Tabaxi Sorcerer Build

[dogsoldier]

This is the plan for my Tebaxi Sorcerer life. It seems decent so far, level 21 now.

36 Point Build

Starting Stats (all level ups in CHA):
STR 8
DEX 14
CON 16
INT 14
WIS 8
CHA 18

Feats:
1 - Maximize
3 - Empower
6 - Enlarge
9 - Heighten
12 - Completionist (could swap for evocation focus if you don't have)
15 - Past Life Wizard (could swap for greater evocation focus if you don't have)
18 - Quicken
21- Spell Focus Evocation, or Epic Spell Focus Evocation if you took spell focus feats in heroic
22 - Epic Spell Power: Electric
24 - Master of Air
25 - Epic Spell Power: Sonic
27 - Intensify
28 - Crush Weakness
30 - Epic Reflexes
30 - Scion of the Plane of Air

80 + 5 Racial AP

Enhancements:
41 Points in Air Savant (T5s and Capstone)
18 Points in Tebaxi (Evasion and Vigor SLA, Deflect Arrows, Upgraded Sprint Boost)
26 Points in Eldrich Knight (Improved Mage Armor and Improved Shield SLAs, Light Armor Proficiency, ASF reduction, Wand and Scroll Mastery, Arcane Barrier, etc)

Early Epic Destinies:
Exalted Mantle + T3 Upgrade, Cure Mod Mass SLA, No Auto Fail Will Saves on 1
Primal Sky Spells + Cacoon, and spell upgrade
Shadowdancer Spell Points, Lithe, Neg Level Immunity and -10% spell cooldowns

I am not certain on T4/5s right now. Holy Fireball is not going to be that useful on an Air Savant, so probably not Exalted. I might swapout Primal for Fatesinger, once I get the Cure Mod Mass SLA from Exalted, and grab the Greater Shout SLA and Spell Strikes. Draconic is an option, but I am not going to use the Draconic Mantle, so probably not worth it.

[Alled78]

This is the plan for my Tebaxi Sorcerer life. It seems decent so far, level 21 now.

36 Point Build

Starting Stats (all level ups in CHA):
STR 8
DEX 14
CON 16
INT 14
WIS 8
CHA 18

Feats:
1 - Maximize
3 - Empower
6 - Enlarge
9 - Heighten
12 - Completionist (could swap for evocation focus if you don't have)
15 - Past Life Wizard (could swap for greater evocation focus if you don't have)
18 - Quicken
21- Spell Focus Evocation, or Epic Spell Focus Evocation if you took spell focus feats in heroic
22 - Epic Spell Power: Electric
24 - Master of Air
25 - Epic Spell Power: Sonic
27 - Intensify
28 - Crush Weakness
30 - Epic Reflexes
30 - Scion of the Plane of Air

80 + 5 Racial AP

Enhancements:
41 Points in Air Savant (T5s and Capstone)
18 Points in Tebaxi (Evasion and Vigor SLA, Deflect Arrows, Upgraded Sprint Boost)
26 Points in Eldrich Knight (Improved Mage Armor and Improved Shield SLAs, Light Armor Proficiency, ASF reduction, Wand and Scroll Mastery, Arcane Barrier, etc)

Early Epic Destinies:
Exalted Mantle + T3 Upgrade, Cure Mod Mass SLA, No Auto Fail Will Saves on 1
Primal Sky Spells + Cacoon, and spell upgrade
Shadowdancer Spell Points, Lithe, Neg Level Immunity and -10% spell cooldowns

I am not certain on T4/5s right now. Holy Fireball is not going to be that useful on an Air Savant, so probably not Exalted. I might swapout Primal for Fatesinger, once I get the Cure Mod Mass SLA from Exalted, and grab the Greater Shout SLA and Spell Strikes. Draconic is an option, but I am not going to use the Draconic Mantle, so probably not worth it.

Are you getting reflex save high enough to use evasion?

Why not draconic? Seems perfect to me in this build...even draconic mantle ..

