DPS ROTATION PVP

Lord_Etrigan · October 2017

Hi fellow sorcerers,

I need some help from master sorcerers on the following:

My build: High elf Magica Sorcerer (Master Race of course lol)
Max magica = 38000, Spell damage =3000
Magic recovery =1700, Whitchmothers

Sets: 5 Shackle (Heavy), 5 Alteration and 1x Kena Head (Heavy)

Bar1: Hardened ward, Endless Fury, Crystal Fragments, Dark conversion, Crushing Shock and Soul Assault.
Bar2: Healing Ward, Harness Magica, Bondless storm, Haunting Curse, Power Surge and Suppression Field (works like a charm on Flag guards)

Background:

I have come over from PVE (were rotations is important especially in group plays) to PVP, But kind of hit the ground running with no real rotations except to kill as fast as possible without being killed yourself.

So the other night a guild mate invited me to a duel in his home with a new PVP build he was trying out and I thought why not, Hell I got two different characters to Emp, so I should be competent enough to stand my ground against another sorc.
Needless to say I was handed my rear end on a platter and felt in awe and embarrassed at the same time.

Let me explain. I beat him the first time but then he pulled out both pets and this is where everything went to hell in a basket. First trying to kill him and avoid his pets was nightmare enough but the problem I was facing was a drain of resources brought on by too much Crushing Shock (with some light attacks in between) and constant uptime of shields.

His rotation on the other hand was flowing like water, mine was plague with button lag and just felt awkward.
So licking my wounds I pondered on the matter and it got me thinking on my play style in Cyro and how I’m not really thinking about rotation but mostly trying to end the fight quick.

Here is my rotation:
Back bar- light attack (Spell damage), Curse, swap front, shield, light attack, Crushing shock (combo light and Crushing until frag prog) frag and execute with Fury or use alti when opponent below half health and then fury to finish fight.

The problem with my rotation is that I only go to back bar to apply curse and to go on defence with harness and ward thus I run out of resources very fast and have to back away from fight to use conversion, this becomes problematic when facing enemies in multiple directions.

So my question to all you master sorcerers, what is your rotation that allows you max damage but also allows for good resource management and do you ever let your magica fall below half as I noticed that’s when it’s the hardest to recover magica and still be able to apply pressure.

Any help, constructive critique and or suggestions will be most welcome.

Takes-No-Prisoner · October 2017

Lord_Etrigan wrote: »

His rotation on the other hand was flowing like water, mine was plague with button lag and just felt awkward.

This is normal for all classes/ build types. Unlike a PVE mob where you can simply walk up to it and start the rotation, PVP the enemy is a human and not an AI. Thus, you have to think creatively how to get to the target.

There is no answer for this, no magic YOU GOT GUD pill. Period. The only true answer is getting out there and trying. When you fail, look over the mistakes, think about what he did / what you did. What could you have done differently? Then adjust gear, skillsets and playstyles as you evolve as a player. Try again, and again.

You already started that process in you initial OP, this is good! You ran out of resources, this happens if we get over zealous with pressure. As a Sorc, you can open you your rotation by playing 'Cat and Mouse'.

Pew pew him with your Staff, LA only. Wait for a reaction, by LA you hold onto your precious reserves of resources. Be patient and see what happens, then burst according to how the situation plays out.

Bar1: Hardened ward, Endless Fury, Crystal Fragments, Dark conversion, Crushing Shock and Soul Assault.
Bar2: Healing Ward, Harness Magica, Bondless storm, Haunting Curse, Power Surge and Suppression Field (works like a charm on Flag guards)

Put Streak on one of these bars, it's your mobility tool, you need it to get people off your nuts. Soul Assault is an OK ult, but consider either Meteor(meteor will still activate/hit a target who stealths BTW), or Dawnbreaker if you're solo/small scale. And consider Light's Champion on Resto bar, the Major Protection and HoT it puts on your Sorc will save you.

Suppression field is great for PvP, it's not great for solo/samll scale. Save it for when you run with 16+ groups.

