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Sith Sorcerer leveling basics 1-25
Iselin
Member LegendaryPosts: 18,719
This thread is for those who are going to play the game and are curious about the Sith Sorcerer. I'm going to do this without spoilers and everything here applies equally to a Jedi Sage.
Levels 1-10
You will be spending these levels on the starter planet and you really should try to be at least level 10 before you leave it. This is very easy to do if you do all the quests including the 2 or 3 group quests and don't try to sneak around mobs but fight them all on the way to your objective. If you do that, you'll get level 10 in the starter planet no sweat.
You're going to spenf the first 8 or 9 levels without a companion and you will be playing like a true hybrid mixing in melee and ranged abilities in equal parts. You have no healing in combat so make sure you stock-up on the best health packs you can use. Don't forget that this is your tutorial: don't be afraid to try all your abilities to get a feel for them.
Around level 8 or so you'll be going on a quest where you will get your first companion. Without giving anything away, it pays to pay attention to the cut-scene when you're given the quest and taking your time in the private instance.
The first companion you get is a tank who does a pretty good job of grabbing and holding aggro. This is the point where you'll begin to develop your solo questing style and get a feel for the ranged DPS/Healer role you'll be playing.
Levesl 10-12
After you finish your first planet you'll get your ship and go up to the the fleet. Here is where you'll meet the NPC who will tell you about specialization and send you to the advanced class trainer. You'll also have all the gathering and crafting trainers here. A tip: go to all the crafting trainers and start a conversation but cancel out of selecting that craft. This will put an entry into your "Codex" with details about the craft and what gathering skills go well with it. Read them and pick the ones you want.
Now you're a Sorcerer and can start training talents.
This is just my opinion but I believe it's the best way to spend the first talent points (levels 10-14) regardless of what type of sorcerer you want to be. Your challenge in the next few levels will be to not run out of force before the fight is over, so... spend 2 talent points to increase your force pool by 100 (2 X 50) and then the next 3 talent points reducing the cost of all your heals and nukes by 9% (3 X 3%) I know that 9% doesn't seem like much, but trust me, you want this.
While you're with the fleet, you'll be given the quest for your first flashpoint. A flashpoint is TOR lingo for a dungeon. You'll see people trying to gather a party based on traditional MMO roles of healer/tank/DPS. This is an understandable mistake many make at this point but this first flashpoint is a DPS fest where traditional roles are not required. Additionally, it's quite easy to do with just one other and your 2 companions. Grab anyone else--any class--and you're good to go.
Now you're ready to go to your faction capital world where there are enough quests to keep you going to level 18 or so.
Levels 15-25
This is the part of the game where you progressively specialize as a sorcerer. You can either go for healing (and be one of, if not the best healers in the game) or go one of 2 DPS routes. One DPS branch focuses on direct damage nukes and the other on a more mobile damage over time based DPS with a lot of incidental self-healing and power regeneration. I personally prefer the later and will go that route but any of the 3 will be good choices...whatever suits you.
If you're going the healer route, counterintuitively, you'll probaly want to spend the 6th and 7th talent points in the same DPS tree you've already been putting points in. The reason is that early on the best skill you have is not a heal at all but a damage shield bubble. With 2 points you can increase it's effectiveness by 20%. It's already a very good shield to begin with--not the token one you get in most MMOs--and the extra 20% makes it very, very good. You'll be using it while soloing on your tank companion before he wades in and on the tank and everyone else in group situations.
If you're going DPS pick the DD or DOT trees and start building them up. If you're going up the Madness DOT tree (as I will be doing,) you should pick Calcify and Will of the Sith for + 12% damage with your "go-to" ability and +9% Willpower which affects your damage and critical rates. You can figure it out from there.
In this level range, although you are now more specialized and can legitimally start describing yourself as "Healer" or "DPS," you really can still hold your own in either role just fine. More often than not you'll find yourself mixing heals, bubbles and DPS regardless.
Dark Side /Light Side
The first time I leveled a sorcerer I went dark side and found it fits the story line quite well. Last time I went light side and, imho, it fits even better: you're just an independent thinking guy with little allegiance to the Empire but you have a hell of a temper... suited me fine 
A final word...
