Newly back, looking for input.

Emencie · December 2014

I'm newly back, after quitting months ago due to my choices in the "Play the character you want." style leading my character to being no where near as efficient as the cookie cutter at the time. (DK s&b vamp). Sure in PvE no problem, mobs are simple and even a bad class can build well and I could solo Vet+3-5 mobs. But grouping and PvP was disheartening for me and I was reluctant to start the leveling process again.

Now that I'm back I cannot help but notice that DKs still seem to be the go to class for tank and DPS in PvP and PvE.

I cant get into a battle in Cyrodil without half the participants being vampires.

Are werewolves still better off in human form that wolf form? From what I can tell so far, yes... I have about the same damage, less survivability and less mobility when I transform. It's nice that at least I don't have a permanent poison debuff anymore and I get the stamina regen. So I'm actually happy with my wolf to be honest. Though still jealous of Vampires.

Still for my character, a S&B, heavy armor spec, werewolf, sorc tank. I don't feel like much has changed in the months I was gone. I still feel I cannot compete in DPS, or survivability to the other classes. And I'm wondering if now is the time to bite the bullet and make my "battle mage" into a DK. DKs just seem to be better mages, tanks, and melee fighters.

Since I haven't leveled recently now would be the time to do it... So I'm looking for advice or perhaps something I missed. Perhaps a patch footnote I didn't read, or an upcoming change? I really like the feel of the sorcerer but the DK is just seems so good.

Oh yea and Still love the world. Happy to be back!

Warraxx · December 2014

Emencie wrote: »

heavy armor spec

That's your problem.

Gyudan · December 2014

Emencie wrote: »

Still for my character, a S&B, heavy armor spec, werewolf, sorc tank. I don't feel like much has changed in the months I was gone. I still feel I cannot compete in DPS, or survivability to the other classes. And I'm wondering if now is the time to bite the bullet and make my "battle mage" into a DK. DKs just seem to be better mages, tanks, and melee fighters.

I also have a sorcerer werewolf, so I hope I'll be able to provide the input you are looking for.

For PVE

As a tank (heavy armor), you need to take advantage of the few class skills that benefit tanking :
- thundering presence (greatly boosts armor and spell resistance)
- hardened ward (emergency shield in case your healer's having issues or if you're about to take unavoidable damage)
- spiked bone shield - undaunted (greatly boosts armor and reflects some damage)
- werewolf ultimate, keep it slotted on your main bar to passively generate ultimate
You don't have self heals or extra damage mitigation so you won't be the best tank, but you can still perform very effectively in veteran dungeons and the first two trials.
For items, I use 5*Footman, 5*Hist Bark and 2*Scourge Harvester, with S&B on both bars.

As a DPS (only considering magicka with light armor here, I haven't tried stamina sorc in depth)
- critical surge to boost weapon damage and get tons of heals
- crushing shock for single target
- impulse for AoE
- mage's wrath for execute
- negate for area stun or astronach for DPS depending on the fight
- flawless dawnbreaker slotted on your main bar for 13% more damage
Your DPS will be lower than DKs and NBs but you can still reach numbers high enough for all the PVE content. You also get amazing heals from critical surge, which allows your healer to do less heals and more buffs.
For items, I recommend: 5*Worm's Raiment, 3*Twilight's Embrace, 3*Soulshine, with destro&resto for group buffs and backup healing.
As an alternative, if you're more selfish or don't have the worm's, try 3*Wrath of the Imperium, 4*Wise Mage, 4*Twilight's Embrace, with double frost destro.

BBSooner · December 2014

Warraxx wrote: »

Emencie wrote: »

heavy armor spec

That's your problem.

Agreed. Hopefully this is addressed further at some point.

jluceyub17_ESO · December 2014

S&B will always be a struggle to do high-DPS, it was designed as the skill line that would allow any/every class to tank so if end-game PvE DPS is your goal you need to level up a new weapon. Same goes with heavy armor, the skill line is designed to keep you alive, not make your enemies dead faster. You can play your way while doing quests and easier group stuff but if you want to do the harder end game content you'll need to achieve minimum 800 sustained single target in order to not be a drain on your group. Using tank gear and weapons won't get you there, if it did those lines would be super OP in PvP.

