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Returning player looking for opinions regarding 2 classes

masterlouppub18_ESO
Hey there, i just returned to the game from a long break and leveled a necromancer but i cannot make up my mind whether i should play stamina necro or mag sorcerer, Would anyone please tell me some sort of pros and cons of both classes, i mostly pve with some casual pvp on the side. Thanks!

Best Answer

  • MashmalloMan
    MashmalloMan
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    mobicera wrote: »
    Hey there, i just returned to the game from a long break and leveled a necromancer but i cannot make up my mind whether i should play stamina necro or mag sorcerer, Would anyone please tell me some sort of pros and cons of both classes, i mostly pve with some casual pvp on the side. Thanks!

    Stamina necromancer hits harder in pve and is vastly better than magicka. Magicka still hits hard in pvp and has access to more heals but they're not used in pve much if at all as a dps. As such, I'd go stamina and I would suggest an orc for pve dps or redguard and if you go into pvp a nord is a good option too. I have a few videos on my channel that may help decide what race to play.

    Hope that helps.

    We are in a mag meta for pve.
    Just fyi.
    Though mag sorc really isn't in a great spot.

    Which class would you reccomend for a returning player who like soloing and eventually get into end game? Is anything changing in greymoor for the meta? I said necro and sorc in my op but I dont mind rerolling a new one if necessary.

    Sorcs are fantastic solo classes for stam and mag. They have a ton of passive/proactive self healing via crit surge. 1 skill covers most, if not all the solo self healing you will ever need while also providing a vital major brutality/sorcery buff for +20% weapon/spell damage.

    Other classes need to sometimes run more reactive healing skills. Necro as an example has a very weak self healing pet that lasts 16s and heals every 2s instead of every 1s, the nice part is it gives you -10% dmg reduction, but it scales on magicka/spell damage making it very unreliable for Stamina Necro. This pet in a group environment will actually heal the lowest health ally meaning you can sometimes miss out on the heal making it entirely unreliable. Stam Necro does have a cleave spammable skill for healing which is great for solo play, but once again, it's reactive healing instead of just proactively using 1 skill like crit surge and doing your regular rotations. I felt when playing Necro that the skill lost it's flavour over time because I was so use to the Sorc playstyle. I didn't like being shoehorned into a melee spammable for healing even if it was very strong burst healing.

    It's also worth mentioning, Mag Sorc has 2 permanent pets to take some of the blows for you, 2/4 morphs available can heal for large amounts and 1/4 morphs does aoe damage with an aoe stun, also valuable for solo defensive play.

    Just remember 1 thing, when you ask people, especially on the forums to compare classes in pve, most people will immediately jump to an end game perspective for DPS potential against other classes in the CURRENT meta. Things change, the DPS race patch to patch can and will sway, so I usually choose to ignore it, especially since most classes are capable of achieving dps within 1-5% of one another on average. It's pretty rare for a class to be extremely far behind like other MMO's have issues with. ESO does this well despite the comments on nerfs/buffs. 1-5% difference isn't going to make or break a class and is really only important to the 1% of people pushing for scores in optimized trial groups..

    For solo play, there is way more things to consider. Sorc is awesome at solo play. Period. I think fun factor is way more important in your decision making process. To me, sorc's are the funnest class in the game, nothing in the game comes close to the fun factor of streaking, but I've also always valued speed/evasion/lightning/air/wind themes in other games and media, so I definitely have a bias for Sorc's. If you've read my sig, I still like to play other classes, but not nearly as much. Sorc always pulls me back.
    Edited by MashmalloMan on May 17, 2020 8:17PM
    @MashmalloMan - PC NA

    PC Beta - 2400+ CP
    Answer ✓
  • Unified_Gaming
    Unified_Gaming
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    Hey there, i just returned to the game from a long break and leveled a necromancer but i cannot make up my mind whether i should play stamina necro or mag sorcerer, Would anyone please tell me some sort of pros and cons of both classes, i mostly pve with some casual pvp on the side. Thanks!

    Stamina necromancer hits harder in pve and is vastly better than magicka. Magicka still hits hard in pvp and has access to more heals but they're not used in pve much if at all as a dps. As such, I'd go stamina and I would suggest an orc for pve dps or redguard and if you go into pvp a nord is a good option too. I have a few videos on my channel that may help decide what race to play.

    Hope that helps.
    Unified Gaming - creating a shared and Unified Gaming community.

    For some of the best and most up to date PVP builds around or useful tips and tricks from an experienced player for PvP and PvE, then check out my channel and consider subscribing if you want to see regular ESO content.

    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCorbta-fAHKJcxJ6ExbtPwg/
  • masterlouppub18_ESO
    Hey there, i just returned to the game from a long break and leveled a necromancer but i cannot make up my mind whether i should play stamina necro or mag sorcerer, Would anyone please tell me some sort of pros and cons of both classes, i mostly pve with some casual pvp on the side. Thanks!

    Stamina necromancer hits harder in pve and is vastly better than magicka. Magicka still hits hard in pvp and has access to more heals but they're not used in pve much if at all as a dps. As such, I'd go stamina and I would suggest an orc for pve dps or redguard and if you go into pvp a nord is a good option too. I have a few videos on my channel that may help decide what race to play.

    Hope that helps.

    Would you say stamina necro solo as good as mag sorc? I enjoy soloing and duoing.
    Though my necro is a wood elf...
  • mobicera
    mobicera
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    Hey there, i just returned to the game from a long break and leveled a necromancer but i cannot make up my mind whether i should play stamina necro or mag sorcerer, Would anyone please tell me some sort of pros and cons of both classes, i mostly pve with some casual pvp on the side. Thanks!

