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Sorcerer needs help.
adam_nox
Member UncommonPosts: 2,148
Mine is incredibly weak. I'm using the first couple storm calling spells and the clannfear pet. Pet can't hold agro for crap, and even with heavy armor while blocking I get beat down fast (does blocking not work vs non-weapon physical attacks?).
I swear the storm calling buff for armor seems to do nothing to help protect me. And the other one.... worthless unless the enemy is 4 seconds from death.
Should I respec? If so how is that done?
I'm also leveling incredibly slow, so if someone has a guide on leveling faster because I can't stand being this weak for much longer.
Comments
Crystal shard from the Dark magic line is almost a must have. Damage plus knocks them down. Get that asap. Pets at this point are lame. Dont use them.
At this point I use a resto staff, with crystal shard and mages fury. I also have the 2 heals from resto staff on my bar. I am thinking of switching it to 2handed at 15 and leaving the healing for reserve. Lightening form is ok but dont rely on it. Mix it up.
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Want good Sorc advice then go here : http://www.twitch.tv/ninerapture
He played through PTS to 50 v4 and is already 43.
Try Dark Magic 1, it's very good dps, and knocks the mob down. 2 of those usually either kills the mob or gets the mob down low enough for you to finish off with a staff. Knock down is useful because of course, it buys you time to cast another or gain distance. Also Dark Magic 2 roots the mobs in place, giving you even more time to gain distance or cast more spells on them. It's frontal aoe so it roots all the mobs in front of you in a cone. I find these 2 spells more useful than the lightning 1 & 2, at least in the early stages.
I know the lightning 1 will be good when you want to aoe. But seeing that you're having difficulties right now, I doubt you're aoeing yet. Sorcs are supposed to be light weight because their dps is amazing when used properly.
EQ1-AC1-DAOC-FFXI-L2-EQ2-WoW-DDO-GW-LoTR-VG-WAR-GW2-ESO
Not sure which Alliance you are playing for or what level you are but if you skipped the starter island and just went straight into the thick of the continent it may feel like you are being overpowered by things, check the level of the monsters you are fighting. I would recommend getting the ship to the starter island and leveling up there first before going to the mainland if you haven't done this already.
You can reset at the Shrine of Stendarr http://segmentnext.com/2014/04/02/the-elder-scrolls-online-how-to-reset-skills-and-attributes/
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
I'm only level 8, but I feel I've come up with a rotation that is easy and very effective for 1 on 1 situations at least.
Crystal shard (knocks them down), the moment crystal shard fires I start powering up a full strength staff attack. It connects about the time they stand up. Now they are running at me, then I hit them with that destruction staff skill that knocks them back, which I have further morphed to have it knock them back and stun them. I now have time to hit them with another full charge staff attack AND a crystal shard attack, which then lets me hit them with ANOTHER full powered staff attack. Rinse / repeat.
Obviously this works best 1 on 1 and against ranged mobs you have to tailor it a little bit. But even against melee bosses I have worked that rotation to the point of receiving almost zero damage each time.
Then there is just the basic blocking and countering.
If you see a white animation surrounding them hold right mouse button to block
If you see a red animation surrounding them hold right mouse button then press left to counter
Each of those done successfully stuns them
I have a lvl 13 Sorc right now and I haven't had any problmes. Saving most of my skill points for level 15 when I can switch between weapons, but I've put some I've put two into the first of every sorc skill, bow, and 1h/shield. I'm leveling them all at the same time so I can pick what I want for my build at 15.
Right now I have my pet out, then start with either Venom Arrow or Puncture depending on the weapon, then use an endless fury, then a crystal fragments, then repeat.
I'm wearing a mix of heavy armor for survivability and light armor for magicka regen. Though, at this level, I wear what ever the best piece is armor wise.
Finally, be sure to take some passives, They can raise your magicka pool, reduce cost of spells, increase their efficiency etc.
When I got into beta the only thing I did was explore the starter isle and play with the classes, as I didnt want to ruin my play experience.
