Sorcerer pet build - why is it that great?

Chelister

I have been away for 4 months and decided to come back and give it another try

I am playing my 450CP Magicka Sorcerer and currently looking for some viable builds

What I have been hearing lately is that pet builds are awesome & quite strong

Basically what I wanted to know is about the changes that made pet builds so good

I am mainly doing PVE now, but later on plan to do PVP

I am a solo type player, dont have much friends unless you want to be one

Would be glad to hear any other builds suitable for a solo type player (preferably including armor sets)

Thx everyone!

Wolfenbelle

@Chelister, welcome back. Although I can't answer your questions in detail, I can give you some general info. A couple of patches ago, sorcs got the ability to heal their pets, plus I think pet damage was buffed a bit. Also, there is a set called Necropotence that buffs pets. It is considered one of the best magicka sets now and is good for the three classes that use pets for combat: nightblade, sorcs and wardens.

If you are on the NA server and play on a PC, I'd be happy to friend you in the game. I live in the eastern time Zone and am online most evenings during the work week and mornings or evenings on weekends.

Chelister

Wolfenbelle wrote: »

@Chelister, welcome back. Although I can't answer your questions in detail, I can give you some general info. A couple of patches ago, sorcs got the ability to heal their pets, plus I think pet damage was buffed a bit. Also, there is a set called Necropotence that buffs pets. It is considered one of the best magicka sets now and is good for the three classes that use pets for combat: nightblade, sorcs and wardens.

If you are on the NA server and play on a PC, I'd be happy to friend you in the game. I live in the eastern time Zone and am online most evenings during the work week and mornings or evenings on weekends.

Thanks for the reply man, very much appreciated!

You seem to be a cool dude, but unfortunately I play on PS4 EU server

Magdalina

Welcome back Sorc are pretty well suited for soloing, especially pet sorcs.

What made pets viable and tbh pretty op is ZOS overbuffing them in an effort to finally make them viable. They've majorly revamped the whole pet system a while ago, I'm not sure how much you know of that if any so will type it out. Rather than being passive summons pets now have an active ability you can use just like any other skill on your bar(that is if the pet is alive obviously. If it's not pressing the pet key will (re)summon it).

Familiar, the one considered most op, pulses for 4 aoe damage ticks over 8 seconds, the last tick stunning the enemies it hits. Clannfear(the other morph of familiar) heals itself and the caster(it's generally a very tanky morph with very expensive heal and low damage and people generally choose Familiar over it because its damage is pretty insane with the right build). Twilight Matriarch heals herself and 2 more friendly targets for a huge amount(about on par with templar's Breath of Life, if not stronger). Twilight's other morph(forgot the name) deals more damage to enemies at >50% upon ability's activation.

This isn't op on its own but the Familiar specifically is way overtuned. The damage is insane and puts good pet magsorcs above any other dps in game. They're actually going to nerf it some with Morrowind, we'll have to see how that goes.

They also buffed pet surviveability significantly, they have more health, more physical/spell resistance and they are like 90% immune to aoe, so instead of dying on every first trash pull they now tend to last longer than actual players

There's really good synergy for a pet build between Familiar (and possibly Twilight too), Daedric Prey (the morph of Curse increasing damage done by pets) and a certain set in game, Necropotence - its 5th piece bonus increases your max magicka by 4k if you have a pet up. That's a lot.

For solo play pets can hold agro for you(familiar isn't very good at it but if you send him in first(y+lmb on pc) it usually works) and the damage/heals are great. I'd suggest Familiar and Twilight Matriarch morphs so you have access to both nice damage and nice heals when needed. Don't forget your Hardened Ward too, it's great for helping you not die if pets fail at tanking For skills, you've probably seen the general layout in the guides you mentioned, feel free to tweak it to your taste as you see need though

Necropotence will probably stay your best bet even with the Familiar nerf but if you don't wanna farm it you can just craft Julianos/Seducer and roll with that For jewelry, grab Willpower and do try to get your hands on Illambris monster set whatever you choose. Skills can stay the same, even the pet - Familiar is good enough to use even without Necropotence(at least for now it is).

Violynne

Chelister wrote: »

What I have been hearing lately is that pet builds are awesome & quite strong

I also play as a magSorc and it took me some time to get used to the changes of our pets.

I've since retired the Twilit and use only the Clannfear.

Not only does it pull exceptional aggro, but the heal on this is remarkable. Talk about near endless health. Just cast a call about every 4 spells and you never need to carry potions again.

Well, until you try to take on a world boss solo. Those are very tough now.

AcadianPaladin

I love to solo because I want the freedom of controlling my own schedule or bailing out of the game at a moment's notice without pulling the rug out from under a group or friends.

Yet, I like the mechanics and 'complany' of companions while questing.

So. . . what makes the pet sorc so great for me is that she is the group leader, her clannfear is her tank and her matriarch is her healer. It is a different style of play as she crouches and waits while asking the clannfear to 'pull' aggro on a big foe. Then she shields her team and opens up with dps, refreshing the shield and asking the matriarch to heal the 'tank' as required. The pets are quirky and take some getting to know like any companions but their big advantages are:
1. They always stay in character.
2. They are always there when you need them.
3. They patiently wait without complaint when I leave the game and are always there on call when I come back.

dpencil1

Alot could be said, as I am an avid pet sorc player. Suffice it to say this:

- In PvE, aoe dots are king (that's skills that do damage over time to all targets in an area). The Volatile Familiar Pulse is another strong aoe dot, along with Liquid Lightning and Elemental Blockade. These three skills are the strongest skills a mSorc posesses because they can be constantly damaging groups of enemies.
- Pets provide extra survivability in the form of heals (Twilight Matriarch or Clannfear), distracting enemies from you, and their basic attacks are basically an always on damage over time as well.
- In PvP, they have upsides and downsides. Best part is another form of healing besides slotting a Resto staff, and the stun provided on the last a familiar pulse.
- Finally, Necropotence is an amazing set, a good reason to run at least one pet.