Questions about my StamSorc (Build advice)

Auberon1983

Somewhat new (again) to PvP (took a month long hiatus) and have fallen in love. Don't get me wrong, dungeon running is fun, but PvP is just amazing.

That being said, I could use some advice on my build, an Orc StamSorc. Currently running a 2H/Bow setup.

2H bar is Dizzy, Critical Rush, Brawler, Clanfear, and Executioner.

Bow bar is Consuming Trap, Hurricane, Resolving Vigor, Clanfear, and Barrage.

I run heavy armor but cram all points into Stamina. I'm currently level 26 on this guy. I've been thinking about dropping Clanfear, but I like having two separate heals. Also thinking about dropping Brawler, honestly it's OP in PvE but I'm finding it lacking in PvP. I only use Barrage to break up groups and force them apart. Ultimate on both bars is Disruption Field.

I'm about to pick up Surge and Dark Deal any time now, and that's the crux of the issue. Replace Clanfear with Dark Deal? Replace ??? For Surge? Camo Hunter yay or nay?

Again, thank you for any and all help

baselesschart

I don't play stam sorc so my advice is limited but I can help a bit. You probably won't want to run critical rush unless you're using unleashed terror. To me, gap closers aren't that useful, especially if you're a stam sorc playing as an orc, you won't need the extra speed, you'll already be faster than anyone else on foot.

I also wouldn't run clanfear on a stam sorc, I've never even heard of stam sorcs running pets anyway. And you would be correct, brawler isn't very good for pvp when you consider your other options. Don't use barrage either, not a very good use of a skill slot.

Pretty much every stam sorc build that I can think of would use surge and dark deal, they are just so good for sorcs toolkit. Also you could slot camo hunter if you're not using malacath otherwise it would be useless. Since you're in heavy armor your crit chance isn't very high.

I hope someone more knowledgeable about stam sorc comes around so you can get better help than me.

TBois

Without considering what type of pvp you are doing and what size group you will be with if any, these are my thoughts:

Drop clanfear for crit surge and dark deal. You still get a burst heal with dark deal and you get a ton of passive healing with crit surge. Also as your build is now you have no Major Brutality buff which crit surge will provide you with.

Drop crit charge for streak or ball of lightning.

Drop brawler for camo hunter, bound armaments or crystal weapon.

Drop barrage for caltrops or poison injection

To give better advice it would be nice to know what gear sets you are running or planning to run once you hit cp 160. It would also be helpful to know what type of pvp you are into (duels, bgs, IC, cyrodiil solo, cyrodill small grp, cyrodiil large grp).

Auberon1983

Thank you both.

Yeah, Clanfear is mainly being run right now to both proc a passive (10-20% health and stamina regen) and as an emergency heal (not enough stamina for Vigor). However I'm about to get Momentum for the Stamina regen, and Dark Deal for the other heal. I'll swap one Ultimate for Atronach just so I keep the passive on my main bar. Clanfear does like no damage, he's mainly just a useful decoration.

Bound Armaments I just looked at, and yeah, I definitely want that. 8% bonus stamina just having it slotted, and then I'll drop Atronach again. Barrage is there for the cheap break-up, but also just to advance the Bow line. I'll definitely drop it for the Poison Injection, thank you.

I'll definitely drop Brawler, admittedly it's a crutch PvE holdover. Just doesn't do so well in PvP, enemies burn right through the shield. Until I get Bound Armaments, I'll run Crystal Weapon, it can even heal me if I grab the passive. Also I messed up, I'm using the healing morph of Negate Magic, I got the names confused.

I typically run Battlegrounds, IC, and occasionally small group Cyrodiil. I haven't done any large group Cyrodiil as of yet.

Again, thank you both very much.

Edit - I'd like to run Alessian for the sheer survivability, Balorgh, and I'm not sure lol. Maybe Venomous (the Western Skyrim set) for the Poison, and I already have a full Purple quality set.

Grimlok_S

Auberon1983 wrote: »

Thank you both.

Yeah, Clanfear is mainly being run right now to both proc a passive (10-20% health and stamina regen) and as an emergency heal (not enough stamina for Vigor). However I'm about to get Momentum for the Stamina regen, and Dark Deal for the other heal. I'll swap one Ultimate for Atronach just so I keep the passive on my main bar. Clanfear does like no damage, he's mainly just a useful decoration.

