No lol I have a sorc and there's very little that kills me. Shield up and put cp into Bastion if you need to.

5x julianos
4x moondancer / infallible aether
2x ilambris

Or
5x juli
5x necro
1x ice heart

How 'bout Stamina Sorcerer? Crit Surge + hurricane heals you 3k per second, also add Vigor and bound armaments and if you still feel like you'd need more healing: use dual wield, use rend, blood craze and blade cloak. Then you can just focus on max dps gear.

1) Keep your power surge up
2) Keep your DoTs up so you heal from crits more often
3) Weave heavy attacks for sustain
4) Refresh hardened ward

5 Julianos + 5 any set that gives you max magicka/spell damage/spell critical so your crit is > 50% + a monster head that gives you one of the same bonuses. Ideally 5 light, 1 medium (legs, shoulders, head), 1 heavy (chest) for maximum resistance and stats from Undaunted mettle. All divines if PvE, impenetrable if PvP. Staves both shock, infused trait backbar weapon/spell damage, front shock damage enchants. You should aim for > 16K health and > 40K magicka. Recovery is not that important since you will mostly sustain from heavy attacks.

Bar setup example:
Front: Mages Wrath | Force Pulse | Hardened Ward | Inner Light | Bound Aegis | Ice Comet
Back: Elemental Blockade | Liquid Lightning | Haunting Curse | Power Surge | Bound Aegis | Elemental Storm

Simple rotation:
Power Surge-LA-Blockade-LA-LL-LA-Curse-Bar swap-HA-Force Pulse (weaved 3x) [repeat and refresh surge every 2nd or 3rd rotation]

Execute: be at full magicka and do 4x Wrath-LA on front bar instead of Pulse-HA and keep DoTs and buffs up

RaddlemanNumber7 wrote: »

Before we can really help we need some more information.

What level is your Sorceress?
Do you play as a solo quester, do group dungeons, and/or PvP?
What kind of crafting skills/resources do you have available to you?

If you like playing spells and staff, up-close-and personal it can be done.

Wow everyone! Thanks for all of your responses and suggestions.

Right now I have three different Toons going. The one that I am currently trying to play---My Breton Sorceress is at level 4. I just barely started. I am a solo quester, but I am not opposed to helping/joining others---if I am in a dungeon and they request help getting through it. I also do a group dungeon a day as suggested to me. As for PvP I am not much of a fan. I am too slow and I die a lot......a lot!

As for crafting skills I am just now getting started with this new Toon. I am already a Provisioner for what that's worth. I am also a rune collector, so that I can enchant everything. Like I mentioned before, I haven't played ESO since I beta tested it. At the time I wasn't keen om paying $80 for the game and a monthly subscription too. Although, I am on a month-to-month plan now.

Incidentally, as of now this new Toon has more skills than there are slots to hold them. I guess I should have invested in my Armor this last level-up---that or a passive skill.

My main concern, however, is staying alive which in my mine means more health and/or stamina. Yet, I need Magicka too.?!?

For overland quests you can just light and heavy attack everything to death. I thought you wanted something that can clear vet trials

***_Cara_Sterling wrote: »

This too I don't quite understand, the bar setup. I don't remember how to do it?

As others have said; the skill Power Surge is a must. Cast it every 30s and as long as you have some damage ticking crits on an enemy you will be healed. You need a crit rating of over 50% for this to be effective enough.

The damage ticking should come from DoTs (damage over time effects), the most common for a sorc are Liquid Lightning and Blockade of Elements, and they are stacked on top of each other.

Then you need a "spammable"; a skill you can repeatedly cast to do some damage while your DoTs run their course. Most sorcs use Force Pulse for this. If Force Pulse is on the same bar as Crystal Frags then it will proc frags 30% of the time which you should cast as soon as you can.

So to open on a boss you should cast Power Surge, then Liquid Lightning and Blockade of Elements on top of the boss, then your ulti if you have it charged. Then, to do the most damage while you're waiting to refresh your DoTs, you should be alternating light attacks with Force Pulse until you can insta-cast frags, or your DoTs need recasting.

