Greetings
Today I'm glad to share with you guys my magicka sorcerer guide for PVE which I have already written and posted in Tamriel Foundry. I still see a lot of Sorcs playing their class wrong in PVE, which is why I'm expanding my guide to the official forums. And I really hope this guide will help my fellow Sorcs to improve as well as helping me to improve myself playing it. Since I have released my first Sorc build in Tamriel Foundry I've been on contact with many awesome people helping each other to improve further. And recently I have released a new build to adapt with the new and challenging 12 man trial Veteran Maw of Lorkhaj and to those wanna try something strong other than Overload.
This guide will contain 2 sections, the original High burst build and then the recent non Overload build
The Yolo Wizard - High Burst DPS Build
(Valid for all end game content except Vet Trials)
Changelog
8-Oct-2015: Added changes in gear when Orsinium DLC hits the live server.
21-Dec-2015: Updated new gear with new screenshots, also Vet Maelstrom Arena section added.
9-Jan-2016: Adding Twice born Star as an alternative, Mantikora parse (screenshot and video).
25-Jan-2016: New screenshots and videos.
26-March-2016: Updated for Thieves Guild Patch.
24-Jun-2016: Updated for Dark Brotherhood Patch.
Overview
This build is heavily focused on stacking spell damage as much as possible which will pay off with its results giving really nice numbers for end game content (Trials, Vet DSA, Vet Maelstrom Arena, Vet WGT, Vet ICP). Yes I know there plenty of such builds for Sorcerers around but what I'm gonna show with this thread is how to make the most of it. You can achieve crazy stats with it but on the other hand it is heavily dependent on your group (specially your healer) and how are they providing support so you won't have issues at all. Resources management is pretty damn hard without your group help, so having Mystic Orbs and Elemental Drain and perhaps siphon spirit running will eliminate this downside and you will have easy time hitting good numbers with no magicka issues.
We gonna go through different aspects as following:
- Race
- Attributes
- Mundus Stone
- Champion Points
- Stats (unbuffed & buffed)
- Potion
- Gear
- Skills & Rotation
- Vet Maelstrom Arena setup
- DPS Screenshots
- Videos showing rotation in combat
Race
As most of you know, High Elf (altmer) is the ideal race for magicka sorcerers due to the awesome passives they have (Magicka regen + Max Magicka + 4% more elemental damage). But that doesn't mean the end of the world, this build is still valid for any race and you will still hit really good numbers. Breton or Dark Elf (dunmer) are your second choice for the max magicka bonuses.
Attributes
I have all my 64 attribute points into Magicka. and I barely hit the 17k hp on my Destro staff bar. You might gonna need to invest some points into HP if you lack CP. usually 18k is high enough for end game content as a DD with low amount of CP and 17k hp if you have a decent amount of CP.
Mundus Stone
The thief and the shadow mundus stones are just too strong to not consider, either of these mundus stones should be your choice as DPS. I personally prefer the thief which gives a lot more crit chance over the crit damage buff from the shadow stone. The reason of that is this build is heavily dependent on Overload, so there wont be so much skills to use when overloading which means crit chance will definitely be the main reason to hit good numbers. You gonna need as much crit hits from overload as possible.
Champion points
The Apprentice
Elemental Expert : 96 points
Elfborn : 71 points
The Tower
Magician : 100 points
The Lover
Arcanist : 67 points
The Steed
Spell Shield : 50 points
Block Expertise : 17 points
The Lady
Hardy : 20 points
Elemental Defender : 80 points
Stats
While using v15 Blue health and magicka food these are my stats:
Destruction StaffDuel Wield
Potion
I usually use Essence of Spell Power to buff myself with Major Sorcery which is very important for Damage Dealers, also to restore good amount of magicka back. The crit bonus is invalid because we have inner light which gives the exact same buff. Also make sure to have 3 skill points in Medical Use under Alchemy skill tree to increase the duration of the buff significantly.
Gear
Make sure to have 1 piece Heavy and 1 piece medium for benefit from the Undaunted Mettle passive which will increase your max stats by 6%. What you will need is:
2x Molag Kena (Head drops in Vet White-Gold Tower, shoulder drops for gold pledge chest)
5x Julianos (Twice-born Star in certain circumstances)
3x Elegant Jewelry2x Elegant Swords (Precise or Sharpened)
1x Inferno Maelstrom Staff (Precise or Sharpened)
As you have noticed, all armor pieces are enchanted with magicka and full legendary (including glyphs). You will need full divines on all pieces cuz of the nice buffs thief mundus stone got. ALSO, make sure to have unlock Juggernaut passive from heavy armor skill tree, that will boost your hp a bit.
