Newb needs help on a good mag sorc damage build

Logey7

I'm new to the game (level 20 ish) and do mainly PvP, but I've been struggling to figure out a good build to fit my mag sorc, who I am trying to base around damage. Can someone recommend good perks and armour enchantments(as well as armour) for me to use?

Checkmath

Heyhey
Magicka sorcerer are built around maximum magicka pool and damage shields. Hardened ward is a very strong shield and depends on your maximum magicka. Since you are level 20, i would suggest you wear sets you find with boni like spelldamage, max magicka or magicka recovery. From pvp rewards you should frequently get some gear.
Otherwise you can ask somebody to craft you a set like shacklebreaker for all 5-10 levels. I also highly recommend the use of witchmothers potent brew food.
But since you are level 20, all points above arent that significant (ok the bufffood is really important). You really should play the game first, learn your class and skills and level up. With level 50 you unlock championpoints and with 160 championpoints you reached the gear level cap. So till that point, dont think about gear too much, since every level up makes your gear a bit less effective.
Besides of that, there are a lot of guides, tutorials and builds for magicka sorcerer on youtube. Why not check them out?

Biro123

Yep, more magicka is good.

Sorc damage in PvP is all about delayed burst. Curse, wrath, with a procced frag timed to land when the curse goes off. Takes just over 3 seconds to get off, and in that time, you need to stay alive - which damage shields help with.
Your magicka stat affects both damage done and shield strength. Spell damage only affects damage done (but to a slightly greater degree than magicka).

For level 20 though, the class shield (hardened ward) won't be unlocked yet, but the light armor line also comes with a damage shield which is unlocked much earlier. Most max level PvP sorcs use the harness morph of it alongside hardened, but at a low level, you'll need to make do with harness alone.

Which brings me to armour. You have to wear 5 light armour to be able to use harness. Which is good since it has great passive that will help with both your damage and sustain. Sustain is also important, since, in light armour, if you have no magicka to cast a shield, you will die very quickly

LittlePinkDot

Biro123 wrote: »

Yep, more magicka is good.

Sorc damage in PvP is all about delayed burst. Curse, wrath, with a procced frag timed to land when the curse goes off. Takes just over 3 seconds to get off, and in that time, you need to stay alive - which damage shields help with.
Your magicka stat affects both damage done and shield strength. Spell damage only affects damage done (but to a slightly greater degree than magicka).

For level 20 though, the class shield (hardened ward) won't be unlocked yet, but the light armor line also comes with a damage shield which is unlocked much earlier. Most max level PvP sorcs use the harness morph of it alongside hardened, but at a low level, you'll need to make do with harness alone.

Which brings me to armour. You have to wear 5 light armour to be able to use harness. Which is good since it has great passive that will help with both your damage and sustain. Sustain is also important, since, in light armour, if you have no magicka to cast a shield, you will die very quickly

Ive switched to heavy armour on my sorc. Its made her alot more comfortable to play.

Logey7

Thanks for the help guys! I really appreciate it!

Biro123

LittlePinkDot wrote: »

Biro123 wrote: »

Yep, more magicka is good.

Sorc damage in PvP is all about delayed burst. Curse, wrath, with a procced frag timed to land when the curse goes off. Takes just over 3 seconds to get off, and in that time, you need to stay alive - which damage shields help with.
Your magicka stat affects both damage done and shield strength. Spell damage only affects damage done (but to a slightly greater degree than magicka).

For level 20 though, the class shield (hardened ward) won't be unlocked yet, but the light armor line also comes with a damage shield which is unlocked much earlier. Most max level PvP sorcs use the harness morph of it alongside hardened, but at a low level, you'll need to make do with harness alone.

Which brings me to armour. You have to wear 5 light armour to be able to use harness. Which is good since it has great passive that will help with both your damage and sustain. Sustain is also important, since, in light armour, if you have no magicka to cast a shield, you will die very quickly

Ive switched to heavy armour on my sorc. Its made her alot more comfortable to play.

Honestly, I tried numerous ways to make heavy armour work on Magsorc, and that was before the nerfs to heavy, dark exchange and sustain. I couldnt find a single heavy armour magsorc setup that wasn't a lot worse than basic light armour builds.

LittlePinkDot

Biro123 wrote: »

LittlePinkDot wrote: »

Biro123 wrote: »

Yep, more magicka is good.

Sorc damage in PvP is all about delayed burst. Curse, wrath, with a procced frag timed to land when the curse goes off. Takes just over 3 seconds to get off, and in that time, you need to stay alive - which damage shields help with.
Your magicka stat affects both damage done and shield strength. Spell damage only affects damage done (but to a slightly greater degree than magicka).

For level 20 though, the class shield (hardened ward) won't be unlocked yet, but the light armor line also comes with a damage shield which is unlocked much earlier. Most max level PvP sorcs use the harness morph of it alongside hardened, but at a low level, you'll need to make do with harness alone.

