Bow Sorc

AnnaUK

I'm levelling a sorcerer with a bow, using Crystal fragments from stealth, deadric curse, Poison Arrow and Thundering presence if mobs get too close. My ultimate I use the Storm Astonach. My race is High Elf. Having lots of fun so far.. tried the staff but I wasn't a fan.

I am only level 13 atm, but I am wondering where to spend my points; so far I have them all in Magika, but later on when weapon swapping comes into play I will be using the bow skills a bit more.

Also what armor would be best?

eventide03b14a_ESO

I hope it works out for you. Your damage is going to be dependent on your stamina pool, but that doesn't mean you need to use medium armor. In your case you are using your sorcerer abilities for utility and damage so you will want to make sure you have that resource available. I'd stick with light armor for the reduced cost of spells and magicka recovery since you will be needing to put more points into stamina to get most out of your bow damage. Your build is going to be tricky because you will be spreading your resources, but as long as you're having fun that's all that matters. I will be looking out for a rage thread from you in a month or so about how screwed over sorcerers are with bows. I suspect it will look something like this http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/134819/lack-of-support-for-melee-sorcerer/p1.

Cuyler

In terms of attribute points most people will spec to a 0-49-0 distribution with all the points in health. Health gives you a 15 pt boost for each attribute point vs 10 for stam/mag. Then the mag/stam is made up with the enchants on your armor. In the case of bow you'd want to use stam enchants on your armor to scale up your bow's damage.

In terms of armor, you don't have to rely on one specific armor type. With that said you are after all a sorcerer and your class skills are based primarily on magicka. However you prefer the bow which is stam based.

If you can see yourself using the bow more often than your class skills you may think of a 5pc med set for stam and crit increases and filling the rest with light armor for some magicka recovery.

On the other hand, if your using mostly class skills and just using the bow to keep your enemies at range (knockback) then use a 5pc light set and fill the rest with med armor.

EDIT: if your using a mixed armor build you want to use chest and legs as your 2pcs as they provide the highest enchant bonuses. Then do head, shoulders, belt, boots, gloves as your 5pcs due to the slightly lower enchant bonus.

Mix and match as you like but the general idea is to try to get two set bonuses.

CoolsHisHands

Bow sorc's are super fun to level up in PvE. But because pretty much none of the sorc passives cooperate with stamina, they are gimp DPS at endgame and in PvP.

There are probably people out there running medium armour bowsorc ganker builds for PvP and succeeding, but hardly anything beats light armour impulse spam these days for group utility.

AnnaUK

Thanks for the replies. I guess I was hoping to make good use of Magika via the sorc lines & the Stamina via the bow... so I had two resources to call on.

I use the clanfear pet as I find it useful for helping me out on packs of 3 mobs. Does the pet scale with any of my stats?

Forgot to mention I'm not much of a pvper.. so it's just pve.

Why do I always find the weaker builds the most fun?

eventide03b14a_ESO

Builds that are outside the box are incredibly fun. I like your idea and I wish it was effective. Sadly ZOS decided to go in a class based direction instead of more skill based like a typical TES game. This is one of those instances that I wish they had more courage to break the mold with, but instead they "played it safe" and made the game linear.

AnnaUK

I have this and another low level character - Dragonknight sword & board which feels so easy.. able to kill mobs 3-4 levels above me in packs.. seems a bit crazy.

I will stick with the Sorc and see what happens - at worst I can respec I guess.

I am new to the game but not mmo's and I'm known for doing weird stuff.. like 5 boxing in wow with a healer and x4 pet classes where the pets tanked heroics.

Bored of wow after 7 years now so trying to make my new home here in eso... with solo play.

eventide03b14a_ESO

AnnaUK wrote: »

I have this and another low level character - Dragonknight sword & board which feels so easy.. able to kill mobs 3-4 levels above me in packs.. seems a bit crazy.

I will stick with the Sorc and see what happens - at worst I can respec I guess.

I am new to the game but not mmo's and I'm known for doing weird stuff.. like 5 boxing in wow with a healer and x4 pet classes where the pets tanked heroics.

Bored of wow after 7 years now so trying to make my new home here in eso... with solo play.

You should pick up a fire destruction staff with your DK if you really want to make it easy.

AnnaUK

I was thinking of that for my second weapon on dk once I'm higher lol

Cuyler

AnnaUK wrote: »

I use the clanfear pet as I find it useful for helping me out on packs of 3 mobs. Does the pet scale with any of my stats?

I'm not sure exactly how pets scale, but they do. My twilight is certainly more powerful at VR1 than it was at lvl 25.

AnnaUK wrote: »

Why do I always find the weaker builds the most fun?

I word, diversity. lol

Being a one trick pony can be quite boring. For example I already had an idea what my end game sorcerer build was going into it and have been speccing to that from lvl 1. Doing the same thing over and over with the same skills takes some fun out of it.

a mixed build allows you to handle more situations which is a plus. You may have a tough time come endgame but can always respect like you said.

Cody

im currently playing something very similar.

mines is in all medium armor. she attacks from stealth with her bow, and then uses crystal frags right after to deal good damage and/or stun the enemy. mages fury as an executioner, and soon to be surge for increased damage and snipe for its raw power and range.

her secondary weapon is a 2H axe. reverse slash(soon to be) for executioner, brawler(cleave morph) thundering presence, critical rush, and uppercut.

currently I have gone 0-9-9. I intend for it to be 0-24-25, with some stamina glyphs for increases weapon damage.

works out well so far.

