The Sorcerer Thread

[Hans]

I read there is bonus damage from sneaking for light and heavy attacks.

I don't know about skills, but would be very interested in this. Stealth charge sounds awesome!

[CanisPanther]

The hardest part I'm havin with my Blitzkrieg Sorc is a heal debuff. We have tons of mobility, crits, and heals, just nothing outside of Negate Magic to stop heals. Hopefully they have an enchant to compensate for this.

[Guest Guest]

Guys I'd like to know if anyone has some information about the following Point:

 

- What is the lightning Status effect? When  I played beta I saw enemies turning to ash although i had not learned the stom calling passive Disintegrate. If disintegrate is the Status effect, the + chance of the Storm Calling passive and the double chance of the Arcane Fighter talent (2h) would be a strong combination to execute low health Targets (whatever low health means)

 

I really like the builds posted here, but it seems to me that Overload is not considered a valid choice for an ulitmate. Personally I found it really strong because it gives you a complete new actionbar when used (the Ultimate has to stay the same of course). So it can be used not only as a damage ability but like a weapon swap once you got the necessary Ultimate. Or am I missing something important?

 

 

[NoRefunds]

-the lightning status effect should be a dmg reduction,just like the one you get with force shock

-overload is nice but there are other ultimates that are way better in group fights or for burst damage

[oljx]

Overload is nice, not nearly as nice as other ultimates available but still.

On the secondary bar with the morph which allow to regen mana on hits, it can be pretty usefull.

[Mad King]

I have been playing around with a melee sorcerer build since the last beta. This is my build so far, please let me know any critiques. 
 
Race Khajiit, for increased critical damage and melee critical chance
Armor: 5 Medium / 2 Heavy 
 
 
Weapon 1: Two hand
 
I. Critical Charge- Always hits with critical damage, combined with surge provides a self heal
II. Momentum - Damage
III. Lightning Form- Increased armor & resistance 
IV. Encase- CC + Exploitation (increased Crit chance)
V. Bound Armor- Armor plus increased heavy damage with morph
 
Ult: Storm  Atronach 
 
Weapon 2: Bow
 
I. Surge- Increased damage + critical hits provide health
II. Snipe- High damage + reduces targets healing with morph 
III. Immovable- Increased armor & resistance 
IV. Mages Fury - Final death blow
V. Bound Armor- same as first bar
Ult: Negate Magic
 
The idea is to have either Immovable or Lightning Form up

[Musclemagic]

 

I have been playing around with a melee sorcerer build since the last beta. This is my build so far, please let me know any critiques. 

 

Race Khajiit, for increased critical damage and melee critical chance

Armor: 5 Medium / 2 Heavy 

 

 

Weapon 1: Two hand

 

I. Critical Charge- Always hits with critical damage, combined with surge provides a self heal

II. Momentum - Damage

III. Lightning Form- Increased armor & resistance 

IV. Encase- CC + Exploitation (increased Crit chance)

V. Bound Armor- Armor plus increased heavy damage with morph

 

Ult: Storm  Atronach 

 

Weapon 2: Bow

 

I. Surge- Increased damage + critical hits provide health

II. Snipe- High damage + reduces targets healing with morph 

III. Immovable- Increased armor & resistance 

IV. Mages Fury - Final death blow

V. Bound Armor- same as first bar

Ult: Negate Magic

 

The idea is to have either Immovable or Lightning Form up

 

 

Looks strong, but I don't think you need to use 2 heavy armor. 7 Medium would be better for this build.

 

Make sure you're using Critical Surge on your Bar#1-- all that crit (and especially crit charge) synergizes amazingly with Crit Surge. (As Theory said a few pages back.)

[Guest drock]

 

I have been playing around with a melee sorcerer build since the last beta. This is my build so far, please let me know any critiques. 

