PvE - DPS MagSorc, pet or no pet? That is the question

thenewton

Hi all!

Started a new toon as a Breton MagSorc aimed at DPS for solo dungeon runs and other solo work, I am following the builds on Alcast's website, for PvE MagSorc with/without pet

Pet: https://alcasthq.com/eso-magicka-sorcerer-pet-build-pve/

No pet: https://alcasthq.com/eso-magicka-sorcerer-build-pve/

But I have never played DPS before, main character is Warden Healer cp160+ so I don't know much about DPS min/max, what would you guys recommend I run?

What would provide the most DPS and sustain out of both builds? Is it a bit of a waste to double bar slot 2 pets and compromising on 4 abilities or do pets provide that much more edge?

Thank you all!

Oreyn_Bearclaw

If your goal is to solo, pets are your friends. They will do nice damage, help draw aggro, and you get a great burst heal on command. A pet Sorc that does a lot of heavy attacks can be great for both damage and sustain. Most of the really incredible solo feats in this game have been done by pet Sorcs. If you are new to DPS, pets are a good place to start. You won’t break records, but you can do plenty of damage for most things.

That said, at the extreme end of things (trial score runs) pets don’t see a lot of use. They can cause issues in raids, and most people frankly don’t want to bother with them. The AI is better than it used to be, but still leaves a lot to be desired. Non pet Sorcs also struggle with sustain as heavy attacks will be something you try to avoid. A non pet Sorc plays like a poor mans nightblade. In other words, everything your non pet Sorc can do, a mageblade can do better with the exception of a few synergies. At the extreme end of things, Sorcs are becoming th back up healers at this point:

thenewton

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

A non pet Sorc plays like a poor mans nightblade. In other words, everything your non pet Sorc can do, a mageblade can do better with the exception of a few synergies. At the extreme end of things, Sorcs are becoming th back up healers at this point:

So if I am looking for high, raw DPS and sustain for solo arena and solo dungeon and so on you recommend I go MagBlade? Character is still new so starting over wouldn't be an issue, thoughts?

Hotel6

thenewton wrote: »

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

A non pet Sorc plays like a poor mans nightblade. In other words, everything your non pet Sorc can do, a mageblade can do better with the exception of a few synergies. At the extreme end of things, Sorcs are becoming th back up healers at this point:

So if I am looking for high, raw DPS and sustain for solo arena and solo dungeon and so on you recommend I go MagBlade? Character is still new so starting over wouldn't be an issue, thoughts?

if u want best pve dps get a magblade. if u want to stick to magsorc which are also strong that's ok. I don't like pets too much but it can help in VMA (if u need to do some runs).

Vahrokh

thenewton wrote: »

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

A non pet Sorc plays like a poor mans nightblade. In other words, everything your non pet Sorc can do, a mageblade can do better with the exception of a few synergies. At the extreme end of things, Sorcs are becoming th back up healers at this point:

So if I am looking for high, raw DPS and sustain for solo arena and solo dungeon and so on you recommend I go MagBlade? Character is still new so starting over wouldn't be an issue, thoughts?

Yes, especially with the new patch notes. It's "all reroll magblade or go home". It's not a choice any more, it's a MUST now.

thenewton

Vahrokh wrote: »

thenewton wrote: »

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

A non pet Sorc plays like a poor mans nightblade. In other words, everything your non pet Sorc can do, a mageblade can do better with the exception of a few synergies. At the extreme end of things, Sorcs are becoming th back up healers at this point:

So if I am looking for high, raw DPS and sustain for solo arena and solo dungeon and so on you recommend I go MagBlade? Character is still new so starting over wouldn't be an issue, thoughts?

Yes, especially with the new patch notes. It's "all reroll magblade or go home". It's not a choice any more, it's a MUST now.

Thank you!

What kind of MagBlade? Got any links to any good builds? Any of the Alcast PvE builds? I am new(ish) to the game and the classes too except Warden

Vahrokh

thenewton wrote: »

Vahrokh wrote: »

thenewton wrote: »

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

A non pet Sorc plays like a poor mans nightblade. In other words, everything your non pet Sorc can do, a mageblade can do better with the exception of a few synergies. At the extreme end of things, Sorcs are becoming th back up healers at this point:

So if I am looking for high, raw DPS and sustain for solo arena and solo dungeon and so on you recommend I go MagBlade? Character is still new so starting over wouldn't be an issue, thoughts?

