l16 sorceror Guide

[birdmasta]

WARNING: This guide is pretty long. Please finish reading it to understand the full concept of playing a sorcerer.
Pros of a Sorceror
-a ton of stuns, slows, and DoT’s which are all extremely useful
-shield move is amazing
-STUN EM TO DEATH
-cheapest class to make a twink
Cons of a Sorceror
-too little amount of health
-no speed jump moves like rogues and warriors (shadow piercer, skyward smash)
-tornado could make up for it but in my build I don’t use tornado
-low armor
My Experience with a Sorceror
As some of you may know, my sorceror’s name is Suspense. He is a level 16 sorceror with a 3-1 kdr in ctf. When I first started sorcerer pvping it was pretty hard, but I got the hang of it and have become able to destroy most rogues even the famous ones such as Lilbless(sometimes but he’s the only one ik of that’s able to defeat me without luck). Even with all the pros ive stated above, it is still very hard to be a good sorcerer, so if you are one of those NON-HARDCORE ppl don’t keep reading… Ive also learned many things about sorcerer. Lifegiver and charging fire are not things for a sorcerer that are a NECESSITY. Uncharged fire still stuns, and lifegiver heals barely anything. Also, most warriors use horn of renew so they can heal u instead with a better healing move, and there are a ton of those full heal packs around the map(corners and middle). Mana also isn’t much of a problem for a sorcerer since we should be running around the map going to each flag area and getting the mana pack.
Gear
All lvl 16 gear
-watch rifle of force or watch rifle of fatality
-more dmg than flamestrike and has a very useful push back proc that can save lives
-Clever Demonologist cap of Fitness(I don’t have it yet but good boost in stats)
-Clever Demonologist robe of Fitness(I don’t have it yet but good boost in stats)
-Divine chain of Brutality
-Ensorcelled Band of Brutality
Stats
-pure int
Skills
The skills used for my sorcerer are very different compared to other sorcerers. This build is for attackers NOT support. I do not use heal which is a skill EVERY sorcerer uses pretty much… Sorcerers need at least 3 attacking skills. Mine are fireball, Lightning, and ice bolt. Lightning is ur main dmg move its like “Aimed Shot” for a sorcerer. I only invested one point in ice bolt, 4/5 points in shield, 4/5 points in lightning, and 4/5 points in fire. One int passive and all the rest in str passive. I don’t use dex passive bcuz it BARELY adds any crit so useless…
Skill Order
Sorcerer (you) vs Dagger Rogue (opponent)
-probably the easiest opponent you’ll get bcuz once u r able to run circles around them (circles should be pretty big so they cant hit u but u can hit them) they wont be able to touch u with ur frequent slows, stuns, and DoT
-Skill Order: Charged fire or light, shield, ice, light or fire (the opposite of what u used in beginning), circle around, spam lightning and ice and regular attack
Sorcerer (you) vs Bow Rogue (opponent)
-These are a bit tougher but still fairly easy. Shield is very important bcuz watchman bow is pretty strong.
-Skill Order: Charged fire, shield, ice, light, circles (they still will be able to hit but in the beginning when he stunned u want to be able to unleash the most dmg u can), spam all skills except fire
Sorcerer (you) vs Sorcerer
-Gun and staff no diff except watch rifle more dmg and push proc, so the fights are basically the same. These battles are a bit tougher if ur opponent knows what hes doing
-charged fire, shield, ice, light, spam all skills try to kite a bit. Don’t do circles since anywhere in that circle is his range. Just like how mages fight in PL when they kite is back away from opponent then NUKE. Ur NUKE is charged fire, ice, light. This should be ur final move.
Sorcerer (you) vs Warrior
-*In Development*
Dustybottoms and Suspense’s Pro Build
Dustybottoms, a pro sorcerer, was talking to me about my guide, and he changed the skills a bit and is one of the top sorcerer of 16’s. He told me his build and I decided to post on forums a build he and I made by combining our builds. At first Dustybottoms was a 2-1 kdr sorcerer but became a 443-63 kdr sorcerer (wow way better than me).
WARNING: This build is to be used for sorcerers with a base health of 1000 without any str passives or u will die easily.
Skills
-3/5 fire
-3/5 lightning (stun and dmg increase one)
-4/5 shield
-2/5 ice bolt (DoT)
-3/5 int passive
Stats
-pure int
Not working for you?
-one way pm me and ill be able to help u. (all pvp characters on my sig)
-Warriors with elite gear and dark watch sword of potency will pretty much destroy u 1v1 bcuz they can heal and survive ur 2 seconds of immortality. You might be able to win if u late shield but its still incredibly hard.
-Sorcerers are “underpowered” to most so it takes a ton of practice to be a good one.(I don’t really feel that they’re “underpowered” just hard to play. They just need a speed jump move like maybe “teleport” or something. Stuns make up for everything for a sorcerer. If u don’t stun, try to ice and lightning him for a while to get some stun moves back up for attacking)

