Sorcerer

At a glance

1. Hellfire is your damage. Charge it to level 3 by hand (Q) inside Winter's Shackles' 5 s +20% PvE window; macroing it loses 20–30% of its damage.
2. Skill points stop at rank 10. Daevanion adds +4 (14 total); rank 16 needs ring lines and Arcana too.
3. Priority: Hellfire, Blaze and Wish of Concentration to 20; Bittercold Wind to 16–20; Flame Arrow, Firestorm and Winter's Shackles to 16.
4. Stigmas: Element Enhancement, Delayed Explosion, Fire Wall, Cold Storm (Steel Barrier when solo).
5. Stand still only on purpose. Hellfire, Bittercold Wind, Fire Wall, Cold Storm and Flame Scattershot can't be cast while moving, so cast them between boss mechanics.
6. Macro: Delayed Explosion, Bittercold Wind, Blaze, Firestorm, with Flame Arrow held on left mouse; Ice Chain keeps its default right-mouse slot.
7. Passives: Robe of Flame and Fire Mark to 10, then Robe of Earth and Vitality Evaporation to 8.
8. Watch your MP. Robe of Earth needs MP above 50% and Grace of Enhancement above 25%; holding Flame Arrow and casting Blaze both restore MP.
9. Gear: Attack, then Crit (cap 50% per metabot), then Accuracy; Hellfire, Blaze and Wish lines on the rings.
10. Spend what is closest to its cap first: Shugo keys (3 a day, cap 12) and Odyle Energy.
11. Use only the game's built-in macro. Mouse macros and third-party tools get accounts banned.

Where the Sorcerer stands

• Global standing: shugo.gg rates it S for PvE (Oct 11), second on both global damage meters; MeinMMO rates it A (Oct 13).
• Global Combat Power (Nov 7): the global Sorcerer median is 125K (metabot, Nov 4); shr1kn measured 226.5K CP at 3,206 gear score.
• Damage (Korean meter, Oct 18): median 853K for all players, 934K at 400K+ combat power and 1.29M at 600K+ (6th of 9 each time, against 1.94M for the Assassin). The Korean brackets use Korean combat power (the top-80 Korean median is about 1.12M against 268K on global), so read them as a ranking.
• Role: ranged burst and AoE (Hellfire, Bittercold Wind and Firestorm hit up to 4 targets). Metabot rates it Damage 5, Survivability 2, Utility 3.
• Weaknesses: a glass cannon (low HP and Defense) that has to stand still for its biggest casts, and its damage passives need MP above 25–50%.
• Weapon: a spellbook with a guard in the off hand (one guide says orb; orbs are Spiritmaster weapons).

Current patch: what has changed

Global: the Oct 5 launch and Oct 7 and 9 patches list no Sorcerer changes; the Oct 14 patch fixed Fire Wall, Cold Storm and Bittercold Wind on uneven ground and stopped another player's Embers or Frostbite overwriting yours. The global client already has Korea's Aug 26 and Sep 16 state (Fire Mark at 100%, Steel Barrier as an HP-based shield). Korea's Oct 7 patch raised skill presets from 3 to 5; global timing is unknown. The Oct 21 patch (Oct 20 PDT) fixed Cold Storm: stacked Frostbite now deals its extra damage, Frostbite matches the skill level, and Specialty 1 no longer applies one extra Frostbite after the storm ends. Fire Wall no longer deals extra damage to targets without Embers, a small loss if you hit outside the Embers. It added Krao Cave and Draupnir on Hard (2,600 item level) and a new Ariel Daevanion board (see Gear score milestones), raised the Abyss player cap and Abyss boss HP, and fixed title effects that didn't match their tooltips. The Oct 28 patch (Oct 27 PDT) raised the Sorcerer's base HP at 45 from 4,702 to 5,702, cut boss Attack and HP in Expedition and Transcendence, added Urugugu Canyon and Vakron Sky Island on Hard (2,700) and raised crafted gear's Amplify caps. The Nov 4 patch (Nov 3 PST) opened Abyssal Forge: Ludra, made Draupnir, Vakron and Horn Den Exploration pay like Conquest, added always-succeed True and Star Dragon recipes, pet souls from Expedition and Transcendence, and Chaotic Outer Reshanta (PvP with equalised stats); no class changes.

Level-by-level checklist

Follow the yellow main-story quests to 45; they pay 97–99% of the EXP. Each sealed dungeon clear also gives 2 Daevanion points, 2 skill points, 15,000 Kinah and 1,250 Enhance Stones. Levels 30–39 are slow, so fill the gap with sealed dungeons.

The last column is the highest rank you can buy by the end of each band. A skill learned by level 17 gains a rank every 3 levels (rank 8 at unlock level + 18, rank 10 at + 24); skills learned at 21 or later have no gate.

Leveling extras: don't open the Journal Duty tab before level 45 (a launch bug delays Duty content until the day after you reach 45); collect 40 feathers early (120 shards) for an amulet upgrade; clear hideouts at levels 15, 20 and 25; at the cap, do the Shugo activities and a map sweep.

Leveling playbook. Packs: Bittercold Wind, then Hellfire, then Ice Chain to kite. Elites: Blaze, Firestorm and Flame Arrow, kiting with Ice Chain. Take Steel Barrier while solo, and Flame Arrow's +20% MP option at rank 8. Frost and Frost Burst are fine early but fall off later.

After 45, in order:

1. Regional quests (accessory and rune slots).
2. Every remaining sealed dungeon.
3. Strongholds (Noble Belt scrolls).
4. Conquest, gated by total item level: Krao Cave and Draupnir at 700, Urugugu Canyon and Vakron Sky Island at 1,400, Fire Temple and Ferocious Horn Den at 2,100. Run the highest you qualify for.
5. Transcendence from item level 1,600 (stages to 2,500) for Arcana; see Transcendence dungeons for which one to farm.
6. Nightmare (Pantheon fragments) and Abyss (stigma shards, Daevanion resources).
7. The Ludra raid (Abyssal Forge: Ludra, open since Nov 4) needs 2,800 item level for Normal and 3,000 for Hard; until then, the top steps are Krao Cave and Draupnir on Hard (2,600) and Urugugu Canyon and Vakron Sky Island on Hard (2,700).

How skills level up (and how to reach 16)

Skill points only buy ranks 1–10 (13 points to rank 8, 21 to rank 10). Everything above comes from the sources below.

Daevanion alone reaches 14, never 16. Rank 16 needs two more levels from rings or Arcana. No global skill cap is published (client tables run to 40): the theoretical ceiling for an active is 10 points + 4 Daevanion + 4 gear + 8 Arcana = 26, and the Ariel board adds no ranks. Top global players average 14–17 on their main skills.

Rank 16's real value is the specializations (Hellfire's −15 s cooldown, Wish's −10 s on every cooldown); the extra damage per rank is smaller than the jump from rank 8 to 10.

Priority:

1. Skill nodes for core skills on every board (12 points per active for +4).
2. Core skill lines on both rings.
3. Parchment and Chalice lines on a core skill short of 16.
4. Stop at rank 8 on skills where you only want one specialization.
5. Treat 12 and 16 as breakpoints; 13 or 15 isn't worth chasing.

