What are people running on their stamsorcs?

Larcomar · February 2022

Been running my stamsorc most of the time as a highly mobile bow skirmisher. He does pretty well when it works but just find that style and esp crystal weps pretty janky as soon as you get into any sort of lag. Ive ended up sort of gravitating towards a more bruiser style when things slow down - I'll often stick on pariah if I'm in a big siege - and thinking of taking him more in this direction esp given pops - and prob lag - will be high during MYM. He needs a gear rework if I'm doing that though ... And it's like tomorrow. I think I had NMA + Spriggans on before; basic but worked ok, esp countering the lack of pen on the bow. But pariah + spriggans doesn't really work as a proper loadout, there's no wep dmg in there and vigor sucks. Really looking for something which up's his heals a bit too. Casting around for something I can stick together easily if only to get him through MYM. Any suggestions? I was considering something simple like briarheart fb, pariah body - I've got loads of it lying around - but any advances? Briarheart's quite crit heavy for pvp. On the other hand, it would trigger crit surge more often... Any thoughts?

cheers

Larc

ps also, any thoughts on no cp, no proc cyro loadouts - If greyhost get's overloaded Im assumign the additional servers may well have the "special rule set".....

pps adding a @divnyi in here. Because I'm sure you've got a whole host of weird and whacky stamsorc builds somewhere.

divnyi · February 2022

I know many people wouldn't agree with me here, but in my practice best additional source of healing on stamsorc is just more critrate. That means camo hunter on front bar, and bow or double daggers. Surge will be ticking from AoE from hurricane each sec + your attacks, assuming you 1v1 that would be 2-3 chances to get crit per second. If you roll ~40%, that would mean 70-80% to get that heal, and heal on surge is very high and uptime is very high too. Also do Vigor *before* you enter the fight.

Now knowing that, you can either just go full crit (you asked noCP build? Crit gear should be easily available there), or just do minimal crit stacking for better heals and do completely unrelated setup that doesn't have anything to do with crit multiplier.

Ironically, I'm currently experimenting and running hybrid sorc. So my next vid will be about it. As always, don't rely on it coming out very fast, I have tonns of IRL troubles now 😣

My experiments lead me to one important conclusion: bow and stamsorc are one. Don't do stamsorc without a bow.

Larcomar · February 2022

I thought you might say that. I was almost contemplating something like medusa - briarheart but then I realised that yes, I probably was having a brain fart.

But hmmm "Don't do stamsorc without a bow." (though I can't help but notice thats a 2h - DW stamsorc you've got there!) But yeah, I kind of agree with you. Mobility works best with range. Otherwise Im just zipping around you.

Just.... crystal shards does not seem to mix well with lag. Prob tbf because light attacks don't miz well with lag. But hey. Still, hmmm silver shards. Migh tbe a lag option

divnyi · February 2022

Larcomar wrote: »

though I can't help but notice thats a 2h - DW stamsorc you've got there!

Shards on melee is neat trickery. Single target damage is still better with bow, but this allows to do more AoE damage from range for fairly cheap cost, while melee it just hits ultra hard - shards single target damage is spammable damage +10% if attacking vampys, which happen to be everywhere.

That's what I call "demirange" setup - you can do ranged attacks and you can do competitive melee damage (i.e., stronger that just melee mage). Dedicated range and dedicated melee would do more damage, but the nice thing is how you can abuse your bonus vs both - kite melee and force point-blank fight for rangers.

gariondavey · February 2022

Crystal weapon + deadlands assassin + master dw. Crystal weapon + medium weave + dw spammable + spin 2 win
Back bar clever alch or another back barrable big wd set. Or cheese set like plaguebreak (apply with bombard).
Engine guardian or bloodspawn or balorgh or whatever

OBJnoob · February 2022

As far as no proc goes I run eternal vigor and new moon, whatever monster set, and wild hunt ring. I use jewels of misrule for food… max hp mag and stam recovery. Probably oversustaining a bit but it means I’m not forced into dark dealing all the time and I can streak like crazy. Plus I have more flexibility with potions.

