Viability of sorc tanks

oxymartyr_ESO · November 2015

Ok so How Viable are Sorc tanks for pvp or pve what ever you can tell me. I keep seeing people say that Sorc tanks are bottom of the barrel and all that and I'm curious why. Also what would be the best race for a Sorc tank? I'm leaning towards an Orc simply because (I'm a hipster) I don't see them that often but Nord and Imperial are both on top as well due to having interesting passives i feel would fit well with the tank role.

Ashnunn · November 2015

Sorc's can make good tanks if built right (as can any class), magicka sorc's with 20k+ shields can take a lot of hits on the PVE side of things.

For stamina, other classes usually outplay the sorc for a pure tank

Sharmony · November 2015

They are probably the worst tank in PvE when compared to other classes for group play. As for PvP, anything goes but not everything is good, I imagine this would fall under the latter.

raasdal · November 2015

Sorc's can tank with no problems!

My Sorc, is primary DPS. But i have secondary set items and skill bars for both healing and tanking.

I can Tank with this build in ALL normal and Vet dungeons, except for IC Dungeons.

And this is a SECONDARY build, no less. I have all points into magicka, but all items enchanted to health. I have 25k health, 20-ish k magicka and 15k stamina i think. Never had any issues.

BUT if you want to build a pure Tank, i would still go for DK. They are built with that purpose in mind.

Stannum · November 2015

Sorc tanks:
++
1. Has mass CC skills, better CC has only DK
2. Full self armour buff
3. Self stamina managment
4. Best damage shields

--
1. The worst self heal (compensated with dmg shield)

So I cannot tell that sorc is the worst tank, it's the most avarade tank. DK has better CC, tamplar can help group with heal and resource managment, NB has better DPS and also heals group. And sorc is reliable.

PS: It was about PvE. PvP builds are not so specialised

remilafo · November 2015

oxymartyr_ESO wrote: »

Ok so How Viable are Sorc tanks for pvp or pve what ever you can tell me. I keep seeing people say that Sorc tanks are bottom of the barrel and all that and I'm curious why. Also what would be the best race for a Sorc tank? I'm leaning towards an Orc simply because (I'm a hipster) I don't see them that often but Nord and Imperial are both on top as well due to having interesting passives i feel would fit well with the tank role.

Stamina sorc tanks are just fine like all the other classes, it honestly comes down to gear, cp and your skills.

Shield stacking magicka sorc tank does NOT work so well, incase this was your plan. Shields do not have any of your armor or spell resistance which means even if you have them around 25K they will still get smashed in about 2 hits.

the point is you could probably substitute tank in a pinch but for bosses that really need a FULL-time dedicated tank your shield stacking tank strategy won't work.

CreepyPahuska · November 2015

I am a V16 Breton Magicka Sorc Tank, and to be honnest, shield stacking works pretty well. I'll describe my gear and stats before going further :

STATS & GEAR
- Physical Res : 25k
- Spell Res : 30k

- Magicka : 30k
- Health : 28.2k (I could go down to 27k to gain a bit more magicka)
- Stamina : 13.3k

- Magicka Regen : 950
- Health Regen : 444
- Stamina Regen : 950

- Damage Shields : 30k with Hardened Ward + Harness Magicka. I can go up to 45k with Absorb Magic but I wouldn't consider this like a real damage shield, I rarely use it, it's in my bar for the passive bonus.

I'm playing with 4 Kagrenac pieces (v15), 2 Malubeth (v16), 2 Magnus (v15), 2 Willpower (v16), 2 Endurance (v16) and 174 Champions points

SHIELD STACKING
The important thing with Shield stacking tanking is that you can't rely only on the damage shields. They will absorb most of the damages, but you won't always be able to have them on, and some damages may go through (Harness magicka = 40% of my total shield and it only absorbs magic attacks), so you need to be prepared when this happens, and thus, you need Decent HP, and decent resistances, stamina regen, etc...

What I really like about damage shields is that it compensates for the absence of a decent self heal, and you can hold pretty well without healer in tough situation, for example if the healer is busy with the DDs, resurecting someone, in WGT's cage, or even dead, etc...

