Sorcerer Guide
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Contents
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[edit] Sorcerer Guide
[edit] Introduction
Sorcerers are one of the Tier 2 exits from Mortal. They have three Tier 3 exits, two of which have pets. Among the Tier 2 spellcasters, Sorcerers are unique: only they are given the power to write copies of spells onto scrolls for later use and only they have the skill Sorcerer's Might, which allows them to sacrifice an amount of HP in exchange for MP. Sorcerers are an unaligned class, and can be transcended to regardless of morality, Good, Evil or Neutral.
[edit] Leveling Up
[edit] Leveling Up through Reading
A common way to level up to Sorcerer from Mortal is through reading. You can gain five experience points from reading Books found in Valhalla and even find spells that you would use or learn upon transcending to Sorcerer. If this is your choice, you should pick Search or Planar Protection as your first skill. If you select Planar Protection, you will be able to level up off of books found in a Damned Library (which can be found in Stygia and Purgatorio, although you don't need Planar Protection to survive in Purgatorio), or a Vault of Enlightenment (located in Paradise, and a few in Purgatorio). The books that can be found in these special libraries can give ten experience, which leads to speedier leveling. These locations may also yield fragments of the Lore of Haldon, which can lead to more MP for a character.
The most optimal choice, should you select Planar Protection, would be a Vault of Enlightenment. This is the best choice because it is always sunny in Paradise, making it easier to find books. Since Nexus War Version 1.2 a minority extremist group of angels with the skill Hand of Zealotry has begun killing neutral mortals in Paradise with morality below 20, making it a more dangerous place for Mortals.
Because of these mortal killing angels, a good alternative is picking Search as your initial skill and heading to a Damned Library in Purgatorio. Many people think that Damned Libraries have a higher chance to find books. If this is true, the Vault of Enlightenment should be ignored.
An alternative choice would be to take First Aid as your first skill, heal enough to get your MO above 20, and then head to the Vaults, picking up Search as your second skill. By carrying several FAKs with you, you heal yourself and avoid the need to take Planar Protection until a bit later.
[edit] Leveling Up through Combat
If you prefer to level up via combat, either the skill Ranged Combat or Hand to Hand Combat should be chosen, the latter if you are going to be a Lich at Tier 3 or detest searching for ammunition. Melee Combat does not synergize with the spells that you can learn upon becoming a Sorcerer and is not recommended unless you want to use enchanted swords of your own design.
[edit] Leveling Up through Alternative Methods
Other leveling methods are also available to you, such as repairing equipment, fooling with the light switch, healing others and picking locks. These are rarely taken by a Sorcerer-to-be, but not unheard of. For example, Repair Item will be useful later on if you are going to be an enchanter or if you are part of a faction that emphasizes crafting. Engineering gives practically guaranteed XP, and a large amount of CP from accomplishment badges can be weaned through use of this skill. Reading and Combat are the most common leveling methods, they are not necessarily the best for you. First aid is a good choice for a sorcerer in a faction with other sorcerers, as the general use of Sorcerer's Might will increase the chance for gaining XP from healing.
[edit] Essential Mortal Skills
[edit] Ranged Combat
To prepare yourself for becoming a Sorcerer, you should buy the skill Ranged Combat while a Mortal, if you didn't pick it as your starting skill. Ranged Combat boosts the accuracy of ranged spells such as Blood Boil or Quillfire by 25%, including AoE spells like Death Cloud and Fire Storm so if you plan on casting these spells, you should get Ranged Combat. This skill should be taken before transcending to Sorcerer.
[edit] Planar Protection
Planar Protection is an incredibly useful skill for Sorcerers who engage in combat, healing or infusing. For fighters, being protected from planar damage while hunting in Paradise or Stygia is a great boon to your survivability, particularly Paradise. There are many targets to find in Paradise, many even out in the open, because hiding chances are cut due to the 24-hour sunlight in Paradise. This is also good for healers, as this means you can often find half-dead angels to restore to full health. As for infusing, neutral factions gain 6 Karma for infusions in Paradise and Stygia, which may not seem like much, but if your faction is engaged in a territorial war, branching out to a different plane that gives a greater Karma reward is a good way to recoup your losses. You could, alternatively, not spend your CP on this skill and choose to chug a Potion of Planar Protection every time you cross over to Paradise or Stygia.
