Sorcerer

PvE DPS GUIDE

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Sorcerer is all about raw, undisguised power. Summoning Daedric minions, slinging crystals and curses to torment enemies, and transforming into elemental form for speed and survivability; this class does not do subtlety. It has access to some of the strongest direct damage in the game, a passive toolkit which encourages stacking class abilities, and unique perks such as cheaper ultimates and a massive damage boost at the start of combat. It is also one of the easiest classes for newcomers to pick up and play.

KEY PASSIVES

5% is a meaningful damage boost, especially when it affects many of our primary abilities. It can also tip the balance in favour of certain gear sets, weapon choices and abilities for this class.

Minor Prophecy is the unique buff provided by this class (not Minor Sorcery, surprisingly), so try to use a Dark Magic ability every 20s if you’re the only Sorcerer around.

This ‘reverse-execute’ is very strong if properly exploited, since DPS spikes at the start of combat anyway. Always have an ultimate ready for the opening burst, and make it count.

This is roughly comparable in power to other class passives for generating ultimate, except that it is totally automatic and requires nothing of the player. Just relax and enjoy those cheap ultimates!

Recent Changes

    • Bound Armor changed to grant its bonuses passively when slotted on either bar.

    • Bound Armaments changed to be always active - no precast necessary.Weapon passives changed to shrink the gap between different weapon types.

    • Long Shots renamed Vinedusk Training, changed to a universal damage bonus.

    • Bonuses from Twin Blade & Blunt and Heavy Weapons reduced slightly.

    • Ancient Knowledge changed to boost damage types based on type of staff equipped.

    • Tri Focus restricted to the final tick of fully charged Lightning Heavy Attacks, rather than any tick.

    • Merciless Charge changed to increase all direct damage for 18s after casting Critical Charge.

    • 0.5s cooldown and 30% ramping damage per target added to Azureblight, base damage reduced.

    • Warchief, Battlereeve and General monster sets added to Cyrodiil.

    • Sourcing of Craglorn trial sets adjusted to fix curation.

    • Improved death notifications added to PvP areas.

    • Hundreds of bug fixes for quests, sets, items, companions etc.

    • Major Berserk from Summon Storm Atronach expanded to 12 allies for 10s (from 6 for 8s).

    • Minor Berserk added to Dark Exchange and its morphs. Minor Force also added to Dark Deal.

    • Stun from Scamp activation limited to the second tick, Charged status effect chance increased.

    • Arcanist class added.

    • Velothi Ur-Mage’s Amulet set added.

    • Default melee attack range increased from 5 to 7 meters.

    • Spectral Cloak changed to activate only when in combat.

    • Plaguebreak changed to apply only to enemy players.

    • Empower bonus reduced to 70% from 80%.

    • Mages’ Fury radius increased from 4m to 5m. Mages’ Wrath AOE damage increased by 129%.

    • Conjured Ward shield size and cap increased. Dynamic scaling added.

    • Conduit synergy damage increased by 20%.

    • Major Berserk added to Wrecking Blow.

    • Jewelry damage glyphs hybridised. Stamina/Magicka Recovery added.

    • Runecarver’s Blaze and Ozezan the Inferno sets added.

    • Light Attack scaling increased, but base damage capped at 3,850 for melee, 3,465 for ranged.

    • Taunt added to single target pull abilities and procs when target is not already taunted.

    • Taunt immunity changed to activate only after 5 taunts from 2 players.

    • Pearls of Ehlnofey ultimate gain reduced from 5 to 3. Resource threshold raised from 30% to 50%.

    • Elemental Susceptibility fixed so Major Breach no longer overrides the ability.

    • Harmony trait changed to restore resources rather than boost synergies.

    • Syrabane’s Ward and Back-Alley Gourmand sets added.

    • Target marker system added.

    • Elemental Drain duration increased from 23 to 60 seconds.

    • Elemental Susceptibility changed to apply Burning, Chilled and Concussed every 6s. Duration reduced to 30s.

    • Volley fixed to scale dynamically and not solely with Weapon Critical.

    • Healing from Vigor reduced by 10%.

    • Occult Overload damage reduced by 60%, now applies a random status effect.

