Exclusively sword and lighting sorc?

Pencisl2 · February 2021

I like the idea of a "spellsword" class that shoots lightning and hits with a sword, but I really don't want any of the "dark magic" or "deadra summoning" nonsense.

I saw this build and liked it, but the information on how to build the character is sparse.

https://elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/Storm+Conduit+Build

Plus the build was last updated 4.5 years ago so some things may be outdated. Seems to be exclusively magic but also is to be built half-magic half-health.

Anyone willing to help me figure this one out?

starkerealm · February 2021

That's a PvP build. It's also very outdated.

Because of how stat scaling works, you are limited to a sorc, and you're big lightning powers are going to be hurricane and crit surge. Stamsorcs can be very powerful in PvE, but, you're going to be lightning rather than throwing it at people.

Your best in-class self heals are in Daedric Summoning (Clanfear) and Dark Magic (Dark Deal), meaning that you'll probably want to roll with Vigor from the Alliance War if you want to stay in theme. You also want to run medium armor, rather than heavy, unless you're intending to tank. Beyond that you can get most of the skills you need from your weapons. I'd recommend either 2h or DW backed up with a bow. Dual Wield would look something like Flurry, Twin Slashes, Whirlwind, with your bow running Poison Injection and Barrage. Mixing in whatever other skills you want.

One major hickup is that Overload doesn't switch to physical damage, so it's going to be suboptimal for a stam character. (This is also a problem with the storm atro, if you want to go that route instead.) That, basically, leaves you with Dawnbreaker. Werewolf or Vampire transforms can be useful ultimates, though these are their own playstyles.

Skipping out on Dark Magic and Daedric Summoning isn't, necessarily a good idea. If nothing else, you'll want to get both ranks of Unholy Knowledge from Dark Magic, as that reduces the cost of your non-ults, and Power Stone from Daedric Summoning which makes your ultimates cheaper.

Don't worry about collecting specific gear until you hit CP160, at that point, thematically, Stonefist is probably the most appropriate Monster Set. Automaton is good (if you're sticking to physical), while Hunding's is the alternative option if you're mixing in other damage types. If you're being cheap, running 5pc hundings, 4pc Night Mother's Gaze, and 3pc Agility is still a very solid, and viable build to start with while you dig around for better gear... but, again, don't worry about this until CP160.

Pencisl2 · February 2021

starkerealm wrote: »

That's a PvP build. It's also very outdated.

Because of how stat scaling works, you are limited to a sorc, and you're big lightning powers are going to be hurricane and crit surge. Stamsorcs can be very powerful in PvE, but, you're going to be lightning rather than throwing it at people.

Your best in-class self heals are in Daedric Summoning (Clanfear) and Dark Magic (Dark Deal), meaning that you'll probably want to roll with Vigor from the Alliance War if you want to stay in theme. You also want to run medium armor, rather than heavy, unless you're intending to tank. Beyond that you can get most of the skills you need from your weapons. I'd recommend either 2h or DW backed up with a bow. Dual Wield would look something like Flurry, Twin Slashes, Whirlwind, with your bow running Poison Injection and Barrage. Mixing in whatever other skills you want.

One major hickup is that Overload doesn't switch to physical damage, so it's going to be suboptimal for a stam character. (This is also a problem with the storm atro, if you want to go that route instead.) That, basically, leaves you with Dawnbreaker. Werewolf or Vampire transforms can be useful ultimates, though these are their own playstyles.

Skipping out on Dark Magic and Daedric Summoning isn't, necessarily a good idea. If nothing else, you'll want to get both ranks of Unholy Knowledge from Dark Magic, as that reduces the cost of your non-ults, and Power Stone from Daedric Summoning which makes your ultimates cheaper.

Don't worry about collecting specific gear until you hit CP160, at that point, thematically, Stonefist is probably the most appropriate Monster Set. Automaton is good (if you're sticking to physical), while Hunding's is the alternative option if you're mixing in other damage types. If you're being cheap, running 5pc hundings, 4pc Night Mother's Gaze, and 3pc Agility is still a very solid, and viable build to start with while you dig around for better gear... but, again, don't worry about this until CP160.

How about a non-staff magic build? I hate staves, I really do.

