Some ideas for a future patch for the necessary modernizing of sorcerers.

Turtle_Bot

As someone who has mained magsorc ever since I started playing eso back in 2015/2016 and fell in love with the class identity of a fast paced, powerful lightning mage with access to a summon or 2 that could support it, the latest offering for magsorcs on the PTS week 5 notes was a slap in the face to that playstyle that has been non-existent since 2017.

Not every sorcerer wants to be a zoo keeper, so I am putting forward some ideas for some class skill reworks that should not only keep the sorcerers current identity of being a summoner more than viable, but also bring back its original identity of being THE premier lightning element damage dealer.

Now I realise that these are large changes that would take time to implement and lots of balancing to get right, but that is why I am suggesting them here as ideas for a future update instead of on the current pts notes as a rush change for U35. Also to note, that all number values and possibly some additional effects can be altered/added/removed for balance, but the idea is to create a cohesive, fun and functional class kit that would enable sorcs other playstyle to be viable in both pvp and pve and modernize the one class that seems to be trapped in 2017.

1. A proper in class instant cast spammable similar to force pulse (i.e. no travel time) that deals shock damage for its magicka morph and physical damage for its stamina morph.
- I would look into reworking the mages fury skill as this skill is barely used in pve and almost never used in pvp except to steal kills in DM bgs. My rework would make the base skill be 28m base range and have the same base damage as force pulse with a scaling execute of up to 100% for enemies below 40% health. The magicka morph would deal shock damage and have a higher scaling execute that scales up to 150% to enemies below 40% health, while the stamina morph would be switched to melee range, increase its base damage to account for the loss in range and have a scaling execute of up to 100% to targets below 50% health. The spammable would be balanced by the fact that despite having a higher tooltip than whirling blades, it is single target only, not aoe and the mag morph is also single target and keeps the lower base damage equal to force pulse to account for the range.

2. A proper burst skill to combine with the spammable mentioned above.
- Haunting curse is really close, but has a few problems that keep it below other comparable skills. first, it should not be purgeable, or if it is purgeable, it should trigger its first damage instance but doesn't proc the follow up curse, it's supposed to haunt that which is cursed by it after all. Secondly, give it the effect where it provides you with minor berserk against enemies affected by it. This is a common easily accessible buff in pve so would not change much there and would provide the skill with some much needed utility in pvp. Every other classes delayed burst, not only hits harder than curse, but also provides extra utility. For example, PotL provides either minor breach or healing, shalks provides major and minor breach on-top of being aoe, blast bones provides major and minor defile (mag morph deals even more damage) and is also aoe, spec bow provides a raw damage buff while its active with a super long duration and deep breath either heals for a lot in outnumbered situations or interrupts enemies nearby or whip which gives additional raw damage while its stacks are active. Haunting curse is the only delayed burst ability that still only deals damage and provides nothing else to benefit the caster, on-top of being purgeable and playing a telling sound that tells its victim when the sorc burst window is happening allowing for easy counter play as it currently stands.

3. A reliable instant cast class heal.
- I would rework dark deal/dark conversion so that this skill (and morphs) are instant cast and the heal scales off your damage the same as all other self heals instead of being a low flat value. I would also change it so that both morphs cost the stat they restore and provide a small increase to that stats recovery on top of the burst heal. Because this skill will remain a self heal, you can still run the twilight for group healing or for a pet build as that would not change, but this would make the class less reliant on a 20k health pet that takes forever to re-summon, locks the bar if interrupted and always runs off and dies to any single decent damage skill or a skill that is easily interrupted and provides less healing than most heal over time effects.

4. A reliable defensive heal over time.
- Alter rune cage and its morphs. Add a heal over time to defensive rune (similar tool tip to dark cloak) and if the rune ends or is tiggered it provides a small burst heal as well as attempts to stun the enemy that triggered it. the other morph can be a damage over time ability that places a dot on the enemy then attempts to stun them with the current delayed stun. If the stun ends early, the dot is also ended and a small amount of burst damage is dealt to that enemy (say a similar tooltip to the base damage of executioner, but it has no execute scaling), this would give sorcs an interesting option, they could go the defensive rune morph and get that guaranteed heal over time, or go the offensive morph and try to rely on the blood magic passive that gives healing when you deal damage with a dark magic ability, this would only proc once every 2 seconds with this morph because it would be counted as a "sticky dot" so the healing from the passive would be much lower to keep in line with the offensive nature of this morph.

5. Rework lightning form and its morphs to include snare removal.
- A simple rework would be to take snare removal off ball of lightning and add it to this ability, since you are supposed to be pure lightning or surrounded by a hurricane which should blow away anything that could snare you. Something additional that would take some serious reworking but would be a neat thematic addition to this ability, would be to change the mag morph of lightning form to return a percentage of damage taken to foes within melee range and apply a brief 1 second 30% snare instead of being a sticky aoe dot. Since foes are trying to attack what is supposed to be pure lightning, they should find that a shocking encounter.

To balance the healing skill changes, perhaps make them 50-60% less effective or cost 100% more if you have a shield active to prevent shield focused builds from once again becoming too strong defensively.

I do realise that these are some massive changes to the class and would require a lot of work to balance the numbers such that it would not become overpowered and as such need to be tested thoroughly during the off cycle period between releases, but this should at least reinforce the idea that sorcerers are not just zoo keepers, but are also the premier lightning damage class in ESO without removing the pet builds from the class, this way the class can be played both ways such that both playstyles of sorcerer can be viable and enjoyed.
These changes would also give sorcerers some much needed improvements in pvp by giving them the mandatory tools that all the other classes already have access to, especially for magsorc who are so far behind most other classes currently and falling behind even magden with the U35 changes (outside of the savage werewolf build which is getting gutted in U35 anyway) and stamsorc as a class can finally get some love as well, that is not just a broken set that brings with it a complete gutting in the following patch, with a proper spammable, a stamina based reliable class heal, in class snare removal and an in class heal over time.

Ratzkifal

Sorcerer reworks are always fun to come up with because the class is so cool, but missing so much. I don't have the endurance to write up a full one, but here is a mini-rework.
Basically I wanted to add a spammable and to make room for that I figured we could - and hear me out on this one - remove Surge while also making the game more accessible (but actually) by simply letting Sorcerers always have Major Sorcery/Brutality active. To keep it fair, every class would have one of the important basic buffs always active. The result - less "sweaty" buff management, more build diversity between classes, room for a new spammable and the healing part of Surge can be worked into a passive.

