The Essentials articles are atrocious.

[GMforPowergamers]

from the new sorcerer article up tonight...

POWER GAMING, OR NOT
The Essentials series tries to include a great deal
of character-building advice as well as tactical
advice for playing one of these characters at the
table. But the series is not intended to provide
the most recent optimization options for your
character. Rather, the goal of these articles is to
give you the basics you need to play one of these
classes if you’ve never done so before.
We fully recognize that those of you who
enjoy an optimized character might find this
advice lacking, so we encourage you to seek out
our character optimization boards in the community
forums. There you’ll find a plethora of
advice for making your character the cream of
the crop.
We also recognize that much of the advice
we have to offer is the opinion of the author.
As such, consider it one side of the many that
each character class has the potential to offer
the game. If you think you have better advice for
building one of these characters, please send us
your article pitch at submissions@wizards.com.

just to make sure everyone knows what I consider the important part here:

Rather, the goal of these articles is to
give you the basics you need to play one of these
classes if you’ve never done so before.
We fully recognize that those of you who
enjoy an optimized character might find this
advice lacking

 

[Shroomy]

Yeah, I thought that was pretty funny when I read that.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Yeah, I thought that was pretty funny when I read that.

I suppose this was triggered by board discussions like these - I am just surprised they got it into an article so fast!

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Although this article looks a lot like optimization with the advise of weapon expertise and 18/14/11/10/10/8 spread...

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Although this article looks a lot like optimization with the advise of weapon expertise and 18/14/11/10/10/8 spread...

Hehe, that is true. I found this unusually extreme. But maybe it's actually not that optimzied after all - your defenses won't look so great, and especially for the Strength based builds - losing on AC and Reflex defense should hurt...

 

[Belphanior]

Yeah, I just read that sidebar at the end and thought: "well, somebody's been reading the forums haven't they?"

But I agree. The Essentials aren't there to provide the absolute top damage capability.

 

[Jhaelen]

Hehe, that is true. I found this unusually extreme. But maybe it's actually not that optimzied after all - your defenses won't look so great, and especially for the Strength based builds - losing on AC and Reflex defense should hurt...

Well, that's what you get when you optimize something with limited resources:
Something else will always suffer.

 

[Klaus]

Sidenote: the Sorcerer article claims the Druid is a Striker... :geno:

 

[Garthanos]

Sidenote: the Sorcerer article claims the Druid is a Striker... :geno:

Well I think I've seen some charging optimized druids that make it feel like a feature of the class.

 

[CapnZapp]

Well, that's what you get when you optimize something with limited resources:
Something else will always suffer.

Isn't that the point of optimizing?!

Being allowed to put 18's in all stats may be "optimized", but not in an interesting way.