CROWD CONTROL
This is one of the reason why I love to tank as a sorc, we have great CC abilities. We may not have the DK's chain thing (and I'm a bit jealous tbh) but if I'd have to name 2 CC skills i'd say Restraining Prison and Suppression Field. The first one is good to deal with trash mobs or bosses adds. If you can't pull them to you like DK do, you can at least prevent them from running away. The second one is an ultimate wich stuns every mob inside for 12 seconds. It's the "Oh ***" button when you get overwhelmed by adds, or the "I'm too lazy to taunt every single mob here so I'll stun them instead" button

3rd SKILL BAR
As you know, with energy overload, sorcerers can access a third skill bar. Put a taunt, a finisher and a damage shield here and It'll add some extra DPS to the boss while still being able to tank him decently

Shaiba · November 2015

Hello

I don't know if the point of view of a healer could help in this topic, but i'll add mine

I'm only talking about the PvE, i'm not much into PvP x)

I'm a Templar Healer and I play a lot with a Magicka Sorc Tank and I really like it and it works very well (from easy content to endgame one). I had to play with other tanks (i only healed DK tanks, no templar nor NB ones nor stam sorc tank), it works very well too but I still prefer the sorcerer one (for his damage shield). I have to help him a little more than the DK with shards or repentance but on the other hand he'll need less healing.

+ In PUG, sometimes you'll find bad Heals or DD, i think sorcerer can handle these kind of situations better.

Stannum · November 2015

CreepyPahuska wrote: »

I am a V16 Breton Magicka Sorc Tank, and to be honnest, shield stacking works pretty well. I'll describe my gear and stats before going further :
...

Another unique sorc tank point is to get stamina quickly if you need to block a lot.

CreepyPahuska · November 2015

with the conversion skill you mean ? I prefer the other morph myself.

remilafo · November 2015

well im glad it's working for some of you but i'll assume you have done any of the really hard content.

I have 100 points into bastion and on my tank side can get my ward to 27K.

Vet molag kena and other bosses of her hitting power like first boss vICP can smash that shield in under 1.5s ..

Simply because ward doesn't have any armor or spell resist. Play as you want i guess having a bit of a shield buff is okay but i think you are wasting your magicka casting that thing when it's gone in one hit.

As stated in my OP, you can be a backup tank in a pinch but shielding won't save you compared to a full-time tank.
Hp stacking and high defence are far better imo ...

LadyNalcarya · November 2015

Any class can tank just fine.
Honestly, it depends on player skill... I saw some dk tanks dying all the time, and my first dsa run was tanked by a magicka based sorc without any issues. Sorcs have great mobility and cc and they can easily add decent dps if the fight doesnt require much tanking (engine guardian, planar inhibitor etc).

CreepyPahuska · November 2015

remilafo wrote: »

well im glad it's working for some of you but i'll assume you have done any of the really hard content.

I have 100 points into bastion and on my tank side can get my ward to 27K.

Vet molag kena and other bosses of her hitting power like first boss vICP can smash that shield in under 1.5s ..

Simply because ward doesn't have any armor or spell resist. Play as you want i guess having a bit of a shield buff is okay but i think you are wasting your magicka casting that thing when it's gone in one hit.

As stated in my OP, you can be a backup tank in a pinch but shielding won't save you compared to a full-time tank.
Hp stacking and high defence are far better imo ...

shield is gone in under 1.5s ? so what ? You just recast it... that's the whole point of playing like this. Stam tanks use stamina to absorb damage with their shield, magicka tanks use magicka to absorb damages with theirs. wards are more expensive but in my opinion they are also more efficient. If you went up to 27k with one single ward, I guess that maybe you weren't balanced enough. As I said in my previous post, damage shields don't do all the job, you need a good HP pool and a good armor too, aswell as a decent ressources management.
Playing as magicka tank is very different from playing as stamina, and of course it gets harder in hard contents, but it's supposed to. Maybe you just have more afinity with the stamina version