Storm Calling

Lightning Bolt

• Chain Lightning
• Shock Infusion

Lightning Bolt is essentially Force Shock but pure shock damage. It uniquely increases in damage by 8% with a Lightning Staff equipped so that it doesn't matter whether you use it with Inferno or Lightning destro staff.
Chain Lightning would apply an extra damage component that chains to nearby enemies and is calculated as AOE damage but the primary target continues taking single-target damage. The chaining could work on a condition that ultimately balance will have to decide.
Shock Infusion is a stamina "spammable", but actually it's a buff designed for stamina builds that operates more like a dot. Whenever you deal martial damage with a weapon ability you also deal shock damage by X% of the martial damage dealt. Penetration shouldn't be an issue here due to hybridization changes. This would be a unique function to stamsorcs and maintain the image that they've had about being primarly weapon users (Battlemages) but add an exciting twist to it, flavor changing your regular skills to be shock themed by adding lightning VFX to them.

The Blood Magic passive would be reworked to apply on all abilities and heal on crits, just like a permanently active Critical Surge would. (Remember, in this hypothetical other classes would get one buffing skill permanently active as well, so it's all fair.)

Turtle_Bot

Ratzkifal wrote: »

Sorcerer reworks are always fun to come up with because the class is so cool, but missing so much. I don't have the endurance to write up a full one, but here is a mini-rework.
Basically I wanted to add a spammable and to make room for that I figured we could - and hear me out on this one - remove Surge while also making the game more accessible (but actually) by simply letting Sorcerers always have Major Sorcery/Brutality active. To keep it fair, every class would have one of the important basic buffs always active. The result - less "sweaty" buff management, more build diversity between classes, room for a new spammable and the healing part of Surge can be worked into a passive.

Storm Calling

Lightning Bolt

• Chain Lightning
• Shock Infusion

Lightning Bolt is essentially Force Shock but pure shock damage. It uniquely increases in damage by 8% with a Lightning Staff equipped so that it doesn't matter whether you use it with Inferno or Lightning destro staff.
Chain Lightning would apply an extra damage component that chains to nearby enemies and is calculated as AOE damage but the primary target continues taking single-target damage. The chaining could work on a condition that ultimately balance will have to decide.
Shock Infusion is a stamina "spammable", but actually it's a buff designed for stamina builds that operates more like a dot. Whenever you deal martial damage with a weapon ability you also deal shock damage by X% of the martial damage dealt. Penetration shouldn't be an issue here due to hybridization changes. This would be a unique function to stamsorcs and maintain the image that they've had about being primarly weapon users (Battlemages) but add an exciting twist to it, flavor changing your regular skills to be shock themed by adding lightning VFX to them.

The Blood Magic passive would be reworked to apply on all abilities and heal on crits, just like a permanently active Critical Surge would. (Remember, in this hypothetical other classes would get one buffing skill permanently active as well, so it's all fair.)

Sorc (mag in particular for me) is the most fun I've ever had with any class (only skill from another class that comes close is dk leap), so much so, that I always come back to my sorc, no matter how bad the class is in whatever patch we are in.

Neat idea with the chain lightning, I have toyed with the idea of a chain lightning spell in the past too, never figured how it could be worked though since it is such a unique type being single target in nature but affecting multiple enemies like an aoe.

Ratzkifal

Turtle_Bot wrote: »

Ratzkifal wrote: »

Sorcerer reworks are always fun to come up with because the class is so cool, but missing so much. I don't have the endurance to write up a full one, but here is a mini-rework.
Basically I wanted to add a spammable and to make room for that I figured we could - and hear me out on this one - remove Surge while also making the game more accessible (but actually) by simply letting Sorcerers always have Major Sorcery/Brutality active. To keep it fair, every class would have one of the important basic buffs always active. The result - less "sweaty" buff management, more build diversity between classes, room for a new spammable and the healing part of Surge can be worked into a passive.

Storm Calling

Lightning Bolt

• Chain Lightning
• Shock Infusion

Lightning Bolt is essentially Force Shock but pure shock damage. It uniquely increases in damage by 8% with a Lightning Staff equipped so that it doesn't matter whether you use it with Inferno or Lightning destro staff.
Chain Lightning would apply an extra damage component that chains to nearby enemies and is calculated as AOE damage but the primary target continues taking single-target damage. The chaining could work on a condition that ultimately balance will have to decide.
Shock Infusion is a stamina "spammable", but actually it's a buff designed for stamina builds that operates more like a dot. Whenever you deal martial damage with a weapon ability you also deal shock damage by X% of the martial damage dealt. Penetration shouldn't be an issue here due to hybridization changes. This would be a unique function to stamsorcs and maintain the image that they've had about being primarly weapon users (Battlemages) but add an exciting twist to it, flavor changing your regular skills to be shock themed by adding lightning VFX to them.

The Blood Magic passive would be reworked to apply on all abilities and heal on crits, just like a permanently active Critical Surge would. (Remember, in this hypothetical other classes would get one buffing skill permanently active as well, so it's all fair.)

Sorc (mag in particular for me) is the most fun I've ever had with any class (only skill from another class that comes close is dk leap), so much so, that I always come back to my sorc, no matter how bad the class is in whatever patch we are in.

Neat idea with the chain lightning, I have toyed with the idea of a chain lightning spell in the past too, never figured how it could be worked though since it is such a unique type being single target in nature but affecting multiple enemies like an aoe.

Well, Force Pulse essentially already operates like Chain Lightning, but it requires status effects and is obviously biased towards using inferno staves due to not gaining extra damage when using Lightning or Frost staves. So that probably wouldn't be a problem for the developers. Motivating them to do so when the abilities are so similar on paper is a different story. I would say even if the abilities are similar, with Force Pulse being split into 3 elements it doesn't benefit fully from the 5% shock damage increase Sorcerer's get from their passives and obviously effects that only apply to class abilities don't work on it and vice-versa, it's still worth giving Sorcs a skill like Chain Lightning even if we already got Force Pulse.

And if ZOS is so keen on making the game more accessible, then getting rid of some of the class buffing skills might be the right way to go about it. I'm thinking DKs could have Flames of Oblivion (and thus Major Savagery/Prophecy) always active because that skill is kind of tricky to use for inexperienced players but it's essentially just a buffing skill. Nightblades could have minor force. Templars could have Major Intellect and Endurance. Wardens could get minor Berserk (which frees up Wings to be another skill). Necros don't have any damage buff skills by design, only debuffs, but they do have Major Resolve, so why not give them that. There are probably some issues that would have to be ironed out, but in principle this idea could totally work and actually bring back some class identity without even having to add anything new to the game.

