-- Hybrid Section added! UPDATE: OK, I tried but it looks like a Wall of Text. Gonna start working on how to format it better...
-- More reformatting and random error fixes. Added Arcane Reserves feat.
-- Under the Power section, did a detailed explanation of how I rate powers.
TODO:
-- Add a Familiar section?
-- Explore charge feats and stuff.
Joe's Guide to Sorcerers
Instead of the usual format, I want to start with a discussion of my thoughts on sorc optimization and their role. This is pretty important as it largely defines how you will build and play the character.
When I first started, I really liked Wizards. I felt they were the most unique of classes and roles. As a Dresden fan, I loved the idea of a 'gish' close combat wizard, that does NOT have to stomp around in armor swinging a sword.
The biggest problem with Wizards is that their performance was highly situational. If foes were clumped, you could do great! If you used your powerful dailies at the right time, life was good. However, if you are vs 1 BBEG, you will suck. If foes are spread out, you suck. Parties that are mostly ranged make you suck because you get swamped. Too many melee flankers on your side force you to target party members, and thus you suck. Finally, and most importantly, if you tried to play the Wizard as a damage dealer (like many did in 3.5), then you REALLY sucked. Wizards are all about control, not just damage.
By any standard, there was lots of Suck to be had by all.
On the other extreme, you had warlocks. For the most part, I saw them as the Hard Mode(tm) arcane version of Archer Rangers. More status effects, less damage. But little AoE.
This is where sorcerers come in. They are somewhere inbetween Warlocks and Wizards, and are meant to be played as the damage-wizards. They deliver strong AoE effects, but are not LIMITED to them! Their single-target performance is less than that of most strikers, but it is not laughably bad as the magic-missile wizard was. (at least until arcane power and White Lotus cheese came along) Sorcerer single target spells are generally pretty decent, and don't have the huge disparity of the wizard, where their AoEs were strong but with weak single target spells. Sorcs are more balanced by not having awesome dailies like the wizard, but with better overall results with at-wills and encounter powers.
Finally, a viable Blaster Mage is here.
In addition, hybrid rules allow sorcerers to expand into new roles without excessive limitations being imposed (as is the case with several hybrid classe). A melee sorc is more convincing when hybrided with Barbarian and carrying a large weapon. A sorcerer can defend much better than before by hybrid Warden and using their stickiness powers and free-action marking. A plate-mail sorc is easily doable with hybrid paladin which opens up new stat array possibilities. A tempest-fighter/sorc makes dual wielding fighting a lot better and lets you easily 'powerswap' powers that support your build. A bard/sorc hybrid can heal a bit and bring a new take on an existing thunder-build, using Dagger/Staff of Ruin to cast bardic implement powers. A cleric/sorc hybrid can be an effective healer for the leaderless party, in addition to providing buffs.
AP - also, Action Point. You can usually figure it out based on context.
BBEG - Big Bad Evil Guy. Refers to the main boss of a campaign. More generically, refers to a really tough baddie such as a solo or elite. i.e. something that you would want to focus-fire and that will take a while to bring down.
CA - Combat Advantage.
DEX-sorc,STR-sorc - Sorcerer with secondary attribute of Dexterity(wild,storm) or Strength(Dragon,Cosmic)
Dragon,Storm,Cosmic,Wild - Abbreviation for a sorcerer with a particular magic source choice. (i.e. Dragon Magic sorcerer) NOT necessarily a dragonborn.
MBA - Melee Basic Attack
MC - Multiclass. As in MC:rogue means a multiclass feat for rogue was taken. It could be one of several possible entries into that multiclass.
MP - Martial Power (for the odd feat)
PHB1,2 - Player's Handbook 1 and 2.
PP - Paragon Path.
RBA - Ranged Basic Attack
Reaper - Reaper's Touch. A Dragon Magazine feat allowing melee usage of certain ranged at-wills.
RP - RolePlay. Some powers may not be very useful for combat, but can be valuable out of combat for the utility they provide.
SoR - Staff of Ruin. The best staff available for an arcane class.
STR-mod, or STR - Refers to the modifier for a particular attribute. An 18 Strength = STR-mod of 4.
TWF/TWD/TWO - Two Weapon Fighting/Defense/Opening feats.
Wintercheeze - Combination of Wintertouched,Lasting Frost feats.
Here are some of the main changes in Arcane Power:
Powers:
a) 'Suicide' Powers - There are several party-unfriendly burst 3s that are very powerful for their level. However, they either damage your party or isolate you. As such they are dangerous to use. In general they get a poor rating. HOWEVER, they are excellent with flight, arcane reach, war wizardry, and certain other power combos.
b) Bursts - There are a LOT more ranged bursts than previously. This really makes it viable for a sorc to deliver a lot of AoE without being forced into melee range. This means you can focus more on offensive feats.
c) Multi-keyword - Some powers do multi damage types, or let you pick a damage type(s). As such, one power might have up to FOUR keywords! Even if that type of damage is not done, the keyword can still be utilized. These are ripe for use with various feats such as Resounding Thunder, Wintercheeze feats, etc.
d) More/better choices - If you are trying to specialize in Push or a particular element, you have a lot more choices. The Cold-sorc in particular had some really garbage powers in PHB1 early on. Since Cosmic has Cold as one of its 3 types, this helped get more decent cold powers out. Ditto with Lightning/Thunder powers and Storm-Magic.
Feats:
The main new feat is Dual Implement Casting which gives a large untyped bonus for wielding two implements. As such this means that pretty much ALL STR-based sorcs should start with 12 DEX (so they can get it at level 11 via retraining). The feat starts out worthless at level 1, but by early paragon you really want to have it as it starts to outrun all of your other by late heroic. It also makes Light Shield a poor choice since you cannot wield a held-implement. Finally, the drow offhand crossbow strategy is obsolete as well.
The sorcerer is an arcane striker. However, the PHB1 defines a striker as one who focus fires on a SINGLE TARGET to bring it down quickly. In other words, lots of damage to one foe. PHB2 apparently expands this definition somewhat. An 'AoE Striker' is really a contradiction of sorts. This is one reason why people did not like wizards. Without a 'clump' handy, their effectiveness drops significantly. Plus the damage was evenly spread over many foes, making it less effective.
This part here is tricky. Clearly it is better to do 300 damage over 3 foes than 120 damage to 1 foe. On the other hand, it is better to do 100 damage to 1 foe than 110 over two foes, as you want to focus-fire and kill things as quickly as possible. This is because a foe at 1 HP is just as dangerous as a full HP foe. This problem has been addressed mathematically and it basically says that each additional target past the first one is at about 50% value. Hence, a sorc that deals 100 damage to 2 foes is effectively dealing 150 damage. That sounds about right to me.
It IS possible to use the sorc as a single target striker. However, you would be better off playing a ranger archer or a warlock even. The sorc will fall short in that role, comparatively speaking. If you look past Dazzling Ray to their later single target powers, you will see what I mean. They get powers about on par with a warlock, but a bit weaker (due to their better +damage mechanism for AoE). Seriously, if you are going to go single target, just play a Warlock and get an overall better combination of better armor, more temp HPs, and increased survivability. With your enhanced curse and Prime Shot, you will probably do more single-target damage. Ditto with archers and ranged rogues.
The Sorc mechanism is to add damage to EACH target, and more AoE powers tends to imply that they were meant to deal lots of damage to many targets.
However, they are poorly equipped to do so at first. Such a sorc will play like a close combat staff wizard, BUT with a secondary stat instead of primary for AC, no +1 AC from staff, and no staff interrupt. You have a 13 or 14 AC character that wants to be on the front line using Close blasts! Note that Arcane Power included tons of ranged bursts, so this issue is not longer necessarily the case.
Fortunately, this weakness can be remedied by the use of feats. Leather is a given, and from there, many STR-based sorcs will go Hide armor. Dex-ones will consider Two Weapon Fighting and Defense.
This DOES mean that your striker has to focus on DEFENSIVE feats instead of Implement Mastery, Weapon Focus, Distant Advantage and other offensive minded feats.
So basically, a close AoE sorc really becomes more playable as such around level 4, and is more optimal by 8.
Your second problem with the AoE sorc is that your spells do not auto-target foes only. Your level 1 encounter power is a blast 3 that does 2d6+CHA with no combat adv for foes, and you get concealment. Your level 17 encounter power is a blast 3 that does 2d8+CHA and slows foes. Not much better eh? You will notice some fairly lousy damage advancement past level 1.
This means that I cannot emphasize enough that you MUST have a good AC to play as a close AoE Sorc. Even your CLOSE BURST effects usually don't target just foes... so you have to stand alone adjacent to many foes to use some powers! Even with your defensive utilities, you have to minimize the chances of getting hit!
The good news is that sorcerers have several mechanisms in place that will help them focus-fire more effectively. A drow might use a hand-crossbow offhand and gain free attacks when his normal powers crit. Two Weapon Opening is used(abused) to give extra melee basic attacks when you crit. An epic feat lets you swap attack rolls with another target, to ensure you hit(or crit) the focus-fire foe.
Furthermore, in Arcane Power, we get an at-will burst 1 and more ranged bursts which make hanging back and AoE-ing MUCH more viable, especially for a high initiative DEX-based sorcerer.
My conclusion is that a sorcerer should try to make best use of their AoEs, but when multiple targets are not available, they should act like a normal striker and focus fire. Ideally, you can focus-fire a single foe AND catch his allies in AoE effects all at the same time.
The key to being successful is to know when to act in each mode to maximize your damage/effectiveness and choosing a power selection that allows you to do so.
Play styles and Build Damage Per Round Considerations Spoiler:Show
As a striker, it is of interest to deal as much damage as possible. Secondary status effects are also good, but not of primary importance.
The following are ideas and theories on how to squeeze out as much damage as possible or optimize the overall utility of the sorcerer:
1) Crit & Hit - This approach attempts to get a high critical hit rate, by either wielding a jagged dagger (10% crit) or going Daggermaster paragon path (15%). By using multitarget effects, your chances of getting a critical hit are raised significantly more than most other classes. Then, you use a mechanism that lets you do something additional or special upon getting a critical hit. Right now, these are: a) Two Weapon Opening feat - When you crit with an at-will, you get a free 'offhand melee basic attack' vs. THAT foe. You either take the melee swing, or you use Sorcerer Channeling or Reaper's Touch feats to turn one of your at-wills into a melee basic attack(MBE) that you can cast through your offhand implement(another dagger you hold offhand). b) Two Fisted Shooter - When you crit, you can take a free hand-crossbow shot. Generally not a great approach, but a Drow can get Drow Weapon Training which allows no Attack of Opp, so you can always shoot the xbow even in melee. c) Reckless Spellcasting - An epic feat that lets you make a free at-will attack when you crit with an at-will. Best with Blazing starfall (preferably with increased size)
2) Heavy Crit - Another daggermaster approach, you use a Vicious or Bloodiron dagger to inflict massive damage on a crit, which happens often. There are some other on-crit effects that you can abuse as well.
3) Damage Adjacent Foes - Wild Spellfury lets you do your DEX mod damage to all adjacent when you hit with an at-will. So the idea is to get close to multiple foes (or the focus-fire target), and then use either burning spray, OR Chaos Bolt (channeled to melee) and hope it bounces around. A cosmic mage deals damage automatically to surrounding foes. There are also powers such as Flame Spiral that damage nearby foes. All of these can be used in combination with other roles to deliver a solid amount of automatic damage.
4) Pusher - A dragonborn with Draconic Arrogance feat adds his STR-mod damage when he knocks-down or pushes a foe. So, use lots of push or knockdown powers (including your at-will dragonfrost!) and add a nice amount of free damage.
5) Freeze Cheeze - Take wintertouched/lasting frost to add AB and damage to cold-attacks. As a dragon sorc, take Cold as your element to penetrate resistance. Take lots of cold powers. Commonly mixed with Pusher above.
6) Multiclass Abuse - There are some ridiculous powers you can power-swap and abuse. For example, the ranger level 5 daily stance lets you make a 'ranged basic attack', (either dragonfrost or acid orb!) against ANYTHING that moves within 5 squares of you! Decent initiative roll + This = Win! There's a few other crazy powers, most of which abuse Reaper's Touch again. The Half-Elf is particularly good, since they can Paragon Multiclass and with Versatile Multiclass feat, they can cherry pick whatever powers they want!
7) Focus-Fire - You act like a traditional striker and ensure you hit your Focus target. Take single target powers and use. ALSO, take MULTI-target powers(there are a few) to focus your target and also deal damage elsewhere. Party-friendly burst/blast effects are also very usable. The idea is to keep hitting the focus target, BUT with the ability to also do some decent damage to other foes. A great epic tactic is Sorcerous Flux to hit multiple targets and ensure the highest roll always goes towards the Focus.
8) Close AoE Spammer - You want to do a LOT of damage. Big numbers for the win! You will focus-fire some, but mostly you want to get into position to use big close Blasts and close bursts to target as many foes (and as few allies) as possible. War wizardry and Arcane Reach are great to help maximize the overall effect.
9) Bloodied Blaster - This involves a Dragonborn sorcerer that optimizes his bloodied bonuses with the Inner Dragon path. He gets an ONGOING +2 attack bonus, +2 damage, +2 AC in that state with these various features. This is extremely powerful. The obvious downside is that you have to play in melee range with 1/2 HPs or less! You really need a healer to pull this off.
10) AoE Ranged Spammer - Similar to 8 above, except uses ranged bursts similar to a wizard. This type will almost always be wild/storm, as they can take advantage of their high initiative to hit multiple foes clumped together before they can even move. Devastating with slow/immobilize type effects vs melee-only foes. Note that Storm-sorcs can exclude the origin from several of their bursts which helps this strategy further.
11) Off-Tank - The plan is to use effects that damage foes that swing at you and utilities to mitigate damage. The idea is to help your defenders by taking some of the attacks that would normally go their way, as well as clogging up melee to protect your wizard/ranged strikers, or just to help with flanking. Dragon Guardian and MC:pally are valuable for their marking ability.
12) Melee Reaper's Touch Abuser - The reapers touch feat lets you use an Acid Orb or Dragonfrost as a melee basic attack. You can take advantage of this in a variety of ways. First, you can Charge as a standard action which lets you move and then use your MBA with a +1 AB bonus. There are several items/powers/feats that let you optimize charge and melee basic attacks.
13) Hybrid Sorc - This encompasses several new styles that are available via hybridization such as Healer, Buffer, Defender, etc.
My Sorc Guide Link: http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19649162/Joes_Sorcerer_Guide_AP_update_51509
My Genesi Wizard Blaster Link: http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/25082729/Miniguide_to_Genesi_LightningThunder_Blaster_Wizard_%2806-2010%29
Stuff in Common: All types of sorcerers gain their secondary stat to damage. This is the most important ability sorcs get... it compensates for their lack of a "Hunters quarry" or "warlock curse" or sneak attack. Don't forget that this gains +2 per tier to help keep up with increasing dice of the other striker classes.
Also, all sorcerers get their secondary stat to Armor Class, either directly through DEX or through a feature.
Finally, all sorcerers also gain the ability to effectively lower foe's damage resistance by an amount and type equal to their own resistance 'choice'. It starts at resist 5, and gets boosted to 10 and 15 at paragon and epic respectively.
Differences: Dragon magic sorcerers will typically wear more armor (hide/light shield), and use a Staff as their main implement. Or they will go with a main hand jagged dagger and offhand utility staff such as Ruin, to improve their crit rate and still get bonus damage. Their powers pump stand-and-fight style defensive powers and pushes. They usually focus on close burst and Blast powers.
The Wild magic sorcerer will likely use a dagger for their prime implement and a parrying dagger offhand, or use staff fighting technique, or even a hand-crossbow for the drow. They may take advantage of two weapon fighting techniques and feats to gain free attacks. Their powers favor mobility over toughness and are more single-target oriented. They are more likely to use ranged bursts for their AoE thanks to their high initiative. Some builds use Wild Spellfury to pump their melee damage.
Cosmic sorcerers(Introduced in Arcane Power) use STR also, but gain a 'revolving' set of benefits. It is a nice compromise between randomness and reliability. They will usually go with a close burst, blast strategy, but the rider for their burst at-will is strong. As such, they may mix it up more than the dragons and incorporate 1-target powers and ranged bursts.
Storm sorcerers(Arcane Power) use DEX, and have set abilities. Thus, this is a great magic source if you really want a DEX-based character, but dislike the randomness of Wild. The bad news is that most of your thunder/lightning spells tend to target Fortitude. As such, you have to be careful to ensure a good variety of powers to accommodate many different situations. Don't wind up with 8 different vs Fort effects vs the elite ettin or whatever.
Of course, any magic style can do either single target, close blast/burst or ranged burst damage, and should!
"Dragon vs Wild vs Cosmic vs Storm: Advantages of each"Show
Dragon Advantages: --------------------- Dragons choose one type of resistance/pierce from 5 types. It never changes.
Melee Boost - Dragons gain a boost to basic melee and can fight decently with a dagger or staff. Better when in a party with a warlord
Skill Boost - Dragons gain athletics skill boosts. Plus they get these as class skills, and thus can easily make use of them.
High Fort defense This is pretty much a wash with Wild's Reflex advantage. Handy when on front line as several brutes make attacks vs. Fort attacks.
Armor Access - Dragons qualify for armor feats easier. Consider taking Hide in paragon. Light shield is devalued as a result of dual implement casting.
CONSISTENT Resistance/Pierce - This means you can choose your powers accordingly to help ensure foes cannot resist your damage. But which to choose?
- Acid - Many powers involve acid. However, since acid attack/resist is fairly rare anyways, this is kind of a waste. A weaker choice, surprisingly.
- Fire - A popular choice for powers and resistances. This ensures you will get a lot of use out of your Resistance/Pierce. However, the fire-immunes will still hose you. Better if Flame-dagger cheese is allowed.
- Cold - A top tier pick. Good usage of resist/pierce, AND great with wintertouched/lasting frost...especially with Dragonborn breath. Even better with frost-dagger cheese if allowed (which I assume is not allowed).
- Lightning - Lightning powers are much more common now. However, I would expect a Storm-sorc to focus on lightning and thunder and expect them to be a better choice than a Dragon-sorc.
- Poison - There are less poison powers, but Poison resist would be commonly useful. Not a bad choice, but no real poison-enhancing feat goodness right now. (except the Poisoner multiclass feats/Paragon Path in some dragon magazine, but it is probably not worth the effort). Plus in Monster Manual 1, there are more poison IMMUNES than any other immunity type. Resist isn't so bad, Immunity sucks.
- Thunder - While there are some good thunder powers out there, it USED to be relatively rare. As of AP, thunder is a MUCH better choice. That said, Storm is possibly a better choice for Thunder-focus.
Bloodied AC Boost - +2 AC is quite strong. You WILL absorb damage and attacks when playing, so this helps slow down the bleeding. Combos well with Dragonborn's +1AB when bloodied and even Draconic Frenzy.
Power Side-Effects - Your power 'rider effects' involving Dragon or Strength are generally more DEFENSIVE in nature, oddly enough. More powerful Scales, or gaining concealment, or pushing a foe away from you further.
Multiclass Versatility - With high STR, many classes are open for multiclassing and you can take advantage of their powers. Paladin(STR&CHA), Warlord, Fighter, Barbarian, and several others become viable.
Wild Advantages: ----------------- Wild magic/chaos sorcerers roll a d10 die to determine which type of damage they resist and pierce.
Reflex Defense Boost - Pretty much a wash with the fort-defense of dragons. Possibly better as more reflex attacks exist(? I have not actually calculated this).
Skill Boost - Nice boost to Stealth and Acrobatics and Thievery. HOWEVER, you don't get these as class skills! Really good if you take these skills via multiclass,etc! Pretty worthless if you do not.
