New sorcerer in need of general advice

[L9 dorothea]

Starting my second playthrough now playing as sorcerer. As I've never done this before (not even some points in Intelligence in melee builds), I need a few pointers.

-How many points in Mind do I invest in?
-While leveling Intelligence and Mind, is there any space for Vigor and Endurance?
-Is it worth it to level Dexterity for a sidearm?
-What are some early locations to get important spells and weapons?
-How many flasks do I want of the two different types?

Edit:
Whats the basic idea against multiple opponents,
against slow enemies,
against shielded enemies,
against single very fast enemy?

[schmoney william]

go for 40 vigor(soft cap) around 30-40 depending on how much you rely on spells. lvl dex until 20-25 most damage comes from weapon upgrades not scaling. if you're a hybrid and use melee more then maybe try going for 40-50 dex and 25 mind flasks again depend how much you rely on casting but i'd say do 10-4 or if you cast a lot 8-6

[Eventide]

Originally posted by dorothea:

im on rennala now and not having a lot of luck. phase 1 is unironically hard now and phase 2 is really hard to cast rock sling on

Rock sling should be hurting her quite a lot. When I fought her it did large chunks of her hp especially in phase 1. I'd recommend summoning someone to help and kind of get used to having someone to help. At least use a good spirit ash. The entire fight I just spammed rock sling at her. She's really slow and easy to hit.

[L9 dorothea]

Originally posted by Eventide:

Originally posted by dorothea:

im on rennala now and not having a lot of luck. phase 1 is unironically hard now and phase 2 is really hard to cast rock sling on

Rock sling should be hurting her quite a lot. When I fought her it did large chunks of her hp especially in phase 1. I'd recommend summoning someone to help and kind of get used to having someone to help. At least use a good spirit ash. The entire fight I just spammed rock sling at her. She's really slow and easy to hit.

is jellyfish a good ash
its the best ash

[Leto]

after more than 100 hours i can only recommend not to go full on caster, you only make it harder for yourself, rather something in the direction of spellblade, there are very good weapons that scale with int, plus you can change any weapon to int scaling with ashes of war or matching grindstone anyway, and with Scholar's Armament you get massive extra damage for your melee weapon.

why spend fp for every trash mob when you can just kill them with 2-4 hits ?

[Eventide]

Originally posted by Leto:

after more than 100 hours i can only recommend not to go full on caster, you only make it harder for yourself, rather something in the direction of spellblade, there are very good weapons that scale with int, plus you can change any weapon to int scaling with ashes of war or matching grindstone anyway, and with Scholar's Armament you get massive extra damage for your melee weapon.

why spend fp for every trash mob when you can just kill them with 2-4 hits ?

With patch 1.03 the FP cost changes made it so much easier to be a pure caster. Even a pure caster though always has a side weapon that doesn't cost FP. It'd be stupid of you to not have a weapon. Since FP is a finite resource you don't want to use it on trash unless it's to thin them out.

Just about everyone here says to use moonveil as a caster and not even really for the weapon skill anymore. More for the good damage it has when you just normal attack with it.

About weapons scaling off of int, I really wish we had more though.. Faith gets a lot of really interesting weapons. I wish we had at least one int weapon in every category.. I want to be a mage with a whip.. lol I know I could put an ash on something and make it scale with int, but I really like using unique weapons with interesting weapon skills. I also wish we had int/arc weapons..

[wererabbit]

Originally posted by dorothea:

Originally posted by wererabbit:

Level-wise -- you'll get 1k xp per kill so you'll get a lot of xp fast, it's just a matter of getting there. Use glintstone pebble, make sure you pick up the Meteorite staff on your way to make it easy on yourself. Get the Grace at the back of the bridge behind the dragon and use that as your launch point. Midgets everywhere -- they're nasty but even if you die you can pick up where you left off easily.

i finally got there. ifound the 3 "midgets", but are there more than 3 or do i just kill them and tp back?