FluffWit

I couldnt agree more about the "make the class viable with pets" thing. It's the main reason I won't play one. The size of that bloody twiglite and the way it sits at head height 2 feet away from you is almost as infuriating for sorcs as it is for anyone else who's unfortunate enough to be near you. Just replace the damn thing with a normal burst heal.

Thing I disagree is giving them any form of snare immunity/removal. They're already the most mobile class in the game and the second most trolly (NB 1st) because of their speed, mobility and ability to hide behind the pets. I simply won't fight them out in the open in Cyrodiil, in the unlikely event you manage to target them they just streak twice and they're gone.

Turtle_Bot

Ratzkifal wrote: »

Turtle_Bot wrote: »

Ratzkifal wrote: »

Sorcerer reworks are always fun to come up with because the class is so cool, but missing so much. I don't have the endurance to write up a full one, but here is a mini-rework.
Basically I wanted to add a spammable and to make room for that I figured we could - and hear me out on this one - remove Surge while also making the game more accessible (but actually) by simply letting Sorcerers always have Major Sorcery/Brutality active. To keep it fair, every class would have one of the important basic buffs always active. The result - less "sweaty" buff management, more build diversity between classes, room for a new spammable and the healing part of Surge can be worked into a passive.

Storm Calling

Lightning Bolt

• Chain Lightning
• Shock Infusion

Lightning Bolt is essentially Force Shock but pure shock damage. It uniquely increases in damage by 8% with a Lightning Staff equipped so that it doesn't matter whether you use it with Inferno or Lightning destro staff.
Chain Lightning would apply an extra damage component that chains to nearby enemies and is calculated as AOE damage but the primary target continues taking single-target damage. The chaining could work on a condition that ultimately balance will have to decide.
Shock Infusion is a stamina "spammable", but actually it's a buff designed for stamina builds that operates more like a dot. Whenever you deal martial damage with a weapon ability you also deal shock damage by X% of the martial damage dealt. Penetration shouldn't be an issue here due to hybridization changes. This would be a unique function to stamsorcs and maintain the image that they've had about being primarly weapon users (Battlemages) but add an exciting twist to it, flavor changing your regular skills to be shock themed by adding lightning VFX to them.

The Blood Magic passive would be reworked to apply on all abilities and heal on crits, just like a permanently active Critical Surge would. (Remember, in this hypothetical other classes would get one buffing skill permanently active as well, so it's all fair.)

Sorc (mag in particular for me) is the most fun I've ever had with any class (only skill from another class that comes close is dk leap), so much so, that I always come back to my sorc, no matter how bad the class is in whatever patch we are in.

Neat idea with the chain lightning, I have toyed with the idea of a chain lightning spell in the past too, never figured how it could be worked though since it is such a unique type being single target in nature but affecting multiple enemies like an aoe.

Well, Force Pulse essentially already operates like Chain Lightning, but it requires status effects and is obviously biased towards using inferno staves due to not gaining extra damage when using Lightning or Frost staves. So that probably wouldn't be a problem for the developers. Motivating them to do so when the abilities are so similar on paper is a different story. I would say even if the abilities are similar, with Force Pulse being split into 3 elements it doesn't benefit fully from the 5% shock damage increase Sorcerer's get from their passives and obviously effects that only apply to class abilities don't work on it and vice-versa, it's still worth giving Sorcs a skill like Chain Lightning even if we already got Force Pulse.

And if ZOS is so keen on making the game more accessible, then getting rid of some of the class buffing skills might be the right way to go about it. I'm thinking DKs could have Flames of Oblivion (and thus Major Savagery/Prophecy) always active because that skill is kind of tricky to use for inexperienced players but it's essentially just a buffing skill. Nightblades could have minor force. Templars could have Major Intellect and Endurance. Wardens could get minor Berserk (which frees up Wings to be another skill). Necros don't have any damage buff skills by design, only debuffs, but they do have Major Resolve, so why not give them that. There are probably some issues that would have to be ironed out, but in principle this idea could totally work and actually bring back some class identity without even having to add anything new to the game.

I didn't realise force pulse worked that way, I've always used the other morph.

Turtle_Bot

FluffWit wrote: »

I couldnt agree more about the "make the class viable with pets" thing. It's the main reason I won't play one. The size of that bloody twiglite and the way it sits at head height 2 feet away from you is almost as infuriating for sorcs as it is for anyone else who's unfortunate enough to be near you. Just replace the damn thing with a normal burst heal.

Thing I disagree is giving them any form of snare immunity/removal. They're already the most mobile class in the game and the second most trolly (NB 1st) because of their speed, mobility and ability to hide behind the pets. I simply won't fight them out in the open in Cyrodiil, in the unlikely event you manage to target them they just streak twice and they're gone.

I disagree about snare removal and being the most mobile class in the game, it seems that with the celerity cp, swift traits and easy access to major expedition through race against time, every other class is just as mobile as sorcs are since every other class can also easily hit the speed cap too.
Agreed, there are a lot of troll sorcs around, but the best way to counter them is to just ignore them, keep the defensive buffs up so they can't kill you and let them run around their rocks/towers. They'll get bored easily and leave.
I can see hiding behind the pets, but these changes are to make sorcs viable without the pets, so at most they'd hide behind an atro that doesn't last forever or they'll hide behind a tree/rock/fence/building/wall just like every other class does already.

jtm1018

Just give them sorcs a cloak of levitation and the eye of agamoto.
That should be modern enough.

Heartrage

I think all classes need some love. Ideally, I would rather see new skills/morphs added to the classes than have existing skills modified into different skills.

olsborg

Magsorc needs (imo):

More class skills need to deal shock damage. ie: Curse, Frags and Mines.
Conjured Ward needs to scale not only from Magicka, but also Spell Damage. (Either/Or)
A reliable self heal either burst or hot that does not require 2 slots and an active summon.
Less pigeonholed into being a zookeeper, or change pets entirely.

AcadianPaladin

Either buff all the pets a lot to make them worth double slotting or, even better, don't require double barring them. If you summon them on one bar, they stay when on the other bar. You would still have to be on their slotted bar to use their special ability.

Some skin/appearance options for the pets.

Reduce flappy down to nyxad size.

