Sorcerer Builds

AntTKD

I'm playing as a Breton Sorcerer and until recently I've been using a mixture of destruction staff and double-sword combat. This has resulted in me dying a lot, especially as I progress further in the game. A friend who normally knows more about these things recommended that I just reset all my skills and attributes, focusing entirely on more magika and not trying to be more well rounded, as a Templar is more suited to the general stuff. I like to shake up my play style so I'm going to give it a try.

So, my friend's advice is to put all attribute points into magika, focus on daedric summoning of familiars to do most of the damage in combat, using a restoration staff to keep them alive. The idea is that I don't engage in combat too much myself, so my familiars take most of the damage. I want to be able to attack myself as well though, even if my familiars are my main damage-dealers. I can support them (and other players) from the sidelines.

Do you have any advice regarding a more specific loadout for my Breton Sorcerer? I'm a Level 37 and have played a fair bit with the destruction and restoration staffs so I have most of the main skills already.

Also, how will this set up work if I'm attacked directly? What about in PvP?

Tadhg_Longhouse

Pets aren't that useful long term, but you should be levelling as many skill trees as possible while you're questing. So if you want to put a pet on your bar to level Daedric Summoning it can be useful while questing.

If you've got Hardened Ward (the last Daedric skill) unlocked then definitely go for magicka and use the ward to improve survivability. If not then you're possibly going to run into trouble if you get hit at all.

Definitely dump any points you have in stamina elsewhere. Having points split between magicka and stamina only makes things harder.

If you need more damage resistance, consider wearing one or two pieces of heavy armor (preferably head, chest and/or legs) and use lightning form/bound armor.

If you want to avoid being hit consider your CC abilities. Encase provides a root to avoid melee attacks, crystal shard provides knockdown at range. If you want to split up a group, rune cage can provide a niche way to do that. Once you get ward abilities CC will become less important though.

I would recommend using the restoration staff mostly due to the lack of a decent class self-heal.

A couple of general tips for any caster: Remember to block and dodge. Even with a small stamina pool you should be able to block and/or dodge any major attacks. Also, remember to use heavy weapon attacks between spells to not only do damage but restore magicka.

AntTKD

So you'd either switch out my winged Twilight or Banekin and put in something like Bound Armour?

Also, are the perks of Light Armour good enough to justify the lower armour rating?

Tadhg_Longhouse

I don't know what you have available so it's hard to know what to really suggest.

What I would be working towards is having Hardened Ward as your main defensive ability. Lose both pets, have a mix of Direct damage abilities on your Destruction staff bar and Buffs, AoE and healing on your Restoration staff bar.

If you don't have hardened ward unlocked yet, then I'd be looking at maybe lightning form and bound armor in combination to help with damage mitigation.

If you are using magicka abilities then the passives from the light armor tree are useful. It is worth playing with while levelling though as you might find as a Breton that you already have enough spell cost reduction so some heavy armor might be more useful. For most casters though, I would be using at least 5 light armor pieces for the extra spell crit.

As a guide, here's what I would be looking at for my bars:

Destruction Staff:

Crystal Fragments
Force Pulse (or Clench)
Mages Wrath (or Endless Fury morph)
Velocious Curse
Bound Aegis

Healing Staff:

Mutagen (or Rapid Regen morph)
Liquid Lightning
Healing Ward
Lightning Form
Bound Aegis

Once you have hardened ward you could look at dropping Bound Aegis and Lightning Form for other abilities.

Basic fight would be:

Use Surge, mutagen and Lightning Form and drop Liquid Lighting on yourself (or on the enemy if they are mostly ranged).

Switch weapons

Open with curse, then weave weapon attacks and pulse/clench and use your instant cast frag proc whenever it occurs. Reapply Curse as required.
Hit them with Mage's Wrath when they hit 20% or below.

The DoT effects from Lightning Form/Liquid should soften any melee opponents while L. Form, Bound Armor and Mutagen keep you alive.

Remember any knockdown effects from Fire Clench or Frags will make the enemy immune to further knockdowns for around 5 seconds, so spread your spell attacks around to keep enemies on their backs.

