Where are the QoL improvements for Sorcerer?

Turtle_Bot

This update was supposed to be the QoL update, so where are the QoL improvements for sorcerer?

The 1 QoL improvement sorcerers got to bound armaments, was not only copy/pasted into NBs already vastly superior version of sorcerers bound armaments ability, spec bow/AW, but NB also got passive access to the 1 major buff sorcs have been asking for for well over a year now, and not only that, NBs got it on their already overperforming kiting tool that is already on their bars meaning NB just literally got given a free bar space, something else sorcs have been requesting for years now, ever since the removal of overloads 3rd bar.

For context:

Following screenshots taken from the U39, v9.0.1 patch notes:
Sorc:

NB:


Yes, you are seeing that correctly, not only did NB get a copy/paste of sorcs only QoL improvement, they got the 1 standard major buff requested by sorcs (major prophecy/savagery) that would actually help synergise sorcs kit, added as a passive that is active on both bars for slotting their overperforming kiting tool on 1 bar.

@ZOS_GinaBruno, @ZOS_Kevin, @ZOS_BrianWheeler, why has this blatant favoritism been allowed to continue for so long now?

Sorcerers (magicka especially) have been a heavily neglected class for years now, ever since you changed the way damage is calculated shifting it away from max stats and towards raw damage, removed the 3rd bar from overload and mechanically gutted sorcs main defensive tool (shields), yet the 1 time sorcs get something, anything, that gives them potential to stand out and differentiate themselves from their NB counterparts (such as making the delayed burst that takes LA weaving to gain stacks into a passive effect on a slotted ability), you immediately give this same QoL feature to NBs on their already objectively superior version of the same ability, but on top of that you also give them 2 of the basic things sorcerers have been requesting for years too that NB did not need.

You could have at the bare minimum made the sorcerer pets to only take up 1 bar slot and make their secondary abilities only usable when on the bar the skill is slotted on is active (like you did with everything else that gains passive effects on both bars), and while this doesn't specifically help no-pet sorcs like you promised us that you would look into back in February,

Having pets be on 1 bar only, would at least help the sorcerer class be a bit more flexible in what it can run to help it keep up as a class in the current meta instead of being over-reliant on proc sets in PvP and oakensoul HA builds in PvE.

Lucifer9th

They destroy the only one good passive of fire staff to be sure the mag sorc will stay on the ground

Turtle_Bot

Lucifer9th wrote: »

They destroy the only one good passive of fire staff to be sure the mag sorc will stay on the ground

Yep, another unnecessary nerf to magsorcs.

Class passives that buff lightning damage so wants to run lightning staff, but has no channeled abilities (frags is cast time, not channel) and no sticky DoTs in the class kit meaning that running a lightning staff gives no real benefit to the class abilities for running it and with the change to fire staff, it's a straight up 10% damage nerf to all magsorcs.

Major_Soulless

i was going to complain about templar getting nothing but the lightning staff change is useful to us. sorcs really are the unloved stepchild of eso and i feel bad for sorc players.

Turtle_Bot

Major_Soulless wrote: »

i was going to complain about templar getting nothing but the lightning staff change is useful to us. sorcs really are the unloved stepchild of eso and i feel bad for sorc players.

yeah, I'll probably switch back to my plar for the forseeable future for PvE, deadly + lightning staff looking pretty nice for a 25%+ damage increase to jabs and beam.

Tannus15

The change the bound aegis is actually fantastic.
1 pet sorc builds are now comparable with 2 pet builds because you can slot aegis on the backbar slot gaining 8% max mag, minor resolve, minor protection and the summoned pet max health boost at all times.

combine this with any dot or mages fury and you break even on dps compared to scamp. this is a huge change that opens up more build options for mag sorc.

I'm really impressed with this change, it made a lot more difference than I expected just reading the patch notes.

The one thing i will say is that while i like the change to bound armaments, it has to be run on the front bar to be effective so bound aegis builds just feel better with more options.

Turtle_Bot

Tannus15 wrote: »

The change the bound aegis is actually fantastic.
1 pet sorc builds are now comparable with 2 pet builds because you can slot aegis on the backbar slot gaining 8% max mag, minor resolve, minor protection and the summoned pet max health boost at all times.

combine this with any dot or mages fury and you break even on dps compared to scamp. this is a huge change that opens up more build options for mag sorc.