TheGreatBlackBear

I wish non pet builds were closer in damage to the per counterparts. The playstyle is arguable harder because you have more skills to juggle but the damage isn't as rewarding.

carlos424

Just give the sorc a passive that says something like “deals x% more damage with no active pets” maybe 10% more lightning damage, maybe 8% more damage from all elements. There are really alot of ways they could go with something like this.

carlos424

AcadianPaladin wrote: »

Either buff all the pets a lot to make them worth double slotting or, even better, don't require double barring them. If you summon them on one bar, they stay when on the other bar. You would still have to be on their slotted bar to use their special ability.

Some skin/appearance options for the pets.

Reduce flappy down to nyxad size.

Maybe have skins that give them more unique attacks. Put a fire skin on the scamp and he starts dealing flame damage, a poison skin on the twilight and her talons start dealing poison damage, etc.

Elendir2am

This thread is classic balancing PvE vs balancing PvP. Some of OP suggestion is about taking skill, used in PvE, and remake them for PvP, so they become useless for PvE.

I don't know in what condition will be sorc after next U35. Original suggestions would be very bad, but they promised some corection. It will be better to discuss sorc, when it will be clear. Pet Sorc can actually come out of it in good condition.

I have worry about sorc lack of good spammable. All classes lack of some toolkit to have perfect rotation. Sorcerer lacks instant spammable. It can be big problem with next update, but it is intentional design of sorcerer.

One info for OP. I used Mages' Wrath a lot in veteran trials. It isn't as good execution skill in boss fight as other class execution skills but it is decent. It is however very powerful in executing elite trash in trash fight.

Turtle_Bot

Elendir2am wrote: »

This thread is classic balancing PvE vs balancing PvP. Some of OP suggestion is about taking skill, used in PvE, and remake them for PvP, so they become useless for PvE.

I don't know in what condition will be sorc after next U35. Original suggestions would be very bad, but they promised some corection. It will be better to discuss sorc, when it will be clear. Pet Sorc can actually come out of it in good condition.

I have worry about sorc lack of good spammable. All classes lack of some toolkit to have perfect rotation. Sorcerer lacks instant spammable. It can be big problem with next update, but it is intentional design of sorcerer.

One info for OP. I used Mages' Wrath a lot in veteran trials. It isn't as good execution skill in boss fight as other class execution skills but it is decent. It is however very powerful in executing elite trash in trash fight.

Fair enough, I don't do too much pve, so my suggested changes were definitely more from a pvp perspective than a pve perspective. But it still would be nice to see sorcs be able to play something other than a zoo keeper and be viable.

Considering we are in week 5 pts now with no known further changes to the class, it is safe to say that the class will be in a very bad way (especially for pvp).

For pve it seems pet sorcs will be just fine in U35, especially with the buff to deadric prey. Week 4 pts I was hitting near 50k dps on a heavy attack build last week before elemental catalyst was added to trial dummy, with empower also not working and with bad rotations so they will 100% be fine for pve in U35.

For pvp however magsorcs are already in a bad spot in the current patch (I suggest checking out Malcolm's video on the subject as he thoroughly explains why they are in such a bad way very well, but I will try to explain it properly here). Yes, stamsorcs are very strong in the current patch, but the only reason they are as strong as they are is because savage werewolf is not working as intended (it's not supposed to work at range) and that is getting fixed in U35, as well as crystal weapon being overtuned this patch (which is also getting heavily gutted next patch). So from a pvp perspective, sorcerer is in a very bad way at the moment and only gets worse next patch due to heavy handed nerfs and being pigeon holed into 1 build that is not viable and has not been viable for a long time in a pvp environment and is only currently strong due to overpowered sets and 1 overtuned skill.

Pets are not good in pvp due to the many limitations of running them.
-They are very easy to kill, always run off and often will proc enemy bomb builds, which are everywhere, as their 20k hp means they die instantly to any burst which causes the chain reaction bomb builds rely on for their clip worthy group wipes.
-They also take far too long to summon, 3 seconds un-interrupted and if it's interrupted the summon doesn't happen and the skill locks for 3 seconds not allowing you to attempt to recast it (this is insane considering their over-reliance on the bird for any sort of notable burst heal) add this to the fact that their burst heal is locked behind the pet being alive, meaning no pet, no healing.
-They must be ran on both bars otherwise they despawn, this means that sorcs don't have the bar space to run all the utility skills that are required for pvp nowadays, skills such as
- race against time for snare removal
- detect skills such as flare, magelight, fighters guild skill and all the passives those skills also enable
- even the class armor buff is falling off many builds now with sorcs switching to chudan monster set to give that buff and free up bar space
- crit surge (major sorcery/brutality buff) usually they run spell power pots or stam sorcs run bow or 2h back bar with poison injection/rally to get that buff
- a way to reliably inflict breach on enemies (caltrops, elemental drain etc) unless they forgo a spammable and run crushing weapon from the psijic skill line.

So with sorcs being forced further and further into pet builds every single patch by zos, you can see why sorcs are really suffering in pvp, with many people calling for reworks to the class.

The main issue with sorc lacking a good in class spammable is the fact that they are reliant on destro staves to fill that gap (especially for range), and for pvp in particular, destro staves are in such a bad spot for the front bar due to the huge amount of raw base stats (pen/damage/crit chance/crit damage) that the stamina weapons provide through their passives to ALL abilities, not just their respective weapon abilities as destro staves do. So sorcs are forced into either using a mediocre weapon on the front bar to have a spammable ability or rely on other non-class instant cast spammables such as arterial burst from vamp skill line, crushing weapon from the psijic skill line, or roll the dice with frags, or crystal weapon before it gets gutted in U35.

It's also more than just the lack of an instant cast spammable, yes every class has 1 area they are lacking (except plar and dk), but the sorc class kit in particular is lacking on many things (it's lagging behind every other class in almost every factor).
-instant cast spammable (frags is not a good spammable ability, especially when stuff like whip, surprise attack, U34 jabs, flurry, all hit just as hard, if not harder, and have no travel or cast time)
-scaling execute (every other class has an execute that scales from 50% health why does sorc's execute still rely on a flat damage values and the enemy to be below 20% health)
-reliable burst heal (pet heal is fine in pve, but in pvp the pets have too many issues as I have already mentioned)
-good defensive heal over time (crit surge relies on you dealing critical damage which cannot happen when being defensive due to the lack of a sticky dot ability)
-lack of cohesion between class actives and class passives (sorcs have passives that boost damage to lightning and physical damage, but have no strong ability that deals lightning damage (all deal magic damage) and only 1 melee range dot that deals physical damage (hurricane), not to mention that blood magic requires enemies to be hit by a dark magic ability specifically, which has no DoT active skill meaning to get that passive you need to cast an ability every single time of which there is only 1 ability from that line worth running)
-lack of accessible burst combo (yes sorcs can burst, but takes 4-6 skills and a gap closer to line up perfectly compared to say nbs, dks, plars, cros and even stamdens that can line up 2-3 skills max and burst someone down from full)
-a lack of reliable stun that works in lag (streak is an amazing ability, but because it's a gap closer, it is notorious for not working in lag or at high ping)
-a severe lack of mitigation ever since the rework that changed how damage and healing scales moving it away from max stats and into raw damage values that made shields, which were never updated for this, completely useless in pvp as shields were what allowed the sorcerer's class kit to get away with having no other forms of mitigation like all the other classes have access to for free
-Lastly a crippling lack of bar space for utility options that every other class has access to. This used to be mitigated by the fact that overload gave a 3rd bar and this allowed sorcs the space to run the bare minimum utility skills in pvp, but we lost that 3rd bar roughly 3 years ago and never got any update to the class kit to compensate for that crippling nerf.

