Heavy Armor Mages... viable???

MornaBaine

My main is a Breton Sorc, Dest Staff/Heal Staff, light armor traditional glass cannon. I LIKE that play style, always have. But I also just LIKE mages in general and from the outset I have loved the IDEA that you could build them in non-traditional ways in ESO. So NOW I am leveling another mage, this one heavy armor, dest staff/dual wield sword and she's an Imperial. I haven't gotten too far with her yet so I am wondering, before I commit too much time and effort to this, if such a build is really viable. And if so, where should I put her points? Any advice and opinions welcome! Thanks!

Aeratus

In PVE, heavy armor mages aren't optimal, except for tanks.

In PVP, there are lots of people who wear 2 heavy and 5 light. If you want the heavy for the aesthetics, you can simply equip the heavy on the chestpiece and the helm/shoulders. This will give you a pretty "heavy" appearance.

Jaxsun

You'll miss out on the magicka passives that the light armor gives you which for me would be troublesome as a full healer. It's hard enough to manage magicka as it is. However, if you're dual wielding you will be using more stamina than I do.

MornaBaine

Aeratus wrote: »

In PVE, heavy armor mages aren't optimal, except for tanks.

In PVP, there are lots of people who wear 2 heavy and 5 light. If you want the heavy for the aesthetics, you can simply equip the heavy on the chestpiece and the helm/shoulders. This will give you a pretty "heavy" appearance.

Hmmm... y'know this is kinda brilliant. lol But then yes, going this route WOULD make it simply a matter of aesthetics. For purely RP reasons I want this particular mage to be able to kick some arse with swords and I am still wondering if that's even a remote possibility.

Aeratus

It's certainly viable. There are lots of players using hybrid builds. In fact, what is considered to be a "mage" or not isn't very clear, since all class skills are spells anyways. Some of these hybrid builds are very good in pvp. In PVE, however, people specialize into either dps, healing, or tanking, but hybrid builds are viable even though they are not optimal. You can also have different armor sets on the same character and switch them depending on your mood.

For purposes of aesthetics, you can mix and match different styles. For example, the light imperial shoulders, and the light daedric jerkin look much tankier than the normal light armor outfit. On the other hand, the barbaric heavy armor look less tankier than normal heavy armor.

MornaBaine

Aeratus wrote: »

It's certainly viable. There are lots of players using hybrid builds. In fact, what is considered to be a "mage" or not isn't very clear, since all class skills are spells anyways. Some of these hybrid builds are very good in pvp. In PVE, however, people specialize into either dps, healing, or tanking, but hybrid builds are viable even though they are not optimal. You can also have different armor sets on the same character and switch them depending on your mood.

For purposes of aesthetics, you can mix and match different styles. For example, the light imperial shoulders, and the light daedric jerkin look much tankier than the normal light armor outfit. On the other hand, the barbaric heavy armor look less tankier than normal heavy armor.

I see what you are saying there. I will probably mostly stick to PvE with this particular character as I tend to just PvP on my main. Still trying to figure out what my point spread should be. I have a guildie who tells me to put everything into health and all my armor enchants should be magicka. That seems really strange to me though. Thoughts?

Lunerdog

I tried a heavy armour Battle Mage type character, soon gave up on that one

thelordoffelines

Heavy armor and viable in the same sentence..... Hmmmm..... Must be talking about a different game.

MornaBaine

Lunerdog wrote: »

I tried a heavy armour Battle Mage type character, soon gave up on that one

Can you explain why it didn't work for you? What were you expecting? In what ways were you disappointed?

Lunerdog

MornaBaine wrote: »

Lunerdog wrote: »

I tried a heavy armour Battle Mage type character, soon gave up on that one

Can you explain why it didn't work for you? What were you expecting? In what ways were you disappointed?

As a chucker of magic you need the regen and crit that the light armour passives give, if you can kill one or two mobs quickly then your ok, when your taking on three, four or five etc then your rapidly out of magicka and getting clobbered.

It improved slightly with the new taking damage = magicka/stamina passive on heavy armour but overall heavy armour still needs some love.

Gan Xing

Look into it now, there are better armor sets

NovaShadow

As a magblade I got away with 5 heavy 2 light, very workable with practice managing your resources.

Erraln

This topic is from 2014, y'all.

Recremen

If you want to do dungeons and trials and other group PvP then it's definitely not a good idea. It has some niche play in PvP, like almost everything, so who knows on that front, try it out. Otherwise you're better off either wearing a heavy armor costume or hoping they come out with a proper restyling/vanity slot system for armor so you can actually look the way you want.

Elfbait

There's so much disdain for hybrids around here, and I just don't get why. Just because they don't kill things as quickly as possible, maybe? Well, I actually like the tactical dance of prolonged combat. Besides, the Battlemage/Spellsword class is about as Elder Scrolls as Elder Scrolls can get. Classic, and not nearly as predictable as "pure" builds can become, imo.

I think it's totally viable for PvE. Do a mix of heavy and light armor, preferably a crafted set that has a mag/stam recovery bonus. As long as your character is truly a hybrid, switching between melee and magicka, the slightly less speedy magicka/stamina recovery will not be a major hindrance. You're basically trading specialization for versatility.

bebynnag

I have never done it, but a friend created a good templar healer in Heavy

they were able to complete all normal dungeons and some vet dungeons, but struggled with others, and couldnt do trials.

they used a high elf for the mag recovery racial passives

Recremen

Elfbait wrote: »

There's so much disdain for hybrids around here, and I just don't get why. Just because they don't kill things as quickly as possible, maybe? Well, I actually like the tactical dance of prolonged combat. Besides, the Battlemage/Spellsword class is about as Elder Scrolls as Elder Scrolls can get. Classic, and not nearly as predictable as "pure" builds can become, imo.