I'm really impressed with this change, it made a lot more difference than I expected just reading the patch notes.

The one thing i will say is that while i like the change to bound armaments, it has to be run on the front bar to be effective so bound aegis builds just feel better with more options.

Does it make up for the 10% damage loss to the other abilities (curse/prey, frags, force pulse, etc) from the changes to flame staff?

Does lightning staff buff pets now (do they count as DoTs instead of single target?)

Genuinely curious here.

SkaraMinoc

Wanted to mention this partial timeline I posted last night.

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/638153/another-nail-in-the-coffin-for-mag-sorc-burst-damage

Damage has been slowly gutted across the board without giving anything back to Mag Sorc. The burst combo, which is what Mag Sorc relies heavily on, is so weak at this point that it's nearly impossible to kill any serious PvPers. The iconic Mag Sorc from 2+ years ago is no more. Burst damage is so low that the meta has shifted towards pressure build homogenization.

Twig_Garlicshine

Even though I can't use Matriarch full time cause I can't stand the -in my face- feature,
one bar of pets would be an awesome sorc change.

If the reason they won't do it is the passive dot/damage,
maybe they could change it to a timer base:
"dot/damage from pets will now proc when their skills are cast lasting 30 seconds."
A nice time frame, and promotes weaving since they want that.

Duke_Falcon

The 6 best Quality of Life Improvements I can think of for Mag Sorc at this current time would be.

1. Take the cast time off Dark Exchange and change the stam & mag resource return be 100% over time. Keep the burst heal.
2. Put Major or Minor Breach on one of their rotational base skills, like Curse, Mages Fury, or Streak.
3. Change Critical Surge to scale only off of Spell Damage & Max Magic since Stam Sorcs don't need the buff and change it to proc every 1/3 second instead of once per second.
4. Change the Daedric Protection passive to give 4 seconds of Major Protection after casting a Damage Shield ability, instead of 20% Health Recovery, because the Battle Spirit change that nerfed Health Recovery gutted the passives usefulness.
5. Change all Damage Shields to last 8 seconds up from 6.
6. Increase the damage of Endless Fury and change it to proc at 30% up from 20%. and change Mages Wrath to a magic costing version of the Whirling Blades execute.

Turtle_Bot

Dekrypted wrote: »

I for one would love to see some better self healing not tied to the pet. I haven't been a fan of the duration of hurricane as it's Major resolve length differs from the standard across all classes, excluding nightblade.

Really my biggest pain point is the healing on this class compared to others. Tying a burst heal to the pet, which a nightblade can just 2 tap because they have that much damage really kills counterplay because what am I supposed to do to stop their burst heal, Streak away?

It's a fun class, but has some outdated gameplay components that poorly translate to the ESO of today compared to the ESO of an actual decade ago.

The healing is definitely the main issue with the class, that is for sure.

There are just far too many issues overall with sorc though.

1. Healing (the main issue)
2. All of the class damage is delayed, so there's no up front pressure to force enemies to play defensive while you line up a burst (especially since it takes 4+ skills all lined up). Bonus, fixing this would automatically balance sorcs proc builds too since sorc won't have as much delayed burst to stack onto the proc based pressure.
3. Everything is 1 dimensional with minimal additional effects/buffs/debuffs, which is a huge carry over from a decade ago and needed addressing way back in 2018 (summerset) when ZOS removed Overloads third bar, essentially deleting 1/3 of sorcs available bar space.
4. Far too many outdated abilities and passives which, as you said, were fine for a decade ago where things had actual downsides to using them and classes had actual weaknesses.

Sorc is still my main and always will be, it's just sad to see how long it has been left to rot away and fade into memory.

Duke_Falcon wrote: »

The 6 best Quality of Life Improvements I can think of for Mag Sorc at this current time would be.

