Sorceresses: Combat or backup?

[eaintree]

I find it curious that everyone on the board seems to automatically equate Nathalie as combat mage. If your main character is also a sorceress, there's no reason you can't make your own PC the combat-heavy mage and stock Nathalie up in Haste, Slow, Arcane Shield, etc. Or is there something I don't know?

 

Am just about to start the Redbeard fight after reading the long post on here about how long it takes. I'm already intimidated...

[Randomizer]

The Sorceress class has the most different attack spells and damage types so it's very useful for offense. You can get most of the backup spells without hurting the attack ones and they seem to be less useful except Arcane Shield.

[Alorael at Large]

With four classes, odds are that most players aren't playing as a sorceress. And if you are, you have to want two sorceresses more than one combat sorceress plus two other party members.

 

—Alorael, who tried making Nathalie a buffer. She was not even as affective as Sevilin. He gave up.

[Ceiling Durkheim]

It's hard to say whether sorceresses or shadowwalkers are worse with support specs, but neither of them seem worthwhile on higher difficulties. It doesn't help that blademasters get most of the same buff abilities as sorcs, usually with more bells and whistles. Also, a support-oriented blademaster makes a decent tank as well, while a support-oriented sorc isn't effective as a tank or healer, and deals mediocre damage. The only support abilities that really seem useful on sorcs are (group/level 3) Arcane Blessing and Assault Blessing. The former gives a status effect that is very rare, and quite useful under certain circumstances, but it doesn't require one to go deep at all into the support tree. The latter is nice, but assault crystals do the same thing, and it's not nearly as nice as, say, Call of the Frenzy.

[Soul of Wit]

Originally Posted By: Nuts, in a nutshell

With four classes, odds are that most players aren't playing as a sorceress. And if you are, you have to want two sorceresses more than one combat sorceress plus two other party members.

—Alorael, who tried making Nathalie a buffer. She was not even as affective as Sevilin. He gave up.

Yes. Sevilin makes a surprisingly effective buffer.

[Lilith]

Originally Posted By: Soul of Wit

Yes. Sevilin makes a surprisingly effective buffer.

read this as "surprisingly effective butler", could not actually disagree with either statement

[Ceiling Durkheim]

Well, they do both play support roles. The blademaster in general makes a very effective gentleman's gentleman.