Point budget. Maxing every active and passive to rank 10 costs about 460, so spend in this order (cheap early ranks first, ranks 9–10 last):

Rows 1–6 fit inside the 203 points from levels alone; the rest come from sealed-dungeon and regional-quest points.

Active skills

The last column is the share of top Korean PvE Sorcerers with the skill at rank 16 or higher, then 20 or higher; in brackets, the global top-150 average rank.

Specializations

You have three slots, which open at rank 8, 12 and 20. Each option has its own minimum rank (8, 12 or 16), so at rank 16 you fill two slots from options up to 16.

Guides number options differently (one counts by option number at rank 20). Read the tooltip.

Passives

Each rank adds the same amount, but ranks 9–10 cost 4 points each, so take the key passives to 8 first and Robe of Flame and Fire Mark to 10 later. shr1kn (Nov 2) orders them differently: Robe of Flame first, Robe of Cold and Revitalization Contract to 18–20, Grace of Enhancement, Cold Snap and Fire Mark to 14, Vitality Evaporation last. Target is the rank to buy with points; fillers get ranks 2–4 (1 point each) only if points are spare. Bracketed numbers are the global top-150 average rank.

Stigmas

Global has four slots (22, 27, 32, 37) and stigmas level to 20; Korea has five slots (since Mar 25; one seller site reports six after Chapter 1) and goes to 25. The rank 5 / 10 / 15 / 20 bonuses unlock on their own.

• Global top players: Element Enhancement 93%, Delayed Explosion 83%, Fire Wall 76%, Cold Storm 43%, Steel Barrier 35%, Divine Burst 34%, Glacial Smite 18%. NA equips the core four at 89–98%.
• Upgrade order: Element Enhancement to 10, Delayed Explosion to 10, Fire Wall to 10, Element Enhancement to 20, Delayed Explosion to 20, then Fire Wall and Cold Storm to 15–20 (community late game: Element Enhancement 20 in 6 of 8 builds, Delayed Explosion 20 in 5, Fire Wall and Cold Storm 15–20 in 6 each). A full rank 20 costs 75 shards; leveling gives about 29 by 45.
• Korean rates (owned at 20+, PvE): Element Enhancement 94%, Fire Wall 90%, Delayed Explosion 89%, Steel Barrier 84%, Cold Storm 84%, Arctic Armor 70%. Stigma Shards: Abyss shop (200), Nightmare shop (52,500 fragments for 35), Shugo shop (10,500 tokens for 35).

Rotation and macro

Set up: most-liked community builds now put the macro skills in one or two stacks and run a 1–2 step macro over them, held with left mouse; a macro step presses a whole slot (see Community builds for this class's stacks). The per-slot layout below is the simpler fallback: give every macro skill its own hotbar slot first (see Hotbar setup). Then open the Skill menu (K) → Macros → Add Macro, add the skills in the order shown, and bind the macro key under Settings → Key Settings → General → Gameplay → Macro. Bind it to a side mouse button and hold it together with left mouse, so right mouse keeps the bar's last slot (see Hotbar setup). Use 10 ms between steps (40–50 ms on 80+ ping) and target mode: action mode stops the basic attack after each skill.

• Burst (every 45 s): Element Enhancement, then Winter's Shackles (5 s +20% window), then Hellfire charged to level 3 inside it, then Fire Wall and Cold Storm, then the macro. Wish of Concentration goes right before the burst early on; once Wish's −10 s option (16) is up, cast it after the big cooldowns are running.
• In a hurry: a one-level Hellfire beats a cancelled three-level one. Don't start a charge or a ground field into a mechanic.
• Delayed Explosion doesn't draw aggro, so cast it before the tank pulls.
• One global guide's dummy test got about 21.1K DPS from stacked hotbar lines against 19.2K from its macro, and the most-copied builds now stack: key 5 = Element Enhancement > Fire Wall > Cold Storm > Delayed Explosion; key 6 = Winter's Shackles > Bittercold Wind > Frost > Firestorm; key 7 = Blaze > Frost Burst; the macro presses keys 5, 6 and 7 at 10 ms while left mouse holds Flame Arrow. The per-slot macro above is the simpler fallback.
• Use the game's built-in macro only.

Hotbar setup

• Left mouse: Flame Arrow, held together with the macro key. Right mouse (RMB): Ice Chain, the Sorcerer's default right-mouse skill (the class's other level-1 skill, Firestorm, sits in the macro instead; check your own bar).
• Burst keys Q and E: Hellfire (charged, so it stays out of the macro) and Winter's Shackles.
• Buff key 1: Element Enhancement, then Wish of Concentration; press it twice at the start of a burst. 2 and 3: Fire Wall and Cold Storm, cast standing still. 4: Flame Scattershot on a staggered boss, then Steel Barrier if equipped.
• Macro slots 5–8, in step order: Delayed Explosion, Bittercold Wind, Blaze, Firestorm.
• Not on the bar: Frost and Frost Burst (leveling only).
• Reach: hand-pressed skills take the keys closest to WASD (Q, E, then 1–3) and the macro steps take the far ones, since the macro presses those for you. Put the most time-critical skills (the burst opener) on Q and E.
• Defiance can't be slotted: the stun break fires with Space, so it never needs a bar slot.
• Stacking: a slot holds up to four skills. A press fires the lowest one that is ready; if it is on cooldown or its condition isn't met, it falls to the next one up. Put cooldown and conditional skills at the bottom and spam skills on top.
• Stacks and macros: a macro step presses a whole slot, so a step on a stacked slot fires that stack's first ready skill. Top community builds put the macro skills in one stack (usually right mouse) and hold it with left mouse, or run a 1–3 step macro over stacks; see Community builds, and test it on a dummy.
• Keep out of the macro: charged skills (Hellfire), stationary ground fields you need to place, and situational or emergency skills.
• Slots: the bar has 12. The last four are Q, E, left mouse (LMB) and right mouse (RMB). Every class starts with its basic attack on LMB and a second skill on RMB (T is RMB's keyboard key). Put the macro on a side mouse button so RMB keeps that skill; binding the macro to right mouse pushes the slot onto T. Rebind slots under Settings → Key Settings → Quickslot, and treat this layout as a suggestion.

Daevanion boards

Buy the blue nodes for Hellfire, Blaze, Flame Arrow, Firestorm and Wish of Concentration first (that gets you to rank 14), then the orange corners, then the green passives, routing through Attack and Crit greys. Costs: grey 1, green 2, blue 3, orange 4; each node must touch one you own. The top global picks are Hellfire +1 on Zikel (98%), Blaze +1 on Nezekan (97%), Flame Arrow +1 on Zikel (97%), Firestorm +1 on Nezekan (96%), Hellfire +1 on Nezekan (95%) and Wish +1 on Vaizel (94%).

One planner starts with Zikel instead, for its doubled Grace of Enhancement nodes; either way, the +1 skill nodes come before the corners.

Recommended board setups

Numbered nodes are phase 1: buy them in that order, starting next to the center star. Outlined nodes are phase 2. Faded nodes with a red X are skips; a dimmed node without an X is only a connector. Global corners give +1.5% each.

