Sword and board sorcerer

zagora01

How can I build an effective sword and board heavy armor wearing Sorcerer. I'm trying to build a character that is like a fighter-mage from dungeons and dragons. Can someone help?

FrauPerchta

Shouldn't be too hard. My favorite character is an Orc 2H (no pets or staff) 5 Heavy, 2 Light Sorcerer that steamrolls every thing in his path. Sword and Board should just slow your killing down a little while helping keep your health up. I like to kill fast hence the 2H, my S&B DK kills easily and survives but it can take him for what seems like forever to kill it.

Axewaffle

Hi!

Before I begin, am not sure what you are looking for based on the information provided. However the fighter-mage (from my horrible memory of the old dungeons and dragons) was some sort of damage dealing durable mage jack of all trades class. I quickly dished up a quick build for you that runs something pretty unique and fun and would be very effective in many situations, that will give you the versatility of being up close baring arms and hurling spells alike to vanquish your foes, while also being able to take a step back and survey the battlefield and summon some truly devastating and awe-inspiring destruction from afar.

THE BUILD
http://esohead.com/calculator/skills#mMzzyvV0MW9c8NiRC8fXG18AIPq8rrXO8AIOU8AISu8NNgI8AIQ18A4hI8NiaA8AIOU8A4ub8L7JcdoQr6MdoQF6MdoQC6MdoQK6MdoQJ8T7JcrqLw6MrqAi6MrqAZ6MrqAI6MrqAD6mRMA8y7GLR3f8v7pMhx0n8H7JLzfQ6Lzf26LbHm6MNieT6MNieA6MNieh6MNiey8J7rMNUIz8K7Jrzun6Lkg6Lzuu6rzuN6MANRQ6MANRU6MANRW6MANRZ8O7arkP6rdeF8zc7zzgeXm8zf7zzNbo8zu7zzHfYE6zHfZd8zG7zzHQ3F8zI7zzJIoX6zJIkL8zN7zzJZcY8zA7zzKpUN8zL7zzK4EX

(sorry for the long link)

Ill give you a quick explanation for the skills I chose, keep in mind I haven't bothered leveling many passives as by the time you hit 50, and even veteran levels you will probably have all of them, even the ones that do hardly anything.

Bar 1: Sword and Shield
Skills: Daedric minefield|Invasion|Thundering Presence|Imovable|Ball of Lightning|Power Overload.

Bar 2: Restoration Staff
Skills: Crystal Fragments|Endless Fury|Inner Light|Dark Conversion|Ball of Lightning|Ice Comet

Explanation:

Armor Choices:
5 Pieces of Light Armor:
Makes use of the magicka Regen you will need as a battle mage, while keeping your base defenses low, to better utilize thundering presence and immovable (due to the soft and hard caps already in place). Dont worry, you wont even notice you are wearing light armor, and you wont look it either if you wear a heavy Chestplate and Pants or Shoulders.


2 Piece of Heavy Armor:
Gives you access to Immovable and some defenses to even you out for a well oiled machine of war.


Weapon sets:
Sword and Shield:
Provides you a very reliable and powerful charge, and the defenses you need in the thick of battle.

Restoration Staff:
Alot of people look at this weapon and think "Healer", this is not always the case. The heavy attack of this weapon restores your magicka supply, ensuring you can stay casting in long duration fights, the passive "Cycle of life" also gives you a nice damage boost when your health-pool is nice and .. well healthy.

Abilities:
Daedric Minefield:
This skill is utterly devastating usually the only draw back to this spell is that you need to get into harms way most of the time to use it to full effect, you wont have to worry about this, you relish being in the thick of it. Lay these babies down and watch them explode every three seconds for supreme damage that is unrivaled in any other ability. EVER.

Invasion:
This is a gap closer, to allow you to get into your sweet melee distance, it uses stamina which is a secondary resource for you, which will ensure you can almost always charge into the battle to chase down those slipper opponents. Also has a very long stun duration (long enough to arm and activate your daedric mines) for some great skill synergy.

Thundering Presence:
This is a two fold ability, it both gives you a mighty boost to your defenses, and also shocks people who are near you for lightning damage. When paired with the disintegrate passive your foes will literally turn to dust when you have this baby active and they drop to the low health threshold.

Imovable:
This ability will ensure you stay in the fight. Like thundering presence it provides a sizable boost to your defences, however it also grants you the amazing ability to become utterly IMMUNE to all forms of disables, that can really put you in a bad spot.

Ball of Lightning:
This ability is very strong, it grants you the ability to enter and exit combat as you see fit, keeping your enemies stuned, confused, and frustrated with your mobility. A strong combo is INVASION->DAEDRIC MINEFIELD->BALL OF LIGHTNING. Watch as your enemy sees you charge them, smack them in the face with your shield drop some explosive balls of energy at their feet and disappear as if nothing ever happend... except its about to, BOOM!.

Crystal Framents:
This ability will form the core of your ranged skillset, its a high damage single target ability that will also cause all of your abilities to proc a chance for an instant cast with a reduces magicka cost. Very effective. Oh it also sports a highly annoying knockdown for your enemies to enjoy!

Endless Fury:
This ability will ensure your enemies who are almost dead, get there that much quicker, think of this as the executioners axe of your spell repertoire. Zap zap!

Inner Light:
This keeps those pesky stealth assassins away from you and boosts your chance to cause critical damage by a whopping 20%! Plus you'll never feel alone again with this shining bright ball of light that annoyingly follows your every movement, those pesky go to the toilet alone days are a thing of the past!

Dark Conversion:
This ability is an absolute god-send, it provides all the in-combat sustenance you could ever want, with little to no adverse effects. Warning: adverse effects may occur from the use of Dark Conversion.

Ice Comet:
High damage ranged nuke with both a snare and knockback component, watch your enemies flee in terror as the sky literally falls on them.

Feel Free to edit or adjust this build as you see fit, this is just something I did up in a relative short amount of time. Let me know if you have any questions.

Regards,
Me xx

zagora01

Thanks a lot guys. I just wanted a viable elf battle mage that uses the sword and shield. I might also try the greatsword.

Axewaffle, your info was awesome. Thank you

zagora01

Axewaffle, does the build have to be a breton? I want to play an altimer

Axewaffle

Breton is a personal choice, High Elves make great sorcs, especially their bonus to electrical damage. They are my number two choice, but only by a very small margin.

The reason I go for breton mostly is I find that spell cost reduction is the absolute best racial you can get for casters, simply because there is no cap for it, its truly great.

If you choose to go High Elf, probably swap out restoration staff for a Destruction staff, and find a way to slot in more elemental attacks that are focused around fire/electrical/ice to maximize your choice in race.

Ysbal

Altmer sorcerer in heavy armor with one hand and shield is what I'm playing the most right now. I'm having a blast.

It's a fun way to play the class.

zagora01

Thanks again guys

Arki

Running as sorc tank atm, works great. Pop AoE, puncture + hit + endless fury => first down, rince and repeat. If you want to you can also easily change role to a healer or nuker from afar using dark conversion and more magicka based gear. I did a dungeon as healer yesterday and when the tank and one dps fell in the bossfight i swapped to sword and board and took over. One of the dps had a healerstaff as offhand so we twomanned him

Aidurkim

Just one thing to mention: Reducing the costs of spells does have a cap, as far as i experienced it with equipping several rings of reducing magicka cost.