Overcome, adapt, and try to be fluid... (Current live Sorc PVP build for upcoming shield changes)

DHale

I like that the OP is trying. Regardless of everyone’s opinions the best bet is to have other toons to play. I retired my sorc for over a year and I will retire her again and most likely will. If you had any trouble killing a sorc you are a a bad player. Since 2014 I have had six Sorcs I had trouble killing they were and are awesome players. I know everyone of them by name. Go ahead do anything you want to make sorc viable but make no mistake if you need a second to cast a shield that will only last 2-3 seconds in actual combat I or someone else will kill you. You might as well spend the day spell symming and jumping off the top of keeps.

keevil111

Wow. Go get em' OP. Do what you want. If the build sucks, you'll find out. Then just tweak as necessary.

Trying new things or re-hashing old things is not a bad thing. Trying to work around the shield nerf, though tough, is definitely doable.

Gnozo

Axiom on sorc and netch. Wow.

If you really want to go this way i would suggest shacklebreaker and julianos. This buffs all your skills and gives you some sustain and max stam.

Anyway its stupid that we need to adapt to every change zos throws at us. Its like buying a car and after some time the company who sold me the car forces me to swap it and i get a bycicle instead.

Savos_Saren

Gnozo wrote: »

Axiom on sorc and netch. Wow.

If you really want to go this way i would suggest shacklebreaker and julianos. This buffs all your skills and gives you some sustain and max stam.

Anyway its stupid that we need to adapt to every change zos throws at us. Its like buying a car and after some time the company who sold me the car forces me to swap it and i get a bycicle instead.

I did it with my templars and I did it with my DKs. We'll survive.

Joy_Division

The problem is that these sort of "adaptation" sorcerer builds will work better and be stronger on the other classes that do not have a 1 second cast time on their primary defense.

Thraben

Savos_Saren wrote: »

The main source of burst on this build is overload- which is easier to obtain next patch.

Mhm... shall we tell him ?

The times when you could stay in OL for like 10 minutes without even dropping it are over. Your Ulti generation is fully blocked. No healing, no blocking, no killing, no minor heroism can change that. Besides, I wouldn´t call what I just saw on the PTS "Burst".

And the "toggle" animation is as clunky as the old one. It´s a hidden cast time adding to the insult of the Hardened Ward cast time.

Savos_Saren

Joy_Division wrote: »

The problem is that these sort of "adaptation" sorcerer builds will work better and be stronger on the other classes that do not have a 1 second cast time on their primary defense.

I've seen you on your Templar in Cyrodiil- even before the recent buffs. (I'm glad they got buffed recently, btw.) You've managed to survive the nerfs to Breath of Life, though, haven't you?

The changes made to our shields cause us to disengage a fight- use line of sight to reapply buffs- and then reengage the fight. It addresses the fact that we can instantly tank up in the middle of a fight and continue to be the aggressor.

(This is also why I think ZOS will be reevaluating cloak next.)

Savos_Saren

Thraben wrote: »

Savos_Saren wrote: »

The main source of burst on this build is overload- which is easier to obtain next patch.

Mhm... shall we tell him ?

The times when you could stay in OL for like 10 minutes without even dropping it are over. Your Ulti generation is fully blocked. No healing, no blocking, no killing, no minor heroism can change that. Besides, I wouldn´t call what I just saw on the PTS "Burst".

And the "toggle" animation is as clunky as the old one. It´s a hidden cast time adding to the insult of the Hardened Ward cast time.

Should we have been on OL for like 10 minutes, though?

The change to overload allows you to use destroy/resto abilities without removing Overload toggle. I like that.

Gnozo

Savos_Saren wrote: »

Gnozo wrote: »

Axiom on sorc and netch. Wow.

If you really want to go this way i would suggest shacklebreaker and julianos. This buffs all your skills and gives you some sustain and max stam.

Anyway its stupid that we need to adapt to every change zos throws at us. Its like buying a car and after some time the company who sold me the car forces me to swap it and i get a bycicle instead.

I did it with my templars and I did it with my DKs. We'll survive.

Maybe we will survive but the whole shieldplaystyle in gone. Now we are forced in the same pattern like most of the classes, run high resist and block. (Class/Build diversity ftw). MagNB and MagSorc where kinda unique due to both using shields as their main defense. Even tho magblades has more defensive tactics then sorcs. They have decent healing, cloak and shields. Sorc has shields. Now shields as a reliable source of defense are gone.

