Sorcerer - need advise

Azzazzello

Hi,

I just hit cp160 on Altmer magicka sorc (PC NA) and need some advises for PVE solo game.

1. Gear
I have 6-7 traits on Clothing/Blacksmithing and 7-8 on Woodworking.
So based on this I've decided to craft Julianos/Torug/Magnus sets combination.
Armor: 5xJulianos (1376 Spell crit, 967 MaxMagicka, 299 Spell dmg) + 2xTorug (129 Spell dmg)
Staff: Torug (+ 1064 HP)
Duals: Magnus (967 MP)

Since I have no progress in Undaunted yet I'm not sure about making 1 Heavy, 1 Medium, 5 Light armors as suggested in other topics. What do you think?

Weapons. What to chose - Lightning or Flame staff, dual swords or daggers or axes or maybe maces?

Divines + MaxMagicka on armor.
Sharpened + Weapon/Spell Damage on weapons. Or maybe I can use Weapon/Spell Damage on the 1st sword and some extra damage (lightning?) on the 2nd?

Jewelry. I'm planning to look for Willpower set - arcane with spell damage.

2. Skills
1st Bar (Staff): Elemental Blockade, Force Pulse, Unstable Clannfear, Bound Aegis, Inner Light, Greater Storm Atronach
2nd Bar (Duals): Liquid Lightning, Boundless Storm, Unstable Clannfear, Bound Aegis, Inner Light, Power Overload


Any advises on build will be appreciated.
Thanks.

dpencil

Yeah, that's pretry much the right priority. There are some benefits to stacking max magicka instead of raw spell power. Stronger pets and shields, bigger resource pool. It's at about a 10.5 ratio. For example, the Necropotence set gives you a total of 6901 magicka (assuming everything is improved to legendary quality), which is equivalent to 657 spell damage. Julianos gives you 967 magicka (eqivilant to 92 spell damage) and 299 spell damage. Totalling 391. That's a difference of 266 spell damage in favor of Necropotence. However, because it requires you to have a pet active, this could mean you either really limit the skills you have available (if you slot one pet and Bound Aegis on both bars) or dropping Bound Aegis for the pet would end up making Necropotence without Bound Aegis weaker than Julianos with Bound Argis. Also if your pet is killed, you are weaker than Julianos by a lot until you resummon. So there are many factors in terms of risk and playstyle to manage.

If you did your bars like this:
Crystal Frag, Crushing Shock, Inner Light, Bound Aegis, Clannfear, Elemental Rage
Empowered Ward, Blockade of Fire, Lightning Flood, Bound Aegis, Clannfear, Overload
Then you could either use spell power potions to get your Major Sorcery buff or put Power Surge on your Overload bar. It would require you to break rotation every 30 seconds to reapply it, but you could probably get used to that. You lose having the shield on the front bar, which I really like, but you still have access to an "oh crap" button with the Clannfear heal.

If this setup is appealing to you, then get all infused traits Necropotence and Elegant. You can't run a monster set with this build as you can't afford to lose Blockade of Fire on the back bar. There's also no room for Streak / Elemental Drain, so you lose some utility there. This build would be much more attractive should they ever make pets and/or Bound Aegis only slotted on one bar.

In PVP crit seems to be a lower priority, since many players use impenetrable gear and CP to reduce crit damage.

kadar

Azzazzello wrote: »

thanks for reply

regarding the DW passive:
Each axe gives your melee attacks a 8% chance to bleed enemies for [x] Physical Damage over 6 seconds.
Each mace causes your attacks to ignore 10% of an enemy's Physical Resistance.
Each sword increases your damage done by 2.5%.
Each dagger increases your Weapon Critical rating. (by 5%)

dagger and mace bonus looks more preferable.. or maybe sword's bonus could be combined with glyph for weapon/spell damage..
anyway.. i believe that weapon dmg is not so crucial for sorc and main purpose of using DW is set bonus.. or maybe i'm wrong


any suggestion on the type of destro staff?
since sorc have passives for shock damage maybe lightning staff is the best choice?

@Azzazzello
MMM. Check out the parts I bolded.

Notice that the Axe, Mace, and Dagger are specific to physical, not spell attacks. So as a Magicka Sorc you won't get any benefit from those 3 weapon types. Looking carefully at the Sword bonus, it grants damage done, not weapon damage specifically. So that 5% bonus would apply to all of your spells.

Hope this clarifies things a bit.

kadar

Since I have no progress in Undaunted yet I'm not sure about making 1 Heavy, 1 Medium, 5 Light armors as suggested in other topics. What do you think?

If you plan on rapidly farming Undaunted, then sure make 1H 1M. Otherwise, I wouldn't bother since you need Undaunted 10 to make 3 armor types worth it.

