Dominating PvP and PvE...AS A SORC!

gamerguy757 · June 2016

That's right! Even after the patch, and numerous experiments and calculations, I just made a sorc build that is actually surviving fights and vMA!
1. DROP THE JULIANOS!!!!!
2. DROP THE KENA!
3. DROP THE TORUGS!

Here's my build I'm using:
5x Kagrenacs (4 Light Armor [Divines], 1 Inferno Staff [Sharpened], 1 Restoration Staff [Infused])
3x Succession (3 Light Armor [Divines])
3x Willpower

All gear is purple (I'm saving my wax), enchanted with REPORA MAKKO KUTA.
Inferno Staff is enchanted with Shock
Rest staff is enchanted with Disease
Atronach

Max Magicka: 38.9K
Spell Damage (unbuffed): 2311
Spell Damage (buffed): 2800
Magicka Recovery: 1700

Inferno Bar (PvE; PvP skills will be in [ ] )
Degeneration [Velocious Curse]
Force Pulse
Crystal Frag
Dampen Magic
Hardened Ward
ENERGY OVERLOAD

Resto Bar
Streak
Liquid Lightning [Daedric Mines]
Dark Conversion [Degeneration]
Healing Ward
Defensive Rune [Restraining Prison or keep]
ICE COMET

OVERLOAD
Streak
Radiant Magelight (for those pesky invisible)
Crystal Frag
Mage's Wrath
Hardened Ward

The shield stacking from bar 1 gives you around a 20k damage shield in PvP, 40k in PvE. The combo of rune prison/restraining prison, healing ward and streak, with the high magic recovery, you can keep shields up, and run from fights you just can't win.

THEDKEXPERIENCE · June 2016

Stop the madness! How dare you think out of the box and not furiously complain without substantial evidence! Your logic has no place here! Somebody grab my pitchfork! Rabble, rabble, rabble!

In all seriousness great work. I'm a big fan of the 2 staff approach. My only suggestion would be to lower your recovery to about 1000 so you can get some extra magic or spell power. The staff heavy attacks are great ways to compensate for low recovery.

Moglijuana · June 2016

OMG, a smart sorc! Cheers mate! Glad to see you're still wrecking =D

gamerguy757 · June 2016

@danielpatrickkeaneub17_ESO ...THANK YOU. After a crappy day at work, your comment made my day.

But really, the 1000 recovery is what my last build had, and even though it hit hard, i couldn't cast shields often enough (i tested this post patch) and kept dying. So i switch it to a more recovery build, and i utilize trickery/CCs to pin down my foes and actually...here's the kicker... I USE OVERLOAD AS AN EXECUTE. Once they get slammed by a frag and hit with restraining prison (remember, Immovability is not the same as CC), i can hit them with 3 Overloads and boom done.

Wollust · June 2016

Kagrenac, Willpower and three pieces succession, magnus, seducer, archmage is the meta build since IC patch though.

(for PvP that is)

Flaminir · June 2016

Looks like a good pvp build... but I'd question the comment about dominating PvE....

Those stats don't come close to a competitive end game PvE build.

Cuyler · June 2016

I get that a lot of the Sorc threads are just overreactions, but there are legitimate concerns with Sorc balance atm too. I don't find it beneficial to pretend they are dominating anything if in fact they aren't, seeing it as detrimental to class balancing. So I have to ask:

What are you dominating exactly? Leaderboards? Dps #s? PvP K:D ratios? Squirrels?

The build seems pretty straight forward vMA/PvP meta.

tist · June 2016

5 kag/2 engine guardian/3 willpower/ maelstrom staff going to be my setup

Vinther · June 2016

At least use spell power buff on one of the staves, duh

Capsaica · June 2016

Cuyler wrote: »

What are you dominating exactly? Leaderboards? Dps #s? PvP K:D ratios? Squirrels?

The squirrels must be dominated. Otherwise they will rise up and steal your nuts. I'm not a guy, but I'm thinking that would be bad...