1. Take the cast time off Dark Exchange and change the stam & mag resource return be 100% over time. Keep the burst heal.
2. Put Major or Minor Breach on one of their rotational base skills, like Curse, Mages Fury, or Streak.
3. Change Critical Surge to scale only off of Spell Damage & Max Magic since Stam Sorcs don't need the buff and change it to proc every 1/3 second instead of once per second.
4. Change the Daedric Protection passive to give 4 seconds of Major Protection after casting a Damage Shield ability, instead of 20% Health Recovery, because the Battle Spirit change that nerfed Health Recovery gutted the passives usefulness.
5. Change all Damage Shields to last 8 seconds up from 6.
6. Increase the damage of Endless Fury and change it to proc at 30% up from 20%. and change Mages Wrath to a magic costing version of the Whirling Blades execute.

Best QoL improvements that can be made for sorc:
1 through 6:
Have a Dev who actually mains the class (and not just the pet build for dummy humping).

Some more serious thoughts on these,

1. This needs to happen, or remove 1 of the heals from either clanfear OR matriarch to another ability to untie a burst heal from the pets.
2. Breach would be nice, maybe minor on curse, but imo major prophecy access (for me, I would add it to lightning form + morphs) would be better for the class especially in conjunction with point 3.
3. Depending how the heal on this is scaled this could be way too strong, I'd just try to make it easier to proc by raising the classes inherent crit chance by a significant amount.
4. This would be interesting, maybe make it apply the buff when the ward ends (iirc wards don't get mitigation from anything outside of armor). I would still like to see the capacitor passive merged with this one and a new passive made.
5. This should have happened ages ago. 10 seconds was a long time, but 6 seconds is just far too short of a duration, especially since the class doesn't have a reliable burst heal. Some slight buffs are needed to wards mitigation values too though, only coming from armor values is really bad when block casting heals exists.
6. Something needs to be done with this ability, the class set was the chance for this, but unfortunately they got lazy and just gave sorc a generic proc set that requires using bad abilities in an awkward rotation to use it. Making it deal damage equal to force pulse with the execute proc starting from 25% or 30% would be good, especially if only the execute proc part is AoE. The other thing is the execute proc needs to be made undodgeable considering its a debuff that can be both blocked and purged already and all the bugs with it need fixing too, far too many times this execute proc just doesn't proc at all or a dodge appears instead of its proc.

i11ionward

If we discuss QoL, then for Dark Deal raise the duration of Minor Berserk and Minor Force to 20 seconds, 10 seconds is a mockery for a skill with a cast time.

Quethrosar

is this about pvp ?
pve i only feel weak compared to arcanists.
best change to me is pets not taking up 4 slots, same with inner light.

MashmalloMan

Duke_Falcon wrote: »

The 6 best Quality of Life Improvements I can think of for Mag Sorc at this current time would be.

1. Take the cast time off Dark Exchange and change the stam & mag resource return be 100% over time. Keep the burst heal.
2. Put Major or Minor Breach on one of their rotational base skills, like Curse, Mages Fury, or Streak.
3. Change Critical Surge to scale only off of Spell Damage & Max Magic since Stam Sorcs don't need the buff and change it to proc every 1/3 second instead of once per second.
4. Change the Daedric Protection passive to give 4 seconds of Major Protection after casting a Damage Shield ability, instead of 20% Health Recovery, because the Battle Spirit change that nerfed Health Recovery gutted the passives usefulness.
5. Change all Damage Shields to last 8 seconds up from 6.
6. Increase the damage of Endless Fury and change it to proc at 30% up from 20%. and change Mages Wrath to a magic costing version of the Whirling Blades execute.

Yo what the flip. 🤣 "Stam Sorcs don't need Crit Surge".

What is with the unnecessary nerf to Stam Sorc's. We're on the same team.

Also I'm sorry, some of these ideas are just bad or overpowered. Sorc's need changes, but we don't need as much as people think.

Edit: I shouldn't be so harsh to say "bad", it's really just the surge change that's bad. Some changes I agree with, but some like Whirling Blades, 30% execute(instead of 25 or 50), and no cast time Dark Deal feel out of left field.

Simply adding more value to the skills we use by adding common buffs/debuff like major savagery/prophecy and/or breach, would open a lot of build diversity because you save a skill slot and can use different potions.

Nerfing Daedric Prey, giving a bit more power to non pet Sorc abilities like Lightning Flood/Fury and updating useless passives would go a long way. Aka... why does Sorc have 6/12 passives specifically for cost/sustain.