Magicka

No setup is perfect everywhere. Check your tooltips regularly and tweak your setups depending on the group and the content.

Single Target

Relequen + Aegis + Kilt + Maelstrom 2H

SLOT ITEM TRAIT ENCHANTMENT
Head Slimecraw's Guise Divines Magicka
Shoulders Relequen's Arm Cops Divines Magicka
Chest Relequen's Jack Divines Magicka
Hands Relequen's Bracers Divines Magicka
Waist Relequen's Belt Divines Magicka
Legs Harpooner's Wading Kilt Divines Magicka
Feet Relequen's Boots Divines Magicka
Necklace Aegis Caller Necklace Bloodthirsty Damage
Ring Aegis Caller Ring Bloodthirsty Damage
Ring Aegis Caller Ring Bloodthirsty Damage
Front Bar Main Hand Aegis Caller Dagger Charged Flame
Front Bar Off Hand Aegis Caller Dagger Charged Poison
Back Bar Main Hand The Maelstrom's Greatsword Infused Shock
Back Bar Off Hand - - -

  • Perfected gear is NOT needed. The bonuses are nice to have, but small.

  • A Bow or Lightning front bar is close behind with this setup (about 2% and 3% respectively); perfect if you need range flexibility.

  • 1-2 x Light is recommended. It depends on your sustain, penetration and Critical Damage.

  • You can swap Aegis for sets like Nirn, Yokeda or Whorl according to situation or preference.

  • The Kilt is a good default, but not suitable everywhere. Swap in other Mythics depending on the situation.

CHAMPION POINTS

Deadly Aim - Exploiter - Master-at-Arms - Wrathful Strikes

These are for when Off-Balance, Brittle, Catalyst, Alkosh/Crimson and all necessary buffs/debuffs are provided.

Outside of these conditions, use Backstabber and/or Fighting Finesse to reach the 125% Critical Damage cap, and Force of Nature to meet the 18,200 penetration cap (adjusting Medium-to-Light Armor ratio also helps). If Off-Balance is not being triggered on cooldown, drop Exploiter and slot Thaumaturge to boost your DOTs instead.

FOOD & POTIONS

Firsthold Fruit & Cheese Plate
or
Thrice-Baked Gorapple Pie
or
Tomato Garlic Chutney

Increase Max Magicka by 6048 for 35 minutes.

Food > Fruit
Jazbay Grapes, Cheese
Apples, Saltrice
Tomato, Garlic

Essence of Spell Power

Grants Major Sorcery which increases your Spell Damage by 20% for 47.6 seconds.

Grants Major Prophecy which gives you 2629 Spell Critical Rating for 47.6 seconds.

Restore 7582 Magicka immediately.
Grants you Major Intellect which increases your Magicka Recovery by 30% for 47.6 seconds (45s cooldown).

Corn Flower
Lady's Smock
Namira's Rot / Water Hyacinth

+

These are recommended for practice and easy content. Other options include:

Ghastly Eye Bowl for Magicka + Magicka Recovery
Crunchy Spider Skewer for Magicka + Stamina Recovery

Max-level Savoury recipes for Health + Magicka
Witchmother’s Potent Brew for Health + Magicka + Magicka Recovery
Clockwork Citrus Filet for Health + Health Recovery + Magicka + Magicka Recovery
Bewitched Sugar Skulls for Health + Magicka + Stamina

Essence of Weapon Power for Major Brutality + Savagery + Endurance
Tri Restoration Potion for Major Fortitude + Intellect + Endurance

Essence of Heroism for Major Intellect + Endurance and Minor Heroism
(very expensive and very rarely needed)

ABILITIES

Front Bar: Bound Armaments, Daedric Prey, Crystal Fragments, Summon Volatile Familiar, Summon Twilight Tormentor, Summon Charged Atronach

Back Bar: Stampede, Barbed Trap, Carve / Hurricane, Summon Volatile Familiar, Summon Twilight Tormentor, Power Overload

CAVEATS

For shorter fights swap Carve to Hurricane.

