Hey everyone,

Just logged back in for first time in 5-7 years? I pop in seems like every 5-7 years and there typically major changes in how sorcerers are working and training.

In a general sense does this guy look OK? and does anyone have any advice on training in the future?

Name: Lucktar Levil Race: Dark Elf Profession: Sorcerer (not shown)
Gender: Male Age: 57 Expr: 1039742 Level: 30
Normal (Bonus) ... Enhanced (Bonus)
Strength (STR): 91 (20) ... 91 (20)
Constitution (CON): 80 (10) ... 78 (9)
Dexterity (DEX): 60 (15) ... 60 (15)
Agility (AGI): 73 (16) ... 73 (16)
Discipline (DIS): 71 (0) ... 71 (0)
Aura (AUR): 85 (27) ... 85 (27)
Logic (LOG): 75 (12) ... 75 (12)
Intuition (INT): 81 (20) ... 81 (20)
Wisdom (WIS): 82 (21) ... 82 (21)
Influence (INF): 78 (9) ... 78 (9)
Mana: 63 Silver: 990
>
A wizened gnome hobbles in.
>skill
Lucktar (at level 30), your current skill bonuses and ranks (including all modifiers) are:
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Armor Use..........................| 40 8
Physical Fitness...................| 96 22
Arcane Symbols.....................| 151 51
Magic Item Use.....................| 151 51
Spell Aiming.......................| 160 60
Harness Power......................| 150 50
Elemental Mana Control.............| 96 22
Spirit Mana Control................| 108 26
Sorcerous Lore - Necromancy........| 120 30
Perception.........................| 93 21
Climbing...........................| 54 11
Swimming...........................| 40 8

Spell Lists
Minor Elemental....................| 30

Spell Lists
Minor Spiritual....................| 7

Spell Lists
Sorcerer...........................| 30
Training Points: 0 Phy 0 Mnt (756 Phy converted to Mnt)
(Use SKILLS BASE to display unmodified ranks and goals)

Heres what I would shoot for at your level. I haven't done any math to see if its possible with your points.

| Bonus Ranks
Armor Use..........................| 40 8
Physical Fitness...................| 96 32
Arcane Symbols.....................| 151 32
Magic Item Use.....................| 151 32
Spell Aiming.......................| 160 64
Harness Power......................| 150 30
Elemental Mana Control.............| 96 32
Spirit Mana Control................| 108 32
Sorcerous Lore - Necromancy........| 120 3
Perception.........................| 93 21
Climbing...........................| 54 11
Swimming...........................| 40 8

Spell Lists
Minor Elemental....................| 30

Spell Lists
Minor Spiritual....................| 20

Spell Lists
Sorcerer...........................| 40

I would prioritize getting spell 120 over going up the sorcerer spell circle further but still keeping sorcerer spell circle at level. Once you have that I would try to get sorc circle at 20 over your level. So at level 30 I would mean having 50 spell ranks in the sorc circle.

Alkire

Any suggestions or links on how to pay sorcerer guild dues? I've printed out map found out how to get to guild in soulhaven have entered but can't find anything in there.

While I do feel having 120 is important in the long term, I don't understand why people feel the need to get it quite so early. My sorcerer didn't pick it up until rather close to 50 and did just fine without it until then, the extra TD and DS shouldn't be needed.

As Silvean said, CS is always helpful and I'd suggest keeping around 1x between MnE and MnS while working to build on sorcerer ranks. How much is really up to each person but I dislike wasting mana on missed casts. If you find you want more CS adding more sorcerer ranks tends to be the first step.

As far as harness power goes I often suggest being 2x until you hit 100 ranks then stop training it. Even if you happen to be in CoL that extra mana will allow you to start hunting with your more mana intensive spells sooner, use disabling spells more often, and stretch your CS a bit further through use of the TD lowering version of curse.

I know a lot of people stress training in a variety of magical skills but to me you shouldn't train them just to train them. train up the skills you are going to be using. Figure out the things you want for your character, prioritize those things, then figure out how to train for them.

Geez this game is HARD to get back into after many years. Can anyone suggest hunting grounds? BY looking in my backpack I can see last thing I was hunting was dobrems. I'm in soul haven. Might need to under hunt for a while to figure out all the new hunting strategies I created this guy back in 97-98 I think.

Can any one recommend any program to runs scripts for traveling? I seem to remember using those the last time I played like 5-6 years ago.

Sorry for all the questions, and thanks for the responses so far.

I sent you an email about the scripts. If you need help with guild membership or illusions, look for Silvean. If you decide to do alchemy, look for a therapist.

You might also want to check out https://gswiki.play.net/mediawiki/index.php/New_player and the sorcerer guide linked on the page.

I liked overtraining (read: past 2x) in spells to learn more spells, personally. I had all my spells by about level 44 (140, 435, 740). I definitely liked the build. 120 might not be necessary, and neither 130, or 140. They are all good spells though.

I didn't start overtraining Arcane Symbols until I got really big into scrolls and infusion, perhaps levels 50 to 60 (once I knew all my spells). The extra duration there is really worth it if you do a lot of infusion. Magic Items though...not so much...we aren't wizards.

I've felt 1x in HP was sufficient. 2x isn't bad idea by any means, but it is a lot of points. I'd think, if one uses scroll infusion, the points are much better spent there. Being able to unlock most any scroll in a workshop is nice. (Minor Mental and Arcane tended to be the most difficult for me...small statues are heavy....I prefer a 20-charge 1712 scroll myself.)