 

Race Khajiit, for increased critical damage and melee critical chance

Armor: 5 Medium / 2 Heavy 

 

 

Weapon 1: Two hand

 

I. Critical Charge- Always hits with critical damage, combined with surge provides a self heal

II. Momentum - Damage

III. Lightning Form- Increased armor & resistance 

IV. Encase- CC + Exploitation (increased Crit chance)

V. Bound Armor- Armor plus increased heavy damage with morph

 

Ult: Storm  Atronach 

 

Weapon 2: Bow

 

I. Surge- Increased damage + critical hits provide health

II. Snipe- High damage + reduces targets healing with morph 

III. Immovable- Increased armor & resistance 

IV. Mages Fury - Final death blow

V. Bound Armor- same as first bar

Ult: Negate Magic

 

The idea is to have either Immovable or Lightning Form up

 

 

I really like the idea of combining with a bow in a soc 2hand build!  I think my one critique would be to get rid of bound armor.  I don't think you will be able to get many heavy attacks anyhow and would be better off with something like Daedric Curse.

[Guest drockh]

One thing I am interested in is would Rune Prison be a better option than Encase?  Rune Prison is 42 Magicka with 15.1 second duration and 3 second stun when it ends while Encase is 70 magicka and 4.5 immobilize with 4 second snare.  Rune Prison is a way cheaper option and if someone didn't have CC break you could essentially keep the locked in place after each Heavy Attack.

[BigSteel]

One thing I am interested in is would Rune Prison be a better option than Encase?  Rune Prison is 42 Magicka with 15.1 second duration and 3 second stun when it ends while Encase is 70 magicka and 4.5 immobilize with 4 second snare.  Rune Prison is a way cheaper option and if someone didn't have CC break you could essentially keep the locked in place after each Heavy Attack.

 

CCs are followed by an immunity. From the add-on buff bars, it appears to me that the immunity is 5 seconds long.

Rune Prison can and will be interrupted by heady players.  Encase is instant and effects multiple players.

[Mad King]

Looks strong, but I don't think you need to use 2 heavy armor. 7 Medium would be better for this build.

 

Make sure you're using Critical Surge on your Bar#1-- all that crit (and especially crit charge) synergizes amazingly with Crit Surge. (As Theory said a few pages back.)

 

I chose to include heavy only for immovable but switching immovable for evasion or purge could be a better build. 

 

 

I really like the idea of combining with a bow in a soc 2hand build!  I think my one critique would be to get rid of bound armor.  I don't think you will be able to get many heavy attacks anyhow and would be better off with something like Daedric Curse.

 

I like daedric curse however, it is very magicka intensive and I would need that for lightning form, surge and encase. I could use winged twilight with the magicka regeneration morph or entropy for a second heal. 

[BigSteel]

Looks strong, but I don't think you need to use 2 heavy armor. 7 Medium would be better for this build.

 

Make sure you're using Critical Surge on your Bar#1-- all that crit (and especially crit charge) synergizes amazingly with Crit Surge. (As Theory said a few pages back.)

 

Cant he just swap, cast, and swap back?  Its a buff (not a toggle) so it will stay in effect its duration.

[Guest drockh]

I chose to include heavy only for immovable but switching immovable for evasion or purge could be a better build. 

 

 

 

I like daedric curse however, it is very magicka intensive and I would need that for lightning form, surge and encase. I could use winged twilight with the magicka regeneration morph or entropy for a second heal. 

 

Maybe something else would be better?  The problem I see with Bound Armor is that it never really scales up(Maybe that will change?).  The Armor bonus may be important at lower levels but at Max level is an extra 14 Armor.I know the additional bonus is 11% to heavy attack but is it worth it?  Maybe for Bows but I just can't decide if something else in that line is better like Winged Twilight.

[irons]

Maybe something else would be better?  The problem I see with Bound Armor is that it never really scales up(Maybe that will change?).  The Armor bonus may be important at lower levels but at Max level is an extra 14 Armor.I know the additional bonus is 11% to heavy attack but is it worth it?  Maybe for Bows but I just can't decide if something else in that line is better like Winged Twilight.

The armor scales up, if you are refering to esohead than let me tell you that they have quite a few wrong values in their system.

