Replies: 76

The Lightning Ward

Sorcerer Tank

Updates

• 07/25/15 – VDSA complete with this build!  Also added more thoughts on a dps-tank build in the Final Notes section.
• 08/15/15 – Recorded and posted video tanking vet Crypt of Hearts.
• 11/20/15 – Updated for 2.1/2.2 (IC/Orsinium) with my (vampire!) build and vWGT footage.
• 01/23/16 – Updated with dps-tanking setup.

Foreword Notes

• I have a lot of fun with this build and I bet you will too. Yes, sorcs aren’t the default tanking class, but they can do really well once you get good at it.
• Since the original iteration of this build I have moved towards max stats with a side of regen and cost reduction. The IC patch introduced no stamina regen while blocking, so having high stam regen is down on the priority list. One thing has stayed the same though – because you don’t have a solid self-heal like the DK’s GDB or various Templar skills, it’s all about having your Hardened Ward up all the time.
• I’ve been tanking as a vampire since Imperial City and it’s been great. There are times when I’d like to try a health regen build, and I’d still like to at some point, but for now I’m enjoying the +10% magicka and stamina regen, the Undeath passive, bats, and the sneak speed in PvP.
• This is not trial approved yet, although I’m confident it would do well with some tweaks here and there. I would probably switch to 7/7 heavy to reach the armor cap to start with.
• You don’t have to be a vampire – I just like it for both PvE and PvP!

Race

I’m a Breton, for the max magicka, spell cost reduction, and spell resist, but an Altmer would also work, for max magicka, magicka recovery and elemental damage passives. Any of the other tanking races (Imperial, Nord, Orc) would also be fine.

Mundus

I ran with The Mage for a long time, but switched to The Atronach for magicka recovery even before I switched to drinks (and then back to food…) and saw a huge benefit, so I’ve stuck with it.

Champion Points

Current Champion Rank: 486.

The Warrior

Recommended priority:

1. Bastion to 10%
2. Block Expertise to 75 points for the Shield Expert passive
3. Heavy Armor Focus to 5% and/or balanced with Spell Shield (I don’t need it at the moment because Breton)

If you are a vampire:

IV. Elemental Defender to 10%

And the rest into Block Expertise. If you feel you don’t need it/have extra CP for the red trees, put them into Thick Skinned and Hardy.

Current allocation:

The Steed

• Block Expertise (89) – 23%

The Lady

• Elemental Defender (27) – 10%

The Lord

• Bastion (28) – 10%
• Heavy Armor Focus (18) – 5%

The Thief

Recommended Priority:

1. Magician to at least 8%
2. Arcanist to at least 10%
3. Tumbling to 5%
4. Bashing Focus to 5%

If you are just starting out, do 2:1 Magician:Arcanist, and once you’ve gotten Arcanist to 10%, max out Magician, then go back into Arcanist. Definitely spend the points into Tumbling and Bashing Focus, as tanks do need to dodge roll, break free, and bash.

Current allocation:

The Tower

• Magician (100) – 16%
• Bashing Focus (10) – 5%

The Lover

• Mooncalf (10) – 5%
• Arcanist (39) – 12.9%

The Shadow

• Tumbling (13) – 5%

The Mage

Recommended Priority:

This is really up to you where you focus for damage, but I have a more dps-tank build utilizing the Sorc’s amazing elemental damage skills and the destro staff. I tried to do a Magic Damage oriented build (Crystal Frags, Trapping Webs) but it just didn’t get the same results as Overload, etc. In PvP, I focus on elemental damage and self-healing with Power Surge (although yes, my crit is only around 25% in heavy armor) hence spending into Elfborn. Spell penetration is for PvP as well.

