defeating Molag Bal as a Sorcerer

Kreetar

I don't know why I chose to put this in the New Players category, but I felt I would irk people in the General Discussion. I may end up irking people anyway.

my previous character was a Nightblade who was able to take him down using a bow and the Funnel Health ability. it became very easy once I figured out that combination.

my current character is a Sorcerer who primarily uses the Dark Magic ability Crystal Fragments, Endless Fury, and the two-handed abilities Wrecking Blow and Critical Rush. I just recently realized that many Sorcerers also use staves, but I have almost no experience with them. the fight with Molag Bal was much easier when I chipped away with my (also low-leveled, but it did the trick) bow and Funnel Health. this time it seems as though I'm sh*t outta luck when confronting him.

Dark Magic offers Dark Exchange, which will replenish some of my health but also leaves me very vulnerable for a few seconds and drains my stamina. the Mages Guild ability Entropy also replenishes health, but I suspect it would also leave me too vulnerable while I use it during battle.

I know that potions are an option, but I have never used them in battle before (I know, strange). even so, would that require me having to pause and access it?

do I run around like a madwoman and try to gain experience in Destruction/Restoration, learn how to effectively use potions in battle, or just keep going with what I have?

sorry this is so long.

edit: thank you all for your replies (although some of the suggestions don't apply or CAN'T apply to me because I don't have certain abilities leveled). I've tried on and off for hours and even had someone else try to help me, but alas, nothing. I simply have all of the wrong skills, I believe. I'll probably keep trying. but for now maybe I'll just curl up into a ball in the corner.

final edit: in case any of you were interested in how this story ended (let's face it, none of you are but that's okay ), 1 good friend and 1 old, wireless mouse later, Molag Bal has been defeated. we pretty much had to become Siamese twins for this to work, but whatever gets the job done, eh? if I'm ever a Sorcerer again, I'll be sure to have lots of experience with staves.

Aett_Thorn

Stay at range and use your Magika abilities. You don't want to get up close to him if you can avoid it. It will be a long fight, but you should be able to take him down without needing to switch to a staff, but it would take less time if you even switched to any ranged weapon for this fight.

Nestor

Kreetar wrote: »

my previous character was a Nightblade who was able to take him down using a bow and the Funnel Health ability. it became very easy once I figured out that combination.

I don't know what it is about the Sorcerers, they seem to move on the battlefield slower than other classes when using a Staff, even for Light Attacks. My DK and NB had no real problems with Molag, but the Sorcerer did using the staff.

Anyway, as you have discovered, the key to Molag Bal is moving. You can't give him Heavy Attacks with the Staff or Bow, they slow you down, you can't cast Crystal Shards as that slows you down.

Here is how I took my sorcerer through this fight. Used a Bow, Cast Surge when needed, used Boundless Storm for the speed buff (and armor) and took a healing potion whenever the cooldown would let me. So, it was Surge, Storm, move backwards in a circle spamming light bow attacks and recasting Surge and Storm as needed. I never ran out of mana and never really needed the health potions. No other skills or items were used in the fight.

See this thread for other ways to handle this, but they are pretty much what I outlined above

http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/132488/noob-vs-molag-bal-hes-down/p1

Nestor

Kreetar wrote: »

I know that potions are an option, but I have never used them in battle before (I know, strange). even so, would that require me having to pause and access it?

Pull up your inventory window, then press the Q key this gives you your Quick Slot Wheel. You can right click on what you want to add to the QSW with a Right Click or a Click and Drag. Once you do that, then exit out. Press the Q key and make sure the potion is selected. If you have to take a potion for practice do so before the fight starts.

However, from that point forward, you just have to add the Q key to your rotation, and you can only take a potion every 60 seconds. Fold this into the rotation above so you take one every 60 seconds. Figure on about 10 potions for the fight. You won't need them all.

æxæ

I remember I beat him with resto staff on 2nd bar. It's really just a fight of endurance and dodging the heavy attacks he will execute on you. Not trying to come off it's as easy as one, two, three I will admit I have had my problems defeating him but that was mid april when he was tough as nuts, just saying.
But if you are in doubt with the sorc abilities itself, use a resto staff and heal
yourself inbetween that got me through the fight. Grand Healing/Healing Springs first skill on resto. And simply try to balance both your magicka and stamina, eg dont sprint away and such, just run around, it's also about positioning, really. Hope this helps and good luck!