Yes, especially with the new patch notes. It's "all reroll magblade or go home". It's not a choice any more, it's a MUST now.

Thank you!

What kind of MagBlade? Got any links to any good builds? Any of the Alcast PvE builds? I am new(ish) to the game and the classes too except Warden

Start levelling up, by the time you are 50 you'll see youtubers will have produced videos about the best gear and spec for Murkmire.

Oreyn_Bearclaw

thenewton wrote: »

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

A non pet Sorc plays like a poor mans nightblade. In other words, everything your non pet Sorc can do, a mageblade can do better with the exception of a few synergies. At the extreme end of things, Sorcs are becoming th back up healers at this point:

So if I am looking for high, raw DPS and sustain for solo arena and solo dungeon and so on you recommend I go MagBlade? Character is still new so starting over wouldn't be an issue, thoughts?

NB is leading both DPS races. For ranged, magic Nightblade is on top, and for melee, stamina nightblade is on top. The best of the best trial guilds are essentially going with 8 nightblades as their damage dealers. Now please keep in mind, we are talking about the best raid groups in the world who will always swap to whomever is on top, even if it is only marginally better. For a little over a year now, that is nightbalde, and I dont see anything currently that leads me to believe this will change in the near future. Nightblade is out in front by a decent bit at the moment.

Now that said, sorc is perfectly viable. They are easier to play, and are capable of doing plenty of damage to clear any content. If your goal is to solo content designed for 4 players, I would give the edge to sorc. If your goal is to get through VMA as simply as possible, I would again give the edge to sorc, but of course, a NB can do it faster. They will press three times as many buttons, but they will do it faster.

Forums are always going to over react. The idea that it is NB or GTFO is only applicable to about 5 guilds total. Now of course, most forum warriors try to emulate those guilds while stroking their online egos, so there is a bit of a trickle down effect. Unless everyone in your raid is breaking 50k ST (which is only a tiny fraction of raid groups), sorcs are perfectly viable. Of course, if I could only have one class for PVE DPS, it would certainly be a NB.

thenewton

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

thenewton wrote: »

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

A non pet Sorc plays like a poor mans nightblade. In other words, everything your non pet Sorc can do, a mageblade can do better with the exception of a few synergies. At the extreme end of things, Sorcs are becoming th back up healers at this point:

So if I am looking for high, raw DPS and sustain for solo arena and solo dungeon and so on you recommend I go MagBlade? Character is still new so starting over wouldn't be an issue, thoughts?

NB is leading both DPS races. For ranged, magic Nightblade is on top, and for melee, stamina nightblade is on top. The best of the best trial guilds are essentially going with 8 nightblades as their damage dealers. Now please keep in mind, we are talking about the best raid groups in the world who will always swap to whomever is on top, even if it is only marginally better. For a little over a year now, that is nightbalde, and I dont see anything currently that leads me to believe this will change in the near future. Nightblade is out in front by a decent bit at the moment.

Now that said, sorc is perfectly viable. They are easier to play, and are capable of doing plenty of damage to clear any content. If your goal is to solo content designed for 4 players, I would give the edge to sorc. If your goal is to get through VMA as simply as possible, I would again give the edge to sorc, but of course, a NB can do it faster. They will press three times as many buttons, but they will do it faster.

Forums are always going to over react. The idea that it is NB or GTFO is only applicable to about 5 guilds total. Now of course, most forum warriors try to emulate those guilds while stroking their online egos, so there is a bit of a trickle down effect. Unless everyone in your raid is breaking 50k ST (which is only a tiny fraction of raid groups), sorcs are perfectly viable. Of course, if I could only have one class for PVE DPS, it would certainly be a NB.

Wow thank you so much! That is more feedback depth and advice most my university professors have ever given me on any topic ever lol, also nice and objective.

So I am just under level 20 on my MagSorc, shall I "hasta la vista" and start with MagBlade and get the hang now or just keep with my pet MagSorc? I am still trying to get my head around the game let alone learning efficient and complex skill rotations, would that be an issue as a MagBlade? As in, how much skill does it take to man a MagBlade?

