UPDATED- Makkir- Magicka Sorcerer Dark Brotherhood - The Seductress

Makkir · June 2016

LordSidious wrote: »

Nice gameplay, man. Could you please post the bar setup for the first build (Seductress)? I have a tough time telling what skill each icon is. I've been looking for a post-patch magicka sorc build and may have found it here!

D- Crushing Shock, Crystal Frags, Vel. Curse, Structured Entropy, Elemental Drain, Meteor
R- Hardened Ward, Defensive Rune, Ball of Lightning, Deadric Mines, Healing Ward, Greater Storm Atronach

Make sure you pick terrain that will work to your advantage, and make sure you are constantly moving and making use of Line of Sight. This build is pretty squishy if you are not quick and making use of terrain.

Minalan · June 2016

Makkir wrote: »

Minalan wrote: »

Question @Makkir

Do you think you would do any better with impen on the small pieces (X4) instead of divines?

It looks like a few times you ate a crit on health.

I'm curious if it's worth it, because the 8%? divines bonus on the Atronach mundus can't be that great.

OK this is what's up. I already had the gear crafted and I wasn't going to drop another 150k on waxes.

In a perfect world, I would have defensive rune up any time I don't have a shield up so it wouldn't make sense to run impen on the gear. When I have a shield up, I gain NOTHING from impen on gear whereas I am gaining magicka regen 100% of the time with divines. Playing against better quality players just means I need to keep my shield up longer. You can notice in that video there's a good chunk of time where I don't even refresh my shields and that's just from my getting comfortable with my opponent and confidence they couldn't crit me that much. That one scene where I am getting jumped by 7 AD, OK yeah I almost died....but they were terrible.

Also, I use a Naga Hex, 6 button mouse.

Except mine is orange. The button on the far bottom (#5 in the picture) is my weapon swap. This mouse has made the world of difference. It seems like this mouse was designed for ESO (5 abilities and 1 weapon swap all on my mouse). It makes me super quick and efficient.

Exact same mouse I use, except swap is the middle button, not the thumb hex button thing. I can't get used to using those at all.

Hawke · June 2016

What happened to the DW?

Lord_Hev · June 2016

Ball of Lightning, I used to be a real abuser of it when it was over-the-top in 1.6, lol. #NoShame

Imma give defensive rune a go. Last time I used it when it was first introduced, I didn't like it because it would attempt to CC enemies that had CC immunity, thus wasting the effect. Hard to tell from the video, but does this issue still exist? Or does the CC actually store until it successfully CC's someone?

And yes, I thoroughly enjoyed DW sorc. I regret scoffing at it when it first became a thing in 1.6. It was always sub-par against another destro staff sorc, but overall DW offers such amazing burst potential.

Hawke · June 2016

Well, I am returning, and the builds do look interesting, but do sorcs really have to use staves to be competitive now?

Minalan · June 2016

Hawke wrote: »

Well, I am returning, and the builds do look interesting, but do sorcs really have to use staves to be competitive now?

You don't get a competitive spammable DPS ability without staves. Without force pulse, people out heal your damage.

Makkir · June 2016

Lord_Hev wrote: »

Imma give defensive rune a go. Last time I used it when it was first introduced, I didn't like it because it would attempt to CC enemies that had CC immunity, thus wasting the effect. Hard to tell from the video, but does this issue still exist? Or does the CC actually store until it successfully CC's someone?
.

@Lord_Hev
Yes it does, but you wouldn't really be re-applying it anyway once your are focusing your target (unless you wanted the minor prophecy buff). The only time I re-apply it is when there are more than 1 opponent and I need some breathing room.

I know you loved using Rune Cage + Soul Assault LMAO, but you're going to have to ditch the cage and grab defensive this time round.

Makkir · June 2016

Hawke wrote: »

Well, I am returning, and the builds do look interesting, but do sorcs really have to use staves to be competitive now?