On the actual topic, I know nothing about playing a sorc, but that seems like a reasonably solid magicka build. Surprised at the lack of a negate in PvP, but to each his own.

gamerguy757 · June 2016

Vinther wrote: »

At least use spell power buff on one of the staves, duh

I do bro. It's Degeneration. Gives Major Sorcery and gives a 15% chance to heal you for all weapon damage caused.

Pallio · June 2016

Dominating? As in better than any other class/build? Really? Better than NB in pvp, or this OP Jesus Beam everyone likes to cry about? Better dps in PvE end game groups/trials?

Or did you change up a few things and found a way to get by, even with a less effective class?

Archmage1 · June 2016

Even with this set up Sorcs are nowhere near dominating. Maybe surviving a bit longer, but nowhere near the domination of other classes in both PvP and PvE.

Waffennacht · June 2016

I'm glad you are enjoying your sorc.

Many people have said sorcs are viable, and it's true. And guess what? Your build, because we have no choice, is about 10% different than any other magicka sorc.

Krag or Julianos have both always been recommended for PvP.

You x3 Succession is also: x3 Arch, x3 overwhelming x3 Evea or whatever. It's max magicka and spell damage, I think VD also has those 2 for the first two traits.

I'm not bringing you down, just explaining how magicka sorcs are pigeonholed.

Congratulations on kicking butt!

Oreyn_Bearclaw · June 2016

Like it for PVP, for PVE, I dont see how anything really changed. For pure DPS, they didnt change any of my skills. For VMA, i switched to empowered ward and cant tell a ton of difference. Surge is nerfed in my eyes, but its not the end of the world. For VMA, i wouldnt run kags personally. I still believe a glass cannon is the way to go in there. The best defense is often a good offense. I have been testing 5 TBS, 2 kena, and 5 Elegant with maelstrom destro staff. Your staff DPS takes a very small hit, but man does your overload hit hard.

Flaminir · June 2016

gamerguy757 wrote: »

Vinther wrote: »

At least use spell power buff on one of the staves, duh

I do bro. It's Degeneration. Gives Major Sorcery and gives a 15% chance to heal you for all weapon damage caused.

@gamerguy757 That's not what he meant... he's not talking about major sorcery.

In the DB patch weapon enchants were buffed a LOT.... .also the 'power' enchant which used to only provide a weapon power buff now provides spell power too.... when you add in all the various % boosts to it, it comes out at well over 400 extra spell power.

It's so big that nearly every end game magicka build uses these... they are so much stronger than anything else for the vast majority of builds.

Cuyler · June 2016

Capsaica wrote: »

Cuyler wrote: »

What are you dominating exactly? Leaderboards? Dps #s? PvP K:D ratios? Squirrels?

The squirrels must be dominated.

@Capsaica QFT

Makkir · June 2016

I think he's talking about a build that will work for both PvP and PvE without having to gear change/CPs/Morphs etc.

gamerguy757 · June 2016

Oh crap I completely forgot that increase weapon damage enchant worked for spell damage. Well I have over 50 Kutas, so I guess I'll make a new enchant.

The_Great_Maldini · June 2016

gamerguy757 wrote: »

Vinther wrote: »

At least use spell power buff on one of the staves, duh

I do bro. It's Degeneration. Gives Major Sorcery and gives a 15% chance to heal you for all weapon damage caused.

He was talking about the Spell Power glyph enchantment.

The_Great_Maldini · June 2016

Flaminir wrote: »

gamerguy757 wrote: »

Vinther wrote: »

At least use spell power buff on one of the staves, duh

I do bro. It's Degeneration. Gives Major Sorcery and gives a 15% chance to heal you for all weapon damage caused.

@gamerguy757 That's not what he meant... he's not talking about major sorcery.

In the DB patch weapon enchants were buffed a LOT.... .also the 'power' enchant which used to only provide a weapon power buff now provides spell power too.... when you add in all the various % boosts to it, it comes out at well over 400 extra spell power.

It's so big that nearly every end game magicka build uses these... they are so much stronger than anything else for the vast majority of builds.

