Mag Sorc - Small group play, healer build suggestions.

McTaterskins

Hey hey!

The GF is looking to try mag sorc healer for small group PvP. I think due to being outnumbered so often and having the mobility. She also likes her damage shield but doesn't really stack them or anything.

She's in the learning phase. We're not really "pros" yet, but she's no potato. She's normally SPC/Defense Set/Monster Set or Mythic/1pc on her other toons for pvp heals.


Suggestions?

Thraben

1):Equip Heavy Armor. Reason: LA MagSorcs require more barspace to be effective. A LA MagSorc with Matriarch has not enough barspace due to shield stacking
2) Vigor and Critsurge go well together.
3) A typical bar is filled with Matriarch, Combat Prayer, Curse, Rage, Frags. Reason: after the next Patch. Vigor ist clearly better than Rapid Regen (so you don't need it) and offense is the best defense
4) Streak, then Dodge, then Defensive Rune, then Matriarch heal should be a better defensive mechanism than shield stacking on her backbar, especially when having Sword and Board or Frost Staff equipped

geonsocal

interesting question...i've never set up a sorcerer for "group" healing, i've only put together a warden and templar for healing...

generally yeah, if there's a large battle going on and folks recognize you as a healer, or, if folks notice your health bar getting easily dented cuz you're wearing light armor - you are going to get focused...

that streak though can work wonders for getting out of a bad situation and resetting...spell power cure seems to always be a solid healer group support set...

i use earth gore now since troll king got nerfed, but even that's a whole lot less useful these days too...maybe chokethorn or lord warden is a better answer now...

i'll be interested to see what feedback others give regarding monster set choices for a healer...

ironblood or pariah might do the trick for the defensive set...hard to heal or rez others if you're dying a lot

hmmmm, now you have me thinking of setting up one of my mag sorcs as a healer...it's tough though - they just do so well flying around everywhere doing damage

i've never been able to get the whole triple shield thing working, i do keep up hardened ward during a lot of incoming damage, but that's about it as far as damage shields...

maybe a SnB/resto set up would work...that along with either pariah or ironblood (5 heavy pieces) should make random incoming bursts not such an issue...

i don't know, at that point spell power cure (it's one of the healer sets i use) may not be the best set to use if the toon itself is set up defensively...it seems a lot of the better healer specific sets though are contained within some of the tougher dungeons, which i don't really frequent...

SkaraMinoc

Mag Sorcs are the best and worst healers in small-scale PvP.

The Good

• 15k heal crits are common if you build for it
• Dark Conversion w/ Torc is great sustain
• Ball Lightning is the best escape in the game
• No defensive set needed
• Critical Heal badge gives 100 medal score every 7500+ heal

The Bad

• Limited access to HoTs
• Health bars yo-yo all the time. Your group will go from 100% -> 60% -> 90%. It's extremely dangerous. In PvP you want your health bars topped off and not fluctuating.
• Twilight Matriarch dies fast and the summon can be interrupted
• Twilight Matriarch takes up 2 slots
• Twilight Matriarch only heals 2 players per global cooldown

Why HoTs Don't Work

Players will tell you to use as many HoTs as possible because that's how other heal classes work. The problem is the Sorcerer class doesn't get any HoTs, excluding Power Surge which is very weak. That means Illustrious Healing, Energy Orb, and Radiating Regeneration are the only 3 magicka HoTs available from other skill lines.

The only HoT worth using is Radiating Regeneration because it lasts 10 seconds, always ticks no matter where you move, and Maelstrom Staff gives magicka sustain. Illustrious Healing and Energy Orb must constantly be recasted as the fight moves around the battlefield and those two HoTs are very close range.

Mag Sorc healers are strongest when burst healing from a distance.

Max Matriarch Build



Here's what I'm using today. This build might change in the future.

• Heartland Conqueror, 4 heavy 1 medium
• Earthgore Pauldron (any 4% healing shoulder in Heavy)
• Healer's Habit frontbar (Powered) + Healer's Habit light sash
• Maelstrom Resto backbar (Defending)
• Reinforced chest, Impenetrable everything else
• Tri-stat enchant all armor pieces
• Torc
• Infused Spell Damage jewelry
• The Ritual mundus
• Bewitched Sugar Skulls
• Vampire Stage 3 Undeath

Battleground Stats w/ Torc + Frenzy active



(4386 spell power w/o Frenzy)

I use Heartland Conqueror because there's no other Heavy armor with 9%+ healing. Heavy is required to stay alive.

I use 2 resto staves because 1h+shield isn't needed when escaping with Ball Lightning. Don't stand still blocking multiple enemies on a Mag Sorc. It eats up your stamina which reduces the amount of times you can cast Dark Conversion.

While Earthgore is great for purging Colossus, Negate, etc, I do not recommend using it on a Mag Sorc healer because of the wild swings in health. Your teammates will frequently go below 50% health and you will heal them back to 90% with a single Matriarch heal. Earthgore will proc all the time and it's usually unavailable when needed.

I use Overflowing Altar because it lasts 30 seconds, doesn't cost magicka, and the synergy is a strong heal.

Radiating Regeneration is a strong HoT and sometimes ticks for close to 5000 health in battlegrounds.



I use Power Surge because there's no better alternative for extra heals. Sometimes I'll replace it with Lingering Flare.



Frontbar and backbar Life Giver so it's always available without a bar swap.

Try incorporating Simmering Frenzy into your build. It will increase your Twilight Matriarch heal substantially. Just make sure you turn it off when low health so your teammates can heal you. This is an advanced technique and takes practice.

Frenzy is getting a huge nerf next patch.

Use Bound Aegis to boost Matriarch heals. Don't activate it for blocking. Don't waste the global cooldown.

Sorc shields are very selfish. Instead, use Matriarch heal to stay alive.

Put at least 25 points into health so you have enough buffer to react to incoming damage and heal with Twilight Matriarch.



Buff Build

Same as above but swap out Healer's Habit for SPC + Magma Incarnate. This gives your team Major and Minor Courage.

Add Combat Prayer for Minor Berserk and Minor Resolve.

I don't use a buff build very often because they don't have 100% uptime. There are many occurrences where you will remain below 100% health for more than 5 seconds and the 5 piece bonus from SPC becomes useless. Olorime is a better option but I don't recommend using Illustrious Healing because of the limitations of ground target heals, as mentioned above. That's why I prefer Healer's Habit. You need reliable healing.

Example Deathmatch

Here's a game I played today with ~3 million healing. Each team had a healer and we won by 2 kills.





Closing Thoughts

Mag Sorc is a strong healer for Deathmatch battlegrounds but falls apart in high level games against pre-mades. Players will kill your pet and interrupt your summon and your entire team will die. Strong pre-mades will drop ults and half your team will die because Matriarch only heals 2 teammates per global cooldown. But if you don't play against a premade and can burst heal from a distance, Mag Sorc is one of the strongest BG healers in the game.

Have fun.

geonsocal

thanks @SkaraMinoc

McTaterskins

Thanks for the input guys!