The Bubonic Tonic - Thelon's Befoul Build (Off-Meta, Anti-Proc)

Thelon

OBJECTIVE

The objective is to create a well-rounded, survivable Sorcerer PvP build that can be useful in all situations. (Dueling, 1vX, small-scale, large-scale, zergsurfing)

MEDIA

Character Stats



Videos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPL3Fo5w9RA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=236sPDNHTXw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2cgmp__UJM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkrCmwIHjr8

RACE

I highly recommend Altmer for this build, with Breton as a second choice if you can’t stand the thought of being a full-blown elf.

MUNDUS STONE

The Mage - I've found this stone to be the best overall choice for the build, as it helps with damage, sustain and survivability. Choose The Theif if you want to focus more on damage.

ATTRIBUTE POINTS

Magicka – 64 – Since Magicka provides offence, defense and sustain, put all your points here.
Health – 0 – We will be able to achieve an acceptable health pool without putting any attribute points here.
Stamina – 0 – Not a priority for this build. We will get our stamina sustain from other sources described below.

CHAMPION POINTS – TOTAL: 561

THE MAGE
100 x Elemental Expert, 33 x Elfborn, 42 x Spell Erosion
The Ritual – 12 x Thaumaturge

THE WARRIOR
The Steed - 50 x Resistant
The Lady – 75 x Hardy, 55 x Elemental Defender,
The Lord – 7 x Bastion,

THE THIEF
The Tower – 75 x Magician
The Lover – 12 x Arcanist
The Shadow - 100 x Befoul

GEAR



Chest – Seducer - Heavy Armor - Impenetrable - Max Magicka Enchantment
Belt – Seducer – Light Armor – Impenetrable – Tri-Stat Enchantment
Boots – Seducer – Medium Armor – Impenetrable – Tri-Stat Enchantment
Gloves – Seducer – Heavy Armor – Impenetrable – Tri-Stat Enchantment
Legs – Seducer – Heavy Armor – Impenetrable – Max Magicka Enchantment





Helm –Molag Kena – Heavy Armor – Infused – Max Magicka Enchantment
Shoulders – Fasalla's Guile – Heavy Armor – Impenetrable – Tri-Stat Enchantment



Neck – Necklace of Fasalla's Guile - Healthy – Spell Damage Enchant
Ring – Ring of Fasalla's Guile – Healthy – Spell Damage Enchant
Ring – Ring of Fasalla's Guile – Healthy – Spell Damage Enchant




1st Weapon – Fasalla's Lightning Staff – Sharpened – Spell Damage Enchant
2nd Weapon – Fasalla's Restoration Staff – Defending - Defiling Poison



UNDAUNTED METTLE

When crafting your gear set, it is important to take advantage of the Undaunted Passive called "Undaunted Mettle." This means that you need to have 5 heavy armor, 1 medium armor and 1 light armor.

SKILLS

Bar 1



Mage's Wrath
Hardened Ward
Crystal Frags
Velocious Curse
Crushing Shock
Ultimate – Eye of the Storm (Destruction Staff)

Group Play Bar 2



Power Surge
Harness Magicka
Healing Ward
Streak
Restraining Prison
Ultimate – Supression Field

Dueling Bar 2



Power Surge
Harness Magicka
Healing Ward
Boundless Storm
Daedric Minefield
Ultimate - Greater Storm Atronach

1vX Bar 2



Power Surge
Harness Magicka
Healing Ward
Streak
Daedric Minefield
Ultimate - Greater Storm Atronach

CONSUMABLES

Potions

Tri-Pots (Health, Magicka and Stamina Recovery)



These potions should be on your quick-slot by default. Use these immediately whenever someone trys to gank you.

Detection Pots (Detection, Major Prophecy, Magicka Recovery)



If you survive a gank without the need for a Tri-Pot, use these to prevent the attacker from returning to stealth. These are also very useful to scout areas where you suspect people are hiding.

Stamina Immovability Pot (Immovability, Major Expedition, Stamina Recovery)



Use this potion while in the midst of battle to prevent hard CC's and to sustain your stamina pool. You should also use this potion to assist with escapes due to the Major Expedition buff.

Magicka Immovability Pots (Immovability, Health and Magicka Recovery)



Use this potion while in the midst of battle to prevent hard CC's and to sustain your magicka pool.

Spell Power Potions (Major Sorcery, Major Prophecy, Magicka Recovery)



These are your offensive potions. Use these to maximize damage when called for.

Standard Magicka Potions (Magicka Recovery)



Use these pots to sustain your Magicka Pool between fights or during lulls in combat.

Standard Stamina Potions (Stamina Recovery)



Use these pots to sustain your Stamina Pool between fights or during lulls in combat.

Seige (Meatbag Catapult)



This should be your seige of choice as the health debuff benefits from the points in Befoul.