High Initiative - Your Initiative is MUCH better than dragon. This increases the likelihood of winning a first round and tossing one of your few ranged AoE bursts to catch many foes. Definitely keep at least one such ranged AoE for this purpose! Dragons will almost never be able to make as good of use of bursts..especially the ones that slow or immobilize.
Arcane Reach Access - Easy qualification for arcane reach. This is very good for making the party-unfriendly blasts and bursts MUCH easier to aim, and thus extremely effective. This also means you can hang back some and not QUITE in the thick of things as much as the Dragon sorc. When you get close to 11, consider retraining some powers to prioritize Close blast/bursts more so.
Two Weapon Feats Access - You also qualify easily Two Weapon Fighting and Defense, which gives you a few extra modest feat options for improving AC and damage. In addition, Two Weapon Opening, Two fisted shooter, Dual Implement Casting, and other options are opened up.
Variable Resistance - Variable resistance can sometimes help, where a fixed type fails. Though more often than not, the static resistance would be more useful (since you can choose powers based on that choice).
Push on a 1 - The Push on a rolled 1 is interesting. Since you control it, it should be an overall advantage. However, as was pointed out due to the wording, you MUST push everyone and do not have the normal option to push less than the maximum.
Knockdown on 20 - The roll 20 knockdown feature is pretty sweet, as you will likely be hitting things that are close to you. Hence, prone will assist your allies in getting combat-advantage in several cases, plus prevent shift&attack. This CAN backfire though when nova-ing, as prone will give them a BONUS vs your ranged powers...
Power Side-Effects - Your power 'rider effects' involving Wild or DEX are more OFFENSIVE in nature. Check out your 29 daily... 2 of its 6 random effects are based on DEX alone.
Chaos Burst The Chaos Burst lets you randomly get +1AC or gain a free saving throw every round. Both effects are commonly useful, so the randomness does not hurt you much here. In any case, this is an advantage over the Dragon sorcs, who gain nothing unless bloodied.
DEX-based Multiclassing - You have the ability to take DEX-based multiclassing such as rogue. While not having the versatility of the Dragon, rogue is a strong multiclass option and fits well.
Cosmic Advantages: --------------------- Cosmic sorcerers have one of three 'phases', each with benefits. When bloodied, they MUST shift to the next phase. When they use a daily, they MAY shift to another phase. After ANY rest, you can pick any phase. Furthermore, some of their spell riders gain different effects based on what PHASE you are in. I.E. Power X gets a bonus ONLY IF you are cosmic AND are in phase Y. The phases are: 1. Sun - Do STR-mod damage to adjacent foes every turn. Resist cold 2. Moon - +AC bonus equal to number of conscious foes next to you. Resist Psychic 3. Stars - When missed, teleport STR-squares as FREE ACTION. Resist radiant
My favorite is Sun, as it deals automatic damage to adjacent foes, lets you focus on Cold, and gives you a much more useful resistance. I mean, how often do you need to resist radiant anyways?
Melee Boost - Dragons gain a boost to basic melee and can fight decently with a dagger or staff. Better when in a party with a warlord
Skill Boost - Dragons gain athletics skill boosts. Plus they get these as class skills, and thus can easily make use of them.
High Fort defense This is pretty much a wash with Wild's Reflex advantage. Handy when on front line as several brutes make attacks vs. Fort attacks.
Armor Access - Dragons qualify for armor feats much easier. Definitely take Light Shield and Hide. (Hide requires 13 CON which is no problem unless you took staff fighting)
Multiclass Versatility - With high STR, many classes are open for multiclassing and you can take advantage of their powers. Paladin(STR&CHA), Warlord, Fighter, Barbarian, and several others become viable.
Controllable Diversity - You can mostly control your phases and thus resistances. This would be awesome, but resist Radiant and Psychic are rather difficult to foresee as far as setting your resistance vs certain foes. Unless you are exploring a mind flayer camp or about to fight a bunch of angels or something. You will probably wind up always choosing Cold for same reasons as Dragon, and hoping not to get bloodied and thus cycled out of it.
Power Side-Effects - You get the STR-based power 'rider effects' that are not Dragon only, which adds some good defensive potential. Your Cosmic riders mostly seem to only work when in a certain phase, which I think could turn out to be a pretty big limitation.
Storm Advantages: ---------------------
TWO Resist/pierces. - Storm mages gain resist lighting and thunder, with the same piercing ability. They get the same 5/10/15 value as the other types. Obviously, two is much better than one...especially since lightning and thunder sort-of work together with several feats.
Shield-style interrupt effect - You can sacrifice your two resistances/pierce as an immediate interrupt if hit to add +4 to your defenses. Many times, your resist won't do much good. This lets you convert it to something solid. A short rest restores the resists.
Storm's Embrace - When you roll a natural 20 for an arcane attack, you push em 1, and can fly 1+DEX-mod squares. Note that this flight does NOT provide any immunity from AoOs.
Reflex Defense Boost - Pretty much a wash with the fort-defense of dragons. Possibly better as more reflex attacks exist(? I have not actually calculated this).
Skill Boost - Nice boost to Stealth and Acrobatics and Thievery. HOWEVER, you don't get these as class skills! Really good if you take these skills via multiclass,etc! Pretty worthless if you do not.
High Initiative - Your Initiative is MUCH better than dragon. This increases the likelihood of winning a first round and tossing one of your few ranged AoE bursts to catch many foes. Definitely keep at least one such ranged AoE for this purpose! Dragons will almost never be able to make as good of use of bursts..especially the ones that slow or immobilize.
Arcane Reach Access - Easy qualification for arcane reach. This is very good for making the party-unfriendly blasts and bursts MUCH easier to aim, and your Thunder AoEs definitely count. This also means you can hang back some and not QUITE in the thick of things as much as the Dragon sorc. When you get close to 11, consider retraining some powers to prioritize Close blast/bursts more so.
Two Weapon Feats Access - You also qualify for Two Weapon Fighting and Defense, which gives you a few extra modest feat options for improving AC and damage. In addition, Two Weapon Opening, Two fisted shooter, Dual Implement Casting, and other options are opened up.
Power Side-Effects - DEX-based riders are pretty strong and usually more offensive in nature. Many storm riders either give temporary flight, OR allow your burst to exclude the Origin. This means you can target a Defender with foes around him to great effect. Consider this strategy and discuss with the party if you take several of these powers.
DEX-based Multiclassing - You have the ability to take DEX-based multiclassing such as rogue. While not having the versatility of the Dragon, rogue is a strong multiclass option and fits well.
My Sorc Guide Link: http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19649162/Joes_Sorcerer_Guide_AP_update_51509
My Genesi Wizard Blaster Link: http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/25082729/Miniguide_to_Genesi_LightningThunder_Blaster_Wizard_%2806-2010%29
For a sorcerer, your secondary stat is VERY important. It affects your Armor Class, damage, and many rider effects of powers. Your primary stat affects Attack bonus and damage. Compare this to an archer ranger who has WIS as a secondary. It affects a handful of powers and some skills, but little else. For them, an 18/13/13 or 18/14/11 makes sense.
But since this is a sorcerer guide, I strongly recommend a 16,16,13,11,10,8 array for all DEX-based sorcs. New info shows that pretty much ALL sorcs will want the Dual-Implement Casting feat by paragon (DEX 13 required), so all Dragon sorcs will want a 12,12 split for CON/DEX.
The 16s of course go into CHA and your secondary attribute(STR or DEX)
If you are a Dragon/Cosmic Sorcerer, you can...
a) Choose Staff Fighting. However, since it requires 13 WIS, this option is now garbage since it gimps both CON and DEX.
b) Plan to take Hide armor in paragon. Take 12 CON and 12 DEX. Dumpstat your WIS, as it is worthless. This is my recommended option, and you can use Hide armor by Paragon via retraining. Plus you will qualify for Dual Implement in early paragon and can retrain a heroic feat to it. Also, you can take TWFighting/Defense if you have the feats available.
As a DEX-based Sorcerer, you can...
a) Go with Staff Fighting technique. Take 13 WIS, 11 CON. You qualify for TWF/TWD easily with your DEX and the double-weapon. However, I do not believe this works for Dual Implement Casting, so this approach is outdated.
b) Go with two daggers or a dagger/staff combo. In some Drow cases, dagger and hand crossbow. Take 13 CON for better HPs,surges, and fort defense. The last point can go anywhere. Maybe STR for armor at epic? +1 INT for better rituals? There is no strong preference here. My favored config is a Jagged Dagger mainhand, and Staff of Ruin in the other hand. This works with TWF/TWD surprisingly (requires HELD weapon, not wielded!), and gives you nice damage bonuses. (Note: If you take Daggermaster, ditch the Jagged dagger! Replace with BloodIron)
Taking a natural 18 in CHA is a bad idea as you lose tons of AC and damage and rider effects with your weaker secondary. At best you break even sort of with an 18,14,11,10,10,8. Better AB, about the same damage*, worse AC, and rider effects. By missing out on a 13, this means instant disqualification for both Armor and Staff-fighting feats, both of which are desirable for AC, and/or loss of HPs,surge. *note: I say 'about the same damage' as several sorcerer powers DO NOT add the CHA modifier, but still qualify for the usual sorc-secondary-attribute damage bonus! An 18CHA/14secondary can actually do LESS damage in some cases than a 16/16.
Due to the importance of your secondary attribute, I strongly recommend taking a race with BOTH attribute pumps of the desired type.
DragonBorn - The best sorcerer race for Dragon/Cosmic. Free +1 AB when bloodied is a good bonus and will probably be used often. Their breath weapon synergizes perfectly with a sorcerers many blast powers to choose from. If you pick Cold, this works very well with Wintertouched/Frost. Use breath first as a minor, gain advantage, then use your power(s). The new Arcane Power's Draconic Spellcasting feat adds a HUGE accuracy advantage for single-element themed builds.
Halfing - One of the best DEX-based magic picks. Racial IS handy for getting out of trouble, and as a Small character, their racials are better than expected. Small size also works great with a Goblin Totem and a few other size-dependent feats and items.
Drow - An excellent DEX-based choice. The darkness ability is very strong for gaining combat advantage as usual, AND likely causing problems for foes since you will be closer to the front line. Consider Two Fisted Shooter/Drow WpnTraining feat for getting free, accurate, and damaging hand-crossbow shots when you crit with your 'dagger', since you typically target more than one foe per turn. This is not so strong after Arcane Power though.
Human - Good for any class, they work decently for sorc. The lack of a secondary attribute is unfortunate, but Action Surge, and better defenses make up for it somewhat. The bonus at-will is very handy after the new options presented in Arcane Power. The bonus feat is DEFINITELY helpful in ramping up quickly (as I discussed the feat problem early on for sorcs)
Goblin - Good attribute fits. Mostly an inferior halfling, but still a strong DEX-sorcerer fit.
Half Elf - With a CHA boost and a useful (though not optimal) secondary stat, they are recommended because they do have the ability to take Versatile Multiclasser in Paragon. (plus Action surge of course!) This alone makes them viable for the ability to steal ANY class's powers. In the sorc case, bard is a prime candidate as is warlock for the Wild-Magic guys. Dragon Magic sorcerers can choose from quite an array of STR-based (mostly weapon) powers. You might even find a usable non-attribute dependent power somewhere. Read other class guides and look for the broken powers. :-)
[color=Black"Shadar-Kai[/COLOR] - A fairly lousy race which is a glorified Eladrin. They are ok for Wild sorcs, and are mentioned for ONLY ONE REASON. The Reaper's Touch feat which is used for a LOT of cheese SHOULD be a racial feat. They misprinted it, so the optimizers see this as open season on the feat...so most sorcs have it. However, I expect an errata soon, and so some may be forced to go Shadar Kai. A Shadar Kai can make a cold-specialized wild-sorc by taking a racial feat to ALWAYS 'roll' Cold. Handy for Primordial Channelers.
[COLOR="Blue"Tiefling[/COLOR] - Tieflings are mediocre except as a Fire-based dragon sorcerer. In this regard, they are pretty good as well as thematic. Although lacking in a STR-boost and getting a near worthless INT pump, they have a better than normal hit chance with Fire and Fear thanks to their Hellfire blood feat. Their fire resist is unfortunately wasted, though you might be able to beg the DM for some lee-way. Ask to have it converted into an Improved Dragonsoul feat (+2/5/8 resist/pierce.) They deal more damage to bloodied foes and have access to a Turathi Highborn paragon path which is very thematic and useful for a fire sorc. Consider a wizard MC to get Enlarge and Spell mastery since you can get 12 starting INT for free.
I am sure a decent case could be made for several other races with only one useful attribute bonus. However, the above are your best choices.
Your class skills are as follows: *Arcana(INT) - Default class skill. It is fairly worthless due to your low INT. But you are stuck with it. *History(INT) - useless due to low INT.
As a sorcerer, you have excellent CHA, and the skills to support them. Make good use of these by being the party Face and playing to your strength.
*Bluff(CHA) – Usable to feint, but you hardly need combat advantage. *Diplomacy(CHA) – The gold standard for 'friendly' interactions, where you don't want to threaten or trick. *Intimidate(CHA) – Useful for forcing surrender in combat, plus RP uses.
*Athletics(STR) – Obviously a good pick for Dragon Sorcs. This plus STR = excellent chance of grab escape. Since you will be in melee range quite a bit for a spellcaster, this may come into play more often than anticipated.
*Endurance(CON) - Mileage varies. If you expect a lot of harsh terrain, you may have to take this. You have average CON so should be reasonably effective.
Wisdom is your dumpstat, so these next 3 should almost never be taken.
*Dungeoneering(WIS) - A relatively common skill, so let others take this. *Insight(WIS) - The best of your WIS-based. Ideally let someone else take, but this is less common. Hence, you might need it... especially as the party Face. *Nature(WIS) - A relatively common skill, so let others take this.
For more skills, don't forget your Multiclass options. Even if they just give you a class skill, you can then retrain that skill to something else. They always come with another freebie bonus too.
Stealth(DEX) - A strong skill for the DEX-based sorcs. Try to get the DM to allow Backgrounds or FRPG homelands, which allow you to add Stealth to your class skill list. You can also take a rather weak rogue-MC feat for this.
Answer: It is strongly leaning towards 1 handed usage. The PHB does not specifically state how many hands ANY implement takes to wield. However, the following is generally recognized as true:
The staff may be wielded AS AN IMPLEMENT with 1 hand. Support for this is as follows:
a) Consider the idea of casting thru a staff. You need 2 hands to swing a staff as a weapon. However, you really don't need 2 hands to cast a spell through a staff do you? In fact, have you ever seen a mage type in movies/etc that holds a staff with both hands when casting? This is hardly support for rulings, but a small piece of logical evidence that 1handed staff use is definitely reasonable.
b) Consider 'historical mages'. Many a historical mage has used a staff along with a wand or whatever other implement. Gandalf used a staff and longsword. Another piece of support for the reasonable-ness of one-handed staff usage.
c) There is no evidence to the contrary in the PHB and no differentiation of a staff implement vs a rod, wand, or orb. The only difference is the 'bonus feature' that a staff can be used as a weapon.
d) The PHB Faq refers to Warlocks using multiple rods; this seems to support the 1handed implement theory (for rods anyways). Remember, the staff is rules-wise no different than a rod, wand, or orb.
e) The Second Implement feat would be rather lousy if only the wand/orb combo was actually usable, ruling out the other 2 legitimate combinations. (from a wizard point of view, the original users of a staff)
f) Two handed use of a staff would prevent any "Small" creature from using a staff implement! Clearly they did not mean to exclude Gnome Wizards from staff usage. (and later sorcerers, and other staff users)
g) Requiring two handed use of a staff would severely limit it for no reason. A staff has advantages and disadvantages, but it is not SIGNIFICANTLY and demonstrably better than any other implement. As such, forcing two handed usage makes it a lot weaker and would be a significant Nerf.
h) At the absolute, very least, you can HOLD a staff in your other hand and gain its properties. Even if your DM rules it could not be WIELDED even as an implement, surely he would not say a staff cant even be HELD in one hand. As such, PHB FAQ clearly states held implements give their properties.
j) Mike Donais has graciously posted on this thread and supports 1 handed staff use.
The confusion comes from the fact that the staff has a bonus feature that lets it be used AS A WEAPON. While not spelled out, using a staff as a quarterstaff implies that you need 2 hands to wield it as a weapon.
Now, let's look at the objections, or support for wielding a staff as a 2 handed implement:
a) DM doesn't like it, aesthetically speaking. Two staves looks stupid. Well, it is a valid concern but not really relevant rules-wise. Counter with arguments a and b above. Besides, two orbs or two tomes looks stupid to me and there is certainly no rule against it. I mean, who the heck 'dualwields' two books?! How do you cast spells when holding two orbs anyways? A sorc who uses a staff will likely use it in his/her offhand so it will be less ridiculous than the staff wizard with a staff of ruin mainhand, and lightshield holding a defensive staff.
b) A staff may be used as a weapon, just like a quarterstaff. Since a quarterstaff takes two hands to use, it follows that a staff implement takes two hands also. This assumes that swinging a staff as a weapon is the same as using it as an implement. There is no rule basis for this assumption. Logically and 'historically', it is reasonable to use a staff as an implement with one hand, as shown in the arguments above. Also, it assumes that a staff implement IS a quarterstaff. The fluff says it can be fashioned as a walking stick or a quarterstaff. Hence there is a bit of breakdown in this assumption also.
Hence, I'd say it is very reasonable to conclude that 1 handed staff operation is legal. There will be a few people that say a staff implement must be used 2handed, but they have absolutely no ruling basis for this. Don't disparage them though, as the ruling basis for 1handed use is not exactly rock solid either... ;-)
Staff
* Staff Implements have a bunch of properties that dagger weapons do not. You can get both weapon versions and implement versions theoretically. (this is debatable whether a wiz/sorcerer can use a WEAPONIZED quarterstaff as an implement). In any case, all staff implements have appropriate spell-ish powers and properties, unlike daggers since this is what they were made for. As an update though, it turns out that there are a LOT of great weapon properties that are stronger than most staff implement stats. Plus, there is NO QUESTION that you can use these weapon properties on a dagger! (unlike weaponized staff concerns). Furthermore, nobody will gripe about you using 2 daggers, or holding a dagger 1 handed...
* You can swing a staff for d8 damage. This requires 2 hands though. Staff Fighting Technique is possible which costs 1 feat and makes your staff a double weapon (+1 AC). This generally puts too much strain on your attribute choices to be optimal.
Good choices:
[COLOR="DeepSkyBlue"]Staff of Ruin[/color] - Big d10 crits, big +enhancement value damage boost when used as primary, OR just held offhand(subject to rules-debate. More at end of guide) Note this is an ITEM bonus, so does NOT stack with various common stuff like Bracers of True Shot. This is the Gold Standard and just about ALL sorcerers should carry one of these as an off-hand implement.
OK, let's get real for a minute: If you cannot use a staff of ruin, you should be using a Dagger instead. They have better properties in general. However, heres a few notable staves that might be handy:
- Defensive Staff (in offhand for +1 NADs) Not really worth the loss of offense to me. - Grasping Staff (offhand for save-ends penalties for certain powers) - A cunning dagger is almost as good and works for everything. - Staff of Power (crit goodness) - Very strong with a Daily AoE, though not quite as good as for a wizard. - Staff of the War Mage (Pump burst/blast size as a daily) - As above, too costly to use and lose too much from not taking a better implement. - Serpent's Staff - A fun choice in early Paragon with Reaper's Touch. Adds a bit of extra damage to your channeled melee at-wills. - Staff of Force - (offhand) Knock down foes you crit. - Searing Death (offhand) - Adds Xd8 on a crit If the power had the Fire keyword. - Staff of Portals (offhand) - On crit, teleport the foe 3 spaces. (in the air!)