[edit] For Wizards-to-be
If your Tier 3 choice is going to be Wizard and you wish to enchant weapons or armor, a form of advanced repair such as Advanced Armorsmithing or Advanced Gunsmithing is a great boon, as items in pristine condition have a low chance of enchantment failure. An advanced repair skill does not have to be chosen before transcending to Sorcerer, because you won't be able to enchant anything until becoming a Wizard. However, crafting and repairing are both very good ways to gain experience, so getting these skills before becoming a Wizard may be an excellent idea.
[edit] For Liches-to-be
If your Tier 3 choice is going to be Lich, the skill Hand to Hand Combat and all parts of it's tree except Boxing are excellent buys, as the skills in the tree will later boost the accuracy of your innate HtH skill, Death Touch. The defensive bonuses of Dodge, Martial Arts and Advanced Martial Arts will also help, as these defense bonuses stack with the Lich's Terrifying Aspect.
[edit] For Elementalists-to-be
If your Tier 3 choice is going to be Elementalist, there aren't many skills that you would be worse off without. This is due to the fact Elementalists are petmasters, requiring few (if any) mortal skills. It should also be noted that since Elementalists have free water travelling, they're the lords of Valhalla. Due to their pets, they also should get a mundane combat tree so they can keep swinging when out of MP. When you can summon a pet that deals 420 points of damage of 'exotic' damage on average, you might feel that that's all you need to do, but if you can shoot people dead as well, that's no small thing.
[edit] Optional Mortal Skills
Engineering, Lockpicking and First Aid are all skills that have 10 and 15 CP badge rewards for spending ridiculous amounts of time playing with electricity, picking locks and healing others, respectively. Engineering rewards you with three sets of badges which makes it a skill with a large CP profit (provided you aren't bored easily). Lockpicking and First Aid don't have to be bought to allow access to those actions, but they raise success rates of both of them by quite a bit. For example, having First Aid can make the difference between wasting a precious First Aid Kit on someone suffering from 1 HP worth of damage and someone who could use it more but is above 1/2 if their HP, so they seem to have equal amounts of damage upon glancing at their HP circle. It also doubles the amount of damage that you heal and, mutually, the amount of experience you gain for doing so.
Melee Combat could be useful to you if you are planning on transcending to Wizard after your jint as a Sorcerer, as you would be able to create powerful custom-made weapons by enchanting them. Also, it is common for a player to pick this skill and go to a nearby fire station and use an Axe for early combat. If you've already invested in different disciplines or are trying to do some book larnin', this skill is a waste of CP.
The Hide tree boosts the power of attacks from hidden positions by quite a bit and cuts the accuracy penalty from attacking from a hidden position. It also makes it easier to hide. These skills are useful for breaking through large soaks, fleeing from or confusing enemies in real-time combat and survivability. If you are part of a large faction with a secure stronghold, you don't really need this tree as you will probably have access to good spells/weaponry and will have a safe place to sleep every night.
Search is useful if you are factionless or part of a small faction. Otherwise, your faction will probably have a safe or assembly line that can provide you with whatever you are looking for. Still, this skill is cheap and chances are very good that your safe won't always have what you're looking for. If you are going to be an Alchemist, this skill will be extremely useful if your faction has few search-monkeys.
If you're going to be an Alchemist, you *might* want Sense Magic. If you're going to be an Enchanter (A Wizard who enchants), you *will* want Sense Magic, as it allows you to see what enchantments have been placed upon an item so, for example, you don't accidentally give someone an item with no enchantments when they wanted a sword stacked with +hit% enchantments. Finally, if you travel regularly through the Isle of Gates (the Hub of Purgatorio), Sense Magic is practically a necessity, because it allows you to see where the three central portals lead and said portals on the Isle change positions regularly, which will confuse you and possibly send you to a plane other than the one you wanted if you don't have this skill.