Lord_Etrigan · October 2017

Takes-No-Prisoner wrote: »

Lord_Etrigan wrote: »

His rotation on the other hand was flowing like water, mine was plague with button lag and just felt awkward.

This is normal for all classes/ build types. Unlike a PVE mob where you can simply walk up to it and start the rotation, PVP the enemy is a human and not an AI. Thus, you have to think creatively how to get to the target.

There is no answer for this, no magic YOU GOT GUD pill. Period. The only true answer is getting out there and trying. When you fail, look over the mistakes, think about what he did / what you did. What could you have done differently? Then adjust gear, skillsets and playstyles as you evolve as a player. Try again, and again.

Hi and thank you for the advice.

haakira · October 2017

Lord_Etrigan wrote: »

Hi fellow sorcerers,

I need some help from master sorcerers on the following:

My build: High elf Magica Sorcerer (Master Race of course lol)
Max magica = 38000, Spell damage =3000
Magic recovery =1700, Whitchmothers

Sets: 5 Shackle (Heavy), 5 Alteration and 1x Kena Head (Heavy)

Bar1: Hardened ward, Endless Fury, Crystal Fragments, Dark conversion, Crushing Shock and Soul Assault.
Bar2: Healing Ward, Harness Magica, Bondless storm, Haunting Curse, Power Surge and Suppression Field (works like a charm on Flag guards)

Background:

I have come over from PVE (were rotations is important especially in group plays) to PVP, But kind of hit the ground running with no real rotations except to kill as fast as possible without being killed yourself.

So the other night a guild mate invited me to a duel in his home with a new PVP build he was trying out and I thought why not, Hell I got two different characters to Emp, so I should be competent enough to stand my ground against another sorc.
Needless to say I was handed my rear end on a platter and felt in awe and embarrassed at the same time.

Let me explain. I beat him the first time but then he pulled out both pets and this is where everything went to hell in a basket. First trying to kill him and avoid his pets was nightmare enough but the problem I was facing was a drain of resources brought on by too much Crushing Shock (with some light attacks in between) and constant uptime of shields.

His rotation on the other hand was flowing like water, mine was plague with button lag and just felt awkward.
So licking my wounds I pondered on the matter and it got me thinking on my play style in Cyro and how I’m not really thinking about rotation but mostly trying to end the fight quick.

Here is my rotation:
Back bar- light attack (Spell damage), Curse, swap front, shield, light attack, Crushing shock (combo light and Crushing until frag prog) frag and execute with Fury or use alti when opponent below half health and then fury to finish fight.

The problem with my rotation is that I only go to back bar to apply curse and to go on defence with harness and ward thus I run out of resources very fast and have to back away from fight to use conversion, this becomes problematic when facing enemies in multiple directions.

So my question to all you master sorcerers, what is your rotation that allows you max damage but also allows for good resource management and do you ever let your magica fall below half as I noticed that’s when it’s the hardest to recover magica and still be able to apply pressure.

Any help, constructive critique and or suggestions will be most welcome.

One thing that will dramatically improve your resource management and damage is switching to Light armor (full impenetrable). You're running 6 pieces Heavy. The light armor passives provide more regen, spell cost reduction, more crit and more penetration. Your Harness magic shield will also be much bigger. Keep the Heavy kena head and change shackle to all light and see how it works out after that.

I'd also recommend watching some of Sypher PK's youtube videos ( he has uploaded some recent mag sorc videos) where you can try and learn what he does as a guideline for your own play style.

Airyus · October 2017

I'm not a sorc always played a mag dk but every time I fight a sorc they always put a shield up first when I'm in melee range, curse, streak away, then start a range rotation of crushing shock and whatever procs insta frags. If I don't stay in range and pressure the sorc with dots and whips I'm dead. Hope that helps.

Takes-No-Prisoner · October 2017

haakira wrote: »

One thing that will dramatically improve your resource management and damage is switching to Light armor (full impenetrable). You're running 6 pieces Heavy. The light armor passives provide more regen, spell cost reduction, more crit and more penetration. Your Harness magic shield will also be much bigger. Keep the Heavy kena head and change shackle to all light and see how it works out after that.

