Why fire? And other sorcerer questions

[SpiritofAlba]

Thinking of playing sorc for first time. Have 9 past heroic lives scattered across 9 classes, a few reaper points, no race past lives, can cannith craft to cap and have some gear though not much caster focused. Very casual player in pugs, generally go 1 - 30 and repeat. I observe that many sorcs seem to flatten everything...

I gather that tiefling + fire is generally seen as optimal. I don't have tiefling (or dragonborn), though could buy, and as mentioned, no extra racial APs, so going to T4 in tiefling would be quite an investment, though note that there are a fair number of goodies along the way. How do human sorcs stack up? And if NOT teifling is that a major loss, and if NOT teifling, how do the other elements compare? I get that one main element plus EK is now much preferred for survivability,

Thanks for any tips!

[Credinus]

Thinking of playing sorc for first time. Have 9 past heroic lives scattered across 9 classes, a few reaper points, no race past lives, can cannith craft to cap and have some gear though not much caster focused. Very casual player in pugs, generally go 1 - 30 and repeat. I observe that many sorcs seem to flatten everything...

I gather that tiefling + fire is generally seen as optimal. I don't have tiefling (or dragonborn), though could buy, and as mentioned, no extra racial APs, so going to T4 in tiefling would be quite an investment, though note that there are a fair number of goodies along the way. How do human sorcs stack up? And if NOT teifling is that a major loss, and if NOT teifling, how do the other elements compare? I get that one main element plus EK is now much preferred for survivability,

Thanks for any tips!

Fire tends to be preferred because there's a large swath of quests involving undead, and most of the time undead are going to take extra damage from fire. Also some of the more powerful AoE options (Wall of Fire and Meteor Swarm) benefit from fire boosts. The cherry on top is the ability for tiefling's to strip away fire immunity/reduce fire resistance. If you play in groups often, even not being a tiefling, you'll often benefit from that because there's a good chance someone in your group is a tiefling and stripping that fire resist.

That said, other elements are reasonably viable but the main thing to look at are the spells available for those elements and how they fit your playstyle. They've become more uniform over the years with the addition of spells like Iceberg, Acid Well, etc, but there are still some differences particularly in lower levels. You'll also want to consider your options in epic levels; IE, if you went cold, you're opening up good synergy with Magus of the Eclipse and Shiradi Champion epic destinies.

For an EK sorcerer, if you have access to the Feydark Illusionist enhancement line, that's a huge boost both because you can add your charisma modifier to both to-hit and damage on melee attacks (EK will only add it to to-hit) and you get access to greater color spray, which is an excellent way to make enemies helpless.

I hope this helps you with your character planning and decisions!

[C-Dog]

... I don't have tiefling (or dragonborn), though could buy... How do human sorcs stack up?

Human Sorc is not ~as~ strong as the other two, but it makes up for it by getting 2 Feats out of the gate, which means your SLA's will be 1-shotting most targets from the start. Sorcerers want...

Maximize
Empower
Heighten (for Web etc.)
+Evocation
+Greater Evocation

That's 5 - and then it depends on your playstyle...

o Quicken (not to start, but once you fill your attack spell rotation)
o Enlarge (esp if Electric, for SLA's)
o Extend (Quality of Life for short-duration spells like Haste, Displacement, Fire Shield, etc.)
o +Shield Feats (it's one style of Sorcie)

So, you see that "7 feats" is just not enough to get you everything you could want. Humans get 1 more, and from the start, which makes some for not having the advantages of Tiefling/Dragonborn.

Humans also get Human Versality Spellpower for 1 AP, which is a great boost for early tough fights.

In short, they do just fine.

And if NOT teifling is that a major loss, and if NOT teifling, how do the other elements compare?

Air is popular, as it has a built-in Crowd Control in the Electric Loop Stun effect. With Enlarge, Shocking Grasp becomes Shocking Gesture, and you don't have to get within touching distance - money. It includes Sonic for things that are immune/resistant to Electricity. And the wings are nice.