ExistingRug61 · February 2021

For general PvE, it should be possible to do some sort of pure magicka build that just happens to use a sword (either 2H or dual wield), now that light attacks scale with highest resource, and once CP 2.0 comes in we lose the elemental bonus stars which further reduces the downside of physical weapons on a mag build.
However, I think you will still likely need to backbar a staff (lightning I guess) in case you want the ability to heavy attack for magicka and also to expand the number of lightning skills available.
Use the staff bar for AoE and buffs (wall, lightning AoE if its worth it, lightning form, surge etc) and the sword bar for spammable and the lightning execute, maybe streak if you want a gap close/stun (depending on purpose). In this case the only available choice for spammable would be elemental weapon. You probably still want to fit in at least one dark active skill (dark conversion?) just to get the passive minor prophecy and potentially a daedric skill (ward or bound aegis) for the health and stam regen, but that might not be as necessary.
Assuming PvE, armour would be light for damage and probably want to focus on crit for damage and to maximise surge heals if solo.

I'm not sure such a build would be a good idea in PvP due to being a frail sorc in melee however, but should be ok in general PvE, if not necessarily optimal.

Pencisl2 wrote: »

How about a non-staff magic build? I hate staves, I really do.

Yup, right there with you.

starkerealm · February 2021

Pencisl2 wrote: »

How about a non-staff magic build? I hate staves, I really do.

Never use staves on a stam build. Those are mag weapons.

Conversely, always use staves on mag builds, as anything that isn't a Destruction Staff or a Restoration Staff is a stamina based weapon.

Pencisl2 · February 2021

ExistingRug61 wrote: »

For general PvE, it should be possible to do some sort of pure magicka build that just happens to use a sword (either 2H or dual wield), now that light attacks scale with highest resource, and once CP 2.0 comes in we lose the elemental bonus stars which further reduces the downside of physical weapons on a mag build.
However, I think you will still likely need to backbar a staff (lightning I guess) in case you want the ability to heavy attack for magicka and also to expand the number of lightning skills available.
Use the staff bar for AoE and buffs (wall, lightning AoE if its worth it, lightning form, surge etc) and the sword bar for spammable and the lightning execute, maybe streak if you want a gap close/stun (depending on purpose). In this case the only available choice for spammable would be elemental weapon. You probably still want to fit in at least one dark active skill (dark conversion?) just to get the passive minor prophecy and potentially a daedric skill (ward or bound aegis) for the health and stam regen, but that might not be as necessary.
Assuming PvE, armour would be light for damage and probably want to focus on crit for damage and to maximise surge heals if solo.

I'm not sure such a build would be a good idea in PvP due to being a frail sorc in melee however, but should be ok in general PvE, if not necessarily optimal.

Pencisl2 wrote: »

How about a non-staff magic build? I hate staves, I really do.

Yup, right there with you.

That sounds pretty good. Could you help me make a planned build?

I have something like this so far, but feel free to change anything you want.
https://eso-skills.com/skill?z=WDQ1Jeca@2xKML9Y%BShqU6@2xKML9Y&p=&a=640000&b=SwordandBolt&j=t&q=000&w=21&m=0

I guess you can't edit that.
https://eso-skills.com/

WrathOfInnos · February 2021

Dual swords on Magicka sorcerer isn’t too bad currently, only a few % behind staff builds for damage. Dual daggers are about to give Spell Crit when update 29 releases, so they won’t be purely for stamina builds anymore.

You can also avoid pets and still be fine in pretty much all PVE content. It’s roughly 10% damage loss from a pet build.

The things that you cannot afford to lose IMO are Crystal Fragments (a Dark Magic skill) and a Destruction Staff on back bar (Inferno is best, but Lightning is ok if it fits your build idea better).

Pencisl2 · February 2021

WrathOfInnos wrote: »

Dual swords on Magicka sorcerer isn’t too bad currently, only a few % behind staff builds for damage. Dual daggers are about to give Spell Crit when update 29 releases, so they won’t be purely for stamina builds anymore.

You can also avoid pets and still be fine in pretty much all PVE content. It’s roughly 10% damage loss from a pet build.

The things that you cannot afford to lose IMO are Crystal Fragments (a Dark Magic skill) and a Destruction Staff on back bar (Inferno is best, but Lightning is ok if it fits your build idea better).

how about a resto staff as a back bar?

starkerealm · February 2021

Pencisl2 wrote: »

WrathOfInnos wrote: »

Dual swords on Magicka sorcerer isn’t too bad currently, only a few % behind staff builds for damage. Dual daggers are about to give Spell Crit when update 29 releases, so they won’t be purely for stamina builds anymore.