I'd also recommend watching some of Sypher PK's youtube videos ( he has uploaded some recent mag sorc videos) where you can try and learn what he does as a guideline for your own play style.

+1

MagSorc can run all Light Armor in pvp and make it work. Haakira says Impenetrable, which might work as you're still learning to play so you can take more hits / stay in the fight longer.

But soon IMO, after the infancy stage, you should graduate to Light armor infused big pieces, divines small / all divines to min-max your damage and make your shield bubble very big.

GrigorijMalahevich · October 2017

@Lord_Etrigan

1) Magsorc in PvP doesn't have any rotations, it is all about timed burst as you don't have sustained damage capabilities. You are always moving and your targets are not static and you always have to react to change of environment around you, so saying "PvP rotation" is wrong.
2) If you wear heavy armor - remove shields from your bars. Heavy armor provides high resistance and when you apply shields, they have 0 resistance and your resistance is irrelevant while shield is still active. Because you want to have always a shield active, it is preferable to be in light armor as it gives massive sustain (spell cost reduction is massive and regen) it also gives you crit.
To make it short - you have to choose between heavy armor or shields, having both is just decreasing the strength of both and massively lowers your potential, specially if you have 7 heavy and 3 shields...

Rotation that you mentioned is cool, but what if your enemy uses stealth? What if your enemy pops up wings or s&b ult?

Ideally you want different play styles against different opponents depending on their class/build. While it is not very easy to understand what build your opponent has, you can immediately see what class they are and understand if that is magicka or stamina character.

My example - if I see a nightblade, first thing I do is check if I still have defensive rune active, if I don't have the time to check (if nightblade is already engaging me) - I just reapply defensive rune and then as soon as possible cast curse on the nightblade and then in 99% of cases the NB will go in to stealth, this is when you apply shield and prepare for engagement and then do whatever.

MagSorc lacks sustained damage, so your kills will come from burst, basically when your opponent is around 70%health, you have procced frag, dawnbreaker and you already applied curse - just try to time frag and dawnbreaker the same moment when curse will detonate. (Impossible to explain, as all encounters are different)

PvP skill doesn't come from knowing rotations, it comes more from experience on what counteractions to do against what your opponent is doing/trying to do. I would advise for a start to put on 5x necro with 1 pet and 2 shields (harness with hardened) or 2 pets and 1 shield (just hardened and with two pets you can drop resto staff and put on s&b from a different set and use heal from pet) and use 5x lich. For MagSorc petbuilds are most newbie friendly in PvP.

Maulkin · October 2017

Few real quick things:

1) MagSorc is better in light armor. Your shields are your protection and when those run out you are dead, in whatever type of armor. Because even your heals are shields (Healing Ward). Plus your damage mitigation in heavy is wasted when you are constantly behind shields. The bigger your shields and longer you can keep casting them...the longer you will survive.

2) Your stats are kinda low for sustaining duels. I'm running 42k magicka and near on 3.5k regen when my sets proc, with 3.1k buffed spell damage. And that's in 6L-1H. So if we had a duel you'd eventually run out of magicka much faster than me and lose. It'd be an inevitability, unless I made a really big mistake.

3) There really isn't such thing as a "rotation" in PvP. It's more reactionary. What you have instead of rotations, are combos. Build up of skills that lead to damage spikes. For Sorc, that usually revolves around timing a Curse with an Ult and a CC. You just manage the fight as best you can till you can time these 3.

EDIT: Learn to avoid being CC'ed in the lead up to your combo and learn to read the opponents' combos and interrupt them with your own CC. That's how you usually end up winning fights.

Takes-No-Prisoner · October 2017

Making good decisions is also imperative. For example;

Ignoring the healer and DPSing the tank is bad, instead do the following thought process,

Checking the targets resistances>check to see if the attack takes a noticeable chunk of health> focus THAT target>once he is dead> move onto the next squishier target, start back at the beginning of this thought process.

