Sorcerers - let's discuss skills !

[Revehn]

Hey everyone,

I was invited ealy january, and I created 6 sorcerers as of right now.
Some went 6 or 7, two went way higher (max was 16).
I can't tell I checked everything, there was too much to try. However, I can tell you that things pleased me... or didn't.
I'd like to know about your experience with sorcerers, and how that went.

1) Dark Magic - Summoner - Light Armor - Destruction Staff
The pet (morphed to Clannfear) wasn't a big addition. In fact, I felt it was quite useless.
Dark Magic was strong combined with Soul Trap, but it wasn't THAT powerful. It had nice CC, but that was all. Didn't try any spell from Destr Staff.

2) Dark Magic - Summoner - Light Armor - Restoration Staff
Again, the pet wasn't interesting. It survived a bit more with Restoration staff passive, but I wasn't convinced at all. I felt my mana wasn't there when I needed it the most.
Restoration staff was clearly an upgrade from before.

3) Lightning - Dark Magic - Medium Armor - Dual Wield
Way better than expected, with 1/1/1 on char points.
However, I somehow found that 1/1/1 wasn't the smartest choice. I believe it could be very strong, but it needed a very well planned character. Since it was beta, it wasn't, and I feel I made it wrong.
However, clearly better than the two previous ones.

4) Lightning - Dark Magic - Light Armor - Restoration Staff
At some point, I found out that sorcerers needed A LOT of defensive stats.
I morphed (8sec) Lightning Armour, took a lot of Resto Staff skills, and a lot of mana regen.
I did Broken Cells (1rst dungeon in Auridon) at lv12 as a healer.
Best character I made so far !
Blessing of Protection is the best !
It wasn't THAT offensive, but if 3 dremoras can't take you... even by surprise, what could you possibly need more ?
30% offensive, 70% defensive = best combination I found.

5) Lightning - Dark Magic - Heavy Armor - Destruction Staff
FULL OFFENSIVE !
Trash character. Moving on.

6) Lightning - Dark Magic - heavy Armor - Resto Staff
Lack of mana was planned.
And it was painful.
So painful I couldn't keep up with my other char.
Moving on... to next beta.


Soooo. I think Sorcerer is a very strong class, but somehow it lacks of survivability without Resto Staff, and it lacks of mana. I didn't feel of a sorcerer THAT much with 50% mana. It was one, perhaps two spells.
Morphing was interesting every time, except when it was for mana preservation/mana reduction : then it was the best in morph (BIM will be a thing !). I tried morphing for AoE dmg, it was ridiculous. Don't ever do that, except if you could 4 morph like that.
Btw, when I felt like I was "getting enough mana regen", the game told me I had to much, and then gave me diminishing return...

Now I didn't try everything (I left Summoner, but I heard Daedric curse was nice + Winged Summon was interesting), Destro staff had Force Pulse I didn't try, or Wall... But I'd like to know what YOU thought about all this.

Revehn

PS : except for the 1/1/1 char, I went 3/3/1.

[PeterRJG]

I did some experimenting myself and while I'm no theorycrafter, I found a combo of dark/daedric to be very effective, coupled with a destruction staff. Essentially, I snared (if there were multiples) and then used curse, while wailing on them with the staff. The curse kicked in and generally finished off the mob quickly. I rarely needed to use by big dark nuke.

[mageguy]

I've done 3 betas now as a Sorc.
And I've just been slowly perfecting the build I'll take with me to live.
And it's a Daedric/Dark/Storm build.
You'll notice that doesn't leave much room on my bar for any destruction staff abilities.
You're right.
Tho that's what I use.
I go with two summons (clannfear and twilight).
Curse, Shard, and Fury.
And then it's allll about the passive's baby. I load up on the passives: Capacitor, Unholy Knowledge and Rebate, and I keep improving them.
And then the High Elf passives.