And as I love my ranged casters, 1st thing I noticed was how awful and weak the pet class was for the sorc and never even considered it after playing with it for a few hours. I think its the weakest skill line out of all the classes.
I put most of my points (only level 10 atm) into destruction inferno staff, magic regen, and light armor. Im a Brenton so my "build" is going to focus on fast magic regen and a large magic pool.
I morphed Mages Fury to Endless Fury so that it gives mana back on death, and of course spent points on the staff to get the knock-back from Destructive Touch, then took the light armor passive Recovery (and wear all light armor) for a 14% M-regen, and the Storm Calling passive Capacitor for another 5% M-regen, along with food regen buffs, and rune dmg buffs, and last the Gift of Magnus to increase my magicka pool.
So basically I can by being conservative with my magicka, have a high magic DPS toon, along with a decent CC knock-back. Having a high damage staff with a poison or disease damage rune helps a lot too.
Im not sure if Im going to move into the Dark Magic line or take some of the destruction staffs AOE abilities.
Edit: And I forgot to mention Soul Trap morphed to Consuming Trap as a free DOT that restors magicka and uses Stamina to cast.
"I understand that if I hear any more words come pouring out of your **** mouth, Ill have to eat every fucking chicken in this room."
on paper the destruction staff spell just looks so expensive for not much damage. My staff itself seems to do very little damage for a full charged shot.
I guess crystal is the way to go.
btw I didn't skip the starter islands, I've been trapped on them since I started because of slow leveling.
game really needs to pick up the pace.
If you construct your own staffs, or would that be staves, they are just a little better than the dropped ones.
So lets say for example you have a infero staff that does 14 damage, your crafted one would do 15, and if you improve it with "pitch" it does a another +3 for a total of 18, and if you add a +4 dmg rune that staff is putting out some really nice DPS at 22.
"I understand that if I hear any more words come pouring out of your **** mouth, Ill have to eat every fucking chicken in this room."
I think the problem is players are trying to play it like a traditional sorcerer.
You can use any armor and any weapon. You should have at least 1 piece of every armor and at least one skill from each class tree while leveling.
Most of these problems are L2P issues. They dumbed down the game from beta because of all the whiners.
If you're still on the starter island, you'll find crystal shard pretty powerful. One will about kill a mob, 2 guarantees a kill. There's nothing wrong with the game's pace, you just have to pick the right spells/skills. I initially compared dark magic & lightning lines, it was easy to pick dark magic because it was obviously better damage. Plus knockdown is a no brainer.
I do agree with the poster above, a lot of the issues are L2P issues. For some people, they may feel insulted when someone says L2P. But for me, starting in a new game, having some rough edges because I don't totally know the game from the start is actually a plus for me. The last thing I want is to be a pro at a new game starting at level 1. It'd be pointless to even level up and play a new game if you can't get owned early on, or make some mistakes here & there.
EQ1-AC1-DAOC-FFXI-L2-EQ2-WoW-DDO-GW-LoTR-VG-WAR-GW2-ESO
If you do the 3 main things that combat has in this game, you can almost kill everything naked with just a weapon.
1. Block the white flashing attacks.
2. Interrupt the red flashing attacks.
3. Get the hell out of red ground target stuff.
All other attacks are white hits(auto attacks) and don't really hurt too bad unless it's a elite or boss.
On my sorc, I kill about everything before it even gets in melee to hit me once... not sure what you're doing.
I'm surprised you are having trouble with it if you are on the starter island. I played a high elf sorcerer in beta and used the familiar, electro skill line and destruction staff, wore a mixture of armour and had no problems.
I just made sure to have the familiar up, fired off an electro range attack a few times followed quickly by a staff attack from a distance. If the familiar didn't hold their attention then when they got close I used the staff skill line in close. Never had a problem with single or groups using that method. Only played to about lvl 6 with that character though.
I'm planning on changing it up when I start playing and using the dark magic line more and dual wielding in close instead of staff. Lots of good suggestions by other posters regarding blocking and countering and using the dark magic line. Hope it works out for you.
