Help my Hybrid Battlemage

mcurley

Hello and thanks for stopping by. I am making this thread to get input on how to optimize my hybrid sorcerer as he continues to level up. He is currently level 45 and has dominated all of the solo and group content to this point but I know it's only going to get harder and I want to be ready.

Name: Yelruc
Race: Altmer
Class: Sorcerer
Alliance: DC

Stat points: Even spread

1h/s bar:
1: Shielded Assault
2: Pierce Armor
3: Crystal Frags (solo) / Boundless Storm (group)
4: Bound Armaments
5: Power Surge
Ult: Suppression Field

Restoration Staff bar:
1: Healing Ward
2: Endless Fury
3: Lightning Flood
4: Bound Armaments
5: Shattering Prison
Ult: Greater Storm Atronach

Gear:

M. Head: Magnus' / Infused / Stam
H. Shoulders: Magnus' / Reinforced / Health
H. Chest: Hundings / Reinforced / Health
H. Legs: Hundings / Reinforced / Health
L. Belt: Magnus' / Infused / Mag
L. Gloves: Magnus' / Infused / Mag
M. Boots: Hundings / Infused / Stam

Sword: Hundings / Sharpened / Decrease Health
Shield: Hundings / Reinforced / Stam

Staff: Magnus' / Sharpened / Absorb Stamina


I originally wanted to be a DWer but the restoration staff has proven to be invaluable for magicka sustain and healing. I would consider switching my weapons but you'll need to make a very good case for that to make me change my mind.
So far this build has kept me alive easily while dishing out good and consistent damage to both groups and solo targets and I would like to continue with this trend. I am not super rich in game so typically I stick with crafted blue gear and glyphs that I get made for a reasonable price.

Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks

Joy_Division

It's going to be hard using a hybrid build as you progress through veteran content because you are spreading you resources thin and effectively doing half the damage with every attack that someone who specializes.

With previous iteration of the game that had soft caps, the sort of hybrid builds you seek worked better

mcurley

Joy_Division wrote: »

It's going to be hard using a hybrid build as you progress through veteran content because you are spreading you resources thin and effectively doing half the damage with every attack that someone who specializes.

With previous iteration of the game that had soft caps, the sort of hybrid builds you seek worked better

Around what level would this type of build not work any longer for solo content and group content?

I'm taking it pretty slowly so I'd still like suggestions for improvements until that point. I'd like to get as far as possible with it.

TheSunAlsoRises

what is your goal for this character? do you intend to be simply soloing? because in group situations, you really are relegated to 1 role.

if you're dps, i would go destro staff in full cloth with relevant skills. tank->1h/shield, healer -> resto. also, it doesn't hurt to have a pet out. i would use flappy bird for the extra dps with magicka regen morph. if i log on to my sorc, i'll try to lookup what my current setups are like but i would strongly recommend getting a DPS addon to track your damage and play around with builds.

i have an imperial sorc tank who also does decent dps. however, i put all my points in HP to get the most out of imperial passive when tanking. mixing attributes evenly isn't so bad. but i would maybe pick two if you really want to. however, gear and food can always make up for what you are lacking.

Johngo0036

Hi,

My take on this is that you will progress well through the veteran content as well,

The issue is when and if you want to do trials, DSA etc,
should you want to do the above you may have to change you build,

Dailies will not be an issue, you will pass those with flying colours.

PVP you may run into issues with sustain,
but if you run with a group i dont think you will have any issues,

Always remember that you will only ever do half the damage that a full magicka or full stamina will do,
Meaning it will take you longer to kill your opponents.

Septimus_Magna

@mcurley I would recommend going 1HA/1MA/5LA for this if you have the Undaunted Mettle passive (6% attribute boost). As a sorc you dont really need much health (+-18k on VR14) because you have the best shield, Hardened Ward. Shields (like Hardened Ward, Harness Magicka and Healing Ward) become stronger if you increase your max magicka. Stamina is important for blocking but thats manageable if you're a werewolf (15% stam regen), use 1 Blood Spawn (stam regen) piece and/or 2 Dominion (stam regen) pieces.

My advice for gear would be: 1x Blood Spawn (MA shoulders), 3x Dominion (sword, shield, necklace), 4x Healers (rings, rest light armor) 4x Magnus (resto staff, heavy chest, rest light armor) with the Atronach (magicka regen) mundus stone. This will make your magicka sustain pretty easy and you'll have enough stam regen to block for a while.

