I was having a lot of trouble with a decent build for Sorcerer + 2 Handed. When I was first starting out, it seemed to work okay, but as I grew in (strength) and had more options available to me - my character seemed to lost focus and I wasn't reaching a potential.

So I spoke to my brother about it, and he made a couple of suggestions that have turned out to be pretty good so far:

Skill Line - 2 Handed Sorcerer:

1. Critical Rush

You could do Stampede here if you want, if you want that 2 second stun. Personally, it isn't a huge issue for me, but there's no harm in it - especially since you'll be using Wrecking Blow next, which has a 1 second cast time.

2. Wrecking Blow

This ability takes a second, but it pays off big time. For one, it does good damage on its own. For two, they get knocked back. Three, they are stunned afterwards. Four, you get an increase of Power on your next attack, which will be one of two options.

3. Crystal Fragments/Mage's Fury (less Magicka Cost)

Crystal Fragments is pretty devastating, but again, it has a cast time. This isn't exactly the fastest build, but boy does it put the hurt on. Alternatively, you could have Mage's Fury if you really wanted to on trash mobs. On Bosses, there's no reason not to use Crystal Fragments. The damage it puts out is just ridiculous. At this point, you could use Critical Rush again, since they'll more than likely be far enough away from you after Wrecking Ball and Crystal Fragments. Or you could go straight into Executioner.

4. Executioner

Clean up on aisle 3? That's what this will do. This is basically just a really great finisher, and it doesn't cost a lot of Stamina. You can basically spam it if you want to. Each time, it will do more damage than the last, until it reaches its maximum 300% additional damage, depending on how low their health is.

5. Lightning Splash (I haven't Morphed it yet)/Momentum/Circle of Protection/Surge/Daedric Mines/Entropy/Bound Armor/Velocious Curse

You have lots of options here. And this will largely be where you could deviate from what I am doing.

Lightning Splash is sort of a must have for me personally, as I have zero other options at the moment for offensive AoE. I have a Healing Staff as my secondary. Since you have a Bow, you could just pop your AoE with it, then switch to 2-Hander and continue on your way.

Eventually, I would trade this out for Daedric Mines, but I haven't test it yet. Even still, I'm more than certain it would be a better AoE option since it wouldn't need a set-up like Lightning Splash does. Velocious Curse would also be okay. It's a pretty fantastic ability, actually.

Momentum could be nice and Circle of Protection both would be good alternatives. But it just depends on how you feel about your Stamina Pool. You're already using a Bow, which uses Stamina, and with this Ability Slotted with your 2-Hander... that means you'll have 4 Abilities on your Hotbar that use Stamina. And the bulk of them really use up quite a bit.

Entropy from Mage's Guild could be really great here, too. As a Sorcerer, I'm sure you've noticed that we don't have a lot of In-Class options for HP Regen like the other Classes do. This could be a resolution to that, especially if you aren't using Heavy Armor.

Bound Armor... *sigh* A lot of people like this ability. I'm simply not a fan of it. Maybe if you were concentrating in Medium and/or Light Armor, it would be really good. But I use Heavy Armor, and it just isn't that appealing to me, especially since if I absolutely have to, I can switch to my Healing Staff and mange my HP that way. It wouldn't be the worst option, but I won't say it's the best option. Frankly, I think it's a little over-rated. Plus... that color...

Surge and Momentum might be okay too. In fact, I would recommend Surge over Momentum. Not because it is necessarily better, but simply, again, Momentum uses Stamina. I would try really hard to make whatever option you pick for this slot to be pulling from Magicka.

U. Greater Storm Atronarch/Soul Strike

Because... what else would you choose? Soul Strike is pretty awesome, but it takes a while to unlock. Overload is pretty, and could be useful during trash mob encounters. But the heavy hitter, and frankly, the only main reason to go into Summoning, is the Atronarch.

I hope this helps.

I'm not sure if I'm going to contribute much to this thread, but I actually wanted to change it up a bit and started going down the 2h line with my sorcerer. It all started when I began maxing out my stats while wearing light armor, so I had my fiance (who I play with all the time) make me some heavy armor. Then I got tired of using my destro staff, and decided to go 2 handed. In most MMO's I tend to play a character who uses a 2 hander or is, at the very least, melee.

Despite having a ton of abilities in the destro staff tree as well as the light armor tree, I thought I'd give it a shot.

Currently, I'm using Mages Fury, Lightning Splash, Cleave (just got uppercut and have tried it out briefly), Annulment, Entropy, and Power Overload. It's working out pretty well. I will say that my fiance is a tank, so I don't have to worry about getting bashed up too much, but it still happens.

