ESO: 3 Fun Sorcerer DPS Builds (Update 41)

Build #1: Stamina Bleed Sorcerer

Race: Orc, Dark Elf, Wood Elf, or Khajiit | Mundus: The Thief | Food: Lava Foot Soup | Attributes: 64 into Stamina

Build Summary: This Stamina Sorc build focuses on Bleed Damage for your main source of damage and the skills and armor sets center around buffing this. This build is a great option if you want to play a Sorcerer without using the pets.

Skills

Front Bar

• Crystal Shard (morph: Crystal Weapon)- Dark Magic Skill Line
• Flurry (morph: Rapid Strikes) – Dual Wield Skill Line
• Daedric Curse (morph: Haunting Curse)- Daedric Summoning Skill Line
• Trap Beast (morph: Barbed Trap)- Fighter’s Guild Skill Line
• Expert Hunter (morph: Camouflage Hunter)- Fighter’s Guild Skill Line
• Ultimate: Dawnbreaker (morph: Flawless Dawnbreaker)- Fighter’s Guild Skill Line

Back Bar

• Lightning Form (morph: Hurricane)- Storm Calling Skill Line
• Surge (morph: Critical Surge)- Storm Calling Skill Line
• Vigor (morph: Resolving Vigor)- Assault Skill Line
• Cleave (morph: Carve)- Two-Handed Skill Line
• Dark Exchange (morph: Dark Deal) – Dark Magic Skill Line
• Ultimate: Summon Storm Atronach (morph: Summon Charged Atronach) Storm Calling Skill Line

Rotation

The rotation for this build will center around maximizing your Bleed Damage done to enemies. The front bar is our main damage bar, these skills have shorter timers and are used more frequently. When on your front bar, begin by using Barbed Trap, then follow up with Crystal Weapon and Rapid Strikes which are your semi-spammables. Camouflage Hunter gives Major Savagery and Major Prophecy but you do not have to use it to receive the buff. In between casting skills remember to Light Attack. Swap bars if you need heals, Resolving Vigor will provide you with some armor and Minor Resolve while Dark Deal gives you a bigger burst of Health. 

I like putting my abilities with longer timers on my back bar. This helps with organization and rotation. The back bar consists of 3 skills with longer timers and 2 abilities to use when health and sustain are needed. 

The buffs on your back bar should be activated before a fight. Cast Critical Surge on your back bar, you can then use Carve once. Next, use Hurricane and Carve two more times. Now you can swap back to your front bar. Critical Surge gives you Major Brutality and Sorcery increasing your weapon and spell damage. Each time you hit Carve it increases the duration of the Bleed Damage. If used three times the duration can be increased up to 32 seconds. 

Armor Sets: Blooddrinker (Bloodroot Forge) is the main set because it buffs your Bleed Damage, which is the key to this build. Briarheart is a useful Overland (Orsinium DLC) set for your second set, but you can choose an Overland, Dungeon, or Trial set you like.

Monster Sets: Slimecraw (Wayrest Sewers I & II) is a good option. You can pick anything that fits your play style or enhances your build.

Champion Points

Mighty is a passive from the Extended Might Cluster in the Warfare tree that grants you 100 Weapon and Spell Damage for Martial Attacks which affects Bleed Damage. For slottable Champion Points consider Backstabber & Fighting Finesse.

Build #2: Oakensoul Pet Build

Race: High Elf, Dark Elf, & Breton | Mundus: The Thief | Food: Pickled Eyeballs | Attributes: 64 points into Magicka

Build Summary: This Oakensoul build is good for beginners and players who prefer not to bar switch, the primary focus is on Heavy Attacking. You will have 5 skills to focus on and one Ultimate, allowing you to focus on learning the rotation and damage output. Since this build relies on using pets you will also have less to worry about in your rotation for the most part. It is simple, fun, and effective for Dungeon PvE content.

Skills

• Crystal Shard (morph: Crystal Fragment) – Dark Magic Skill Line
• Daedric Curse (morph: Daedric Prey) – Daedric Summoning Skill Line
• Entropy (morph: Structured Entropy) – Mages’ Guild Skill Line
• Summon Unstable Familiar (morph: Summon Volatile Familiar) – Daedric Summoning Skill Line
• Summon Winged Twilight (morph: Summon Winged Twilight) – Daedric Summoning Skill Line
• Ultimate: Summon Storm Atronach (morph: Greater Storm Atronach) – Daedric Summoning Skill Line

Rotation

The rotation for this build primarily focuses on Heavy Attacking between Daedric Prey and Crystal Fragment (Heavy Attack loop). Heavy Attack weaving is where you hold down your primary attack button and queue up your next ability. The ability will automatically be cast once the Heavy Attack is complete.

Crystal Fragment is most effective when it’s proc’d (turns pink) but serves as a great “spammable” for some situations. Crystal Fragment has a chance to proc when you use non-ultimate skills. Daedric Prey will increase the damage pets do by 45% and can be used to change who they attack.

You want to begin the fight with your Light Attack loop since the skills have longer timers. Light attack between Structured Entropy and your pet’s abilities. Once these are all procd you can go back to your heavy attack loop, you will return to the Light Attack loop once the timers are almost done.