AnnaUK

Which racials do you think work best with your build? I'm thinking Wood Elf atm.

What are you using as a heal for yourself? I'm not used to all the abilities yet.

I may reroll changing a couple of things.. but I would still like to keep my clanfear.. and as I have stuck all my points in Magicka it's just another reason to reroll - it was early days and good testing.

AnnaUK

Ok looking at a talent calculator I came up with this.. what do you think?

bit.ly/1vb3hOl

Yusuf

Rest assured though, Sorcerers are theoretically the class with the highest weapondamage in the game

dodgehopper_ESO

I'm still confused as to why a Sorc makes a bad anything. Every single class ability is magicka based. This is not different with any of the other classes. A friend of mine uses a bow Sorc just fine. For aoe effects, imagine using something like restraining prison followed up with Volley or Venom Spray. Some abilities quite obviously won't work well if you're heavily focused on archery (Like Dark Exchange) but so what, don't use that if it hurts your build. Every class has to make similar choices on abilities. Abilities like Surge are kind of a must. Conjured Ward / Clannfear/Volatile / Bound Armor can all have great utility for self protection. Bolt escape for battlefield mobility and crowd control. Also Boundless storm for that getaway move and some self armor and damage output can work as well.

Just because it sparks doesn't mean it can't be an archer. Just some passives in the Sorc line which OBVIOUSLY can help an archer directly:

Unholy Knowledge (Dark): Reduces Magicka and Stamina costs

Blood Magic (Dark): Hitting an enemy with a Dark Magic spell heals player

Exploitation (Dark): Increases Critical Strike chance

Power Stone (Daedric): Reduces Ultimate cost

Daedric Protection (Daedric): Increases health regeneration by 10% with any Daedric ability slotted.

Storm Calling (Storm): Increases magicka regeneration (Everyone can use this)

So all of those abilities in the passives are obviously nice choices for an archer. The only thing a Sorc can't do that a Nightblade can, is continually jump in an out of stealth. The thing is stealth isn't THAT easy even for a nightblade. Sorcs have solid staying power, and I say go for it. You'll have fun. I'll also say its good to try out more than one weapon, and keep trying out with things. You might find you like to use different abilities for different reasons. There's certainly plenty of skillpoints to go around.

AnnaUK

Thank you, I am going to keep with it

kathutet

AnnaUK wrote: »

I'm levelling a sorcerer with a bow, using Crystal fragments from stealth, deadric curse, Poison Arrow and Thundering presence if mobs get too close. My ultimate I use the Storm Astonach. My race is High Elf. Having lots of fun so far.. tried the staff but I wasn't a fan.

I am only level 13 atm, but I am wondering where to spend my points; so far I have them all in Magika, but later on when weapon swapping comes into play I will be using the bow skills a bit more.

Also what armor would be best?

I'm doing and have done (since beta) the same as you. I'm VR1 now and I love the build. My advice is when you get to lvl 15 get a destro staff as a secondary for the impulse AOE as bow doesn't have any good AOE. Focus on getting abilities that let you do combat without the enemy getting near you. That + the high DPS of a bow + crystal shards has made the built work all the way into veteran rank for me. If you have any questions feel free to message @kathutet

lpool96

AnnaUK wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. I guess I was hoping to make good use of Magika via the sorc lines & the Stamina via the bow... so I had two resources to call on.

I use the clanfear pet as I find it useful for helping me out on packs of 3 mobs. Does the pet scale with any of my stats?

Forgot to mention I'm not much of a pvper.. so it's just pve.

Why do I always find the weaker builds the most fun?

You should use the Arrow Spray/Bombard combined with the Volley/Scorched Earth for multiply mobs, they won't even move You need high stamina for this and with the Encase/Restraining Prison in backup should they move, you are totally safe here. I use the Summon Winged Twilight/Summon Twilight Matriarch which fight and heals me when under 35% health. I'm very happy with this build. Full medium armor with reduced cost/added stamina. Greater Storm Atronach as Ultimate

AnnaUK

I decided to go bow/dual daggers.. hated the 2 hander - so far so good.
In dungeons the Clanfear is helpful most of the time.. but dies if it's in the wrong place at the wrong time.. so I'd rather stick to just the one pet to manage.. I had a staff sorc once with both pets and they died a lot in dungeons.

This is the build I'm thinking of using.. not sure if I should leave the points in Magika, as my gear will have the stam or? bit.ly/101mpBH

AnnaUK

kathutet wrote: »

I'm doing and have done (since beta) the same as you. I'm VR1 now and I love the build. My advice is when you get to lvl 15 get a destro staff as a secondary for the impulse AOE as bow doesn't have any good AOE. Focus on getting abilities that let you do combat without the enemy getting near you. That + the high DPS of a bow + crystal shards has made the built work all the way into veteran rank for me. If you have any questions feel free to message @kathutet

I made a new character and went dual daggers as well as bow.. I'm very wary of having too many Magika or Stam based attacks so I always have something.. Thundering presence is very good for when I am in melee with daggers - something like this build, althought I'm unsure about point allocation still.

bit.ly/101mpBH has a couple of heals in the build also.