Bound Armaments I just looked at, and yeah, I definitely want that. 8% bonus stamina just having it slotted, and then I'll drop Atronach again. Barrage is there for the cheap break-up, but also just to advance the Bow line. I'll definitely drop it for the Poison Injection, thank you.

I'll definitely drop Brawler, admittedly it's a crutch PvE holdover. Just doesn't do so well in PvP, enemies burn right through the shield. Until I get Bound Armaments, I'll run Crystal Weapon, it can even heal me if I grab the passive. Also I messed up, I'm using the healing morph of Negate Magic, I got the names confused.

I typically run Battlegrounds, IC, and occasionally small group Cyrodiil. I haven't done any large group Cyrodiil as of yet.

Again, thank you both very much.

Edit - I'd like to run Alessian for the sheer survivability, Balorgh, and I'm not sure lol. Maybe Venomous (the Western Skyrim set) for the Poison, and I already have a full Purple quality set.

Brawler can be effective with the right setup if you like it, Dragonstar arena has an ability augmenting 2H that adds a flat amount of damage to your cleave for every target you hit.

Admittedly not great for 1v1s, but I've found it pretty fun in IC where mobs like to add themselves to fights, or Pet Sorcs too.. Almost a shame WW direwolves can't be targeted anymore.

Otherwise, crystal weapon into Dizzy/ Medium attack stun is incredibly potent.

I'd consider Eternal Vigor over Alessian. As an Orc with Balorg I can't see you getting too far past 26K resistances, which is about 1040 in terms of raw Alessian. Just below the recovery EV offers under 50% HP (ie when you'll need it most)

While above 50% HP you get some good Mag and Stam recoveries, which means more streaking, and you can sit in a fight a little longer before having to step back and Dark Deal (though you've got plenty of mag to do so)

Auberon1983

Grimlok_S wrote: »

Auberon1983 wrote: »

Thank you both.

Yeah, Clanfear is mainly being run right now to both proc a passive (10-20% health and stamina regen) and as an emergency heal (not enough stamina for Vigor). However I'm about to get Momentum for the Stamina regen, and Dark Deal for the other heal. I'll swap one Ultimate for Atronach just so I keep the passive on my main bar. Clanfear does like no damage, he's mainly just a useful decoration.

Bound Armaments I just looked at, and yeah, I definitely want that. 8% bonus stamina just having it slotted, and then I'll drop Atronach again. Barrage is there for the cheap break-up, but also just to advance the Bow line. I'll definitely drop it for the Poison Injection, thank you.

I'll definitely drop Brawler, admittedly it's a crutch PvE holdover. Just doesn't do so well in PvP, enemies burn right through the shield. Until I get Bound Armaments, I'll run Crystal Weapon, it can even heal me if I grab the passive. Also I messed up, I'm using the healing morph of Negate Magic, I got the names confused.

I typically run Battlegrounds, IC, and occasionally small group Cyrodiil. I haven't done any large group Cyrodiil as of yet.

Again, thank you both very much.

Edit - I'd like to run Alessian for the sheer survivability, Balorgh, and I'm not sure lol. Maybe Venomous (the Western Skyrim set) for the Poison, and I already have a full Purple quality set.

Brawler can be effective with the right setup if you like it, Dragonstar arena has an ability augmenting 2H that adds a flat amount of damage to your cleave for every target you hit.

Admittedly not great for 1v1s, but I've found it pretty fun in IC where mobs like to add themselves to fights, or Pet Sorcs too.. Almost a shame WW direwolves can't be targeted anymore.

Otherwise, crystal weapon into Dizzy/ Medium attack stun is incredibly potent.

I'd consider Eternal Vigor over Alessian. As an Orc with Balorg I can't see you getting too far past 26K resistances, which is about 1040 in terms of raw Alessian. Just below the recovery EV offers under 50% HP (ie when you'll need it most)

While above 50% HP you get some good Mag and Stam recoveries, which means more streaking, and you can sit in a fight a little longer before having to step back and Dark Deal (though you've got plenty of mag to do so)

Thank you for the advice! Funnily enough I was largely wanting to use Alessian as I already have a full set lol, Eternal Vigor is definitely easy enough to farm, I seem to get 3+ pieces a day in my main (MagWarden Healer CP 360 something). My healer will be a whole new discussion, btw, I'm pretty much going full PvP at this point, and only run PvE to help Guildmates.

I haven't run Dragonstar Arena in awhile, I'll have to do so again, thank you.