Drink

Witchmother’s Potent Brew (Max Magicka and Health, Magicka Recovery)



This drink gives a fantastic combination of of stats and allows us to sustain our Magicka pool while maintaining a respectable amount of max health.

HELPFUL HINTS FOR PVP

Here are some helpful hints to maximize the potential of this build.

Fasallas Guile – This debuff is incredibly OP as it is, but with 100 points into Befoul and combined with Defiling Poisons, the build is able to prevent 86% of an enemy's healing received. (Fasalla's = 66%, Defiling Poison = 20%) Don't forget to use Meatbag Catapults too!

Anti-Proc - Surviving Proc-Set gankers will be much easier for sorcerers using this build. The innate resistances from Heavy Armor, six pieces of Impenetrable, 50 points into Resistant, access to three shields and having both Tri-Stat and Detection Pots on hand will all help you survive the wrath of the nightbraid!

Potion Use – Being able to quickly decide which potion to use is critical for this build. It will take some practice but, in general, follow the tips in the above Consumables Section and you should do well in this regard.

Crowd Control – This build shines in its ability to root, knock down and silence large amounts of enemies very quickly. The combination of Negate, Streak and Restraining Prison can tip the scales of large encounters in your favor.

Kiting is Key – To 1vX on this build, you'll need to kite your enemies away from their larger group, engaging them in smaller, incremental amounts. Only try to tackle multiple enemies simultaneously if your have your Destruction Staff ultimate ready.

Thelon

I'll be adding more vids to the OP as I upload them over the next few weeks, so stay tuned to this thread or to my YouTube channel!

Hit me up if you guys have any questions

Thelon

Added this vid from my channel to the OP, moar to come!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2cgmp__UJM

Libonotus

What passives do you use?

EldritchPenguin

This is quite an interesting build. But I really have to wonder, why Sorcerer? I feel like this build would work better with a class that has direct, reliable access to Major Defile.

Thelon

@Libonotus

I'm using all racial, heavy Armor, light Armor and class passives on this build. There's so many skill points available that, come end-game, there's really no issue in grabbing every available passive.

Good luck out there!

Waffennacht

The heal debuffs is what makes me think this build will work.

Have you faced some big tanky builds? Did the debuffs work enough on them?

Honestly I'm dreading the idea of facing this build...

How's the heals on this?

Oh and PS why Atronach Ult? Any specific reason?

Thelon

EldritchPenguin wrote: »

This is quite an interesting build. But I really have to wonder, why Sorcerer? I feel like this build would work better with a class that has direct, reliable access to Major Defile.

@EldritchPenguin

I hear ya, I wish sorcs had access to a few more buffs/debuffs. Templars (especially Blazing Shield ones) make great use of Fasallas, but only Sorcs can bring that pivitol negate + streak + encase combo, which is just devastating to groups when Fasallas is included

Thelon

Merry Xmas everyone!

Izaki

Why not use Fasalla's on the armor and use Worm on the jewelry and head/shoulder? Or you could even use Warlock or the Lich jewelry with 1 piece on the body and 1 piece Ilambris, Infernal Guardian or Grothdarr. So you'd have more magicka, so more damage You'll lose 3k health, but gain around 4-5k magicka.

Thelon

Waffennacht wrote: »

The heal debuffs is what makes me think this build will work.

Have you faced some big tanky builds? Did the debuffs work enough on them?

Honestly I'm dreading the idea of facing this build...

How's the heals on this?

Oh and PS why Atronach Ult? Any specific reason?

@Waffennacht

You can wear down tanky builds with this setup thanks to the heal debuffs. Some perma-blockers will still be too much, but since they'll never kill you its meh

The build uses healing Ward for spot heals, and it's very useful to your team once you've learned when to cast it (encourage your teammates to yell for help when they need a ward)

I recommend Atronach Ultimate for dueling and 1vX for the quick stun, sustained damage and resource return, which is a pretty valuable combo for this build in solo situations

Minalan

Thelon wrote: »

Waffennacht wrote: »

The heal debuffs is what makes me think this build will work.

Have you faced some big tanky builds? Did the debuffs work enough on them?

Honestly I'm dreading the idea of facing this build...

How's the heals on this?

Oh and PS why Atronach Ult? Any specific reason?

@Waffennacht

You can wear down tanky builds with this setup thanks to the heal debuffs. Some perma-blockers will still be too much, but since they'll never kill you its meh

The build uses healing Ward for spot heals, and it's very useful to your team once you've learned when to cast it (encourage your teammates to yell for help when they need a ward)

I recommend Atronach Ultimate for dueling and 1vX for the quick stun, sustained damage and resource return, which is a pretty valuable combo for this build in solo situations

I have to agree on the atronach. First off, good players aren't going to fall to meteor or soul assault.

