Brenton Sorceror Build

LordSidious

I'm looking for feedback on my build since ESO is my first MMO and I feel like I haven't built out my build to its full potential. I'm open to all constructive criticism since I know I'm not even close to being a master at identifying what skills to use. I rather not start a new character with something other than Brenton though so whatever I can do to improve this one would be great! My build works pretty well in PvE and PvP, but I'm finding myself in some situations where I can't fend off two level 20s if I get stunned in an ambush.

My goal with this build is to do a lot of destructive damage in PvP. I never really got into restoration which maybe might help me out too. Again, it's not like I can't hold my own, but there are some times where I feel I get dominated and should've put up a better fight from players lower level than me. Any help would be really appreciated and sorry for the noob question.

Race/Class: Brenton, Sorcerer (Level 39)
Attributes:

• Magicka - 28 (Max Magicka 13659, Recovery 741, Spell Damage 756, Spell Critical 20% pre-Cyrodiil)
• Health - 5 (Max Health 7638, Recovery 248 pre-Cyrodiil)
• Stamina - 5

Skills

• Bar 1
• Mages' Wrath IV
• Storm Pulsar III
• Crystal Fragments IV
• Degeneration I
• Shock Reach IV
• Ultimate: Energy Overload III
• Bar 2 - Unused

Weapon - Lightning Staff, Enchantment - Shock Damage, Powered - Reduces cooldown of weapon enhancements by 40%
Clothing - Mostly self crafted with enchantments on adding max magicka and increase armor enchantment or Mundus Stone effect (using The Mage). I'm using Cowl of the Warlock (level 19) with some jewelry for those buffs.
Jewelry - Focus of the Warlock (level 19), Signet of the Warlock (level 19), Thespian's Ring (level 37)

Thanks again.

LordSidious

Forgot to mention my crafted clothing is all Light Armor.

DannyLV702

You're still low level, so I can't give you much advice on what your stats should look like yet. However, you NEED a restoration staff on your back bar to survive in pvp as a sorcerer, but the only restoration staff ability you will need is Steadfast Ward, which you need to morph into Healing Ward.


Remember that you will need a different setup when going from pve to pvp. If you don't run any dungeons, then you can get away with running a pvp build at all times.

On your front bar/destruction staff bar I recommend the following:

• Velocious Curse morph. Great for pulling NBs out of cloak and overall great damage
• Hardened Ward (because I don't trust bar swapping sometimes because of lag)
• Structured Entropy instead of Degeneration
• Crushing Shock morph to interrupt attack with a cast time, great for pvp
• Crystal Frags try to only use instant frag proc, you'll know because your hands turn purple

On your back bar/restoration staff bar, try the following. This is mostly your defensive bar.

• Healing Ward Try to only cast this when your health drops below 50%, and cast Hardened Ward immediately after
• Streak Morph of Bolt Escape. Do NOT spam it. It's great for controlling fights against multiple enemies
• Daedric Minefield When fighting mele players, stay inside your mines at all times
• Harness Magicka/Dampen Magic Morph Annulment. Either morph is good. Great for mitigating ONLY magic damage. Do not cast this at all if you are fighting a stamina build, you will only waste magic.
• Boundless Storm or Defensive Rune I prefer Defensive rune because it keeps you from being ganked. Boundless storm increases your physical/spell resistances by a good amount.

Using your second bar is a must, so I recommend you start getting used to it! All you need is crafted gear, so 5 piece Julianos on body pieces, and the rest Magnus is a great set up.

DannyLV702

Also try to level your Provisioning skills so that you can make yourself Purple food. You will need the extra stamina for breaking free.

LordSidious

I rarely do dungeons so I wouldn't mind running a PvP build all the time. As far as provisioning goes, my friends and I "split" the crafting abilities so I only do Clothing and Woodworking, but one of them sends me food that boosts Magicka and Health. Should I focus on Stamina instead then?

And thank you for your advice, I really appreciate it. There are probably a ton of 'help my build' questions so I hate to add to it, but I suck at this game haha.

DannyLV702

Focus everything on Magicka. The only stamina boost you will need is from your purple food. If you have any questions let me know. I know I wasn't too specific, but that's because there's a lot to add. Just let me know your weak areas if you still need any help

Johngo0036

Hi,

I would put all my attributes into magicka, more magicka = more damage....

I run on my front bar and you may not have access to all these yet,
Destro Staff:
Crushing shock,
Velocious curse,
Hardened ward,
Crystal Frags,
Streak/Boundless storm
U - Greater storm Atronach

Restoration staff
Mages Wrath,
Harness Magicka,
Healing Ward,
Daedric mine field/Encase,
boundless storm/open slot
U - Energy overload

The biggest thing about playing a sorc is to keep your hardened ward and harness magicka up at all times..
The are your life line.....

if need to aoe mobs then Substitute velocious curse with Storm Pulsar..