Also try to use Entropy instead of Power Surge, this is a lot cheaper to cast and it helps to proc Cfrags. Personally I like spamming Mages Fury + Entropy to proc Cfrags and nuke them.
My S&B bar would be: Hardened Ward, Endless Fury, Cfrags, Entropy, Streak - Greater Storm Atronach
My resto bar would be: Harness Magikca, Healing Ward, Curse, Proximity Detonation/Boundless Storm, Rapid Regen - Overload*/Shooting Star
*Overload bar: Hardened Ward, Volcanic Rune, Mines, Entropy, Streak.

I actually use a S&B/resto setup for small scale pvp and its pretty tanky against magicka dmg with 25k shields and 28k spell resist. The burst damage is ok with Proximity Detonation + Curse + Mages Fury + Cfrags but is hard to defeat tanky enemies without using an Ultimate.

mcurley

@TheSunAlsoRises Yelruc is more for fun whereas my main is a dedicated dps magicka NB. I really want to just get as far as I possibly can through the solo and the group pve content.

In groups typically I play the role of tank but I also drop some decent AoE damage and CC well via Lightning Flood and Shattering Prison while keeping the tougher opponents debuffed and attacking me with Pierce Armor. My mitigation is pretty nice since I always have both Major and Minor Resolve/Ward up. I'll look into that DPS tracker though, can you recommend a good one?

@Septimus_Magna Thank you for your advice. Although I think most of it would pull him a little too far away from the battlemage hybrid that I've come to love. I definitely need to get a WW bite though, I didn't even think about that and I have been relying on just heavy attacks to get me some stamina back. Usually if I run out of stamina I switch my focus to my magicka spells and just Pierce Armor every 8 seconds (or however long that debuff lasts). I have a lower level mage sorc who will be taking advantage of the class wards and maybe even the summoned minions but for Yelruc that doesn't really fit his style.

So judging from the responses I clearly will not be a competitive trial runner, nor will I dominate v14 PVP, but hopefully @Johngo0036 is right and I will be able to progress through veteran content and dailies without slamming my head against the wall over and over again.

Jahosefat

mcurley wrote: »

So judging from the responses I clearly will not be a competitive trial runner, nor will I dominate v14 PVP, but hopefully @Johngo0036 is right and I will be able to progress through veteran content and dailies without slamming my head against the wall over and over again.

What will limit your DPS with a hybrid build (of most concern in trials) is that the damage of your abilities is partially calculated off your stam/mag pool (mag stuff like crystal frags scales of mag and stam stuff like pierce armor scalle of stam). So the direction most people take is to stack one so you have a larger resource pool and harder hitting spells/abilities from that pool.

I rolled around with a hybridish build in PVP post-1.6 for a while; it was fine and totally doable you just have less longevity/damage than if you choose one resource or another as your focus. By focusing on one you can basically make it an "infinite" pool so you only have to worry about managing the other resource. What really limits this is the ability to have a good resource buffer but also have high enough regen to where it never really runs out. ~1500 regen in either stat is around the critical point where you will no longer run out of that resource with a good enough buffer.

However, games are about enjoyment for most and not an ultimate min/max challenge You should be fine progressing through vet ranks. The content doesn't get that much harder and you can almost always get out of combat to get resources back and such. If you ever do start hitting a wall, just swing a little one way or the other (mag or stam) and you should be fine.

One suggestion I might offer if you swing towards the mag side of life: may sound wacky but you could try switching out your 1h/s for a destro staff. I would maybe try fire - could replace pierce armor with crushing shock (the lightning damage gives a 10% damage dealing debuff and frost applies a snare) and destructive touch with fire staff has a knockback. So you can knock people off you, stick them in place with shattering prison, drop a lightning splash on their head, then pound them down from range with crushing shock and staff light/heavy attacks. More "kitey" than how you probably currently play, but sorcs are weaker (in comparison to other classes) when it comes to tanking and that shows up more as you get to harder and harder content, so you eventually might want to start keeping range more to avoid damage.

Edit: And if you find you are having trouble managing magicka with your current build, you could try switching out your magnus set for seducer (the regen really helps) or using the atronarch mundus (big mag regen bonus).

mcurley

Thanks for the insight, I'll definitely put it to use on my main when he finally levels out of Blackwater Blade. I rolled this guy because I wanted to keep doing PVE content but I really want my magicka NB to stay in BwB as long as possible.

I used to have the time and the energy to min/max all of my heros in whatever game I was playing but that is no longer the case. So for now I'll min/max my main and keep rolling fun alts or maybe alts specifically made for BwB pvp.

Septimus_Magna

@mcurley The Blessing of the Potentates Set also gives stamina regen (and reduced ultimate cost) so that might be useful for your build. You can also try return stamina enchants on your weapons.