If you do this… don’t even try to stand toe to toe with some talented magdk it’s NOT gonna happen. Best potato farming character I ever had though and I promise I’ll be spanking hoards of noobs during mym while occasionally running like a coward from the real deal.

divnyi · February 2022

plaguebreak (apply with bombard)

Bombard itself doesn't apply plaguebreak, unless they changed something.

But ye plague + unleashed would be like BG meta more or less.

Brrrofski · February 2022

So I've just set up a build for Xbox NA, where I only have like 600 CP.

So where I'd normally go with a bit more damage on my builds, I wanted to have some extra survivability in my sets.

So I went with sets that are offensive, but add some defensive stats too.

5 Kynmarchers front bar
1 piece trainee
Markyn ring
Magma incarnate
Clever alch back bar

5 medium, 2 heavy. Imperial. Serpent. Dubious.

Nothing super fancy, but it hits hard, has great sustain and it's fairly tanky.

On EU, my stamsorc is a potato farmer.

Master dual wield, balorgh, pariah, daedric trickery. Just get potatoes to chase me around and drop 500 ults on their heads and destroy them.

malistorr · February 2022

For no CP your options are limited obviously. If you want to use Pariah like I do you'll be giving up some offensive power of course. You may want to go with 2 offensive 5-piece sets instead and get your defense from 2-3 pieces of heavy armor which could include the heavy head Gaze of Sithis mythic. That's a lot of armor and health in 1-piece. Possibly level 3 vamp as well.
So you'll get your speed from at least 1-piece of swift-trait jewelry. I have the other 2-pieces robust for more max stam and have a couple stam recovery glyphs and 1 weapon damage. Change to your liking. I use lava food for more max stam and really good stam recovery since I get health and armor from Gaze. Artaeum food is best but I don't want to spend 7K gold per.
Lover mundus if your recovery is good enough and Serpent if not. Sharpened weapon.

For offensive sets I think a lot of good players are using Heartland Conqueror right now with Sharpened to get double pen. And if you want/need even more pen go Spriggans. Maybe with Serpent go Spriggans and with Lover use another damage set. There is always Draugr Hulk, NMA, Leviathan, Automaton, Titanborn, Toothrow (if you don't have Major Savagery from a skill maybe), or Innate Axiom. Those are the sets that look to me like they'd work in no CP and have the best universal offensive usage. There are also specialty sets that look good but only buff specific attack types like Sword-Singer and Sword-Dancer. I'm not positive what the best players are pairing with Heartland right now as I am a different class than most of them. And I think many are mag toons right now and I'm stam so the set choices would probably be different. For example Spriggans vs Spinners and Draugr Hulk vs Crafty Alfiq for example.

fred4 · February 2022

I don't play my stamsorc very seriously. In fact she has currently moved into PvE, where she's doing well as a tank. Before that I was experimenting with, wait for it, health regen. I remembered how stamsorcs always did well with Eternal Vigor in the past and seemed to need health regen to fill in the gaps. My question became, if you pushed health regen today, would it still work? I did and found it moderately decent:

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildEditor?id=424762

As you can see, the PvE health regen with a potion running and Eternal Vigor procced is 8756 on the back bar according to UESP. Even half of that is still pretty darn decent. There are a couple of aspects to this build:

We're using Gaze of Sithis. No blocking. Hence this is a bow backbar, dodge rolling / Well Fitted / Streaking build.
Note the resource regens are normally higher, because I chose UESP to highlight the health regen below 50% health with Eternal Vigor.
You must slot a Summoning skill line on both bars for +20% health regen. Hence we need to slot Bound Armaments.
Bound Armaments gives you a permanent health buff on the front bar. The Endurance back back balances that out.
We're using Strategic Reserve CP. That's why I prefer Overload as the ultimate with this build. You can activate it without instantly losing all of that health regen.
I'm liking the Steed mundus for both speed and health regen with this build.

