Which one of these sets for magicka sorcerer in pvp?

Horcsogg

I am using Fortified Brass as a survival boosting set but as for the other (offensive) set I am not a 100% which one would most suit me.

First one I had in mind was the Crafty alfiq set with it`s overall 5500 extra mana.

Second one could be Rattlecage, it gives some nice spell damage and the constant Major Sorcery buff which also equals to about extra 400 spell damage. An other huge advantage of this set is that it would free up a skill in my bar as I wouldn`t have to use Power Surge anymore.

The third one is Shroud of the lich. It gives an awesome mana boost every min for 20 seconds.

Which one would you go for? All three of them have their advantages.

ChunkyCat

Use all of them.

At the same time.

fred4

Most sorcs probably run Armor Master instead of Brass. It can be single barred, it offers slightly better resistances, but most importantly it gives you extra health, which increases your shield cap.

I don't play sorc, so this is not coming from experience with that class, but from general build experience. No way would I run Rattlecage when you have a Major Sorcery buff skill that has this good of a secondary effect attached to it, e.g. the healing. No way.

Crafty Alfiq is superseded by Necropotence as soon as you run a pet, unless you want to run both. Currently pet sorcs rule, e.g. the Twilight.

Lich is a good set. Whether you need it is a different question. It has the benefit that it can be back barred, but let's say you're back barring Armor Master, then what? Perhaps a build pattern, such as the following might work:

Armor Master front bar, along with Inner Light and one shield.
Lich back bar
2x Willpower Jewelry for badly-needed added magicka

However this might not suit you, as you would very likely end up with Harness Magicka on the front bar and Hardened Ward on the back bar, complicating your rotation.

If it was me, I would always aim to stack magicka, not spell damage, on magsorc and magden, so your shields get bigger. If you find yourself adding spell damage to the build, ask yourself how to could trade that for magicka instead. That's another reason why I think Rattlecage would be a really bad set for sorcs, in PvP. The sets I'd choose from include:

Necropotence
Alfiq
Bright-Throats
Shacklebreaker
Spinner

Lich gives you little magicka. You can always get mag regen from jewelry enchants. You can't get magicka that way, only spell damage. If I found myself using Spell Damage enchants on a shielding PvP build, I would always go oops: I made a mistake. I should build for magicka, not spell damage.

For reference, I built my magden with Necro + Alfiq + 1x Domihaus + 1x Stonekeeper + Double Bloody Mara + vMA resto back bar. On magden this gets you 57.8K max magicka, 30K health, 2K mag regen from Atro mundus + regen enchants, and an almost 15K shield from Dampen Magic alone. You can fine tune your health, magicka and stamina pools with prismatic enchants to the point where your shield size matches half your health.

Horcsogg

Thanks for the well-thought-out answer. I can`t run Necropotence as I am not running any pet on my sorc atm. They will get nerfed hard the next patch anyways.

You are right about Rattlecage being inessential, I will decide between Alfiq and Lich. Maybe equip each for a few rounds of bgs and see which one I like more.

wheem_ESO

fred4 wrote: »

Most sorcs probably run Armor Master instead of Brass. It can be single barred, it offers slightly better resistances, but most importantly it gives you extra health, which increases your shield cap.

Being able to use Armor Master on only 1 bar won't matter that much to him if he's not using a Master's Staff with Reach spam (which won't be a thing anymore next patch...unless you use Clench with it's 15m range). 'Course, I guess he could substitute the Master's Staff for a Willpower Staff, and have some extra magicka on the front bar, but I don't think that's a huge deal really.

While I haven't personally played Magicka Sorcerer in quite a long time, I never used a defensive 5 piece set on mine; instead relying on mobility and shields (this was back when resists didn't apply to them) to get out of danger. If you're going to use Fortified Brass, Armor Master, or some other 5 piece defensive set on a Magicka Sorcerer, I think Lich probably has to get the axe as well - your damage will end up being much too low. Maybe you'd be better off with Mighty Chudan, Lich, and an offense 5 piece set? Both survivability and sustain are going to be taking a hit with the Scalebreaker patch, so Lich (or another sustain set) may end up being a necessity then. If you combine that with a defensive 5-piece set, you'll never be able to put out enough damage to beat anyone decent.

I'd also recommend against Rattlecage on a Sorcerer, especially if the PTS changes to Entropy make it to live. Currently, Entropy is a flat out awful spell; laughable damage, laughable healing, and only 20 seconds worth of Major Sorcery...if that buff wasn't so important, it would absolutely be a wasted bar slot. Next patch, however, it'll give you an extra 4 seconds on Major Sorcery, as well as actually become a worthwhile DOT (along with either a minor heal every 2 seconds, or 100 magicka return every time you light attack someone you've put the DOT on). On live, Rattlecage can be a worthwhile set on some classes, but once Entropy stops being garbage, it'll no longer be worth the opportunity cost.