STATIC ROTATION
135k DPS

Merciless Charge fits perfectly with all our direct damage, especially since the bonus applies to every tick of Armaments, helping to boost our damage and making Magicka sustain an absolute breeze.

Even at 4 stacks, Armaments does not beat an activated Fragments, so prioritise the latter if you can but don’t sweat it. Just cast Prey every 6s and fire Armaments at 3 stacks (Light Attack ‘into’ the 4th stack as you fire it). The 18s Merciless Charge buff makes the rotation very easy to maintain. Recast the pets statically or on cooldown depending on your weaving speed, and use instant-cast abilities like Prey, Familiar or an activated Fragments to swap and refresh Carve.

Prebuff with the pets, activate Overload (if you have more than 300 ultimate), place Trap under the target (replace this with Carve in the opening sequence) and then start attacking. As soon as your ult drops to 200, cast the Atronach.

Watch your ult and always try to drop the Atronach the moment it is ready, and do NOT recast the Twilight below 50%. When dealing with multiple targets in execute, Mages’ Wrath may be more valuable than Armaments. Just use sustain food and start spamming Wrath at 20%. Otherwise in execute, try to line up your DOTs so they last right to the end, especially Stampede and Trap. When the target has fewer than 10s left, cast one last Prey, then spam Fragments and Armaments until the target is dead.

The following video is from U39, but other than the Atronach morph the rotation is identical.

Trash

Sul-Xan + Storm Cursed + Ur-Mage + Maelstrom Lightning

SLOT ITEM TRAIT ENCHANTMENT
Head Slimecraw's Mask Divines Magicka
Shoulders Storm-Cursed Epaulets Divines Magicka
Chest Jack of Sul-Xan’s Torment Divines Magicka
Hands Storm-Cursed Gloves Divines Magicka
Waist Storm-Cursed Sash Divines Magicka
Legs Guards of Sul-Xan’s Torment Divines Magicka
Feet Storm-Cursed Shoes Divines Magicka
Necklace Velothi Ur-Mage's Amulet Bloodthirsty Damage
Ring Storm-Cursed Ring Bloodthirsty Damage
Ring Ring of Sul-Xan’s Torment Bloodthirsty Damage
Front Bar Main Hand Lightning Staff of Sul-Xan’s Torment Charged Shock
Front Bar Off Hand - - -
Back Bar Main Hand The Maelstrom’s Lightning Staff Infused Weapon Damage
Back Bar Off Hand - - -

  • Perfected gear is NOT needed. The bonuses are nice to have, but small.

  • 5 x Light is recommended. It depends on your sustain, penetration and Critical Damage.

  • You can swap Slimecraw for a Kra’gh or Skoria 1-piece, depending on what you need.

  • For important nukes, you can use Acuity, Elf-Bane and Balorgh.

CHAMPION POINTS

Biting Aura - Exploiter - Master-at-Arms - Wrathful Strikes

The best choices depend on your group and how long the fight lasts. Use Backstabber if you are below the crit cap (or Fighting Finesse if you cannot flank). If trash pulls are lasting longer, DOTs may rise as a proportion of your damage and Thaumaturge could be worth slotting.

ABILITIES

Front Bar: Camouflaged Hunter, Mages’ Wrath, Storm Pulsar, Summon Volatile Familiar, Inner Light, Flawless Dawnbreaker

Back Bar: Unstable Wall of Storms, Lightning Flood, Boundless Storm/Hurricane, Summon Volatile Familiar, Proximity Detonation, Thunderous Rage

Stamina

No setup is perfect everywhere. Check your tooltips regularly and tweak your setups depending on the group and the content.

easy setup

Relequen + Aegis/Riptide + Kilt + Maelstrom 2H

SLOT ITEM TRAIT ENCHANTMENT
Head Slimecraw’s Guise Divines Stamina
Shoulders Relequen’s Arm Cops Divines Stamina
Chest Relequen's Jack Divines Stamina
Hands Relequen's Bracers Divines Stamina
Waist Relequen's Belt Divines Stamina
Legs Harpooner's Wading Kilt Divines Stamina
Feet Relequen's Boots Divines Stamina
Necklace Aegis Caller Necklace Bloodthirsty Damage
Ring Aegis Caller Ring Bloodthirsty Damage
Ring Aegis Caller Ring Bloodthirsty Damage
Front Bar Main Hand Aegis Caller Dagger Charged Flame
Front Bar Off Hand Aegis Caller Dagger Charged Poison
Back Bar Main Hand The Maelstrom's Greatsword Infused Shock
Back Bar Off Hand - - -

  • Perfected gear is NOT needed. The bonuses are nice to have, but small.

