Basic playstyle for a sorcerer?

[Cardtrick]

If anyone could please help me out with Feats/enhancements for a 28 point starting Human sorc, that would much appreciated.
Thanks, Finn.

Human is totally viable too, you just have less self healing and you're more vulnerable to certain effects. If you're in a good group that works together, which it sounds like you will be, then there's no problem at all -- in fact, you may even be better off as a human, since you don't have to deal with the -2 CHA penalty that warforged get. You also get an extra feat.

Incidentally, do you have access to drow? (It's a favor reward for a relatively low amount of favor, so if you've played at all, you might have it unlocked for free.) If you do, I would tend to prefer drow over a 28 point human, due to the higher charisma and the quasi-32 point status that drow have.

Whatever race you go, the same advice applies -- max charisma, enough into intelligence that with tomes (if you have any) and racial bonus (if you're human) you're getting at least 3 skillpoints per level, then the rest into constitution. Keep Spellcraft, Concentration, and UMD as high as you can (note that UMD is a cross-class skill, so you won't be able to maximize it).

The builds you linked both take 2 favored soul levels. Have you unlocked favored soul?

If you have, that's perfect -- a fleshy benefits even more from the splash than a warforged does, because it opens up the Empower Healing feat, which is extremely useful for the Rejuvenation Cocoon epic destiny ability. And fleshies benefit just as much from the awesome Just Rewards enhancement in AoV as warforged do.

If you haven't unlocked favored soul, things get trickier -- splashing 2 paladin is probably the best option, for the saves, especially since you won't have the same immunities a warforged does. An 18/2 sorcerer/paladin is a really solid build. You could then additionally splash 1 cleric level to get access to empower healing, but there's not much other benefit in the splash and it would mean losing access to 9th level spells. Occasionally, you'll see people do 18 sorcerer/1 cleric/1 rogue (take rogue as the first level and cleric sometime before level 18 -- the point of the rogue level is just to open up UMD as a class skill so you can get max ranks, and the cleric level is just to unlock empower healing). Or 18 sorcerer/1 cleric/1 wizard (UMD + a free wizard feat). Or you can always go pure -- the capstone is useful.

Bear in mind that if you're even considering splashing paladin, you need to make your character alignment Lawful Good.

[TheDr0wRanger]

Human sorc is very viable, but you have to learn a different sort of balance.

Toasters get some slick immunities and self healing that will let them duke it out in close range.
But due to their loss of:
1 feat,
2 cha(3 if you count human enhancements)
Human enhancements for spellpower, action boosts etc(I prefer them to Drow enhancements on a sorc)
and the necessary focus on warforged abilities in order to leverage the aforementioned self healing

I've found myself able to pace 2nd -4th life Warforged sorcs in dps on my 1st life Human. The gear for fleshies is easier to spec than the warforged because named caster docents are not similar to named caster robes in many cases.

Your UMD WILL be higher(because you WILL invest in UMD right?)


Finally the gap in survivability, while significant, is nothing like it used to be. With Cocoon at endgame, PRR and immunities from Apotheosis Form and the Eldritch Knights acceptable selection of butt-saving (Improved Shield for PRR,available Armor Proficiency, Scroll Mastery,Arcane Barrier,Elemental Resistance) flesh sorcerers can handle themselves without difficulty nowadays. Again you won't be able to off-tank like the Warforged, but if you, like me, don't have any interest in it anyway, its no big thing.


Definitely need to learn to kite though, Jump spell and a jump item(augment?) will get you in the air, featherfall constantly is good for completely negating movement penalties. If you pick an Evo school with DCs do not skimp on Cha and DC bonuses, they are your life. Cyclonic Blast, Greater Shout and later Soundburst or Daunting Roar are going to be the evo CC spells to count on. If you secondary in Enchant you can dance ball for tolerable effect at late-game.

Learn when NOT to jump in, when to wipe out everything(always) and when to kite enemies back to the tougher characters. Dragon Wings are great for getting out of dodge and their trip effect makes them useful for CC. Energy Burst is going to be a go-to at endgame but Draconic Breath can save your butt during cooldowns or ramp your damage when you cut loose. Once you get comfortable with categorizing threats, deciding who you can take and who you'll need help for, you will be golden. I generally solo the FoT ice dragon because no one even gets into the fight before I've killed him.