Layouts are from the metabot global planner. The four PvE boards hold 570 points; this plan spends 350 of them (phase 1: 237, phase 2: 113), which leaves about 65 of the roughly 416 you can earn for extra Attack, Crit or MP greys. Crystals come from leveling (~136), sealed dungeons (~122), regional quests (~58) and the Shugo and Nightmare shops (50 each per character).

Ariel board (added Oct 21): a sixth board whose points come only from Daevanion Crystal: Ariel, morphed from Ariel Fragments from all four Hard Expeditions (Krao Cave and Draupnir at 2,600; guaranteed in Urugugu Canyon and Vakron at 2,700); 100 fragments make one crystal (+1 gear score). Cap: 30 per character in the patch text, 30 per dungeon (120) per two community guides. Layout: 152 nodes and 232 points, with PvE Damage Boost and PvE Damage Tolerance cores, smaller PvE stat nodes and no skill nodes; nobody can fill it yet.

Gear

Attack everywhere, Crit up to the cap, then enough Accuracy that bosses stop parrying, with Hellfire, Blaze and Wish lines on the rings. Keep MP and MP regen until the rotation stops running dry; Robe of Earth and Grace of Enhancement switch off below 50% and 25% MP. Sources disagree on the crit chance cap (metabot says 50%, gameplay.tips 80%).

• Armor: Bakarma (54) → Vakron (70) → Nuakum (86); global top players mix Divine Canyon, Vakron and Bakarma pieces. Jewelry: Aulamus, Liberator or Pilgrim pieces, Ascension bracelets. Fixed slots: Noble Belt, Revelation Amulet, Clash Rune.
• Korea: the spellbook goes to +20 first (median main-hand +20 with 5 Amplify levels).

Manastones, Arcana: Attack first, then Crit, then Accuracy if bosses parry; MP lines until you stop running dry. (One guide orders Combat Speed, Attack, Double Chance, weapon damage instead.) Arcana skill lines: Parchment rolls Flame Arrow, Firestorm, Blaze, Frost Burst, Wish and Hellfire; Compass rolls Bittercold Wind, Ice Chain, Winter's Shackles, Frost, Flame Scattershot and Defiance; Chalice rolls any skill; Mirror rolls Robe of Flame, Robe of Earth, Grace of Enhancement, Vitality Evaporation and Absorb Essence; Bell rolls Fire Mark, Cold Snap and the resist passives. Take Parchment for Hellfire or Blaze, a Chalice for whichever key skill is short of 20, and Mirror for Robe of Flame. Global guides run the Primal Vigor 4-piece (+150 PvE Attack at 70% HP or more); Korean top Sorcerers mostly combine Punishment Overture 4 and Guarded Soul 4 (32%), sets the global guides don't list.

Accuracy

• Your Accuracy cancels the target's Block one for one; leftover Block is the chance a hit is parried. Extra Accuracy past Block does nothing.
• A parry takes roughly 20–40% off a hit (two guides say over half), and hits from behind can't be parried.
• Block Penetration (some titles and wings) also ignores the target's Block chance.
• Built-in sources: Robe of Flame +100, Wish of Concentration +100, Element Enhancement's rank-5 bonus +200, Ludra's Grimoire +100, Nightmare and Talisra wings +35. Hellfire's and Bittercold Wind's rank-12 options ignore Block and Evasion outright.
• Check the parry percentage per boss in the in-game Combat Analysis. High means raise Accuracy; near zero means stop. No source gives a Sorcerer boss target; the aion2timers calculator has boss presets.

Gear economy

Gear by item level (level 45). Only item level moves at the cap. This table is per piece; the dungeon gates under "After 45" use your total item level.

• Craft chain: True Dragon Lord (62), Splendent (70), White (78), Splendent (86), Wise (94), Splendent Wise (102). Each step has a 25% chance of the Splendent version. Asmodian names: Star, Dark, Ebony.
• Mastery: True Dragon Lord pieces need crafting mastery 55 or 60, and mastery stops at 50 until you finish the upgrade quest.
• Don't waste: Enhance Stones on Common or Rare gear, or on Legend (blue) pieces you'll replace (the belt and amulet are the exception); Superior manastones on gear you'll replace; restarting a craft (upgrades carry enhancement, amplification and soul binding forward); Abyss Points on Potential, which gives only PvP stats.

Enhancement (Unique gear, max +15). +10 is guaranteed. +11 to +15 succeed 65, 50, 35, 25 and 20%, with +5% after each failure. A failure only costs materials. Expect about 22 attempts, 15M Kinah and 191,000 Enhance Stones to reach +15 on item level 102 gear. Keep the weapon at +10 until you have the final one. Amplified Enhancement comes after +15: its steps succeed 66, 50, 33, 25 and 20% (with pity), and item level caps it at +1 for 54–62, +3 for 70 and +5 for 86 and up. Since Oct 28, crafted Dragon Lord gear has the same caps (True and Star +3, White and Dark +5), and Gear Transfer can move enhancement from Expedition gear onto crafted gear.

Soul binding (Unique gear only). It unlocks random stats and makes the item untradeable. The first step costs 30,000 Kinah and 10 Soul Codex, the tenth 632,000 Kinah and 102 Soul Codex. Rebinding costs 300,000 Kinah and 3 Soul Codex.

Manastones. Slots by grade: Common 1, Rare 2, Legend (blue) 3, Unique 4 (amulet, belt and rune have none). Jewelry takes Soulstones from the same pools. Engraving fills every slot at once for 500–2,000 Kinah by gear grade and can't fail, and each line adds gear score (+1 grey to +4 yellow).

• Attack, Defense, Accuracy, Evasion, Crit and Crit Resist each roll about 10% of the time; Combat Speed and cooldown stats can't be rolled.
• Rerolling overwrites the old stat and consumes the stone. Enhancing keeps stones; dismantling gear destroys them.
• Use regular stones for PvE; Abyssal stones split a third of rolls onto PvP stats.
• Lesser stones drop; Alchemy crafts the rest. 5 Lesser, 3 Spiritstone Powder and 2 Professional Ink make an Intermediate (mastery 20), with a 20% chance of a Superior; the dedicated Superior recipe is 30 Intermediate, 10 Powder and 2 Exceptional Ink at mastery 85.

Theostones (Epic and Unique weapons only). A weapon engraving with a chance to proc on attack; identical stones don't stack.

• PvE pick: Yustiel's Compassion (Earth AoE, 10% proc) or Tiamat's Counterstrike (Fire AoE, 2% proc); the database groups the Sorcerer with multi-target damage dealers (Hellfire hits 4 targets). PvP: Meslamtaeda's Greed (stun).
• How to get them: the 3 regional quests per faction (Rare chest plus 100,000 Kinah each), the Abyss Trade Shop Selection Chest (35,000 Abyss Points), the Season Shop (17,500 Oath Coin, limit 10), the Arena shop (1 Arena Token, 5 per week) and Daeva Pass.
• Upgrading: combining gives Rare to Epic 11.1% and Epic to Unique 9.1%; Unique stones come only from combining.

Consumables. Battle Enhance Scroll gives +10% Damage Boost and +10% Damage Tolerance for 5 minutes (quests, achievements and attendance, or the Season Shop for 6,000 Oath Coin, limit 10 per account; the shop closes Dec 16). Courage Scroll gives +10% Combat Speed for 5 minutes (1,000 Kinah). Food is defensive only.