Long story short, by level 16 I was honestly forgetting that I had a destruction staff on.
Even with the 20% mana reduction from having two pets out (-10% per pet), I regenned so quickly, and had so much base that I never really ran out of mana while running dungeons or in PvP.

For me it's ALL about the regen. Regen is king.
I stayed in light armor, and took the passives there that helped, like Evocation and Recovery.

I had so much offense, and since I came with a tank built in (clannfear) my survive rate was quite good.
Now.... how will I morph my Twilight?
Dude.... I have no idea lol
BOTH options rule!

[Revehn]

That is very interesting to read...

Daedric Curse is a must have ?
Also, is Clannfear really that interesting with Winged ? How do you keep your health up ?

[mageguy]

Originally Posted by Revehn That is very interesting to read... Daedric Curse is a must have ? Also, is Clannfear really that interesting with Winged ? How do you keep your health up ?

The Clann acts very much like a tank (as long as I don't go in too early). I often toss up a curse to send the clann and winged in, and they do their thing for a tick or two, then I start in.
This assures my tank summon does his job.
The winged is nice for the dps.

I'm honestly not sure if I'll morph the winged to heal me when I get low, or to give me increased mana regen.
If I do the regen it adds to my "infinite mana" concept for dungeons. If I do the heal, then I'll basically be my own self contained party, with a tank, two ranged dps (me and the winged), and then the winged as my healer.
So I really don't know.

Keeping my health up is trivial. I rarely get hit.
I lose 20% mana from having two summons out, but I have the one passive that negates 10% of that. And then I have the one passive that restores 10% mana if one of them dies, which offsets the cost of resummoning but about 50%.

At level 16 my clannfear was able to replace the tank in my party when I ran BC.
But then, lets be honest, at 16 you're over powered for that dungeon anyway. So that's not a great example.

The most painful part was hitting the soft cap on magicka. I crashed into that wall at level 10.
Which sucked. But it is what it is.
Players doing what I'm doing would break the game if you didn't hit it early, I just wish you didn't hit it SO early. :-/

In short though, I'm a one trick pony.
And since you can reset attributes and skills, I think I'll probably go melee vampire once I figure out where the vampires are in game. lol

I don't think curse is a requirement. It's just a low magicka cost spell to cast for it's dps output. That makes it desirable.
But by and large, I already know it won't be part of my level 30+ build.
But at low levels it's nice to take just because you can keep more dps ticking on the mob while you work a direct damage rotation.

[Revehn]

Thanks for the reply.
You're making me wonder about a summoner/mage's fury/dark magic with resto staff, blessing of prot for Clannfear, with mana regen for Winged...
I'll try that next beta !

[Callsign]

My current version of a Sorcerer tank build.

[Myohokyo]

I found these 2 Sorcerers build videos on youtube to be very interesting maybe you will fine them helpful with your build, I will be trying out some of these ideas duing this weekend Beta test.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bDjGcxHRVo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tctL8...AeT5DEuKTO4Oew

[WrinkleStiltskin]

I have, and will always be a hardcore mage in every game I touch. My ß build was full light armor pushing max magica, full points into max magica, eating food that bled max magica. Zeni wants law of diminishing returns, they better put that mess on HP also. I pushed past soft cap. Daedric Summon all the way, yes the pets are fairly undefined before launch. Volitile Familiar, and twilight Matriarch...AND Daedric Curse. Crystal Fragments is your opener, knock them down, then plunder skulls. Finish with Endless Fury. All will succumb. 3 mobs, open with knockback, curse, fury...dead. knockback nearest threat (pets are on other) and pop it hard with Dest staff, or whatever, then spam fury on everything in immediate range.
All dead, and even a paper mage is hit 1-3 times max. On rare occasion I had lag spikes that made it look like I was 1 shot. I was soloing groups well above my level.
I kicked the crap out of that Mage Guild Clannfear NM that was about LV12 when I was LV8 using only 1 crap heal pot.