Ayestes' Guide to the Sorceress
I) Introduction to the Author
II) Formatting and Version
III) Mechanics and Basics
IV) Abilities
V) Morale Abilities
VI) Masteries
VII) Tactics
-Agony
-Calamity
-Destruction
VII) PvE
IX) RvR
X) Mastery Ideas
XI) Suggestions & Bugs
XII) The Last Stuff
Helpful Links
Curse Database
Database
I) Introduction to the Author
Age 22, Male, currently enrolled in college for Computer Science (BS).
Played MUDS (Tempered Steel & Forsaken Lands) for a long duration, Diablo 2, World of Warcraft, EVE, Tabula Rasa, and now WAR. I've been in closed beta for quite awhile now (since mid-summer 08 or before maybe?) and began wanting to play the Shaman to heal. As time progressed I loved the Shaman but ended up loving the Sorceress even more. I had a lot of fun with the career even while it was considered weak and unplayable. I've put in countless suggestions and bugs concerning this career and have enjoying being a factor in it's current incarnation. I will most certainly be playing a Sorceress come release.
II) Formatting and Version
Guide Version (0.5.2) Beta 10/25/08 (Quick Fixes)
Updated to Game Version 3.3 Beta
So there are things you can ignore. Suggestions to Mythic, BUGS, TODO, and maybe a few other things are probably not a big part of this guide. I wanted to throw out a few suggestions to what you guys think and some noteworthy bugs. They aren't all the bugs or all the suggestions I have rather the important ones. Some parts of this guide may not be finished and I apologize as I haven't had the time to do it yet or are simply waiting for some changes I cannot disclose.
Beware I'll likely go through this often and change things. I don't know if I plan on making you aware of these changes. There are times I've been a little... shall we say tipsy while creating this so if something doesn't make any sense don't hesitate to point it out. If you disagree that is great, please inform me of how you can use something effectively or something I can do to improve my play.
I) Introduction to the Author
II) Formatting and Version
III) Mechanics and Basics
IV) Abilities
V) Morale Abilities
VI) Masteries
VII) Tactics
-Agony
-Calamity
-Destruction
VII) PvE
IX) RvR
X) Mastery Ideas
XI) Suggestions & Bugs
XII) The Last Stuff
Helpful Links
Curse Database
Database
I) Introduction to the Author
Age 22, Male, currently enrolled in college for Computer Science (BS).
Played MUDS (Tempered Steel & Forsaken Lands) for a long duration, Diablo 2, World of Warcraft, EVE, Tabula Rasa, and now WAR. I've been in closed beta for quite awhile now (since mid-summer 08 or before maybe?) and began wanting to play the Shaman to heal. As time progressed I loved the Shaman but ended up loving the Sorceress even more. I had a lot of fun with the career even while it was considered weak and unplayable. I've put in countless suggestions and bugs concerning this career and have enjoying being a factor in it's current incarnation. I will most certainly be playing a Sorceress come release.
II) Formatting and Version
Guide Version (0.5.2) Beta 10/25/08 (Quick Fixes)
Updated to Game Version 3.3 Beta
So there are things you can ignore. Suggestions to Mythic, BUGS, TODO, and maybe a few other things are probably not a big part of this guide. I wanted to throw out a few suggestions to what you guys think and some noteworthy bugs. They aren't all the bugs or all the suggestions I have rather the important ones. Some parts of this guide may not be finished and I apologize as I haven't had the time to do it yet or are simply waiting for some changes I cannot disclose.
Beware I'll likely go through this often and change things. I don't know if I plan on making you aware of these changes. There are times I've been a little... shall we say tipsy while creating this so if something doesn't make any sense don't hesitate to point it out. If you disagree that is great, please inform me of how you can use something effectively or something I can do to improve my play.
III) Mechanics and Basics
The Sorceress is a Magic DPS archtype. Note that there is a difference at least to Mythic in comparing a Ranged DPS and a Magic DPS especially when it comes to morales and tactics that each of them receive. The other big fundamental difference is one uses physical damage and the other uses primarily magical damage. The Sorceress uses primarily Corporeal and Spirit damage. More often then not your big spells will consist of Corporeal although the Sorceress is pretty well balanced in using each damage type so it's only a slight edge.
