[AssaultLemming wrote: »I played a pet build on the pts for a few hours last night, magicka build, twilight and willows for gear, soul shine jewelry, destro resto staffs. Heals bar: empowered ward, combat prayer, healing springs (but the longer duration morph) Both pets. Dps bar.crushing shock, daedric prey, dark bargain or whatever it's called, magicka morph.
Basically I was soloing craglorn to see how this build compared, I find craglorn a good place to test a build for trash clearing and also for the occasional named mob.
The first thing that is clear is pets still need to do more dps. They take up 4 spell slots, and 2 of my other spells are really only being used for pets benefit. They simply don't do enough dps to be worth the spots, even watching them take down a single jackal is ridiculously slow.
The second thing is they still need more hps because you spend your whole time healing them or buffing them, if you stop for a second they die, and they need a health bar visible at all time preferably on the UI, not floating above their heads. They should show up like party members. You should be able to see the buffs that they have and their hps. This is basic pet management stuff.
Third: daedric prey. This spell needs to designate the target for pets to attack, otherwise it is totally useless. When you cast it pets should attack that target.
That's it really, more dps, more hps, easier targeting with daedric prey and they might be worth using.
The Daedric Prey is a good idea but I've been thinking about this skill.... I have to round some people up and test something on the PTS tonight.
If pets were not toggles, you would not have to devote half your slots to them. With so many toggle skills, build variety is stifled.
evan.pardoub17_ESO wrote: »Haven't read all comments, but I want to make a point.
I think the changes to Sorc are actually fantastic.
-Everyone is extremely upset about critical surge. BUT--sorcs have a huge shield, and now pets taunt. So if you play that build right, you end up with effectively twice as much health (the pet is a damage sink), a huge spammable shield, a massive magicka pool, and a (now extremely long lasting) armor boost. Basically, since soft caps are gone, sorcs will have giant (GIANT) pools of magicka, pets which absorb tons of damage (now that they taunt), significantly improved DPS capabilities like Curse, and (given the large improvement of healing staff abilities relative to Templars), sizable sustainable healing abilities.
On top of this, Sorc tanks just got beefy as well. Lightening form lasts forever. Pets can now be a viable damage sink--tanks can taunt up a room and the pet will draw agro on all the enemies focusing on the tank. The tank can now focus on sel/party heals, agro maintenance, and spamming the sorc shield spell. Throw up a few curses in there for AOE/pet DPS and you have a giant pet-based tank.
Our old sorc build will no longer work--Crit surge no longer helps with self heals (though it will still help to make sorcs elite with a healing staff). However, a build redesign should mean you no longer need the crit surge at all.
I'd very much appreciate all feedback....just don't get super angry. I'm just here cause I really like this game (flaws and all).
@Septimus_Magna These are some well thought out suggestions. I will try 1st option, with hardened ward.(ditching empowered ward and pets) I may keep crit surge on for rubbish heals but hopefully with super shield I won't need to heal much. Woe betide me if my sheild drops and I haven't refreshed it!Goodbye bound armour-hello 2 fre slots! PS I think you should post your comment in the 1.61 thread as well, since you really lay the facts out logically without putting too much emotion into the thread. I know I'm guilty myself of bolding certain points and using many exclamation marks:PSeptimus_Magna wrote: »@angelyn
Light armor is definitely a lot more squishy than before. I have tried some soloing in light armor and its pretty though, especially the wasp packs in craglorn. Usually you need meteor or storm atronach to survive.
The problems I encountered with armor for sorcs:
-shields scale of magicka and are not affected by armor and spell resist.
-lightning form is a lot better but it doenst add anything to shields which sorcs need because we have no reliable self heals.
-bound armor is underwhelming, especially because you need it on both bars.
-blocking drains stamina quickly so its impossible to block multiple attackss with a magicka build.
Options for sorcs to gain some survivability:
-Mainly light armor with all points in magicka to get very strong shields, no need for any armor or spell resist. Good dps and good survivability as long there is magicka so most likely option.
-Mainly medium armor with points in health, magicka and stamina with high weapon crit to get self heals from crit surge and added armor and spell resistance from lightning form. Average dps but survivability drops when you run out of stamina or magicka.
-Mainly heavy armor with points in health and stamina with S&B and lightning form. Low dps but good survivability as long there is stamina.