Lastly updating some skills like Bound Armaments to be hybrid friendly. Updating Surge for ESO in 2023 context since the value has remained the same, but health and damage is up 50%. Updating our kit so our burst heal isn't reliant on a killable pet. Updating some under used skills like Rune Cage, Mines, Power Surge and Encase.

StaticWave

As a stamsorc main, we NEED Crit Surge lmao. Try playing a stamsorc without Crit Surge and you will see how bad it goes vs pressure builds 🤣

Turtle_Bot

Quethrosar wrote: »

is this about pvp ?
pve i only feel weak compared to arcanists.
best change to me is pets not taking up 4 slots, same with inner light.

It is mostly PvP, but also no-pet PvE builds too (which haven't existed since 2018).

Quethrosar

non pets doing same damage as pets would be sweet. i hate pets. i do my vet dungeons petless.
trials i have pets.

olsborg

Stamsorc is plenty strong, ranged ones atleast, magsorc however is not. Shields are weak, they break in an instant with this high dmg meta in pvp and they cant crit or get you out of execute range.
Heals are just way better than shields since they can crit, you have buffs/sets to increase healing done/taken etc etc. On that note, magsorc is severely lacking a good reliable burst heal. The only option is unreliable pet heal wich require 2 slots and die in 2 seconds whenever it takes aggro from any player.

Magsorc needs two things imo: A good burstheal without cast time or pet requirement. Magsorc shield need some kind of buff other then just making it bigger.

SandandStars

Feedback has been clear and focused and persistent regarding Magsorc’s deficits for at least 2 years.

One can only conclude that it is not a concern.

MetallicMonk

With all the afk set and forget procs and sets doing damage for everyone in the game at the moment I'd more like to see hardened ward take reduced damage from damage over time instances. Direct damage and single target burst damage should hit the shield for the same damage, and dots would still hit your hp at full effectiveness but your hardened ward shouldn't be instantly peeled off in the same global by chimpanzees in master's dual-wield and vate staff.

KainedED

Have to be real careful with this, in terms of PvP just giving sorc instant cast dark deal would make it pretty strong. ( I think this is the best solution. No scaling just instant cast)

Sorc has one of the strongest offenses in the game and arguably some of the best utility. What it lacks is some stay in power.

If you’re a competent player you can legitimately just choose not to die by disengaging anytime you want with streak

Tyrant_Tim

Would love to see Critical Surge more reliable as a HoT by having a source of Major Prophecy and Savagery in-class, Daedric Prey nerfed, pets 1-bar instead of two, maybe buff Conjured Ward slightly? I miss the 20s duration… It’s not like the shield lasts more than 5s now with how small they are anyway, it would just make protecting your pets from AoE splash easier whereas right now they die to random nonsense at the most inconvenient of times.

With those changes, I would be very happy with where my Sorc is at, as it appears the class is destined to be Summoner, why not at least make the playstyle enjoyable.

MashmalloMan

KainedED wrote: »

If you’re a competent player you can legitimately just choose not to die by disengaging anytime you want with streak

If you're a competent player, you have no one to blame but yourself when you don't have a gap closer slotted, the direct and obvious counter everyone seems to forget because they have to run the same cookie cutter "meta" builds over and over instead of thinking for themselves.

Most of my time playing as Sorc, despite having Streak, I've had a gap closer slotted. It's utility is immensely stronger than people give it credit for. Anytime I don't have it, it frankly feels off, I don't feel as fast. If I really wanted to chase down a Sorc, I can and I will.

KainedED

MashmalloMan wrote: »

KainedED wrote: »

If you’re a competent player you can legitimately just choose not to die by disengaging anytime you want with streak

If you're a competent player, you have no one to blame but yourself when you don't have a gap closer slotted, the direct and obvious counter everyone seems to forget because they have to run the same cookie cutter "meta" builds over and over instead of thinking for themselves.

Most of my time playing as Sorc, despite having Streak, I've had a gap closer slotted. It's utility is immensely stronger than people give it credit for. Anytime I don't have it, it frankly feels off, I don't feel as fast. If I really wanted to chase down a Sorc, I can and I will.