Sense Morality will be useful if you're planning on hiding behind a Good alignment so those Paladins and their ilk don't raise their weapons against you, but it's possible to be Good without this skill. This skill is also a prerequisite of Psychometry, which is a very useful skill to infusers. Being able to scout out which infusions are at full power and which are being contested is important. If others in your faction have Psychometry and you don't care at all about your morality, you can safely ignore this tree.
If you're going to get the skill Alchemy or an enchantment skill, you *might* want Strength as you'll most likely be carrying many materials around. Strength is also a prerequisite of Stamina, which gives you 10 more maximum HP for 20 CP. If you think you can afford it, it will allow you to spend that much more HP to use Sorcerer's Might on or may be what saves you from a final killing blow.
[edit] Mortal Skills That You Should Not Buy
Boxing is a skill that is only useful in a few circumstances. Only Liches have a build that can make optimal use of Hand to Hand Combat, and Death Touch outclasses the damage boost you receive from this skill. Boxing could be used for faster leveling while a Sorcerer, but the Ranged Combat tree is already open to you even if you're a Lich who will focus on utilizing Death Touch often, so another option would be to spend those CP on a ranged spell or perhaps Long Arms, Small Arms or Archery. An autohit spell could also suffice.
However, if you were to ever meet another Lich or a Revenant, Boxing would be useful as they are immune to your Death Touch. This can be considered a rare situation, but if you happen to bump into it a lot, you might want to buy this skill if you have no back-up attack such as a ranged spell or a weapon. You may also consider learning an alternate (not death) HtH spell, although they do require MP to use.
Do not buy Swim. All three tier 3 Sorcerer exits can fly in one way or another, be it through a potion or a skill. Don't get Swim unless you don't want to spend an extra 20 CP to get a flight skill or Water Breathing. And even then, a Potion of Flying or a Potion of Water Breathing require no CP at all.
[edit] Essential Sorcerer Skills
Spell Combat increases the accuracy of your ranged spells and AoE spells by 20%. This is a necessity for any Sorcerer that wants to be able to pierce the soaks that Tier-3 classes often have, as autohit spells just can't cut it with their pathetic (but very accurate) damage.
Transcribe Spell is a skill that can be used for supporting by way of distributing copies of spells but is usually used for boosting killing power. A sorcerer with a stack of Death Cloud scrolls is a staple of many raids.
Sorcerer's Might allows you to take some of your HP and change it into MP, essential for any serious combat Sorcerer. It allows others to gain XP from healing you after the no external healing status effect wears off, which is a plus for most factions.
[edit] Essential Sorcerer Spells
You should learn at least one offensive spell. If you are going to learn Spell Combat and Ranged Combat (which you should), Blood Boil (or whatever ranged spell you have chosen) will deal a lot of damage and have a very high chance to hit. Otherwise, an autohit spell like The Crushing will suit your combat needs. Alternatively, you can choose to save those CP and get an Advanced Spell (such as Ice Arrow for soakless targets or Eyes of Doom for soakers) upon reaching Tier 3.
Reveal cuts down on searching and dispels invisibility at a low CP and MP cost.
Open Lock allows you to break into safehouses at the cost of some MP rather than requiring tedious Axe swings which will most likely miss due to your probable lack of Melee Combat skills or Shotgun blasts which require horrendous amounts of AP spent finding ammo.
Turtle Shell boosts your soak tremendously and is quite useful for real-time combat. If you go on raids, it will help to protect you against active defenders. To top it off, it doesn't count as an armor but rather as a soak boost, meaning it adds to currently equipped armors.
Tiger Claw is a great boon to an aspiring Lich. It boosts your accuracy with Hand to Hand attacks by a whopping 20%, and it lasts for 20 turns. It can also be stacked, meaning you can cast it multiple times during one AP cycle and use them all up the next.
[edit] Optional Sorcerer Skills
Alchemy is a support skill. You can create powerful potions with it. Many potions can also be found with luck and persistence in certain resource buildings, so this skill may not be worth the CP to you, in the end.
Heal Self purges Defiler Poison and restores some HP to you. At a cost of 20 CP, you will never have to carry a FAK (which is breakable) or a Potion of Healing (which uses up components that could be used for other useful potions). It's up to you to decide whether it's worth the 20 CP. Also note that this skill cannot remove the feared Agony Curse.
