What skills are important for a Sorcerer?

If you're planning on starting a new sorcerer, first let me congratulate you on a great choice! Sorcerers are looked on with awe by many and if done right are second to none when it comes to dishing out the damage. In fact you'll find yourself holding back the damage quite often to avoid getting aggro! Even the best tank can't hold a mobs attention when a sorcerer is going all out! One bit of advice though: If you're starting a new character with a friend, talk them into becoming a healer because sorcerers are squishy!

Once you've reached level 10, here is where I suggest you spend your skill points!

1. Intelligence. Intelligence allows the caster to successfully hit the target in question. If it's too low, the mobs will resist your spells and will reduce your damage.

2. Wisdom. This is where you get your energy so don't skimp here! A sorcerer who's run out of energy is about as useful as a spoon when you've got a plateful of spaghetti! This is also where you get a lot of your + Spell Critical!

3. Vitality. This is where your energy regeneration comes from! The higher the better but raise Int and Wisdom first! This also raises your runspeed so when you go running away like a little girl, you do it quickly!

Should I put extra points on constitution? No. Constitution for a sorcerer is a complete waste of time. In order to make any meaningful contribution to your hitpoints, you'd have to spend a lot of points here. Since you're already wearing light armor, everything hits you for a ton anyways so having an extra 100 hitpoints really isn't worth spending points on.

How does Spell Damage Focus work? The most common attribute on gear for sorcerers is Spell Damage Focus. SDF is a skill that allows you to increase your damage per cast, up to 20%. SDF is capped at 20%, and the most you can use is 10*your level. So at level 30, you can use 300 SDF - you can get more, but it won't help you beyond the 300. This is an area where a lot of sorcerers get confused. Remember, if it's more than 10*your level, it's wasted and could be used on something else, like Spell Critical or Spell Accuracy.

How important is Spell Critical? For a sorcerer who wants max DPS - it's absolutely critical. (pun intended!) Look for handheld focus items that add + Spell Critical. Again it's capped at 20% and for this you just have to count the %'s per item in regards to your level (they scale to you) and add or subtract as needed.

What is Spell Accuracy? Spell accuracy affects both the likelihood of you hitting your target and has a bit to do with how much damage you do. Higher accuracy means you'll hit more often and will hit for more. This is a great 3rd skill to have, for when you go over the cap on SDF.

Should I use a weapon, and if so, what kind? Anyone ever hear of Tasslehoff Burrfoot? Among many other things he had a little skinning knife in his backpack... Weapons are useful only as you begin your journey as a sorcerer. We can use staves and daggers in Vanguard. Daggers are 1 handed, yet you can only use 1 at a time, so the best route early on in your career would be a staff. There are some really decent staves around that also add SDF, etc and you can do some fairly decent damage with them. Daggers are useful too but do a lot less damage, although you can dual wield one dagger and one focus item so it's a good way to wean yourself off of weapons. As you progress in level, weapons become less useful and most sorcerers do not use them after level 40 or so because of the stats you can get off of focus items.

Okay, I've decided to become a Sorcerer! What race should I pick? Well, if you've done your research you'll see that the absolute best class for a sorcerer is, and I'm so sorry, a friggen Gnome! No other class will allow you to have as much Wisdom and Intelligence. If you can't stand to play a gnome, and I don't blame you - you have other choices. I picked a human myself and have been very successful! I will advise that you stay away from the Goblin, Orc, Wood Elf, Raki or Lesser Giant as you won't have near as much energy and spell critical.