My change for mages wrath keeps the execution aspect of that skill and by the time enemies reach 20% health it will already be hitting as hard as the current live version of the skill (and will not rely on other damage to proc it's damage), so it will likely perform just as well, if not better, since it will also be strong in boss fights due to the scaling execute from an earlier threshold. It will also mean the class will have a spammable, but not one as hard hitting as whip/d swing/etc due to the execute on it, but it will hit hard enough to give sorcs an in class option that will also be viable in pvp.

Turtle_Bot

olsborg wrote: »

Magsorc needs (imo):

More class skills need to deal shock damage. ie: Curse, Frags and Mines.
Conjured Ward needs to scale not only from Magicka, but also Spell Damage. (Either/Or)
A reliable self heal either burst or hot that does not require 2 slots and an active summon.
Less pigeonholed into being a zookeeper, or change pets entirely.

This is what my changes were aiming to achieve without hitting the pets which some players still enjoy. I left the shields alone because with proper class healing, shield builds could become too strong defensively again if they also scaled off damage.

ToRelax

Turtle_Bot wrote: »

To balance the healing skill changes, perhaps make them 50-60% less effective or cost 100% more if you have a shield active to prevent shield focused builds from once again becoming too strong defensively.

Terrible idea, this would just make it so you either have to go all in with shield stacking or not use any shields ever because they'll kill your sustain. Hell, you could troll allied players with Steadfast Ward.

psychotrip

Turtle_Bot wrote: »

Ratzkifal wrote: »

Sorcerer reworks are always fun to come up with because the class is so cool, but missing so much. I don't have the endurance to write up a full one, but here is a mini-rework.
Basically I wanted to add a spammable and to make room for that I figured we could - and hear me out on this one - remove Surge while also making the game more accessible (but actually) by simply letting Sorcerers always have Major Sorcery/Brutality active. To keep it fair, every class would have one of the important basic buffs always active. The result - less "sweaty" buff management, more build diversity between classes, room for a new spammable and the healing part of Surge can be worked into a passive.

Storm Calling

Lightning Bolt

• Chain Lightning
• Shock Infusion

Lightning Bolt is essentially Force Shock but pure shock damage. It uniquely increases in damage by 8% with a Lightning Staff equipped so that it doesn't matter whether you use it with Inferno or Lightning destro staff.
Chain Lightning would apply an extra damage component that chains to nearby enemies and is calculated as AOE damage but the primary target continues taking single-target damage. The chaining could work on a condition that ultimately balance will have to decide.
Shock Infusion is a stamina "spammable", but actually it's a buff designed for stamina builds that operates more like a dot. Whenever you deal martial damage with a weapon ability you also deal shock damage by X% of the martial damage dealt. Penetration shouldn't be an issue here due to hybridization changes. This would be a unique function to stamsorcs and maintain the image that they've had about being primarly weapon users (Battlemages) but add an exciting twist to it, flavor changing your regular skills to be shock themed by adding lightning VFX to them.

The Blood Magic passive would be reworked to apply on all abilities and heal on crits, just like a permanently active Critical Surge would. (Remember, in this hypothetical other classes would get one buffing skill permanently active as well, so it's all fair.)

Sorc (mag in particular for me) is the most fun I've ever had with any class (only skill from another class that comes close is dk leap), so much so, that I always come back to my sorc, no matter how bad the class is in whatever patch we are in.

Neat idea with the chain lightning, I have toyed with the idea of a chain lightning spell in the past too, never figured how it could be worked though since it is such a unique type being single target in nature but affecting multiple enemies like an aoe.

My WoW shaman would be happy to give pointers on a good chain lightning spell XD

Turtle_Bot

ToRelax wrote: »

Turtle_Bot wrote: »

To balance the healing skill changes, perhaps make them 50-60% less effective or cost 100% more if you have a shield active to prevent shield focused builds from once again becoming too strong defensively.

Terrible idea, this would just make it so you either have to go all in with shield stacking or not use any shields ever because they'll kill your sustain. Hell, you could troll allied players with Steadfast Ward.

That was the idea. It seems the main reason sorcs can't get good healing is because of the shield mechanics in the game. By making the healing skills worse under the shields it prevents the shield stacking meta from the past coming back, while allowing for sorcs to diversify from shield/pet builds into their other forgotten build, lightning mage. You can still build into shields if you want to, but you will have to run the pet bird for a big burst heal, which can be done in the current game anyway. so it gives the option to go shieldless if players want to or stick with shields and the pet bird as per the current builds.
It would have to be programmed so that it would only apply the nerf to the skills if the shields were self cast to prevent trolling allies like you stated.

ToRelax

Turtle_Bot wrote: »

ToRelax wrote: »

Turtle_Bot wrote: »

To balance the healing skill changes, perhaps make them 50-60% less effective or cost 100% more if you have a shield active to prevent shield focused builds from once again becoming too strong defensively.

Terrible idea, this would just make it so you either have to go all in with shield stacking or not use any shields ever because they'll kill your sustain. Hell, you could troll allied players with Steadfast Ward.

That was the idea. It seems the main reason sorcs can't get good healing is because of the shield mechanics in the game. By making the healing skills worse under the shields it prevents the shield stacking meta from the past coming back, while allowing for sorcs to diversify from shield/pet builds into their other forgotten build, lightning mage. You can still build into shields if you want to, but you will have to run the pet bird for a big burst heal, which can be done in the current game anyway. so it gives the option to go shieldless if players want to or stick with shields and the pet bird as per the current builds.
It would have to be programmed so that it would only apply the nerf to the skills if the shields were self cast to prevent trolling allies like you stated.

