Yeah there is a bit of a jump in difficulty once you hit the VR areas. By VR1 you've hopefully unlocked all of your class abilities at least? You'll probably want to look at using Hardened Ward from the Daedric Tree to help with survivability (assuming your a magicka sorcerer). Otherwise try using pets to help keep the mobs busy while you nuke them.

Otherwise - encase can help keep enemies at bay. For ranged opponents consider either using rune to keep them busy while you deal with the melee first (can be difficult if you use pets) or fight them up close so you can interrupt their charging up attacks.

Alternatively, use Desturction staff's force shock to interrupt and a Restoration staff to heal yourself. Reallocating points into health might also help survivability until you've levelled up further.

I'm 1 rank away from having conjured ward, I usually play with a group of friends and we have one of each class and I've never really needed a healing spell for myself before. And I don't normally use the pets. I use endless fury, shattering prison, crystal frag, pulsar, force shock, and atronach on one bar. Boundless storm, power surge, magelight, elemental weakness (magicka recovery) force shock and overload on the other. I thought about putting all attribute points into health.

It's because veteran monsters are significantly stronger than non vet monster. I had these issues when I hit vet1 and I think most people did.

You will get used to it very very fast, don't worry.

And they've been nerfed alot since release. Oh I'm sure some of us out there can remember how hard they hit before. Good times.

I appreciate the advice everyone, from what I've heard hardened ward is a game changer and I'm super close to having it.

MMick90 wrote: »

I also love using the Pulsar to lower enemies health, is it worth giving up for lightning flood?

I cannot tell you how many world bosses I couldn't kill as a glass cannon low VR until some sorc would wander by & pulsar them for me.
I'd give my right arm for that ability as a stamblade.

Played three chars up to vet ranks, Sorc V16, NB v16 and DK V3. And I have to say I don't understand why people have problems with vet ranked monsters. 1-2 months after release I would have understood it, then vet ranked monsters were hard. But since then they nerfed them quite a bit.

So after I made a few people feel bad, a little help
Regulary update your gear. Crafted gear is quite sufficient during leveling. Magicka Sorc wants a combination of: Seducer, Magnus, Eye of Mara (maybe not an option for you because you need 8 traits researched for this). Personally I prefer 4 Magnus (5 if DW/Sword/Shield) and 4 Eye of Mara.
Slot at least 1 defensive Skill, Conjured Ward (morph to Hardened Ward, the other is completely useless now) is mentioned quite often.
BLOCK, yes even with the now "no stam-regen during block" this still helps. Especially since you say you play with friends with each class being represented. Tell your Templar to slot Repentence (is this the right name?) so he can give everyone in the group stamina back after killing a mob-group.
Forget Surge as a Selfheal, it's only useful as such if you use Overload. But it is still useful as a 30 sec damage buff.
Atronach is only useful as a singletarget ulti. If you morphed it for AoE-Damage, reverse this as soon as possible. Dawnbreaker, Meteor (you probably won't have them yet) and Negate are way more useful againts groups.
As already mentioned: Bufffood, more than 3k extra health and magicka is really worth it.
Start using both bars to fight. Here is what I use (in Vet-Dungeons, DSA, Trials so I guess it will suffice for low vet):
1. bar: Crushing Shock, Crystal Fragments, Liquid Lightning, Bound Aegis, Inner Light, Overload
2. bar: Pulsar, Boundless Storm, Hardened Ward, Bound Aegis, Inner Light, Meteor
Of course you can switch Bound Aegis with other things.

MMick90 wrote: »

I also love using the Pulsar to lower enemies health, is it worth giving up for lightning flood?

I recommended lightning flood as an alternative to pulsar to allow you do DPS groups without being in close (to help with survivability until you get hardened ward). Ideally you'd want both pulsar and liquid lightning (and shattering prison) for taking on groups of mobs. Drop prison, lightning and then pulsar until dead. I also throw elemental wall in for a bit of extra damage but a lot of people don't think it's worth the slot.