On the front bar, substitute your favorite offensive weapon. Brawler is a noob killer. God mode in low MMR BGs. Maelstrom 2H would make it a gap closer spamming build. One of the more interesting options is Vateshran DW. Overload spam with Shrouded Daggers / Vateshran DW can be quite deadly (but works better on stamblade, where it's a deadly and cheap follow up to Incap). To be honest, against good players, all of these options have felt pretty "meh", but who knows. They might be the ticket during the event. Master's 2H Brawler spam with Plaguebreak might be a laugh against the big groups now roaming IC. Unfortunately there isn't room for Plaguebreak in the build unless you get rid of the Master's 2H (and Trainee) or you change Eternal Vigor / Endurance for a Wretched Vitality back bar, which would seriously compromise the health regen.

To be honest, I've tried throwing myself into groups with Brawler, and that hasn't worked (you die too quickly), although I have not tried with Plaguebreak yet. This build has pretty good stats, but doesn't feel exactly tanky. It resists pressure well, but not being hit hard. How about Plaguebreak + Rush of Agony + Master's 2H Brawler, though? Streak through a group, stun them and pull them together with Rush of Agony, turn 180 degrees and hit them all with Brawler (buffed by Master weapon). Hope someone dies, setting off Plaguebreak.

tsaescishoeshiner · February 2022

5x Adept Rider
2x Sentinel of Rkugamz
2x Agility jewelry
1x Ring of the Wild Hunt
Frontbar: Master's Dual Wield
Backbar: Wrath of Elements

With Swift, Steed Stone, and Hurricane, I get +94% movement speed without sprinting. Helps a lot for survivability, getting to choose engagements, and staying out of people's target reticles lol

Rkugamz gives you dual-stat recovery and bodyblocking so you're even harder to target. Wrath of Elements gives breach and really nice pressure that the enemy can't outrun.

I use Master's Twin Slashes as a spammable, and spin-to-win to execute (because it's hard to target people with so much speed lol, and Whirling Blades is AoE so it's easier to land)

I also really like to use Ice Comet -> Streak for a guaranteed stun and unblocked Ice Comet hit.

Gets more kills than deaths in battlegrounds, and is like a speedy little death rat in IC. Not as good in Cyro. Works well for 1v1, though not built for 1vX. But lots of fun!

divnyi · February 2022

@tsaescishoeshiner but you can get major exp from other sources, why bother with this set? Bowsorc gets 4s exp from just rolling. 12s from channeled acceleration.

malistorr · February 2022

I personally would never use Adept Rider for any build. The only exception is I put on that and a Swift Ring of the Wild Hunt to run back scrolls and get full speed running. I can even use a defensive set and monster set at the same time in case I get attacked while running the scroll back. And as divnyi said you can get more speed through other skills/passives as well like rolling with a bow.

Bottom line is you should choose what type of player you want to be. Trying to be good at 2 or more things in ESO PVP is hard because you have to make sacrifices. Personally I'd rather be awesome at 1-thing instead of average at 2. If you want to be a bow ganker I highly recommend 2 offensive sets with Ring of the Wild Hunt and a 1-piece shoulder of more pen like Kra'gh. I'm finishing a bow build in the next week and I'm going full Divines and max stam on the armor with the lover mundus. You'll have enough speed to get in and out of fights and enough offensive power to actually kill a lot of people. If I'm not fast enough I'll just have to make another jewelry piece Swift as well. You won't win 1v1 fights against good players if they can catch you. Your health and defense will be pretty low. But hey, everyone dies in PVP. You'll mostly follow zergs and help pick people off in larger fights when they are already missing some health and gank bad players without enough health and defense.

The best brawler types are also 2 offensive sets. Maybe they get their defense from a few heavy pieces reinforced, Gaze of Sithis, and probably impen on the other armor pieces. But really their defense is their offense. Their goal is to kill you as quickly as possible and if they do it doesn't matter what their defense is really. They might even go Malacath Ring instead of Gaze. My perspective is no CP as that is all I play currently btw. In no CP for more of a brawler/melee build I'd say something like a Spriggans/Heartland combo with sharpened weapons is probably pretty high up there. There are a lot of defensive builds out there and having all that pen is pretty needed I think if you really want to be able to kill others. Builds are very different in CP I know. In CP I believe the best players use a lot of bursty sets like Balorgh and Clever Alchemist and/or proc sets too.