If you need time to adjust to the new changes, I would suggest putting hardened ward on your destro bar, and moving entropy to the back bar. It takes a bit getting used to the 6 second shield changes, but when you get your speed down and get confident with the build you can change it back.

Minalan · June 2016

Makkir wrote: »

Hawke wrote: »

Well, I am returning, and the builds do look interesting, but do sorcs really have to use staves to be competitive now?

If you need time to adjust to the new changes, I would suggest putting hardened ward on your destro bar, and moving entropy to the back bar. It takes a bit getting used to the 6 second shield changes, but when you get your speed down and get confident with the build you can change it back.

If you back bar entropy you might as well use power surge.

I keep shields front barred so that I can weave it (animation cancelled) into some semblance of a rotation. I'm getting used to keeping entropy there too, I used to run surge. But I'm liking the empowered frags from entropy, and the higher Magicka.

I'm gathering the mats for this build, I hope it works out. It's sort of a last ditch effort for me.

bardx86 · June 2016

Makkir wrote: »

tist wrote: »

Nice one. I like the idea of drain but the icd and single target nature of the spell makes me second guess how useful it would be. Have you tried running magelight instead?

outside of small scale as I mentioned above, drain is not useful. Ran magelight on my lich build but not this one. If I were to replace Drain with anything, id pick up mages wrath. In fact, my next 1vX video will be just that.

@holosoul It'd be a lot more viable if people were actually playing their sorcs instead of hiding behind their stamina rerolls
Its not a bad morph, I absolutely hate getting fragged from behind (thats what she said) when Im trying to bolt away. It also has a stun at point of origin so it gives you some use when another class is gapclosing in on you

After trying parts of your build last night, i was thinking of replacing drain with wrath. I'm not sure how much I'm really getting from drain almost a wasted round of damage for a debuff.

Hawke · June 2016

@Makkir I am sad that I have to go back to using staves again... but if that is what is required to be competitive.. so be it. I'll give your build a go to get back into the mix.

Thanks.

Hawke · June 2016

@Makkir Talking about your notes. Why would heavy armor be more ideal than cloth, when cloth gives the most magicka benefit? Is it just for the armor rating?

Why use fire destro? Elec would proc disintegrate no?

Thanks again.

Edit- What is the UI you are using for the fragment proc notification? Sooo much out there now.

Makkir · June 2016

Hawke wrote: »

@Makkir Talking about your notes. Why would heavy armor be more ideal than cloth, when cloth gives the most magicka benefit? Is it just for the armor rating?

Why use fire destro? Elec would proc disintegrate no?

Thanks again.

Edit- What is the UI you are using for the fragment proc notification? Sooo much out there now.

I will double check but I think the only addon I have enabled is FTC. Your hands glow purple when Frag procs, but the text indication is probably something I set up with FTC. I am getting old and my memory slips, I fiddled with FTC options many months ago.

1) So about that destro staff. YES running the lightning staff gives you additional proc chances for disintegrate HOWEVER consider the following
- Your weaving, if you weave, is gone because the heavy/medium attacks are a channel. Since there is a lot of Malubeth cheese going on right now, I prefer the weave capabilities of the fire staff so I can time some nice burst. My rotation is usually LA>Entropy>Curse>LA>CS(until frags procs). When Frags proc, the roation is Curse>Entropy>Frags>Med Atk or Hvy Atk>Wrath
- Fire Staff atks can proc a fire dot
- Everyone and his mother is running as a stage 4 vampire right now (Hell, I forgot to mention that I am a vampire in the original video) so that equates to a 25% dmg bonus for fire staves. I have not noticed myself taking much more damage because most people in Cyrodiil are running stamina builds (which is why they are all vampires), and I really don't come across too many other sorcs now. I look at that as me having an upper hand. Most PvP guilds are requiring their people to be a stage 4 vampire.

