I won’t even touch the subject of horses.
Anyway, how about some ideas on how to balance the sorceror playstyle when it comes to combat, without ruining the lore?
It can’t be something overly complex or it might take years to come, create all sorts of bugs, etc.
I say, let the sorcerers have the possibility to enchant their weapons so they do more damage. Let’s put the canon in glass cannon, because now all we have is glass. Funcom wanted sorcerers to be glass cannons, right? Well then…
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Can you? You’re the one who has been taking potshots at me all this time. You can’t keep a discussion going without being condescending or mocking me, but I’m the bad guy for pointing that out?
If you don’t know what I’m talking about, go compare how @2cents replied to me with how you did. I disagree with both of you, but only one of you is being civil and polite.
That’s why I wrote “if” in that sentence. Like I keep saying, I wouldn’t mind it being more balanced while staying faithful to the canon. I’m really not sure why I have to keep repeating it or why you seem to insist I’m saying something different.
No, I won’t. It’s not an excuse, it’s a big part of my motivation for playing this game and spending money on it, so I’ll keep insisting on it. “Please shut up” isn’t exactly a good argument to use.
I’m pretty sure that using sorcery is what corrupts you. I also know that there are several spells you can’t use without having a certain level of corruption. Not to mention that “being a sorcerer” is more than just using a few spells that require no corruption, but rather requires investing into corruption and corrupted perks.
However, I agree with you to a degree, and wouldn’t mind being more restricted when it comes to sorcery. For example, maybe leading the undead into battle should require corruption, or should make the undead less powerful (or more difficult to control) unless you have corruption.
I suspect you and I would disagree on what’s canon for Conan Exiles. I’m more in @Jimbo’s “purist camp”, because there’s a whole bunch of stuff that I don’t count as canon. FWIW, it’s not merely based on my personal preferences, but also on what I’ve noticed about how Funcom incorporates different elements from the available source material into the game.
Sure. I totally wouldn’t mind seeing a mechanics like that added to the game: you have to go through a ritual to place several totems, but once they’re active, you can encase yourself in an impenetrable shield and keep summoning followers to fight for you. While you’re doing that, you can’t do anything else.
That actually sounds balanced. But I have a hunch you’ll say that you didn’t mean it like that 
Yep. And they nerfed the shіt out of it.
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If it sounds that way, I don’t mean it like that at all. At all, @CodeMage
I’m not being hysterical either. I’m joking and in a good mood. But I’m interested in sorcery being viable in combat. Even in pve. Right now, it’s underwhelming. Cool gimmicks, but that’s about it. Very useful tools for other things like transport and fashion. I would like to see it being more combat ready.
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and there it is. The ultimate disconnect and the main reason I feel my time in the game is coming to an end because everyone wants to separate the styles to different games and it’s going to happen eventually…leaving me without a game to play. Fine…I’ll enjoy my game and utilize other players as just uber aggro enemies because it’s gotten pointless to continue discussions where at the end of the day, there are only a handful of people wanting a complex game where PVE and PVP elements are melded into a world where players can enjoy the fruits of the entire game and the uncertainty of player interactions.
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@erjoh ideally pvp could be like that. You know I like the way you think. But in reality it will NEVER be like that. Not even in private servers.
I truly know what you want and I tell you more, I think funcom envisioned pvp like that. But it didn’t turn out that way, by many reasons.
It’s a social phenomenon that you won’t see solved here, or anywhere, soon, if ever.
Pvp would be pve with the possibility to fight, but a mode with the best of both worlds.
You know reality is nothing like that. It won’t change. Maybe it can’t change. So we need to be practical.
Edit: you should find a few like minded friends and rent a server.
@CodeMage this realy upset me. Dude, I wasn’t mocking you or being condescending in the slightest. At least I didn’t mean to sound like that. I appreciate your contributions A LOT. You’re one of my favorites here, dude! So is @erjoh . Keep in mind that I’m not a native speaker, often write in a hurry from my smartphone, and without you seeing my facial expression I may mislead you to think my intentions are what they’re not. All you have from me is respect and appreciation. This doesn’t mean I will always agree with your ideas, but don’t take my lack of english skills or crooked attempts at humor as lack of consideration. Nothing could be further from the truth. Let me make that crystal clear.
Ok, back to topic!
I said “histrionics”, not “hysterics”. 
Don’t be upset. As you can see, miscommunication happens. Sometimes it happens a lot. It probably doesn’t help that I’m often not very good at discerning banter from rudeness when I can’t see the other person. I suspect that if I ever went to consult an expert about that, they would probably place me somewhere “on the spectrum”
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I want you to know, I don’t want you to just agree with me. Your feedback, as with many others on here, is very much value added.
And always will be.
