magica would be whorl and nirn, staff, and perf maelstrom staff
stamina would be daggers nirn and reloquen, and perf maelstrom 2hander
on trial.

to me this isn't about what i used, but more about limitations with magica vs. stamina.

for example, highest dps sets come in medium only, which makes magica sustain suck. staves of course give range advantage, but you should be able to out dps a weapon based class just due to magic. i am sure a lightning bolt would kill someone faster than a dagger as that dagger would need perfect placement.

Quethrosar wrote: »

magica would be whorl and nirn, staff, and perf maelstrom staff
stamina would be daggers nirn and reloquen, and perf maelstrom 2hander
on trial.

to me this isn't about what i used, but more about limitations with magica vs. stamina.

for example, highest dps sets come in medium only, which makes magica sustain suck. staves of course give range advantage, but you should be able to out dps a weapon based class just due to magic. i am sure a lightning bolt would kill someone faster than a dagger as that dagger would need perfect placement.

The game is designed around gameplay decisions, not verisimilitude. Sometimes you have to back off or run away as part of a gameplay mechanic and ranged can continue their damage easier than melee. In real combat conditions, with incoming damage and mechanics to avoid, mag sorc will likely perform just as well as stam sorc. Unless you are doing some base game trial with simple stack and burn, where DPS is not important because it is old content where everything dies super fast, I would not be overly fixated on dummy numbers that are 95% the same.

How are you defining Magicka vs Stamina builds? Is it purely which stat has 64 attribute points and which armor enchants you use?

Did you try the Advancing/Depths build I posted in your other thread a few weeks ago? It was capable of 115-120k in 5 light + 2 medium armor. Or are you against Advancing because it mandates melee? Did you try Kinras + Depths? Or even the old Siroria can still be effective on Mag Sorc.

You don't need to be tied to Pillar. It is an overrated set, especially on Mag. It has a mediocre proc (~7% of DPS) and effectively no 2 piece bonus (about 2% DPS loss). There are plenty of equal or better options, but Pillar is a convenient way to fit some medium armor into your build if that is a goal (see below).

The most recent patch did change a few things. Daggers are not quite as mandatory now, and bow is surprisingly good (on front and/or back bar). I cannot recommend staff after the changes, since most of your skills are direct damage and unaffected by the Inferno Staff 12% boost. Lightning Staff is also not great because the light attacks are not increased by fire vulnerabilities, and it does not buff Hurricane, Hail/Wall, or Barbed Trap. There are some reports that 2h back bar is good if you are willing to go melee, but I have not tested this personally.

The other major change this week was the Bound Armaments buff. I believe it now justifies a slot front bar (along with Frags, Prey and Pets). This is great because casting a Stamina skill every 4-5 seconds is a huge relief on Magicka sustain. As a result you can easily wear more pieces of Medium armor on a Magicka build. I would recommend either 5M/2L or 6M/1L because these will allow you to hit the crit damage cap without Fighting Finesse or Backstabber CP, therefore gaining Exploiter CP.

With Armaments replacing Deadly Cloak on front bar, daggers are no longer needed, so Bow front bar becomes a solid option. If you really want to stay ranged, go with Bow/Bow. Back bar will ideally be: Hail, Hurricane, Barbed Trap, Pets. However for full ranged you can do: Hail, Poison Injection, Lightweight Trap and take a small DPS loss.

It does all depend on how you define "Magicka Sorc" though. As the build I outlined above does stack fully into Magicka as the main attribute, but uses exclusively Stamina based weapons and several pieces of Medium Armor.