2) Your question about heavy armor. That choice has more to do with the sustain perks from the Constitution heavy armor passive (and yeah you get more mitigation with heavy). Yes, Black Rose set greatly enhances that passive but I just love the synergy between dampen magic and the armor master set. Since you lose a chunk of penetration from light armor passives you would have to run Elemental Drain IMO on your destro bar.

@bardx86 I am currently running wrath in place of drain. Drain is great though when you stack penetration like I have. It works great in 1v1 or 1v2 situations. If you plan to play in groups though, yeah the ability slot is better used for something else. Since my penetration is so high right now, I am running 1vX with wrath just to get quicker kills when in execute range.

Hawke · June 2016

Ok, so you take Annulment from the light armor , but wear heavy armor for the passives. I can craft that up.

Thanks for the insight.

@Makkir Wait,,, where do you stick the annulment at? Your bars are full up.

Minalan · June 2016

Makkir wrote: »

Hawke wrote: »

@Makkir Talking about your notes. Why would heavy armor be more ideal than cloth, when cloth gives the most magicka benefit? Is it just for the armor rating?

Why use fire destro? Elec would proc disintegrate no?

Thanks again.

Edit- What is the UI you are using for the fragment proc notification? Sooo much out there now.

I will double check but I think the only addon I have enabled is FTC. Your hands glow purple when Frag procs, but the text indication is probably something I set up with FTC. I am getting old and my memory slips, I fiddled with FTC options many months ago.

1) So about that destro staff. YES running the lightning staff gives you additional proc chances for disintegrate HOWEVER consider the following
- Your weaving, if you weave, is gone because the heavy/medium attacks are a channel. Since there is a lot of Malubeth cheese going on right now, I prefer the weave capabilities of the fire staff so I can time some nice burst. My rotation is usually LA>Entropy>Curse>LA>CS(until frags procs). When Frags proc, the roation is Curse>Entropy>Frags>Med Atk or Hvy Atk>Wrath
- Fire Staff atks can proc a fire dot
- Everyone and his mother is running as a stage 4 vampire right now (Hell, I forgot to mention that I am a vampire in the original video) so that equates to a 25% dmg bonus for fire staves. I have not noticed myself taking much more damage because most people in Cyrodiil are running stamina builds (which is why they are all vampires), and I really don't come across too many other sorcs now. I look at that as me having an upper hand. Most PvP guilds are requiring their people to be a stage 4 vampire.

2) Your question about heavy armor. That choice has more to do with the sustain perks from the Constitution heavy armor passive (and yeah you get more mitigation with heavy). Yes, Black Rose set greatly enhances that passive but I just love the synergy between dampen magic and the armor master set. Since you lose a chunk of penetration from light armor passives you would have to run Elemental Drain IMO on your destro bar.

@bardx86 I am currently running wrath in place of drain. Drain is great though when you stack penetration like I have. It works great in 1v1 or 1v2 situations. If you plan to play in groups though, yeah the ability slot is better used for something else. Since my penetration is so high right now, I am running 1vX with wrath just to get quicker kills when in execute range.

I'm with you on wrath, I made the same replacement.

I'm also changing staves to fire. Just about everyone is a vampire, but if they feed they don't really take any penalties from doing so.

I refuse to go vampire just to make a sorc work however. How does this build work if you cure it.

LordSidious · June 2016

Makkir wrote: »

D- Crushing Shock, Crystal Frags, Vel. Curse, Structured Entropy, Elemental Drain, Meteor
R- Hardened Ward, Defensive Rune, Ball of Lightning, Deadric Mines, Healing Ward, Greater Storm Atronach

Make sure you pick terrain that will work to your advantage, and make sure you are constantly moving and making use of Line of Sight. This build is pretty squishy if you are not quick and making use of terrain.

Thanks, I appreciate it. It's similar to my current build but with a few tweaks. It's not helping that I'm using CP10 armor on a CP150 character, but I'm not wasting material until I hit 160 haha.

