Sorcerer Guide by Xentaph

[Xentaph]

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This guide was written by me (Xentaph) for the sole purpose of informing the community of some of the pro's, con's, disadvantages and advantages of the sorcerer class in Aion. I ask that you please do not redistrubute this guide without mentioning me/the RavenWolf legion as well as linking the guide on the ravenwolf forums (Insert link here). Thank you very much!


Please note: To use the table of content's properly please press the Ctrl button and the F key at the same time. The Ctrl button is often located at the bottom left corner of the keyboard.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Table of Contents:
Summary: ---------------- 1.01
Basic Truth's and Lie's -----1.02
Mana Stone's --------------- 1.03
Your Robe's ---------------- 1.04
Books,Orbs,And Dresses!- 1.05
Mana Control----------------1.06
Skill Breakdown List--------1.09
New Stigma's (Patch 1.5)--1.11

Basic "Mage" guide-------- 2.01


Pvp basic's------------------3.01
Advanced PvP Tips---------3.02
Small Group PvP Tips------3.03
Large Group PvP Tips------3.04
PvP in the Abyss----------- 3.05
Sorcerer Against....--------3.06
Toolbox--------------------- 3.07

Table's/Chart's/List's for use-------------------------- 4.00




------------------------------------------------1.01- Summary

Summary: The sorcerer class in Aion is a class that focuses primarily on CC (Crowd control) abilities as well as a wide range of direct damage abilities ranging all the way from a simple one target direct damage attack, to a massive aoe; also to expand their array of skill's also encorporate a large spectrum of effects and aliments. Their attack's vary from close range attack's to large distance spells.

------------------------------------------------1.02- Basic Truth's and Lie's

There is allot of information floating around on many fansites that I see, and allot of it is true and is becoming more accurate with each new event people join or if they have access to Aion themselves however there are allot of lies also surrounding the topic of the sorcerer and false speculation.

-First off "Sorcerer's when they have HP stone's are able to tank allot of mob's and don't even need to kite during pve. They just need to worry about dealing damage."

False. Even at level 50 I found tanking mob's a fair deal lower level then me unbearable. Sorcerer's wear cloth armour and as such have extremely low defence which does not all of a sudden become godly when they reach a higher level. True it does help and can be improved upon but I personally do not suggest anyone to sit in the 50's shooting off only offense spell's. Even when I include the shield spell we get if you are going after a powerful mob you're going to get thrashed. Also against a powerful pitboss you will get completely wiped in a very few hit's if not one/two.

-"Sorcerer's can manage crowd control of over 4 monsters."
True. At higher level's you can stretch your crowd control to control even more monsters actaully. Of course this is incorporating the slow spell's and your ability to move backward's without getting caught.

-"Sorcerer's cannot train parties."
False. Though I shouldn't be saying something so touchy with the community I believe I should clear this one issue up for sure. Sorcerer's have incredible crowd control abilities and by using them in a proper manner as well as by using dimension door in order to get out of the monster's "range of sight". Often time's I consider the sorc to be far better at training parties then a sm.

Also I will expand this section more as time goes on. Consider it almost a Q&A to be filled with a few more common topic's.


------------------------------------------------1.03- Mana Stone's

The most touchy part of the classes in the game, the mana stone's are a very vital aspect in anyone's strategy. Using the proper mana stone's with the proper strategy will make you a very powerful player with massive potential. However using the wrong strategy with the wrong manastone's will be crippiling to even the best geared player. Let's commence!

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Manastones
Manastones contain a certain statistic and a certain value. For example, Manastone: Accuracy +12. In this case, this Manastone would add 12 to your Accuracy value if you placed it into a socket of one of your equipped items. Similar to the enhancing, only the following slots contain sockets: chest slot, legs slot, shoulders slot, hands slot, feet slot, primary slot, and secondary slot. Also, the higher the rarity of the item, the more sockets it contains:

White Item = 1-2 Socket
Green Item = 2-3 Sockets
Blue Item = 3-4 Sockets
Orange Item = 4-5 Sockets

Similar to enhancing, placing Manastones into sockets can fail. The penalty for this is that all Manastones already in sockets and the Manastone you just used for that item are destroyed, returning the item to all empty sockets. The positive is that this is quite rare, and usually only occurs when placing a high level Manastone into a low level item. However, at this time, there is no way to tell the exact level of a Manastone; just know that the higher the value, the higher the level. Also, green Manastones are harder to socket than white Manastones.

When the game is released, there will be level requirements on Manastones which will make it easier to tell the level of the Manastone.

A good strategy for placing Manastones into sockets (when an item has more than 1 socket) is to socket your least valued Manastone first and your most valued Manastone last. This way, the chance for failing and wasting your most valued Manastone is reduced to a minimum.

You can also remove Manastones from items by visiting a NPC. These are usually found around major cities and towns. You pay a small fee and the NPC will remove your desired Manastone from your item. However, the Manastone will be destroyed in the process.

The following list shows all Manastones and their possible values:

Manastone: Attack (Adds to your Attack value)
Value Range: +1-5
White Manastones: (+1, +2, +4)
Green Manastones: (+3, +5)

Manastone: Accuracy (Adds to your Accuracy value)
Value Range: +12-25
White Manastones: Even #s (+12, +14, etc.)
Green Manastones: Odd #s (+21, +23, etc.)