Tank monkeys with their block button scotch-taped down are at least somewhat affected by the atronach, the constant lightning bolt drains stamina.

Last, you can LOS behind the thing.

Thelon

IzakiBrotheSs wrote: »

Why not use Fasalla's on the armor and use Worm on the jewelry and head/shoulder? Or you could even use Warlock or the Lich jewelry with 1 piece on the body and 1 piece Ilambris, Infernal Guardian or Grothdarr. So you'd have more magicka, so more damage You'll lose 3k health, but gain around 4-5k magicka.

@IzakiBrotheSs
Great suggestions, and I've tried a couple myself. This build has a few variations you could work in, its really just a template so people can figure out what they like and how to tweak it.

Personally, Ive found that running just shy of 30k health (I think I'm at 29.5k with this setup) is perfect to counter ganker proctatos, since they see that sub-30k health pool and assume you're a squishmonster.

Kryptolarkz

Hello! I tried this build with full purple set items and 405 cp. My stats aren't nearly as high as yours.

Magicka 30297 Regen 1765
Health 28708
Stamina 10575

2257 spell dmg buffed

Is this because of the rest of the CP I'm missing or my items not being gold?

Thanks

EldritchPenguin

Kryptolarkz wrote: »

Hello! I tried this build with full purple set items and 405 cp. My stats aren't nearly as high as yours.

Magicka 30297 Regen 1765
Health 28708
Stamina 10575

2257 spell dmg buffed

Is this because of the rest of the CP I'm missing or my items not being gold?

Thanks

Do you have Undaunted Mettle and three different weights of armor?

Kryptolarkz

Yes. Everything is exsctly the same, except I have purple items and enchants.

I duel a lot and I like the tankiness this build brings, but the lack of dmg is what I'm having problem with. Specially when fighting tanky players, the fights takes too long.

Izaki

Yeah I figured it had to do with gankers I was just wondering if there was a specific reason for using harness as well and as hardened? Is the tankiness in heavy not enough to only use 1 shield? Because I was thinking that it could free up an extra bar slot for something like Inner Light? That way you'd have some crit as well as some more magicka! Definitely trying this build out. Do you think it will work with Dual Wield or'SnB? That way you could even use a full monster set (GROTHDARR) to help with some AoE damage with your Negates? That way you're literally THE most annoying thing to come across in Cyrodiil!

Thelon

@Kryptolarkz

Yes friend, I suspect the lower stats are a result of CP + golden gear and enchants. Great to hear the build is working for you, and you'll notice more offence if you raise those stats / CP a bit.

Good luck out there!

Kerioko

May I suggest replacing your suducer with Durok's Bane. This will give you a way to keep a constant 30-40% healing debuff on all targets that hit you on top of the 70-90% debuff you can get from fasalla's and disease enchant.

I run a defile build on my argonian mageblade with 5 Fasalla/5 Durok's/2 Engine Guardian running SnB/Resto. With CP in Befoul passive, I set right around 120-130% healing debuffs. So this accounts for both the regular 100% heal and the added 30% from major mending.

I have had templars tell me their 15K BoL was only doing 1K when they would fight me. With that though, I have noticed that when people realize you are wearing fasalla's, they will stop attacking for 2 seconds before they burst heal. These means fasalla loses a lot of its usefulness verses the knowledgeable player. That is why I like having the Durok's Bane to combo it. Figure if you are going to run a defile build, might as well go all in!

Thelon

IzakiBrotheSs wrote: »

Yeah I figured it had to do with gankers I was just wondering if there was a specific reason for using harness as well and as hardened? Is the tankiness in heavy not enough to only use 1 shield? Because I was thinking that it could free up an extra bar slot for something like Inner Light? That way you'd have some crit as well as some more magicka! Definitely trying this build out. Do you think it will work with Dual Wield or'SnB? That way you could even use a full monster set (GROTHDARR) to help with some AoE damage with your Negates? That way you're literally THE most annoying thing to come across in Cyrodiil!

@IzakiBrotheSs

You could swap out Harness Magicka, but I personally like the extra defense from the shield + significant Magicka return.

Sword and Board would work great with this build! You'll lose some damage (Destro ultimate, weaving) and some utility (crushing shock) but you'll gain a lot of tankiness from the passives, and some interesting gearing flexibility, as you mentioned

Thelon

Added a new vid of a really fun skirmish to the OP, hope u guys enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkrCmwIHjr8

Thelon

Minalan wrote: »

Thelon wrote: »

Waffennacht wrote: »

The heal debuffs is what makes me think this build will work.

Have you faced some big tanky builds? Did the debuffs work enough on them?

Honestly I'm dreading the idea of facing this build...

How's the heals on this?

