Fans of Soulslike games are no strangers to picking a starting class that determines their character's early statistics. Many games inspired by Dark Souls give players lots of ways to customize and optimize their character for a certain playstyle. Elden Ring is still built on that particular gameplay hook, as its starting classes make clear. Although Elden Ring has significantly less starting class options than some Dark Souls games, there's still some solid options to choose from if players want to build a character based on Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, or Faith. The five Elden Ring classes do a pretty good job of covering every fundamental playstyle that a fan could ask for.
Even so, it seems like there's room for one common Dark Souls class that isn't in Elden Ring yet: the Sorcerer. Elden Ring does offer players the Enchanted Knight as a starter if they want to wield Sorceries, but the Enchanted Knight's playstyle is also partially defined by skill in melee weapons and heavy armor. That means it's far from the glass cannon style of spellcaster that so many other RPGs offer. Even if the Enchanted Knight can technically function in the place of a Sorcerer, Elden Ring would benefit from a wholly Sorcery-driven class.
The Need for a Sorcerer Class
FromSoftware is no stranger to offering players a Sorcerer class. On the contrary, all three of the core Dark Souls games offer some kind of Sorcerer class with high Intelligence, resulting in a knack for spellcasting. While many Dark Souls players might prefer the type of heavy-duty melee build represented by Elden Ring's Bloody Wolf class, spellcasting is still a completely valid category of build. The same goes for Elden Ring; the game's recent Network Test proved that magic is very potent, meaning full caster builds are certainly viable. Even so, there's no option to start as a Sorcerer who sacrifices durability for top-tier Sorcery power.
The inclusion of the Prophet in Elden Ring makes the Sorcerer's omission even stranger. In Elden Ring, Prophets have huge base Faith and Mind scores but low Vigor and Endurance scores, making them ideal full casters who use Incantations to great effect. Champions, meanwhile, blend melee combat and Incantations, but the Champion class doesn't edge out the Prophet as an optimal full caster. If Champions and Prophets share Incantations while Bloody Wolves and Warriors share martial combat mastery, it's odd that the Enchanted Knight class doesn't share Sorceries with anyone. The obvious answer to fixing that imbalance in Elden Ring's class roster is to simply add a Sorcerer class.
Imagining Elden Ring's Sorcerer
FromSoftware could easily still add a Sorcerer to the roster if it just creates a set of starting statistics that make it distinct from the Enchanted Knight. The Sorcerer probably shouldn't top the Enchanted Knight's huge Intelligence score of 16, but it can beat the Knight in other departments. For instance, a Sorcerer could have higher Mind than the Knight, meaning it has more TP to spend on Elden Ring's Sorceries. It could also have slightly better Dexterity for faster spellcasting, as well as a significantly higher Arcane score to boost its use of certain Arcane-scaling spells. The Sorcerer would certainly sacrifice in the Strength and Vigor departments in exhange for these stats, but the result would be a very unique Elden Ring class.
It's hard to say if Elden Ring will get any new starting classes in the final months ahead of release. Considering how little time is left before the game comes out, it seems unlikely, but FromSoftware could always release a patch for Elden Ring that includes the Sorcerer or any number of other starting classes. Unfortunate as it may be that there's no Sorcerer by default, it's great to see that Elden Ring lets players choose their own path when it comes to combat. The Enchanted Knight is still a reliable option in the Sorcerer's stead.
Elden RIng releases February 25, 2022 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
