Warhammer Online: Sorceress Review

 

Overview

The sorceress is the dark elf ranged dps class. She wears cloth armor and her protection is very low, but her damage is very high and you shouldn't underestimate her. She can specialize in three different Masteries: Agony (Single Target Spells), Calamity (Damage over Time effects) and Destruction (Area of Effect) spells. Each of the Masteries have their pro and cons.

Mechanics

The mechanics of the sorceress are quite unique in the world of MMOGs. The more magic the sorceress uses, the more dark magic she gains resulting in more powerful spells. Almost every spell casted, will increase her chance to land a critical hit and the critical damage up to 200% damage and +50% chance to crit but also has a 60% chance to cause a backlash damaging the caster itself. The trick is to manage your dark magic to not blow up yourself

Mastery: Agony

Agony focuses on single target direct damage spells and increase their damage as well unlock some new spells. It's not a very good Mastery in the late game, as it requires you to stand for long time and force you to use Doombolt as your main spell which has a very long cast (3 seconds). You will find yourself often, that the enemy runs out of range/line of sight and your cast cancels, dealing no damage. However, it's pretty nice in the early game (first 20-25 levels) for leveling, as the better AoE/DoT spells are unlocked at higher levels.

Pros

• High single target damage
• Good for levels 1-25

Cons

• Long cast times and cooldowns on related Agony spells
• Doombolt is canceled very often or interrupted due toe loss of line of sight or target running out of range
• Not many good skills/tactics to be unlocked

Mastery: Calamity

This mastery focuses on damage over time (DoTs) effects and get really interesting once you hit level 25 where you get a channeling DoT which will become your main damage spell. Besides that, there are some other nice spells you can get with this Mastery, like a healing DoT. Very good for leveling/solo PvE as well as for PvP

Pros

• High mobility
• Can heal yourself
• DoTs dealing damage even when victim runs out of range
• Strong channeling spell

Cons

• Applying all DoTs is time consuming and victim often dies before you're done
• Low peak damage
• Low dps due to damage over time effects

Mastery: Destruction

Destruction is the mastery of area of effect spells. This mastery can get very powerful if you're able to hit many persons who are close to each other, like in a keep or city raid. It is very powerful mastery in this areas. On the downside, it's not very good in the early game unless you're leveling with a group and have at least one decent healer to keep you up.

Pros

• Strong area of effect spells
• Very powerful on keep and city raids

Cons

• Easily to get agro from nearby mobs
• Weak DoT/single target spells

Summary

In the next few days I'm going to write an extensive review on PvP/PvE performance and some tips & tricks.

Strengths

• High spell damage
• Very long range spells
• Strong area of effect attacks

Weaknesses

• Vulnerable to Melee
• Light Armor
• Spells can backlash