Specifically the Sorceress is the unofficially named the Glass Cannon type. It's mirror is the Bright Wizard for the Empire. This gives us a mechanic in our case called Dark Magic. Simply put you build this mechanic while you are casting spells. Each spell gives a varied number of Dark Magic depending on the spell. As you build in Dark Magic depending on the level you are at you will gain a bonus to critically hitting the opponent as well as a bonus to your critical damage. The side effect is the higher your Dark Magic level the higher chance and higher damage of a backlash. A backlash can only occur upon casting a spell of which builds Dark Magic which is the majority of spells in your arsenal. There are three ways to dispose of Dark Magic. The most common will be Dhar Wind. This ability returns your Dark Magic to zero upon use. Another method is to just not cast anything for a moderate amount of time. The least desired method is death. I can assume you would much rather use the first two. There is a chart below as to what the levels are.
Dark Magic Table
You should notice that it's an exponential growth. As you approach maximum Dark Magic you will deal an exponential increase in damage. You will also take an exponential increase in damage. If you simply sit at high Dark Magic levels you absolutely will kill yourself off. You will take damage very, very rapidly. So there are two ways to deal with this. One is to pace yourself and use Dhar Wind whenever you reach 70+ Dark Magic. The other is to receive healing. I won't lie to you, your damage is much higher at high levels and your burst damage is all the more feared. You can gamble a little with it if you need to finish someone off in RvR but without a healer I would advise you get rid of that Dark Magic as soon as the globe turns redish. (71+ is where I see a red tint)
Don't take this as necessarily gospel rather as an introduction to the mechanic. It is very advantageous to take a gamble for that extra damage. You can do much more damage at the higher levels and taking a few backlashes is often a good idea to output that extra damage before dropping down.
I myself like a less self-damaging approach. I've lived for an entire scenario without a death without scraping more then two hots by a Disciple. In that particular situation I had to minimize the self damage at all costs and I did that by running below 70+. In other words, that would be a very sustainable area to deal damage without injuring oneself too often.
It is a gamble in the end since you are chancing extra damage while you are chancing damage to yourself. If you bring yourself too low without a healer some Witch Hunter or Shadow Warrior could virtually one-shot you. You could very likely be doing some impressive damage though in return. You can go a little more wild too with Absorb Vitality and a lot of Wounds gear. It's very situational. I would recommend jumping above 70+ in situations to kill someone off or extremely close match ups but that's not always the case. I just prefer to stay above half health personally although I know for certain other players don't mind getting low and letting loose all that extra damage.
Now this mechanic makes it so that your base damage is a little lower then most. No one thinks it impressive when you are at low levels of power. Bouncing between low and moderate levels of Dark Magic is optimal for natural DPS. If you can afford a few heals then your damage output will be the highest in the game. This is at a great price even with healing however. Causing constant damage to yourself along with having the absolute lowest armor type of four in the game (Cloth) makes you the squishiest there can be. Base toughness values are pretty low as well making any enemy target see you as a target that makes their numbers look huge and mobs burn through your health quicker then anyone would ever expect.
Early on while leveling in your career you will have access to very scarce crowd control options making your character the most vulnerable career type in the game along with the Bright Wizard. As a Magic DPS it's natural that Melee DPS will absolutely destroy you if they contact you and have a massive advantage against you. The only chance is to catch them off guard at range and fully concentrate on them and even then it'll require careful use of crowd control. Tanks mostly harass you – although if you ignore them they can cause immense damage as well. Generally you can destroy a Tank around your strength especially if you catch them at a range. Tanks do not have options to catch you if they aren't within melee already. If they have support however then you are going to need to look for your own support as well. Ranged DPS have an advantage against you simply because you are weak to Physical damage. They will typically out damage you in a standoff but it's generally pretty even. Melee Support is a monster truck. Unless you have the strength to break their heals they are extremely tough to beat without assistance. You can best one but it's best to keep away and kite as they share the same weakness as a tank and have difficulty catching you. I'm not sure whom has the exact advantage in this case though. I'll have a more detailed analysis on RvR in another section. Just remember that your fragility is your downside and if you can keep yourself from ever taking damage from an opponent in the first place then all you have left is your strengths.
