Best Options - V16 (Magica) NORD, SORCERER ARMOUR

Tai-Chi

Lol!

I need help in choosing the right armour for my V16, Magica based, Nord Sorcerer.

Maybe it is not a typical choice but it is certainly challenging. Added to that is the fact that I do not have much skill as a player. It is only since levelling up to V16 that I discovered how to properly gain access to the secondary weapon bar! I like playing 'Staff' characters, so 're-specking' to Stamina based is not an option. Also my ever faithful Clanfer goes everywhere with me, which only leaves spaces for 4 abilities on each bar.

Having Solo played, I do not have many Champion points.
Magica is a problem.
Stamina is a problem
Health is a problem

Should I go for 5 pieces in TBS (to gain 2 ultimate and a boost to all attributes), with 4 pieces in Julianos?
eg
5 armour TBS, 2 Julianos
Staff Julianos
Swords one TBS, one Julianos

I was thinking, 5 heavy armour & 2 light. Is there a better choice?

Now that TBS has been corrected, do I put 'Nirn' on anything, and if so, what?

Why not just scrap the character?
She was my first.
She is the best looking.
She has style.
She has determination.
She is caring.
She is considerate.
She has class!

Please get your thinking caps on. I could really do with a lorra lorra help!

My Main Weapon - Destruction Staff
Secondary Weapons - Duel wield Swords/Daggers (They are still levelling up to max).

Current Attributes: M60, H4, S0

Blacksmithing: 9 traits known for all heavy armour.
Clothing: 9 traits known for all Light armour - two with 9 traits known for medium armour.

9 Trait weapons known
Destruction staff
Lightning staff
One-hand swords
Daggers

Enchantment
I can enchant any V16 glyph at Gold quality, except prismatic.

Materials
I have enough mats, skills & tempers to craft at least one, all gold V16 set with all gold enchantments.
I have sufficient 'nirn' to enchant 5 weapons & enough for 9 pieces of armour.

Arciris

I suppose that if you are a destro staff user, then you are aiming at being a Damage Dealer. If that is the case, you will get a lot better results with Light Armor: way better sustain and a lot more damage. You will need at least five pieces of it.
I would suggest: chest Heavy armor, helm Or legs Medium, everything else Light.
For Nirn in armor, not worth it if you are using 5 pieces of Light, as it gives you a nice boost to your spell resist anyway. Really great for your weapons thought
Math guys like Asayre have figured out that Julianos is better for pure dps than TBS, at end-game at least. Not by a very large amount though, but still significant at High End Game.
Since you suggested 5 pieces of Heavy, I will suppose that survability is important for you. In that case, 5 TBS will probably be a better fit for you, as it will allow you to have a better magika pool while keeping a more "agressive Mundus" as well: The Mage mundus stone as main and either Thief (&critical) or Shadow (more damage on crits) or Apprentice (spell power) - not sure which one will grant you the most damage in combination with the Mage.
+ Magika pool (Mage): your Hardened ward will be stronger
+ Crits (Thief): your Surge will proc more often, also adding to your survability.
+ Health and + Stamina from TBS are always useful too

Another thing about TBS is that it's way more versatile: get The Tower as your second Mundus, use Bound Armor, Lightning form, Hardened Ward + Harness and/or Healing Ward, add a taunt and you get a nice tank too (with a few more skills of course)

One thing to keep in mind when using TBS: it is better to keep it on your body to avoid having to grab a Mundus Stone when weapon swapping, and each time you remove a piece you need to get your Mundus again.

Also the trait for TBS to work really at it's fullest: Divines . Maybe Infused on your chest only? ( I hope someone that has all the combos figured out will clarify this)

You didn't mention Jewelry but I suppose you will be running Willpower.

A monster Helm set like Nenreith or Molag Kena could work there too.

Good luck

Tai-Chi

Arciris wrote: »

I suppose that if you are a destro staff user, then you are aiming at being a Damage Dealer. If that is the case, you will get a lot better results with Light Armor: way better sustain and a lot more damage. You will need at least five pieces of it.
I would suggest: chest Heavy armor, helm Or legs Medium, everything else Light.
For Nirn in armor, not worth it if you are using 5 pieces of Light, as it gives you a nice boost to your spell resist anyway. Really great for your weapons thought
Math guys like Asayre have figured out that Julianos is better for pure dps than TBS, at end-game at least. Not by a very large amount though, but still significant at High End Game.
Since you suggested 5 pieces of Heavy, I will suppose that survability is important for you. In that case, 5 TBS will probably be a better fit for you, as it will allow you to have a better magika pool while keeping a more "agressive Mundus" as well: The Mage mundus stone as main and either Thief (&critical) or Shadow (more damage on crits) or Apprentice (spell power) - not sure which one will grant you the most damage in combination with the Mage.
+ Magika pool (Mage): your Hardened ward will be stronger
+ Crits (Thief): your Surge will proc more often, also adding to your survability.
+ Health and + Stamina from TBS are always useful too

Another thing about TBS is that it's way more versatile: get The Tower as your second Mundus, use Bound Armor, Lightning form, Hardened Ward + Harness and/or Healing Ward, add a taunt and you get a nice tank too (with a few more skills of course)

One thing to keep in mind when using TBS: it is better to keep it on your body to avoid having to grab a Mundus Stone when weapon swapping, and each time you remove a piece you need to get your Mundus again.

