I'm guessing PVE? Then we just need to know pet sorc or not.

If pet sorc, here's a very simplistic damage bar on destro/healing bar on resto set up:

Destro Bar: Force Shock (great spammable), Wall of Elements (great AOE and damage over time), Volatile Familiar (great damage), Twilight Matriarch (great burst heals), and Mage's Fury (Execute) or Liquid Lightning (another AOE DOT)

Resto Bar: Healing Ward (damage shield) or Annulment (light armor damage shield) or Conjured Ward (damage shield), Healing Springs (AOE heals), Volatile Familiar + Twilight Matriarch (double-barred so they don't disappear on barswap), Rapid Regen or Combat Prayer (Combat Prayer has better gorup buffs, regeneration has better resource return) or Liquid Lightning/Mage's Fury if you want that and couldn't fit it on the Destro Bar


For a non-pet sorc, here's another relatively simple set-up:

Destro Bar: Force Shock, Wall of Elements, Crystal Fragments (only used when its instant), Liquid Lightning (AOE DOT), Power Surge (more power + self heals) or Lightning Form (extra protection + aoe damage) or Bound Armor (extra protection and magicka but you'll have to double bar it) or Inner Light from Mages Guild (extra magicka)

Resto Bar: Healing Springs, One of the Damage Shield skills listed above, Rapid Regen/Combat Prayer, and anything you want from the sorc skills


Neither of these are necessarily high DPS rotations or the exact combo of skills you see on the main guides for sorc builds. However, Its designed to be a fairly simple DPS rotation. You'll throw your AOE DOTs like Liquid Lightning and Wall of Elements, then use your pets or your spammable to kill enemies. You can damage shield yourself and then heal when you need it. with the resto staff or the twilight matriarch. If that's too resource intensive, use heavy attacks after you've set your AOE DOTs.

As a healer, you'll be relying on the resto staff and Healing Springs for healing everyone in the group, with the Twilight Matriarch for big burst heals. Combat Prayer gives your group plenty of nice buffs, and you'll probably want to pick up the Undaunted Orbs that help with resource return when you can. If you are maining a healer in group dungeons, I'd grab Elemental Drain from destro staff for additional resource return. You'll also have plenty of opportunity to do DPS, so the general approach of AOE DOTs + heals works well even as a healer.

Okay for PVP, ditch the pets. Pets are pretty much a nuisance. You can use the Twilight Matriarch if you really want to, but most of the time she's a big flappy target and an experienced player will either ignore it to kill you or if they can't, will kill it and then kill you.

Resto Staff: Healing Springs and Mutagen. These are your best friends - spam them proactively and spam them often. You'll get extra AP for healing players so don't be afraid to spread the Heals around. Cleanse (Alliance War Support Line), super useful for getting rid of nasty poisons and siege effects. If you are going to be sieging, grab the Siege Shield skill from the Alliance War Support line. Then, Healing Ward or the light armor Annulment damage shield, because PVP sorcs can shield stack. Combat Prayer can be really useful in a group, it'll slow you down to use it on yourself.

I mained a MagDK healer in PVP for about a year, and I did fine with Healing Springs, Mutagen and Cleanse for group heals. It lacks the burst healing of the templar, so use your heals proactively, well before you are almost dead.

Destro Staff: There's a lot of flexibility here. You can go for a hit-and-run style with Streak. You could go melee aoe with Boundless storm and impulse. Or for a simpler "these are useful skills" type of build:

Conjured Ward for Shield Stacking. That's where you cast two different shields so that they overlap, forcing the enemy to break through both of them. This can be resource intensive, but you'll want at least one shield on your bars.
Mage's Fury - this is your kill-stealing execute. If an enemy is at low health, hit them with this.
Boundless Storm/Bound Armor - these are protective spells. Boundless Storm has greater resistances, Bound Amro needs to be double barred but grants more magicka.
Defensive Rune - this will stun an enemy that attacks you. If you need a little more defensive to give yourself a chance to react, this is really nice.
Proxy Detonation - a delayed burst of magic damage from the Alliance War Assault line, if you want to get up close and personal.
Flame Reach - requires an Inferno Staff, but has a great ranged knockback. Good way to send an enemy flying.
Streak - for when you absolutely, positively have to run anyway.

I'd definitely grab Mage's Fury and then fill your bar with the skills that seem to fit your playstyle. Be wary of ground-based AOEs like Wall of Elements or Liquid Lightning. Those are super effective in PVE, but most PVP players will walk right out of them unless you've dropped them on a keep's flags or something.

Ultimates:
Eye of the Storm: unless you are planning to throw your ultimate on keep flags, pick the morph that moves with you. The Destro ulti does great damage.
Negate: if you are running with groups, Negate is a powerful anti-enemy-group ultimate. When you negate the enemy, they can't heal with magicka, so its much easier to kill them. If you aren't running against large groups or in a group of your own, I suggest...
Meteor: Mages Guild Ultimate, this is great for dropping onto groups of players or finishing off that one guy running away from you after you wiped his buddies.
Barrier: Alliance War Support ultimate. Very nice in groups and solo/small group play, this is a spectacular damage shield for when you want to buy yourself some extra seconds to get out of dodge or to charge through siege to capture a keep's flags.

Syiccal wrote: »

duel weild...why?

Dual Wielding Swords give extra damage from a passive. If PhoenixGrey doesn't use clench from destro staff on that bar, then dual wield swords boosts the damage of all the sorc abilities on that bar.

Syiccal wrote: »

yea sure I understand that I use dw on my magplar..i mean I just thought staff was better on sorc

If you want to use Destruction staff abilities, such as the ultimate, clench or even just as a ranged light/heavy attack option, destruction staff will be good on a sorc.

If you don't want to use destruction staff abilities, but instead want to use sorc/guild abilities to do damage, then dual wield swords will boost your damage there.

I gotta say I've not heard before on any mag class how dw gives better sustain

ah ok i see what your saying.