What Mundus Stone do you recommend. No lie, my biggest issue is sustain. I hit like a truck, but one with terrible gas mileage. Currently using the Tower for extra stamina. Should I switch to Serpent?

baselesschart

Auberon1983 wrote: »

Thank you for the advice! Funnily enough I was largely wanting to use Alessian as I already have a full set lol, Eternal Vigor is definitely easy enough to farm, I seem to get 3+ pieces a day in my main (MagWarden Healer CP 360 something). My healer will be a whole new discussion, btw, I'm pretty much going full PvP at this point, and only run PvE to help Guildmates.

I haven't run Dragonstar Arena in awhile, I'll have to do so again, thank you.

What Mundus Stone do you recommend. No lie, my biggest issue is sustain. I hit like a truck, but one with terrible gas mileage. Currently using the Tower for extra stamina. Should I switch to Serpent?

I would try and avoid using the serpent unless you absolutely have to, between dark deal and eternal vigor plus stam regen from rally/forward momentum, you should have plenty of sustain. On the flip side, the tower isn't great. In terms of popularity, warrior and shadow are great for damage and healing, you could even run steed if you want to stack health recovery.

geonsocal

stam sorc was one of the tougher builds for me to adjust to...adjusting to the speed and mobility aspect of the build was the key though...you're right, stam sorc can hit really hard...

like yourself, sustain was a serious issue for a long time, fighting with hurricane on is a challenge...finally settled on using bone pirate tatters...that plus all medium armor and the dubious camoran throne drink solved my sustain issues so i can use an offensive: second set, monster set, glyphs and mundus..

just can't sit still for very long wearing medium armor...i spend a lot of time either running after folks or running away from them

fred4

The main post I agree with, here, is Grimlok_S's. Some of the others, I fear, offer questionable advice. I play stamsorc in CP.

You're only level 26, so that's a big part of the problem. Once you get Dark Deal, your sustain issues will go away. I have about 1.75K unbuffed stam regen. Totally fine, albeit I run Engine Guardian.

You're not wrong to think about health regen. If you forgo both Rally and the Clannfear and you rely on Vigor and Crit Surge, then health regen fills in some gaps, particularly if you get attacked from range (Snipe) where the foe is not in your Hurricane and Crit Surge fails you. I totally agree in regard to Eternal Vigor. It's the #1 feel-good set for stamsorc - not Alessian. It's got the health regen when you need it and it's got the mag sustain for Bolt Escape and Dark Deal otherwise. (I assume you will get to CP160 before trying any of these sets. A waste otherwise.)

Both of those skills are a must. Bolt Escape (either morph) is the number one reason to play stamsorc in PvP. Dark Deal sustain is extremely good. You'd think you can match it with, say, Bone Pirate, as someone else is suggesting. Nope. Bad build. For one thing Bone Pirate makes you miss out on health regen from gold food. Instead get some mag sustain to support Bolt Escape and Dark Deal.

The choices for mag sustain are basically Eternal Vigor, Engine Guardian or the Torc of Tonal Constancy. I personally dislike the latter, but wanted to mention it. It has a tendency for your stat pools to become really lopsided, for example for your magicka to hover at zero, while your stamina is full from both the Torc and the Dark Deal you just did. Congratulations. You just removed your ability to Streak. Basically straight up sustain from Eternal Vigor feels much better. I think the Torc may work, if you are used to playing with really low regen in general, with both your pools constantly teetering on the edge. Not my style. If you prefer good regen (at the expense of some damage) the Torc is not the way to go.

Engine Guardian is not a bad alternative. I make do with just that and with tri-stat potions. It works. Then I use Ravager. Don't ask. Just put on Hurricane and try it, but note this will be fixed / nerfed next patch. Here's my build:

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=313792

Ah, yes. Look at that. I use Brawler. Whoever said Brawler is bad could not be more wrong, but ... and this is the big but: You need that Master's 2H weapon. I have not tried without, but you have serious bite with that weapon, especially if you position yourself to also hit some NPCs in IC. The Brawler shield is far from useless. In fact it's really good. The values vary, but I've seen 3.5K in my combat log, without points into Bastion, in a duel. I'm actually scratching my head as to how that was, possibly it was a sorc and I also hit his Twilight, but at any rate Brawler feels really solid and it is a great 1vX tool, especially against potatoes in Midyear Mayhem. Now obviously: You want Crit Surge to heal while you're attacking.