[dogsoldier]

Game is down for restart now, so I cannot check my reflex saves, but I will when it comes back up. I have not had any problems with traps, have only taken minor damage once or twice from a trap from levels 1-21. In the quest Repossession, I grabbed all of the items from trapped pedestals on R1 at level 6 (no rogue in party), only one of them slightly hurt me.

As far as Exalted Mantle, it is just leaning into the self healing aspect, where more options are available in Epics. I do understand that a fully upgraded Draconic mantle would be more damage. Exalted mantle damage portion was boosted recently though, along with others, when they nerfed Shiradi, so probably not too far behind on damage anyway. In either case, the majority of damage is coming from the spells and SLAs themselves, and I feel like it is good enough on a Sorcerer.

Air Savant pairs well with the Tebaxi speed boost too, with Wind Dance, a leap ability.

[dogsoldier]

At level 21, 47 unbuffed reflex, 57 in reaper mode, 61 with GH. It is not super high, but it is functional.

Edit: Also have +12 saves vs traps

[Marshal_Lannes]

EA is very far behind Draconic on damage. It's not even comparable. For a point of reference, your feats for Air are not optimal.


1 - Maximize
3 - Enlarge
6 - Completionist
9 - Empower
12 - PL Wizard
15 - Quicken
18 - Heighten

We take Enlarge at 3 for longer range Shocking Burst. You don't have the SPs to take Empower here. Completionist at 6 since it gives you DCs. Now Empower for your SLAs, you don't need to Heighten at 9, there is nothing to Heighten. If one doesn't have Completionist then Evocation Focus. If no PL Wizard then Mental Toughness. Heighten is useful for Air Savants at 18 (I don't like it on Water or Fire) since you effectively gain 3 DCs on your Chain Lightning and 4 on Ball Lightning which is important since you don't have higher level AOE electric spells.

[dogsoldier]

...

Regarding the mantle damage, it is not significant, with any of the mantles to be a major concern. The initial u51 Shiradi was significant, and allowed for doing decent damage even if casting low damage spells. The "Caster Paladins" are dead lol. If the mantle procs are significant in the total of your damage, then you are simply doing it wrong.

As far as feat order, max/emp by 3 because I would grab two SLAs from different Savant trees early, and these made them pretty nice for early leveling.

Heighten, you are totally wrong about that, you want heighten for the Electric Loop SLA, which has a daze effect like sonic blast, heighten helps it land the daze.

Completionist and Past life Wizard are taken later simply because extra DCs are not needed until mid-late heroics.

Mental Toughness, certainly you are joking, right? Why would anyone take this feat on any build.

[darkriderz]

.

Mental Toughness, certainly you are joking, right? Why would anyone take this feat on any build.

Mental toughness is worth taking on almost any caster, due to the extra crit chance that comes with it.

[dogsoldier]

Mental toughness is worth taking on almost any caster, due to the extra crit chance that comes with it.

It increases your crit chance by 1%. That is kind of nifty, but not worth swapping out a core functionality feat for. Even on a Wizard, with all of the bonus feats, there are probably more than enough better feats to take (extend, insightful reflexes, another spell focus feat). And for Sorcerer, which is feat starved, there is no room for it, even if you decided to give up one of the other core functionality feats, something like force of personality would be better.

[cloudyspam]

For a point of reference, your feats for Air are not optimal.

1 - Maximize
3 - Enlarge
6 - Completionist
9 - Empower
12 - PL Wizard
15 - Quicken
18 - Heighten

Talks about optimal feat selection then lists enlarge and empower - lol

Furthermore, you shouldn't be wasting feats on SLAs that you won't be using past 18.

Also, EA mantle on a fire sorcerer is criminal enough, let alone on an air sorc.

[YUTANG75]

Talks about optimal feat selection then lists enlarge and empower - lol

Furthermore, you shouldn't be wasting feats on SLAs that you won't be using past 18.

Also, EA mantle on a fire sorcerer is criminal enough, let alone on an air sorc.

I'm doing an Air sorc currently and am still learning how best to make such a caster so I'm interested in what you suggest for feat progression?

