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MagSorc (PvP) Buff Direction
IAVITNI
✭✭✭✭✭
First off, thanks.
Minor Berserk is a welcome buff. Not really addressing the classes current weakness but it does allow some things to be moved around. The additional damage means that some stats can be moved into survivability, which is what magsorc really struggles with.
Having said that, if you look at the sorc skills, there are quite a few powerful abilities that would improve the class if slotted.The challenge is figuring out what to give up in order to get these abilities on our bar.
The Real Problem
Currently, Elemental Susceptibility and Mage Light are two common abilities that find their way on a magsorcs bar. As just mentioned, the problem is that they also take up bar slots.
Magsorc does not need additional buffs but rather additional bar space. This is achieved by shifting some of the power gained from some multiple n abilities and consolidating them into n-x abilities, thereby freeing up bar space.
As an example, Major Fracture gained from Elemental Susceptibility provides some much needed penetration. Even with this powerful Major Buff, magsorc still lacks a bit of damage (although not it's main weakness, but the Minor Berserk buff would suggest that ZoS also feels damage isn't quite there).
MagSorc used to be infamous for it's instant 3-combo burst: Curse>Fury>Frag. Any og magsorc has had this combo seared into their minds at some point. The fact that most magsorcs don't slot this ability could somewhat justify a claim that magsorcs have lost ~1/3rd of their total burst damage (1 of 3 abilities removed). Getting this ability back onto their bar would therefore equate to a (grossly oversimplified) 33% damage buff. So why not just slot the ability? It's currently a loss to drop Major Fracture for Fury, despite the whopping theoretical ~33%, pre-multiplier, burst contribution. An execute is useless if you can't get the enemy low enough.
In order to get Fury on the bar you need it to address a need that is filled by another ability that currently lives on magsorc bars. As an example, a Major Breach/Prophecy substitute. But how do we do that? Easy, just slap it on an ability like Fury, right? Wrong. At least, if we want this change to be healthy for the overall game state. The approach is critical here.
What ZoS Won't Read
I know ZoS hates ability suggestions, but I'd like to provide one for the purposes of highlighting the type of approach that should be taken.
Mage's Fury (Live)
In theory, an absolutely amazing ability despite the relatively low execute threshold. This is more than made up by the fact that the ability can be applied at range and bypasses global cooldowns since it can proc within 4 seconds after application. So let's just slap a Major Buff on it yeah? To that, I say stop skipping ahead and read the whole text.
Instead of taking the 5head approach, lets change the base ability:
Mage's Fury (theoretical)
This instantly makes either morph competitive with Elemental Susceptibility or Caltrops. While the penetration gained isn't as high, it comes attached to an entire ability that ignores global cooldowns. If one wishes to take it one step further, Endless Fury could apply Major Fracture if the enemy is below 20% Health.
Outcomes:
This should be the approach to buffing MagSorc.
Misc. Quality of Life Changes
Some small changes that aren't really a buff but would definitely smooth out gameplay
Streamline pet performance
More distinction between Atronach morphs
Edited by ZOS_Icy on 22 July 2024 16:08 Minor Berserk is a welcome buff. Not really addressing the classes current weakness but it does allow some things to be moved around. The additional damage means that some stats can be moved into survivability, which is what magsorc really struggles with.
Having said that, if you look at the sorc skills, there are quite a few powerful abilities that would improve the class if slotted.The challenge is figuring out what to give up in order to get these abilities on our bar.
The Real Problem
Currently, Elemental Susceptibility and Mage Light are two common abilities that find their way on a magsorcs bar. As just mentioned, the problem is that they also take up bar slots.
Magsorc does not need additional buffs but rather additional bar space. This is achieved by shifting some of the power gained from some multiple n abilities and consolidating them into n-x abilities, thereby freeing up bar space.
As an example, Major Fracture gained from Elemental Susceptibility provides some much needed penetration. Even with this powerful Major Buff, magsorc still lacks a bit of damage (although not it's main weakness, but the Minor Berserk buff would suggest that ZoS also feels damage isn't quite there).
