Sorc nuker at cap - doable still?

[mikarddo]

I enjoy playing my sorc in heroics and most of epics - but I am having a hard time getting him to do a respectable job at cap - be it R6+ quests or just raids. Unlike my FvS dc caster / healer which I am very happy with at cap.

I like to play the sorc as a nuker rather than a DC insta-killer / crowd controller, so the aim is to be a somewhat viable nuker at cap for a relative short while getting some rxp before I TR him for the next racial past live - knowing very well he wont be top of the meta by a long shot.

Any advice is most welcome.

Current Gear:
- 4 piece LGS (hat, gloves, boots and belt)
- Flamecleansed (armor, bracer and cloak)
- Dragon's Eye (trinket)
- Collective Sight (goggles w/ Wisdom, ins Con)
- Sigil of Regalport (necklace, minor artifact)
- Celestial Sapphire Ring (ring, w/ Con)
- Shattered Onyx ((ring, w/ ins Cha)
- Wildflame (main hand, w/ Impulse augment for MS)
- LGS Ash/Affirmation (offhand)

ED: Draconic + Meld, Empyrean, +3 Evoc, Cocoon, and Endless Faith. [I wanted Arcane Hymn but didnt find room for it]

Enhancements: 41 in Fire Savant, 31 in EK, 9 in Falconry. I currently have 7 racial points and am doing racial lives so I can be Dragonborn or Theifling all the time.

Damage spells: Meteor Swarm, DBF, Dragon Breath and Energy Burst - which leaves quite a bit time for more casting during cool downs but the other options all seem lack luster - either due to damage dice, MCL og much lower Crit chance/damage if using non-fire spells. SLAs further need Master of Fire feat to be slightly worthwhile.

Any ideas for improving the above is most welcome - within the framework of nuker sorc.

[Iaga]

I've been a DPS caster player since I joined (with the exception of past lives and a little bit more than that when sploity wolves and tree builds were things).

Played sorc forever, moved to alchemist - absolutely loved my alchemist.

Pre-p50, I could run end game r10s and at least feel useful. I wasn't the best at anything, but I was decent at a few things. Now, I can't make it happen. TRed to a bear

If you can find a way to make DPS casters work well in r10s, let us know!!

I miss it ...

[cloudyspam]

I really don't get the doom and gloom train everyone is on for Sorcerer all the time.

I play it each life at cap in high reaper and consistently perform in the top kills. The issue is that you either have the right gear/RPs/Tomes/Filigree and perform well or, you don't and literally perform at less than 50% effectiveness. I say this because unless you have good DCs, your spells literally do half damage - or none at all in Sharn - making you effectively useless as a DPS caster. There is no halfway house with sorcerer, you're either amazing or not useful. (At endgame)

Before the "kills don't matter brigade invade", if you are not dealing enough damage to noticeably contribute to kills as a nuker, this most likely means your cc is not landing either. Therefore, the only thing you are contributing to the group is marginal heals and encouragement.

A key concept for playing Sorcerer at endgame is that your best defence is to not get hit. It pays far greater dividends to get better at the game and avoid damage through positioning/high DCs rather than wasting AP on inconsequential defensive boosts. It is simply not worth investing any meaningful APs into EK as you miss out on a substantial amount of damage. These points are far better spent in Falconry for the +30% damage to helpless targets, sprint boost, and an extra +5% hp. The rest should go into Feydark for the extra CHA/colour spray if you can afford it. Now that you are no longer in the EK tree, you can change your gear set from Flamecleansed to Esoteric. Again, trading defence for more DCs and damage.

From a brief look at your gear it seems that you are missing quality CHA and Insightful Spell Focus, both of which are necessary at end game.

Apologies for the rant, I could write a novella on Sorcerer and why it is still good at all points of the game (barring raids).

[slarden]

A basic framework with

2 piece magewright set
2 piece autumn set (with gloryborne gloves) or gloryborne gloves + attunement gaze augment set
2 piece elder's set with legendary gem of many facets
sigil of regalport
legendary shattered onyx
clouded dreams
one-piece fire lgs

Gives you all the key caster set bonuses except 15% legendary spell crit damage instead of 24% from 4 piece frankenstein lgs.

or alternatively if you want 4 piece lgs

2 piece magewright (eye cloak)
3 piece autumn (armor, , gloves, ring)
sigil of regalport (neck)
legendary shattered onyx (ring)
legendary gem of many facets with no set bonus needed (fort or con/spell focus mastery 5/ insightful combustion 73 or evocation focus 6 / fort or con / insightful combustion 73 depending on focus)
4-piece lgs (helm, boots, bracers, belt)
level 30 flaming forum post (combustion 146, Fire Lore 21, Insightful Evoc 3) + ash

If a group wants your sorc it's more for cc and dc casting than dps although aoe dps is still ok, but fury thf does a good enough job at that - sorcs aren't needed for aoe it's just a plus. So basic rule for a caster today is have top-tier DC but don't suck at other things.