Cold works, but has fewer advantages (the ice CC effects the party too). Acid is problematic in that many of the spells are Conjuration, meaning you need both that and Evocation boosts, further crowding an already-crowded list of gear.

[HuneyMunster]

One of the major reason for going Fire is that your main element procs Empyrean Magic for up to 10% critical chance. Now Empyrean Magic is removed it will be a lot closer.

[magaiti]

Probably a minor thing, but still.
Sharn caster sets favor elements disproportionally.
Best sets are Flamecleansed Fury and Arcsteel Battlemage, they only favor Fire, Electric, Light.
The only Sharn set that boosts cold spell crit chance (Hruit) only has heavy armor, for some reason.
The only Sharn set that boosts sonic and acid (feywild dreamer) doesn't have medium armor, which is a staple for EK T4 splash (at least it has light and docent).

Feywild Autumn set looks better than any sharn set on paper, but I haven't tried to theorycraft it yet.

[slarden]

Sorc was boosted more than all other casting classes by U51.

The main thing with fire is:
- Tiefling immunity stripping and dps boosts unavailable to all other races/elements (and dragonborn dc is less important now that EDs are roughly equal in DC and much higher compared to draconic previously).
- Synergies with dripping with magma armor
- Meteor swarm
- Delayed Fireball Blast

Fire has the best AOE to compliment ED aoe. Cold has the best single-target dps and is situationally better in places like Too Hot Too Handle.

Sorcs of any element should do fine solo, in groups or raids. If you want to solo you can go draconic primary with exalted angel and primal avatar for really great self-healing. There is really no reason to go bladeforged or warforged any more for soloers. And if you are going to solo use the coupon code and make a companion buffing bard for sustaining, song, dc, spell song, etc.

[C-Dog]

- Tiefling immunity stripping and dps boosts unavailable to all other races/elements

I'll mention that any pure Sorcerer can get the Core 20 capstone which does the same thing for that Savant Element. Of course, can't get this until Level 20, so it's only good in Epics, but it's there.

(I'll link Fire, but the same capstone exists for all 4 Savants)
o https://ddowiki.com/page/Fire_Savant...otheosis:_Fire

And if you are going to solo use the coupon code and make a companion buffing bard for sustaining, song, dc, spell song, etc.

For new(er) players, Slarden is suggesting creating a free-to-play alt account, using the current coupon code to get "all" (read "most") content. Then you level up one or more alts there to run as helpers/additional chest pullers/mules/etc.

Use standard Favor Runner tactics to get up to a quick 1,000 DDO points (or more) to buy the 3 x 99 DDO Point sales on Expansions, and you're set.

o https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...=1#post6470001
o https://ddowiki.com/page/Free_to_Pla...nt_walkthrough

[SpiritofAlba]

Thanks all for sharing your Wisdom on this. Really helpful.

[Saekee]

Cdog’s “Shocking Gesture” remark just so awesome

[Archfae]

Aasimar is a good option as well. Or was, I don't know how it stacks up now with the new destinies. It might still be worth it for ice sorcs. Fire sorcs are going to want exalted or primal anyways, so they'll automatically have some healing. Reborn in fire is sufficient for healing, as is the cure moderate wounds sla in exalted.

It also strongly depends on how many racial AP and destiny AP you have access to.

[majorhavoc]

Thinking of playing sorc for first time. Have 9 past heroic lives scattered across 9 classes, a few reaper points, no race past lives, can cannith craft to cap and have some gear though not much caster focused. Very casual player in pugs, generally go 1 - 30 and repeat. I observe that many sorcs seem to flatten everything...

I gather that tiefling + fire is generally seen as optimal. I don't have tiefling (or dragonborn), though could buy, and as mentioned, no extra racial APs, so going to T4 in tiefling would be quite an investment, though note that there are a fair number of goodies along the way. How do human sorcs stack up? And if NOT teifling is that a major loss, and if NOT teifling, how do the other elements compare? I get that one main element plus EK is now much preferred for survivability,

Thanks for any tips!