Finally you will probably need Hardened Ward on your back bar for those times Power Surge heals aren't enough to keep you alive. Being able to anticipate this comes with practice. You definitely don't need your ward up 100% of the time though, as I have seen some people claim.

If you insist on fighting close up (which is definitely possible) then you will need to be blocking white sparks, bashing red sparks and moving out of red areas on the ground. By red and white sparks I mean the combat cues that emanate from your NPC enemies. You need to recognise them and act accordingly.

Finally, any empty space on your bars after slotting all those skills should be filled up with either Inner Light, from Mages Guild skill line to raise your crit rating and max magicka, a pet to tank or do more damage for you, Bound Aegis to raise your max magicka, Elemental Drain to return magicka and make your enemy weaker to magic, and maybe also Mages Wrath to do more damage to your target when they get below 20% hp. I recommend Inner Light because of the 10% extra crit, but any of those options are situational or subject to preference.

This is one of the worst MMO's I've seen for balancing. I sometimes think it's still in the beta phase. I would recommend playing another MMO, because the things you complain about aren't easily fixable in this game. Yes you spent a lot of money to play this game, but is it really worth your serenity and peace of mind to keep playing a game that will never bring you happiness?

***_Cara_Sterling wrote: »

Wow everyone! Thanks for all of your responses and suggestions.

Right now I have three different Toons going. The one that I am currently trying to play---My Breton Sorceress is at level 4. I just barely started. I am a solo quester, but I am not opposed to helping/joining others---if I am in a dungeon and they request help getting through it. I also do a group dungeon a day as suggested to me. As for PvP I am not much of a fan. I am too slow and I die a lot......a lot!

As for crafting skills I am just now getting started with this new Toon. I am already a Provisioner for what that's worth. I am also a rune collector, so that I can enchant everything. Like I mentioned before, I haven't played ESO since I beta tested it. At the time I wasn't keen om paying $80 for the game and a monthly subscription too. Although, I am on a month-to-month plan now.

Incidentally, as of now this new Toon has more skills than there are slots to hold them. I guess I should have invested in my Armor this last level-up---that or a passive skill.

My main concern, however, is staying alive which in my mine means more health and/or stamina. Yet, I need Magicka too.?!?

Attributes
First of all, you need to chose if you want to go health (Tank), stamina (Damage Dealer) or magicka (Damage dealer or Healer)

Putting most of your attributes in one pool (magicka or stamina) will make your damage or healing more succesful. As lots of skills scale on either max stamina or magicka.

I recommend to go for magicka, as it gives you access to powerful shields, and restoration staff abilities that can keep yourself and others alive.

Attributes, I usually put all in magicka, as when you unlock more skills you will use shields to survive. Also more magicka, the faster your enemies are dead.


Armor
If you're leveling up, go for five light pieces, one medium, one heavy. This way you level up all the armour types. If you feel too weak, you can use one or two more heavy pieces.
To make levelling a bit easier, I usually use the following armour sets: 5x Seducer, 5x Magnus Gift. If you can't craft this yourself, I would recommend to join a guild and have it crafted for you.
Or just ask in the zone chat that you're looking for a crafter to craft these sets for you. It's not obligatory, I leveled up my first char to level 45 without knowing that item sets existed, but it will give you more resources and will make you kill things faster.

weapon
I would recommend making a lightning staff first. When you use the heavy attack with a lightning staff - which costs no magicka! - you will do damage to multiple enemies within the targeted area, and not just the one you are targetting.

Skills
I usually put all class skills on the bar and two different weapon skills. If you're going for magicka, which in my opinion is easier, I would use the first skill of both destruction and restoration. When you only have one bar, this will mean you have one 'dead' skill but you will level the skill line.

For the first 10 levels, these skills are important:

Unstable Familiar -> morph it to ->Unstable Clannfear - This guy will keep some of your enemies busy, and you can use it to heal you. Very useful when you're still low level.
Sometimes I would use him to distract enemies while I run away to chase that one skyshard in a delve.

