Magsorc solo survivability in bigger fights destroyed

Quackery · July 24

I return to PvP for the event after taking a break, and imagine my surprise when healing was removed from Magsorc shields. Does anyone at ZOS actually take part in fights?? We NEED the healing in order to be able to fight, especially in tight areas around flags! How many heals do we now have to slot, because Dark Conversion sucks! Drained stamina is horrific when every single skill in this game can cc you! I have to use my stamina in order to heal myself, just to be made unplayable by not having any stamina to break free in intense fights.

Good job ZOS, good job. Any other Magsorc ruinations upcoming? Would be good to know before I start playing another game instead.

tsaescishoeshiner · July 24

Isn't the heal on Regenerative Ward still there? I don't know if it was reduced or not, and it wasn't too long ago that these skills didn't have any heal at all.

I don't have advice for how sorcs have adapted outside of subclassing. There are some PTS changes but they've already been partly reverted, so it's hard to say what will stick.

Kaelthorn_Nightbloom · July 25

If you want a pure Mag Sorc build with no subclassing, then try Metallic Monk's build from 2023 when they won the 1v1 duel tournament.

They used Spinner's front bar, Wretched Vitality back bar, Chudan, DDF and used Hardened Ward (no heal on shield), Critical Surge, and Resolving Vigor to stay alive. Maybe try that and update it with Scribing?

Here's a screenshot from Fe7on's stream of the build.

Desiato · July 25

The buff to Hardened Ward was to make Sorcs more viable as PVE tanks because having a pet was not desirable.

An unfortunate consequence was that it made the ability completely OP in PVP.

With the introduction of subclassing, it was no longer necessary in PVE, so the change was reversed for the benefit of PVP balance.

I would suggest adapting to subclassing because it's a reality in Cyrodiil and it has resulted in a lot of incredibly strong builds.

Djennku · July 25

Just want to point out, if you had a strong build that used the shield prior to ir getting a heal, it's a bit buffed, but correct me if I am wrong.

Quackery · July 25

tsaescishoeshiner wrote: »

Isn't the heal on Regenerative Ward still there? I don't know if it was reduced or not, and it wasn't too long ago that these skills didn't have any heal at all.

I don't have advice for how sorcs have adapted outside of subclassing. There are some PTS changes but they've already been partly reverted, so it's hard to say what will stick.

Yeah, the heal is on Regenerative Ward, but they lowered it by half.

I'm having other issues now with PvP: people are unkillable with subclassing. 6 of us couldn't kill 2 because of how they abused cross-heal, along with Negate and Streak. I wasn't having fun at all. There's no risk any longer, so I might as well play another game. I used to have so much fun before where I could actually kill people, unlike now, where 6 of us can't budge the HP of 2 players.

Quackery · July 25

SkaraMinoc wrote: »

If you want a pure Mag Sorc build with no subclassing, then try Metallic Monk's build from 2023 when they won the 1v1 duel tournament.

They used Spinner's front bar, Wretched Vitality back bar, Chudan, DDF and used Hardened Ward (no heal on shield), Critical Surge, and Resolving Vigor to stay alive. Maybe try that and update it with Scribing?

Here's a screenshot from Fe7on's stream of the build.

This is what is boring with other peoples' builds: it's made by other people. I loved my own playstyle with my gear, but it's moot now with subclassing. I might as well just play as a CC over gates, and drop oils & use siege.

Quackery · July 25

No wonder people prefer Vengeance mode.

Zyaneth_Bal · July 25

tsaescishoeshiner wrote: »

Isn't the heal on Regenerative Ward still there? I don't know if it was reduced or not, and it wasn't too long ago that these skills didn't have any heal at all.

I don't have advice for how sorcs have adapted outside of subclassing. There are some PTS changes but they've already been partly reverted, so it's hard to say what will stick.

Regenrative's ward heal is so weak that it's barely noticeable even in pve without battle spirit and with battle spirit active it might as well not exist. Not to mention that regenerative's ward shield value is too low, it's not able to fulfill even it's primary function, so secondary effects don't rly matter at this point. Hardened ward can at best absorb one skill in pvp and if it's something that hits hard, say grim focus, then one skill takes your whole shield anf half your health in the process. When hardened ward can't keep up it's needless to say that any other shield is nothing but a waste of bar space, gcd and resources.

Zyaneth_Bal · July 25

Desiato wrote: »

The buff to Hardened Ward was to make Sorcs more viable as PVE tanks because having a pet was not desirable.