Big deal here, make sure you get your CC resistance abilities down. Pro Evil, Balance(for trip recovery), beg Freedom of Movement anytime you can get it.
Layer your defenses, 50 PRR(I have 54 standing I think) is a percentage off, 10 DR is still more, put on Blur and Displacement at all times, get a Ghostly item, get all the Positive Spellpower and Heal Amp you can afford(2/3 human for my build). I scroll to others for 200, but I scroll myself for ~350.
Apotheoisis form is worth more than its credited, the immunity list for Elementals is almost as good as undead, not getting stunned or poisoned alone make the form worth it.
Cocoon is a life save but don't expect it to let you tank, its formulated almost exactly to prevent that.

You aren't going to stand and deliver, you are going to be the A-10 Warthog, fly by dropping doom and then zoom back for another pass. If you are going to be a savant some recommend a second element. Its one of the options, I prefer to just become CC support in areas where my element won't shine, its good for learning to diversify your playstyle and it means more focus on my main element.

I recommend strongly considering Endless Faith as a goal for your ED Twists, I'm at almost 4500 spellpoints and I basically never have to concern myself with the rate at which I cast spells, I can cut loose early and often. Plus raising the bar on Echoes means you can E-Burst in echoes, which means I do more damage when I'm limping than many toons do at peak. Awaken Weakness is worth the entire tree, take it, use it, love it.

Any of that help? I played a flesh back when that was still a valid reason to get booted from a PuG, and I spent a lot of time getting flogged for it. Now hes a fun, productive character that even occasionally impresses people. And first life to boot.

[bsquishwizzy]

Ok, a thread that is not about builds for advanced players or even basic players. This thread is asking for the type of advice you'd find in the book "Playing DDO Sorcerers for Dummies".

I've started a 7th level sorcerer with lots of help from another thread I created recently.. This is my first sorcerer and as such I have no experience playing one (or even a main caster type).

I'm looking for advice on what self buffs I should always be running, how i should go about attacking groups indoors/outdoors, dealing with traps when solo, I've heard mentioned jumping and casting.. not sure about that since casting has a small delay and i'm back on the ground by the time it launches. Avoiding becoming an aggro magnet.. using metamagics..

Anyway, any hints/tips or suggestions for the newbie sorcerer would be great.

Right now I am leveling my first Sorc (with 2 wizzy past lives, my mea culpa). I’ve always done Wizards. Here’s my advice, for what it is worth:

1) Pick an element, think about a secondary element you’ll want as a backup. Stick to them.

2) Look for those spells in an element that have dual purposes. I have an Air Savant, and I picked that specifically for Electric Loop, Chain Lightning, and Sonic Blast. All three are AoE spells, and two of them have the added ability to stun opponents (crowd control). I spam these like nobody’s business, and it is HIGHLY effective in lower levels. This might change in upper levels with better mob reflex saves.

3) Think seriously about taking Stoneskin, Haste, Protection from Elements / Resist Elements if you can. If you can’t, you can use scrolls for these. The durations are much shorter. I would try to fit in at least Blur (for protection), and Web (for crowd control), and Dimension Door (has a LOT of uses) . Remember, webs are burned away by fireballs and some sonic spells.

4) First time as a Sorc, don’t go instakill / enchantment route. This is better done on a wizard, requires you to balance damage output and spell penetration, and manage DCs. Try that on a second life when you get a little more experience under your belt.

5) Think about taking Disintegrate and/or Magic Missile. MM can be spammed in Sharardi, used as a backup for elemental-resistant mobs, and Disintegrate is your go-to spell for constructs and most undead as it is one of the most reliable on those mobs.

6) Look for Lore items in your chosen elemental damage types, along with the damage booster attributes (magnetism, glaciation, combustion, corrosion) and also look for Kinetic Lore and Impulse items for Disintegrate / Magic Missile.

7) I took two Toughness feats in my first levels for the HP. My thoughts are a minimum of Heighten, Maximize / Empower, Evocation Focus, and maybe Conjuration Focus as a minimum of feats. Extend if you can fit it in (I hate having to re-cast buffs).

8) Get into Cannith Crafting. You can craft Evocation Focus, Conjuration focus items to at least the second tier.

9) Your two most important stats are CHR and CON. INT for skills (Spell power and UMD at the very least). Don’t bother with Diplo, which is a fallback for a Wizard. When you start spamming spells, you will be doing so much damage that Diplo will be wasted effort. Also think about taking Jump (my personal preference, I admit).

