. I spam it all the time in between SLAs. Probably my most used spell.

Scorch and Chain missile are great filler spells. Cast them with no metas.

SLA Fireball -> filler -> SLA Scorch -> filler -> SLA Burning Hands -> filler -> Repeat

When facing a large group, I use chain missile as the filler. Against smaller groups, I tend to use scorching ray.

(BTW, CardTrick had a lot of good advice in that post)

[Cardtrick]

At low levels, I would suggest going both Earth/Fire savant, even if you don't take spells in that area.

For a minimal investment of AP, you can have both burning hands and acid splash SLAs which gives you a nice set of low cost hard hitting area of effect SLAs. The SLAs let you use empower/maximize for free.

I definitely agree with this. Especially on a warforged, I'm not impressed with air savant at low levels. I went fire/air in that post because that's what he asked for, but I really don't care for air savant until wind dance becomes an option. (My main guy is currently on a sorcerer life at level 18, almost enough XP banked to take 20, and I stayed fire/force the whole way with just a little bit of earth. I actually went Sorc 16, then FvS at 17 and 18 for Just Rewards - it's ridiculous how awesome it is. I basically never shrine.)

Scorch and Chain missile are great filler spells. Cast them with no metas.

SLA Fireball -> filler -> SLA Scorch -> filler -> SLA Burning Hands -> filler -> Repeat

When facing a large group, I use chain missile as the filler. Against smaller groups, I tend to use scorching ray.

You say "Scorch", but I assume you mean Scorching Ray? If so, I totally agree, and this is what my main does. Although against groups I'll typically open first with a single un-meta-ed DBF, and then swap to that cycle.

[Wipey]

Huh, unmetaed DBF ?
Full meta Fireball, DBF or Otiluke one shots whole rooms at level Elites with good gear and enough caster levels ( no heavy splashes ).
Last time I played sorc was before EP but 500- 600 Fireball crits in von3 and 700- 1k DBF in GH or 1200 Otiluke in Vale is ridiculous lol.
Why fiddle with SLAs and stuff. It's not bad in addition and to finish almost dead things but ...go BIG on sorc ( you can play really dumb in heroics at least ).

You need like 4 spells in heroic on toaster ( dbf, haste, fireball and recon ). Ok maybe just half kidding

[HardRobble]

wow, this thread exploded with good advice. I really appreciate it.

I am going to delete the char I started last night and make a new one using all the tips given.

[Ancient]

You say "Scorch", but I assume you mean Scorching Ray? If so, I totally agree, and this is what my main does. Although against groups I'll typically open first with a single un-meta-ed DBF, and then swap to that cycle.

Yes, scorching ray. My bad.

[Cardtrick]

Huh, unmetaed DBF ?
Full meta Fireball, DBF or Otiluke one shots whole rooms at level Elites with good gear and enough caster levels ( no heavy splashes ).
Last time I played sorc was before EP but 500- 600 Fireball crits in von3 and 700- 1k DBF in GH or 1200 Otiluke in Vale is ridiculous lol.
Why fiddle with SLAs and stuff. It's not bad in addition and to finish almost dead things but ...go BIG on sorc ( you can play really dumb in heroics at least ).

You need like 4 spells in heroic on toaster ( dbf, haste, fireball and recon ). Ok maybe just half kidding

I used to feel the same way, but with the enhancement pass and the way spellpower works now, I just don't find maximize/empower to be worth the SP cost most of the time. They no longer multiply damage, they add to it. It was different when maximize used to double the power of a spell for 25 SP. But now, when you've got a base of 200+ fire spell power, which is easily attainable pretty early on (enhancements, combustion items, combustion potions, implement bonus, spellcraft skill), a maximize is going to be adding less than 50% additional damage to the spell. (E.g., if the DBF would do a base of 100 damage, with 200 fire spell power it instead does 300 damage. Adding Maximize on top of that makes it do 450, for a 50% increase.) To me, that's usually not worth doubling the cost of the spell, when I could instead cast it un-metaed and follow up with my fully-metaed SLAs.

In an endfight, or against something that just must die right now, or if I'm running with a group and I know they're going to be stopping to shrine soon . . . then sure, I'll turn on the metas and go to town. But most of the time, I really like not having to ever stop to shrine.