Also the trait for TBS to work really at it's fullest: Divines . Maybe Infused on your chest only? ( I hope someone that has all the combos figured out will clarify this)

You didn't mention Jewelry but I suppose you will be running Willpower.

A monster Helm set like Nenreith or Molag Kena could work there too.

Good luck

Waffennacht

For 5 set Julianos and TBS for dps, with 3/4 set being magnus for more dps, Twilight's embrace for more crit, you could also use seducer 3/4 for more regen. In PvE grinding Seducer 5 set is good too.

Of course monster drops, but hard to come by soI generally stick to craftables.

Some players like some of the other dropped sets... can't remember names off hand. But until dropped sets are leveled to the same as the crafted sets, julianos and tbs for 5 set.

Tai-Chi

Thanks a lot,

Your insight with nirn on Light was particularly helpful. I had not thought of that.

On the whole, I was thinking on the same lines as you but you seem to have much more knowledge. Very helpful. My inclination re TBS was that it might balance out the shortfall in all attributes. That was the main reason for suggesting it. I never thought of choosing a more stamina based mundus. Good idea. The added bonus is that I can change the munduses - or is it mundi - any time.

If I decided to go for TBS to get the 5 bonus on both bars, then to my reckoning, it could be possible - ie 4 TBS armour and staff on one bar and 4 TBS armour and one TBS weapon plus the other set weapon on the other bar. Whether it would be a sensible option is another matter.

At present I have an assortment of blue and purple Trinimac's [sorry about the spelling] jewellery that I picked up in Wrothgar. In fact, I have completed almost everything in Wrothgar and have quite an array of, what I consider to be, useless equipment - several sets of all three armours in blue with a few purple V16s.

I do not play in Imperial city, so I do not have access to the jewellery you suggest. I shall look out for it n the Guilds. I would like to have a go at pvp but on the couple of occasion I ventured there, I died almost instantly! I have enough trouble looking out for NPCs, let alone other players that spring out from nowhere.

Your comments have been very helpful. You have given me a lot of food for thought.

Thanks

Tai-Chi

Waffennacht wrote: »

For 5 set Julianos and TBS for dps, with 3/4 set being magnus for more dps, Twilight's embrace for more crit, you could also use seducer 3/4 for more regen. In PvE grinding Seducer 5 set is good too.

Of course monster drops, but hard to come by soI generally stick to craftables.

Some players like some of the other dropped sets... can't remember names off hand. But until dropped sets are leveled to the same as the crafted sets, julianos and tbs for 5 set.

Waffennacht

Tai-Chi wrote: »

Thanks a lot,

Your insight with nirn on Light was particularly helpful. I had not thought of that.

On the whole, I was thinking on the same lines as you but you seem to have much more knowledge. Very helpful. My inclination re TBS was that it might balance out the shortfall in all attributes. That was the main reason for suggesting it. I never thought of choosing a more stamina based mundus. Good idea. The added bonus is that I can change the munduses - or is it mundi - any time.

If I decided to go for TBS to get the 5 bonus on both bars, then to my reckoning, it could be possible - ie 4 TBS armour and staff on one bar and 4 TBS armour and one TBS weapon plus the other set weapon on the other bar. Whether it would be a sensible option is another matter.

At present I have an assortment of blue and purple Trinimac's [sorry about the spelling] jewellery that I picked up in Wrothgar. In fact, I have completed almost everything in Wrothgar and have quite an array of, what I consider to be, useless equipment - several sets of all three armours in blue with a few purple V16s.

I do not play in Imperial city, so I do not have access to the jewellery you suggest. I shall look out for it n the Guilds. I would like to have a go at pvp but on the couple of occasion I ventured there, I died almost instantly! I have enough trouble looking out for NPCs, let alone other players that spring out from nowhere.

Your comments have been very helpful. You have given me a lot of food for thought.

Thanks

More than likely you'll have to buy the jewelry anyway. Its that you first gotta get lucky to get one of the peices to begin with, then you have to get the desired trait.

The IC is mainly for fast material farming, usin stones to purchase them.

And as for "outta nowhere" that's exactly right, NBs roam these lands... and in great numbers

Arciris

For the Jewelry: Willpower is a very solid choice, as long as you can find them in Arcane - but those can be really expensive.
Trinimac isn't bad at all if you are under 300 CP, to help with sustain, and allow you to put more spell damage enchants on your jewelry. If you are above 300 CP, or expect to get them really fast, 3 pieces of Elemental succession will replace Willpower nicely.

