Sorc tank tips

ErinSparkblade · February 2019

Hello,

I’m looking to start tanking on my sorclet soon, and wondered if I could pick a few brains.

I love the Shalk set, but I’m wondering if I’m placing too much emphasis on the set bonus for ultimate. I can take the minor maim skill instead of heroic slash or whatever it is when I wear Shalk, and the extra ultimate is lovely.

However I can’t soft cap my physical and spell resistance at 33k while wearing Shalks. I have other sets like Warrior Poet, Footman and Thunderbug to get to that 33k.

What’s more important, the ultimate uptime or the resistances? I fear it may be the latter so I’ll have to dump Shalks and the minor maim to take heroic slash.

Any help greatly appreciated!

Erin

macsmooth · February 2019

If your a low cp and beginning to tank go resistance sets warrior poet is great beginning set

If your high cp and have done dungeons before go the normal tanking sets you only need unbuffed about 22k resistance as majors and monster sets will usually give you the rest

Your monster set is usually the area you get your resistances from Bloodspawn also source of ultimate generation lord warden mighty chunda if you want bar space or mix two resistance sets together pirate and lord or chunda this will help you in the beginning with tanking

It helps to know what your aiming for dungeons or trails and current state of cp

Ultimate generation is good but I usually aim for ultimate to be ready on cool down not before it is needed, shalks is a good set and you can use it if you want to take the other morph and your a sorcerer so you have reduced ultimate as well which you maybe sat with ultimates ready before you need them, pre made groups or pugs

Speaking of being a sorcerer you want to throw a back bar lightening staff in as you can give off balance to the group, Use prison skill for your cc and your good

So yes warrior poet shalks and bloodspawn is a decent beginning tank setup for pugs dungeons

Tasear · February 2019

Instead of shalks try histt champion set that does same thing but for stamina. You could also try dragon that is more tankly set that synergizes well with Sorc ultimate reduction.

ErinSparkblade · February 2019

Thanks guys!

I'm about 440CP I think. And good grief Bloodspawn almost looks too good. Be definitely keeping an eye out for that. All I have is Stormfist at the moment, which is hilarious but lacking a little as a tank set.

Great to hear I can keep Shalk's going (or its stam variant). On that, I've always leant towards Shalk's because spell crit is yummy and more crit = more uptime on self-heals and more ticking shock damage. I hadn't even considered Dragon set, so thanks for the heads up.

And I don't go anywhere without my lightning staff

Bound Lightning + Lightning Flood + Blockade of Storms...I like lightning.

I checked, I'm 443CP and climbing. It's time. To battle!

macsmooth · February 2019

Bloodspawn is in spindleclutch 2 and it is actually a easy dungeon the hardest boss is of the top of my head the third one the ghost boss he locks you into a force shield barrier which all you have to do is walk with it not into it, stormfist is going to loose its appeal on Sorcs next patch with the change to implosion passive

Don’t forget to have dark deal on your skill bar transfer of magicka into stamina is a key skill with the rest you said and you can use the physical damage pet if you want it won’t be to big a issue in dungeons and bound armour has its benefits

The lightening staff should be infused with crusher enchant and always have wall of elements down and your one hand weapon infused with weakening enchant

Make sure your smaller pieces are sturdy and your shield sturdy for now you can change the shield traits once you have at least 75 points into shield wall (green section of cp) in cp but you will want 100 points there once max cp and shield play enchants on your jewellery, the cp in the red section of champion points is a good place to look at to

Once you get spell wall to 100 you can start playing around with jewellery enchants and see where the balance is for you and that’s the biggest thing it’s your tank, build him the way you want to if it’s not high end content have fun with your tank

Have your tank gear and have a dps setup gear for when your doing normal questing

macsmooth · February 2019

I should have mentioned about dragonguard set

You can get the shield from I think it’s crag something delve and a mace drops from the world boss middle left of the map just need to transmute the weapon to infused

I will take look and edit this post with correct delve and world boss name

Edit
Mace Viviene Armeme, Dragon Mound in Eastmarch
Shield Deathknight Stormcrag, Stormcrag Crypt, Eastmarch

ErinSparkblade · February 2019

No chance it’s a high end tank it’s just my alter ego to escape Real Life for a couple of hours a night. Probably just tank in-guild to help out.

Thanks for your advice, it’s greatly appreciated!

I’ll definitely nab Dragon set, more options is always good =]

zvavi · February 2019

I actually would not recommend surge on a sorc tank.when I play my sorc as a tank I end up with 20% crit chance, which is definitely not enough for me to slot surge, I slotted it out and never looked back

ErinSparkblade · February 2019

zvavi wrote: »

I actually would not recommend surge on a sorc tank.when I play my sorc as a tank I end up with 20% crit chance, which is definitely not enough for me to slot surge, I slotted it out and never looked back

Really? I love Surge, I don’t think I could let it go. Infiniheals when lightning form, flood and blockade are ticking. Do you use the shield more? The 10% group Magicka Regen is nice too I guess. I only really use it if I’ve ballsed up a pull and not even Surge will save me.

I don’t use a pet either apart from the storm atronarch.

Considering ditching Shalks for Footman and Warrior Poet to cap resistances and get the spindleclutch I monster set that yanks your ranged baddies in. Solid?

zvavi · February 2019

well 3 dots, 20% crit chance, means that in 30 seconds, 90 dot ticks, will heal u in average for 45k. i mean, u might be up to something, but i for example dont have time to keep up the flood dot for example, and like burst heals after boss heavy attacks much more. but then again i tank only vet dlc things, where things hits u hard when they do (why use one skill to heal for 45k over 30 sec when i can use 1 when i need it to heal for 15k minimum at key moments?).

