【Elden Ring】 Sorcery observations & tips

2022-03-02   #elden_ring 

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disclaimer: these are all random thoughts while playing. I have not looked up anything about this game nor have I conferred with many other dedicated magic users. I don’t use summons so that might change things as well.

Chaincasting

Glint spells (Pebble, Arc, Swift, Greater Swift) have an initial cast time that can be skipped by chaining one into the other. For example, you’ve probably noticed that casting Pebble repeatedly only goes through the initial cast time once, and the subsequent casts are based on a fixed animation cast time. Other spells can be chain casted this way as well, allowing you to chain cast into spells with a longer cast time like Arc off of one with a shorter cast time like Swift Glintstone.

todo:

  • Cast speed values
  • Poise/stagger damages
  • Test int/dex gravity, full moon, and glintstone
  • test co-op int/mind meteorite build
  • Test int/end pebble vs int/dex pebble
  • Test int/2h greatsword with crystal sword

Stats

  • I think Sorc point scaling is about 2% per point, but I might be confused because it isnt in my old notes, so I need to re-test this

Gear

Carian Slasherstaff

  • The carian slasherstaff thing is 10% modifier on carian slasher spells
  • it gets A rank scaling at +9 which makes it outpace meteor staff for carian damage, but nothing else
  • with S scaling it’ll probably just be a straight buff vs meteor

Gravenschool Talisman

  • Increases damage by 3.5%-4%, maybe not worth a slot

Spells

Glintstone Pebble

  • FP 7
  • it’s good, it’s the base spell, jsut use it all the time
  • can be swift casted into
  • good range and tracking

Swift Glintstone

  • Lower range than Glintstone Pebble (about 20% less?)
  • Faster startup, can be casted while jumping, does not slow down torrent speed
  • Damage is about 25-30% less than pebble (double-check)
  • Can be used to start chain casting sequences quickly
  • Makes exploration really easy as you can just circle strafe a bunch of stuff while dashing with torrent

Glintstone Arc

  • incredible aoe skill
  • casting without lockon is often ideal to get best angles to hit multiple targets
  • seems to have a high stagger damage but need to test more
  • Really hard to use when casting on targets on a lower elevation than you, easier when they have the high ground
  • The angle of the arc sucks if shooting downwards
  • Extremely versatile on flat ground, can tolerate some elevation changes, seemingly unbeatable AoE for the game’s many corridors and small room AoE encounters, works in larger spaces too as long as you can manipulate pathing a little.

Light

  • It’s technically not worth a slot due to how it gets in the way of shuffling spells
  • I take it for catacombs because I think it’s cool and it is legitimately helpful in dark areas
  • Other times I let my lantern do the work because it engages with the lighting system a bit better, but the light cantrip is definitely good and cool

Greatbow

  • Great range and tracking
  • Usable especially on horseback where the movement penalty is mitigated a little and ranges tend to be higher
  • Great opener, can weave it in stuff like dragon fights when they take flight or back up a lot
  • Long startup makes it prohibitive in most fights but almost always a good opener
  • Poise damage isn’t quite as much as you’d expect
  • FP to damage ratio is technically bad but you’re getting range and it’s free damage when pebble or glintblade wouldnt ever work
  • Appears to have headshot damage, needs more testing

Magic Glintblade

  • High damage, higher fp cost than pebble, with a longer cast time, but allows you to setup before an encounter and then switch to pebble once aggro is pulled
  • Useful for when you want to deal damage while simulatenously moving, you can setup, then move while the blades go off
  • It seems to do about 20% more damage than pebble
  • the lockon target is determined at casting time (when you create the orb), which means you can unlock or switch targets but the blades will still hit their mark. Homing is decided when the blade spawns, not the orb.

Gravity Well

  • Range is identical to Pebble (perhaps a little farther)
  • Long cast time, but damage is roughly 1.5x that of pebble, with roughly 1.5x the FP cost as well
  • pulls enemies closer, allowing for a followup with slasher at some ranges
  • probably spammable with dex

Star Shower

  • Much better than the 3 star version
  • Long startup likely benefits from dex
  • Range isn’t stellar, but FP to damage ratio seems right

Glintstone Cometshard

  • GIGA PEBBLE
  • FP 25
  • way more expensive than pebble, FP to damage ratio is horrible, but the potential for burst with chain casting is seemingly insane
  • cometshard does about 55-60% more damage than pebble
  • Huge FP cost but big damage, piercing AoE with a bit of a homing property
  • doesnt really replace arc, which is way better at handling trash
  • Can aim it without lockon, but lockon is highly effect
  • Can be swiftcast

Rock Throw

  • Great damage, can be AoE or single target depending on rock LoS to target
  • Cast time is pretty bearable but definitely benefits from +cspd gear
  • Absolutely wrecks magic resist mobs like Rennala *

Magic Downpour

  • Long initial cast time, sets a deployed orb that shoots a bunch of shards out of it in a wide area
  • The shards track if you have a target selected, converging on the target
  • If no target is selected, it’s a wide blast in an area with fixed crystal trajectories
  • When using with no target selected, it can be used to control an area, and hits from the top, allowing you to bypass shield users
  • When used with a target selected, it can be casted close range to create a giant AoE shotgun on large targets, dealing insane stagger and HP damage
  • The long cast time makes it hard to use, may improve considerably with cspd
  • When used for area control, can be used to create entrances to start slasher combos

Crystal Barrage

  • awful damage, doesn’t stagger, bad range, insanely long cast time
  • what is this for

Crystal Burst

  • decent damage when used point blank on large enemies
  • long cast time and bad spread make it hard to use
  • might improve with crystal gear

Carian Greatsword

  • actually, it turns out it can be pretty good when mounted, but its still hard to beat slasher dps
  • this isn’t worth the runes it costs to buy it
  • awful startup, range is hardly better than slasher, doesn’t stagger, combo animation takes forever
  • might be affected by dex or aspd somehow for better delays
  • combos after gravity well if you get a stagger, but still shit

Physick

  • The MATK physick is 20% buff

Random notes

  • For flask allocation it’s usually a 50-50 allocation, or 1 extra FP flask (exploring) or 1-2 extra HP flasks (bosses)
  • bind FP flask to a quick pouch

test shit

  • pebble 261 unalert

  • pebble 272 unalert

  • 261 pebble

  • 412 cometshard

[17:51:59] <ckx_> rush to academy on a pebble build then respec into full INT and spam full moon [17:52:07] <ckx_> ill keep the possibility in mind I guess