..
Twice-born Star
As suggested by
@Asayre and confirmed by
@Dymence I decided to craft myself Twice-Born Star and give it a go myself. And I can say it gives pretty similar results as Julianos and sometimes more. BUT its good to use only with a very good group setup with proper buffs and debuffs so in my case I use it in Raids to get the most out of it.
So in general Julianos is still better for group dungeons and vet maelstrom arena
Moondancer
One of the new sets introduced with the new DLC (Thieves Guild) that drops in Maw of Lorkhaj and Weekly leaderboard rewards. Many of people didn't really care about this set because of the 50% chance of getting the regen instead of spell damage, and the main reason why I did not update the build right away cuz I wanna test it. I still haven't got the pieces I need so I can't show how it performs against Willpower.
We are implementing this set is by replacing Willpower jewelry in boss fights and use 2x swords instead of torugs to get the 5th bonus. And the way to proc is as following:
While in Overload: Pop a synergy before starting the fight, if its spell damage then lucky you and if its regen you don't lose anything because 3rd bonus of the set makes up for the Willpower bonus
While not Overloading: Pop a synergy when you switch bar to reapply Liquid Lightning (Its better to pick a synergy that deals damage). You may lose a bit of DPS by doing that but you will gain a lot if you got the correct proc. So either lose a bit of DPS or gain that pretty 450 spell damage for 30 seconds
Update: still a valid option, but the game rng in its reward system is utter ***. Never managed to get my second sword even though I ran that trial countless times.
Skills & Rotation
AOE BARS
Bar 1 (Inferno Staff)
- Flame Pulsar: Our main AoE spam ability, DoT from fire ring is useless as its overwrites every time we use the skill. so I would rather reduce target's max hp by 10%.
- Force Pulse: Main Single target spam ability.
- Elemental Blockade: One of the strongest abilities in the game for Magicka users, a must use for AOE and single target.
- Bound Aegis: 8% more free magicka and some resistance!. Why the hell not!.
- Inner Light: 10% more crit and 5% more magicka. (and 2% more from passives)
- Shooting Star: We are not using it at all, its just to increase our max magicka as it is more effective to have 2% more magicka than 2% more spell damage from class ulti. (Tests were made with a char that has 44k magicka, so if you have less than 40k magicka it might not be as effective)
Bar 2 (Duel Swords)
- Liquid Lightning: One of the most powerful DoT in the game. It does insane amount of damage and must be up all the time in single target and AoE situations.
- Proximity Detonation: With Thieves guild patch, it requires far less AP to unlock this beast, only good for AOE though not single target.
- Boundless Storm: Buff yourself up with Major Ward, Major Resolve and Major Expedition and a good DoT with one ability!, really nice defensive and offensive skill.
- Bound Aegis: As above.
- Inner Light: As above.
- Power Overload: Your insane burst damage friend! Hits for more than Meteor and you can spam it as long as you overcharged it. Save it for bosses!
As for rotation it is as following:
Potion > Proxi >Boundless Storm > Liquid Lightning > LA > Elemental Blockade > LA > Spam Pulsar ..... and repeat
The point of this build is to keep Kena proc up for most of the time to enjoy the insane buff in spell damage. There are couple of things you need to know, Liquid Lightning and Elemental Blockade are the most powerful DoTs in the game so re-apply it as soon as they run out.
Single target bars
Bar 1 (Inferno Staff)
- Elemental Blockade: One of the strongest abilities in the game for Magicka users, a must use for AOE and single target.
- Force Pulse: Main Single target spam ability.
- Crystal Fragments: With the new CP changes, this bad boy can crit for 40k+.
- Bound Aegis: 8% more free magicka and some resistance!. Why the hell not!.
- Inner Light: 10% more crit and 5% more magicka. (and 2% more from passives)
- Shooting Star: We are not using it at all, its just to increase our max magicka as it is more effective to have 2% more magicka than 2% more spell damage from class ulti. (Tests were made with a char that has 44k magicka, so if you have less than 40k magicka it might not be as effective)
Bar 2 (Duel Swords)
- Liquid Lightning: One of the most powerful DoT in the game. It does insane amount of damage and must be up all the time in single target and AoE situations.
- Mages' Wrath: You powerful execute, not as powerful as Jesus Beam or Impale sadly.
