Is it me or sorcery is terribly balanced?

[Sombrero]

So I'm playing with an Astrologer and I've realized that so far all the spells I'm buying do way less damage than the two starting one Pebble and Arc. Three stars deal less damage than Pebble and cost more and the Shards one deal even less damage, cost even more and has a longer animation.

Is there some utility I'm missing because the game can't bother giving descriptions to spells or did the intern not bother balancing the spells in the game?

I've played 6 hours and I haven't found a single Int based weapon or Armor and found 8 million strength pieces of gear...

My character is still pretty strong but I'd like to feel any sort of progress because my new spells are all horrendous and at least early on the Int based gear is very rare. I found one Faith chest armor but that's it.

[Mikamus]

Traditionally sorcery turns into ridiculousness late game.

[Sombrero]

Originally posted by Mikamus:

Traditionally sorcery turns into ridiculousness late game.

I mean sure but why the starting spells are so much stronger so far it still doesn't make any sense.
I'm not complaining that I feel weak I'm feeling pretty strong considering you're ranged but unlocking spells and ashes of war has been one disappointment after another.

[Ahriman]

It was strong in the beta and they nerfed it. From is terrible at balancing magic, it's been pretty bad since Dark Souls 3.

[Serulean]

Oh boy, you know now how they're going to "balance" it? By nerfing the two starting spells, so all the sorcery spells are useless. LMAO

[Sombrero]

Yeah I heard three stars was OP in the beta but I mean it takes 5 seconds to see there's something really wrong.

Honestly it's removing a big part of the enjoyment of the game for me I almost feel like starting a new character with a melee build instead.

[Tolfdir]

Originally posted by Ahriman:

It was strong in the beta and they nerfed it. From is terrible at balancing magic, it's been pretty bad since Dark Souls 3.

I wish they advertised this as a feature in the store page :)

BTW, what is wrong with spell aiming? I fire while standing still, just a few feet from an activated enemy and the Pebble misses, a few times in a row. And sometimes the spell just passes through the body without any effect?! WTF!

[Sombrero]

The worst has to be Arc when used with a downwards incline. The spell somehow goes UP instead of down and miss the targets for miles.

How the game has been shipped with such abysmal balancing and obvious bugs is beyond me.

But I guess it's a 10/10 game, game of the year .... Yeah sure.

[Serulean]

^ Pebble has absolutely terrible tracking, Your enemy has to be literally standing still for you to be able to hit them with it.

[goka9696]

Originally posted by Sombrero:

Originally posted by Mikamus:

Traditionally sorcery turns into ridiculousness late game.

I mean sure but why the starting spells are so much stronger so far it still doesn't make any sense.
I'm not complaining that I feel weak I'm feeling pretty strong considering you're ranged but unlocking spells and ashes of war has been one disappointment after another.

Sorcery has been worthless since DS3. It was extremely powerful in DS1 to the point of being gamebreaking if we factor in DLC spells, in DS2 it was pretty balanced though DLC bosses had a huge spike in magic resistance, and in DS3 it's pretty much useless because mana costs for higher tier spells simply aren't worth it, and enemies are much faster while magic cast times haven't improved much. ER is more or less the same, except cast times have been improved significantly, so at least you aren't stuck in place most of the time.

For example, I tested three spells on a soldier outside Church of Elleh just now: Pebble, Cometshard and Carian Slicer. Pebble is a starting spell that requires 7 FP to use and fires incredibly fast. Cometshard is slower, requires 25 FP and can be charged. Slicer is a melee spell that requires 4 FP per hit.

A single Pebble deals 190 (7 FP)

A single Cometshard deals 301 (25 FP)

A single charged Cometshard deals 362 (25 FP)

Carian Slicer deals 236 (4 FP)

Why should I pay 25 FP for 301 damage and slower cast time, if I can quickly cast 2 pebbles for 14 FP and deal 380 damage? More damage than even a fully charged Cometshard. Slicer is a melee spell so it's not really a replacement for Pebble, but if you want to be efficient it's an even better option.

I have 40 int and am using Grave-School talisman which boosts sorceries and an Astrologer's Staff+8.

If you are having fun then it's fine, but if you want variety, you might want to either switch to a different class, or start forcing yourself to use different spells for the sake of variety. Vast majority of them are too specialized to be used often.

[✪ GIGO]

Originally posted by Sombrero:

Is it me or sorcery is terribly balanced?

Always has been *points gun*

[Iconoclast]

Feels like the balancing is trying to be more PvP meta than PvE.
All those ones feel more like sidegrades. Multiple projectiles are harder to dodge, probably made to be better on someone naked and fastrolling than a fatty.
Also the shard spray if you hold it down channels for even longer to the point where enemy can't forward roll through it to you like with pebble.
If you haven't killed Alberich yet jump down off Roundtable balcony and try different ones on him to see what I mean. Pebble does zero damage if the target rolls.

Also this

Originally posted by Ahriman:

It was strong in the beta and they nerfed it. From is terrible at balancing magic, it's been pretty bad since Dark Souls 3.

but if its anything like Souls damage calc it should still go up with increasing returns as you add INT+scaling vs magic defense's diminishing returns which is why

Originally posted by Mikamus:

Traditionally sorcery turns into ridiculousness late game.

[Frostfeather]

Thanks for posting about this, I'm definitely not buying the game because Astrologer was the only class that interested me.

[Therealfather]

I came here cause I feel the same way, I went to reddit and users there feel the same way as well. I'm climbing this tower right now I finally see another sorcerer(his pointy hat was a dead give away) I got excited surely with all this effort he has some decent spells nope no dice he has a ash of war version of my pebble I've been using pebble for almost 8+ hours because it's the most effective and least costly spell.

I come across no armor nor hardly any new staffs but I have all these cool looking swords, axes ,bows ,shields I bet actual warrior class players don't have some of the weapons I have, I'm not motivated to level up because every new spell has been cheeks.

[Bagg Boy (formerly Smoke)]

Originally posted by Ahriman:

It was strong in the beta and they nerfed it. From is terrible at balancing magic, it's been pretty bad since Dark Souls 3.

No, it's been bad since Demon's Souls. Magic has been unbelievably broken in every Souls title, Bloodborne included.

[Ahriman]

Originally posted by Smoke:

Originally posted by Ahriman:

It was strong in the beta and they nerfed it. From is terrible at balancing magic, it's been pretty bad since Dark Souls 3.

No, it's been bad since Demon's Souls. Magic has been unbelievably broken in every Souls title, Bloodborne included.

If you include overpowered in "broken" sure. Otherwise, don't know what you're talking about. Fact is it's underpowered since 3.