You can play the sorcerer like a traditional caster just fine. I'm a pure caster in full light armor that uses destro/resto staves and I do fine.
I dont really think this is necessary. Yes, you'll have immidiate access to everything, but its easy to catch up with a skill line you havent used. My main skill lines are around 25 and I just started to lvl one I havent used at all. Lvld it from 1 to 15 during single quest line.
There are a couple of things everyone should consider when they're first starting out in ESO.
1. GO-TO THE STARTER ISLAND
I know the game plops you at the start of the first Open World city of your faction. For Ebonheart, it will be Morrowind. For Daggerfall... it will be Daggerfall. I can't think of what the other is, but you get the picture. Before you do anything else... walk out of the house you start in, walk immediately toward the person who gives you the quest to go back to the starter island, and then go immediately to the starter island. No if's, and's, or but's. Just do it. People seem to want to skip these areas because of popular word of mouth about them being bad... but they really aren't. They're very directed and very tutorial-like - yes. This is for your benefit. You will have plenty of free-roaming after you do yourself this favor. And besides that... they aren't that bad. In fact... they're actually very good from an MMO standpoint. The only reason why these areas get a bad rap is because they were comparing the Open World vibe against a Single Player Elder Scrolls game. Just relax, expect it to be as good as any other MMO, and you'll be alright.
This is so necessary, I even recommend this for veteran players. Why? Because the first time through, you're going to spend about 10 hours in these first few zones - give or take. You'll be learning the game, and trying to concentrate on the stories and exploring, etc... When you go through the area a second time - those 10 hours suddenly become maybe 2-3 hours. And it's easy XP.
2. GET SOME ARMOR
No matter what class you are playing; no matter what race you are playing; no matter what build you have in mind - until you reach level 8-10... you should be wearing the absolute best armor you can find, regardless of what it is. If you know later on that you want to wear light armor - then it's okay to wear three or four pieces of it just so your skill in it will advance and you can invest in some passives. But the rest of your armor should be providing you with the best defense you can get your hands on. Don't worry about the numbers. All of them are too small to matter anyway. You'll have plenty of time to get into that later.
3. DON'T NEGLECT YOUR ATTRIBUTES - ESPECIALLY STAMINA
No matter what class you are playing; no matter what race you are playing; no matter what build you have in mind - until you reach level 8-10... you should be trying your best to keep at least 2 stats at an equal level. I suggest Magicka and Stamina, with more emphasis on Stamina. These two Attributes directly affect your ability to use your Attacks: Magicka affects spells, Stamina affects weapons. Even if you want a Magicka build later on. Even if you are using mostly Spells. Put points into Stamina and keep it equal for the first few levels. You can change this stuff later if you want to... but right now... you just need to survive long enough to get your feet on the ground. Moreover, I would argue that Stamina is the most important Attribute, ESPECIALLY in the early game. With it, you can: Sprint, Dodge, Block, Intterupt, and use Weapon Abilities. Because you will be using the best armor you can get your hands on at this point, Health can be left behind for now. Focus on Magicka and Stamina, but mainly Stamina.
4. DON'T FEEL PRESSURED TO FILL UP YOUR HOTBAR
You have 5 Abilities and an Ultimate from beginning to end of this game. What does this tell you? Having a large number of Skills isn't that important. What is important is having a few really good Skills, and knowing how to use them. For starters, you won't be getting an Ultimate until around lvl 9. So don't even worry about it. Each one of your Class' Starter Spells will more than likely be the most useful Spell in that Line. Whichever line you want, get it, and then immediately after, get a Weapon Skill. Immediately after this - start focusing on some Passive abilities in Armor. It doesn't hurt to put some points in all of them. You don't have to go nuts, but I would say at least 1 point in all 3 if you want - focus on the ones that affect Regeneration. I know this sounds counter-intuitive, but it isn't. You'll be glad you did later on - trust me. You are not limited to wearing one kind of armor in this game like you are in other MMO's. Use this to your advantage. I know - you want to be a Tank - why would you wear Light armor at all? Because, a Tank is only a Tank, because a Tank has a Spell that makes him a Tank. With a few pieces of Light armor, you can put some points into Light Armor Skill and upgrade your Magicka - thus making you a better Tank. There's all sorts of ways to look at this. Later on - you'll want to be more specialized. And that's okay. For right now... you need to be a Jack-of-All-Trades. Your first respec will be 1200g. By the time you start feeling like you need a respec to be more exact in the expression of your character - you'll have the cash to do that, easily.