An unfortunate consequence was that it made the ability completely OP in PVP.

With the introduction of subclassing, it was no longer necessary in PVE, so the change was reversed for the benefit of PVP balance.

I would suggest adapting to subclassing because it's a reality in Cyrodiil and it has resulted in a lot of incredibly strong builds.

The problem is that the change came far too late and they took the heal when it actually became needed to compete in subclassing. Not to mention that other nerfs were made simultaneously.

Desiato · July 25

I'm sorry the god sorc class has to adapt to subclassing like everyone else. How terrible that is.

Zyaneth_Bal · July 25

SkaraMinoc wrote: »

If you want a pure Mag Sorc build with no subclassing, then try Metallic Monk's build from 2023 when they won the 1v1 duel tournament.

They used Spinner's front bar, Wretched Vitality back bar, Chudan, DDF and used Hardened Ward (no heal on shield), Critical Surge, and Resolving Vigor to stay alive. Maybe try that and update it with Scribing?

Here's a screenshot from Fe7on's stream of the build.

I'm sure it shouldn't come as a surpirse that 2023 build is quite outdated in 2025. ALthough in case of magsorc it would actually work in u45 as the spec barely changed through the years, although this build would still be suboptimal.
But the main problem is that sorc is difficult to subclass (if you don't only leave storm calling and basically turn it into a warden) and magsorc can't be subclassed at all because it's whole Identity is spread across all 3 skill lines. You can't imagne magsorc without bolt escape, conjured ward, dark exchange/crystal shards, can you? That isn't magsorc anymore, not to mention that without shields stacking max resources is pointless.

moo_2021 · July 25

Quackery wrote: »

I'm having other issues now with PvP: people are unkillable with subclassing. 6 of us couldn't kill 2 because of how they abused cross-heal, along with Negate and Streak. I wasn't having fun at all. There's no risk any longer, so I might as well play another game. I used to have so much fun before where I could actually kill people, unlike now, where 6 of us can't budge the HP of 2 players.

People were unkillable long before subclassing.

Subclassing actually increased burst damage because now you can mix lines with all the big hits and delayed damage.

Yudo · July 25

Don't think we should assume or surrender to subclassing being the only way to play.
Pure class is still a choice and very much a thing and compromising class balance to improve subclassing is potato.
Sorc skill lines are again at state before U45 and it is getting worse with each update due to subclassing changes.
The whole push and revert situation is a complete waste, months go by and we are still net 0 on improvements for sorcs.

Quackery · July 25

Yudo wrote: »

Don't think we should assume or surrender to subclassing being the only way to play.
Pure class is still a choice and very much a thing and compromising class balance to improve subclassing is potato.
Sorc skill lines are again at state before U45 and it is getting worse with each update due to subclassing changes.
The whole push and revert situation is a complete waste, months go by and we are still net 0 on improvements for sorcs.

I used to be difficult to kill before, played efficiently, but I pretty much keep getting 1-hit now, despite having high resistance and HP. I feel useless with subclassing and shield heal gone.

Arrodisia · July 25

Shields were nerfed long ago due to supposed stale mates. The other morph of sorc shields offer "slightly"more shielding. I emphasize slightly because a health cap is involved. Shields can't go over a certain percentage of health. That was, unfortunately, a huge set back for many DPS players in all content.

Decimus · July 26

If you want to play with a dmg shield, you can replace Daedric Summoning (or Dark Magic) with Winter's Embrace; Crystallized Slab pairs extremely well with Streak and the skill line lets you also run Polar Wind on back bar for example.

As an added bonus you also get the hardest hitting ranged spammable with Chilling Soul (+15% on tooltip+guaranteed hard hitting chilled).

Survivability has been very good for me in Cyrodiil with that.

Quackery · July 29

I stand no chance in hell in Imperial City now with how much cc I'm being bombarded with. My stamina gets eaten up instantly while I don't have any defence at all. The heal with Hardened Ward made it POSSIBLE TO SURVIVE!!

Everything in this game crows controls you. It's also so much fun to get hit with 10 debuffs...and killed by 5 different skills hitting at once...

Yudo · July 29

It is because everyone has access to unavoidable cc with the best burst and damage passives via subclassing.
Everyone can do a curse + streak style combo now, without really being a sorc.