A Lot of player loved the shield playstyle. It wasnt something that was only used by some niche Builds. No. It was class defining. The whole class is build around shields to mitigate damage cause we dont have any decent selfheal. This change is just stupid and i bet it will cost them more subs/players that they will gain with these changes.

Shields got nerfed to the ground and we got nothing in return. Even working around shields wont be any kind of effectiv like other classes can do without shields.

One example. Sorc gets low hp. What you gonna do? Healing ward? Will be destroyed before the heal comes in or will be so low you wont get much healing. And it only procs once a few seconds. Use dark conversion as a heal? Trading our low stam pool to heal? With a 1.2 seconds cast time that can be interrupted? Hope that maybe crit surge will heal us? Slot Rapid Regen/Mutagen without being able to protect us while this really low hot restores our hp?

Idk man, sorc seems so Dead to me now.

pieratsos

Savos_Saren wrote: »

Joy_Division wrote: »

The problem is that these sort of "adaptation" sorcerer builds will work better and be stronger on the other classes that do not have a 1 second cast time on their primary defense.

I've seen you on your Templar in Cyrodiil- even before the recent buffs. (I'm glad they got buffed recently, btw.) You've managed to survive the nerfs to Breath of Life, though, haven't you?

The changes made to our shields cause us to disengage a fight- use line of sight to reapply buffs- and then reengage the fight. It addresses the fact that we can instantly tank up in the middle of a fight and continue to be the aggressor.

(This is also why I think ZOS will be reevaluating cloak next.)

You are comparing apples with oranges. Breath of life is still the best self heal in the game taking you from zero to full in 1-2 casts. Its functionality didnt change.

Savos_Saren

pieratsos wrote: »

Savos_Saren wrote: »

Joy_Division wrote: »

The problem is that these sort of "adaptation" sorcerer builds will work better and be stronger on the other classes that do not have a 1 second cast time on their primary defense.

I've seen you on your Templar in Cyrodiil- even before the recent buffs. (I'm glad they got buffed recently, btw.) You've managed to survive the nerfs to Breath of Life, though, haven't you?

The changes made to our shields cause us to disengage a fight- use line of sight to reapply buffs- and then reengage the fight. It addresses the fact that we can instantly tank up in the middle of a fight and continue to be the aggressor.

(This is also why I think ZOS will be reevaluating cloak next.)

You are comparing apples with oranges. Breath of life is still the best self heal in the game taking you from zero to full in 1-2 casts. Its functionality didnt change.

Breath of Life's functionality did change. It received less healing recipients and only heals in a cone area. Conjured Ward, specifically, received a one second cast time but a four second increase to its duration.

pieratsos

Savos_Saren wrote: »

pieratsos wrote: »

Savos_Saren wrote: »

Joy_Division wrote: »

The problem is that these sort of "adaptation" sorcerer builds will work better and be stronger on the other classes that do not have a 1 second cast time on their primary defense.

I've seen you on your Templar in Cyrodiil- even before the recent buffs. (I'm glad they got buffed recently, btw.) You've managed to survive the nerfs to Breath of Life, though, haven't you?

The changes made to our shields cause us to disengage a fight- use line of sight to reapply buffs- and then reengage the fight. It addresses the fact that we can instantly tank up in the middle of a fight and continue to be the aggressor.

(This is also why I think ZOS will be reevaluating cloak next.)

You are comparing apples with oranges. Breath of life is still the best self heal in the game taking you from zero to full in 1-2 casts. Its functionality didnt change.

Breath of Life's functionality did change. It received less healing recipients and only heals in a cone area. Conjured Ward, specifically, received a one second cast time but a four second increase to its duration.

So its functionality when it comes to healing yourself didnt change. You just literally verified what i just said.
Conjured ward got a cast time. So it literally had its entirely functionality changed. I mean that was the purpose of the change in the first place. So again, apples and oranges.

The duration does absolutely nothing. Its just insult to injury. You know what would be the equivalent if breath of life was changed like that? Breath of life having a cast time but reducing its cost for "compensation". You know who would use that skill? Absolutely f**** no one. They had a skill like that. It was called healing ritual, it healed more people than breath, it costed much less and it was a stronger heal. And not a single person used it. Let that sink in.