MagSorc used to be infamous for it's instant 3-combo burst: Curse>Fury>Frag. Any og magsorc has had this combo seared into their minds at some point. The fact that most magsorcs don't slot this ability could somewhat justify a claim that magsorcs have lost ~1/3rd of their total burst damage (1 of 3 abilities removed). Getting this ability back onto their bar would therefore equate to a (grossly oversimplified) 33% damage buff. So why not just slot the ability? It's currently a loss to drop Major Fracture for Fury, despite the whopping theoretical ~33%, pre-multiplier, burst contribution. An execute is useless if you can't get the enemy low enough.
In order to get Fury on the bar you need it to address a need that is filled by another ability that currently lives on magsorc bars. As an example, a Major Breach/Prophecy substitute. But how do we do that? Easy, just slap it on an ability like Fury, right? Wrong. At least, if we want this change to be healthy for the overall game state. The approach is critical here.
What ZoS Won't Read
I know ZoS hates ability suggestions, but I'd like to provide one for the purposes of highlighting the type of approach that should be taken.
Mage's Fury (Live)
Call down lightning to strike an enemy, dealing 870 Shock Damage. If the enemy falls to or below 20% Health within 4 seconds of being struck, an explosion deals an additional 3195 Shock Damage to them and 695 Shock Damage to other enemies nearby.
In theory, an absolutely amazing ability despite the relatively low execute threshold. This is more than made up by the fact that the ability can be applied at range and bypasses global cooldowns since it can proc within 4 seconds after application. So let's just slap a Major Buff on it yeah? To that, I say stop skipping ahead and read the whole text.
Instead of taking the 5head approach, lets change the base ability:
Mage's Fury (theoretical)
Call down lightning to strike an enemy, dealing 871 Shock Damage. If the enemy falls to or below 20% Health within 4 seconds of being struck, an explosion deals an additional 3195 Shock Damage to them and 696 Shock Damage to other enemies nearby. This ability also applies Minor Fracture to the targeted enemy.
This instantly makes either morph competitive with Elemental Susceptibility or Caltrops. While the penetration gained isn't as high, it comes attached to an entire ability that ignores global cooldowns. If one wishes to take it one step further, Endless Fury could apply Major Fracture if the enemy is below 20% Health.
Outcomes:
- Not a 100% buff. This approach really leans into the idea that a magsorc needs to land all three abilities to secure a kill without overbuffing them outside of execute. Remember, we haven't added any power outside of Fury damage since Elemental Susceptibility was previously on our bar. We also are not increasing magsorc damage strictly by the Fury tooltip since the Status Effect damage is lost
- Does not invalidate Elemental Susceptibility as a choice. If you want better sustained damage, it's still the clear winner, but Fury caters better to the burst play style.
- Clearly defines one morph as the AoE Champion (Mage's Wrath) and the other as best for single target/sustain (Endless Fury)
- Bonus: this has negligible impact on PvE, where these buffs are constantly up anyways, leaving the class open to buffs that would specifically benefit PvE
This should be the approach to buffing MagSorc.
- We don't need to throw in random damage buffs that do nothing, we need incentive to slot other abilities that isn't overshadowed by what is lost.
- We create clear morph identities
- We don't invalidate other abilities that fill similar roles
- We don't sacrifice PvE balance for PvP or vice-versa
Misc. Quality of Life Changes
Some small changes that aren't really a buff but would definitely smooth out gameplay
- Remove Overload activation from the global cooldown. This has made using the ability incredibly clunky and deadly when in combat/lag
- Revert the Streak change so that magsorcs move in the direction the camera is facing and not the character
- Allow Bound Armor and morphs to provide the 8% resource buff regardless of bar swap, similar to Arcanist's Tome-Bearer's Inspiration
- For the love of god, please let Rune Cage deal damage on Stun activation and not expiration
- Same ^ for Shattering Prison
- Daedric Mines cost is no longer matched by it's damage. A small cost reduction would help. Skill functionality is fine.