Crystal Shards -> morph it into -> crystal fragments. Use this skill only when it 'procs', then it will cost less and will cast instantaneuously. Using other skills will make this skill proc.

Mage's Fury -> morph it into -> Mage's Wrath With this skill you can quickly kill an enemy that is below 20% health.

For some more resilience, you can also use Lightning Form -> morph it into -> Boundless Storm, on your bar instead of Mage's Fury. Also useful when you want to escape a fight. ;-)

Force Shock -> Force Pulse. This is your spam skill to kill your enemies with.

I usually unlock a useful skill as soon as I am able to and level it till I can morph it, and then replace it with the next in line if it is available, but always keep one skill per line on each bar so they all get leveled up equally. This is a personal preference. ;-)

The example bar set up by Asardas is a good one. When you've reached level 50, you should have all these skills unlocked.
For survival power surge and hardened ward will help you out a lot. So when these become available to you, unlock and use them.

dpencil1 wrote: »

@***_Cara_Sterling
Welcome back to ESO!

So you're starting to level a Sorc and would like some tips. Ok. First, do you plan to commit to a full Magicka or full Stamina build? Choosing now would be best, as hybrid builds usually are much weaker than builds that focus on one resource. My suggestion would be to focus on magicka (which will be all of your class skills and the skills from the destruction and restoration staff weapons).

Next question is race. Breton is ok. You get a bit more sustain, but you're not quite as strong as a High Elf. If you're not really attached to your Breton yet, I would reroll as a High Elf, but it doesn't make a huge difference, so don't fret too much about it.

Use your skill points to unlock Active skills first, anything that you want to use in combat or skills from trees you want to level up, then Morphs for skills you are using, as they become available, then Passive skills.

I would suggest using your first 5 skill points to pick up the first skill in each of the 3 Sorcerer trees, as well as the first skill in the Destruction staff tree, and the skill in the Light Armor tree. These should get you off to a good start.

It feels good to be back. Of all of the games out there the ESO Community are still the best, I see.

I am committed to the Breton Magicka Sorceress build. Currently, I am just a little past level 7. Here is where I am thus far:

Class:

DM: Crystal Fragment 1 / Unholy Knowledge

DS: Summon Unstable Familiar 4 / no passives yet.

ST: Mage's Fury 4 / no passives yet.

Destruction Staff: Force Shock / no passives yet.

ARMOR: Light / Recovery and Evocation passives.

WORLD: Soul Trap 4.

MAGE GUILD: No Active / Persuasive Will passive.

RACIAL: Breton Female

CRAFTING:

BLACKSMITHING: first two passives.

CLOTHING: No passives

ENCHANTING: First two passives.

PROVISIONING: First two passives

WOODWORKING: Woodworking passive.

Now, you have a clearer picture of my Toon. I cannot thank you all enough. You're the best!

@***_Cara_Sterling

Full disclaimer: This is almost certainly not the best build out there. This is what I'm playing around with at the moment to solo dungeons. I thought you might be able to use it as a starting point because you said you wanted to be a Sorcerer and you liked fighting up close.

Equipment: 5x Netch's Touch, 5x Julianos, 1x Infernal Guardian (shoulders which I got lucky enough to get from an undaunted chest)
Race: Altmer
Mundus: The Apprentice
Weapons: 2x Lightning Staff with Lightning Damage enchant
Enchants: Max Magicka on armour, Spell Damage on Jewelry
Food: Lillandril Summer Sausage (Health and Magicka Bonus)

Bar One -- Power Surge // Boundless Storm // Liquid Lightning // Bound Aegis // Inner Light -- Ult = Thunderous Rage
Bar Two -- Force Pulse // Hardened Ward // Mage's Wrath // Bound Aegis // Inner Light -- Ult = Greater Storm Atronach

Most dungeons I can get through just using Bar One to be honest, though I think that may be a reflection on the dungeons and not on any skill I have