Savos_Saren

pieratsos wrote: »

Savos_Saren wrote: »

pieratsos wrote: »

Savos_Saren wrote: »

Joy_Division wrote: »

The problem is that these sort of "adaptation" sorcerer builds will work better and be stronger on the other classes that do not have a 1 second cast time on their primary defense.

I've seen you on your Templar in Cyrodiil- even before the recent buffs. (I'm glad they got buffed recently, btw.) You've managed to survive the nerfs to Breath of Life, though, haven't you?

The changes made to our shields cause us to disengage a fight- use line of sight to reapply buffs- and then reengage the fight. It addresses the fact that we can instantly tank up in the middle of a fight and continue to be the aggressor.

(This is also why I think ZOS will be reevaluating cloak next.)

You are comparing apples with oranges. Breath of life is still the best self heal in the game taking you from zero to full in 1-2 casts. Its functionality didnt change.

Breath of Life's functionality did change. It received less healing recipients and only heals in a cone area. Conjured Ward, specifically, received a one second cast time but a four second increase to its duration.

So its functionality when it comes to healing yourself didnt change. You just literally verified what i just said.
Conjured ward got a cast time. So it literally had its entirely functionality changed. I mean that was the purpose of the change in the first place.

So again, apples and oranges.

So, you're saying that Breath of Life's functionality (in the fact that it heals you) didn't change... because it still heals you. But you think Conjured Ward (which shields you) changed because it now has a cast time... even though it still shields you?
Wow. That's some interesting logic.

Gnozo

Savos_Saren wrote: »

pieratsos wrote: »

Savos_Saren wrote: »

pieratsos wrote: »

Savos_Saren wrote: »

Joy_Division wrote: »

The problem is that these sort of "adaptation" sorcerer builds will work better and be stronger on the other classes that do not have a 1 second cast time on their primary defense.

I've seen you on your Templar in Cyrodiil- even before the recent buffs. (I'm glad they got buffed recently, btw.) You've managed to survive the nerfs to Breath of Life, though, haven't you?

The changes made to our shields cause us to disengage a fight- use line of sight to reapply buffs- and then reengage the fight. It addresses the fact that we can instantly tank up in the middle of a fight and continue to be the aggressor.

(This is also why I think ZOS will be reevaluating cloak next.)

You are comparing apples with oranges. Breath of life is still the best self heal in the game taking you from zero to full in 1-2 casts. Its functionality didnt change.

Breath of Life's functionality did change. It received less healing recipients and only heals in a cone area. Conjured Ward, specifically, received a one second cast time but a four second increase to its duration.

So its functionality when it comes to healing yourself didnt change. You just literally verified what i just said.
Conjured ward got a cast time. So it literally had its entirely functionality changed. I mean that was the purpose of the change in the first place.

So again, apples and oranges.

So, you're saying that Breath of Life's functionality (in the fact that it heals you) didn't change... because it still heals you. But you think Conjured Ward (which shields you) changed because it now has a cast time... even though it still shields you?
Wow. That's some interesting logic.

You do realise that 1 sec cast time is making ward 100% useless? Even if the duration would last 2 hours every average player cuts through a 12k ward with just one light attack-skill-bash rotation. So justifing the cast time with the duration increase is kinda stupid.

PickleRick

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=77772

@Savos_Saren imo, you could use something like this on mag sorc. There's tons of passive "healing" between Hist and Troll King, slotting Rapid Regen and using those three to refill your health when you cast healing ward seems like the path of least resistance. Troll king in particular seems like it will shine with Mag sorc because they get bonuses to health recovery.

Maryal

Lord-Otto wrote: »

Ehhh...
Healing Ward is not a main shield, psijic is tiny and on cooldown, Iceheart means no Minor Maim from Shadowrend, so you're out in 1v1. Or Balorgh, Zaan, ... Iceheart is really weak.
Two damage sets. That's not viable now and won't be with nerfed Dark Conversion.
Lightning Flood is easy to avoid in PvP, and you're lacking the fire staff for Curse and Frags.

It's... not good. At all. Sorry if I'm harsh, I don't wanna demotivate you. Fresh ideas are always interesting. They're just not always realistic.
The idea to capitalize on Overload with set support might be something, though.

Gotta luv that encouragement!