If you cannot make a noticeable dent in the target, either;

A. Move on

or

B. if A cannot happen, turtle opponent and drain resources by not over committing, LOS behind trees/rocks/walls, if escape becomes possible go for it. Just because you got caught in a fight, does not mean you have to stay there. Always aim to get the best position to be in, this increases chances of winning

Dk_needs_a_buff · October 2017

Lord_Etrigan wrote: »

Hi fellow sorcerers,

I need some help from master sorcerers on the following:

My build: High elf Magica Sorcerer (Master Race of course lol)
Max magica = 38000, Spell damage =3000
Magic recovery =1700, Whitchmothers

Sets: 5 Shackle (Heavy), 5 Alteration and 1x Kena Head (Heavy)

Bar1: Hardened ward, Endless Fury, Crystal Fragments, Dark conversion, Crushing Shock and Soul Assault.
Bar2: Healing Ward, Harness Magica, Bondless storm, Haunting Curse, Power Surge and Suppression Field (works like a charm on Flag guards)

Background:

I have come over from PVE (were rotations is important especially in group plays) to PVP, But kind of hit the ground running with no real rotations except to kill as fast as possible without being killed yourself.

So the other night a guild mate invited me to a duel in his home with a new PVP build he was trying out and I thought why not, Hell I got two different characters to Emp, so I should be competent enough to stand my ground against another sorc.
Needless to say I was handed my rear end on a platter and felt in awe and embarrassed at the same time.

Let me explain. I beat him the first time but then he pulled out both pets and this is where everything went to hell in a basket. First trying to kill him and avoid his pets was nightmare enough but the problem I was facing was a drain of resources brought on by too much Crushing Shock (with some light attacks in between) and constant uptime of shields.

His rotation on the other hand was flowing like water, mine was plague with button lag and just felt awkward.
So licking my wounds I pondered on the matter and it got me thinking on my play style in Cyro and how I’m not really thinking about rotation but mostly trying to end the fight quick.

Here is my rotation:
Back bar- light attack (Spell damage), Curse, swap front, shield, light attack, Crushing shock (combo light and Crushing until frag prog) frag and execute with Fury or use alti when opponent below half health and then fury to finish fight.

The problem with my rotation is that I only go to back bar to apply curse and to go on defence with harness and ward thus I run out of resources very fast and have to back away from fight to use conversion, this becomes problematic when facing enemies in multiple directions.

So my question to all you master sorcerers, what is your rotation that allows you max damage but also allows for good resource management and do you ever let your magica fall below half as I noticed that’s when it’s the hardest to recover magica and still be able to apply pressure.

Any help, constructive critique and or suggestions will be most welcome.

With sorcs your better off stacking max magic for damage for bigger shield.
My sorc has 2.9k spell dmg
2.5k regen
44k max magic.

Lord_Etrigan · October 2017

Airyus wrote: »

I'm not a sorc always played a mag dk but every time I fight a sorc they always put a shield up first when I'm in melee range, curse, streak away, then start a range rotation of crushing shock and whatever procs insta frags. If I don't stay in range and pressure the sorc with dots and whips I'm dead. Hope that helps.

Thanks that is very helpful indeed.

Lord_Etrigan · October 2017

Valera Progib wrote: »

@Lord_Etrigan

1) Magsorc in PvP doesn't have any rotations, it is all about timed burst as you don't have sustained damage capabilities. You are always moving and your targets are not static and you always have to react to change of environment around you, so saying "PvP rotation" is wrong.
2) If you wear heavy armor - remove shields from your bars. Heavy armor provides high resistance and when you apply shields, they have 0 resistance and your resistance is irrelevant while shield is still active. Because you want to have always a shield active, it is preferable to be in light armor as it gives massive sustain (spell cost reduction is massive and regen) it also gives you crit.
To make it short - you have to choose between heavy armor or shields, having both is just decreasing the strength of both and massively lowers your potential, specially if you have 7 heavy and 3 shields...

Rotation that you mentioned is cool, but what if your enemy uses stealth? What if your enemy pops up wings or s&b ult?

Ideally you want different play styles against different opponents depending on their class/build. While it is not very easy to understand what build your opponent has, you can immediately see what class they are and understand if that is magicka or stamina character.

My example - if I see a nightblade, first thing I do is check if I still have defensive rune active, if I don't have the time to check (if nightblade is already engaging me) - I just reapply defensive rune and then as soon as possible cast curse on the nightblade and then in 99% of cases the NB will go in to stealth, this is when you apply shield and prepare for engagement and then do whatever.

MagSorc lacks sustained damage, so your kills will come from burst, basically when your opponent is around 70%health, you have procced frag, dawnbreaker and you already applied curse - just try to time frag and dawnbreaker the same moment when curse will detonate. (Impossible to explain, as all encounters are different)

PvP skill doesn't come from knowing rotations, it comes more from experience on what counteractions to do against what your opponent is doing/trying to do. I would advise for a start to put on 5x necro with 1 pet and 2 shields (harness with hardened) or 2 pets and 1 shield (just hardened and with two pets you can drop resto staff and put on s&b from a different set and use heal from pet) and use 5x lich. For MagSorc petbuilds are most newbie friendly in PvP.

Thanks, some good advice you given me and will give it a try tonight.

Lord_Etrigan · October 2017

Maulkin wrote: »

Few real quick things:

1) MagSorc is better in light armor. Your shields are your protection and when those run out you are dead, in whatever type of armor. Because even your heals are shields (Healing Ward). Plus your damage mitigation in heavy is wasted when you are constantly behind shields. The bigger your shields and longer you can keep casting them...the longer you will survive.

2) Your stats are kinda low for sustaining duels. I'm running 42k magicka and near on 3.5k regen when my sets proc, with 3.1k buffed spell damage. And that's in 6L-1H. So if we had a duel you'd eventually run out of magicka much faster than me and lose. It'd be an inevitability, unless I made a really big mistake.

3) There really isn't such thing as a "rotation" in PvP. It's more reactionary. What you have instead of rotations, are combos. Build up of skills that lead to damage spikes. For Sorc, that usually revolves around timing a Curse with an Ult and a CC. You just manage the fight as best you can till you can time these 3.

EDIT: Learn to avoid being CC'ed in the lead up to your combo and learn to read the opponents' combos and interrupt them with your own CC. That's how you usually end up winning fights.

Thank you, I'm definitely going back to 5L1H. Now if I can only get away from those annoying burning talons lol

Lord_Etrigan · October 2017

Thanks again for all the advice guys, I have also decided to record my game play. That way I can see where my mistakes are and try to correct it.

Lord_Etrigan · October 2017

Dk_needs_a_buff wrote: »

Lord_Etrigan wrote: »

Hi fellow sorcerers,

I need some help from master sorcerers on the following:

My build: High elf Magica Sorcerer (Master Race of course lol)
Max magica = 38000, Spell damage =3000
Magic recovery =1700, Whitchmothers

Sets: 5 Shackle (Heavy), 5 Alteration and 1x Kena Head (Heavy)

Bar1: Hardened ward, Endless Fury, Crystal Fragments, Dark conversion, Crushing Shock and Soul Assault.
Bar2: Healing Ward, Harness Magica, Bondless storm, Haunting Curse, Power Surge and Suppression Field (works like a charm on Flag guards)

Background:

I have come over from PVE (were rotations is important especially in group plays) to PVP, But kind of hit the ground running with no real rotations except to kill as fast as possible without being killed yourself.

So the other night a guild mate invited me to a duel in his home with a new PVP build he was trying out and I thought why not, Hell I got two different characters to Emp, so I should be competent enough to stand my ground against another sorc.
Needless to say I was handed my rear end on a platter and felt in awe and embarrassed at the same time.

Let me explain. I beat him the first time but then he pulled out both pets and this is where everything went to hell in a basket. First trying to kill him and avoid his pets was nightmare enough but the problem I was facing was a drain of resources brought on by too much Crushing Shock (with some light attacks in between) and constant uptime of shields.