I play a dizzy sorc so not meta, and as for gap closers most people will gas themselves long before I feel a hit on my magicka pool. I only run Orzorgas for recovery.

You can almost indefinitely streak as long as you hit the first two immediately wait for the internal cd and repeat the process. At 1300-1400 mag recovery it feels that way.

Its why im so careful about how we buff sorc, it could definitely use some staying power but with its ability pick and choose its engagements similar to NB cloak it cant be too much of a tank without building in to via sets or cp

Otherwise you run in to the same issue that NB has at the moment where is has zero weaknesses. It can choose engagements, be insanely tanky, have wild damage, and crazy healing all at the same time. Bit of a problem no?

Turtle_Bot

KainedED wrote: »

Have to be real careful with this, in terms of PvP just giving sorc instant cast dark deal would make it pretty strong. ( I think this is the best solution. No scaling just instant cast)

Sorc has one of the strongest offenses in the game and arguably some of the best utility. What it lacks is some stay in power.

If you’re a competent player you can legitimately just choose not to die by disengaging anytime you want with streak

That's why everyone is saying that if dark exchange and morphs are made instant cast and a better heal, the burst sustain is removed and added to the sustain over time instead, to prevent everything that people keep saying to "be careful" about.

btw, the total sustain of dark exchange and morphs is 6k (or +300 recovery for 20 seconds). hardly game breaking when its all put into the over time part instead of part burst, part over time.

Turtle_Bot

KainedED wrote: »

MashmalloMan wrote: »

KainedED wrote: »

If you’re a competent player you can legitimately just choose not to die by disengaging anytime you want with streak

If you're a competent player, you have no one to blame but yourself when you don't have a gap closer slotted, the direct and obvious counter everyone seems to forget because they have to run the same cookie cutter "meta" builds over and over instead of thinking for themselves.

Most of my time playing as Sorc, despite having Streak, I've had a gap closer slotted. It's utility is immensely stronger than people give it credit for. Anytime I don't have it, it frankly feels off, I don't feel as fast. If I really wanted to chase down a Sorc, I can and I will.

I play a dizzy sorc so not meta, and as for gap closers most people will gas themselves long before I feel a hit on my magicka pool. I only run Orzorgas for recovery.

You can almost indefinitely streak as long as you hit the first two immediately wait for the internal cd and repeat the process. At 1300-1400 mag recovery it feels that way.

Its why im so careful about how we buff sorc, it could definitely use some staying power but with its ability pick and choose its engagements similar to NB cloak it cant be too much of a tank without building in to via sets or cp

I used to think this way as well, but considering what the devs did for NB and haven't shown any signs of fixing this issue properly with targeted buffs, nerfs and fixes (especially using battle spirit or "against monsters" clause), I'm of the mind that care is longer needed, since care isn't being taken for the other classes (especially NB)

Pelanora

Why does the execute suck. Thats some qol id like. Hit twice with an arrow or sword to get what maybe, maybe, MAYBE i get from calling down lightning.

MashmalloMan

Passive/General changes:

• Reduce the reliance on 6/12 passives being cost/resource related. So many of these could be combined to make way for utility/tank/healer. Throw those roles a bone.
• Convert sources of magic damage to Shock or Physical, the obvious theme of the class. Anything crystal related = Physical Damage, eg. Crystal Weapon. Anything magical related = Shock Damage, eg. Curse. I'm done caring about RP emersion, if ZOS cared, Arcanist's green VFX would give poison/disease damage. We're just going to forget DK randomly had all their Magic damage sources converted to Fire when they were the top of the food chain? (Sorry Stam DK's poison theme). Maybe sets like Storm Cursed Revenge will actually be competitive.
• Daedric Protection - I like the idea of major protection for 4s after casting a Shield skill said above or at least something along these lines. Named buff and only 10% now, it's common now, excellent idea to help Mag Sorc's and tanks alike. Send the Stam Regen over to Capacitor. Remove HP Regen entirely, dead multiplier of a by gone era in ESO.
• Rebate - This is a incredibly forgettable passive with a bandaid fix they added a patch when they removed the mag return from pets dying. Add a healing passive like % healing done per Daedric skill slotted or something more unique. Idk..
• Amplitude - I miss Implosion and the theory crafting it brought, stacking sources of physical/shock damage was fun and enabled Sorc dot builds. I understand it was annoying to fight, but so was Burning Light and that stayed, but got adjusted. New effect is strong, but boring.. could be nice to flip this so we're strong in execute instead of upfront again... like the original design of the passive.
• Dark Magic passives - They're outdated and don't carry much impact when you look at how other classes handle their Tank or Healer passives. Not sure what I want, but a little something to spice it up. Again, our cost/sustain and damage passives are plentiful. So maybe utility based instead.
• Ults - Generally I think all of them are in a decent spot. It would be nice if there was at least 1 stam dps or tank morph, but that dream kind of died with hybridization. If I could get my wish... Air Atronach in place of Charged Atro, walks at a slow pace like Arcanist's Gaze, spinning blades like Aegis Caller ORRRR a morph of Overload that converts light attacks into mini gap closers and heavy attack into a ground slam lol..