I usually open with annulment and entropy, just to get the healing and shield up, and then go in and start laying into everything. I nail Mages Fury and start cleaving/uppercut and usually they get burned down fast enough they explode. I have to admit its pretty satisfying. I don't know how I'll stand up against instances, but I can do the solo quests (harborage and guild lines) without much trouble. It's just more interesting than standing back and shooting fireballs. At least for me.

I'm anxious to start putting some points into Arcane Fighter, which increases the chance of elemental effects proc'ing on my weapon. Should be fun!

My Build for bow is meant for single target but it also deals with small packs just fine.

Velocius Curse, Draining Shot, Crystal Shards, Bound Armaments, Critical Surge, Absorption Field.

Draining shot knocks back and disorients, then you apply Velocius curse which doesn't break it, then draw your bow for a heavy attack, as soon as curse goes off release your bow shot and fire draining shot again for a nice 1-2-3 burst and the mob is cc'd again, repeat. Shoot crystal shards on proc for more damage and knockdown. Multiple mobs can be cc'd with draining shot allowing you to kite and juggle groups of 3-4 as long as you take out the ranged ones first.

I like Bound Armaments for the heavy attack buff and critical surge for again the attack buff. These both also provide nice defense when in group or fighting multiple mobs. And of course absorption field super cheap 9 second huge radius aoe stun with a cleanse and heal, what's not to love?

So far, for PVE, I'm enjoying 2Hander +Bow on my sorc.

I mainly don't use the bow for pve though. I'm leveling its abilities mainly for pvp.
Now for 2 hander...

My skill bar looks like this.

1: Brawler ( Scaling damage shield that grants a bigger shield for more mobs hit.)
2: Rally ( 20% damage increase at the start, goes up. Also heal at end. )
3: Thundering Presence ( Spell Resistance Cap and more Armor overcharge. )
4: Critical Surge ( Bread and butter self heal as a melee. Get this. )
5: Bound Aegis ( Always on armor overcharge. )

You run full medium armor to get a nice, easy passive 30+% crit chance. Use mundus stone Thief for increased crit chance. Use armor later that increases mundus stone enhancements. You want to increase your critical chance as high as you can with critical surge. Since you're using Medium Armor, you'll need spell resist and armor from thudnering presence and bound aegis. Rally damage bonus to make your damage scale up for brawler for better damage shields.

Very nice pve build, aoe surv potentional. Veteran Rank 2 and holds its own.

jftwnospamrwb17_ESO wrote: »

Rosebloome wrote: »

So far, for PVE, I'm enjoying 2Hander +Bow on my sorc.

I mainly don't use the bow for pve though. I'm leveling its abilities mainly for pvp.
Now for 2 hander...
[..]
Very nice pve build, aoe surv potentional. Veteran Rank 2 and holds its own.

Are you playing in a group/duo using this build in VR content? I honestly don't know how you can solo as a melee sorc in VR areas. I'm fine melee against single mobs but I get wrecked against mobs with a large health pool or packs of 3+ (in a lot of cases two VR mobs can destroy me).

I have leveled DW & 2H, as well as trying heavy, light, medium armor and bound aegis. The result remains the same. My NB friend can 1shot VR5 mobs with a sneaked 2H heavy attack. Mine barely takes them below 75% health. As far as cleave is concerned he can agro a pack of 5+ mobs, spam nothing but cleave and drop them before they do any damage. I cast critical surge, spam cleave and die before they're below half health.

I genuinely wish this wasn't the case but I feel like the option to melee as a solo Sorc in high level PVE feels more like a token option than a viable one. I started playing with no intention to be ranged at all but I feel forced to because my melee dps is so poor. My character hits like a wet fish compared to a melee NB and doesn't have the survivabilty to facetank multiple mobs like a DK's.

How does my experience compare to other VR players? If there is something I'm missing I would love to know.

I normally duo with my girlfriend. But I went ahead and ran through a bunch of pulls without her that was 1 v 3. Humanoids with caster/melee mixes, skele packs in pub dungeons, and packs of 3 ghosts in one of the areas. All veteran 2 while i'm at Veteran 2.

Honestly had no trouble. Critical surge as you start to move towards them. Thundering presence when you get to them. Start hitting them with Brawler ( cleave morph for damage shield. ) spaced out with light attacks.

HP never dropped below 85 - 90% if even that.

Not trying to ego stroke or anything. Was just confirming I was testing my build solo against 1v3 setups pve and it works perfectly fine. You don't kill as " fast " as a nightblade, but survivabiltiy isn't an issue. But its very important to have as much melee crit as possible. So I personally go with 7 peices of medium with all the passives filled. Khajiit with khajiit racials for crit. Mundus Stone The Thief. And whatever else passives in my trees for crit. Character sheet shows 34% but I'm positive mundus stone enhancements don't show along with other things on the sheet.