Dagger
* Can use sorcerer Channeling feat to convert any ranged power into a melee attack. This is nice when you either have no close powers or the melee is a big fat mess and you need to precision target one foe next to you. However, it ONLY works on RANGED powers! You would not want to waste a burst effect obviously. But it is some nice added versatility.
* Can attack with a dagger using it one handed for an accurate +3 proficiency attack... if somewhat weak d4 [W] damage.
* Allows Daggermaster paragon path for 18-20 crit range! Great for wild mages!
* Allows Pact Dagger for warlock Multiclass or bardic singing daggers or whatever for use with their powers that you might steal.
* Could use some Light Blade weapon feats in theory, such as Nimble Blade or Light Blade mastery. These seem too situational to be worth one of your precious feats on to me though.
* Allows other random goodness such as working with Sneak Attack, Drow Weapon Training, Two Fisted Shooter, etc.
Good Choices:
Apparantly, you can use 'ranged only' properties on daggers too! The April-Character builder allows this. There is still some debate whether this is an official position though.
Jagged Dagger - Increases crit range to 19-20 for ALL powers! This one is guaranteed to work, rules wise. IF YOU GO DAGGERMASTER, get a new dagger as it does nothing at all! Note: This dagger is only available at paragon and above. This dagger is the Gold Standard. Basically, ALL paragon-level sorcerers except daggermasters should use this. Note that it has NO crit dice, and delivers ongoing damage instead.
Bloodiron Dagger - If you crit, deal crit damage twice! Awesome with Daggermaster. However, if your damage or allies finish off the foe before your next turn, the bonus crit damage is wasted. If this occurs, it means the foe is dead which I consider to be a pretty good consolation prize. :-) This dagger is the GOLD STANDARD for Daggermasters. It offers a full 15% chance per attack of dealing about 150% of normal damage. It also has big D10 crit dice. NOTE: Some interpret this as simply dealing the d10 crit dice again the next round. This is a more reasonable interpretation, but weakens it considerably.
Frost,Flame,Etc. - Use its at-will to turn ANY power to fire/cold/etc. This appears to not work due to long and involved arguments. If you can talk him into it... this is FANTASTIC!!!
Cunning Dagger -2/3/4 to saves vs any effect "with this weapon". Obviously very good for higher level sorcerer powers that have save-ends stuns, daze, blind, and some of their special status effects. This is pure gold for Orb Wizards! However, this is not usually emphasized for sorcs due to lack of a 'Spell Focus' equivalent and no Orb-mechanism. Without the ability to stack penalties, optimizing for saves via cunning is not very productive.
Vicious- d12 crits. Cheap. Compared to BloodIron this sucks because you only get +1 die size to crits, at the steep cost of not dealing extra crit damage AGAIN on the next turn. Still, it is cheap and available at level 2.
Vampiric - Property: All damage dealth is necrotic. Good for converting damage to get around immunities. ONLY to be used as a backup dagger one or 2 enhancement levels behind.
Goblin Totem (FRCG) - Only +1 level above baseline item. Gives UNTYPED damage bonus vs larger creatures equal to its enhancement bonus. Ridiculously good for halflings as this is basically equal to a staff of ruin, except that its bonus stacks with everything! The bad news is that it still falls short of the Gold Standard ones and cannot be used offhand. So, as much as I like it, I just don't see it being used past Heroic, where jagged is unavailable.
Subtle - (offhand) Adds item damage bonus (like Staff of Ruin) if you have combat advantage. This is usable OFF-HAND! Great for DEX-sorcs that will likely to have decent stealth skill. Pretty much the default choice for sorcs whose DM does not allow Staff of Ruin to work wielded in your offhand.
Vengeful - (offhand) Expensive at +4 baseline. ENCOUNTER power to get +2 AB/ +1d10 damage vs a foe that hit a bloodied ally. This is a big bonus usable every encounter. You do not even have to use this weapon for the attack, making it a fairly solid offhand weapon. It is a bit situational though.
Mage's PARRYING DAGGER- (offhand). The property says ANYONE can use it, so you get the advantages of a parrying dagger (+1 ac) without the feat. HOWEVER, the parrying dagger is NOT a 'dagger' and cannot be used as an implement! This is perfectly ok at lower levels before you pick up Dual Implement Spellcasting, OR if you can convince your DM that a parrying dagger is a dagger. (Shouldn't be THAT hard, right?)
Reckless/Bloodclaw - Largely known as the best weapon enchantments for melee characters, it is HIGHLY unlikely that these weapons actually work. This is because both rely on an at-will power that is used in conjunction with a melee power. The workings are very similar to Frost/Flame dagger, which is mostly accepted not to work. Too many long arguments to get into here.
Phasing - +3 levels, paragon and above only. As a property, ignore all cover and superior cover! This is a sweet deal, but there is also some gloves that pretty much do this for you. Just not good enough to make the cut.
Tooth of Chaos(offhand!) - For wild-mages only. Controlling the odd-even roll lets you take great advantage of certain powers such as Chaos Bolt. Mandatory equipment for the spellfury-melee-chaos-bolter build in paragon. HOWEVER, it is a daily item power. It works for the whole encounter, but JUST vs that one foe you hit! So pick one that won't die a while (i.e. The BBEG) and you can guarantee that every Chaos Bolt that hits em will bounce to another foe of your choice. That said, you do give up a lot by not using the Gold Standard enchants. As was pointed out, nothing prevents you from equipping the dagger, using its power, then grabbing a different one. So with battle harnass you can easily use 1 or more +1 chaos daggers for this specific use.
Prime Shot Dagger - (offhand) Cheap +1 level above baseline. Adds +1/2/3 untyped damage bonus if you are closest to the target. Not bad, though you are fairly unlikely to trigger this often. Still, it is usable offhand.
Luckblade - (offhand) +2 levels above baseline. As a daily: Reroll an attack roll. A very valuable use of a daily item power. It doesn't specify 'with this weapon' so it is another offhand choice.
I generally recommend going with a dagger in your mainhand and carrying a staff in the offhand.
The dagger has more utility as seen above, and can increase crits, double crit damage, channel, and other cool stuff. However, an offhand Staff of Ruin provides a LOT of extra firepower and is almost always better than a second dagger. Wild Spellfire mages are the exception.
My Sorc Guide Link: http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19649162/Joes_Sorcerer_Guide_AP_update_51509
My Genesi Wizard Blaster Link: http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/25082729/Miniguide_to_Genesi_LightningThunder_Blaster_Wizard_%2806-2010%29
I try to rate feats based on an average case use. Depending on your build, MANY of these feats could be much better or worse. This is not an exhaustive list, although I have to say that it is getting close! ;-) Finally, I have several special-purpose feats that most would not take, but some special builds could utilize.
NOTE: All sorcs should pick either Armor/Shield (STR sorcs) path, OR the staff-fighting/TWF/TWD path, OR the parrying dagger/TWF/TWD path. Don't mix them, because they either won't stack or you run out of feats.
Note 2: RACIAL feats are in a separate section below.
Leather Armor - ALL sorcs should take this immediately. It should always be a first pick at level 1 as +2 AC is both valuable and a great boost for the price.
Implement Expertise staff or dagger - An obvious pick. Many DMs will give this for 'free', since it is a stupid boring feat to 'fix' the problem of PCs hitting at higher levels. More important early on than the +1 damage feats. Take this as your second feat.
Weapon Focus: Staff or Dagger - You will want one of these for a free damage boost. It works for ALL powers and works consistently. Note that even as early as level 1, the implement expertise is better in terms of overall effectiveness. Obviously this means you need to ONLY use one implement type for all your powers. i.e. Don't alternate between say a staff of ruin and a jagged dagger. Focus on the dagger and just hold the staff offhand for the bonus. You may wonder if this is really that amazing. I say YES, because it is a solid, scalable bonus that always works.
Dual Implement Spellcaster(AP, 13 DEX) - When wielding two usable implements for a power, you 'add that implement's enhancement bonus' to your damage rolls. This is a fantastic feat and pretty much ALL sorcerers should consider it. As such it really hoses conventional wisdom about Dragon/Cosmic sorcs taking a 13CON,11DEX and Light Shield. Now, a 12CON/12DEX is recommended to take this feat at Paragon (when it really starts to shine and you get the free attribute bump, and can retrain your level 10 feat to this). Note that the best time to take this feat is late heroic (for Wild/Storm), and early paragon for Dragon. At level 1, this feat does nothing. At level 4, it's the same as weapon focus, except requiring a second magic implement. Only at late heroic does it start becoming strong. Note that there is some opportunity cost for this, but in general a character with a +X implement can easily afford an X-1 one, or just keep the one they upgraded from. So cost is not really a big issue.
Reaper's Touch(Drag#372) This feat modifiers your two "ranged basic attacks", Dragonfrost and Acid Orb, and allows you to use them as a melee power that counts as a MELEE BASIC ATTACK as well. This is a very nice feat as it allows either implement..even a 1handed staff to be used! The downside is that it is limited to at-wills, unlike sorcerer Channeling. It is a good trade-off for staff-users. If you use a dagger anyways, sorcerer channeling is probably better. You will notice reading this guide that this feat is the KEY to a LOT of combos. WARNING!! This feat might be shadar-kai only. It is in an article about Shadar-Kai... in the middle of two pages of feats that require shadar-kai. The Heroic (and Paragon/Epic) Feat headers says ALL the following feats (including Reaper's Touch) are usable by (only) Shadar-Kai. However, they apparently forgot the Shadar-Kai prereq! Your DM may not allow it when he sees its origin...especially for the uses that you will likely put it to. UPDATE: It's been a while and no errata has came out. I suspect they messed up, but nobody bothered to fix it. So I think you are pretty safe to take this.
Two weapon defense - +1 AC and reflex. A solid feat. ONLY works with two MELEE weapons though. Dagger/hand-xbow will not cut it. However, dagger and staff DOES work, since you merely have to HOLD the weapons, not necessarily wield them!
Coordinated Explosion/COLOR] - This feat is weak at the heroic tier. However, it shines when in conjunction with several other feats in paragon and beyond. Hence, shortly after hitting paragon retraining your level 10 feat to this is highly desirable. War Wizardry rewrites the rules so targeting allies is only about 25% as effective as enemies[-5 penalty to hit allies, AND 1/2 damage if you DO hit them] This is well worth it if it allows an additional foe or two to be targeted...AND you even get an attack bonus for it! Arcane Reach also works wonders for intelligent targeting. This feat also works extremely well for enemy-only spells as the ally only has to be in the burst area, not necessarily targeted. Some power swaps can grant more enemy-only blast/bursts.
[COLOR="Black"]Light Shield - +1ac, AND reflex. Plus, you can still HOLD an implement in that hand for its persistent properties. (aka staff of ruin) HOWEVER, as of Arcane Power, all dragon/cosmic sorcs will want Dual Implement Casting, and simply holding a staff is not enough to gain the benefits. Hence, Hide Armor is better than Light Shield with this approach. I recommend STARTING OUT early heroic with light shield, then retraining it to Dual Implement at paragon.
Wintertouched - Usually this is worthless. If you are a Dragon sorcerer with Cold resist/pierce, the Wintertouched/Lasting frost is a good plan. Even better as a Dragonborn with cold breath. Fantastic if your DM lets you use Frost dagger cheese (which WotC has given the thumbs down on). Pretty good with Eldritch gloves to convert a few powers to Cold-based. This feat makes Nimble Blade more valuable due to frequent combat advantage.
Improved Initiative - STR-sorcs can benefit some, but this is Purple for them. Wild sorcs already have great initiative and should take a few ranged burst spells to take advantage. This helps them win initiative and thus catch more baddies in a clump.
Hide armor proficiency - Pumps AC for STR-based sorcs. Applies armor check penalty, and less bonus, so should take this after light shield. It DOES lead to hide spec in paragon/epic for more AC though.
Sorcerer Channeling - Lets you use any RANGED power as a melee one. Adds versatility for dagger-users.Really good for Wild-mages that melee chaos bolt with Wild Spellfury. Also, MAYBE useful for turning your Dragonfrost/Orb of Acid into a "melee basic attack", which is usable for a few things. (This has serious rules issues, so don't proceed without asking your DM.)
Enlarge Spell(Wizard MC, AP) - Lose -2 damage per die, to increase burst/blast size by 1. You must MC wizard to take this feat which is the big drawback, and why this is only Black rated. Otherwise, this is a great feat as most of your burst/blasts are rather small, and the damage dice are relatively small also. Of course, you'd rather pump bursts than blasts, making this a better choice for burst users.
Two weapon fighting - +1 damage untyped. Does NOT increase with tier though. Good since it is a prereq to TWD and TWO. Also, it only works with two MELEE weapons. That said, free damage is always desirable.
Grim Promise - (Intimidate trained) - -2AB to a foe you crit. This is much better as a paragon feat when you have a 10 or 15% crit rate. It adds a nice debuff effect to ALL of your powers. Remember, 15% crit pretty much means that 30% of your hits are gonna be crits. As such, this can be even stronger than Psychic Lock and you don't even have to base your power selection around it!
White Lotus Enervation - When you hit a baddie with an at-will, they take -1 penalty to the defense you hit em with. Potentially better with multiple NAD-targeters in the party.
White Lotus Riposte - When you hit a baddie with an at-will, if they ATTACK you back, they eat CHA-mod damage. Better for close combat sorcerers.
Arcane Familiar(AP) - A familiar gives you a passive ability and an active one. These run the gambit between useless and decent. Dragon 374 has an updated list of familiars including Paragon and Epic upgrades to check out. In general, you can get a resist 5 vs anything you want which is a common use. Some noteworthy familiars are: Ice Mephit(paragon) - minor action to create difficult terrain around the mephit. With a move&minor, you can terrain-bomb and gain some nice control aspects. A badger adds a +1 per tier damage bonus when you are bloodied, making this strong for Dragons that get bloodied often (inner dragon). Another familiar adds resistance to both lightning and thunder which is a good value. Even if your familiar dies, it is no big deal anymore and saves you from eating an attack anyways.
Back to the Wall - Does your DM love walls and lots of terrain? If so, this is a surprisingly decent feat! It adds +1 AC. (and +1AB/dmg to melee attacks) All you have to do is be adjacent to a wall. This falls anywhere between decent and crap, depending on circumstances.
Light Blade Precision/COLOR] - +2 untyped damage vs large or bigger foes with dagger. It is a good damage bonus, but no scaling and fairly situational. Better later on when many foes you face are big.
[COLOR="Purple"]Arcane Spellfury - +1 untyped attack bonus vs a foe that you hit with an at-will. The obvious disadvantages are that you may not want to retarget the same foe(s), and you are not always using at-wills. Hence, in general it gets a lower rating. That said, any untyped attack bonus is a winner, and this is less situational than most. This feat is especially good for melee-centric crit&hit wild sorcs, and/or a sorc whose party can provide free 'basic' attacks. Those in these categories would rate this a lot higher.
Improved Dragon Soul - Adds to your Dragon Soul resistance/pierce bonus. Solid, but it does not come into play often enough to compare to other feats. In paragon/epic this feat is a lot stronger. Furthermore, the feat is worth more if you take one of the Paragon paths to give you a new resist type.
Echoes of Thunder - +1 untyped damage bonus to ALL damage rolls if you hit ANYTHING with a thunder power. Fairly poor for most as its a weapon focus grade pump that is very situational. For a Bard:MC, Voice of Thunder sorc, this becomes MUCH better, almost on par with weaponfocus.
Solid Sound(CON 13, PHB1) - If you focus on Thunder, this might be a thematic choice. Even so, since you can't pump AC, I find this very weak.
Distant Advantage - Another ok feat, but just not good enough. It doesn't say YOU can participate in the flanking. Your allies have to already be flanking, then you get the advantage. Most of your stuff is close burst/blast. It is just about impossible to target a foe that is flanked with AoE and not hit your friends. As such, this feat is not as usable as I'd like. HOWEVER, it goes well with party-friendly burst/blasts, such as the ones you can steal from MC:bard. This feat works better for wild sorc Chaos Bolt spammers as well. Your second problem is that they have to be flanked on YOUR TURN! Many times a monster may move and unflank himself before you get to go!
Nimble Blade - For dagger users. I would not expect you to have combat advantage often enough to take advantage of the AB pump from this. Therefore, this is weak. However, if you trained stealth, went Drow, went Wintercheeze, and/or took Hide in Plain Sight, this may be more valuable.
Focusing Spellfury(AP) - +2 damage AFTER you hit two or more foes with an at-will. Untyped damage, but it's fairly situational and applies to the NEXT attack, not the one that triggers it! Who knows if you will hit with the next one, and how many foes will get hit.
Toughness - More HPs are always good, but just not good enough. Armor and Damage feats are usually better by the time you'd get around to taking this.
Destructive Wizardry(AP, Wiz MC) - Pumps damage rolls when you hit two or more creatures. It scales and is untyped, and applies to the triggering power. MUCH better than the awful Focusing Spellfury. Unfortunately, the ranking is dropped due to Wizard MC and 13 DEX prereq.
Rising Spellfury(AP) - When you hit ONE foe with an at-will, get +1 AB bonus with AoEs. Not terrible, but a fairly situational bonus. Enough to be rather unremarkable.
White Lotus: Defense,Hindrance,Evasion(dragon) - All 3 of these feats are alright, but nothing super great. The Evasion is solid for those that use burning-spray. Being able to shift one for free is nice.
Disciplined Wild Soul - This is not a BAD feat, just not good enough to compete with the above. You can roll twice for your resistance and pick one. While it CAN be great, it usually isn't. With 10 types to roll from, the chances of getting a particular desirable one are small. You could even roll the same number for both rolls!
Melee Training - Worthless for Dragon-sorcs, and wild sorcs will always take Reaper's Touch instead for much better results. Even if disallowed, having a melee basic attack for a wild sorc is just not that handy. They tend to stay out of melee a bit more, and thus even 'free' MBAs will often be wasted. It would be nice to have, but definitely not up to par.
Weapon Proficiency: Parrying Dagger - A +1 AC feat for dagger users. Works nicely for TWF/TWD... you have to carry SOME kind of a weapon offhand for twf/twd. Mine as well get a +1AC for it. HOWEVER, you can get a 'Mage' Parrying Dagger to use as an offhand weapon instead. Its property states that anyone can use it (and thus get +1AC) without needing a feat! Therefore this feat is a total waste, by the time you would take it.
Staff Fighting Technique(Dragon #368? Gladiator) - Was a nice way to get free +1AC and qualify for dualwield feats. Unfortunately, EVERYONE will want to dual-wield implements after Arcane Power. So this feat is now worthless.
Surging Flame - The fire version of lasting frost/wintertouched, except available at HEROIC. When you hit with a fire-power, your fire powers then add 5 damage vs that foe for 1 turn. The main draw of LF/WT is the combat advantage granted. The bad news is that it ONLY really works against fire-resistant foes.
Tempest Magic - Storm sorc only. Adds a FEAT-BONUS to lightning/thunder powers. More if bloodied. TOTALLY worthless, as weapon-focus works for ALL powers with no prereqs. A storm sorc is rarely bloodied, so trying to get bloodied for a tiny damage bonus is foolish.
War Wizardry(FRPG) - You get -5 attack penalty vs allies with your arcane powers, AND do 1/2 damage if you do hit them. While careful targeting is preferred, this feat lets you be a LOT more aggressive about including allies in your blasts and bursts in order to target more foes. This is more true for sorcs than wizards as your status effects are weaker and more scarce. Just don't blast your allies with some nasty save-ends effect power...
