Hello,
I've been playing my sorc tank for quite a while now, shared previous versions of my build several times on this forum, but all of them are almost completely obsolete (gear wise) now, with all the changes to the game that happened since, so I thought I'd share it here and hope you'll enjoy it as much as I do.
I've been through all the the 4men dungeons with this char, including DLC ones (did the Necrotic Hoarvor achievements prior to the heavy nerf on IC dungeons). I've been through vDSA CP160 too. I've only set foot in vet AA yet, and the older versions of HRC & SO, but I have no doubt that this character is ready for all them. It would probably simply needs some minor adjustments.
Stats and attributes (self-buffed) :Gear :
I know... Tava & Dragonguard... it looks like some Meta s*** right ? I know, and it hurts me to say it, but I like it and it works well !
- Monster Set : I consider that Swarm Mother is my main monster set, but it's important to have a Bloodspawn Head & Shoulder (+15 Ulti when hit with a 6sec cooldown) to switch to when necessary... or to switch to when Swarm Mother is unnecessary. Most of the time, especially in Dungeons & vDSA, I feel like I already have enough ultimate, so I get rid of Bloodspawn and switch to Swarm Mother (unless I have a DK with chains in my group willing to do the job). Being able to pull mobs and root them helps speeding things up. It's more comfortable for everyone. During raids, I'd mostly run with Bloodspawn and switch to swarm mother only when I know there will be grabable mobs.
- Tava's Favor : This set is really great for building Ultimate, to pop more warhorns, negates or wichever ulti you like/need. Make sure you use the Medium Armor's skill to get Major Evasion though, otherwise this set is useless. The first bonus (+HP) is always good for a tank. The second bonus (+Stam Recovery) is kinda nice too, since you're not supposed to permablock with this build, and the third bonus (+Mag Recovery) is great since this build relies heavily on spamming Hardened Ward & Dark Deal.
- Akaviri Dragonguard : This set reduces your ultimate costs by 15%. Paired with the Sorcerers' Power Stone passive, it reduces the warhorn's cost from 250 to 183. The other 3 bonuses are also nice. The magicka recovy for the same reasons as above, and Healing taken + Max HP can never be bad on a tank. It can be found in Eastmarch. The boss from stormcrag's crypt drops a named reinforced shield
Here is a gear alternative, wich is actually my previous equipement. It includes no Monster Helm and craftable sets or easily obtainable ones :
Stats and attributes (self-buffed) :Gear :
The 4xSpectre's Eye can be replaced by 4xKagrenac.
- 2nd Bar weapon alternative : Restoration Staff - Endurance - Defending - Absorb Magicka : I use it in some very specific situations like final boss of vDSA (with a non-burst strat), Or the dungeons from the Hist DLC, where the final bosses drain your ressources. It allows me to recover magicka with heavy attacks.
Mundus Stone :
Atronach, Cause you never have enough magicka recovery !
Race : BRETON
The breton is a very good choice for this build. If you look at the passives :
- Magicka Max +10% : More magicka, for a magicka tank... if makes sense, especially for a sorcerer, since Damage shields (hardened ward, etc...) scalent exclusively on max magicka
- Spell Resistance + 3960 : 3960 represents 73 CP into spell shield, or two spell resistance set bonuses. In other words, I think it's quite big. Having this on a racial passive frees some CP or set bonuses that can be invested into something else.
- Spell cost reduction 3% : It's not huge, but always good to take.
Skills :
- Bar 1 :
- Hardened Ward : The damage shield. This morph increases the size of the shield by 30% (note : CPs into Bastion are applied before the 30%, not at the same time). With my 30k Magicka and 75 points into Bastion, The size of that shield goes up to 17.5k; It still gets burned down quickly since damage mitigation from blocking & resistances isn't applied to shields. In my opinion, the other morph isn't worth it. 10% more magicka recovery isn't enough to make the difference, and it's certainly not worth 30% more shield. As for the increased duration, 6 seconds is already long enough for a tank. To me, if the shields lasts more than 6 seconds, it means that you didn't get hit and that you casted it for nothing, And anyway, with almost 2k Magicka recovery, spamming it more often isn't a big deal, and you always have your resistances and the ability to block if for any reason you can't cast your shield.
- Ransack : This is the stamina taunt. The other morph removes the Elemental Drain (usually applied by the healer), it's a bit boring so this morph is probably the best.
- Heroic Slash : This skills does two things. First it applies Minor Maim to the target, decreasing damages done by 15%. Second, it buffs you with Minor Heroism, allowing you to gain 1 Ultimate every 1.5 seconds. Try to maintain the Minor Heroism as much as possible.