Gnozo

PickleRick wrote: »

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=77772

@Savos_Saren imo, you could use something like this on mag sorc. There's tons of passive "healing" between Hist and Troll King, slotting Rapid Regen and using those three to refill your health when you cast healing ward seems like the path of least resistance. Troll king in particular seems like it will shine with Mag sorc because they get bonuses to health recovery.

You do realise the changes to evasion?

PickleRick

Gnozo wrote: »

PickleRick wrote: »

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=77772

@Savos_Saren imo, you could use something like this on mag sorc. There's tons of passive "healing" between Hist and Troll King, slotting Rapid Regen and using those three to refill your health when you cast healing ward seems like the path of least resistance. Troll king in particular seems like it will shine with Mag sorc because they get bonuses to health recovery.

You do realise the changes to evasion?

That's a warden with no option for real single target damage.

Also, you're realistically talking about 9% or so mitigation gained from evasion after battle spirit and CP, color me unimpressed

Maryal

leepalmer95 wrote: »

Xsorus wrote: »

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildEditor?id=84447

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildEditor?id=88161

This is how you can get fairly close, You can trade out bloodspawn and run something similar to live...One's got more damage and the other has more Mitigation.

No matter what you try to do sorc's are going to be even weaker that on live.

Even if you stack lots of armour, realistically you're going to be taking more dmg because of the crit changes unless you stack into armour heavily to get about the same.

But on live now shields are very weak open world cp and in bg's. I favour stamina builds a lot nowadays but i can say for certain that shields are weaker than heavy armour or dodge builds currently.

The change just straight up makes them even weaker by a lot, so no matter when you do to compensate for them you are going to have less sustain/ dmg and likely be more squishy.

Even running around on a 3k spell dmg, 50k magicka build in open world i cannot do anything vs half good players. I'm forced to be on the defensive the entire time while they melt my shields and i'm forced to cast them every 2s until they burst me. That is with 2 shields being instant.

Your giving up something to run those skills like that, mines, dark deal a cc that actually works against anyone blocking.
Clench is a bad cc, it's dodgeable just like rune cage yet doesn't work against anyone blocking so useless to try and kill a magplar.

It's also useless vs dk's/ warden so thats 40% of potential classes its bad against, not including just straight up being blocked by heavy s&b builds.

You know, you guys should be encouraging people willing to take the time to experiment with new builds / playstyles instead of shooting them down right away. There have been plenty of armor sets and builds in this game that got 'poo-pooed' initially, only to end up being OP and as soon as a few people demonstrated (video) how awesome it was, it soon became the new meta! People need to encourage experimenting, thinking outside the box. Sure there will be some build 'flops' but ... sometimes playing around with a krappy new build can be the impetus for a brilliant new idea ... a new way of looking at something ... and before you know it, you just created the new meta.

People should stop evaluating new builds based on old standards and old ways of doing things. Not only will sorcs need to develop new builds, but also a different way of playing the class ... a better way. So stop judging based on (soon-to-be) 'old washed-up meta.'

Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Gnozo

PickleRick wrote: »

Gnozo wrote: »

PickleRick wrote: »

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=77772

@Savos_Saren imo, you could use something like this on mag sorc. There's tons of passive "healing" between Hist and Troll King, slotting Rapid Regen and using those three to refill your health when you cast healing ward seems like the path of least resistance. Troll king in particular seems like it will shine with Mag sorc because they get bonuses to health recovery.

You do realise the changes to evasion?

That's a warden with no option for real single target damage.

Also, you're realistically talking about 9% or so mitigation gained from evasion after battle spirit and CP, color me unimpressed

My Bad, i was thinking about Hist Bark. But tbh.....

Transmutation and Onslaught with Trollking. How i am able to kill someone?

pieratsos

Savos_Saren wrote: »

pieratsos wrote: »

Savos_Saren wrote: »

pieratsos wrote: »

Savos_Saren wrote: »

Joy_Division wrote: »

The problem is that these sort of "adaptation" sorcerer builds will work better and be stronger on the other classes that do not have a 1 second cast time on their primary defense.

I've seen you on your Templar in Cyrodiil- even before the recent buffs. (I'm glad they got buffed recently, btw.) You've managed to survive the nerfs to Breath of Life, though, haven't you?

The changes made to our shields cause us to disengage a fight- use line of sight to reapply buffs- and then reengage the fight. It addresses the fact that we can instantly tank up in the middle of a fight and continue to be the aggressor.

