I felt I'd go ahead and open this thread as it has been suggested. This post is not going to be very well organized. I've been posting a lot on the Wizard forum lately (I do have a young warmage), and there was a bit of discussion I inspired (kind of by accident) on Silvean's thread on a nice abyran'ra logfile on Spell Aiming. But for me, this is a topic I never get tired of.

I've kept the topic as general as possible for the scope. I have no person motive here, other than a thread for the topic and babbling a bit in favor of Spell Aiming for sorcerers. Then again, after being on the forums for a bit the last years, and playing my sorcerer slowly but surely, I'm pretty comfortable to say I'm not only one of the strongest advocates for Spell Aiming for sorcerers but probably one of the better bolters out there despite not having capped and having minimal enhancives. I did find a pin-worn +6 Spell Aiming item recently in a box, but mostly I'm still working on Aura to push Kaldonis to 13 spirit, so after wracking he can strip his aura enhancives and bolt at full strength still.

Here's a random paste I made a few weeks ago, since people like big numbers. This isn't even that big as far as it goes, but it's not too shabby right?

You hurl a roaring ball of fire at a Grimswarm troll guard!
AS: +498 vs DS: +356 with AvD: +22 + d100 roll: +95 = +259
... and hit for 54 points of damage!
Flames incinerate muscle tissue in neck exposing the trachea. More than you ever wanted to see.
The troll guard moans in pain as the flames singe her skin!
... 30 points of damage!
Nasty burns to left hand. Gonna need lots of butter.
The roaring ball of fire strikes a Grimswarm troll guard, blossoming into a much larger sphere of flame upon impact.
A Grimswarm troll guard manages to bring up her wooden shield in time to deflect the elements harmlessly away from herself!
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.

But before I get into bolt/ball spells, let's just talk about Focused Implosion.

I've not gotten far enough, nor even tried all professions to make a definitive statement. But seriously, does anything kill better than a single cast of FI? I find it to be so absurdly powerful, and I use it as a hunting tactic not infrequently. At one point on the forums I was mocked for this as it was called the "panic button" and I was like, whatever? Especially with 735 these days, after you plow through some number of kills, the treasure is not only going to weigh you down, but generally not going to be worth as much as selling Ensorcells anyway. In warcamps, although they do carry nice gear sometimes on them, the actual loot is an attrocity, and the boxes accumulate 1 per 20 kills in the treasure chests, and it's no concern at all. Last time I was camping, I cast FI about 45 times, WoF 3 times, and area web about 3 times for each hunt. A boring tactic perhaps, but whatever as far as I'm concerned. If you've ever done tab-cycling in zsh, well I've set up tab as my macro for incanting 720. I tab cycle through creatures, wrack a couple times, go back to town, eat some manna bread, and go back out to the camp.

People with better CSes than Kaldonis might prefer 717 I suppose in this instance, but that won't get very far in many other circumstances. Citadel heralds and bestial swordsmen especially I found hard to ward. Kind of makes me want to dig out my post and research on heralds where I demonstrated their 115 suggested 6000 (yes, six thousand) Blessing lore ranks to re-ward and check again to see if it was ever changed; it turns out 701 is a valid way to drop that, even if 701 doesn't work on undead, but I didn't exactly have the thought to research heralds at the time I was hunting there (though Kaldonis has never died in the Citadel, and maybe I should have caught the uncanny activation rates of 115 for Sorcerer Base). Regardless, I was pretty successful using bolts for the heralds, FI for the swordsmen. I think a grizzly swordsman is still my record holder for FIs, by the way. Maybe I'll dig out the log file, but it should have been about 25 of them. I didn't mind to curse, saturate, and Pain the grizzly ones as a generally better tactic, but it was a kind of "what should you try" sort of thing. FI was certainly a better tactic most the time, anyway...

Okay so I went over one spell. I'll let someone else get in on the points with 708. For a skill which mostly costs PTPs for a class that converts all PTPs to MTPs...

How about bolts? With 714 it's utterly easy to get a savage AS. 211, 307, and 513 are easy to find on pawnshop tables, and 215 isn't that tough to get ahold of. Toss all that with Star Curse and some society abilities, a good dexterity, and you'll be cruising. Web bolt is quite great, and I even hunted the Bowels with only Web Bolt on a time. The TDs weren't that favorable, and it did damage while often giving knockdowns, and for only 9 mana it's not too bad at all. (NB: 118 bolt followed by 111 is an amazing tactic...just not in the Bowels).

There's really no comparison to a ball spell for proper group hunting (say, a duo or trio), so for us 111 and/or 713. Tag most the creatures in the room, while not killing it instantly so your buddies can get a hit. Normal sorcery really has almost nothing on this. The best bet might be Major E-wave, but the mana cost has tripled. Even if after tagging things you want to start plinking or annihilating things, the opening ball spell is the way to go.