As all I am interested in is dealing high DPS fast intended for 4 people, solo arena and veteran dungeons/trials, would you still vouch for the change to MagNB?

pdebie64b16_ESO

Dps doesnt say everything, survivability is also important especial in harder solo content like Vma or if you like to solo 4 man dungeons, world bosses and so on. And the pet Sorc shines on this.

Also rotation is much easier as (for example) a Magblade.

Bar setup is pretty simple:

Matriach (o *** heal), Familiar on both bars, Hardened ward, Surge, Crystal frags or bound Aegis, ult: Storm Atro on main bar, Blockade, Liquid Lighting, Deadric Prey or bound Aegis, ult: Elemental Rage on back bar.

Lighting staff main bar, Lighting or Destro staff back bar (Maelstrom prevered)

Necropotence as main set, many options to choose for Monster and second set.

Priyasekarssk

thenewton wrote: »

Hi all!

Started a new toon as a Breton MagSorc aimed at DPS for solo dungeon runs and other solo work, I am following the builds on Alcast's website, for PvE MagSorc with/without pet

Pet: https://alcasthq.com/eso-magicka-sorcerer-pet-build-pve/

No pet: https://alcasthq.com/eso-magicka-sorcerer-build-pve/

But I have never played DPS before, main character is Warden Healer cp160+ so I don't know much about DPS min/max, what would you guys recommend I run?

What would provide the most DPS and sustain out of both builds? Is it a bit of a waste to double bar slot 2 pets and compromising on 4 abilities or do pets provide that much more edge?

Thank you all!

Quit sorc before too late.

AcadianPaladin

If you like pets, go magsorc - a fun, solid dps char - with pets.

If you don't care for pets, go magblade - also a fun, solid dps char.

I've tried my magsorc without pets and found it . . . frustrating compared to the other two choices. I run with just a twilight on my magsorc and love it. To give up the help from Necropotence, passive heath from having a pet summoned and the twilight's great burst heal just takes too much away from her in my opinion. A magblade is designed to run petless and has the tools to do so very well.

thenewton

AcadianPaladin wrote: »

If you like pets, go magsorc - a fun, solid dps char - with pets.

If you don't care for pets, go magblade - also a fun, solid dps char.

I've tried my magsorc without pets and found it . . . frustrating compared to the other two choices. I run with just a twilight on my magsorc and love it. To give up the help from Necropotence, passive heath from having a pet summoned and the twilight's great burst heal just takes too much away from her in my opinion. A magblade is designed to run petless and has the tools to do so very well.

So I don't like pets but I am happy to run with one twilight on both bars due to its burst healing, that being the only reason I would run a pet, does the twilight's burst heal justifies not running MagBlade, in terms of survivability and dps?

GreenhaloX

Do both.. we do have 15 character slots. So, I have a magsorc without and another magsorc with the Clannfear. Both are fine dd/dpser. Different playstyle, but both fun to roll around and rampage with. Well, you get the perk of more majicka with the pet, though. However, it's 2 x skill slots you have to give up when slotting either the clannfear or matriarch. I see peeps rolling around with both out. Damn, giving up 4 x damaging skill slots is too much for me there..

md3788

AcadianPaladin wrote: »

If you like pets, go magsorc - a fun, solid dps char - with pets.

If you don't care for pets, go magblade - also a fun, solid dps char.

I've tried my magsorc without pets and found it . . . frustrating compared to the other two choices. I run with just a twilight on my magsorc and love it. To give up the help from Necropotence, passive heath from having a pet summoned and the twilight's great burst heal just takes too much away from her in my opinion. A magblade is designed to run petless and has the tools to do so very well.

Agree, if you don't plan on using pets there is no real reason to run a MagSorc

Oreyn_Bearclaw

thenewton wrote: »

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

thenewton wrote: »

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

A non pet Sorc plays like a poor mans nightblade. In other words, everything your non pet Sorc can do, a mageblade can do better with the exception of a few synergies. At the extreme end of things, Sorcs are becoming th back up healers at this point:

So if I am looking for high, raw DPS and sustain for solo arena and solo dungeon and so on you recommend I go MagBlade? Character is still new so starting over wouldn't be an issue, thoughts?