Check your numbers in game. Use the in-game Combat Analysis for parry rates and rotation. Third-party macros and tools risk bans, and I can't confirm third-party meters are safe.

Essence Extraction (gathering)

Essence Extraction is the game's one gathering skill: Ore, Gem, Log, Herb, Cooking Ingredient and Odyle nodes in Verteron, Altgard and Chaotic Lower Reshanta (Odyle also in the Expeditions). It feeds crafting (Dragon Lord gear, manastones) and the Radiant Odyle that unseals dungeon wings. Each node gives two to four extractions; the minigame fills a blue Success gauge against an orange Failure gauge, and your odds improve with use.

• Cap at Novice 50: proficiency stops at level 50 until you finish "[Upgrade] Essence Extraction Specialty Skill" (Korius for Elyos, Alzirr for Asmodians): extract one Splendent Ruby from a Ruby node (Elyos: around the Verteron Fortress Ruins; Asmodians: near Quay Campsite and Calderon Canyon) and hand it in. Professional runs 51–100.
• Fast proficiency: Orichalcum, Raydam, Azpha and Odyle nodes. Odyle sits in the air, and running out of flight stamina cancels the extraction. Since Oct 28, gathering needs level 45 and is capped at 1,000 extractions per server per day.

Points. Every proficiency level gives a Common point (45 by level 50, 95 by level 100). Specialty points come every 10 levels, two at 50, 80, 90 and 100 (6 by level 50, 14 by level 100).

Levels 1–5 cost 1 to 5 points (15 per skill, Novice); levels 6–10 cost 5 each (25 more, Professional).

• Novice: all three to 5, which is exactly the 45 points you have.
• Professional: the 50 extra points max two skills. Take Lady Luck and Proficient Handling to 10 (both fire on successes, and the ×2.5 or ×4 boost likely multiplies Proficient Handling's gain) and keep Delicate Touch at 5; swap it in if failures keep ending your extractions on high-level nodes. This split is my reading of the tooltips; no guide publishes one.

Specialty skills. Every node type has the same tree, 7 points to max: Seeker (1 point, shows that node type on the minimap), Plentiful Harvest (3 levels: 10, 20 or 30% chance of double materials) and Appraiser (3 levels: 10, 20 or 30% chance to reroll to a higher grade; for Cooking Ingredients it rerolls the quantity). Only level 1 of each opens at Novice, and 14 points max two of the six trees.

Check in game whether the points can be reset before you commit.

Gear score milestones

Gear score is the item level shown under your character level, and it gates almost all level-45 content. Climb it in the order below: each bracket lists what opens, what to do and what to skip.

What counts. Every equipped piece's item level, plus +1 per enhancement level, +5 per Amplify level, manastone lines (+1 grey, +2 green, +3 blue, +4 yellow), +1 per Daevanion point spent, +40 per Clash Rune, +3 per Rare Theostone, and Arcana cards (+20 / 40 / 60 / 80 by grade, +1 per card level). Each Ariel crystal adds +1. Soul binding, skill points, Stigmas, titles, pets and Genus Insight, the Pantheon and the closet raise Combat Power only; sources split on whether wings add gear score.

Gates are from the global client data (metabot, Corpus). Some creator videos quote 1,500, 2,200 and 2,700 instead; the client wins.

Combat Power

Combat Power (CP) is the server's own rating and NC hasn't published the formula. It weights attack over defense (Korean estimates: Attack 1.25, Defense 1, secondary stats 0.25, about 100 per 1% stat). Gates check item level only, but party finders ask for CP, and global CP runs about a quarter of Korean CP.

The targets are AionFlex entry CP (the 25th percentile of players who killed the boss, Nov 7). The cheapest CP comes from Stigmas, Daevanion points, titles and Genus Insight, which need no new gear.

Level 45 to 1,000: finish the free gear

• Story and quests: finish the main story and the last Ascension and Abyss quests for the Spiritforged weapon (Unique, 45), guard and bracelet.
• Clash Runes: open both rune chests from the Verteron or Altgard regional quests; at +40 each, two runes alone carried one creator to 1,000.
• Belt and amulet: Stronghold scrolls (2 per home Stronghold) take the Noble Belt to +10, and Monolith Resonance scrolls (one per home Monolith level, so feed it Empyrean Trace feathers) take the Revelation Amulet to +10; enhancing them always succeeds. Then Substance Morph each one (Alt+H → Gear; at +10 and unequipped, always succeeds, returns at +0) from Rare (item 13) to Legend, the blue grade some guides call Epic (item 36, +23 each).
• Spend: every Daevanion point (+1 each), and the Spiritforged weapon to +10 (about 406,000 Kinah and 16,000 Enhance Stones).
• Odyle: bank it for 1,400, where Vakron and Urugugu pay more per point, but never let it reach the 560 cap.

1,000 to 1,400: points, not drops

• Daevanion crystals: clear every sealed dungeon (2 each, +122 total) and the regional quests (+58). Feathers to Monolith level 16 give 36 Azphel crystals, and the Nightmare and Shugo shops sell 50 each (+100).
• Belt and amulet to Unique: take each Legend piece to +10 (+10 gear score each; about 1.58M Kinah and 63,000 Enhance Stones per piece), then Substance Morph it to Unique (item 65, +29 each). Unique also goes to +10 (+10 more each, about 5M Kinah per piece) when Kinah allows.
• Clash Runes to +1, then stop: +1 always succeeds; +2 is 80%, then 66, 50 and 33%, down to 10% at +10, and sources disagree on whether a failure drops a level or destroys the rune.
• Weapon, guard, bracelet to +10, with one grey or green manastone line each. The Spiritforged Guard comes from the Abyss (Forgotten Commander).
• Every Unique piece to +10: enhancing to +10 always succeeds, so finish the +6 and +7 pieces you already wear (+1 gear score per level).
• Fill every manastone slot: gear arrives with open slots (Rare 2, Legend 3, Unique 4; jewelry takes Soulstones). Engraving fills them all at once for 500–2,000 Kinah and can't fail. Grey or green lines (+1 or +2) are enough on pieces you'll replace; Lesser stones drop from named level-45 mobs in your home region and Lower Reshanta, and the Abyss shop sells 50 Lesser Abyssal stones a week (1,000 Abyss Points each). Fifty-odd slots at +2 is over +100.
• Swap leftover quest pieces for item-54 Unique: Draupnir Conquest drops Bakarma armor, and Krao Cave Conquest drops Berk necklace, earrings and rings (and Rupture weapons). Replacing an item-40 piece is +14 before enhancing; the usual weak slots are the helm, pants, necklace, earrings, second ring and a quest bracelet.
• Worked example (a 1,231 Chanter, Oct 15): +6 Unique gloves, boots, cloak and ring, a +7 bracelet, a +0 Legend belt and amulet, item-40 helm, pants, necklace and earrings, and few manastones. Finishing the +10s (+19), belt and amulet to Unique (+78) and green manastones cover the 169 it needed; two or three item-54 swaps add a margin.
• New content: start Ascension Trial (Easy), Subjugation and Arena; this is where parry rates first show up, so check Accuracy (see Accuracy).
• Skip: enhancing item-43 quest gear past +5, Clash Runes past +1, Superior manastones, or anything you'll replace at 1,400.