If you're a good player who's really effective at kill combos this is probably the way to go. I'm still learning how to be a good PVP player and I'm middle-aged with hands that aren't great. I need to work more at learning kill combo/skill rotation to get better at killing. So I use vamp level 3, Pariah, and Gaze to help keep me alive in any scenario. But I know because of my lack of skill and build setup I don't get nearly as many kills as others. But I do stay in the fight longer in many situations longer than I used to. When I become a better player I think I will go 2 offensive sets on my melee stam toon.

tsaescishoeshiner · February 2022

divnyi wrote: »

@tsaescishoeshiner but you can get major exp from other sources, why bother with this set? Bowsorc gets 4s exp from just rolling. 12s from channeled acceleration.

I tried that, as well as Quick Cloak, and found it more beneficial and fun for me to have the speed 100% of the time. It lets me focus on casting abilities instead of rebuffing, and saves resources. Recasting Channeled Acceleration or roll dodging every 4 seconds can be compromising and a resource strain.

It's def not optimal. I came up with the build because I wanted to see how good of a build I could make using Adept Rider, because it was such a joke of a set for so long. The fact that the build holds its own, and only occasionally forces draws in duels, was pretty surprising to me lol.

What you're suggesting is totally valid, tho, I just prefer the nonstop playstyle. It's not an optimal build, but made me love my stamsorc again.

divnyi · February 2022

@Larcomar I've finished my vid on hybrid sorc

I bet this will be the meta onwards. Endless Fury, I mean. With hybridization changes they introduce, every stam toon will have access to it. I see no reason not to stack 2 burst skills, they work perfectly together.

https://youtu.be/aT-_CNI_kvg

Larcomar · February 2022

Thanks! I'll take a look. Once I get some sleep

Larcomar · February 2022

Interesting. Ive seen juggernaut mentionned as a defensive set a few times not tried it. What's your take on it? And what's the order of application. Say someone hits you with an execute below 30% does it immediately kick in, or does it kick in after the execute damage is applied? More specifically, I was surprised you back barred juggernaut and full bodied gladiator - but then I suppose you have to as you're running vate bow. Plus ofc endless

On skills I think its crystal into snipe into LA into mages wrath at what, sort of 35%? Not a bad combo. How's your damage above execute range tho? I mean, gladiator + 3 bloodthirsty, you're going to delete people below 25% but how's it getting people to execute? Or is it more of a team finisher role? Ps - and you gave up on silver shards? I'm still tempted to try it, though performance has been a bit better with the new campaigns.

More generally, thanks to all here for the comments. Kept meaning to sort my stamsorc out but then found my guild were planning to go into one of the no cp campaigns so got sidetracked trying to sort the temp and dk out. And then sort them out again when I found that the new no cp campaigns were in fact going to be proc rather than ravenwatch rules grrr Heartlands in particular is an interesting idea; I mean it's basically spriggans on your fb and fortified brass on your back bar. For the price of one. I really shd try that. Tend to be too focused on dungeon / overland sets. if only to use transmutes up

divnyi · February 2022

Larcomar wrote: »

Interesting. Ive seen juggernaut mentionned as a defensive set a few times not tried it. What's your take on it?

It's very good for characters that aren't meant to be in the frontlines 90% of the time, but rather in reverse - you can stay out of the threat range most of the time and you need to negate worst burst conditions. I've seen it being used on magblades before.

15s of +20k armor is massive huge, you go up from "i'm 18k armor and kinda vulnerable" to "I'm way above the armor cap and your pen is not enough to change that". Doesn't make you totally indestructible, but it massively increases your chances to escape and recover.

And what's the order of application. Say someone hits you with an execute below 30% does it immediately kick in, or does it kick in after the execute damage is applied?

