Sorcerer


 * "Focused intellect and raw killing power."

The sorcerer is a cloth armored class which specializes in a disc with long ranged offensive damage-dealing capabilities. Although what seems the weakest of all in terms of defense, the Sorcerer is full of great knowledge in magical spells varying from strong area of affect attacks to damage negating abilities.

Official description
"Sorcerers fight from range, shaping magic through an arcane disc, channeling the force of will into sheets of flame, icy blades, and spheres of pure energy. The sorcerer strikes and evades and strikes again, flanking the foe, leaping out of danger, playing a game of position. With only sorcerous robes for protection, staying clear of attacks is vital, and dealing massive damage in a spectacular fashion is all in a day's work for this explosive class. Warriors of the intellect, sorcerers are at their best when they stand apart, watch for vulnerability, and then make their foes pay dearly for it. Sorcerers may not be as flexible as other classes, but when your close-quarters companions fall in battle it's awfully nice to have arcane artillery at your disposal."

General
Sorcerer in one of the oldest classes in TERA, being one of the original two range DPS classes. The class was known for its very slow but hard-hitting attacks such as Meteor Strike (formerly known as fireblast). Due to its class as a caster, some skills will lock a player in place, with no possibility to move or dodge until the skill has finished. However, these abilities usually have higher damage to compensate. Due to TERA's highly dynamic playstyle, the sorcerer must have decent knowledge of the fight to know when to cast certain skills. The sorcerer has several skills to mitigate this, such as passives to increase cast speed and damage negating abilities to help their survivability. One of the sorcerer's main passive ability, Burst of Celerity, speeds up casting time by 30% of all skills. This made slow casting skills reasonable, but made some other skills, such as dodging and iframe skills to also move faster thus needing the player to time these abilities much more accurately. It should be also noted that some of sorcerer's skills are instant with zero cast time, thus making the attack speed increase having no effect on these skills. The sorcerer also has a wide array of defensive abilities. It has a wide array of iframes and movement skills to move across the arena with warp barrier lasting for 2 seconds and negating most damage and stone skin, which negates damage for 5 seconds and drops all aggro generated on the player. The sorcerer class also has mana barrier which creates a shield based on the amount of mana the player has.

Sorcerer rework was released on October 2016 patch by EME under the name Spellbound patch and by GF under the name Portentous Rebirth. Sorcerer had major changes as part of rework. Several skills were renamed such as fireblast to meteor strike while other skills were outright replaced such as frost sphere replacing ice needle. Burst of Celerity was moved from an active skill (needed button press) to being added as passive. Other skills were adjusted to match animation speed. As a result of burst of celerity being moved to a passive, the sorcerer's skills no longer hit much harder than before but the general principle of gameplay still remained. The hidden bloodlust ability remained unchanged for sorcerer during the rework. The rework also greatly simplified mana management of sorcerer and no longer special skills to keep their mana up such as mana infusion. However, sorcerers will, on occasion, need to utilize the use of mana potions and divine infusions to help with longer fights.

Equipment


The sorcerers lack of healing abilities combined with the poor defense provided by cloth armor leave them physically vulnerable class. As such, sorcerers are often played defensively, and striking when a suitable opportunity arises. The disc equipped by the sorcerer is used to channel powerful magical spells that take the form of fire, ice, lightning and mental energy to damage their opponents.

Skills


Sorcerers are capable of casting powerful magic and utilizing elemental attacks that range from fire, ice, lightning and mind elements. This aspect is made more apparent with Sorcerer's Awakening and skills are now divided to three categories: fire, ice and arcane magic.

From fire resources, the sorcerer is best known for, a powerful hellfire flame that deals damage to foes in front of the sorcerer.

Other main damage skills are and. Both have 2&times; crit chance glyphs when attacking monsters. Lightning Strike also has reset glyph for possibility to reset skill after casting, which means it can be cast again. Lightning Strike falls under arcane magic and Void Pulse is fire attack.

