Hastaga's guide for new players on (against) Sorc (3s)

[hastaga]

Heya. Hastaga is my ign. I play sorc only nowadays. Please keep in mind that my opinions are for 3s games only.
I don't really care if you want the opinion on this guide to play AGAINST or AS a sorc. Better opponents = more satisfying games.


I'll share my general opinion regarding my t1 and t2 game. t3 is 80% phobos, 20% GUO and 100% nuke :0)
Also please be warned that micro game is VERY IMPORTANT. Avoid bleeding as hard as you can. Trades should happen only when you're sure that you will come out on top. You've gotta be patient and resilient, will lose to me for sure if you aren't hoho~

Thread will cover T1, T2 and a very important point in T3
War gear use and global will be covered in the LAST section
Also i'll briefly talk about raptors blood crusher, blood letter and GUO.


Remember your objective, sorc is all about FIELD CONTROL

Nature of Chaos: Like SM, they are well rounded; not distinctive at melee game/ranged shooting. Sorc's job is to create the environment for the troops to do their job.

Sorc 101: Use doombolt regularly until sorcerer staff

T1
t1 wise tics = sorc's food. Bleed them as soon as you see them, ALWAYS. I'd go so far to say that there are no other targets in t1 of sorc that is as important to kill as tics. Do not underestimate their importance. Any experienced player would know to restock them when the squad is wiped, even though they die really easily and awkward at fighting.

Sorc works extremely well with havoc squad. Coz of stealth worship and sorc's t2 wargears. They also provide the damage output that the commander himself lacks. You get them even when you are playing against another sorc with sigil, it's all about deception and skills. (though sometimes i don't get them because of intention to kill instead of zone control)

When havoc is in use, double CSM = standard. You need the fire power to kill things that are suppressed.
My opinion on Eternal War upgrade is that you get that after all the units. If you desperately need more firepower, get it before upgrade,otherwise during/after.

One more advantage about getting havoc is the 'purchase order'. After capping power point, if you want another CSM squad immediately, you'll have to wait for a lot of req to finally start buiding your power node. However, going for the havoc route will immediately allow you to node up your power point and drop 2 gens, it's definitely better for your team (and the suppression render your opponent useless, feel free to laugh when you see ur opp SM/Chaos went double tac against you).

Tic AC should be bought after havoc squad! Once AC is out, you can then safely put them to work to support your havoc.

Your t1 is pretty much set with sorc, tic, 2 csm and havoc.


T2

T2 game for sorc is the serious game. Mitigating losses in t1 or gaining a strong foothold in t1 will help you greatly here.
Thorn = perfect anti melee
Bubble = perfect anti range

t2 = rush dread if you're already winning, upgrade it to melee to protect your backline and CSM. CSM get blue upgrade asap, (then champion and eternal war)
For the aspiring new players, limit yourself to TWO SETUP SQUADS AT MOST Why? Micro. Let's be honest here. Most of you new ppl need to work on your micro game. MY principle here is that do what you can, and do what you can the best you can.

Upgrade your stuff accordingly if it's even game/losing. (t1 havoc also leads to easy las cannon in t2, will save you from armor if you're behind.)

Don't bother getting plague marine, that unit works poorly with sorc. Too slow. Yes, go ahead and use it with sigil if you insist. I like las cannon much better.

Last but not least, get armor 2 and armor 3 accordingly. Getting armor 2 for thorn is the safest i'd say and armor 3 is apparently used to save you from plasma tac/IG plasma blob/Eldar range blob when you don't have other means to effectively repel them. Your CSM will lose in a sustained shootout if you are not in control of the pace.

Word of advice on t3: DON'T FKING GET TERMINATORS! FFS! If you team lose it's because you got terminator in t3 instead of phobos/guo. FK YOU!. After your t3 buy, get 1 more pred if your dread's dead. Limit yourself to controling 7 squads at most. Spend all the remaining resources on shrines. that's 30% range dmg reduction with your heretics' worship.