NB is leading both DPS races. For ranged, magic Nightblade is on top, and for melee, stamina nightblade is on top. The best of the best trial guilds are essentially going with 8 nightblades as their damage dealers. Now please keep in mind, we are talking about the best raid groups in the world who will always swap to whomever is on top, even if it is only marginally better. For a little over a year now, that is nightbalde, and I dont see anything currently that leads me to believe this will change in the near future. Nightblade is out in front by a decent bit at the moment.

Now that said, sorc is perfectly viable. They are easier to play, and are capable of doing plenty of damage to clear any content. If your goal is to solo content designed for 4 players, I would give the edge to sorc. If your goal is to get through VMA as simply as possible, I would again give the edge to sorc, but of course, a NB can do it faster. They will press three times as many buttons, but they will do it faster.

Forums are always going to over react. The idea that it is NB or GTFO is only applicable to about 5 guilds total. Now of course, most forum warriors try to emulate those guilds while stroking their online egos, so there is a bit of a trickle down effect. Unless everyone in your raid is breaking 50k ST (which is only a tiny fraction of raid groups), sorcs are perfectly viable. Of course, if I could only have one class for PVE DPS, it would certainly be a NB.

Wow thank you so much! That is more feedback depth and advice most my university professors have ever given me on any topic ever lol, also nice and objective.

So I am just under level 20 on my MagSorc, shall I "hasta la vista" and start with MagBlade and get the hang now or just keep with my pet MagSorc? I am still trying to get my head around the game let alone learning efficient and complex skill rotations, would that be an issue as a MagBlade? As in, how much skill does it take to man a MagBlade?

As all I am interested in is dealing high DPS fast intended for 4 people, solo arena and veteran dungeons/trials, would you still vouch for the change to MagNB?

There is a pretty significant skill gap between sorc and NB. Magic sorc can actually be played a few different ways. At one end, they play a dynamic non pet rotation that actually feels similar to NB, but the damage just isnt there. It takes a really good rotation and weave to pull this off, just as playing NB does. Nightblade is the apex of damage, but they certainly have the highest skill threshold. Hard to advice starting with one if I am being honest. At the other end you can play a pet sorc that purposely heavy attacks a fair amount. The damage is sufficient for really any content, especially the AOE damage, but the Single target damage is going to be noticeably behind NB. It is, however, significantly easier to pull off as the rotation is very simple and circular. I think a pet sorc is a great class to break into end game PVE content for a lot of reasons.

One pushback on sorc is that the developers are radically changing how shields work next patch. From a PVP standpoint, i just dont see how they come out of this on the other side in a good spot. That said, if you were making a PVP focused character, I wouldn't recommend any magic class. Stamina dominates PVP.

FrancisCrawford

I've mained sorcerer since beta, and wrote one of the original (now obsolete) leveling guides for the class. I plan to stop playing my sorcerers in difficult content, however, because of the Murkmire introduction of cast time for shields.

Magicka nightblades are getting nerfed in multiple ways, but one of the big ones -- to Funnel Health -- is only relevant in group play. The big advantage nightblades have for soloing over other classes in a shield-less world is that Reaper's Mark is an amazing self-heal during trash fights.

LittlePinkDot

thenewton wrote: »

Vahrokh wrote: »

thenewton wrote: »

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

A non pet Sorc plays like a poor mans nightblade. In other words, everything your non pet Sorc can do, a mageblade can do better with the exception of a few synergies. At the extreme end of things, Sorcs are becoming th back up healers at this point:

So if I am looking for high, raw DPS and sustain for solo arena and solo dungeon and so on you recommend I go MagBlade? Character is still new so starting over wouldn't be an issue, thoughts?

Yes, especially with the new patch notes. It's "all reroll magblade or go home". It's not a choice any more, it's a MUST now.

Thank you!

What kind of MagBlade? Got any links to any good builds? Any of the Alcast PvE builds? I am new(ish) to the game and the classes too except Warden

Im leveling a magblade at the moment. Dark elf (dunmer) is the best race choice because it has a Passive that increases fire damage.

Sorc is dead in the water if they keep the 1 second cast time for shields.
I started with a magsorc when I first started this game and it was a mistake, the sustain was terrible. Always out of magicka. And that was before these new patch notes. Theyre going to be even worse now.
Magblade has the best DPS and the best sustain of any magicka character.
Im making Alcasts Azure magblade build.