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It can’t if the bar isn’t set. I understand that perfection is never obtainable and we must always settle…but that shouldn’t mean we lose that target. We should always settle with not being perfect vs always hitting substandard consistently.
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I didn’t know the difference. See? Language barrier at work.
Personally i’d love to see some offensive buff/pet sorceries that could add a bit of a chaotic domino effect. Maybe an aura-type sorcery that stays active when swapping weapons that applies minute amounts of corruption constantly within lock-on range, and applies additional corruption on every hit. Then, on any opponent with maximum corruption the corruption damage could be converted to additional damage that ignores armor rating.
Maybe add an option to create different more controllable pet types on the fly, like creating a half dozen slightly tougher exploding volatile imps from humanoid corpses or human flesh + corrupted stone/essence of rot/what have you that inflict the regular ol’ fairly tame explosion damage but with an extra effect like either knockback or cripple and apply corruption in a small AoE range. Whatwith them having been humans or a quickly cobbled together flesh-like golem i could imagine it having a corrupting and demoralizing effect on anyone in the direct vicinity. Maybe allow them perk demons to trigger off the blasts because they like what they’re seeing.
Having the aura buff active could also provide a bonus to your zombies, animals and demons, granting them the same buff.
This could in theory grant a sorcerer a large initial advantage, which they’d either need to act upon swiftly to seize the win or maintain distance and keep pulling the strings to keep applying pressure, at the cost of materials and prep-time.
Combined with the call of Nergal a player could effectively benefit from the element of surprise or create wiggle room to flee, i also imagine sorceries such as dark fog or zombie fog might work well with these.
This would also turn sorcerers more or less into specialized sorcerer killers as well and give corruption applying weapons even more of an edge in the hands of a dedicated sorcerer.
Could also be nice to have to consider your pvp environment, as you’d need the heavier human flesh in considerable amounts (say 10-20 per imp), so a sorcerer might harvest downed thralls or retreat to pay a visit to a nearby NPC camp.
With the requirement of having to carry a lot of pouches and materials this would also ensure a sorcerer can’t just hang back and spam arrows indefinitely, due to weight issues and needing to juggle their equipment, inventory and (spell) consumables.
On a different note, regarding the current pet balancing passes and the sorcery potential:
I wouldn’t mind a form of sorcery that corrupts and frenzies animal pets temporarily, either. Giving them for example 20% more movement+animation speed and damage output. It’d make pets a bit more dangerous within their own right, without increasing their survivability. With that addition the sorcerer could at least stand a chance to chase down or harass runners with higher stamina, be they running after or away from you. It would also allow me to be all melodramatic like a comic book villain when my pet inevitably dies.
This would in my opinion all seem like good fun to me, but i fear some parts of what i suggest may not be implementable.
Edit: maybe instead of corrupted stone and such, a soul essence? Would give the summoned imps the same confused hatred and despair paired with jealousy, having your previous sacrifice victim’s soul trapped in a body repurposed or made by the sorcerer.
Another edit: this would also give the Expertise tree some more potential combat utility, specifically for sorcerers. Be it just higher harvest rates or the ability to absolutely load up at the highest tier and still be able to function.
Legend says if you say Jimbo’s name three times in a mirror, he’ll appear behind you and read you book quotes.
To be perfectly honest I completely forgot about this thread and the fact I’ve already posted a reply, but as the resident scholar of the books, let me throw down the gauntlet to clear up some things;
The movies, comics, and cartoons are NOT canon.
Skimming back and finding this quote;
This is unequivocally untrue, as Funcom straight up owns the IP. And they have held it canon as best they can, save for a handful of minor inconsistencies. They’ve even expanded the scope of the canon, including much of the Lovecraft Circle, as well as the later writings in the Conan saga of De Camp and Carter.
I openly challenge you to prove your claim, @Lole, as you’ve made an entirely baseless statement with no supporting evidence.
In fact, you’ve actually proven the opposite of your claim by grossly misunderstanding the lore and interpreting the movies as canon. This is completely not the case, as anyone who’s even acutely aware of the book continuity would immediately be aware.
The books are the core testaments of canon.
Anything that is in contradiction is stricken from the lore.
You may try to posit that because of the Riddle of Steel DLC, that must mean the movies are canon. This is not true, as it’s purely a visual homage and has zero bearing on the lore. The events of the movie depicted do not transpire, as they are not canon.
Moving on to the topic at hand; the sorcery we have in the game is very true to the lore. Sorcerers never fight directly unless they’re out of tricks in their bag.
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They will send minions to do their bidding, the game gives you zombies and demons for this.
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They manipulate the environment to their favor. The game gives you control spells like Darkness to achieve this.
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They will leverage any edge they can, no matter how niche. The game gives you poisons, orbs, specialist arrows.
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When forced to fight, a sorcerer will fight dirty. Surprise attacks, ambushes, and any trickery they can employ in the time.
If all this fails, the sorcerer meets a bloody end at the end of a blade.
And so, if you find yourself meeting that same bloody end, try to plan better. Think more like a sorcerer than a warrior. Use tactics and planning, not brute strength. If you’re unable to do that, the genuinely honest answer is that sorcery isn’t for you.
This entire thread is just having the cake and wanting to eat it too. If you want to be unmatched in direct combat, you play a warrior. Clean, mighty, and the king of the battlefield. If you want the utility of spells and the boons of the corrupted perks, you live with the penalties and learn how to employ those perks more effectively.
Or, as the kids these days say - get gud.
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There’s no getting good in a pvp environment that saves you as a sorcerer, @Jimbo .
That’s the reality of it.
Most players don’t give a flying f about the lore if that means ruining playability.
There are excellent books you can read that enrich you to the very core of your being. The foundational books of this game don’t fall in such category. It’s not as if they were some holy grail of meaning where it would almost be criminal to take some liberties to improve the gaming experience.
This is a game. In a game, lore can’t EVER hurt playability. Funcom wants sorcerer builds to have viability in combat. They said they wanted them to be glass cannons. Well, glass is all we have. They need to add the firepower to it.
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Have you tried playing pvp as a fully corrupted sorcerer out of interest?
Your entitled to your opinion ofc and codemage.
But i cant accept that the lore in the books or how your perception of how sorcerers should be prevents the outcome of a pvp fight being closer to 60/40 in favor of non corrupted rather than being 90/10 with some tweeking.
Get gud - isnt an argument especially if you have little experience playing that game type…
At this point tho i think weve reached an impasse.
I wouldn’t worry, @2cents . Devs clearly want sorcery to be a viable combat playstyle. It just takes a few tweaks. I don’t know how they’ll do it, but I can bet we will see some improvements.
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Actually I think this is the crux of this issue with playing a sorcerer in PVP…the type and amount of tricks you can have without borderline creative/exploitive play is suboptimal and can’t compete with the bludgeon of standard pvp tactics…this I can get behind. We need more more tricks that can fool players. Invisibility is great on NPCs but you literally glow (ok more shimmer) in the dark. Sort of hard to miss when you have a brain.
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Pain.
The game is based on the books, and as such is bound by the confines of what fits in those books. If that’s such a problem, unreal engine is free. You can always make your own game unburdened by a century of literary works holding it down.
Changing one half of the entire sword and sorcery genre to be sword and also sword but magical isn’t “some liberties”.
No, because that’s not the playstyle meant for a sorcerer. If you want to use it in pvp, pick your battles more carefully. This harkens back to my previous post where I mention the need to plan and use tactics. Trying to roll and poke with the rest of the kids isn’t what a sorcerer is supposed to do. You can fly, you can effectively blind your enemies, why do you need to be on their level for martial prowess? Find ways to get around them instead of getting through them. Stop thinking like a warrior when you play a wizard. Fighting dirty means fighting dirty, why do you think people offline raid? As a pvp sorcerer that’s what you should be doing. There’s no honor in magic, and the thrill of the battle is no temptation to a careful sorcerer.
Hard disagree. Corrupted perks are there so you aren’t totally helpless, but clean builds can and will outperform in single combat.
This. This is the root issue that needs to be addressed, give sorcerers more tricks for their bag, not make them more like warriors.
Sorcerers in the books can spread disease, paralyse their enemies with a touch, and infect the minds of lesser men with maddening thoughts. If we must get more combat-focused magic to appease the pvp kids, let it be this way.
To close off, revisiting this in part you inadvertently hit the nail on the head. 90/10 is closer to the canonical outcome, and what it should remain on if you’re still warrior-brain charging in instead of relying on your tools.
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Whatever @Jimbo . There’s always people who put lore above playability in every game that has it. Gladly, it’s always a small minority or most games would be extremely boring.
I didn’t buy the books. I bought a game. I only care about the lore so much. Playability is more important than lore for me. If that causes you pain, I don’t know what to say to you. I can try to understand that you love this fantasy fiction a lot, but that shouldn’t hinder the game for a great part of the player base. Sorcery doesn’t give you a playstyle compatible with a major game mode. Even on pve, it’s rather underwhelming. It has very cool stuff, but when it comes to combat it’s a shadow of its potential. This potential can be achieved without ruining the lore completely.
The devs said they wanted sorcerers to be glass cannons. This means the ability of sorcerers to output serious damage is within their vision.
They’ve already achieved this. Corrupted strength is the highest possible direct damage output.
I’d also like to emphasize the glass part of glass cannon. You deal and take more damage. The problem is people want the former and not the latter, but that’s not balanced.
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