Which brings me to armour. You have to wear 5 light armour to be able to use harness. Which is good since it has great passive that will help with both your damage and sustain. Sustain is also important, since, in light armour, if you have no magicka to cast a shield, you will die very quickly

Ive switched to heavy armour on my sorc. Its made her alot more comfortable to play.

Honestly, I tried numerous ways to make heavy armour work on Magsorc, and that was before the nerfs to heavy, dark exchange and sustain. I couldnt find a single heavy armour magsorc setup that wasn't a lot worse than basic light armour builds.

I need heavy armour because she will just run out of stamina. Breakfree costs stamina, so does roll dodge, so does block, so does sprint. So at some point im going to get hit, because Ill rull out of stamina and just have to tank. Im even considering using SNB on my back bar, then maybe light could be worth it. I dont have high CP, maybe then I wouldnt run out of stamina. And no the shields arent spectacular when you have to spam them because it takes too much magicka that you could be using for attacks. And I still need stamina for dark conversion. It feels like such a limiting class
I dont have problems like this on my stamblade, I rarely have to heavy attack. Shes fast and agile.
I dont understand why Zos doesnt want to make every class with sustain like stamblade. Its so much more fun to feel free instead of limited.

Logey7

Biro123 wrote: »

Yep, more magicka is good.

For level 20 though, the class shield (hardened ward) won't be unlocked yet, but the light armor line also comes with a damage shield which is unlocked much earlier. Most max level PvP sorcs use the harness morph of it alongside hardened, but at a low level, you'll need to make do with harness alone.

Which brings me to armour. You have to wear 5 light armour to be able to use harness. Which is good since it has great passive that will help with both your damage and sustain. Sustain is also important, since, in light armour, if you have no magicka to cast a shield, you will die very quickly

Is the harness spell you are talking about the annulment ultimate ability?

Morgul667

Logey7 wrote: »

Biro123 wrote: »

Yep, more magicka is good.

For level 20 though, the class shield (hardened ward) won't be unlocked yet, but the light armor line also comes with a damage shield which is unlocked much earlier. Most max level PvP sorcs use the harness morph of it alongside hardened, but at a low level, you'll need to make do with harness alone.

Which brings me to armour. You have to wear 5 light armour to be able to use harness. Which is good since it has great passive that will help with both your damage and sustain. Sustain is also important, since, in light armour, if you have no magicka to cast a shield, you will die very quickly

Is the harness spell you are talking about the annulment ultimate ability?

Yes but this is not an ultimate

this is a skill

I understand it maybe confusing as there is only one in the skill line

Biro123

LittlePinkDot wrote: »

Biro123 wrote: »

LittlePinkDot wrote: »

Biro123 wrote: »

Yep, more magicka is good.

Sorc damage in PvP is all about delayed burst. Curse, wrath, with a procced frag timed to land when the curse goes off. Takes just over 3 seconds to get off, and in that time, you need to stay alive - which damage shields help with.
Your magicka stat affects both damage done and shield strength. Spell damage only affects damage done (but to a slightly greater degree than magicka).

For level 20 though, the class shield (hardened ward) won't be unlocked yet, but the light armor line also comes with a damage shield which is unlocked much earlier. Most max level PvP sorcs use the harness morph of it alongside hardened, but at a low level, you'll need to make do with harness alone.

Which brings me to armour. You have to wear 5 light armour to be able to use harness. Which is good since it has great passive that will help with both your damage and sustain. Sustain is also important, since, in light armour, if you have no magicka to cast a shield, you will die very quickly

Ive switched to heavy armour on my sorc. Its made her alot more comfortable to play.

Honestly, I tried numerous ways to make heavy armour work on Magsorc, and that was before the nerfs to heavy, dark exchange and sustain. I couldnt find a single heavy armour magsorc setup that wasn't a lot worse than basic light armour builds.

I need heavy armour because she will just run out of stamina. Breakfree costs stamina, so does roll dodge, so does block, so does sprint. So at some point im going to get hit, because Ill rull out of stamina and just have to tank. Im even considering using SNB on my back bar, then maybe light could be worth it. I dont have high CP, maybe then I wouldnt run out of stamina. And no the shields arent spectacular when you have to spam them because it takes too much magicka that you could be using for attacks. And I still need stamina for dark conversion. It feels like such a limiting class
I dont have problems like this on my stamblade, I rarely have to heavy attack. Shes fast and agile.
I dont understand why Zos doesnt want to make every class with sustain like stamblade. Its so much more fun to feel free instead of limited.