Manastone: Parry (Adds to your Parry value)
Value Range: +12-25
White Manastones: Even #s (+12, +14, etc.)
Green Manastones: Odd #s (+21, +23, etc.)

Manastone: Magic Boosting Power (Adds to your Magic Boosting Power value)
Value Range: +12-25
White Manastones: Even #s (+12, +14, etc.)
Green Manastones: Odd #s (+21, +23, etc.)

Manastone: Shield Defense (Adds to your Block value)
Value Range: +12-25
White Manastones: Even #s (+12, +14, etc.)
Green Manastones: Odd #s (+21, +23, etc.)

Manastone: Evasion (Adds to your Evasion value)
Value Range: +4-15
White Manastones: Even #s (+4, +6, etc.)
Green Manastones: Odd #s (+11, +13, etc.)

Manastone: Physical Critical Hit (Adds to your Crit Rate value)
Value Range: +4-15
White Manastones: Even #s (+4, +6, etc.)
Green Manastones: Odd #s (+11, +13, etc.)

Manastone: HP (Adds to your HP value)
Value Range: +20-85
White Manastones: By Tens (+20, +30, etc.)
Green Manastones: In-between Tens (+65, +75, etc.)

Manastone: MP (Adds to your MP value)
Value Range: +20-85
White Manastones: By Tens (20, 30, etc.)
Green Manastones: In-between Tens (65, 75, etc.)

Manastone: Magical Accuracy (Adds to your Magic Accuracy value)
Value Range: +10, +12
Green Manastones: (+10, +12)

Manastone: Maximum Flight Time (Adds to your Flight Time value)
Value Range: +4
Green Manastones: (+4)

Manastone: Magical Resistance (Adds to your Magical Resistance value)
Value Range: +12
Green Manastones: +12

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Manastone's that I consider a non-factor to our class. These manastone's are primarily not useful for our class and as such I do not suggest anyone form a build around them. Attack, Accuracy, Shield Defence, Parry, Physical Critical

What I suggest:

Magic boost: I derive my biased (very biased) opinion on magic boosting stones being the best as a sorc we are primarily known for having weak defence, pathetic hp... and BRUTAL attack's and combination's. As such I find magic boost stone's the best possible stone's for a sorcerrer class. Probably the only class in my opinion that SHOULD use them. When we are out in Pvp if we play smart and don't overdo ourselves our basic primal role is "I will dismantle that idiot before they reach me." Magic boost allows increased offensive power and this make's your average Aoe's (not that they even were average to begin with) into a brutal force that people go "WTF MAN I JUST TOOK x DAMAGE WTF WTF WTF". Also this make's any combination you might use absolutely deadly, we rely on spike damage and the stronger the spike the better. Remember if you work on a good trait of yours you will make it excellent, if you work on a weak trait you'll leave everything only being average while not excellent at anything. It is all part and parcel with prefrence but for me magic boost is the way to go.

Magical Accuracy manastone's: these manastone's are primarily useful for us. There are many different routes to go when it comes to manastone's but in my personal opinion this is our #2 consideration for what to place into our gear. With many people developing and creating pure magic evasion gear's based on those types of manastone's we become compeltely gimped against them as they resist any spell we may cast upon them. Accuracy statistic reduces the chance of our effect's being resisted by the target. I also suggest when considering [Why I say only designated pieces of armour example: boots are all magic accuracy allows quick and steady removal of your Mboost gear and replaces it with your Maccuracy gear with little pain. Same with book. I personally suggest keeping gear easy to swap if you do come across a mresistance tard.

Hitpoints: These manastone's focus on increasing our health value.. I give them the ranking of third on the priority scale and even lean towards not suggesting them:

People will definately assume: "Then why don't we use manastone's to raise our Hp? Makes sense cause then we would patch up our weakness."

They are right, it does increase your HP and survivability.. However imagine butter.. sorcerrer's lack defence so now think of warm butter. Templar's would be cold butter. Does it take you much longer to slice through a warm "loaf" of butter that is a bit taller/bigger or even double? Not really.. it's still really easy.

These manastone's are effective in Solo PvP and duel's where your survivability becomes a large factor.

My opinion: That is where I derive my detest to HP manastone's. Sorcerrer's weakness is their defence, patching it up is indeed a VERY fair and proper analysis and "cure" to the situation however do you really wanna focus on your weakest point or couldn't you use that to a far better purpose.

Mp: This is Meh.. if you run out of MP during a fight you aren't using your skill's properly or you are trying to take your "fair" amount of mp and spread it out over a surface wayy too big. Refer to Mana section of my guide for further details.

Flighttime: Similar to HP only this is focused on the sorcerrer's ability to be a flying nuke-jet in the abyss map. Flight DOES increase the magic boost stat in accordance to the flight passive's that a sorc get's so they get a fair boost here. However having only flighttime gear will make you awfully gimped out of flight. Low survivability and low attack... not what I would consider a wise investment. Also the magic boost you can get from magic boosting stone's is far more useful then what you can get from the flight passive.. hands down. Hands down! As with Hp stone's, there are in my opinion far more better use's for those manastone slot's then for flighttime manastone's. Also don't forget during flight your defence stat is lowered even more.