You have no idea what you are talking about. Since Imperial City, shield stacking has only ever been a thing because of lack of heals. Your idea is encouraging shield stacking, not preventing it.
As such, using shields would heavily discourage you from using a matriarch if it made the heal cost more, so the pet would be useless for that purpose in general, as it requires shields to keep alive.

No idea what a "lightning mage" is supposed to be, but whether you use lightning damage has nothing whatsoever to do with shields.

Turtle_Bot

ToRelax wrote: »

Turtle_Bot wrote: »

ToRelax wrote: »

Turtle_Bot wrote: »

To balance the healing skill changes, perhaps make them 50-60% less effective or cost 100% more if you have a shield active to prevent shield focused builds from once again becoming too strong defensively.

Terrible idea, this would just make it so you either have to go all in with shield stacking or not use any shields ever because they'll kill your sustain. Hell, you could troll allied players with Steadfast Ward.

That was the idea. It seems the main reason sorcs can't get good healing is because of the shield mechanics in the game. By making the healing skills worse under the shields it prevents the shield stacking meta from the past coming back, while allowing for sorcs to diversify from shield/pet builds into their other forgotten build, lightning mage. You can still build into shields if you want to, but you will have to run the pet bird for a big burst heal, which can be done in the current game anyway. so it gives the option to go shieldless if players want to or stick with shields and the pet bird as per the current builds.
It would have to be programmed so that it would only apply the nerf to the skills if the shields were self cast to prevent trolling allies like you stated.

You have no idea what you are talking about. Since Imperial City, shield stacking has only ever been a thing because of lack of heals. Your idea is encouraging shield stacking, not preventing it.
As such, using shields would heavily discourage you from using a matriarch if it made the heal cost more, so the pet would be useless for that purpose in general, as it requires shields to keep alive.

No idea what a "lightning mage" is supposed to be, but whether you use lightning damage has nothing whatsoever to do with shields.

It seems you have miss-understood what my changes were meant to do. So let me clarify them.

The pet skills would NOT change in anyway, at all, from the current live/pts versions and will be unaffected by the proposed increase in cost or reduced healing for dark deal/dark conversion while self cast shields are active on yourself, making them still very strong for that playstyle of shield stacking/pet summoning sorc since the pets also get the shields which gives them better survivability. ONLY the reworked dark deal/dark conversion would be affected by that increased cost/reduced healing while shields are active as those skills are changed to now be an instant cast burst heal with the healing value now scaling on raw stats like other class heals, which would make this change very over powered if they got that level of healing on top of allowing for massive shields as well.
I fail to see how this encourages shield stacking, instead it allows for more choice, as builds that use shields can still use the pets for big burst heals as they do on the live server currently (and will also gain access to a good HoT with the reworked defensive rune so they will be less reliant on shield stacking for defense). Meanwhile non shield builds finally have a good, reliable burst heal that scales off raw damage, just like every other class has access to already.

Lightning mage was never meant to have anything to do with shields, that's why the changes were meant to allow for a shield-less build to become viable again while not making shield builds overpowered defensively with the changes.

ToRelax

Why do you insist on continuously proving your ignorance? Pet sorcs don't shield stack, because A) they have less bar space, B ) they have a powerful heal, so there's no need, and C) only Conjured Ward affects their pets anyway.

How is using one shield and one burst heal OP? Is a Necromancer with Dampen Magicka op? Is a pet sorc? You don't need to imagine anything, people can play such builds right now, and most choose not to.

All you'd be doing is discouraging a common way to play sorc, not add any variety.

Turtle_Bot

ToRelax wrote: »

Why do you insist on continuously proving your ignorance? Pet sorcs don't shield stack, because A) they have less bar space, B ) they have a powerful heal, so there's no need, and C) only Conjured Ward affects their pets anyway.

How is using one shield and one burst heal OP? Is a Necromancer with Dampen Magicka op? Is a pet sorc? You don't need to imagine anything, people can play such builds right now, and most choose not to.

All you'd be doing is discouraging a common way to play sorc, not add any variety.

I'm not sure what pet sorcs you've been watching, but all the ones I see, run conjured + healing wards with some running dampen magic as well with pet bird + atro and some with scamp, and they run the shields because the bird dies instantly in pvp, especially with everyone now focussing that pet because it dies so easily with its low base health and procs bomb set ups from plaguebreak, occult overload etc.

A) Often their bar layout is curse, frags/weapon/force pulse/scamp, mages wrath/scamp, bird, streak, atro on front bar, healing ward, bird, lightning form, dampen magicka, RaT/mines/scamp, resto ult/negate back bar. So a lack of bar space because of shield stacking is not a thing, that is the same lack of bar space that all sorc builds struggle with.
B ) The pet dies far too easily, 20k health is not tanky enough for modern pvp with how far power creep has gotten. So no, this heal is not reliable and shields are used to compensate for this by essentially providing the bird with and player with more health or "healing" by adding additional temporary health.
C) And? it's still essentially another 5k+ additional health for the sorc/pet to allow it to last longer and hopefully not get insta burst, because the bird dying removes the best healing that build has due to the lack of HoT.

My changes would allow them to combine the frags/wrath skill slots into 1 skill, freeing up a slot, they could switch mines or lightning form to front bar and add the reworked defensive rune to the back bar. These changes would actually free up bar space for those builds as well as the other builds that want to focus on pure lightning magic instead of pets, not to mention improve their healing and damage through giving the class access to in class heal over time as well as a good spammable that has a scaling execute. If they really wanted to, they could even remove 1 shield (dampen magic or healing ward) since the heal over time heals them while the shield is up meaning they are punished less for having the shields drop or be instantly removed by a strong burst which also frees up another bar slot for them.
These changes would also free up the sorcs weapon choices meaning they now also have access to the overpowered passives of dual wield and 2h that provide insane raw stat values without losing out on a reliable instant cast spammable ability.

So, again, how are the changes discouraging to pet sorc builds, my changes do NOTHING to hurt those builds, those builds are still just as strong as they currently are, in fact they get even stronger because they have access to a reliable heal over time and a proper class spammable + execute they can weave into their rotations now too.

I fail to see how any of my changes nerf pet or shield sorc playstyles since those builds have remained completely un touched or just simply got improved and the only thing that has changed is a different playstyle of sorc has been re-enabled after being forgotten for so long and I am yet to see any points you make that proves me wrong. Like I said, the skills those builds use have not been nerfed, the only "nerf" is that sorcs are forced to choose shields or dark deal/dark conversion on their bars, so those builds also have access to all of the other new skills I have suggested which will boost their damage and survivability.

