Leveling a Sorcerer - Quick Questions from a new player

vpy

Qs

a)

Which build is good for solo leveling a sorcerer via quests ?
I am mainly focused on survivability.
I am a very casual player who is OK with less damage as long as I do not keep dying

b)
I did some research online and found out that there is a weapon called "destruction staff".
Where can I get that weapon in starting zone ?

dpencil

Weapons drop from baddies and quests randomly. You can also just ask for a destro staff in zone chat and someone will likely give you one. Check out Deltia's Gaming website for lots of starting out info. He's great for that.

BellatorMortalis

It is a fact that many (in fact most) sorcerer skills do not need a staff. Also especially in the very beginning use heavy armor -- you can swap into medium and then light armor if you wish to do so later in your leveling process. As for a staff, you will find them as drops and get them from quests. But don't assume a staff is best -- it may be that you run several levels with a two-handed sword, or with a pair of maces, etc.

lygerseye

Agree with the Deltia recommendation... I have a Stam Sorc based on one of his builds. Decent DPS, but real good survivability - soloing pledges, survivability.

As for destro staff... Not sure if you understood or not, but "Destruction Staff" is the generic term for any of the three staves: Inferno, Ice, or Lightning. The Destro Staff skills will change according to whichever staff you equip.

vpy

@BellatorMortalis

Mate

Not sure whether I understood you correctly.
Are you saying that sorcerers can wear heavy armor ?.
Sorcerers are like mages who wear only cloth ...right ?

BellatorMortalis

vpy wrote: »

@BellatorMortalis

Mate

Not sure whether I understood you correctly.
Are you saying that sorcerers can wear heavy armor ?.
Sorcerers are like mages who wear only cloth ...right ?

In fact yes sorcerers can wear heavy, or medium, or light armor. There are enhancements to your magic level and magic recover with light armor -- but the heavy provides better defense. Any class can wear any armor, but the armors affect boosts to health, stamina, and magic. It is common to mix and match armors also.

Mcgelie1

If you're ​leveling, wear I recommend you wear all three armor types at once, you'll level all the armor skill lines that way.

dpencil

@vpy
Let me offer you some starting out tips. Some of this you might already have figured out but just in case...

- Your character has access to 3 class skill trees and a bunch of other weapon, armor, guild, and crafting skill lines that are available to all classes. In general, the class skills and staff weapons use magicka and the sword and bow skills use stamina. As you play with a skill on your skill bar it levels up to rank 4 and can then be morphed. The morph adds new things to the skill, sometimes changing it from a magicka-based skill to a stamina one or just adding new features to the skill. Read your skills' information carefully to understand how they work. Often players will choose to focus on either magicka or stamina as their main stat, so you'll hear people refer to their character as a Magicka Sorcerer or a Stamina Sorcerer for example. The game is designed to be flexible in this way, so don't feel too locked into the general idea of a "sorcerer" from D&D. Elder Scrolls games are usually more open ended than that. That said, playing the traditional "sorcerer" type works great, it's just not the only option.

- If you want to go the traditional Magicka Sorcerer route, you'll want to level up all of your class skill trees, the light armor tree, and the destruction staff tree. The restoration staff tree is also worth leveling up. All attribute points should be put into Magicka as your character levels up. Remember that only the skills on your active skill bar get xp, but any skill in a skill tree will give xp to that tree's level. So, to unlock everything in a skill tree, you need to level it up to 50. More skills on your bar from that tree will level it up faster. When you get two skill bars to swap between only the skills on the bar you currently have up get xp, so when you turn in quests make sure you have the skills you are trying to level up on your bar. You should have one skill from each of your 3 class skill lines on your bar to level them all up. You can also put a destro staff skill there with the light armor shield or a resto staff ability (just to level up, not to actually use).

- Some of the best class skill morphs to use as a leveling magicka sorc: Crystal Fragments, Endless Fury, Any of the pets particularly the Volatile Familiar, Power Surge, Liquid Lightning, Dark Exchange, Bound Aegis.

- Good destro skill morphs to level: Force Pulse, Elemental Blockade, Elemental Drain.

- Watch out for outleveling your gear. Make sure to keep your gear at least 5-10 levels within your current character level. If you can get someone to craft you some starter gear, that would be good. Otherwise, just use what you get from questing.

- Always carry a stack of soul gems and lockpicks. Always have a food buff active to increase your health and magicka. Make sure to go activate the Thief Mundus Stone. Try to use armor with the Divines trait to boost your crit chance from the Thief stone. The best trait for weapons is Sharpened.

- Make sure to buy a horse as soon as you can and visit a stable daily to add more speed and then more carrying capacity to your horse.

- Your gear will get worn down from fighting, so either replace it for better gear or get it repaired by any merchant. It doest help you any if it's broken. Also, if you have an enchantment on your staff, that will periodically need to be recharged with a soul gem.

- Your highest priority for progressing your character should be collecting as many skill points as you can. That means collecting skyshards and completing the main quest lines for each zone, guild, and main story. Play around with various skill combinations as you level and unlock more. In the capitol cities you can spend some gold to refund your skill points and spend them differently, so don't be afraid to experiment. And by far, have fun! It's a game after all!

Happy questing!

Nerouyn

vpy wrote: »

Which build is good for solo leveling a sorcerer via quests ?

Daedric curse -> Daedric prey morph

Summon unstable familiar -> Clanfear morph if you want a super tanky pet, Volatile familiar morph for more aoe damage.

Summon winged twilight -> Matriarch morph gives you a great multi-target heal (if you don't choose this morph you should equip a restoration staff for heals)

Plus any two single target damage abilities you like.

Second weapon you'll want the two pets again (so they don't unsummon when you weapon swap) + 3 aoes. I recommend...

Encase -> Shattering prison morph

Wall of elements (destruction staff) -> Unstable wall of elements

Lightning splash -> Lightning flood

Biro123

And a little more advice since you said you wanted help with not dying and nobody has really commented on that...

When choosing between stamina and magicka - it is generally a full one OR the other choice - since skills that cost magicka to cast will be more effective (ie do more dmg) the higher your max magicka stat is (and spell power and spell crit etc.) For stamina skills, they use max stam, wpn dmg, physical crit etc... So apart from the odd 'oddball' build - go for one or the other.

if going stamina - heavy armour, sword and shield, learn how/when to block/dodge and use surge. Easy to miss how useful these heals are until it runs out and hour health starts dropping fast.

If going magicka, look at the only castable light-armour skill annulment and also the sorc skill - conjured ward (and its morph - hardened ward) in the summoning line. These are where the magsorc's defence comes from. They are 'Damage Shields' - which when you have on active, any enemy attacks hit the shield instead of your health bar (until the shiled runs out). They last 6 seconds. You will most likely unlock annulment first - just by wearing light armour.. For hardened ward - I'd advise using pets until you unlock it. Since your pets are from the same skill-line, having them slotted will level that line faster - and also they will tank some of the damage for you (esp. the clannfear - although it isn't a great choice endgame - its great for levelling).

Its also worth knowing that your damage shields will absorb more damage the higher your max-magicka is - so simply increasing your magicka will improve both your offence AND defence.

Kneighbors

vpy wrote: »

@BellatorMortalis

Mate

Not sure whether I understood you correctly.
Are you saying that sorcerers can wear heavy armor ?.
Sorcerers are like mages who wear only cloth ...right ?

I have 8 builds right now and I can tell you honestly the most fun for me is playing my tank sorcerer in vet dungeons and PvP. It's really a powerful build.

waterfairy

vpy wrote: »

@BellatorMortalis

Mate

Not sure whether I understood you correctly.
Are you saying that sorcerers can wear heavy armor ?.
Sorcerers are like mages who wear only cloth ...right ?

Anyone can wear anything or use anything, the key is to use what best suits your needs. Heavy armor provides better protection but you'll lose out on the magic bonuses from light armor. I recommend at least 5 pieces of light armor and 2 heavy if you want magic + protection.

hmsdragonfly

vpy wrote: »

Qs

a)

Which build is good for solo leveling a sorcerer via quests ?
I am mainly focused on survivability.
I am a very casual player who is OK with less damage as long as I do not keep dying

b)
I did some research online and found out that there is a weapon called "destruction staff".
Where can I get that weapon in starting zone ?

a) Play the game and try out for yourself. You should be ok if you only quest

b)
- Go to the woodworking station and craft one.
- Buy from NPC vendors (Woodworker/Fighters Guild Armsman)
- Asking in zonechat for a crafter and pay for his service.
- Quest rewards or loot.

hmsdragonfly

vpy wrote: »

@BellatorMortalis

Mate

Not sure whether I understood you correctly.
Are you saying that sorcerers can wear heavy armor ?.
Sorcerers are like mages who wear only cloth ...right ?

You can be a sorcerer wearing medium armour and wield a two-hander.

As this is an Elder Scrolls game, there's no restriction of how you can build your character, just keep in mind that some combinations are stronger than the others, you will learn more as you play the game and figure out things about game mechanics. That's what will separate a regular player and a sharp player.

Or you can watch guides and follow them.

Lexifer452

I agree with all the leling tips posted so far. Save one. Dpencil recommended using the thief mundus. While I use the thief almost exclusively on all my max level characters I get more use out of the warrior, or stamina, and the apprentice, for magicka when leveling. Your crit chance is going to be really low starting out. Even more so if you are running training on all your armor and weapons. An extra bit of spell or weapon damage seems like it'd be of greater use to someone leveling when their crit chance to start is only 25% max. 10% base value plus maybe twelve percent if they are leveling an alt and have cp to utilize.

