Mid level sorcerer spell split.

[Gibreficul]

Anyone have any numbers crunched for mid-level CS calculations? My sorcerer is about level 50 and is tripled in spells. What should his split be?

A) Sorc spells at level+60, and then worry about 400s and 100s.
B) Sorc spells at level +21, minor spirit at 2/3 level and 400s with what's left (close to like level).
C) Both 400s and 100s at 2/3 level and whatever is left into sorc spells.

Obviously, I'm looking for max sorc CS. What's the popular approach to this? These mid levels are crushing me... I need all the help I can get.

[Axhinde]

Option A would be better for highest Sorcerer CS, you'd have enough ranks to pick up 425, and 17 ranks for MnS.

At level 50, as a dark elf, with 100 in aura and wisdom with 111 sorcerer ranks, 25 MnE, and 17 MnS with targeting up is looking like 307 sorcerer CS.

[whiteflash]

I pegged my sorc ranks from 40-60 above level depending on how much lore I was using at the time. Pain really can be more efficient at mid levels than many of our spells. I was nearly 1x necro at mid levels, though currently one rank nearing 10m xp since I consider pain useless at this level range compared to other options.

Where are you hunting? I really didn't feel like it was easy to fry solo (with wracking) until I started hunting in the volcano using pain and DC.

I felt like I had to be pretty particular about what I was hunting until mana wasn't as much of an issue since you can finally auto ward things. I also went nearly 3x spells all the way to cap and I still felt I didn't have enough CS.

I tried to find things that I could DC or were very vulnerable to 702 (thraks on the flats, skayls, fire mages). Went to mag and OTF until temple nelemar was reasonable.

It is worth it at cap with 3x spells as power word death almost makes up for all that plinking. I was using 717 as my main spell in nelemar starting around level 90.

[Gibreficul]

Right now, the sorcerer gets ripped apart in the Stronghold... lacks the perception ranks to hunt vruul, is afraid to hunt Sand Devils, and doesn't prefer "cold" areas. Undeads are a PITA for the rest of the group, so basically, I'm looking at Trali, Vor'Taz, and hopefully skipping faeroths for the blighted forest once I get a few levels.

Hunting style: Well, 703 is my opening attack on anything that casts, after that, I've been swapping between channeling and open casting 705 and 702, and using the occasional 719.

My sorcerer is a dwarf, stats set for max at cap, which is half of my problem.

Aura (AUR): 80 (5) ... 80 (5)
Wisdom (WIS): 83 (16) ... 83 (16)

That's rough. The benefit is nothing can touch him with elemental spells, wracking is a 2 time a hunt thing, even with only 8 spirit currently.

I'm thinking, and maybe I'm off here, that keeping minor elemental spells at like level or close... will be more beneficial that insanely overtraining in sorc spells. If nothing else, a viable CS with 415 and 409 might be nice to fall back on every so often.

My current build is...


Armor Use..........................| 40 8 8
Physical Fitness...................| 120 30 30
Arcane Symbols.....................| 141 41.645 40 2 hours, 44 minutes
Harness Power......................| 152 52 52
Elemental Mana Control.............| 120 30 30
Spirit Mana Control................| 120 30 30
Perception.........................| 15 3 3
Climbing...........................| 70 15 15
Swimming...........................| 70 15 15

Spell Lists
Minor Elemental....................| 36 36

Spell Lists
Minor Spirit.......................| 30 30

Spell Lists
Sorcerer...........................| 90 90

Anyone think I should try to get some spell aiming? I had that before, but the use of 710 and 720 is... very group unfriendly. Especially when there's the potential for one of the group members to hide.

[subzero]

Right now, the sorcerer gets ripped apart in the Stronghold... lacks the perception ranks to hunt vruul, is afraid to hunt Sand Devils, and doesn't prefer "cold" areas. Undeads are a PITA for the rest of the group, so basically, I'm looking at Trali, Vor'Taz, and hopefully skipping faeroths for the blighted forest once I get a few levels.

Hunting style: Well, 703 is my opening attack on anything that casts, after that, I've been swapping between channeling and open casting 705 and 702, and using the occasional 719.