UPDATES
-2/2/13 guide made
-2/3/13 new build made and up
-2/5/13 updated skill order(order should be used for both builds)

If this guide helped, please press the thanks button thanks!!!

[Energizeric]

Thanks for this information. I'm a L21 Sorcerer and I have a similar setup, except I have heal instead of shield.

I think the only advantage of shield is that you are safe from that one-hit from a rogue. But otherwise, the shield only absorbs 500 points of damage where as my heal gives around 700 health, so overall a well placed heal in the middle of a battle will give me longer life. Also, I think you overestimate the how easy it is to grab those blue mana packs. In my experience usually another sorcerer or a rogue will grab it and then you have to wait for another which can be a long time. If you are in middle of a battle and you run out of mana you are basically dead if you don't have heal. While heal only gives you around a 12% boost in mana, it is enough to use about 3 skills which helps greatly.

I find it interesting that you lead with a charged Lightning. I've never tried this but in my experience charged lightning usually does not stun, while charged fireball almost always stuns. I find my success in a fight usually depends on if I am able to successfully stun the enemy, so if I lead with lightning and it fails to stun, I could be dead before I have a chance to do much more. I also do find that while running away and facing the opposite direction Fireball will still shoot back over my shoulders and hit an enemy if they are within range, so using a charged fireball while running away is usually the best chance to escape if you are being chased. But I will have to try the charged lightning and see how that works.

Overall I think I am more successful than most sorcerers, but not nearly as much as you. I have about a 7-5 k/d ratio. But I still feel that sorcerers are underpowered in that we have had many of our stuns taken away compared to PvE, while other classes have not had much taken away compared to PvE. So in order for a good sorcerer to win a fight, we must fight a perfect fight. We cannot get hit or stunned even once, but we have to hit the enemy many times to win a fight. Maybe at L16 things are easier for sorcerers, but at L21 it seems like we are at a big disadvantage.

[Ruejade]

^small extra information: powerups (health/mana/speed packs) spawn about 40 seconds after they are taken. As I play a rogue, I sometimes try to "monopolize" the powerups especially the mana packs. Just take the pack and start counting, go out do your business and come back when it is ready to spawn again.

[Bless]

Yeah orbs are the way to go! Suspense nice guide but I can't really test it out :/

[Energizeric]

Another issue with not having heal: how do you carry flags? Does shield help protect you from the flag damage?

[Bless]

Another issue with not having heal: how do you carry flags? Does shield help protect you from the flag damage?

susp doesn't normally run flags

[Cero]

Add: 2secs invulne is also applied to uncharged Arcane Shield.


this skill setup is just like Dingle(endgame sorc) and ive seen how it works.
-stunlock
-2sec invulne helps alot if properly used.
-3attack skills kills fast.
-



Great guide with this you help other Sorc class players to know what Sorc realy can do.

[birdmasta]

shield is applied to flags. i take flags sometimes but i usually shield run to health pack and then go to base pretty much. buts its boring so i dont do it...

[birdmasta]

charged lightning has a 25% stun chance but also has a longer stun duration. shield makes up for a stun since ur invincible for 2 seconds. i have tried shield and heal and... shield wins... armor up invincibility rogues really cant do 500 dmg to me while im runnning around them xD also regular attack is abuot 100 dmg each so ireally dont care if i run outta mana. shield is also good escape skill. invibility then reg attack hoping for push proc

[birdmasta]

Thanks for this information. I'm a L21 Sorcerer and I have a similar setup, except I have heal instead of shield.

I think the only advantage of shield is that you are safe from that one-hit from a rogue. But otherwise, the shield only absorbs 500 points of damage where as my heal gives around 700 health, so overall a well placed heal in the middle of a battle will give me longer life. Also, I think you overestimate the how easy it is to grab those blue mana packs. In my experience usually another sorcerer or a rogue will grab it and then you have to wait for another which can be a long time. If you are in middle of a battle and you run out of mana you are basically dead if you don't have heal. While heal only gives you around a 12% boost in mana, it is enough to use about 3 skills which helps greatly.