Weapons. What to chose - Lightning or Flame staff, dual swords or daggers or axes or maybe maces?

I believe your choices are Destro staves or DW Swords. I think daggers/maces give weapon crit/physical penetration respectively?

Azzazzello

thanks for reply

regarding the DW passive:
Each axe gives your melee attacks a 8% chance to bleed enemies for [x] Physical Damage over 6 seconds.
Each mace causes your attacks to ignore 10% of an enemy's Physical Resistance.
Each sword increases your damage done by 2.5%.
Each dagger increases your Weapon Critical rating. (by 5%)

dagger and mace bonus looks more preferable.. or maybe sword's bonus could be combined with glyph for weapon/spell damage..
anyway.. i believe that weapon dmg is not so crucial for sorc and main purpose of using DW is set bonus.. or maybe i'm wrong


any suggestion on the type of destro staff?
since sorc have passives for shock damage maybe lightning staff is the best choice?

dpencil

Hey @Azzazzello, congrats on making it to CP 160. Let the gear grind begin!

Julianos is a very solid main body set (all except head and shoulders). Since you don't mention having any specific jewelry set like Willpower, or any monster sets, I would suggest one of the new sets available through overland farming to round out your gear. Get head, shoulders, neck and rings. The main weapon can be a staff from the overland set or just a non-set weapon (you need one with the sharpened trait, so you'll probably want to just craft a non-set weapon first). Back bar can be another staff or 2 Torques swords.

If you are wanting to run your Clannfear most of the time, Necropotence would be a good set. You could also get Mother's Sorrow for lots of crit.

For skills, you are limiting your options with so many toggles. You don't need Inner Light on your back bar. You don't even really need your Clannfear most of the time. What you do need is Power Surge, Empowered Ward and Crystal Fragments. These are MUST HAVE skills. Crystal is massive cheap damage that procs all the time. Power Surge gives you 20% more damage and heals you. Ward gives a big shield that gives your Surge time to refill your health. No need for the Clannfear heal.

Here's my skill bars (running 2 destro, front is lightning sharpened, back is fire sharpened)
Bar 1: Crystal Fragments, Crushing Shock (because the interupt is more useful), Empowered Ward, Inner Light, Bound Aegis. Destro ultimate if you have it
Bar 2: Power Surge, Blockade of Fire, Lightning Flood (because you'll hit more mobs with it than Liquid Lightning), Streak, Bound Aegis. Energy Overload
Overload bar: Inner Light, Bound Aegis, Empowered Ward, Endless Fury (or Mages Wrath, your choice), Flex spot (Dark Exchange, Boundless Storm or whatever)

Trash pull:
Buff with Power Surge. Drop Blockade of Fire and Lightning Flood over the center of the group. Streak through to stun them. Turn around and heavy lightning attack. Usually everyone is dead by then. Repeat if there are groups of 2 or 3 outside of the last kill zone. Single stragglers can be Light attack/Crushing shocked. Use Empowered Ward if you're taking heat. You can apply it before you engage if you want. Use Crystal Frags whenever it procs. For high health single target pulls, like giants, use Inner Light to empower a heavy fire attack (need Mages guild leveled for this) to start the fight.

Boss fights:
Switch out Streak for Elemental Drain. Keep Power Surge, Elemental Drain and both DOTs active at all times. Heavy attack to conserve magicka or spam Crushing Shock/Crystal Frags if resources are ok. If you take too much heat from the boss, trade out Bound Aegis for the Clannfear so he can tank for you. In some fight this will make it super easy. Remember, using Empowered Ward shields your pet too, so if you see his health dropping, shield him, then you can pop his heal if necessary.

Azzazzello

@dpencil
Great thanks for detailed explanation, I'll try suggested skills and update bars.

Regarding the sets.. I need to review all the available sets and try to farm it...
So I need the list of most preferable stats.
I think priority should be as
1. Spell dmg
2. Spell crit
3. Spell penetration
4. MaxMagicka
5. Magicka recovery

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Azzazzello

thanks, it helps a lot...
for now I've already crafted cp160 Julianos+Torug... I'll enhance it to epic and try to farm new sets.. in parallel will try new skill bars...


any new advises will be appreciated

dpencil

I would drop the Torgue's. You're usually going to be better off with 2 destro staves than using swords at all (at least in PvE).

Probably the best you could do stat-wise without having a complete monster set or Willpower jewelry would be 5 Necropotence + 5 Elegant + 2 non-set sharpened Destros (lightning on front bar and fire on back bar). Eventually you'd want to get Elegant versions of those staves (they must be sharpened) and then you could go get the Molag Kena helm from White Gold Tower (which you can get in a bad trait until you get Divines). All armor pieces should have the Divines trait. Use the Thief mundus stone.