Back when I was actively playing Magicka Sorcerer, I was running Shacklebreaker, Spinner's, and 1 Domihaus (this was back when Staves only counted as 1 set item), along with 3x Spell Damage enchants. Sustain was terrible (even with Witchmother's), but I was generally able to manage with mobility + Dark Conversion. Now, with people typically having more durability than they did then, I think it'd probably be better to drop Shacklebreaker and Witchmother's in favor of something like Lich + Tri-Stat Food, or Bright-Throat's Boast + Tri-Stat Drink, since it's hard to kill anyone when you're out of magicka. Spinner's is still a solid damage set, as long as you can afford it (the Staves can get really expensive).

Edit: Now that I think about it, you'll actually get a little more magicka regen with Shacklebreaker + Witchmother's than you will with Bright-Throat + Sprint-Loaded Infusion.

With the 5.1.1 nerfs to the Protective trait, Pirate Skeleton, shield size, and shield cost, there may be some really tough gear choices coming up for magicka builds. Sorcerers are probably better positioned to handle this than most other setups, due to far superior mobility, but it may still be a bit rough. I'm thinking that, especially for no-CP, you'll need to focus on sustain, damage, and mobility, rather than trying to be durable with defensive sets.

oxygen_thief

shacklebreaker + buffer of the swift. you can get your +20% spd from pots if you want, use a penetration mundus instead of spinners and spd is better than max magicka

fred4

oxygen_thief wrote: »

shacklebreaker + buffer of the swift. you can get your +20% spd from pots if you want, use a penetration mundus instead of spinners and spd is better than max magicka

I have used Buffer of the Swift and I'll second that it is a deceptively good defensive set. Apparently it beats Brass as long as your (effective?) resistance is less than 14K, or so I am told.

wheem_ESO wrote: »

Being able to use Armor Master on only 1 bar won't matter that much to him if he's not using a Master's Staff with Reach spam (which won't be a thing anymore next patch...unless you use Clench with it's 15m range). 'Course, I guess he could substitute the Master's Staff for a Willpower Staff, and have some extra magicka on the front bar, but I don't think that's a huge deal really.

While I too like Brass for it's simplicity, there are other options to the Master Staff. You could front bar Spinner's and use 2x Willpower jewelry to bump your magicka on both bars, which would be good for the shields. On my warden, when I'm wearing Armor Master, I front bar that set with a vMA resto back bar. There is certain a logic to having Inner Light plus Dampen / Harness on the front bar. It's efficient, if you can make do with just 3 damage skills on that bar.

oxygen_thief

fred4 wrote: »

oxygen_thief wrote: »

shacklebreaker + buffer of the swift. you can get your +20% spd from pots if you want, use a penetration mundus instead of spinners and spd is better than max magicka

I have used Buffer of the Swift and I'll second that it is a deceptively good defensive set. Apparently it beats Brass as long as your (effective?) resistance is less than 14K, or so I am told.

dont forget about penetration, debufs and oblivion or onslaught. my socs resistances are 25k /24k and penetration is 10+ k. this stats are for nocp. if i would be attacked by someone who has same penetration and i would
have some debuff on my armor then my resistances would be even lower than 14k.

darkblue5

Probably running something like Pirate Skeleton/Mighty Chudan one pieces or Blood Spawn on head. Bright-throat's Boast with Spring-loaded Infusion.You could front-bar Armor Master and backbar Blackrose resto.

Running both Healing Ward and Annulment. If you cast them in the right order then Healing Ward will give you a strong HoT while Annulment is wailed on. Probably the most efficient way to shield stack for next patch.

Rotate combos on people and keep hitting them with Streak stuns that have no counterplay (can't be blocked or dodged).

Won't promise this is mathematically the most efficient for next patch but it looks reasonably annoying. Protective Jewelry might still be worth having at certain resistance levels vs. certainly expected penetration values. Swift could be a whole different plan. Swift gets worse the more meta it is.

Lokey0024

Armor master is catching a nerf by proxy cuz harness is nerfed. I run mage mundus on fort brass, orthagar/witches brew, slimecraw shoulders and Crafty. Works decently well. You don't get the stupid amount of burst from Bright and Crafty tho.

Illuvatarr

Necro or alfiq/lich/bloodspawn or chudan with 3 protective traits.

Aedaryl

Breton with atronach mundus.

Sets : 5Warlock/5Lich/2seducer/new sustain monster set + 3 infused jewelry with regen glyph.

You may sustain Hardened ward now

You can also change class because Magsorc suck very hard in U23.