The Gaming Den

So, mostly on the principle of "more gaming" > "less gaming," I recently joined a 4E group. With no previous experience of 4E other than a couple "learn to play" sessions from when it first came out, I am however finding it to be a rather difficult and tiring task to look for new powers, feats, items, etc.

I know a lot of people here are more familiar with 4E, so I was hoping I could call upon the accumulated wisdom of these boards for a bit of assistance.

The party is currently level 3. I am playing a drow chaos sorcerer.

The rest of the party consists of:
-a human fighter
-a dragonborn fighter
-a dragonborn paladin
-a cleric whose race I'm not sure of
-a tiefling warlock
-an eladrin wizard
-a human warlord
-a deva invoker

Average party size seems to be about 6, though, due to absences and such.

The powers I currently have are:
At-Will: Chaos Bolt, Burning Spray

Encounter: Ray of the Moon, Dancing Lightning

Daily: Dazzling Ray

Utility: Elemental Shift

My feats are Distant Advantage and Arcane Spellfury.

I have no magical equipment of note.

So far, my best strategy seems more or less to just spam Chaos Bolt, unless there're a lot of minions, in which case I use Burning Spray.

Are there any really neat spells or feats or magical items that might be picking up in the near future, especially ones that don't necessarily appear all that awesome at first glance?

Thank you for any assistance you might tender.

My sorcerer just spams Acid Orb instead (to benefit from the Eagle Eye Goggles + Bracers of the Perfect Shot). Yawn.

I also picked Chromatic Orb instead of Dazzling Ray and Lightning Strike instead of Burning Spray and Ice Dragon's Teeth & Explosive Pyre for encounter powers, but whatever. I spend 90% of my time spamming Acid Orb anyways.

Thanks for the tips about the items. I might switch out some powers at some point, I'm not sure yet.

Honestly, I can barely read any 4E book (especially the magic item descriptions) without almost falling asleep, so any guidance is totally appreciated.

In general, the bonuses/penalties for using the "right" or "wrong" energy type on any monster are pretty small potatoes. You're better off finding an energy type that you can lump feat and item bonuses onto and then using that over and over again.

Lightning/Thunder is pretty good for that. Going Hobbit Storm Sorcerer, for example, works fine.

-Username17

Blicero wrote:Thanks for the tips about the items. I might switch out some powers at some point, I'm not sure yet.

Note that those two items only work on basic attacks, though (like Acid Orb).

Blicero wrote:Honestly, I can barely read any 4E book (especially the magic item descriptions) without almost falling asleep, so any guidance is totally appreciated.

Likewise.

Here's the items my character has:
Eagle Eye Goggles
Bracers of the Perfect Shot
+1 Goblin Totem dagger (extra damage against larger creatures; my character is a goblin)
+1 leather Armor of Sudden Recovery (change continuous damage into regeneration 1/day; my character has the Armor Proficiency feat)

The two exceptions for specializing in energy damage are necrotic and poison. Don't do it. They are really common resistances.

Funnily enough, the three least-commonly resisted damage types--lightning, psychic, and radiant--are also the more common powers and also combine the best with feats.

I don't know why this is.

The sorcerous blade channeling feat is a good investment. It allows you to use Ranged abilities in melee. If you have a Ranged Basic attack, it should allow it to become a Melee basic (the PHB has it Written up as Basic attacks, the ranged/melee distinction is secondary). This may allow the use of Powers on an AoO.

Dual Implement spellcaster is another good feat. You will cycle through implements as you go up in level, so keep your lesser one in your off hand. At paragon tier, Sorcerous vision is a great feat. Perception and Insight based off your Arcana check.

Try and focus on multi-target powers where possible. Your static damage modifiers apply to all hits, so try and spread the love a little bit in order to keep your DPR respectable. I would train out dazzling ray for example and aquire a multi-target power. Depends on your static damage mods though.

As for items, try and keep your implement maxxed out. Other than that skim the books and look for (encounter) or (property) items. Far better than (daily) items for the most part. At low level you will only get one (daily) effect, +1 per milestone anyway, so try and limit your number of those items.

Honestly... I think the Str sorcerers are better than the dex guys now, since the Daggermaster nerf.

Since they've gone out of their way to nerf actual caster options like frost cheese, and fire cheese, and so on, so the better sorc builds I've seen lately have been based around grabbing as much melee bonus stuff as possible and using it with sorcerous blade channeling.

And bloody Kensai or that FR Barbarian/Sorcerer PP are probably the best PP options now, as sad as that sounds, and they both need str to grab.

The best actual sorcerer path options are a PP that makes you go blind (no, really) and a Wild Mage path whose big draw is... a whopping crit on a 19 feature.

On Implements:

PHB3 introduced silly "Superior Implements" that require a feat to use, a la exotic weapons. These are awesome because they grant you special implement properties and can be enchanted as magic items in their own right, and any overlapping bonuses (such as +1 to hit) are unnamed and therefore stack. Plus, they're dirt cheap. Superior implements cost no more than 30 gp, unless they've put out some errata that I missed. While it doesn't scale with tier the way Weapon Expertise does, the bonus is persistent and generally useful.

An Accurate Staff costs 20 gp and is an excellent main-hand implement with an off-hand dagger if you're using Sorcerous Blade Channeling. You don't need Dual Implement Spellcaster to wield an implement in each hand and switch between them at will; you only need DIS if you want to add the enhancement bonus of the off-hand weapon to your damage. At low levels, this might not be worth it, and it's less useful than it was before due to Staff of Ruin-related errata.

Blicero wrote:(especially the magic item descriptions) without almost falling asleep, so any guidance is totally appreciated.

Just read the bold parts for items, lemme translate:

Daily Power: The rest of this description is a waste of your fucking time. For levels 1-10 you only get one daily item use per day (plus milestones) anyways - so any daily item power needs to be notably better than your class dailies to even consider, and anything that good has already been nerfed in the endless nerftastic errata.

Encounter Power: Worth reading, sometimes worth taking. Check the other activation requirements. If it's a minor action or cheaper and doesn't burn surges there're some decent effects here, but you got so much little crap to

Property: or At-Will You want this, whatever it is!! it's an extra option or straight numeric boost- Gravy that should have been part of your character class, but Mearls and co have no clue what "reducing magic item dependency" really means.