thanks i'll take a look now i'm fairly new to the game so i find it difficult to find teams to grind with otherwise i would be up for trying for the molag kena set

hey what traits and mundus stone should i run on my gear? thanks for the help btw really helping me out

I think the word "new" doesn't accurately describe a v16 with over 100 CP and engine guardian.

Im envious! Im not "new" and have no monster drops grr lol

Why suggest theif? The increase to crit rating isn't as great, esp with julianos? Im just wondering out loud. Wouldn't one of the other's (max magicka, magicka regen) better?

Flaminir wrote: »

Another tip.... for top DPS you HAVE to run both inner light & Bound Aegis on both bars.

Between the skills and the passives this gives you:

15% extra max magicka
10% spell crit
2% magicka recovery
2% spell damage
A bit of extra armor/spell resist.

I know that it reduces the number of slots... but sadly there's no other way. Nothing you put in those slots will have the same effect as these.

Personally I run:

Fire destro:

Crushing shock
Frags
Pulsar
Bound Aegis
Inner light
(Meteor - I don't use it... but the extra 2% magicka & regen from the mages guild passives are nice on my main bar)

Dual wield

Liquid lightning
Power Surge
Hardened ward
Aegis
Inner light
(Overload - the only ulti you need as a dps!)

For single target boss fights I swap liquid lightning with pulsar... drop pulsar, and then put mages wrath on my dual wield bar.

Rotation being: Surge (For spell power buff), drop liquid lightning, medium weave staff attacks with crushing shock until frags gets an insta-cast.... and keep repeating & rebuffing surge when you need, and keep liquid L'ning up 100%.

Personally.... I don't like Molag Kena... overated I think.... its a pain to use, and the cost increase makes it a problem sometimes. I find Nerien'eth actually works better as you don't have any resource issues.

This is pretty good, I usually run something similar but I'd swap Pulsar for liquid Lightning on bosses and force pulse for liquid Lightning for group pulls.

I would also swap hardened ward for endless fury and stack into spell cost reduction in your champion points.
Also swap bound Aegis for hardened ward and boundless storm, if you can get close to the boss.

Waffennacht wrote: »

Why suggest theif? The increase to crit rating isn't as great, esp with julianos? Im just wondering out loud. Wouldn't one of the other's (max magicka, magicka regen) better?

It all depends on how many CP you have and whether you've unlocked Spell Precision in the Apprentice constellation. Right now with my new Altmer sitting at level 10 with a full set of Julianos, using Magelight along with Thief Mundus, I'm only hitting 39% Spell Crit Rating. If I dropped Thief, I'd be down to about 27% Spell Crit.

Once I get my Light armor leveled and unlock Prodigy, I should be a bit over 50% Spell Critical... and then when I get enough CP to unlock Spell Precision in the Apprentice constellation, I'll have more options to either switch mundus to Shadow for increased Critical Damage or Apprentice for additional Spell Damage. But right now, it is much better for me to run Thief and gain the 12% Critical.

I've also heard that most Sorcs these days run Thief or Apprentice but rarely are they using Mage or Atronach anymore. But I'm sure that also depends on your Race and whether you have racial passives which benefit Magicka or not.

UPDATE: As noted below, here and here, it is better to stick with Thief which appears to give the best damage output overall. The long standing "50%" rule is apparently outdated thanks to recent game updates.

Bnec wrote: »

also i cannot find any arch mage with divines trait anywhere , dont really want to use infused -.-

I believe I have 2 pieces of v16 arch mage with devines. Was rewarded though, through a tier 3 end of campaign reward from pvp.

1. Don't worry at all about Archmage. It's by no means the strongest end game stuff.... There is a very simple template... Willpower jewellery, a 5 piece set, a monster set for head/shoulders, nirnhoned crafted staff & nirnhoned crafted dual wield on backbar.

Julianos is often used as the 5 piece... and monster sets... Molag Kena or Nerien'eth. As I said above, I think Nerien'eth is my personal fave as it doesn't cripple your resources.

If you need something quick & simple if you don't have a decent monster set yet then craft some Magnus. this has a couple of good buffs... and when combined with dual wield on a back/.execute bar will also increase spell damage.

If you have a single piece of molag Kena though then use it for the spell power and magnus for the other couple of bits.

2. Dual wield is the highest spell damage setup (& the final twin blade & blunt passive also increases your damage).... thats why most use it... BUT there is no spammable and weavable magicka dps skill that works with it with it, so most use an inferno staff on the main bar so they can use force pulse, then dual wield on the back bar, and put your execute there. The added spell damage will make it stronger that way.

