What should I do with my Sorcerer?

[Myriad]

I have an 8Sorc/2Pally, and I'm torn between deleting and rerolling a pure Sorc, or continuing with the 2Pally splash. I keep going back and forth on my decision and I'm at a standstill, not playing the toon until I figure out what to do. So I need some advice.

The main thing I dont like is being 2 levels behind in my spells. On the other hand the Sorc Capstone is only +20 Spellpower, which imo is crap. I'm loaded down with +80 SP each on multiple pieces of gear. At present with the Pally splash I can use Divine wands to heal, but with pure Sorc I'd have to pump up the non-class skill UMD. So I was thinking of taking 1 lvl of Bard just for UMD, and maybe Preform for Air Savant Sonic Spells. But then I'm still not pure Sorc and all I'm getting is 1 extra Sorc lvl and trading UMD for the ability to use Divine wands anyway.

Is it really worth it to lose the healing ability and saving throws? Or is the 1 Bard splash a better option? Or is there something I'm not seeing with the pure Sorc that is much better and worth starting my lvl 10 with all it's Favor from scratch?

Thanks!

[Doug]

You've hit the nail on the head re. the downside to multiclassing a caster: getting spells later. Still, it's not generally fatal.

The 2 Pally splash's biggest contribution to a sorc is the saving throws. The wand-healing will get anemic in higher levels, so I'd never bother for that. OTOH, I wouldn't reroll, either. That multiclass is pretty decent.. at least it's not actively borked like some people's early multiclassing attempts, and some of the pally enhancements might well help with survivability as well (mostly from Sacred Defender, though possibly some useful ones in Vanguard as well.. see below).

Pally gives you Heavy armor and Shield proficiency. If you can pump your Spell Agility (vs arcane spell failure) via enhancements, gear, or augments, wearing armor or a shield could help with damage mitigation. And if you have a shield, the usefulness of Paladin enhancements goes up.

Check if the items granting you +80SP stack with one another. Most likely, they do not. Generally, items provide an 'Enhancement' bonus to SP and in DDO stacking is based on the 'type' of the bonus. If not, you'll have the flexibility to pick out other gear for those slots. At the same time, your bonus to SP will not be what the item lists. Pure sorcs get double the bonus. Multiclass sorcs get the %age of that that their sorc levels are of their total character level. So a +80SP item would give a Wizard 80SP, a pure Sorc 160SP, and in your case, ought to give something like 144SP (iirc how the math works: 80 + 8/10 * 80).

[Doug]

What race is your Sorc?

[Myriad]

I didn't realize the SP doesnt stack. I'll have to check that out.

My race is Elf. Created before I got the Drow choice. If I were to start over I'd choose Drow with 20 Charisma.

Edit: I did dip into the Eldritch knight for shield and armor perks, as well as Mage Armor and Shield spells. Never Checked what Pally enhancements would do since I'm high in the Air Savant tree.

[P13]

Depends on what you want to do with it. Through heroics, you can gimp yourself beyond recognition and still be good enough for elite bb to 20. You can take any build through epics doing dailies and easy eh/ee quests. With the changes to enhancement trees an age ago, you don't need 12 levels in a class to get the tier 5 abilities, so multi classing isn't that bad, and you've picked a pretty good class split.

If you plan on doing epics (ee/le and raids), the extra saves would probably play in your favour along side the defensive bonuses, and assuming you're a first lifer, it's probably even better for your survivability. If you're in it for the past life, you don't need to worry much at all.

Side note, in my opinion sorc isn't that great in epics any more. I used to love it, but much like fvs it feels a little too much like an sp drain. You're burning through sp to keep up with other classes in terms of dps unless you're heavily geared. But to each their own, that's just my opinion from my experience. But then, I've not played sorc in over a year

[Doug]

Originally posted by Myriad:

My race is Elf. Created before I got the Drow choice. If I were to start over I'd choose Drow with 20 Charisma.