Advice on Attributes
Whether it's renown points, armor, weapons, or some other methods of gaining power through attributes you will always be striving to better yourself. What does a Glass Cannon Magic DPS do? Damage. What improves damage you may ask... it's Intelligence. It is the single simple key to improving how much damage you deal. When it far outmatches an opponents toughness then even your minor skills do impressive damage. Of course other things that factor into improving your damage are valued as well. Any bonus to crit is of course helpful especially at high Dark Magic. Any bonus to mastery levels is probably highly valued as well. Anything that increases damage is a number one priority in my book.
Now then there is your defensive stats. Armor, Resistances, Toughness, Wounds, Initiative, Willpower and a variety of other methods of gaining protection. Above all Toughness, Wounds, and Resistances are likely the best way to protect yourself. If you can find a decent Armor value (on Cloth) then by all means that would be the best defense since Order primarily consists of Physical Damage. Wounds is very effective in reducing the percentage effect of backlashes on your health as well. Backlashes do not scale with hp and rather scale with level. So the more Wounds gear you carry the longer you could gamble your damage at maximum Dark Magic without a healer.
Resistance choice is fairly difficult. Bright Wizards pride themselves on Elemental damage and Corporeal damage. Engineers do a fair amount of Corporeal. Shadow Warriors do Elemental and Corporeal but they can choose to ignore your resistances. Nearly all the melee classes do some form of Spirit damage from light to moderate. So it's up to you and how the game progresses to see what types you should specify.
Initiative is much better then Willpower simply to reduce the chance you are crit. The bonus dodge is helpful against the Engineer and Shadow Warrior. Willpower give s you disrupt. While disrupt is highly useful as many, many careers have magic effects this is very undervalued stat and you should probably choose all others before it.
If it were me, usually Intelligence, Wounds and Toughness are more then enough to concentrate on. Of course nabbing any +% crit is important as well. Often my Intelligence is double, triple, or even higher then that compared to my other stats. It really makes me a Glass Cannon but I can do some impressive damage in return especially with Dark Magic amplifying it.
One way to do it is a Renown build like this as an example, but it would certainly be a lot of personal taste.
....Part 2
The Sorceress is a Magic DPS archtype. Note that there is a difference at least to Mythic in comparing a Ranged DPS and a Magic DPS especially when it comes to morales and tactics that each of them receive. The other big fundamental difference is one uses physical damage and the other uses primarily magical damage. The Sorceress uses primarily Corporeal and Spirit damage. More often then not your big spells will consist of Corporeal although the Sorceress is pretty well balanced in using each damage type so it's only a slight edge.
Specifically the Sorceress is the unofficially named the Glass Cannon type. It's mirror is the Bright Wizard for the Empire. This gives us a mechanic in our case called Dark Magic. Simply put you build this mechanic while you are casting spells. Each spell gives a varied number of Dark Magic depending on the spell. As you build in Dark Magic depending on the level you are at you will gain a bonus to critically hitting the opponent as well as a bonus to your critical damage. The side effect is the higher your Dark Magic level the higher chance and higher damage of a backlash. A backlash can only occur upon casting a spell of which builds Dark Magic which is the majority of spells in your arsenal. There are three ways to dispose of Dark Magic. The most common will be Dhar Wind. This ability returns your Dark Magic to zero upon use. Another method is to just not cast anything for a moderate amount of time. The least desired method is death. I can assume you would much rather use the first two. There is a chart below as to what the levels are.
Dark Magic Table
You should notice that it's an exponential growth. As you approach maximum Dark Magic you will deal an exponential increase in damage. You will also take an exponential increase in damage. If you simply sit at high Dark Magic levels you absolutely will kill yourself off. You will take damage very, very rapidly. So there are two ways to deal with this. One is to pace yourself and use Dhar Wind whenever you reach 70+ Dark Magic. The other is to receive healing. I won't lie to you, your damage is much higher at high levels and your burst damage is all the more feared. You can gamble a little with it if you need to finish someone off in RvR but without a healer I would advise you get rid of that Dark Magic as soon as the globe turns redish. (71+ is where I see a red tint)
Don't take this as necessarily gospel rather as an introduction to the mechanic. It is very advantageous to take a gamble for that extra damage. You can do much more damage at the higher levels and taking a few backlashes is often a good idea to output that extra damage before dropping down.
I myself like a less self-damaging approach. I've lived for an entire scenario without a death without scraping more then two hots by a Disciple. In that particular situation I had to minimize the self damage at all costs and I did that by running below 70+. In other words, that would be a very sustainable area to deal damage without injuring oneself too often.