Sorcerer doesn't directly have combo skills. However, there are two skills that buff other skills' crit factor after cast. The is an unique charged skill that charges up and is sent in a straight direction, dealing damage to anything standing in the way. It has side effect of boosting crit factor 2.5 times for for 5 seconds (2.5&times; of sorc's base 50 crit factor = +75 crit). has similar effect, +75 crit factor for 4 seconds. Main damage skills should be used while crit boost lasts.

Based on this we have basic sorcerer rotation: Note: on later patches Meteor Strike is changed so that casting finishes far before meteor strikes. Therefore it's possible to reverse Meteor Strike and Nova, and Nova effect activates before meteor strikes. This makes better rotation.
 * 1)  ->  ->   (while it resets)
 * 1)  ->  ->   (while it resets)

These two chains don't take all the time Meteor Strike takes to be available again (around 9 seconds with single cdr roll). Pre-Apex sorcerer ends up using lots of low crit chance filler skills. The most common of these are  and. Also and  can be used when standing close to enemy.

Special aspects of some skill to be considered: while charging sorcerer can move freely if proper glyph it used. Use this to relocate while in combat and you don't lose any DPS. While casting sorcerer takes only half damage and has high resistance to stagger and knockdown. This skill can be used for "Nova Tanking" some damage to avoid using dodges.

Special skill from ice resources is the which freezes the ground and slows down enemies and damages them. This skill should always be cast when it's available, as it damages enemies over time.

Although weak when it comes to close combat, the sorcerer has multiple ways to counter that weakness with maybe second best dodge skills. makes sorcerer immune to damage for maximum of 2 seconds, will allow the sorcerer to endure damage in exchange for mana. In addition sorcerer can use to turn to stone statue and became immune to all damage. Finally, the, a chilly spell which will cause the caster to leap backwards, giving enough distance to continue a combo.

Finally, since rework sorcerer gets quite standard boost skill for extra damage: buffs damage for 20 seconds.

Apex changes
Sorcerer's superior glyph from apex quest gives Lightning Strike 50% reset chance for 3 glyph points.

New attack skills sorcerer gets with Apex are Ice Lances, Fusion and Implosion. New skills remove need for most low damage fillers.

Ice Lances launches some ice spikes from side of sorcerer that hit targets up to 15 meters. Skill has zero casting time so it's basically free damage. Hit from Arcane Pulse or Nova increases Ice Lances damage by 30%, so the skill should be cast after either of those. Probably after Arcane Pulse, if Arcane Pulse is always used when its available, since skills have similar cooldown times. Sorcerer discord advised usage for this skill is: "it has no animation so just smash it non stop like the good ape you are. 50 HPM or go home".

Fusion is actually combination of three different skills. Activating skill requires filling fusion meter with two different elements from Flame, Frost and Arcane. After two elements are used, one of the skills activates. Possible attacks are: Prime Flame (flame + frost), Arcane Storm (arcane + flame), or Iceberg (frost + arcane). Casting skill uses no mana and it hits harder and faster than Meteor Strike. Note: damage is reduced 20 % if two same attacks are used in row. For optimal damage you have to rotate your Fusions. Fusion has similar resistance to stagger and knockdown like Nova.

Implosion is new sorcerer "ultimate" skill with 4 minute cooldown. It's becomes active only during Mana Boost and after using all three elements (it still stays active for a while after Mana Boost ends). Using this skill raises sorcerer in air and they became invulnerable during cast. This skill has very long animation, but it can be cancelled with Backstep or Teleport Jaunt and skill still hits at the end of animation. During attack targets in area are pulled together and players get multiple staggers.