Edit: I did dip into the Eldritch knight for shield and armor perks, as well as Mage Armor and Shield spells. Never Checked what Pally enhancements would do since I'm high in the Air Savant tree.

You're in luck for armor (though not shield). Elf tree allows you to take up to -15% ASF (Arcane Spell Failure) for armor, should you wish to try wearing it. There are also ASF augments in the Auction House, but idr if they stack with the enhancements or not, and I think it's -5% at ML12, -10% at ML16, and -15% at ML20. If you have Cannith Crafting level 250 (or know someone with 400), you can craft Lesser Arcane Casting Dexterity (-5% ASF) on Armor, Gloves, or Trinkets, though again, I'm not sure about stacking. The Eldritch Knight tree also offers some ASF reduction, though not much.

[Doug]

Originally posted by Myriad:

My race is Elf. Created before I got the Drow choice. If I were to start over I'd choose Drow with 20 Charisma.

If you get to L20 and TR, you'll have the option to choose differently (without rerolling). :)

[Myriad]

Thanks for the advice! I have a much better understanding of my options now.

[Exothermically Eclectic]

Originally posted by Myriad:

I didn't realize the SP doesnt stack. I'll have to check that out.

If in doubt, switch to the "combat" tab of the chatbox and re-equip the gear. It'll show most non-stacking things.

[Doug]

Originally posted by Yriel:

Originally posted by Myriad:

I didn't realize the SP doesnt stack. I'll have to check that out.

If in doubt, switch to the "combat" tab of the chatbox and re-equip the gear. It'll show most non-stacking things.

Specifically, if you've mucked around with the default chat settings, as I have, you're looking for the feed called "Effects."

But in the case of SP, you can just look at your icon or char sheet as you equip the gear and see if your total SP increases.

[Doug]

Originally posted by Doug:

If you get to L20 and TR, you'll have the option to choose differently (without rerolling). :)

Also, TRing will provide other benefits, like additonal stat points, opening quests on first run at harder difficulty, and Past Life Feats that carry from life to life (http://ddowiki.com/page/Past_Life_Feats). In this case, if you TR you'll gain the passive Past Life: Sorcerer Feat, for a permanent +1 to Evocation DCs and 20 stacking spell points. There's also an Active Feat that you have to invest a Feat slot in, but most of them aren't worth the bother. In fact, the only one I'd ever take is the Wizard past life feat for +1 to all spell DCs (plus 10x casting of Magic Missile, but that's meh).

[AbsynthMinded]

Originally posted by Myriad:

I didn't realize the SP doesnt stack. I'll have to check that out.

My race is Elf. Created before I got the Drow choice. If I were to start over I'd choose Drow with 20 Charisma.

Edit: I did dip into the Eldritch knight for shield and armor perks, as well as Mage Armor and Shield spells. Never Checked what Pally enhancements would do since I'm high in the Air Savant tree.

Charisma for a Sorc or FvS should only be high enough for you to cast your spells. The SP gain off CHA is minimal versus other sources and items, I Start my FvS with 12 CHA,with a +2 Tome, and then make up the rest with items.

[殺してあげる]

I can see for FvS, as they use CHA for sp, but WIS for casting DC..


...but for Sorc, CHA is their DC. A CHA of 19 vs 50 is a ~15 DC different. Maybe if you used only spells with no saves... but I couldn't really imagine feeling "I could do fine with less" on an air or fire savant. Water's Polar Ray and Earth's DoTs might get away with it...


EDIT: Water, Not Cold /swt

[AbsynthMinded]

Hmm, figures.. I thought it would have been Int for DCs. Ive never played one yet. Wouldn't generally want to play one except to get the past lives accomplished. With Warlock in place whats the point anymore.

[Tealeaf]

Go for a Elderitch Knight build until you hit 20, then reincarnate into a pure sorceror if that's what you wanna do?