Best single target DPS setup for magicka sorc?

GnGEmpire

Hi folks,

Was wondering if I could get some expert feedback on the way I deal damage with my V16 magicka sorc.
I will not go into all the details of my build, but only share the skills that I'm using them and how.
What I am hoping to get out of this is constructive feedback that will help me improve as a damage dealer.

Single target setup

Main skill bar - Destruction staff:
1. Crystal frags
2. Force Pulse
3. Velocious Curse
4. Endless Fury
5. Hardened Ward

Second skill bar - Restoration staff

1. Liquid Lightning
2. Power surge
3. Dampen Magic
4. Hardened Ward
5. Dark Conversion

Play style:

1. Use secondary skill bar to buff up and drop liquid lightning at boss location
2. Use velocious curse every 4 seconds
3. Shoot crystal fragments whenever it procs
4. Re apply buffs whever necessary
5. Drop liquid lightning whenever it's gone
6. Medium weave + force pulse whenever I don't have a frag proc or curse to re-apply
7. Boss at 20% HP or lower - just spam Endless Fury
8. If I run out of mana, switch to power overload ultimate and light attack until mana is back up

** The hardened ward that's on my DPS bar is there mainly for "oh crap" situations where I wouldn't be able to switch bars quickly enough

So that's pretty much how I play vs single target PVE. For PvP I do the same but use streak instead of liquid lightning.

My single target DPS is about 11-12k on a good day.

How can I push it to 15k+ or even 20ish?

Thanks so much in advance!

Kuratius

Look up builds on tamrielfoundry.

Your damage is *** because your equipment is missing and your skill bars are far from optimal. What race are you, anyways?

You're probably used to doing PVP and solo PVE; those players almost always have setups that are completely crap in group PVE, so it's not that surprising that you are so bad.

I could recommend you a mosty crafted setup that will take you to 18k DPS if you play it right, but I'm on my smartphone and can't be bothered right now. Kagrenac's 5x+4xhealer+2xtorug+toggles.

GnGEmpire

@Kuratius thanks for your attempt to help but gearwise I am actually all set.

Just need some help on optimizing my skill setup for maximal DPS output

Senaxu

If you play PvE you will not be able to do over 20k DPS without Inner Light and Bound Aegis. (no Overload)

If you want to play a real DPS Build without Overload try this: (SinglePvE wise only)

Destrostaff(Shock/fire)
1. ForcePulse/Crushing Shock
2. Crystal Fragments
3. Daedric Prey
4. Bound Aegis
5. Inner Light
Ultimate: Storm Atronach

2Hand/Dualwield
1. Boundless Storm
2. Magerage
3. Liquid Lightning
4. Bound Aegis
5. Inner Light
Ultimate: Overload/Meteor(your Decision)

Well, there are no many more options at the moment so.. thats basicly it for a magica sorc.

anitajoneb17_ESO

You people give up on structured entropy ? does that mean you're permanently on spell power potions ?

GnGEmpire

@Senaxu Thanks a bunch for the suggestion mate. However this means that I won't be using damage shield (e.g hardened ward/dampen magic) in PvE at all, which means I will have to rely on the group's healer, which means I will probably need to also invest in a health pool that's larger than my current 14.5K (with food up). and get it close to 20k. Am I about right?

FYI, what is Magerage? o.o
And, what about power surge? sounds kinda mandatory for DPS
@anitajoneb17_ESO So far I've been using power surge on my weapon swap which gives the same spellpower bonus as entropy and has a significantly longer duration. I don't see what reason I would have to use entropy instead, tho I'd be interested to know if there is such a reason

Senaxu

for the moment its just the best DPS Setup for the sorcerer. Its not built for a DPS/Tank build its just endgame DPS.
At least u should have 17-18k health. you can reach that with gear or attributepoints.
Also that means you have to have advanced movement cause you are squishy but with the right skill you will survive easy.
Magerage(Mage"s Wrath) is the execute for the Sorcerer

GnGEmpire

@Senaxu thanks again.
If you don't mind tho there are still a couple of things I didn't understand.

1. Are you recommending NOT to use power surge for the 20% spell damage bonus? I can't quite see why
2. What's boundless storm for? Just some extra protection? Shouldn't it be replaced with power surge? (which also provides survivability via heals)
3. Not quite sure what you meant by "advanced movement"

Cheers

anitajoneb17_ESO

GnGEmpire wrote: »

@anitajoneb17_ESO So far I've been using power surge on my weapon swap which gives the same spellpower bonus as entropy and has a significantly longer duration. I don't see what reason I would have to use entropy instead, tho I'd be interested to know if there is such a reason

Good question. I'm not much of a theorycrafter myself, I actually listen to advise and make my own mind rather than playing with the numbers. But as far as I know, there are three ways to get the major spellpower buff, and that's power surge, structured entropy, and spell power potions.

Pots have the obvious main advantage to free up skill slots for other skills, but they cost a lot and don't trigger any passives.

As to entropy vs. surge, "everybody" since 1.6 seems to agree that entropy is much better, mainly due to the fact that a cooldown was implemented on the healing aspect of power surge, making entropy far more efficient for self-healing. Furthermore, power surge self-healing is triggered by crits, and since 1.6, all magicka power-builds are build around spell power and max magicka, and not around crits anymore. Making power surge less efficient.

It's true though that power surge has a longer duration and does not need to be targeted, which is imho an important point.

Then there are the passives : it all depends if you're more interested in the mages' guild passives (might of the guild = +20% dmg for next attack, and magicka controller = +1% max magicka and magicka regen for each mages' guild skill equipped) or the sorc's storm calling passive (expert mage now giving spell power for each sorc skill equipped).

I haven't given it much thought since 1.7 (2.1) and if anyone has, I'd be very interested in that too.

Leandor

Also, Entropy is a (tiny) DoT that contributes to damage output, not much but better than nothing

I'm sure @Senaxu 's build depends on pots to provide major sorcery. It's the longest duration from pots anyways at 47 seconds.

FriedEggSandwich

To improve dps you could try to squeeze a toggle on your bars somewhere to up your magicka. Bound Aegis gives 8% more and Inner Light gives 5% more plus crit chance. If I was pve'ing in an organised group I would be tempted to put both toggles on both bars. I haven't pve'd since 1.6 so this might not work anymore idk, but my pve loadout was:

Bar 1 Fire Staff:
Velocious Curse
Crushing Shock (for the ranged interrupt)
Crystal Frags
Bound Aegis
Inner Light

Bar 2 Fire Staff:
Power Surge
Elemental Ring
Mages Wrath
Bound Aegis
Inner Light

All angles were covered; had the single target on bar 1 and the buff, aoe and execute on bar 2, had crit, spell damage and max magicka. Didn't need wards because always had a healer in the group. Only downsides to it were mobility and regen, but you can put dark exchange on your overload bar, or just drink potions.

Alternatively you could just neglect your hp completely, putting everything into max magicka and then rely on a 20k hardened ward as your hp buffer, and stack spell damage gear.

anitajoneb17_ESO

@FriedEggSandwich : not using liquid lightning for a sorc looks like a big waste imho...

Septimus_Magna

Single target dps setup without spell power pots:

Bar 1 - fire destro: force pulse, cfrags, liquid lightning, bound aegis, inner light - shooting star
Bar 2 - two-handed: power surge, mages wrath, hardened ward, bound aegis, inner light - power overload
Overload bar: power surge, mages wrath, liquid lightning, bound aegis, inner light

The idea is to store 1000 ultimate before the boss, buff up with power surge, cast liquid lightning and overload. Keep applying the buffs when they run out. This should give you at least 16-18k dps until your ultimate is depleted.

After that do the normal dmg rotation and hit meteor when its up.

For the optimal effect the Molag Kena's 2-set is required with all spell dmg jewelry glyphs and thief mundus stone. This makes is a bit harder to sustain your magicka during the normal dmg rotation. It really helps if the healer uses siphon and/or elemental drain for the magicka return.

In normal dungeon situations I prefer the Nerienths 2-set as it procs all the time off force pulse weave and it does quite a lot aoe dmg.

FriedEggSandwich

anitajoneb17_ESO wrote: »

@FriedEggSandwich : not using liquid lightning for a sorc looks like a big waste imho...

Fair point. You could easily switch out curse for liquid lightening in the loadout I posted.

Xeven

It's amusing to me when pve guys make fun of pvp builds. PvE play provides the luxury of inner light and bound armor. The only difference is that the fights are scripted and you dont have to slot skills to counter four classes, so you can go all out DPS. That and you have a healer, or a tank, or both to prop you up.

I can say with certainty that PvP players would be far far better at PvE than self proclaimed PvEers, if we actually cared to PvE.

Source:
I camp the sewer entrance, and for the first time I get to see you PvEers in action. No disrespect, but you guys melt like ice in a blast furnace. I actually feel bad that ZOS is forcing you guys to deal with people like me. Nah, not really.

anitajoneb17_ESO

Xeven wrote: »

It's amusing to me when pve guys make fun of pvp builds. PvE play provides the luxury of inner light and bound armor. The only difference is that the fights are scripted and you dont have to slot skills to counter four classes, so you can go all out DPS. That and you have a healer, or a tank, or both to prop you up.

I can say with certainty that PvP players would be far far better at PvE than self proclaimed PvEers, if we actually cared to PvE.

Source:
I camp the sewer entrance, and for the first time I get to see you PvEers in action. No disrespect, but you guys melt like ice in a blast furnace. I actually feel bad that ZOS is forcing you guys to deal with people like me. Nah, not really.

Who's making a fun here of PvP builds ? Noone. You just want to express your despise and arrogance for PvEers, that's all. I thought these miserable chilsdish "who's got the biggest" issues between PvPers and PvEers were long overdue.
I could tell you too how PvPers fall like flies as soon as they set foot in a PvE vet dungeon.

But I prefer to outline that if you were really that good a PvPer you would seek worthier opponents than poor PvEers just entering the IC.

Xeven

Kuratius wrote: »

Look up builds on tamrielfoundry.

Your damage is *** because your equipment is missing and your skill bars are far from optimal. What race are you, anyways?

You're probably used to doing PVP and solo PVE; those players almost always have setups that are completely crap in group PVE, so it's not that surprising that you are so bad.

I could recommend you a mosty crafted setup that will take you to 18k DPS if you play it right, but I'm on my smartphone and can't be bothered right now. Kagrenac's 5x+4xhealer+2xtorug+toggles.

Second post. I lol'd.

GnGEmpire

Thanks for all the suggestions folks, it seems that the 2 main things I'm going to take home from this discussion is the use of toggles, and the second things which is a consequence of the first - rely on the group's healer so that I have the free slots for those toggles.

Also spellpower potions seem like a great idea that didn't even occur to me (I have only been using the basic potions that drop from mobs so far)

Regarding the self healing from entropy, do the heals proc only on light attacks or do they proc on spell attacks too?

anitajoneb17_ESO

Structured entropy's healing doesn't "proc", it's a HoT that starts with the ability. It doesn't depend on other attacks/damage (unlike power surge).

Senaxu

GnGEmpire wrote: »

Thanks for all the suggestions folks, it seems that the 2 main things I'm going to take home from this discussion is the use of toggles, and the second things which is a consequence of the first - rely on the group's healer so that I have the free slots for those toggles.

Also spellpower potions seem like a great idea that didn't even occur to me (I have only been using the basic potions that drop from mobs so far)

Regarding the self healing from entropy, do the heals proc only on light attacks or do they proc on spell attacks too?

Well in a highend DPS build you should play with spellpower potions only. Forget Power Surge, Structured Entrophy, that costs DPS cause you miss some really important abilitys.

Also this build is like a "sorcDK" build cause you play in melee form if you want get the max out of it. With boundless storm you are grouping with DK's and for the execute phase you wana proc desintigration as mutch as possible. also you wana keep up the ultimategain with lightattacks(or proc desintigration with your shock enchant)

I know... play on meleeform isnt possible some times but i just told you the best DPS build for the sorc 2.1 atm. If you have not the money to spend it on spellpower potions or if you have problems to play your sorc in melee remove boundless storm. its about a difference about 1-3k DPS

Senaxu

double posted srry..