His rotation on the other hand was flowing like water, mine was plague with button lag and just felt awkward.
So licking my wounds I pondered on the matter and it got me thinking on my play style in Cyro and how I’m not really thinking about rotation but mostly trying to end the fight quick.

Here is my rotation:
Back bar- light attack (Spell damage), Curse, swap front, shield, light attack, Crushing shock (combo light and Crushing until frag prog) frag and execute with Fury or use alti when opponent below half health and then fury to finish fight.

The problem with my rotation is that I only go to back bar to apply curse and to go on defence with harness and ward thus I run out of resources very fast and have to back away from fight to use conversion, this becomes problematic when facing enemies in multiple directions.

So my question to all you master sorcerers, what is your rotation that allows you max damage but also allows for good resource management and do you ever let your magica fall below half as I noticed that’s when it’s the hardest to recover magica and still be able to apply pressure.

Any help, constructive critique and or suggestions will be most welcome.

With sorcs your better off stacking max magic for damage for bigger shield.
My sorc has 2.9k spell dmg
2.5k regen
44k max magic.

If u don't mind me asking, what sets you running?

Joy_Division · October 2017

Lord_Etrigan wrote: »

I have come over from PVE (were rotations is important especially in group plays) to PVP, But kind of hit the ground running with no real rotations except to kill as fast as possible without being killed yourself.

That's what PvP is all about. There isn't a strict rotation, it's all about setting up your burst. Curse then Fury then procced Crystal Frags is the combo you want to land on your opponents, but their dodge rolling, blocking, and CCing you is not going to make it easy.

Shacklbreaker itself is a decent sustain set, shouldn't need Alteration Mastery to go with that. 4 piece Necropotance + Monster pieces of your choice (full set or Dominhaus + regen or spell damage, whatever you think you need) will give a higher stats.

Takes-No-Prisoner · October 2017

The best part is the monster pieces are basically left up to your imagination which is what I love about building for PvP. In that there is no wrong answer-- just whatever it takes to survive and get to your goals.

Though if you want a list to cherry pick from OP here are some;

2pc Engine Guardian
2pc Slimecraw
1 pc Domihaus, or mix/match
2pc Infernal Guardian
2pc Kena, or mix/match
1pc Illambris/Grotthdar, or mix/match

or every Sorc's personal fav

2pc Pirate Skeleton

SugaComa · October 2017

Hi ... Well as you know I'm not great at PvP but I'm still going to offer some advice

1 know your enemy ... Don't be afraid to single them out and keep playing them ... Record the footage and also set up your setting to show you all buffs and debuffs so you can help figure out what he's doing

2 find thier pattern this will show you their weaknesses , now you've got that identified use it to your advantage

Remember PvP no two fights are the same so many things come into it that rotations only work if they happen so fast you can't counter them

I can't do rotations, old man hands, so I have to rely on the above

I would advise this though buff up first stack the buffs ... Apply a DoT early especially one that can prevent healing if you have them ...I've never really run a sorc so I'm unsure what you've got

TarrNokk · October 2017

I am curious how you guys have 3k spell damage and 3k regen. In all my gear combinations I am on max 3k Regen with 1,7k spell damage. Gear shackle /lich, shackle/necro, necro /spinner, necro /lich. All in Gold except rings.... If I ever try out more spell dmg my sustain goes down significant.

haakira · October 2017

TarrNokk wrote: »

I am curious how you guys have 3k spell damage and 3k regen. In all my gear combinations I am on max 3k Regen with 1,7k spell damage. Gear shackle /lich, shackle/necro, necro /spinner, necro /lich. All in Gold except rings.... If I ever try out more spell dmg my sustain goes down significant.

Its only 3k regen when Lich is procc'd. Then its back to 1.8ish, it's my guess. 3k Spell damage is easy to get with full spell harm glyphs on jewelry, gold nirnhoned staff and one or two spell damage bonuses on armor.

VirtualElizabeth · October 2017

Takes-No-Prisoner wrote: »

2pc Pirate Skeleton

I go through love/hate phases with my Sorc and I dusted her off over the weekend. I threw on Pirate Skelly just for giggles but I admit - I absolutely love it.