Dark Magic

• Dark Exchange
  • Reduce cast time from 1s to the 0.8s standard introduced with spammables.
  • Add a HOT with the same ratio as resource return = 60% upfront + 40% over time.
  • Now heals an additional 5333 health over 20s.
    • Dark Deal
      • Heals 5333 health over 10s, instead of over 20s.
    • Dark Conversion
      • Heals 6666 health over 20s, instead of 5333.
• Crystal Shard
  • Remove 10% cost reduction.
    • Crystal Fragments
      • Add 2nd tick of aoe dmg for hard casting like Curse/Fury for 33%-50%ish dmg. Brings back some of the old flavour Crystal Blast had.
    • Crystal Weapon
      • Convert unnamed 1k pen into guaranteed Sundered on 1st and 2nd tick.
• Encase
  • Restraining Prison
    • Adjust duration of Major Vitality, start at 4s instead of 2s, +2s per target instead of +1s. This is no longer a massive buff after the major/minor rework.
    • Make it hit around the user instead of in front for a better Tanking/Brawler tool.
  • Shattering Prison
    • Deal damage when it immobilizes instead of when it ends.
    • Retains aoe in front of user.
• Rune Prison
  • When you don't have a target, apply Defensive Rune on yourself, when you have a target, apply a Rune on them.
    • Rune Cage
      • Damage dealt any time the attack lands instead of only when it stuns and after the 3s duration completes.
      • This never works and just gives free CC immunity ruining your burst combo. Streak/Dawnbreaker/Atronach/Meteor deal damage when they stun without being easy to dodge, this skill is never used.
    • Defensive Rune
      • Since Rune Cage canablizes this morph, make a new effect for Tanks to help proc Blood Magic. They have 2-3 morphs out of the 36 on the class.
• Daedric Mines
  • Make the base skill ranged and instant instead of requiring the Daedric Tomb morph.
  • Make both morph choices do something new, this is a very niche skill that rarely gets used.

