So my sorc is 59 and I'm hunting down in the citadel. I'm currently only warding, mostly with 705 and 702. I usually cast 705 until I hit twice and then finish off with 702. But I'm noticing that on the armored critters, I'm having a hard time warding. It feels like I'm level 1 again. Every time I get into a string of 5-10 casts that are warded off (which happens every hunt), I can't help but think about my wizard tearing through everything with bolts and wondering if I'm just wasting my time not bolting as a sorc. I have NEVER bolted with my sorc. I don't know how good 705 is as a bolt, and I don't know how useful focused maelstrom or focused implosion is personally. I've heard 713 isn't very good, although I honestly don't think I have EVER cast it. I hate to admit this, because I am probably the only person ever, but I actually love 718. The only real problem with it is that it's pretty slow. The other problem is that even in offensive stance I'm not sure I can ward swordsmen enough not to get me killed! Then there's the whole standing in offensive thing which doesn't bother me all that much with both 709 and 410, but my point there is that with a spell that costs 18 mana, doesn't kill the target, needs between 10 and 20 more mana to keep critters from hitting me, and even doubled in HP - I burn out on mana quite quickly. Sometimes before I fried. But if I just sit there and spam 705 and 702 I can usually fry in under 200-225 mana. I know there are probably easier things to hunt, but this is something that has been building for a long time. I used to like warding because if something couldn't hit me, then it was safe hunting. But not, just about everything has some sort of maneuver, so it's better to kill quickly. I feel like warding (especially with my current methods) is not quick, and I'm going to need to adjust before it's too late. What are the other sorcs doing 60-cap?

Here's my current training for reference. I'm working on getting my lores back up for 719, although I've never used it much honestly.

(at level 59), your current skill bonuses and ranks (including all modifiers) are:
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Armor Use..........................| 30 6
Physical Fitness...................| 160 60
Arcane Symbols.....................| 160 60
Magic Item Use.....................| 160 60
Harness Power......................| 220 120
Elemental Mana Control.............| 160 60
Spirit Mana Control................| 160 60
Elemental Lore - Air...............| 58 12
Elemental Lore - Earth.............| 58 12
Elemental Lore - Fire..............| 35 7
Perception.........................| 159 59
Climbing...........................| 132 36
Swimming...........................| 132 36
First Aid..........................| 160 60

Spell Lists
Minor Elemental....................| 36

Spell Lists
Minor Spiritual....................| 27

Spell Lists
Sorcerer...........................| 79

My 57 sorc hunts in the Citadel as well. I follow the same spell casting pattern as you, but I've found that when dealing with high warding critters it works really well if you hit them with Hex first. It has no warding check and hits them hard on TD. It's 15 mana, but I have yet to have mana problems using it regularly on a hunt.

I've thought about bolting but I just enjoy being able to melt things with almost no fear of being hit.

First, there's nothing wrong with your sorcerer (though I would get myself to 1x in Necro lore before even thinking of getting elemental lores), the critters in the Citadel just have high TDs for their level. You really are past the point where 702/705 are gonna be yer main spells, those spells are what you use to finish things off with rather then your main spells.

When I was hunting the citadel with my sorcerer, I hit apprentices, heralds, and swordsmen with Hex before anything else (shouldn't need it with guardsmen). Apprentices and heralds I hit with 719 since they're magical critters that are weak against it, then finished them off with 702(heralds)/705(apprentices) as needed (I held onto twisted/bone wands I found for this). Guardsmen I just hit with 702 a couple times since they're pretty squishy and easy to kill. Swordsmen you shouldn't be using anything other then 711 on cause they're noncorp and have a lot of HP... yea it's mana intensive at that level (esp since you don't have necro lore), but you'll burn through more mana trying to kill them with anything else... though you can get lucky with focused 720 in an emergency. Arbalesters I just didn't deal with and avoided the battlements like the plague to stay away from them, sorcerers have horrible defense against ranged and their sweep maneuver was too hard to avoid.

I regularly rested in the war room (the place where Symbol of Seeking takes you) to regain mana, but that was before MANA BOOST was a thing or the changes to Harness Power, so I had less mana then you should have. It's still a safe place to rest if you're running low on mana and haven't quite fried yet or need to munch on some herbs. Also, don't forget about quartz orbs and Symbol of Supremacy to boost your CS... and if you haven't ensorcelled yer runestaff, at least put the temp version on it.

As for bolting.... my advice would be that if you wanna bolt, roll up an Empath. Sorcerers stink at bolting and all the bolts on the 700 list leave a lot to be desired even if they didn't... and if you're gonna be relying on 111/118, you're limiting yerself pretty severely.

Starchitin, the OG

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