Results of Shield testing/builds

Sy1ph5

Impreg Bloodspawn lich with your choice of asylum cage build or reach spam on the front bar. For those of you that plan on playing magsorc next patch.
Mag 36116
Health 18950
Stam 16312
Physical Resist 17803
Spell Resist 22006
Crit resist 4807
With Light impreg you can trait for well-fitted and try to dodge in a similar manner to last patch.
This build results in a small net gain in shield strength against opponents with less than 6k penetration.
3655 stamden birds on Live Vs. an average of 3217 on the PTS currently.
This is not however a buff as your shields will be smaller in size this patch. Your shields drop approximately 4% faster, and cannot effectively be stacked. Stuns at the appropriate time will also prevent shields from going off (not unexpected and definitely in line with other uninterruptible cast time abilities), but does mean that players can still prevent shields from going off.
This build also makes a large sacrifice in damage to get to the point where shields do not drop faster than they can be cast when playing against a single opponent using a single Direct damage skill every GCD.
40k max Mag with no Bastion CP equates to 9594 shield in PvP
36k max Mag with no Bastion CP equates to 8753 shield in PvP

Numbers calculated against a no red CP character with 13420 spell reistance
Total Burst on PTS With battle spirit no crits 15595 If everything crits 26356 These numbers will be reduced by both resistances and CP

Note The PTS numbers are buffed by combat prayer and the live numbers are not due to Healing ward no longer having an upfront heal to remove one from execute I believe combat prayer will be better in PvP in all circumstances now on LA magicka Sorcerer.

Total Burst on LIVE with battle spirit no crits 17272 If everything crits 29821 These numbers will be reduced by both resistances and CP.

Honorable mention to the set Pariah as it outperforms impreg slightly when you are very low meaning if you so desire to drag the fight out a little while longer you can.

This is the best middle ground I could find. Its the only build that sort of preserved what sorc feels like. The cast times are slow and unfun and have no payoff for sitting through them as the shields are weak. The damage is low as there is no way to find damage on a sorc this patch. In general the changes feel unfun ,the straight nerf from crits and removing another unique mechanic from the game is one thing(nerfing a class that was very much in line power wise also concerns me), but the cast time feels bad it feels out of place like it belongs in a different (less fun)game. Every class plays fairly similarly and has to invest in certain( sometimes counter intuitive) stats to get the most out of its defense. Sorcs must invest in both stam,stam recovery, Mag, and a lot of mag recovery.
Sorcs can't go full max mag and get great damage and sustain on live without being vulnerable to stamina pressure, and running out of mag quite easily.
Shields are very expensive in 5-1-1 Hardened costs 2984 Harness and healing ward both cost 3902. On live A sorc investing in a large amount of mag regen is equivalent to investing in defense.
With no cleanse to roots Sorcs are very vulnerable to stam pressure so we cannot go full max mag and get decent damage as we also need stam and stam regen both to use dark conversion and to dodge and break free.
Right now open world sorc is in a rough spot due to a lack of damage against competent players, swift+FW grotesquely outclassing streak as a mobility tool, and stambuilds sustain and damage

Your nerfs over the past two years have moved magsorc from a spec that high a high interactibility on offense(Counterplay options largely to frag and mages wrath, risk reward with the streak melee stun) that payed off with huge burst, to a class that has to run so much sustain that the burst just isnt worth it. It also had ,at one point, the offensive counterplay completely removed making sorc boring for both the Sorc and the enemy.

TLDR: All of the shield changes are huge nerfs and remove class identity and uniqueness from the game.

To preempt some post below I'm sure
Sorcs weren't wearing divines this patch saying that now we have to wear impen/wellfitted like the rest of you is just false we were wearing impen/wellfitted before the only thing this patch changes is that i have to drop shackle for impreg sacrificing both damage and sustain to not instantly fall over dead.

This is not a magden thread do not comment about how terrible magden is if you think magden is so bad make some threads talking about what does and does not work in PvP.

Shields mitigate an absolute amount of damage, most good players bring more damage than that to the table rn just blowing sorcs out of the water. Even if you do not have enough damage to break a sorcs shields you can still kill him as damage is cheaper than healing/shielding it will just take longer.

Malamar1229

Dont need lich. My setup was bloodspawn, 5pc impreg, 5pc new bonepirates or the new spell dmg set. Light armor. For the latter setup, Vma resto backbar. Heals from rapid regen, surge, and heal ward. Shieldless sorc.

Must slot boundless storm. By keeping light armor you gain some penetration and sustain.

Either way, heavy or light, options are small and dmg is garbage.

Malamar1229

Anyone supporting these changes doesnt play a sorc. Every dmg ability in toolkit is telegraphed and dodgeable/blocked. Burst rotations only work on bad players.