Daedric Summoning

• Bound Armor
  • Remove 8% mag (or stam) from this ability and all morphs.
  • Add Major Prophecy/Savagery for this ability and all morphs. Hybrid friendly.
    • Bound Aegis
      • The removal of 8% mag at face value seems bad for mag damage dealer and tanks, but it's replaced by major savagery/prophecy - let me convince you below.
      • Sorc Tanking lacks identity. 8% mag to an already low pool, gives low return. They don't require it for scaling damage or shields. With how Crit Surge and Power Surge works, this gives Sorc Tanking its own identity amongst the other classes.
      • Mag Sorc's no longer need max mag for my suggestion to change shield scaling to damage + resources. Mag Sorcs tend to rely on shields, the mitigation from activating Bound Aegis does nothing for them. Sorc in general isn't a stand and block class, it's an evasive 1. Mag Sorc can also use Bound Armaments with my suggestions.
    • Bound Armaments
      • Add 1.5%-2% crit chance per dagger for 10s, matching the daggers 10s lifespan. Hybrid friendly.
      • Gives a rewarding minigame, rather than up 24/7 like Grim Focus.
      • Remove 0.3s delay between each dagger.
      • Grim Focus doesn't have a delay, deals 53-75% more damage, burst heals, and gives 300-400 weapon/spell damage. With the above 2 changes they'll be more comparable in power budget. BA deals less damage, but can be paired with Frags or Curse, however it gives better passive power that actually fits within Sorc's kit. Hybrid friendly.
  • Daedric Curse
    • Change curse duration from 6s to 5s. Lines up better with 10/15s rotations we used today.
    • Change explosion from 6s to 3s for this ability and all morphs. The explosion happens before the curse ends to help aleviate pressure on Daedric Prey rotation attempts to keep pet damage up, but not cast it too early and miss out on the explosion.
    • If enemy dies with curse, explode instantly to hit nearby enemies. This just helps it feel like less of a waste when an enemy dies early. The aoe portion already deals low damage.
      • Daedric Prey
        • Explosion remains at 3s.
        • Reduce pet dmg bonus from 45% to 20%.
        • Add Empower for total duration(5s). This ability has been a staple of 1 bar heavy attack impaired player builds, it only makes sense the class should have empower built in and this is a perfect spot to put it since they rely on pets.
      • Haunting Curse
        • 1st explosion remains at 3s (instead of 3.5s), 2nd explosion reduced from 8.5s to 7s.
        • Add major breach for total duration(10s).
  • Pets
    • Change from 2 bar to 1 bar, but reduce passive damage significantly or completely.
    • Make pets untargettable and unkillable. Enemies won't accidently meteor a pet and Sorc's can't hide behind pets as a meat shield. Our tank heal and burst heal should not be attached to killable 2 slot pets.
      • Matriarch = Reduce 2nd target heal from 100% burst to a new effect like a small hot. Helps it stand out against Breath of Life's 33% 2nd target burst heal, but keeps the aoe functionality.
      • Clanfear = Reduce % burst heal from 32% a bit, but add an auxillary effect, hot, or scaling based on HP like DK/NB. Polar Wind heals 30% upfront, does an additional 7.5% every 2s, all the while effecting an ally... why is Clanfear so bad for 2 slots?
      • Volatile Familiar = Remove the extra concussed status effect chance, activation is great, and has a stun. (The concussed effect is moved to Lightning Splash).
      • Tormentor = Completely rework activation, no one likes reverse execute scaling, passive damage should basically be gone with 1 bar pets so it needs to be worth casting throughout a whole fight. Tormentor can be the single target DPS pet, Volatile Familiar the AOE pet.

Storm Calling

• Surge
  • Decrease duration from 33s to 20s.
  • Scales from highest weapon or spell damage.
  • Helps to keep up with power creep from ESO's CP2.0 changes which gave everyone 7k health and 1k damage.
    • Critical Surge
      • Increase duration from 20s to 60s.
      • This morph distinction is present between Lotus Blossom and Green Lotus. In the patch you made the change to durations, you expressed interest in reducing ESO's buff management, yet only touched Psijic Order, Warden and DK.
    • Power Surge
      • Scales from highest max resource instead of weapon or spell damage.
      • Ticks every 2s instead of every 3s. Nothing ticks on 3s, it's awkward for healers and unreliable.
• Mages Fury
  • Resource cost now scales based on highest offensive stats.
    • Endless Fury
      • Remove the 2nd explosion proc in execute.
      • Upfront damage now deals up to 300% more damage to enemies with less than 50% HP.
    • Mages Wrath
      • Execute threshold changed from 20% to 25% standard.
      • Buff execute proc by about 15%, this puts it 10% weaker than Impale instead of 20%.
• Lightning Form
  • Revert the tick frequency of this ability and morphs back to once every 1s, rather than once every 2s. Adjust damage of all morphs to match.
  • The nerf to tick frequency really hurt Crit Surge. Exceptions to standards have been made in the past, class skills should be primary suspects for exceptions because they're suppose to feel powerful.
    • Boundless Storm
      • Convert 4s major expedition on cast to when you receive a specific damage type. Single target direct? Parallels how Elude functions.
      • This morph is intended to increase in duration, yet it asks the player to recast it for major expedition. It's counter intuitive and needs the above rework. Elude was changed for the same reasons, yet Boundless Storm was left this way.
• Lightning Splash
  • Add extra concussed status effect chance lost from my suggested Volatile Familiar removal. These skills need more oomph and the effect makes more sense here.