Hey, sorry, needed sleep. There are 18-20 of them all over that big hill to the castle. Facing the hill from the grace, there are 4 across from the Grace, 7 above those, on the left side. 2 in the middle of the road on the right side, and another 6 or 7 on the right side as you go up the hill.

[Snefru]

What do most casters keep in their left hand? I’m presuming staff in right but is left a shield or melee weapon or something else that increases spell damage? I hate needing a staff for sorcery but thats a different topic altogether.

[wererabbit]

Depending on whether you're enchanting a melee weapon, which dictates the staff in the left hand and the melee weapon in the right, you can carry whatever you want. I tend to carry a whip in the left hand a la Indiana Jones. :)

[Tiasmoon]

I use the staff in the left hand and Godskin Peeler/Darkmoon Greatsword/Moonveil in the right. When I still used a shield, I used that in the left hand as well.

Wish magic weapons could be used to cast with as well.

[Eventide]

Originally posted by Snefru:

What do most casters keep in their left hand? I’m presuming staff in right but is left a shield or melee weapon or something else that increases spell damage? I hate needing a staff for sorcery but thats a different topic altogether.

I used to use a shield in the left and staff in the right. When needing a sword I'd swap the staff for it. Lately I've taken to having my staff in the left and sword in the right though. It gives ease of access for spells and allows using them in more combinations.

If we didn't use a staff to cast, I'd say it has to be at a diminished potency.. which then why would you ever do it really? You have 3 slots on both left and right hand. Even with 9 endurance I can have moonveil in right then shield, royal scepter staff, and lusat staff all in left along with a light-medium armor set. Could increase equip load with a talisman to get some heavier armor. I've been using that to have the noble's set equipped with the navy hood. Also notice I said I still have a shield equipped but I rarely use it anymore. I could unequip it for a bit more equip load leniency.

[Snefru]

Originally posted by Eventide:

Originally posted by Snefru:

What do most casters keep in their left hand? I’m presuming staff in right but is left a shield or melee weapon or something else that increases spell damage? I hate needing a staff for sorcery but thats a different topic altogether.

I used to use a shield in the left and staff in the right. When needing a sword I'd swap the staff for it. Lately I've taken to having my staff in the left and sword in the right though. It gives ease of access for spells and allows using them in more combinations.

If we didn't use a staff to cast, I'd say it has to be at a diminished potency.. which then why would you ever do it really? You have 3 slots on both left and right hand. Even with 9 endurance I can have moonveil in right then shield, royal scepter staff, and lusat staff all in left along with a light-medium armor set. Could increase equip load with a talisman to get some heavier armor. I've been using that to have the noble's set equipped with the navy hood. Also notice I said I still have a shield equipped but I rarely use it anymore. I could unequip it for a bit more equip load leniency.

Thanks for response. I just finished my first run as melee and hoping to go 99% magic next. Good to hear the advice. I just hate how staffs look and the casting animation is bad to me. I prefer open hand casting or I’d even settle for the objects that incantations need (forget their name but my melee equipped one sometimes for the remove poison incantation). Or give me a way to designate a weapon as my conduit for spells but it loses attack ability. Staffs are just ugly.

[Eventide]

Originally posted by Snefru:

Originally posted by Eventide:

I used to use a shield in the left and staff in the right. When needing a sword I'd swap the staff for it. Lately I've taken to having my staff in the left and sword in the right though. It gives ease of access for spells and allows using them in more combinations.

If we didn't use a staff to cast, I'd say it has to be at a diminished potency.. which then why would you ever do it really? You have 3 slots on both left and right hand. Even with 9 endurance I can have moonveil in right then shield, royal scepter staff, and lusat staff all in left along with a light-medium armor set. Could increase equip load with a talisman to get some heavier armor. I've been using that to have the noble's set equipped with the navy hood. Also notice I said I still have a shield equipped but I rarely use it anymore. I could unequip it for a bit more equip load leniency.

