[PVE Advice] Respec from StamSorc to MagSorc?

Ghostextechnica

Hi all, looking for advice on whether I'll find MagSorc a better fit for me in PVE.

I currently have a StamSorc approaching 160 CP and although I find it quite fun and the rotation is easy, I'm getting a bit frustrated in dungeons as I often die once or twice to melee attacks (I have around a 200ms connection and sometimes don't make it out of the red in time) and find it generally harder as melee to fight bosses as they run around and do melee range AOE attacks. It's not super fun standing back with the bow doing low dps while I wait for it to be melee-safe again.

I ran a couple of dungeons with some MagSorc's recently, and they seemed to stay alive endlessly, attack fine from range and do amazing AOE damage too (liquid lightning looks awesome).

Things I love about my StamSorc:
- Amazing Aoe (Endless Hail, Hurricane, Steel Tornado)
- CritSurge heals
- Very easy rotation

Do you think I would find MagSorc's a good fit?

davey1107

For me, stam sorc and mag sorc play more distinctly from one another than any other class resource split. So changing would be a very different play style for your character.

The first concern is what race that are. If they're a stam race (khajit, wood elf, red guard), then they might be handicapped as a magic sorc. If they're a magic race (Breton, altmer), they might play better than they do now.

The second concern is whether you're feeling squishy because you're only ~C160. With players I've helped, c160 is about where you feel confident enough to run harder content...but you're still way, way, WAY underpowered compared to a 561 in good gear. The CP deficit cuts your damage, regen and resistance by about 20% each. Are you wearing two complete 5-piece sets and a monster helm on your attack bar? If not, that's another 30% power nerf. Is your current gear gold? If it's purple, another 30% nerf. If blue or less...60% nerf. If you're watching other 561s survive where you're having trouble, they might be 3x as powerful because of CPs and gear, not class.

Third, are you not using the right skills to survive the content that's giving you trouble? Playing a melee stam sorc requires some form of wards and heals. You really need vigor. And shuffle is a very, very helpful ability. Both stam sorc and mag sorc need to consider their heals and wards - if this is where your problem lies, that you aren't buffing sufficiently, then switching won't really help. And if ranged bow annoys you, try shrouded daggers - the dps on this range attack rules. (I also find bow annoying for pve).

So...my assessment is that your toon probably isn't developed enough to get a real sense of that they're capable of. There are pros and cons to any class, but you aren't talking about this character in a way that makes me think stam sorc can't work for you.

If it were me, rather than go through the nuisance and cost of a respec, I'd roll a mag sorc fresh off the boat. Make them a race appropriate to a magic build. Try mag sorc out - if you hate it, delete the character. If you like it, make him your second vet. In about 12 hours play, he can be a vet that is helping you earn CPs too. This is a really helpful strategy in getting your CPs faster, since different characters will get the quest rewards and area clear xp that previousmtoons have already cashed in.

How will he get to vet in 12 hours? You're first might have taken months to get to vet. Well...he gets to use your 160 CPs as a low level, which will make him really strong. And your main probably has a lot of mats and crafting experience - get the newbie green training gear, 5 piece seducer and 3 piece Magnus gift. (If you You'll want lvl 6, 18, 30, 40 to get to vet). Gear up, drink psijic and close all the dolmens and run the public dungeons. This is worth about 35 levels, and by the time you've done that you'll know if you like mag sorc or not.

I have both types of sorc, btw. They're very different, and I like having both as an option. Right now my Stam Sorc is wearing five morkuldin, five hunt leader and a monster helm. My morkuldin procs a silly sword on light/heavy attacks that counts as a pet. I also run a clanfear. When they're up, my hunt leader give me "when your pets attack an enemy you've recently attacked, you restore 2500 health and 1200 stamina, 5 second cooldown." This setup is hilarious, fun, and the sustain is off the charts. I wouldn't respec him...stam sorc is too much fun.

Ghostextechnica

Thanks for the detailed reply! Much appreciated!

I'm currently a Redguard but could easily race change to Dumner if needed.

Agree I'm definitely more squishy due to lower CP - but my longer-term concern is that even at high CP, people simply won't take stam dps into trials at all because they still die easily - while ranged magika dps can do good dps at range and survive a lot easier.

From my experience so far - crit surge is all the healing I've ever needed (with hurricane and endless hail up I'm always critting every second so I'm always getting tons of healing). Furthermore, Hurricane also gives me Major Resolve and Major Ward. I'm not dying to multiple hits that could be healed through, but single giant hits from melee range boss moves that 1 shot me.

I'll have a think about rolling a new toon.. but it's hard to think I'll need to re-do all the quests I've done so far. I'm really quite keen on investing everything into one character and eventually doing every quest in the game on that one toon. I guess another option might be to respec and try out magika .. and if I love it I can race change for 3000 crowns. I hear respecing isn't too expensive to do.

RebornV3x

I'm kinda in the same boat myself I have a stam sorc love it for pvp but I thought about switching to mag sorc since nobody want a stam sorc for end game trials

Ghostextechnica

And Mag Sorc's are looking to be amazing next patch too.

Results from Alcast's PTS testing:

Mag Sorc - 41k
Mag Templar - 37k
Mag DK - 36k
Mag NB - 36k
All Stam setups - ~32k