1,400 to 2,800: the full route

Odyle Energy sets the pace until about 2,500, then Kinah and Enhance Stones. A claim is one cube at 40 Odyle: regeneration pays for about 21 a week, the shop about 20 more (4 per character, 16 per server), and the Odyle Energy Boost mails 4 a day until Nov 10, so farm hardest now.

Times come from published drop rates and one creator's pace (2,500 in two weekly resets with membership; expect four or five without), not measured player data.

• Guaranteed picks: every 21 claims at Vakron and Urugugu, every 28 at Fire Temple and Horn Den. Fire Temple's never offers the weapon (3 vouchers, 2M Kinah and an off-class Enraged Kromede weapon, about 84 claims) and Horn Den's never offers the guard. Since Nov 4, Draupnir, Vakron and Horn Den Exploration pay like Conquest (same guaranteed-pick count, Amplify Stone Fragments, bound crafting materials), but their Kinah shrinks after 40 runs, to 20% from run 71.
• Gear-score math: a one-tier swap (54 → 70 → 86 → 102) is +16 at the same enhancement; +1 per enhancement level, and +10 → +15 costs about 12M Kinah and 130,000 Enhance Stones per item-86 piece for +5; Amplify (after +15) is +5 a level, about 6.3M Kinah and 58 Amplify Stones for three levels; manastone lines are +1 (grey) to +4 (yellow), 64 lines on a full Unique set; Arcana is +20 per grade plus +1 per card level (a full Unique set at +5 is 425).
• Crafting beats farming only for the weapon (about 240M Kinah to item 102, with 5 Soul Binding lines against Kromede's 3). Since Oct 28, Kromede and Nuakum enhancement can move down onto crafted gear, so enhancing them isn't wasted. Since Nov 4, True and Star Dragon gear also has an always-succeed recipe (bound, no Great Success).
• Bracelets stay at item 43 until Ludra; no other source has been found.
• Sorcerer weapon: the crafted White Dragon Lord chain (78, then Splendent 86, then Ebony or Wise 102) is the main path; the Enraged Kromede Spellbook (86) is a bridge.

2,600 and 2,700: Hard Expeditions and the Ariel board

• Krao Cave and Draupnir on Hard (2,600, Oct 21) and Urugugu Canyon and Vakron Sky Island on Hard (2,700, Oct 28): a 4-minute boss Frenzy timer and 3 revives per player.
• Rewards: a chance at Philosopher's Stone: Revelation (or pick it as the guaranteed reward), every Unique crafting material, Wrathful Mind, Will and Ego, Ariel Fragments (guaranteed at Urugugu and Vakron), more Kinah than Normal, and Expedition Hero Artwork. Hard achievements give Unique skins.
• Claims and checks: 40 Odyle per claim and 60–90 Ariel Fragments per final-boss cube (client data); the guaranteed pick comes after 28 claims per one guide (another says 14 at Krao Cave and Draupnir, 21 at Urugugu). Stagger Berk at about 50% and hide behind rocks for Wave of Fury; stop attacking during Lakshmi's reflection and before Raur's Counterstrike Stance; stack for Auldor's Tempest Strike; at Thamon, red means physical stops and purple magic stops. Entry CP runs 147–151K at 2,600 and 161–163K at 2,700.
• Ariel Fragments: Substance Morph turns 100 into a Daevanion Crystal: Ariel (up to 30 per character in the patch text; one guide reads it as 30 per dungeon) and 1 into 5 Enhance Stones with no limit.
• Ariel board: a new Daevanion board whose points come only from those crystals; 152 nodes and 232 points, with PvE Damage Boost and Tolerance cores and no skill nodes.

2,800 and up: Ludra

• Abyssal Forge: Ludra opened Nov 4: Normal at 2,800 item level, Hard at 3,000, with a 1-hour limit per run; Normal drops the same item types as Hard at lower rates. The first 20 parties per region to clear Hard get titles, and anyone who clears either mode before Nov 24 gets Ludra's Nemesis.
• Drops: Ludra's weapon and guard, Abyssal Bracelets (Amplify up to 3), Sealed Abyssal Waves Wings and Artwork: Abyssal Ludra. Take a Gear Change Voucher as the guaranteed reward: Substance Morph turns one into a weapon selection chest, and 6 Ludra vouchers (or 3 Hard ones) make Ludra's Bracelet (Amplify up to 5); 2 Normal vouchers trade for 1 Hard voucher.
• Fire Temple and Ferocious Horn Den on Hard are in the client at 2,800 but locked (a Nov 4 hotfix removed the Hard option that briefly showed); the client also lists higher Conquest tiers and Korean raids at 3,500 and 4,300.
• Format: 10 players in two parties of five, 2 revives, and one counted final-boss kill a week (Wednesday reset); the bosses are level 75. As of Nov 7 there were 11 Eternal Ludra kills on Normal and none on Hard.
• Ready gear (community): Kromede weapon and Nuakum guard at +16 to +18, armor +10 to +15; for Hard, desolo targets +16 everywhere, +17 weapons and all 120 Ariel crystals. Parties ask about 175–190K CP for Normal and 200K+ for Hard.
• Reactor: break the auxiliary reactors.
• Rahu and Ketu (split boss): pass Rahu's SOS Bomb on (3 failures wipe the party); on Ketu the tank blocks the jump, face the red side and turn away from the blue, and the crystals give immunity.
• Eternal Ludra: berserk at 10:00; the red tower needs a blocker, then come two Bingo grids, a colour split and the Thunder Zone. The Reactor and Ludra details come from early-access and client data (mobalytics live guides), so expect changes.
• Loot: sites disagree whether the guaranteed voucher comes every 2 or every 4 kills, and a specific Ludra weapon drops at about 0.3–0.6% per kill, so plan on vouchers. A crafted Splendent Wise or Ebony (102) weapon matches a Ludra weapon's Attack at max enhancement with more lines, so the Ludra weapon is the no-craft route and Ludra's Heart and the bracelets are the real upgrades. Ludra Hunt titles have no stats.
• Sorcerer duties: stop magic damage during Thamon's purple state (Vakron Hard), before Raur's Counterstrike Stance and during Lakshmi's reflection, and keep mobility for Ludra's gaze, Bingo and colour phases. Sorcerers are in the fewest Ludra fights of the six (63%). shr1kn's Ludra Loadout swaps Cold Storm for Steel Barrier 20.

Rules for every bracket

• Spend Odyle on the highest tier you can enter, and never let it cap (560, or 840 with membership). Membership reportedly also allows two Odyle injections per Expedition or Transcendence cube (80 Odyle for double rewards) and makes Sanctuary cubes eligible; NC hasn't published global numbers.
• Open every Conquest and Transcendence cube: leaving one unopened burns the shared 10-per-week counter, and at 0 you can't enter until Wednesday's reset.
• Enhancement priority is weapon, guard, bracelet, then the rest; only enhance past +5 on gear you'll keep.
• Belt and amulet morphs are once per character per grade; the 20-per-server weekly cap added Oct 6 covers only turning Sealed Wings into Enhance Stones. Grades run Common, Rare (green), Legend (blue; some guides say Epic), Unique (gold).