3. CP - In blue you want to work towards the 'Spell Precision' passive. This gives 12% extra crit. SO stack everything initially into elemental expert... almost all your damage is elemental so this provides the most benefit at the start. Once you've got spell precision and have quite a few CP & higher crit then you can start putting some into Elfborn... this will increase your crit damage, but is more worthwhile as your crit increases.

For the green section... stack into cost reduction to start with. Then as this gets quite high then add a few into magicka regen.

Red - No right/wrong here... bastion is good for the size of your shield though.

4. Mundus... Go thief every time. This is the highest DPS stone at the minute. In the last major update they buffed it so with full V16 divines gear this now gives about 17% extra crit. The spell damage stone is actually far far weaker by comparison. As is max magicka or regen. There is a case for using shadow if your crit is crazy high anyway (kind of around 70%)... but use thief and you won't go wrong.

Emma_Eunjung wrote: »

Don't know why people are recommending Thief in all situations, when Shadow was proven ages ago to deliver higher DPS when your crit is already above 50%. If your crit is BELOW 50%, then of course you should go with Thief.

Except this isn't true because your missing the other major part of the equation so quit repeating this everywhere.

If your Crit is 50% and your Crit Damage is 50% an 11% increase to your Crit increases your overall DPS by 4.4%
A 12% increase to your crit damage increases your overall DPS by 4.8%

If your Crit is 50% and your Crit damage is 69% like mine then an 11% increase to your Crit increases your overall DPS by 5.64%
A 12% increase to my crit damage increases my overall DPS by 4.46%

Once you start putting CPs into Elfborn, Thief becomes more powerful and shadow becomes less powerful.

Additionally reaching over 50% crit without using Theif isn't all that easy. I'm using Julianos and magelight and use Thief with 7 Divines and my crit percentage is only 64.2%. Without Theif I'm about 1% under it. Unless you're using Thief it's just not that easy for most people to stay above 50% crit without chugging spellpower pots.

Emma_Eunjung wrote: »

Don't know why people are recommending Thief in all situations, when Shadow was proven ages ago to deliver higher DPS when your crit is already above 50%. If your crit is BELOW 50%, then of course you should go with Thief.

The 50% rule isn't accurate anymore. It's what your crit damage is in relation to your crit chance. I don't remember the exact numbers but for most people you'll get the best bang for your buck from thief mundus.

As for above if you don't want to death with resource issues Nerienth isn't a bad options either. You'll do perfectly well with Nerienth if, for instance, you don't normally group up with a healer popping orbs and elemental drain.

You should definitely listen to what Flaminir said. Finally someone that knows what they're talking about instead of the usual village idiots showing up posting nonsense.

The only thing I'd like to contribute is in relation to what Flammy does when he's swapping in Mage's Wrath. I would try to keep all my high hitting damage things on that dual wield bar as they do 5% more damage. As such I would move Power Surge over to the Destro bar for Pulsar and keep Liquid Lightning and Mage's Wrath happily on the DW bar.

At the end of the day though this is extremely minor and if you hit some weapon swap lag (which sadly is a valid and real concern) it might end up completely moot point.

I would like to also point out that many Sorcs employ the thief stone because of Power Surge. I like my crit in the 65% range so that I don't need to actually use hardened ward all the time. I can much more "dependably" heal myself off my own crits. Less casts of ward = more casts of damage = higher dps.

Please also correct me if I'm wrong but I do believe potions provide the "major" variations of the buffs (Major Prophecy for example here with spell crit) and as such would not give you any benefit while running Inner light (same 10% buff).

Trihugger wrote: »

You should definitely listen to what Flaminir said. Finally someone that knows what they're talking about instead of the usual village idiots showing up posting nonsense.

The only thing I'd like to contribute is in relation to what Flammy does when he's swapping in Mage's Wrath. I would try to keep all my high hitting damage things on that dual wield bar as they do 5% more damage. As such I would move Power Surge over to the Destro bar for Pulsar and keep Liquid Lightning and Mage's Wrath happily on the DW bar.

At the end of the day though this is extremely minor and if you hit some weapon swap lag (which sadly is a valid and real concern) it might end up completely moot point.

I would like to also point out that many Sorcs employ the thief stone because of Power Surge. I like my crit in the 65% range so that I don't need to actually use hardened ward all the time. I can much more "dependably" heal myself off my own crits. Less casts of ward = more casts of damage = higher dps.

Please also correct me if I'm wrong but I do believe potions provide the "major" variations of the buffs (Major Prophecy for example here with spell crit) and as such would not give you any benefit while running Inner light (same 10% buff).

hey man you wouldnt mind posting you gear and build would you ?

nice guide man , was a informative read