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.

[BeautifulFlowerField]

Originally posted by Rikashey:

I'm still using the starter Astrology set and staff because I haven't found anything for mages other than a weaker staff. I've explored all around the world. I can't even find a sorcery merchant even though I found a new spell scroll. The game is feeling kinda lackluster at this point.

If you are the one who posted a similar thread, I told you where to get all the good sorcery stuff early. You have to clear the waypoint ruins for the merchant, and you can run very short east of the starting area for an S-tier staff. There's an enemy on a beach next to the tutorial building with an ash of war for int scaling as well.

[Friends with Benedicts]

Originally posted by Smokes:

lol I find that hilarious in the good sense that we are building opposites of our old play style.

Yeah its always like this for me. Demons Souls Ive barely played. DS1 I went for int and stats for it like spell slots. DS2 went for STR with FTH. DS3 went for DEX. Now I kinda just wanted the wind to take me, started full STR but then wanted to try some miracles. Bought them, liked em and decided to roll with it.

I know ill end up creating a second one on the future, prolly with DLC release, so no harm done. The next one will be a sorcerer... If it feels like it has cool gameplay.

Originally posted by Phantom:

Haven't done faith but I assume its similar

ooo man I dont think so. Paladins > Battlemages, at least it seems. Faith is having extremely good synnergy with melee build. I want to try a melee dex + int build on my next toon, but idk how viable a battlemage is. I just know a paladin is wrecking everything. Using miracles only for buffs or heals, altho depending on environment will use fire on enemies lacking fire resistance.

[DickyDiscord]

Wanted a pyro build, but started with Samurai. Been getting 1 hitted a lot by some of the magic in the game, though so far it can't really hit me if I know it's coming as it telegraphs long in advanced. I did get killed by some tower eyeball thing yesterday. That, I'm assuming is like in Blood where you're suppose to hide from until you kill whatever is casting it.

As others said, a lot got nerfed.

Personally having more trouble with the platforming as the control is kinda wonky. Too easy to overshoot jumps. It's Demon Souls levels of platforming by the way. Only you have like 10 to 20 jumps on beams where there's no way to prevent dying if you fall because it's way too high up.

[Friends with Benedicts]

Originally posted by Rikashey:

I'm still using the starter Astrology set and staff because I haven't found anything for mages other than a weaker staff. I've explored all around the world. I can't even find a sorcery merchant even though I found a new spell scroll. The game is feeling kinda lackluster at this point.

sorc merchant is near the edge of the first map you acquire, following a road east from that first enemy camp, opposite direction of the main quest requires you. The road will then lead south, but go through the cliffs. There'll find ruins with a huge plant that casts lighting thunders and poison cloud. You can ignore it and go straight for the boss downstairs on the room next to it. The miniboss is doable solo but summon 2 other phantoms for easy mode. After that, mage vendor is waiting for u. Cheers

[Friends with Benedicts]

Originally posted by DickyDiscord:

Personally having more trouble with the platforming as the control is kinda wonky. Too easy to overshoot jumps.

whaaaa I guess we're having different experiences. Im feeling this game is much more precise than any souls Ive played, specifically it feels as precise as Sekiro. I am being able to jump on top of every "pole" or any piece of phallic object projecting upwards without any hassle. Haven't died to "fall" once in this game.

[Powercrank]

the glint sword spell that the prisoner starts with is incredibly useful. good damage, decent tracking, and a delayed firing that allows you to do fun combos with other abilities.

frankly, its kind of been carrying me through the more difficult fights.

[DickyDiscord]

Originally posted by Friends with Benedicts:

Originally posted by DickyDiscord:

Personally having more trouble with the platforming as the control is kinda wonky. Too easy to overshoot jumps.

whaaaa I guess we're having different experiences. Im feeling this game is much more precise than any souls Ive played, specifically it feels as precise as Sekiro. I am being able to jump on top of every "pole" or any piece of phallic object projecting upwards without any hassle. Haven't died to "fall" once in this game.

I wish. You're facing the edge of a cliff with Torrent, you fall off of it by just turning around because the animation forces you into it. Where I first started noticing. Maybe you're using keyboard and mouse? I'm forced into using Xbox's controller because I'm playing it there. There's no way I could do the platforming on PC myself as the stuttering is way too much. Plus, the enemies aren't rendering for whatever reason. Still can kill them and the first few bosses, but there's no way I'd beat the others I've run into without seeing their moves telegraphed.