[Guest drockh]

The armor scales up, if you are refering to esohead than let me tell you that they have quite a few wrong values in their system.

 

Yep Thanks that was where I saw it and figure it is possible that they just had it incorrect.  In terms of PvP then I would say that would make Bound Armor the better option than say Winged Twilight. 

[Stush]

The general consensus on this other forum  http://tamrielfoundry.com/forum/classes/sorcerer-class/ is that for a sorcerer, the best attribute distribution is:

 

0 Magicka

49 health

0 stamina

 

In this forum, that doesn't seem to be the prevailing consensus.  I'm wondering if anyone has a counter-argument to 0 Magicka/49 health?

 

From reading through the posts and replies, there seems to be two reasons mentioned (summarizing):  (1)  It's easy to hit the magicka soft cap via many means, so might as well spend the attribute points on health. (2) it's overall more effective to raise magicka via enchants and health via attribute increases than the other way around.

 

Now granted since you always can respec, I guess it isn't too important to allocate your points optimally the first time. And what is optimal could of course change through any patch that tweaks caps or costs.

 

Hence, I also want to pose the following the question to this forum.  Given that one can always respec at level 50 when (presumably) the mechanics will be stable and well understood, what would be the best allocation of attributes points at game launch levels 1-49?

 

While I like the idea of high health, I worry that without a constant investment in gear to stay at near the magicka soft cap,  spell effectiveness and "mana" pool size would suffer too much.

 

[Guest drock]

The general consensus on this other forum  http://tamrielfoundry.com/forum/classes/sorcerer-class/ is that for a sorcerer, the best attribute distribution is:

 

0 Magicka

49 health

0 stamina

 

In this forum, that doesn't seem to be the prevailing consensus.  I'm wondering if anyone has a counter-argument to 0 Magicka/49 health?

 

From reading through the posts and replies, there seems to be two reasons mentioned (summarizing):  (1)  It's easy to hit the magicka soft cap via many means, so might as well spend the attribute points on health. (2) it's overall more effective to raise magicka via enchants and health via attribute increases than the other way around.

 

Now granted since you always can respec, I guess it isn't too important to allocate your points optimally the first time. And what is optimal could of course change through any patch that tweaks caps or costs.

 

Hence, I also want to pose the following the question to this forum.  Given that one can always respec at level 50 when (presumably) the mechanics will be stable and well understood, what would be the best allocation of attributes points at game launch levels 1-49?

 

While I like the idea of high health, I worry that without a constant investment in gear to stay at near the magicka soft cap,  spell effectiveness and "mana" pool size would suffer too much.

 

I think it probably is the prevailing consensus here too with the way soft caps currently work at least in PvP builds.  I will be shocked if it doesn't change since they already made a slight adjustment by making each health point worth 15 instead of 20.

[Wade]

hi

you talk a lot of battlemage but not a real mage distance

What do you think of this build ?

 

bar1: 1h+shield

 

-Rune Cage

-Crystal fragments

-Streak

-Endless Fury

-Inner Light

ulti:Atronach

 

Bar2: aoe, Destruction Staff

 

-Pulsar

-Restraining Prison

-Lightning Flood

-Daedric Mines

-Inner Light

ulti:Bat Swarm (vampir)

[Tetator]

 

I have been playing around with a melee sorcerer build since the last beta. This is my build so far, please let me know any critiques. 

 

Race Khajiit, for increased critical damage and melee critical chance

Armor: 5 Medium / 2 Heavy 

 

 

Weapon 1: Two hand

 

I. Critical Charge- Always hits with critical damage, combined with surge provides a self heal

II. Momentum - Damage

III. Lightning Form- Increased armor & resistance 

IV. Encase- CC + Exploitation (increased Crit chance)

V. Bound Armor- Armor plus increased heavy damage with morph

 

Ult: Storm  Atronach 

 

Weapon 2: Bow

 

I. Surge- Increased damage + critical hits provide health

II. Snipe- High damage + reduces targets healing with morph 

III. Immovable- Increased armor & resistance 

IV. Mages Fury - Final death blow

V. Bound Armor- same as first bar

Ult: Negate Magic

 

