Fire/Fire or Lightning/Fire for a bsw sorc?

RT_Frank · May 2017

I know lightning/fire is preferred but I just can't get a sharpened bsw lightning staff so I'm thinking of going fire/fire. I know the aoe boost and the lightning ultimate are reasons to use lightning in the front bar but how would the single target boost in the front bar fare?

I use force pulse, mages wrath, and frags in my front bar so would boosts to those be good for bosses? (I also use curse right before switching but idk if that's single target). Not really worried of losing dps on trash mobs, just on bosses.

dpencil1 · May 2017

I guess it depends on what the percentage of your overall dps is: dot vs direct damage. I usually have about 65% dot damage, so lightning is a clear winner in my case. Remember that the vMA staff is only going to give you an extra 2k dps or so. If the hit to your dots from going fire/fire is big enough, even the vMA staff may not be worth it over a 4th piece or random staff.

Flameheart · May 2017

You will want the lightning staff on your front bar for the ability to do decent AoE dps by just charging heavy attacks and regain ressources while doing that, but as a Sorc you are able to dish out decent AoE dps by not using heavy attacks, although it will require more skill use and therefore cost more magicka. As you use Force Pulse you will get 8% more damage by using a flame staff.

You want a flame staff on your back bar for the Elemental Blockade, because you want the extra dps from the fire option from that skill. This even more when your use a Mahlstrom Staff on your back bar (where it belongs).

So at moment a fire/fire build will work.

With Morrowind I would assume that lighting/fire will be meta and mandatory, because:

-BSW will be nerfed and Necropotence will become even more meta, so no need to use more fire to proc BSW.
-In Morrowind you will play without spam skills as a Sorc, so Force Pulse will most likely not be on your bar. So you won't have a Destruction Staff ability on your first bar to get the 8% damage buff and so you can use lightning (which will execute the lightning proc of Ilambris even more). You won't get the 8% damage boost by using a flame staff just by using a flame staff you need a destruction staff ability on that bar too (the 8% Bonus will then be applied to EVERY single target damage skill on that bar, so for frags too). You usually use the mage guild ultimate there for even more magicka.
-you need the heavy attacks as part of your rota for ST and especially AoE just to sustain your dps for ST and AoE situations. You want to do especially decent AoE dps sometimes and that at best with low magicka costs, so use a lighting staff on your main bar for heavy attacking.