Sorcerer Builds

ColKernel

Brand spankin' new returnee requests help.

I've got a Sorc as my main, I'd like a couple of builds to examine, preferably with links to a builder like this one.

I'm interested in a pet build, and a survivable solo build.

I'd also be interested in a pure DPS build.

Thanks in advance!

seedubsrun

Pet builds for sorcs are pretty much the meta these days and will likely continue through Morrowind. I run one that I use for solo vet dungeon runs. It should fit what you're looking for (DPS, solo ready, very survivable). I don't have any builder links but I can tell you what the build is.

Race: Altmer
Attribute: All Magic
Mundus: Thief
Gear:
x5 Necropotence (all divines)
x2 Illambris or Grothdar (divines)
x3 Willpower Jewelry [x2 spell damage x1 recovery or cost reduction] (Moondancer is best but I don't have it yet)

Bar 1: Maelstrom lightning staff Sharpened (Use any sharpened crafted if you don't have one. Again, Moondancer is best)
Inner Light
Endless Fury (the other morph does more damage but the magicka return is nice)
Volatile Familiar
Liquid Lightning
Hardened Ward
Ultimate- Atronach or Shooting Star

Bar 2: Maelstrom Inferno staff Sharpened (Or any crafted Sharpened)
Power Surge
Boundless Storm
Familiar
Elemental Blockade
Deadric Prey
Ultimate- Destro Staff Ulti

You should be able to complete any PvE content with this once the rotation is down. I like it too cause I only need regular trash magic potions. No expensive crafted stuff. Hope this helps. Welcome back to the game.

aLi3nZ

I entered my build in that site and it had the wrong stats! takes ages to fill everything there as well and account required to save.

Anyway. this is my no cp battlegrounds pvp build that i am running at the moment. tbh, i never learnt dodge rolling as a sorc since its usually a bad idea with such low stamina so that is a weakness of mine. That is why i have made this build very tanky so i can instead face tank damage from multiple players and streak away if required. I think a more skilled player would run sharpened and tri food and dodge roll more so this build is customized for me to cover my weaknesses

Stats below outside of cyrodill and bg. boundless storm and power surge kept up at all times. using witches brew and astronaunch mundus for super high recovery. also running mage light and shooting star to bump up crit percentage and max magika. Very high resistance and can barely notice the nerf to pirate skelly at all. It is still OP

Sets:
amberplasm X5
willpower X3
pirate skelly X2
master inferno staff defending trait x1

Jurand80

i added magnus resto and shoes for some extra shields. willpower on main bar only. whats best about pirate after the fix is that now it procs just when you need it and gives time to react.

Trinity_Is_My_Name

I would post my build but with all the "Sorc Haters" in PVP I won't. Instead I suggest you look at Alcast, Deltias Gaming, Theron, Don, Yolo Wizard, etc sites and see what they have. Alcast is going to post his latest Mag Sorc build tonight on his website. May be worth having a look. I will say you can get some pretty interesting stats with the right mix of gear. My main sorc sits at 55K Magicka and 2800 Spell Damage unbuffed. Lots of fun. I also have another Mag Sorc that runs 5 pieces of heavy armor (all that see it shun it....but it works very well!) mixed with Grothdarr and another set that pushes 52K Magicka even in heavy armour. Hard to kill that wench.

Take a look at Templars too. I run a great Magplar and Stamplar that do very well and are relatively easy to play. Still working on their CP allocation though after the Morrowind expansion changed a lot of our CP.

aLi3nZ

Jurand80 wrote: »

i added magnus resto and shoes for some extra shields. willpower on main bar only. whats best about pirate after the fix is that now it procs just when you need it and gives time to react.

yes, so true. It's even better now since it procs when you actually need it to proc. I do feel quite cheap using it and of course fighting anyone using pirate skelly no matter what class they are can be pretty annoying. I would not be surprised if people start complaining about this monster set again.

ColKernel

Thanks everyone!!

