Greetings, All.
My idea is to develop a sorcerer AvA build with strong defense and lots of single target/AOE damage for AvA skirmishes and keep defense. I welcome any input you may have.
-------------
Race: Breton
Breton provides a bonus to magicka pool, spell defense and spell cost reduction. While damage output will be lower than an Altmer character, the added defense should make up for it in this build.
Armor: 5 Light/2 Heavy, or 5 Heavy/2 Light
The armor used will depend on the situation. For keep defense, more light armor will be better for the added regen, while more heavy armor will be better in skirmishes for the extra defense.
Attributes: 24 Magicka, 25 Health, 0 Stamina
I am looking for a balance between health and magicka. Since this is an AvA build, I have not included any active means to restore magicka, so a high magicka pool is very important. No stamina cost abilities will be used in this build, reserving the bar for defensive rolls and sprinting.
Weapon: Destruction Staves
Since this build focuses on Magicka, destruction staves will be used. The AoE bar relies heavily on the Impulse spell from the destruction staff skill line.
Bar 1: Single target burst/Crowd Control - Link
The focus of this bar is to provide high single-target burst damage with some crowd control ability. This is excellent for picking off single targets at long range.
Slot 1-1 – Crystal Shard > Crystal Fragments
This spell has a cast time, but does heavy damage and knocks the target down. This morph allows any spell with a magicka cost have a 35% chance to make the next Crystal Fragments spell cast instantly and cost half magicka. This is a dark magic spell and is affected by the passive ability “Exploitation”.
Slot 1-2 – Daedric Curse > Velocious Curse
This spell places a curse on the target which explodes after a few seconds, causing heavy damage and AoE damage to nearby targets. This morph makes the spell explode in 3.5 seconds instead of 6, increasing its DPS substantially.
Slot 1-3 – Bolt Escape > Streak
This spell teleports the sorcerer forward, making it an excellent escape spell. The morph makes the spell cause damage and disorient any target in the sorcerer’s path for 2 seconds.
Slot 1-4 – Rune Prison > Rune Cage
This spell disorients a target for 15 seconds, taking it out of the fight. This effect breaks on damage. The morph adds a 3 second stun after the disorient breaks. This is a dark magic spell and is affected by the passive ability “Exploitation”.
Slot 1-5 – Magelight > Inner Light
This is a Mage’s Guild spell. It raises the spell critical strike chance of the sorcerer but lowers their maximum magicka by 5%. This morph increases the buff to critical strike chance to 18%. The spell has an added benefit of revealing stealthed and invisible targets nearby.
Ultimate Slot 1 – Overload > Energy Overload
This ultimate provides AoE damage and also gives the sorcerer a third skill bar to use. This skill bar can be outfitted in a number of ways, possibly with skills such as Spell Symmetry to help increase longevity, or other crowd control abilities. The morph causes hits from this ability to restore magicka.
Spell Strategy
The combination of Inner Light plus the Exploitation passive gives the sorcerer a substantial bonus to critical strike chance. The sorcerer can setup a heavy burst of damage by first casting Rune Cage on the target, then casting Velocious Curse followed by Crystal Fragments. This combination has a high chance of also making the Crystal Fragments spell instant cast, allowing another Crystal Fragments spell to be cast before the rune cage stun wears off. Destruction staff attacks can be used as a filler while waiting for magicka to regenerate.
Bar 2: AoE/Assault - Link
This bar is meant to be used in open field skirmishes and in defending keep doors. It provides extreme damage and survivability at point blank range.
Slot 2-1 - Impulse > Pulsar
This spell does high damage in the area around the sorcerer and adds burning, chill or concussion to every target based on the type of staff used. The morph lowers the maximum health of every target by 10%.
Slot 2-2 - Encase > Restraining Prison
This spell roots 3 targets in a cone in front of the sorcerer for 4 seconds. The morph adds a 4 second snare effect after the root breaks. This is a dark magic spell and is affected by the passive ability “Exploitation”.
Slot 2-3 - Bolt Escape > Streak
This spell gives the sorcerer a means to teleport into a group of players and also a means of escape. The morph adds damage and a short duration disorient to any target in the sorcerer’s path.
Slot 2-4 – Surge > Critical Surge
This spell applies a buff to the sorcerer that increases the weapon damage of the wielded staff, which also increases the damage of the Pulsar spell. The morph makes critical strikes heal the player for 50% of the damage done.
Slot 2-5 – Magelight > Inner Light
This spell is on both bars. Having it on both prevents the buff from being cancelled when weapon swapping.
Ultimate Slot 2 – Meteor > Ice Comet
This spell does extreme damage to one target and high AoE damage to surrounding targets. All affected targets are knocked back. The morph causes the spell to snare affected enemies by 70%.
Spell Strategy
Combining Pulsar with Critical Surge and Restraining Prison gives the sorcerer a high amount of survivability and damage at short range. Streak is used to teleport into a group of players, causing damage on the way, and then the group is “bombed” with pulsar. Shooting Star can be used at an opportune moment to finish off targets and snare any survivors, preventing escape.
This bar is extremely magicka intensive, so a high magicka pool is very important.
Key Passive Abilities
Light Armor
Evocation (3 ranks): reduces the magicka cost of abilities by 3% per piece of light armor equipped
Recovery (2 ranks): increases magicka regeneration by 4% per piece of light armor equipped
Spell Warding (2 ranks): increases spell resistance by 8% per piece of light armor equipped
Prodigy (2 ranks): Grants 10% chance for spells to cause critical damage when wearing 5 or more pieces of light armor
Concentration (2 ranks): spells ignore 6% of enemy spell resistance per piece of light armor equipped
Breton Racial
Gift of Magnus (3 ranks): Increases maximum magicka by 10%
Spell Resistance (3 ranks): Increases spell resistance by 6%
Magicka Mastery (3 ranks): Reduces magicka cost of spells by 3%
Heavy Armor
Resolve (3 ranks): Increases armor and base spell resistance by 3% per piece of heavy armor equipped.
Destruction Staff
Penetrating Magic (2 ranks):All destruction spells bypass 10% spell resistance
Daedric Summoning
Power Stone (2 ranks): reduces the ultimate cost of abilities by 15%
Dark Magic
Unholy Knowledge (2 ranks): Reduces Magicka cost of spells by 5%
Blood Magic (2 ranks): Hitting an enemy with a dark magic spell heals the sorceror by 5% of max health
Persistence (2 ranks): Increases the duration of dark magic spells by 20%
Exploitation (2 ranks): Increases critical strike chance by 15% when attacking targets affected by dark magic.
Storm Calling
Capacitor (2 ranks): Increases magicka regeneration by 10%
Expert Mage (2 ranks): Reduces the cost of storm calling abilities by 10%
Mage’s Guild
Might of the Guild (2 ranks): Causes any mage’s guild ability to increase the spell power of the next spell to be cast by 20%
Total skill points: 79
