The Best Race for Sorcerer Class in ESO

Human Made

Angus is our resident Elder Scrolls Online specialist. He lives in Eugene and is a teacher by day.

The Sorcerer class in Elder Scrolls Online is comprised of mage conjurors that cast devastating lightning spells and summon Daedric creatures to fight for them. Sorcerers have a great mix of single-target and AOE damage, making them great choices for any type of content. Any race can excel on a Sorcerer if played correctly, but the races we have selected below allow for easier entry play and will enhance your character to be played at the highest difficulty veterans and trials.

Sorcerers allow for a great deal of customization of very different playstyles, so we chose the races below to bring out the best of each of them. We’ll cover the DPS, tank, and healer roles alongside the best lore-appropriate and PVP picks. Let’s get into the best races for Sorcerer ESO has to offer.

ESO Best Race for Sorcerer: The Top Picks

We’ll outline the best DPS races first, working our way into covering all of the top options for Sorcerers.

1/6

High Elf

The best race for Magicka DPS Sorcerers

High Elves are a wonderful pick for Magicka Sorcerers, as they passively increase the damage of all of the magicka-based spells in the Sorcerer’s arsenal. The High Elf passively gives you a bonus 2000 magicka, 258 spell and weapon damage, and 625 magicka/stamina back from activating a skill every six seconds (depending on which resource is lower). High Elves work great for Magicka Sorcerers for their magicka prowess, giving them higher damage with the sorcerer spells without sacrificing too much sustain.

Magicka Sorcerers have a wide range of different setups that all work extremely well in different contexts. Sorcerers have the option to call on Daedric companions to help them in battle, and can choose to have one, two, or no pets at all in their builds. For solo content, using both the Volatile Familiar and Twilight Tormentor will allow you to get through tough encounters with ease, as they can both take off some of the heat of battle and “tank” for you in some cases. Choosing to go without the pets can give you more skill availability for burstier single-target spells, or even AOE skills to help you burn through content more quickly, if not a bit more dangerously.

Damage-wise, you’ll get the best results from keeping Twilight Tormentor in your setup for single-target boss battles. They deal a great amount of damage, especially at the beginning of fights, as they deal more damage to high-health enemies.

The Magicka Sorcerer can use many spammables, but we suggest going for either Elemental Weapon or Force Pulse depending on your preference. Crystal Fragments, (one of the highest-damaging Sorcerer skills) can also be used as a spammable, but due to its longer cast, it’s better to use it as a secondary spammable when it’s procced and ready to use. When casting other magicka abilities, Crystal Fragments has a chance to become an instant-cast skill while also dealing more damage. It will take practice, but becoming aware of when it is ready for the instant cast can help your damage skyrocket.

2/6

Dark Elf

The best race for Stamina DPS Sorcerers

Dark Elves make for great Stamina Sorcerers with their increased stamina and weapon damage, helping their damaging abilities to hit that much harder. The Dark Elf passively gives you a bonus 1910 stamina and magicka, 258 weapon and spell damage, and 4620 flame resistance. Stamina Sorcerers benefit greatly from the extra magicka Dark Elves have to offer as well, as they have some essential skills to use that cost magicka. Dark Elves help to round out any missing stats the Stamina Sorcerer may have had otherwise, making them the perfect choice for this role.

Stamina Sorcerers can still make use of the Daedric summoning skills, but don’t really need to use them — other weapon skills can be used in their place to better optimize damage. Daedric summonings will always offer some benefit to you, though, and can be great for dealing high single target damage to the enemies that they focus on. For soloing content, the Unstable Clannfear is still a great option to help you come out on top of hard-hitting battles, while the Twilight Tormentor will increase your initial overall damage to a high health target.

Always keep Bound Armaments on your front bar to increase your light attack damage by 10% passively and your stamina pool by 8%, making all of your other skills hit that much harder. Unfortunately for the Stamina Sorcerer, any of the class ultimates don’t really do the trick, other than back barring Greater Storm Atronach for increased recoveries and single damage target it can provide. Using Flawless Dawnbreaker will be your best bet, as it deals massive damage both immediately and over time, and has the added bonus of increasing your weapon damage by 300 for twenty seconds. This is a great boost to overall damage and will make it so you hit harder throughout the majority of extended boss battles.

For a spammable, the Stamina Sorcerer isn’t tied down to using one specifically, and will change depending upon which sets you use. If you can obtain the Black Rose Prison duel wield daggers, Shrouded Daggers will offer you an amazing amount of damage. But using a standard build with the two hand Wrecking Blow or the Sorcerer’s Dark Magic skill Crystal Weapon will work awesomely for any content.

3/6

Breton

The best race for Sorcerer Healers

What’s the ESO best race for Sorcerer? It’s definitely Breton!

Bretons excel at healing with all of the magicka benefits they gain from their racial passives, allowing them to heal for much longer than other races. The Breton passively gives you a bonus 2000 magicka, 130 magicka recovery, and 7% reduction in the cost of magicka abilities. Bretons fit really well into the Sorcerer class identity and help to make all of the skills they use more readily available with the magicka they can sustain so much more easily than other races.

Sorcerer Healers rely heavily on the restoration skill line to heal their teammates, while using their Sorcerer skill lines to provide their group with extra damage synergies and buffs.