- Boundless Storm: Buff yourself up with Major Ward, Major Resolve and Major Expedition and a good DoT with one ability!, really nice defensive and offensive skill.
- Bound Aegis: As above.
- Inner Light: As above.
- Power Overload: Your insane burst damage friend! Hits for more than Meteor and you can spam it as long as you overcharged it. Save it for bosses!
Overload Bar
- Liquid Lightning: As above
- Summon Twilight Tormentor: Activate before boss fight when using Overload, we need to keep only Liquid lightning and Boundless Storm up. So we gonna have an empty slot in our Overload bar which is why we are using the twilight. Does good free damage and you don't need to worry about it. Activate special ability before engaging. DON'T summon again if it dies!
- Boundless Storm: As above
- Bound Aegis: As above
- Inner Light: As above
As for rotation it is as following:
Potion > Boundless Storm > Liquid Lightning > LA > Elemental Blockade > LA > Force Pulse > MA > Crystal Frag (when it procs) ..... and repeat
The point of this build is to keep Kena proc up for most of the time to enjoy the insane buff in spell damage. There are couple of things you need to know, Liquid Lightning and Elemental Blockade are the most powerful DoTs in the game so re-apply it as soon as they run out. And aside from being so powerful Liquid Lightning can proc Disintegration passive and dealing even more damage. Same goes for boundless storm, really good defensive and offensive skill and also can proc Disintegration, however you need to be close to boss to actually hit him with this ability.
During execute phase, you will spam mages wrath and re-apply liquid lightning if boss still has some hp left. If boss at lets say 3% and will die in like 5 seconds don't bother re-applying.
Vet Maelstrom Arena
Outdated!!!
I usually play aggressive in vMA as it is easier and faster once you get the hang of it. But it really depends on what you prefer so I will add a defensive setup and an aggressive one. Both uses exact same gear but quite different skills.
Offensive
Destruction Staff Bar:
- Elemental Drain: Only use on big mobs with high HP so you don't run dry of magicka
- Force Pulse: Main damage ability
- Crystal Fragment: Cast when Proc
- Bound Aegis: 8% more magicka and minor ward and resolve
- Inner light: Major Prophecy and 7% more magicka
- Shooting Stars: We have this just for 2% max magicka increase to boost our damage
Duel Wield Staff Bar:
- Liquid Lightning: Drop this on portals before mobs spawn, helps in killing things fast.
- Hardened Ward: Nothing to say about it! Its just beautiful!
- Power Surge: Major Sorcery and heals for when you crit
- Bound Aegis: 8% more magicka and minor ward and resolve
- Inner Light: Major Prophecy and 7% more magicka
- Power Overload: Pew Pew and everything is dead!
Overload Bar:
- Liquid Lightning: Drop this on portals before mobs spawn, helps in killing things fast.
- Hardened Ward: Nothing to say about it! Its just beautiful!
- Power Surge: Major Sorcery and heals for when you crit
- Bound Aegis: 8% more magicka and minor ward and resolve
- Inner Light: Major Prophecy and 7% more magicka
Defensive
You gonna need to equip a resto staff on your second bar for Healing Ward
Destruction Staff Bar:
- Elemental Drain: Only use on big mobs with high HP so you don't run dry of magicka
- Force Pulse: Main damage ability
- Crystal Fragment: Cast when Proc
- Unstable Clannfear: This dude can take off lot of pressure and buys you time to kill other stuff
- Inner light: Major Prophecy and 7% more magicka
- Power Overload: Pew Pew and everything is dead!
Restoration Staff Bar:
- Hardened Ward: Nothing to say about it! Its just beautiful!
- Power Surge: Major Sorcery and heals for when you crit
- Healing Ward: This is your 'OH ***" skill, using this on low HP can give you 40k dmg shield!
- Unstable Clannfear: This dude can take off lot of pressure and buys you time to kill other stuff
- Inner Light: Major Prophecy and 7% more magicka
- Power Overload: Pew Pew and everything is dead!
Overload Bar:
- Hardened Ward: Nothing to say about it! Its just beautiful!
- Power Surge: Major Sorcery and heals for when you crit
- Mages Wrath: Use on bosses below 20% to save Ultimate
- Unstable Clannfear: This dude can take off lot of pressure and buys you time to kill other stuff
- Inner Light: Major Prophecy and 7% more magicka
DPS Parses
Possessed Mantikora
The Serpent
The Mage
The Warrior
Lightning Storm Atronach
The Adjudicator
The Yolo Wizard On Action