I tend to craft training gear every ten levels from 10-40. I put training on my weapons also until level 40 and then swap weapons to precise while keeping training on all my armor. Actually leveling a redguard sorc right now and recently got him to forty. My crit is around 54 when buffed by major savagery. 44% normal. Stats are starting to look normal, normal meaning close to what they will be with cp160 gear in a couple hours. Crit is still low and so is weapon damage but that will level out once I hit fifty.

My overall point is don't worry too much about crit chance when leveling a new toon. Sure it helps, the higher it is but while you're leveling you have to think of it this way. Will you get more out usefulness out of a slightly higher damage all the time or a slightly higher than that damage boost thirty percent of the time.

If power leveling I highly recommend spellscar in craglorn, various areas and delves in coldharbour, zombie runs in riften and if you like skyreach in craglorn. I don't like running skyreach anymore but it does work. Just don't get suckered into paying for grind runs. People are parasites. You can easily find someone in a similar leveling situation to yourself who you can grind with if that's how you want to do it. All of the above mentioned grind spots are good for leveling fighter's guild also as the enemy types you will encounter there are daedra and zombies.

If playing a magicka sorc it is never too early to start grinding notebooks. You will need to sooner or tern and it becomes less tedious if you do, say one rank worth per day rather than ten all at once. Mage's guild dailies help too and they are shareable with group members. Same goes for undaunted dailies, the delves not the dungeon pledges. Fighter's guild dailies are alright but I find they can take a lot longer than undaunted and mg dailies since most dolmens I encounter have recently been beaten and need to respawn.

Basically though, stamina or magicka get surge asap and use the weapons and skills you want to once you hit fifty. Saves you from having to level a weapon line from scratch once you get their. Sure you can use two handed on a magicka sorc while leveling effectively enough but why would you? Better to run destro resto primarily while leveling and if you want to switch to stamina later on deal with it then, ya know?

Also, worth noting, is holding off on reading any books, from bookshelves I mean. Wait until the skill lines you want to level are around forty plus. For instance, why get a free couple levels from reading books in daedric aummoning or enchanting or resto staff at level five when they are easy to increase then at level 45 when the process takes much longer to level it up each rank.

hmsdragonfly

Lexifer452 wrote: »

I agree with all the leling tips posted so far. Save one. Dpencil recommended using the thief mundus. While I use the thief almost exclusively on all my max level characters I get more use out of the warrior, or stamina, and the apprentice, for magicka when leveling. Your crit chance is going to be really low starting out. Even more so if you are running training on all your armor and weapons. An extra bit of spell or weapon damage seems like it'd be of greater use to someone leveling when their crit chance to start is only 25% max. 10% base value plus maybe twelve percent if they are leveling an alt and have cp to utilize.

I tend to craft training gear every ten levels from 10-40. I put training on my weapons also until level 40 and then swap weapons to precise while keeping training on all my armor. Actually leveling a redguard sorc right now and recently got him to forty. My crit is around 54 when buffed by major savagery. 44% normal. Stats are starting to look normal, normal meaning close to what they will be with cp160 gear in a couple hours. Crit is still low and so is weapon damage but that will level out once I hit fifty.

My overall point is don't worry too much about crit chance when leveling a new toon. Sure it helps, the higher it is but while you're leveling you have to think of it this way. Will you get more out usefulness out of a slightly higher damage all the time or a slightly higher than that damage boost thirty percent of the time.

If power leveling I highly recommend spellscar in craglorn, various areas and delves in coldharbour, zombie runs in riften and if you like skyreach in craglorn. I don't like running skyreach anymore but it does work. Just don't get suckered into paying for grind runs. People are parasites. You can easily find someone in a similar leveling situation to yourself who you can grind with if that's how you want to do it. All of the above mentioned grind spots are good for leveling fighter's guild also as the enemy types you will encounter there are daedra and zombies.

If playing a magicka sorc it is never too early to start grinding notebooks. You will need to sooner or tern and it becomes less tedious if you do, say one rank worth per day rather than ten all at once. Mage's guild dailies help too and they are shareable with group members. Same goes for undaunted dailies, the delves not the dungeon pledges. Fighter's guild dailies are alright but I find they can take a lot longer than undaunted and mg dailies since most dolmens I encounter have recently been beaten and need to respawn.

Basically though, stamina or magicka get surge asap and use the weapons and skills you want to once you hit fifty. Saves you from having to level a weapon line from scratch once you get their. Sure you can use two handed on a magicka sorc while leveling effectively enough but why would you? Better to run destro resto primarily while leveling and if you want to switch to stamina later on deal with it then, ya know?

Also, worth noting, is holding off on reading any books, from bookshelves I mean. Wait until the skill lines you want to level are around forty plus. For instance, why get a free couple levels from reading books in daedric aummoning or enchanting or resto staff at level five when they are easy to increase then at level 45 when the process takes much longer to level it up each rank.

Please for the love of God, do not encourage new players to grind XP! Please!

Things like this will happen: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/333042/the-most-epic-terrible-bad-pug-ever-with-pictures#latest

We will have CP600s who don't know how to play the game.

Let new players to enjoy the game and learn about it. Please.