I am also a big fan of 11 point spend in feydark illusionist for greater color spray (cheapest source of helplessness), 1 cha, +10 PRR/MRR. I find going deep in falconry for extra helpless damage to be a waste as helpless mobs drop so quick it ultimately does little to help a party complete a quest faster. It will boost kill count a bit.

[mikarddo]

I really don't get the doom and gloom train everyone is on for Sorcerer all the time.

...

Now that you are no longer in the EK tree, you can change your gear set from Flamecleansed to Esoteric. Again, trading defence for more DCs and damage.

From a brief look at your gear it seems that you are missing quality CHA and Insightful Spell Focus, both of which are necessary at end game.

Apologies for the rant, I could write a novella on Sorcerer and why it is still good at all points of the game (barring raids).

I appreciate the feedback and dont see it as a rant. I am curious though why you recommend the Esoteric set after U50. As far as I can tell its now worse then the Flamecleansed set (same +DC, same +cha, lower +spell power, no artifact spell crit) and the +exceptional spell power/crit can be gotten elsewhere with the same values as the robe. Worse, the MRR cap on the robe hurts. So, I am likely overlooking something.

[mikarddo]

mistake

[slarden]

Much appreciated. I will take a closer look at the suggestions. Which weapon do you suggest for the first setup?

It depends what you want to do with the open slots. You could go burnscar sash for fire + acid and put insightful combustion on your trinket and then use legendary queen's sceptre for potency + the spellsight. Otherwise wild flame or the legendary fusible sceptre of combustion is solid.

If you use the 3 piece augment set you can fit in 4 piece winter (armor, bracers, boots, belt) and then use wild flame. On top of the 10% hp you get 30 artifact PRR + 17 insightful prr/mrr from the belt + the bracers and boots don't suck either. Personally I like it better than 4 piece lgs as +9 crit multiplier is not impactful enough to give up the other bonuses. It ends up being around a 2% dps boost which in my experience is small enough I don't even notice. 47 PRR and 17 MRR with the increase in spike damage with U50 compared to our hp changes - yeah you will notice that.

[mikarddo]

Spell crits - is this it, or am I overlooking something?

Base 5%
PL 9%
Savant 10%
Lore item 21%
Artifact 6%
Exceptional 5%
Empyrean 10% (not always on)
Insightful 5% (but just two Orbs and offhand is probably better with LGS Ash)
MT, IMT and EMT 1% each (but feats are better used on other things)

So, 56-66% effectively.

[mr420247]

Looks like it i just fixed up 2 alchemist alt bots to test 50 51, 25 r pts on one, etrs on the other

Think my evoc dc is at 110 again now ok for up to ravenlofts, cogs sharns still just way too many saves

And i think crits are 62 with empyrean which we are losing but the fire spell power feat should give those 10 back less they double screw us again

Its not terrible from r6-8 but 10 man its rough basically feels like just heal botting the real melee dps

And losing all the crit multipliers with 51 man game over at that point

i stopped using meld too its gona be gone soon too so getting a feel for the 51 gameplay wo the crutches there taking away

Clubs i've been usin ash, lob fire club for fire aug 9, still a nightmother just for the orange slot for a meridian frag 25 psionic power

I just looked at the new shard of volrune that def does look nice now gona farm 2 of those

Then you can dump the ice boots for fire storm greaves soon hopefully for a decent legendary burning desert set

[slarden]

Spell crits - is this it, or am I overlooking something?

Base 5%
PL 9%
Savant 10%
Lore item 21%
Artifact 6%
Exceptional 5%
Empyrean 10% (not always on)
Insightful 5% (but just two Orbs and offhand is probably better with LGS Ash)
MT, IMT and EMT 1% each (but feats are better used on other things)

So, 56-66% effectively.

Potentially 8% from tiefling, 5% from elemental avatar 6-piece set, 1% from interrogation until U51 - not suggesting anything - just mentioning it for completeness.

And i think crits are 62 with empyrean which we are losing but the fire spell power feat should give those 10 back less they double screw us again

The feats will have 10 crit damage multiplier unless they changed that to crit chance

[mikarddo]

A basic framework with

2 piece magewright set
2 piece autumn set (with gloryborne gloves) or gloryborne gloves + attunement gaze augment set
2 piece elder's set with legendary gem of many facets
sigil of regalport
legendary shattered onyx
clouded dreams
one-piece fire lgs

I find this to be further complicated by +artifact fire stacking with +artifact universal for lore and I suppose spell power.
The Burning Desert Sands set with Trinket (Gem of Many Facets) and belt (con) is looking interesting once the Sands items. That does require a Gem with Elder Knowledge + Burning Desert Sands but I happen to be lucky enough to have rolled just that.