[C-Dog]

Talks about optimal feat selection then lists enlarge and empower - lol

The laugh's on you - ML knows what he's talking about.

Enlarge gets swapped out when you stop using Shocking Grasp (even tho' it's handy on others as well). Until then, it's money to turn the basic Air SLA into a ranged effect.

Electric Loop, if Heightened, still hits into Epics, and Lightning bolt speaks for itself. So why not keep them both empowered?

More, if you focus on Spell Points with Mental Toughness and other boosts, Max+Emp is a crusher for end fights. Why finish with extra spell points? (and if you already are using them all, then you need more).

[dogsoldier]

Yeah, Enlarge is great. I actually just picked up Enlarge for free from Fatesinger at level 26 though, so might swap the feat out if I stick with that setup.

Enhancements right now:


Destinies Right Now:

[Marshal_Lannes]

Heighten, you are totally wrong about that, you want heighten for the Electric Loop SLA, which has a daze effect like sonic blast, heighten helps it land the daze.

Completionist and Past life Wizard are taken later simply because extra DCs are not needed until mid-late heroics.

Mental Toughness, certainly you are joking, right? Why would anyone take this feat on any build.

I'm not going to debate mantles there are plenty of threads discussing it already and you'll find your opinion on Draconic is in the minority. Why would you need two stuns (sonic blast and electric loop) in low/mid heroics? Shout wipes everything out. Your top DPS spell is always the max you can cast at 4 (shout), 5 (ball lightning), and 6 (chain lightning). You don't need Heighten before you level past those. Others have already answered why Mental Toughness is a solid choice. Sorcerers are not feat strapped, they have one extra feat slot for players' choice.

[dogsoldier]

As far as the build choices, really it was just a matter of wanting to utilize three cool features of Tebaxi: Evasion, Run Speed, And Vigor SL.

Shadowdancer helps boost reflex quite a lot which ties into the evasion.

Air Savant adds another speed boost for the Tebaxi runspeed boost.

Exalted ties into the healing aspect in a few ways, getting bonus healing from mantle procs on Vigor cast, Adding the Cure Moderate Mass SLA, and having the passive healing from the mantle upgrade every few seconds. It is a lot of utility there, beyond just the fire/light dmg.

And as far as the Mantle choice, I always go for whichever provides the most utility beyond the damage. That is my preference. I went Draconic on PM/EK because there was more tie in from Draconic Wellspring boost which was used in conjunction with Death Auras, and Exalted would not provide much benefit for Undead form.

Most of the mantles are either extremely niche, or designed for failure. Primal only effecting one or two elements, where Druids cast many elements is kind of odd and not likely that useful for any builds. Fatesinger swirls around you aspect makes it only really useful for a hybrid Bard that uses fascinate a LOT. Magus mantle is similar in that it would only be useful on a hybrid EK/PM, and even then probably not all that useful. And the Shiradi Mantle, which I never used on any caster simply because I did not like the playstyle required to get the most out of it, has recently been nerfed into uselessness for anyone that is not ranged.

Sonic Blast targets Will Saves, Electric Loop targets reflex saves. It is good to have something to cover multiple saves, and certain mobs do not instantly die, like some reapers and the special heal back to full champs, especially the more skulls. Also, both of the daze effects are fairly short, shorter still the more skulls. Why not have both?

Sorcs, FvS, Bards, Druids, Clerics, Warlock, they are all feat starved. You only have a bonus feat to use if you go human.
Wizards, Alchemists, and Caster Artificers would have some feat flexibility.

[Marshal_Lannes]

Sonic Blast targets Will Saves, Electric Loop targets reflex saves. It is good to have something to cover multiple saves, and certain mobs do not instantly die, like some reapers and the special heal back to full champs, especially the more skulls. Also, both of the daze effects are fairly short, shorter still the more skulls. Why not have both?

Sorcs, FvS, Bards, Druids, Clerics, Warlock, they are all feat starved. You only have a bonus feat to use if you go human.
Wizards, Alchemists, and Caster Artificers would have some feat flexibility.