Now to make this work, you'd need to keep most of the toggles you have now, so you'd lose a lot of utility in favor of raw damage potential. Bars would look more like this:
1: Crysral Frags, Crushing Shock (Force Pulse if you don't care about the interrupt and just want dps), Clannfear, Inner Light, Bound Aegis, Elemental Rage
2: Empowered Ward, Blockade of Fire, Lightning Flood (or Liquid Lightning if you want longer duration with smaller radius), Clannfear, Bound Aegis, Overload
O: Power Surge (or just use spell power potions, in which case this is a flex spot), Mage's Wrath, Inner Light, Clannfear, Bound Aegis

dpencil

What I run currently is 2 Ilambris or Infernal Guardian, 5 Julianos, 3 Willpower, a non-set lightning staff and a Maelstrom Fire staff.

If I were to switch out Julianos for Necropotence and run the bars mentioned above I'd get about a 400 point effective spell damage increase (not the same thing as straight spell damage), but would lose all the utility I mentioned earlier. I have grown pretty used to my bar setup and rotation, so I don't think its quite enough of a difference to force me to switch.

Edit: Although, you do have about 10k more magicka from Necropotence and 8% more health from the pet. I might get it just to have both

Lukums1

Oh my goodness.

Just do this and leave all this nonsense alone...

Julianos 5 piece - elegant 5 piece - dual wield elegant - staff anything sharpen

Skills - Force pulse, crystal frags, wall of elements - bound agies - inner light
power surge, liquid lightning, harden ward, bound aiges, thundering presense
power surge, liquid lightning, harden ward, bound aiges, inner light

Ultimates meteor, power overload, power overload

As far as stats go, anyone who saids 1. is spell power is WRONG flat out wrong.

I run 2.4k SP, 43k magicka - 63% crit 21k hp, I promise this is the better build than most of this very questionable suggestions.

This... below is wrong it should be....

I think priority should be as
1. Spell dmg
2. Spell crit
3. Spell penetration
4. MaxMagicka
5. Magicka recovery

SHOULD BE:

1. spell crit
2. max magicka
3. spell damage
4. spell penetration
5. recovery

By the time you stack spell power with julianos, will power, molag kena, "nirn trait staff and weapons" ... sure grats you hit 4.5k sp but I promise you'll be doing less damage.

HOWEVER this is all SUBJECT to how you want to play, (if you wanna crit for 35-45k crits with power overload do this)
If you want to continue roll damage in dungeons you need to consider the electric build with velicous curse elemental blockage and liquid lightning.

As you can see there are not many WRONG answers but necro sets...all the weird sets *** them off.

It's TBS or Julianos - monster helms is val skoria or molag kena depending on how you get your reasources.

Like I tell everyone skill positioning, and what skills YOU slot as the player behind the control is what suits YOU best sure there are optimum ways to do things but the best build is generally the one you make yourself and how you keep yourself alive.

These notes are my experience after years of playing and testing BIS. You can disagree with me if you want.

Azzazzello

@Lukums1
Thanks for your comment.

As I understand you put higher priority to crit due to Power Surge.
And Power surge with Ward and Lightning form should replace Clannfear.
I'll try this setup on weekend.

Regarding Lightning form.
Why do you prefer Thundering Presence?
Does extra 5 seconds in duration worth more than increased speed?
Because I really liked the speed it gives.

Regarding gear.
I'd prefer to chose the gear I can craft or easily obtain.
And instead of farming sets I'd prefer to complete the quest lines first

Since this char is my main crafter I have lack of skill points.
So I will focus on skyshard farming and on trying new skills this weekend.


One more question.
What type of food/drink is preferable?
Currently I'm using blue health-magicka increase food.

dpencil

Heh, didn't realize that having my post marked as the answer would move it to the top of the thread, so I figured it hadn't gotten posted properly (sometimes the post reply button doesn't work consistently on my phone) and basically reposted the build.

@Lukums1 Of course, balancing all of the factors in the list are important. I did try to be clear that there would be a significant operational cost to running so many toggles, but I was trying to be sensitive to Azzazzellos's current situation. He's already used to running a bunch of toggles and doesn't have stuff like monster sets or other end game gear yet. Necropotence does outperform everything else if you can get around the skill limitations. There are plenty of other good choices too, such as Julianos, TBS, Elegant, and Mother's Sorrow. So there would be lots of intereating ways to combine them. Then also eventually exploring monster sets like Molag Kena, Skoria, and some of the new ones like Ilambris and Infernal Guardian. In the end, it does need to come down to personal preference and play style over straight numbers. Thats one of the things that makes developing builds in ESO so engaging.

