Menace's FS Sorcerer Guide

Introduction - Just wanted to share my FS Sorc guide and experience with you all. I think support or healer Sorcs are just as capable (even better in some situations) at healing as a Priest. Sure Sorcs lack some of the essential skills that Priests do. Like Coloseu Heal or Blessing but they make up for it in other areas (such as DPS/BurstDamage or AOE healing). I know there is a lot of bias against Sorcs being a main healer but I have found them to be just as good as a Priest in parties. Some people will see a Sorc as a main healer and automatically be turned off. It takes a little convincing but people soon realize that Sorcs are awesome as healers. I have solo healed in parties from Sea God Temple to Ghost Ship and also in parties against world bosses like WildSpeed, Stainer and Sandial Queen. I don't think I have struggled any less than a Priest would have, sometimes probably less because of AOE heals. 


This is my current Support Sorc and Target Skill build
My Skill Build

Resized to 46% (was 1314 x 720) - Click image to enlarge

Stats - Pretty much your standard DamageCaster/Healer build. 41Int/41Agi or 40Int/40Agi/8Vit.

Equipment/Cards - You will want anything with vigor and haste for casting healing spells faster. You will also want equipment that adds "hit." I will explain why later. For cards just grab anything with Int, Dex and Vit if you can(Alrus, Hermitus, Poisona are good cards). Lastly for runes I went all Dex runes in my equipment for higher critical rates. Critical heals play a major part in a support Sorcs role as I will explain later.

Offenseive Abilities - As a support Sorc you won't be dishing out as high of damage as a pure DPS Sorc and it will take you longer to kill. You will basically be hunting using the basic Magician spells plus 1 or 2 Offensive Sorc Spell. Firebolt/Fireball/FireboltMastery is a good combination as well as FrostDriver/LightningBolt or ColdBolt/JT/JTMastery. However, remember that you are a support Sorc! And that means people will be lining up to party with you for your healing abilities. I will usually just party with random people to do quests and bosses. There is really no reason you should NOT be partying for world quests anyway. I have run non-stop with members through an entire area in probably 1/4 less of a time than it would take someone to solo alone. Good Times!

Essential Skills - Here I will list all the essential skills you will need as a support Sorc and my personal opinion on them.

Earth Arms - Increases all your healing spells by 100% and gives a 30% DoT healing effect when your heals critical. Max it and have it on at all times!

Healing Wave - Your Main healing spell. It's not as strong as a Priest's heal (43% vs your 34%) but is fast to cast and does decent heal especially when it crits.

Land of Recovery - This is where Sorcs have Priests beat. This heals all party members around the target for 10 seconds. Very useful against boss AOE attacks as well as just regular mobs. Sometimes in dungeons and parties I can cast this spell and then just sit back and do nothing and watch my party members fight. This spell and Healing Wave are going to be your bread and butter as a Support/Healer Sorc. Cast LoR under your tank our party and then spam Healing Wave/Rejuvenation. The cooldown on this spell is as long as the spell duration so you can cast LoR and then spam Healing Wave/Rejuvenation or even DPS in between LoR casts. The animation and effect actually lasts a little bit longer which means you can always have a LoR on the ground (which you should anyway!). I always have this spell cast under my Tank's feet. I will usually tell people to group inside LoR when AOE attacks are coming. I've saved many members with this spell whereas I have seen parties wipe while a Priest struggles to maintain heals on the tank and other members in the party after a devastating AOE attack. Also a side note, LoR can Crit meaing massive AOE heals! Level 5 all the way on this skill!!!

Rejuvenation - There is a lot of debate on the usefulness and effectiveness of this spell VS. Healing Wave. Although the description reads "Instant Cast" there is a small delay before the heal hits. Simply put this spell is one big slow hard punch while Healing Wave is a set of small quick punches that do the same damage. However, the smaller punches from Healing Wave get faster with haste/vigor gears. I have this skill maxed just for fun to see the high critical heals. In emergencies I recommend using Healing Wave and then following up with this spell to fully heal someone. Leave this at level 1 and spam Healing Wave or Max it if you like to see high critical heals.

Meditation - This skill is the Sorc's secret weapon. It works just like a Priest's Meditio skill in that it increases your critical chance with heals based on your surplus hit percentage after 95%. This increase is significant. With 98% hit your extra healing chance would be (98%-95%)=(3%x 500%)=+15% extra healing chance! My Sorc at level 45 with this skill maxed and a regular critical rate of 22% has a combined chance of 39% to critical heal everytime i cast a healing spell. With raid gears and high end cards you could probably hit a 45%-55%+ chance to critical heal. Critical healing is important to a Sorc since their single target healing skills aren't up to par with a Priests and they lack Coloseu Heal. Max this skill, level 5!

Earth Shield - Increases defense of you and your party members. The only party buff Sorcs have and since they lack blessing or other protection skills this skill is a must. MAX it!

Deluge - This skill works just like a Priest's Sanctuary skill. It casts a powerful AOE healing spell over 10 seconds. This is your "oh *oops*" healing skill and combined with Land of Recovery you can pretty much keep your party's health at 100% through boss fights. If you can afford it get it to level 5. Otherwise level 1-4 is satisfactory.

Soul Bind - This skill is basically just a Priest's Resurection skill for Sorcs. Again, another skill that is heavily debated. Before it was patched this skill was definately worth maxing because of the low cooldown. However, now with the waaaayy increased cooldowns people just leave it at level 1 since you won't be able to use it more than once during a long boss fight anyway. 

Soul Cleansing - Debuffs in this game don't last very long and I have never had more than 2-3 debuffs on me at a time. Level 1 is good enough for this skill.

Conclusion - So there you have it a Support Sorc in a nutshell! In a skilled player's hands a Healer/Support Sorcs can be just as good as a Priest. However, they are a little bit overshadowed since they are not a devoted healing class like a Priest and hence lack some essential skills such as Blessing, Assumptio and Coloseu Heal. They have Priests beat, however, when it comes to doing damage and awesome AOE healing. Many people will still shun Sorcs as a main healer or downright refuse to party with them. But I think once everyone realizes that Sorcs can stand in the ring with Priests when it comes to healing they will be more accepted in Parties. I have had a lot of fun with this class partying with other people and doing dungeons as a main healer. I look forward to testing out my Healing abilities in Random Hard Dungeons and Raids. If you are playing a FS Sorc don't let the naysayers put you down. Once they realize the greatness of a Support Sorc they will change their minds.

Thanks for reading and feel free to share your thoughts. I will hopefully update more once I get to level 50 and start running some RHD's and Raids. 

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