Tired of dying: I desperately need help with a proper Sorcerer builds for PC.

PurpleDrank · September 2017

Asardes wrote: »

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 know exactly what you're saying, and I fully agree. However I have one additional (and unfortunately rather major) problem on my end. Being in the part of Australia that I am, with garbage internet, getting the game to run so that its playable is a struggle at times (strangely its just this game and not others. DCUO, Secret World, Ultima Online all worked fine with minimal lag). One of the nastier side effects of this is that changing bars, or rather trying to change bars in combat, often doesn't work - or if it does there's a massive delay in the change meaning that attempts to use both bars in combat can be futile. To try and work within this restriction I tend to treat each bar as a separate entity (though I dream of the day I can switch bars in combat with consistency again). Its also part of the reason I tend to solo stuff or try to do it with people I know. The set up I have is not ideal. But it does let me solo the basic dungeons and run with others who are in the same boat as me (who tend to do the same thing).

So yeah, completely agree with you, but at the moment I'm trying to work within unavoidable restrictions. Funny thing is, until a few updates ago (I believe it was just before Morrowind), my connection was fine. I used to be able to switch bars no problem.

Asardes · September 2017

PurpleDrank wrote: »

Asardes wrote: »

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 know exactly what you're saying, and I fully agree. However I have one additional (and unfortunately rather major) problem on my end. Being in the part of Australia that I am, with garbage internet, getting the game to run so that its playable is a struggle at times (strangely its just this game and not others. DCUO, Secret World, Ultima Online all worked fine with minimal lag). One of the nastier side effects of this is that changing bars, or rather trying to change bars in combat, often doesn't work - or if it does there's a massive delay in the change meaning that attempts to use both bars in combat can be futile. To try and work within this restriction I tend to treat each bar as a separate entity (though I dream of the day I can switch bars in combat with consistency again). Its also part of the reason I tend to solo stuff or try to do it with people I know. The set up I have is not ideal. But it does let me solo the basic dungeons and run with others who are in the same boat as me (who tend to do the same thing).

So yeah, completely agree with you, but at the moment I'm trying to work within unavoidable restrictions. Funny thing is, until a few updates ago (I believe it was just before Morrowind), my connection was fine. I used to be able to switch bars no problem.

Well in that situation it actually makes even less sense keeping Hardened Ward on the back bar since that skill has to be used as a life saver with short notice. And you don't actually need to be lightning fast when changing bars, if you just let the game do it, and then recast the next skill from the front bar it will work out just fine. If you weave too fast before the bar swap you can confuse the server. That's why you should not weave after the last skill on the back bar. One way to adapt you play style to high ping is to display it in the corner of your screen and when you see high values, like 200-300 simply press and wait for the game to execute the command (ex. bar swap) before casting the next skill. I have generally good ping 80-120, but I get spikes from time to time. Actually that's worse than having constantly high ping since you can get used to that but in lag spikes your char will just stop doing anything, then your game will go "beep-beep-beep" then the ping indicator will go red to 999, and you'll most likely see all enemies move at light speed, ending with you dead on the ground. I get that in PvP a lot but sometimes in PvE instances, even solo ones like vMA.

I've heard similar problems from other players with lag increasing from patch to patch, but from my experience that's mostly a client side problem. One precaution I take before entering lag-critical content like trials or PvP is to restart my client, then relog the character I want to play and go straight to the trial/dungeon/arena/Cyro. I suspect that the game uses memory in a rather inefficient way, storing increasing amounts of redundant data that is only cleared by client restart. The more zones you load, the slower it becomes. At some point it begins stuttering every 4-5s, with sound stopping for a moment. For example if I load a few chars, do the writs and other stuff, then go with one in vMA by the Ice Rink the game would have become so laggy that I get killed by mobs that are still invisible. All while the ping indicator stays within normal limits. I get no such problems if I go there right after a fresh restart and go straight there. And a laggy client takes forever to close, or has crash on closure. Some times only killing the process from task manager closes it. With each patch the game has more stuff put in it, so the amount of data handled by the client also increases. So the higher the chance to get those kind of memory problems because of poor usage optimization.

PurpleDrank · September 2017

Asardes wrote: »

Well in that situation it actually makes even less sense keeping Hardened Ward on the back bar since that skill has to be used as a life saver with short notice. And you don't actually need to be lightning fast when changing bars, if you just let the game do it, and then recast the next skill from the front bar it will work out just fine. If you weave too fast before the bar swap you can confuse the server. That's why you should not weave after the last skill on the back bar.

What I've been doing at the moment is using my front bar almost exclusively. It has the self heal, the damage and the defense bonuses, so it keeps me alive mostly. The second bar I've been using when I'm playing with mates. If they're holding aggro then I stay back and attack from range, keep Hardened Ward up as much as possible so if something happens I don't eat it straight up. I actually removed it completely for a couple of weeks because we were getting these idiotic lag spikes that we're lasting longer than the Ward lol. In those "Oh ***" moments, I tend to just let it happen and try again to be honest.