Azzazzello

Guys, great thanks for all your comments and support.
I need your help in mid-game playing, not for ultimate end-game veteran dangeon soloing
For now I need to understand basic elements of the game.
Later I'll try to develop my own build which will be more suitable for me.

I've played from Beta and returned back like 2 months ago and realized that the game is changed.
Before (at VR 1-5) I didn't concern about specific skills and builds and gear - just used the most suitable (as I thought) armor/weapon I got from drops.
But now it becomes difficult to play unskilled. Especially in groups.
So I've started to read forums/guides and now I think I'm ready to ask right questions.

As I've already completed quest lines in Auridon and Rivenspire so in order to get Elegance/Necropotence sets I need to specially farm it. I'd prefer to continue with quest lines/skyshard hunting.
So I've crafted all light 5xJulianos + 2xTorug armors, Torug Lightning and Restoration staves, 2xMagnus swords.
Divines + MaxMagicka on armor, Sharpened + Wep/Speel dmg on staves and 1 sword, 2nd sword is Shock dmg.
All epic with legendary enchants.
Mostly I'll try to use staff (need to level resto skill line) on the 1st bar and DW on the 2nd .

Jewelry - need to get good ones...


Skills...
No meteor yet (need a level in Mages guild).
So as ultimate I'll use Elemental Rage and Power Overload.

I've created a list of skills which I could use in order to make a skill bar
Force Pulse
Mages' Wrath
Crystal Fragments
Velocious Curse
Elemental Blockade
Liquid Lightning
Pulsar
Power Surge
Hardened Ward
Boundless Storm
Inner Light
Bound Aegis
Unstable Clannfear

As I see Bound Aegis should be on every bar.
I want to keep main DD skills on the 1st bar with Inner Light (Crystal Fragments, Elemental Blockade, Liquid Lightning or Force Pulse)
On the 2nd bar put skills which are not depend on crit from Inner Light (Power Surge, Hardened Ward, Boundless Storm and maybe Velocious Curse).
On Overload bar: Power Surge, Mage's Wrath, Hardened Ward or Liquid Lightning, Inner Light, Bound Aegis

Please correct me if I'm going in the wrong direction.

Thanks for reading this

dpencil

@Azzazzello Your crit modifier applies to whatever bar you are currently on. Cast Blockade of Fire and Liquid Lightning from the back bar then swap to your front bar. The crit chance from Inner Light will effect all of the remaining ticks from these dots. Back bar should be stuff that has longer durations so you don't have to go back and forth too much. I like to keep my shield on my front bar along with the main single target damage dealers (Crystal Frags and Force Pulse).

Check guild stores around the world for the sets you are looking for. You may find some cheep deals that cut down on your farming. You could always use less optimal trait gear for a while until you get divines.

Streak and Elemental Drain should be on your list too. Streak is very good for stunning tons of mobs in aoe situations to keep them from moving out of your dots. Elemental Drain is great for boss fights, giving you magic back and penetrating their armor for about 10% more damage.

Lukums1

Hey there,

I should clarify I meant Boundless not Thundering! - Too much time on my STAM Sorc that is my mistake.

Agreed you should make a build suited to yourelf.

I only suggested sets like julianos and TBS because the materials are:
1. Easily accessible for most players
2. Quite cheap
3. Plenty of people to help you out crafting most time for free.

Few notes I already read,

Inner light should be placed on front bar and maybe on energy overload bar as stated the multiplier only comes from which bar it is situated on.

So if you run:

Fire SETUP:

Flame Staff
front
1. Force Pulse
2. Crystal frags
3. elemental blockade
4. bound agies
5. inner light
6. metor

back
1. power surge
2. liquid lightning
3. harden ward
4. bound agies
5. boundless storm
6. energy oerload

overload bar
1. power surge
2. mages wrath
3. velicious curse
4. bound agies
5. inner light
6. energy overload

Keeping in mind most setups are situational
Mines for pvp for example, not running harden ward (trial group "healers are good") remembering sorc self heals are insane so this can be easily swapped out.

Or do the exact same as above
Lightning staff
The only thing you swap is instead of force pulse front bar run velicious curse basically a huge dot aoe build (works nicely).

At the end of the day as mentioned in my previous post run whats best for you the only way you will improve and find issues within your own gameplay in how you can become ultimately a better player.

Everyone on this post is giving some very good advise and everything in my opinion is worth while to be considered.

Your final question in relation to food:

THE NEW EVENT RECIPE IS insane!!!
MAX Health, MAX Magica, 300 Magica regen!!! Way to go with buffing magicka classes! Nice one! ZOS.

Luke