LordSidious

Thanks for the help. Looks like it's very similar to the previous build suggested so I'll do some research on the differences. It's time for me to go reset my skill points haha.

LordSidious

I've respec'ed everything and here's what my final build will look like. I don't have all these abilities right now, but I'm really only missing the ones from Daedric Summoning and Restoration Staff so I need to level that up quite a bit. Anyways, here's the build. Thanks a lot to both of you for your advice.

Destruction Staff

• Crushing Shock
• Crystal Fragments
• Structured Entropy
• Velocious Curse
• Hardened Ward
• Ultimate - Energy Overload (I had a hard time parting with this haha)

Restoration Staff

• Healing Ward
• Daedric Minefield
• Harness Magicka
• Boundless Storm
• Mages' Wrath
• Ultimate - Greater Storm Atronach

DannyLV702

LordSidious wrote: »

I've respec'ed everything and here's what my final build will look like. I don't have all these abilities right now, but I'm really only missing the ones from Daedric Summoning and Restoration Staff so I need to level that up quite a bit. Anyways, here's the build. Thanks a lot to both of you for your advice.

Destruction Staff

• Crushing Shock
• Crystal Fragments
• Structured Entropy
• Velocious Curse
• Hardened Ward
• Ultimate - Energy Overload (I had a hard time parting with this haha)

Restoration Staff

• Healing Ward
• Daedric Minefield
• Harness Magicka
• Boundless Storm
• Mages' Wrath
• Ultimate - Greater Storm Atronach

That is perfect man. Now it's all about getting used to it. If you use a fire staff, don't forget to weave in those light attacks right before your crushing shocks

LordSidious

DannyLV702 wrote: »

That is perfect man. Now it's all about getting used to it. If you use a fire staff, don't forget to weave in those light attacks right before your crushing shocks

It's going to take a little bit to master, but I already notice a huge difference in how long I survive and the amount of damage I do. Plus the extra Alliance Points for healing during a siege is a nice boost!

Makkir

@LordSidious I wouldn't worry about maxing out your gear or weapons either...i.e nirnhoned/legendary gear. You're going to end up replacing them anyway.

I understand why you have Hardened Ward on your Destro bar, I just never really preferred it there. You want to apply your shields in this order Hard Ward > Harness > Healing Ward in order to get the max benefit from the last shield.

Looks like you don't have access to Bolt Escape yet, so I would def keep boundless storm for some mobility.

Your gear looks okay, I would probably run seducer and warlock until you get confident with your build/playstyle. Seducer is just a really nice, well rounded set for new players to get acquainted with their sustainability.

In group play I would just change up your resto bar a little bit. Put on Rapid Regeneration and/or Healing Springs and you will rack up the AP pretty quickly. This is important because that AP translates to gold which you will need to fund your legendary gear later in the game. Don't spend the AP on PvP gear to use yourself, buy stuff you can sell like the motifs or the Bind of Equip stuff. You will also want to slot either Barrier (From Alliance Support skill line) or Negate as your ultimate.

LordSidious

@Makkir I figured I wouldn't worry about gear too much until I hit VR. I'm wearing level 36 gear right now and plan on riding that out until VR1. It looks like Law of Julianos is a pretty good set to go with, but I'll continue to research the best compliment to my abilities.

Thanks for the advice on group play too. I definitely do like playing in small-medium groups and often in the middle of a siege. I've been getting a ton of AP from using Healing Springs while I'm leveling up restoration to get the skill I want so I'll keep that in mind too for group activities.

Makkir

Nope. Julianos may be best in slot for PvE DPS but PvP is a whole other ballgame. In my opinion, I would not run 5pc Julianos in PvP as a magicka sorc unless you want to run a crit centric build but even then I still call that worthless in Cyrodiil for these reasons:

- Most good stamina players are running the impen trait
- You can't crit shields

The meta will shift once you reach v16, so it's best not to worry about that right now.

LordSidious

@Makkir What would be a good set then for PvP? The Warlock set was great but doesn't that set stop around the level 20 range? I haven't found anything from that since I was ~19ish.

Makkir

No warlock goes to v14 I believe, or V12...Can't recall. But even if the latter, you can substitute warlocks for martial knowledge which is a great pvp set.

I would still mix in Kagrenaks, Magnus, or Seducer though pre-v16

LordSidious

Alright I'll take a look at those sets. I've heard of Magnus, but I'll do some research on the other ones. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction!