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Introduction

So I’ve finally gotten around to the big Imperial City update for my guide! I’ve now also decided to broaden my guide to not only cover the aspect of a PVE DPS sorcerer, but also the tank and healing aspect of a PVE sorcerer. The guide does remain strictly PVE orientated, though. I’ve tried to create a better overview of the guide aswell, since it now includes more aspects. I hope the information provided is useful to everyone, and as usual, if you have questions or feedback, don’t hesitate to reply!

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Table of contents

General Information

- Race
- Attributes
- Champion point distribution

DPS Section

- Character Sheet
– Mundus Stone
- Gear setups
- Skillbar setup
- Extra Information

Tanking Section

- Character Sheet
– Mundus Stone
- Gear setup
- Skillbar setup
- Extra Information

Healing Section

- Character Sheet
– Mundus Stone
- Gear setup
- Skillbar setup
- Extra Information

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General Information

Race

Altmer. The 10% magicka bonus is too good to pass up as a magicka based sorcerer. Since we’re using force pulse as our main damage filler ability, altmer is also nice because of the 4% frost, fire and shock damage.

Attributes

All 64 points into magicka. You don’t need health from attributes, and at the times where you do, there will be a health enchant on a gear piece. This will be further explained later.

Champion point distribution

Here’s how I’ve done my champion point distribution up until now (410 points):

The Apprentice 102 points
– Elfborn 1
– Elemental expert 100
– Spell erosion 1

The Atronarch 10 points
– Staff expert 10

The Ritual 24 points
– Thaumaturge 24

The Steed 35 points
– Block expertise 20
– Spell shield 15

The Lady 82 points
– Hardy 30
– Elemental defender 30
– Thick skinned 22

The Lord 20 points
- Quick recovery 20

The Tower 75 points
– Magician 75

The Lover 62 points
– Arcanist 62

The Shadow 0 points

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DPS Section

Character Sheet with all self-buffs up (VR16 buff food, major spell power, bound aegis/inner light) and both skillbars

Stats with bar 1:
[IMG]http://oi59.tinypic.com/axl7cp.jpg[/IMG]
Stats with bar 2:
[IMG]http://i57.tinypic.com/35aiws5.png[/IMG]

Mundus Stone

I’m currently running with the Thief stone, as I feel it gives me the best increase in damage. It’s a very close run between thief and shadow though. For really specific information and formulas regarding which mundus stone you should pick, you should check out Asayre’s thread with all the mathematical information.

Gear setups

There’s a few different setups which I consider the most viable at the moment. I’ve included them all below. Each of my DPS setups use the Molag Kena undaunted set. You can also go with Nerien’eth, but Nerien’eth is random while Molag Kena is controllable. This is why I personally prefer Molag Kena. The DPS granted from them is about equal in the end. If you’re really lucky, Nerien’eth might bring you more in the end.

Setup 1 (the scathing mage setup)

[IMG]http://i61.tinypic.com/2zgc5yg.png[/IMG]

* Note: All set bonus values listed are from the highest attainable level in legendary quality. This will be the same for all following gear setups.

This is the setup I think is best suited for us sorcerers, as it grants insane amounts of spell damage which only scale up higher due to our passives which give percental spell damage.

I use a health enchant on the molag kena head, due to my health being too low otherwise. This is also why divines is the ideal trait on the head, because infused is irrelevant with a health enchant. The little extra health you would gain from having infused won’t help you as the base is enough. This holds true for the other 2 setups aswell.

Setup 2 (the overwhelming setup)

[IMG]http://i59.tinypic.com/15chx15.png[/IMG]

This setup is a ‘safer’ setup, as it gives you flat spell damage without relying on random set procs as the previous setup does.

Setup 3 (the stand-in setup)

[IMG]http://i62.tinypic.com/zmb3fo.png[/IMG]

This is my current setup, as I’ve been very unlucky with gear drops and the only thing I have full in perfect traits is this. It’s not a bad setup to run while farming for something better, but the overwhelming setup and scathing mage setup will always outperform this setup.

Skillbar setup

Bar 1:
[IMG]http://i60.tinypic.com/jpiurr.png[/IMG]

The skills listed are the following (in order) 1. Force pulse – 2. Crystal Fragments – 3. Daedric Prey – 4. Bound Aegis – 5. Inner Light – Ultimate. Greater Storm Atronarch

This is a single target bar setup. For aoe, I swap out daedric prey with elemental ring and the storm atronarch ultimate for shooting star (mages’ guild ultimate).

Bar 2:
[IMG]http://i62.tinypic.com/2e3sb3s.png[/IMG]

The skills listed are the following (in order) 1. Mages’ Wrath – 2. Boundless Storm – 3. Liquid Lightning – 4. Bound Aegis – 5. Inner light – Ultimate. Power Overload

Overload bar:
[IMG]http://i59.tinypic.com/1222rgy.png[/IMG]

The skills listed are the following (in order) 1. Restoring Twilight – 2. Boundless Storm – 3. Liquid Lightning – 4. Bound Aegis – 5. Inner light – Ultimate. Power Overload

Extra Information

This build with every single gear setup assumes the use of a potion build. You want to be using potions that restore magicka and give spell damage. The third effect is irrelevant (can be detection, can be crit, etc.).

Your rotation should look something like this: Boundless Storm -> Potion -> Liquid lightning -> Light attack -> Storm atronarch -> Light attack -> Daedric prey -> Force pulse -> Medium attack -> Crystal fragments (when proc’d) -> Medium attack -> repeat possible steps.

A quick explanation for using both medium and light attacks: Light attacks are required to proc the Molag Kena 2 piece bonus. You can proc molag kena while weaving, so use that to your advantage. I usually buff up Molag Kena right after I place my liquid lightning, and rebuff liquid lightning when it runs out and rebuff Molag Kena straight after. This results in approximately 80% uptime on the Molag Kena buff.

FAQ

Q: Why do you use a flame staff, and not a lightning or an ice staff?
A: First of all, ice staff is probably the worst out of all 3 elements. This is mostly due to its AOE component not doing as much damage as other staves. I’m using a flame staff because it’s slightly better on single target than a lightning staff, and due to using medium attacks, it allows me to control when I want to proc Molag Kena. You can’t control your procs with a lightning staff, as you’re always using light attacks. That said, lightning staff has better AOE. The differences in DPS on both areas (single target and AOE) between these two staves are minimal. In the end it comes down to your personal preference.

Q: Why do you use a greatsword on your second bar?
A: A greatsword provides more spell damage than another staff would bring, and you don’t really need to weave when you’re on your second bar, as you use it mainly to buff up your dots and execute. The extra spell damage from the greatsword also applies to your overload form, which makes overload that much stronger. Another important note is the ‘Heavy Weapons’ passive in the two handed skill line. Putting two points in this increases your damage by 5% with any skill used while on the greatsword bar. This is also the reason why a greatsword trumps having dual wield on your second bar, even though it gives less spell damage than dual wield. Exact information and formulas regarding when a greatsword is better than dual wield can also be found in Asayre’s thread.

Q: Should you always run full spell damage on your jewelry?
A: If possible, yes. It should be sustainable if your healer is caring for the support buffs such as elemental drain and siphon spirit. If you find yourself often running out of mana though, you should switch in some cost reduction. It all depends on what you personally need. The spell damage boost from the new VR16 enchants is very significant though, so minimizing the cost reduction required is always the best option.

DPS Results

The DPS results posted are just an indicator of what you can expect to achieve with this build and rotation. They are by no means an indicator of what you must minimally achieve. DPS can vary depending on your group, your amount of CP (champion points), luck factors such as crit, etc.

[IMG]http://i62.tinypic.com/auz1bt.png[/IMG]

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Tanking Section

Character Sheet with all self-buffs up (VR16 buff food, major ward buff, bound aegis)

[IMG]http://i57.tinypic.com/smwxdy.png[/IMG]

Mundus Stone

I personally don’t change my mundus stone when I switch from my DPS spec to my tanking setup because I’m too lazy. If you want to go all the way however, good choices would be the Lord mundus stone for more HP, or the Tower stone if you notice you’re running into stamina problems.

Gear Setup

[IMG]http://i58.tinypic.com/339u047.png[/IMG]

A good old 1.6 tanking setup I would say, but it works perfectly for a sorc tank. Trying to run a dps tank setup for a sorc tank is practically impossible, as we don’t really have any instant spammable dps class skill. We do have good survival skills, so I personally think going full survivability is the best thing you can do.

Skillbar Setup

Bar 1:
[IMG]http://i60.tinypic.com/2ih16y0.png[/IMG]

The skills listed are the following (in order) 1. Inner Rage – 2. Hardened Ward – 3. Boundless Storm – 4. Bound Aegis – 5. Absorb Magic – Ultimate. Agressive Warhorn

Bar 2:
[IMG]http://i61.tinypic.com/70xuv7.png[/IMG]

The skills listed are the following (in order) 1. Pierce Armor – 2. Liquid Lightning – 3. Dark Deal – 4. Bound Aegis – 5. Absorb Magic – Ultimate. Agressive Warhorn

If your healer doesn’t have the magicka orbs with him, don’t worry, you can be your group’s savior! You can swap out liquid lightning with mystic orb to provide your group with their much needed magicka orbs during trash pulls.

Extra Information

An important note on this build is that in it’s current style, it’s oriented towards 4-man content only. You can tank trials with this general build aswell, but in order to do that you probably need to change some attribute points into health, and redo your champion points a bit for more survivability.

So as I stated earlier, you can’t deal much damage as a sorcerer tank due to the lack of an instant class damage skill. That’s why we focus on pure survivability. My stats actually turned out more or less the way they are due to pure laziness, since I don’t want to have to respec attributes just to tank and so forth. But playing a magicka tank actually works out really well. This is also why I tank with the magicka morph of the undaunted taunt, as stamina is very scarce with this build.

