Difference between revisions of "Category:Sorcerers"

Think of power. Think of domination. Think of accomplishing these things with blood, pain, and consorting with demons. Like to dabble in the undead? Sorcery is for you, then. Only the most greedy and black hearted souls walk down the Path of Sorcery, but that's just how they like it.

Their Prime Statistic is Intelligence, giving them an advantage in regards to knowledge and magic. Sorcery is a highly specialized field, however, so they will never be said to be good at wielding a sword.

Abbreviation: Sor.

Prime Requisite: Intelligence.

Sorcerers in General

Sorcerers are comparable to wizards in terms of hp and mana gains; they recieve much more mana but also much less (around half) the hp than a mage. Sorcerers specialize in single-target spells and don't gain many area-damage spells. Akin to wizards, sorcerers receive very little of the melee-related skills, so they rely purely on spell damage. They also lose out on some protective spells, the most important of which are sanctuary, as well as the entire awen stack.

There are various utility spells to help them survive: Flash, Vampire Touch, Tainted Genius and Death Shroud are the most important of them. However, for learning many of their spells, they have to practice demonic intent, which makes their alignment irrevocably evil. This has a few major side-effects:

1. They will not be able to receive Awen from nor cast Frenzy on good aligned party members,
2. They cannot wear good-aligned enchanted gear without violating it first (a process that rises item level) or harmonising it with an evil cleric/druid.
3. They make use of Protection Good instead of Protection Evil, so they are more vulnerable to evil mobs than good-aligned characters.

They do, however possess an array of defensive spells/skills that render their battles easier than a Wizard or Mage. One of these it is unrest, which can be cast mid-battle and drastically lowers an enemy's ability to regenerate hit points, opening up the possibility of taking down enormous hero mobs such as the horsemen of apocalypse and The Pretender. Their flash is also in-class, unlike Wizard, which reduces the lag from about 10 seconds to 4-5 (depending on worship). If fleeing from a fight, the Cloak Of Pain skill generally allows them to flee without being followed by the enraged mobs they were fighting.

Overall, sorcerers are usually less useful than mages and wizards at hero tier in the context of grouping but are very powerful at lord tier, where they typically have twice the mana of a mage and much better spell damage (in fact, the highest spell damage period). However, due to the inability to sanc themselves, sorcerers must hoard sanctuary-furnishing items or run with someone who can sanc them. In addition, their lower hp rolls make soloing (particularly lord shifts) difficult and therefore they are less efficient at soloing than a large mage with a magically-inclined race at this higher tier. Like all other classes except mage, their shield charges do fail about 50% of the time, and they do not get charged shield.

Sorcerer Creation

Only Mages, Psionicists, Rippers and Mindbenders can become a Sorcerer. It is a remort class that is only available at Lord level 100 (to become a Human Sorcerer) or Lord level 200 to maintain the current race for Mages and Mindbenders, and levels 150/300 for Psionicists. Various rebirth options also exist. It is also now possible to remort to a createable race at Lord 125 if you are already a Sorcerer.

Sorcerers at Lowmort Tier

Training

Similar to a mage, a new sorcerer's first priority should be to train wis, int, and con.

To sorcerers Dex is only useful for the AC bonus, and str for carry capacity.

Practicing

Skills critical to a sorcerer, especially if soloing or tanking are:

• Leech and later Vampire touch - to maintain health while doing damage,
• Flash - to blind mobs (thus reducing their HR),
• Tainted Genius - to occasionally receive a great boost in XP gain,
• Death Shroud - to greatly reduce XP loss upon death.

Depending on gameplay style, some sorcerers delay practicing Demonic Intent (and all related skills/spells) until Hero 101, so they can use regular gear and benefit from Protection Evil.

Worshipping

Similarly to mages and wizards, popular deities at hero are Shizaga and Quixoltan. Quixoltan is even more common among sorcerers at hero tier due to their inherently low HP gains, which benefit greatly from Qxl worship.

At lord, Bhyss is popular, due to large damage bonus it provides (which overshadows the flaws of worshipping Bhyss).

