My Sorc Tank Battlemage

GimpyPorcupine

Currently running my Breton Sorc as a battlemage tank. Not the best tank around, but I've done a fair number of vet dungeons with him so far. It was more to test a theory that to actually produce a tier-1 tank, but I figured I'd share it anyway, especially since he's been fun to play.

5 Thunderbug, 5 Storm Knight, 1 Iceheart.
Frost staff bar: Inner Rage, Dark Deal, Ele Drain, Bound Aegis, Power Surge, Ice Comet.
Lightning staff bar: Blockade, Splash, Shattering Prison, Boundless storm, bound aegis, eye of the storm.

I have all my attribute points into Magic, so I'm usually only around 29k health. Magic is about the same. If I use the resistance mundus, I can get my physical to the cap and then my spell is > 40k, which is overkill. I usually opt for increased crit chance on the mundus, to give me more inbound heals from power surge.

Play style is a lot of positioning to CC as many adds as possible, and keep them in my lightning AOEs to try to proc concussed, off balance, and maybe the implosion disintegrate. Taunt the "flyers" with either the frost heavy (slow) or inner rage (quick, but resources).

He does much better with magicka dps than stamina since I'm not running the 1h/s taunt.

There are a lot of changes I could do to make him a better tank, but honestly, when I'm in the middle of a mob with Boundless Storm, Elemental Blockade, Eye of the Storm, and Lightning Splash all running and that Thunderbug proc goes off, and my health bar isn't moving or is refilling as fast as it drops due to Power Surge, it really is a thing of beauty.

Valykc

I think your going to receive a lot of comments such as “Y U NO WARHORN?!?!” Or “where’s my major fracture?!” , seems like an extremely fun build but I think dungeons and (maybe) nTrials would be it’s limit. You have to spec more defensively to get through a vet trial, but I’m sure you are aware of that. Regardless, for dungeons I’m sure this build would be loads of fun to play hahaha!

GrumpyDuckling

Valykc wrote: »

I think your going to receive a lot of comments such as “Y U NO WARHORN?!?!” Or “where’s my major fracture?!” , seems like an extremely fun build but I think dungeons and (maybe) nTrials would be it’s limit. You have to spec more defensively to get through a vet trial, but I’m sure you are aware of that. Regardless, for dungeons I’m sure this build would be loads of fun to play hahaha!

As long as the OP uses that slotted taunt, then that's all that matters. So many people queue as tanks with their sorcs without slotting a taunt, and it makes things harder for the rest of the group.

Nice build OP. I like seeing different tank builds in dungeons.

Valykc

GrumpyDuckling wrote: »

As long as the OP uses that slotted taunt, then that's all that matters. So many people queue as tanks with their sorcs without slotting a taunt, and it makes things harder for the rest of the group.

Nice build OP. I like seeing different tank builds in dungeons.

I’m inclined to agree with you as I am pretty open to fun new builds, I was simply preparing the OP that some PvE elitists expect more than just a taunt and aggro holding.

GimpyPorcupine

If the elitists skip over the "not the best but fun to play" caveat and proceed to dump on me, they can pound sand. I wasn't trying to pry them out of their cookie cutter "main tank must run xx and yy, off tank must run aa and bb" mindset.

I was more throwing this out there for anyone who had a Mag Sorc she/he was tired of playing and wanted to try something different.

Q: "Where's my major fracture?" A: You get Major Breach instead, plus resources from Ele Drain. Oh, you're physical damage? Then stop acting like you're top tier DPS anyway.

Q: "Why no Warhorn?" A: Because this is a PUG, and you've got like 20% critical anyway.

I've found that with good battlefield awareness and positioning, Encase can do a better job of CCing trash than Talons. Out of range "flyers" can be taunted back with either the heavy attack or the Inner Rage.

No, no Warhorn, but the amount of shock damage I'm doing is leading to plenty of off balance, so +10% damage for anyone with 75 into Ritual.

The real advantage is that I can queue as a tank without lying about it and still output enough damage to make PUGs bearable.

GimpyPorcupine

Next month, same guy, Bloodspawn, Shalk's, Dragonguard, swap frost staff for 1H/S where I'll get my 5th Dragonguard and slot Negate, and off to Cyrodiil... Be fun to see how that plays out. Offensive line, hard work and no glory.