Arcane Reach - A level 11 pick for DEX-based sorcs. Makes targeting MUCH easier for many AoE sorcerer powers. By RAW, if you move a close blast/burst, the new origin will be excluded AND (for Burst-only) you will be immune to its effects. Your DM may not agree by the way. In any case, this GREATLY reduces the need for you being in melee next to multiple bad guys.
Resounding Thunder - There is actually a LOT of Thunder-based sorcerer powers. Hence, this could be pretty powerful. Note that it may backfire as most thunder powers are vs Fort, AND are not party-friendly. So increasing a close burst 1 to a 2 may actually cause you to hit party members or move out of shifting distance to your friendly fighter. So keep this in mind as a possible caveat. It also might push you to take less desirable powers so they fit your Thunder-theme. If you wish to go with this approach, consider a bard-multiclass and powerswap their thunder powers also. Consider the Voice of Thunder paragon path too. For this build, this feat is [/b]very good[/b].
Lasting Frost - A dragon sorcerer with Cold resist/pierce can make great use of this. As above, a Dragonborn with cold breath works even better. Frost dagger cheese if allowed is fantastic.
Wild Spellfury(PHB2) - Adds DEX damage to foes adjacent to YOU, when you hit something with sorcerer at-will attacks. This is not super impressive since you only have one AoE at-will and most Wild Sorcs will not use it as much. The trick is to use Chaos Bolt(channeled to melee) (or Burning Spray), to apply the DEX mod multiple times, since EACH foe HIT independently triggers the DEX-damage to surrounding foes. This means using sorcerer blade channeling or Reaper's Touch. If used in this way, this is a crazy good feat.
Arcane Admixture(AP) - Add an elemental damage type to ONE power that you know. Great for themed sorcs such as Cold-based, or Lighting/Thunder based. However, it does cost you a precious paragon feat and only affects ONE power. Make sure it is an at-will or encounter power that you will use every fight.
Psychic Lock(PHB1) - Give -2 penalty to everything you hit with psychic powers. If you were able to find enough psychic powers, this is decent...especially if you are Wild and use Chaos Bolt a lot. AP helped by adding a lot more psychic powers.
Danger Sense(PHB1) - Roll twice for initiative. Weak for STR-based sorcs, but another solid option for Wild ones. Not as good statistically as Improved Init, it helps reduce randomness in your rolls, and really helps prevent very low rolls.
Draconic Spellfury(Fighter MC) - Gain Temp HPs equal to STR when you use an at-will. That is alright, but by the time you get it, it is not as good as it sounds. Remember, your STR mod starts high but only slowly progresses...much slower than damage in general increases. This is more desirable if you have ways to get free attacks, such as friendly warlord, or you are using two weapon opening cheese. I mean, having temp HPs is NEVER a bad thing! It is a matter of prioritization. Also consider that you usually need/want temp HPs at the beginning of a battle, but at-will spamming tends to occur at the end of a battle!
White Lotus Master Riposte(dragon) - You get to repeat your at-will attack as an immediate interrupt if a foe attacks you. This is a solid source of extra damage per round and the best of the White Lotus feats.
Two Weapon Opening - If you crit, can make a 'melee basic attack' with the offhand weapon. Normally this sucks. Even a dragon mage would not be overly impressed with an offhand dagger melee attack, and it requires TWFighting. A wild mage would have to take Combat Training too for a decent attack. The cheese is as follows: you can use the offhand weapon as an implement to cast DragonFrost/AcidOrb using Reaper's touch or MAYBE Sorc Channeling. Expect your DM to object. If they don't, then this is very good, and is in fact a strong bonus damage source. Only DEX Sorcs would have two daggers, and thus use this feat. This means sacrificing Staff of Ruin. A dagger/staff won't work due to the requirement for WIELDING two MELEE weapons. Holding a staff offhand doesn’t work. Finally, you must make the free attack against the foe you CRIT! So if you crit one with Burning Spray from 2 squares away, it is effectively wasted.
Arcane Flexibility - If you crit, change power damage type to what you are resistant to. Not bad, but it only works on crits. Clearly it is stupidity to throw a power at a foe and hope you crit so you can change the type to something they don’t resist. However, since wild sorcs cannot choose powers based on their resist/pierce, this might have some limited use.
Sorcerous Vision(AP) - Use Arcane for Perception. If your group is hard up for a detect-o bot, maybe take this. There are lots of ways to pump Arcane checks, even with your lousy INT. Optimizable to ridiculous levels.
Cosmic Spellfury - If you hit with an at-will, gain a decent phase-related benefit. The benefits are actually pretty solid, but it will be hard to fit this in.
Storm Spellfury(AP) - When you hit with an at-will, can fly 2 squares for free. Generally this is not all that useful, as flying provokes AoOs. So, if you really NEED to fly, you won't be able to.
Sorcerous Reserves - +1 AB to at-wills, when you are out of dailys. You generally use your dailys at the END of a day, not early on. Anything to encourage wasting of dailys is a bad thing. This is certainly not strong enough to qualify.
Hide armor specialization - Requires 15 CON, so with the new typical STR-sorc attribute spread, you will not be able to take this.
Epic Resurgence - Pretty much everyone takes this somewhere at epic. The sorcerer with jagged dagger or daggermaster will benefit more than average due to increased crit rate.
Epic Defense Feats(PHB2) - Boring, but effective. Big +4 UNTYPED bonus to a defense. Good for filling in the gaping defense hole (Fort for Wild, Reflex for Dragon)
Robust Defenses(PHB2) - Boring, but effective. Retrain whatever feat-based defense booster you might have taken earlier (combat anticipation, paragon defenses, iron will, etc.) and use this instead.
Sorcerous Flux - Lets you swap attack rolls after rolling for two foes. Pretty good for those multi-target spells as you can help ensure that the target you want to hit gets the bigger die roll. Especially good for targeting lots of baddies then moving the Critical hit onto the focus-fire target!
Ruthless Spellfury(AP) - When you crit with an at-will, you get a free at-will attack. This is a sweet deal if you have multi-hit at-wills. Users of burning spray and Blazing Starfall (and chaos bolt, sort-of) will benefit.
Quickened Casting(AP) - Once per encounter, use a chosen at-will as a minor action. Alright, but not that great unless you've really pumped up your at-will. Good with Ruthless Spellfury above and an improved size Burning Arc/Blazing Starfall.
Irrestable Flame - Minus 20 Fire resistance for foes hit. This works nicely for a dragon sorcerer that chose Fire as their element. They already knock down quite a bit of resistance, and this ensures that only fire-immune will elude your spell damage. Still, by this time you have enough resistance/pierce to strip off most non-immune resistance anyways.
Spell Mastery(PHB1, Wizard) - Omit WIS-# of squares from your AoE powers. If you took Wizard MC to use their big walls and dailies, you qualify for this. Even with a 12 WIS, being able to GUARANTEE 1 ally won't be targeted by your AoE is a nice ability. War wizard is likely to be more useful overall though.
Arcane Mastery(PHB1, Wizard) - Spend an Action Point to get back a wizard daily. If you really like walls and sustainables, you can use APs to keep retrieving them.
Master of the Cosmic Cycle(AP, Cosmic) - When you shift phase, pick one of the other 2. You generally do NOT want to shift phase. If you do, at least this lets you use a Daily and fix it. Useful, but not super strong.
Explosive Spellcasting(AP) - When you crit with an AoE, can apply the crit damage to any single target you hit. Kind of an odd way to rearrange damage in a more strikery manner. Unfortunately, as before, your crit dice just aren't that strong. War Ring damage does NOT apply for this feat, by the way.
Sorcerer Implement Expertise(AP) - Increases crit range to 19-20. Good except for 2 big problems. First, you ALREADY have 10% thru jagged dagger, and maybe 15% thru daggermaster. So a simple item duplicates this epic feat. Secondly, the prereqs are crazy! You'd need a 13 starting OFFSTAT to qualify, or burn points pumping your offstat, both of which are bad. For STR-sorcs, at least a 13DEX pumps their initiative, reflex defense, and allows Dual Implement in heroic. DEX-sorcs gain just about nothing from a higher starting STR. I would avoid this, unless you are actually STARTING your character at epic. In that case, it is an option.
Trusted Spellcasting(AP) - One encounter power becomes reliable. Reliable really isn't that great, especially when your better powers will likely be multi-target, thus you really shouldnt miss all targets. This is just not worth an epic feat slot.
Fury of the Storm(AP, STORM-only) - When you crit, maximize extra crit dice. It sounds fantastic, but um...WHAT extra crit dice? Jagged has NO CRIT dice whatsoever! A storm sorc will likely NOT go daggermaster and thus won't be able to benefit from any other dagger type. This is usually worthless. HOWEVER, a storm mage that takes Daggermaster over a Lighting/Thunder PP is in for a treat! They can use a War Ring, flame bracer, Devastating Crits, and other crit dice pumpers and get them maximized. Then with a bloodiron dagger, they get big d10 crit dice to maximize, AND deal the crit damage AGAIN next turn. Also, explosive spellcasting can be used to great effect to dump all the crit damage onto a focus-fire target.
Draconic Spellcasting(AP) - (Heroic, Dragonborn) Crazy good feat that adds a feat Attack Bonus when you use a power with the same keyword as your breath. This means you can benefit from an elemental theme build in mid-heroic instead of paragon or epic. It IS a feat bonus, but nothing else currently provides feat attack bonuses that is relevant. To make this MORE overpowered, it increases to +2/+3 later on! DragonFrost in epic with this, Eagle Eye +3, and Implement Mastery +3 is EXTREMELY accurate. Things such as Rod of the Dragonborn, Eldritch Gloves, etc can assist with adding the correct keyword to your attacks.
Versatile Multiclassing(PHB2) - (Half-elf, Paragon) This feat alone makes the half-elf a contender for a strong sorc. You might get some use out of bardic Lilting Refrain, or some Warlock at-will. The key is to steal ANY class's powers in Paragon. You can dig through the guides and find the best powers from several classes and cherry pick. However, it is restricted somewhat in that you can only steal up to a level 7 encounter and level 10 utility (and level 19 daily). Most of the really good ones are higher level, thus making this not nearly as strong as I thought.
Action Surge(Human, Heroic) - +3 attack bonus when using an AP. Very strong ability, though a bit overrated. You can use 1 AP on encounter 1,3,5. So it is less than 1 per encounter. Do not prioritize this over consistent bonuses that are always in effect.
Brutal Teamwork(Dragonborn, Rogue) - +2 damage when adjacent to an ally. This feat is a solid damage boost which can be pretty much always active, though it does not scale. However, it is pretty limited in scope as only a STR-based dragonborn that goes Daggermaster qualifies. If you happen to go with such, this is a solid feat.
Lost in the Crowd(Halfling, Heroic) - You get +2 stacking AC when next to 2 medium sized enemies. This is a pretty likely scenario, and thus a solid feat.
Darkwinter Wild Soul(Shadar-Kai) - Automatically pick resist necrotic or Cold instead of rolling. Normally not that great, but allows some specialty builds. Hard to rate really.
Dragonborn Frenzy(PHB2, Dragonborn, Heroic) - +2 dmg when bloodied. I just don't like this all that much. It doesn't scale with tier and I'd much rather have a feat that gives a consistent bonus, such as weapon focus or an armor feat. The big problem is that it would be really good in Heroic, but you just need to take other feats that are simply better. By the time you can take it, it has lost some value. Note that the DPR-at-level30 calculators love it! Also, really good for Inner Dragon takers.
Drow Weapon Training(Drag#367, Drow, Heroic, DEX15) - Lets you use a hand crossbow offhand with no AoOs for shooting at point blank. THIS WILL CANCEL TWF and TWD feat benefits!! This is SOLELY used by Wild sorcerer MC:rogues in combo with...
Two Fisted Shooter(non-racial, Heroic, rogue) - Not a Drow feat, but used ONLY with the above. By carrying a dagger as implement in 1 hand and hand xbow in the other, you get a FREE SHOT when you crit. With jagged dagger/daggermaster/wild sorcerer this is a 15% crit rate! Due to your high DEX, this attack is accurate and deals respectable damage AND lets you focus fire effectively. It works without provoking AoOs which is KEY as sorcs are usually within melee range. Unfortunately, most sorcs after AP will want Dual Implement casting instead to add a solid damage bonus to ALL their attacks.
Arcane Reserves(Human, arcane) - When you are out of encounter attack powers, get +2 damage to at-wills. Not bad, but hard to find a place for. At level 2 I'd rather have +1AB and +2AC. By 4, weapon focus is more reliable so I prefer it. At 6, many will take Dual Implement Spellcasting. By 8, you have 3 encounter powers you'd have to get rid of before you get any use out of it. At 11, it does not scale and becomes even more outclassed by weapon focus, etc. With 4 enc powers at 11+, it takes too long before the bonus kicks in.
Draconic Arrogance - (MP, Dragonborn, Paragon, Fighter) Adds STR damage to any push or knockdown. So-so for a typical build. Very strong for a specific Dragonborn dragon-build that focuses on Pushing/Knockdown i.e. uses Dragonfrost a lot. This gives you a very respectable at-will 'basic attack' striker power. You need to MC:fighter to take advantage of this. Don't forget the Assault Boots!
Enlarged Dragon Breath - (PHB1, Dragonborn, Heroic) - Makes dragon breath bigger. Terrible feat, as most of your powers are blast 3! Turning your breath into a blast 5 will actually make you hit more allies than enemies. At the least, it probably won't help much.
Sorcerous Assassin(AP,Drow) - +2 feat damage bonus for poison/psychic vs combat-advantage foes. Garbage since it does NOT stack with weaponfocus. It provides more benefit in heroic(but does NOT scale), but is very conditional.
Multiclass Feats - See next section.
My Sorc Guide Link: http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19649162/Joes_Sorcerer_Guide_AP_update_51509
My Genesi Wizard Blaster Link: http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/25082729/Miniguide_to_Genesi_LightningThunder_Blaster_Wizard_%2806-2010%29
Bard - Get a nice heal with CHA-bonus included and a useful skill training feat with a nice variety of choices. Allows access to bardic power swaps. Some of these are pretty good. The bard powers have lower damage (which you will pump with your STR/DEX and offhand Staff of Ruin). However they are ALL CHA-based (including many of their rider effects), and you can find some good ranged BURSTS (many of which hit foes-only) which used to be hard to come by as a sorc. This MC option works decently for ANY sorcerer. Plus, it opens some good Paragon Paths. Consider using a special dagger that is usable as a bardic implement. (or just draw a wand as needed) Voice of Thunder is an EXCELLENT fit for sorcs. Take Resounding Thunder to increase your AoE sizes, use this PP to enhance your Thunder powers, and then benefit from the Path thunder-based powers as well. Finally, power-swap as needed for even more good thunder-based bardic powers.
Warlock - Surprisingly lousy. All the CHA-based powers in PHB 1 are SINGLE TARGET ONLY! Since warlock powers are balanced around Prime Shot, Curse, and Pacts, they will be underwhelming for a sorcerer. If you desire more mobility and temp HPs, invisibility, etc, you might consider swapping a few strategic powers. However, you would need a Rod, Wand, or Pact Dagger to do so. Paragon Paths revolve around Pacts, which you won't have as a multiclasser. The one big advantage they have is that it allows use of Eldritch Gloves (1/enc ability to add damage and a keyword to a power basically), and allows Rods to be wielded. This is particularly good for a Rod of the Dragonborn.
Paladin - Usually lousy. Their powers are Divine, not Arcane. So you don't even get your sorcerer damage bonus. Marking is generally useless too, except for fairly specialized cases. In those cases, a MC pally does give you a powerful marking ability that provides pretty high ongoing damage. Any tankish build may consider this. At first the MorningLord path looked strong. However, I was reminded that you would lose a ton of damage from your Arcane sorc bonus and feats, making this fairly weak. Note that the paladin mark can be pretty strong when used correctly. First, it works for an entire encounter and doesn't wear off as long as you keep attacking that foe. Second it deals CHA-based damage in addition to the -2. This opens up a dirty strategy where you mark a BBEG, hide in the back and force him to take ongoing damage and -2 AB. In addition, a Dragon Guardian might consider this MC for an additional marking ability.
Rogue - Good for DEX-sorcs. Thievery is a good skill to have, and since you are likely using a dagger as an implement, you even get a free 1/enc sneak attack. In fact, at heroic that adds a pretty much guaranteed +7 ave dmg per encounter. This is about on par with your weapon focus. You could power-swap some utilities to assist with sneaking, though sorcerer utilities are already pretty strong, not to mention that sorcerers require mobility. If only it trained Stealth instead of the more specialized Thievery. The DaggerMaster is an excellent PP. The 18-20 crit is the main factor, and the DEX-based dagger powers are not wasted.
MC: Ruthless Efficiency(rogue) - It trains stealth which is good. However it only adds Ruthless Ruffian (which is probably useless). I guess it beats Skill Training if you were gonna go Rogue anyways. MC: Sly Dodge (rogue) - It trains Bluff or Intimidate , AND lets you gain your CHA bonus vs Attacks of Opp once per encounter! 1/enc. This is extremely good when you really need to toss a ranged power and can't shift away from all the baddies.
Fighter - Surprisingly good for Dragon Sorcs. The +1 AB free action works as a limited wizard-wand-mastery since you use 'weapons' for your powers, and marks for 1 turn. You also get a useful skill training. Kensai is a very unusual but very effective Paragon path. +1 AB and +4 damage for ALL powers is the main draw. And there are no wasted PP powers either. In fact, the PP powers are pretty good for a frontline sorc! Iron Vanguard is usable for a narrow subset of push-based builds.
MC: Battle Awareness (Fighter) - Make a 'melee basic attack' against a foe that shifts or attacks someone other than you. With several ways to turn your powers into basic-melees, or just bash their heads in, this is a pretty decent ability. However, you NEED to stay next to the defender for this to work. Otherwise, why would anyone pass up the squishy sorc striker to attack someone else?
Ranger - This is a very narrow, but powerful option. The quarry is quite usable and adds a bit of extra damage for 2 rounds potentially. Skill training is not bad either, especially for a Wild-mage to pick up a DEX-based skill. Or a Dragon to get Endurance. The main draw, however, is to abuse the level 5 daily, Spitting Cobra Stance. This lets you spam your at-will's that count as ranged basic attacks vs incoming foes. If you use this cheesy combo, be sure to pick up Salves of Power so you can re-use it more than once per day. Note: This will work a LOT better for wild-mages because of your much higher Initiative. You really need to win initiative to take full advantage. No paragon paths of note.
Wizard - This is very tempting, due to the awesome wizard dailies that SHAME sorcerer powers. With a shared staff implement this is even more tempting, especially with the sorc-damage bonus. However, lack of INT makes most powers worthless since you cannot hit. Plus, the skill training of Arcane is totally worthless, and you can't even retrain out of it! (as far as I know) Still, you may consider picking up some of the walls or auto-hit sustainables. All in all, this is still a fairly weak option as the Wiz MC feat itself is worthless. Note that some new feats make this option more desirable, such as Enlarge spell and Spell Mastery. No paragon paths of note.
Warlord - Solid for a Dragon. You get a solid emergency heal and decent skill training. There are several decent Paragon Paths if you need some leader. Battle Captain is solid. Battlelord of Kord is strong, with a ridiculously broken 20 daily that lets you spam Dragonfrost 7 to 9 times in 1 action!!
Barbarian - Needs a 13 STR and CON, which most non-staff fighting technique Dragons should have. No decent Paragon Paths, and I didn't see much in the way of power swaps (though their Rage daily's may be better overall). However, just the MC feat itself gives skill training, AND a free action daily for +2 damage to ALL powers for the whole encounter. Sadly, since this is a daily, it falls far short of what a rogue MC sneak gets you.