See the mage worship section for more information.

Fighting

Soloing: Same as any other caster - sorcerers rely on two sets of gear, mana and tank, and gear aliases to switch them before combat. During combat a lowmort sorcerer uses Leech and Vampire Touch, and will also benefit from a charged shield.

Tanking: Sorcerers make poor tanks since they cannot rescue group mates. They also do not learn dodge until hero, and they never learn shield block nor parry.

Hitting: Sorcerer melee is, similar to wizards, marginal.

Healing: Outside of healing self through life-leaching spells, sorcerers are not in the healing business.

Sorcerer Prestige Options

There are none.

Sorcerers at Hero Tier

Training

Identical to lowmort, see above.

Practicing

Until hero level 101, Vampire Touch is the primary offensive spell, replaced at that point with Torment. Other useful spells are:

• Immolation - upon immolating a lowmort mob (up to lvl 26), sorcerers receive a short boost in damage
• Defiled Flesh - grants a significant boost (500 at hero, 1500 at lord) in hp for a short duration, but when active all healing is halved.

Other spells and skills like Sphere Of Silence, Pillar Of Flame, Funeral Lore, Cloak Of Pain are of dubious usefulness or downright useless.

Devoting

Identical to other casters. See devoting as a mage for more information.

Fighting

Soloing: Sorcerers solo well, and can continue to do so in selected lord areas (though not without risk, particularly if handling shifts alone). A charged shield helps immensely, even without shield block (particularly at low hero). Remember to get the shield to level 54 for the best effect. While lord mobs are of course susceptible to the significant damage associated with surged brimstone, they are less affected by spells such as flash or unrest than hero mobs, and can generally hit hard even through full ac and spells. Accordingly, the best route for a Lord sor to get experience is a duo or a small group with larger groupies, or conventional bigger-sized grouping.

Since sorcerers are universally evil after 101, soloing in good-aligned areas is preferred where they can benefit from their Protection Good spell. Some examples are:

• Low Hero: Greed's Gallows - the upper level is exclusively good,
• Super Hero: Rhuien Forest - all mobs are saintly, but it requires self-spelling.

Tanking: Sorcerers with enchanted AC gear make acceptable tanks, however they lack rescue. This makes it nice to have a large group mate to rescue other groupies. They also lack shield block and parry. While tanking, their dodge, Vampire Touch and in-class Flash all directly and significantly help. As always, a charged shield grants further assistance.

Hitting: Sorcerers, like wizards, are bereft of the hitting skills mages receive. Therefore, they do not make for even mediocre melee hitters. However, as hitters is defined in the in-game help files ("The role of the hitter(s) in the group is to inflict damage onto the mob"), as long as a Sorcerer has sufficient mana, they should be able to cause significant damage casting torment.

Healing: As any caster, sorcerers can brandish or zap healing staves and wands, some of which need to be violated prior to use. Otherwise, they lack any healing spells. While they do not get cure poison they do get (the psi equivalent) cell adjustment; although they never get bio empathy, so can only cast it on themselves. They also have in-class remove curse.

Sorcerers at Lord Tier

Sorcerers are a welcome addition to any Lord group due to their significant advantage in terms of mana in comparison with mages. Their single-target spell damage is also the highest of any spellcasting class, particularly while immolated.

Sorcerer Remort Options

There are several options for remort races that work well for a sorcerer - but these generally work well for any spellcasting class.

• Sprites are terrific casters with huge mana pools but they have miserable hp further decreased by the sorcerer class (and thus almost always require Quixoltan devotion throughout hero tier).
• Demonseeds are similar to the Drow,
• Dragons have identical mana as sprites (somewhat higher than tuataur) and are a fairly large race in terms of HP, as well as protected by excellent racial armor,
• Tuataurs are well rounded in terms of both HP and mana, and make potent spellcasters,
• High Elves are good with anything that deals with spells.
• Trolls which accept smaller mana gains and higher spell costs in exchange for higher HP and survivability via revival.