StamSorc Ranged Abilities?

Texecutioner187 · January 2021

So my girlfriend isn't into the stamina classes as much but wants to explore stamsorc since the "sorc" component is still there. She has a brand new toon and is just messing around with skills for now - I wanted to ask if there were any related skills that work as a ranged Sorcerer feel but still being somewhat effective as a Stam user. I guess I could look at all the skills and morphs on Fetrxalife or something, but figured I'd ask here for firsthand answers.

Texecutioner187 · January 2021

Texecutioner187 wrote: »

So my girlfriend isn't into the stamina classes as much but wants to explore stamsorc since the "sorc" component is still there. She has a brand new toon and is just messing around with skills for now - I wanted to ask if there were any related skills that work as a ranged Sorcerer feel but still being somewhat effective as a Stam user. I guess I could look at all the skills and morphs on Fetrxalife or something, but figured I'd ask here for firsthand answers.

I guess the only thing I'm really familiar with that I use for my StamSorc is Hurricane/Surge

tsaescishoeshiner · January 2021

Hi, you can definitely do a Bow/Bow build. Crystal Weapon (morph of Crystal Shard, Dark Magic line) and Imbue Weapon (Psijic skill line) both increase the damage of your next light attack, so it works as a ranged attack.

Not sure how casual she wants to play, but here are some other good ranged skills:
- Soul Trap (world skill)
- Poison Arrow (bow)
- Silver Shards (Fighters Guild, like an AoE crossbow attack)
- Overload (sorc ult)
- Clannfear sorta does ranged damage :~p (morph of Unstable Familiar)
- Bound Armaments (morph of Bound Armor, throws cool summoned daggers)

A lot of those feel very mage-y, if that's what she's looking to play. For a really magey stamsorc, I'd suggest these bars (these skills are also good for like dungeons and whatnot)

Bow: Crystal Weapon, Hurricane, Clannfear, Bound Armaments, Camouflage Hunter
Bow: Soul Trap, Poison Arrow, Clannfear, Arrow Hail, Surge

If she's not into light attack weaving, Silver Shards or Snipe can replace Crystal Weapon. Also DW sorc is really really fun if she wants to be fast and tanky using Blade Cloak. The skills I wrote above work with any weapon frontbar—she could even use a staff for leveling if she likes them

Sidenote ... Opal Engine Guardian Bows is an awesome sorc-y style page for bows

Texecutioner187 · January 2021

tsaescishoeshiner wrote: »

Hi, you can definitely do a Bow/Bow build. Crystal Weapon (morph of Crystal Shard, Dark Magic line) and Imbue Weapon (Psijic skill line) both increase the damage of your next light attack, so it works as a ranged attack.

Not sure how casual she wants to play, but here are some other good ranged skills:
- Soul Trap (world skill)
- Poison Arrow (bow)
- Silver Shards (Fighters Guild, like an AoE crossbow attack)
- Overload (sorc ult)
- Clannfear sorta does ranged damage :~p (morph of Unstable Familiar)
- Bound Armaments (morph of Bound Armor, throws cool summoned daggers)

A lot of those feel very mage-y, if that's what she's looking to play. For a really magey stamsorc, I'd suggest these bars (these skills are also good for like dungeons and whatnot)

Bow: Crystal Weapon, Hurricane, Clannfear, Bound Armaments, Camouflage Hunter
Bow: Soul Trap, Poison Arrow, Clannfear, Arrow Hail, Surge

If she's not into light attack weaving, Silver Shards or Snipe can replace Crystal Weapon. Also DW sorc is really really fun if she wants to be fast and tanky using Blade Cloak. The skills I wrote above work with any weapon frontbar—she could even use a staff for leveling if she likes them

Sidenote ... Opal Engine Guardian Bows is an awesome sorc-y style page for bows

That's good information, thank you.

MashmalloMan · January 2021

@tsaescishoeshiner put it very well. I'd like to add something thats based on the next patch, but it doesn't hurt to prepare for:

Pet changes. So on Live, the only pet you'd really want to worry about using is the Clanfear. It does physical damage and scales based on your max stamina and weapon damage, inheriting your weapon crit.

Now all of the base pets do the same auto attack damage, so lets say 250. However, the Twilight Matriarch morph of Winged Twilight receives a passive damage boost to it's auto attack, doubling it's output, so 500.

The problem on live, is Twilight Matriarch while being the stronger pet, does not scale well with stamina based stats.. However, this is actually easily compensated for on the PTS and in my builds, I've actually found the Twilight Matriarch to be stronger than the Clanfear at least before some other factors.

Why is this?

At level 50 we now get +4k stam/mag and +1k weapon damage/spell damage.
In CP, there are 2-3 options to increase your weapon damage and spell damage, some do both while others require more CP to unlock. I wasn't able to get them for spell damage and my Matriarch was still stronger.
There is seperate CP stars for Stamina and Magicka, but both can be added eventually, you just need to level up far enough to have those extra points to spend.
Crit chance in CP is added for both.
% based multipliers for single target, dot, crit damage are also added for both.

So really, the only stats you miss out on come from your equipment and maybe your race, but races like Orc now offer spell damage too. Khajiit and Dark Elf already give even stats, etc.

There are other factors to consider like your crit chance, penetration and how much CP you have, so it would take an actual dps parse to compare, but it's a very close race between the power between them. For me on PTS, I had about 25% more damage from the Matriarch in comparison just through tooltips.

Anyway, if you wanted to use 2 pets or you wanted a strictly ranged pet, the Twilight Matriarch is going to be a great option next patch.