As for the Mundus Stones you can use, the choices are always great. I forgot to mention the Lord if tanking as another viable option with the Mage, or the Serpent, or even the Steed (move speed +health regen) You can have a lot of fun just trying them all (for survability though, as a Sorc, the Mage is required for your Hardened ward).
You can even throw in the Ritual and the Thief, get a Resto staff and start healing - well, maybe not for the really difficult content, but once you get use to it, everything else should be fun!
That's the best part of using TBS, with only a few minor tweaks, you can get it all done and that is why it is also known as "the Jack of all Trades".

Just keep in mind that for max DPS, Julianos is better but with Thief + Shadow Mundus Stones you'll be able to crush everything as well, when playing PVE group content when a healer will have your back (no need for an extreme Hardened ward all the time in these situations) Thief and Shadow are a super strong combination.

Tai-Chi

Hi,

Thanks for getting back to me.

It is probably psychological [and naive] on my part to think that a 9 trait armour set would be better than a 6 trait set. That is one reason why I was thinking 5 TBS - that and because it might balance out, to some extent, the shortfall in all my attributes. I see now that this is not the case. ZOS has duped us!

I already have a few of V16 pieces of armour and weapons [Gold] crafted in Julianos but I have enough mats and skill to craft an entirely new set of 8/9 and the V16 enchantments but I do not have enough mats to experiment with. That is why I want to get it right first time. High standards to be sure!

My character is a Magica Nord, so one of my dilemmas is how to balance/incorporate the race abilities [which would suggest heavy armour] with the lack of spell damage/critical and magica. Do I go fo armour that gives me best survivability and hope to make up magica with enchantments, or vice versa.

Nords do not have much Magica, even with 60 points invested in the attributes. With that in mind, should I go for a second set that gives me more crit or more spell damage?

I have got duplicates and some triplicates in all the 3 dropped sets in Wrothgar, mostly V15 blue but some in V16 purple. Anything on the surface is not really a problem for me but group dungeons are a problem going solo.

I wonder if anyone else out there has a Magica Nord Sorcerer or am I the only idiot. Was I duped, yet again, by believing that any race could play any class.

Thanks for your help.

Tai-Chi

Arciris wrote: »

For the Jewelry: Willpower is a very solid choice, as long as you can find them in Arcane - but those can be really expensive.
Trinimac isn't bad at all if you are under 300 CP, to help with sustain, and allow you to put more spell damage enchants on your jewelry. If you are above 300 CP, or expect to get them really fast, 3 pieces of Elemental succession will replace Willpower nicely.

As for the Mundus Stones you can use, the choices are always great. I forgot to mention the Lord if tanking as another viable option with the Mage, or the Serpent, or even the Steed (move speed +health regen) You can have a lot of fun just trying them all (for survability though, as a Sorc, the Mage is required for your Hardened ward).
You can even throw in the Ritual and the Thief, get a Resto staff and start healing - well, maybe not for the really difficult content, but once you get use to it, everything else should be fun!
That's the best part of using TBS, with only a few minor tweaks, you can get it all done and that is why it is also known as "the Jack of all Trades".

Just keep in mind that for max DPS, Julianos is better but with Thief + Shadow Mundus Stones you'll be able to crush everything as well, when playing PVE group content when a healer will have your back (no need for an extreme Hardened ward all the time in these situations) Thief and Shadow are a super strong combination.

Tai-Chi

Good comments and help.

The jewellery is something to look forward to.

Having played solo, I do not have enough sky-shards to add resto staff to my skills. I have all bar two of them in in Tamriel/Wrothgar (including group dungeons) but less than a dozen in Cyrodill. Allocating skills so that I could eventually max out on all passives for dual wield and its useful actives meant that I had to re-spec and subtract from other areas.

A lot of people scoff at those whom are Jacks-of-all-trades. Is that because the real art of learning to be tops at everything is too hard for some to muster?

I am encouraged to learn that for me, TBS might not be such a bad choice.

Thanks.

Tai-Chi

Waffennacht wrote: »

Tai-Chi wrote: »

Thanks a lot,

Your insight with nirn on Light was particularly helpful. I had not thought of that.

On the whole, I was thinking on the same lines as you but you seem to have much more knowledge. Very helpful. My inclination re TBS was that it might balance out the shortfall in all attributes. That was the main reason for suggesting it. I never thought of choosing a more stamina based mundus. Good idea. The added bonus is that I can change the munduses - or is it mundi - any time.

If I decided to go for TBS to get the 5 bonus on both bars, then to my reckoning, it could be possible - ie 4 TBS armour and staff on one bar and 4 TBS armour and one TBS weapon plus the other set weapon on the other bar. Whether it would be a sensible option is another matter.

At present I have an assortment of blue and purple Trinimac's [sorry about the spelling] jewellery that I picked up in Wrothgar. In fact, I have completed almost everything in Wrothgar and have quite an array of, what I consider to be, useless equipment - several sets of all three armours in blue with a few purple V16s.

I do not play in Imperial city, so I do not have access to the jewellery you suggest. I shall look out for it n the Guilds. I would like to have a go at pvp but on the couple of occasion I ventured there, I died almost instantly! I have enough trouble looking out for NPCs, let alone other players that spring out from nowhere.

Your comments have been very helpful. You have given me a lot of food for thought.

Thanks

More than likely you'll have to buy the jewelry anyway. Its that you first gotta get lucky to get one of the peices to begin with, then you have to get the desired trait.

The IC is mainly for fast material farming, usin stones to purchase them.

And as for "outta nowhere" that's exactly right, NBs roam these lands... and in great numbers

Tai-Chi

You are exactly right.

That is why I need to get the right gear, so that I can venture into IC and deal with the NBs who roam the land. When I do, watch out!

If I do not get them then Clanfer will. Due to my lack in playing skills, he quite often outlives me. That tail swish can be deadly.

MrDerrikk

I prefer TBS on my Sorc to go with Surge heals, as the increased crit chance + crit damage will mean more and bigger heals. Still trying to get the 9 traits to craft it myself though, which is taking a long time.

Calboy

Tai-Chi Dont worry bro, I got duped into making a Khajiit sorc, although a pretty good stam sorc choice, for the same reason and also thinking the racials wont make much of a difference end game. How wrong I was and I simply dont have the time to re roll

Septimus_Magna

For IC pve/pvp I would suggest the following gear:

5x LA/1x MA/1x HA, fire/resto

-5x Kagnrenacs
-1x Molag Kena
-2x Torugs Pact
-3x Willpower (1x spell dmg and 2x magicka regen)

You can swap one regen enchant for a spell dmg enchant if you have enough CPs.

If you dont have a Molag Kena piece you can also go for:
-5x Kagnrenacs
-3x Willows Path
-3x Willpower (2x spell dmg and 1x magicka regen)

Tai-Chi

MrDerrikk wrote: »

I prefer TBS on my Sorc to go with Surge heals, as the increased crit chance + crit damage will mean more and bigger heals. Still trying to get the 9 traits to craft it myself though, which is taking a long time.

Very useful MrDerrikk.

As one of my next tasks, It looks as if I will need to study my preferred choice of 'activations' on the primary and secondary bars, to see how they scale with the attributes on the armour. I guess the passives need to be taken into account as well.

I have read quite a lot of technical stuff from high level players about why certain combinations work for them. Albeit I understood the concept, it sort of went over my head. Your comment about Surge heals has enabled the penny to drop.

I can see from my Dungeon achievements that I both give and receive healing but I do not know precisely where they came from.

Do you know if anyone has tabulated all the Sorcerer actives and passives to show what they scale off? I am using Dual Wield on the second bar so the same applies here. Not a problem if you do not; at least I now know what I am looking for and why.

Until a couple of days ago I had max skills invested in all 3 armour and weapon research slots simply to get trait 9. Now that I have got more than I will probably ever need I reallocated the points into Dual Wield. From what I have been reading, it seems as if the only reason for getting trait 9 is if you want the 5th passive one gets from the armour.

Patience and playing solo go hand-in-hand. You will get there. All good things come to those who wait I am told.

Merry Crafting and a prosperous 9 trait New Year!

Arciris

Just to clarify things up about "jacks-of-all-trades": trying to fulfill all 3 roles at the same time is obviously folly. One should stick to one role at the time.
What one can do is to have more than one build with the same character, but that means a lot of skill points available and a wise choice concerning Champion Points allocation.
Usually, a good Magika DPS build can be tweaked into a solid Healer build without having to respec or swap gear too much.
To include a Magika Tank build as well is usually more difficult though.
If you don't have enough skill points to have more than 2 weapon skill lines leveled and "active" I'm going to assume you have quite some crafting professions on that char. I'm leveling an Argonian Sorc crafter myself (v13 - my main is a v16 Templar) and I had to choose only 2 weapon skill lines as well. As I like tanking, I went 1h and Shield and Dual Wield and doing great with that, even soloing group content - never tried PvP with him yet.
And yes, I chose Argonian but I knew it would be the most underdog race to play a Sorc with (or anything for that matter). Nords can make very good Tanks, but not so much DPS or Healing but that being said, if you learn to play your build well enough, race choice will become more irrelevant as your own skill will make up for that.
Since you have limited resources ( skill points, mats...) the first thing I would suggest is to clearly define what it is you want to focus on: Pve? PvP? Solo? Group?
Also, when you can, try to "dump" some crafting professions on another char or chars: on your main character you only need alchemy and provisioning leveled enough to take the "extended time" bonuses (and hirelings).
Provisioning, Clothing, Woodworking and Blacksmith can be tricky to "dump" as you might have already learned purple/gold recipes/motifs and traits. But Alchemy and Enchanting will only require some time/mats invested and will relief your main from quite a burden.
Always happy to help

Tai-Chi

Calboy wrote: »

Tai-Chi Dont worry bro, I got duped into making a Khajiit sorc, although a pretty good stam sorc choice, for the same reason and also thinking the racials wont make much of a difference end game. How wrong I was and I simply dont have the time to re roll

I am sure that many have fallen into the same trap but I will remain optimistic. Deep down I am almost 100% certain that playing as a Jack-of-Two [conflicting] trades is possible. It is a challenge and the learning curve will not be straight forward but with helpful comments from other players like yourself I am determined to get there.

With patience and perseverance I have completed the Main Story line in Tamriel, Cadwell's Silver, Gold and all Wrothgar quests and Main Storyline. All the bosses and dolmens on the surface have been obliterated but I still have to mop up one or two in the higher group dungeons. All done - playing all solo. I stuck my nose into Veteran Maelstrom a few days ago and survived the first 2 levels without using any of the buffs. That was wearing a hotchpotch of armour. That gives me encouragement and hope. I am sure that with the right V16 gear my Nord can do it.

I get the impression that Zenimax seem to be pushing/promoting the Ice Staff, so maybe the useless cold damage buff might come into its own in the future.

Good luck with your Khajiit and beat the odds.

Tai-Chi

Septimus_Magna wrote: »

For IC pve/pvp I would suggest the following gear:

5x LA/1x MA/1x HA, fire/resto

-5x Kagnrenacs
-1x Molag Kena
-2x Torugs Pact
-3x Willpower (1x spell dmg and 2x magicka regen)

You can swap one regen enchant for a spell dmg enchant if you have enough CPs.

If you dont have a Molag Kena piece you can also go for:
-5x Kagnrenacs
-3x Willows Path
-3x Willpower (2x spell dmg and 1x magicka regen)

Thanks. Your suggestions have helped me to solidify in my mind that my thought process was sort of on the right lines. I have the mats and ability to craft and enchant any V16 gear I choose, so that will not be a problem. I can see that I will need to take a far more scientific/mathematical approach to my choices and buy in the jewellry I need for maximisation.

Up 'till now I have been holding onto jewellry that has high and useful base stats and then crafting a gold glyph to put on the top slot. Until I can buy some in or get some drops, that seems to be my only way forward for now.

I do not go into IC and so Molag Kena is a no-no for me at present but with the right V16 gear I shall try again.

Willows Path, Torugs Pact are all good. I used them and other crafted sets at lower level games. I did not really understand how they worked; it was by trial and error. I am starting to understand a bit better now.

My 5 piece, Gold set at V14 was Orgnum's Scales, with Torugs Pact for the other 3 pieces.I only had the staff then. I liked the sound of the 5th passive on Orgnum's but the choice was not made on any sound calculations. I was running 5H and 2L pieces of armour and the choice of trait on each piece was chosen using intuition. My Mundus was Mage. The logic behind my thinking was to use armour that enhanced health and survivability, then enchant it with max magika and magica regen.

Tai-Chi

Arciris wrote: »

Just to clarify things up about "jacks-of-all-trades": trying to fulfill all 3 roles at the same time is obviously folly. One should stick to one role at the time.
What one can do is to have more than one build with the same character, but that means a lot of skill points available and a wise choice concerning Champion Points allocation.
Usually, a good Magika DPS build can be tweaked into a solid Healer build without having to respec or swap gear too much.
To include a Magika Tank build as well is usually more difficult though.
If you don't have enough skill points to have more than 2 weapon skill lines leveled and "active" I'm going to assume you have quite some crafting professions on that char. I'm leveling an Argonian Sorc crafter myself (v13 - my main is a v16 Templar) and I had to choose only 2 weapon skill lines as well. As I like tanking, I went 1h and Shield and Dual Wield and doing great with that, even soloing group content - never tried PvP with him yet.
And yes, I chose Argonian but I knew it would be the most underdog race to play a Sorc with (or anything for that matter). Nords can make very good Tanks, but not so much DPS or Healing but that being said, if you learn to play your build well enough, race choice will become more irrelevant as your own skill will make up for that.
Since you have limited resources ( skill points, mats...) the first thing I would suggest is to clearly define what it is you want to focus on: Pve? PvP? Solo? Group?
Also, when you can, try to "dump" some crafting professions on another char or chars: on your main character you only need alchemy and provisioning leveled enough to take the "extended time" bonuses (and hirelings).
Provisioning, Clothing, Woodworking and Blacksmith can be tricky to "dump" as you might have already learned purple/gold recipes/motifs and traits. But Alchemy and Enchanting will only require some time/mats invested and will relief your main from quite a burden.
Always happy to help

Hi Arciris,

I am with you on everything you have to say and I seem to be learning it the hard way. I have already dumped the research time points and hireling to invest them in Dual Wield because I have already got everything I might need in 9 traits. I do not mind waiting a long time to get the 9th trait on equipment that I might/might not use one day. I never got anything useful from Hireling, so those points were dumped a long time ago. Max points in deconstruction have given me the best yields so far for tempers - better than daily crafting writs - so I shall keep those a while longer.