Makkir · June 2016

Hawke wrote: »

Ok, so you take Annulment from the light armor , but wear heavy armor for the passives. I can craft that up.

Thanks for the insight.

@Makkir Wait,,, where do you stick the annulment at? Your bars are full up.

Look at the OP, there are two builds posted. Thr heavy armor master is build 2. Annulement is the only shield run on that set up.

@Minalan no one is going to feed on their vampire. The passives that make vampire shine are on stages 3 and 4. Theyre so great no one gives a damn about the 25% fire dmg increase.

Cinnamon_Spider · June 2016

Defensive Rune is amazing. I love trolling gankers with it.

I had to spec out of BoL though because it seems to have been over nerfed (like everything else) and too many things were getting through and hitting me.

Minalan · June 2016

Makkir wrote: »

Hawke wrote: »

Ok, so you take Annulment from the light armor , but wear heavy armor for the passives. I can craft that up.

Thanks for the insight.

@Makkir Wait,,, where do you stick the annulment at? Your bars are full up.

Look at the OP, there are two builds posted. Thr heavy armor master is build 2. Annulement is the only shield run on that set up.

@Minalan no one is going to feed on their vampire. The passives that make vampire shine are on stages 3 and 4. Theyre so great no one gives a damn about the 25% fire dmg increase.

Call me convinced. Sharpened fire staff of Magnus with a spell damage enchant it is!

I've almost all of the money I need for this. Heavy farming of mats. I sold six pieces of vicious death. About a dozen nirncrux. I'm going with seducer.

Things you've taught me:

1. Let go of the overload. Just let it go. I used the extra bar like a crutch and would always hoard ultimate to use that when it hit 1000%

2. If you're dying with ultimate, you are playing wrong. Drop the nuke. Use that atronach if you're outnumbered. Use ice comet for the extra Magicka, push to 40.5K. Ultimates win fights.

3. I tried so hard to work with entropy. I really did. I can't do it.

My front bar is:
Force pulse
Frags
Curse
Hardened ward
Streak

I just can't take shield or streak off of there. Streak is a skill I use all the time, as a weapon and for positioning. Hardened ward I can't keep up during a fight on the back bar. Somewhere between the stun break at six seconds and 'oh ***!' lag. That half second bar swap and lag spike kills me.

Moving anything else is a huge DPS loss.

My back bar is:
Mage wrath/radiant Mage light
Mines
Defensive rune
Healing ward
Power surge

Surge works for me because I can stealth up to a castle, buff it (hit it a few times). Procced frag -> curse -> meteor -> mages wrath. They almost never survive, even if you substitute a force pulse or two while they're on their back. Surge is better for stealthy playstyle and ganking.

Plus, it's 30 seconds instead of 20, so. If I want the empower buff, I'll back bar radiant Mage light over wrath.

bardx86 · June 2016

Minalan wrote: »

Makkir wrote: »

Hawke wrote: »

Ok, so you take Annulment from the light armor , but wear heavy armor for the passives. I can craft that up.

Thanks for the insight.

@Makkir Wait,,, where do you stick the annulment at? Your bars are full up.

Look at the OP, there are two builds posted. Thr heavy armor master is build 2. Annulement is the only shield run on that set up.

@Minalan no one is going to feed on their vampire. The passives that make vampire shine are on stages 3 and 4. Theyre so great no one gives a damn about the 25% fire dmg increase.

Call me convinced. Sharpened fire staff of Magnus with a spell damage enchant it is!

I've almost all of the money I need for this. Heavy farming of mats. I sold six pieces of vicious death. About a dozen nirncrux. I'm going with seducer.

Things you've taught me:

1. Let go of the overload. Just let it go. I used the extra bar like a crutch and would always hoard ultimate to use that when it hit 1000%

2. If you're dying with ultimate, you are playing wrong. Drop the nuke. Use that atronach if you're outnumbered. Use ice comet for the extra Magicka, push to 40.5K. Ultimates win fights.