10) Slot the best Wizardry / Power items you can, and keep your CHR the maximum you can get.

11) DO NOT SELECT TELEPORT AS A SPELL!!! You can get this scroll from a guild vendor in House K. This will get you into the Portable Hole, where you can buy buff scrolls to your heart’s content. Get into a guild. This is pretty easy these days (may depend on your server).

12) Self-healing is not as big of an issue as it is for other classes. UMD is based off CHR, and with putting points into UMD, you should be able to use a combination of wands and pots to keep yourself up. Craft a Persuasion item if you can in Cannith Crafting. Between CHR, UMD, and scroll-casting Greater Heroism, you should be just fine for self-healing, and even using some rez scrolls.

As for jumping and casting, that’s more of an optimized move for guys who are really into the Mario stuff. I use jump and cast with Sonic Blast and Electric Loop. I stun a group of mobs, jump over them aggo another group of mobs, get them close enough to me, and then repeat Sonic Blast and Electric Loop over and over again. Between the stunning effect, and the criticals in my main element, it is unbelievably fast and effective for clearing trash. There is a quest in the Catacombs chain that involves clearing away a lot of skellies, zombies, and other undead trash. Usually, this is a straight-out slugfest from start to finish and takes a fairly long time to complete. With my sorc and a cleric (duo-ed the quest) we zerged the thing in what seemed like record time. Even with the undead being immune to the stun effect, the raw AoE damage that Sonic Blast and Electric Loop provided was more than enough to just steamroll through mobs.

The spells that I can simply not debate over selecting are as follows: Invisibility, Teleport, Heroism / Greater Heroism, Mass stat buff spells (Mass Bears Endurance, for example), Stoneskin, Protection from / Resist Element(s)…in fact just about every buff spell out there. It can be done from a scroll. In fact, the 2.5 minutes that you get from Invisibility will get you through 90% of those situations where being Invisible is kinda important. When you start running low, you can re-cast it from a scroll without being detected (if you play smart and don’t do it standing right next to a mob). The only buff spells that I think outright suck from being cast from a scroll are Blur and Haste, mainly because their durartion is terrible. Also Summon Monster VIII, and IX are not readily available in scroll form, but every OTHER summon is. So you can scroll-cast these as well.

And that’s the thumbnail sketch of my advice.

[bsquishwizzy]

Also one note on Drow as a race: they get spell resistance, which can be increased in the racial tree. This covers quite a few holes when it comes to saves and immunities.

[Wh070aa]

Okay. I see lots of bad advice here.
Quicken is for people that don't max out concentration. Sorcerers have faster spell casting anyway, so its waste of spell points, on everything but few bosses. That's my opinion, I played sorc for 2 life's, and all of my sorc friends agree. It the sorc SLA's speed didn't suck hard, this would not be argued about.

Maximize is really important. You basically always leave it on, and get gear/enchants to reduce the cost.Get Arcane Shard(Dreams of Insanity end chest or auction house), if you can, for clearing weaker mobs (have element clrit+spellpower as other set for stuff you cant 1 shot with maximized fireball).

Other feats depend on what you want to do. Evo focus +greater evo is what I do. (unless earth servant, then Conjuration).
Mental taughtness line for extra crits is decent(not all that good). Or you can take spell pen and necro or enchantment (big investments tho).

For race I recommend human, because extra feat, and skill points. Drow have HP problems (especially if under geared)

Get Sla's and spam them. People usually get 2 servants (I personally recommend air + Fire or ice). Fire is good for them fireballs, but it needs DC, and it caps out quickly (also lots of resistant mobs). Ice has polar ray (no DC), but niclac's is conjuration, so SLA's are less effective. Great up to level 7.

Air is awesome for the wings (you can fly taught the traps). Acid is not bad, but it builds different than the rest of the servants.

Don't be afraid to scroll/wand stuff ( you will need to farm money tho) Hight Cha means high UMD. Rise dead, and heal are a must at level 12+ You can save spell slots by umd-ing Greiter heroism(Planar grid, drops in The Xorian Cipher, will save you small fortune in plat. Get like 2 of them), true seeing, invisibility, stone skin, teleport. Healing wands are cheaper than potions.