Magic Evasion: While I at time's do wish I had a set of magic evasion gear I also don't care for it. The very few time's I run into another magical class really end's in whoever cast's off the right CC first and then does a combination set up and weak defence bla bla.. end's in tears for whoever is slower/less adept in their class.


------------------------------------------------1.04- Robe's

Sorcerer's get a excellent ability which personally get's me excited about the possiblity for diversity. These abilities are the robe spells. These robe's allow you to diversity your play style to suit your personal need's. They are easy to change at anytime to suit your need's and using them properly is critical.

Robe of Earth (First gained at level 13): This skill boost's your MP regain, earth and water resistances. This buff is typically used during all forms of PvE it helps support our mana consumption as it slowly replenishes our manapool. The water and earth resistances do not particularily get me excited but anything adding onto your stat's isn't a negative. Also this skill is wonderful to switch to when travelling inbetween the abyss to recover mp in between groups you raid.

Robe of Flame (First gained at level 22): This skill increases your magical boost by a slight amount, though it may sound insignifigant when it comes to wanting to deal maximum damage this boost help's quite a nice bit.

Robe of Cold (First gained at level 31): This skill does nothing in particular to assist your damage output or elemental resistances. But fear not! This ability when used by a proper sorcerer is absolutely wonderful. This skill reflect's a small portion of damage, which honestly matters so little.. however the beauty of it is to slow the opponent's movement speed for 4 seconds. This allows allot of crowd control when it come's to pvp and though it may not seem like much it when used properly can be devastating.

Refer to the toolbox (section 3.07) for information on the toolbox method and how you can properly make the full use of each robe spell.



------------------------------------------------1.05 Books, Orbs, And Dresses!? (I mean robes!)
Sorcerer's main gear for weapons (only weapon's honestly) are orb's and books. One must honestly fully grasp the basic concepts if they hope to get ANYWHERE with a sorcerer.

Orbs: These powerful tools are what I myself prefer as a weapon, they focus on increasing magic boost stat higher then a book can and as such are very cruel to use in PvP by focusing more magic attack we focus on our strength of massive damage.


Book's: These equally powerful and underconsidered weapon's are definately a piece that you require to proceed further in the class of sorcerer. They boost magic power lower then an orb but have far more accuracy ensuring that every spell you cast hit's the target properly.



One must use these weapon's in conjunction to the other with respectful caution in PvP. Changing these with ease is a importaint skill you will need to teach yourself or face failure.

Cloth Armour's: The armour that the sorcerer uses is the cloth type of armour, this armour primarily has awful defence.


Bonuses gained through upgrades (Should throw this in):

Orb = +4 Minimum and Maximum Weapon Damage per level, +10 Magic Boost per level

Spellbook = +3 Minimum and Maximum Weapon Damage per level, +10 Magic Boost per level

Cloth Bonuses gained:
Chest = +3 Physical Defense per level
Legs = +2 PD per level
Pauldron = +1 PD per level
Gloves = +1 PD per level
Boots = +1 PD per level





For a detailed guide with images please refer to the following link:
http://aion.mmosite.com/guide/suit.shtml

------------------------------------------------1.06 Mana Control!

In Aion the sorcerer class is a class that attack's using magic spells (primarily). With steep mana cost's for most of the best spell's we are left with a basic question.. What do we do to prevent running out of mana?

This question is one that has many players from LineageII, WoW, and many other mmo's questioning if they are going to play a class that is only useful for the first 5 minuites and then becomes gimped for a long period of time to rejuvinate their mana supplies..

However! Fear not. In Aion the developers took this into consideration, especially for the sorcerer class which would burn through mana the fastest.

Basic way to rejuvinate mana is of course..

The (Toggle) Rest action! Which recovers both MP and HP

However we can also purchase MP pot's to recover our MP.


However as learned from past experiance these potions never seem to recover as much as you want.. a nice supplement I call them.

As such we have been given multiple active skill's and buff's that we can use to as such: actively recover mana or passively recover mana. This is the primary focus of this section.

First off by level I'll go through the skill's that you will recieve to help with mana concern's.

Mana Absorption is a skill you first gain before you are even class changed into a sorcerer. This skill recovers your MP by a small amount.. though it may seem small every little bit counts!

Robe of earth is a very brutally useful skill which helps passively increase your mana recovery rate passively. Refer to Robe's section for more details. (Section 1.04)

Lumiel's wisdom is a stigma skill you gain at level 20. This ability reduces all of your mana cost for skill's by 50% for a set duration.

Self denial is a skill that you gain at level 34 which recovers some Mana then puts you to sleep for 10 seconds to "passively" recover your mana by a fair amount every 2 second's.

Soul Absorption skill is a skill you recieve at level 37. This skill boasts good damage with the ability to recover mana = to 50% of the damage you deal.

I suppose if you look at each skill one at a time, each skill alone really does nothing at all to help that greatly. So you're probably thinking: yeah I'm still gunna run out of mana.

I would agree had I not tried it out myself. If you keep the earth robe buff on you as well as actively keep using these skill's as their cooldown runs out then you can continuously recover your mana by small amounts and last for a very considerable amount of time.
~But realise if you keep using powerful high mana consuming abilities you will of course overbear on your mana and run out eventually.~

This is the section where I will mention that a chanter's mantra buff Clement Mind/ (Also known as) Clever Mind is a very useful asset to you.. often time's I will run out of mana during long and very drawn out battle's. A chanter's buff stacks onto all of your mana abilities and increases your mana recovery rate very considerably. I cannot strain how helpful in a party a chanter is if they use this ability.