Oreyn_Bearclaw

seedubsrun wrote: »

Pet builds for sorcs are pretty much the meta these days and will likely continue through Morrowind. I run one that I use for solo vet dungeon runs. It should fit what you're looking for (DPS, solo ready, very survivable). I don't have any builder links but I can tell you what the build is.

Race: Altmer
Attribute: All Magic
Mundus: Thief
Gear:
x5 Necropotence (all divines)
x2 Illambris or Grothdar (divines)
x3 Willpower Jewelry [x2 spell damage x1 recovery or cost reduction] (Moondancer is best but I don't have it yet)

Bar 1: Maelstrom lightning staff Sharpened (Use any sharpened crafted if you don't have one. Again, Moondancer is best)
Inner Light
Endless Fury (the other morph does more damage but the magicka return is nice)
Volatile Familiar
Liquid Lightning
Hardened Ward
Ultimate- Atronach or Shooting Star

Bar 2: Maelstrom Inferno staff Sharpened (Or any crafted Sharpened)
Power Surge
Boundless Storm
Familiar
Elemental Blockade
Deadric Prey
Ultimate- Destro Staff Ulti

You should be able to complete any PvE content with this once the rotation is down. I like it too cause I only need regular trash magic potions. No expensive crafted stuff. Hope this helps. Welcome back to the game.

Good place to start, Ill pick at it a little bit.

From a pure DPS standpoint, Pet sorcs have 4 DOTS they should be keeping up at all times and cast in this order: Liquid Lighting, Elemental Blockade, Volatile Familiar, Daedric Prey. We cast in this order (right after one another with a light weave) to maximize their uptime. So 99% of sorcs are going to back bar at least the first 2 if not all. Having LL and Blockade on the same bar (your back bar) is highly recommended, you will always cast them right after each other.

The way I setup my bars is as follows (not claiming this is original by any stretch):

Back Bar (fire): Liquid Lighting, Elemental Blockade, Volatile Familiar, Daedric Prey, Bound Aegis, Elemental Rage, Meteor or Overload for ultimate.

This bar is very static, and really the only change I ever make is to switch out my ultimate. On a standard rotation, I run Elemental Rage, on a HA rotation I run Meteor, If I need utility (Rakkhat backroom for example) I run overload for a third bar.

The Front Bar has some flexability, but you really only mess with 2 skill slots and your ultimate. The first setup is the traditional meta rotation.

Traditional Front Bar (lighting): Force Pulse, Crystal Frags, Shield, Bound Aegis, Familiar, Meteor.

The second setup is a HA build. We swap out force pulse and frags for our execute and IL (more magic). We also slot elemental rage on the HA build because we need to slot a destro skill for the passives.

HA Front Bar (lighting): Mages Wrath, Inner light, Shield, Bound Aegis, Familiar, Elemental Rage.

You can also swap your execute for power surge for 4-man dungeons. In 4-man content, the sorc execute is just not worth running most of the time because things die too fast. It makes a nice flex spot so you can save on your potion bill with Surge. In trials, run potions or GTFO!

Rotation

The rotation is one of the easier in ESO (LA=Light Attack, HA=Heavy Attack).

HA Rotation: LA>LL, LA>Blockade, LA>Volatile Familiar, LA>Daedric Prey, BAR SWAP, HAx2, BAR SWAP Repeat.

Once the boss hits execute range, instead of doing 2 HAs, you do 4 LA>mages wrath, and repeat. Alwasys keep up the DOTS.

Traditional Rotation: LA>LL, LA>Blockade, LA>Volatile Familiar, LA>Daedric Prey, BAR SWAP, LA>force pulse/Frags(when they proc) X4, BAR SWAP Repeat.

The only difference here is that you are swapping 2 HAs for 4 LA weaves with force pulse and frags when it procs. This rotation will be difficult to sustain (impossible without help), so every second or third rotation, you will do 2 heavy attacks instead of the force pulse/frags weave.

I would start with the HA build until you are really comfortable as its much easier. Practice weaving your back bar DOTs. My light attacks just from the back bar are doing about 3k DPS, which is significant.

Gear

Not much to change here. Options in order.