For pvp this is will even be more important because it forces light armor sorcs to put everything in magicka to get strong shields and keep the shields up so your health doenst take any damage. This almost completely removes the need for armor and spell resistance which is not good imo. It would be nice to see 5L+2H builds for example but I just dont think it will be any good in 1.6 because armor rating doesnt add much for sorcs.
evan.pardoub17_ESO wrote: »Haven't read all comments, but I want to make a point.
I think the changes to Sorc are actually fantastic.
-Everyone is extremely upset about critical surge. BUT--sorcs have a huge shield, and now pets taunt. So if you play that build right, you end up with effectively twice as much health (the pet is a damage sink), a huge spammable shield, a massive magicka pool, and a (now extremely long lasting) armor boost. Basically, since soft caps are gone, sorcs will have giant (GIANT) pools of magicka, pets which absorb tons of damage (now that they taunt), significantly improved DPS capabilities like Curse, and (given the large improvement of healing staff abilities relative to Templars), sizable sustainable healing abilities.
On top of this, Sorc tanks just got beefy as well. Lightening form lasts forever. Pets can now be a viable damage sink--tanks can taunt up a room and the pet will draw agro on all the enemies focusing on the tank. The tank can now focus on sel/party heals, agro maintenance, and spamming the sorc shield spell. Throw up a few curses in there for AOE/pet DPS and you have a giant pet-based tank.
Our old sorc build will no longer work--Crit surge no longer helps with self heals (though it will still help to make sorcs elite with a healing staff). However, a build redesign should mean you no longer need the crit surge at all.
I'd very much appreciate all feedback....just don't get super angry. I'm just here cause I really like this game (flaws and all).
There is a lot of information wrong in this post. Saying that Sorcs are strong because magicka pools are uncapped means nothing. It's weird reading your post with all those massives, giants, extremely, and other hyperbole. Also, nearly all your info on pets is wrong. They still have no where near enough HP to 'absorb tons of damage' and pets will not taunt at all in group situations. I honestly wonder if you even play a sorc or if you just came in here trying to knock us down a peg.
evan.pardoub17_ESO wrote: »BUT--sorcs have a huge shield...
sabresandiego_ESO wrote: »Stamina Sorc does not really work in PVP. You NEED to have damage shields in PVP and both hardened ward and annulment:harness magicka scale off magicka. The only way to make stamina sorcs work is to go hybrid and spread evenly between magicka and stamina, while wearing top quality gear such as arena and warlock and having 150+ champion points. Anything less than this, hybrid build wont work, and stam build will die too easily due to no reliable shield and weak shields due to low magicka.
evan.pardoub17_ESO wrote: »
I do have a question--you say pets won't taunt at all in groups. Is this true if you have a taunt equipped.
evan.pardoub17_ESO wrote: »
I do have a question--you say pets won't taunt at all in groups. Is this true if you have a taunt equipped.
Pets won't taunt unless the sorc is the only player on the monster's hate list. It's in the 1.6 patch notes.
evan.pardoub17_ESO wrote: »BUT--sorcs have a huge shield...
That shield is nice, and it's going to be our primary defense now that Crit Surge has been nerfed (and it's still nerfed in 1.61). For that reason, I don't expect us to keep it. There are loud complaints from folks who expect squishies to be easily squished in PvP. That sort of feedback frequently prompts changes for us.
ZOS has been nerfing sorcs regularly for nearly a year. It appears to be part of their patch QA process I won't believe we're ok until we get to console release.
evan.pardoub17_ESO wrote: »evan.pardoub17_ESO wrote: »
I do have a question--you say pets won't taunt at all in groups. Is this true if you have a taunt equipped.
Pets won't taunt unless the sorc is the only player on the monster's hate list. It's in the 1.6 patch notes.
So--does a taunt (as used by a tank) cause the tank to be the only player on the hate list? OR, does the taunt put the player at the top of the list? Pretty specific and I've found no mention online. Thanks for clarifying this!
evan.pardoub17_ESO wrote: »So--does a taunt (as used by a tank) cause the tank to be the only player on the hate list?
I don't have a Stamina build so maybe someone with one can answer that. Are there any Class Magicka damage abilities that are that much better for someone with a Stamina build to make it worth giving up a 50% increase in healing?Holycannoli wrote: »Is there any point to critical surge now over power surge? Yes you get a little more healing if you're a stamina build but power surge also boosts your class abilities and it lasts longer so why would you not take it?
Abilities that apply a secondary effect, such as Caltrops, will only snare the 6 targets who take full damage.
Holycannoli wrote: »Is there any point to critical surge now over power surge? Yes you get a little more healing if you're a stamina build but power surge also boosts your class abilities and it lasts longer so why would you not take it?