3. I tried so hard to work with entropy. I really did. I can't do it.

My front bar is:
Force pulse
Frags
Curse
Hardened ward
Streak

I just can't take shield or streak off of there. Streak is a skill I use all the time, as a weapon and for positioning. Hardened ward I can't keep up during a fight on the back bar. Somewhere between the stun break at six seconds and 'oh ***!' lag. That half second bar swap and lag spike kills me.

Moving anything else is a huge DPS loss.

My back bar is:
Mage wrath/radiant Mage light
Mines
Defensive rune
Healing ward
Power surge

Surge works for me because I can stealth up to a castle, buff it (hit it a few times). Procced frag -> curse -> meteor -> mages wrath. They almost never survive, even if you substitute a force pulse or two while they're on their back. Surge is better for stealthy playstyle and ganking.

Plus, it's 30 seconds instead of 20, so. If I want the empower buff, I'll back bar radiant Mage light over wrath.

I think it speaks volumes that a single bar swap will get you killed so fast as a sorc.

Derra · June 2016

If you can afford it and have access to a maelstrom staff my go to sorc setup is:

4 (5 on resto) Lich
3 Shadowdancer (or elegance/spc)
3 Willpower
1 Maelstrom destro

Alternatively one can use 3 Magnus to have access to 5:1:1 with undaunted. I personally prefer running 7 light this patch as it enables me to fit one more spelldmg glyph on jewelry.

888and888 · June 2016

Hawke wrote: »

@Makkir Talking about your notes. Why would heavy armor be more ideal than cloth, when cloth gives the most magicka benefit? Is it just for the armor rating?

Why use fire destro? Elec would proc disintegrate no?

Thanks again.

Edit- What is the UI you are using for the fragment proc notification? Sooo much out there now.

I'm following this interesting discussion though I'm not experienced enough to help with build, yet I think I can help with your question about tracking procs.

You can use whatever addon you want to track your buffs (FTC, AUI, Srendarr and so on) but use Srendarr and put your procs into the "Prominent Buffs" category, so you can have an icon showing up wherever you like when you get a fragment proc.

888and888 · June 2016

Makkir wrote: »

Hawke wrote: »

...

Look at the OP, there are two builds posted. Thr heavy armor master is build 2. Annulement is the only shield run on that set up.

...

@Makkir Just to be sure before to start the crafting process: Seductress is Light Armor only (maybe 5-1-1 if I want to use Undaunted Mettle) and 64 Magicka points, isn't it?
Thank you!

Minalan · June 2016

888and888 wrote: »

Makkir wrote: »

Hawke wrote: »

...

Look at the OP, there are two builds posted. Thr heavy armor master is build 2. Annulement is the only shield run on that set up.

...

@Makkir Just to be sure before to start the crafting process: Seductress is Light Armor only (maybe 5-1-1 if I want to use Undaunted Mettle) and 64 Magicka points, isn't it?
Thank you!

Correct. Infused on the big pieces and divines on the small.

Minalan · June 2016

bardx86 wrote: »

Minalan wrote: »

Makkir wrote: »

Hawke wrote: »

Ok, so you take Annulment from the light armor , but wear heavy armor for the passives. I can craft that up.

Thanks for the insight.

@Makkir Wait,,, where do you stick the annulment at? Your bars are full up.

Look at the OP, there are two builds posted. Thr heavy armor master is build 2. Annulement is the only shield run on that set up.

@Minalan no one is going to feed on their vampire. The passives that make vampire shine are on stages 3 and 4. Theyre so great no one gives a damn about the 25% fire dmg increase.

Call me convinced. Sharpened fire staff of Magnus with a spell damage enchant it is!

I've almost all of the money I need for this. Heavy farming of mats. I sold six pieces of vicious death. About a dozen nirncrux. I'm going with seducer.