Ourorboros

I was pretty awful when I fought Molag Bal. I was already VR1 Sorcerer, with bad combat skills. I died a few times, then found a large rock that I used to keep between me and Bal. Then it was just a matter of hitting Bal over and over with light attacks, using health pots, and circling the rock. I don't even remember what else I used, but think it was Fighter Guild skills. Main thing was using the rock as a barrier, just hit and hide repeatedly until I wore him down.

robynheraty_ESO

My main is a vamp sorcerer and I died a few times before figuring out it was important to my health regen to go into that battle as a stage one vamp. I dressed in heavy armor with health enchants, wore fire resist and cost reduction jewelry, and switched between duel wield and a restoration staff. The armor offered lots of protection, but was a little clunky and slowed me down. Barrel roll saved the day.

The duel wield bar was, Velocious Curse, Volatile Familiar, Hidden Blade, Endless Fury and Silver Shards, with Overload as ultimate. The goal was to stay as far away from Molag Bal as possible, so I didn't slot any of my close combat duel wield attacks.

The staff bar was Grand Healing, Volatile Familiar, Endless Fury, Crystal Fragments, and Silver Shards, with Charged Atronach as ultimate. The staff had a lightning damage enchant, as well as resto.

My primary tactic was hit and run like hell. Hide whenever possible, then hit and run again. I pretty much kept a finger on either the A or D key at all times to keep circling around and barrel rolled the second Molag Bal's red area attack got anywhere close. I used passives that reduce the cost of ultimates, etc. The volatile familiar is great because he does a lot of damage when alive and then does more when he dies or is un-summoned.

Resueht

Are you blocking often if at all? Blocking was key for me as a melee sorc using 2H weapon. Food helps too if you have access to some tri-stat food.

But the big thing is block often and block hard. Chip away when you can; it's not supposed tot e a quick fight. Good luck and hope everything here helps!

AlexDougherty

I have just tried with my Sorceror, it's ridiculous.

I have done it with my Templar and my Dragonknight, and it was a breeze with them. But with the Sorceror the difficulty between this quest and the previous is absurd, and of course I'm doing no damage to Molag Bal (well a little but no were near as much a I was with the other two classes).

Just to be clear, while I am complaining I'm not giving up, I have a plan, I'm going to try with heavy armour, and a sword and shield, and use lightning spells. I was dodging, but with Molag Bal getting every hit, and me doing no damage it didn't make enough of a difference.

Nestor

AlexDougherty wrote: »

and of course I'm doing no damage to Molag Bal (well a little but no were near as much a I was with the other two classes).

I don't think the Staff really does any damage to Molag, it seemed that way for me. I did it twice and could not see any appreciable drop in his health. Went to the Bow and could watch his health bar drop on each hit.

Use a Bow with Surge and Boundless Storm.

Syntse

Now I'm just getting tempted to get my sorc to this fight. Also looking forward on how this will go with my templar. So far DK 2h, NB DW and DK desto cleared this fight.

Kreetar

AlexDougherty wrote: »

I have just tried with my Sorceror, it's ridiculous.

I have done it with my Templar and my Dragonknight, and it was a breeze with them. But with the Sorceror the difficulty between this quest and the previous is absurd, and of course I'm doing no damage to Molag Bal (well a little but no were near as much a I was with the other two classes).

Just to be clear, while I am complaining I'm not giving up, I have a plan, I'm going to try with heavy armour, and a sword and shield, and use lightning spells. I was dodging, but with Molag Bal getting every hit, and me doing no damage it didn't make enough of a difference.

yeah, I definitely know the frustration (but, only with my Sorcerer!) so I wish you good luck.

AlexDougherty

Nestor wrote: »

AlexDougherty wrote: »

and of course I'm doing no damage to Molag Bal (well a little but no were near as much a I was with the other two classes).

I don't think the Staff really does any damage to Molag, it seemed that way for me. I did it twice and could not see any appreciable drop in his health. Went to the Bow and could watch his health bar drop on each hit.

Use a Bow with Surge and Boundless Storm.

Thanks, I realise my staff and destro staff abilities were useless after five seconds, but hadn't thought about bows. I'll give it a whirl.

Kreetar wrote: »

AlexDougherty wrote: »

I have just tried with my Sorceror, it's ridiculous.

I have done it with my Templar and my Dragonknight, and it was a breeze with them. But with the Sorceror the difficulty between this quest and the previous is absurd, and of course I'm doing no damage to Molag Bal (well a little but no were near as much a I was with the other two classes).

