by Karen Hertzberg on Jan 20, 2007
by Grimore
Valentine
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.
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:
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.
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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
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.