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Sorcerer
Creation

Guide


by Grimore
Valentine

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Archetype:
Arcane Caster

Primary Attributes:
INT,
WIS, VIT

Continents:
All




class="pn-content-page-body">The
Sorcerer is Vanguard's heavy damage dealing caster. The Sorcerer
has little to offer the group in the way of utility spells and
buffs.Damage and counterspells are the sorcerer's role, and he does it
with efficiency.



Intelligence, wisdom, and vitality
are the Sorcerer's primary attributes because a Sorcerer lives or dies
by his
spells. Intelligence increases the potency
of his spells while wisdom increases his mana style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"> pool. Vitality
helps the
Sorcerer
regenerate energy faster in battle. Because a Sorcerer has so many
finishers based on scoring a critical hit with spells, it could be
worth favoring WIS over INT. Those who like to play it safe will
concentrate on INT and make every hit deal more damage on average.



Building a good Sorcerer takes some careful planning at the character
creation screen and requires you to learn a handful of tactics in the
lower levels.

style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">Selecting
the Right Race

Sorcerers of all races start with the same attributes, but the
choice
of race can affect how many points the Sorcerer automatically gets
placed
into its prime attributes.

Starting
attributes:

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style="vertical-align: top; text-align: center; font-weight: bold; width: 16%;">STR
style="vertical-align: top; text-align: center; font-weight: bold; width: 16%;">CON
style="vertical-align: top; text-align: center; font-weight: bold; width: 16%;">DEX
style="vertical-align: top; text-align: center; font-weight: bold; width: 16%;">VIT
style="vertical-align: top; text-align: center; font-weight: bold; width: 16%;">INT
style="vertical-align: top; text-align: center; font-weight: bold; width: 16%;">WIS
style="vertical-align: top; width: 16%; text-align: center; font-weight: bold;">30
style="vertical-align: top; width: 16%; text-align: center; font-weight: bold;">25
style="vertical-align: top; width: 16%; text-align: center; font-weight: bold;">20
style="vertical-align: top; width: 16%; text-align: center; font-weight: bold;">35
style="vertical-align: top; width: 16%; text-align: center; font-weight: bold;">50
style="vertical-align: top; width: 16%; text-align: center; font-weight: bold;">50


Each character
gets 20 attribute
points
(AP) per level, starting at level 10. 6 of your AP are placed
for you automatically--one per attribute (STR, CON, DEX, VIT, INT,
WIS). 4 points are assigned to attributes based on your race if you are
not a human (humans are kojani, mordebi, qaliathari, and thestran).
You can
place 10 (14 for humans) wherever you want to within soft caps of 5 per
level.

Additionally,
characters get
racial bonuses to their soft caps. These
are called preferred stats and allow characters of a race to flesh out
in a way that reflects the traits of the race. Non-human races get 4
bonus points to soft caps (usually two or three attributes only) while
human
races get 6, 1 for each attribute. Thus, a human can be more balanced,
while a non-human becomes more specialized.

The table below shows the attribute scores at level 50 before
gear
and buffs for
the Sorcerer based on the race selected. We've highlighted the best
results for each of the primary attributes for you. It is possible to
reach the soft cap for three attributes as a human, but those soft caps
may be lower than those attainable by other races.

src="http://media.tentonhammer.com/vanguard/gallery/albums/album32/SOR.jpg">

style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">Racial
Abilities

The other important factor to consider when picking the race for your
Sorcerer is racial abilities. With their short durations and long
recasts,
racial abilities are less important than attributes in the selection
process, but they can be used to pick between races that are otherwise
equal. The racial abilities are listed below.



Thestran: Inspirational
Commands


You will have 3 inspirational commands at your disposal:
Inspirational Presence, Inspirational Wisdom, and Inspirational
Tactics. Each command is a group buff that will add either 2% to
mitigation, a 3% reduction to mana cost of all spells, or a 2% increase
in damage. You may only maintain one command at a time, however you may
have all 3 effects active at the same time. Recast is instant.



Human Ingenuity: + 10 bonus to all weapon skills, and dodge.