5. LEARN TO CONTROL YOUR ACTIONS
The Start Islands are great for this, which is the primary reason why I suggest going to them first, no matter what. The enemies are pretty simple, they aren't usually in groups, and you can learn to control your actions and learn to identify situations when you need to dodge or interrupt or something. In essence... learn to play.
THESE 5 SIMPLE STEPS ALONE WILL MAKE YOUR CHARACTER BETTER AT THE START, NO MATTER WHAT CLASS OR RACE OR BUILD YOU ARE PLAYING.
Now, for Sorcerer specifically...
Here is the rough of my build.
I am a : Redgaurd Sorcerer - Storm Calling and Conjuring.
You might be scratching your head about being a Redguard. But there are 2 reasons for this. First, I just wanted to play one. Beyond any other reason... this is the only one that matters to me. When you build your own character - you should pick your Race for the same reason. Secondly, Storm Calling and Light Armor both have plenty of Passives that can handle your Magicka. You don't need extra stuff from something like High Elf or Breton. It's overkill. Instead, Redguard gives me access to some serious Stamina related stuff - which as you read above, is what I consider to be the most important Attribute in the Game. Because I already have 2 sources of Magicka maintenance, I can feel good about having some Stamina Maintenance. You don't have to choose Redguard. You can play anything. You just have to think about where you are lacking, and make up for it somewhere else - which means you're going to need some Medium Armor somewhere in your build.
Storm Calling: It gives you your most important Spell within the line, front and center.
Mage's Fury: This spell is great. It takes a minute to get used to, because it splits the damage. To make maximum use of it, you need to rely on your Weapon Ability in conjuction with it. My Weapon Ability is linked to 2 Handed Swords. This is the only Spell I have that has been Morphed, and I'm just now lvl 14. I morphed it at level 13. Don't feel pressured to Morph your stuff too soon. Morphing an ability requires a Skill Point, and that Skill Point might be more useful in a Passive somewhere...
Lightning Form: This spell is... okay. It's essentially a short duration AoE DoT with a few extras built in: enhanced speed and a minor defense buff. I personally don't know if this is the greatest thing ever, but since my build is starving for AoE, it helps. If you have other AoE options, I don't know that I would worry about this too much.
Capacitor: Like I said... you don't need to be a Breton when you have this. All Sorcerers can get it, and frankly... it's a must have regardless of your build.
Overload: I have this Ultimate ability. In the hands of an expert... I'm sure it could be really great. I saw potential there, but... I have another option currently that for now is better.
Conjuring: It's pretty crap. But I have it, and I have it for one main reason.
Unstable Familiar: So... to do anything in Conjuring, you have to first get this. Is it crap? Ehhh... yes and no. It's not a proper pet, that's for sure. If you want anything out of this line, you have to get it and level it up at least some, so it really doesn't matter. I wouldn't worry about Morphing this, frankly.
Storm Atronarch: This is the reason to get Conjuring. Now THIS is a proper Ultimate Ability. If you find yourself in a situation where you can't handle what's going on... this thing will solve all your problems - guaranteed. It takes a beating, it covers a wide radius, it steals aggro, and it totally obliterates everything.
Dark Magic: I don't use it, but that doesn't mean it's worthless. It's just not something that interests me at the moment.
However, that being said, it wouldn't be a bad idea to at least get the first ability, Crystal Shard, if for no other reason than to rank up the Skill Line. Later on when you want to respec and you want to be more focused, there is some great CC in there that will be useful to you, especially in PvP if that's your thing. So, it's a smart move to at least unlock it.