Bound Aegis gives us Minor Ward, Minor Resolve and a bonus to Max Magicka. It's a toggle so we don't have to worry about it.
Inner Light gives us Major Prophecy and another bonus to Max Magicka. We don't even have to cast or toggle this one.
Power Surge gives us Major Sorcery and every time we crit we heal (no more than once a second)
Boundless Storm gives us Major Ward and Major Resolve and shoots out damage to everything around us every second

Between Boundless Storm, Liquid Lightning and Lightning Staff Heavy attacks (and Thunderous Rage when its ready) you pretty much crit once every second so you get a constant stream of heals

Like I said, not the greatest build in the world but it might give you a starting point for your own build.

with sorc- its not the gear- but the playstyle. i would honestly get a buddy to just wail on you- and practise stunning him, streaking thru- and keeping your shields up. - thats 90 percent of sorc. if u can do that- killing is easy- as we know- sorcs do a little bit of damage. but being disciplined enough to press ur shield every 6 seconds is the trick

MakoFore wrote: »

with sorc- its not the gear- but the playstyle. i would honestly get a buddy to just wail on you- and practise stunning him, streaking thru- and keeping your shields up. - thats 90 percent of sorc. if u can do that- killing is easy- as we know- sorcs do a little bit of damage. but being disciplined enough to press ur shield every 6 seconds is the trick

That is one of the main issues that I have with any build, really, even in a single-player game. This may sound like an excuse, but at seventy years old I am just not quick enough around the keyboard. I am always hitting the wrong buttons. Well, not always, but enough to get myself killed numerous times in a row.

I live in a high rise apartment building and my neighbors know when I am playing my video games because I swear a lot and they can hear me. :-D They just laugh!!!! It is what it is!

As for friends playing ESO I have none currently. I wouldn't mind joining a guild/clan again perhaps. I was in one when I was beta testing the game. However, my memory fails me as to which guild it was. I know that they were top drawer. That is where I learned about crafting...here and in Fallout and Skyrim.

I just have to continue relearning the game. I alway have 4 Toons, I get to a certain point and then something happens or I forget to do something and I start over again. I do that with every game. Especially when it comes to character creation.

Still, I really do appreciate your input. Thanks!

PurpleDrank wrote: »

Bar One -- Power Surge // Boundless Storm // Liquid Lightning // Bound Aegis // Inner Light -- Ult = Thunderous Rage
Bar Two -- Force Pulse // Hardened Ward // Mage's Wrath // Bound Aegis // Inner Light -- Ult = Greater Storm Atronach

Most dungeons I can get through just using Bar One to be honest, though I think that may be a reflection on the dungeons and not on any skill I have

This is not an efficient way to setup your bars:

First you don't need Inner Light on both bars, due to the way skills scale. Ground based DoTs (Liquid Lightning, Elemental Blockade) and delayed damage (Haunting Curse) scale off the stats on the bar you are currently one for every tick. So if you don't slot inner light on back bar you will maybe lose the extra 7% magicka from your scaling and 10% crit from major prophecy for the first 2 ticks of DoTs cast there, the rest being affected by the stats on the first bar. As a general rule skills that use magicka this game scale with a variable you can call spell power and equal to roughly spell damage + maximum magicka/10.24; for those that use stamina the scaling is similar - weapon power is roughly equal with weapon damage + maximum stamina/10.24. Light and heavy attacks scale mostly on your spell or weapon damage, the contribution of max stats being about 1/4 of the one for skills. So a light attack from your staff will scale with spell damage + maximum magicka/41. There's a passive called Expert Mage that boosts your weapon and spell damage by 2% for every Sorcerer ability slotted. That's why packing your front bar with sorcerer class skills is a good idea if you plan on doing heavy attack from it. Also not that heavy attacks are a pretty strong AoE DoT by themselves - Tri Focus destruction staff passive.