Sorcerer at each bracket. At 1,000, the Spiritforged Spellbook and guard go to +10 first. At 1,400, a Rupture Tome (item 54) is only a stopgap: farm an Aulamus spellbook (item 70) from Vakron and Urugugu, and put Hellfire and Blaze lines on the rings. At 1,600, a Parchment for Hellfire or Blaze and a Chalice for whichever key skill is short of 20 come first. Make the craft chain the main path: all six questlog end stages use a crafted Splendent Ebony or Wise (102) spellbook, naotsumi a Splendent White (86) at 2,100–2,500, and only 1 of 6 uses Kromede, so treat the Enraged Kromede spellbook as a bridge. shr1kn's 3,206 gear score (226.5K CP) runs a Splendent Ebony (102) +15A4.

Transcendence dungeons

Season 1 (to Dec 16) has two Transcendence dungeons: Deus Research Base drops Bell, Compass and Chalice cards, and Shattered Arkanis drops Mirror, Parchment and Chalice. Farm the one whose card slots your build still needs; for the Sorcerer, start with Shattered Arkanis.

Best dungeon by class:

• Rewards: entry is free; taking the cube spends a reward count (1 per 12 hours, cap 14) and 40 Odyle. Every cube costs the same, so spend counts on the highest stage your group clears reliably.
• Sets don't decide the dungeon: both drop Vigor and Magic cards; the card slot does. The version you keep decides your Empyrean Lord stat (see Empyrean Lord stats and Pantheon). Duplicates extract into Mysterious Crystals, and 5 crystals and 2M Kinah transmute a Unique card of your choice.
• Party: 2–5 players; a player who leaves mid-run fails the dungeon for everyone. AionFlex entry Combat Power (25th percentile of players who killed the boss, Nov 7) is 80–81K at stage 1, 91K at 2, 109–110K at 3 and 134K at 4; most uploads predate the Oct 28 nerf, so post-nerf needs are slightly lower.
• Oct 28 boss nerf: stage 1 boss Attack −15%, stages 2–4 boss Attack and Damage Boost −10%, stages 1–2 boss HP −6.5%; base HP rose at the same time.
• Coming: the launch leaderboard closed Nov 2, with winners due Nov 9 and mail rewards by Nov 16 (top 10 per server and class: 35,000 Enhance Stones, 30 Unique Amplify Stones and a Philosopher's Stone: Revelation); Season 2 (Dec 16) adds Submerged Life Temple (client data).

Class fit uses AionFlex meter uploads from before the Oct 28 nerf; the damage gaps between dungeons are about 5%, so treat them as a lean, not a rule.

Wings and collection

Worn wings add stats; every pair you own adds a second bonus that grows to +10, even while you wear another. Pairs come in Elyos and Asmodian versions.

Ultimate Daeva Wings are free from the level-45 Ascension quest. The six dungeon-drop wings are Unique items from normal party dungeons, gated by your total item level for Conquest (700 for Krao Cave and Draupnir, 1,400 for Urugugu Canyon and Vakron Sky Island, 2,100 for Fire Temple and Ferocious Horn Den). They drop sealed and unseal with Radiant Odyle, and the drop is rare.

Wing ladder. Wear the best pair you own and keep every pair, because owned bonuses stack even while another pair is worn. The Daeva quest levels (22, 32, 45) come from a single guide, so check your quest log.

The item levels are your total, not a piece's, and match the Conquest gates under "After 45".

Which to wear (Sorcerer). On global (metabot, Nov 7) Ultimate Daeva leads at 31%, then Dark Veil 23% and Talisra 11%; Korean top Sorcerers wear Talisra (79%). Plan: Ultimate Daeva at 45 (free), Forest Spirit (Boss Attack) or Ancient Aullaeu (Attack and MP) at 1,400, Dark Veil at 2,100, then Abyssal Waves from Ludra at 2,800+; Talisra (Cooldown Reduction, Accuracy and Attack) or Nightmare are the alternatives. Collect the rest as you go, because the owned bonuses stack.

Upgrading. Rare and Epic always succeed to +10. Unique is safe to +3, then 90, 80, 50, 50, 50, 40 and 30% to +10 (about 16.7M Kinah, 137 Sync Stones and 66,000 Enhance Stones). Enhancing never changes worn stats, and Unique wings gain only Flight Power from it; each failure adds +10% to the next try. Collect pairs before enhancing, and enhance only the Epic and Rare pairs whose owned stat grows (for example Spirit Wings' PvE Defense).

Titles. You have three equip slots, one each for Attack, Defense and Other, and a title only fits its own slot. Every title you own also adds a collection bonus (check your Title tab). Fill each slot with the best title you own and swap up as you progress:

Asmodian counterparts (Guardian of Altgard and others) have the same stats; I only checked the Elyos quest names. The guide I read doesn't state the slot for Hello There or the Sightseer title; I placed them in Defense by their stats. Some titles also pay just for owning them: Unbound by Genus, Dominator of Dimensions and Hero's Footsteps each add +1% PvE Damage Boost or Tolerance.

Pets and Genus Insight

Genus Insight rerolls pet stats; Owned Effects grow with how many pets you own. No pet is mandatory.

• Pet: pick a Fera pet (Fossa, Armadon or Tog) from the level 10 quest; only Fera adds ground mount speed. Five souls unlock a pet; level 2 takes 25 more and level 3 (the cap) 75 more, about 105 per pet. Each pet adds 500/250/250 Insight EXP (failed rolls add EXP too), and Genus Insight is shared by every character on the server.
• Stat priority: Double Chance (on global it rolls only in the Special board's slot 4; the 'levels 3 and 9' advice is Korean or Taiwanese data), Attack Bonus, Boss Attack, Crit, Accuracy, HP. Fera pets carry Accuracy and Cogni pets Crit.
• Slot 4: Cogni = Damage Boost (most questlog builds; PvE Damage Boost also works), Fera = Weapon Damage Boost, Natura = PvE Damage Boost (Perfect Chance or Multi-hit as fallbacks), Varian = Front or Back Attack Damage Boost, Special = Double Chance.
• Other slots: 1 and 5 Max Attack; 2 and 8 HP; 3, 6 and 9 Accuracy; 7 Damage Tolerance or Endurance.
• Rolling: each roll costs 4 Soul Crystals and 1,000 Kinah; at Insight 10 a roll is Heroic 5% and Unique 15%, so a Heroic Double Chance is about 0.4% per roll. Level all five boards to 9–10 on unlocked rolls, roll Special first with rainbow crystals, and lock only slot 4 (and 7 for tanks); each lock raises the cost.
• Soul Crystals: Substance Morph (1 per 500 Kinah, 1,000 a week), the Festival shop (100 per 50 tokens, 30 a month), pet milestones (100 every 10 pets), Hidden Cubes, the Odylium Repository and the Ludra check-in (3,000). Pet souls drop in Expedition and Transcendence dungeons since Nov 4.