Just to be clear, while I am complaining I'm not giving up, I have a plan, I'm going to try with heavy armour, and a sword and shield, and use lightning spells. I was dodging, but with Molag Bal getting every hit, and me doing no damage it didn't make enough of a difference.

yeah, I definitely know the frustration (but, only with my Sorcerer!) so I wish you good luck.

Yeah, it was easy with me Templar and my DK.

AlexDougherty

I tried the bow, it did even less damage than the staff, might have been my build.

I used Lightning and ran a lot, even used bolt escape to get away a few times. Mostly it was running around rocks and using potions to keep my health up.

Neyephe

I was so depressed trying to do this on my sorc. I had leveled practically the same spells. What I ended up doing was taking a break and going to pvp with a resto staff to level it from level 5 until I had a decent healing spell. Then using the light attacks with the healing spell, spent 15 minutes taking him down at VR1... I also switched out some light armor for heavy, but only 2 pieces. I found I could just stand there and heal/staff attack and take his hits, only moving when he jumped in. Once I had the resto staff and healing spell, I one shotted him. I lost count of the number of times I died before. Like you, I had zero trouble on my templar.

Nestor

AlexDougherty wrote: »

I tried the bow, it did even less damage than the staff, might have been my build.

I used Lightning and ran a lot, even used bolt escape to get away a few times. Mostly it was running around rocks and using potions to keep my health up.

Hmm, wonder if it was because it was low level? You miss a lot more at lower weapon skill levels. My sorcerer was at about 35 on the Bow at the time of the fight. Heck, my DK was at 15 on the bow, but he switched between that and the 1H/S

AlexDougherty

Nestor wrote: »

AlexDougherty wrote: »

I tried the bow, it did even less damage than the staff, might have been my build.

I used Lightning and ran a lot, even used bolt escape to get away a few times. Mostly it was running around rocks and using potions to keep my health up.

Hmm, wonder if it was because it was low level? You miss a lot more at lower weapon skill levels. My sorcerer was at about 35 on the Bow at the time of the fight. Heck, my DK was at 15 on the bow, but he switched between that and the 1H/S

Maybe, I was trying the bow out of desperation, my Templar has a decent amount on bow and my new orc nightblade will use it too. But my sorc was trying it out for the first time, so maybe it was just a matter of levels on it.

Srugzal

An interesting side note -- well, it is for me, anyway -- I just finished this quest with a 4th alt, a light-armor sorc. (The armor is deceptive, since he at that time wore two blue rings with yellow armor-boost enchants that put him ~120 overcharged...) He had a hell of a hard time, which really surprised me. Seriously, he pulls 500dps in normal solo questing, handles any solo world boss, so damage dealing is not his problem (1.7k during this fight usually, given that AoK buff). He has a ton of magicka and overcharged recovery, so he's basically never oom. His problem was all the sprinting, blocking, and dodge rolling he had to do: not nearly enough stamina. Eventually he finished okay, but it took a long time, relatively. Being oos in that fight clearly is a no-no. It was a useful lesson, if an unpleasant one.

Nestor

Srugzal wrote: »

His problem was all the sprinting, blocking, and dodge rolling he had to do: not nearly enough stamina. Eventually he finished okay, but it took a long time, relatively.

What I have noticed is the Staff seems to slow the character down, even with just using light attacks. Since the key to the fight with Molag is constantly moving, esp with a squishy sorcerer, it can be a disadvantage to use a staff in this fight. Even with Surge I did not seem to move fast enough, nor was the staff doing all that much damage. Where the bow let me move and do more damage per hit.

Blud

I had no problem with a resto/destro set up and got him on the first try. I used resto for heals and destro with some storm calling spells. Use lots of our Sorc speed and escape abilities on both bars. The lighting based spells do a lot of damage on him now.

When he summons those adds, just keep your block up and reflect all their damage back at them.

I had on a freshly crafted set of VR1 Seducer's and Magnus. I never ran out of magicka or even came close to it. The fight did take a while, but just keep moving with all our great abilities. I only dropped 1 stamina potion and 1 health when I got a little careless.

The gear probably helped a lot with the magicka, which means pumping out that lighting damage and streaking away at high speed from red circles.

AlexDougherty

Blud wrote: »

I had no problem with a resto/destro set up and got him on the first try.

When did you do the Molag Bal fight?
Because it got Nerfed, I recently did it with my Nightblade, and even though I hadn't done it with a Nightblade before I could tell how much easier it was.