Crafting: +10 Ingenuity

Harvesting: +5 Lumberjacking


style="font-weight: bold;">Dwarf: Earthen Embrace

For 60 seconds, this ability will turn your body to stone. Along with
removing all poison effects, you will mitigate 25% damage and become
immune to movement impairing spells such as knock back, stun, and
snare. Recast is 30 minutes.



Small Race: 2% bonus to evasion

Crafting: +10 Finesse

Harvesting: +5 Mining

style="font-weight: bold;">High
Elf: Arcane Balance

This ability will take the cumulative amount of mana in a group, add
25% to that number, and evenly redistribute it to all members. Recast
is 15 minutes.



Elven Wisdom: 2% reduction in mana cost

Crafting: +10 Reasoning

Harvesting: +5 Reaping

style="font-weight: bold;">Kojani:
Spirit of Jin

This ability will immediately restore 45% of energy and hit points to
the target. This ability has a diminishing effect on any target that
has benefitted from this ability (used by another player) in the last
10 minutes. Recast is 30 minutes.



Human Ingenuity + 10 bonus to all weapon skills, and dodge.

Crafting: +10 Ingenuity

Harvesting: +5 Lumberjacking

style="font-weight: bold;">
Goblin: Hex of Ghalnn

Whoever is afflicted by this hex will return 3% of the mana and hit
points for every hit that is made on them. The effect lasts for 60
seconds. Recast is 15 minutes.



Small Race: 2% bonus to evasion

Crafting: +10 Reasoning

Harvesting: +5 Mining

style="font-weight: bold;">Half Elf: Symbol of Jin

This ability will apply a rune to every member of the group for 60
seconds, which will mitigate damage by 15%. Recast is 30 minutes.



Human Ingenuity: + 10 bonus to all weapon skills, and dodge.

Crafting: +10 Finesse

Harvesting: +5 Skinning

style="font-weight: bold;">
Raki: Planar Shift

While this ability is active, you will gain a 50% mitigation to all
spell damage. Recast is 30 minutes.



Animal Reflexes: 10% bonus to run speed.

Crafting: +10 Reasoning

Harvesting: +5 Reaping


style="font-weight: bold;"> style="font-weight: bold;">Qaliathari:
Swiftness of the Sands

For this next 10 seconds, you will evade all melee attacks and spells.
Recast is 30 minutes.



Human Ingenuity + 10 bonus to all weapon skills, and dodge.

Crafting: +10 Ingenuity

Harvesting: +5 Lumberjacking


style="font-weight: bold;"> style="font-weight: bold;">
Dark Elf: Spawn of Haelufir

This ability allows you to summon forth a small drake for a short
duration. The type of drake you summon will be based on class and
level. Each type of drake will have a variety of effects at their
disposal, ranging from group auras, to breath attacks. The
higher
level drakes will also learn spells that are sympathetic with their
associated class. Recast is 30 minutes.



Elven Wisdom: 2% reduction in mana cost

Crafting: +10 Finesse

Harvesting: +5 Skinning

style="font-weight: bold;">Gnome: Forge Crystal

This ability allows you to operate a variety of devices, only
available to gnomes, which are able to materialize a energy crystals.
Crystals will have several common effects, ranging from percentage
based mana, health, and endurance heals to several uncommon, rare, and
even ultra rare effects such as prismatic group resist buffs, rune and
damage shields, minion summons, and more.



Small Race: 2% bonus to evasion

Crafting: +10 Problem Solving

Harvesting: +5 Mining

style="font-weight: bold;">Kurashasa:
Symbiotic Armor

When this armor is active you will be protected by a proc (a process
that fires under certain conditions). In addition to a rune that
mitigates 25% of all types of damage,
you have a chance to apply an effect to all enemies within a 20 meter
point-blank
radius when you attack, cast a spell, or receive damage. Anyone
affected by this debuff will become snared and slowed. Recast is 30
minutes.



Animal Reflexes: 10% bonus to run speed.

Crafting: +10 Reasoning

Harvesting: +5 Skinning

style="font-weight: bold;">Mordebi: Curse of the
Ancients

This ability stuns the target for 8 seconds,
and reduces the aggro range to 0. The target will not assist/aggro
while
stunned, and the effect does not generate any aggro. Recast is 30
minutes.