Running Master's Brawler makes you an unashamed "I spam Brawler and I kill potatoes like they were NPCs" build. You rush headlong into a fight, a big group standing on a flag even - if they're inexperienced - almost like a bomber. You ult them and spam Brawler. Soon you start taking too much damage or your buffs run out - especially Crit Surge. You need to get out, out, out as fast as you can. Don't leave Bolt Escape for too late. Reposition and use some line of sight while you rebuff.

By the way, do NOT think of Dark Deal as a heal. Wrong! Well, mostly wrong. It is a sustain skill, first and foremost. You will get interrupted by Crushing Shock or some other means. You cannot Dark Deal into a dodge roll and you cannot block cast it. Those are important differences to a proper healing skill, such as Rally. You only have 2 consecutive Streaks in you on stamsorc (my build). That is not enough distance if people are really going after you or there are simply a lot of them around (Midyear Mayhem). With a proper heal you can, say, Rally into a dodge roll or Vigor into a dodge roll after your second Streak. Dark Deal does not allow you to do that. You're a sitting duck.

Still on the subject of Brawler: Did I mention it's good? It makes you tanky as long as you keep spamming it. You know those builds that use a vVateshran destro and Zaan? You may be tempted to streak away. Err ... well ... it's a judgement call. You Streak, you're on the defensive and may end up having serious trouble healing, if you can't shake Zaan in particular. On the other hand you can just keep spamming Brawler. It works surprisingly well against players who are otherwise weak and overly reliant on those procs. Yes, even Zaan. I've outtanked it with Brawler. The worst enemy, on the other hand, is a duelling magsorc without pets who streaks and is never in range. Against an enemy like that, you will have a REALLY hard time on a Brawler build. My friend just straight up kills me on his overloading magsorc and it suddenly feels hugely unbalanced in his favor. So it's not like a Brawler build (with a bow back bar) doesn't have weaknesses.

Actually, the main weakness, if you look at my build closely, is that I currently don't have Rally in it. If you're on the back foot, streaking away, you can end up not being able to heal fast enough. Like you, I like the passive regens, which is why I have Bound Armaments on the front bar and the Atro ultimate on the back bar. However I am thinking of swapping Bound Armaments for Rally, even though I really like Crit Surge and plan on keeping that.

The guy who said to get rid of Crit Rush was also so wrong. You see: I like easy to play open world builds. I currently spam Brawler. Well, you can also spam Crit Rush. It is less effective than spamming Brawler to be honest, but it is an extremely annoying playstyle to play against. The reasoning, of course, is that Crit Rush + Crit Surge equates to a guaranteed heal. Don't underestimate consistency. You can basically spam this on people (with sufficient sustain) and one of the reasons you can keep that up and wear them down is that you have those consistent heals as long as you stay on attack. What makes this playstyle, though, is using another special weapon, the Maelstrom 2H.

A word on the Serpent mundus. I use it. Why? Because 310 is 2.4x that of a 2/3/4-piece bonus armor buff line. Most other mundus stones only offer 1.84x of an armor buff line. Now you may have a good reason to use some other mundus. Wearing Acuity and using the Shadow mundus comes to mind or perhaps you like the Steed mundus. I love speed btw, but getting it from the Steed over the Serpent does not feel good to me. In the absence of a good reason, the Serpent mundus is a no brainer, because it gives you objectively more than other mundus stones. If you look at my build, everything is strong:

Engine Guardian: Procs all the time, gets in the way of foes, acknowledged by many as a great PvP set.
Ravager: <Cough>.
Master's 2H: Ridiculous AOE potential.
Daedric Trickery: No one would use it, so ZOS buffed the crap out of this one. Keeps up 2 buffs at all times.

Daedric Trickery is one of of those subtle sets that's a bit hard to quantify, but I think it's strong, despite nerfs to major buffs. Some people I talked to agree. So that's the way to build properly. Look at every mundus and every item set. If you're making a stat-based build, there are sets that are objectively better than others, that simply give you more stats than the alternatives in their category. Then you go, hmmm, what kind of a build could I make from that.