Instead of Curse you can use deep fissure or blastbones to line up a timed burst, and get better passives at the same time.
Then use streak or spear for unavoidable/unblockable cc.
Finish things off with merciless resolve with multiple fires, just in case you miss once or twice...
At this point ult is just to put more pressure, because the skills are better than the ulti

The PvP brawling meta has not changed, just became more volatile with more power.
You gotta know what to expect, and mitigate these combos to survive, although a well placed combo is designed to be unavoidable now to some extend. So slightly high resistances and HP to allow you to break free is probably needed. Also it is more about blocking than shielding nowadays.

Funny how the king of burst was replaced overnight.
If there was ever a time where new players get stomped, or those with less optimal builds and pure classes, it is now.
Welcome to Mayhem, hope you are having fun.

fufu_from_ps4 · July 29

Quackery wrote: »

I return to PvP for the event after taking a break, and imagine my surprise when healing was removed from Magsorc shields. Does anyone at ZOS actually take part in fights?? We NEED the healing in order to be able to fight, especially in tight areas around flags! How many heals do we now have to slot, because Dark Conversion sucks! Drained stamina is horrific when every single skill in this game can cc you! I have to use my stamina in order to heal myself, just to be made unplayable by not having any stamina to break free in intense fights.

Good job ZOS, good job. Any other Magsorc ruinations upcoming? Would be good to know before I start playing another game instead.

the heal from the ward WAS too strong imo.... but when they removed it, they ALSO taking away 5% of our max mag, and also introducing subclassing..... so yeah.... magsorc is dead for pvp.

you can try what ive been using, blastbones/cam hunter/streak/force pulse/ spectral bow hulk smash with back bar vigor/surge/hurricane/scribe burst heal/ele sus/ overload. rallying cry lightning staff charged with stam glyph, wretched vitality ice staff infused damage glyph. shadow mundus. max hp/mag bistat food. 2 bloodspawn. 3 med 3 heavy 1 light.

then run it like magsorc for position, but just run to trees like a stamsorc would under pressure. no ward, better damage, defile is amazing, and you can range down everyone who is playing the meta warden spec, which is nice. also if you get under pressure, run in circles, then when they stack up blastbones, hulksmash, streak, force pulse.

but magsorc? nah bro sorry its dead finally. they finally got us after all these years.

LittlePinkDot · July 30

Quackery wrote: »

I return to PvP for the event after taking a break, and imagine my surprise when healing was removed from Magsorc shields. Does anyone at ZOS actually take part in fights?? We NEED the healing in order to be able to fight, especially in tight areas around flags! How many heals do we now have to slot, because Dark Conversion sucks! Drained stamina is horrific when every single skill in this game can cc you! I have to use my stamina in order to heal myself, just to be made unplayable by not having any stamina to break free in intense fights.

Good job ZOS, good job. Any other Magsorc ruinations upcoming? Would be good to know before I start playing another game instead.

You can use Vibrant shroud or sub class into restoring light skill line or use scribing healing burst or healing soul.

LittlePinkDot · July 30

Quackery wrote: »

Yudo wrote: »

Don't think we should assume or surrender to subclassing being the only way to play.
Pure class is still a choice and very much a thing and compromising class balance to improve subclassing is potato.
Sorc skill lines are again at state before U45 and it is getting worse with each update due to subclassing changes.
The whole push and revert situation is a complete waste, months go by and we are still net 0 on improvements for sorcs.

I used to be difficult to kill before, played efficiently, but I pretty much keep getting 1-hit now, despite having high resistance and HP. I feel useless with subclassing and shield heal gone.

People were just one button spamming the shield and negating any damage. That combined with streak was overpowered.

If you're having trouble with CC, then you probably need something that gives CC immunity like Race Against Time.

Also I feel like there is no true "mag" or stamina classes. It's kinda hybrid now. All my points are into health. The only things that give me extra of a particular resource are racial passives and armour pieces/enchants.
I tend to try to find a balance between Magicka and stamina skills, my main spammable is usually whatever resource I have the most of with the most regen. But I will use other skills that are Magicka. I'm using cutting dive (stamina) with bloody contingency and impale, both Magicka.
I use vigor and healing soul so I have both a Magicka and a stamina heal.

Vulkunne · July 31

For as long as I can remember, Sorc has been the dominant class in PvP.

I've known many talented Sorcs and for them this is just like a bump in the road. I'm sure someone will post some new build or vids that will help circumvent this.