Alright with that breakdown, I completely understand your reasoning for mantles in conjunction with Tabaxi. I'm mostly of the opinion that more players should try out different combinations and find out what works for them. My observations on Draconic only apply to DPS and if one wants to maximize that.

Why not have both? Because if you're a sorcerer and need two different stuns you're taking away from your primary function which is nuking DPS. You're tangibly doing that here by choosing to Heighten over Empower with the level 9 selection. One can make that choice but it isn't needed and detracts from the class's primary strength. Where does this matter? Well, a Maximized and Empowered Lightning bolt will one-shot some enemies vs only a Maximized one. That's a significant play advantage. In what situation did you ever find Sonic Blast wasn't enough or that Electric Loop wasn't stunning without Heighten (within this level range)?

What I mean when I say Sorcerers have an extra feat is that the cores for an Air Savant are - Maximize, Completionist, Quicken, Enlarge, PL Wizard, and Empower leaving you one more. Even Empower is debated by some so you may have two feat choices. The other thing to remember is that we are talking about very small nuances for that last feat in a class where it is difficult to see nuance. Depending on past lives, gear, and reaper points, you're usually either blasting everything wiping out rooms or mobs are making their saves and you are wondering why you've hit a wall. So for a beginning sorcerer Extend might have more tangible benefits in that final feat slot since it would give longer displacement and rage which might be more useful to them. Someone playing a highly tuned sorcerer who is maximizing all benefits on the margins might take Mental Toughness for the extra crit chance and larger SP pool to maximize meta-enhanced spell casting. I find sorcerer feat selection to be solid game design at the moment allowing for some meaningful choices.

[dogsoldier]

Well they do different things anyway, beyond targeting different saves for the daze. Sonic blast knocks out weak mobs that are not immune/resistant to electric. Electric loop removes the immunity for following up with Ball Lightning / Chain Lightning.

Stragglers come along after the first mobs are dead, waves of mobs coming at you, lots of situations where a couple of dazes are nice, and you lose nothing by not using them both.

Greater Shout SLA is another nice stun.

Echos of Discord is not only another good stun, fully charged, it is a Thunderstroke caliber AoE nuke.

[dogsoldier]

Also, not sure why you are talking about Empower, I took that at level 3. I took completionist and past life wizard later because global DC boost is really not needed until later heroics (nice to have +2 to all DCs by Sharn), the Metamagics are more useful 1-11, in my opinion.

[dogsoldier]

I decided to stick with Fatesinger as the main Destiny at 30. With the T5s, that gives +11 to Evocation DCs total from the tree, and Turn the Tide is good for boss fights.



Edit: Also at 30, I swapped out Enlarge (I get it from Fatesinger) for Spell Focus Enchantment, for a bit of a boost to Hold Monster Mass and Otto's Sphere of Dancing.

[Carpone]

Tabaxi Sorc is fun for past lives. The problem you have is the limited gearset options at level cap due to light armor restrictions. What sets and set bonuses do you plan on using? It's non-trivial gear tetris.

[dogsoldier]

Yeah, I agree that Gear Tetris is a bit of a pain. It is not super optimal, but I am using 4x Winter and 3x Autumn (using Legendary Leaf Mail Light armor) from Feywild and then filling in gaps with Sharn stuff, trying to get as many DC bonuses and get all of my defensive bonuses covered, augs are important there. I use the Saltmarsh CHA Minor Artifact (Ring of the Kraken) slotted insightful CHA and Festive CHA.

Trying to go for 7x in one season of Feywild generally means slotting some items for just the set bonus. 3x Esoteric and 4x Winter would also work, and may actually be better, though loses light armor.

I almost always run the Mysterious Cloak for stacking healing amplification. Normally I don't bother with the level 7 version, but this life I have used the 7/14/21 versions at all times, was nice for boosting Vigor around mid-heroics, and of course the Epic Destiny healing bits.

I feel like I have most things covered, but know that it could be improved for sure.

I am using this for the helmet, one of the items that I upgraded for Reaper Stat bonus: