I'm looking for a top damage dealing caster but soloability is very important to me as I have odd playing time, making it hard for me to keep friends to play with. My end game usualy consist of grouping with friends when they are on and then trying to solo the hardest content possible in crap gears (as I never raid).
They are all like that more or less in different styles. Using a psi for instance I hardly ever run. With a druid, you can self heal through a fair amount of things, or you can snare pull stuff, it's a bit more lively. Either way they both do plenty of damage. Ultimately, the psi is most useful for helping groups manage bigger pulls. You can eventually solo a lot of stuff in Magi Hold that leads to some useful rewards. Don't know if you can do a whole lot past that without frying some bigger fish.
My take on Psi and Sorc (the only two caster's I've played). Sorc probably has the most burst DPS in the game. They strait nuke things. They don't have good survivability, but 1v1, they can keep something snared and nuke it down by kiting. My sorc can get away with doing a lot of quests that seem difficult because of the sheer firepower. Psi has a large amount of ramp up time for their dots to get applied and starting ticking away, but the amount of CC that a Psi has is unmatched by any other class. With planning, you can take down packs of 3-4 mobs which you would never be able to do with a Sorc. I don't think you could go wrong either way. I tend to like the Sorc a little better because the speed in killing mobs is sooooo much faster than Psi.
Yeah. I don't like to be in visibility range of the sorc stuff. Necro does it with pets. You might count a blood mage as a caster, but it's not viable in junk gear.
Sorceror style casting is not for me, I don't get into it and I don't like to watch someone train huge piles of mobs around in circles. To me, even the psi can get a little bit dull, as you mostly hide behind your tricks and nothing happens to you. I just enjoy druid and blood mage more since you can take attacks full in the face. Basically I play those when I want a lot of fireworks (most of the time) and the psi is more of a way to relax. Sorcs and necros correspondingly suit other peoples' play style.
In the interests of balance, it is worth pointing out that AE kiting is just a play style choice. You are confusing the way some people play a sorcerer in some zones with the way the class is played all the time. There are also numerous psis that do exactly the same thing in exactly the same zones, because the psi is also an effective AE kiter. Regarding the OP ... try all the casters up to around level 20 - 30. You'll probably find something you like in all of them.
True, in an actual dungeon group the sorc cannot pull mass mobs and is always welcome for the great dps. The difference lies in between solo and group play, and if the OP is looking at a lot of solo on a pure caster, you've got: druid, heal through it; psi, use tricks through it; sorc, run around; necro, absorb it with minions. Blood mage I would look at as a caster as well, about 70% healing from taps and only the small remainder from vitality heals. Yes, leveling up a few is the best way to choose your favorite. Any first character has relatively little cash and gear, which, upon reflection, makes little sense as a main, or at least makes more of a struggle for it. Getting for instance the apw ranged focus from a rot roll...that made my druid much more than it otherwise would have been.
Just wanted to chime in a bit here, as the caster group has always been my most favorite class type in any game (prior to VG's Blood Mage now topping the list of all time most favored classes in any game). I have a caster of each type and love them all. Their levels range as such: Thalatth, my Psi at 53, Mikira my Druid at 43, Miszeree my Necro at 23 and Kiora my Sorc (second rolling of my sorcerer) at 11. When I first made Thalatth, she was to be my designated "solo" character (and roughly 90% of her levels have been pure solo). I truly love soloing with Thalatth. The class is very adapted towards handling those pesky additional mob pops. She does not deal as much damage as Sorcerers of her level and her gear, but I feel she has much more survivability in a solo setting. It is my opinion that very successfully playing a solo Psi can assist greatly in playing a grouped Psi - as when solo'ed agro control means life or death and as such your reflexes are honed to keep a watch for such. There are things that the Psi has that will help to boost your damage when hunting certain mobs for a period - the Mindspy spells (Defense, Weakness and Aggression) will aid considerably. Additionally, the Gestalts are very important to a Psionicist. As Amnath noted regarding the Psi class, I rarely run Thalatth unless I have about 4+ mobs and need to get a bit of distance for a longer spell cast. The typical for her is that the mobs die at her feet. In my opinion, step one is always cast your simulacrum and ensure that you have Temporal Shift on at all times. When I look at Mikira, and the difference in her play style, her earthen pets do not generate anywhere near the hate of the Thalatth's sim, so with Mika, first step is to send in pet then snare and set dots (when you have the spell Wither, throw that one on first) I have found that Wither is also great for single pulling multi-dot mobs as well. For a tl;dr ;-) I will try to sum up my observations on the four casting classes for soloing: For all four classes - highly recommend that you learn to use ALL spells and abilities - I feel that each has its place although you might use some much more than others. Psi - little movement, dots while sim has hate, always Temporal Shift, big damage after. Capable of handling a good number of mobs while remaining untouched. Druid - heavy movement, keep cloud walk and speed buffs on (levitate spells enable you to not suffer movement alteration when walking backwards), always keep snare in your rotation and with berries multi-kiting is very possible. Necro - with a single pull, not much movement, keep pet on the mob, keep the mob slowed, stand in a single spot and if need be, fear the slowed mob away. Once fear releases the mob will make its way back to you for rinse and repeat. If multiple mobs, keep pet on one, ensure all are slowed, keep lev on self and dot them all down. Sorc - Known your damage and know your slowing spells. stay at maximum spell range and do all you can to not get hit. From my observation, all casters are gear dependent, but keep in mind, the Necromancer also has the additional concern of keeping Mr. Smelly nicely grafted so that as much damage is done there too. I hope that this help. If I can be of any assistance at all, please do let me know.
The Blood Mage is an incredible class...but please note, it is not a caster, so the class will not have an evac, for instance or self speed buffing (although we can lev ourselves with a hollowed symbiote at the cost of a more useful attachment).
For a kiter, it means no adjustment to backwards running, which is great To others, maybe not a lot overall (with various location specific reasons).
Well I<ve went with a sorc and so far I enjoy the class a lot. I have not tried any dungeon so far but it seems promising. the class have an insane burst dmg I can,t wait to see how longer fight goes.