The idea is to have either Immovable or Lightning Form up

 

 

I started from your proposal and updated it slightly, for discussion purpose : 

Weapon 1: Two hand

I. Critical Charge- Always hits with critical damage, combined with surge provides a self heal

II. Momentum - Damage

III. Winged Twilight

IV.Final Death Blow : Either Mages Fury or Reverse Slash

V. Bound Armor- Armor plus increased heavy damage with morph

 

Purpose is to put on this first bar everything that could not be cast/kept from the second bar. Indeed, should 2nd weapon be a bow for exemple, then you could not cast Critical Charge nor Momentum ==> Must be on the first bar.

Same for winged Twilight and Bound armor that are Toggled and thus would not remain if cast from 2nd bar.

Regarding Final Death Blow, i'm wondering between the 2. Reverse Slash seems stronger but would mean a 3rd Stamina oriented capacity in this bar, and we know we need 50% stamina for CC break ... Thus pointing out to Mages Fury as best ... Not sure tho

 

 

On the 2nd bar i put then what can be used as buff or defensive skills and remains afterwards :

Surge

Encase

Evasion

Snipe

 

Your thoughts ?

[Onyxius]

is it just me or is all the html code showing the tags and not actually working?

[Xenon]

So, now when we have a little more solid facts and we are approaching launch I think theorycrafting builds will be a little bit more worthwhile...

 

So here goes!

 

 

I want to build a leather wearing stamina based DPS class that utilize at least some stealth.

I came to the conclusion that I want one bar for AoE and one bar for single or dual targets.

 

After quite a lot of thinking I ended up with 7 leather, 2H for AoE and Bow for single targets.

 

I can't really decide on class (looking at both night blade or sorcerer).

 

(resource used in [ ])

 

Bow (1 or 2 targets and kiting bosses solo)

Venom Arrow (Poison Arrow +Interrupt)
Magnum shot (scatter shot +increase damage and knocks you back 6 meters)

Bombard (Arrow Spray +root)

[m] Endless Fury (Mage's Fury +magicka back on killing blow)
[m] Ball of Lightning (Bolt Escape +absorb projectiles)
Soul Assault (Soul Strike +longer duration)

 

2H (pve groups of 3+)

Brawler (Cleave +damage shield)
Momentum (remove 1 snare - or heal self after effect finish)

Reverse Slice (Reverse Slash +20% splash to two enemies)

[m] Critical Surge (Surge +crits heal 50% of damage done)

[m] Boundless Storm (Lightning Form +24% movement speed)
Summon Charged Atronach (Summon Storm Atronach +more aoe damage)

 

 

For instances:

I will probably use a fair amount of my stamina on bombard (primary reason is to keep the healer and cloth casters safe from thrash), venom arrow to interrupt casters and then start the endless fury spam as soon as targets start to get close to execute range.

 

For 1 or 2 targets and kiting bosses solo:

Second bar for Critical Surge + Momentum (they stack right?)

Sneak and switch to first bar.

Heavy bow attack from behind.

Venom Arrow that hit at the same time as the heavy bow attack.

If not elite or already dead, use Endless Fury to execute.

If elite or world boss; continue to fire regular+heavy bow attacks, keep up venom arrow and use Bombard to root, Magnum Shot if they get too close, Bolt Escape to keep distance if immune to CC and/or getting low on Stamina and ultimate for a strong DoT and snare. Spam Endless Fury at execute range.

 

 

For running between pulls, exploring (or generally sneaking around as long as there are no mobs within 7 meters):

Second bar and use Boundless Storm for the extra movement speed.

 

 

For pve groups of 3+: 

use second bar for Critical Surge + Momentum

Boundless Storm to get faster speed, AoE damage and reach cap spell and armor resist.

Sprint in and open up with Brawler for a Damage Shield. 