What else? Do some research on DC and Spell pen. Buy Canith crafted evocation(conjuration,necromancy depending on build) +2 shard, put it in a ring. You can just ask people to craft it for you for essences.

Next play style. There are ways.
1)Get a tower shield, 2 overlaying AOE(area effect) Dot's(damage ower time)/debuffs/CC(crowd control), (cast, then switch to shield) sit in middle and heal yourself/be mana sponge for cleric. IMO not while, unless warforged, and bad idea even then. Good if the party tank can keep the aggro and be person blocking in the AOE (Never happens for me, you need to tell people to do that about 1 time a minute).

2) Get Jump, get haste, (air servant wings help a ton). Put down your AOE Dot, and run around it in circles (Or 2 firewalls and run in between them). Add moar DoT's as needed. Kite.

-------------

Spell selection.
Depends on your servant, but you want

AOE DoT's. At least 2 of them. Acid rain/firewall, Acid rain /Ice storm, Firewall/Clowdkill(con damage, not viable early game). Ice storm puts out firewall.
2 Single target DoT's (niclacs and eldars).(+acid arrows/bolts)

Lasor beams - Servant dependent, But you want disintegrate + (lightning(bolt, chain, Or Polar ray/niclacs/Ice spear or (fire beam thingy idk I never take it) For acid you get DoT's instead).

Balls- Firebal(delayed at later levels), lightning ball, Ice ball

Buffs- Haste, jump, Nightshield, blurr, displacment. You can wand/scroll Heroism,stone skin and true seeing. Prot from evil.
Other- Dimension door.
Instakills-(advanced, Spell pen + necro needed)Wail, Finger of death, Enervation/energy drain.
Optional- Magic missiles for shiradi. All the missiles. Sonic stuns. Greater shout and the Sonic Blast.


SLA's - Put on all the metas, spam them as soon as you can. Depends on servant. (lightning loop is a nice stun, if you got the DC). Cool downs are horrid, and break the flow of casting.
-----------
Skills- Concentration(for heal scrolls ad spells),UMD(healing) Spellcraft,balance (no more than 10 points in it, reduces duration of trip), Tumble(meh),
Max out Cha, Con and rest in wherever (Int for more skill points, or str for more carrying capacity)
That's about all I can remember. Also the usual stuff, HP items, +Cha item, SP item, heavy fort+ , death block and so on.

I might have forgotten something, just post up if you have any questions.

[Loromir]

Okay. I see lots of bad advice here.
Quicken is for people that don't max out concentration. Sorcerers have faster spell casting anyway, so its waste of spell points, on everything but few bosses. That's my opinion, I played sorc for 2 life's, and all of my sorc friends agree. It the sorc SLA's speed didn't suck hard, this would not be argued about.

Quicken is primarily for no fail Reconstruct on a Warforged/Bladeforged. It is difficult to get concentration high enough to prevent spell interruption in Epic Elite. You will be greatful for Quicken when you have 5 mobs beating on you at once and you can still get that reconstruct spell to fire off.

[majorhavoc]

Okay. I see lots of bad advice here.
Quicken is for people that don't max out concentration. Sorcerers have faster spell casting anyway, so its waste of spell points, on everything but few bosses. That's my opinion, I played sorc for 2 life's, and all of my sorc friends agree. It the sorc SLA's speed didn't suck hard, this would not be argued about.

Maximize is really important. You basically always leave it on, and get gear/enchants to reduce the cost.Get Arcane Shard(Dreams of Insanity end chest or auction house), if you can, for clearing weaker mobs (have element clrit+spellpower as other set for stuff you cant 1 shot with maximized fireball).

Other feats depend on what you want to do. Evo focus +greater evo is what I do. (unless earth servant, then Conjuration).
Mental taughtness line for extra crits is decent(not all that good). Or you can take spell pen and necro or enchantment (big investments tho).

For race I recommend human, because extra feat, and skill points. Drow have HP problems (especially if under geared)

Get Sla's and spam them. People usually get 2 servants (I personally recommend air + Fire or ice). Fire is good for them fireballs, but it needs DC, and it caps out quickly (also lots of resistant mobs). Ice has polar ray (no DC), but niclac's is conjuration, so SLA's are less effective. Great up to level 7.

Air is awesome for the wings (you can fly taught the traps). Acid is not bad, but it builds different than the rest of the servants.