Upgrades, specialty units and wargears

Grenade Launcher on heretics only when you're against blob in t1. Other times you'll find them more useful in anti melee.
Blood Crusher You get a dread when you can. When you need to use this guy the situation must be pretty desperate. You use it because of its mobility. Manticore hunting or disrupting blobs.
Blood Letter Get them when you;
1. Lost your raptors bought in t1
2. Need some serious damage to KILL, not DISRUPT/TANK
Yes, seriously, don't use them for ranged initiation. You'll have a hard time covering/supporting them. When you can't, they drop like flies, srsly. Do that only when you are capable.
Raptors - use when against blob. Don't get them EVER against FC and PC These guys are extremely fragile and expensive to replace. Not recommended for new players. Learn to use suppression well before looking at raptors if you want to win. Also, AC upgrade on raptor makes them extremely lethal in killing things. Esp the hotkey 'F' ability. It's tracking. Good execution move against retreating commanders.
GUO - AKA the great useless one. Get it only when you're having difficulty against CLOSE and MID-CLOSE range units. Otherwise, phobs is always better.

WARGEAR

t1 gear
Sword of flame - that makes your sorc one of the strongest duelist in t1. No joke. Yes you're still fragile, but your opponents die even faster. Use with tics = best anti melee in t1. More or less inferior to Sorcerer staff after t1

tp armor - use with sword of flame. You get sword of flame, you get tp armor. Get neither otherwise.

Sigil - extremely useful against setup. That's why you don't need raptor in most cases. Also, very long CD. Don't expect to recast it

t2 gear
staff - must get. The active ability is too useful to pass up. Ranged instant disruption = more safe shooting for your CSM/havoc. Why not?

thorn armor (armor 2) - i get it usually. Sorc's offence = buy time for stuff to shoot. This armor covers sorc's weak melee nature
bubble armor (armor 3) - get when you're getting out-shot.

mark of T - hard to get in range to cast it usually. Also doesn't particularly counter anything. I use it with TP armor when I am going offensive on blobs. Also, watch your energy use. You will only have the time and resources to cast 2 spells.

t3 gear
Mind control/Subjugation stuff - get it when you are done with phobos buy. More useful than sigil in most cases.

GLOBAL

1. Teleport: Use it to save ur armor or you friends' armor.

2. Dark flame: zone control against blob. How to use? By experience :0) srsly you lack experience if you need to ask this quesiton
Blood letterer summon (melee range): useful for immediately field reinforcement. Enough time for you to get 1 csm back for each squad and a lot of tics. Use when under pressure from melee
Blood letterer summon (range): use to tie up disruptions and ranged blobs. These guys also hurt very hard. Opp must move or they will die a lot of things

Sorc needs them for field control. Use them when needed, don't be cheap.

3. Terminator summon: is a trap

4. Nuke: Do damage only the centre of it. Use on blobs only.

[Paradise Lost]

Hastaga, are you planning on doing one of these for the Chaos Lord? I could use the tips, since his worship isn't as useful as the other commander's.

[hastaga]

Hastaga, are you planning on doing one of these for the Chaos Lord? I could use the tips, since his worship isn't as useful as the other commander's.

Sadly I don't play him. So I can't really talk about the use of his armor and accessory.

But yes, if you don't find use of CL's worship then chance is he's not your type of commander. CL is actually harder to use imo because the worship plays a key role in his t1. Moreover, controary to sorc and PC, I believe he is best suited with a 2 heretics start, and upgrade one of them for melee purpose. And as you know, tics die fairly easily. That makes keeping them alive/mitigating losses pretty challenging for CL if you act too slow. The speed buff will allow CL close in to enemies really fast and cover the tics from ranged fire, allowing them to swam in and suppress stuff. Meanwhile your double csm keep shooting at the back... that's the basic attack sequence for CL in 3s.