I also tried out Rattlecage 5 piece and I am sold. I went with the 3 piece jewelry - arcane (Gem of Curses x2 and Forbiddens something for the neck piece - along with heavy arms and waste. All the rest of the pieces I went with light.

For the second set I did shacklebreaker, just four pieces though, and I need to redo my staff to Nirn and adjust the glyphs on the Rattlecage pieces. Once this is done I should be ready to rock and roll!

Like the other posters have said, its not a rotation - its combos. Frag and Streak are your best friends is what I believe. When all else fails - RUN AWAAAAAYYYY

Enjoy PVP!

Waffennacht · October 2017

"Hell I got two different characters to Emp,"

Congrats.

However dueling is Extremely different than Open World PvP, which is extremely different than BGs

Dueling... You'll find many builds extremely good at fighting another single player that would preform very poorly in and against group combat.

With your stats, against another sorc, you'll be at a huge disadvantage against a pure PvP single target build.

Practice will make perfect

Takes-No-Prisoner · October 2017

VirtualElizabeth wrote: »

Takes-No-Prisoner wrote: »

2pc Pirate Skeleton

I go through love/hate phases with my Sorc and I dusted her off over the weekend. I threw on Pirate Skelly just for giggles but I admit - I absolutely love it.

I was slightly trolling with that statement. As the buff/proc doesn't work on shields any more. Regardless, I am envious you have the shoulder, I am still looking through the undaunted chests for mine.

chris25602 · October 2017

so to start i am no min/maxer i just play with what i have fun with...that said I definitely do have a rotation for pvp...and it includes running away and regen' come back and burst.

hardened ward>boundless storm>streak(in)->entropy>crystal frag proc>mages wrath->force pulsex(2-3)->magelight->meteor->potion(magika)->streak (out)->dark conversion(till full)

given you always get caught in wierd situations where you need to know how to be flexible but, this rotation works well for me. I will be honest if you are zerging you can often dispense with the running away and stick behind the main line target anyone under 2/3 health. lots o kills

Lord_Etrigan · October 2017

Hi and thanks again guys,

So here is some feedback from last night gameplay.

I have taken the many good advice to heart and slotted 5L Shackle, 5X Curse eater with heavy Kena shoulder (Bonus! Who knew that Ebony looks so stylish in black and Chrome LOL), the Curse eater was a gamble but seem to pay off with reduced snares (Looking at you DK LOL).

I have slotted streak (Even foiled a critical rush by streaking through him and landing a frag as I spun around), and starting choosing my targets a bit wisely so that if my first hit with Crushing shock did not do noticeable damage then I would back off and allow my ooh so eager teammates to drop his/her health before I engage and execute.

Play smarter was indeed good advice as it allowed me to test the enemy with some pew, pew light attacks to determine what I'm up against before committing.

I’m still running Soul Assault as I don’t have meteor, thinking of dawn breaker but it’s still level 1 and I’m used to range attacks or unless I can somehow animation cancel streak into Dawn breaker.

Resources wise is a lot better as I try not to go below half on my magica before using conversion and also ensure that before full engagement, I would activate Healing Ward and then Harness for that extra protection.

So after reviewing some of my recorded fights, I noticed that I prematurely apply curse by not letting it run its full course which is an unnecessary waste of magica and finally I’m considering slotting Ruin Prison so that when an enemy attacks me gets stunned, I can use hardened ward to proc frag and combo with curse frag and Mages wrath but that means I have to give up a skill and not sure which one to sacrifice.

Lord_Etrigan · October 2017

chris25602 wrote: »

so to start i am no min/maxer i just play with what i have fun with...that said I definitely do have a rotation for pvp...and it includes running away and regen' come back and burst.

hardened ward>boundless storm>streak(in)->entropy>crystal frag proc>mages wrath->force pulsex(2-3)->magelight->meteor->potion(magika)->streak (out)->dark conversion(till full)

given you always get caught in wierd situations where you need to know how to be flexible but, this rotation works well for me. I will be honest if you are zerging you can often dispense with the running away and stick behind the main line target anyone under 2/3 health. lots o kills

Yip that's why Mages Wrath is my most fav skill.