Drop Atronach

Heavy swing on a caster

Cleave to refresh damage shield

Refresh Boundless Storm as needed

Finish off low health targets with Reverse Slice

 

 

Thoughts?

 

 

 

a few questions:

 

I don't like to simply run into combat with my 2H, I would like a stronger opener than that....

Do Critical Charge deal extra damage if you use it from stealth (like night blade teleport strike do)?
Should i get rid of Momentum (and keep Surge) to get critical charge?

(not getting momentum for my bow will suck....)

 

For a stamina soft capped character; would I be better off using Mages' Fury as an execution move on my 2H bar?

 

How would sorcerer Surge + Momentum stand compared to night blade Mark + Momentum damage wise?

 

 

 

Feel like I have better synergy using the same bow and 2H skills on a night blade (teleport strike count as a sneak attack which is great on my 2H bar, longer stun on sneak attacks, stamina regen buff and huge crit buff when using invis, armor and resist buff when coming out of stealth or invis, great pbaoe stun ultimate for my 2h and great health debuff and stun ultimate for my bow. mark target for my bow since I don't plan on getting hit anyway...)

 

Pros for using sorcerer over night blade would be faster movement with Boundless Storm (even in stealth - but this is mostly a quality of life out of combat feature), 28 meter range on execute (instead of 15 meter; morphed) and my 2H bar will benefit from both Critical surge and Momentum at the same time. Also cheaper stamina and magicka abilities.

 

...One big advantage of going Sorcerer is that most night blades will be going leather but only a handful of sorcerers will (i don't like playing the FoTM)

[oljx]

Pros for using sorcerer over night blade would be faster movement with Boundless Storm (even in stealth - but this is mostly a quality of life out of combat feature),

 Yep nice positionning with boundless storm, still if you activate it while in stealth, you get out of stealth.

Wondering if the bolt escape also break the stealth, if not it's an awesome escape/close gapper.

[Xenon]

small tweak.

dropping one of the CC skills from the Bow bar and replace it with Critical Surge.

Instead of Critical Surge in 2H bar i use Critical Charge.

1. Venom Arrow

2. Bombard OR Magnum Shot

3. Critical Surge (or Reaper's Mark as Night Blade)

4. Endless Fury (or Impale as Night Blade)

5. Ball of Lightning (or Refreshing Path as Night Blade)

U. Soul Assault (or Incapacitating Strike as Night Blade)

1. Brawler

2. Momentum

3. Reverse Slice OR Endless Fury (or Impale as Night Blade)

4. Critical Charge (or Teleport Strike as Night Blade)

5. Boundless Storm (or Shadow Disguise as Night Blade)

U. Summon Charged Atronach (or Soul Tether as Night Blade)

Yep nice positionning with boundless storm, still if you activate it while in stealth, you get out of stealth.

Wondering if the bolt escape also break the stealth, if not it's an awesome escape/close gapper.

You sure?

The eye just flash and then it say Hidden again.

But since it deal PBAoE DoT damage you can't really use it in too close proximity of opponents anyway...

As for the pro for sorcerer.

I have refreshing path as night blade which I can use when travelling short distances.

I also don't really seem to need stealth as a sorcerer (other than opening with the bow attack)

....i don't think you get any benefit from stealth when you use critical charge

[oljx]

 

....i don't think you get any benefit from stealth when you use critical charge

when you're khajiit you do

[Xenon]

night blade get a small damage boost when attacking from stealth as well.

 

but i am talking about sneak attacks. 

they always stun your opponent (longer duration for night blade passive, but they do stun for everyone else as well).

and it deal quite a lot of extra damage (seem to be different depending on ability used).

 

twin slash, for example, deal MASSIVE damage if you use it from behind... from stealth.

a heavy dual wield attack from behind from stealth does not really deal that much damage at all.

a heavy bow attack from behind from stealth deal really really good damage. 

(combined with a hit-scan attack such as poison arrow that will hit at the same time and you almost deal as much damage as a successful twin slash backstab).

veiled strike also deal deal quite a lot of damage (but less than twin slashes - and cost more resources).