Cleric - Requires a 13 WIS which hurts, AND gives you the worthless Religion skill. It gives an emergency heal, but more importantly access to the Divine Oracle. You would NEVER take this Multiclass without taking Div Oracle.
I will skip the other classes with no synergy such as Swordmage, Druid, Invoker, etc. If I see something interesting, Ill reconsider.
Powers of the Sorcerer
When rating powers, many things apply. This is what I look at:
Full Spectrum Usage - The first thing to consider is that a level 1 encounter power is used at level 1, THROUGH TWELVE without fail. As such, you must look at the full spectrum of a power's usage, NOT just the level where it is first gained! Consider each power in context, as what is gold at 1 may be crap at 12 and vice versa. FURTHERMORE, I have to analyze with all possible builds. A power may be great for a cold-sorc, but average for most others. This has to be considered. On the other hand, a STR-based power is of no use to a DEX-sorc, so I only look at the relevant use cases of STR-sorcs. It would be dumb to rate-down a great power because the other attribute sorcs cannot use it effectively.
Damage - I am wary of damage dice when evaluating! Sorc static mods are heavy. At level 1, you typically have an 18 CHA and 18 STR/DEX for +8 to ALL your powers. By level 12, you will have about +20. You could optimize to cough up to +23 or more. At level 22, you are probably close to +30. This means that the difference between a crap 1d6 power and an uber 3d10 power is not as much as you think at level 12. (23.5 vs 36.5) It is significant, but not the most important thing. I always use average dice values to get a better picture. 6d6=21, 3d10 = 16.5, and so forth. Many people call one power 'heavy damage' and another one 'weak damage' when there is maybe a 5 point difference in just the DICE between them. This is poor analysis.
Accuracy - What defense is targeted vs what types of monsters are expected to be targeted is significant. For example, a close burst power like Bedeviling burst WILL be hitting Brutes. But the power attacks WILL! This makes it extremely accurate. On the other hand, attacking Fortitude with a close power is inaccurate. On the other hand, a ranged vs Fort power that pulls foes in is INTENDED to be used vs leaders and others with lower fort and is more accurate vs them. Vs Reflex is generally an 'average' accuracy case. This is not a be-all-end-all, but it can make the difference between a 35% hit chance and a 65% chance attacking a 17 Will vs a 23 fort brute for example.
Number of Targets - The more foes you can hit the better! In general you want to focus damage on one foe. But, sorcs are made to hit multiple foes. As such, I consider hitting a second foe to be about 67% as good as hitting the first. The third foe is about 50% as good, and so forth. This is a bit more generous than the standard mathematical 100%,50%,25%,12.5%... progression established in mathcraft.
Ease of Targeting - In theory a blast 3 can hit 9 foes and no allies. This does not happen. Blasts are the hardest to aim. Bursts are second hardest as foes generally don't like to clump together. Powers that specifically target multiple foes without needing a clump are GOLD!
Friendly Fire - Correlary to the above. Party-friendly powers that damage foes-only are fantastic! Strikers hit a LOT harder than the typical foe. Hitting your party-mate is about equal to him eating about 3 or 4 normal monster attacks!
Auto-damage - A power that automatically deals damage is about equal to dealing TWICE that with a hit roll. Example: Flame Spiral's 1d6+10 autohit is equal to a 27 damage attack at a 50% chance to hit.
Effects - Powers have a variety of nasty status effects inflicted. Some are good, some suck. Some vary based on the power's intended target. Slowing brutes at range is awesome! Slowing brutes with a close blast is so-so. Sliding foes 2 squares in melee can be strong. Sliding the enemy controller 2 squares who is 12 squares off is worthless.
Element - Some elements are better than others. Psychic is near worthless though harder to resist. (not enough psychic stuff to justify psychic lock) Thunder can be size-boosted and is common with storm mages. A thunder burst has more potential than a thunder 1-target power. Cold is abusable with wintercheese. Acid doesn't have much going for it. Fire is commonly resisted. Poison has the most IMMUNES which really hoses you.
Multi-attacks A few powers hit the foe TWICE. These are ALWAYS uber. Hitting one foe twice, adding full mods to each attack is a LOT better than a burst that might hit 2 foes. These really help drop a single target quickly.
Close - Close powers have crap range, but provoke no AoO. This tradeoff can range from great to poor. A back-row sorc will find this close to useless, but a str-close combat sorc finds this invaluable. This must be analyzed according to what the power's purpose is.
Sustainable - Sorcs have FEW sustainables. Sustains are pure gold as they give you a way to use unused minor and move actions to deal effects and damage. Sustaining a level 1 Howling Tempest on just ONE foe is almost as good as getting a free at-will attack vs them. Sustains are FAR better for long ranged dex-sorcs, than for STR-ones that are usually more close-combat and more prone to getting dazed and/or needing their movement action.
Riders - Based on magic type, many powers have riders. These range from awesome (Dragon rider for Admantine echoes) to crap (storm's lousy split-the-damage option of Lighting Strike). These are also situationally analysed based on the typical style of that magic type. I.E. A pull is good for a Dragon-sorc but lousy for a storm-sorc.
Example Analysis: Bedeviling Burst (1 enc). Close burst 3. targets 2 foes. vs Will. d10. pushes DEX-mod. (slides if Wild). Psychic keyword. How do we rate this? Its used from level 1 to 12. Static mods of +8 to +20 typicaly apply. +14 average. Pushes 4 or 5 typically. Provokes no AoO and range 3 is short but still doable. Easily able to hide behind the fighter and still hit 2 foes. The power is very easy to use. By round 2, finding 2 foes in melee is trivial. The push is useful to help keep foes from flanking OR to push em back to the defender. By hitting WILL vs intended targets of melee-ranged foes, it is extremely accurate. The damage die of d10 is fairly low. Even so, damage averages 19.5 vs 2 foes = 32 (second target is 67% value). Drawback is there no abusable element and weak range. Overall, this is a superb power and the best of the level 1s in my opinion for most builds. Thunder Slam in comparison hits for 2d10 for average of 5.5x2+14 = 25, is very inaccurate, has similar control to BB, better range but provokes AoO. You can see that it is quite a bit weaker than BB for an average case.
-----------------------
Many powers have Riders that add extra damage. This is subject to some debate, and many powers will lose or gain effectiveness based on your interpretation. 1d6 vs all adjacent sucks, but 1d6 +15 or so static mods is ridiculously good!
Customer Service has stated that only INITIAL damage gets static mods. Secondary damage does NOT. This is fairly radical as just about everyone on CharOp has added mods to all secondarys, except Blood Pulse.
This CS reply does make a lot of sense, even though my reading of the PHB would NEVER have come to that conclusion. I still don't get it actually. In any case, there is quite a bit of furor over this, so ASK YOUR DM early on. This WILL affect your power selection criteria.
I asked about 1)Stinking Cloud, 2)Twin Strike, 3)Druidic At-wills with no WIS stat added. 4)Blood Pulse and 5) Hellish Rebuke.
reply (cut pre/post text for brevity) A damage roll is defined on pg.276 of the Player's Handbook for the purposes of bonus damage. It says that damage bonuses such as those from feats or from a weapon's enhancement bonus are applied to the initial *damage rolls* of successful attacks. Therefore if the roll is not an initial damage roll, you are not applying bonus damage to the effect. Also, this means that if you damage someone as part of an effect without making an attack against them, damage bonuses do not apply.
Example 1) The later rounds of the Stinking Cloud do not benefit from bonus damage because the damage in question is not the direct result of you making a successful attack.
Example 2) Yes, because these are damage rolls resulting from attacks, you apply bonus damage to each of the attacks from a Twin Strike.
Example 3) Yes, Chill Wind and Flame Seed benefit from bonus damage for the same reason as Example 2 above.
Example 4) The 1d6 damage from leaving squares is not damage resulting from a direct attack roll. Therefore no bonus damage is dealt.
Example 5) No extra damage is applied because of the same reason as Example 4 above.
Acid Orb - A top pick for a Dragon sorcerer that goes with acid, which is not really a great idea. Sorcs are on the front line mostly, so the 20 range is probably not needed. Still, it affects reflex which is decent and is a ranged basic attack. The RBA is the key, as you can pump up the accuracy of this power using an Eagle Eye goggles and Bracers of True Shot, not to mention free attacks from Bards/Warlords potentially. Most sorcs will want this over DragonFrost since Reflex is easier to hit.
Burning Spray - Great pick for ALL sorcs as it is the only AoE at-will (before Arcane Power), not to mention being your only Close attack too. Dragons get a nice bonus. If you do not have Sorc Channeling or Reaper's Touch, strongly consider this. Anyone considering Wild Spellfury should take this.
Chaos Bolt - A Solid pick for all sorcs, as it attacks WILL. Wild sorcs will rely on this heavily for its pseudo-multitarget bonus, while still working great as a solid 'true striker' power. Psychic Lock adds even more bonus at Paragon. The big weakness is that you only get 2 at-wills, and most will want a Ranged Basic Attack and an AoE which leaves this out in the cold! Sadly, this is really only used by Wild-sorcs.
Dragonfrost - This one is so-so. It IS a basic ranged attack which is valuable. However, it affects Fort which makes it less accurate than Acid Orb in general. The push seems handy, but stuff you WANT to push will be hard to hit with fort. A push vs an artillery/caster doesn't really do much... The two main users of this power are dragonborn with Draconic Arrogance, who can add their STR mod AGAIN on a hit. For them, this is their premier spell and worth pumping up with Eagle Eye/Bracers of True Shot. The other user is a cold-based sorcerer.
Storm Walk - Shift is nice, but it attacks Fort and is not a ranged basic attack. Hence, it falls short.
Blazing Starfall - A ranged 10 burst 1 with fire AND radiant types. This is a fantastic at-will, and really allows sorcerers to choose a stay-back-and-shoot approach but still deal solid AoE damage. Previously, Wild mages had to depend on chaos bolt and hope it jumps and a handful of ranged multitarget spells, OR they pretty much picked single-target ranged spells. This power means you always have a second burst to punish foes with a Nova when you win initiative, as well as hit the clumps without being forced into taking ranged burst encounter/daily powers. The Cosmic Rider is even better and is probably what the wizard Scorching Burst should have been in the first place! It is generally a lot easier to hit multiple foes with this over Burning Spray and Chaos Bolt. Another fun abuse of this power is to Admixture it to Thunder with Resounding Thunder, and/or Enlarge it such that you can increase burst size. A fun epic tactic is to combo with War Wizardry so you can dump it on the party every round, and then with Reckless Spellcasting to get free attacks on a crit.
Lightning Strike(AP) - Ranged 10 cleave basically. Hits reflex, adds DEX-mod automatically to another foe. Storm magic lets you add your STORM-MAGIC modifier to the secondary foe instead. All this does is further split your damage, and is total crap. This is NOT a ranged basic attack, so it loses potential boosts from Eagle Eye/Bracers of True Strike, as well as other RBA applications. It is just not good enough, even for a storm mage.
Arcing Fire(PH Heroes 1) - Ranged 10 1d8 fire damage. Also deals DEX-mod damage to any foe that provides COVER for the target. Yuck! You generally don't want to attack things with cover if possible. Plus, you have to HIT the target to damage the foe providing cover! Possibly adequate for those with a phasing weapon, but even then it is too situational. I mean... just use a Blazing Starfall burst instead!
A dragon should take Burning Spray for sure as they will usually be in melee range. Then, they should take one of the ranged basic attacks, as you will want to get Bracers of True Shot or whatever (and the eagle eye goggles) to pump this 'striker-esque' power. A push or cold-based build will take Dragonfrost. All others take Acid Orb. A human would take Chaos Bolt as a will-targeting power as their 3rd, or possibly the Blazing Starfall.
A wild-mage sorc should take Chaos Bolt for sure early, as it is a solid vs-will spell with a potential bounce. Later on, they will need to decide between sticking with it for the multi-target hopeful effect and Psychic Lock... OR going with the ranged basic attack pumpers and switching to AcidOrb or Dragonfrost. This varies depending on warlord availability in party (which can give basic attacks...so you need to have one!) and availability of stuff like Bracers of True Shot(+dmg to ranged basic attack) ,Eagle Eye goggles(+1/2/3AB to ranged basic atk), and Tooth of Chaos(control odd/evenness of dice for guaranteed Chaos-bolt bouncing)
For your wild-mage's second spell, Blazing Starfall is a shoo-in to allow you to stay out of melee and still deal AoE damage, as well as help you benefit from your high initiative to hit clumps before they get to move. With no close spell, you will want to prioritize Sorc Channeling or Reaper's Touch.
At paragon levels, this may change for wild-mages. You might retrain Blazing Starfall to get Burning Spray as your second at-will for the AoE effect at Close range. It can be VERY vicious with Wild Spellfury, which requires melee range.
So the choice for a wild-mage comes down to whether you want to play in melee range for superior DPS, or if you emphasize safety while hiding behind the rest of the party.
Being human is helpful for a wild-mage as they can really use the bonus at-will. In that case, you can use the above logic to decide your third.
The cosmic sorcerer has several playstyles. Their bonuses are more appropriate for close range combat, though the powers with Cosmic riders are almost all ranged, including their very strong Blazing Starfall. One good approach is to focus on Cold since this is one of their resist types. As such, consider DragonFrost. You will then either go with Burning Spray or Blazing Starfall. Starfall is much stronger but probably does not work with your playstyle as well.
The storm sorcerer is dex-based and mostly sticks with ranged attacks. Their special at-will is pretty lousy though. It's quite good at first (1d8 +CHA +DEX +DEX(to another target)), but soon falls by the wayside as your static-mods pile up. Start with it, but retrain it by level 8 most likely to one of the 'ranged basic attacks'. The second at-will is probably blazing starfall.
My Sorc Guide Link: http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19649162/Joes_Sorcerer_Guide_AP_update_51509
My Genesi Wizard Blaster Link: http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/25082729/Miniguide_to_Genesi_LightningThunder_Blaster_Wizard_%2806-2010%29
Bedeviling Burst - Close burst 3, but you pick the 2 targets. Only 2 targets is a limitation, but considering it hits Will, does some damage, no AoOs, and throws foes back a lot of squares, it is very solid. Party friendly is very important in heroic. A strong pick, even for STR-based sorcs.
Explosive Pyre - 1-target mediocre attack. However, it auto-damages all ENEMIES(only) adjacent to your TARGET. (I misread this initially!) This basically becomes a conditional ranged burst that will not affect your friends. A very impressive power.
Frostbind - 1 target power with decent damage. However, hits Fort with a fairly weak -2 reflex rider effect. Even cold-focused dragons will avoid this.
Tempest Breath - A close blast 3 with only a marginal boost over the at-will Burning Spray. As such, I have reevaluated this power thusly: This power works EXACTLY the same as Burning Spray. Therefore, if in the situation to use this, just use burning spray instead. Then pick a different power to provide you with more versatility. I found this power to be a waste and I was often wishing I had taken another power for situational diversity.
Thunder Slam - Weak single target vs Fort that pushes. Once again, anything easily hit by Fort probably doesn't need pushing.
Ray of the Moon(AP) - Single target Cold spell that effectively immobilizes a foe already in melee. The cosmic rider is gravy. Much better than frost-bind.
Tearing Claws(AP) - Close burst 1 with push1 (3 if dragon & foe bloodied). Decent since it is enemy only, but I'd prefer a Burning Spray or even the burst 3 range of Bedeviling burst. Even if you are push-based, this is too weak to keep at later levels, since push-based goodness doesn't really kick in until paragon.
Mists of Disarray(AP) - Ranged burst 1 with push 1. Wild flips for a DEX-square slide. Affects Will which is nice vs the brutes. A decent spell. One of only 2 ranged bursts now available at lvl 1.
Pinning Bolt(AP) - Ranged single target. Knocks prone & slows. Probably the best single target spell at this level.
Thundering Roar(AP) - Close blast 3. Same as tempest breath, except a -2 AB rider to those hit instead of the more 'selfish' concealment for Dragons. Hits fort which is tough for a blast. If you have burning spray, you'd use that instead. If you don't, you'd want Bedeviling instead since you dont have to get as close to hit with it.
Whirlwind(AP) - Ranged burst 1 with knockdown. KD is a better condition than a 50/50 push/slide most of the time. However, targeting Fort vs brutes drops it rating.
Chromatic Orb - 1-target spell with a random rider effect. 4.5 damage less than Dazzling Ray, but a guaranteed rider effect hit or miss. Randomness of the effect makes it less than optimal to me though. Note that STR-sorcs get a worthless effect 33% of the time(DEX-based), and so should pass. DEX-sorcs will strongly consider this for its single target hitting power and guaranteed effect.
Dazzling Ray - 1-target high damage power that hits Will. If you hit, Wild-sorcs get a Flip for a so-so status condition. No condition on a miss though. 6d6 = 21 average damage. It seems really high, but consider that ongoing damage 5 = about 10 damage worth. By mid-heroic, a multi-target power hits a lot harder overall.
Dragonfang Bolt - A rare ranged attack with 2 targets that hits Fort. A good option for those spread out fights, or to hit 2 of the back row baddies hard. I'd probably take this over Chromatic Orb IF a dragon. 2d8+mods +poison 5 vs TWO foes is better than 3d10 +a random mod that could even still be just poison 5 (or do nothing based on your weak DEX).
Lightning Breath - Blast 3. Marginally more damage than the at-will blast 3. For dragons, adds a Push 1 to the 'hitback' of the at-will effect. Having it as a persistable effect is nice, but you really cannot absorb THAT many actual hits before dying anyways. I am not sure this is worth a daily. In fact, I'd rather have the conceal bonus of the Encounter 1 to avoid getting hit in the first place. And I rated that one pretty low.
Cosmos Call(AP) - 1-target power with weaker damage than a chromatic orb, but better status effects and hits will. However, it ONLY adds the effect if it hits! The randomness of the status effect makes it worthless for non-cosmic. Daze is great, but even a cosmic should probably take one of the top 3 powers instead.
Blinding Bolt(AP) - 1-target power. Blind is a great status effect, even for 1 turn. However, the damage is horrible and a miss does very little.
Howling Tempest(AP) - Ranged burst 1 that Deafens(WTF?), does poor damage, and slides DEX-squares. Mediocre so far. However, it makes a SUSTAINABLE, MOVABLE zone that auto-zaps creatures for CHA-mod every round. It is very odd that the initial effect lets you slide foes out of the zone when you'd likely rather keep them in the zone to inflict damage. In any case, sustainable damage zones is very strong. It's no Flaming Sphere(wizard), but sustains are very rare for sorcs and this is a decent one.
Ice Javelins(AP) - Like dragonfang bolt, except -3.5 damage per foe and slightly less Miss effects. In exchange though it hits THREE targets instead, is COLD-based, and hits Reflex. That is a good tradeoff and this power is definitely a winner and all-purpose solid power.
Shocking Magnetism(AP) - Hits 2 foes, PULLS them toward you (DEX-mod) and does DEX-damage to adjacent foes for the encounter. Great power, but DEX-based sorcs generally don't want to get close. Would be MUCH higher rated if STR-based. Would make more sense too. Note that this is a VERY good power for DEX-melee sorcs in early paragon. A daily 1 is cheap, Power-salveable, pulls foes to your range, and best of all, deals DEX-mod to ALL adjacent foes every round. By 15 though it will be retrained, so there is a narrow window of use.