Streamline pet performance
More distinction between Atronach morphs
4
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RemoryAzure✭✭✭MagSorc used to be infamous for it's instant 3-combo burst: Curse>Fury>Frag.
im playing eso for something like 2 years and ive never used that. the problem is that current eso's meta is built on tankiness + procs. this makes all these skills completely useless.
fury doesnt work because of how long it takes to get people to low hp, and only way to make it work is to rework it into spammable (since after 9 years we dont yet have a class with purely lightning based damage), something like: 1512 (70% of base ranged ability damage) + 432 (20% of base) if enemy is shocked, and this portion should increase depending on enemy's 100-0% hp up to 1296 (making this skill do from 2138 to 2808 damage with amplitude passive with a requirement of enemy being shocked, totally normal damage number considering frags itself dealing 2731 on its first normal cast on full hp enemy without requirement to run charged trait)
frag doesnt work (atleast for me) coz of its clunky gcd, its like 1.5 sec or smth, whenever ive done parces both with macro and manually, i was getting less damage in result when using it compared with simple one ability weave
curse is just bad coz of draugrkin meta, it deals simply ~10-20% less dmg than crushing shock, and in tank meta it just doesnt enough to justify using it, since u wont kill anyone in one (and in reality even 3-4) combo and any single pvp lasts until someone's resources are gone, its just better dps-wise NOT to use it, coz dps is what makes enemy's resources drop faster
after many tests and builds ive come to realization that the most effective build is just to build the most possible power into crushing shock and ignore anything else, instead of fury/curse/frags its simply better to fill the bar with passives like aegis (minor resolve + 8% max mana/hp to increase damage and survivability) or skills that last long enough like ele sus.Edited by RemoryAzure on 21 April 2023 10:320 -
Bushido2513✭✭✭✭✭RemoryAzure wrote: »MagSorc used to be infamous for it's instant 3-combo burst: Curse>Fury>Frag.
im playing eso for something like 2 years and ive never used that. the problem is that current eso's meta is built on tankiness + procs. this makes all these skills completely useless.
fury doesnt work because of how long it takes to get people to low hp, and only way to make it work is to rework it into spammable (since after 9 years we dont yet have a class with purely lightning based damage), something like: 1512 (70% of base ranged ability damage) + 432 (20% of base) if enemy is shocked, and this portion should increase depending on enemy's 100-0% hp up to 1296 (making this skill do from 2138 to 2808 damage with amplitude passive with a requirement of enemy being shocked, totally normal damage number considering frags itself dealing 2731 on its first normal cast on full hp enemy without requirement to run charged trait)
frag doesnt work (atleast for me) coz of its clunky gcd, its like 1.5 sec or smth, whenever ive done parces both with macro and manually, i was getting less damage in result when using it compared with simple one ability weave
curse is just bad coz of draugrkin meta, it deals simply ~10-20% less dmg than crushing shock, and in tank meta it just doesnt enough to justify using it, since u wont kill anyone in one (and in reality even 3-4) combo and any single pvp lasts until someone's resources are gone, its just better dps-wise NOT to use it, coz dps is what makes enemy's resources drop faster
after many tests and builds ive come to realization that the most effective build is just to build the most possible power into crushing shock and ignore anything else, instead of fury/curse/frags its simply better to fill the bar with passives like aegis (minor resolve + 8% max mana/hp to increase damage and survivability) or skills that last long enough like ele sus.
Both of these posts are missing things a bit I think.
You can kill with curse fury frag but streak wasn't mentioned which is usually what allows time for your damage to hit in a window and the enemy not react.
Also overload wasn't mentioned at all or I missed it but that's where a lot of sorc damage can come from. It also sometimes desyncs which can end up killing even really tanky opponents.