Also, I have a separate maximized/empowered version of Scorching Ray on my quick bar. I use it for beholders. It's a bit expensive, but one or two of them is usually enough to kill a beholder quickly enough from far enough away that I don't get anti-magiced and lose my buffs; saving the SP from recasting buffs is worth it.

[rayworks]

Don't forget to invest in UMD, espeically if you're a fleshie. Heal scrolls are cheap insurance.

[HardRobble]

So these are the enhancements I'd have at level 7, when your vet status guy starts:

Character Plan by DDO Character Planner Version 04.20.01
DDO Character Planner Home Page
Enhancement: Warforged - Improved Fortification (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Warforged - Inscribed Armor (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Air Savant (Sor) - Air Savant (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Fire Savant (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Fire Affinity (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Greater Fire Affinity (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Burning Hands (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Burning Hands (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Burning Hands (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Spell Critical: Fire I (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Conflagration (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Conflagration (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Conflagration (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Spell Critical: Fire II (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Fanning the Flames (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Fanning the Flames (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Fanning the Flames (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Spell Critical: Fire III (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Charisma (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Scorch (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Scorch (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Scorch (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Fire Savant (Sor) - Charisma (Rank 1)

I didn't have enough AP to get the last 2 scorch ranks or the 2nd charisma. Was that actually for higher than lvl 7 or did I perhaps select something wrong? (I looked but seemed to have the correct choices)

Can't wait to get home and try it out. RDP works fine for character generation but I can't actually play at 10fps.

[HungarianRhapsody]

Just got veteran II so i can start characters at lvl 7. Now I want to try my hand at a sorcerer since I'll skip the most squishy stage. I've never played a sorcerer (or any other spell caster other than paladin)

I know I want to go fire/air. I don't know if I'll want to multiclass - will i lose meteor swarm if I do? I've read about several builds and just got confused and most of them were talking about after TR'ing/past lives and 36 point builds. This is for a first playthrough.


Any tips? What race and stats should I start with? I will have 32 points. What feats should I go for? I don't need it detailed out to lvl 20 yet but but to level 10 would be fine for now. What will be my main spells etc..


Of course I want DPS and survivability when I start taking aggro.

thanks for any suggestions!

My opinion:
Fireball takes care of almost everything until you get Delayed Blast Fireball. Warforged and Bladeforged are both fantastic because of the self-healing. If Fireball doesn't kill something, then you can probably just run past it and ignore it. For the few occasions where you MUST kill something that Fireball won't touch, there are a few alternate spells that can take care of things for you. Magic Missile doesn't do a lot of damage, but it's cheap and you can spam it over and over and very few things are immune/resistant to it.

[Wipey]

I used to feel the same way, but with the enhancement pass and the way spellpower works now, I just don't find maximize/empower to be worth the SP cost most of the time.

Ahh I see your point, I guess it makes more sense in newbie sorc thread
Twinked vet probably still doesn't run into "sp problems" in heroics though.
My TR buddy is pure sorc now ( carrying my gimp ass splashed Shiradi- to- be wizzy ) and nothing seems changed, stuff just evaporates anyway !

[Cardtrick]

I didn't have enough AP to get the last 2 scorch ranks or the 2nd charisma. Was that actually for higher than lvl 7 or did I perhaps select something wrong? (I looked but seemed to have the correct choices)

Can't wait to get home and try it out. RDP works fine for character generation but I can't actually play at 10fps.

Ah, that's my bad. I forgot that Vet status starts you off at the beginning of level 7, with 4 APs left to go. You did it right -- I was just already including the APs you'll earn during that level.

Have fun with it, sorcerers are a blast!

Ahh I see your point, I guess it makes more sense in newbie sorc thread
Twinked vet probably still doesn't run into "sp problems" in heroics though.
My TR buddy is pure sorc now ( carrying my gimp ass splashed Shiradi- to- be wizzy ) and nothing seems changed, stuff just evaporates anyway !

Yeah, exactly -- if you've got SP items and a Cove trinket for stacking SP right from the beginning, then an unsuppressed Vibrant Purple Ioun Stone for Archmagi at level 5, then greensteel SP items, torc, and Conc Opp at level 11 -- then you might choose not to worry about the SP efficiency so much. But when this is a new 32-point build with no twinkage, I think you're better of milking the SP a bit.

[HardRobble]

now i jsut made lvl 9 and i'm not sure what feat I should go with. Any advice for feats, spells and enhancements? maybe through the next few levels. I've noticed i have no good spell for fire immune creatures.