I tried to fit in (almost) max spell Pen, (almost) max spell crit, (almost) max spell crit damage, max spell power fire + good impulse and max DC for both evoc and ench (mass hold + nuke) using augments for +DC and +CHA but I cant fully make things fit as augment slots run out and/or defensive stuff suffers too much. Something like:

Autumn (armor + gloves)
Elders (trinket + helm w/ 6 SF evoc, Ins Combustion and Heal Amp crafted)
Desert (trinket + belt)

Ring: Shattered Onyx
Ring: Clouded Dreams
Neck: Azure Sky
Goggles: Brightgaze
Boots: Slavers w/ Impulse, Sheltering, Spellcraft and Q Cha.
Cloak: LGS fire crit damage
Bracers: Aeatherband

Weapon: Forum Post
Offhand: LGS Ash

Augments: 3 for DC, 3 for Cha, +2 Cha, +Resist, +Good Luck, Globe, +2 stats, +2 evoc, +2 ench, MRR, Fort, Deathward .. and slots are running out.

[mikarddo]

I am thinking I may have to give up the Azure Sky special bonus and use the Magewright set.

Autumn (armor + gloves)
Elders (trinket + helm w/ 6 SF evoc, Ins Spell Pen and Heal Amp crafted)
Desert (trinket + belt)
Magewright (goggles + cloak)

Ring: Shattered Onyx
Ring: Slavers w/ Impulse, Sheltering, Spellcraft and Q Con.
Neck: Sigil of Regalport
Boots: Sunken Slippers
Bracers: LGS fire crit damage

Weapon: Forum Post
Offhand: LGS Ash

Augments: Not a problem to fit in. May even fit +3 con aug set.

If Insightful Spell Pen or Insightful Combustion was craftable on more slots than gloves/goggles/main/offhand it could had been done better but I cannot seem to find the magic combination.


There are so many options with gear these days my head is spinning!

[mr420247]

Curious why use the Autumn armor at all doesn't the bd set over ride it

i'm still using esoteric till something better comes along

Or i'd probably go with the fvs fury set

Gratz on the trinket that seems 5 stars aligned lucky not wasting 1000s of threads i don't have trying to make one

[mikarddo]

Curious why use the Autumn armor at all doesn't the bd set over ride it

i'm still using esoteric till something better comes along

Or i'd probably go with the fvs fury set

Gratz on the trinket that seems 5 stars aligned lucky not wasting 1000s of threads i don't have trying to make one

Autumn armor is for +exceptional spell power and lore without having to use the Esoteric set (low mrr really deters me from using that) or the Clouded Dreams.

It also adds the +25 artifact universal spell power from the 2 piece set bonus which should stack with the +30 Artifact fire spell power as artifact universal and artifact (specific type) are different stacking channels both for spell power and for spell lore.

That also means that the Artifact Fire crit chance from Burning Sun stacks with the + Artifact crit chance from Elder Knowledge.

I obviously havent testet yet with the Leg Burning Sun set but I have testet with the Flamecleansed Fury set + Elders Knowledge Set + Autumn 2 piece set.

[slarden]

Autumn armor is for +exceptional spell power and lore without having to use the Esoteric set (low mrr really deters me from using that) or the Clouded Dreams.

It also adds the +25 artifact universal spell power from the 2 piece set bonus which should stack with the +30 Artifact fire spell power as artifact universal and artifact (specific type) are different stacking channels both for spell power and for spell lore.

That also means that the Artifact Fire crit chance from Burning Sun stacks with the + Artifact crit chance from Elder Knowledge.

I obviously havent testet yet with the Leg Burning Sun set but I have testet with the Flamecleansed Fury set + Elders Knowledge Set + Autumn 2 piece set.

Artifact universal is stacking with artifact to one or more specific elements. I don't think it's wai as the type should be "artifact" for both.

Another option for universal artifact spellpower is the 3-piece augment set which is only 15 instead of 30, but it frees up a gear slot which might yield more than 10 spellpower.

[mikarddo]

Artifact universal is stacking with artifact to one or more specific elements. I don't think it's wai as the type should be "artifact" for both.

Another option for universal artifact spellpower is the 3-piece augment set which is only 15 instead of 30, but it frees up a gear slot which might yield more than 10 spellpower.

I hope its intended, just like resistance and resistance to illusion/enchantment stack. Nukers are bad enough off as it is and need every bit of help.

[mr420247]

Nice so it is stacking well thats def not wai lol enjoy it while it lasts