I am a Solo player. This is my first MMP game so solo play is what I have grown up with. I do not know how to group, even to the point of setting up the microphone and other controls. I do not know the etiquette of group play and everything seems to move so fast! I would like to learn so that I could join in but that will be for another day. I thoroughly enjoy dolmens, and group bosses in Wrothgar. My Nord pick up the boss drops more often than not. She can easily kill any of the bosses and mobs within the public dungeons in Wrothgar on her own. There are sections in the two group dungeons in Wrothgar which are too challenging for her at the moment, so it would be nice to join a group to get those done.

I am happy as a solo player but it would be nice to join in with groups for the bigger dungeons. PvE is what I am used to so I know what to expect. That makes life easier. I would like to be competent in PvP but I lack the skills, abilities and knowhow to succeed. It is something to work on in the future.

I like playing from a distance - hence the staff however, if someone gets too close to me, I bash/block them with my staff and that works quite well on the whole. A heavy attack with Destructive Clench will throw most enemies up in the air and out of harms reach, then Clannfear pounces on them giving me time to cast other spells. The logic of adding Dual Wield was to enable my solo player to deal with more persistent, close up encounters.

I have a lower level Templar with sword and board and I simply cannot get to grips with it. Nor do I like using a bow from a distance.

I have a High Elf Sorcerer and Magika DK. Both are a doddle to play so far. I have a Breton, Stamina NB which I do not enjoy playing very much. Too many close up encounters get me confused. My Breton Sorcerer, with two handed on the second bar is also coming on nicely and is fun to play.

I appreciate the time you have taken and your input. It has helped me a lot.

Arciris

Hi Tai-Chi!

Well, you are very welcome

I'm currently unable to play due to my PC being on repairs but if you play on PC, NA servers and you're AD, you are welcome to add me as friend: I'm always in for more dungeons and bosses

Also you mentioned you picked Dual Wield to deal with closer encounters, are you using DW abilities? I'm asking because DW is now really common among Magika builds as it will boost your damage by 5% when using 2 swords and Twin and Blunt passive, but no DW abilities are ever used as this would result in a tremendous DPS loss.
To put it in a simpler way: abilities/spells that cost magika scale off your max magika and spell damage , whereas abilities that cost stamina scale of max stamina and weapon damage thus if you're a Magika build, you will hit hard with abilities/spells that cost magika but will be weak with stamina ones. As a Magika build, your stamina should only be used for block, bash, roll dodge, break free and sprint At least in the current state of the game, where hybrids builds are sub-performers.
To put some distance between you and your opponents you can use "Bolt Escape": morph 1 is defensive while morph 2 is offensive/cc and usually preferred. Also using encase or daedric mines will keep most of them at bay (except immune bosses).
Your Clanfear should be able to pick aggro from the rest, leaving you at safer distances although you might want to jump in from time to time, with your Hardened Ward and Boundless Storm up and just Elemental Ring/Pulsar (2 different morphs from last destro staff skill) everything.
If you only unlock the last passive of DW (2 skill points) you will be fine and save some more skill points

Tai-Chi

Hi Arciris!

Thanks for the offer. I do play on PC but I am on the EU servers, so dungeons will not be possible. Sorry to hear about your PC; I hope it gets better soon.

Re: Dual Wield
I do have 'Active Abilities' opened but none have reached max; they are still levelling but most are morphed.

Twin Slashes - Not morphed
Flurry - Rapid Strikes
Whirlwind - Whirling Blades
Blade Cloak - Quick Cloak
Hidden Blades - Not opened yet

All passives available to me are open, with a couple still to go. I am not yet at 50 but in mid 45 in points,
Having re-specced skill points I still have 20 to play with, so I have enough to max out in DW if necessary and put points elsewhere.

I generally only use the staff and play from a distance. I wanted to try out DW on my second bar, purely as an emergency back-up. The Staff and Magica will still be my first and main choice.

I opted for Dual Wield, rather than Two-Handed because it meant that I could get 4 benefits off a second set of armour rather than 3. There was nothing scientific about my choice and in fact, Two Handed is easier to play with. If one does not play IC or the big group dungeons, then the drops are absolutely abysmal! I have never, in a year of playing, picked up anything that was exceptional.

I can handle mobs of 5 or 6 (depending on their level) without them hardly touching me. If they come close, I knock them back through the air with a heavy Destructive Clench and cast an 'area' spell, or Crystal Fragments. That is why, for me, in solo play, Destructive Clench works better than Force Pulse - which is more powerful than D-Clench.

Some bosses are too powerful to be knocked back with D-Clench so then I block/bash, roll, dodge or whatever to get away. The Clannfear usually jumps on the last enemy I hit and so grabs its attention. I can then resume casting from a distance.