Enemy hit comes in first. If he is able to oneshot that 30%, he gets the kill. However if he isn't (which is almost always the case), and enemy is not vampire with sick armour ratings, your lightning is enough to seal the deal.

I was surprised you back barred juggernaut

Backbar is the healing bar. If I didn't have time to switch to it, then it wasn't worth the proc.

On skills I think its crystal into snipe into LA into mages wrath at what, sort of 35%?

That well depends on type of enemies.
20k? This combo kills outright.
25k? Add LA + crystal on top.
30k+? Well you probably shouldn't solo it, it's not a DPS build, it's a burst build. But if you happen to have allies around, then ye, you can add considerable amount of DPS with crystal (if enemy LoSes) and snipes (if open field) and reapply Fury each 4s just so his HP is effectively 80% of what he has. You can also create mini-burst just by choosing to snipe into crystal.

If you absolutely need to solo 30k+, you need to ult it properly.

Generally you don't always have crystal pre-set up. To finish up, snipe into fury is enough, or even fury alone.

Order of application is a bit tricky because all 3 skills are delayed damage. It comes up with some practice.

Or is it more of a team finisher role?

It is. You will have worst DPS numbers in the team consistently. Biggest number of kills with fairly small amount of deaths too.

Ps - and you gave up on silver shards?

That's different build entirely.

My silver shards build was DPS, designed to do constant strong flow of damage while hiding inside the team. It has more stam sustain and more stamina to fit that role, no streak just so I can dark deal more for more stam.

This build is designed to burst squishies with insanely strong risk/reward (I'm ranged, tough and fast) and do quick finishing blows while having enough toughness to stay out of position.

Larcomar · February 2022

Cheers. I might give it a go on my stamsorc then. Still toying with which way to take him, but leaning back towards keeping him as a highly mobile skirmisher - it just fits better and I have other characters that do in your face bruiser better.

I think Ill probably give a silver shards build a go though - feels more me. Maybe something like bow fb - briarheart or something for some wpn dmg - and juggernaut bb. Or perhaps heartland conq body, fb sharpened bow, bb defending masters.

Mages wrath does look like the stand out for the next patch on stam sorc tho. Wondering if silver shards + mages wrath might synergise quite well, pump out a fair bit of aoe on zergs bunched up. Yes, I know, plaguebreak yadida I just despise it

divnyi · February 2022

@Larcomar btw here is the guide from my guildmate, stamsorc main. He definitely knows the subject very well.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ESObuilds/comments/sz0o6h/stamina_sorcerer_bowbow_pvp_build/

katorga · February 2022

divnyi wrote: »

@Larcomar I've finished my vid on hybrid sorc

I bet this will be the meta onwards. Endless Fury, I mean. With hybridization changes they introduce, every stam toon will have access to it. I see no reason not to stack 2 burst skills, they work perfectly together.

https://youtu.be/aT-_CNI_kvg

Interesting discussion, and i think you are right on the money. I've been looking hard at my sorc for next chapter, at first I thought it might be one of the least benefited classes, but now I'm think it might be one of the most provided, I can drop some of my pre-High Isle mental baggage.

Larcomar · February 2022

Thanks divnyi. That's really interesting, in more ways than one. I think the stamsorc will be my next project; it's such a fun class I really want to play around with him some. Sadly, we're already at the end of the first week of mym and i still haven't even touched the temp

Got slightly waylaid. Figured I shd finally focus on one toon for a bit. If only to get a decent black

Still, its the sort of class that does well in quieter times, esp with less lag. It does look though like you've got to go proc or go home though. Unleashed terror, plaguebreak... I despair. Still, that's just what the game is now. unless you want to go to ravenwatch

Thanks for the link, i appreciate it

malistorr · February 2022

I only play Ravenwatch and highly suggest it. Kills there are based on skill and ability more than anything. Sure there are new players who don't understand how to build for or play PVP and they die a lot, but for anyone experienced if you get a kill it's something you earned.