(This is also why I think ZOS will be reevaluating cloak next.)

You are comparing apples with oranges. Breath of life is still the best self heal in the game taking you from zero to full in 1-2 casts. Its functionality didnt change.

Breath of Life's functionality did change. It received less healing recipients and only heals in a cone area. Conjured Ward, specifically, received a one second cast time but a four second increase to its duration.

So its functionality when it comes to healing yourself didnt change. You just literally verified what i just said.
Conjured ward got a cast time. So it literally had its entirely functionality changed. I mean that was the purpose of the change in the first place.

So again, apples and oranges.

So, you're saying that Breath of Life's functionality (in the fact that it heals you) didn't change... because it still heals you. But you think Conjured Ward (which shields you) changed because it now has a cast time... even though it still shields you?
Wow. That's some interesting logic.

Do you even know what functionality means? Seriously just google it.

Im saying that you were casting an instant cast self heal and healed urself to full. Then it got nerfed. So after the nerf, you were casting an instant cast self heal and healed urself to full. Aka its funcionality when it comes to you, didnt change. Literally the main purpose of its nerf was to nerf the heals to other people. Not you ffs. Conjured ward was an instant cast shield. You react to dmg, cast it in the middle of combat to shield urself from dmg. After the cast time you cant do that. Aka its functionality changed. That was literally the purpose of adding the cast time, which you also verified urself. To change the entire functionality of the skill.

I also like how you literally ignored my example explaining to u what would be an equivalent nerf to BOL. You lost the entire point of my post, took my words out of context and created a strawman and questioned my logic. Interesting logic indeed.

PickleRick

Gnozo wrote: »

PickleRick wrote: »

Gnozo wrote: »

PickleRick wrote: »

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=77772

@Savos_Saren imo, you could use something like this on mag sorc. There's tons of passive "healing" between Hist and Troll King, slotting Rapid Regen and using those three to refill your health when you cast healing ward seems like the path of least resistance. Troll king in particular seems like it will shine with Mag sorc because they get bonuses to health recovery.

You do realise the changes to evasion?

That's a warden with no option for real single target damage.

Also, you're realistically talking about 9% or so mitigation gained from evasion after battle spirit and CP, color me unimpressed

My Bad, i was thinking about Hist Bark. But tbh.....

Transmutation and Onslaught with Trollking. How i am able to kill someone?

On a sorc you’ll sit at 10.8k effective spell power with those three sets. You’ll also have a longer offensive window. It’s weaker than a mag sorc on live but stacking HoTs/Heath recovery is a much more efficient route to survivability than relying on gimmicky shields.

For reference, sorc builds on live are only around 11k effective spell damage because despite the numerous mentions of building damage and defense by stacking Magika, Spell damage is a much more efficient stat for pure damage.

You can also run the new set which gives 500 Spell damage after a light attack in place of Trans. As that’s a warden build I didn’t even consider anything that boosts damage against only 1 target, but sorc specializes in bursting a single target so there is great potential there, although I value damage glyphs on jewelry more because they also boost your HoTs and strengthen your Healing Ward

usmguy1234

Savos_Saren wrote: »

So, here we have a build that is Destro/Resto. It consists of Ice Heart (crits for heals, and a 9k damage shield), Innate Axiom (adds 400 damage to all class abilities), and Netch's Touch (400 spell damage to shock). This was taken in Rawl-ka... so remember to add 5,000 health in Cyrodiil and since Innate and Netch don't show up on your spell damage- remember to add 800 spell damage to your shock-based class abilities. The build is 5l/1m/1h consisting of two protective rings.

So, you can get instant cast Healing Ward from Resto, 4500 damage shield from Ice Heart, 1354 shield from Reinforced (CP passive), and a 2500 damage shield from slotting Time Stop (which I will do when I level my Psijic skill line. Remember, all of these shields are instant. No cast time.

Since it's hard to tell how much damage you can do without seeing the effects of Innate and Netch- I'll show you my Power Overload.



Now, I realize that it will be taking a slight nerf as well- but my CP will also increase. So, I'll have to adjust it accordingly. I'm also VERY interested in utilizing Spell Strategist instead of Netch. I'll have to test it out, though. Let me know what you think.

With this mindset you've already given up.... some of us are a still trying to fight for the class we love.