Not saying draugurkin isn't heavily used or that I don't sometimes use crushing. Just saying I saw missing information there.1 -
Jamie_Aubrey✭✭✭✭Magsorc does not need additional buffs but rather additional bar space.
Remember when Overload Ulti gave us a third bar ?RETIRED FROM ESOPC/EUFormer Empress & Grand Overlord Vex Valentino1 -
IAVITNI✭✭✭✭✭RemoryAzure wrote: »
Ya, the stated combo hasn't been viable for quite some time. 2 years is baby numbers compared to myself and the people I play with.
I don't necessarily disagree with anything that you stated in your post but you're reading my post a little too literally. The point I'm trying to communicate is that sorc doesn't need flat buffs, but a consolidation of power into slottable abilities. Sorc being better is a shared outcome, but flat buffs may not necessarily address the issue.
As another example, take Major Prophecy, attach it to Boundless Armor and now magsorc can drop Mage Light (lose negligible damage) and gain a major buff, mobility, potentially passive healing if combo'd with crit surge and arguably the same damage (sorc ability on bar + passive) while either gaining mitigation they didn't have or opening up a monster set if they didn't run Chudan. If they already ran boundless, they now have an open bar slot since they no longer need mage light.
Sorc has most of what it needs to be viable in it's kit, it just can't put that stuff on it's bar. Freeing up the monster set means we can slot things like EG, BS, Balorg (non overload) or just open up a lot of build diversity without throwing random buffs onto the class.Bushido2513 wrote: »
Both of these posts are missing things a bit I think.
You can kill with curse fury frag but streak wasn't mentioned which is usually what allows time for your damage to hit in a window and the enemy not react.
Also overload wasn't mentioned at all or I missed it but that's where a lot of sorc damage can come from. It also sometimes desyncs which can end up killing even really tanky opponents.
Not saying draugurkin isn't heavily used or that I don't sometimes use crushing. Just saying I saw missing information there.
The post wasn't meant to capture and detail all the flaws of magsorc. The main goal was to identify that sorc suffers more from bar space vs class power being low.
Back in the day, curse > fury > frag + ulti was enough to kill anything. This was a LONG time ago. I'm talking, "you were bad if you slotted overload" long time ago. This combo is outdated because it lacks the power required, but the severity of power constraints on sorc as a class remain the same as they were back then.
To provide greater clarity and touch on the below quote, let's talk about pets.Jamie_Aubrey wrote: »Magsorc does not need additional buffs but rather additional bar space.
Remember when Overload Ulti gave us a third bar ?
At some point, it was stated by either ZoS (or now extinct class rep) that bar space was how they wanted to mange sorc power levels. Sorc pets take up to slots because they really do two different things: damage over time that requires no GCD & (for PvP) a burst heal.
Essentially, you're slotting old school Breath of Life as well as a (***) DoT ability. The overload third bar was a way to indirectly address the lack of bar space created by artificially throttling magsorc power.
The double bar slot isn't an issue since you get the effectiveness of two abilities anyways, especially if you factor in LoS potential. The issue with Matriarch is really that it dies. Which, was honestly fine back in the day but power scaling and base speed of the game has grown to the point that this simply doesn't work (similar to the Templar "house").
Sorc abilities are all too linear. Compared to abilities like Concealed weapon or Molten Whip which provide damage as well as utility, the average sorc ability is incredibly lack lustre.
We don't need buffs like Minor Berserk, we need mandatory-utility added to nice-to-have abilities so we can slot them and incrementally increase power budget.0 -
Quethrosar✭✭✭✭Why do you think sorcerer should get survival and damage ? If you mix inner with bound you are now giving both. Sorcerer needs to be able to be top dps by giving up survival. This is the role of a wizard in life.1 -
Turtle_Bot✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭Quethrosar wrote: »Why do you think sorcerer should get survival and damage ? If you mix inner with bound you are now giving both. Sorcerer needs to be able to be top dps by giving up survival. This is the role of a wizard in life.