Takes-No-Prisoner · October 2017

Lord_Etrigan wrote: »

So after reviewing some of my recorded fights, I noticed that I prematurely apply curse by not letting it run its full course which is an unnecessary waste of magica and finally I’m considering slotting Ruin Prison so that when an enemy attacks me gets stunned, I can use hardened ward to proc frag and combo with curse frag and Mages wrath but that means I have to give up a skill and not sure which one to sacrifice.

Defensive Rune stays active for 2 minutes. I usually apply it before any horse back rides and before going into battle. If you get a snipe spammer, the cage it puts on the target makes him easy to pick out amongst mob of people.

As you can see, it is tricky to arm yourself with the right skills for MagSorc, you'll figure it out. Me personally, I took off Harness and put Defensive rune on. With how I play, I do not need to shield stack.

Lord_Etrigan · October 2017

Takes-No-Prisoner wrote: »

Lord_Etrigan wrote: »

So after reviewing some of my recorded fights, I noticed that I prematurely apply curse by not letting it run its full course which is an unnecessary waste of magica and finally I’m considering slotting Ruin Prison so that when an enemy attacks me gets stunned, I can use hardened ward to proc frag and combo with curse frag and Mages wrath but that means I have to give up a skill and not sure which one to sacrifice.

Defensive Rune stays active for 2 minutes. I usually apply it before any horse back rides and before going into battle. If you get a snipe spammer, the cage it puts on the target makes him easy to pick out amongst mob of people.

As you can see, it is tricky to arm yourself with the right skills for MagSorc, you'll figure it out. Me personally, I took off Harness and put Defensive rune on. With how I play, I do not need to shield stack.

Thanks, I'll try that.

Lexxypwns · October 2017

Personally, my bars on mag sorc, for HotR are

Destro
Shock, fury, frags, degeneration, curse, DBoS
Resto
Hardened, healing ward, dark deal, streak, boundless, light's champion

you "rotation" is simple. You're back bar, buffed up, pop your shield, go front bar. Curse, fury, if frag is proc'ed then use degeneration to empower it, if not then use no more than 1 shock to fish for it. If you don't get a frag proc then go back and refresh your shield.

All this changes under pressure, but that's the basic routine. Curse has a 3.5 second timer and good sorcs will have a ridiculously high up-time on curse and not be waiting for the second explosion. Fury can explode for up to 4 seconds after you cast it, this means if you hit it after curse and land a proc'ed frag you can hit a shock weave to drop them into execute if they're close or they'll just explode if they drop too low. Shields have a 6 second duration so you want to refresh them before they drop, but also be aware that players will see you go offensive, count to 5 and then CC you to unload their burst as your shield drops and be prepared. You can run harness in place of boundless, but I don't prefer a tri-stack when I can get to 25k resists in my build by running boundless.

Takes-No-Prisoner · October 2017

Lexxypwns wrote: »

Curse has a 3.5 second timer and good sorcs will have a ridiculously high up-time on curse and not be waiting for the second explosion.

This is what I struggle with. If re-applying curse before the second pop is good or bad.

In general I always struggle with timing on Fury/Curse on PS4 since I don't have timers(add-ons) on my screen. I feel like I would perform better on my MagSorc if I appreciated my timing on abilities.

VirtualElizabeth · October 2017

Takes-No-Prisoner wrote: »

VirtualElizabeth wrote: »

Takes-No-Prisoner wrote: »

2pc Pirate Skeleton

I go through love/hate phases with my Sorc and I dusted her off over the weekend. I threw on Pirate Skelly just for giggles but I admit - I absolutely love it.

I was slightly trolling with that statement. As the buff/proc doesn't work on shields any more. Regardless, I am envious you have the shoulder, I am still looking through the undaunted chests for mine.

Ah gotcha, LOL!

I literally threw it on because it was the only set piece where I had two lights and Impen lol. But because I am taking damage like all the time in pvp, it kept procing for me.