The Slippery Assassin: A Sorcerer Guide for PvPA guide by a Veteran 10 Sorcerer since 1 day after release.In PvP Sorcerers just seem to be designed for a fairly one-dimensional nature. Don't get me wrong though. They are the strongest in this dimension.
Because of
Bound Aegis and
Ball of Lightning, combined with their 28 range skills, Sorcerers are able to choose their fights at will without much threat to them self.
Simply put, if you don't want to die on a Sorcerer, you don't have to.
And you can kill whoever you want.
I'll start by showing my skill selections.
StatsYou want to have just enough magicka to hit the soft cap (I recommend you grab the soft cap add-on). The rest should go straight into health for survivability.
Generally if you are running a full set of magicka items and are running a race with max magicka (dark elf, high elf, breton) then you should have no problems whatsoever.
ItemsI strongly recommend you grab the Warlock set. This set can be obtained at the main Veteran 1 zone for your faction. It drops at any dungeon in the zone. Or simply buy it.
Easily the best set in the game and when you wear it you will quickly see why. Personally I run the Head, Chest, and one ring slot. All of your items should be
light armor.
Why
Restoration Staff? Easy. The passives. The 10% increase in damage alone is enough to take restoration staff. But that's not all it gives.
Free magicka when you use a heavy attack. Free magicka when you block a spell. Free healing on heavy attack. Free increased healing for all sources.
Why
One Hand and Shield? When you're in an intense battle, block is your best friend. Block reduces the incoming damage by 50% of all attacks.
Your shield allows you to reduce this even further. On top of this, it extensively reduces the cost of blocking, allowing you to keep your stamina up for CC breaking and rolls
It also allows cheap usage of the ability Shield Bash in order to interrupt close range casting.
On top of this, the ability
Defensive Stance allows you to beat pretty much anyone that uses projectiles as their main source of damage.
This not only reflects the damage back, but also gives you a free 3 second stun. This ability is the bane of all Sorcerers. If you see someone using this, either run or switch to a new target. You have no chance.
SkillsCrystal Fragments: Just an overall great DPS ability. With a proper build this is one of the hardest hitting non-ultimate abilities in the game. Also applies a 2.4 second knockdown. Your main damage ability.
Endless Fury: A 28 range execute ability that can be primed before they even reach execute range. Need I say more? Even refunds itself if you get the executive.
Illustrious Healing: Being able to heal yourself in PvP is an irreplaceable ability. Especially considering how naturally tanky you are, heals go a long way. There will be times when there simply is not a healer to heal you. Not to mention you can use this to heal siege users while you defend them.
Defensive Stance: The only weapon skill in the game (apart from Restoration Staff) that I see to be viable for PvP. Already explained above in the items section.
Velocious Curse: The most flexible skill in the bar. It is mainly used when looking to burst a high priority target. 2 Crystal Fragments along with a Velocious Curse and Endless Fury will reach around 2500 magic damage to the face of your target before they can react. It is also not a projectile and has no cast time so it is able to bypass strong abilities like reflect, venom arrow, or numerous other skills. But like I said, this skill slot is extremely flexible. When scouting for my guild I fill this with another instance of
Ball of Lightning.
Ball of Lightning: Fairly obvious. Be anywhere you want. Chase anyone. Avoid anyone. Choose all fights.
Bound Aegis: Fairly obvious. Hit the armor soft cap for free.
Suppression Field: One of the best ultimate abilities in the game. It completely silences all enemies inside. This means they are unable to use their abilities. Dropping this on an enemy zerg basically forces them to spread and become disorganized, or stay clumped and die for free. Allies inside gain 1800 magic resist and are allowed to freely spread havoc.
Why are Sorcerers one-dimensional?AoE? If you're looking to AoE in PvP then don't play Sorcerer. Period.
Surge? Fine if you plan on healing. May as well just run Templar though.
Weapon skills? Stamina is too valuable of a PvP resource to be wasting on damage. Weapon skills are also weaker and more costly.
Tank? You can't assassinate someone because you have no damage. You can't run into an enemy zerg or you'll melt. You can't heal. You can't do anything needed in PvP.
Pets in PvP? LOL.
You really just serve your one purpose. Being able to pick out people and kill them with almost no real threat to yourself. So this is what I focus my build on. Play to the strengths of your class. Unload your spells on a single person and switch to the next.
Have questions? Looking to comment?I love to be criticized, and I'm happy to answer questions. Don't hold back.
This post was edited by FroggyG on Apr 30 2014 07:48am