If some of the suggestions in this thread were implemented, very few would want to play the game. Every class should have self-healing. Once the game realized that, and it took a long time, players gained true autonomy in class choice. We still aren't there for every class or archetype, but we have come a long, long way from LFMs - need a cleric before it can start with party leaders blind telling anyone with a cleric icon online, "want to run VON3?"
Further, every class should have significant AOE capabilities. AOE is fun. Players like fun.
The game is balanced in R1. Is it perfect? Nothing is perfect. It functions on a fairly level field at R1, however. Excellent job getting there. So now, we are once again quibbling about how the game plays in modes that a fraction of the player base plays in. You were never promised the game would be balanced in R10. The game was never balanced in the old Epic Elite either; wizards would throw mass holds, then melee would smack away at mobs with picks. Would you prefer that game? Then all casters would have to focus on is Enchantment DCs.
The OP demonstrates they aren't even playing a sorcerer. They are playing a wizard with a sorcerer icon. A sorcerer is not supposed to have DC proficiency in 5 schools and 4 element/damage types.
Anyone who plays serious melee knows Dragonlord isn't what you run with. Dragonlord is an approachable, entry-level choice. The type of class every game needs. It is also fun. Blightcaster is also fun. No one ever talks about Blightcasters. These were once one of the top classes played in hardcore.
None of the casting situations are ever as bad as some in these threads try to make them out to be. They stem from either power guilds who have draconian rules for what you can play in high-reaper raids, something virtually none of the gaming population participates in, or they come from general player frustration in facing 400,000-9,000,000 hp bosses in slayer areas.
One item that stands out from the original post to me is that DCs aren't the problem. Sort of true. The casting issue has always been the lack of EPIC spells. It's crazy how reliant casters are on low-level SLAs (the whole Trickster thing works because it makes magic missile and frost lance great). A friend and I both played sorcerers recently on different lives, and both independently came to the same conclusion - scorch and scorching ray were better than fireball. Not just slightly better. Significantly better, to such a degree that fireball is last in the rotation and almost a useless spell. On a fire savant. The lower-level spells are better. This pattern scales all the way up into epics. The few epic "spells" that existed were nerfed into the ground (cough..cough..carrion swarm). The "feat" spells ruin/greater ruin are ridiculously overpriced to cast. So much of the angst about casting could be solved by easing the R7 damage reduction, cutting the cost of ruins by half and the cooldowns by 10%, and adding some new epic or 9th-level spells to every school.