Stamina pressure is bad. Mobility on a sorc is low, again only noticeable against bads.

I run 3 swift on live and give up a ton of dmg doing so.

Just not a fun class to play anymore.

Xsorus

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

Try this one out.

Karm1cOne

Xsorus wrote: »

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

Try this one out.

Um, isn't that what he tested? Bloodspawn, impreg,lich?

keeno9881

yea forget that thank you for the info though im just going to delete my sorc

leepalmer95

So TL:DR

To be as tanky as on live where mag sorc's shields are already bad you need to reduce your dmg further which on live is also pretty bad...

So you lose lots of dmg for your shields to be just as weak.

Mystrius_Archaion

leepalmer95 wrote: »

So TL:DR

To be as tanky as on live where mag sorc's shields are already bad you need to reduce your dmg further which on live is also pretty bad...

So you lose lots of dmg for your shields to be just as weak.

So join the rest of us who worked around shields not seeming good enough and found better ways for guaranteed survival rather than working too hard for too little from shields.

Still not saying the cast time is a good thing, just saying shields weren't necessary anyway.

Xsorus

Karm1cOne wrote: »

Xsorus wrote: »

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

Try this one out.

Um, isn't that what he tested? Bloodspawn, impreg,lich?

Mines built a bit different then his.

I use protective on my jewelry pieces. It allows me to hit 30k + on resist when Bloodspawn procs

Sy1ph5

Xsorus wrote: »

Karm1cOne wrote: »

Xsorus wrote: »

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

Try this one out.

Um, isn't that what he tested? Bloodspawn, impreg,lich?

Mines built a bit different then his.

I use protective on my jewelry pieces. It allows me to hit 30k + on resist when Bloodspawn procs

I tried protective but the damage went from pitiful to non-existent when I did and I'm not entirely sure the trade actually results in more effective shields

Xsorus

Sy1ph5 wrote: »

Xsorus wrote: »

Karm1cOne wrote: »

Xsorus wrote: »

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

Try this one out.

Um, isn't that what he tested? Bloodspawn, impreg,lich?

Mines built a bit different then his.

I use protective on my jewelry pieces. It allows me to hit 30k + on resist when Bloodspawn procs

I tried protective but the damage went from pitiful to non-existent when I did and I'm not entirely sure the trade actually results in more effective shields

I mean, you go from 36k magicka to 33k magicka; That's not a massive amount of damage loss

Xsorus

You could also try Shacklebreaker/Bright/Bloodspawn

With Protective on Jewelry Pieces

Lose some Crit Resist but you'd do a lot more damage.

Bergzorn

Xsorus wrote: »

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

Try this one out.

My guess would be that you are screwed as soon as you take pressure and the resto ulti isn't up. Wards getting resistances would have quite some build potential, but the cast time just ruins it.

Vahrokh

Mystrius_Archaion wrote: »

leepalmer95 wrote: »

So TL:DR

To be as tanky as on live where mag sorc's shields are already bad you need to reduce your dmg further which on live is also pretty bad...

So you lose lots of dmg for your shields to be just as weak.

So join the rest of us who worked around shields not seeming good enough and found better ways for guaranteed survival rather than working too hard for too little from shields.

Still not saying the cast time is a good thing, just saying shields weren't necessary anyway.

If they removed staves from game, you would tell us that you worked around it, by going double hand axe sorc. So cool.

Biro123

I think all build options are so bad that I can't see anybody playing it anymore.
Even if they removed the cast times.

Bergzorn

Sy1ph5 wrote: »

The cast times are slow and unfun and have no payoff for sitting through them as the shields are weak.

This is what bothers me most.

visionality

Biro123 wrote: »

I think all build options are so bad that I can't see anybody playing it anymore.
Even if they removed the cast times.

Well, you can keep your sorc for sentimental readons and tun it into a crafter. Guess that last remaining utility will survive for one or two patches more.

Biro123

visionality wrote: »

Biro123 wrote: »

I think all build options are so bad that I can't see anybody playing it anymore.
Even if they removed the cast times.

Well, you can keep your sorc for sentimental readons and tun it into a crafter. Guess that last remaining utility will survive for one or two patches more.

I still have my hybrid sorc - while fun, it's not particularly effective - but I suspect post-patch it will be become better than a full-on magsorc. I suspect latest dark exchange change may even be a buff for him.
He's mostly stam-based, but I guess I could experiment a bit lean him more towards mag and see how it goes.. Still use stam for defence, but more focus on mag for offence... Needs argonian though - so a bit of a shame I didn't do the class-change on my main with the completed undaunted...
But yeah - that's another option anyways..
Heavy Shackle/Clever alch/Troll-king, Argonian, pot-cooldown build. DW gives good uptime on around 4.8k weapon AND spell-damage - 27k health - just mag and stam pools are fairly low (currently 27k stam, 20k mag - could easily be switched). Kill stuff with new overload on DW bar?