Things you've taught me:

1. Let go of the overload. Just let it go. I used the extra bar like a crutch and would always hoard ultimate to use that when it hit 1000%

2. If you're dying with ultimate, you are playing wrong. Drop the nuke. Use that atronach if you're outnumbered. Use ice comet for the extra Magicka, push to 40.5K. Ultimates win fights.

3. I tried so hard to work with entropy. I really did. I can't do it.

My front bar is:
Force pulse
Frags
Curse
Hardened ward
Streak

I just can't take shield or streak off of there. Streak is a skill I use all the time, as a weapon and for positioning. Hardened ward I can't keep up during a fight on the back bar. Somewhere between the stun break at six seconds and 'oh ***!' lag. That half second bar swap and lag spike kills me.

Moving anything else is a huge DPS loss.

My back bar is:
Mage wrath/radiant Mage light
Mines
Defensive rune
Healing ward
Power surge

Surge works for me because I can stealth up to a castle, buff it (hit it a few times). Procced frag -> curse -> meteor -> mages wrath. They almost never survive, even if you substitute a force pulse or two while they're on their back. Surge is better for stealthy playstyle and ganking.

Plus, it's 30 seconds instead of 20, so. If I want the empower buff, I'll back bar radiant Mage light over wrath.

I think it speaks volumes that a single bar swap will get you killed so fast as a sorc.

I'm not going to sit here and deny that it's terrible. But that's the incompetent broken deck @Wrobel handed us

888and888 · June 2016

Minalan wrote: »

888and888 wrote: »

Makkir wrote: »

Hawke wrote: »

...

Look at the OP, there are two builds posted. Thr heavy armor master is build 2. Annulement is the only shield run on that set up.

...

@Makkir Just to be sure before to start the crafting process: Seductress is Light Armor only (maybe 5-1-1 if I want to use Undaunted Mettle) and 64 Magicka points, isn't it?
Thank you!

Correct. Infused on the big pieces and divines on the small.

Thank you so much for the quick answer!

Makkir · June 2016

Derra wrote: »

If you can afford it and have access to a maelstrom staff my go to sorc setup is:

4 (5 on resto) Lich
3 Shadowdancer (or elegance/spc)
3 Willpower
1 Maelstrom destro

Alternatively one can use 3 Magnus to have access to 5:1:1 with undaunted. I personally prefer running 7 light this patch as it enables me to fit one more spelldmg glyph on jewelry.

i thought you quit.
PS stop hijacking my thread or ill fragbad you in the face.

Also isn't the uptime on spell dmg enhants > the SD bonus on the maelstrom staff?

Makkir · June 2016

bardx86 wrote: »

Minalan wrote: »

Makkir wrote: »

Hawke wrote: »

Ok, so you take Annulment from the light armor , but wear heavy armor for the passives. I can craft that up.

Thanks for the insight.

@Makkir Wait,,, where do you stick the annulment at? Your bars are full up.

Look at the OP, there are two builds posted. Thr heavy armor master is build 2. Annulement is the only shield run on that set up.

@Minalan no one is going to feed on their vampire. The passives that make vampire shine are on stages 3 and 4. Theyre so great no one gives a damn about the 25% fire dmg increase.

Call me convinced. Sharpened fire staff of Magnus with a spell damage enchant it is!

I've almost all of the money I need for this. Heavy farming of mats. I sold six pieces of vicious death. About a dozen nirncrux. I'm going with seducer.

Things you've taught me:

1. Let go of the overload. Just let it go. I used the extra bar like a crutch and would always hoard ultimate to use that when it hit 1000%

2. If you're dying with ultimate, you are playing wrong. Drop the nuke. Use that atronach if you're outnumbered. Use ice comet for the extra Magicka, push to 40.5K. Ultimates win fights.

3. I tried so hard to work with entropy. I really did. I can't do it.

My front bar is:
Force pulse
Frags
Curse
Hardened ward
Streak

I just can't take shield or streak off of there. Streak is a skill I use all the time, as a weapon and for positioning. Hardened ward I can't keep up during a fight on the back bar. Somewhere between the stun break at six seconds and 'oh ***!' lag. That half second bar swap and lag spike kills me.