I find it interesting that you lead with a charged Lightning. I've never tried this but in my experience charged lightning usually does not stun, while charged fireball almost always stuns. I find my success in a fight usually depends on if I am able to successfully stun the enemy, so if I lead with lightning and it fails to stun, I could be dead before I have a chance to do much more. I also do find that while running away and facing the opposite direction Fireball will still shoot back over my shoulders and hit an enemy if they are within range, so using a charged fireball while running away is usually the best chance to escape if you are being chased. But I will have to try the charged lightning and see how that works.

Overall I think I am more successful than most sorcerers, but not nearly as much as you. I have about a 7-5 k/d ratio. But I still feel that sorcerers are underpowered in that we have had many of our stuns taken away compared to PvE, while other classes have not had much taken away compared to PvE. So in order for a good sorcerer to win a fight, we must fight a perfect fight. We cannot get hit or stunned even once, but we have to hit the enemy many times to win a fight. Maybe at L16 things are easier for sorcerers, but at L21 it seems like we are at a big disadvantage.

shield wont allow u to die... every time i team fight i get out 50% health while getting most of the kills. every time i 1v1 i get out alive with about 50%-100% health left... or dead SOMETIMES but still shield overrules heal bcuz of the extra armor increase.
EDIT: srry for triple post

[drgrimmy]

Overall great guide and good advice. Never really tried leading with lightening, but I think I
would personally prefer the longer range and more consistent stun of fireball. It has 14 v 12m
range (fire vs light). You have to remember that aimed shot also has 14m range. Thus a good
rogue will always get their aimed shot in before your light. Thus why you need invincibility for
2 sec with your approach. Also any good opponent would just avoid you for two sec after you
put up your shield. With the 14m range of fire, if you are better at timing and judging distance
than your opponent, they will never get in the aimed shot. Plus the more consistent stun gives u
the time to finish them off. Just my 2 cents, although it looks like your build is really successful.
That's what I like about the mage, there has been a lot of strategy needed to make a build that is
competitive, and there are a number of interesting and successful builds

@energizeric I think your k/d would be much better at lvl16. Try it out. I briefly did since I had
the extra gear sitting around

[birdmasta]

i feel like light has more range tho

[Energizeric]

Overall great guide and good advice. Never really tried leading with lightening, but I think I
would personally prefer the longer range and more consistent stun of fireball. It has 14 v 12m
range (fire vs light). You have to remember that aimed shot also has 14m range. Thus a good
rogue will always get their aimed shot in before your light. Thus why you need invincibility for
2 sec with your approach. Also any good opponent would just avoid you for two sec after you
put up your shield. With the 14m range of fire, if you are better at timing and judging distance
than your opponent, they will never get in the aimed shot. Plus the more consistent stun gives u
the time to finish them off. Just my 2 cents, although it looks like your build is really successful.
That's what I like about the mage, there has been a lot of strategy needed to make a build that is
competitive, and there are a number of interesting and successful builds

@energizeric I think your k/d would be much better at lvl16. Try it out. I briefly did since I had
the extra gear sitting around

I don't really have a huge problem with rogues except that they shouldn't be able to kill me with one hit, especially with an arrow. I sometimes die from one hit from an arrow at range, and I have 1820 health which is more than almost all sorcerers.

My main issue is with warriors. Unless a warrior has really crappy gear, I won't be able to beat him. I have a better chance if we are in the spawn room or in the flag room as it is very spread out and I can run circles around him while spamming my skills. But if he catches me with his windmill, I become stunned and then he can usually keep me stunned long enough to kill me. In a regular hallway, there is nowhere for me to run and it's very easy for him to stun me. And running away from the warrior does not work as a warrior has incredible range and can always catch up to me. They can even jump over walls which is ridiculous.

Put 2 warriors together and they can beat just about any group, even an entire team of 4 or 5 mages/rogues.

[birdmasta]

I don't really have a huge problem with rogues except that they shouldn't be able to kill me with one hit, especially with an arrow. I sometimes die from one hit from an arrow at range, and I have 1820 health which is more than almost all sorcerers.

My main issue is with warriors. Unless a warrior has really crappy gear, I won't be able to beat him. I have a better chance if we are in the spawn room or in the flag room as it is very spread out and I can run circles around him while spamming my skills. But if he catches me with his windmill, I become stunned and then he can usually keep me stunned long enough to kill me. In a regular hallway, there is nowhere for me to run and it's very easy for him to stun me. And running away from the warrior does not work as a warrior has incredible range and can always catch up to me. They can even jump over walls which is ridiculous.