Current allocation:

The Apprentice

• Elemental Expert (100) – 25%
• Elfborn (51) – 15.6%
• Spell Erosion (10) – 5%

The Ritual

• Thaumaturge (1) – 1%

Gear

• 1.7/2.1 cranked up the difficulty a little bit on all veteran dungeons, and introduced vWGT and vICP (which were tougher than they are now) and it really made me focus on straight tanking for the likes of vCOA, vWGT, etc.
• I switched from drinks to food for PvE because stamina recovery is way less important, and I also have almost no health recovery as a vamp. With more max magicka, my shields are stronger, and with more stamina and block cost reduction I’m not relying on stam recovery.
• Malubeth I chose because I can always use extra healing/increased healing received. Through my testing I’ve learned that when a set says “% chance when hit” it doesn’t count when they’re hitting your shields. The set does get a chance to proc when a boss or other damage is hitting through your shield and into your health, however, and if I’m getting hit enough through my shields then chances are I do need that great 30% healing received. Engine Guardian, Lord Warden, and Bloodspawn are also great options.
• Spectre’s Eye may be an unconventional choice, but the health, max magicka, and armor all help this build out, and the dodge chance is up every 3/6 seconds due to me constantly casting skills that cost magicka. In my opinion all the set bonuses serve me better than Hist Bark, and better than spending stamina on Elude.
• 2-piece Willpower for that bonus max magicka, and 3-piece Endurance for the big health bonus, and the stam recovery helps too in the end although not as much. If you are a race with health or stam passives already, arcane Endurance jewelry is a great way to get your magicka up. I like the extra stam from the Robust rings for my particular setup.
• 5H/1L/1M for the Undaunted Mettle passive.

Attributes & Stats

With:

• VR15 Purple Tri-food
• Boundless Storm up (Major Resolve, Major Ward)
• Bound Aegis toggled (Minor Resolve, Minor Ward)
• Purple gear, gold enchants

Skills

Veteran Dungeons & VDSA

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Bosses

• Bound Aegis – More armor, spell resist, and max magicka. Keep it on both bars so it stays toggled.
• Boundless Storm – Keep this up all the time. Armor, spell resist, a small DoT that gives a chance to proc Disintegration, and makes you look cool as hell.
• Defensive Stance – For the extra block cost reduction while you deem it necessary. The other morph is also perfectly acceptable – I just like to reflect in PvP.
  In dungeons/areas where I take a ton of spell damage, I replace it with the Light Armor active skill Harness Magicka.
• Pierce Armor – Your standard taunt and debuff.
• Hardened Ward – Your extra 15k+ (~18k+ with my current build) health that will take anything you can throw at it. Keep this up all the time.
• Devouring Swarm – Mostly for the increased vampire regen, although I will use it if needed if the healer is indisposed, or in a pack of trash in order to drop block and help dps a bit. For bosses, I switch to my other bar, blow Warhorn, and then switch back.

General usage:

Make sure Bound Aegis is toggled, pop Boundless Storm, Hardened Ward, Aggressive Warhorn if it’s up, run in and taunt boss.  Make sure Boundless Storm and your Hardened Ward are up all the time. Keep your shield(s) up and Warhorn for your team.

AoE/trash

• Bound Aegis – As above.
• Shattering Prison – Your DK Talons equivalent that will also heal you on doing damage (Blood Magic passive). It’s cast in front of you though, so positioning is important. The other morph of this is also fine to snare mobs/players.
• Elusive Mist – Mostly here for the vampire regen passive. There are a few times where it comes in handy, like the Daedroth’s stomp in vCOA.
• Inner Fire – Your ranged taunt.
• Dark Conversion – Convert your extra stamina to magicka and health. Use after trash mobs/sometimes during a boss to fill up your magicka.
• Aggressive Warhorn – Extra dps and resources for everyone, and as a Sorc it costs less than other classes. Use it!

General usage:

Pop Boundless Storm and Hardened Ward from first bar, switch to second bar, Inner Fire the biggest threat, watch them all run towards you, cast Shattering Prison once or twice until most are rooted, Inner Fire/switch to bar one for Pierce Armor the remaining big threats/all mobs, reapply Shattering Prison. Bats if you’re taking heavy fire.

Don’t be afraid to ask your healer/a Templar for shards and Repentance. Heavy attack the boss if you see an opening and you have your shields up. For bosses/trash that you have to bash constantly/CC break constantly, extra stamina is much needed. Mystic Orbs on trash doesn’t hurt either, although almost no one runs them anymore. This build is mostly self-sufficient.

Footage

Updated footage of the bosses in vWGT! Bonus me noobing it up at the very end.