Human Ingenuity + 10 bonus to all weapon skills, and dodge.

Crafting: +10 Finesse

Harvesting: +5 Reaping

Level 1-10 Tactics

Levels 1-10 can go by really fast for a Sorcerer. Soloing is your main
source of XP and soloing is something we do very very well. The only
problem you may have is if you get aggro from multiple mobs at once.
Sorcerers are generally pretty light on HP and armor, so we can take
damage quick, and that is never a good thing. But as a Sorcerer,
anything in your newbie zone is pretty much fair game; as long as you
keep yourself away from it, you can blow it away with ease. However,
there are still some essentials that will make your lowbie experience
much more enjoyable and much easier.



Buff before Killing

All Sorcerers get a self-buff at level 1 (Force Barrier I). One major
thing you need to remember is to always keep your self-buff on. Later
on you get different versions of these spells, but all you have right
now is Force Barrier (which is still extremely helpful). Additionally
at level 4 you get your first of the Sorcerer’s line of free
rings, which add INT and WIS as a buff and also do a passive effect
(See Invisibility for example). You should make sure that you are
always self-buffed, and you always have this ring equipped.



You’re Ready to
Start Killing


Keep in mind as a Sorcerer you want to stay away from your target for
the most part. This isn’t really a big deal at the early
levels, as you can still take some hits and do enough damage to kill
off your target. However, it is a good idea to get used to putting
space between you and the mob you are soloing because trying to gung-ho
it all the time will start to get you killed much more later on.



Frostbite is your friend with its instant cast and moderate energy
cost. You get it at level 2, and it does a decent amount of damage for
that level and puts a 70% movement speed reduction on the mob you hit
it with. It can help you to put some distance between you and your
target very quickly.



The Sorcerer also has a few ways to deal with mobs that do manage to
get a bit to close to him. For starters, at level 4 and level 6 we get
some high damage instant attack spells. Shocking Grasp (level 4) is a
point blank high damage spell that can finish off that mob that is
almost dead but is charging towards you. Additionally, we get Char
(level 6), a high damage, fire-based, instant cast spell. Char has a
very high range and a damage over time (DoT) effect that will still do
damage in case the mob isn’t killed by the initial blast.
Another spell we get is called Color Spray (level 4), a frontal cone 6
second stun that will give you time to move back and either cast that
killing blow or snare the mob in order to keep it off you as you kite
it.



Maximize Your Damage

Most of your damage will be done by spamming Taqmir’s Bolts,
which can pretty much kill anything around your level fine and easy
just spam casting that. However, if you want to kill things much faster
and maximize your damage, I suggest taking advantage of your instant
cast spells, casting them as soon as your Taqmir’s Bolts
spell goes off to hit your target with damage from Taqmir’s
and the instant cast spell at the same time. This means you will be
doing a good bit of damage all at once, which can decimate your target
very quickly.



Counterspells

At level 10, Sorcerers learn the first in a line of counterspells.
These skills will be crucial later, but few mobs that you will fight at
this level will wield deadly magic. If you are really concerned about
your Counterspelling skill, you can find some low-level casters to
fight for practice. Expect a more in-depth look at this important role
in a future guide.


style="color: rgb(153, 51, 0);">Other
Sorcerer Resources at Ten Ton
Hammer

  • href="http://vanguard.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=461">Sorcerer
    Class Guide
  • href="http://vanguard.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=505">Sorcerer
    Spells
  • href="http://vanguard.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=190">Know
    Your Role - Arcane Casters
  • href="http://vanguard.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=472">Guide
    to Vanguard Statistics

href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=107">Discuss
this Vanguard Guide in our Sorcerer forum!



To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Vanguard: Saga of Heroes Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

About The Author

Karen is H.D.i.C. (Head Druid in Charge) at EQHammer. She likes chocolate chip pancakes, warm hugs, gaming so late that it's early, and rooting things and covering them with bees. Don't read her Ten Ton Hammer column every Tuesday. Or the EQHammer one every Thursday, either.

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