Jewelry: Moondancer/Master Architect> Infallable Aether>Willpower.
Head/Shoulders: Ilambris >>>> Grothdar .
Body: Necro (if running a pet), other options (not in perfect order), Twice born Star, Julianos, BSW, Netch.
Main Weapons: Moondancer Sharp Lighting>VMA Sharp Lighting> Any random Sharp Lighting
Back Bar: VMA Sharp Fire (can also go lighting here), Moondancer Sharp Fire, Random Sharp Fire.

The weapons are far and away the toughest grind. If you want to spend some gold and skip the farm, you can use Necro Staffs and wear one Moondancer armor piece. The goal is 5 Necro, 4 moondancer, 2 Ilambris, (back bar VMA if possible).

3 Excellent Guides:
Nos (PVE Trials)
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/259089/noss-old-meta-sorc-build-morrowind-dlc-ready/p1

Alcast (PVE Trials/VMA)
https://alcasthq.com/eso-magicka-sorcerer-pet-build-pve/

Masel92 (VMA build)
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/302925/infallible-infinite-wizard-magsorc-vma-build-video-homestead-ready/p1

I prefer Alcasts Bar setup, and Nos's CP distribution, but thats just me. The only real difference in bars is that they have Daedric Prey and their Shield on opposite bars. I prefer all my DOTS on the same bar and a front bar shield. It think it makes the rotation smother.

Masel92 changed the game in VMA. It is slightly different style of build, but specifically in VMA, it is EXCELLENT.

Edit: That was a lot of edits, think I am done. Haha

Betsararie

I liked alcast's build a lot now running that with force pulse swapped for execute on front bar. Execute doesn't seem necessary for content outside of trials.

I don't see any need for frags anymore inner light is much more useful and would also take force pulse/execute over frags.

Oreyn_Bearclaw

Blanco wrote: »

I liked alcast's build a lot now running that with force pulse swapped for execute on front bar. Execute doesn't seem necessary for content outside of trials.

I don't see any need for frags anymore inner light is much more useful and would also take force pulse/execute over frags.

In isolation, perhaps. If trying to maximize damage, you want to do one or the other. Basically you need to compare the damage to the alternative, which is a heavy attack. For each heavy attack, you can do 2 light attacks and 2 skills. This is certainly more damage, just harder to sustain. Again, what most people do with HA builds is stack magic (innerlight) and run an execute to give them a little boost at the end or to help finish off adds. I would never run FP without frags to be honset, the two work very well together. A force pulse spam with inner light and no frags will not out parse a Force pulse/frags spam with no inner light. Just my 2 cents.

Betsararie

The problem is I found lightning staff HA to be noticeably inferior to force pulse spam for dps, so I'm trying to find a way to mitigate that.

My magicka is at 42k so sustain isn't a massive issue IMO. I just switched to FP but I couldn't see the sense of keeping the execute for vet dungeons. Everything just dies so fast.

But I'm also not running a maelstrom sharpened staff just a regular sharpened so maybe that is my problem.

Betsararie

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

A force pulse spam with inner light and no frags will not out parse a Force pulse/frags spam with no inner light. Just my 2 cents.

If this is true I might just go back to the execute set up.

Just feel like I could be more efficient with something else but I prefer inner light. lol

Moshul

Is it just me that thinks pets are useless,except only partially viable for solo.For pvp they are 0-slow move speed,slow attack speed,pathetic damage(even with magicka scaling and Daedric Prey).The pets that come from sets-Morkuldin,Daedroth are even worse.
I tried for a while to make pet build for pvp but it's just impossible.Can we expect some pet buffs or something to make them viable?

Tasear

http://tamrielfoundry.com/topic/dark-priestess-pug-proof/

Tasear

Moshul wrote: »

Is it just me that thinks pets are useless,except only partially viable for solo.For pvp they are 0-slow move speed,slow attack speed,pathetic damage(even with magicka scaling and Daedric Prey).The pets that come from sets-Morkuldin,Daedroth are even worse.
I tried for a while to make pet build for pvp but it's just impossible.Can we expect some pet buffs or something to make them viable?

you haven't logged in for awhile eh.