  • The gap between Relequen and Riptide is quite small thanks to the Energized passive and because Relequen lets us run max Stamina food. But if you are switching targets and can keep your Stamina down, Riptide has the edge (see below).

  • 1 x Light is recommended, but monster sets can be Medium or Light depending on your sustain and penetration.

  • You can swap Aegis for sets like Nirn, Yokeda or Whorl according to situation or preference.

  • The Kilt is a good default, but not suitable everywhere. Swap in other Mythics depending on the situation.

CHAMPION POINTS

Deadly Aim - Exploiter - Master-at-Arms - Wrathful Strikes

These are for when Off-Balance, Brittle, Catalyst, Alkosh/Crimson and all necessary buffs/debuffs are provided.

Outside of these conditions, use Backstabber and/or Fighting Finesse to reach the 125% Critical Damage cap, and Force of Nature to meet the 18,200 penetration cap (adjusting Medium-to-Light Armor ratio also helps). If Off-Balance is not being triggered on cooldown, drop Exploiter and slot Thaumaturge to boost your DOTs instead.

sweaty setup

Riptide + Yokeda + Maw + Maelstrom 2H

SLOT ITEM TRAIT ENCHANTMENT
Head Maw of the Infernal’s Mask Divines Stamina
Shoulders Maw of the Infernal’s Epaulets Divines Stamina
Chest Coral Riptide Jack Divines Stamina
Hands Coral Riptide Bracers Divines Stamina
Waist Coral Riptide Belt Divines Stamina
Legs Coral Riptide Guards Divines Stamina
Feet Coral Riptide Boots Divines Stamina
Necklace Necklace of the Advancing Yokeda Bloodthirsty Damage
Ring Ring of the Advancing Yokeda Bloodthirsty Damage
Ring Ring of the Advancing Yokeda Bloodthirsty Damage
Front Bar Main Hand Dagger of the Advancing Yokeda Charged Flame
Front Bar Off Hand Dagger of the Advancing Yokeda Charged Poison
Back Bar Main Hand The Maelstrom's Greatsword Infused Shock
Back Bar Off Hand - - -

FOOD & POTIONS

Bravil's Best Beet Risotto
or
Hearty Garlic Corn Chowder
or
Tenmar Millet-Carrot Couscous

Increase Max Stamina by 6048 for 35 minutes.

Food > Vegetable
Beets, Saltrice
Corn, Garlic
Carrots, Millet

Essence of Weapon Power

Grants Major Brutality which increases your Weapon Damage by 20% for 47.6 seconds.

Grants Major Savagery which gives you 2629 Weapon Critical Rating for 47.6 seconds.

Restore 7582 Stamina immediately.
Grants you Major Endurance which increases your Stamina Recovery by 30% for 47.6 seconds (45s cooldown).

Blessed Thistle
Dragonthorn
Water Hyacinth / Wormwood

+

These are recommended for practice and easy content. Other options include:

Lava Foot Soup-and-Saltrice for Stamina + Stamina Recovery
Candied Jester’s Coins for Stamina + Magicka Recovery

Max-level Ragout recipes for Health + Stamina
Dubious Camoran Throne for Health + Stamina + Stamina Recovery
Artaeum Takeaway Broth for Health + Health Recovery + Stamina + Stamina Recovery
Bewitched Sugar Skulls for Health + Magicka + Stamina

Essence of Spell Power for Major Sorcery + Prophecy + Intellect
Tri Restoration Potion for Major Intellect + Endurance + Fortitude

Essence of Heroism for Major Intellect + Endurance and Minor Heroism
(very expensive and very rarely needed)

ABILITIES

Front Bar: Bound Armaments, Daedric Prey, Rapid Strikes, Summon Volatile Familiar, Summon Twilight Tormentor, Summon Charged Atronach

Back Bar: Stampede, Barbed Trap, Carve / Hurricane, Summon Volatile Familiar, Summon Twilight Tormentor, Power Overload

CAVEATS

If you’re the only Sorcerer in the group, consider using a Dark Magic ability to keep up Minor Prophecy every 20s.

