First Life Air Savant Sorcerer Seeks Advice

[Endarire]

Greetings, all!

I'm currently a first life Human Sorcerer16 (True Neutral) with the ability to jump to 18 pretty soon. (Waiting to finish Gianthold quests.) I'm enjoying blasting so far (because enemies, even if charmed, have a hard time killing themselves). I wish to plan ahead.

Once I'm done in Gianthold (and level 18), where do you advise I go for the best gear/XP for my level? I can farm a bit, but I'm presently in no mood to spend weeks or months farming Greensteel and ingredients. I'd like to explore the content I'm paying VIP status for.

For levels 21-28 (but especially for 21ish), what school should I emphasize as a Sorcerer? I like blasting (and am primarily an Air Savant with a minor as a Fire Savant for wall of fire); I chose Air Savant because of general utility (go, go Feather Fall!) and because few things resist electricity that much. However, I've heard Enchantment is the school to max the DC for in Epic. I want to be as useful as possible, preferably able to solo Epic Elites. (Soloing Epic Hards or Epic Normals is another goal.)

Also, what Epic Destiny should I pick? Magister and Dragon Incarnate each look spiffy. I'm not sure how Twists of Fate work, nor if I should try to mix Magister and Draconic Incarnate.

I probably also need lots of Epic gear to make my DCs high enough for things to be worthwhile for Epic Elite instances, and perhaps also for Epic Normal/Epic Hard. I've not spent my time farming gear; I have no Greensteel items to my name, and have mostly gotten by via random loot drops. (I figure Epic gear will be easier to get than trying to farm Necropolis or Shroud for spiffy items. If I'm farming, I may as well get the best stuff.)

Brief stats, not including ship buffs:
12 STR
20 DEX
22 CON
18 INT
20 WIS
36 CHA

(Some is from items. Some is from a +4 Supreme tome.)

Main Offensive Spells:
Ball Lightning
Electric Loop (SLA)
Wall of Fire

Feats (in no special order):
Empower Spell
Extend Spell (I like my displacement, rage, and haste)
Force of Personality
Heigthen Spell (taken just in case I need it)
Maximize Spell
Spell Focus: Evocation
Toughness

[Loromir]

Greetings, all!

I'm currently a first life Human Sorcerer16 (True Neutral) with the ability to jump to 18 pretty soon. (Waiting to finish Gianthold quests.) I'm enjoying blasting so far (because enemies, even if charmed, have a hard time killing themselves). I wish to plan ahead.

Once I'm done in Gianthold (and level 18), where do you advise I go for the best gear/XP for my level? I can farm a bit, but I'm presently in no mood to spend weeks or months farming Greensteel and ingredients. I'd like to explore the content I'm paying VIP status for.

For levels 21-28 (but especially for 21ish), what school should I emphasize as a Sorcerer? I like blasting (and am primarily an Air Savant with a minor as a Fire Savant for wall of fire); I chose Air Savant because of general utility (go, go Feather Fall!) and because few things resist electricity that much. However, I've heard Enchantment is the school to max the DC for in Epic. I want to be as useful as possible, preferably able to solo Epic Elites. (Soloing Epic Hards or Epic Normals is another goal.)

Also, what Epic Destiny should I pick? Magister and Dragon Incarnate each look spiffy. I'm not sure how Twists of Fate work, nor if I should try to mix Magister and Draconic Incarnate.

I probably also need lots of Epic gear to make my DCs high enough for things to be worthwhile for Epic Elite instances, and perhaps also for Epic Normal/Epic Hard. I've not spent my time farming gear; I have no Greensteel items to my name, and have mostly gotten by via random loot drops. (I figure Epic gear will be easier to get than trying to farm Necropolis or Shroud for spiffy items. If I'm farming, I may as well get the best stuff.)

Brief stats, not including ship buffs:
12 STR
20 DEX
22 CON
18 INT
20 WIS
36 CHA

(Some is from items. Some is from a +4 Supreme tome.)

Main Offensive Spells:
Ball Lightning
Electric Loop (SLA)
Wall of Fire

Feats (in no special order):
Empower Spell
Extend Spell (I like my displacement, rage, and haste)
Force of Personality
Heigthen Spell (taken just in case I need it)
Maximize Spell
Spell Focus: Evocation
Toughness

Its going to be tough for your sorc to get meaningful enchant DC's for epic. Air and fire are fine choices to stick with. Start out in Draconic and work you way over to Shiradi. Between Shiradi and Draconic, you will have two pretty good options to choose from when gearing up for specific quests.