If you want to go Sorc DPS but don't want to run destruction staff, you should check out the DW/Bow build currently on the front page of Tamriel Foundry.

Sorcs are also rather sub-par in terms of self-healing ability. The best option is a high-crit build with critical surge. Other than that, the blood magic passive is all that's left besides dark exchange. Try using encase on big groups in order to get some self-healing.

Sorcs can be viable tanks in end-game PvE but you will have to tailor you build to the task rather than expecting whatever jumble of skills you want to work out.

Emencie · December 2014

Perhaps I was not clear, sorry about that. I'm not having any problems, tanking or dealing damage as far as content is concerned. In all honestly every PvE encounter I have experienced in the game has seemed very tame and quite easy. (I will note I have not seen it all I'm only VR2)

I was just in a position before where I felt/saw that anything I can do on my sorcerer, I could do better on another class. So competing with the other classes in both PvE and PvP.

For example

My Friend who played a DK seemed to tank better with less effort.
Vampire form seemed simply better than werewolf form.
My self healing while in PvE was godly, seemed garbage in PvP.
The dual nature of magic and physical felt weaker than just going magic.
Heavy armor didn't seem terribly useful compared to light. (I like the look)

Those were some of the things I started to see when I got into the vet levels. And it's hard to judge now, because I'm so far behind the curve. Though what I see is that it may not have changed at all.

Ideally I would love to PvP tank, But I'm not sure how viable that is, and being a tanky spell sword is important to the character concept. I'm considering re rolling to a class that will be more viable in that position.

Or for someone to tell me that I'm wrong and point me in the direction of some sorcerer heavy armor PvP awesomeness. Basically I dont want to level a sorc to VR14 if a DK/Templar/NB will do it better.

May as well toss out my build.
PvP "tank"
PvE tank
*my sets are completely screwy, from back when everything was a 3peice bonus.

ers101284b14_ESO · December 2014

Yeah theres your think is your trying to tank as a Sorc. Which you can do but won't be the max. '

DK-Tank
Sorc-DPS
NB-DPS
Templar-Heal

You can do any with any class some are just better than others.

Gyudan · December 2014

Emencie wrote: »

Perhaps I was not clear, sorry about that. I'm not having any problems, tanking or dealing damage as far as content is concerned. In all honestly every PvE encounter I have experienced in the game has seemed very tame and quite easy. (I will note I have not seen it all I'm only VR2)

I was just in a position before where I felt/saw that anything I can do on my sorcerer, I could do better on another class. So competing with the other classes in both PvE and PvP.

For example
My Friend who played a DK seemed to tank better with less effort.

Vampire form seemed simply better than werewolf form.

My self healing while in PvE was godly, seemed garbage in PvP.

The dual nature of magic and physical felt weaker than just going magic.

Heavy armor didn't seem terribly useful compared to light. (I like the look)

Those were some of the things I started to see when I got into the vet levels. And it's hard to judge now, because I'm so far behind the curve. Though what I see is that it may not have changed at all.

Ideally I would love to PvP tank, But I'm not sure how viable that is, and being a tanky spell sword is important to the character concept. I'm considering re rolling to a class that will be more viable in that position.

Or for someone to tell me that I'm wrong and point me in the direction of some sorcerer heavy armor PvP awesomeness. Basically I dont want to level a sorc to VR14 if a DK/Templar/NB will do it better.

May as well toss out my build.
PvP "tank"
PvE tank
*my sets are completely screwy, from back when everything was a 3peice bonus.

1) Fix your gear sets
2) Get to VR14, I wouldn't expect good results if I was fighting at VR2 against VR14. It's not about the small stat increase but the items that you get access to, and also the fact that VR14 players are less reluctant to upgrade all gear to epic/legendary.
3) You use a 2-handed sword, yet only have critical rush. Dual S&B would be better at this point.
4) Not a single S&B skill either, while you could use great single target stuns like power bash.
5) You build your tank like a DPS. Tanks don't need to have crit surge and so many DPS abilities on both bars. Get CC. Inner Light isn't needed for tanking either.
6) Use the werewolf ultimate for passive ult generation in PVE.
7) No need to put streak on both bars.

Just follow the list of skills I posted earlier for PVE.