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Sorcerer : Stormbound Ranger & the Thunderous Warden.
Those builds are intended to go offroad with the Sorcerer class, too oftenly played with the classical magicka - destruction staff builds (While I also see some sorcerers played differently, it's still too rare!)
While I wanted to do something completly different, I still wanted my sorcerer to be the most efficient possible in the roles intended, as I wanted to be a tank one day, and a damage dealer the other, just by changing my gear and Skill bars (Wykkyd's Outfitter changed my life here)
My statistic distribution is : 10 magicka, 42 health, 10 stamina
First build (Damage dealer) : The Stormbound Ranger
This one is built around Stamina and Medium armor, wearing 6 pieces of medium and one piece of Light armor, it is also thought to be used in synergy with the Valkyn Skoria armor set. All armor pieces are enchanted with Stamina glyphs
Primary Skills : Bow
Snipe (Lethal Arrow) : This is your anytime skill, the one you will use to fill the blank in your rotation, the DoT applied will reduce the healing done on the target, a great help in many situations.
Volley (Scorched Earth) : Another DoT, this one is used once every 9 seconds to maximize the amount of damages done, Cleansed by fire !
Arrow Spray (Acid Spray) : And... Another DoT, the snare applied will help your group by slowing the baddies
Poison Arrow (Venom Arrow) : DoT's never get old, moar poison is moar fun, even more if you can throw off balance a casting target from afar and take advantage of your bow's passives "Hawk Eye"
Surge (Critical Surge) : You are wearing medium armor, medium armor usually have the highest critical rate, take advantage of this, use critical surge and you will never need a healer again.
ULTIMATE : Dawnbreaker (Flawless Dawnbreaker) : Slotted in your bow bar will allow you to have a nice 13% more damages on all your skills.
VARIATIONS :
Replace Acid Spray with Expert Hunter (Evil Hunter) : Daedras, Undeads, Werewolves will tremble in fear and your stamina will never go down !
Secondary Skills : Two Handed
Cleave (Carve) : I usually use this one in synergy with Scorched earth from the Bow bar, the ultimate gain is wonderful.
Reverse Slash (Executionner) : This is your finisher, allow all your skills in this bar to do 18% more damages to targets below 25% health, the rotation Heavy attack => Executionner work pretty well thanks to Follow-Up passive, but the closer to 0% your target is, the rotation will change to Light attack => Executionner.
Lightning Form (Thundering Presence) : Of course, when you go melee, you expose yourself to numerous dangers, this skill will overcharge your armor and spell resistance for 9seconds, while adding a nice AOE, taking advantage of Disintegrate passive from the sorcerer.
Surge (Critical Surge) : See above
Critical Charge (Stampede) : It is my gap closer, will allow you to forgo anything between you and your target, while it deal less damages than Critical Rush, I like the root effect a lot.
ULTIMATE : Storm Atronach (Greater Storm Atronach) : This big fella is a monster at killing one target, usually dropping it during the final phase of a fight, its increased duration (25seconds) and the use of Carve, might allow you to summon and sustain a few of them at the same time in some encounters
ALTERNATE ULTIMATE : Negate Magic (Suppression Field) : Simply because this ultimate is oftenly required on many encounters
NB : I do not use this build for PvP, since Impenetrable trait litterally render Critical Surge useless, it is mainly a build intended to play as a stamina damage dealer in PVE
Second Build (Tank) : Thunderous Warden
I built this one with 5 Heavy armor pieces, 1 light and 1 medium, Chest, helmet, and legs are enchanted with Magicka, while the 4 others have health, this build heavily rely on Magicka, while I still have enough stamina thanks to the 10pts in my stats, and the Consummate Sweetroll
Primary Skills : One handed & Shield
Defensive Posture (Defensive Stance) : It add 8% to shield mitigation and 8% more reduction of blocking stamina cost, while also allowing you to repel one projectile and stun the caster - a must have
Evasion (Shuffle) : I'm using this one in synergy with the Hist Bark set, giving me a whopping 33% of evasion chance, while also purging a snare - a mobile tank is an alive tank !
Entropy (Structured Entropy) : It's always nice to have a little more Health when you take the hits, Structured Entropy will add 8% more health to your pool while also being a small DoT & HoT !
Lightning Form (Thundering Presence) : This skill should allow you to reach the must needed 3000 in armor and spell resistance as tank, while also producing a small dps. Disintegrate passive is for the kiss-cool effect.
Inner Fire (Inner Beast) : Undaunted taunt, since ESO require a lot of taunt usage I wanted to save my stamina for blocking/interupt/rolldodge/buffs, the reason why i'm using this one over Puncture (Pierce Armor)
ULTIMATE : Bat Swarm (Devouring Swarm) : As a sorcerer, this ultimate is cheap and easy to charge even as a tank, as being a great life saver.