The problem this statement is that survival is based on 5 different metrics, healing, mitigation, mobility, sustain and utility and damage is based on 2 different metrics, pressure and burst.
Sorc is lagging behind on 3 of those 5 survival metrics (healing, mitigation and utility) and basically only on par or slightly ahead with the remaining 2 (mobility/sustain).
For the damage aspects, it is strong (but still behind DK) for pressure and strong (but still behind NB) for burst, so it's not really the "top dps" either. It could arguably the top "balanced" dps with a good mix of burst and pressure (depending on the build), but DK gives it a run for its money here too, especially with how strong corrosive is for both burst and pressure.
DK and NB meanwhile only really partially give up 1 aspect of survival to also have top dps (DK - mobility, NB - mitigation) and they also have just as much, if not more dps than sorc does, just their dps is more focused on each of the different aspects of dps than sorcs dps is.
I'm not saying that sorc needs a huge increase to its survivability and definitely not access to heals such as Coag/polar wind/healthy offering/resistant flesh which would 100% break the class. But it does need some small functionality/QoL improvements to a couple of key abilities to free up its options and help prevent it from being overly punished for trying to survive and recover in the middle of a battle.
They would easily achieve this with the following 2 simple changes:
- Remove the cast time on dark exchange + morphs.- Remove the cast time
- keep the 1 second delay between activating the skill and the heal being applied since it also has sustain
- keep the heal value as it is
- keep the heal as non scaling.
This change if done as described would not break the class, it would just make it less punishing and more fun to play in PvP without feeling like it requires a group/CC immunity to not be disproportionately punished when trying to survive and recover in a fight.
- Major prophecy/savagery on lightning form + morphs.This frees up space in the build through 1 of 2 ways.
- It either frees up a bar slot, allowing for a more needed utility or damage skill to be slotted, or,
- it frees up the monster set slots in the build, allowing for more utility, damage or defense to be gained there.
This will result in better build diversity for the class and less reliance on the same few sets (maras, masters DW, wretched, draugrkin, chudan) to carry the class in PvP.
There is still a fair amount of work that needs to happen with updating the class passives, many of which are very outdated by now or just flat out don't synergise with the class's highly mobile playstyle, but those 2 changes mentioned above are the 2 most crucial things to help the class in PvP.
P.s. Imo, removing the cast time on dark exchange would be the better option (for the short term) over reworking matriarch because it's a simple change, and unlike fixing the matriarch, it would not require a complete redesign of the skill from the ground up, so it seems much more feasible of a change to consider in the short term compared to the work involved for the alternative.0 -
Shadowbinder7✭✭✭First off, thanks.
Minor Berserk is a welcome buff. Not really addressing the classes current weakness but it does allow some things to be moved around. The additional damage means that some stats can be moved into survivability, which is what magsorc really struggles with.
Having said that, if you look at the sorc skills, there are quite a few powerful abilities that would improve the class if slotted.The challenge is figuring out what to give up in order to get these abilities on our bar.
The Real Problem
Currently, Elemental Susceptibility and Mage Light are two common abilities that find their way on a magsorcs bar. As just mentioned, the problem is that they also take up bar slots.
Magsorc does not need additional buffs but rather additional bar space. This is achieved by shifting some of the power gained from some multiple n abilities and consolidating them into n-x abilities, thereby freeing up bar space.
As an example, Major Fracture gained from Elemental Susceptibility provides some much needed penetration. Even with this powerful Major Buff, magsorc still lacks a bit of damage (although not it's main weakness, but the Minor Berserk buff would suggest that ZoS also feels damage isn't quite there).
MagSorc used to be infamous for it's instant 3-combo burst: Curse>Fury>Frag. Any og magsorc has had this combo seared into their minds at some point. The fact that most magsorcs don't slot this ability could somewhat justify a claim that magsorcs have lost ~1/3rd of their total burst damage (1 of 3 abilities removed). Getting this ability back onto their bar would therefore equate to a (grossly oversimplified) 33% damage buff. So why not just slot the ability? It's currently a loss to drop Major Fracture for Fury, despite the whopping theoretical ~33%, pre-multiplier, burst contribution. An execute is useless if you can't get the enemy low enough.