But we have a trump card for this! It’s called Dark Deal. The stamina morph of Dark Exchange. First I actually thought this skill is useless in its entirety, because if you’d use it as a DPS you’d have to stop dpsing to use it, which is pretty much a no go. Then I actually noticed how nice it could be for tanking. As it uses magicka, which you have a ton of with this build, you can practically not run out of stamina. As long as you have magicka, you have stamina. There’s one thing you need to watch out for with this, and it’s the fact that you drop block for 1 second. This means you need to be aware of the mechanics of the boss you’re tanking, so you know when exactly you have time to use it. During trash it’s a non-issue, as trash doesn’t deal enough damage to you to be life threatening when you’re not blocking. Another possibility is pushing Hardened Ward just before you use your Dark Deal, to have protection for the 1 second of block loss.

The build uses the agressive warhorn ultimate on both bars, as our sorcerer ultimates don’t bring much to the group when you’re tanking. Agressive warhorn gives an insane boost to the DPSers in your group, so you want to save it mainly for important boss fights! If your healer is using it aswell, you should arrange for a warhorn rotation to make the best of the buff.

FAQ

Will be edited in if needed based on feedback!

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Healing Section

Character Sheet with VR16 food buff and inner light

[IMG]http://i57.tinypic.com/531tew.png[/IMG]

Mundus Stone

As stated in the previous Tanking Section, I’m personally using the same mundus stone as in my DPS build due to laziness, which is the thief stone. It’s not too bad for healing as crit is never bad for healing, but using the Atronarch if you have sustain issues, or using the Ritual for more healing output is probably a better idea.

Gear Setup

[IMG]http://i61.tinypic.com/4v04tc.png[/IMG]

This is what I believe is the perfect healing setup. The Spell Power Cure set is a very strong set for healers in stats, but also since the 5 piece bonus buffs your entire group by quite a significant amount.

Skillbar Setup

Bar 1:
[IMG]http://i58.tinypic.com/15ydd2t.png[/IMG]

The skills listed are the following (in order) 1. Force Pulse – 2. Mages’ Wrath – 3. Elemental Drain – 4. Liquid Lightning – 5. Inner Light – Ultimate. Shooting Star

You can swap out Mages’ Wrath for Crystal Fragments if you don’t need to heal that much and can focus more on damage, as it will bring more damage throughout the entire fight. For trash you can swap it out for Elemental Ring, for more AOE damage and faster AOE clears.

Bar 2:
[IMG]http://i57.tinypic.com/2kkeaf.png[/IMG]

The skills listed are the following (in order) 1. Mystic Orb – 2. Rapid Regeneration – 3. Siphon Spirit – 4. Healing Ward – 5. Inner Light – Ultimate. Agressive Warhorn

Extra Information

As mentioned in the previous Tank Section aswell, this build is oriented for 4-man content only. If you want to heal raid content, you will need to swap in healing springs on your healing bar. The best way to do this is to remove one of the DPS skills from the first bar (the mages’ wrath flex spot, preferably), so that you can put your mystic orb there, and put healing springs on the spot of mystic orb. You also might want to redistribute your champion points into more healing done in this case.

An important thing to realize when healing (and this goes for healing with every class, in my opinion!!!) is that you are not just a healer. You are everything. You are a healer, a buffer and a debuffer with some off-DPS. It’s your job to take care of elemental drain, siphon spirit and magicka orbs in order to make sure that the DPS have the magicka sustain they need, and so that they don’t need to slot it themselves, ruining their DPS as a result. When the DPS can focus solely on DPSing, it ensures faster dungeon clears for everyone. Another important buff here is, like in the tanking build, the aggressive warhorn ultimate. You pretty much want to use only this ultimate in boss fights, as it brings more damage to the group than when you would throw your shooting star instead. Shooting star is a good ultimate for the main bar due to the passive magicka and magicka regeneration boost from the mages’ guild passives, and it’s good for clearing trash packs faster.

Siphon spirit is not in this build for the sustain alone though (even though it’s a nice addition!), the main purpose of this skill is to guarantee a higher proc chance on the 5 piece bonus of the Spell Power Cure set. This set has a 50% chance of proccing every time you heal someone with full health, so each additional heal gives it a higher proc chance.

For the rest, just make sure your HoT is always running (rapid regeneration) besides elemental drain and siphon spirit on single target and then you can care for some off-DPS. When someone drops low, healing ward is your friend. I personally prefer healing ward over breath of life, as the shield is extremely strong on low hp allies.

FAQ

Will be edited in if needed based on feedback!

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Closing Notes

I hope you enjoyed reading the guide, and I hope the information provided was useful to you! As stated in the introduction, if you have any questions, feedback, suggestions, or anything else you want to mention, don’t hesistate to post a reply!

I’ll do my best to keep the guide updated as usual with new insights and answer any questions.

• This topic was modified 1 month, 1 week ago by  Dymence.