VARIATION :
Replace Defensive Posture (Defensive Stance) by Lightning Splash (Lightning Flood) can help you to keep most monsters in a pack on you while doing dungeons as it will help with ultimate generation
OR
Replace Defensive Posture (Defensive Stance) by Annulment (Dampen Magic) because sometime, you simply can't reflect projectiles, so you may want to absorb them.
PVP Variation for One Handed & Shield
Shield Charge (Shielded Assault) : Gap closer
Puncture (Pierce Armor) : Armor & Spell Resist debuff
Encase (Restraining Prison) : Conic Root+Snare
Lightning Form (Thundering Presence) : heavy Armor & Spell resist buff
Entropy (Structured Entropy) : MOAR HPS
Secondary Skills : Restoration Staff
Grand Healing (Healing Springs) : Because sometime, being able to heal can save the day, healing springs allow your heavy armor tank to be competitive and cast enough spells for your main healer to get ressurected, or at least give him enough time to regenerate some magicka !
Regeneration (Rapid Regeneration) : A nice HoT, easy and quick to cast, a life saver !
Steadfast Ward (Healing Ward) : Another life saver, if you manage to evade all the incoming damages for 6seconds, it might heal you or one of your ally full !
Lightning Form (Thundering Presence) : Because even if you heal, you still tank and need to mitigate the incoming damages.
Dark Exchange (Dark Conversion) : Pretty useful, refill your magicka and heal a great deal at the cost of some of your stamina, will refill you for another round of healing, and might save you in some situations. (Or kill you if you are not careful with your remaining stamina... Well, that's a dark exchange for you !)
ULTIMATE : Negate Magic (Suppression Field) : I rarely use it as tank, but it might be needed in some encounter so I keep it warm and ready all the time, considering I had not blown the vampire
ultimate to save my own life !
I have played these builds in most PVE content, while I still havn't completed Veteran DSA, I reached the ninth arena as tank, and the final boss as damage dealer, these builds are perfectly viables, and while the sorcerer isn't a dragonknight, it is still quite a tough tank. I have done Veteran City of Ash numerous times and being a vampire doesn't bother me at all - I'm using two rings with 1550 of fire resist when I know I might be cleansed by fire ! -
Thanks for reading me, I hope these builds will help to broaden the standpoint on the versatility of the Sorcerer !
While I wanted to do something completly different, I still wanted my sorcerer to be the most efficient possible in the roles intended, as I wanted to be a tank one day, and a damage dealer the other, just by changing my gear and Skill bars (Wykkyd's Outfitter changed my life here)
My statistic distribution is : 10 magicka, 42 health, 10 stamina
First build (Damage dealer) : The Stormbound Ranger
This one is built around Stamina and Medium armor, wearing 6 pieces of medium and one piece of Light armor, it is also thought to be used in synergy with the Valkyn Skoria armor set. All armor pieces are enchanted with Stamina glyphs
Primary Skills : Bow
Snipe (Lethal Arrow) : This is your anytime skill, the one you will use to fill the blank in your rotation, the DoT applied will reduce the healing done on the target, a great help in many situations.
Volley (Scorched Earth) : Another DoT, this one is used once every 9 seconds to maximize the amount of damages done, Cleansed by fire !
Arrow Spray (Acid Spray) : And... Another DoT, the snare applied will help your group by slowing the baddies
Poison Arrow (Venom Arrow) : DoT's never get old, moar poison is moar fun, even more if you can throw off balance a casting target from afar and take advantage of your bow's passives "Hawk Eye"
Surge (Critical Surge) : You are wearing medium armor, medium armor usually have the highest critical rate, take advantage of this, use critical surge and you will never need a healer again.
ULTIMATE : Dawnbreaker (Flawless Dawnbreaker) : Slotted in your bow bar will allow you to have a nice 13% more damages on all your skills.
VARIATIONS :
Replace Acid Spray with Expert Hunter (Evil Hunter) : Daedras, Undeads, Werewolves will tremble in fear and your stamina will never go down !
Secondary Skills : Two Handed
Cleave (Carve) : I usually use this one in synergy with Scorched earth from the Bow bar, the ultimate gain is wonderful.
Reverse Slash (Executionner) : This is your finisher, allow all your skills in this bar to do 18% more damages to targets below 25% health, the rotation Heavy attack => Executionner work pretty well thanks to Follow-Up passive, but the closer to 0% your target is, the rotation will change to Light attack => Executionner.
Lightning Form (Thundering Presence) : Of course, when you go melee, you expose yourself to numerous dangers, this skill will overcharge your armor and spell resistance for 9seconds, while adding a nice AOE, taking advantage of Disintegrate passive from the sorcerer.
Surge (Critical Surge) : See above
Critical Charge (Stampede) : It is my gap closer, will allow you to forgo anything between you and your target, while it deal less damages than Critical Rush, I like the root effect a lot.