Not as effective as a current pure mag or stam setup - but I suspect it could be better than future pure magsorcs..

Gnozo

You all are Building quite tanky due to the lost of shields but think about healing. How do we heal?

Healing ward lost its initial heal and without 81 points into bastion it will be really weak. It has resistences now and you can crit it. You will never get the heal from it cause you cant protect your healing ward with another shield.

Rapid regen ticks are so low you cant rely on them as your main source of healing.

MagNB have good hots and cloak to protect healing ward until it expires.

Magplar has Honor of the Dead, Wardens have spores, DK have dragonblood.

Sorc has nothing besides shields and they are gone now. Okay, there is a pet. That needs to be double slottet und dies within seconds if cant protect it with a shield.

Kadoin

Gnozo wrote: »

You all are Building quite tanky due to the lost of shields but think about healing. How do we heal?

Healing ward lost its initial heal and without 81 points into bastion it will be really weak. It has resistences now and you can crit it. You will never get the heal from it cause you cant protect your healing ward with another shield.

Rapid regen ticks are so low you cant rely on them as your main source of healing.

MagNB have good hots and cloak to protect healing ward until it expires.

Magplar has Honor of the Dead, Wardens have spores, DK have dragonblood.

Sorc has nothing besides shields and they are gone now. Okay, there is a pet. That needs to be double slottet und dies within seconds if cant protect it with a shield.

Robes of the Hist...

leepalmer95

Kadoin wrote: »

Gnozo wrote: »

You all are Building quite tanky due to the lost of shields but think about healing. How do we heal?

Healing ward lost its initial heal and without 81 points into bastion it will be really weak. It has resistences now and you can crit it. You will never get the heal from it cause you cant protect your healing ward with another shield.

Rapid regen ticks are so low you cant rely on them as your main source of healing.

MagNB have good hots and cloak to protect healing ward until it expires.

Magplar has Honor of the Dead, Wardens have spores, DK have dragonblood.

Sorc has nothing besides shields and they are gone now. Okay, there is a pet. That needs to be double slottet und dies within seconds if cant protect it with a shield.

Robes of the Hist...

Can't tell if you are serious or not.

Mystrius_Archaion

Vahrokh wrote: »

Mystrius_Archaion wrote: »

leepalmer95 wrote: »

So TL:DR

To be as tanky as on live where mag sorc's shields are already bad you need to reduce your dmg further which on live is also pretty bad...

So you lose lots of dmg for your shields to be just as weak.

So join the rest of us who worked around shields not seeming good enough and found better ways for guaranteed survival rather than working too hard for too little from shields.

Still not saying the cast time is a good thing, just saying shields weren't necessary anyway.

If they removed staves from game, you would tell us that you worked around it, by going double hand axe sorc. So cool.

hahahaha
I don't use shields already and have no troubles. Shields are an optional skill choice, not the only choice.
If you can't work around the cast time then don't use shields. You'll be happier because it will be easier for you.

Gnozo

Kadoin wrote: »

Gnozo wrote: »

You all are Building quite tanky due to the lost of shields but think about healing. How do we heal?

Healing ward lost its initial heal and without 81 points into bastion it will be really weak. It has resistences now and you can crit it. You will never get the heal from it cause you cant protect your healing ward with another shield.

Rapid regen ticks are so low you cant rely on them as your main source of healing.

MagNB have good hots and cloak to protect healing ward until it expires.

Magplar has Honor of the Dead, Wardens have spores, DK have dragonblood.

Sorc has nothing besides shields and they are gone now. Okay, there is a pet. That needs to be double slottet und dies within seconds if cant protect it with a shield.

Robes of the Hist...

So you Source of Healing will be an armor? That will heal for 1.2 k health(without defile) only if you are cced, snared or immobilized?
So in a normal pvp enviorment you instantly break a CC so this set gives you a 1.2k heal. Thats it. If you are immobilized you normaly want to get rid of it with a dodgeroll to maintain your mobility. So Maybe 1-2 ticks from this set.

Looking at the huge damage income in Cyrodiil this doenst look viable to me.

For example a normal gank from a nb is a charged heavy attack from stealth into Incap followed by a surprise attack. With your current resist this would result in about 10-15k health loss. Since you are then in execute range multipliers alreay comes into this.

Healing ward will be gone with 1 single light attack surprise attack bash rotation. And your hots are not enough to outheal the following damage with execute multipliers.

ZOS_JesC

Greetings, we've removed a few baiting comments. Please keep the conversation on topic and constructive. Thank you.