Overall in summary I have to say Aion definately expanded properly on their mana control and suppliment abilities. I am very happy to say; no we will not be gimped in long battles. Have no fear! =)


------------------------------------------------1.09 Skill Breakdown

PLEASE NOTE: All credit for the SkillBreakdown section of my guide goes 100% to frostbyt2786. Here is a direct link to his page on Aionsource where he posted this summary; and below the link to his post I placed a link to direct you to his Public Profile on Aionsource forums! Thank you frostbyt2786!
http://www.aionsource.com/forum/mages/22542-sorcerer-spells-introduction.html#post571955
http://www.aionsource.com/forum/members/frostbyt2786.html

Follow the link below to the AionArmory breakdown of all the skill's. This skill-list shows you all the different skill's you get at each level as well as a wonderful detailed description of each!
http://www.aionarmory.com/search.aspx?browse=6.9

Skill's in Aion are complicated and very diverse, here is a wonderful breakdown of all the skill's in their respective catagories! This will help you to understand and grasp the skill's that you have as well as internalise combination's of attack's to use for every situation given and use the TOOLBOX method mentioned below. (3.07)

Race Specific

Asmodian

Boon of Quickness ( greatly reduces cast times for 15 sec)

Elyos

Boon of Strengthening (greatly increases magic damage for 15 sec)

Direct Damage

Flame Bolt (2 sec cast)

Blaze (instant, chain from flame bolt)

Flame Harpoon (2 sec cast)

Delayed Blast (2 sec cast, DD after 4 sec delay)

Volcanic Eruption/Lava Tsunami ( 2 sec cast, aoe, DD after 4 sec delay)

Summon Cold Air (instant, melee range)

Shoot Fire (instant, can only target enemies in open aerial state)

Magic Fist (instant, can only target enemies in open aerial state, knocks out of open aerial state)

Flame of Hell (4 sec cast)

Flame Fusion (1 sec cast, lowers fire resist)

Flame explosion (2 sec cast, aoe)

Soul Absorption (2 sec cast, 50% of damage is gained as MP)

Shooting Star Smash (1 sec cast, aoe, only while flying and targeting ground target)

DOT

Flame Cage (instant, 15 sec duration)

CC

Sleep (2 sec cast, sleep, 20 sec duration, breaks on damage)

Curse: Tree (1 sec cast, can?t act, 20 sec duration, breaks on damage)

Ice Chain (2 sec cast, slow, 12 sec duration)

Cold Wave (instant, chain from Ice Chain, stagger)

Restraint of Winter (instant, aoe, root, 10 sec duration)

Ice Sheet (instant, aoe, slow, 15 sec duration)

Aerial thrust (2 sec cast, target put in open aerial state)

Flame Waltz (1 sec cast, chance to stun for 3 sec)

Soul Freeze (1 sec cast, silence, 8 sec duration)

Frost/Severe Cold (instant, slow, 12 sec duration)

DP Skills

Divine Spell/Pandemonium Focus (big DD)

Sleep Cloud (2 sec cast, aoe, sleep, 20 sec duration)

Divine Explosion/Darkness Explosion ( big DD more damage on opposing factions)

Kaisinel's Wrath/Lumiel's Wrath (big DD, aoe, more damage on opposing factions)

Utility

Dimension Door (instant, teleport back 15m)

Illusion Gate (creates portal to capitol city)

Clairvoyance (see hidden, 10 sec duration)

Barrier of Severance (instant, immune to all but stunned, 8 sec duration)

Curse of Weakness (causes target to take minor damage if they cast a spell, 8 sec duration)

Robe of Earth (increases MP regen, fire and water resist)
Robe of Flame(increases magic damage)
Robe of Cold (each time hit enemy takes damage and is slowed)

Stone Skin (self shield)

Energy Absorption (gain some MP)

Self Denial (gain MP over time, put self in sleep during duration)

Boon of Peace (lowers enmity of foes)

Lumiel's Wisdom (halves mana costs for 15 sec)
Zikel's Wisdom (increases magic damage for 15 sec)
Baizel's Wisdom (lowers cast times for 15 sec)

Official Skill Chains:

Fire Chain (2 Spells)

Flame Arrow -> Blaze

Ice Chain (2 Spells)

Ice Chain -> Cold Wave

Unofficial Chains (player created Chains)


Restraint of Winter -> Ariel Thrust -> Shoot Fire ->Magic Fist

Aerial Shackle Chain (4 Spells)

"Delayed Blast From Hell" Burn->Delayed Blast -> Hellfire

------------------------------------------------1.11- New Stigma's (Patch 1.5-Shadow of the Balur).


New sorcerer stigma's have been released to the public for viewing. However these are not set in stone nor have I tried them myself. Here goes!

First off you must realise the basic rule of these stigma's. (PLEASE refer back to the first section on stigma's [Current] for basic stigma guide rules if there is any confusion!)