Anyway, to be clear, when you jump, the player animation moves forward a bit. That's enough to fall off of the edges. I haven't had any issues in the open world, mostly talking about the platforming in the caves to be more clear.

[Vigiliance Aurelious]

Skills are quite eh plus enemies keep dodging! What the heck! Lmao!

[Firellius]

I think it's FromSoft tradition that the majority of spells are just direct downgrades from earlier acquired ones. Pebble absolutely blows the other projectile spells out of the water. It's good to know that this was different in the beta, though, as the wiki still states Stars to be the best sorcery.

[orian34]

If you go to the south east beach at the start (need to go through the dragon swamp), you can get a magic ash of war, allowing you to add int scaling to any of your melee weapons.

[Maxius]

Originally posted by goka9696:

Originally posted by Sombrero:

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.

This ♥♥♥♥ is DS3 magic all over again, ♥♥♥♥ from software.

[rasabt]

looking at some comments concerning DS3's magic it's pretty clear that some opinions just don't matter much...
the issue with magic or casting for that matter was PvP not PvE; getting to actualy hit a PvP-target in a somewhat balanced fight was horrific; the late game scaling in PvE however was and is still absolutly okay.
i started Elden Ring as a sorc (well, depraved) just to play a soulsbourne as a caster the first time around and it's been pretty easy going. the issue is rather that most of the caster stuff (staffs, spells, etc.) is pretty out of the way and kinda hard to find when you first start out.
but the staff from the Demi-Human-Queen and even just the Waypoint-Spells can carry you far, especialy the weapon enchant scales pretty nice again, mix in pebble and you are set.
you gotta upgrade your staff and caster stats...
i will say however that this time around faith has seen a lot of love and seems much more improved overall, whereass "arcane"-stuff is not bad but feels a tad par for the course.

concerning the "jump'n run" complaints: it's actualy pretty tight, took me a moment to get used to Torrent's double jump and your own animations, but ever since it's been far better than in any other From titel

PS: Torrent best mount followed only by Dark Sider's 2 steed

[Friends with Benedicts]

Originally posted by DickyDiscord:

I wish. You're facing the edge of a cliff with Torrent, you fall off of it by just turning around because the animation forces you into it. Where I first started noticing. Maybe you're using keyboard and mouse? I'm forced into using Xbox's controller because I'm playing it there.
(...)
Anyway, to be clear, when you jump, the player animation moves forward a bit. That's enough to fall off of the edges. I haven't had any issues in the open world, mostly talking about the platforming in the caves to be more clear.

Im playing on Xbox One Controller but Im used to that one... Ive played on Xbox controllers since 360s IIRC
Torrent feels much smoother than RDR2s horse. Maybe Im used to hating horse riding in games as to became careful enough on edges? I RDR2's horse at least will bar u from most dangerous edges. I never fell with torrent either, and I also abuse him a lot to climb high place with its double jump. I was much more afraid of falling places back in other souls games. On this one Im always hopping down on thos big horizontal gravestones. I feel like alice on wonderland sometimes while playing this game lol. Reminds me sometimes of Dorohedoro too I even made my MC based a little on a character from that...

Originally posted by DickyDiscord:

There's no way I could do the platforming on PC myself as the stuttering is way too much. Plus, the enemies aren't rendering for whatever reason. Still can kill them and the first few bosses, but there's no way I'd beat the others I've run into without seeing their moves telegraphed.

This sucked so hard but only happened to me specifically east of that first outpost you clear, near where theres an invisible npc on the bushes, and the bridge you cross to go to Limgrave east... Thank god it never happened to me once again

[DickyDiscord]

Originally posted by Friends with Benedicts:

Torrent feels much smoother than RDR2s horse.

For sure. I've no complaints on how Torrent controls. Map would feel way too big without it as well. Haven't found anything yet, though I do kind of hope they added in some dismounting attacks. If they didn't, that they later do.

[Friends with Benedicts]

Damn I really need dismount attacks. I only use the horse for movement, otherwise I always prefer foot. I also prefer that for my enemies too because I seem to take so much slaps on my face when trying to face them foot vs mounted.