This was by far the most popular class in beta and it will undoubtedly be the same live. But don't worry about it and spend too much time trying to mix and match a group with different classes. Often you'll get a a group of nothing but sorcerers and they're perfectly viable for the first 3 flashpoints or so. Knowing how to ping-pong aggro helps but since all of you can heal you'll be just fine... lot's of competition for the light armor and ligtsabre drops though 
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
Comments
Pretty good walkthrough! I will pass that along to my friend that will be a healer Soc.
I enjoyed playing the Sorcerer in the beta. If his lightning wasn't purple I might even have picked the class for release instead of the Mercenary.
nice read, let me share my leveling with the sith Sorc.
level to 10 on the starter planet.
pvp in mini games to level 20 then go back and walk threw the class quest.
pvp xp was awsome and very easy to level up.
also like to add, on my server Sorc was by far NOT the most played. it was BH
If you ask nicely they might add different color fingernails
OT: Nice write up. Some general tips for all classes too.
My brand new bloggity blog.
Lol. That reminds me of the great Tinky Winky controversy of 10 years ago
But you're right, you'd better like the color purple if you plan on being a sorcerer.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
Would it be easier just to level dps then switch to healer when you hit 50 ?
I think I read madness was the quickest spec for leveling.
There is no reason to be a healer leveling, as anyone that has any form of heal and a group with brain can complete all Heroics and flashpoints to endgame without issue.
I actually found leveling as a healer to be more frustrating than the dps route.
Actually its a madness/ lightning hybrid that is quickest.
No 1 tip for Inquisitor starting off on Korriban:
That ground-slam ability (can't remember the name off the top of my head) is your friend. It is especially handy when there is a ledge / pit or other large drop in the area. Just position the mobs near the edge, and send them flying to their death.
REMEMBER this. It will save you a lot of frustration during one particular class quest.
Ledges are op and will probably be nerfed after launch
lol-j/k...
Anyways, nice write-up, and pretty-much my experience as well. I went straight lightning spec myself and it seemed to work pretty good. No real need for healing spec until later. (I made it to level 20 on my sorc, so things could be very different beyond...)
Well I am not going to pick my class because of the color of its spells, I dont care if my lighting is pink to be honest.
According to the polls tho, this was probably the most popular class, and it looks like a lot of fun.
But I do will go mercenary for healing, instead of this, but mostly has to do with the fact that I seem to like the mechanics more for healing as a BH.
Also I feel this class migth be the first to feel the nerf bat, since Ive seen quite a few PVP BG's where the sorc was both tops in healing and damage.
I only played a Sith Inq to about lvl 8 during Beta as I knew I'd be playing it at launch and didn't want to spoil the class quest chain. I switched over to Jedi Consular (Shadow - which I didn't like, will be choosing Sorceror AC on the Sith) as the gameplay is similar. I have to say the Sith was more enjoyable than the Jedi, all the people i had to deal with were irritating and I found I just wanted to kill them, which I probably shouldn't be doing as a Jedi.
I agree. I took a Jedi Sage to lhe low 20s and the story just didn't feel right to me: too lawful good for my taste. The Sorcerer--especially a light side one--felt right. You don't have to kill small children and cute furry things but you can demolish anyone who annoys you... it's also fun to go after some of the truly evil characters you'll run into.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
Yeah. You want at least 13 points in Lightning for Chain Lightning and Lightning Barrage. The first one you'll be casting whenever Wrath procs off Force Lightning and the 2nd one causes Force Lightning to channel twice as fast right after an Affliction crit.
Force Lightning is the Madness Sorcerer's go-to ability and these two go very well with it.
Healing is much slower for soloing since you'll be relying on your companion for DPS. You'll lack the better AOE DPS abilities that allow the other Sorcerer specs to just chew through trash pulls... and in this game, you'll pull groups of 3-5 all the time except for some single elites here and there.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
I know a bit off topic, but can you help me with this please:
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/post/4609566#4609566
Guild Wars 2's 50 minutes game play video:
http://n4g.com/news/592585/guild-wars-2-50-minutes-of-pure-gameplay
Everything We Know about GW2:
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/287180/page/1
Which companion would you be using with the madness/lightning hybrid leveling build? Still the melee dps / tank one?