Moving anything else is a huge DPS loss.

My back bar is:
Mage wrath/radiant Mage light
Mines
Defensive rune
Healing ward
Power surge

Surge works for me because I can stealth up to a castle, buff it (hit it a few times). Procced frag -> curse -> meteor -> mages wrath. They almost never survive, even if you substitute a force pulse or two while they're on their back. Surge is better for stealthy playstyle and ganking.

Plus, it's 30 seconds instead of 20, so. If I want the empower buff, I'll back bar radiant Mage light over wrath.

I think it speaks volumes that a single bar swap will get you killed so fast as a sorc.

id have no beefs if bar swap were 100% reliable.

bardx86 · June 2016

I think it speaks volumes that a single bar swap will get you killed so fast as a sorc.
[/quote]

id have no beefs if bar swap were 100% reliable.[/quote]

True that.

Minalan · June 2016

Makkir wrote: »

bardx86 wrote: »

Minalan wrote: »

Makkir wrote: »

Hawke wrote: »

Ok, so you take Annulment from the light armor , but wear heavy armor for the passives. I can craft that up.

Thanks for the insight.

@Makkir Wait,,, where do you stick the annulment at? Your bars are full up.

Look at the OP, there are two builds posted. Thr heavy armor master is build 2. Annulement is the only shield run on that set up.

@Minalan no one is going to feed on their vampire. The passives that make vampire shine are on stages 3 and 4. Theyre so great no one gives a damn about the 25% fire dmg increase.

Call me convinced. Sharpened fire staff of Magnus with a spell damage enchant it is!

I've almost all of the money I need for this. Heavy farming of mats. I sold six pieces of vicious death. About a dozen nirncrux. I'm going with seducer.

Things you've taught me:

1. Let go of the overload. Just let it go. I used the extra bar like a crutch and would always hoard ultimate to use that when it hit 1000%

2. If you're dying with ultimate, you are playing wrong. Drop the nuke. Use that atronach if you're outnumbered. Use ice comet for the extra Magicka, push to 40.5K. Ultimates win fights.

3. I tried so hard to work with entropy. I really did. I can't do it.

My front bar is:
Force pulse
Frags
Curse
Hardened ward
Streak

I just can't take shield or streak off of there. Streak is a skill I use all the time, as a weapon and for positioning. Hardened ward I can't keep up during a fight on the back bar. Somewhere between the stun break at six seconds and 'oh ***!' lag. That half second bar swap and lag spike kills me.

Moving anything else is a huge DPS loss.

My back bar is:
Mage wrath/radiant Mage light
Mines
Defensive rune
Healing ward
Power surge

Surge works for me because I can stealth up to a castle, buff it (hit it a few times). Procced frag -> curse -> meteor -> mages wrath. They almost never survive, even if you substitute a force pulse or two while they're on their back. Surge is better for stealthy playstyle and ganking.

Plus, it's 30 seconds instead of 20, so. If I want the empower buff, I'll back bar radiant Mage light over wrath.

I think it speaks volumes that a single bar swap will get you killed so fast as a sorc.

id have no beefs if bar swap were 100% reliable.

It never is, which is why heals are there. I can afford a bar swap fail on a heal with shields up, or a defensive rune refresh with the same.

A few more hints:

Sometimes I'll swap in soul assault for atronach if my
Opponent is a block stacking dodge rolling defense ***. It can be interrupted, but how many people do that when it's easier to drool on their block button?

I ran into a guy in the sewers I could not DPS for the life of me. He knew it, which is why he was camping DC home base. Full health, constantly. One frag after another, he didn't even bother to reflect and his health never got below 75%.

I ran off. *** move, I know. Don't judge. I swapped in SA. Went back, got him to 75% and nailed him with SA while he arrogantly sat there. Dead. Not so funny anymore is it?