Grounding Rebuke(Dragon, White Lotus) - Close burst 10 immediate reaction to being hit by anything. Reduces damage taken by CHA-mod, counter-attacks that foe for d10, slows(save ends), slides 2. Miss: slide 1, half dmg. This power may be taken instead of a normal level 1 daily, just like Arcane Power's new stuff can. It is a weak defensive utility. That's the thing though... it LOOKS like it acts like a Utility moreso than a Daily. But really, it only saves you CHA-mod damage which isn't much especially for a Daily. Also, you have less control over when the ability is usable. The slow/slide effects are nice, but slowing a foe already in melee doesn't do much good, nor does slowing a foe at range that can already HIT you. The main benefit really is that it is a 'free' out of turn attack which lets you use an at-will or other power instead of using your standard action to cast this. In other words, this power doesn't have to be as good as the other dailys. It just has to be better than the DIFFERENCE between tossing a daily and an at-will. If that makes sense. The other level 1 daily's really aren't amazing, so this is worth considering.
Dragonflame Mantle – Encounter interrupt to add +1 defenses and 1d6 to foes that hit. It basically does two things that are in opposition to each other, weakening the overall effect. Most of the time this is usable to punish one foe that hits you, thus giving you a 'free' attack. With static mods, and factoring in auto-damage, this is about equal to getting a free at-will attack vs the foe. (at 1, d10+8=13.5 acid orb. This does d6+4=7.5 autodmg)
Elemental Shift – Shift your resist type AND share with a buddy. This does NOTHING for storm or cosmic sorcs by RAW though.
Stretch Spell – Increases a power's range. This is crap as range is rarely a problem for a sorc, and using a utility to 'fix' it once is weaksauce.
Unseen Aid (PHB 2) – Pumps a skill roll. Pretty good for heavier RP, since it is an encounter and can be used a lot out-of-combat for +2 to EVERY skill roll with 5 minutes in-between.
Absorb Storm (AP) – Insta-resist to Thunder,Cold,Lighting when hit. Decent, but too limited for general usage.
Deep Shroud (AP) – Makes a heavily obscured zone around you that is sustainable. This is another one I am unsure about. As far as I can tell, it moves with you. The catch is that it provides you concealment, BUT provides your ENEMIES with concealment too, since your adjacent squares are obscured. The latest rulings seem to be that it gives YOU TOTAL CONCEALMENT for any foes more than 1 square away from you. (hello combat advantage, +2AB!) BUT, it gives THEM normal concealment vs you. (-2AB :-( ) Very strong when you use AoEs where you get the combat advantage but don't suffer from concealment, or if you use some anti-concealment item/ability. Obviously it makes you pretty hard to hit and can possibly obscure your allies too by you hiding right behind the melee guys.
Focused Chaos (AP) – Rating depends on how it works. Lets a wild sorc treat an attack roll as odd or even! You can use it every encounter too. The catch is this: Can you use it AFTER you make the roll(s)?? If so, this is very good. If not, this is pretty weak (as you miss anyways half the time, and half the time you get the desired odd/even result anyways! So, this only is useful approx 25% of the time) This depends on exactly when the trigger occurs and what order it is resolved in. Maybe I am thinking in Magic:The Gathering terms too much... Obviously, only for wild-sorcs.
Spatial Trip (AP) – Awesome utility that lets you teleport 1/2 speed as a move action, per encounter. Teleport is a LOT better than shifting which most classes utilities grant, as you can teleport out of pits, thru difficult terrain, and it is hard to stop. Great for close combat sorcs especially which rely more on positioning via Close attacks. Heck, it is great for ALL sorcs. This is the best of the bunch, with possible exception above for wild-sorcs.
Sorcerous Sirocco (AP) – Insta-flight for you AND an ally. A few notes: This is a STANDARD ACTION, making it not very viable for combat. Also, flying provokes AoOs and you cannot shift when flying. So it cannot be used as much of a rescue mechanism either. Decent for RP purposes (fly on top of a building, etc).
Dancing Lightning - Situational burst-ish 1-target power. A bit weak, especially since it hits ALL adjacent creatures, not just foes. The good news is that it focuses a bit more damage on the center target and auto-damages adjacent. Unlike a burst you MUST center this on a foe. You are better off just taking a real burst-power instead in my opinion.
Flame Spiral - Close burst 2 that lets you cherry pick up to 3 targets in the burst, so it's party-friendly. Three targets is pretty decent for an upper limit and it deals moderate damage. On top of that, it AUTO-HITS nearby foes (or those that move next to you!) for a good amount of damage (with mods). This power FAR outshines any other Close powers at this level. You will likely be disappointed when searching for similar powers to 'upgrade' to at high levels...
Ice Dragon's Teeth - This is a rare ranged-burst, with a slow attached. An EXCELLENT opening spell when you win initiative and foes are clumped. This is a better control spell than the wizards even get at this level! Fantastic for Wild/Storm-sorcs, strong for cold-based Wintercheeze dragon/cosmic sorcs. Decent for everyone else.
Poisonous Exhalation - Sigh. Another blast 3 for ok damage. Except this reduces their FORT defense for a turn. But guess which defense you have to roll against to lower it? ;-) So it is kind of a chicken&egg problem.
Spectral Claw - Single target only, but immobilize is pretty good. Except it is best vs brutes, but the power targets Fort making it inaccurate. Wild gets a slide DEX rider. Pretty weak damage for a 1-target spell.
Acid Claw(AP) - So so ranged single target spell. This is your best damage for STR-based sorcs due to adding STR-mod again. Small burst-ish effect for dragons (who will take Flame Spiral instead anyways). Its lack of a real status effect, plus better options makes this little used.
Essence Prism(AP) - Single target ranged power that might strip resistances for wild(but not immunities) for 1 turn. Unimpressive.
Searing Sands(AP) - Blast 3 that gives you concealment IF you hit. Hey wait a sec... don't Dragons get this EXACT same spell that does MORE at level 1?? Yes they do. This is not a BAD power per se, but it is ridiculous that a lower level spell hits just as hard with more effects. Heck, the at-will is almost as good.
Swirling Stars(AP) - Ranged burst 1. Like Ice Dragon's Teeth but without the slow effect. Hence, it is crap. Cold/Thunder are very tempting keywords, but this spell is obsolete by the time you can really take advantage of them. You are almost always better off just taking the Teeth. Its only saving grace is being a reflex-based thunder AoE power.
Thundering Gust(AP) - An odd DEX-based close blast 3. Modest damage with a DEX-slide. Storm gets a conditional flight effect. This is decent enough, but it affects Fort which is weaker vs frontline foes and DEX-sorcs are not generally as well equipped to be in melee range at low levels. Storm sorcs especially don't care for blasts.
Acidic Implantation) - 1-target power vs fort. Foe then blows up in a burst. Hit or miss, the target takes damage automatically(minus CHA mods), AND is subjected to a second AoE attack. That is actually extremely good, statistically equal to 3 attacks with a 50/50 hit chance each (minus your CHA-mod). The catch is: if you miss, you get no push which could make them blow up on your allies too. All in all, it is an ideal striker mentality power to concentrate damage vs 1 foe, and also spread the misery to a few other foes. Plus it's fun!
Palest Flames - 1d10 damage and cold vuln 10? For a daily? This is dogcrap. In theory this lets you use Wintertouched in heroic, but it is just not nearly good enough even for this limited purpose.
Reeling Torment - 1-target for good damage and the save-ends ability to push the foe every turn. This gives you decent control and is awesome with any zone effects.
Serpentine Blast - 3d10 that avoids cover/conceal, but not superior/total. No other effect. Why are you attacking a concealed foe with a 1 target daily anyways? The damage is just 2 points higher than Reeling Torment but with no control and doesn't hit will.
Thunder Leap - It hits everything around you (vs fort). Then you jump(With no AoO) and attack everything around you AGAIN (in the new location). Think HANCOCK (the movie). You can hit & run... OR you can jump to the same location and get a DOUBLE ATTACK vs everything around you and push them. Or teleport to a new location and hit all of THEM. Assuming the second 2d6 gets static mods, this does a LOT of damage. Fantastic for a nova to hit, hit with this, hit again with this, then move out of the way. Use with Spatial Trip for best positioning effect.
Corruption Orb(AP) - Weak single target attack with ongoing acid damage. Oddly, dragonfang bolt at level 1 is about as good and hit TWO targets...and it wasn't even a top pick!
Glacial Armor(AP) - Close burst 1 cold for modest damage. Adds +2 AC/fort AND if you are hit, foe takes CHA-damage for the encounter. A pretty solid defensive option for your Daily. The flat AC boost remains just as useful as you level. The offensive part of the power is fairly lackluster though.
Moon and Stars(AP) - Hits 2 foes at range. Either slows/no shift(save ends) or lets you heal. Pick radiant or cold. Great versatility but at the cost of raw firepower. Still, the cold-based sorcs will love this. Plus, a save-ends slow vs 2 foes can definitely put a crimp on the brutes.
Slaad's Gambit(AP) - Interrupt a hit vs you by teleporting you to safety AND a free attack vs attacker. This repositions you, guarantees ANY non-ranged attack misses and packs a decent punch. A very solid pick if survivability is an issue.
Sun's Illumination(AP) - Radiant ranged burst 1 for decent damage. The kicker is that it creates a SUSTAINABLE, MOVABLE party-friendly zone. Any enemy in it gives combat advantage to all. At the very least you enter 'Predator Mode' for the entire encounter and get a 9 square 'divine targeting receptacle' that you can move on top of foes for an easy +2 Attack bonus every round. How cool is that?!? Most likely, your allies can get some good use out of it also.
My Sorc Guide Link: http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19649162/Joes_Sorcerer_Guide_AP_update_51509
My Genesi Wizard Blaster Link: http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/25082729/Miniguide_to_Genesi_LightningThunder_Blaster_Wizard_%2806-2010%29
Arcane Empowerment – Increases blast/burst size. Keep in mind that boosting burst size usually only results in an addition 1 or 2 targeted foes. There are other ways of increasing size, However, this can be very strong in a Nova situation when you win initiative or otherwise have a lot of foes clumped together. In addition, there are some lingering/sustainable powers that are GREATLY increased in power when enlarged. This utility gives you a LOW COST method for an occasional enlarge, as opposed to carrying specific items or taking feats. This is also one of the few offensive utilities.
Energetic Flight (PHB 2) You can fly for 2 turns. Pretty cool, but note that there is no gentle fall option if you end in the air. Plus, flying provokes AoOs just as much as moving, so this is not the escape tool you might think.
Sudden Scales (PHB 2) – Very strong. It is wizard Shield on Roidz with +4 to ANY defense. Dragons get even more (probably unneeded overkill) bonus. The downside is that some attacks will have rolled high enough that this will not be able to negate the attack. A LOT weaker if the DM won't let you know rolls before using this! All STR-sorcs will take this as it works vs ANY attack and is able to negate a particular attack over 80% of the time. Note that even for DEX-sorcs, this is pretty much guaranteed to negate AN attack per encounter, although it might not negate the one you really want to negate. (i.e If the elite rolls a 14 with a nasty save-ends stun power or whatever.)
Swift Escape – Interrupt an AoE/close attack by teleporting and reposition yourself with a teleport. This utility ALWAYS works to negate an attack. However, it only works against a relatively small subset of attack types. I think Scales will overall be usable more often, whereas this is somewhat likely to never even trigger during an encounter. Note that even for a Dragon, teleport 3 is almost always sufficient to accomplish the task.
Chaotic Defense(AP) – Gain a random benefit. Decent enough, but as a Daily utility, just not strong enough.
Extinguishing Rain(AP) – Everyone gets Fire resist and puts out fire-based zones. Strong, but situational.
Fate's Chaos(AP) – Reroll a missed attack made with an action point. Add STR-mod as an attack bonus! Usable every encounter (though limited by APs available of course), this turns a miss into a hit pretty much for your best power known. Even usable for AoE spells if a certain target is missed. Still, it is tough to compete with Sudden Scales, although this is an excellent utility if you desire more offense instead of a defensive option. As a special note, this power is particularly good with the Adroit Explorer(human), and the Violet Solitaire (which can give bonus APs), or other sources of free APs (Punisher of Gods, etc).
Lightning Shift(AP) – Shift your speed as a move action per Encounter. Extremely good, but I'd stick with the level 2 teleport version instead and make use of the other strong lvl6 util powers. Note also that teleport works when shifting will not. (get out of a pit, immobilized, over obstacles, etc)
Subtlety of the Green Wyrm(AP) – +5 to skills you are already really good at. POSSIBLY good for RP, but it is a DAILY utility! Plus, there are so many great lvl6 options you'd have to turn down. Total crap.
Chaos Storm - Another ranged burst. Meh for a dragon, but good for a wild sorc. In fact, make sure to target the square ABOVE the center when casting. This way, you can teleport foes UP two squares for an extra 1d10 falling damage. :-) I am rerating this down, assuming the teleport trick doesn't work. By RAW it works, but your DM may disagree based on cheese-factor.
Crushing Sphere - Ranged burst. Not amazing, but ok. Decent status effect, and more useful than the non-wild version of teleportation above. This is the ranged burst the Dragon-sorcs will take.
Rimestorm - It is an ENEMY-ONLY close blast 3. It is only 9 squares worth like usual and hits Fort, but is MUCH easier to target than the usual any-critter type powers. Knocking prone helps your party with CA most of the time, and keeps foes from repositioning. This is PURE WIN for Draconic Arrogance and/or Cold-based dragon sorcs. The party-friendly nature makes this usable by Dex-sorcs too.
Shout - A blast 5 is unusually big. However, it is party-hostile, hits fort, weaker damage, and has a laughable effect.
Blazing Bolts(AP) - Ranged 2-target power. Weaker base damage, but counts your STR twice with a mini-burst effect. In theory, target 2 adjacent foes and each will take triple your STR mod on top of normal damage. This is a versatile, top tier pick and an excellent option for STR-sorcs to ensure they have something usable if they are not positioned for Close blast/bursts.
Chaos Ray(AP) - Weak single target power with a short-range position swap. Skip.
Spark Form(AP) - Beautiful Win for sorcs! Shift speed+2 through foes. Attack each one you went through for weak damage. Incredibly good spell, as it repositions you and pretty much guarantees you can attack every nearby enemy, thanks to diagonal movement. The base damage is poor, but the tactical aspect, the number of foes targetable, and your high static-mods make this a winner. Remember, you will have this until level 23 most likely, and you should have some serious mods by then.
Thunder Bomb(AP) - A thunder-version of Ice Dragons Teeth basically. Slows burst 1. Really good with Voice of Thunder/Resounding Thunder as an opener for DEX-ers.
Thunder Wyrm's Jaws(AP) - Moderate damage single target spell. Gives you temp HPs 1d6+STR. STR-based sorcs have quite a bit of defense anyways, so I'd rather have a more offensive-minded power.
Adamantine Echo - The usual ally-hostile blast 3. Hits fort for modest damage and 5 ongoing damage. For Dragons, it GREATLY increases your AC for the whole encounter! This is just GODLIKE for Dragons, as you get at least +5AC and probably more. Thus its high rating, in spite of its worthlessness for everyone else. Note that non-Dragons who want defense should take Glacial Armor(5) instead.
Contagious Curse - 1-target spell, and foe's allies still get AUTOMATICALLY hit even if the attack misses. If it adds static-mods to the auto-damage, this is much better. Party-friendly as well. Sliding them over to their buddies to infect them is golden! The Wild kicker is really nasty and is worth using a Tooth of Chaos daily on.
Prime the Fire - Targets fort, ranged burst 1. However it can work as a double attack. The foes are almost guaranteed to make an attack, which will have them eating more damage. If they don’t, they lose a turn. This is a strong spell, marked down only due to its tough competition.
Staggering Blast - An odd spell. Low damage and an unusual knock prone interrupt. Ironically missing might help your foes more than hitting, depending on the initiative order. It does target Will, which I like. By the time you are casting single-target spells, everyone is pretty much into place. So its unlikely to cause a brute to miss a turn. They will probably just eat the -2 attack penalty.
Bounding Bolt(AP) - Complicated single target power that might spread out ongoing 5 damage to several foes. Really weak, and suffers massively from TL;DR syndrome. (aka Wall of Text, WTF does this do?)
Howling Hurricane(AP) - Burst 1 with DEX-slide. The cool part is that you can sustain the zone and move it. You can then slide ANY creature (allies included!) at the start of its turn. Resounding Thunder/Enlarge/VoiceofThunder makes this incredible as you can really help your allies flank and hose enemies with the increased burst size.
Ice Stalagmites(AP) - Triple target ranged spell that slides foes. Then makes ice that auto-damages creatures that start turn next to it. Unfortunately, you can NOT place the Ice anywhere (It must be where a critter was standing)... AND one foe can not take multiple Ice damage(It checks that a foe is either adjacent to ice, or not). Furthermore, downgraded because a MISS will not slide the foes... and due to the effect wording, it will NOT create the ice on top of them. (TL;DR: Miss does nothing)
Season's Malaise(AP) - Lousy ranged burst 1 with ongoing damage and minor penalty. However, vs Will is strong, and this deals Psychic damage.
Winds of Change(AP) - Enemy only close burst THREE! Decent untyped damage, lots of targets and a guaranteed push. Plus you can fly and hover for 1 turn. A welcome foe-only close attack. Very strong with Arcane Reach, and solid for pushing foes into a cluster for a Nova (preferably with some immobilize/slow effect). The only weakness is no keywords to exploit.
Note: You might take another level 6 utility, especially if you are Wild and take Fate's Chaos. Then you can get Sudden Scales too.
Chaos Link – Situational 'defense'. When you get hit, you auto-hit the foe with the same attack. You STILL get hit though. Plus it only works on Area and Close attacks. This is just too limited to be of much use.
Devour Magic Tries to eat a Zone. Too situational for me. Still, the rider effect is really nice for both Dragon AND Wild. You MUST hit to get the rider. Note this is a STANDARD ACTION to use though, and its range sucks.
Invert Resistance – Definitely situational, but can be extremely effective. The auto-hit nature and 121 square area of effect and party friendly nature, and minor action are very appealing. Too bad it is daily use only.
Narrow Escape - Interrupt that cuts your damage by half. It is nice, but earlier utilities let you avoid attacks altogether. You will STILL eat any nasty status effects the attack inflicts, as this is a REACTION. That said, being able to reposition that far is pretty sweet for both all sorcs. DEX-based ones teleport becomes ridiculously far. Plus, the other 10 utilities are rather lousy so this is what you will likely take.
Dragon's Resolve(AP) - +1 AB, massive save bonus when bloodied. Being a Daily makes this much less powerful than it could be. Solid for Inner Dragon PP, but most others should pass.
Fog Form(AP) - Encounter util to become insubstantial(1/2 dmg) for an entire turn BEFORE being hit. Similar to narrow escape,but with a lasting 1/2 dmg benefit in exchange for no free movement. I'd rather have the movement as that tends to help you avoid ALL further damage by not being in hitting range.
Sorcerous Pulse(AP) - Daily that lets you roll damage twice for a chosen keyword's powers. Sounds impressive, but Dice are less significant as far as damage goes and they tend to be more small dice which tend to average out about the same. This usually results in very little damage gain. Example: In theory 3d8 = 3 to 24. It averages to 13.5 and generally will stay between 8 and 18.
Spirit Eclipse(AP) - Fantastic defense vs a Will attack. It is situational, but consider that it interrupts the attack, gives you +5 defense AND makes you invisible (-5 to hit). Anything but a natural 20 will miss pretty much. Then next turn, you get combat advantage (invisible) for some sweet payback. Vs will attacks tend to have bad effects too, so avoiding them is definitely a good thing.
Storm of Energy(AP) - Automatically boost all ongoing damage foes are taking by 10. Since this is a Daily, it will rarely buy much. Ongoing damage is WAY overvalued by WotC.
Chains of Fire - It looks great at first. You can hit a brute and an artillery and slide the brute behind the artillery... or the artillery up in front of the brute! Cool! However, in practice you are very unlikely(about 25% assuming a 50/50 hit rate) to actually hit BOTH of the foes (which is required for the slide effect). In that case this power becomes a modest damage-only spell.
