MagSorc Tank "Shield-Spammer"

Zerok · July 2017

I've been playtesting this build in vet dungeons and it's actually much easier to play than I anticipated. In fact, I died only to Selene because I was not looking at her bear attack...

Basically, you just have to spam Hardened Ward whenever your damage shield drops too low. You never have to hold block except for the heavy attacks (because they can knock you out). I also play with an obscure addon (Scootworks Shield) that displays a big number showing your current damage shield, but if you're playing with the bigger UI mods (e.g. AUI) then you should already see the state of your damage shield...

Being a vampire (stage 2) is recommended but not essential. The extra magicka regen is quite handy.

Race : Breton, but would probably work with other magicka races (Altmer, Argonian)

Gear (5H-1M-1L)
5x Necropotence (more max magicka = more damage shield)
5x Seducer (max magicka + sustain)
1x Shadowrend (sustain)
1x Chokethorn (sustain)

Big pieces: Infused & Prismatic enchants
Small pieces: Divines & Magicka enchants
Jewelry: reduce spell cost enchants

Mundus : Atronach (magicka regen)

Food : Longfin Pasty with melon sauce (purple tri-stats food)

Potions: Essence of health (tri-stats potions), used as necessary (i.e. occasionally)

Skills
Bar 1: Hardened Ward, Restraining Prison, Inner Light, Summon Unstable Clannfear, Bound Aegis, Shooting Star
Bar 2: Inner Rage, Pierce Armor, Heroic Slash, Summon Unstable Clannfear, Bound Aegis, Aggressive War Horn

Hardened Ward: you will be spamming this whenever necessary. It will provide you with a 24k+ shield every time.
Restraining Prison: your crowd control for large groups of mobs.
Inner Light: only there to get more max magicka.
Summon Unstable Clannfear: needed to proc Necropotence and the sorc passive "Expert Summoner". The clannfear also gets a damage shield and will not die. You can also use the clannfear ability to heal yourself if your health ever gets damaged (it almost never happens).
Bound Aegis: more max magicka.
Shooting Star: only there to get more max magicka. But since you get 47k+ max magicka with this build, it can still be used if somebody else is using warhorn.
Inner Rage: your ranged and main taunt for small mobs. When I enter a room, I begin by casting Hardened Ward then I cast Inner rage on every mob I can.
Pierce Armor: your debuff taunt for bosses. You just have to cast this every 10 sec during boss fights.
Heroic Slash: minor maim against bosses and minor heroism for more ultimate generation.
Aggressive War Horn: your main ultimate to boost the stats of your group.

Attributes
Mostly in Magicka with a few point in health as necessary

Champion points (not definitive)
Lord
Bastion: 70
Quick Recovery: 10

Lady
Thick Skinned: 40
Hardy: 30
Elemental Defender: 50

Steed
Ironclad: 10

Ritual
Precise Strikes: 10
Piercing: 20
Mighty: 30

Atronach
Physical Weapon Expert: 35
Master-at-arms: 40

Apprenctice
Elfborn: 5
Blessed: 70

Shadow
Shadow Ward: 65
Tumbling: 10

Lover
Arcanist: 70
Tenacity: 50

Tower
Bashing Focus: 6
Warlord: 9

Picture (unbuffed, mostly purple gear so stats are not maximized yet):

DocFrost72 · July 2017

Hey, a fellow sorc tank! Hail

I'm just floating this out as a suggestion, did you know cp damage reduction stars affect how much damage your shields take? So do vampire's undeath and minor protection! If you wanted to use the stage 3 passive for vamp (undeath) then your wards would take much less damage if you used them at low health. Same with ironclad and hardy/ele defender.

Another thing I suggest is to try running surge if you can find and place to hide it on your bar. The heals are enormous.

Either way, looks good. Keep on rocking!

paulsimonps · July 2017

I would try changing your Food to Witch Mother Potent brew, Max Magicka and Max HP just like you have now but instead of the Max Stamina you get magicka recovery.

Asardes · July 2017

I've done something similar with my sorc:
5p Willow's Path (3 heavy, light sash, medium bracers)
5/4p Amberplasm (1h+S front, lightning back, rings, neck)
2p Infernal Guardian or Valkyn Skoria or 1 Shadowrend 1 Chocklethorn
Big pieces infused, small ones divines, tri glyph on armor and recovery glyphs on jewelry, crushing enchant on front bar, shock damage back bar

Maximum health+magicka food and thief mundus (50% spell crit and 40% weapon crit for surge heals)

Skills:
Pierce armor, heroic slash, hardened ward, inner light, bound aegis, replenishing barrier (for the passive mostly)
Lightning Blockade, restraining prison, power surge, boundless storm, bound aegis, aggressive warhorn

I sometimes use other skills instead of restraining: inner fire or streak. I replace inner light with cristal frag for vRoM to interrupt stone shapers and also switch one of the infernal pieces at Xal Nur because the procs will release the wamasu.