Finally note that many people judge builds by their duelling performance. In terms of that, what I have suggested here is not optimal. You will kill bad to mediocre players with my builds and, I think, you will kill more people with my Brawler build than with Crit Rush spam. If you want to be(come) good at duelling, however, you will have to play something more meta, such as comboing Crystal Weapon into Dizzying Swing into Dawnbreaker into Executioner, probably with a Vateshran 2H.

fred4

One thing I need to add: I'm CP810 and I play in CP. That means my perspective is skewed. Procs are stronger in no CP. Standing your ground with Brawler may not be viable there. I'd also liken it to soloing a dungeon (a vet or DLC dungeon in my case). You know you bit off more than you can chew really and you know that your Brawler shield defense could break down and be overwhelmed at any second. It really depends on who you're up against. Luckily, on stamsorc, you have your escape maneuver in that case. Judging the point where you have to streak away is the tough part.

MurderMostFoul

Honestly, I wouldn't worry about my PVP build until I hit level 50. It looks like you already have 160CP, so once you hit 50 on your Stamsorc, you can jump into no CP and be effectively max level.

Until you get there, you're not really going to be able to fully appreciate what works and what doesn't.

fred4

UPDATE: I tried my build in BGs today. Not enough sustain. Then I swapped Ravager out for Eternal Vigor and it went much better. The key thing with a medium armor Brawler build: You got to be able to keep swinging. Even if you don't hit anyone it procs a small shield every second.

I don't normally play BGs, so this is low MMR. Made some mistakes running headlong into the stronger purple group by the end, but hey, you gotta try and find the limits of your build:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VniS3OdmC6k

geonsocal

oh shoot @Auberon1983 , just realized you're level 26...that's cool you have almost 400 cp behind your character...you can surprise some people with your level 26 toon in cyro

not too long ago I leveled some new toons through random battleground dailies and cp cyrodiil...

your build is gonna depend a lot on how you wanna fight, I like the 2H/bow setup...smart call on the heavy sustain armor right now

more so than anything, just look at unlocking and leveling different skills, making more coin, leveling your crafting and gaining cp...

once the character hits level 50 you can put together an appropriate gear set and rotations...

honestly, it almost takes 600 plus cp to start to balance with max cp opponents in cyro...you just have to be a little extra careful til then...

milllaurie

fred4 wrote: »

The main post I agree with, here, is Grimlok_S's. Some of the others, I fear, offer questionable advice. I play stamsorc in CP.

You're only level 26, so that's a big part of the problem. Once you get Dark Deal, your sustain issues will go away. I have about 1.75K unbuffed stam regen. Totally fine, albeit I run Engine Guardian.

You're not wrong to think about health regen. If you forgo both Rally and the Clannfear and you rely on Vigor and Crit Surge, then health regen fills in some gaps, particularly if you get attacked from range (Snipe) where the foe is not in your Hurricane and Crit Surge fails you. I totally agree in regard to Eternal Vigor. It's the #1 feel-good set for stamsorc - not Alessian. It's got the health regen when you need it and it's got the mag sustain for Bolt Escape and Dark Deal otherwise. (I assume you will get to CP160 before trying any of these sets. A waste otherwise.)

Both of those skills are a must. Bolt Escape (either morph) is the number one reason to play stamsorc in PvP. Dark Deal sustain is extremely good. You'd think you can match it with, say, Bone Pirate, as someone else is suggesting. Nope. Bad build. For one thing Bone Pirate makes you miss out on health regen from gold food. Instead get some mag sustain to support Bolt Escape and Dark Deal.

The choices for mag sustain are basically Eternal Vigor, Engine Guardian or the Torc of Tonal Constancy. I personally dislike the latter, but wanted to mention it. It has a tendency for your stat pools to become really lopsided, for example for your magicka to hover at zero, while your stamina is full from both the Torc and the Dark Deal you just did. Congratulations. You just removed your ability to Streak. Basically straight up sustain from Eternal Vigor feels much better. I think the Torc may work, if you are used to playing with really low regen in general, with both your pools constantly teetering on the edge. Not my style. If you prefer good regen (at the expense of some damage) the Torc is not the way to go.

Engine Guardian is not a bad alternative. I make do with just that and with tri-stat potions. It works. Then I use Ravager. Don't ask. Just put on Hurricane and try it, but note this will be fixed / nerfed next patch. Here's my build:

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=313792

It is not the first time I hear about ravager on a stamsorc? What procs it? It it just bugged or what?

wheem_ESO

milllaurie wrote: »

It is not the first time I hear about ravager on a stamsorc? What procs it? It it just bugged or what?

It's currently bugged so that each tick of Hurricane builds stacks for Ravager, despite not actually being any sort of armor debuff. There's a fix coming for the next patch, which should go live in early March.