Erasure wrote: »

Masel92 wrote: »

Looks like I have to reroll my Heavy Attack sorc...I have all gear needed for this. Have you considered going for a master lightning staff on front bar or a master inferno on back? I have both rotting in my bank and think it would synergise pretty well with this build due to the max magicka bonus.

I did try some parses with a Master Staff front bar, and I think having a matching 4 piece Slayer set available would beat it, as 80% of the builds damage does scale at the normal 1:10.5 stat rate. I'm also prejudiced, as I have no Master Staves at all on Live to use

Give it a shot, it wouldn't be terrible.

Masel92 wrote: »

Erasure wrote: »

Masel92 wrote: »

Looks like I have to reroll my Heavy Attack sorc...I have all gear needed for this. Have you considered going for a master lightning staff on front bar or a master inferno on back? I have both rotting in my bank and think it would synergise pretty well with this build due to the max magicka bonus.

I did try some parses with a Master Staff front bar, and I think having a matching 4 piece Slayer set available would beat it, as 80% of the builds damage does scale at the normal 1:10.5 stat rate. I'm also prejudiced, as I have no Master Staves at all on Live to use

Give it a shot, it wouldn't be terrible.

I have both in sharpened so I'll try that. Having the master inferno on back bar would be nice to use destructive clench to proc the fire Ilambris, which I think might outperform the fourth piece of a Slayer set. Plus you have the 189 spell damage from the maelstrom lightning on your main bar.

visionality wrote: »

hm ... with the upcoming changes for destro staffs, shouldn't 8% more single-target AOE be a very good reason to get a inferno staff on your frontbar for your single target DPS and a lightning staff only for the AOE DPS on the back bar? Which would also double-proc Ilambris, as already mentioned?

Having both staffs and using them for the corresponding skills did have a noticable impact for me on PTS.

Erasure wrote: »

Tamriel Foundry page

The Homestead update grants new power and durability to the Daedric familiars, improving their usefulness to raid-worthy damage skills. Daedric Prey can newly buff the Familiar Damage Pulse active ability, and the Storm Atronach has been granted a flat 25% damage increase as well. This build’s focus is to live up to the Sorcerer class’s archetype; to wield Daedric power and Lightning against the strongest foes Tamriel has to offer. High AoE damage and plentiful opportunities to proc Concussed/Minor Vulnerability for your allies are features.

Race: Altmer is the correct choice for Magicka-stacking Shock damage spec, though Dunmer or Breton will suffice.
Attributes: The goal is to reach a sustainable HP value for 4 and 12-man content. I am personally comfortable at 18k, and Capped CP, Undaunted Mettle, Expert Summoner, and Blue-quality Health/Magicka food will easily meet this with all AP into Magicka. Lower CP players may wish to place a few points into Health.
Mundus Stone: The Thief should be taken for players maximizing their DPS. The Atronach is a good option for situations with less stat support.
Character Stats: 52k Magic, 18.4k Health, 45.4% crit, 2209 Spell Damage Unbuffed
Champion Points:
Mage Tree:

• 100 Elemental Expert
• 75 Thaumaturge (Exploiter Activated)
• 22 Elfborn (next valid jump, 26, remaining points 3)
• 3 Staff Expert (remainder)

With heavy focus on DoT abilities and Concussed availability, it makes sense to be able to buff yourself with the status effect. Works well currently, but I’ll be testing it further in the future. Please critique.

Thief Tree:

• 100 Magician
• 100 Arcanist

If anyone knows of a reason to do anything else here, I’m all ears

Warrior Tree:
Adapt to the challenge. Know what you’ll be facing, and if you can’t predict it, spread points between Hardy, Elemental Defender, and Thickskinned 2:2:1 until you do know your opponent.

Gear: As this build is first and foremost a Magicka-stacking setup, 5 Light /1 Medium /1 Heavy with Undaunted Mettle is key.
Current Culmination Gearing:

As a large portion of our outgoing damage scales off total Magicka pool, Infused becomes comparable to Divines. Infallible Aether vs Moondancer is a question of your personal drops, wear what you have received, and substitute Willpower if you haven’t. I personally own a Moondancer Lightning staff (Thanks Ana!), so that is what I use. Ilambris works moderately well with this gearing, but I’m considering other options. The Fire proc uptime is less than desired.

100% Crafted/Dropped Gearing:

Going Crafted allows you to wear the Heavy slot on your Chest for added armor, if desired. Remember to stay 5/1/1!
Your outgoing damage is 50% AoE or more even with a single-target ultimate cast, so at this time I’m recommending Lightning/Lightning. I have not yet managed to outparse it with an Inferno staff in either position.