Final Notes

• If I was going to go into trials with this build, I’d stack more health and more resistance and sacrifice some extra max magicka.
• This build works really well (with some practice) for vDSA, you just need a DK friend with chains for the rounds to go faster OR use the splits method. For speedruns with a good group you can use the setup detailed below.

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Bonus – DPS-Tanking

• I’ll switch gear and skills if I’m speed-running vDSA or most veteran dungeons (vICP still needs the solid tank build from above) with a good group.
• This build basically relies on charging ultimate for overload on bosses – the Sorc is the only class without a class spammable that can be used with 1H&S. DKs have whip, Templars have sweeps/jabs, and NBs have funnel/concealed weapon/surprise attack. Hard-casting frags just isn’t a good option.
• On a boss that doesn’t have much in the way of mechanics I can hit 12k overload dps, otherwise it may hover around 10k.

• 5 Kagrenac’s – yes, Julianos gives more spell damage and crit but I find I run out of magicka too quickly without the magicka recovery bonus on Kag’s.
• My current 1H&S that I use are actually Reinforced/Defending because I’m too lazy to make new pieces that are Infused/Nirnhoned, but those are the ideal traits here.
• The enchants on jewelry are up to you. Find your balance with spell cost reduction and spell damage. The way this build works is that bosses/mobs have to die quickly enough that they don’t eat through all your magicka until the end of a pull, and then you can recover all your magicka with Dark Conversion. Otherwise it’s a dps loss, and a tank without resources isn’t much help to anyone.
• I currently use a lightning staff because it’s the same gold one I use in PvP, but inferno is preferred for PvE.

Bosses (1H&S)

• Inner Light – +5% max magicka and 10% spell crit. You can replace this with Bound Aegis if you’re keeping Spell Power pots up the whole time. Unfortunately there isn’t room for both like a magicka sorc dps.
• Boundless Storm – Keep this up all the time.
• Hardened Ward – Keep this up all the time – this is even more important because you have less armor/spell resist in this setup and much less stamina to block. In this gear it’s a 21k shield for me, more than my 20k health.
• Pierce Armor – Your standard taunt and debuff.
• Endless Fury – Execute – use when boss hits 20% health. I prefer this morph for magicka return in PvP.
• Energy Overload – Save up this ultimate for bosses.

Overload Bar

• Inner Light – As above
• Boundless Storm – Keep this up all the time.
• Hardened Ward – Keep this up all the time, again.
• Inner Fire – Your taunt, keep this up every ~15 seconds.
• Dark Conversion – I don’t use this during a battle – in between pulls I pop into overload to use this and get all my magicka back.
• Energy Overload – As above.

General usage:

Make sure Inner Light is toggled, pop Boundless Storm, Hardened Ward, Power Surge from your back bar, run in and taunt boss with Pierce Armor.  Go into Overload and just start light attacking. Keep up Boundless Storm, your Hardened Ward, and Inner Fire. Block only when the boss is doing a heavy and/or CCing attack. When the boss is at 20% health, switch back to your 1H&S bar, make sure all your buffs are up, Pierce Armor for the debuff, and spam Endless Fury.

I use Spell Power pots for bosses because there is just no room for Power Surge/Structured Entropy on my Overload bar.

AoE/trash (destruction staff)

• Inner Light – As above.
• Power Surge – Boost your spell power with Major Sorcery and gain extra healing as you do damage.
• Liquid Lightning – DoT to drop for dps and initial aggro.
• Inner Fire – Your ranged taunt.
• Pulsar – Spammable AoE dps. I prefer the Pulsar morph to help the group by lowering trash mobs’ health. The other morph is great too.
• Devouring Swarm – Only here for the regen and “oh shit the healer is dead” moments. Save your ultimate for Overload.

General usage:

Make sure Inner Light is toggled, pop Boundless Storm, Hardened Ward, switch to destro bar and pop Power Surge from your back bar. Run in and light-weave with Inner Fire on all the trash mobs, then drop Liquid Lightning. By this point they will probably have eaten through Hardened Ward, so switch to bar one and recast it. Switch back and Pulsar away. Reapply taunts, your buffs, and your DoT as needed. Keep your Ward up because you don’t have the stamina to block cast in this gear.

Get all your magicka back with Dark Conversion in between pulls, because trust me this will eat through it quickly.

• This topic was modified 5 months ago by  KaPoTun.