#1: These stigma's introduce a system of Prerequisites which was lacked by the basic stigma system we currently are running Aion on. (Will likely be released with patch 1.5- Shadow of the Balur.)
This means in english: You require the stigma's listed in the chart (below) in order to be able to use the stigma.
Example: To use Phantom Whirlwind you require the stigma's "Curse:Tree" AND "Curse of Weakness".
To use the level 50 stigma's you require two of the basic level 45 stigma's.
Example: Sleep Storm requires you to have learnt Phantom Whirlwind AND Illusion stigma's.




These stigma's clearly add a new layer to the sorcerer's variety of gameplay and require planning to use effectively.

SleepStorm Stigma Build = Looks like a build based upon the CC of a sorcerer.

Fiery Rampage Build = Looks like a build based upon the damage abilities of a sorcerer.

Since no spec's on these abilities damage output cooldowntimes and etc have been released I shouldn't release a speculation however unless the Fiery RAmpage build has a great deal more damage then your current spell's I would say go for the SleepStorm Build as I describe my opinion on sorcerer's isn't primarily damage but rather control.





------------------------------------------------2.01- Basic Mage Guide (level's 1-10)

Mage's very delicately follow the role of a sorcerer in their concept and strategy. I will briefly touch over some key aspects of this starter class simply due to the fact that they are a nice section we can relate to the class.

For ease of access please use the following link provided by AionArmoury which show's every skill in detail of the class.
http://www.aionarmory.com/search.aspx?browse=6.3

Basic's: Mage's use only a spellbook type weapon and as such have the benifit of accuracy from this book. They gain the basic level shield spell and a basic root spell which demonstrates the key aspects of a sorcerer's CC talent, also they gain a effective DOT spell (Erosion) which even though it follow's the spiritmaster's class in it's later level's shows a wonderful relation to the Burn spell which we gain later on in the game.

Mage's basic role is to be a damage dealer while using their root and chains of ice spells to control aggro and prevent damage. However they lack any proper AOE to fully control crowds.




------------------------------------------------3.01- Basic Pvp Factors

-First off we need to accept two things:
#1 You have weak defence and HP, you will be destroyed if a target get's too close to you.
#2 You must focus on Crowd Control and Massive damage output to defeat a target to prevent #1.


Sorcerer's class as I said in those two points which combine to one basic law of sorcerer's is that they must destroy or control their opponents (preferably both) in order to be victorious in a battle. One wrong move or setup will cost you your entire shield and HP bar if the opponent is skilled. This is especially so for assasin's, gladiators and rangers. These classes get extrordinary attack power and if you allow them to hit you they will easily cripple your shield. You must prevent this at all cost, heaven forbid they crit on you.

What you must do:
-Ensure you are familiar with all skill's that a sorcerer has, if you aren't you will likely not do so well in pvp as you might hope. Cooldown times, casting time's, maximum damage output and more. These are the biggest factors that I just listed, if you do not take them into consideration you will likely not form optimal combination's of attack's. Simply spamming abilities will lead to complete failure, sorcerer is a far more advanced type of class where every ability that you use in a particular order will have a major impact on the next and then as such have a major impact on your entire match.

-I myself use the TOOLBOX method described later in this guide. Every battle you fight in should result in a direct combination of attack's that flow together to produce the maximum effect possible. Using pre-determined combination's will have a massive effect on your PvP effect.

------------------------------------------------3.02 Advanced PvP Tip's
Advanced PvP Tips:
-When in flight keep a stealthy profile far above an opponent and then I often find if you go DIRECTLY above them and attack from there that it become’s harder to see (I was told this).
-When using DimensionDoor the ability sends you backwards a fair distance. Most player’s do not know if they simply reverse their direction for a splitsecond and immediately use the move they will GAIN distance on their opponent. This help’s allot against escaping target’s.
-When fighting a powerful target your level or higher there is no excuse for not keeping your DOT on them at all times, it takes no time to cast and helps.
-I suggest keeping your instant-cast time skill’s as well as all emergency CC, after all it is far easier in an emergency to know to hit the F button then clicking I find. Also make use of both clicking techniques and Fkey mashing techniques. Using just one or the other is possible but I personally wouldn’t suggest it.
-Keep your robe spell’s on a clickable hotbar, nothing is worse then wanting to change one to another in a situation and having to hit K to bring up the skill’s menu and manually clicking it.




------------------------------------------------3.03 Small Group PvP Tips

In this section of my guide I will describe the situation's that a sorcerer will face in a small PvP group.

You must realise that there are not that many of you, it is likely that people will target the "Main target's" first. This naturally goes Cleric's->Chanter's->You. You are likely to be one of the first targeted and in such a small group it is quite easy to shuffle through the player's and find a target.

Your role is a damage dealer role, however in a group you will also be relied on for controlling a fleeing opponent's movement's.

Consider:"You drop a can of pop in the air and it is about to strike a table. Refrence yourself as the Impact of the popcan on the table, consider the party as a whole to be the popcan and consider the individual member's of the party to be the pop inside of the can. (Time as of course, time.) Often in a raid you will come across a party.. and often times the party will run immediately from you; your goal is to stop as much pop as you can from hitting the floor.. can you do it? GO!

... of course you can stop some. But in general expect allot to get away. This is where preparation and planning comes into play. In this scenario the often felt feeling by sorcerer's is "AOE AOE AOE". This inevitably most of the time allows the opponent's to run without any restriction's or minimum restriction's placed upon them. In a party of any size you need to realise the "big picture" this is to take down as many target's as you can. However.. if there are no target's... who will you pk?
This all boils down to you need to CC before dpsing.