In order to get Fury on the bar you need it to address a need that is filled by another ability that currently lives on magsorc bars. As an example, a Major Breach/Prophecy substitute. But how do we do that? Easy, just slap it on an ability like Fury, right? Wrong. At least, if we want this change to be healthy for the overall game state. The approach is critical here.
What ZoS Won't Read
I know ZoS hates ability suggestions, but I'd like to provide one for the purposes of highlighting the type of approach that should be taken.
Mage's Fury (Live)Call down lightning to strike an enemy, dealing 870 Shock Damage. If the enemy falls to or below 20% Health within 4 seconds of being struck, an explosion deals an additional 3195 Shock Damage to them and 695 Shock Damage to other enemies nearby.
In theory, an absolutely amazing ability despite the relatively low execute threshold. This is more than made up by the fact that the ability can be applied at range and bypasses global cooldowns since it can proc within 4 seconds after application. So let's just slap a Major Buff on it yeah? To that, I say stop skipping ahead and read the whole text.
Instead of taking the 5head approach, lets change the base ability:
Mage's Fury (theoretical)Call down lightning to strike an enemy, dealing 871 Shock Damage. If the enemy falls to or below 20% Health within 4 seconds of being struck, an explosion deals an additional 3195 Shock Damage to them and 696 Shock Damage to other enemies nearby. This ability also applies Minor Fracture to the targeted enemy.
This instantly makes either morph competitive with Elemental Susceptibility or Caltrops. While the penetration gained isn't as high, it comes attached to an entire ability that ignores global cooldowns. If one wishes to take it one step further, Endless Fury could apply Major Fracture if the enemy is below 20% Health.
Outcomes:- Not a 100% buff. This approach really leans into the idea that a magsorc needs to land all three abilities to secure a kill without overbuffing them outside of execute. Remember, we haven't added any power outside of Fury damage since Elemental Susceptibility was previously on our bar. We also are not increasing magsorc damage strictly by the Fury tooltip since the Status Effect damage is lost
- Does not invalidate Elemental Susceptibility as a choice. If you want better sustained damage, it's still the clear winner, but Fury caters better to the burst play style.
- Clearly defines one morph as the AoE Champion (Mage's Wrath) and the other as best for single target/sustain (Endless Fury)
- Bonus: this has negligible impact on PvE, where these buffs are constantly up anyways, leaving the class open to buffs that would specifically benefit PvE
This should be the approach to buffing MagSorc.- We don't need to throw in random damage buffs that do nothing, we need incentive to slot other abilities that isn't overshadowed by what is lost.
- We create clear morph identities
- We don't invalidate other abilities that fill similar roles
- We don't sacrifice PvE balance for PvP or vice-versa
Misc. Quality of Life Changes
Some small changes that aren't really a buff but would definitely smooth out gameplay- Remove Overload activation from the global cooldown. This has made using the ability incredibly clunky and deadly when in combat/lag
- Revert the Streak change so that magsorcs move in the direction the camera is facing and not the character
- Allow Bound Armor and morphs to provide the 8% resource buff regardless of bar swap, similar to Arcanist's Tome-Bearer's Inspiration
- For the love of god, please let Rune Cage deal damage on Stun activation and not expiration
- Same ^ for Shattering Prison
- Daedric Mines cost is no longer matched by it's damage. A small cost reduction would help. Skill functionality is fine.
Streamline pet performance
More distinction between Atronach morphsFirst off, thanks.
Minor Berserk is a welcome buff. Not really addressing the classes current weakness but it does allow some things to be moved around. The additional damage means that some stats can be moved into survivability, which is what magsorc really struggles with.
Having said that, if you look at the sorc skills, there are quite a few powerful abilities that would improve the class if slotted.The challenge is figuring out what to give up in order to get these abilities on our bar.