It is a gamble in the end since you are chancing extra damage while you are chancing damage to yourself. If you bring yourself too low without a healer some Witch Hunter or Shadow Warrior could virtually one-shot you. You could very likely be doing some impressive damage though in return. You can go a little more wild too with Absorb Vitality and a lot of Wounds gear. It's very situational. I would recommend jumping above 70+ in situations to kill someone off or extremely close match ups but that's not always the case. I just prefer to stay above half health personally although I know for certain other players don't mind getting low and letting loose all that extra damage.
Now this mechanic makes it so that your base damage is a little lower then most. No one thinks it impressive when you are at low levels of power. Bouncing between low and moderate levels of Dark Magic is optimal for natural DPS. If you can afford a few heals then your damage output will be the highest in the game. This is at a great price even with healing however. Causing constant damage to yourself along with having the absolute lowest armor type of four in the game (Cloth) makes you the squishiest there can be. Base toughness values are pretty low as well making any enemy target see you as a target that makes their numbers look huge and mobs burn through your health quicker then anyone would ever expect.
Early on while leveling in your career you will have access to very scarce crowd control options making your character the most vulnerable career type in the game along with the Bright Wizard. As a Magic DPS it's natural that Melee DPS will absolutely destroy you if they contact you and have a massive advantage against you. The only chance is to catch them off guard at range and fully concentrate on them and even then it'll require careful use of crowd control. Tanks mostly harass you – although if you ignore them they can cause immense damage as well. Generally you can destroy a Tank around your strength especially if you catch them at a range. Tanks do not have options to catch you if they aren't within melee already. If they have support however then you are going to need to look for your own support as well. Ranged DPS have an advantage against you simply because you are weak to Physical damage. They will typically out damage you in a standoff but it's generally pretty even. Melee Support is a monster truck. Unless you have the strength to break their heals they are extremely tough to beat without assistance. You can best one but it's best to keep away and kite as they share the same weakness as a tank and have difficulty catching you. I'm not sure whom has the exact advantage in this case though. I'll have a more detailed analysis on RvR in another section. Just remember that your fragility is your downside and if you can keep yourself from ever taking damage from an opponent in the first place then all you have left is your strengths.
Advice on Attributes
Whether it's renown points, armor, weapons, or some other methods of gaining power through attributes you will always be striving to better yourself. What does a Glass Cannon Magic DPS do? Damage. What improves damage you may ask... it's Intelligence. It is the single simple key to improving how much damage you deal. When it far outmatches an opponents toughness then even your minor skills do impressive damage. Of course other things that factor into improving your damage are valued as well. Any bonus to crit is of course helpful especially at high Dark Magic. Any bonus to mastery levels is probably highly valued as well. Anything that increases damage is a number one priority in my book.
Now then there is your defensive stats. Armor, Resistances, Toughness, Wounds, Initiative, Willpower and a variety of other methods of gaining protection. Above all Toughness, Wounds, and Resistances are likely the best way to protect yourself. If you can find a decent Armor value (on Cloth) then by all means that would be the best defense since Order primarily consists of Physical Damage. Wounds is very effective in reducing the percentage effect of backlashes on your health as well. Backlashes do not scale with hp and rather scale with level. So the more Wounds gear you carry the longer you could gamble your damage at maximum Dark Magic without a healer.
Resistance choice is fairly difficult. Bright Wizards pride themselves on Elemental damage and Corporeal damage. Engineers do a fair amount of Corporeal. Shadow Warriors do Elemental and Corporeal but they can choose to ignore your resistances. Nearly all the melee classes do some form of Spirit damage from light to moderate. So it's up to you and how the game progresses to see what types you should specify.
Initiative is much better then Willpower simply to reduce the chance you are crit. The bonus dodge is helpful against the Engineer and Shadow Warrior. Willpower give s you disrupt. While disrupt is highly useful as many, many careers have magic effects this is very undervalued stat and you should probably choose all others before it.
If it were me, usually Intelligence, Wounds and Toughness are more then enough to concentrate on. Of course nabbing any +% crit is important as well. Often my Intelligence is double, triple, or even higher then that compared to my other stats. It really makes me a Glass Cannon but I can do some impressive damage in return especially with Dark Magic amplifying it.
One way to do it is a Renown build like this as an example, but it would certainly be a lot of personal taste.
....Part 2
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