Summary: Small party PvP isn't an optimal situation for your survivability however it help's a bit. In a small party just the same as a large party your main goal is CC and then dps.

------------------------------------------------3.04 Large Group PvP Tips
In large group PvP you are in your optimal situation. You are submerged into a large group of people.

Factors you need to grasp:
-You are in a large group of people, your survivability is very high at this point.
-Your abilities you should focus on are AOE's, deal as much damage as you can.
-This is where I say MagicBoost manastone's are the most useful, and HP manastone's are less required (unless you are being aoe'd).

In a large group keep MOVING inbetween spell's and keep in the large zerg's of people, do not allow yourself to be open or an easy target for opponent's. Most of the time you will only be hit by aoe's which can be fatal (that is why I suggest moving a fair bit in between each spell or so, mostly up to your own disgression.). In this type of raid you can rack up allot of kill's by spamming aoe's.
------------------------------------------------3.05 PvP In The Abyss
I took a screenshot from an Aionsource post which basically summed up abyss PvP as it is for sorcerer's.

Original post made on Aionsource
http://www.aionsource.com/forum/class-guides/19642-translation-know-how-sorcerer-pvp.html ~T3h P0w4rb00k for info~

PvP in the Abyss

=

Sorcs disable the enemy with conditions, then puts large amount of burst firepower to kill. When flight controls are added to this class, they become something like Gunships.

But to become like a gunship, you must get a few things straight.

First is the flight speed and items that give bonuses to flight time.
Flight speed can be increased by gears that give bonus flight speed and Major Flight Speed Increase scrolls.
If you got these, then you already are a Gunship.

~Goodluck below!



------------------------------------------------3.06 Sorcerer Against...
Gladiator
Sorcerer against a gladiator, happens to personally be one of my more enjoyable fight’s. They push out allot of DPS and have good defence so they are actually quite difficult to kill if geared properly. I find keeping burn on them as well as multiple CC abilities helps. In a battle like this you mainly want to control them, you likely will not be able to take them out in a single foul sweep.
Summary:
-Keep your DOT on them at all time’s.
-Keep them under control with a good distance from you.
-If they are under control send in more damage.

Added: This is my personal opinion on gladiator battle’s, I like a more long and drawn out fight as they boast high power and combinations (including an aerial shackle of their own) and good defence. Some sorcerer’s instead of keeping control will go in for a “dive sweep” build which involves basically the same principle as my method only switching to a full offensive toolbox set of combination’s to take them down asap before they lose control.

Templar
Sorcerer against a templar, this type of battle will be long and drawn out. Templar’s also have an ability they clearly (or they seem to) enjoy using.. that is the lovely move that rips you back infront of them. This alone is enough to scare off most sorcerer’s, but behold! They have the highest defence in the game. This is the second toughest battle head on (duel style) that you will face in Aion.

Personally I start off by keeping burn on them as well as using abilities to keep them CC-Locked to ensure I have a higher likelyhood of escape if they pull me in (cold robe is my preference here) however if you want my honest opinion they can basically keep fighting you on and on and they seemingly never run out of juice. Personally I say as soon as they are within a good range prepare every powerful combination.

Ranger

Sorcerer against a ranger:
This is probably your toughest opponent if they are smart. They have multiple abilities that include trap’s, direct damage, knockback’s and an aerial shackle. They also get the ability to be stealthed for a period of time.. and as I’ve mentioned before; as a sorcerer your main goal is to know your surrounding’s inside and out and plan far ahead of time what you will do in each scenario.
However a ranger’s defence is weak. If you luckily get a break from their attack’s (I suggest dimension door) which can easily shut you down you can go directly into the fight and unleash as much damage as you can as fast as possible. There is no true way to fight a ranger for a sorcerer.

Assassin
Sorcerer against an Assassin:
This is our ABSOLUTE worst target to fight if they get behind us and attack, they can stun us constantly as well as slice through our armour and hp in second’s. The only real hope for a sorcerer in this case is to use dot’s and instant cast spell’s and if you can aerial shackle combination will deal great damage to them... however I have to say it is unlikely with the increased use of paralysis godstone’s that you will escape a stun-lock.
If you fight them on even-ground with them not in stealth behind you though the assassin class become’s far easier to take down. Their speed is the only thing that poses a true threat, simply CC them and keep slow on them as much as possible, keep your distance to prevent a stun lock and unload damage like wildfire. Their low defence will lead them right into death if you fire off a few strong spell’s.


ClericSorcerer against a Cleric:







------------------------------------------------3.07 ToolBox

The toolbox is a brutally importaint aspect to any sorcerer. Without it you are average, with it you are superb. This is the most optimal flow of abilities you can use to leave the biggest dent's in your opponent's hitpoints while also controlling their every move. The main role of a sorcerer isn't damage, it isn't aoe, it is control and through that control lashing the target with heavy power. With practice the toolbox theory will become your best friend in Aion, a game with so many different combination's and strategies to be formed.

Your first aim as a sorcerer may seem shocking to some, and make sense to other's as I said above your main role is control. Having weak defence and a easily taken down hitpoint amount you rely on this control and it should be your #1 goal to control that opponent. If they break out say goodbye.