Put 2 warriors together and they can beat just about any group, even an entire team of 4 or 5 mages/rogues.

for fighting against warriors try the new build i posted stun em to death! run around him too never too close. shield negates their aimed shot thats y i use shield bcuz ur invincible for 2 seconds...

[Yakiniku]

Thought I should chime in here. We encountered each other briefly in a CTF game today. I was playing a mage by the name Nerfbat. It was funny seeing you come down the corridor for the first time. I was like "nooooooo not him!" haha.

Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks very much for the informative guide. I'm still experimenting with variations on your build and skill rotations, but all have been pretty successful TBH. This is a must read for mages who are having issues because I think a lot of the same principles can carry over into the 21 bracket too.

I will say that I'm a believer in shield now. I tried it before in the 21 bracket without much success, but it turns out I just wasn't using it properly and my timing was off.

So yea, it's too bad you had to go a little early. Would've loved to chat with you a bit about skill priorities, rotations and such. Perhaps another time though. I'm flying out to go overseas tomorrow and won't be around much for a while.

[Energizeric]

Sam said in one of the posts a few days ago that they may explore the idea of adding a special PvP slot for players so they can have separate PvE and PvP builds. That would clearly solve this problem. Because right now I really don't want to give up Frost as it is my best skill for farming kills in PvE. Without Frost I cannot imagine being able to solo the tombs. It really is the most useful tool at controlling the mobs. If they would only make it work in PvP.

STS says they nerfed some of the stuns because they didn't want PvP to become a case of "whoever stuns first wins the fight". But it has become that anyway since a rogue can kill me in one hit. Who needs to stun you when the first hit wins the battle. All they did was nerf sorcerers with that move. Rogues and Warriors still have that power.

[birdmasta]

means a lot nerfbat but u were pretty good for a new sorcerer thats y i asked for ur lvl bcuz not every mage manages to kill me MULTIPLE times even within a team

Thought I should chime in here. We encountered each other briefly in a CTF game today. I was playing a mage by the name Nerfbat. It was funny seeing you come down the corridor for the first time. I was like "nooooooo not him!" haha.

Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks very much for the informative guide. I'm still experimenting with variations on your build and skill rotations, but all have been pretty successful TBH. This is a must read for mages who are having issues because I think a lot of the same principles can carry over into the 21 bracket too.

I will say that I'm a believer in shield now. I tried it before in the 21 bracket without much success, but it turns out I just wasn't using it properly and my timing was off.

So yea, it's too bad you had to go a little early. Would've loved to chat with you a bit about skill priorities, rotations and such. Perhaps another time though. I'm flying out to go overseas tomorrow and won't be around much for a while.

[birdmasta]

i have frost in my build....

Sam said in one of the posts a few days ago that they may explore the idea of adding a special PvP slot for players so they can have separate PvE and PvP builds. That would clearly solve this problem. Because right now I really don't want to give up Frost as it is my best skill for farming kills in PvE. Without Frost I cannot imagine being able to solo the tombs. It really is the most useful tool at controlling the mobs. If they would only make it work in PvP.

STS says they nerfed some of the stuns because they didn't want PvP to become a case of "whoever stuns first wins the fight". But it has become that anyway since a rogue can kill me in one hit. Who needs to stun you when the first hit wins the battle. All they did was nerf sorcerers with that move. Rogues and Warriors still have that power.

[birdmasta]

well ive beaten most rogues -.- lilbless, passives, dyvash (hes beaten me more tho) and a lot more... i feel like mages op at 16 pvp xD
EDIT: wow srry for triple post again

Sam said in one of the posts a few days ago that they may explore the idea of adding a special PvP slot for players so they can have separate PvE and PvP builds. That would clearly solve this problem. Because right now I really don't want to give up Frost as it is my best skill for farming kills in PvE. Without Frost I cannot imagine being able to solo the tombs. It really is the most useful tool at controlling the mobs. If they would only make it work in PvP.

STS says they nerfed some of the stuns because they didn't want PvP to become a case of "whoever stuns first wins the fight". But it has become that anyway since a rogue can kill me in one hit. Who needs to stun you when the first hit wins the battle. All they did was nerf sorcerers with that move. Rogues and Warriors still have that power.

[Bless]

If only I had my tablet. I can't wait for tomorrow man.