Zerok · July 2017

DocFrost72 wrote: »

Hey, a fellow sorc tank! Hail

I'm just floating this out as a suggestion, did you know cp damage reduction stars affect how much damage your shields take? So do vampire's undeath and minor protection! If you wanted to use the stage 3 passive for vamp (undeath) then your wards would take much less damage if you used them at low health. Same with ironclad and hardy/ele defender.

Interesting. I will try this out, thank you

Another thing I suggest is to try running surge if you can find and place to hide it on your bar. The heals are enormous

I (almost) never have to heal with this build. When I do, I just use the clannfear.

paulsimonps · July 2017

Btw for more info on what lowers the damage the shield can take like @DocFrost72 said I would suggest reading this:

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/279426/damage-mitigation-explanation-updated-for-morrowind-new-calculator/p1

Biro123 · July 2017

Why not try matriarch over clannfear.? Heals should be stronger and will heal group members too.

paulsimonps · July 2017

Biro123 wrote: »

Why not try matriarch over clannfear.? Heals should be stronger and will heal group members too.

Considering he is going heavy into magicka and not health this seems to be accurate. And the Twilight would not be in Melee, so more likely to survive big AoEs from bosses.

Zerok · July 2017

Initially, I chose the clannfear because I feared the matriach could target other players while I'm in an emergency situation.

But after testing, I must admit I don't need much healing myself. Using the matriarch should be the way to go

Gargath · October 2017

Zerok wrote: »

Picture (unbuffed, mostly purple gear so stats are not maximized yet):

This build looks much more dd than tanky. Tons of magicka but only 23k hp and shield spamming doesn't look as best choice for vet activities. Any dd with at least 18k hp and close to 50k magicka can tank a world boss by spamming damage shield followed by heavy attack to restore magicka, but it doesn't make the build tanky.
Once you are accidentally immobilised with your damage shield depleted, without lots of HP you can be easily one-hit and dead in a second. Much more HP and Resistances are imho better for survivability. The tactics of Bittergreen the Guar for example. Once you accidentally miss his special attack you are rooted to the ground and he can just one-hit you by powerful headbite before you free yourself. Without damage shield you are defenceless. I'd like to see your performance on Bittergreen in this build

.

Zerok · October 2017

I didn't try tanking Bittergreen, but this tank went through all non-DLC vet dungeons, vWGT and vICP.

The only vet dungeons I did not try with him are the SOTH and HOTR ones. I also did not try any trial but this tank was not meant for trials.

The 26k damage shields can be spammed each 2-3 seconds without a significant impact on your magicka pool.

Since you only have to block the heavy attacks and high damage mechanics, the drain on the stamina pool is negligible. If your stamina is too low, three heavy attack will restore most of your stamina pool (but this rarely happens).

Resistances are totally pointless for this build because they do not apply to damage shields! You can put more points in health but this mean you will get a smaller shield. Personally, I felt 24k health + 26k shield was good enough for me. The only boss I can think of that can one-shot this tank with his shield up is Selene with her bear attack (but I have yet to see a tank survive that attack).

The dps of this tank is crap but he off-heals very well with the matriarch. I've kept the group alive many times when the healer was down.

Flameheart · October 2017

Gargath wrote: »

Zerok wrote: »

Picture (unbuffed, mostly purple gear so stats are not maximized yet):

This build looks much more dd than tanky. Tons of magicka but only 23k hp and shield spamming doesn't look as best choice for vet activities. Any dd with at least 18k hp and close to 50k magicka can tank a world boss by spamming damage shield followed by heavy attack to restore magicka, but it doesn't make the build tanky.
Once you are accidentally immobilised with your damage shield depleted, without lots of HP you can be easily one-hit and dead in a second. Much more HP and Resistances are imho better for survivability. The tactics of Bittergreen the Guar for example. Once you accidentally miss his special attack you are rooted to the ground and he can just one-hit you by powerful headbite before you free yourself. Without damage shield you are defenceless. I'd like to see your performance on Bittergreen in this build .

Actually I agree. Although the TOs build has somewhat emerged from the desire to play something different, I think my magSorc on full tank and support (Ebon + Akaviri + Swarmmother / Engine Guardian / Blood Spawn) brings still more to the table. My Ward won't come with a 20k+ damage shield, but even 7-8k are a nice addition for bosses with hard hitting special attacks / AoEs like Selene, or the final bosses in Spindleclutch 1 / Tempest Island...and I do that without ever changing my CPs. I just change the role from DD to tank by clicking a Dressing Room hotkey.

The TOs build would make some sense if it would deliver a lot more dps, but it doesn't I guess.

Zerok · October 2017

What do you mean by TOs?

Also, I doubt it's a good idea for a tank to do "dps". A tank doing dps means he has sacrificed some survivability or group support to do so.

A tank should be about survivability (even without healer), group buffs/boss debuffs and crowd control.

Flameheart · October 2017

TO = Thread Opener aka you.

Zerok · October 2017

Oh

raj72616a · October 2017

maybe you can try a frost staff or a resto staff on the other bar instead of using shield on both bar?

Frost stuff gives a free ranged taunt, free shield, and restore magicka, and there's the chance of proccing chilled.