Tadhg_Longhouse wrote: »

Flaminir wrote: »

The only thing I would possibly disagree on is that I do now think Surge is worth it.... I wouldn't rely on it 100%, but since the buffs to it in the imperial city patch it is actually useful again and I've noticed the healing significantly.

If you have the 30 CP in Apprentice for extra crit then yes Surge becomes more viable as a self heal, but at VR1 you're not going to have that (unless it's an alt). Personally, Rapid Regen or Mutagen would be a better preventative heal. Put it on your second bar with Hardened ward to be cast at the start of combat and you (and your friends) have reliable extra health without needing to worry about how often you crit.

I agree that you need to have the extra 20% spellpower from either Surge or Entropy though, so consider keeping Surge on your second bar just for the spell power, but I don't think at VR1 it is reliable for healing.

I'm not suggesting Surge as a sole self heal.

It's never good enough for that... but as an extra measure in addition to the other bits & bobs in the thread it's a very helpful skill.

I've tested it since IC patch again and the buffs def helped.

The main difference between non-vet and vet is that you can facetank everything in non-vet, but not afterwards. Instead of surviving an attack, you now need to make sure you don't get hit.

Others have already mentioned CC abilities you could employ (encase, e.g.) now you need the second part, which is mobility. Either you use Bolt Escape or some kind of movement speed enhancement, to stay at range. Combine CC and mobility to separate the enemies out so you can focus down one after the other.

Usually, as magicka sorc, the ranged attackers are highest priority, that or the healers. Remove those first, then go after the others. Always prioritize the more squishy targets since that allows you to quicker reduce the total incoming damage.

Your bars are stacked full with offensive spells but severely lack defensive abilities. That itself is your biggest.mistake. You need two or three direct damage spells over both bars, the rest should be defensive in nature. As the best killers say: kill efficiently, not fancy. Fancy will just get you killed.

Do not underestimate the use of your off spec stat. If you are a magicka sorc, a certain amount of stamina will allow you to include dodge roll into your defenses. The other way around for stamina builds. Blue food bolstering both magicka & stamina, is a good way to get that.

Veteran stages are when you stop running around and start using what is there. Get your alchemy and provisioning skills up to par, use pots and food always. It is also time to get some stuff crafted instead of picking things up. A white set item is worth more than a purple drop item, the set bonuses are that good.

I do hope you have heavily invested in passives. It is better to have less active skills (only those you do use) and instead have the passives completed, their help is not apparent from their tooltips but in general they are very very powerful.

Use different setups for different purposes. If running in a group, you need other skills than for running solo, another set comes in for grinding, at the least. Unlock the active abilities used for the most commonly used build first, then spend additional skillpoints to unlock the active abilities used in other builds once you have surplus.

Just some pointers, but maybe there is something helpful inside that "lecture". I'm sure most is just a repeat or things you already knew, but then, better to repeat than to omit.

Level up Encase. Use fire destro staff.
AoE:
1.Fire Ring\Fire Pulsar
2.Liquid Lighting
3.Encase\Shattering Prison
4.Empowered Ward
5.Inner Light.
Cast Ward.
Cast Encase to root 2-3 enemies(they like to scatter)
Cast LL under their feets.
Spam Fire Pulsar\Ring.
PROFIT!
One target:
1.Force Pulse(more damage than crushing shock)
2.Crystal Frag
3.Entropy\Power Surge
4.Lighting Form
5.Inner Light

Use Energy Overload for 3rd bar. It's fantastic for world bosses.
EO bar:
1.Clannfear
2.Crystal Shard
3.Entropy\Power Surge
4.Empowered Ward
5.Inner Light

Use crafted 5-pieces Seducer Set.

MMick90 wrote: »

Bar one is Lightning flood (extra duration, cant remember the name exactly), restraining prison because I'd rather slow them down then do a little bit of damage, crystal frag for the instant cast, inner light, crushing shock and greater storm atronach.

Bar two is a bit more flexible, endless fury, conjured ward (just unlocked it yesterday) inner light, elemental weakness (the morph that restores magicka) and crushing shock, the combo with these two keeps my magicka up pretty well. Overload for the ultimate.

