Theorycrafting a PVP sorcerer tank/distraction. Reactive and Pariah Sets

SmalltalkJava · January 2016

I was watching Dudamota’s @Escorpiao_Noturno video’s on tanking in pvp. It is very interesting to me the build that he did, even though it was for Stamina DK. While my sole vr16 toon is a sorcerer, I was looking through my inventory and I have a 5 piece Pariah and the vr15 Reactive set from IC. That in turn got me to thinking about combining them to make a Sorcerer PVP tank/harasser/distracter.

Have any of you tried out the Reactive and Pariah set combination? How about combined with being a vamp with the Undeath Passive? And with Radiant Magelight. I think I might try this out a bit and see what I can do with it. I may also see about swapping out Pariah, with Trinimacs for shield, or even Briarheart. But first I want to try Pariah build. I’ve never played a tankish build before.

Mages Guild - Radiant Magelight: Reduces damage from stealth attacks by 56%

Vampire Supernatural Recovery: when vampire skill is slotted – Increase magicka and Stamina regen by 10%

Vampire Undeath passive: Increases Damage Mitigation when player is below 50%. – Damage mitigation can be increased by up to 33%. Granted this would kick in when low life, like the pariah does also, but just at a different rate of kick in.

Pariah comes in armor and jewelry. So 3 jewelry and 2 armor for the build. (currently my jewerly are arcane, but more can be farmed)

Pariah Set:

2: 1064 health

3: 1935 Physical Resist

4: 1935 Spell Resist

5: 8514 Resists based on missing health, so at 75% health probably gives extra 2k resists, and at 50% around 4k resists

Reactive Set:

2: 967 Max Stamina

3: 129 Stamina Recovery

4: 1064 Max Health

5: while affected with stun, immobilize, Fear, Knockdown or disorient damage is reduced by 35%.

Optional:

Sword and Board: Song of Lamae:

2 Piece: 1935 Spell Resist

While this isn’t a damage meta build. I think it might have some promise. Heck it might even lend to a hybrid spec in the long term as a sorc can swap stam into magicka. Or vice versa depending on what morph is taken. I think it will be interesting to see what kind of hits I can take even without blocking. The problem I’m seeing is that Sorc’s don’t have any inherent healing abilities, like stam DK does.

-- written on mobile phone --

Cathexis · January 2016

I have run this combo it isn't aweful but for PvP in the long run sustain is better. The issue I have found with stam sorc tanking is two fold:

(1) Damage is low, you have to overinvest in defensive stats to compete directly in tanking

(2) No matter how tanky and you build, gap closer mini stun spammed by 5 people will eventually drown you on a sorc at close range - sorcs were inherently designed for mobility to make up for what they lack in direct combat endurance, so you are inherently less durable by nature - that is the factor you have to mitigate as a stam tanking sorc on top of your damage deficit.

Your build will be generally different from mine however in that you will be running vamp - I have found vamp to be flawed because you get severe fire damage weakness on top of poor health regen and vulnerability to fighters guild abilities. But I would still like to see how it turns out if you do try it.

Personally I recommend against it because the meta right now abuses gap closer stun which basically nullifies the point of being a close range tank in non 1v1 scenarios.