    Stamina necromancer hits harder in pve and is vastly better than magicka. Magicka still hits hard in pvp and has access to more heals but they're not used in pve much if at all as a dps. As such, I'd go stamina and I would suggest an orc for pve dps or redguard and if you go into pvp a nord is a good option too. I have a few videos on my channel that may help decide what race to play.

    Hope that helps.

    We are in a mag meta for pve.
    Just fyi.
    Though mag sorc really isn't in a great spot.
    Edited by mobicera on May 17, 2020 6:34PM
  • masterlouppub18_ESO
    mobicera wrote: »
    Hey there, i just returned to the game from a long break and leveled a necromancer but i cannot make up my mind whether i should play stamina necro or mag sorcerer, Would anyone please tell me some sort of pros and cons of both classes, i mostly pve with some casual pvp on the side. Thanks!

    Stamina necromancer hits harder in pve and is vastly better than magicka. Magicka still hits hard in pvp and has access to more heals but they're not used in pve much if at all as a dps. As such, I'd go stamina and I would suggest an orc for pve dps or redguard and if you go into pvp a nord is a good option too. I have a few videos on my channel that may help decide what race to play.

    Hope that helps.

    We are in a mag meta for pve.
    Just fyi.
    Though mag sorc really isn't in a great spot.

    Which class would you reccomend for a returning player who like soloing and eventually get into end game? Is anything changing in greymoor for the meta? I said necro and sorc in my op but I dont mind rerolling a new one if necessary.
  • mobicera
    mobicera
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    mobicera wrote: »
    Hey there, i just returned to the game from a long break and leveled a necromancer but i cannot make up my mind whether i should play stamina necro or mag sorcerer, Would anyone please tell me some sort of pros and cons of both classes, i mostly pve with some casual pvp on the side. Thanks!

    Stamina necromancer hits harder in pve and is vastly better than magicka. Magicka still hits hard in pvp and has access to more heals but they're not used in pve much if at all as a dps. As such, I'd go stamina and I would suggest an orc for pve dps or redguard and if you go into pvp a nord is a good option too. I have a few videos on my channel that may help decide what race to play.

    Hope that helps.

    We are in a mag meta for pve.
    Just fyi.
    Though mag sorc really isn't in a great spot.

    Which class would you reccomend for a returning player who like soloing and eventually get into end game? Is anything changing in greymoor for the meta? I said necro and sorc in my op but I dont mind rerolling a new one if necessary.

    Honestly mag cro
    Very easy to solo with even if a little clunky at times.
    And even though mag cro probably won't be topping the dps charts a well played magcro hitting the dps requirements (which shouldn't be hard) will be desired due to ultimate.
    It's a safe bet and unless the ultimate is nerfed into uselessness will probably always have a place.
  • Major_Lag
    Major_Lag
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    I haven't played necro (didn't buy the xpac, and never intend to with the game in its current sorry state) - but I do have a total of 9 Sorcs across my PC-EU and NA accounts.
    I did also play all of the other non-necro classes in ESO, mostly in PvP but also in some solo and group PvE content.

    Having said that... magsorcs are pretty much the easy mode when it comes to soloing PvE content, because they have a combination of features that no other class can come even close to matching:
    • 2 permanent summoned pets, which do a great job at keeping most trashmobs busy (see note below),
    • the best damage shield in the game,
    • one of the best burst heals in the game,
    • a strong self-only HoT with a rather long duration (Crit Surge), which also happens to be a spell damage buff,
    • an armor buff which is also a damaging AoE attached to the caster.

    Of course, the great bulk of the soloable content can be soloed with any class, given a suitable build.
    But I have found (pet)Sorc to be the easiest to play class to that particular end, if only because how good Crit Surge is.

    FWIW, I've been using a 2-bar version of the Alcast "1-bar vMA build" - which is functionally the same at its core, but uses a 2nd lightning staff bar for the long duration buffs.
    This works a lot better for me, since I only need to switch to backbar and recast buffs every 20 seconds or so, instead of constantly having to recast a 6 second damage shield - which is something that I find quite tedious in long boss fights.
    It also makes me less reliant on heavy attacks for sustain (due to the strong healing from Crit Surge = less casting shields and burst heals), which is good because HAs are slow and clunky and break up the pace of combat too much.

    I also find it easier because that kind of setup is more in line with the usual PvP approach - which is to always keep your HoTs ticking, so that you don't have to constantly spam the expensive burst heals and/or shields.


    Note about pets and enemy aggro:
    Many updates ago, it used to be the case that the clannfear acted as a tank - its attacks putting a kind of "soft taunt" on all enemies, even the bosses. This "soft taunt" had no effect if the enemy was taunted by an actual taunt ability, but when soloing it had the same effect as any other taunt.
    At some point that "feature" was removed. Then the clannfear got completely changed, and now it's a stamina pet.

    Nowadays, the Sorc pets do not hold any aggro on most of the bosses, but the trashmobs can still be aggroed by them - this appears to follow more or less the same rules as untaunted trash aggro: some of the trash from each pull will aggro on you and the others will aggro on your pets.

    Still, the pets can be extremely useful - any boss that spawns adds becomes quite a bit easier when using pets, because some (most?) of the adds tend to aggro on the pets, leaving you relatively unmolested and free to pound on them.
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