For invasions there is simply no argument. Spirit Strike yourself and use a bolt spell. FI and warding spells are just not going to do it for you, period. This may be irrelevant for alt-sorcerers for players who will bring another character to an invasion, but I am speaking to the real sorcerers here, not some sideline folks harvesting level 40 necrojuice.

I got my level 40 sorcerer through Oteska's Haven, with no society, and only 40 sorcery ranks, bolting, by the way. Take that case and try any other method and let me know a better method? Might be plenty, but that worked pretty well, I have to say. By the way, while I wasn't at 2x spells (2.5x then, but I was doing MnS to 140), regardless, the 9/3 for 2x spell aiming over 40 levels nets an amazing +9 CS, which is a quartz orb. Extrapolating this to near cap, is losing all spell aiming for something around 20 CS worth that much to people? If so, enjoy your one trick pony, I guess. Also, this would now be a literal cinch with the 705 bolt, I should note. (NB: DC might have been a lot more powerful than I thought in Oteska's, but near-level, as a halfling, with 40 ranks of Sorcerer Base, sheer ability to ward was an issue. Bolting worked well, though. Great bog trolls weren't so hard to ward, though, and I was silly and didn't consider DC would stop their regeneration.)

I've been told since my sorcerer is a halfling I have more reason to sink piles of TPs into a little extra CS. I always saw it the other way around when it came to Spell Aiming, since my character has a great DEX bonus: why not give myself a solid alternative option and take advantage of what he's already going to be good at?

I haven't been shy to show some various alternatives to bolting in my examples. I've always felt sorcery was more about looking at all the spells available, and finding a good tactic using several of them for the right hunting grounds. I think that Spell Aiming is generally powerful enough (and adds some nice runestaff DS, btw) to be worth the fairly nominal training points, and locking one's self out of more options is not only silly but mostly against the philosophy of how to hunt as a sorcerer in general.

Anyway, I welcome everyone to tear this apart, add their own ideas, and everything. This is definitely a topic I like, and I didn't mind opening it. I posted a rant since that's kind of what I like to do, and it should give enough space for anyone's responses, whether seeking replies or to make their own independent rants!

Note: Kaldonis is in CoL. I have a "warcamp monkey" to open camps in RR. I only say this in case someone supposes by discussing warcamping Kaldonis is in GoS and finds some points contrary to it.

---

Check out who's dying again early next week! https://twitter.com/GSIVDeathLog

>Daid: Pretty sure you have a whole big bucket as your penny jar. You never have only two cents. :p

Spell Aiming provides a good return for the training points. It's a great skill. I'd recommend training it at 2x per level from the start. I'm not sure there's anything else worth trading its versatility for. A little more CS? A few more ranks of CM to avoid Disarm Weapon right at cap? Those deficits can be made up later but focused Limb Disruption brings joy to the hearts of little sorcerers all over Elanthia.

If you showed me a capped sorcerer with no spell aiming and no intention of moving points around, I'd put it on their priority list after 3x spells, 1x CM, and 2x Perception but before Dodging. Dodging is just so soul crushing.

Level: 100

Your spell lists:
Minor Spiritual...67
Minor Elemental...74
Sorcerer Base.....162

Perception.........................| 201 101

Combat Maneuvers...................| 201 101

Dodging............................| 150 50

no spell aim here.

woo woo!


*Disclaimer I was 2x spell aim until cap then I dropped it all my ramblings about not having it were made AFTER cap.

Also, now that I went out of the lockpicking/disarming build, you can see what I do, for better or worse.

Kaldonis (at level 93), your current skill bonuses and ranks (including all modifiers) are:
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Combat Maneuvers...................| 50 10
Multi Opponent Combat..............| 20 4
Physical Fitness...................| 195 95
Arcane Symbols.....................| 290 190
Magic Item Use.....................| 195 95
Spell Aiming.......................| 290 190
Harness Power......................| 193 93
Elemental Mana Control.............| 195 95
Spirit Mana Control................| 204 104
Spiritual Lore - Summoning.........| 90 20
Sorcerous Lore - Demonology........| 163 63
Sorcerous Lore - Necromancy........| 120 30
Survival...........................| 195 95
Perception.........................| 195 95
Climbing...........................| 195 95
Swimming...........................| 130 35
First Aid..........................| 90 20
Trading............................| 50 10
Spell Lists
Minor Elemental....................| 36
Spell Lists
Minor Spiritual....................| 40
Spell Lists
Sorcerer...........................| 114

---

Check out who's dying any time! https://twitter.com/GSIVDeathLog

>Daid: Pretty sure you have a whole big bucket as your penny jar. You never have only two cents. :p