SORCS: Defensive ability preference?

DocFrost72

Basically, interested to know if the Sorcs out there (for pvp or pve) would like to keep hardened / empowered now that annulment is global, or shift to some other form of defense?

holosoul

Make our class escape...well, and escape

I never liked shields and I think ZOS completely failed at the entire wizard archtype and their vision of what a wizard is, is stupid and lame

Edit: P.S. I only play wizards in every game

NBrookus

Other (please specify)

Rebuild the class. Our defense is nerfed, our mobility is gutted, our heals are non-existent and we have skills that are completely useless.

No band-aid fixes, please.

STEVIL

Other (please specify)

I prefer multiple layered defenses.
I really did not/do not like the "just run huge shields" style.

I would prefer:
Resistance buffs like from boundless storm.
Ongoing Heals like the new surge.
On Demand bigger heals like from pets or blood magic

But i dont feel these all necessarily need to all be class skills.
You WILL have a weapon after all.
You can get decent reflect from SNB and even a healing version if you prefer.
Etc

ToRelax

Make our class escape...well, and escape

I would prefer to have a look back at how the class originally worked. That is with mainly Surge as a heal, supported by Blood Magic, and more resource expensive wards to stay alive when you don't get enough heals.
Very weak in close combat but able to mostly stay at range with roots, stuns and bolt escape. In contrast, very hard to kill with ranged magic attacks.

The removal of softcaps in 1.6 was a large buff for Sorcerer as a class with the least use for high health and stamina pools. But it pigeonholed us into shieldstacking as our main defense and heal, thanks to the Surge nerf, and burst damage due to the overall unlimited resources meta.
Since then, instead of getting more options we got plain nerfs. Now the DB update at least restores Negate to usefulness, but at the same time makes Surge even more useless as a primary heal. It really feels as if ZOS doesn't have a clear vision on how the class is supposed to work, and which options it should have that make it different from the others.

Asmael

Other (please specify)

Not on my sorc that much these days (just not as entertaining as my other alts).

Never liked the shield stacking, I kinda like the changes to shields in general, since it promotes reactive play and allows for mag builds to have a chance of outsustaining a mag sorc.

I'd vastly prefer some changes to Surge and Overload, as well as Bound armor. I don't like Tangling webs (Undauted) being changed to stamina, since RIP mag DW users who relied on it.

Lower scaling of cost increase for Escape bolt? Like 30-40% instead of 50%, Surge same as on live, but also working with DoTs, BUT DoTs granting only half the healing to limit "oh lolz caltrops in middle of zerg GG 20k healz per second".

Shields proccing critical events but not taking extra damage from crits: for short, while a shield is up, it basically offers unlimited critical resistance, so they take no extra damage from crits, but you can still proc Surge on one.

Bound armor... Not a toggle, please. Make it grant a passive bonus while slotted, and an active effect while activated (see pets or Expert hunter), or even something along the lines of Grim Focus. Having 6 slots in PvE, unless you're using Overload, is a royal PITA. I'll take just about any other build over this, having to slot Inner light + Bound armor on both bars to stay competitive is plain atrocious.

Overload has great utility with the extra bar, but the Light attack mechanic is clunky, buggy, and I might as well just slot Meteor and keep doing my rotation than dealing with this. There might be better idea, but I'd prefer to see it modify all storm calling abilities for a set duration (say 15 seconds), for instance by making Mage's wrath proc no matter what %remaining health your target has, Liquid Lightning having a strong initial hit, Lightning form getting twice the size, Bolt escape leaving lightning behind you (see Lightning Wall of elements). No idea for Surge.

Could even explode in a lightning nova at the end of the duration.

Yes, I realize the Overload rework could be time consuming and Zos would have to be careful on the numbers, but that'd be way more entertaining than using "fancy" rotations like this one:

Liquid Lightning > LA > LA > LA > LA > LA > LA > LA > Liquid Lightning > LA > LA > LA > LA > LA > LA > ...

TL;DR: To answer the poll, both rely on Surge and mobility with escape bolt, as well as a few other tweaks.

RebornV3x

I like the defense wards give me, I say keep them

If we had a class spammable and slightly better burst DPS I would say screw shields