Waffennacht

That's all for a dps Sorc, and such builds are by far the most common Sorcs out there.

I would just like to point out there are other viable builds. In example stam sorc (which I would not recommend until late game) or Tank.

I have been playing with Pets making the most competitive or at least comparable build possible.

For example I run heavy armor and pets, typically big no nos for Sorcs.

In PvE it's absolutely competitive, soloing dungeons is (from what I've experienced and read) is usually done best with a Pet build.

In PvP (your load out changes) I often find myself in a stalemate with dps Sorcs (the bolt escape is still a great move) Templars and DKs (honestly I feel these are auto wins) and then Nbs again I can stand toe to toe however I have yet to find a reliable or dependable anti cloak device. I personally will switch out something for shuffle or cleanse (anti cc device)

For Group play, in this build you're the tank, your pets drawing aggro is a good thing. Again new abilities will help in group play (such as Barrier or healing ward etc)

My PvE build is:

Restoration Staff:

Crystal Fragments
Hardened Ward
Dark Conversion
Restoring Twilight
Unstable Clannfear
Ult: (this can be a lot but this is usually single target offensive such overload or Soul Assault)

Sword and Shield:

Shattering Prison
Boundless Storm
Liquid Lightning
Restoring Twilight
Unstable Clannfear

Ult: Storm Atronach (typically this is a group ult, storm is good in PvE, the knock down, the aggro etc can be great)

Again this is my PvE build, 5 heavy 2 light (I do realize that your level wouldn't allow you some choices I have)
I just wanted to show an example of a non traditional Sorc that can be just as competitive as a dps build.



I know its hard to tell but that's me dancing on Ethas' burning corpse lol

AntTKD

The next time I get on, I'll have a look at those sets. I have found that pets have been working well for me but only when going up against no more than 4 enemies (Crimson Cove was impossible to solo).

I have also just become a vampire. Does this change much?

Waffennacht

I have been wondering about vampire too, I can't get a bite to test it though (I shant buy one lol)

As for multiple opponents, as I just soloed last night city of ash (at vet 9) I was facing numbers of ten plus. Especially the last battle, there were over 10 flame atronachs attacking me at once. I was able to stand there and regen all stats while being attacked.

With that much action I used Clannfear as a blood hound to track that teleporting Erthas, which was super helpful.

I have found a Pet build inherently should be a tank or healer type build, the DPS standard build will out dps any Pet build.

Tadhg_Longhouse

Being a vampire basically makes you weak to fire damage so you need to ensure you have some fire resistance to help deal with that weakness. Before you have any champion points it would have to be in the form of fire resistance enchants on jewelry.

The benefits to a vampire caster mostly come from the regen provided by the vampire passives but require a vamp skill slotted. The drain ability gives you a way to stun enemies at medium range but the stun works on the same cooldown as crystal frags, fire clench, etc so you can't stun lock enemies.

If you are considering the path of a pet-based sorcerer tank then the mist form can be useful for tanking as an alternative to blocking. Just be aware it makes to immune to healing so you will probably want to heal as soon as you return to a solid form. The ultimate is the real bonus to any build though. Devouring Swarm damages enemies around you while healing you so you can use it to self heal while surrounded by enemies while still casting other abilities.

While I did recommend a cookie cutter DPS build I personally do run Restoring Twilight on my bar, but purely for the Necropotence set. If I was tanking I would switch to a Clanfear instead, but I personally would not be running both. The build I use is based around boosting max magicka instead of spell power and only use magic damage abilities so I don't put Champion points into Elemental Expert.

Note: this is a VR16 build that uses the Necropotence set and I would not recommend it to most players.

Sword and Shield or Dual Swords (Willpower set)

Crystal Fragments (Only used when it procs the instant cast)
Shadow Silk (Not effected by stun cooldown, does magic damage and slows enemies, procs Frags)
Restoring Twilight (Magicka regen, extra DPS)
Bound Aegis (5% max magicka)
Inner Light (7% max magicka - 5% plus 2% from Mage guild passive)

Devouring Swarm Ultimate

Restoration Staff

Hardened Ward
Power Surge
Restoring Twilight
Bound Aegis
Inner Light

Overload Ultimate (with same abilities as bar above)

This build basically kites enemies and relies on Hardened Ward to avoid damage. The large magicka pool increases the Twilight's damage and Harden Ward's effectiveness significantly and makes spamming Shadow Silk a reasonable prospect. This is purely for solo PvE. If you were looking to solo dungeons I would adjust a few things.

