One of my less pleasant experiences with this class is that unless I use a restoration staff, I have no way to recover until the very late game where I have enough crit and surge.
I'm a 2H battlemage with destruction staff for AoE, because neither the sorcerer class lines or the 2 hander line provide appropriate AoE. 2H's Cleave skill is terrible, and Lightning Splash is terrible in solo play with nobody to use the synergy.
My survival without surge amounts to hoping I can kill something while my Storm Armor lasts. I can use a potion, but that's it. I only really use crystal shards when it procs, since you can't use it too sucessfully in melee range.
And this issue becomes even more apparent with Veteran mobs. Unless you have a storm astronarch, being a battlemage without a dual wield crit surge heal build really sucks in survivability.
How about making the Dark Magic passive heal 3% of the sorcerer's health with ALL spells, and not just the dark magic line? How about building in innate health regen to bound armor?