Your second aim is damage, we are not unlimited in our crowd control and anyone that say's it is possible has never played in a critical pvp match in Aion. Our goal should be to end the match as soon as possible while keeping maximum control.

Your third aim should be "placement": this refer's to your surrounding's and environment. While it may sound stupid your surrounding's play a big role.. this is most obvious when referring to the skill Dimension Door and when it comes to kiting the opponent and Control even more of a factor. Ontop of that you are a ranged attacker so opponent's will often attempt to run out of your casting zone (or fly of course) and protect themselves against you.

My example of a toolbox method. My personal pride and joy and jewel in my toolbox that I call my trumph card which WILL change the tide of battle:

*Robe of fire passive*.
Hellfire (If I can use it) ->Burn-> Aerial shackle->shootfire->shootfire->shootfire-> magic fist -> severe cold.
OR i will subtistute hellfire for another ability to decrease their elemental affinity against fire which help's increase the damage of this combination which can (if used properly) result in an increase that will make upfor hellfire (while not being equal or greater) without the excessive casting time.
OR I will substitute in delayed blast.

As I said before stategies change on the spot, you have to be brutally fast as a sorc or you will get trampled by a skilled player of another class.

The basis of my jewel in my toolbox is that burn will deal damage throughout the aerial shackle dealing 135 damage a tick every 3 seconds for 15 seconds.. which easily add's up to tear up an opponent.

Aerial shackle is probably the single most powerful spell a sorc will ever get in the game, it remove's the opponent's ability to attack which saves you from your weak defence and deals some damage

Shootfire is your basic fire elemental damage spell with instant cast and instant cooldown. Combined with reduced elemental affinity will result in loads of fun.

magic fist is a absolutely crippling attack at the end of a combination... if the target isn't destroyed then add a dash of:

severe cold: this is an instant cast spell which deals great damage and is a beautiful finale for that combination...







Go to the sorc skill list and examine the damage of each of those spells.. combine that with elemental affinity debuff's (example Blaze) and then don't forget the grace of the skill Burn which is instant cast... and you have stacked up enough damage to make even the most aggresive templar piss themselves.

Cold feet build: This build focuses on primarily slowing the opponent and allowing maximum control over their movement's. By focusing on CC spells and slow's you can slowly tear off your opponent's hitpoints while ensuring absolute domination (it is cruel). However this build loses much damage at the cost of crowd control. Best used in a party in my own honest opinion.

As I said.. learn the class.. if you do you are excessively strong.. if you don't.. I don't even want to type out the honest truth. If it doesn't come naturally just don't...


------------------------------------------------ 4.00 Useful link's.

Skill list for sorcerer.
http://www.aionarmory.com/search.aspx?browse=6.9
-AionArmory[youtubevideo][/youtubevideo]

[Key1]

Excellent guide I can use all the help I can get.

[Crimsonlyre]

Is this expected to take down a cleric, considering their heals and fire resistance buff?

Great guide, btw. Most class guides don't go enough into specifics of gameplay, and focus perhaps too much on just the build alone, so the "toolbox" strats were a very refreshing addition.

[Saephira]

Nicly done.

[Cerulian-Aion]

way to go random dude...time to make this thread private...keeg get on it!

[Xentaph]

Crimsonlyre wrote:

Is this expected to take down a cleric, considering their heals and fire resistance buff? Great guide, btw. Most class guides don't go enough into specifics of gameplay, and focus perhaps too much on just the build alone, so the "toolbox" strats were a very refreshing addition.

For a cleric it is always a touchy issue which is very dependant on their gear's defence compared to your offensive power.. I've seen some cleric's use their fire resistant buff and regardless be shattered by the burn+aerial combo. This is partially because of the finishing move the severe cold which is an ice based attack. Them using their heat resistance buff decreases their resistance to ice by the amount they resisted the fire buff.

But I have to admit a cleric is a challenging target. Often I'll find myself trying to spam CC to simply stop them from healing. Silence helps but I find unless I do something similar to this "anti cleric" attack that it wears off and becomes useless really quickly.

Soul freeze (When they have taken SOME damage) followed up with a few damage attacks and then right before the cleric has enough time to rid themselves of the silence buff aerial shackle and hit them with the aerial combination and then severe cold. Usually if that doesn't work I just keep trying to hit them as hard as I can.

[Arkhlin]

O_O O_O O_O


Nice fucking guide!

Makes me wanna roll a sorc.....not really, =P

[DarkBalmung]

Arkhlin wrote:

O_O O_O O_O Nice fucking guide! Makes me wanna roll a sorc.....not really, =P

I know right!.....Makes me want to roll a sorc to......Oh Wait, I am Thanks for the wounderfull guide. Very enjoyable read.

[Xentaph]

Why thank you sadly it still is not fixed up enough for me to advertise.. at the moment I personally find it very skimpy on the detail's I wish to put on it. I am hoping as soon as I am finished my math take home unit exam tonight I can fix up some stuff and over the next little while add in at LEAST the following:

3.10->3.1x guides on how to combat each class and the challenges and threat's they pose

1.0x guide on mana recovery and how to properly handle your mana to avoid excess use.