I am fully Maxed in all Sorcerer Skills and Passives and of course Destruction Staff.
Boundless Storm is up all the time - I do not have room on my active bars for Bolt Escape and there are other spells that are far more useful because with Boundless storm and Clannfear on both bars, I have only 3 other slots to play with and so have to make hard choices as to which 3 will serve me best. I use all those spells you mention but unfortunately I cannot have them all slotted at once!

Wouldn't it be marvelous if ZOS added a couple of extra slots on the Active Bars!
NB - I am being flippant. I have not thought out the full ramifications and consequences of such an addition.

The robustness of Nord comes into its own with Mages and Archer enemies. I can get up close to the main caster who is throwing out familiars (and reviving them). A bash with my staff can knock them to the ground and even kill them. If not C-Frags will usually finish the job.

Since experimenting with Dual Wield, I have been switching to my second bar for these close encounters and using 'blade' skills. As you quite rightly say, my stamina depletes quite quickly so my second bar can only be used in relatively short bursts and I have to switch back to my primary bar.

That is one reason why I wanted to know the merits of TBS armour for my Nord (Magika) Sorcerer because it would boost Stamina in general to make DW abilities slightly better - as well as boosting health and much needed Magika.

With 5 items of TBS on both bars I would not have to worry about losing the mundus effect.
Currently my mundus is Mage and it makes sense to keep that. I could play around with the second mundus but my inclination was to try the Atronach, Apprentice and Shadow first on the second mundus.

Thanks again and I hope you are up and playing in the game soon.

Septimus_Magna

/

Tai-Chi wrote: »

Septimus_Magna wrote: »

For IC pve/pvp I would suggest the following gear:

5x LA/1x MA/1x HA, fire/resto

-5x Kagnrenacs
-1x Molag Kena
-2x Torugs Pact
-3x Willpower (1x spell dmg and 2x magicka regen)

You can swap one regen enchant for a spell dmg enchant if you have enough CPs.

If you dont have a Molag Kena piece you can also go for:
-5x Kagnrenacs
-3x Willows Path
-3x Willpower (2x spell dmg and 1x magicka regen)

Thanks. Your suggestions have helped me to solidify in my mind that my thought process was sort of on the right lines. I have the mats and ability to craft and enchant any V16 gear I choose, so that will not be a problem. I can see that I will need to take a far more scientific/mathematical approach to my choices and buy in the jewellry I need for maximisation.

Up 'till now I have been holding onto jewellry that has high and useful base stats and then crafting a gold glyph to put on the top slot. Until I can buy some in or get some drops, that seems to be my only way forward for now.

I do not go into IC and so Molag Kena is a no-no for me at present but with the right V16 gear I shall try again.

Willows Path, Torugs Pact are all good. I used them and other crafted sets at lower level games. I did not really understand how they worked; it was by trial and error. I am starting to understand a bit better now.

My 5 piece, Gold set at V14 was Orgnum's Scales, with Torugs Pact for the other 3 pieces.I only had the staff then. I liked the sound of the 5th passive on Orgnum's but the choice was not made on any sound calculations. I was running 5H and 2L pieces of armour and the choice of trait on each piece was chosen using intuition. My Mundus was Mage. The logic behind my thinking was to use armour that enhanced health and survivability, then enchant it with max magika and magica regen.

The jewelry is fairly simply for magicka builds atm.
Willpower gives the highest max magicka and spell dmg value for any 2-3pc bonus.
This is actually 1,5 times higher than the normal value that sets provide.

If you're tight on gold I would suggest buying the arcane willpower necklace and healthy willpower rings. You can always replace the healthy rings for arcane rings once you get the drops/gold.

It might sound strange but you'll get more survivability from speccing into magicka than you get from health. Magicka increases shield value and dmg so its a no brainer as a sorc to spec for magicka as much as possible.

Arciris

Thanks Tai-Chi! It probably won't take a lot more time now

Just one more suggestion/question: why keep boundless storm on both bars? It lasts long enough that you only need to cast it once every 20s or so, so doubling it might be a waste of a slot. I would definitely recommend Hardened Ward or Streak (Bolt escape morph) for that slot.
Just realized you might have meant Bound Aegis, that actually needs to be slotted on both bars... So, another solution:
as Sorcs, we have at least 3 abilities that we need to double-slot to use and that is why we have a third bar available with the ultimate Overload.
How does that third bar work?
1- Overload is the only ultimate in the game that you can "store": you can "save" up to 1000 ultimate.
2- Overload is the only ultimate in the game that you toggle to activate. When you toggle Overload it doesn't consume ultimate, only when you light/heavy attack with it will your ultimate pool start to deplete.
3- Overload is the only ultimate in the game that opens up a third bar, that you can customize to your liking.

The only con to it is that that third bar is "locked" when you don't have enough ultimate, but it's "cheap": 75 ulti or less, I don't remember how much with the passive Power Stone. So if you use another ultimate, your ultimate pool will be depleted and that third bar will be locked.