Honestly, you're not really doing it right. With strong enough shields, you shouldn't need to block very much, or dodge. Streak/bol also reduces the need to sprint.
If you're struggling to sustain shields, it's because you're in heavy. Look at what the light armour passives do for magica sustain. With better mag sustain comes less need for dark exchange, which is yet another burden removed from stam.
I have builds with around 10k stam and they do fine, because of how much magica carries the class (but to be fair, 14k stam is better)

You want to be aiming for at least 42k mag and 2.2k mag recovery. Personally I prefer aiming for 50k.

More magicka means bigger shields, which means they last longer when under pressure. Mare magicka means a greater magicka return from harness.
More magicka means more damage done.

Not to mention that while shielded, your heavy armour resists are not used, making them a bit of a waste. Also blocking does not reduce the damage done to a shields. Heavy and blocking do not synergise well with shields.
Heavy armour/blocking does work better with heals. If you reduce the damage your health takes, you need to heal less.. this works great with classes that have good heals. But dorcs do not. They have terrible heals.
What they do have is good shields, so make the most of them

LittlePinkDot

Biro123 wrote: »

LittlePinkDot wrote: »

Biro123 wrote: »

LittlePinkDot wrote: »

Biro123 wrote: »

Yep, more magicka is good.

Sorc damage in PvP is all about delayed burst. Curse, wrath, with a procced frag timed to land when the curse goes off. Takes just over 3 seconds to get off, and in that time, you need to stay alive - which damage shields help with.
Your magicka stat affects both damage done and shield strength. Spell damage only affects damage done (but to a slightly greater degree than magicka).

For level 20 though, the class shield (hardened ward) won't be unlocked yet, but the light armor line also comes with a damage shield which is unlocked much earlier. Most max level PvP sorcs use the harness morph of it alongside hardened, but at a low level, you'll need to make do with harness alone.

Which brings me to armour. You have to wear 5 light armour to be able to use harness. Which is good since it has great passive that will help with both your damage and sustain. Sustain is also important, since, in light armour, if you have no magicka to cast a shield, you will die very quickly

Ive switched to heavy armour on my sorc. Its made her alot more comfortable to play.

Honestly, I tried numerous ways to make heavy armour work on Magsorc, and that was before the nerfs to heavy, dark exchange and sustain. I couldnt find a single heavy armour magsorc setup that wasn't a lot worse than basic light armour builds.

I need heavy armour because she will just run out of stamina. Breakfree costs stamina, so does roll dodge, so does block, so does sprint. So at some point im going to get hit, because Ill rull out of stamina and just have to tank. Im even considering using SNB on my back bar, then maybe light could be worth it. I dont have high CP, maybe then I wouldnt run out of stamina. And no the shields arent spectacular when you have to spam them because it takes too much magicka that you could be using for attacks. And I still need stamina for dark conversion. It feels like such a limiting class
I dont have problems like this on my stamblade, I rarely have to heavy attack. Shes fast and agile.
I dont understand why Zos doesnt want to make every class with sustain like stamblade. Its so much more fun to feel free instead of limited.

Honestly, you're not really doing it right. With strong enough shields, you shouldn't need to block very much, or dodge. Streak/bol also reduces the need to sprint.
If you're struggling to sustain shields, it's because you're in heavy. Look at what the light armour passives do for magica sustain. With better mag sustain comes less need for dark exchange, which is yet another burden removed from stam.
I have builds with around 10k stam and they do fine, because of how much magica carries the class (but to be fair, 14k stam is better)

You want to be aiming for at least 42k mag and 2.2k mag recovery. Personally I prefer aiming for 50k.

More magicka means bigger shields, which means they last longer when under pressure. Mare magicka means a greater magicka return from harness.
More magicka means more damage done.

Not to mention that while shielded, your heavy armour resists are not used, making them a bit of a waste. Also blocking does not reduce the damage done to a shields. Heavy and blocking do not synergise well with shields.
Heavy armour/blocking does work better with heals. If you reduce the damage your health takes, you need to heal less.. this works great with classes that have good heals. But dorcs do not. They have terrible heals.
What they do have is good shields, so make the most of them

Well I had the same problem wearing light, which is why I switched to heavy.
I started this game after morrowind. So no CP and sustain nerf. And poor gear. I dont find sorc to be very forgiving as a first character. Shes not that playable with crappy gear. Its easier to use my stamblade to look for better stuff for sorc.
Although It might be more enjoyable to make her a stamsorc, even though shes an altmer.

Priyasekarssk

Logey7 wrote: »

I'm new to the game (level 20 ish) and do mainly PvP, but I've been struggling to figure out a good build to fit my mag sorc, who I am trying to base around damage. Can someone recommend good perks and armour enchantments(as well as armour) for me to use?

You cannot kill anyone with mag sorc combos , atleast not instantly with similar level players. Shields are too weak in PVP area. If you want PVP switch to stamina sorc. 2H front & bow back. You will have better burst damage & execute in PVP. For PVE , its your choice.

MAg sorc PVP is burried long ago. Either you can pray for summerset, thats another option.