4/6

Nord

The best race for Sorcerer Tanks

Sorcerer tanks are not a common role to play, and they need some extra requirements to be viable in more difficult content. If you do choose this path less travelled, Nord is the best race for Sorcerer ESO tanks thanks to the physical and spell resistances you gain simply by being a Nord.

The Nord passively gives you a bonus 1000 health, 1500 stamina, and 2600 physical and spell resistance, and you will even gain 5 ultimate every ten seconds when you take damage. Nords also provide you with an additional 4620 cold resistance, situationally giving you the advantage in certain frost intensive scenarios. As a Nord, your focus should be on morphing your abilities to have stamina costs so they scale with your larger stamina pool (as opposed to your magicka pool), but if you are using only staves, it’s fine to put most of your attribute points in boosting your magicka.

Sorcerer tanks have a unique playstyle, and call on many different skill lines to maximize their tanking potential. Your Unstable Clannfear pet will help keep some of the heat off of you in battle while offering you a heal on activating their ability. Dark Deal should be cast on cooldown to take advantage of the instantaneous resource generation and the stamina regen over time.

Boundless Storm or Hurricane should also be used whenever you see the storm fall off around you, as it gives you Major Resolve and Ward boosting your physical and spell resistance by almost 6000. Boundless Storm lasts five seconds longer than Hurricane, but both grant you increased movement speed to help you deal with mechanics. Hurricane will deal more damage if you have a higher stamina pool than magicka, and works in a wider radius as well. Another added bonus if being a Sorcerer Tank is that you have access to the skill Streak (or Ball of Lightning), which will speed up your runs and more easily prevent your DPS from speeding off ahead of you and pulling the mobs in the wrong direction.

5/6

Breton

The best race for ESO Sorcerer lore

When thinking of a the best race for Sorcerer ESO has to offer, generally either a Breton or a High Elf comes to mind. However, Breton wins out as the best Sorcerer pick lore-wise because the Sorcerer’s skills include using Daedric summonings, which is a huge no-no for High Elves culturally. That isn’t to say that Bretons warmly embrace everything Daedric, but there isn’t such a stigma about it.

The Sorcerer’s skill lines relate to the key forms of magic, Conjuration (Daedric Summoning), Alteration (Dark Magic), and Destruction (Storm Calling). Sorcerers do not have a direct racial connection, but rather are most lore-appropriate for mages aspiring for control over magic. Anyone in the Mages Guild fit perfectly as Sorcerers, and Bretons especially so given their aptitude and inclination towards using magic. The study of all forms of magic are mostly accepted by the Mages Guild (other than Necromancy), even allowing study of the Daedra (the classic know your enemy strategy), meaning they are more accepting towards using Daedra as war pets.

As said above for bonuses in combat, playing a Breton passively gives you a bonus 2000 magicka, 130 magicka recovery, and 7% reduction in the cost of magicka abilities. This will make it easier to cast your abilities on cooldown without having to worry as much about resource management, maximizing your damage output. Lore-wise, Sorcerers are more inclined to use and study magic, so a Stamina Sorcerer does not fit the Lore as easily as a Magicka Sorcerer would. Using Daedric pets are generally thought of using an evil means to get good results, but an evil Sorcerer who uses Daedra for bad can just as easily be lore-friendly. Though you may get kicked out of the Mages Guild if you aren’t careful to cover your tracks.

6/6

High Elf

The best race for PVP Sorcerers (Magicka)

If you’re seeking the best race for Sorcerer ESO has for PvP, look no further than the High Elf!

Magicka Sorcerers can dominate 1v1 battles or take on groups of other players by themselves if they’re well practiced at the class. High Elves give the extra burst Magicka Sorcerers need from the larger magicka pool and spell damage High Elves have to offer. As said above, High Elves passively give you a bonus 2000 magicka, 258 spell and weapon damage, and 625 magicka/stamina back from activating a skill every six seconds (depending on which resource is lower). High Elves also take 5% less damage when using an ability with a channel or cast time, giving you the increased tankiness you’ll need when you are vulnerable during abilities that take longer to cast.

Magicka Sorcerers have the best mobility in the game with their ability Streak, which also works as an unblockable stun. Streak will teleport you forward, stunning and damaging anything caught in your path. You can use this in addition to your burst skills, so getting your timing down will be important. Crystal Fragments will be a strong skill to use in conjunction with your spammable Crushing Shock, so depending on whether or not Crystal Fragments is up for an immediate cast, alternate between the two. Dark Conversion will be your main heal and sustain skill, giving you both health and magicka back at the cost of stamina, so make sure you still hold onto enough stamina to be able to break free of enemy stuns.

Depending on how you want to play your Magicka Sorcerer, your main ultimate can either be either morph of the Mages’ Guild ultimate Meter for great burst damage, or Sorcerer’s Storm Calling ultimate Power Overload for increased damage over the course of the fight.

Become a High Grounder

Sorcerers allow for many different amazing play styles, allowing them to adapt perfectly to your style of playing the Elder Scrolls Online. We hope this guide on the best race for the Sorcerer in ESO helps you to create the perfect character for your adventures. In the meantime, check out our other ESO guides and gaming content here at High Ground Gaming, and stay up to date with our newsletter.

Happy gaming!