Asardes wrote: »

One way to adapt you play style to high ping is to display it in the corner of your screen and when you see high values, like 200-300 simply press and wait for the game to execute the command (ex. bar swap) before casting the next skill. I have generally good ping 80-120, but I get spikes from time to time. Actually that's worse than having constantly high ping since you can get used to that but in lag spikes your char will just stop doing anything, then your game will go "beep-beep-beep" then the ping indicator will go red to 999, and you'll most likely see all enemies move at light speed, ending with you dead on the ground. I get that in PvP a lot but sometimes in PvE instances, even solo ones like vMA.

Since that update my ping is generally over 300. Before that I was getting between 100 and 200, but now its almost always over 300, occasionally around 280, and frequently in the 400s+. It sucks man. So frustrating, especially since it wasn't bad at all when I first came back to the game.

Asardes wrote: »

I've heard similar problems from other players with lag increasing from patch to patch, but from my experience that's mostly a client side problem. One precaution I take before entering lag-critical content like trials or PvP is to restart my client, then relog the character I want to play and go straight to the trial/dungeon/arena/Cyro. I suspect that the game uses memory in a rather inefficient way, storing increasing amounts of redundant data that is only cleared by client restart. The more zones you load, the slower it becomes. At some point it begins stuttering every 4-5s, with sound stopping for a moment. For example if I load a few chars, do the writs and other stuff, then go with one in vMA by the Ice Rink the game would have become so laggy that I get killed by mobs that are still invisible. All while the ping indicator stays within normal limits. I get no such problems if I go there right after a fresh restart and go straight there. And a laggy client takes forever to close, or has crash on closure. Some times only killing the process from task manager closes it. With each patch the game has more stuff put in it, so the amount of data handled by the client also increases. So the higher the chance to get those kind of memory problems because of poor usage optimization.

I'll have to try the resetting to see if that helps at all. Even a slight improvement would be welcome, so thanks for that. Might get someone to have a look at my PC too, just to check if there's something that can be tweaked.

dtsharples · September 2017

If reaction time is your biggest worry, magika Sorcerer may not be the best option to go for.
You really do need to keep your shields up in order to survive, and the build can rely heavily on light attack weaving which is also very reaction heavy.

I know you said you were hoping to stick with the Sorc, but just as an idea you could try out a Templar.
In solo play your main damaging skill would be Puncturing Sweeps, which heals you for 35% of the damage it does.
You also have immediate access to a powerful class heal for those ''oh shiz'' situations.
Paired with some Destro staff skills you'll have decent dots, AOE, single target and an execute which should be plenty to play efficiently solo or in 4 man groups.

A few skills to suggest - these 5 skills should allow you to kill pretty much anything.

Reflective Light (AOE DOT)
Elemental Blockade (AOE DOT)
Puncturing Sweep (Main damage skill)
Radiant Oppression (Execute)
Breath of Life (Heal)

For Ultimate I'd start with Empowering Sweep, until you can swap it later on for Meteor. Use it as soon as its available, its so cheap it should be usable on every other group of mobs.

I hope this doesn't sound patronising, but my young nephew made a Templar recently to play just when he visits - we set up the above and he was easily soloing delves and even joined for a normal dungeon and held his own.
The learning curve for Magika Templar isn't very steep, so you should be able to really get stuck into the game pretty quickly.

For armour id start with crafted: 5 Julianos + 3 Seducer. Any magika jewellery you find will do the trick until you hit level 50.
(I'd craft heavy Chest + Leg pieces for extra armour - the remaining 5 in Light)

As people already mentioned, ignore crafting for now - it just wastes skillpoints.
Find a friendly casual guild to join, any crafting you need done I'm sure someone would be happy to help from your guild if you ask nicely enough.

Start by taking and morphing the class skills that you will use (some are useless - you don't need them all)
Then take Light armour, Racial + Destro skills.
Unless you plan to play as a Healer, you don't need to level up restoration staff on a Templar as you have self heals.
As for attribute points, maybe put a couple into HP if you are still struggling, but ordinarily they would mostly all go into Magika.

Good Luck with whatever you decide on, I'm sure you'll make something work, and the game is definitely worth persevering for

Mithoron · September 2017

***_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.?!?

Have to laugh at all the Veteran+ answers when you are just starting the game...ignore those...

I have come back after playing only 9+ months post-retail, so like you, have had over a 2 year absence. Although my main is a Nightblade (after 2 weeks, she is level 50 and starting Veteran levels), I also have TWO alt sorceresses. One is a light armor range casting like you are trying to do, and the second is a heavy armored, two-handed sword wielding battlemage!

Both are currently Level 11 and neither of them have any issues fighting delve boss mobs solo...so I think it's more in distributing your points properly and getting what you want out of them.

First, remember, you not only have skills in your three sorceress lines, but you also have light armor skills, destruction staff skills, and more importantly, joining the Mages Guild, you have those skill as well.

The best advice is simply going to one of the build fan sites and reading what the skills do...with a good idea on maintaining your magicka/mana pool. I find that I rarely run out of magicka (or stamina and magicka for my battlemage) so it sounds like you have skipping many of the passives over selecting more casting spells. While the casting spells are nice, you really only need a couple damage dealing skills this low level...focus on the passive buffs first and foremost, and don't forget to eat your buff foods...if you find you are dying, eat health foods, but for the most part, you want to drink teas (mana regen) or foods that buff your magicka (I think that's vegetable dishes, but don't remember offhand).