GimpyPorcupine

Apologize in advance for necro'ing my own thread, but I ran this again with some minor tweaks since the Dragonbones DLC, and want to inform anyone interested of the results.

Reset morphs, to get Restraining instead of Shattering Prison, for the soft CC after the hard one ends. Swapped out Dark Deal for Blood Altar, the new 28m range breathes new life into that skill. Reset my attributes, now 34 Mag, 30 Health.

Put Charged on both Staves to try to get Concussed and off balance. The off balance changes combined with Shock Staff heavy attacks feel like I have better magicka management, even with a smaller pool.

Ran some vet dungeons with magic DPS players, everything went smoothly.

Lynx7386

I ran a setup like this for a long time. Stamins based instead of magicka using 1h/shield, dual wield, 5 thunderbug, 5 storm knight, and 2 storm fist. Very fun setup to tank on.

Going magic, I would probably still keep the shield front bar and do lightning back bar.

These days I would probably recommend bahraha's curse or livewire instead of storm knight, simply because storm knight doesn't proc that often in most cases.

Integral1900

Looks like good fun, my stamina tank/dps Dragon Knight is by far the most fun I’ve had tanking, the lady is an absolute brute, maybe 25k dps in full try hard mode but who cares, I’ve retired from the whole vet dungeon thing anyway, I’m here for the friends and the stories, stick with it, a few more like that can only improve tanking in group finder anyway

GimpyPorcupine

Lynx7386 wrote: »

These days I would probably recommend bahraha's curse or livewire instead of storm knight, simply because storm knight doesn't proc that often in most cases.

Yeah, looked at Livewire to replace Storm Knight, but couldn't be bothered to assemble the set.

Tasear

This makes me think might be interesting to see monster helm with major fracture.

It's interesting that you slot bound aegis in different spots or locations on your bars? Why is bound aegis last skill on your bar on the back?

Have you looked at the tempest sets? What do you think of them if so? Also how feel about liverwire or storm knight at this current time?

Instead of shock glyph on both bars, maybe try frost on one bar. You can get minor maim

How damage do you think you do as a tank? Seems like it would be quite a bit right?

I would suggest you look a @troomar build in player guild section and maybe you guys could compare notes?

troomar

Tasear wrote: »

I would suggest you look a @troomar build in player guild section and maybe you guys could compare notes?

Well, you can check my build there (link in the footer), so I will just add some thoughts:

- Streak + Restraining Prison = ultimate mob CC combo
- It's a crime to be a Magicka Sorcerer without Hardened Ward! (or the other morph)
- Running two ultimates both being aoe is kind of waste. Atronach is a nice single-target DPS + Major Berserk for someone else
- Thurvokun Monster Set makes great mess on the battlefield (for both good and bad)

GimpyPorcupine

Bound Aegis isn't on different slots, the skill list is unordered.

Dueling with a buddy, his death recap showed 7700 from the Storm Knight proc. That's better than I had expected.

Glyphs are Weakening and Crushing.

It's a pretty decent amount of damage.

@troomar, I did start using the Atronach so allies can get the Major Beserk, it works well. I intentionally don't run Ward because I have to receive damage to get the armor procs.

Tasear

GimpyPorcupine wrote: »

Bound Aegis isn't on different slots, the skill list is unordered.

Dueling with a buddy, his death recap showed 7700 from the Storm Knight proc. That's better than I had expected.

Glyphs are Weakening and Crushing.

It's a pretty decent amount of damage.

@troomar, I did start using the Atronach so allies can get the Major Beserk, it works well. I intentionally don't run Ward because I have to receive damage to get the armor procs.

Wouldn't you still receive damage with ward on? Just HP won't go down.

Waffennacht

Tasear wrote: »

GimpyPorcupine wrote: »

Bound Aegis isn't on different slots, the skill list is unordered.

Dueling with a buddy, his death recap showed 7700 from the Storm Knight proc. That's better than I had expected.

Glyphs are Weakening and Crushing.

It's a pretty decent amount of damage.

@troomar, I did start using the Atronach so allies can get the Major Beserk, it works well. I intentionally don't run Ward because I have to receive damage to get the armor procs.

Wouldn't you still receive damage with ward on? Just HP won't go down.

You're correct, a shield taking damage does count as "you" taking damage