Faeroth are easy as hell. If you can ward the critter reliably, I'd maybe go with pain as an opener/after 703. For group hunting, this does a decent chunk of damage to give you credit for the kill and can stick the critter in RT. Otherwise I'd suggest sticking with 702. I've always felt 719 can be hit or miss on vor'taz; I'm guessing they have less mana due to their "semi" status. If you had spell aiming, after the pain, you could start taking off limbs as necessary to aid the melee.



Anyone think I should try to get some spell aiming? I had that before, but the use of 710 and 720 is... very group unfriendly. Especially when there's the potential for one of the group members to hide.

I'm a fan of spell aiming. Web bolt is a great opener and being able to choose which limb a target loses is a huge benefit. Aaand of course if you're GoS, fire spirit will come in quite handy.

[Gibreficul]

Anyone notice that using 704 before 719 on magical non-corps proves to be more effective than just 719? (I did a quick run through the Vaalor bog and tried that on spectres. It seemed to be very effective.)

[Stigs]

Just get into the Skull Temple as soon as you can with a few ranks of the elemental lores and DC everything. I was there for about 10 levels. At the beginning you burn mana by getting warded with DC a lot, but when it hits on the hierophants and dogmatists it is most likely a one-shot kill. When you are far below their levels, 66 & 70 respectively, you will fry quick enough and mitigate some of the mana issues. Begin with 719 on hierophants and 702 on the square supplicants, then later 719 dogmatists as well.

While there I ranged between 10 ranks and 17 ranks of each elemental lore, but I imagine that fewer would work too and they can be unlearned easily enough little by little if they are that much of a bother to you. DC with elore is also very good after in Maaghara, all critters there are magical. You could easily do 20 or so levels in those two places only with DC, and then shoot yourself out of sheer boredom.

[Axhinde]

Anyone notice that using 704 before 719 on magical non-corps proves to be more effective than just 719? (I did a quick run through the Vaalor bog and tried that on spectres. It seemed to be very effective.)

Of course it is. Turns then into corporeal undead so you can crit them. 704 is highly useful. Keeps critters that phase in and out (banshees, etc) from disappearing.

[Gibreficul]

So, last night before I went to sleep, I flipped to Krakii, and read every spell description in the sorcerer circle. A lot of things I didn't understand before started making a lot of sense... Having done 704 and then 719 on the spectres in Fethayl Bog, I just wondered what else I was missing, so here's what I learned.

701, nothing new.
702, nothing new.
703, nothing new.
704, nothing new, unless coupled with other spells.
705, now 705 impressed me. I knew it was a good spell. I knew it was good to use on non-corp undeads, but I didn't realize that it had different amounts of damage cycles. 2 damage cycles for normal critters, 3 for stunned critters, and 3 for non-corp undeads. That's GREAT information, and I'll abuse that.
706, didn't realize the stun duration for players was capped at 1 minute.
707, I'll explore this when my CS is high enough to play with evil eye.
708, I'll explore this when I start picking up spell aiming ranks. The CS penalty without any spell aiming ranks is too much to overcome.
709, not much to say here, it's not a hard spell to understand.
710, was nice early level, but chasing tempests around was stupid... and open maelstroms are just... asking for issues for group members.
711, will be great once I get my CS up some. Currently I lack the ability to force an endroll that will generate RT on the target.
712, been keeping 705 on it, maybe that'll change.
713, waste of 10 seconds and 13 mana currently.
714, I gotta figure out a good way to script THAT.. lol, I found a 712 scroll last night!
715, was great in guarded, but costly. With the group I have, it'll be great once I can ward reliably for the itchy/droppy effects.
716, I doubt I'll ever use that against an NPC.
717, See 707, and repeat comments about getting more CS
718, I've played with this a little, and it was pretty nice, but the mechanics of it are a little confusing, and losing track of what you cast on can be a bad thing. I'll stick to the other attack spells.
719, I'm loving it. Krakii suggested using 704 before it on non-corps, which was what I discovered last night and sparked this little research session. It's totally awesome.
720, I'll probably start using this focused occasionally if the crowd gets out of control
725, I have no demon ranks, but... I read the demon abilities. Turning area webs to friendly seems like a nice power.
730, I don't feel like getting necro lore ranks just to be able to make decent crystals to animate, so this will be a wasted spell slot.
740, Runes are hard... one day I'll figure out how it works, for now, I'm just hunting.