I use: 2 Handed Weapons.
Now... Redgaurds have Shield Affinity. Other Races have similar affinities with various things. But... none of that really has any affect on the power of one's character. Why not? Because all it does is increase the XP gain with whatever weapon affinity the race has. In the grand scheme of things... frankly... this doesn't matter. So, I can use whatever I want, really. So can you!
Melee Weapons: Keep in mind that if you pick a Melee Weapon, they're all going to mean similar things to the rest of your build: you're going to be in fisti-cuffs with enemies, so you need to play your build accordingly... which means more Armor. If you're going Sword and Board, you could do with maybe one less Heavy Armor piece, but even then, consider your Passives. At any rate, you don't need more HP... you need more Armor, and you need some Passives to support it - THAT'S what you need to consider. You should be thinking about more armor anyway. As I've said, it doesn't matter what character you are playing, it's always important and useful. But if you're going to be in Melee Combat... you're going to take special extra care.
Ranged Weapons: For Ranged Weapons, the most important thing to remember is that whatever it is you do when you first attack a target... that attack is going to be a Sneak Attack. I don't care - NO! It WILL be a Sneak Attack! There's no reason not to do it. All you have to do is press CTRL and wait 1.5 seconds. It's that simple. When you open with a Sneak Attack - half your troubles are GONE. In Beta, one of the most fun things I did was just running around with a Bow and murdering everything. How did I do this? Nothing fancy. I just used a simple bow, and I opened with an ordinary Heavy Attack Sneak Attack. But the best part is... you can use Sneak Attack with staves too!
Staves: I don't suggest this as a starting weapon for any class or race. There is a big reason for this which I will get to later. If you want to be a ranged character - use a Bow.
I use: 3 Pieces of Light Armor, 2 Pieces of Medium Armor, 2 Pieces of Heavy Armor. Why? This sounds crazy! But it isn't.
I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "Hey, I want my set bonus, which means I need at least 5 of any type I want. Also, the more pieces I have, the better my Passives work!" And you know what? All of that is true. But read on, grass hopper.
Light Armor: Here, the most important and immediate thing you want, is Recovery. No, not Evocation. You want Recovery. You can get Evocation later. But right now, you NEED to Regenerate your Magicka more than you need to have less costly Spells. Why? Because your character, no matter what build or class you are playing... it is starving for Regen Stats. You gotta get these going, pronto. Don't worry about Prodigy. You need Light Armor lvl 35 to get that. You aren't getting that until you're at least Character Level 20-25. That's a long time from now. Again, you can respec this stuff later. Right now, just trust me on this.
Medium Armor: Same deal, here. You want to get Wind Walker, first thing. Don't even bother with Dexterity until you have Wind Walker. In fact, because I know you're going to be using Medium Armor... I would say you need this even before you need Recovery... even as a Sorcerer, you need Wind Walker first.
Now, I have a little bit of a different set-up here. I got Dexterity instead of Wind Walker. Why? Because I am a Redguard. Redguard has a Passive that allows me with 1 point to have a 3% bonus to my Stamina Regen. This will cap at 9%. Ultimately, Wind Walker will cap higher, and I may rethink this later on. But for the moment... just starting out... it's unnecessary to have both going.
SPECIAL IMPORTANT NOTE about Light and Medium Armor: Magicka and Stamina control a few different things. Magicka is used when you cast a Spell or use a Staff Weapon Ability. Stamina is used when you use a Melee Weapon, a Bow, or use a Special Maneuver like Interrupt, Dodging, etc. You need to consider how many of these you have going on with your build and your Hotbar, and you need to consider that you will always be using interrupts and the like.
Personally, I would never suggest starting the game with a Staff as the first weapon of choice. The reason for this is because you just don't have the numbers to support 2 different taps from a single resource - Magicka. This is why I suggest that if you are going to start the game - pick a Melee Weapon or pick a Bow. This way, you are drawing from two different resources during combat. Otherwise, you're going to have a seriously hard time - this is always the case.