Infuse is a skill that essentially marks the area that you are occupying as your faction's turf, awarding your faction Karma. You gain no experience for using this skill, but your faction mates will love you for it. Infuse is the backbone of all large factions. If you are playing solo, this skill allows you to set up a stronghold near resource buildings and gives access to your own personal safe where you can store any extra items.
Tap Ley Line, a skill that has Infuse as a pre-requisite, is extremely powerful when used with the Wizard's Greater Infusion, which doubles Infusion strength -- essentially allowing a dedicated Wizard to have an infinite amount of MP. If your Tier 3 selection is not Wizard, you still have options. An Elementalist or a Lich could store a reserve of MP which can be used to raise an army at any time, such as a raid, although your faction may disapprove. An Elementalist may also plan to use the extra MP to create more Earthquakes when raiding another faction. Tap Ley Line is only skill which allows you to raise your current Magic Points above your MP cap.
[edit] Optional Sorcerer Spells
Combat spells of the Fire element are generally considered to be weak or worthless, because they are among the commonly soaked elements and there is even a potion that negates it and a skill that negates it. Unless you are going for flavor, you can safely ignore these spells.
Wards of all kinds are not required, but are still useful. For example, if you are part of an aligned faction, wards not of your faction's alignment are useful for defense against raids. If you are part of an unaligned faction, casting a ward on your stronghold will only lock out members of your own faction and is quite annoying unless your members know beforehand.
Area of Effect spells are useful during raids. If you don't participate in raids or are a solo player, they are of little use to you. They also cost a boatload of MP and AP to use.
Visual Prestidigitation gives you an extra dodge bonus. If you are a Lich, this skill will stack with your Terrifying Aspect and the dodge bonuses that you will gain from your Hand-to-Hand Combat tree.
Dispel Greater Ward is often handy during a raid, or when some random person has put up wards all over the area surrounding your stronghold, which will occur often if your faction has annoyed someone else.
[edit] Tier 3 Exits: Elementalist, Lich or Wizard?
The three exits available to the Sorcerer are all very powerful. Selecting one is a difficult task-- Do you want to be able to raise the dead, control the elements, or go petless, but use powerful magic?
Elementalists have exclusive access to a powerful AoE skill, have access to a large number of pets (and some super pets) (although pets of opposite element cannot be summoned at the same time) and have some utility skills, to top it off. Water Breathing is especially notable, as it allows you to travel through water for no AP at all, making travel through Valhalla a simple task.
The Lich is also a pet class, but it has an innate attack, allowing it a lot more function in combat than the Elementalist. This is a great boon, because Liches cannot summon their pets anywhere, they require corpses to do so. However, Liches can summon Zombies at absolutely no MP cost with the skill Horrid Enslavement, and are able to summon more pets than the Elementalist at a lower overall CP cost. Liches are also innately immune to anything of the Death element, including the dreaded AoE spell Death Cloud. Liches also have access to utility skills.
The Wizard is a utility class that has skills designed for factional support, such as Greater Infusion and Enchantment skills, one of which is exclusive to Wizards. It also has some passive skills that boost its own power tremendously.
So, which one should you pick? As of version 1.2, Elementalists have gained four new powerful pets while Liches have gained Horrid Enslavement and the Skeleton Megazord. Pet classes were once known to die quite fast to a player with a high-speed connection, but their attack timers seem to have changed.
Wizards don't have any minions to summon, but they have many powerful support skills, such as Greater Infusion and the three enchantment skills. Wizards can also deal devastating amounts of damage for less MP with their spells after learning their passive skills.
So, basically, if you like the idea of being able to travel anywhere in Valhalla for free, take the Elementalist's path and enjoy summoning your pets anywhere. If you don't find that so appealing and would rather command a group of Animate Corpses, become a Lich. If you prefer dealing large amounts of damage on your own and enjoy tinkering with items, be a Wizard.
But please, DEAR GOD... Don't stay a Sorcerer, or I'll pull your eyeballs out with a fork.
[edit] All Rites Reversed
This guide is released All Rites Reversed - Reprint what you like. It's Kopyleft, Public Domain and all that crap. You are allowed to make any changes whatsoever as long as they are constructive.
Ⓚ Kallisti