- Dark Deal : Personnally, I used to overlook this skill, but honnestly, now that I've tried it, I can say it's reeeaaally awesome. It heals for 8k and returns 4.8k stamina. Cast it three times and you're almost full of stamina, and here again, with 2k magicka recovery, spamming this isn't gonna burn your magicka. The only difficulty is that this skill has a 1 second cast time. 1 second during wich you can't block. It's important to learn how (and when) to use it, by casting a shield right before for example. Don't hesitate to interrupt it to block an attack.
- Bound Aegis : Important for the 8% more magicka that will boost the damage shields, and 1300 resistances is always good to take. That's a step closer to the resist cap. However it's a toggle so it has to be on all your bars.
- ULTI : Agressive Warhorn :This ultimate increases your group members' ressources pools by 10% and grants them 30% more Critical Damages. Your DDs will like it
OR
- ULTI : Suppression field : This ultimate is simply awesome. A 12 seconds stun in a 8m radius, it's big. Put this on big packs of mobs, or on adds during a boss, like in vDSA for example. I still hesitate between the damaging morph and the healing one, I trully think that both are very good.
- Bar 2 :
- Restraining Prison : A very good CC skill. We don't have the DK's chain to pull mobs, but we still can prevent them from running away. Use it quickly after grabing a mob with Swarm Mother before he runs away !
- Inner Fire : Range magicka taunt. Morphing it into Inner Rage will give this skill a better chance to proc the synergy that can be used by your group to regain ressources (undaunted passive : Undaunted Command). Myself, I prefer not to morph it, cause my usual healer is supporting our group's ressources well enough, and I don't want to cover other synergies with this one, but it's up to you.
- Elude :This is the skill from the Medium Armor skill tree. It gives you Major Evasion, wich is necessary when you play with Tava's Favor. Try to keep this up all the time
- Boundless Storm : Necessary for the resistances buff. Besides, The lightning DoT will proc the elemental drain, just like Liquid Lightning.
- Bound Aegis : Because it's a toggle.
- ULTI : Energy Overload : Cause tanking in overload is fun, and it grants access to a 3rd skill bar
- Bar 3 (overload) :
- Mage's Wrath : The sorcerer's execute skill.
- Inner Fire : You must have taunt at all time, even in the third bar
- Hardened Ward : Important to have this here too. We may be me on a DPS oriented bar, we remain tanks, and our priority is to resist.
- Boundless Storm : Just to have access to the resistances buffs on the third bar.
- Bound Aegis : Still because it's a toggle.
Other Useful skills :
- Streak : The sorcerer's teleportation ability. Useful when you need more mobility. Slot it instead of Liquid lightning or Restraining prison
- Harness Magicka : Another shield that can also return magicka. I use it sometimes instead of Dark Deal, or Restraining Prison to have a backup shield in the 2nd bar.
- Defensive Stance : Increases the amount of damages you can block by 8% and reduces the cost of blocking by 8% while slotted. In other words, don't use it, just slot it. This morph or the other, it doesn't matter
- Liquid Lightning : The other morph is just as good. It's useful to quickyl aggro packs of mobs. You can also put it at the bosses' feet if your healer uses elemental drain.
- Surge (Power Surge/Critical Surge) : This can be useful in situations where you don't have a healer and you must manage your own health. From a pure tank perspective, the Critical Surge morph is better because of the increased healing, but since I also like to switch to magicka DD with this char, I used the Power Surge morph.
Champions Points :RED :Bastion : 75 Points, for 20% bigger shields
I've spent a few points into
Heavy Armor Focus to avoid falling below 28k Physical Resistances, but most of the points are spread between
Robust and
Elemental Defender (both of them mitigates the damages before they reach your shield, wich helps your shields last longer). You can also put some points into Thick Skinned.
GREEN :Magician : 51 points for the reduced spells costs
Arcanist : 61 points for the magicka recovery
Shadow Ward : Everything else here for the reduced block cost
BLUE :
This isn't very important. Just put your champions points as you would do for a Magicka DPS build, in case you want to have another set to switch to DD
Gameplay Video(s) :Veteran Aetherian Archives : First run ever https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKt3eupvG8QVeteran Dragonstar Arena :
To Do :
- Make another build for a PvP sorcerer tank built around the Infernal Guardian monster set. (But PvP isn't my top 1 priority right now, far from it)
- Drink a beer
Update Log :
- 11/02/2016 :
- Changed my gear to 2xSwarm Mother/Blood Spawn / 5x Tava / 5x Dragonguard. The older gear (Seducer/Spectre) is now just an alternative gear that is more accessible to new players. Also changed the skill bars accordingly.