Ozazz

That is a horrible build lol

Ozazz

you think a 9k shield is going to save you when they get crit and have a cast time?
also 35k max, horrible! @Savos_Saren

NBrookus

I would consider something like Robes of the Hist and Spell Strategist. With no snare immunity in the class, Hist should proc a lot and help make up some healing. VMA resto back bar perhaps. I think Spell Strategist should synergized well with sorc's single target burst.

Cronopoly

Savos_Saren wrote: »

@jabrone77

You're right. No matter what we say or try- these guys will constantly knock it down. Yet- I guarantee you that some of them were hardcore advocates of blocking nerfs and healing nerfs.

I agree everyone including myself is pissed and I do applaud you looking now for a workaround.

We know the pressure Stamina Builds can bring in PVP. It's not uncommon to be at 100%...23K-25K+ health, then insta-gibbed dead in Light Armor with no shield up and that's with 2500+ Crit resistance. If you have a shield you might get 2 shot, and if Bleeds are involved, the worms feasting on your dead carcass will soon die as well.

I like others want to see some light at the end of the tunnel, Some ray of hope, hence keep at it, theorizing some way to press forward to compete. Currently I only see the Train headlight and Cow flipper heading towards us, but that's me.

PickleRick

Cronopoly wrote: »

Savos_Saren wrote: »

@jabrone77

You're right. No matter what we say or try- these guys will constantly knock it down. Yet- I guarantee you that some of them were hardcore advocates of blocking nerfs and healing nerfs.

I agree everyone including myself is pissed and I do applaud you looking now for a workaround.

We know the pressure Stamina Builds can bring in PVP. It's not uncommon to be at 100%...23K-25K+ health, then insta-gibbed dead in Light Armor with no shield up and that's with 2500+ Crit resistance. If you have a shield you might get 2 shot, and if Bleeds are involved, the worms feasting on your dead carcass will soon die as well.

I like others want to see some light at the end of the tunnel, Some ray of hope, hence keep at it, theorizing some way to press forward to compete. Currently I only see the Train headlight and Cow flipper heading towards us, but that's me.

Passive healing and protective jewelry is the way to go imo. Maybe run Tri-Glyphs to boost your stam and health out of those burst thresholds. It’s gonna suck but I believe Mag Sorc isn’t dead, just drastically different now. You’ll have to play more like a Mageblade and source some HoTs/Health recovery to pair with healing ward as a means of defense.

Honestly they need to return the stun to frags at least, if not the bonus damage as well. Now that sorc has to build more defense from other sources than Max Magika it opens up the option to use spell damage to increase your damage output more efficiently. Again, it’ll be weaker than live but I’m choosing to look at the change with optimism.

Savos_Saren

Cronopoly wrote: »

Savos_Saren wrote: »

@jabrone77

You're right. No matter what we say or try- these guys will constantly knock it down. Yet- I guarantee you that some of them were hardcore advocates of blocking nerfs and healing nerfs.

I agree everyone including myself is pissed and I do applaud you looking now for a workaround.

We know the pressure Stamina Builds can bring in PVP. It's not uncommon to be at 100%...23K-25K+ health, then insta-gibbed dead in Light Armor with no shield up and that's with 2500+ Crit resistance. If you have a shield you might get 2 shot, and if Bleeds are involved, the worms feasting on your dead carcass will soon die as well.

I like others want to see some light at the end of the tunnel, Some ray of hope, hence keep at it, theorizing some way to press forward to compete. Currently I only see the Train headlight and Cow flipper heading towards us, but that's me.

Well- I’ve accepted the fact that ZOS is trying to get us out of our pigeon-holed crutches.

When block and heavy armor was gutted- many DKs felt like it was the end of the world. “Block casting was our only defense.”

Now we have mDKs running around with a wide variety of builds. Some using SnB- others using destro/resto. Hell- some even use Ice Staves for blocking.

The point is that it forced DKs to rely less on what we considered our “OP” class archetype.

Now- I’m going to do the same with my Sorc. And, honestly, I look forward to relying less on popping shields.

katorga

Hardened ward and Annulment/Harness are essentially useless in pvp and pve now, not worth the slot.

Healing ward got nerfed too, no upfront heal, and since it can't hide behind the other shields 102% of remaining shield strength will be ZERO. No point in casting that one either.

So the choice is that stam build are you going to do? If you want a little of the old mag sorc vibe, run Pelinal's backbar for mages wrath.