Racial traits
Being able to pick between one of the seven races proves to be a tough choice. Each race has their own unique racial traits that can effectively improve the gameplay of the sorcerer, depending on race choice:
 * Amani have a lot of defensive capabilities coming from, and  which can greatly increase their greatest weakness, defense.
 * Baraka have, a healing ability that can fully recover all health, and more mobility coming from , and which gives them more health than any others, only when they constantly die.
 * Castanic have which increases their running speed during combat for dodging magic circles, and  which gives them a higher chance to shoot a critical hit from the back.
 * High elves have which completely recovers their mana, and  which restores an amount of mana upon revival to get back into combat quickly.
 * Humans have and  which greatly increases their defense when facing enemy players, aside from that, they got  which restores an amount of health upon revival to get them back into combat quickly.
 * Poporis and elins have nothing that could assist a sorcerer in combat. Instead, they get multiple abilities for non-combat situations such as swimming and movement speed outside combat. Elin Racial skills may assist in not entering combat, which can be useful considering the low defense.

Generally Elin is said to have fastest animations on skills. However Castanic race passive is especially important for sorcerer.

Gearing and Attributes
For gear with enigmatic rolls you can pick, recommended weapon rolls are Damage vs. enraged monster; Damage vs. enraged monsters; +6.9% damage from behind and Flat 6% damage, and cooldown reduction. With low gear that has only 4 enigmatic lines pick cooldown reduction as first roll. It's also possible to run double cooldown reduction. Recommended chest line is increased damage of Meteor Strike. (Crystals, rollable weapon lines incl. double cooldown and chest line are not available on level 68/69 Exodor gear or any gear released after that.)

With new Exodor gear sorcerer uses gear with magic amplification: Manaforce Azart or Dark Light gear and Kaia's Wisdom set.

Recommended build for PVE is the usual crit+crit power. Sorcerer main skills have rather low crit chance. However, sorcerer gets 75 crit bonus during most of the skill rotation. By some guides sorcerer should aim to have total crit rate of around 50+280. This can be achieved using crit rings, earrings, necklace and underwear. Part of this can be substituted with crit foods or Mystic aura.

After Exodor patch sorcerer discord recommends about crit: "If you just want one single setup for both healers aim for ~273 written in your profile without any buffs or consumables. Around 368 total is good value which ignores most RNG and temporary aspects." This means recommended setup is 273 crit + high level priest with 36% buff + 20 crit food. Or 230 + mystic + 20 crit food for endgame content in early 2020. This may have changed with new dungeons higher and higher level bosses. Check discord for latest info.

With patch 93 new passives several sorcerer skills scale with maximum MP character has. Mana is quite hard stat to acquire. One 150 MP roll in gear seems to increase Meteor Strike damage by about 0.5 %. Amarun's Relic is recommended.

For current (summer 2021) endgame superior tier V Ishara's Halidom and Amarun's Relic V with currently available Kaia's Wisdom accessories gives over 300 crit even with full power set of Warlord's rings, earrings and necklace. Enough crit should be achieveable with healer buffs, Lamb Bulgogi or Multi-Nostrum.

Crystals
Sorcerer uses standard ranged Weapon Crystals: Spiteful, Savage, Focused and Pounding. If crit rate is low, Pounding can be switched to Carving. Choosing between a Pounding and Forceful niveot is left to user preference as there is little damage difference between the niveots.

For dyad niveots, it is recommended to have poisedly secondary roll or relentless secondary roll. Having four poisedly secondary rolls will yield an 8.8 percent damage reduction against enraged monsters

Defensive crystals are the standard hardy niveots. For dyad secondary rolls, it is recommended to use Glistering rolls as the secondary roll for MP replenishment. As a sorcerer, mana is a major issue and Glistering replenishs some MP when the player crits from behind which helps alleviate the mana issue.

Glyphs
Specializing in glyphs like all classes means a great deal to customization. Notable glyphs are: These are your main damage skills in PVE. Improving your boost skill.
 * Carving Meteor Strike: Doubles the chance to crit when attacking monsters
 * Energetic Meteor Strike: Decreases cooldown by 20%
 * Hastened Meteor Strike: Speeds casting by 25%
 * Empowered Arcane Pulse: Increases skill damage by 25%
 * Slick Arcane Pulse: Can move while charging
 * Keen Arcane Pulse: Increases crit factor by 2.5 times for 5 seconds
 * Carving Void Pulse: Doubles the chance to crit when attacking monsters
 * Energetic Void Pulse: Decreases cooldown by 20%
 * Carving Lightning Strike: Doubles the chance to crit when attacking monsters
 * Persistent Lightning Strike: 50% chance to eliminate cooldown (Apex glyph)
 * Energetic Nova: Decreases cooldown by 20%
 * Hastened Nova: Speeds casting by 30%
 * Keen Nova: Increases crit factor by 2.5 times for 4 seconds
 * Energetic Mana Boost: Decreases cooldown by 20%
 * Lingering Mana Boost: Increases effect duration by 20%

