Elder Scrolls Online - Flexible PvE Magicka Sorcerer Build (Update 24)

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The tanking option in this article is deprecated due to Update 28.

This article details options for our Beginner Magicka Sorcerer Class PvE build. Update 24, Patch 5.2.5., 2019-Oct-21.

Objective: We began with an easy-to-play build that aimed at low skill points, high survivability, and not a lot of button mashing. In this article, we will consider various options you can try once you are more comfortable with the Beginner build. Ideally you have good gear, invested Skill Points and Champion Points into Passives, and can already comfortably solo a basic world boss that just has one big attack you can block or move away from (even if it takes you several minutes to defeat the boss).

Working on your gear and Skills and Champion Points can get you through easy dungeons like Fungal Grotto I and Spindleclutch I solo without changing the skill loadout, so what we're going to discuss is optional.

Addons like Dressing Room can help you manage your various skill loadouts.

Core Build

Bar 1 - Precise Restoration Staff with Glyph of Absorb Health and Essence Drain passive
Bar 2 - Precise Lightning Staff with Glyph of Hardening
Rotation
  • Critical Surge
  • Soul Splitting Trap
  • Lightning Flood
  • Unstable Wall of Elements
  • Low on Magicka? Heavy Attack.
  • Enemies are low on Health? Endless Fury.
  • Effects expired? Start them again. The Action Duration Reminder Addon is very useful for this.
  • Otherwise Heavy Attack or Light Attack or Endless Fury until it is time to refresh your damage over time effects.
Gear: Iceheart Monster Set, and two sets from Mad Tinkerer, Mother's Sorrow, Law of Julianos, and Combat Physician, aiming for high Spell Critical after factoring in Traits, Mundus Stone, and Light Armor Prodigy passive.

Option: Light Tanking
If you are feeling good about your survivability and especially if you are geared up and have invested skill points into useful Passive Skills, you can try your hand at tanking easier dungeons. There isn't enough Health on the build to be a "real tank" and do very hard tanking content like Mighty Chudan in Ruins of Mazzatun, but you should be able to handle a lot of normal non-DLC dungeons.
  • Change the Lightning Staff to an Ice Staff and make sure you have the Tri-Focus passive so your Ice Staff Heavy Attacks will taunt.
  • Skills can be unchanged but you can swap some out for even more defense.
  • Rotation is unchanged except we will prefer the Ice Staff for Heavy Attacks to keep the main target taunted.
If you feel you don't need the Lightning Staff area effect Heavy Attack (from the Tri-Focus passive), you could just go with this tanking loadout. Just remember not to Heavy Attack with the Ice Staff when you don't want to taunt the boss. (In case you forget, if you start charging up your Heavy Attack you can still release it prematurely and it shouldn't result in a Taunt on the target.)
This way, you always have a Taunt option without having to exit combat and change your gear. However, we recommend the Lightning Staff for overall superior utility.

Defensive Skill Options
We want to keep some area of effect and damage over time up to help proc Critical Surge so it is not recommended to swap all attacks out for defenses, but here are some options:

Change Healing Ward to Conjured Ward > Hardened Ward (or also have Hardened Ward)
  • When other friendly players or neutral NPCs are nearby, Healing Ward might be cast on them instead if their health is lower. When you are tanking, you might want to guarantee the shield is put on you.
  • A switch to Hardened Ward means you won't have the additional healing from Healing Ward, so it's more of a preemptive cast and the shield is stronger.
  • In general we recommend Healing Ward for overall superior utility. If the team is in trouble you can just hang back and heal more while using Heavy Attacks to recover your magicka. If you really feel you need even more shielding, you could drop one attack power to have both Wards.
Lightning Form > Boundless Storm
  • A mix of melee-range area damage and defense. It lasts quite a long time so it is recommended as a replacement for Soul Splitting Trap on Bar 1, cast right after Critical Surge as you enter combat.
Undo > Precognition
  • Precognition is recommended but not critical. However, it's a long haul to getting it unlocked and some Summerset quests need to be done. You can jump to do Summerset, but if you want to do quests in the "proper quest order", it is quite far away. If you do get this Psijic Order Precognition ultimate, it is interesting for two reasons:
    • It can get you out of many crowd-control effects that normally require someone else to intervene.
    • It qualifies you for the additional shielding from the Concentrated Barrier passive.
  • Recommended to replace the Ultimate in Set 2 as you are likely to be blocking with the Ice Staff, so you'd get additional shielding when you do.
Option: Replace Static Area of Effects
There are times when static area of effects are hard to apply because the enemy keeps moving out of the area for whatever reason (e.g., other players keep kiting the enemy around) and you don't get as much benefit from the damage over time from Lightning Flood or Unstable Wall of Elements in such cases. Or, you may have to keep mobile to avoid enemy effects and that causes them to follow and move out of your areas.
In the general case of PvE solo adventuring the Core Build will be fine but at times you may want to adapt to specific situations, especially when you are not expecting only a couple of enemies at a time. Overall however it is not recommended to have no area of effect skills at all. (But in the worst case, the Lightning Staff Heavy Attack with the Tri-Focus passive gives you an area effect attack.)

Mages Guild > Entropy > Structured Entropy
Structured Entropy attaches to a single target and gives you reliable, continuous healing that can still activate your Critical Surge.

Sorcerer > Dark Summoning > Daedric Curse > Haunting Curse
Haunting Curse is basically a bomb that sticks to one target so it's good against targets that don't like to stand still inside your Lightning Flood or Unstable Wall of Elements. And when they are near other enemies, the blast will hit them too. If the target dies the Curse is not removed and will still explode, but you have to decide if it's in a useful place and possibly re-cast it early to plant it elsewhere.

Destruction Staff > Destructive Touch > Destructive Reach
Another attack that attaches to a single target, has good range, and also applies a damage over time.

Sorcerer > Dark Magic > Daedric Mines
Mines are very tricky to use well (and expensive in Magicka). They are best when the enemy density around you is guaranteed to be very high -- and there are actually not that many situations where this occurs. Some Trials may feature this in certain phases, as well as some Public Dungeons where there are a lot of melee enemies that will rush you.
Obviously the Mines will be static once placed, but when an enemy triggers it with their running around they will receive a burst of damage greater than sitting in other types of area of effects for several seconds.
The Daedric Minefield morph is also interesting for its delayed arming: Combined with the higher density, you can let the enemy swarm you while it is arming. When a mine explodes, it will damage all valid targets standing on it, not just the first target that triggered it.
Because it is in the Dark Magic skill tree, it benefits from the Exploitation passive and Minor Prophecy will stack with Major Prophecy.

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