So please, I do know what I am talking about when it comes to sorcs, I am speaking from a point of practical experience on this matter. As a sorc main since 2015/16 I know the classes strengths and weaknesses inside and out, I have experienced all the issues the class has first hand. I have tried every skill/morph/set combination the class has access to and my changes are there to address the issues that the class faces without nerfing what the class currently still has.

Klingenlied

I think we primarily miss a lot of "cool" and real "individualization" stuff.

What we do have right now in regards to customization is hardly about class identity but more about "what sucks so bad that I have to replace it" - feels bad.

Classes should be "more", and with more I mean there should be more options to make freedom to the players to morph some stuff to their liking as well as leaning into the specific power fantasy that is inherent in the visual design and language of the class. So yea, overall I think there is a lot of cool suggestions in here.

ToRelax

Turtle_Bot wrote: »

ToRelax wrote: »

Why do you insist on continuously proving your ignorance? Pet sorcs don't shield stack, because A) they have less bar space, B ) they have a powerful heal, so there's no need, and C) only Conjured Ward affects their pets anyway.

How is using one shield and one burst heal OP? Is a Necromancer with Dampen Magicka op? Is a pet sorc? You don't need to imagine anything, people can play such builds right now, and most choose not to.

All you'd be doing is discouraging a common way to play sorc, not add any variety.

I'm not sure what pet sorcs you've been watching, but all the ones I see, run conjured + healing wards with some running dampen magic as well with pet bird + atro and some with scamp, and they run the shields because the bird dies instantly in pvp, especially with everyone now focussing that pet because it dies so easily with its low base health and procs bomb set ups from plaguebreak, occult overload etc.

I don't "watch" pet sorcs, I theorycraft and converse with other experienced players. Using Healing Ward along Twilight Matriarch is an utter waste which no competent sorc would ever do. Dampen Magicka is still a bad idea for the reasons I listed.

A) Often their bar layout is curse, frags/weapon/force pulse/scamp, mages wrath/scamp, bird, streak, atro on front bar, healing ward, bird, lightning form, dampen magicka, RaT/mines/scamp, resto ult/negate back bar. So a lack of bar space because of shield stacking is not a thing, that is the same lack of bar space that all sorc builds struggle with.

Getting one ability for the cost of two creates space issues. This isn't debatable.

B ) The pet dies far too easily, 20k health is not tanky enough for modern pvp with how far power creep has gotten. So no, this heal is not reliable and shields are used to compensate for this by essentially providing the bird with and player with more health or "healing" by adding additional temporary health.

Or, get this, people simply run more than 20k HP. Running a Matriarch has little to do with that.

C) And? it's still essentially another 5k+ additional health for the sorc/pet to allow it to last longer and hopefully not get insta burst, because the bird dying removes the best healing that build has due to the lack of HoT.

Exactly, that's why you use Hardened Ward to keep it alive if possible. Not shield stacking. Certainly no 5k shields either, wouldn't even be worth the magicka to cast it.

So please, I do know what I am talking about when it comes to sorcs, I am speaking from a point of practical experience on this matter. As a sorc main since 2015/16 I know the classes strengths and weaknesses inside and out, I have experienced all the issues the class has first hand. I have tried every skill/morph/set combination the class has access to and my changes are there to address the issues that the class faces without nerfing what the class currently still has.

Having played Sorc doesn't mean you understand the impact of what you're saying - as this thread shows quite well.

Turtle_Bot

I don't "watch" pet sorcs, I theorycraft and converse with other experienced players. Using Healing Ward along Twilight Matriarch is an utter waste which no competent sorc would ever do. Dampen Magicka is still a bad idea for the reasons I listed.

Re-read my last paragraph, I have also theorycrafted a lot of builds and talked to other experienced players as well (how else would I have tried and tested so many different builds as I stated), many of which were very successful.

Getting one ability for the cost of two creates space issues. This isn't debatable.

How does being able to take 2 abilities off your bar entirely and replace them both with 1 ability that does the job that both of them combined did, create space issues, it literally frees up space for another ability to be ran in that freed up second slot, this statement completely contradicts itself.

Or, get this, people simply run more than 20k HP. Running a Matriarch has little to do with that.

Again, you have miss-understood my point here (or are being willingly/deliberately ignorant about it). The PET has 20k health, the sorcs themselves often have 25-30k health (or more likely 35k if they are shield-less).

Exactly, that's why you use Hardened Ward to keep it alive if possible. Not shield stacking. Certainly no 5k shields either, wouldn't even be worth the magicka to cast it.

Again you miss-understand me, so again, I will spell it out for you. 5k+ (see the little + sign there?) means 5k minimum shields, not average, or max, MINIMUM, and the shield stacking is on the sorc that usually has 25-28k health, I know it's not on the pets and I never said, nor implied, that it was on the pets, that was your own, incorrect, assumption about my statement.

Having played Sorc doesn't mean you understand the impact of what you're saying - as this thread shows quite well.

Either english is not your first language or you are deliberately trying to be facetious with your replies as is clearly and blatantly shown in your comments on this thread, please re-read the ENTIRE last paragraph I wrote.
I explicitly state that I have tested practically every viable build combination over the years, which include theorizing my own builds (including many that worked and many that didn't) and which obviously includes speaking with other experienced magsorc mains as well. These issues and the changes I proposed are not just my own opinions about what is wrong and what needs to be changed with the class, it includes what other experienced magsorc mains have stated as well.

ToRelax

Turtle_Bot wrote: »

How does being able to take 2 abilities off your bar entirely and replace them both with 1 ability that does the job that both of them combined did, create space issues, it literally frees up space for another ability to be ran in that freed up second slot, this statement completely contradicts itself.

Because that's not what's happening. The pets add DoTs and a burst heal, things that wouldn't be there otherwise. A player may then for example replace a HoT with the Matriarch, but that's still three skill slots spent on DoTs. You are replacing a more versatile skill setup with a DoT heavy one.

Again, you have miss-understood my point here (or are being willingly/deliberately ignorant about it). The PET has 20k health, the sorcs themselves often have 25-30k health (or more likely 35k if they are shield-less).

You replied to my point on shield stacking, so I assumed you actually referred to it. My mistake. You were of course talking about the pet you can't stack shields on.

Again you miss-understand me, so again, I will spell it out for you. 5k+ (see the little + sign there?) means 5k minimum shields, not average, or max, MINIMUM, and the shield stacking is on the sorc that usually has 25-28k health, I know it's not on the pets and I never said, nor implied, that it was on the pets, that was your own, incorrect, assumption about my statement.