These are for last bits of DPS in PVE.
 * Energetic Hail Storm: Decreases cooldown by 20%
 * Hastened Flaming Barrage: Speeds casting by 40%

You dodge and defensive skills.
 * Energetic Warp Barrier: Decreases cooldown by 20%
 * Lingering Warp Barrier: Increases effect duration by 100%
 * Energetic Teleport Jaunt: Decreases cooldown by 15%
 * Energetic Mana Barrier: Decreases cooldown by 20%
 * Warding Mana Barrier: Increases damage absorption by 30%

These skills are mainly used in PVP.
 * Energetic Time Gyre: Decreases cooldown by 15%
 * Blazing Time Gyre: Speeds casting Meteor Strike by 25% for a few seconds
 * Multiplicative Time Gyre: Increases number of lock-on targets by 2.
 * Hastened Mindblast: Speeds casting by 30%
 * Hindering Burning Breath: Decreases the effect of healing skills on foes by 30% for 10 seconds
 * Lingering Glacial Retreat: Increases effect duration by 40%

Flame Pillar is used in PVP as it staggers enemies. Also it can be used to fight large number of mobs since it hits every target with equal force.
 * Empowered Flame Pillar: Increases skill damage by 25%
 * Energetic Flame Pillar: Decreases cooldown by 20%

This is mainly for PVP to slow down enemies and speed up Mindblast. Although Frost Sphere is used in PVE to give Ice effect to Apex Fusion skills and cooldown reduction might be needed.
 * Energetic Frost Sphere: Decreases cooldown by 30%
 * Lingering Frost Sphere: Increases effect duration by 50%
 * Slowing Frost Sphere: Decreases opponent's Movement Speed by an additional 20%
 * Blazing Frost Sphere: Speeds casting Mindblast by 40% for a few seconds

Enhancement Points
Strengthen Offense: Don't use points to give skills "Burning Wound" debuff or buff Burning Breath. These are useless.
 * Mighty Attack, max this first
 * Mana Boost Amplification, high priority

EP Damage is useless.

Speed Increase: Hail Storm Combat Dash is not needed. Maximum buff is now included within Hail Storm.
 * Nova Velocity
 * Retaliate Speed Skating: Traps, might useful in PVP.

Resource Recovery:
 * Lightning Strike: Propulsion, decreases max 1 sec from Nova cooldown per every hit that crits
 * Void Pulse: Reload, high priority, gives max 15% reset chance
 * Hail Storm: Reload,
 * Mana Barrier Recycle, might be useful
 * Retaliate Turning Tables, useful in PVP

Defense/Special:
 * Mighty Defense, max this
 * Mighty Phoenix, spend 1 point here
 * Mana Barrier: Amplification, might be useful


 * Lightning Trap: Constancy, must in PVP
 * Frostbite effect for various skill might be useful in PVP
 * Lethal Lesson, might be useful in PVP, less nowadays

Skill Advancementment
Hail Storm: Cold Wave is very useful when soloing. Other unlocks have seen use in PVP.

Glacial Explosion seems good for PVP. Its damage is similar to Meteor Strike, only with lower crit chance, which does not matter in PVP. Do not use Glacial Explosion in PVE. It has few % lower base damage than Cold Wave. Also getting constant frost effect for Fusion skill is nice. Frostbite is hardly useful. No one is so stupid they would stand in puddle of ice to get maximum stack.

Mana Boost: Mysterious is only reasonable choice for any purpose.

Example Keybindings
moved to Sorcerer/Example Keybindings