Nirnhoned is still good on staves in PvP with all the rampant crit resistance.

gamerguy757 · June 2016

yeah I totally get what you guys are saying. I'm farming now to replace the 3x Succession for 3x Spell Power for the 1900 extra magic...

The_Great_Maldini · June 2016

gamerguy757 wrote: »

yeah I totally get what you guys are saying. I'm farming now to replace the 3x Succession for 3x Spell Power for the 1900 extra magic...

Personally I really like running 5x Kags, 5x VD, 1 Kena. The VD helps with ball groups on which I use Curse, Negate and channeled lightning staff.

Yolokin_Swagonborn · June 2016

So you are running a light armor destro/resto crushing shock build focusing on max magicka and shields. Sounds good. And awfully familiar.

The only real change necessary in Dark Brotherhood is to replace harness magicka with the Dampen morph. Hello 20k shield stack that now works on physical damage.

To the people (not OP) praising him for somehow reinventing sorc. How is this out of the box again? This is the same box sorc has been stuck in since launch. No other magicka class is forced to run destro/resto. Maybe you all are just happy to read a positive sorc thread and not another whine fest. Alright, I'll give you that. But sorcs are still really behind other classes in terms of both utility, skill versatility, and PvE DPS. This one build has been strong since day one and is still decently strong with a few minor modifications.

The problem with sorcerer isn't that sorc is weak, its that sorc is pigeonholed into one build that is decently strong but not better than any other class at anything. Every other class has one thing they are best at - except sorc.

So grats OP on the build. I use Julianos, willpower, engine guardian, and achieve about the same results. Its strong. But it doesn't yet answer the question "why roll a sorc?"

gamerguy757 · June 2016

@Yolokin_Swagonborn You are right. The only thing I changed was the 7 light with divines and atronach. Most ran Shadow or Thief. Maybe I am trying to get people to like sorcs again. I mean hell, you can spam Restraining Prison to CC and overload them down.

I only made this build for farming Vet Dungeons, VMA, and farming materials in general, hence why I didn't make his gear gold. Plus, his gear can be used for a magblade or another class. I will be making a unique StamDK in the near future...just need my a) training research to be done and b) 9 traits in heavy armor (oops did I give too much away?)

Ch4mpTW · June 2016

Yolokin_Swagonborn wrote: »

So you are running a light armor destro/resto crushing shock build focusing on max magicka and shields. Sounds good. And awfully familiar.

The only real chance necessary in Dark Brotherhood is to replace harness magicka with the Dampen morph. Hello 20k shield stack that now works on physical damage.

To the people (not OP) praising him for somehow reinventing sorc. How is this out of the box again? This is the same box sorc has been stuck in since launch. No other magicka class is forced to run destro/resto. Maybe you all are just happy to read a positive sorc thread and not another whine fest. Alright, I'll give you that. But sorcs are still really behind other classes in terms of both utility, skill versatility, and PvE DPS. This one build has been strong since day one and is still decently strong with a few minor modifications.

The problem with sorcerer isn't that sorc is weak, its that sorc is pigeonholed into one build that is decently strong but not better than any other class at anything. Every other class has one thing they are best at - except sorc.

So grats OP on the build. I use Julianos, willpower, engine guardian, and achieve about the same results. Its strong. But it doesn't yet answer the question "why roll a sorc?"

This.

Using 2 staves is not new. Lol. In fact, I've always done so (if not testing or being reckless and risqué in PVP). It provides superior to results than using Destro/DW. Why? Because of the: Damage, healing, penetration, and sustain among other things. I find it hilarious that tons of people keep forgetting their history. People praise things and don't do their homework and research. The whole concept of using DW with a magicka build, was to completely bypass sustain in order to go hyper offensive. It was by conveniency that Sorcerers could get away with doing this more-so than other classes, because of Energy Overload light attacks giving back magicka upon damage. Therefore easing some of the issues of sustain encountered. To be specific, it was originally designed to be used only in PVP for bursting. It wasn't meant to explode to this whole phenomena we all know today.