Tactical File: Dealing with Sorcerers Solo

Tsoo Sorcerer Group: Tsoo Rank: Lieutenant Powers: Self-Teleport Hurricane Chill of the Night Petrifying Gaze Brawl O2 Boost (heal) Can be seen in: Steel Canyon Independence Port Talos Island

If there is any one annoying criminal for a hero in Paragon City to fight in a solo situation, it has to be the Tsoo Sorcerer. For starters, they’re cowards. They like to run when the focus is on them. We’re not talking running away like the Trolls run away, which means they give brave words and then run in the opposite direction. No, Sorcerers are teleporters. They don’t RUN, they teleport. And they will teleport repeatedly anytime they feel threatened. If you put yourself in chase mode to follow them, then you better have some kind of flight power active as well, because they will take you everywhere they can teleport to. Rooftops, trees, ledges, power lines… if they can land their feet on it, they’ll get there. Second, Sorcerers usually work in groups. So if you focus all your attention on them, their friends will just wear you down. Or the Sorcerer will teleport away and coax you into another group of criminals, so now you’ve just aggravated them as well. Third, Sorcerers are healers. That means that if you decide to ignore the gutless coward and focus on the ones that WILL fight, then the Sorcerer will teleport back in and begin healing his friends, and they will repeat the process until you turn your attention back on him and then he’ll teleport away, and now you’re facing newly-recharged enemies. Obviously that’s not all that a Sorcerer has in his arsenal. There’s “Chill of the Night” and “Petrifying Gaze” and his Hurricane powers, which are all designed to immobilize you and wear you down, but those are really adding insult to injury. Teleportation and healing that are the two major powers that make the Sorcerer the pain in the cape that he is. Okay, so presuming you’re not on a team, you’re asked to take down a group of Tsoo and you inevitably encounter a Sorcerer amidst the bunch. What’s the best way to deal with him without getting yourself killed? The Sorcerer has a few flaws. While he may be able to heal everyone else in the group, he can’t heal himself. Any damage he gets will only be healed the old-fashioned way… unless there’s another Sorcerer in the group that can heal him. It doesn’t matter if you’re a blaster or a tanker or anyplace in between, attack the Sorcerer first. If you can’t bring him down in one or two shots, then you probably will see him teleport away. Let him leave. He won’t stay away for very long. Focus your attentions on the rest of the gang. Start attacking the other gang members. Once the Sorcerer knows you’re not attacking him, then he will teleport back to heal the others. As soon as he does come back, take your attention off the others and put it right back on the Sorcerer, and keep pounding on him until he either teleports away again or else is defeated. Repeat this process for as long as is necessary until the Sorcerer goes down for the count. If you defeat the other gang members, then the Sorcerer will decide to confront you one-on-one. In those situations, he won’t teleport in. He will instead come at you on foot. Your best bet if you’re a melee fighter (scrapper/tanker/brute) is to hit him with powers that will knock him off his feet and/or disorient him first. That will cut down on the chances he’ll be able to engage his close-quarters defensive powers. Just keep pressing forward and you’ll take him down. There is a flaw with the Sorcerer’s teleportation that also works to your advantage. If you are attacking him while he is in the process of teleporting, you stand the chance of your blows still affecting him while he’s in transit. Plus his teleportation could fail, and instead of teleporting away from the area, he would instead end up either a few inches away from where he left or even knocked out on the ground. Sorcerers are a pain to battle solo, but they can be managed as long as you remember that their strength rests in being the support member of the group. Take away that support capacity and you take away their advantage.