Thanks for response. I just finished my first run as melee and hoping to go 99% magic next. Good to hear the advice. I just hate how staffs look and the casting animation is bad to me. I prefer open hand casting or I’d even settle for the objects that incantations need (forget their name but my melee equipped one sometimes for the remove poison incantation). Or give me a way to designate a weapon as my conduit for spells but it loses attack ability. Staffs are just ugly.

The seals that incantations use barely exist and just about every one of the incantations are used in different ways. If you really don't like the staffs I'd suggest just going faith then. I personally have no issue with using a staff as a focus. Especially when you can run around like Gandalf with a staff in the left hand and a sword in the right.

[L9 dorothea]

Originally posted by Eventide:

Originally posted by Leto:

after more than 100 hours i can only recommend not to go full on caster, you only make it harder for yourself, rather something in the direction of spellblade, there are very good weapons that scale with int, plus you can change any weapon to int scaling with ashes of war or matching grindstone anyway, and with Scholar's Armament you get massive extra damage for your melee weapon.

why spend fp for every trash mob when you can just kill them with 2-4 hits ?

With patch 1.03 the FP cost changes made it so much easier to be a pure caster. Even a pure caster though always has a side weapon that doesn't cost FP. It'd be stupid of you to not have a weapon. Since FP is a finite resource you don't want to use it on trash unless it's to thin them out.

Just about everyone here says to use moonveil as a caster and not even really for the weapon skill anymore. More for the good damage it has when you just normal attack with it.

About weapons scaling off of int, I really wish we had more though.. Faith gets a lot of really interesting weapons. I wish we had at least one int weapon in every category.. I want to be a mage with a whip.. lol I know I could put an ash on something and make it scale with int, but I really like using unique weapons with interesting weapon skills. I also wish we had int/arc weapons..

what level is recommended for that magma worm that drops moonveil?

[L9 dorothea]

Originally posted by wererabbit:

Originally posted by dorothea:

i finally got there. ifound the 3 "midgets", but are there more than 3 or do i just kill them and tp back?

Hey, sorry, needed sleep. There are 18-20 of them all over that big hill to the castle. Facing the hill from the grace, there are 4 across from the Grace, 7 above those, on the left side. 2 in the middle of the road on the right side, and another 6 or 7 on the right side as you go up the hill.

wow thats incredible. im level 40+ now so im not sure if farming there is still best for me

[Lesmir]

Originally posted by dorothea:

Starting my second playthrough now playing as sorcerer. As I've never done this before (not even some points in Intelligence in melee builds), I need a few pointers.

-How many points in Mind do I invest in?
-While leveling Intelligence and Mind, is there any space for Vigor and Endurance?
-Is it worth it to level Dexterity for a sidearm?
-What are some early locations to get important spells and weapons?
-How many flasks do I want of the two different types?

-How many points in Mind do I invest in? = if you plan on stopping level at some point i'd say 20 to 40 depend on your lv , if you level up til max then the more the better

-While leveling Intelligence and Mind, is there any space for Vigor and Endurance? = you NEED vigor , if you are super good and dodge everything then no but everyone get hit once in a while , i'd say try to have enough vig to not get 1 shot but eventually you want between 40 and 60. for endurance you need a bit for the stamina cause spell cost stamina too but not much ( 15 to 20 should be enough )

-Is it worth it to level Dexterity for a sidearm? = just enough dex or str to wield a int scaling weapon can be super usefull to save on FP or when you run out of FP ( moonveil , wing of astel , dark moon greatsword for example ) or at least run the miséricorde for backstab 1 shot will help save on FP

-What are some early locations to get important spells and weapons? = get the meteore staff and rock fling ASAP , also Do the ranni quest.

-How many flasks do I want of the two different types? ususaly you want to keep 2 to 4 healing and everything else for FP so 2/10 or 4/8