I think it's totally viable for PvE. Do a mix of heavy and light armor, preferably a crafted set that has a mag/stam recovery bonus. As long as your character is truly a hybrid, switching between melee and magicka, the slightly less speedy magicka/stamina recovery will not be a major hindrance. You're basically trading specialization for versatility.

If you're just messing around solo then nobody cares if you're a hybrid build, it's totes fine! But when you're dragging, say, a dungeon or trial team down because you wanted something that specifically underperforms, that's kind of rude to your group members. Unless they're into that, of course, then go for it.

NovaShadow

Erraln wrote: »

This topic is from 2014, y'all.

Lol, I didn't look at the dates.

Damn people necroing threads.

newtinmpls

Elfbait wrote: »

There's so much disdain for hybrids around here, and I just don't get why. Just because they don't kill things as quickly as possible, maybe? .

Min-maxing
Speed runs
in some (vet) cases DPS gates

If you play with more relaxed people, you have more options.

DannyLV702

Average questing/adventuring: yes
Trials/dungeons: no
Pvp: yes

josefcifkaeb17_ESO

You can go 5 light, 2 heavy armor pieces to get a sort of heavy armor looking character.
This is my take on it right before I hit lvl 50 on my sorc. I'm working on a new one now.

Mush55

Serious end game PVE no.

Pvp maybe but not optimal.

Just for fun sure.

arkansas_ESO

Heavy armor's in a good place in terms of PVP, for both stamina and magicka. However, I wouldn't recommend going heavy armor on a magic sorcerer, and your main defense as a magic sorc (shields) don't factor in armor resistances, which means your heavy armor is useless most of the time. Heavy armor will work well on any other magic class, though.

Kas

i agree with others, that it's very hard to find a spot where you'd say it's optimal.
of course, you can still clear solo content, maybe create a unique build to also do vMSA (but certainly not compete with top leaderboard scores).

Trying to think of niches where heavy armor magicka sorc is actually good:

1) Pvp inside a guild's zerg. Go for heavy armor and tons of magicka regen. be tanky, have the incredibly powerful negate (maybe wear ult cost reduction sets as well), spam your root, purge for your group and genereally try to do as much usefukl stuff as possible, that doesn't depend on damage values. You'll be VERY good and useful in heavy armor, however, a stamina sorc in heavy armor is probably even better. If it wasn't, such a build would even be popular, i guess.

2) group pvp again: play as a healer (you only miss cost reduction, reg and a bit of crit chance compared to light armor. the missing penetration doesn't matter) with slightly worse skills than a templar, but a powerful negate (personally, I'm not a big fan of this)

3) solo pvp: get tons of magicka reg. play tanky and very mobile (due to streak/ball lightning) and try to set up fire ballista + meatbag almost everywhere whilst keeping your distance (terribly boring imho).

4) reconsinder the whoel destro staff and jsut play stam sorc. stam sorc in heavy armor is actually just a very good build and not even a niche anymore for solo pvp, duels and great to be taken to a guild's zerg. also very strogn in solo pve

MornaBaine

Oh hi ancient thread of mine! LOL Yeah I long ago finally realized that the best I was going to be able to do was just do a magicka sorc wearing a heavy chest and one other piece of heavy for the look of the "battle mage" without ever getting to have the reality of a battle mage. I have a werewolf stam sorc just for fun and to have a different build but I only quest with her, I'd never even try dungeons on her alas, let alone much of any of the end game content. It's disappointing that we only have 4 classes and you can usually only build them one or two ways if you want them to actually be viable. Makes me wish there were no classes at all, everything was available, and you could do crazy builds til your heart's content. le sigh.

bertenburnyb16_ESO

*nvmd
its a necro

Johngo0036

King Richard had a heavy magicka mage build and was very successful with it. Obviously spell penetration and regen of magicka are going to suck but with dark deals morphs i think its possible

Schemering

In pve theres not much reason to want to wear heavy armor; i have been tanking all vet dungeons (except the new cradle and ruins) in light armor while healing and dpsing as normal, it works fine and bcs wearing light julianos/kena armor and spelldamage enchanted willpower the healing and dps while tanking is really high. Unless you really want to focus on tanking there is no reason to wanting to wear heavy, even not when soloing dungeons. It takes too much away and gives almost nothing useful back when your core business is damage dealing

Forestd16b14_ESO

2014 thread....

Well if this thread is still alive just know wearing 2 pieces of heavy armor does not male you a heavy armor user or your build a heavy armor build.

Also heavy armor is still not fine in PvP as a heads up. Blocking cost way to much, resistance is a easily defeated defense, resource manganent is still bad, and the mitigation is still only 50% which again is easily knocked down to what ever 10K residtance mitigation is.

Mady

Necromancer class confirmed.

xilfxlegion

MornaBaine wrote: »

Aeratus wrote: »

In PVE, heavy armor mages aren't optimal, except for tanks.

In PVP, there are lots of people who wear 2 heavy and 5 light. If you want the heavy for the aesthetics, you can simply equip the heavy on the chestpiece and the helm/shoulders. This will give you a pretty "heavy" appearance.

Hmmm... y'know this is kinda brilliant. lol But then yes, going this route WOULD make it simply a matter of aesthetics. For purely RP reasons I want this particular mage to be able to kick some arse with swords and I am still wondering if that's even a remote possibility.

the pelinial set ( not sure of name or spelling ) in the northwest section of the gold coast -- 5 pieces makes your spell damage or weapon damage both go to the highest number of the two. a friend just started using this heavy set up in pvp and says it is wrecking people.