The Real Problem
Currently, Elemental Susceptibility and Mage Light are two common abilities that find their way on a magsorcs bar. As just mentioned, the problem is that they also take up bar slots.
Magsorc does not need additional buffs but rather additional bar space. This is achieved by shifting some of the power gained from some multiple n abilities and consolidating them into n-x abilities, thereby freeing up bar space.
As an example, Major Fracture gained from Elemental Susceptibility provides some much needed penetration. Even with this powerful Major Buff, magsorc still lacks a bit of damage (although not it's main weakness, but the Minor Berserk buff would suggest that ZoS also feels damage isn't quite there).
MagSorc used to be infamous for it's instant 3-combo burst: Curse>Fury>Frag. Any og magsorc has had this combo seared into their minds at some point. The fact that most magsorcs don't slot this ability could somewhat justify a claim that magsorcs have lost ~1/3rd of their total burst damage (1 of 3 abilities removed). Getting this ability back onto their bar would therefore equate to a (grossly oversimplified) 33% damage buff. So why not just slot the ability? It's currently a loss to drop Major Fracture for Fury, despite the whopping theoretical ~33%, pre-multiplier, burst contribution. An execute is useless if you can't get the enemy low enough.
In order to get Fury on the bar you need it to address a need that is filled by another ability that currently lives on magsorc bars. As an example, a Major Breach/Prophecy substitute. But how do we do that? Easy, just slap it on an ability like Fury, right? Wrong. At least, if we want this change to be healthy for the overall game state. The approach is critical here.
What ZoS Won't Read
I know ZoS hates ability suggestions, but I'd like to provide one for the purposes of highlighting the type of approach that should be taken.
Mage's Fury (Live)Call down lightning to strike an enemy, dealing 870 Shock Damage. If the enemy falls to or below 20% Health within 4 seconds of being struck, an explosion deals an additional 3195 Shock Damage to them and 695 Shock Damage to other enemies nearby.
In theory, an absolutely amazing ability despite the relatively low execute threshold. This is more than made up by the fact that the ability can be applied at range and bypasses global cooldowns since it can proc within 4 seconds after application. So let's just slap a Major Buff on it yeah? To that, I say stop skipping ahead and read the whole text.
Instead of taking the 5head approach, lets change the base ability:
Mage's Fury (theoretical)Call down lightning to strike an enemy, dealing 871 Shock Damage. If the enemy falls to or below 20% Health within 4 seconds of being struck, an explosion deals an additional 3195 Shock Damage to them and 696 Shock Damage to other enemies nearby. This ability also applies Minor Fracture to the targeted enemy.
This instantly makes either morph competitive with Elemental Susceptibility or Caltrops. While the penetration gained isn't as high, it comes attached to an entire ability that ignores global cooldowns. If one wishes to take it one step further, Endless Fury could apply Major Fracture if the enemy is below 20% Health.
Outcomes:- Not a 100% buff. This approach really leans into the idea that a magsorc needs to land all three abilities to secure a kill without overbuffing them outside of execute. Remember, we haven't added any power outside of Fury damage since Elemental Susceptibility was previously on our bar. We also are not increasing magsorc damage strictly by the Fury tooltip since the Status Effect damage is lost
- Does not invalidate Elemental Susceptibility as a choice. If you want better sustained damage, it's still the clear winner, but Fury caters better to the burst play style.
- Clearly defines one morph as the AoE Champion (Mage's Wrath) and the other as best for single target/sustain (Endless Fury)
- Bonus: this has negligible impact on PvE, where these buffs are constantly up anyways, leaving the class open to buffs that would specifically benefit PvE
This should be the approach to buffing MagSorc.- We don't need to throw in random damage buffs that do nothing, we need incentive to slot other abilities that isn't overshadowed by what is lost.