You can also avoid pets and still be fine in pretty much all PVE content. It’s roughly 10% damage loss from a pet build.

The things that you cannot afford to lose IMO are Crystal Fragments (a Dark Magic skill) and a Destruction Staff on back bar (Inferno is best, but Lightning is ok if it fits your build idea better).

how about a resto staff as a back bar?

Generally not something you want to do on a DPS. But, I mean, it's not like you can't use it, just that there are better options.

WrathOfInnos · February 2021

Pencisl2 wrote: »

WrathOfInnos wrote: »

Dual swords on Magicka sorcerer isn’t too bad currently, only a few % behind staff builds for damage. Dual daggers are about to give Spell Crit when update 29 releases, so they won’t be purely for stamina builds anymore.

You can also avoid pets and still be fine in pretty much all PVE content. It’s roughly 10% damage loss from a pet build.

The things that you cannot afford to lose IMO are Crystal Fragments (a Dark Magic skill) and a Destruction Staff on back bar (Inferno is best, but Lightning is ok if it fits your build idea better).

how about a resto staff as a back bar?

Resto won’t do well for damage because it cannot proc weapon enchants while on the front bar. With any destruction staff you can cast Wall of Elements and it will automatically fire your staff enchants on cooldown, even after you go back to front bar.

The Maelstrom destruction staff is also important for all Magicka DPS builds in PVE, it will significantly increase the damage of your light attacks, including those with swords. There’s no equivalent Restoration staff.

Pencisl2 · February 2021

WrathOfInnos wrote: »

Pencisl2 wrote: »

WrathOfInnos wrote: »

Dual swords on Magicka sorcerer isn’t too bad currently, only a few % behind staff builds for damage. Dual daggers are about to give Spell Crit when update 29 releases, so they won’t be purely for stamina builds anymore.

You can also avoid pets and still be fine in pretty much all PVE content. It’s roughly 10% damage loss from a pet build.

The things that you cannot afford to lose IMO are Crystal Fragments (a Dark Magic skill) and a Destruction Staff on back bar (Inferno is best, but Lightning is ok if it fits your build idea better).

how about a resto staff as a back bar?

Resto won’t do well for damage because it cannot proc weapon enchants while on the front bar. With any destruction staff you can cast Wall of Elements and it will automatically fire your staff enchants on cooldown, even after you go back to front bar.

The Maelstrom destruction staff is also important for all Magicka DPS builds in PVE, it will significantly increase the damage of your light attacks, including those with swords. There’s no equivalent Restoration staff.

I understand.

What specifically is so significant about maelstrom?

Pencisl2 · February 2021

The plot thickens. Aparently someone came up with something similar to what I am looking for recently. Won't hurt to try, I hope.

https://youtu.be/Mps5Yw3UGGo
https://www.hacktheminotaur.com/builds/eso-sorcerer-solo-pve-hybrid-build-battlemage

WrathOfInnos · February 2021

Pencisl2 wrote: »

WrathOfInnos wrote: »

Pencisl2 wrote: »

WrathOfInnos wrote: »

Dual swords on Magicka sorcerer isn’t too bad currently, only a few % behind staff builds for damage. Dual daggers are about to give Spell Crit when update 29 releases, so they won’t be purely for stamina builds anymore.

You can also avoid pets and still be fine in pretty much all PVE content. It’s roughly 10% damage loss from a pet build.

The things that you cannot afford to lose IMO are Crystal Fragments (a Dark Magic skill) and a Destruction Staff on back bar (Inferno is best, but Lightning is ok if it fits your build idea better).

how about a resto staff as a back bar?

Resto won’t do well for damage because it cannot proc weapon enchants while on the front bar. With any destruction staff you can cast Wall of Elements and it will automatically fire your staff enchants on cooldown, even after you go back to front bar.

The Maelstrom destruction staff is also important for all Magicka DPS builds in PVE, it will significantly increase the damage of your light attacks, including those with swords. There’s no equivalent Restoration staff.

I understand.

What specifically is so significant about maelstrom?

The set bonus significantly increases light and heavy attack damage. https://eso-sets.com/set/crushing-wall