The difference between this melee tic squad and the melee tic squad of other chaos commanders is that, these guys when supported by worship can be used for offence. Your CL also need worship to move fast enough to tie up opp ranged squad/start doing dmg. In order to use CL well you must first understand how crucial the worship is. Otherwise, srsly, no guide can help you. Worships set the foundation of each chaos commander's strat.

I know it takes time to learn, for now you can stick to double CSM + havoc/noise marine if you really can't use the worship, as double blue upgrade kills everything good no matter what commander you use. Your CL can buy the t1 accessory to make him really annoying in pushing people. Though you must remember that the accessory becomes a deadweight in t2 when there is no worship support; energy and hp will both be depleted before CL could get close.

Long story short; don't bother using CL if you can't recognize the value of his tics' worship.
Know that the reason why CL is labeled as an 'offence' hero is not because of his thick armor and melee damage or damaging spells but because of the speed (from worship). The SPEED (from worship)combined with other stuff that chaos can offer is the exact reason why he is the 'offence' hero of the race instead of sorc, who can cast at most 4 offensive spells at once to decimate an army, or plague champion who has the greatest tankiness of all 3 and a plague sword that nobody wants to get close to.

[Paradise Lost]

Hastaga, are you planning on doing one of these for the Chaos Lord? I could use the tips, since his worship isn't as useful as the other commander's.

Sadly I don't play him. So I can't really talk about the use of his armor and accessory.

But yes, if you don't find use of CL's worship then chance is he's not your type of champion. CL is actually harder to use imo because the worship plays a key role in his t1. Moreover, controary to sorc and PC, I believe he is best suited with a 2 heretics start, and upgrade one of them for melee purpose.

The difference between this melee tic squad and the melee tic squad of other chaos commanders is that, these guys when supported by worship can be used for offence. Your CL also need worship to move fast enough to tie up opp ranged squad/start doing dmg. In order to use CL well you must first understand how crucial the worship is. Otherwise, srsly, no guide can help you. Worships set the foundation of each chaos commander's strat.

I know it takes time to learn, for now you can stick to double CSM if you really can't use the worship, as double blue upgrade kills everything good no matter what commander you use. Your CL can buy the t1 accessory to make him really annoying in pushing people. Though you must remember that the accessory becomes a deadweight in t2 when there is no worship support; energy and hp will both be depleted before CL could get close.

Long story short; don't bother using CL if you can't recognize the value of his tics' worship.

Yeah so far what's worked best for me it's either double CSM + double havocs and limiting the Tics and CL to counter-initiation, or a full melee composition of AC tics + CSM (to be later upgraded with the MoK), and raptors. The main problem I see with Khorne worship is that enemy units will tend to kite out of worship range, sometimes leading me all the way into the enemy base and chasing after my slow CL if I back away. I like the idea of using worship to charge with a second squad of heretics, but they start off so squishy it hardly makes a difference.


One thing I've noticed is that the sorcerer is excellent at tying up setup teams with his warp ability. He's also better at bleeding ranged units than the CL/PC, since he does the highest melee damage out of the gate and is the fastest of the three.

[hastaga]

If enemy can kite oyu out of worship range then imagine those other commanders w/o the speed to engage :0) they wouldn't be able to do jack then?

If you force them to move back then your zoning has succeed. Make use of jumpsquad/suppression to force them to retreat. You can bash objectives/cap while they're falling back doing nothing.

and sorc is not at all the fastest. Sorc's speewd is quite horrible really. CL's race in general is definitely the fastest. Just try harder to get used to using worship on at least CL and 1 tic squad with AC upgrade.

[Nurland]

Based on my experience GUO is generally the better choice when comparing Chaos superunits. Phobos is OK in 3s if you really need the long range AV but usually I find GUO the superior unit even in 3v3. Even more so in 1v1.

Less pathing issues and vulnerabilities while it provides you with a lot of crown control and tankiness. I mean you should have t2 stuff that puts out a lot of dps anyway.

Probably a matter of preference/playstyle