For shorter fights swap Carve to Hurricane.

STATIC ROTATION
138-140k DPS

Merciless Charge fits perfectly with our direct damage abilities, especially Armaments and Rapid Strikes, which inherit the 560 bonus damage on every tick. Armaments also makes sustain good enough to use single stat food or Riptide to push damage even higher.

Daedric Prey remains the priority. Cast it every 6s, and in between spam Rapid Strikes and fire Armaments when it hits 3 stacks (Light Attack ‘into’ the 4th stack as you fire it). If you’re the only Sorcerer and are using Fragments instead of Armaments to keep up Minor Prophecy, just fire Fragments when it procs and avoid hard-casting it. The 18s Merciless Charge buff makes everything line up very neatly - you can recast the pets statically as shown or on cooldown if your weaving is fast. Atronach and Carve are the only wildcards; just use instant-cast abilities like Prey, Familiar or Armaments to swap and refresh Carve (replace it with Hurricane for short fights).

Prebuff with the pets, activate Overload if you have more than 300 ultimate, place Trap under the target (replace this with Carve in the opening sequence) and then start attacking. As soon as your ult drops to 200, cast the Atronach.

Always try to drop the Atronach the instant it is ready, and do NOT recast the Twilight below 50%. Nothing changes in execute - but in the last 20s or so try to line up your DOTs so they last right to the end, especially Stampede and Trap. When you have fewer than 10s to go cast one final Prey, then spam Rapid Strikes and Armaments until the target is dead.

The following video is from U39, but other than the Atronach morph the rotation is identical.

Trash

Sul-Xan + Storm Cursed + Ur-Mage + Maelstrom Lightning

SLOT ITEM TRAIT ENCHANTMENT
Head Slimecraw's Mask Divines Stamina
Shoulders Storm-Cursed Epaulets Divines Stamina
Chest Jack of Sul-Xan’s Torment Divines Stamina
Hands Storm-Cursed Gloves Divines Stamina
Waist Storm-Cursed Sash Divines Stamina
Legs Guards of Sul-Xan’s Torment Divines Stamina
Feet Boots of of Sul-Xan’s Torment Divines Stamina
Necklace Velothi Ur-Mage's Amulet Bloodthirsty Weapon Damage
Ring Storm-Cursed Ring Bloodthirsty Weapon Damage
Ring Storm-Cursed Ring Bloodthirsty Weapon Damage
Front Bar Main Hand Dagger of Sul-Xan's Torment Nirnhoned Flame
Front Bar Off Hand Dagger of Sul-Xan's Torment Charged Shock
Back Bar Main Hand The Maelstrom’s Lightning Staff Infused Weapon Damage
Back Bar Off Hand - - -

  • Perfected gear is NOT needed. The bonuses are nice to have, but small.

  • 3-4 x Light is recommended. Tweak the Medium/Light ratio to optimise your sustain and Critical Damage.

  • You can swap Slimecraw for a Stormfist, Kra’gh or Skoria 1-piece, depending on what you need.

  • Hitting the penetration cap of 18,200 in trash pulls is important. Using a Sharpened front bar, wearing more Light pieces and switching CPs are some of the things you can do to help you get there.

CHAMPION POINTS

Biting Aura - Exploiter - Master-at-Arms - Wrathful Strikes

The best choices depend on your group and how long the fight lasts. Use Backstabber if you are below the crit cap (or Fighting Finesse if you cannot flank). If trash pulls are lasting longer, DOTs may rise as a proportion of your damage and Thaumaturge could be worth slotting.

ABILITIES

Front Bar: Bound Armaments, Mages’ Wrath, Whirling Blades, Summon Volatile Familiar, Deadly Cloak, Flawless Dawnbreaker

Back Bar: Unstable Wall of Storms, Lightning Flood, Hurricane, Summon Volatile Familiar, Proximity Detonation, Thunderous Rage

Recent Changes

Update 44

  • Banner Bearer Grimoire introduced.