ULTIMATE : Storm Atronach (Greater Storm Atronach) : This big fella is a monster at killing one target, usually dropping it during the final phase of a fight, its increased duration (25seconds) and the use of Carve, might allow you to summon and sustain a few of them at the same time in some encounters
ALTERNATE ULTIMATE : Negate Magic (Suppression Field) : Simply because this ultimate is oftenly required on many encounters
NB : I do not use this build for PvP, since Impenetrable trait litterally render Critical Surge useless, it is mainly a build intended to play as a stamina damage dealer in PVE
Second Build (Tank) : Thunderous Warden
I built this one with 5 Heavy armor pieces, 1 light and 1 medium, Chest, helmet, and legs are enchanted with Magicka, while the 4 others have health, this build heavily rely on Magicka, while I still have enough stamina thanks to the 10pts in my stats, and the Consummate Sweetroll
Primary Skills : One handed & Shield
Defensive Posture (Defensive Stance) : It add 8% to shield mitigation and 8% more reduction of blocking stamina cost, while also allowing you to repel one projectile and stun the caster - a must have
Evasion (Shuffle) : I'm using this one in synergy with the Hist Bark set, giving me a whopping 33% of evasion chance, while also purging a snare - a mobile tank is an alive tank !
Entropy (Structured Entropy) : It's always nice to have a little more Health when you take the hits, Structured Entropy will add 8% more health to your pool while also being a small DoT & HoT !
Lightning Form (Thundering Presence) : This skill should allow you to reach the must needed 3000 in armor and spell resistance as tank, while also producing a small dps. Disintegrate passive is for the kiss-cool effect.
Inner Fire (Inner Beast) : Undaunted taunt, since ESO require a lot of taunt usage I wanted to save my stamina for blocking/interupt/rolldodge/buffs, the reason why i'm using this one over Puncture (Pierce Armor)
ULTIMATE : Bat Swarm (Devouring Swarm) : As a sorcerer, this ultimate is cheap and easy to charge even as a tank, as being a great life saver.
VARIATION :
Replace Defensive Posture (Defensive Stance) by Lightning Splash (Lightning Flood) can help you to keep most monsters in a pack on you while doing dungeons as it will help with ultimate generation
OR
Replace Defensive Posture (Defensive Stance) by Annulment (Dampen Magic) because sometime, you simply can't reflect projectiles, so you may want to absorb them.
PVP Variation for One Handed & Shield
Shield Charge (Shielded Assault) : Gap closer
Puncture (Pierce Armor) : Armor & Spell Resist debuff
Encase (Restraining Prison) : Conic Root+Snare
Lightning Form (Thundering Presence) : heavy Armor & Spell resist buff
Entropy (Structured Entropy) : MOAR HPS
Secondary Skills : Restoration Staff
Grand Healing (Healing Springs) : Because sometime, being able to heal can save the day, healing springs allow your heavy armor tank to be competitive and cast enough spells for your main healer to get ressurected, or at least give him enough time to regenerate some magicka !
Regeneration (Rapid Regeneration) : A nice HoT, easy and quick to cast, a life saver !
Steadfast Ward (Healing Ward) : Another life saver, if you manage to evade all the incoming damages for 6seconds, it might heal you or one of your ally full !
Lightning Form (Thundering Presence) : Because even if you heal, you still tank and need to mitigate the incoming damages.
Dark Exchange (Dark Conversion) : Pretty useful, refill your magicka and heal a great deal at the cost of some of your stamina, will refill you for another round of healing, and might save you in some situations. (Or kill you if you are not careful with your remaining stamina... Well, that's a dark exchange for you !)
ULTIMATE : Negate Magic (Suppression Field) : I rarely use it as tank, but it might be needed in some encounter so I keep it warm and ready all the time, considering I had not blown the vampire
ultimate to save my own life !
I have played these builds in most PVE content, while I still havn't completed Veteran DSA, I reached the ninth arena as tank, and the final boss as damage dealer, these builds are perfectly viables, and while the sorcerer isn't a dragonknight, it is still quite a tough tank. I have done Veteran City of Ash numerous times and being a vampire doesn't bother me at all - I'm using two rings with 1550 of fire resist when I know I might be cleansed by fire ! -
Thanks for reading me, I hope these builds will help to broaden the standpoint on the versatility of the Sorcerer !
0
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Robbmrp✭✭✭✭✭
✭Have you tried these builds on the PTS yet with the Sorc changes made in 1.6?NA Server - Kildair0 -
not yet, one thing I can say for sure, Critical Surge might become kind of useless because of the diminishing return added on critical chances... It's my only gripe with the 1.6 actually... Must see if the champion trees allow to get reasonnable crit chances !
I'd love to test it and give feedback, just need to finish the PTS download and ask for a character copy ...
Edited by mielgatorwb17_ESO on 28 January 2015 21:070