Again, and I cannot stress this enough. When you are first starting out... you need to consider yourself a Jack-of-All-Trades. You can respec and specialize later.
Heavy Armor: Same thing here. You're going to get Constitution for the same reasons as the other Armors.
A word about Enchantments:
When you hit lvl 10-12, you're going to want the next obvious upgrade in power. Skill points will be coming in slower now, but the enemies will be a little tougher. You've crafted the best gear you can for the moment, and you can't afford the vendor stuff. What to do?
Go to the Enchanter. They sell basic utility Enchantments, and they're pretty cheap. The only Enchantments you'll get for Armor will be either Magicka, Stamina, or Health upgrades. This is where you can make some decisions and start your journey into a more specialized roll.
The thing to consider here is that each piece of Armor provides you with different ratings on Enchantments. The Helmet, Chest, Legs, and Boots all should give you the maximum Enchantment rating, I believe. That means that if the Enchantment says it will give you 10 extra Stamina... then putting it on one of these Armor pieces will give you 10 Stamina. The Shoulders, Hands, and Belt, will give you a fraction of that. So take this into account.
You'll be needing some Enchantments for all 3 Attributes, but as a Sorcerer, you'll need a little more Magicka to boost your Spells. Just be smart about divying this up. You have 7 pieces. I recommend having 2 Enchantment of Magicka on 2 of the big 4 Armor Pieces, and 1 on a minor one. I then suggest 1 Enchantment of both Stamina and Health on the remaining big pieces of Armor, and another 1 of both on the remaining minor pieces. It doesn't matter if the pieces are Heavy, Medium, or Light. Just stick them on anything.
Final Remarks:
Other than this... I would say that around lvl 20-25, you're going to want to do a respec. Feel free. I don't know how viable these tips will be in the late game or PvP... but they WILL help you when you are first starting out. And... they're pretty universal. There are a lot of principals in there that can keep you alive.
My character wrecks shit. That's all i can say. And I haven't done anything outside of what I have written here. My brother plays, and he is constantly getting his ass kicked. He has front loaded all of this abilities into a very focused build... and he is always saying how he needs a specific Ability or whatever for his build to work.
No kidding, just tonight we were playing. He was trying to kill this Hag Witch. It killed him at least 10 times. He simply couldn't kill her. He finally got me to help. So I ran over to him (I had the same quest) and told him not to help. I just HAD to see how difficult this Hag Witch actually was.
Remember, he was slaughtered by her at least 10 times. I went up to her, and she was dead in about 15 seconds. I laughed my ass off for a good 5 minutes after that. It was simply ridiculous to see how much more powerful I was than he was.
Things might change later on once he gets his clutch abilities in line. And that's fine. My character will change too once I get my own clutch abilities in line. The difference is... he will be struggling and frustrated the whole way. I on the other hand will continue to wreck shit.
I hope this helps
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
I'm level 8. I'm not going to sit around crafting anything.
lol mages fury. You do realize that it will only do it's full damage once in a fight right? If you are plinking away with a staff (mine is damage rating 17 I think which is the best I've found and takes FOREVER to kill anything with), then sure, cast that and hope that within 4 seconds the enemy falls to 20%. Rarely happens at my level.
Many of you aren't reading my posts, some of you haven't played a sorc, and a lot of advice here makes no sense. Of course I'm wearing the highest armor rating stuff I can find ffs. It's not rocket science.
After picking up crystal shard, it's much easier, because that spell does like 3 times the dps of anything else a mage can do. How the eff is anyone using weapon attacks with a sorc, they do (at my level) like hardly any damage. You sit there and do a full charge attack for maybe 10% of their health while they beat the shit out of you, that's a losing tactic against anything equal level or higher.
Also one last rant, you can move completely away from an enemy's attack and it still hits. Only about half of attacks are actually dodgeable through movement, and the actual dodge takes half your stamina bar it's laughable. Oh yeah I'll hold LMB to exploit... knocking them down for 0.5 seconds lol. Thanks for that.
I'm exiting this, you guys have fun discussing where to put the meager amount of stat points at low level etc.