Some sorc questions

Lynx7386 · May 2014

I've been playing a nightblade main up until now, but I'm starting to really feel the issues with the class. I'm considering making an alt/new main as a sorceror (already have a templar and dragonknight as low level alts, havent really tried sorc yet), but I want to keep the same basic combat style that my nightblade uses - i.e. medium armor and melee focused. Is such a setup viable, and how would it compare to a nightblade running the same kind of build?

One of the reasons I havent run a sorceror yet is because I'm not fond of the summons, so I'd prefer some kind of build that doesnt use them (I like the idea of bound armor and conjured ward, though, so I may be forced into using them just to level up to that point).

I was thinking maybe a mix between dark magic and storm calling to get some execute/burst damage abilities, maybe using a staff for my secondary weapon to have some aoe, and then 2handed or 1h/shield as my primary.

jbrenston · May 2014

My first character was a NB. Admittly I didn't know much about the game at the time but I played him up to lvl 17. I then re-rolled a Sorc and haven't looked back. I typically play melee classes and normally shy away from casters because normally they are glass cannons. However, ESO allows you to make your class however you want. With that being said I use 2H weapons with heavy armor. I'm dabbling in something out of every tree, including the summons. You can definately have a melee based Sorc. They've got excellent CC skills and AOE attacks.

I'm currently running with 2 distinctive hot bars. One is majic based and is mostly AOE attacks, bound armor and a pet. The second foucses on my weapon skills and uses stamina. Again I bound armor and my summon slotted as well. I switch back and forth between the two dependat upon the situation.

With this current set up I can take down 3 mobs of equal level relatively quickly.

serenity_painted · May 2014

1-50(i'm now VR2) I leveled as a Sorc mostly relying on the burst damage synergy of Crystal Fragments and 2H weapons, it was amazing and killed increadibly fast but after i reached VR levels i'm now starting to doubt how good it acually is compared to the other classes, or atleast DK's.

You can most certainly be effective, i'm doing really well using by DW/S&S and medium armor now, but that's just solo questing and i keep seeing these crazy damage numbers from DK's who are just loaded with melee based passive damage spells like dots while Sorcs have nothing like that and start to wonder if we can stay competative as melee in endgame dungeons and PvP.

I made a melee Sorc beacuse i wanted to play something like a spellsword type character and they seemed like such a versetile class and even if summons are quite crap now they are cool as a gameplay concept, but maby i should've just made a DK for my spellwordering melee mage....

Guppet · May 2014

I was just about to tell you off for posting about Sorcs on the NB forums. But it's NB related so carry on

Jixjax · May 2014

Guppet wrote: »

I was just about to tell you off for posting about Sorcs on the NB forums. But it's NB related so carry on

I see what you did there.

On topic: my melee sorc is pretty beefy. Dual wield, full medium. whirling blades + crystal frags + thundering presence + critical surge + whatever = great aoe and burst. I never really swap out of this setup as critical surge and whirling blades + thundering presence does great AOE + great survivability.

Throwing in a fun bow setup will be my next step. Likely Venow + volatile familiar + barrage + crit surge + bound armaments.

I like being tanky and harassy.

Erock25 · May 2014

Jixjax wrote: »

Guppet wrote: »

I was just about to tell you off for posting about Sorcs on the NB forums. But it's NB related so carry on

I see what you did there.

On topic: my melee sorc is pretty beefy. Dual wield, full medium. whirling blades + crystal frags + thundering presence + critical surge + whatever = great aoe and burst. I never really swap out of this setup as critical surge and whirling blades + thundering presence does great AOE + great survivability.

Throwing in a fun bow setup will be my next step. Likely Venow + volatile familiar + barrage + crit surge + bound armaments.

I like being tanky and harassy.

What level is your sorc that is successful with that dual wield setup?

As for bow, Draining Shot is mandatory IMO. You can solo any CCable boss with ease.

Crescent · May 2014

He's probably not even at vet rank if he thinks thundering presence and whirling blades is great AoE.

Niminion · May 2014

DW Sorcs are one of the highest parsing melee builds. My VR3 solo DW setup is;

7/7 medium, dual daggers, 2k stamina, 1450 health, 1700 magika

Flying Blade
Blood Craze
Whirling Blades
Hardened Ward
Critical Surge
Absorbtion Field

DW Sorc is more of a skirmisher than an assassin, great sustain at all ranges, health regen, and mobility. After taking big hits roll away put up a ward and recover health with flying blade crits and craze ticks, then go back in with your heavy and light attacks and whirling blades. Crit potions are better than health potions letting you pretty much tank for 10+ seconds as long as you are swinging. Use sparks instead of whirling blades for the big guys that can't be snared like gargoyles and giant elementals. Beware the many mobs that blood craze doesn't work on

serenity_painted · May 2014

Niminion wrote: »

DW Sorcs are one of the highest parsing melee builds.

According to who? Beacuse the hard-core theory crafting guys over at Tamriel Foundry are claiming that particular combo is underperforming compared to caster Sorc builds, and even more so compared to DKs who are parsing crazy sustained single target damage.

And i use a similar build to yours except it's a tad more offensive and i switch hardened ward/whirling blades to crystal shards/velocious curse and/or thundering prescence and it's good, great even for solo PvE but tbh i'm doing like 50-100 more dps by just abusing shield bash.

Lynx7386 · May 2014

I'm more interested in how sorc with 2handers works out, I'm not a huge fan of dual wielding but will use it as a backup/secondary weapon for AoE purposes if necessary.

I was thinking bolt escape for mobility (and as a gap closer, not just an escape ability), wrecking blow from 2h as the heavy hitter for burst damage, mage's fury for an execute (since reverse slash sucks so badly right now), lightning form with the speed morph for defense and more mobility, and surge with the critical healing morph for extra weapon damage and some sustainability.

On the second bar I could use a 2hander as well, with brawler instead of wrecking blow for more of an AoE focus, and momentum as an additional damage buff (which would remain active when swapping between ability bars since both use a 2hander). Dark ritual or whatever it's called to exchange stamina for health and magicka (as a self heal, and since I wear all medium armor I will have stamina to spare), and maybe circle of protection or something for additional defense.

Was also thinking that this setup would easily be able to swap out a few abilities to fill a healer or tanking role if I put a few points into resto staff and sword/shield for the heals and taunts respectively. Dark exchange should be a good way to keep my own mana up while healing, using the medium armor stamina regeneration boost to use it more often. I can use conjured ward and bound armor on a tanking setup with the sword/shield for more defense.

Thoughts?

serenity_painted · May 2014

2h sorcs are great up to 50 where you can burst down mobs really fast, crystal shards->endless fury->critical rush->dead, give or take a light attack or two.
Throw in critical surge and any ability of your choice like wrecking blow, boundless storm, velocious curse or bolt escape (allowing you to teleport out and then critical rush back in) as your 5th ability and go nuts.

But once you hit VR content this type of setup quickly looses steam since it's all about burst damage and the mobs there have so much HP that what once killed a regular mob only takes of a third of a VR mobs HP pool.
And since we don't really have any type of melee spells or dots like other classes most of our damage comes from stammina attacks while magica is mostly used for utility, making it run dry fairly quickly if you rely on wreacking blow and critical rush.
It still works OK ofcourse, for just general leveling anyway and if you really like it you'll be able to,but it's just not that great compared to dual wielding or bash spam when fights take bit longer.

And just no to everything in the last paragraph, if you wanto heal or tank you can't half ass it if you're the only one doing it, unless it's an early dungeon and/or your group is really good.

Lynx7386 · May 2014

Ok, so it's probably best to use dual wield as my secondary weapon set then, for AoE?