Second, there's no need to keep long duration (8-12s) DoTs on your front bar, let alone buffs that last 20s or more like Power Surge. The best way to keep those on your back bar, cast them right before they run out then switch to your front bar to cast your instant damage skills. This is how most DPS builds work in this game, with only a single counter-example that uses only DoTs on both bars, DK. By not using blockade together with LL on back bar, instead of inner light you are losing a large amount of damage, directly since blockade makes up one of the larges chunks of your DPS, second only to LL on most pet-less builds, and indirectly, since running lightning blockade will give a chance to set enemies off balance (concussed status effect), and making them take 8% more damage (minor vulnerability) debuff. That brings a lot of utility for the group, especially if you are running with a mag DK who can proc that debuff with his whip and get a lot of free damage.

I don't think its really build advice you need at this stage - just some tips on playing with the available tools you have at that level.

I've levelled 3 sorcs so far... One all to 50 as mag, one to 50 and turned into stam, and one to the 30's and left there as a crafter..

So I do have a bit of practice at those early stages :-)

So here are a few tidbits of advice..

You have the pet - good. You need to level this line a lot for hardened ward (comes much, much later - but its worth using pets to keep levelling the line).
I'd go for the volatile familiar morph.. its just better.. You don't get the heal - but as long as you use its ability - it will kill stuff so much quicker.
Now this is the important bit. When starting a fight - SEND THE PET FIRST.. there is a command pet key (default is Y? or maybe U? dunno - I changed mine). Holding the pet-command key, and press left-click while pointing at an enemy will send the pet to attack that enemy. Holding the pet-command-key and right-click will order the pet to stop attacking and return. (you will need to order him to attack again for him to react to the next attack).
SO - if you command the pet to attack first - and let him do some light attacks before using ANY abilities - the monster will target the pet and not you. Profit!! Then you can start beating it down! Cyrystal frag/mages fury and velocious curse shoud be fine for defeating that pesky monster while its hitting your pet.

Wear light armour. You need to level this up to unlock annulment - your first damage shield. This will be your main survival ability for many, many levels.
But before then, you will probably unlock 2 bars (level 15).. I'd suggest making one a destro staff, the other resto - then you can use regeneration from the heal staff to give yourself a nice little heal over time. Force shock from the destro staff will probably become your main spammable attack.

But survivability = pet and annulment early on.. combined with blocking/dodging where needed too.

Oh, and up your magica as much as possible. more magica = stronger shields, stronger heals, stronger pets and more damage output. Its just much, much more effective than increasing health for survivability.

While leveling - and you do level much faster these days than you used to since the game and XP scales with you constantly - you only need to change gear every 10 levels or so since overland content is so easy. I recommend crafted sets with training trait paired with any arcane (if magicka) or robust (if stamina) jewels you will get from dolmens in the respective areas. The quality doesn't matter much since you'll throw them away and replace them quite often so even green will do. Two effective combos I used while leveling my characters have been 5 Armor of the Seducer + 3 Torug's Pact for magicka and 5 Hunding's Rage + 4/3 Night Mother's Gaze for stamina ones. I always make the chest heavy, legs medium, waist light and the other 4 pieces either light (if magicka) or medium (if stamina). I craft at levels 14/24/34/44 since those are the maximum level for material tiers and you will probably have lots of them by then, having deconstructed all the trash gear that drops from mobs - deconstruct everything since it's the fastest way to get mats and level your craft skills; sell raw mats on guild stores until you get the refinement passives since you won't be able to extract the best tempers without them.

Example of gear setup for a leveling sorcerer:
Chest: Armor of the Seducer, heavy, training
Legs: Armor of the Seducer, medium, training
Hands: Armor of the Seducer, light, training
Waist: Armor of the Seducer, light, training
Feet: Armor of the Seducer, light, training
Shoulders: Torug's Pact, light, training
Head: Torug's Pact, light, training
Weapon: Torug's Pact, lightning staff, training
Jewels: [any zone light armor set], arcane (ex. if grinding dolmens in Auridon you will get Queen's Elegance jewels in arcane)

Crafted:
http://elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/Armor+of+the+Seducer+Set
http://elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/Torug's+Pact+Set

Dropped (Auridon):
http://elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/Queen's+Elegance+Set