I am having a blast playing this........literally!
Solo R3 & R4 1st - 30th level

Tiefling Burner Illusionist
Sorcerer 20
Lawful Neutral Tiefling




Stats
. . . . . . . .36pt . . Tome . . Level Up
. . . . . . . .---- . . ----. . .--------
Strength. . . . .8. . . .+8. . . .4: CHA
Dexterity . . . .8. . . .+8. . . .8: CHA
Constitution. . 18. . . .+8. . . 12: CHA
Intelligence. . 12. . . .+8. . . 16: CHA
Wisdom. . . . . .8. . . .+8. . . 20: CHA
Charisma. . . . 20. . . .+8. . . 24: CHA
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28: CHA


Skills
. . . . . 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
. . . . .------------------------------------------------------------
Concent . . . . . .1 .1 .1 .2 .2 .2 .2 .2 .2 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .23
Spellcr . 4. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 23
Heal. . . 2. ½. ½. ½. ½. ½. ½. ½. ½. ½. ½. ½. ½. ½. ½. ½. ½. ½. ½. . .11
Jump. . . 1. 1. 1. ½. ½. ½. ½. ½. ½. ½. ½. ½. ½. ½. ½. ½. ½. ½. ½. . .11
Balance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ½. ½. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 2. .8
UMD . . . 1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
. . . . .------------------------------------------------------------
. . . . .12. 4. 4. 4. 4. 4. 5. 5. 5. 5. 5. 5. 5. 5. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6




Feats


.1. . . . : Armor Proficiency: Light
.3. . . . : Completionist
.6. . . . : Maximize Spell
.9. . . . : Empower Spell
12. . . . : Heighten Spell
15. . . . : Quicken Spell
18. . . . : Armor Proficiency: Medium or Past Life Wizard
21 Epic . : Wellspring of Power
24 Epic . : Intensify Spell
26 Destiny: Epic Spell Power: Fire
27 Epic . : Ruin
28 Destiny: Epic Spell Power: Force
29 Destiny: Spirit Blades
30 Epic . : Greater Ruin
30 Legend : Scion of: Plane of Fire




Spells

1. Mage Armor (1), Shield (1), Nightshield (2), Jump (3)
2. Web (4), False Life (5), Blur (7), Knock (9)
3. Fireball (6), Displacement (7), Chain Missiles (9), Haste (11)
4. Wall of Fire (8), Dimension Door (9), Phantasmal Killer (11), Stoneskin (13)
5. Ball Lightning (10), Eladar's Electric Surge (11), Mind Fog (13), Cyclonic Blast (15)
6. Chain Lightning (12), Greater Heroism (13), Disintegrate (15)
7. Delayed Blast Fireball (14), Otto's Sphere of Dancing (15), Finger of Death (17)
8. Greater Shout (16), Incendiary Cloud (17), Sunburst (19)
9. Meteor Swarm (18), Mass Hold Monster (19), Wail of the Banshee (20)

Enhancements (Spent: 74+15r +1u / Max: 80+15r +1u AP)


Fire Savant (41 AP)

• Fire Savant, Fire Affinity, Greater Fire Affinity, Immolation, Elemental Persistance, Elemental Apotheosis
  
  1. Burning Hands III, Spell Critical, Conflagration III
  2. Spell Critical, Fanning the Flames III
  3. Spell Penetration, Spell Critical, Charisma
  4. Scorch III, Spell Critical, Charisma
  5. Fireball III, Awaken Elemental Weakness, Evocation Focus, Power of Force

Feydark Illusionist (31 AP)

• Find Familiar: Illusory Sprite, Ability Score I: Charisma, Greater Color Spray, Ability Score II: Charisma, Familiar's Reach
  
  1. Feydark Explorer I, Study the Arcane III
  2. Enhanced Invisibility III, You've Got My Back
  3. Spell Penetration III, Magical Attunment I, Charisma
  4. Be My Eyes, Fan of Shadowblades II, Magical Attunment II, Charisma

Tiefling (18 AP)

• Bloodhunt I, Charisma I, Bloodhunt II, Charisma II, Bloodhunt III
  
  1. Hellish Rebuke
  2. Traditionalist Caster III
  3. Ash III, Incineration
  4. Improved Scorch, Incineration