PvE: MagNB vs Sorc

Hauztein · April 2016

Well, my question is about which is better for solo pve and arena, and dungeons. Also i would like to know if one of those is much better than the other, or not that much.

magNB had lots of heals and good passives.
sorc has ward...

Whats your opinion?

(i hate staffs, so i would use DW for more dmg)

STEVIL · April 2016

Played both, both with and without staves.
News summons get sorc healing on par with nb imo.

Both very viable imo and imx.

Neither op vs the other.

Zanen · April 2016

They're both very good.

Neither is going to be good for group pve dps without a staff on one bar though, there's too much damage and sustain coming from the weaving.

The staff will grow on you, I hated them for the longest time but now destro is my favorite weapon.

Anzriel · April 2016

In pve in maelstrom or solo a sorc will be better. In group content a NB will be better in AoE and longer fights, sorcerer single target shorter fights due to overload.

That being said you'll need at least one bar for staff weaves for your dps regardless. If you want to dps on a non-staff bar you'd need to go with magicka templar. Then you can just use a staff for your dots and then use jabs with duel wield. They're also pretty solid atm for pve dps.

Hauztein · April 2016

Zanen wrote: »

They're both very good.

Neither is going to be good for group pve dps without a staff on one bar though, there's too much damage and sustain coming from the weaving.

The staff will grow on you, I hated them for the longest time but now destro is my favorite weapon.

Hello! i would like to ask then, you just weave your staff or there is some staff skill that is mandatory for pve?
Whats in your bar? (sorc)

And a newb question: how can staf be better in dps than a crystal spam? Or you are just assuming that my magicka will deplete?

RebornV3x · April 2016

I like Sorcs cause they seem to have more survivability with wards and are more versatile if I need more AOEs Ill put on a destro staff
I like Weakness to elements (either morph) and Pulsar really nice.

STEVIL · April 2016

On your Crystal shards spam vs staff dps question.

As a former crystal spammer i can say that my dps went up ehen i dtarted running a weave of
Med attack
Force pulse (crush dhck whatever)
Repeat until cfrag instant cast for cheap kicks for one crystal shot)

The lack of delay btwn attacks plus never spending the full cast time on crystsl helped.

Ymmv

Lucky28 · April 2016

Hauztein wrote: »

Zanen wrote: »

They're both very good.

Neither is going to be good for group pve dps without a staff on one bar though, there's too much damage and sustain coming from the weaving.

The staff will grow on you, I hated them for the longest time but now destro is my favorite weapon.

Hello! i would like to ask then, you just weave your staff or there is some staff skill that is mandatory for pve?
Whats in your bar? (sorc)

And a newb question: how can staf be better in dps than a crystal spam? Or you are just assuming that my magicka will deplete?

Destruction staff bar:
1. Endless fury
2. Crystal Fragments
3. Crushing shock
4. Degeneration
5. hardened ward

Ult: meteor (max Magicka and magicka regen from mages guild passives)

Dual wield:
1. Streak
2. Boundless storm
3. liquid lightning
4. Power surge
5. harness magicka

Ult: overload

Overload bar.

1. Degeneration
2. Crystall fragments
3. inner light
4. streak
5. hardened ward

Sorc is probably the hardest class to play early in the game because it takes a long time to unlock their core abilities (streak and hardened ward) End game they are really good tho.

PS. Don't spam crystal fragments. the best DPS from a Sorc comes from using your abilities in a rotation with empowerment from mages guild passives.

Zanen · April 2016

Hauztein wrote: »

Zanen wrote: »

They're both very good.

Neither is going to be good for group pve dps without a staff on one bar though, there's too much damage and sustain coming from the weaving.

The staff will grow on you, I hated them for the longest time but now destro is my favorite weapon.

Hello! i would like to ask then, you just weave your staff or there is some staff skill that is mandatory for pve?
Whats in your bar? (sorc)

And a newb question: how can staf be better in dps than a crystal spam? Or you are just assuming that my magicka will deplete?

Sorc pve dps is keeping liquid lightning, surge and ward up while weaving medium attack and force pulse to proc frags. When you get low on magicka you use overload, and use your execute. Because you get so much benefit from max magicka running bound aegis and inner light on both bars is superior so the build is very static and the meta is extremely strong.

NB pve dps is weaving medium attack with debilitate, funnel , path, wall of elements, and merciless resolve plus sap in trash and execute when appropriate. The rotation varies more, you provide more support to your group from all the siphoning, but it's less forgiving without the ward.

NB is more dps outside of overload and has more AOE, (liquid lightning is very good but wall, path and sap together is better) but overload can be banked and will get you a long way with good management.

I personally prefer the way NB plays, but they're both very strong and have interesting abilities.

Crystal frags should never be hardcast, weaving basically doubles your attack rate and dramatically increases dps and reduces the magicka cost of a given amount of damage done.

Oreyn_Bearclaw · April 2016

If you are really trying to solo, I am going to give the edge to Magic Sorc. The shield is just too good, and people are soloing crazy things with pet builds. Both magic sorc and NB are going to be dependent on a staff, but it really is the best weapon in the game for most scenarios. The weave from your staff is a huge component of DPS for both classes, which is not compensated for if you run swords for more spell damage. The only magic class that is viable with DW on your front bar is Templar as stated above, but I think some of them are starting to run staff as well after the recent CP changes. Both Sorc and NBs will run DW on their back bar for buffs and execute.

If I could only chose one, I would probably go with a Magic NB. I have 4 v16 toons, and finally decided I needed a second NB that is a magic race. Even on a stam race, a magic NB is really good. They are super mobile, very sustainable, and do high sustained DPS in PvE and ridiculous burst in PvP.

A few things to compare:

For Single Target DPS, Sorcs will pull better on a short fight with overload. If your overload is full, you can do REALLY high DPS for about 45 seconds with only a few buttons. 45 seconds is longer than a vast majority of boss fights, but you are likely only going to get 1 or 2 overload bursts per dungeon. Without overload, Magic Sorc DPS is very average. NBs have great ranged DPS 24/7. A lot of the best sorcs are going away from overload in the new trial. Some are pulling Magic NB numbers without it, but I think it's much harder to do.

For AoE DPS, NBs win. Not much else to say. Sap Essence is a the best magic AoE skill in game.

For VMA, Sorc is a touch easier, but the gap between magic Sorc and NB is really small. There are certain rounds that I like better on one class vs the other. Generally, I would say non-boss rounds are easier on a NB (better damage and heals) and boss rounds are easier on a Sorc (assuming you saved your overload).

For PvP, its really a playstyle preference more than anything. Magic Sorc and NB are probably the most powerful classes at the moment. NBs can be a little more in your face with Lotus Fan and Concealed weapon or go range with Funnel Health. They have great burst, and can vanish in an instant if the fight goes wrong. Sorcs generally play a little more ranged, despite having huge shields. They can take a ton of damage, and also have the ability to streak away if the fight is going bad. Their burst damage is a little harder to time in my opinion, but very good. I would perhaps give the edge to Sorcs for 1VX (solo play) and NBs for group play.

Flexibility: I think the current Meta for Sorcs is a little more set in stone. In PvE you really need to run double toggle, so there isnt much room on your bars. The silver lining is that you get a third bar with overload, but in reality, your overload bar usually looks a lot like your DW bar. NBs have a little more flexibility, but there is also a pretty established meta if you are going for straight DPS. I think they are far more flexible in PvP. You can certainly run DW on your PvP front bar with a NB. You can do it with a sorc as well, but it is much harder and you are relying on frag procs and timing a curse to do any real damage.