Jaws of the Earth - A single target immobilize does not impress me. Why would you want to hit something so close that you could walk through it? This power makes no sense.
Mind Hammer - For Wild ONLY, a will-targeting spell that either holds a brute down for an entire turn, OR punts them a good distance. This is a decent single target spell, especially as it targets Will. Either way, it is likely to waste their turn or penalize their AB and provide CA to the party. If you are NOT WILD, this spell is garbage. Even at level ONE you can get a burst knockdown power, instead of this 1-target one.
Thunder Breath - Party-unfriendly Blast 3 vs Fort. Off to a bad start. BUT, this DAZES which is a great status effect. For Dragons it slows them too. Solid for giving your buddies CA and preventing foes from shifting. Really good for nova-setup also since you benefit from CA vs the dazed foes.
Dazzling Starlight(AP) - Single target psychic attack. So-so damage, hits will, adds a lousy status effect. Dazes for cosmic sorcs, BUT you have to be in the Star phase, which resists/pierce RADIANT (and has sucky abilities) instead of Psychic! Compared to the AoE daze power above, this is lacking.
Moon Cage(AP) - Single target cold attack. Restrains which is a great status effect, but 1d10 damage is awful for a 1-target power. The level 23 restrain spell hoses ALL adjacent foes automatically too. Lousy rider too, since you have to be in the Psychic-resist phase to add STR-damage to this COLD spell. 1d10 is so pathetic that even adding STR-mod just brings it up to below-average. If only this hit harder, it would be a solid 1-target power.
Cyclone Pull(AP) - Makes a burst 3 at range, targets up to 3 foes, sucks them into the middle. Lousy damage and hits Fort. Great set up for a nova though and has several good strategic applications. If nothing else, it does hit (only)THREE foes within its 49 square area making it party-friendly, and it has range! This is an extremely rare combo.
Downbeat of Wings(AP) - 1-target ranged. Pushes 2 AND knockdown. Dragons get a free STR-mod shift! Really nice for Arrogance builds since you add STR twice over. But otherwise underwhelming for a 1-target power.
Primordial Storm(AP) - Ranged burst 1. OK damage, decent rider for Wild sorcs. Has FOUR keywords, which is ripe for abuse. A Much better power if you can do so and this is honestly the only really good thing about the power. Otherwise, it is pretty mediocre.
My Sorc Guide Link: http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19649162/Joes_Sorcerer_Guide_AP_update_51509
My Genesi Wizard Blaster Link: http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/25082729/Miniguide_to_Genesi_LightningThunder_Blaster_Wizard_%2806-2010%29
Frost Eddies - Weird 1 target spell vs Fort that causes difficult terrain for adjacent squares for foes only. Still, it does nothing to slow the actual foe! (Well actually, maybe it does but I am unsure.) Too situational for a daily. 5d8 is good though but not enough.
Hostility Charm - This awesome 1 target spell hits Will for 5d6. Then the target charges the closest foe with a basic attack (at +1 AB). Fantastic vs the frontline brutes as they will eat AoOs from all your guys for charging away from them! Wild-magic add an interesting rider effect too.
Scintillating Starburst - A save-ends blind for decent RADIANT damage, range 20 vs reflex. Solid, but not super impressive at this level. I mean, a level 13 encounter wizard power blinds a 25 square area! Still, beggars can't be choosers and there are few really strong 1-target powers. This does pale compared to Hostility charm though, mostly because of the AoOs HC provokes. If it blinded for 1 turn on a miss, it would be a lot better.
Spitfire Furnace - OK damage party-hostile blast 3 vs reflex for strong 4d10 damage. The kicker is that dragons do mild damage AUTOMATICALLY to every foe within 2 squares (25square area) on their turn...for the ENTIRE ENCOUNTER! This can add up to a heck of a lot of damage for a Dragon anyways. You don't even have to sustain it! For non-dragons, 3 auto-damage is crap and you likely won't be on the frontlines that much anyways.
Day and Night(AP) - Makes TWO attacks vs one target. Each has a decent status effect and both occur even if the first one misses. Note if you DO hit with the first one, the daze adds +2 AB to your second attack! Miss effects are lousy, but two attacks vs 1 foe is very strong.
Gale Burst(AP) - Powerful close burst THREE with big push and slow. Has a big impact, but requires you to risk your party getting hit, OR being in a very vulnerable position. This is why I rate it as a TRAP. Be careful if you decide to take this power. I do not think it is worth the risk, especially with the other nasty stuff at this level. However, with the right equipment and supporting powers it could be deadly. (Say, boots of eagerness to move behind foes, use this, toss them away Slowed, then util 2 Teleport back behind the party)
Lightning Daggers(AP) - Modest reflex attack vs 1 foe. However, you get the SAME attack for FREE every single round for the entire encounter vs that foe! Really good vs the BBEG, and can easily give you 4 or 5 (or more) 'free' attacks. This is the epitome of a Striker-power. The catch is that you are pretty much committed to staying out of melee for the encounter, as to not provoke AoOs or waste attacks.
Prismatic Lightning(AP) - Big burst 2 at range. Has FOUR keywords! YOU choose the defense for EACH FOE(!). This also determines the nasty effect. Reflex and Will have the best effects too (immob-save-ends and blind). Extremely good spell for DEX-based sorcs as an opener vs reflex since you can lockdown a bunch of foes. It is about time we get a larger burst.
Breath of the Desert Dragon – Wow! The entire party gets to fly a decent distance immediately. For Dragons, they fly a long ways...as an ENCOUNTER power! (Kickass in RP!) However this power is marred somewhat that flight still provokes AoOs as usual, AND any bad guys in the burst 3 get to fly too!
Chaos Echoes - Nice to punish a foe for attacking you. MUCH more versatile than its predecessor. It IS a daily though, but automatically hits and can easily be worth a Daily Attack power vs a BBEG. (imagine this vs Orcus' insta-kill ability. lol)
Chaos Sanctuary – An encounter util to do a 1 turn 'Spell Mastery' feat to protect your allies. Still, maybe a bit weak for its effect. Especially since almost none of your stuff is bigger than 9 squares anyway.
Comrade's Mantle - Meh. Resistance of 5, even for the whole encounter is not too impressive. Especially as a DAILY.
Draconic Majesty - Holy CRAP! This is MADE OF WIN for Dragons/Cosmics. Foes within the 48 square area around you can't shift and move is cut in half. That's decent. And it is only a MINOR action to trigger! Good. Oh, and it AUTOMATICALLY gives ALL FOES a STR-mod penalty to their attacks next turn!! By now this is at least a -5 or -6, probably more. That is CRAZY good since they can't very easily move outside the area of effect. Oh yeah.. you can use this EVERY ENCOUNTER!!! As a Dragon/Cosmic-sorc, you would be a FOOL to not take this, unless you plan to fight Orcus or something and need the 'rebound' utility above. I reread this power like 6 times, because surely it couldn't be this good. But it is. Ok, so with AP there are a few other awesome choices at this level too.
Avatar of Chaos(AP) - Weird daily utility that splits you into 4 elemental images. Suffers from TL;DR syndrome, but it effectively makes you invincible along with handing out attack bonuses to certain spells. Works fantastic for a sorc that relies almost solely on ranged powers as the foes have to waste actions killing your images before they can even touch you. Close-power users will have to be more creative. As an aside, if your sorc is near-death, pop this Utility. Then bust into rhyme with M.C Hammer's, "Can't Touch This!" directed at your DM..."Baddies hit me..so hard, makes me say, Elemental Lords, Thank you fo blessin me, with images and +AB' Yeah, I'm sure you can have fun with this one.
Breath of Potency(AP) - Daily +1 to all defenses. Boosts it STR-mod when you use a Close attack. Not bad, but Majesty above is a lot better, and usable EVERY encounter... and protects the whole party. Also note: This is a STANDARD ACTION to use!
Dominant Winds(AP) - At-will flight? Sounds good! Plus you can sacrifice your move actions to move an ally..AT-WILL! Note that flight provokes AoOs and you cannot shift as a flight action. Technically you could use this every turn on yourself.. AND it does not require you to land. Plus, a flier only falls if they don't fly 2 spaces per round. Sooo... technically this is unlimited flight! You cannot hover, but can always just fly in a circle as needed. Your DM may call BS. Or just have all foes bust out ranged weapons and focus-fire you. If so, lower rating accordingly.
Thunder Buffer(AP) - Daily to boost +2 AC. Push foes that hit you. Decent, but just not in the same league as some of the other 16 utils.
Breath of Winter - Party-hostile Blast 3 vs Fort. Slows. Hey wait! Didn't the level 13 version daze AND slow? Take only if you are cold-based. There's not a whole lot of good ones to be honest and any cold-AoE is a winner for you. AP helps with this.
Dragon Tail Meditation - Basically Dragon only. The ability to Tail-swipe something on their own turn (free attack basically) and punt them 6 or so squares is sweet, sweet comedy gold. Still, too situational for me. As a sorcerer you really should NOT be getting flanked, especially not every encounter! Attacked in melee..yes. Flanked often? No. If you DO find yourself getting flanked often, then this becomes a very strong power. This may depend strongly on how crafty your DM is with his monster movement.
Poisonous Evasion - Cool! You get to fart on the foes when they attack you! Except... you should never be standing by yourself, so you fart on your friends too. Plus, the foe has to MISS to trigger this power. 5 foes that surround and pound you won't trigger this. Definitely better with a Wild mage that can Arcane Reach the fart-cloud into the opponents.
Thunder Summons - Hits will, hits 3 baddies at long range for decent damage. This alone makes it good right there. Teleporting foes around is a nice bonus, although not super helpful.
Acid Shackles(AP) - High level version of the at-will blazing starfall. Ranged burst 1, does damage if foe moves. Fairly solid with a small control aspect, though as mentioned it is only slightly better than an at-will! Wild mages get a rider that increases its damage modestly.
Azure Talons(AP) - Enemy-only close burst 2. Decent damage, punishes foes for ending their turn close to you. Dragons do even more damage. However, this seems to be a MISPRINT, as the Dragon Magic mod is based on DEX instead of STR! Ask DM to use STR value here instead as ALL special riders use the appropriate stat for that type magic except this one.
Searing Radiance(AP) - Fairly boring single target spell. Lets you heal IF Cosmic AND in sun-phase. Note that you probably ARE in sun-phase, so this isn't too hard of a requirement.
Stalking Frost(AP) - Close burst 3, party-hostile. Decent damage and punishes foes for not moving. Powerful but risky as I've discussed for these burst 3s. Hence its rating as a TRAP.
Thunderstroke(AP) - Ranged burst 1 vs Reflex(rare for thunder power). Unimpressive, but has two powerful features: Storm sorcs do knockdown(yeah...same as the level ONE power, Whirlwind, except now it is Magic-type dependent!). More importantly, a target in the center ALSO eats 3d8 extra(plus most mods). This effectively makes this spell a double-attack as an all-or-nothing, and thus its high rating as getting TWO attacks vs a single foe is very strong.
Baleful Gaze of the Basilisk - A save-ends stun is pretty good! Since it is vs fort, use against a caster type to take em out of the fight for a while. Deals ongoing damage, but NO DAMAGE on a hit. The punt-effect that Dragon gets is an odd bonus.
Blackfire Serpent - Oh this is sweet! It's a lot easier to make blast 3 attacks when you don't have to worry about the little things like....getting killed for example. ;-) Cast this first round in a safe location behind the fighter. For the rest of the encounter, use minor/move actions to blast away with the serpent. Use your standard to make normal safe ranged attacks. Can almost DOUBLE your DPR, and saves you a lot of damage (and surges) for that fight. Yes, even the Dragon sorcs should stay back and shoot in this case.
Prismatic Explosion - This is a solid thematic option for the DEX-mages. Kind of a small burst 1, but does some decent damage, and hit or miss it always applies some nasty save-ends effect. Dragons will get an almost worthless effect 33% of the time though.
Split Strike - Pretty solid for wild mages. Its a pair of ranged 6d6 vs reflex attacks with decent status effects for WILD only. Why is this not Storm-magic again??
Aspect of the Dragon(AP) - A party-friendly blast 5. Solid for an encounter, but not a daily. However, when you are bloodied, you get a FREE action to repeat the same attack! As such, this is a double-attack potentially. Works fantastic with Inner Dragon PP. Otherwise, a bit difficult to use effectively.
Crashing Winds(AP) - Close blast 3. Party unfriendly, but solid damage with a DEX-based push. I am not real sure why this is a Daily... Though storm gets a rider to push adjacent foes for the entire encounter.
Primordial Strike(AP) - Range 5 complicated 'stun'(save-ends) with aftereffects and Wild magic riders. It's pretty nasty, but a miss doesn't have much consolation.
Radiant Wings(AP) - A very odd spell. You can Fly STR-mod before the attack. Then it is a RANGED 5 modest attack. THEN, Cosmic sorcs can do damage to adjacent foes at the end of the move. HOWEVER, this would provoke AoOs since this is ranged! It is likely meant to be used for the sustain, where you can fly every turn as a minor action.
Dragon Fear – Once per encounter, totally ruins 1 brute's entire turn. Of course they could always toss something at you instead of melee... By this level most things should have that capability. It is a good option for wild/storm sorcs.
Platinum Scales - Fantastic daily interrupt for STR-sorcs only, that ruins the foe's attack AND supercharges your defenses for the whole encounter. By now this should make you just about unhittable. In fairness, your level 9 daily attack does close to the same thing (except it only pumps AC instead of ALL defenses)
Shared Sorcery – Resist 10 to something for your whole party. That is better than the puny 5. It is still a daily though.
Wind Shape - Makes you insubstantial (1/2 dmg taken). Its 1 turn only and you can hover...BUT there is no feather-fall effect when it expires...
Crown of Flames (AP) - Daily util. When you miss at-will/enc attacks, target takes CHA-dmg. Not bad, but I expect better for a 22 util.
Flight of Dragons(AP) - Sustainable power that gives everyone flight for the encounter. Dragon adds damage resist too! This takes a STANDARD ACTION to use though!! As a daily, it means it is just about worthless for RP either (no sustained mass flight for the party)
Storm Body(AP) - Become insubstantial, fly 10. Punishes foes that attack you with CHA-mod damage. You can use every encounter which is nice. But, CHA-mod damage is not much of a deterrent to level 22+ foes! They will be doing a LOT more back to you with their AoOs that you gave them for free.
Ultimate Resistance(AP) - Daily. Gain 30 resist to any one type of damage. Solid.
My Sorc Guide Link: http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19649162/Joes_Sorcerer_Guide_AP_update_51509
My Genesi Wizard Blaster Link: http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/25082729/Miniguide_to_Genesi_LightningThunder_Blaster_Wizard_%2806-2010%29
Black Breath - Typical ally-hostile blast 3 vs reflex. Slightly better damage than usual, but it limits a foes line of sight to 3 squares for 1 turn. Wait a sec... this power has a range of 3... and it limits vision to 3. Sounds like Fail to me. I'd rather have my at-will!
Chaos Orbs - A rare ranged multitarget spell that hits will. Dazed is a great status effect, but it seems a bit late in the game for a modest effect. (wizards get a 3 target version at encounter 17)
Iron Chains - 1 target restraining power. Hits allies as well as foes with the secondary effect. Once again, the things that you WANT to restrain will likely have high Fort defenses. The good news is that the adjacent creatures get NO defense whatsoever. So if you can hit the low-fort baddie by winning initiative, all his brutish-buddies next to him are stuck! Excellent for Wild-mages. Fairly weak for Dragons/Cosmic.
Plates of Ice - Single target weaken effect vs fort. At least you are more likely to want to weaken their artillery, which should be more vulnerable to the fort affecting power. The conditional burst effect is a nice Wild bonus.
Sun and Stars(AP) - Single target psychic/radiant. Slows a foe, which is very weak for a 1-target spell. Has a lousy Cosmic rider effect too. However, it provides TWO solid ATTACKS vs one foe! (Note the indentation: The Effect to make a second attack occurs independent of a hit) Despite its weaknesses, this makes it a very strong striker power for concentrating firepower. It may seem overrated, but compare to other similar powers. Two attacks with a lousy rider is better than ONE attack with a so-so rider.
Rumbling Storm Bolt(AP) - Single target slider attack that can maybe chain to a second foe. A bit weak for a level 23.
Storm Arc(AP) - Ranged burst 1 for moderate damage. Nothing special, except a Fly/hover effect for Storm-sorcs.
Wild Rift(AP) - Wild-only, close burst 3 hits everyone. Very risky since hits party or isolates you. Does decent damage with teleport with wild doing more teleport or a daze. NOTE: If you can get your DM to agree, teleport the foes INTO THE AIR! That makes em take an extra DEX-mod(+d4?) /2 d10s worth of falling damage and knock Prone (as well as possibly daze) DM is likely to object...
Wyrmblight(AP) - Boring blast 5 vs fort. Not party friendly, but does Two damage types for resist-hose. That said, the other Blast at this level REALLY sucks...
Draconic Incarnation - Blast 5 with decent 7d6+CHA damage. Being able to pick your damage type makes this VERY attractive to a number of builds. Half damage on a miss. Dragons get a rider effect to slide nearby foes 2 spaces...as a free action each round for the WHOLE encounter! This is the Dragon power of choice as you can move some baddie right into your blast AoE, or save the Archer, etc.
Force Storm - A rare force-based attack, and even more rare burst 2 at long range. Modest damage, but deals extra damage for each foe hit. Half damage on a miss. A Wild sorcerer might consider this as it is a decent opener when winning Init vs a big clump. That said... it is nothing more than a burst 2 modest damage spell. Downgraded due to the new Acid Typhoon.
Words of Chaos - Hits Will with heavy 4d12 damage. When it attacks you can try to Interrupt attack it to force it to change targets. This is very difficult to use though. The enemy KNOWS you have this capability, so unless you are Wild and rolled even, the foe can simply target a different ally! Getting this power to work correctly requires a LOT of conditions that need to be fulfilled. You have to 'HIT' the foe each time to try to divert its target. In theory, defenders can place the foe into a no-win situation. Even if you redirect a melee attack from the tank to another of your allies, the defender can probably punish them for it.
Acid Typhoon(AP) - Ranged burst 2 vs fort. Acid/Thunder damage type which seems promising. Ongoing 10 acid dmg. The big burst is nice, but effect is weak.
Cloak of Winter Storm(AP) - Close burst 3 that does not attack. Deals AUTO-HIT decent damage And slow for ENEMIES-ONLY in its AoE. Lasts the entire encounter. Maybe not amazing, but compared to the other junk at 25, this is pure gold. 49 squares of enemy-only auto hit goodness. Really hoses foes that get punted and try to move back into melee due to Auto-slow. A ridiculously good candidate for Enlarge,etc.
Fury of Dragotha(AP) - An odd NECROTIC spell. Standard blast 5, but encounter-long ability to deal STR-dmg to adjacent foes.
Leaping Lightning(AP) - Single target power that deals ongoing damage. When they take the damage, get a free attack vs another foe. Potentially incredible. Probably lousy.
Wrathful Vapors(AP) - Dex-based Ranged Burst 2 with FOUR keywords! You pick ref or fort per target. Either Slides or Zaps adjacent foes with acid. Reflex vs a tight grouping can be devastating! (9 foes in a square formation hit would equal FORTY 'bonus' splash attacks).
Lightning Eruption - Decent damage to one foe. Hits Enemies-only adjacent for a decent amount as well. This is a very nice striker power as you concentrate your damage, and still are able to potentially apply some solid AoE without harming allies. Being a ranged power, it is very easy to use in a wide variety of circumstances.