FriedEggSandwich

At level 37 you're not far from unlocking hardened ward and bolt escape. These are fairly class-defining skills and make sorc life much easier. They are both unlocked at lvl42 of their respective skill lines. Resto staff is definitely advisable for any solo play.

AntTKD

Is it worth forgoing the destruction staff altogether, in favour of two loadouts that use a restoration staff but two different sets of spells/abilities?

Tadhg_Longhouse

AntTKD wrote: »

Is it worth forgoing the destruction staff altogether, in favour of two loadouts that use a restoration staff but two different sets of spells/abilities?

If you're not using the Destruction staff skills or attacks, sure. It would give you the benefit of being able to have healing abilities on either bar. Have regen on a buff bar and healing ward on your main bar, for example.

Just be aware that the restoration staff heavy attack is a channel so it can't be weaved in between spells as smoothly as the fire destruction staff attacks.

The other option would be to dual wield for your main bar as dual swords is shown to increase your spell power more than staves will due to how weapon damage influences spell power.

Septimus_Magna

Bar 1: fire staff
endless fury, crushing shock, crystal frags, pulsar (aoe) / liquid lightning (single target), inner light - shooting star (or greater storm atronach)

Bar 2: resto staff
harness magicka, hardened ward, healing ward, power surge, inner light - any ultimate you like

Cast harness magicka before hardened ward, and cast hardened ward before healing ward. This will make you nearly immortal in pve with enough magicka regen, Im not kidding.

For vet dungeons you can use lightning staff on bar 2 with pulsar instead of healing ward because the group healer keeps you alive.

AntTKD

I'm going to have to play more to unlock most of these skills. Right now I'm hunting Sky Shards for the skill points.

Resipsa131

V6 Dunmer Sorc this is my crafter so it's mostly running around craglorn; all attributes in Magicka all enchants in Magicka use anything that boosts total Magicka.

Double destro staff;
Clan fear, Restoring Twilight, bound aegis, elemental Ring, Hardened ward

Clan fear, Restoring Twilight, bound aegis, daedric prey, impulse

Keep your ward and curse up at all times and use your single target or AoE skills to burn them down

FriedEggSandwich

Septimus_Magna wrote: »

Bar 1: fire staff
endless fury, crushing shock, crystal frags, pulsar (aoe) / liquid lightning (single target), inner light - shooting star (or greater storm atronach)

Bar 2: resto staff
harness magicka, hardened ward, healing ward, power surge, inner light - any ultimate you like

Cast harness magicka before hardened ward, and cast hardened ward before healing ward. This will make you nearly immortal in pve with enough magicka regen, Im not kidding.

For vet dungeons you can use lightning staff on bar 2 with pulsar instead of healing ward because the group healer keeps you alive.

But if you cast healing ward 1st you can then cast hardened and harness last. This way harness on top will filter out magic damage leaving hardened underneath to absorb physical damage, and then healing ward at the bottom takes no damage so heals for the max. What was your reasoning for doing it in reverse?

CGPsaint

Tadhg_Longhouse wrote: »

The other option would be to dual wield for your main bar as dual swords is shown to increase your spell power more than staves will due to how weapon damage influences spell power.

I'm fairly new to ESO and even newer to rolling a Sorc. Can you please explain how Dual Wielding on the main bar would benefit spell power on the 2nd bar? Wouldn't that be a handicap for a character that is investing the majority of it's points in Magicka, as weapon damage scales off of Stamina?

Waffennacht

He didn't say it would effect the second bar fyi. The duel wield will increase the spell, but you are correct the light/heavy attacks will scale off of stamina and do less damage. I do not remember if you need to have the passive unlocked for duel wield or not (im assuming so)

Tadhg_Longhouse

CGPsaint wrote: »

Tadhg_Longhouse wrote: »

The other option would be to dual wield for your main bar as dual swords is shown to increase your spell power more than staves will due to how weapon damage influences spell power.

I'm fairly new to ESO and even newer to rolling a Sorc. Can you please explain how Dual Wielding on the main bar would benefit spell power on the 2nd bar? Wouldn't that be a handicap for a character that is investing the majority of it's points in Magicka, as weapon damage scales off of Stamina?

Dual wield only effects the spell power of the bar they are equipped on. So it doesn't do what you are asking at all.

You are handicapping your ability to do damage with weapon attacks, but your magicka abilities would do more damage. Honestly it isn't worth doing in the majority of cases, you are better off with a destruction staff for the passives and the ability to do more damage with light/heavy attacks.

The trick about dual wield is that the damage listed on a weapon effects both your weapon damage and spell damage. Better explained here: https://www.reddit.com/r/elderscrollsonline/comments/3e7d8j/could_someone_explain_to_me_why_dual_wielding/

Tadhg_Longhouse

Waffennacht wrote: »

He didn't say it would effect the second bar fyi. The duel wield will increase the spell, but you are correct the light/heavy attacks will scale off of stamina and do less damage. I do not remember if you need to have the passive unlocked for duel wield or not (im assuming so)

The passive gives a further boost if you dual swords and unlock the damage boost passive, but dual wield by default increases spell power more than two-handed weapons (unless you use a two-handed sword passive and have over 50k magicka supposedly).

Septimus_Magna

FriedEggSandwich wrote: »

Septimus_Magna wrote: »

Bar 1: fire staff
endless fury, crushing shock, crystal frags, pulsar (aoe) / liquid lightning (single target), inner light - shooting star (or greater storm atronach)

Bar 2: resto staff
harness magicka, hardened ward, healing ward, power surge, inner light - any ultimate you like

Cast harness magicka before hardened ward, and cast hardened ward before healing ward. This will make you nearly immortal in pve with enough magicka regen, Im not kidding.

For vet dungeons you can use lightning staff on bar 2 with pulsar instead of healing ward because the group healer keeps you alive.

But if you cast healing ward 1st you can then cast hardened and harness last. This way harness on top will filter out magic damage leaving hardened underneath to absorb physical damage, and then healing ward at the bottom takes no damage so heals for the max. What was your reasoning for doing it in reverse?

I was under the impression that shields worked first-in, first-out way.

So if you cast harness magicka first it absorbs the magic dmg, then hardened ward to absorb the phys dmg and then healing ward so you heal-shield is protected.

Im gonna do some testing tonight to be sure because Im confused now

Defilted

Here is what I use. I have never needed a pet. I one man dolmens and public dungeons. I destroy mobs in 1 to 3 hits. I did add Hardened ward in there on some of the more hard hitting world bosses but I find most of the time I do need Harden ward. Just makes it easier.

You want to stack Spell crit and Crit damage. The point of this build is to keep yourself healed an use that constant stream of health to fill you magika bar when needed. This is a great sustained DPS build and because of C-frags you get great burst damage as well.


First bar Destruction staff
Critical Surge
Crushing shock
Crystal Fragments
Mages Fury
Dark conversion or Equilibrium(You can also drop in Hardened ward here)
Overload

Second bar Destruction staff
Critical Surge( If you are a good bar flipper you can replace this with something else)
Elemental blockade or replace with lighting flood
Elemental ring
Boundless storm
Shattering prison
Overload

Third bar(Because I used overload twice)
Critical surge
Bound armaments
Inner light
Bolt escape
Annulment

Only Resto staff on the second bar for leveling Resto staff and if you have to fill in for a healer. Resto Skills I use are Rapid regen and Healing springs.

Septimus_Magna

Defilted wrote: »

Here is what I use. I have never needed a pet. I one man dolmens and public dungeons. I destroy mobs in 1 to 3 hits. I did add Hardened ward in there on some of the more hard hitting world bosses but I find most of the time I do need Harden ward. Just makes it easier.

You want to stack Spell crit and Crit damage. The point of this build is to keep yourself healed an use that constant stream of health to fill you magika bar when needed. This is a great sustained DPS build and because of C-frags you get great burst damage as well.


First bar Destruction staff
Critical Surge
Crushing shock
Crystal Fragments
Mages Fury
Dark conversion or Equilibrium(You can also drop in Hardened ward here)
Overload

Second bar Destruction staff
Critical Surge( If you are a good bar flipper you can replace this with something else)
Elemental blockade or replace with lighting flood
Elemental ring
Boundless storm
Shattering prison
Overload

Third bar(Because I used overload twice)
Critical surge
Bound armaments
Inner light
Bolt escape
Annulment

Only Resto staff on the second bar for leveling Resto staff and if you have to fill in for a healer. Resto Skills I use are Rapid regen and Healing springs.

I think you mean Power Surge instead of Crit Surge because thats for stamina builds

Defilted

No I mean critical surge. I do not care about the extra effect. I want to extra healing.

Defilted

Funny now that you say that. I went back looking at ESO head and I see the tool tip changed. Used to be you got more healing on crit surge, but this is no longer the case. Interesting. Seems the 2 are the same now except for the extra damage. I will switch later.


I had to come back and edit. So the extra effect of Cirt surge is it heals you for more. This has not changed. So this is still a good spell to use for my build. I would be interesting however to see how much less healing I get with power surge, but based on the damage I am doing I do not believe I need the extra damage from Power surge, but it is worth looking at.

Septimus_Magna

Defilted wrote: »

No I mean critical surge. I do not care about the extra effect. I want to extra healing.

So you rely on spell power pots 100% of the time for the Major Sorcery buff?

That a pretty expensive solution for 10% increased healing imo, just slot healing ward if you need heals.

nordsavage

*Gear 6 light, one heavy (For some armor).
Nerien'eths 2 piece or other undaunted sets that proc by damage. (Not DOT or by getting hit)
Martial knowledge x4: Gloves, Sash, Boots and Breeches.
Torug's Pact x2 Chest and Staffs (Nirnhoned): Fire for single target bar lightning for AOE bar (Disintegrate). I throw a healing staff on for off healing or solo. At least make your weapons legendary quality.
Willpower with arcane x3 and 2 spell power enchants and one regen or reduce magicka cost

*Apprentice Mundus boon. All attribute points in magicka. Sort your Champion points how you want but recommend Elfborn x10, Spell Erosion x10 and at least x10 in Elemental Expert for a minimum of 30 in the Apprentice tree. Armor enchants all health and since I like to mainly PvE I use Prismatic Onslaught enchants on my staffs. I am a firm believer in Tri-stat food even for casters. Magicka potions for most and Spell Power/Crit/Magicka potions for the tougher bosses.

*Single target bar: Magelight (Your preferred morph), Entropy (Same), Crushing Shock, Crystal Fragments, Mages Fury and

~Buff spell and DoT with Entropy then weave Crushing Shock with light attacks (light for faster attacks to proc helm). Activate Crushing shock when it procs and execute at under 20% health with Mages Wrath.

*AOE bar: Magelight, Elemental Ring, Boundless storm, Power Surge (this over entropy for crit heals when surrounded) and Dark Exchange to replenish after fights.

~Activate Boundless Storm and Power Surge before AOE encounters and place yourself right in the thick of it to get hit as many as you can with E. Ring. Block cast when heavy hits come your way or when low on health. Do not leave yourself stamina dry and pull to the outside when needed and circle the mobs casting E. Ring.

*Ultimate: Power Overload on both bars so you can hammer when you need to and replenish magicka when dry in single target fights.

~Ultimate bar: Magelight, Lightning Splash (Your preferred morph), Boundless Storm, Power Surge and Mages Wrath. Do NOT put weapon abilities on you ult bar as it will toggle off your activation and you will lose the Expert Mage passive bonuses. Each light attack bolt hits for 10-15k and crits for 20k-25k.

With this build and a fair amount of champion points I can hold single target 12k-15k+ Dps over 3 minutes (Boss died could have went longer) and AOE 30k-40k+ (It is not uncommon for me to peak at 70k-100k before it tapers as enemies thin). And so help the boss that gets punched with1000 ult worth of Power Overload.

Defilted

Septimus_Magna wrote: »

Defilted wrote: »

No I mean critical surge. I do not care about the extra effect. I want to extra healing.

So you rely on spell power pots 100% of the time for the Major Sorcery buff?

That a pretty expensive solution for 10% increased healing imo, just slot healing ward if you need heals.

I do not use the spell pots for that bonus. I get a 20% increase to weapon damage still and considering I am firing a light attack after ever ability I am getting a bonus to damage. I have not yet come across a situation where I need to keep the major sorcery bonus. I have not yet PVP'ed in this game so I cannot speak to this type of game play but based on what I am doing to PVE mobs I am not having any issues.

Power surge seems like a nice ability and the bonus to spell damage seems like it would be nice to have, but my build is about sustaining DPS through a long fight and not being a burden on the healer in the group. I am able to take care of myself almost all the time. Questing is a breeze as I very rarely ever need to heal myself. I find that I am putting out a good amount of DPS in 4 mans and seem to be out DPSing my fellow sorcs that I am pugging with.

I frequently get singled out and put on duties where you have to burn things down quickly because the other sorc is not able to do so so I get switched to this role.

On the console there is no way to see the numbers so I cannot sit here and say here are the facts. I can only go by how the game play is and my experience in 4 mans.

At this point I do not need major srocery, considering half of my attacks are weapon attacks.

Birdovic

@Defilted

I dont know but,... weapon attacks? Staves get better trough spelldmg, not weapondmg.
Or was my life a lie?

Defilted

I have never seen that staff attacks are controlled through spell damage. I am not saying you are wrong either.

Lets say you are correct. Based on my game play I can say I am not missing major sorcery at all. I would say that adding it based on the destruction I am able to lay down would border on ridiculous. I kill mobs 1 to 5 hits based on cfrag procs. I melt elite mobs. I never have to stop DPSing ever. I can throw spells at a target until it dies with no rest. Again I have no numbers(Console), but based on game play I feel the healing is way better.

As to what controls staff damage. I am going to go on a fact finding mission and see what I can find out. I am sure there is something on this forum.

Defilted

leepalmer95 wrote: »

spell dmg + max magicka is how to increase staff dmg, it was likely a heavy attack, so all the passives that contribute, also a dk skill molten armaments adds 40% dmg to heavy attack.

I have found several quotes like this one. Some of the older ones speak of stamina but this was Beta/PC time frame. So it would appear based on the 5 post that I read that spell damage does effect staff damage, not weapon damage.

My previous statement still rings true for me. There is really no need to have this Major sorc that I have found so far.

I will however try powersurge and see the effects of using it VS critical surge and see if the healing loss is too great. This self heal has saved me many times so it will be interesting to see the difference. I am thinking that I would have to be more reliant on the shield(Harden ward) for the extra damage mitigation because of the loss of healing I receive from power surge.


The other thing to consider here is how I set this up
Critical surge offers a lot more healing that allows me to use Equilibrium to turn the extra healing right back into Magika.With Power surge I would be healed just as often , but would not be healed as much therefore I may have to switch back to Dark conversion for the magika pool boost when needed or just rely more heavily on overload mode to regen magika when I run out and abandon single target DPS mode for that time. The issue I find here will be that the single target DPS rotation hits much harder than overload light attack can do for a extended period of time. I would prefer to stay in single target DPS mode if I can.

Will be fun to experiment.

LameoveR

I've abandoned Healing Staff when i've got Hardened Ward.
Now i'm VR10(first character since March 2014)
I have a VR1 Warlock(would change it on something better) set and Seducer set.

Single enemy
Force Pulse
Crystal Frag
Power Surge
Boundless Storm(magicka morph)
Inner Light

AoE:
Elemental Ring\Pulsar
Liquid Lighting
Encase\Shattering Prison
Hardened Ward
Inner Light

World Bosses, Energy Overload bar:
Unstable Clannfear
Crystal Fragments
Power Surge\Liquid Lighting
Hardened Ward
Inner Light

For leveling magicka is not a problem at all.