Oh and PS why Atronach Ult? Any specific reason?

@Waffennacht

You can wear down tanky builds with this setup thanks to the heal debuffs. Some perma-blockers will still be too much, but since they'll never kill you its meh

The build uses healing Ward for spot heals, and it's very useful to your team once you've learned when to cast it (encourage your teammates to yell for help when they need a ward)

I recommend Atronach Ultimate for dueling and 1vX for the quick stun, sustained damage and resource return, which is a pretty valuable combo for this build in solo situations

I have to agree on the atronach. First off, good players aren't going to fall to meteor or soul assault.

Tank monkeys with their block button scotch-taped down are at least somewhat affected by the atronach, the constant lightning bolt drains stamina.

Last, you can LOS behind the thing.

@Minalan

Ya Atronach is a solid choice for duels and 1vX for the reasons you mentioned, plus it givess magicka back when it dies (Rebate passive) Every little bit counts!

Minalan

Thelon wrote: »

Minalan wrote: »

Thelon wrote: »

Waffennacht wrote: »

The heal debuffs is what makes me think this build will work.

Have you faced some big tanky builds? Did the debuffs work enough on them?

Honestly I'm dreading the idea of facing this build...

How's the heals on this?

Oh and PS why Atronach Ult? Any specific reason?

@Waffennacht

You can wear down tanky builds with this setup thanks to the heal debuffs. Some perma-blockers will still be too much, but since they'll never kill you its meh

The build uses healing Ward for spot heals, and it's very useful to your team once you've learned when to cast it (encourage your teammates to yell for help when they need a ward)

I recommend Atronach Ultimate for dueling and 1vX for the quick stun, sustained damage and resource return, which is a pretty valuable combo for this build in solo situations

I have to agree on the atronach. First off, good players aren't going to fall to meteor or soul assault.

Tank monkeys with their block button scotch-taped down are at least somewhat affected by the atronach, the constant lightning bolt drains stamina.

Last, you can LOS behind the thing.

@Minalan

Ya Atronach is a solid choice for duels and 1vX for the reasons you mentioned, plus it givess magicka back when it dies (Rebate passive) Every little bit counts!

@Thelon

I forgot all about the rebate passive!

PS: I loved your hate tell video. I had no idea QAM was so salty.

Mr_Apollo

Definitely gonna take a look at this since I enjoyed your last build

Thelon

Mr_Apollo wrote: »

Definitely gonna take a look at this since I enjoyed your last build

@Mr_Apollo

Hope u have as much fun playing it as I had making it!

Libonotus

Thelon wrote: »

Mr_Apollo wrote: »

Definitely gonna take a look at this since I enjoyed your last build

@Mr_Apollo

Hope u have as much fun playing it as I had making it!

MagSorc is getting a huge nerf so would this still be as effective when the update arrives or?

Waffennacht

@Thelon I'm working on an inspired version of your build.

Im trying Guile, Troll King, and Alchemist (if I can find elf bane and or finish BSW maybe those instead)

I do not like the lightning staff in PvP as much as frost or fire staff.

I'm running resto back with healing ward and rapid regen (triggering king when low on health)

What I'm wondering is, have you found the need to have Guile on both bars at x5?
What's your take on T King? (T king is kinda anti defile Guile set too)

I dropped Surge for Entropy - can consistently trigger troll if necessary (plus lower crit rate reduces Surge consistency) - also can potentially use Transmutation to pre combat proc

Seeing as Sorcs are kinda magicka intensive I went with Atro Mundus and only x2 spell damage glyphs.

Curious on your take?

Also, any opinions on staff choices when they change?

Thelon

@Waffennacht

You can definitely use a fire staff for this build on live - its really good since everyone seems to be a vamp these days.

Yes, having 5 x Fasallas on both bars is pretty important for this build, though it's not like having it on only one would completely gimp the playstyle

Atro mundus is only good if you really are struggling with your sustain, which should not be an issue with Witchmothers Brew + Resto heavy attacks

I can't speculate on pts changes atm since I'm overseas, but curse is pretty much useless for this build (and many others I suspect) if the change goes live

Good luck with your itineration of the build, it looks pretty cool!

Waffennacht

Hey, if you were to use a monster set, which would you use?

Thelon

@Waffennacht

For this playstyle, I'd recommend two different sets based on your preference of either more offence or more defense:

Offence - Slimecraw

Defense - Pirate Skeleton

Thelon

Libonotus wrote: »

MagSorc is getting a huge nerf so would this still be as effective when the update arrives or?

@Libonotus

I think there's still more changes to be announced so it's too early to speculate, plus I don't have access to PTS while on vacation.

From what I've read so far, the curse change would hurt this build (and most Sorc builds) for sure, but the cost reduction to Encase would be a nice buff.