As for the higher heroic levels, there is a decent set of goggles in one of the cannith manufactury chain for casters (Mageright spectacles). Also, the Cannith Challenges have some nice items you can make that are not too difficult to obtain.

But really....just try to get on to the epic levels as quick as you can. That's where your power will really start to grow.

[Lonnbeimnech]

Have a look at this thread.

http://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread...e-EE-DPS-Build

[Endarire]

I've found the War Wizard set to be rather appealing. A concern is getting the 40 War Wizard Commendations for the full set (including the converted Spidersilk Robe).

1: Is it worth it to try farming the commendations for these, considering the availability of gear elsewhere?

2: If so, what's the best way to farm these War Wizard commendations, as well as the Spidersilk Robe? (C'mon, +3 Insight Charisma!)

[cru121]

The set is OK. However, if you're using the set, it prevents you to use the +4 Evocation Focus necklace. Which is great.
Extremely easy-to-get gear are the guaranteed end rewards for wheloon and stormhorns quests: http://ddowiki.com/page/Update_19_named_items#Wheloon_2
My sorc uses the following items (Heroic): Necklace (evocation focus), bracers (+4 saves), belt (40 hp), gloves (8 con), ring (prr), ring (8 cha)
The goggles (35 vitality) are also nice, but I'm using crafted ML16 Blindness Ward, Persuasion, Yellow: +1 Evocation, Colorless: +5 Str.

[Endarire]

In this day and age, how important is the Litany of the Dead item (trinket) from the Black Abbot raid? I'm attuned to the raid, but I never did it. I'd probably need a full party to compete.

Also, does the raid's difficulty affect the chance I'll get this trinket? If so, how?

Additionally, how important is spell resistance on my character? I have an item of SR 17 at level 18, which seems to have blocked some effects lately, but I'm unsure how important (and helpful) it'll be at this level. Going Drow seems the best way to have a relevant SR; my SR as a Drow (if I were one, which I'm not) would, at this level, be between 14 and 16+my level, or between 32 and 34.

How important is the 10% spell point discount from the War Wizard set or the Cormyrian Green Dragonscale Robe?

[Wizza]

In this day and age, how important is the Litany of the Dead item (trinket) from the Black Abbot raid? I'm attuned to the raid, but I never did it. I'd probably need a full party to compete.

Also, does the raid's difficulty affect the chance I'll get this trinket? If so, how?

Additionally, how important is spell resistance on my character? I have an item of SR 17 at level 18, which seems to have blocked some effects lately, but I'm unsure how important (and helpful) it'll be at this level. Going Drow seems the best way to have a relevant SR; my SR as a Drow (if I were one, which I'm not) would, at this level, be between 14 and 16+my level, or between 32 and 34.

How important is the 10% spell point discount from the War Wizard set or the Cormyrian Green Dragonscale Robe?

Litany of the Dead is still one of the strongest item in the game. Specially for casters, when they need all the DC they can get and the clicky is awesome. You should try to get one absolutely. Supposedly, you should get more chances to get an item on Elite but I think it's been broken for a while and elite has the same chance as Normal.

SR is only useful while leveling. I'd say skip it altogheter, unless it comes on an item that you want. Definetely skip it in the endgame where mobs have CR 50+.

The 10% is a nice little addition, not vital by any means but it can save you some SP while leveling. It's handy specially if you plan on using the Sorcerer elemental form and if you haven't many SP clickies (Twisted talisman, Epic twisted talisman, Spell storing ring, Bauble, Archivist Necklace, Vile Blasphemy) or SP potions.

[Endarire]

When leveling (especially when soloing or soloing with a healing hireling), I've mostly relied on my electric loop SLA (Heigthened, Empowered, and Maximized) and thrown the occasional wall of fire or ball lightning. I've come to a conundrum: Things that need to die right now tend to drain my SP overly quickly, or require a tremendous amount of healing of me (such as via a hireling's healing spells) to kill with minimal spell point expenditure. I've also noticed that a Heightened web works fairly well, even at this level, with no other specific boosts to my Conjuration DC. (The DC is 10 + my CHA mod of 18 + the spell's level.) With a hireling (especially hasted), foes are more cheaply dispatched.

What's the best way to efficiently kill foes?

For some reason, Otto's sphere of dancing has been generally much less successful than web. Why?

[Panzermeyer]

Best XP for level 18 is the Vale and the Shroud flagging quests.

The XP there is better than Wheloon, but I would not ignore Wheloon. Definitely run those to gethe Sage Necklace for the +4 evocation DC.

[Lonnbeimnech]

When leveling (especially when soloing or soloing with a healing hireling), I've mostly relied on my electric loop SLA (Heigthened, Empowered, and Maximized) and thrown the occasional wall of fire or ball lightning. I've come to a conundrum: Things that need to die right now tend to drain my SP overly quickly, or require a tremendous amount of healing of me (such as via a hireling's healing spells) to kill with minimal spell point expenditure. I've also noticed that a Heightened web works fairly well, even at this level, with no other specific boosts to my Conjuration DC. (The DC is 10 + my CHA mod of 18 + the spell's level.) With a hireling (especially hasted), foes are more cheaply dispatched.

What's the best way to efficiently kill foes?

For some reason, Otto's sphere of dancing has been generally much less successful than web. Why?

Web is a reflex save, disco ball is a will save and a spell pen check. Which one works best will have a lot to do with what mobs you are fighting. Some things are immune to web, spiders and I think fire elementals and probably a few more. And some things are immune to dance, such as undead.

As far as killing things efficiently, invisibility is a casters best weapon while soloing. You can get past almost the entire dungeon for 15sp while taking no damage. Just kill the mobs you have to kill, then ddoor out.

[Cardtrick]

For some reason, Otto's sphere of dancing has been generally much less successful than web. Why?

Tough to say. It probably depends on what you're throwing them against, or what other spells you're using. It might also be related to spell penetration.

Heightened web and heightened Otto's sphere, without any special gear/feats/enhancements to boost Conjuration or Enchantment DCs, should have the same DC.

But Web operates against Reflex save (and then, once they're stuck, successive Strength checks to break the web). Whereas Otto's checks against Will save.

Different enemies will tend to be stronger in one are than another. As a rule, casters tend to have strong Will saves while archers/rogues/animals/quick melees tend to have strong Reflex saves. One possibility is that you find you're only bothering with CC -- or only noticing when it fails -- against casters, since they tend to be more dangerous. Against them, Web is more likely to succeed than Otto's.

Another possibility is that you're already using Solid Fog to debuff reflex saves so fewer enemies save against your damaging spells. I think you would have mentioned that, but if you are then that could be having a huge effect on the success of your web.

Finally, web is not subject to spell resistance / spell penetration checks, since it is a physical effect, but Otto's Sphere is. This is only relevant against enemies who have spell resistance -- common examples include drow, devils, and fiendish enemies (fiendish trolls, fiendish trogs, etc.). Spell penetration is difficult for first life sorcerers to deal with, since they don't have past lives (each wizard past life gives +2 spell pen and each favored soul life gives +1) or the free feats wizards get to use to boost their penetration. A lot of sorcerers just choose not to bother with using any spells that have a spell resistance check against enemies who have resistance.

[cru121]

What's the best way to efficiently kill foes?

I've used this strategy for my air(+fire) savant on late heroics: I invest into efficient maximize (in the fire tree). I use always-on maximize for big nukes: DBF and Chain Lightning, and perhaps also Ball Lightning, if needed.

Single target long range: Lightning Bolt SLA, Scorching Ray, Sonic Blast.
Single target close: PW:Kill (expensive), PW:Stun + SLA, OID + SLA, jump around + SLA; if Sonic Blast/Electric Loop sticks, wait for Lightning Bolt cooldown.
Groups long range: spam Sonic Blast to slow them down, try to catch multiple with Lightning Bolt SLA
Groups close range: unload maximized DBF and Chain Lightning. Ball Lightning if needed (rarely). And SLAs + Sonic Blast. Add Wall of Fire if useful (especially against annoying phasing mobs, shadows..). Greater Shout if I remember.

When immune to air/fire, I'm plinking non-meta necrotic ray or non-meta cyclonic blast. It sucks.

TL;DR: Nuke - Electric Loop - Nuke - Sonic Blast - Nuke ...
When out of mana, skip nukes. I have actually managed to kill the last ~15 mobs in elite Weapon Shipment on Echoes of Power, rotating Electric Loop + Sonic Blast + CSW pots + jumping around.