Don't be afraid to scroll/wand stuff ( you will need to farm money tho) Hight Cha means high UMD. Rise dead, and heal are a must at level 12+ You can save spell slots by umd-ing Greiter heroism(Planar grid, drops in The Xorian Cipher, will save you small fortune in plat. Get like 2 of them), true seeing, invisibility, stone skin, teleport. Healing wands are cheaper than potions.


What else? Do some research on DC and Spell pen. Buy Canith crafted evocation(conjuration,necromancy depending on build) +2 shard, put it in a ring. You can just ask people to craft it for you for essences.

Next play style. There are ways.
1)Get a tower shield, 2 overlaying AOE(area effect) Dot's(damage ower time)/debuffs/CC(crowd control), (cast, then switch to shield) sit in middle and heal yourself/be mana sponge for cleric. IMO not while, unless warforged, and bad idea even then. Good if the party tank can keep the aggro and be person blocking in the AOE (Never happens for me, you need to tell people to do that about 1 time a minute).

2) Get Jump, get haste, (air servant wings help a ton). Put down your AOE Dot, and run around it in circles (Or 2 firewalls and run in between them). Add moar DoT's as needed. Kite.

-------------

Spell selection.
Depends on your servant, but you want

AOE DoT's. At least 2 of them. Acid rain/firewall, Acid rain /Ice storm, Firewall/Clowdkill(con damage, not viable early game). Ice storm puts out firewall.
2 Single target DoT's (niclacs and eldars).(+acid arrows/bolts)

Lasor beams - Servant dependent, But you want disintegrate + (lightning(bolt, chain, Or Polar ray/niclacs/Ice spear or (fire beam thingy idk I never take it) For acid you get DoT's instead).

Balls- Firebal(delayed at later levels), lightning ball, Ice ball

Buffs- Haste, jump, Nightshield, blurr, displacment. You can wand/scroll Heroism,stone skin and true seeing. Prot from evil.
Other- Dimension door.
Instakills-(advanced, Spell pen + necro needed)Wail, Finger of death, Enervation/energy drain.
Optional- Magic missiles for shiradi. All the missiles. Sonic stuns. Greater shout and the Sonic Blast.


SLA's - Put on all the metas, spam them as soon as you can. Depends on servant. (lightning loop is a nice stun, if you got the DC). Cool downs are horrid, and break the flow of casting.
-----------
Skills- Concentration(for heal scrolls ad spells),UMD(healing) Spellcraft,balance (no more than 10 points in it, reduces duration of trip), Tumble(meh),
Max out Cha, Con and rest in wherever (Int for more skill points, or str for more carrying capacity)
That's about all I can remember. Also the usual stuff, HP items, +Cha item, SP item, heavy fort+ , death block and so on.

I might have forgotten something, just post up if you have any questions.

I totally agree Quicken is a useless wast of a feat, Having played a WF/BF for 24 Heroic lives & 13 epic lives on this tune, all of them as a Sorc, by 28th level concentration is 80-90 depending on gear set, I almost NEVER fail a contraction check even with 20 EE mobs on me, why wast a feat for 1 spell you will fail 1 out a hundred times.

Also Heighten IMHO is another wast of a feat, by end game most of the spells I use most do not gain much effectiveness from Heighten, I.E. (Meteor Storm, Ruin, Hellball, Energy Burst)

As stated by others, Extend spell is also useless now that it only apply to buffs.

I play with Empower & Maximize always on, as a Sorc it is all about maxing out Spell power, then max out crits.

I have played dozens of combinations, I prefer the following feat section, based on my play style, which is mass AOE damage, I very rarely sols.

1: Adamantine Body
3: Completionist
6: Empower Spell
9: Maximize Spell
12: Mental Toughness
15: Improved Mental Toughness
18: Toughness
21: Epic Mental Toughness
24: Epic Toughness
26: Epic Spell power: Fire
27: Ruin
28: Hellball

If I was going to change something I would dump Toughness & Epic Mental Toughness, for Spell Focus & Improved Spell Focus, but based on my plays style I make full use of the extra HPs. EE content mobs hit like a ton of bricks, even with over 1000 HPs, I constantly have to disengage from the fight to repair myself.

With the reasent updates, Adamantine Body is WELL Worth getting. I can regularly get 100+ AC, 100+ PRR, & 90+ MRR, for my play style this is a MASSIVE improvement in surviveability in EE content.