Poison Ward - Punishes a foe for attacking or moving closer to you. Unfortunately, most foes that would trigger the extra damage would be unlikely to be hit by this Fort affecting power. Plus...didn't we get this exact power at level 9? And even then it sucked.
Thunder Pulse - Close burst 3 vs fort. Foes-only. Ok damage, push CHA-mod(!), and knocks prone. I dislike the fort-targeting in a Close power, but for a sorc-encounter power this is fantastic! By this level, the push is HUGE and will really hose melee opponents by making them have to get up and then move/charge a LONG ways back to their target. The 48 square area will envelop most nearby foes and is one of the safest close attacks the sorcerer has access to.
Wildfire Curse - This is a conditional chain-lightning. As long as you keep hitting, you can chain this to most or all your foes. With a 50% hit, this will not go very far at all, and that's why I call it a so-so power. Statistically it is slightly weaker than a 2 target power. However, by this time you should be able to gain a bunch of bonuses for 1 turn via Warlord,Bard, action surge, or whatever. In this case, it is an excellent Nova spell.
Chaos Infusion(AP) - Large 4-keyword ranged burst 2 vs reflex. Fantastic nova-setup for Wild sorcs as they get both Odd AND Even roll benefits from their Wild-powers! Otherwise, just a vanilla encounter burst 2.
Moonstruck(AP) - Ranged burst 1 immobilization. Cosmics can Restrain instead which is a great status effect. Still, honestly not much more effective than level 3 Ice Dragon's Teeth considering the big level jump.
Mother Claw(AP) - Reaction attack vs melee attacker. Hits foe and lets you shift CHA-mod...IF you hit! As a reaction, you still take damage+effects. It is a decent 'free' attack worth considering.
Overpowering Lightning(AP) - A ranged 20 vs reflex STUN. Nice, even for such a high level encounter power.
Thunderous Might(AP) - Ranged burst 1. Vs fort, slides them DEX-mod. Storm sorcs force target to give Combat Adv that turn.
Endless Acid - 1 target power with weak hit damage and 15 ongoing acid, hit or miss. As they save, it drops to 10 then 5. For a 29 daily, this just isn't impressive enough. You will either kill the foe fast enough for the ongoing to not matter much, OR you are ignoring the target to let the ongoing damage tick, instead of focus-firing it.
Entropic Whirlwind - DEX-based huge close burst 5, enemy-only. You hit them fairly hard, teleport them DEX-mod, and hit them hard AGAIN! This is a bit debatable though. I interpret this as applying the 'save-ends property:take damage when teleported' at the same time as the Hit. Therefore, the immediate on-hit teleport triggers the bonus damage. As such, this makes for a big double-hit for all foes initially hit. You also get to teleport foes away from you as a reaction every round, possibly adding even more damage. You can even teleport ALLIES as needed. Note, even Dragons will have a 14 dex by epic and can benefit nicely even from a teleport of 2. It is enough to force foes out of melee range,make them take damage, then take falling 1d10 and prone. IF you are a Dragon, this is Blue instead of Teal. Also, if my interpretation of the double-hit is wrong, this drops to Blue. Also note that you can happily teleport things 5 spaces UP making them take 2d10 falling damage and prone... if your DM allows this.
Prismatic Storm - Ranged burst 2 that does decent damage with a GUARANTEED very nasty rider effect based on d6 roll. Dex-based sorcs can make the best use of this, due to it being an excellent opener if you win Initiative and the DEX-based riders. Some have said that this does not deserve Teal status, but the combination of large size, range, and nasty effect makes this eclipse most other powers.
Wyrm Form(AP) - Finally! A decent capstone for Dragons. This gives you the fun and interesting (but not very powerful) ability to play as a Dragon! You can fly 10(hover), which lets you aim your bursts/blasts easily and avoid all melee. You ARE however, a big fat target for all ranged foes. You get a big melee range 2 attack, but it is NOT an implement attack, so it loses massive damage bonuses and is worthless. You get a big breath attack which is solid, 1/enc. Finally if flanked, you get a reaction attack that punts foes CHA-mod! The bad news is that if you get bloodied, the spell ends! That is bad if you are in mid-air on their turn. It is super bad when you crash-land prone in the middle of the enemy brutes... Dragon magic rider gives you a +2AB with your special attacks gained which is a rather underwhelming Dragon-rider. Still, it beats Endless Acid...
Cosmic Vengance(AP) - Ugh. A 29 daily and all it does is deal CHA-mod to something that HITS you. Cosmic mages upgrade to STR+CHA, which is still not much of a deterrent. Awful power.
Doom of Chaos(AP) - 1 target low damage spell. They either take ongoing psychic with psychic vuln 15, OR vuln 10 vs an element of your choice(which is also what happens on a miss). The nice aspect of this power is that EVERYONE can possibly take advantage of the vulnerability, which can lead to some impressive damage. The foe can never shake off the vulnerability either. I still rate it low bcause the rest of the party is unlikely to be able to dish out much of the vulnerable element. Plus, it only adds 10 damage per hit even in the best case scenario. I'd pass unless you have a whole party of Wintercheese-using allies.
Hellish Firestorm(AP) - Ranged burst 2 with moderate damage and 10 ongoing damage. Unimpressive, especially compared to the excellent effects of prismatic storm.
[COLOR="Blue"]Mind Tide/COLOR](AP) - 1 target will attack that DOMINATES!(save ends). Dazes as aftereffect. Now THIS is a great 1-target spell! (For sorcs anyways, the wizard version dominates a BURST). Just don't miss, as you get very little compensation for it.
My Sorc Guide Link: http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19649162/Joes_Sorcerer_Guide_AP_update_51509
My Genesi Wizard Blaster Link: http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/25082729/Miniguide_to_Genesi_LightningThunder_Blaster_Wizard_%2806-2010%29
My criteria for item choices tends to favor ongoing properties, or useful encounter powers. Dailys are nice, but you only get a limited number per day. As you level up, Dailys become better since your limit increases some. Remember that items with 1/encounter properties do NOT take a daily item usage and are totally 'free' to use.
Special Implement Slot ------------------------ Rod of the Dragonborn - Usable via warlock multiclass(I think), or with the Implement training feat. Lets you turn ALL your powers into what your breath weapon is. Awesome with wintercheese builds. The bad news is that it costs a feat and means you have to give up Jagged Dagger or Staff of Ruin.
Armor/Body Slot ---------------------- The sorcerer will usually wear Leather, and occasionally Hide. There are some great cloth armors, but the -2 AC penalty (effectively) is too costly. I think properties are the way to go with your armor slot, though I include some armors with strong Dailys.
Lifeblood(phb2) - Hide only. Gain temporary HPs after ALL rests as a property(short&extended). Free hit points are always appreciated.
Veterans Armor(AV) - Bonus to AB,Defenses when you use an AP. Its original daily power has been removed, but it is still a viable armor, especially for its low cost. Whether 3 guaranteed minor pumps per day is better than some random resistance is your call. It also depends on what other ITEM bonuses you may already have which wouldn't stack with this.
Deathcut(PHB1) - Expensive, but resistance to both Necrotic AND Poison with a CHA-based lashback item power to those who hit you is pretty solid.
Laughing Death(AV) - Resist necrotic and an ENCOUNTER power to lashback and penalize -2 to their fort defense. You can take good advantage of the fort penalty with your powers too. Not sure if this was nerfed to be a Daily or not.
Bloodcut - Spend healing surge to get damage resistance. Of special note for Inner Dragons that will not want to heal, but will want improved toughness at times.
Irrefutable(AV) - Daily item property to reroll a WILL-based attack. Rerolls are always a good option to have, especially at high levels (dominate).
Displacer Armor(AV) - Daily item power to make all attackers roll 2 d20s and use lowest value. Some solid defense for 1 entire fight.
Giantdodger - Of note to halflings. Available in paragon. 1/Enc ability to shift 4 when a larger foe misses in melee.
Screaming armor- Hide armor only. Cheap. Adds enhancement bonus to Intimidate, great for RP! 1/Enc power to give -2 AB to 1 foe for 1 round. Great vs that nasty BBEG. I love encounter usable powers.
Bold Victory - 1/encounter, give you OR an ally +2 AC when they bloody a foe for 1 turn. Nice ability to help avoid 'payback' from foes you badly injured.
Battle Harnass - Expensive but strong. You get the armor-enhancement bonus as a POWER bonus to your Initiative, which stacks with the item-bonuses normally found on headpieces. Also, you can quickdraw things such as potions and wondrous items as needed.
Head Slot --------------- Consider head items that give untyped WILL defense bonuses. If you are a Wild Sorc, consider the initiative bonus items to maximize your advantage gained from ranged burst powers.
Eagle Eye Goggles - Level 2,12,22. A +1/2/3 item attack bonus is just too good to pass up most of the time. As this applies to your Dragonfrost or Acid Orb, pretty much all sorcerers will want this. There is some debate as to whether channeling or Reaper's Touching it into a melee attack counts as a 'ranged basic attack' anymore. I would suspect not. But in any case, if you use one of the above powers, take this.
Eye of Awareness - level 23. +5 initiative, +2 untyped will defense. This is just a solid item with big passive bonuses.
Headband of Intellect (AV), Ongoing +1 item bonus to ALL psychic attack rolls (Chaos Bolt) and some other minor bonuses that you probably won´t benefit from. Obviously great with Psychic Lock and powers that focus on them.
Laurel Circlet(AV) - +1 item charm and illusion attack rolls, as well as some great bonuses to social skills and a daily that gives a power bonus to cha-attacks. Worth a look, but sorcs don't have THAT many charm/illusionary stuff.
Skull Mask - Level 15. Resist necrotic 5. +1 intimidate and -2 save penalty vs any of your fear effects. Not sure if the Save penalty helps much, but passive resistance is always good.
Phrentic Crown - level 7/17/27. -1/2/3 saving throw penalty vs your will powers. Solid at higher levels when you get more nasty save-ends effects. Combo with Cunning weapon.
Casque of Tactics - level 4. Cheap, effective. +1 initiative bonus. As a daily, you can swap Init rolls with an ally. This is incredibly good at times, since you can steal the archer ranger's high roll and give him your crappy roll. Then, toss a big burst or 2 at the foes before they can even move. Hopefully with a slow/stop type effect. This Daily is very narrow, but VERY powerful. And did I mention how cheap it is?
Helm of Ghostly Defense - Resist 10 necrotic. Turn insubstantial (1/2 dmg) for 1 turn as an ENCOUNTER power.
Circlet of Mental Onslaught +1 will defense. Daily: +1AB and dmg for ALL CHA-based attacks for the encounter. Pumping your hit rate for an entire encounter is extremely strong.
Neck Slot ---------- ALL neck slot items boost your NADs. Do not overlook this slot when making new characters or when shopping!
Cloak of Distortion - +3 lvls above baseline. A huge -5 penalty to ranged attacks more than 5 squares away from you. Not quite as good for you since you will be close to the front lines. Still, it helps prevent their ranged guys from focus-firing you. This cloak seems far and away the best option for this slot, and is available at any tier.
Health - +2 lvls. Resist poison. Not amazing, but a possibility.
Brooch of Shielding - +2 lvls. Resist Force 10. Daily to resist 10 damage. Fairly weak daily, but gives a resistance to an unusual damage type.
Stormwalker's - Expensive at +4 lvls. Resists lightning AND thunder for a nice 2-for-1 combo.
Survival - +3 lvls. Resists fire and cold. Very solid to resist a pair of common elements if you do not normally resist one of these already.
Wyrmtouched - Dragonborn get resist 10 to their breath type. 20 after they breathe. Likely to be useless, but on the off chance your breath is different from your resist type.
Displacement - +4 lvls. Ongoing +2 AC and Reflex defenses until you are hit. Particularly nice since you have several utilities to prevent getting hit!
Arm Slot -------- This slot also counts for shields, if you use one. (unlikely nowdays) You can still use a magical armpiece and normal shield together, but NOT magic arm AND magic shield.
Counterstrike Guards(av) - The lvl14 version lets you make a melee basic attack vs a foe that misses you in melee. Great with Reaper's Touch.
Shield of Deflection(phb1) - Ranged resistance as an ongoing property is awesome.
Iron Armbands of Power(AV) - Adds an item bonus to Melee attacks. This should only be used by twin-dagger sorcs who channel or Reaper's Touch powers into Melee quite a bit. Often times, a staff of ruin is used main or 'held offhand' for an Item bonus to ALL powers, thus negating the need for these bracers.
Bracers of the Perfect Shot(PHB1) - Adds an item bonus to ranged basic attacks. Usually, a Staff of Ruin covers this item bonus. When a SoR is unavailable or unusable, these should be used by any sorcerer that use Acid Orb or Dragonfrost.
Hand Slot --------- Considered one of the more minor slots, several items here can be used to penetrate defenses. Usually not so necessary for a sorcerer though.
Strikebacks(av) - If a foe hits you in melee, allows a melee basic attack as an encounter power. Decent with Dragon-sorcs. Great with Reaper's.
Gauntlets of the Ram(phb1) - Level 8. +1 push distance for any push-powers. Great for Dragonborn that are going with a lot of push powers with Draconic Arrogance. Adds a bit of extra control and with an already large STR-based push, this can place melee foes out of range.
Gloves of Eldritch Admixture - Adds 1,2,or 3d6 of a certain energy type to your powers. Not amazing damage wise, but the strongest use is to just use ONE(of 5 per day) charge per attack. This basically lets you add a desired fire,cold, or acid keyword to ANY attack! Excellent for converting your powers into 'theme' ones for Wintercheeze, etc. Now you don't have to take some crappy power just to benefit from your theme bonuses! Can help get around resistances too. HOWEVER, In AV it shows Warlock as a prereq. This may have been patched out, since it would be one of the only items with such a restriction.
Antipathy gloves Level 10. +1 move square to enter a square adjacent to you. Normally this is fairly worthless. However, its real strength is that nothing can shift adjacent to you. This is a solid ongoing property.
Accuracy level 16. At-will minor action: ranged attacks ignore cover,concealment for 1 turn. Basically does the same thing as an expensive Phasing weapon, at the cost of a minor action.
Foot Slot --------- Foot slot items have untyped Reflex bonuses. Try to take advantage of these when possible. Also several of these items have move and shift powers. As a sorc, you will be able to take more advantage of this bonus movement to position your attacks just right and to keep from being pounded. At higher levels there are some ridiculous teleport effect type items.
Boots of Eagerness(AV) Level 9. These give a free move action as an ENCOUNTER power. Obviously, this is excellent and has come in very useful for me. You can always downgrade the move to a minor action if needed.
Boots of Fencing Master(AV) Level 7 boots that give +1AC,reflex when you shift (which happens a lot), and a 1/enc minor action(!) to Shift TWO! Really nice for surround escape or setup a nova as you can Shift 2, then use a move action to get away.
Assault Boots Level 12. When you crit with a melee weapon, knock target prone. Well, you ALWAYS will be using a melee weapon and with daggermaster or jagged you have a 10 or 15% crit rate. This is a great way to add a status-condition to your powers for cheap. Excellent with a push-based build for doing extra damage.
Dimensional stride level 18. +1 reflex bonus. Enc: teleport 2 squares, or your Speed if full HPs. Upgraded Fencing boots basically. Teleport is better than shift and it provides an ongoing bonus.
Backtrack bindings +2 reflex bonus. Enc: rewind movement back to start. This lets you move in, blast/burst like crazy with a nova, then teleport back to where you started (out of harm's way).
Zephyr - level 24. Gain flight. Obviously a good thing. However, you are a big unobstructed target for any ranged foes...
Sandals of Avandra - +2 item bonus to speed. at-will move action: shift 1/2 your speed. Enc: Provoke no AoO from a move. Super great movement. Better than flight in my opinion since you can hide behind other party members when not attacking.
Butterfly Sandals - +2 untyped speed to FLIGHT powers. Of special note for some sorc powers and a MUST HAVE for Scions of Arkhosia.
Teleportation - level 28. at-will teleport your Speed. The ultimate in mobility.
Waist slot --------------- Belts give untyped bonuses to Fortitude. Attempt to take advantage of this.
Belt of Vim(AV) - Untyped Fort bonus. Simple but effective.
Belt of Mountain Endurance (Dragon 365) - Level 18. Adds STR to healing surge value. As daily, on AP, get +2 all defenses. A dragon/cosmic sorc can get a lot of mileage out of this. By level 18, you have about 110 HPs and 22 STR. So, your surge value goes from 27 to 33. This is a good 19% increase, and may be more worthwhile than a simple fortitude pump. It is MUCH better than equivalent items that only give a static +1/2/3 to HPs from surges.
Viper - Level 4. Cheap resist poison property. Enc: Bonus save vs poison. It's cheap and helpful vs a common element.
Baldric of valor - level 21. On AP, get +1 AB and defenses. Basically this replaces your Veteran's armor, freeing it up for a better property.
Ring Slots --------------- Don't forget...you get TWO rings you can wear. They are all available at mid-paragon.
Ring of Ramming(AV) - Level 18. +1 push distance for any push powers. Decent for Draconic Arrogance push builds. Otherwise just about useless.
Ring of Tenacious Will - Level 21. Use CHA instead of CON for number of surges! It's like taking the Durable feat about 3 or 4 times over! Extremely strong for extending your staying power. Also very good with various items that let you sacrifice YOUR (tons of) Surges to help others!
War Ring - level 16. Increases damage on a crit. With your 10/15% crit value, this adds some nice free damage. (15% chance of about 5.5 damage = ~1 damage per hit)
Shadow Guard - Resist cold and necrotic. Daily: damage adjacent foes. Two solid resist types.
Phoenix - level 27. Resist fire 15. Resurrect self! The high resist is solid. Resurrection is awesome!
Premonition Ring - +2 Init. Cannot be surprised. A nice property, if not super good for a sorc particularly.
Blink Ring - level 22. Daily: teleport 1d4 squares. sustain minor. Teleport is always good, especially since you can sustain it so you teleport every turn for free.
Wonderous Items ---------------------- These are slot-less random items with various useful powers and properties.
Salve of Power - lvl10. Use healing surge & daily to retain daily attack lvl5 or under. This is standard cheese for abusing level 5 stances. In this case, the Ranger MC that uses spitting cobra stance benefits mightily. Even at level 10 and beyond, a surge and daily item power is not a bad exchange for your Thunder Leap or Sun Illumination.
Violet Solitaire - level 26. Unless they nerfed it, you can get 1 free, always-usable AP per ENCOUNTER when you crit. With a daggermaster build, this happens a lot. Even a jagged dagger or sorc mastery will make this happen enough to take good advantage of.
Other Solitares - Varying levels. These all have some kind of free once per encounter handy ability when you crit. If you can get one, mine as well take advantage.
Frozen Whetstone - Great for the cold-based Dragon sorcs. Most of their powers will be cold-based already. However, with a supply of these, they can ensure ALL their attacks have the cold keyword. The cost for the whetstones is trivial by paragon and beyond. Of course, this is yet another of the 50 million rules questions under debate.
Flute of dancing satyr - Encounter,move: shift 2 and your allies shift 1. Awesome mobility power, though I am not sure how usable this is in combat. How do you put up your 2 implements and bust out a Flute and use it? Depending on DM interpretation, this goes from awesome to crap.
tattoo of wolverine Level 7. When bloodied, get +1ab, +2 damage. Great for the inner-dragon bloodied build.
Mummified hand Level 27. Gives you an extra ring slot.
My Sorc Guide Link: http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19649162/Joes_Sorcerer_Guide_AP_update_51509
My Genesi Wizard Blaster Link: http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/25082729/Miniguide_to_Genesi_LightningThunder_Blaster_Wizard_%2806-2010%29
