Breton Sorcerer DPS Survivability

magnusthorek · January 2016

TL;DR Title <_<

A little while ago I came here exploding in rage about how useless my sorcerer was at the point I wasn't able to finish most of veteran dungeons.

With the awesome tips and guidance I received, despite my stupid and out of purpose cockiness, I improved A LOT, so much that now not only I can beat Valkyn Skoria, the purpose of that old topic, but also the new ones, Molag Kena and Lord Warden, even in veteran mode.

However, except for the hardcoded movements created specifically to OHKO us, like Lord Warden's mega blast, I'm still very fragile at the point of not being able to achieve the no-death achievements in IC dungeons (well, at least the one from WGT, which easier than ICP)

As Magicka user all my points are on Magicka to increase my pool as much as possible. Currently I have 33k and it's not enough, even using Orzorga's Red Frothgar that roughly doubles my Magicka Regeneration.

My HP, thanks to Undaunted Mettle and the mentioned food, is around 16k plus close to 20k of shields (assuming I did the math properly - 33% more the value mentioned of pet shields).

And I just can't survive if I want to dish the most of damage because sorcerer's strongest AoEs, as far as I know, are Liquid Lightning in the beginning of the fight followed by Elemental Ring/Pulsar. But even with all this protection, if I jump in the middle of a group of mobs to start spamming ER/Pulsar, I die, because the shields are not strong enough and the health... meh

As a result, I hold down the team, experienced players that even finished VMA, at the point of in the middle of fight, they stop attacking/tanking/healing to come to me and before rez, perform some sort of disrespectful action, like squat over my head or play the broom emote where I died.

Like I probably said in other topics, I don't recall, I don't have the physical abilities to move that fast to dodge a powerful attack (and the ridiculous stamina cost of dodge/break free doesn't help). My hands, fingers and wrists are not what they used to be, although I'm not an old man, so I have to rely on the shields but it's not being enough and the tendency is to get worse with future DLCs or future dungeons.

Hell... I couldn't even survive the first final boss of VMA without being vaporized. Two hits of those Nerien'eth look-a-like little skulls and my shields are down and before I can raise it again (because this "instant move" is hell not instant) and these milliseconds were enough to the whole pack of mobs kill me in two more hits

failkiwib16_ESO · January 2016

You could try to play with different groups, get new friends you can try those dungeons with, improve yourself slowly as well ...nobody can change within 20 minutes from good to godlike, but it is possible to make tiny steps of improvements.

Ask the healer to slot Elemental Drain for you, and use it on bosses - so you don't run out of resources. This way you can change your buff food to blue quality that provides max magicka/ health. This will increase your damage and max magicka.

Inner light, structured entrophy, bound aegis all increase your max magicka as well, however they are toggle skills ...so be careful with slotting these.

Once you have met new friends, and played with different groups ... take out the group that you synergize best with, and gather a full team. Pay a v1 500g to downscale the dungeon for you, get no death achievement that way ...

Johngo0036 · January 2016

I run hardened ward on the same bar as elemental ring,
reason for that is i streak into the mob with shields up,

elemental ring a few times and then recast hardened ward....

running out of magicka shows that maybe you need to drop some spell damage for regen on your gear,
or maybe change your mundus..

Thelon · January 2016

Switch to blue VR 15 food that gives Max health and Max magicka. It will improve both your damage and survivability.

Nestor · January 2016

magnusthorek wrote: »

TL;DR Title <_<

And I just can't survive if I want to dish the most of damage because sorcerer's strongest AoEs, as far as I know, are Liquid Lightning in the beginning of the fight followed by Elemental Ring/Pulsar. But even with all this protection, if I jump in the middle of a group of mobs to start spamming ER/Pulsar, I die, because the shields are not strong enough and the health... meh

Maybe a change in tactics. When ever I treat my Sorcerer like a Tank she gets real squishy. Also, since reaching VR16, I traded out my Syrbane/Seducer/Torugs gear for regen to Julianos/Torugs/Adroit for a focus on Spell Damage. My DPS is up about 80% from before, but I run out of magic now in boss fights. I used to never run out. However using more Light/Heavy Attack weaving I can preserve my resources longer.

However, I never get into the middle of the mob groups anymore, unless I am running through to give off a couple of Pulsars. However most of my attacks are now a weave of Light/Heavy attacks with Force Pulse. I keep Hardened Ward up and have relearned how to block.

So, to sum up, if your a Sorcerer, attack from Range and keep your Hardened Ward up.

Now, when I want to tank, I use a back bar with Hardened Ward, Boundless Storm, and either Annulment or Immovable. I bring up all 3 of those shields, switch to my main bar and wade in. As long as I can take down the mobs before my shields drop, nothing kills me. But, if my shields drop, I scurry back into the the fringes of the battle and attack from there. It might help to use Bolt Escape on your main or back bar to get away from the mobs.