No such assumptions were made. And since we all understand that, we also know why combining Twilight with shield stacking isn't a great idea.

Either english is not your first language or you are deliberately trying to be facetious with your replies as is clearly and blatantly shown in your comments on this thread, please re-read the ENTIRE last paragraph I wrote.
I explicitly state that I have tested practically every viable build combination over the years, which include theorizing my own builds (including many that worked and many that didn't) and which obviously includes speaking with other experienced magsorc mains as well. These issues and the changes I proposed are not just my own opinions about what is wrong and what needs to be changed with the class, it includes what other experienced magsorc mains have stated as well.

English is indeed not my first language. Yet I can still see that you're highly overestimating your understanding of the class and game in general.

Turtle_Bot

ToRelax wrote: »

Turtle_Bot wrote: »

How does being able to take 2 abilities off your bar entirely and replace them both with 1 ability that does the job that both of them combined did, create space issues, it literally frees up space for another ability to be ran in that freed up second slot, this statement completely contradicts itself.

Because that's not what's happening. The pets add DoTs and a burst heal, things that wouldn't be there otherwise. A player may then for example replace a HoT with the Matriarch, but that's still three skill slots spent on DoTs. You are replacing a more versatile skill setup with a DoT heavy one.

Again, you have miss-understood my point here (or are being willingly/deliberately ignorant about it). The PET has 20k health, the sorcs themselves often have 25-30k health (or more likely 35k if they are shield-less).

You replied to my point on shield stacking, so I assumed you actually referred to it. My mistake. You were of course talking about the pet you can't stack shields on.

Again you miss-understand me, so again, I will spell it out for you. 5k+ (see the little + sign there?) means 5k minimum shields, not average, or max, MINIMUM, and the shield stacking is on the sorc that usually has 25-28k health, I know it's not on the pets and I never said, nor implied, that it was on the pets, that was your own, incorrect, assumption about my statement.

No such assumptions were made. And since we all understand that, we also know why combining Twilight with shield stacking isn't a great idea.

Either english is not your first language or you are deliberately trying to be facetious with your replies as is clearly and blatantly shown in your comments on this thread, please re-read the ENTIRE last paragraph I wrote.
I explicitly state that I have tested practically every viable build combination over the years, which include theorizing my own builds (including many that worked and many that didn't) and which obviously includes speaking with other experienced magsorc mains as well. These issues and the changes I proposed are not just my own opinions about what is wrong and what needs to be changed with the class, it includes what other experienced magsorc mains have stated as well.

English is indeed not my first language. Yet I can still see that you're highly overestimating your understanding of the class and game in general.

Ok, I think I see the miss-understanding here.

What I am doing with the skill changes, is allow for players to choose the way they want to play sorc.

If players want to play with pet builds, they can do that with the current builds as those will not change and players could choose to use some of the new skills with those existing builds and this would likely improve those builds as well.

If they want to play with a shield build, they can do that with the current builds as well without any penalty to that playstyle and can also improve on that build with access to a good heal over time and keeping a similar burst healing potential to the current live version of that build.

But at the moment, there is no good option for players who want to play sorc without shields or pets and that's what my proposed changes wanted to fix.

The 3rd skill line for sorc is lightning magic, and it is a big part of the classes identity in eso, and for a very long time there have been little to no viable builds for that playstyle, especially for pvp.

There are no direct or indirect nerfs to any of the skills except the niche interaction of dark conversion/dark deal being less powerful with shields for balance reasons. Even then I have accounted for this with the healing value scaled to weapon/spell damage on those skills.
Those skills would still heal for a similar amount to their current live values with shields active on the character, they would just heal for a much higher value that is closer to the matriarch and clannfear heals if shields are not active on the character.

The changes to mages wrath gives sorc a reliable damage skill that can't be easily dodged (think of it like force pulse, but as a class ability that is only lightning damage). The slow travel time of frags, overload, bound armaments or ranged attacks with crystal weapon procs is something that all sorcs struggle with on the current live server.

The changes would also open up other morphs of skills such as twilight tormentor, since players wouldn't be as reliant on the matriarch heal and could run tormentor if they wanted a higher damage dot, since they have the new dark conversion and defensive rune for self healing options or they could keep matriarch for group healing.

It would also open up different weapon options for sorc, as they can use the new mages wrath skill as an in class spammable while using dual wield, 2h or even bow weapons (which is BiS for pvp in the current meta due to the immense raw stats the passives from those weapons give) and allow for even more build diversity as magsorc would no longer be tied to destro staves for a reliable ranged spammable ability to pair with their delayed burst in curse.

Like I said in my original post, the numbers can be changed for balancing if needed. If the 50% heal reduction of dark deal/dark conversion when a shield is active is too much healing reduction, it could be reduced to a 40% or 30% reduction of healing while a shield is active to improve it and keep it in line with other classes. If it is still healing for too much then it could be increased to 60% heal reduction while a shield is active so other class heals or going shield-less become a viable option with the same power as shield builds.

ToRelax

Many of the things you've said would be nice to have, but also not exactly new - people have been asking for DoTs, HoTs, a lightning spammable or a burst heal since 2014. But you seem adamant about some kind of drawback for using a shield together with a burst heal, and there is simply no reason for that.
Shields have inherent drawbacks to them and always did, in addition to actually needing to spend a slot on them which you can use for something else on a build solely relying on heals. There is no need to treat shields as an abberation to the standard of heals which needs to have a special cost attached to it, which is why people are asking to make them scale off spell damage in addition to magicka.
We have access to strong out of class HoTs now (though Regeneration is largely gone for that on PTS), it doesn't actually matter terribly much whether you use a burst heal or Resolving Vigor when you run a shield. It did when Oblivion damage was rampant, but not now.

Holycannoli

Elendir2am wrote: »

I don't know in what condition will be sorc after next U35.

I do. They will be good at crafting.

My main is a stam sorc. All he has going for him for damage class skills is Crystal Weapon and Bound Armaments. I know hybridization means I can curse as well but that's not a spammable. After U35 what class spammable will there be for stam sorc? Bound Armaments isn't a spammable and Crystal Weapon is gutted so not worth using anymore. It does have Streak, Crit Surge and Dark Deal but that's not enough to make a class viable. Even Atro is nerfed, pretty hard too.

After U35 my main character will be demoted to main crafter. All the adventuring and PvPing will be done with my other characters. I have a magsorc too and I use him even less than my stam sorc.

My stamcro will probably be my new main.