Just my 0.02 worth...hope it helps!

Jigger_allard · September 2017

Mithoron wrote: »

***_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.?!?

Have to laugh at all the Veteran+ answers when you are just starting the game...ignore those...

I have come back after playing only 9+ months post-retail, so like you, have had over a 2 year absence. Although my main is a Nightblade (after 2 weeks, she is level 50 and starting Veteran levels), I also have TWO alt sorceresses. One is a light armor range casting like you are trying to do, and the second is a heavy armored, two-handed sword wielding battlemage!

Both are currently Level 11 and neither of them have any issues fighting delve boss mobs solo...so I think it's more in distributing your points properly and getting what you want out of them.

First, remember, you not only have skills in your three sorceress lines, but you also have light armor skills, destruction staff skills, and more importantly, joining the Mages Guild, you have those skill as well.

The best advice is simply going to one of the build fan sites and reading what the skills do...with a good idea on maintaining your magicka/mana pool. I find that I rarely run out of magicka (or stamina and magicka for my battlemage) so it sounds like you have skipping many of the passives over selecting more casting spells. While the casting spells are nice, you really only need a couple damage dealing skills this low level...focus on the passive buffs first and foremost, and don't forget to eat your buff foods...if you find you are dying, eat health foods, but for the most part, you want to drink teas (mana regen) or foods that buff your magicka (I think that's vegetable dishes, but don't remember offhand).

Just my 0.02 worth...hope it helps!

This here thread and the responses that I have received is one of the reasons why I came back. Everyone is really helpful, kind and genuinely courteous. I discovered that early on when I was beta testing the game. Thank you for continuing to make ESO a pleasure to play.

However, all of your suggestions have my head spinning.

Who I am as a gamer: First and foremost, I am seventy years old. I love playing video games.......especially RPG/Single shooter games like Fallout and Mass Effect. (I am terrible at PvP and don't really like doing it. I am just not quick enough anymore.)

In addition, I always play as a female character. Therefore, I am rather partial to my current Breton Sorceress, Kaitlyn-Palmer. For me, character creation is important for my immersion in the game. I like playing as a Mage/Sorceress. I do so when I play Dragon Age Inquisition. (Although, I utilize the bow and arrow in Skyrim. Also, in Skyrim, I always play as a Nord.)

When I was beta testing ESO I utilized the bow and arrow, but found, for me at least, that it was ineffective as a rage weapon.

Incidentally, as of this morning, I purchased a Respec Scroll from the store and changed all my skills to those recommended by all of you. As of this moment, I am half way to level 13.

In closing, I again want to thank everyone here for all of your suggestions.

dpencil1 · September 2017

@***_Cara_Sterling
You don't need to buy respec scrolls. You just need to go to Elden Root, Wayrest, or Mournhold. There is a shrine in each of these cities you can use to reset your skills whenever you want. It gets more expensive the more skill points you've used, but it will be super cheap at early levels. No need to spend real world money on that sort of thing.

If any of your skills, like Unstable Familiar have a little triangle of three diamonds next to them in the skills window, click on that to morph the skill into a better version. Start by morphing the Familiar into the Clannfear. After you summon the Clannfear, you can press his button again to heal yourself and him. Morph your other skills that have leveled up all the way as well.

Look in your Keybinds menu (press Esc) to see the list of menus (like when you're going to log out). Look in there for "Command Pet." You can change this to a different button if you don't like Y. When you hold this button down, pressing the left or right mouse buttons will command your pet. Y+LMB = "attack the target I am looking at." Y+RMB = "stop fighting and come back to me." Your pet will automatically attack any target you use a heavy attack on, but you can use this command button to send your pet into combat first. This will make the enemies attack the pet instead of you, at least for a while.

Now that you've respecced, hopefully you don't have any points into crafting and have taken the active skill in the Light Armor tree. This shield will be your best way to keep from getting killed. If you get hurt, use the shield, then you can finish off the enemy or use the Clannfear's heal. A shield is like temporary bonus health. It only lasts for 6 seconds, but it can give you time to react.

A bunch of responses here were given by people who did not actually read your thread. They are offering build advice for max level characters. Just ignore that stuff. Right now, just focus on getting better at using your skills and staying alive.

Asardes · September 2017

Well, sorcerer, especially pet builds are really friendly since you don't really need quick reaction times to play them properly. Because of the shields and self heals having lightning fast reflexes is not essential, like for example stamina NB where you need to burst things fast or you get destroyed the next second.

Jigger_allard · September 2017

Well, I finally reached level 15 or rather level 16. However, I don't yet have the skills suggested placing on it. Anyway, I will keep plugging at it.

sevomd69 · September 2017

***_Cara_Sterling wrote: »

Well, I finally reached level 15 or rather level 16. However, I don't yet have the skills suggested placing on it. Anyway, I will keep plugging at it.

Remember... now you have another bar to slot skills in...and you can equip 2 weapons...one on each bar...