I'm trying to find a way to work in boundless storm and power surge but I've still done pretty well without them.
I've got all the passives I need on my power trees, light armor, high elf passives, etc.

Any recommendations on other ultimate's? I know someone mentioned negate but I've only used it a few times when I first played the game. Atronach seems super handy to me, overload is great because you can bank up ultimate and use it forever. Is soul strike worth it?

And I don't mind any "lecture", I'm open to all suggestions, and again thanks a lot guys, all this info is super helpful.

Sounds like you've made a great leap forward which is excellent, well done!

BARS: The only 1 major change to those bars that I'd make 100 times out of 100 is that you don't need crushing shock on both bars..... but you DO need either Entropy or Surge for the major sorcery buff.

I know you say you're doing pretty well without... but imagine increasing your spell damage by 20% instantly! Thats what they do.... which as you go through vet areas you are going to need the extra damage to take the mobs down so best to get going with it ASAP. Given the problems staying alive I'd recommend Surge as it will also gives you some extra healing and lasts a good amount of time now (30+secs per cast). Pop it on your Bar2 in place of crushing shock.

ULTIMATES: Worth playing with Negate and levelling it up..... as per my post above, having 1 defensive ulti & 1 offensive one is a good balance. TBH the only other good defensive ulti is probably barrier from the alliance war tree which you probably don't have access to yet.

If you don't want to use Negate, and don't have access to barrier, and want to go full offensive on ultimates then the other best two are Meteor (Mages Guild) and Dawnbreaker (Fighters Guild) if you have access to these.

Soul assault isn't that great tbh... it gives you relatively low dps compared to what you can achieve with others, and leaves you vulnerable for several seconds that you can't do anything.

Ok, try such hints
1. Mix armor = Heavy chest, med legs, 5 light. This still keeps your mail light armour buff but adds more armour and spell resist (And when you unlock undawnted bonus it gives you attr pools buff).
2. Do not put all stats to health, the more magika you have the more dmg you do, the more heal you get with surge (and harder ward shield also), its better to have more resistances them more HP
3. Use bound aegis, it gives you resistances and buffs mana pool (= extra dmg with spells)
4. Keep boundless storm up, greate resistance buffs, speed buffs and good shock AoE dmg

Hmm, a few things:

Restoration Staff: I think outside of Cyrodiil it isn't really worth it. Hardened Ward and a healer in the group make it unnecessary in my opinion. Except if I know I have to provide offheals in a Trial-run. BUT it is a really good idea to level it because it is useful in Cyrodiil and you never know if you will maybe need it one day.

Ultimates: Energy Overload is the most awesome Ulti in this game (at least in my opinion ). As a more defensiv option Negate is very useful, but normaly a Nova from a Templar and/or a Veil from a Nightblade are better options.

Crushing Shock: If you prefer Crushing Shock over Force Pulse I won't say anything against this because I honestly don't know what is better. The interrupt is nice but the increased damage + AoE damage is nice too. Would really like it to have both.

Provisioning: Loot every container you find. If you don't want to steal then try it in dungoens. The "normal" dungeons, public dungeons and group dungeons have sooo many containers it isn't even funny. Once you leveled it high enough to skill the hireling any problems with to few ingredients will be a thing of the past. And do the crafting daily every day. You get recipes and more ingredients than you will know what to do with them. I have two chars with maxed provisioning and I get way to many ingredients. If you and your friends work together it will be quite easy.

wow. this is the one of the most helpful threads I have read! I have a ranged stamina sorc, Redguard. I'm still tweaking it. Question: does the mez morph that prevents aoe dmg also apply to dmg over time from bow skill volley? Can I do a volley and LL? I would like advie on my bar at lvl 22: I have poison arrow, V Curse(may switch to silver bolts), encase, volley, and c fragments (instant) - so far so good. However, I'm still playing with second bar. I would lke for it to be more cc, support type with protection from magic like absorb shield and buffs.

What works for ranged stam sorc?