Skill Bars: Here’s where things begin to differ from a standard Sorcerer setup:
Front Bar

• Force Pulse/ Crushing Shock
• Crystal Fragments
• Daedric Prey
• Volatile Familiar
• Bound Aegis
• Ultimate: Shooting Star

Back Bar

• Liquid Lightning
• Blockade of Storms
• Flex Slot
• Volatile Familiar
• Bound Aegis
• Ultimate: Flex Slot

Potion Slot: Essence of Spell Power. We need this both to grant Spell Critical and Spell Power buffs, as we’ve selected Aegis for our toggle. It grants 2% SP and 1% more magic than Inner Light would, at the cost of necessitating potion chugging.

Flex abilities include Elemental Drain, Surge, Boundless Storm, Harness Magicka, Hardened/Empowered Ward, Mage’s Wrath, etc etc as you desire. I’m personally a fan of casting Empowered Ward, it grants a Minor buff, lasts longer, and what other build is going to be running enough Magicka to make that shield worth casting?

Flex Ultimates include Negate if required, Elemental Fury if desired, Shooting Star if practical, and Greater Storm Atronach for single target. Yes, really! With good Prey uptime and the ability to be Combat Prayered/ Synergized, that big hunk of fulgurite actually puts out some decent damage. Just make sure your pets aren’t set to Stand Down when he’s cast, or else he may not attack.

Rotation: We have four DoT skills slotted here, all with differing timers. A rotation with this setup which will give positive results is:

Liquid Lightning -> Scamp Pulse -> Blockade of Storms(barswap) -> Daedric Prey -> 5 Force Pulse/ Frags -> Prey(swap) -> LL -> Scamp -> BoS(swap) -> FP/Frag*2 -> DP -> FP/Frag*3(swap) -> Restart. 19 moves, light attack weave with each attack. For bonus points/Prey uptime, start at the 2nd Prey cast instead of the first one.

This could be notated as | A a B P _ _ _ _ _ P A a B _ _ P _ _ _ |

While it’s easier to execute the above rotation comparatively, as you have three of the DoTs bound together, you end up with an unfortunate amount of Familiar Pulse/BoS downtime. That’s not what we’re after, here! And so, the motivated may attempt this rotation instead:

BoS(swap) -> Prey(swap) -> LL -> Scamp(swap) -> Fill*2(swap) -> BoS(swap) -> Prey -> Fill*3(swap) LL -> Scamp -> BoS(swap) ->Prey ->Fill x4 -> Restart. 19 moves again.

That’s a tongue twister though, right? Why would anyone prefer it that way? Well, instead of simply accepting that the Familiar and Blockade are going to lose ticks like the first rotation, we’ve tied the similar abilities to each other. 10 and 9s, 8 and 6s. If you call those A, a, B, and b, then the rotation could be notated

| B b A a _ _ B b _ _ _ A a B b _ _ _ _ |

Which makes a good deal of sense, as the B phase is shorter. You’ve decoupled it from A, allowing both sides to have better uptime, nearly ideal Scamp/Prey uptime, as a result.

Of course, the TRULY motivated could accept that the Familiar, which exists on a bar with Crystal Frags, should only be cast from that front bar in order to receive procs. Do not blame me for what may happen to your fingers if this is attempted. It could be ugly. It could also look like this:





I should mention that the Matriarch does similar Single Target damage to the DPS contribution of Bound Aegis, but I wouldn’t recommend fielding her unless you specifically want to be able to throw an emergency heal. You would lose resources and AoE DPS as a result of making the switch. And while on offense, she’ll be attacking things on her own, possibly drawing aggro / getting herself killed while you’re not looking. Best to leave that to the healers.

The AoE rotation for this build is much simpler, being only Liquid Lightning -> Familiar Pulse -> Blockade of Storms(swap) -> 2-3 Lightning Heavy attacks into the center of the Blockade, repeat. 50-80k sustained AoE DPS dependent on clump quality, or your money back!

With proper care, your friends the Daedra will enable you to have entertaining fights and high damage. There are, however, a few drawbacks.

• Daedra do not target enemies intelligently; the Scamp must be managed with Command Pet to be kept where he can AoE the clump, and the Storm Atro can’t be aimed at all. Use him only when Single-Target is assured, and preferably when you have melee buddies to synergize him.
• Some Dungeon and Trial mechanics will reliably one-shot or disable your Daedra. Zhaj’hassa’s pillar execute does, and Vashai’s Negate slows them sufficiently to make it likely. The Serpent’s Worldshaper likewise executes them with prejudice. Consider having an alternate spec and add-ons ready to switch between them quickly if required.
• Daedra, as of PTS 2.7.4, remain able to absorb Spellpower Cure buffs and group Synergies like Bone Shield. Take thought before bringing this spec to a leaderboard score attempt. This PTS Topic discusses the issue.

On the plus side, the build does great in AoE, once you’ve mastered your minions, which makes up a large portion of the content in this game. There is very little that your average pack of 10-foot-tall mooks can do to touch them, as they’re immune to most ground damage. And, anything which doesn’t kill them in one shot probably won’t kill them at all, as they can be healed by any ground heals, and warded to boot.

Any feedback / constructive criticism is welcome. Try it out on PTS/ on Monday, and tell me how it works for you