ErinSparkblade · February 2019

I’m open to experimentation, I’ll swap Surge out for shield. Do you go for the 10% mag Regen or the bigger shield?

I’ve also seen ice staff being used instead of lightning. Not sure about that one.

zvavi · February 2019

As I already said, since I take my tank for vDLC hm things, and he is essentially a DD that changed morphs and gear for 2k gold, his attributes and cp is in the wrong places. I use the pet (clannfear), cause the heal heals me instantly for tons of hp, and can carry me through the harder fights (two slots but shield+surge is two slots too, no other healing options, excluding dark deal that can't be used in tight situations). But honestly it changes through fights all the time, I slot and outslot encase all the time, during vMoS I have rapids+dark deal for infinite movement speed buff for my group members even if they use skills, what I am trying to say is that everything is situational, surge+shield might be good too, as long as you manage the shield to actually cover 40/50% of your health (if your magicka is too low it just won't do it). I would really recommend experimenting on it, and never to trust your healers.
You are the pillar of defense that needs to be able to stand tall even if your team wipes, and res them when opportunity arrives.
If on the other hand you are stacking on stamina as your main resource, the things you want is boneshield+vigor, I think. Anyway, ye, situational, I can't tell you what is better, cause what is best is what you make work. But more or less:
Must skills:
Major buffs (lightening form/immovable/balance)
Dark deal
Pierce armor
War horn
Inner fire (ranged taunt)
Silver leash (the pull from fighters guild)
Heroic slash
Roll dodge

Situational:
Orbs(from undaunted, for heal and resources to dds)
Purge
Bone shield
Blood altar
Encase
Clannfear
Shield
Bound aegis (or the other morph)
Reviving barrier(mag Regen op, shield, and heals you and your dd's)
Surge
Rapid menouver
Bolt escape
Shield charge
Wall of elements
Elemental drain
The dark magic ultimate (I don't even remember the name teehee, good for vMHK hm)
Absorb magic

Memes:
Destructive touch (I played with it a bit against beetles in vFL, encase worked much better)
Crystal fragments+deadric mines
Greater storm atronach for the major berserk for one DD(I suspect that war horn is still stronger)
Other pets.

Edit: I forgot orbs, tee hee, the must skills is usually ones that I have at all times, excluding the silver leash, but it made there cause tanks need to be able to pull those adds.
The situational are skills that I have slotted for specific fights. Some of them (like clannfear blood altar, Reviving barrier, wall of elements, encase) are usually on my bars.

Also as I said my sorcerer is for dungeons, not trials, didn't take him to vet trials yet, and not sure I will cause he is not tanky enough imo for them (I don't reach resist cap and my health is around ~33k).

Weapon choices: s/b front bar is your friend,

lightening staff vs ice staff:

Lightening:
gives minor vulnerablity(concussion) sometimes puts your enemy of balance because of it
Heavy attack is an aoe, can "agro" a group of far away mobs with it

Ice staff:
The option to tank with magicka
Ranged free taunt that comes with a small shield
Gets 1.5k resists from CP.

Equipment choices:
I run torug+ebon+Lord warden, but I should probably swap to ebon+resist&health set+ stonekeeper.
Ebon is great. Torug/alakosh for debuffs. Any resists set can be nice.
Lord warden/stonekeeper are really good, if you don't have dlc there are other options, don't remember the names

Note: also take in consideration that as I said, my sorcerer is not that tanky, a lot of bosses one shot me through block(especially newer dungeons), and as I build more support than tank, my skill set is a bit different, still very fun to play

.

ErinSparkblade · February 2019

Oh dear Lord, what did they do to Implosion? Well, that removed one of my favourite abilities (was also useful with all that ticking Shock damage, 'cos bye bye enemy in a trice)

I'll stick with the lightning I think, but have an ice staff in my bags.

I don't have all of those abilities yet, the horn most importantly I reckon. I'll use the Storm Atronarch until then. Wouldn't mind some Vigor, and the Psijic ultimate Undo which could be hilariously effective. The other ultimate I use is the Dark Magic one Absorption Field. Very handy I'm finding for stopping ranged in their tracks so I can wander up and stab them. Nice healing too.

The thing I worry about the ranged taunts is their cost. Seems excessive. I forgot the heavy lightning staff attack does damage around the target too. If I can just get the dps to hold off a second or two...

I'm levelling Bone Shield at the moment, I'll see how that goes. Looks like I have a skill points reset in my near future. I'm only just beginning anyway, I've tanked a few normals, that's it. Have Plague Doctor 5 piece, I might wear that until I get Ebon (which looks lovely). Then maybe Akaviri Dragonguard.

You've given me lots to think about, thank you!

zvavi · February 2019

Happy my wall of text helped

then again, if u want to keep enemies in place i recommend encase very much! Huge range of 6X18, stops enemies from moving for 5.5 seconds, which means your dd's are more or less safe, but ye, if u r tanking only normals, a DD with a taunt and health enchantments should be enough

, you will be surprised about the difficulty jump from vet and normal to the vet dlc, at vet scalecaller peak I have learned (with my meta dk) that bosses can one shot u if u don't block, with full health+12k shield on. Since then I have come far in tanking, but the shock of "omfg I don't know how to tank" that vSCP gave me remained with me up till today, tanking is really hard in later content.
Also if you are in PC EU feel free to send me a mail if u got specific questions, I am going to focus on studying for the next week and a half, but later I will be able to answer questions easily. @zvavi