Empyrean Lord stats and Pantheon

For the Sorcerer: Time, Destruction, Illusion, Life, then Freedom; Wisdom is low priority. Each point adds 0.1% to both of its stat's effects on global (Korea doubled it to 0.2%, and some sites show the Korean rate). You can't spend or reset these points: they come from items, and almost all of the difference between players comes from which version of each Arcana card you run.

• Arcana is the real choice. Each slot has a Vigor and a Magic version with a fixed stat (+20 at Unique, +1 per card level, so +25 at +5). Skill lines belong to the slot, not the version, so the version only changes the stat and the set bonus. Top Sorcerers run Chalice of Vigor (83% of top Sorcerers), Parchment of Vigor (67%), Compass of Vigor (62%), Bell of Magic (75%), Mirror of Vigor (71%) for cooldowns. Only 29% run Mirror of Magic (Wisdom), so Illusion beats Wisdom for the Mirror.
• Sets: most top players run three Vigor and two Magic cards for both 2-piece bonuses (Primal Vigor +60 PvE Attack at 70% HP or more; Magic Armor restores 1,500 MP at 20% MP or less); only 32 of 144 run four Vigor cards.
• Colossus: take the Justice, Time and Destruction one: Zikel's Apparition (14,000 Phantasmal Fragments, +45 each; 140 of 144 top players run it), or Guardian Lord Nahma (+55 each) if you get the drop.
• Statues and artworks add only +4 to +10 each (the Pantheon holds 1 colossus, 4 statues and 12 artworks; you swap pieces, you can't enhance them), so buy them last; every questlog endgame build runs Statue: Transcendent Bakarma (Death, Space and Freedom +12; kill Bakarma 10 times in Conquest), then Asahr's Mirror (22 of 24 questlog builds) and Artifact of Eternity (20), then Statue: Kibelisk (10) or Fortress Guardian Notun (9); Artwork: Abyssal Ludra (a Ludra drop) appears in 5. Freedom statues: Gerod (8,000 fragments, +10), Wraith Giselle (5,000), or all 61 home teleports for Statue: Kibelisk (+10).
• Bracelets: Ascension and quest bracelets have fixed lines, but the Abyssal Bracelet (from Ludra; item 70 in questlog's global table, 86 per GameWith) rolls four Empyrean Lord stats at 9–17 each (up to +68), so look for Time and Destruction lines; 19 of 44 questlog characters wear two in some stage, and the common lines are Time, Destruction, Wisdom and Illusion.
• Currency: Phantasmal Fragments, mostly from Nightmare (up to 1,500 a run, and Instant Clear Tickets cost 30,000 Kinah since Oct 28). They can't be traded and carry over between seasons.
• Spend order: Stigma Shards and Daevanion Crystals first (Nightmare Trade Shop: 300 fragments per crystal, 50 per character; 52,500 for 35 shards), then the colossus, then statues and artworks, then wings and cosmetics.

Class orders come from 144 top EU and NA characters (23–25 per class, 196K–288K Combat Power) read from the official armory on Oct 28.

Build variants

Party play

• Your buffs are self-only (Element Enhancement, Wish of Concentration), so nothing overlaps with a Chanter or Cleric. A Chanter's Power of the Storm (+20% Combat Speed, −10% cooldowns) and Undefeated Mantra are your best party buffs; time Hellfire into them.
• Delayed Explosion's +15% only counts your own hits; Bittercold Wind's Root and Cold Storm's Stagger help the party with trash and stagger checks.
• Stand at range behind the boss when you can (rear hits can't be parried), and save Divine Burst or Flame Scattershot timing for mandatory Stagger checks.

Events and what to prioritize

Almost everything in AION 2 refills on a timer and wastes anything past its cap, so the rule is: spend whatever is closest to its cap first. Daily and weekly counters reset at 16:00 server time (weekly on Wednesday).

Shugo Festival (hourly)

A rotating minigame that opens every hour (a Shugo icon and countdown appear beside the minimap; trust the in-game timer, since published schedules disagree). Entering is free; you pay one Reward Key per reward pick after you finish. A better placement gives more picks, but every pick still costs one key, and confirming a pick is final.

• Keys: 3 per day, cap 12 (21 with membership), shared by every character on your server. Keys over the cap are lost. Sources disagree on exact numbers, so check your in-game counter. Hidden Cube and Dimensional Invasion keys cannot be used here.
• Rewards at level 45: the participation package gives 50 Centuryroot Tokens and 700 Enhance Stones; the key package adds 1,200 Enhance Stones, three Soul Codex (bound), 800 Abyss Points and extra rolls, with a chance at unique gear. Reward pools are Chaos gear, Shade gear, Odyle, Refining Stones and Abyss Points.
• Token milestones: each of the nine games pays 20, 40 and 85 tokens at three participation milestones (1,305 tokens for all of them), and the general Festival track pays 30 tokens plus 10 Soul Crystals at 3 participations and 40 plus 10 at 10.

What a PvE Sorcerer should buy with Centuryroot Tokens (in this order):

1. Daevanion Crystals (bound): 50 tokens each for the first 10, then 100, 200 and 400 (all 50 cost 10,500). More board points is the strongest upgrade for this build.
2. Wisdom Stones (bound): 350 tokens in an event Festival shop per one guide; metabot's global shop data lists none in the Centuryroot Festival shop, so check in-game before saving tokens for them. Each stone is worth one skill point, which only helps until your key skills reach rank 10 (see How skills level up).
3. Stigma Shards (bound): 300 tokens each, up to 35 per character, for Element Enhancement and Delayed Explosion to 20 and Fire Wall to 10.
4. Soul Crystal packs: 50 tokens each for ×100, up to 30 per month per character.
5. Cosmetics (wings, pets, skins) last. Wings cost 2,100 to 8,350 tokens.

Korea's Oct 7 patch also merged the per-mode Shugo remnants into one "Masterpiece" remnant that converts through Material Conversion, and added Stigma Shards to the Abyss, Nightmare and Festival shops; global already sells them (Abyss shop 200 per character, Nightmare 35 at 1,500 fragments each, Festival 35 at 300 tokens each). Don't interrupt leveling for every hourly round; start farming it at level 45.

Daily and weekly priority order

Limited-time events right now (as of Nov 4)

Common mistakes

1. Putting Hellfire in the macro (it loses 20–30% of its damage), or firing it outside Winter's Shackles' window.
2. Starting a charge or a stationary field (Fire Wall, Cold Storm, Bittercold Wind) just before a boss mechanic.
3. Letting MP drop under 50% and then 25%, which switches off Robe of Earth and Grace of Enhancement; keep holding Flame Arrow and keep Blaze in the macro.
4. Spreading Daevanion points instead of taking the +1 skill nodes on every board.
5. Raising Frost, Frost Burst or Flame Scattershot past their breakpoints at the cap.
6. Over-stacking Crit past the cap while Accuracy is short.
7. Skill lines on the weapon or guard instead of the rings.
8. Rerolling manastones for perfect rolls, or locking Genus Insight early.
9. Letting Shugo keys or Odyle Energy sit at their cap. The weekly Odyle cube counter (10) also drops when you clear without taking the cube; at 0 you can't enter Conquest or Transcendence until reset.
10. Standing in melee range: you are the party's lowest-HP member.
11. Mouse macros or third-party tools.