- We create clear morph identities
- We don't invalidate other abilities that fill similar roles
- We don't sacrifice PvE balance for PvP or vice-versa
Misc. Quality of Life Changes
Some small changes that aren't really a buff but would definitely smooth out gameplay- Remove Overload activation from the global cooldown. This has made using the ability incredibly clunky and deadly when in combat/lag
- Revert the Streak change so that magsorcs move in the direction the camera is facing and not the character
- Allow Bound Armor and morphs to provide the 8% resource buff regardless of bar swap, similar to Arcanist's Tome-Bearer's Inspiration
- For the love of god, please let Rune Cage deal damage on Stun activation and not expiration
- Same ^ for Shattering Prison
- Daedric Mines cost is no longer matched by it's damage. A small cost reduction would help. Skill functionality is fine.
Streamline pet performance
More distinction between Atronach morphs
There is never enough bar space for me to slot frags curse and fury in PVP unless I sacrifice breach, heal, or spammable and spam frags… which is dangerous.
I wish we just had major prophecy/savagery added to Daedric prey or one of the summons, twighlight or familiar. It wouldn’t be an op buff by any means, would simply allow us to stop slotting stupid inner light, unless we actually need it for extra mag/detect stealth
Would be similar change to adding Major savagery/prophecy to NB cloak. I loved that. Never used inner light/camo on that class since pve or pvp
Side not, it’s worse in PVE I have no bar space for minor force AND a dot like lightning splash all thanks to two pets taking up bar slots…
Frankly while magsorc are doing decent, the double pet thing only worsened bar space issues. More than any class by miles0 -
Shadowbinder7✭✭✭RemoryAzure wrote: »MagSorc used to be infamous for it's instant 3-combo burst: Curse>Fury>Frag.
im playing eso for something like 2 years and ive never used that. the problem is that current eso's meta is built on tankiness + procs. this makes all these skills completely useless.
fury doesnt work because of how long it takes to get people to low hp, and only way to make it work is to rework it into spammable (since after 9 years we dont yet have a class with purely lightning based damage), something like: 1512 (70% of base ranged ability damage) + 432 (20% of base) if enemy is shocked, and this portion should increase depending on enemy's 100-0% hp up to 1296 (making this skill do from 2138 to 2808 damage with amplitude passive with a requirement of enemy being shocked, totally normal damage number considering frags itself dealing 2731 on its first normal cast on full hp enemy without requirement to run charged trait)
frag doesnt work (atleast for me) coz of its clunky gcd, its like 1.5 sec or smth, whenever ive done parces both with macro and manually, i was getting less damage in result when using it compared with simple one ability weave
curse is just bad coz of draugrkin meta, it deals simply ~10-20% less dmg than crushing shock, and in tank meta it just doesnt enough to justify using it, since u wont kill anyone in one (and in reality even 3-4) combo and any single pvp lasts until someone's resources are gone, its just better dps-wise NOT to use it, coz dps is what makes enemy's resources drop faster
after many tests and builds ive come to realization that the most effective build is just to build the most possible power into crushing shock and ignore anything else, instead of fury/curse/frags its simply better to fill the bar with passives like aegis (minor resolve + 8% max mana/hp to increase damage and survivability) or skills that last long enough like ele sus.
I have played 4-5 years OMG you are so right I’ve been thinking the exact same things lately as I dipped into PVP more! Tanky tanks are almost impossible to burst (unless NB double gank somehow, or DK corrosive), so better to evade and wear down, seems crushing shock and status effects do good with this.
Though… it is partially boosting this exceedingly dull and unflavoured Master daggers/Vateshran combo 🤢🤮0 -
StShoot✭✭✭✭stop resurrecting a 1,5 year old thread about buffing sorcs. Most of the claims in this entry became invalid.4 -
ZOS_IcymodGreetings,
We have closed this topic as it was originally created in April 2023. In many cases, it's better to create a new thread on a topic that you want to discuss as opposed to bumping one that is rather old.
Thank you for your understanding.0
This discussion has been closed.