Mag Sorc Sustain

Najjynn

Hi folks,
For those of you sorcs out there, how do you deal with sustain problems in PvE/PvP? I've got a v16 sorc with Julianos, Torugs, and Nerieneth that is moderately geared with a mix of epic/legendary v15/16 gear. Rings are willpower enchanted with spell power. I've been having a terrible time with running out of magicka during fights and in PvP. Does it get better with gear, is this normal, or does anyone have any comments? Thanks!

Birdovic

Solo you can Slot weakness to the Elements (destro). Each direct hit with Elemental Damage restores magicka.
In Group Dungeons usually the healer brings it along or Soul Siphon(Resto).

Edit: And dont Forget about overload, it restores magicka, too(hit weakness to the Elements, Go overload and spam Light Attacks)

Edit 2: Ignore everything I wrote, i didnt See "PvP"

Thelon

It looks like you're taking a standard PvE group based sorc setup into PvP. Instead of crafting a whole new set, there's a few quick fix alternatives you could consider:

Mundus - run Atronach in Cyrodiil to help with Magicka sustain (keep Thief for PvE)

Jewelry - grab a healthy Necklace and/or Ring of Willpower and enchant it with Magicka Recovery (healthy trait minimises cost)

I'd start with just the Mundus change and, if that's not enough sustain for your liking, try adding one piece of recovery jewelry at a time.

For PvE, you really should not be having Magicka sustain issues with that setup. Make sure you've got green CP in Magician (more in Arcanist for PvP) and have your Healer run Elemental Drain on bosses for you. This should alleviate sustain issues in PvE.

An alternative you could look at in PvE is running Energy Overload as opposed to Power Overload. While you will lose some DPS with Energy, it gives you an option to recover magicka while still dishing out good damage.

Waffennacht

*use resto heavy attack* maybe

Or give up a slot on ur O bar for dark exchange (your dps is so high that most battles will be over or they are so low it actually works...)

When I ran DW pure dps (curse, frag, tomb, wrath) all on one bar, there was no sustain, so I on my resto back up ran echange, it worked really well as I ran streak on that bar too

Just a few ideas.

Lexxypwns

I personally use atronach mundus + tri-pots + harness magika for sustain, occasionally using fully charged destro heavy attacks during my burst rotation (for example: curse, mage's wrath, get a frag proc, heavy destro, entropy, procc'ed frag).

Autolycus

In most fights sustain isn't a primary concern because of how short they tend to be. Use your main rotation until your Overload is 500% or higher. During this period you can burn through pretty much as much magicka as you want in order to crank out as much damage as possible. Once you're ready to turn on your overload, make sure to reapply buffs if need be (including ele drain and harness magicka, if you choose to use them) and then simply go to town until you run out of Overload. By the time you run out, you should be fine on magicka, and then it's just rinse & repeat.

Sometimes you're gonna run dry, and it happens to every class on every build at some point. Even with some vr15 gear you should be okay. Putting CP into reduced magicka cost and magicka recovery helps, if you haven't done so already. If your recovery is a serious problem, you may want to consider adopting magicka recovery as your mundus. Normally I would recommend putting spell damage on all 3 jewelry glyphs, but you do have the option of turning them into recovery or reduced cost if necessary.

Septimus_Magna

Cast Harness + Hardened, this will generate magicka when your shields get hit.

Lord_Wrath

If you have enough divine pieces you can hit the mundus stone for recovery. I run 3xwillpower (arcane, spell power) archmagex3 and kagrenacsx5 all divines, im used to my sustain with help of cp so i switched mundus to spell power,but i achieved at least 1700 recovery.

Also, your strategy will factor in, if you spam a lot of skills i would go with cost reduction in the cp tree more than recovery. I time my opponents with curse, det, streak, crystal procs and finish low health with mages wrath. Pop in staff attacks when the window is open.

Samphaa

Healer should run Soul siphon (resto staff skill line) for templars and nightblades, mystic orb/elemental drain for Sorcs and dks. Mystic orb is incredible in trash packs, can sit there with 800 regen, spam pulsar and my magicka doesn't drop.

Najjynn

Thanks folks, I appreciate all the comments. I think part of the problem is that because I play so late in the evenings, I routinely join pugs, where these types of skills are not often brought.