As for everything else said... that's my main goal... get to level 60. Once I hit level 60, everything becomes easy. Hunting options are limited, and I'm very familiar with level 60-cap hunting areas, and the weaknesses of the critters in those areas. It's always been that level 40-60 gap that just bores and discourages me from proceeding. I'm just trying to get over the hump.

The main thing that will change in how I do things is that 702 and 705 will no longer be randomly chosen as an attack spell. 702 will be used channeled against anything that stuns. Once stunned, open casts of 705. 705 will be used exclusively on non-corp, non-magical undeads. Otherwise, I think I'm doing alright.

I'll be back with more stupid sorcerer questions. One day maybe I'll understand the profession.

[msconstrew]

Anyone notice that using 704 before 719 on magical non-corps proves to be more effective than just 719? (I did a quick run through the Vaalor bog and tried that on spectres. It seemed to be very effective.)

Casting 704 on non-corporeal undead will make them corporeal and, as you said, more susceptible to some attacks.

I just went through the levels you're looking at. I had great success in Bonespear (all undead, though) and there is rarely anyone there. I doubt you'll start to have an easy time of it in the Stronghold until you get to your late 50s, though your CS is quite high.

I would suggest picking up spell aim if you've got the TPs for it. 2x or nothing, though. It'll help with your FI, your 111, and then you can occasionally use wizard wands if need be. ALSO BALEFIRE!!one1!

[whiteflash]

I would suggest picking up spell aim if you've got the TPs for it. 2x or nothing, though. It'll help with your FI, your 111, and then you can occasionally use wizard wands if need be. ALSO BALEFIRE!!one1!

I use 1x spell aim at cap and notice only a slight difference in my vaporize crits for focused implosion. GWEs still die 80%+ of time one shot. 162 sorc ranks though.

[subzero]

712, been keeping 705 on it, maybe that'll change.

Everyone has their preferences, of course, but I like to put either 706 or 711 in there. 706 for stunnable critters, otherwise 711. I figure those spells give me a decent chance to maybe ride out a stun if I can hit with mind jolt or even potentially kill them with pain.


715, was great in guarded, but costly. With the group I have, it'll be great once I can ward reliably for the itchy/droppy effects.

If you're hunting with another CS profession in your group (I forget wat profession Bill Crosby is), why not just use the TD curse and blow limbs off with 708? If they'd ever roll out the updates, this would be a moot point, but I think that's how I'd do it.


740, Runes are hard... one day I'll figure out how it works, for now, I'm just hunting.

740 looks and sounds a lot more complicated than it really is. It's a simple as this:
Buy the proper book/tome (I'm thinking alchemist shop, but maybe sorcerer guild shops).
Go to a room you want to be able to port to.
With book in hand, sense pattern.

Even if you don't actually use the spell, it's worth getting the book asap and recording runes as you travel across the world leveling. Eventually you'll want to use it, and having to run all across the world just to write runes is a real boring endeavor. The only bright side to that is that the return trip is real quick.

Once you have runes recorded, all you need then is chalk. Crystalline, expensive crap, for cross-realms and the longer, cheap chalk for intra-realm. Get your book out, appropriate chalk, draw summon circle, draw pattern ### (read book, find destination and pattern #), 740 circle. If it's an intra-realm cast, you have to then 'go rift' otherwise a cross-realm port pulls you right through.

[Gibreficul]

So, when is it worthwhile to use 705 over 702? Non-corporals, for one, but any other time? I read that you get the 3rd damage cycle from 705 on stunned stuff, and the non-corporal, but that seems to be very minimal damage, at least against what I'm hunting. Does anyone have a good "lesson" to teach me on when to use 702 over 705, and vise versa? I'd love to know what you all have to suggest.

[Murkshev]

Never thought to ask me Gib? I see how it is. I am steelers fan even!