So, I'll use a pet build as an example.
Bar 1: Bound Aegis, Clannfear, Winged Twilight, ability x, ability y Ulti: Overload
Bar 2: Bound Aegis, Clannfear, Winged Twilight, ability w, ability z Ulti: xxx
Toggle Overload - Bar 3: Bound Aegis, Clannfear, Winged Twilight, ability a, ability b (usually those 2 will be utility abilities like Power Surge) Untoggle Overload and go back to bar 1.

Basically, toggle, untoggle Overload works like a slightly slower weapon swap Definitely worth a try, you might like it

As for servers, that is too bad, I actually have a v14 and v1 on the EU server as I live in Europe, but I basically only go there when the NA server is on maintenance.

All the best!

Toast_STS

I have a magicka orc sorc using 5 piece morkuldin and 2 piece maw of infernal. Then 2 piece endurance and 2-3 willpower with jewelry and S/S or staff. With a lightning staff I have a pretty good chance to get my summons up. One heavy attack has like 5 separate chances to proc the extra summons. Both Overload light and heavy attacks can proc them too! Daedric Prey also boost their attack damage and the ward skill will shield them, although the sword is invincible anyways.

I rock heavy armor and try to stay alive while my pets will whittle down the enemies and use energy orb and hardened ward to keep my pets alive. It's a pretty fun summon build but the pieces aren't the easiest to acquire. But getting up to 5 summons in a 1v1 is very rewarding.

Arciris

tony.augeb14_ESO wrote: »

I have a magicka orc sorc using 5 piece morkuldin and 2 piece maw of infernal. Then 2 piece endurance and 2-3 willpower with jewelry and S/S or staff. With a lightning staff I have a pretty good chance to get my summons up. One heavy attack has like 5 separate chances to proc the extra summons. Both Overload light and heavy attacks can proc them too! Daedric Prey also boost their attack damage and the ward skill will shield them, although the sword is invincible anyways.

I rock heavy armor and try to stay alive while my pets will whittle down the enemies and use energy orb and hardened ward to keep my pets alive. It's a pretty fun summon build but the pieces aren't the easiest to acquire. But getting up to 5 summons in a 1v1 is very rewarding.

I thought about that too when I first saw Morkuldin. Looks really fun!
However, the other sets bonuses are all stamina based and the Daedric summons scale off max magika, so there might be a contradiction here...

Toast_STS

Yeah, I just use the twilight and volatile scamp to LoS in an open field and most the damage comes from the Daedroth and Sword. The tooltip on morkuldin at gold V16 is 4.1k damage. Both sorc pets combined can maybe do more damage than that if you stack magicka but all three I feel is superior. I think my twilight is at 2.6k and scamp is at 660 right now before their intrinsic percentage buffs. I prefer the volatile scamp morph for the surprise stun on enemy players. The morkuldin stamina regen is nice but the weapon damage is useless on my build.

Arciris

tony.augeb14_ESO wrote: »

Yeah, I just use the twilight and volatile scamp to LoS in an open field and most the damage comes from the Daedroth and Sword. The tooltip on morkuldin at gold V16 is 4.1k damage. Both sorc pets combined can maybe do more damage than that if you stack magicka but all three I feel is superior. I think my twilight is at 2.6k and scamp is at 660 right now before their intrinsic percentage buffs. I prefer the volatile scamp morph for the surprise stun on enemy players. The morkuldin stamina regen is nice but the weapon damage is useless on my build.

4.1k from basic attacks... wow... need to go back in the game to try this out on my templar
also, since you are using it, do you know if that damage is that high because of Sorc passives in the summoning tree? Have you noticed if the sword and daedroth give you the passive "rebate" (gain magik when unsummoned or killed)?
Would be really nice to know, thanks in advance

Toast_STS

4.1k is from the tooltip. Sorc passives do not change the tooltip but I do not know if they affect it, I assume they do not. Rebate does not seem to work with them. But I use heavy attacks on my lightning staff to summon them so running out of magicka is rarely an issue. Resto staff heavy attacks are also good for getting the summons to proc.

The only things skills that I've seen buff the daedroth and morkuldin sword are Daedric Prey and Hardened Ward. Or any group area buffs like barrier or combat prayer. Teamate buffs like regeneration or BoL do not seem to work on them though.

Arciris

tony.augeb14_ESO wrote: »

4.1k is from the tooltip. Sorc passives do not change the tooltip but I do not know if they affect it, I assume they do not. Rebate does not seem to work with them. But I use heavy attacks on my lightning staff to summon them so running out of magicka is rarely an issue. Resto staff heavy attacks are also good for getting the summons to proc.

The only things skills that I've seen buff the daedroth and morkuldin sword are Daedric Prey and Hardened Ward. Or any group area buffs like barrier or combat prayer. Teamate buffs like regeneration or BoL do not seem to work on them though.

Alright, thanks a lot for the answer