As for a rough guess of new features in your down time:

740 Planar Shift (at least the "gold ring" version)

713 Balefire

715 Star Curse

Some parts of 118 Web (area, bolt)

Probably I'm missing stuff, but sorcerers have become very feasible partial-bolt hunters in the last half a decade, either for a pinch situation, certain kinds of builds, or whatever. I always promoted it for group hunting and invasions, assuming this is your main character and you may care about these things.

You can pull up the gswiki on all those and have a peek.

Oh yeah, and 735 ENSORCELL! WOOWZ

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I have a sorcerer at almost the same amount of experience, and was a lot happier when I went up to 2.5x spell research.

You really feel CS differences at that level, and being many levels away from spells you want is not fun.

- Xorus' player

Looking at your training, I can tell that you're going to have DS problems in the very near future, if you aren't already having them.

Such heavy focus on the sorcerer circle is great for yer CS, but with 3x in spells it's a bit overkill to put all but 5 ranks into the sorcerer circle. Most sorcerers only 2x in spells till later in their carriers, so you're already ahead of the CS game by going 3x. I'd recommend training 1x in each circle until you have 120 and 430, once you get each of those spells you can put the ranks that were going to those circles into the sorcerer circle to continue advancing CS.

You should also try to find the points to get enough ranks in Armor Use to get into full leather, unless you intend on geting a good pair of enchanted robes.

Starchitin

A severed gnomish hand crawls in on its fingertips and makes a rude gesture before quickly decaying and rotting into dust. A gust of wind quickly scatters the dust.

May as well try it and see how badly I hate the change in CS vs what I had before. It looks like it should remove 8, which feels like enough to notice, but for non GoS things I was able to uphunt really easily with what I had offensive-wise so maybe this will work as long as I don't go all warcampy till I have a bit more mana/skill.

As for other questions, when should I start focusing on lores a bit? So far I've been barely having enough TDPs to do what I want so I'm a bit worried about that, and I thought I may as well ask when I'm still in the fixskill period, thanks for the advice on my first GS4 character!

I think this build looks rock solid for level 10. I'd definitely cut back the massive overtrain on 700s myself sooner or later, but at the same time I do this at lower levels, too, as suggested by Starchitin. Up to 120 and 430 is about right, too. Remember your sorcerer CS will get a +12.5 at learning 425, too. You need at least 414 to be viable though (430 is sort of icing after you went to 425 for the CS boost). You could keep down to 107 and get 120 a little later, if you want to keep overtrained in 700s (but I wouldn't go past 20 overtrained ranks...the diminishing returns really hurt after that).

Keep in mind that the warding margin generally gets easier with higher levels, and as you have more mana it's less of an issue.

As for lores, I personally 1x sorcery lore for life. I liked Demonology under ~50 and then going towards Necromancy, mostly from a mechanical perspective but anyway, it's a pretty cheap skill and it gets pretty decent mileage IMO.

I like spiritual summoning lore for a few reasons. Web bolt is very nice, the extra ensares for area web are very useful for me, and a little DF for 111 doesn't hurt, nor the splashes. Technically it helps with 715 too, but this is largely irrelevant.

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<I have one further question, with stats how high should I have my prime requisites? Do I want to have them near max for the power, or somewhat lower for avoiding growth I can't use?>

This is really a matter of preference, there are advantages and disadvantages to setting stats for growth as well as for maxing prim stats. I'd set them as low as you're comfortable with and put the spare points into slower growing stats. I haven't gone wrong with any of my own characters setting the prim stats at 80 to start, but I know there are those that would recommend both higher and lower then that.

Starchitin

A severed gnomish hand crawls in on its fingertips and makes a rude gesture before quickly decaying and rotting into dust. A gust of wind quickly scatters the dust.

>Is the term "casting leathers" just a cool description or is there really a difference between them and other 4x leathers of the same type?

You need to inspect the leathers to see what it is. You can tell what it is based on the coverage.

http://www.play.net/gs4/info/armory/armorleather.asp

Thank you, I don't think these are particularly old or special in any way. They are probably no different than any other enchanted double leathers.
I will see about finding a bard to sing to them though.

I was confused because long ago my sorc had casting leathers and I don't remember ever getting spell hindrance with them. I believe they were just "Elven Casting Leathers." Sold on a Juggernaut or some such. It was long ago though and my memory is fuzzy at best.


So on that note, what type of armor is the modern sorcerer favoring?

Since I end up wearing enhancive arm/leg greaves/helm anyway, I wear doubles.

Thank you, mine are doubles then? Thus the 2% spell hindrance?


You tap some polished black Dreadnaught casting leathers with a small symbol on the chest, which is in your right hand.
>inspect lea
You carefully inspect your casting leathers.

Your careful inspection of some polished black Dreadnaught casting leathers with a small symbol on the chest allows you to conclude that it is soft leather armor that covers the torso, arms, legs, neck, and head.

You determine that you could wear the leathers around your chest. The leathers appears to serve some purpose.

It looks like this item has been mainly crafted out of leather.

>look my leathers
You see nothing unusual, except for a small enchanter's glyph.

Player of Taunee

Note that spell hindrance depends on the circle of spell being cast. A wizard would see 4% hindrance using the same armor, while a cleric would have none at all. Sorcerer spells, being in theory a combination of spirit and elemental, get a spell hindrance half-way between the other two.

"So, what does that green line on the graph represent?"
"Oh, that's the projection of a hypothetical offspring from a union between Sauron and Cruella de Ville; we use that as a baseline for determining character alignment."

MnE has 0 hindrance in doubles, it is only MjE and Wizard circles that see it.