Community builds (questlog)

The most-liked global PvE builds on questlog.gg's skill builder and character builder (checked Oct 31, rechecked Nov 7) mostly match this guide. Likes are small and many endgame stages are wish lists, so read them as community opinion beside the armory data above. One author (shr1kn) made most of the Sorcerer builds, so read them as one strong opinion.

Where they differ from this guide:

• Stigmas: Element Enhancement 20, then Delayed Explosion, Fire Wall and Cold Storm to 15 together, then all four to 20 (this guide stops Fire Wall and Cold Storm at 5–10).
• Firestorm at 16: −2 s Hellfire and +15% per fireball; skill speed only at 20.
• Opener: a max-charge Hellfire right after Delayed Explosion, Element Enhancement just before burst. Before Wish of Concentration's rank-16 option cast Wish first; after it, Hellfire then Wish.
• Split: shr1kn skips Bittercold Wind's always-crit option (+1 s and mobile instead), raises Robe of Cold right after Robe of Flame, and takes Winter's Shackles to 20 from 2,600 and Defiance to 16 (+50% PvE tolerance).
• Gear: Robe of Flame on every armor piece and the necklace and earrings, Fire Mark on jewelry; ring lines Firestorm, Hellfire, Wish of Concentration, then Blaze. The Compass now splits 3 Vigor to 3 Magic; shr1kn's end stages pair the Compass of Vigor with the Mirror of Magic.

• Stack setup: Key 5 = Element Enhancement > Fire Wall > Cold Storm > Delayed Explosion; key 6 = Winter's Shackles > Bittercold Wind > Frost > Firestorm; key 7 = Blaze > Frost Burst. The macro presses keys 5, 6 and 7 (10 ms) while left mouse holds Flame Arrow; only Hellfire and Wish stay manual.
• Gear by stage: Spiritforged +10 → Aulamus Spellbook and Vakron (1,200–1,400) → Enraged Kromede Spellbook or crafted Splendent White (86) → Splendent Ebony or Wise Spellbook (102), Abyssal Bracelets. Wings: Forest Spirit until Talisra; no build uses Kromede wings.
• Titles: Playing God (Attack slot: PvE Damage Boost +5.5%, Accuracy +90, Double Chance +400) appears in some builds, but its condition is unpublished, the client flags it hidden and no global owner is confirmed, so plan around Unbound by Genus. Journey's Path (Other slot: Combat Speed +3%, HP +900) comes from collecting 6 Unique Expedition artworks.
• Gear extras: Philosopher's Stone: Revelation adds a fifth engraving line to Unique gear (2 stones and 1M Kinah, always succeeds; weapon and guard first). Superior stones can also roll Damage Boost, Weapon, Crit Damage, or Front or Back Attack Damage Boost (about 0.5% each, +100 at best); keep any on the weapon and guard, but yellow Attack +10 is the realistic target. Necklace and earrings reroll toward Might, then Precision, after the class passives.
• Chalice crystals: the 5 Mysterious Crystals for a Unique Chalice come from Season Mission > Tower of Trials (3, for 4,000+ points in Hard Ascension Trial), the Season Shop (1, 25,000 coins) and extracting spare cards (1).

Sources

Korean data runs a couple of patches ahead of global; check tooltips after big patches.

• metabot Sorcerer class page (global client data) and top-150 build stats
• metabot Sorcerer skills (one page per skill) and Daevanion planner (Sorcerer boards)
• AION2CAL Sorcerer guide and class DPS by combat-power bracket
• aion2-guides.info Sorcerer guide (Oct 17)
• games.gg Sorcerer guide and gamesfuze Sorcerer build
• vortexgaming Korean Sorcerer guide
• gamewith NA Sorcerer build stats
• shugo.gg tier list and Sorcerer skills
• MeinMMO PvE tier list (Oct 13)
• aion2hub Sorcerer class page and patch notes: Aug 12, Aug 26, Sep 16, Sep 23, Oct 7
• metabot stigma, Arcana, gear progression, Theostone and Manastone guides, and the enhancement calculator
• metabot wings list and mounts, pets and wings guide
• metabot leveling guide
• metabot titles, dungeon, crafting and gear enhancement guides
• metabot daily and weekly checklist
• Official Korean update notes list
• AION2 Hub patch notes: Oct 5 launch
• aion2.blog Shugo Festival guide
• GameTruth Shugo Festival guide
• Official global Twitch Drops notice
• aion2game.com launch events
• MeinMMO on the removed Ludra raid and gaminghq.eu
• game8 Genus Insight guide
• game8 Phantasmal Fragments guide
• Sportskeeda Pantheon explained
• playnews.gg macro setup
• gamesfuze macro setup guide
• aion2timers stat calculator
• Corpus gear score guide: thresholds and what counts (Oct 10)
• Raid Relay gear score progression 45 to 2,100 (Oct 10)
• metabot content unlocks by item level
• Official notice: Server Transfer Products Info (Oct 9)
• Official Producer's Letter: Welcome to Atreia (Oct 9)
• Official notice: Update on Sanctuary Raid (Ludra)
• Official Oct 14 global update notes (aion2hub transcription) and Korea's Oct 14 notes
• Official Oct 21 global update notes (Expedition Hard, Ariel board)
• Official Oct 28 global update notes (boss nerf, Hard Urugugu and Vakron, crafted Amplify)
• Official notice: Ludra Awakens on November 4th (Odyle Energy Boost, Ludra events) and Halloween Twitch Drops
• metabot Transcendence (client data), wikily Deus Research Base and rewards and Shattered Arkanis
• mobalytics Deus Research Base guide and Shattered Arkanis guide; timesaver Transcendence guide
• AionFlex class presence in clears and class damage by dungeon
• raidrelay gear score, Conquest, Transcendence and Gear Transfer guides; aion2-guides.info progression
• metabot stats (0.1% per point, caps) and Arcana guide; Odealo best Arcana per class
• aion2tool global Combat Power ranking (sample selection; stats read from the official armory), allthings.how Nightmare Trade Shop, aion2hub Colossus: Guardian Lord Nahma and GamesFuze Pantheon guide
• questlog.gg skill builder and character builder community builds (checked Oct 31; most-liked global PvE builds per class)
• Official Nov 4 global update notes (Abyssal Forge: Ludra, Exploration buff, crafting)
• AionFlex boss entry Combat Power (Nov 7)
• metabot class builds (wings, titles, CP medians, Nov 4–7)
• metabot Abyssal Forge: Ludra and Combat Power guide
• mobalytics Rahu and Ketu boss guides; expcarry Ludra guide
• questlog.gg skill and character builds, rechecked Nov 7
• Official announcements mirrored on Steam (events, transfer limits)
• allthings.how: Noble Belt and Revelation Amulet upgrades, Daevanion Crystal sources and Clash Runes
• GameTruth belt and amulet guide, Fextralife Clash Rune odds and daevaguides Krao Cave loot
• senseos.gg grade names and Amplify and Selphie: raising gear score (Oct 12)
• wikily.gg Essence Extraction skills and proficiency and Odyle specialty skills (the other node types share the tree)
• VGC Essence Extraction guide, playnews.gg Essence Extraction and selphie1999gaming Splendent Ruby quest