New to champ levels. Help why do I feel incredibly squishy?

averlancheb14_ESO · May 2017

I went 10-50 through group dolmen because I wanted to start questing and do dungeons with all my class skills available. So I reached 50, crafted a blue set of Julianos/Training: 5 light, 1 med, 1 heavy, and finally started solo questing. But why does everytime a quest boss hits me my health goes to almost nothing? I swear if I get hit twice I'll definitely die. I'm sorcerer, all stats into magic, using volatile familiar, self buff with boundless storm and power surge, destro/resto staves.

It feels like I've gotten squishier at champ levels even though I have all these skills available compared to when I was lv 10. When I bump into another low level while questing they can just stand there and take quest bosses' aoe while I sometimes get one-shotted.

JasonSilverSpring · May 2017

What level is that that gear and how many champion points do you have? As you level up to CP 160 your boost decreases. Low level characters are heavily boosted in order to survive with all NPC enemies scaled to CP 160. Are you using Ward or one of its morphs such as Hardened Ward? The shield is very useful for squishy sorcs.

What is your health at? You might want to use a food that buffs magicka and health or use a health enchant or two.

davey1107 · May 2017

Hmm...could be a couple of things. I'll try to approach this from multiple angles, but here's your core problem - One Tam works by making all monsters c160, then massively buffing lower level players so that they can play on the same layer as all their friends. Those handicaps get yanked when you're a vet. So in short, the computer was helping you and now it's not. So indeed, being a new vet with few CPs can be one of the squishiest times in your toons life.

Things that might help:

Gear: your gear sets sound good. Julianos is a great base set for any magic toon. Trainee...meh...it's not bad. But for me, the second set is always about that character's specific needs. If you're squishy, maybe you need a drop set that offers some resistance. It wouldn't be the first thing I'd try...but if other strategies fail, consider a new secondary set.

I'm not sure why you're wearing one medium...I assume you don't have the undaunted level 10 buffs. Maybe you're just leveling medium? If so, feel free to wear two heavy. It's not a huge difference, but it could help. Also, not all armor pieces are equal. When mixing armor types, make sure to get the most out of it by using the "larger" pieces for the heavier armor: chest, head, legs, feet. Shoulders are ok, but never belts and hands. Blue gear is probably fine...feel free to go purple if you're squishy, it could help.

Above all DO NOT OUTLEVEL YOUR GEAR. You need to keep gear within a few levels of your character level. Those handicaps do weird things to low level gear...it makes it utter garbage. If you're wearing any non-vet gear still, dump it.

Spend in passives: you should invest in all class passives, armor for then weights you wear, weapons you use, and various others throughout. Get shards and spend points if you have helpful passives unused.

Invest CPs wisely: slowly but surely your CPs will make you way more powerful. You don't have to grind them...you'll be at c160 in 25 days if you only use your daily enlightenment. But some CPs are better than others...check guides like Alcasthq.com and spend in the right lines. (They'll all change w Morrowind, FYI).

Build better bars: this happens to grinders a lot...they adjust to their grinds and don't have the bar setups that can help them survive in challenging content. Sorcs can be squishy in solo pve. They need wards and heals. With my sorc, I have to use harness magicka a lot in hard boss fights, and I have to kite. Alcast is also great at building bars...although he's always going to be a little heavily offensive.

Up your health: don't mess with attributes, you're right to go all magic. But if you're dying, get some health enchants on that armor. Yes you will lose some power. But you need the health. This isn't a permanent thing...with every champion point, and every gear upgrade, your sorc will get more resistant and more powerful. And then You can change health enchants out for magic, but right now you don't need to be a glass canon.

Hopefully these tips help. But the bottom line is that, yes, there's a weird dip in power where you are. Just keep playing and investing CPs, and you'll get through it.

Magdalina · May 2017

Aside from the tips you've been given already - are you using Hardened Ward(last skill in sorc Daedric Summoning tree) or Annulment(active light armor skill)? They're damage absorbing shields that can completely negate the damage you get. And I'll second the importance of food again, it really helps a lot.

Good luck, sounds like you're on the right track, you can do it

averlancheb14_ESO · May 2017

Thanks for all the advices. Ward does make the biggest difference. I thought I wouldn't need it for solo questing since mobs never hit hard back when I was low level. Reached champ level then suddenly quest bosses take out 70% of my health in one hit. Went with Empowered Ward because otherwise recasting hardened ward every 6 sec is... too often.

Woah CP levels go fast. Early today I was CP 10 and wearing CP 10 gear, and now I'm already CP 90. I suppose I should craft a new set of equipments? I'll go chest heavy as recommended for highest armor. Yeah, I was also wearing medium armor for skill leveling. Do magic sorcs need any of the medium armor skills? If not will craft 2 heavy and 5 light.

JasonSilverSpring · May 2017

I would craft a cp 90 or 100 set and that should get you to cp 160 which is the max gear. Are you gathering materials? CP 160 gear takes a lot of materials. Note that when update 14 drops your CPs will be automatically reset and respecs will be very cheap for about a week. Update 14 drops on 5/22 for PC and 6/6 for consoles.

Magdalina · May 2017

averlancheb14_ESO wrote: »

Thanks for all the advices. Ward does make the biggest difference. I thought I wouldn't need it for solo questing since mobs never hit hard back when I was low level. Reached champ level then suddenly quest bosses take out 70% of my health in one hit. Went with Empowered Ward because otherwise recasting hardened ward every 6 sec is... too often.

Woah CP levels go fast. Early today I was CP 10 and wearing CP 10 gear, and now I'm already CP 90. I suppose I should craft a new set of equipments? I'll go chest heavy as recommended for highest armor. Yeah, I was also wearing medium armor for skill leveling. Do magic sorcs need any of the medium armor skills? If not will craft 2 heavy and 5 light.

You don't really need to recast shield(s) every 6 seconds in most situations. Watch for what the monsters too - they generally have a special windup animation before their heavy hitting attacks. Some of them can also be interrupted(those that display red lines around the boss), others can't so just cast Ward before those(or if you fall low on health otherwise)

Go at least 5 light armor for the passives, shields ignore all of your armor anyway. Also if you don't like feeling squishy without a shield, try Lightning Form (or whatever the magicka morph is called) for an op armor+speed boost.

As a mag sorc you don't really need heavy nor medium armor but there's a really good passive in the Undaunted skill tree(you level that one by doing dungeons) that buffs your resources for wearing different types of armor so most of us wear 5 light+1 heavy+1 medium. Without that passive you could go 5 light+2 heavy on big pieces for extra mitigation if you like I suppose, I have always preferred 7 light on my alts.

And yes, cp levels fast at early levels, it slows down after that. Plus you're probably still enlightened

Enlightenment is a buff that lets you earn cp faster, you get 400k worth of it a day, stacking up to 12 days I think, and a very noticeable chunk when first hitting level 50.