2.0x guide on a few more level's (issue is I just can't remember them! Ahh )

1.0x guide on sorc strengths and weaknesses (flow chart I am hoping to build.. I lack the paint skillz to do it "pretty" though .)

3.0x guide on sorcerer pvp optimal situations and pvp devastator factors.
1.0x guide on the beginner sorc stat's (The login screen character creation thing.).

As well I am hoping to throw in a small and general pve guide.. and probably a pro's and con's description like what I posted in the mages section of the Aionsource forums.

Once what I posted is implemented into the guide I should hopefully feel a little better about the guide... as well as more image's that actaully are relevent to the guide rather then me fiddling around haha.

Thank you for all the support and I hope I can continuously improve it so it becomes a very useful guide.

[Crimsonlyre]

Even as it stands, it's better than the majority of guides on Aionsource . You can always mention that it's under construction :P

[_Tesca]

When you talk about the Magic Accuracy manastones there seems to be a line missing after "I also suggest when cinsidering..."

I heard Magic Evasion helps greatly against assasins stun.

Your use of section numbers is too complicated.

Instead of saying ROBES better say robe spells or something...

"However they lack any proper AOE to fully control crowds" - people might wonder what you mean by PROPER

"extrordinary" - 3.01

"My personal pride and joy and jewel in my toolbox that I call my trumph card which WILL change the tide of battle" - sounds a bit funny =)

Talking about your toolbox please specify the level of the sorcerer in subject

[Key1]

I would be interested to know how you set up your skills along the bottom and what order you use your attacks.

Do you have different strategies for pvp and pve?

I couldn't seem to figure out the keybinding in the beta, but how do you set yours up?

Are there some sorc skills that you just don't use?

If you don't use HP manastones can I assume you use a lot of pots?

I found this on AS thought it would be a good way to set up the keys.
http://www.aionsource.com/forum/general-guides/20612-how-effectively-use-keybinds.html

[Xentaph]

Key1 wrote:

I would be interested to know how you set up your skills along the bottom and what order you use your attacks. Do you have different strategies for pvp and pve? I couldn't seem to figure out the keybinding in the beta, but how do you set yours up? Are there some sorc skills that you just don't use? If you don't use HP manastones can I assume you use a lot of pots? I found this on AS thought it would be a good way to set up the keys. http://www.aionsource.com/forum/general-guides/20612-how-effectively-use-keybinds.html

Along the bottom keys I often keep a very varied amount of different skills.. primarily I keep quick cast spells there like burn on the first key (1) and then on the far side I actaully keep aerial shackle shoot fire and (having issue remembering the name haha..) that finishing aerial shackle move. I keep them there because I find that it's very difficult to click when I get jumped.. I mean you get freaked out and it's like "holy..!" so I now automatically jump and hammer on my 0-= keys . I also casually keep sleep/tree/restraint of winter.... even though this is semi riddiculous sounding I am sure I only keep them there for quick use because I use both clicking AND my 1->= keys to initiate an attack. I just find in the middle of pvp almost anything "shocking" can happen.. and as such do that.

When it comes to PVE though I often keep my most spammed skills like aoe's and stuff like that on my hotbars. I also probably SHOULD make different set's of hotbars for different situations and etc like I am thinking I'll write up in my guide but I honestly just mentally picture the chains I delevoped and click them (they are spread all over the place..)

in terms of keybinding I really did little (none) because I understood nothing at all basically and used the default stuff. Probably if I did change around my keybars and made specific strategy ones I would suggest maybe a different letter for each bar which is easier then shuffling through skillbar #2 all the way to skillbar #7. (Honestly I don't even know if that is possible.)

There are some skill's I myself consider pvp non-factor's... but I find I use allot of them for different situations.. like some have different effects to help cc so I'll use them in a pinch like Restraint of Winter. I can't really consider any skill's 100% useless though.

Far as I am aware (o.o) HP manastones only increase the amount of HP a character has, and has no effect on defence at all.. as such you have more HP but the same amount of defence. Honestly you will lose the same amount of HP at the same rate.. only you'll have more to lose/replace. If you are talking about the maximum amount of hp a pot can heal going and most of it being wasted due to overpotting (though it isn't overpotting it is just you normally potting and "filling more hp then you have") I never really found this an issue at all.

Also that is a wonderful guide on keybinds o.o I never read that before.

_Tesca wrote:

When you talk about the Magic Accuracy manastones there seems to be a line missing after "I also suggest when cinsidering..." I heard Magic Evasion helps greatly against assasins stun. Your use of section numbers is too complicated. Instead of saying ROBES better say robe spells or something... "However they lack any proper AOE to fully control crowds" - people might wonder what you mean by PROPER "extrordinary" - 3.01 "My personal pride and joy and jewel in my toolbox that I call my trumph card which WILL change the tide of battle" - sounds a bit funny =) Talking about your toolbox please specify the level of the sorcerer in subject

Thanks for critiqing it, everypost like this helps contribute to my guide and I really appretiate your input and going into detail on what I can fix! I will definately patch those things up.

Also I agree the # system looks sort of complicated and I'm trying to think of a way too fix it up. For now I tried to split up the "mini-Guides" from the "pvp" from the "basics" and finally 4.0 being the "links". I will try and figure a new way though to make it more simple.

[Shez]

Great stuff. I wish there was an equivalent of this for the Cleric/Healer.