  • Azureblight Reaper set reworked. Base damage reduced, scaling damage per target massively increased.

  • Critical strike chance removed from Pyrebrand set. Damage adjusted.

  • Golden Pursuits and 2-sided Battlegrounds introduced.

  • Imperial City Keys and Vaults system replaced with Imperial Fragments and merchants.

Sorcerer

  • Conjured Ward healing reduced to 10% of max Health, down from 15%.

Update 43

  • Spattering Disjunction, Pyrebrand, Corpseburster, Umbral Edge, Beacon of Oblivion, Aetheric Lance & Aerie’s Cry sets added.

  • Curation added to dungeon-specific Undaunted Monster set shoulder coffers.

  • Undeath passive damage reduction lowered to 15% from 30%.

  • New arenas, bosses, Verses and Visions added to Infinite Archive.

  • Various Scribing tooltips tweaked, Affix Script compatibility increased.

  • Home Tours introduced.

Sorcerer

  • Daedric Curse AOE component increased.

Gold Road (Update 42)

  • Scribing and Skill Styling systems introduced

  • Lucent Echoes and Highland Sentinel sets added.

  • Gradual Ravage Health potions fixed to not trigger item sets.

  • Various damage reduction effects fixed to be multiplicative rather than additive.

  • Mages Guild passive Everlasting Magic duration increased changed from 20% to 2s.

  • Delay added to Rush of Agony proc, range increased from 10m to 12m.

  • Various Werewolf abilities tweaked to increase its general effectives in PvE.

Scions of Ithelia (Update 41)

  • Status Effects system overhauled, bringing them closer together in power.

    • Burning damage reduced by 6%.

    • Chilled damage increased by 106%.

    • Concussed damage increased by 106%, plus 15% extra to recently Concussed enemies.

    • Diseased damage increased by 88%, AOE damage added.

    • Hemorrhaging damage reduced by 20%, stacking added, Mangle removed.

    • Overcharged damage increased by 106%, Magicka restore added.

    • Poisoned damage reduced by 30%, duration reduced, ramping execute added.

    • Sundered damage increased by 106%, bonus Weapon & Spell Damage added.

  • Charged trait reduced from 365% to 235% increased status effect chance.

  • Barbed Trap changed to apply Hemorrhaging only on the initial hit.

  • Guaranteed Sundered status effect added to Snipe.

  • Guaranteed Hemorrhaging status effect added to every tick of Lacerate.

  • Executioner changed from Physical to Bleed Damage.

  • Runecarver’s Blaze fixed to apply Burning more often; a significant damage increase.

  • Mantle of Siroria perfected bonus changed from Max Magicka to Weapon & Spell Damage.

  • Vitality and Defile changed to affect damage shield strength as well as healing.

  • Inner Rage cost reduced by 40%, damage reduced by 10%, multi-synergy added.

  • Inner Beast damage increased by 80%, Minor Vulnerability & Minor Maim added.

  • Torc of the Last Ayleid King Mythic introduced.

  • Rewards system updated for XP, gold and Undaunted Keys

  • Buff/debuff tray updated to track taunt stacks.

  • Unified repair kits and stackable siege weaponry introduced

  • Role Play and Story playstyle options added to the Group Finder.

Sorcerer

  • Major Maim added to Encase and its morphs, cost reduced.

    • Restraining Prison renamed Vibrant Shroud, Minor Vitality and AOE burst heal added.

    • Shattering Prison renamed Shattering Spines, damage increased by 10% and made on-demand.

  • Radius of Lightning Splash and its morphs increased by 2m.

  • Heal added to Regenerative Ward, scaling to 10% of your Max Health/Magicka.

  • Hardened Ward heal increased to 15% of Max Health/Magicka when no pets are shielded.

  • Daedric Minefield renamed Daedric Refuge and changed to grant wards to allies.

  • Expert Summoner changed to grant 10% Health with pets, or 10% Magicka & Stamina without pets.