MashmalloMan

Oh I'll add, I think it's so silly that Shields still scale from max resources, this has severely shoehorned Mag Sorc into the same 3-4 terrible sets all other classes have moved on from. Resto Ward already scales from damage and resources, make it happen ZOS.

Unfortunately because they added max HP scaling recently, I think that ship has sailed. Huge missed opportunity... there is a massive cost to damage potential for Mag Sorc's by going for max resource sets, in my mathing, it's about a 30%-50% loss in comparison to a set that gives straight damage. Resources already scale worse, but CP 2.0 and Race changes removed the multipliers Sorc used to be able to stack back when they were actually "OP".

The best Sorc I know of, Malcom, still runs sets like Alfiq, that is insane to me. He makes it work because he can make anything work, sad that he has to run old sets to make shields decent while everyone else crutches on the same 3 sets.

MashmalloMan

Turtle_Bot wrote: »

KainedED wrote: »

Have to be real careful with this, in terms of PvP just giving sorc instant cast dark deal would make it pretty strong. ( I think this is the best solution. No scaling just instant cast)

Sorc has one of the strongest offenses in the game and arguably some of the best utility. What it lacks is some stay in power.

If you’re a competent player you can legitimately just choose not to die by disengaging anytime you want with streak

That's why everyone is saying that if dark exchange and morphs are made instant cast and a better heal, the burst sustain is removed and added to the sustain over time instead, to prevent everything that people keep saying to "be careful" about.

btw, the total sustain of dark exchange and morphs is 6k (or +300 recovery for 20 seconds). hardly game breaking when its all put into the over time part instead of part burst, part over time.

You're thinking of pre changes to the ability. Dark Deal retained the 6k value, but is now over 10s. Dark Conversion stayed as 20s, but got a 25% boost to healing, upfront sustain and sustain over time, total is 7.5k.

Removing the cast time and making the susrain over time is a mistake, it is a playstyle shift we don't need and would result in a heavy handed nerf to make it scale as good as other burst heals. It has it's drawbacks of course, but it's worth it to allow it the burst that it's capable of. It's not like spammables, you don't need a target, so the nuisance of most cast time skills goes out the window. Line of sight or cast it after your cc'd, the dynamic of Sorc's weaving in and out of combat makes much more sense than a purely passive sustain over time. The highs and lows match the evasive speed of the class, it would be like saying to change DKs ult dump return to over time, no thanks.

My suggestion is to reduce it slightly to the 0.8s standard they've implemented on spammables and add a small hot. Sorc's don't lack a burst heal (it's just annoying and needs adjustments), we lack an on demand heal over time and the cast time doesn't line up with other cast times or the GCD.

StaticWave

I'm a stamsorc main and I think stamsorc just needs 2-3 adjustments:

1) Remove cast time from Dark Deal and reduce sustain return (value to be determined)

Stamsorc has no burst heal and relies on Rally or slotting a set to cover this weakness. This is a band-aid fix and limits build diversity. Removing the cast time from Dark Deal and reducing the sustain return would ensure that stamsorc has access to a usable burst heal, but would also limit its potential to be OP

2) Reduce Crit Surge tooltip (value to be determined) but increase proc chance to 100% OR give 2% crit damage and healing per Sorc ability slotted

Crit Surge is a great heal when it procs a lot, but the issue is getting it to proc a lot requires you to sacrifice a lot. You have to run several DoTs and restrict your build diversity, or stack crit chance and lose out on damage. Increasing Crit Surge proc chance to 100% and reducing its tooltip value would ensure that the class has access to a reliable HoT while also limiting its potential to be OP.

Another path is to give Sorc 2% crit damage and healing per Sorc ability slotted instead of 2% WD/SD. This is imo, better than the 2% SD/WD because it would buff both Sorc damage and healing, whereas 2% WD/SD only buffs damage.

3) Give Bound Armaments 1 extra dagger and something when used

It's currently a gimped Merciless Resolved. Not only is MR significantly harder hitting, it also has a 52% life steal when you use it in melee range. Give BA something meaningful when used, like X more crit chance for 10s to help the class fit its crit theme.