To maximize damage with this build it is important to keep your pet’s abilities up at all times. Structured Entropy is a helpful self-heal for this Oakensoul build, giving you a bit more survivability. If you do not feel like you need a self heal you can use the Degeneration morph or another skill that fits your build better. Since Structured Entropy/ Degeneration has a longer cooldown similar to the Sorc pets it’s helpful to start a fight with casting it first. 

Once you get comfortable with this basic rotation, you can increase your damage by using Crystal Fragment in both loops whenever it procs.

Armor & Gear

Armor Sets: Seargent’s Mail (Wayrest Sewers I & II Dungeon) is a great set to buff your Heavy Attack Damage, the key source of damage for this build. Order’s Wrath (Crafted Set- High Isle & Amenos) is a great option for increasing Weapon and Spell damage and adding Crit chance for this build.

Monster Sets: You will only get the first bonus for your Monster Set because you are running a Mythic. Prioritize the first bonus, you can check out set pieces like Slimecraw (Wayrest Sewers I & II) or Zaan (Scalecaller Peak) if you want a flat crit bonus.

Champion Points

Weapons Expert is especially helpful for this build because it buffs your Light & Heavy Attack damage. I recommend buffing your damage over time skills with Thaumaturge for this build. Slottables like Arcane Supremacy, Backstabber, and Wrathful Strikes are also good options.

Build #3: Psijic Mage Build

Race: High Elf, Dark Elf, & Breton Mundus: The Thief Food: Pickled Eyeballs Attributes: 64 points into Magicka

Build Summary: This next build has a fun combination of skills from the Mages Guild and Psijic Skill line. This build focuses on maximizing Critical chance and Damage. You will have a Light Attack weaving rotation, which will include a damage-over-time skill and some buffs. Since this is a two-bar build it may be more complex but the reward is extra survivability and damage. The longer ability timers are also helpful for learning the rotation.

Skills

Front Bar

• Crystal Shard (morph: Crystal Fragment) – Dark Magic Skill Line
• Daedric Curse (morph: Daedric Prey) – Daedric Summoning Skill Line
• Imbue Weapon (morph: Elemental Weapon)- Psijic Skill Line
• Summon Unstable Familiar (morph: Summon Volatile Familiar) – Daedric Summoning Skill Line
• Summon Winged Twilight (morph: Summon Winged Twilight) – Daedric Summoning Skill Line
• Ultimate: Meteor (morph: Shooting Star) Mages’ Guild Skill Line

Back Bar

• Surge (morph: Critical Surge) – Storm Calling Skill Line
• Entropy (morph: Structured Entropy) – Mages’ Guild Skill Line
• Acceleration (morph: Channeled Acceleration) – Psijic Skill Line
• Summon Unstable Familiar (morph: Summon Volatile Familiar) – Daedric Summoning Skill Line
• Summon Winged Twilight (morph: Summon Winged Twilight) – Daedric Summoning Skill Line
• Ultimate: Elemental Storm (morph: Elemental Rage)- Destruction Staff Skill Line

Rotation

 For this build, start on your back bar to activate your buffs. You get Major Expedition and Minor Force from Channeled Acceleration. Critical Surge Gives you Major Brutality and Major Sorcery. Structured Entropy is a great self-heal and damage-over-time skill that can be used along with Channeled Acceleration since it has a similar cooldown. I recommend turning on ability timers so you can efficiently switch to your back bar and recast them when the timer runs out. Light Attack weave between casting skills on your back bar too so you can maximize your damage.

Once you have your buffs, your pets’ abilities will have close to a 20-second cooldown you will want to activate those next. Then you can switch to your front bar and use your Daedric Prey on an enemy. Crystal Fragment can be used once it has proc’d. Imbue Weapon is what you will primarily use to Light Attack weave for this build while your pets are off fighting. 

 You will also gain a shield when you block that looks like a bubble which is a Passive ability from the Psijic skill line. Also, as you use the Psijic abilities while in combat, you will generate Spell Orbs. Once you reach 5 Spell Orbs an Orb will launch at a nearby enemy dealing 1124 Magic Damage which is a great source of extra damage. 

Armor & Gear

Armor Sets: Armor of the Seducer (Crafted Set-Deshaan, Grahtwood, & Stormhaven) is useful for newer players needing extra help with Magicka recovery and sustain. Tzogvin’s Warband (Frostvault Dungeon) and Kinras’s Wrath (Black Drake Villa Dungeon) are useful Medium armor sets to check out. Mother’s Sorrow (Overland-Deshaan) and Law of Julianos (Crafted Set-Orisinium) are useful for newer players.

For more advanced players, sets like Grave Inevitability (Graven Deep Dungeon) & Whorl of Depths (Dreadsail Reef Trial) from the High Isle DLC are worth considering.

Monster Sets: I recommend looking at Maw of the Infernal (Banished Cells II Dungeon), Slimecraw (Wayrest Sewers Dungeon), and Stormfirst (Tempest Island Dungeon).

Champion Points

Arcane Supremacy is helpful for this build since it increases your primary resource, Magicka. Backstabber and Weapons Expert are also good choices for slottable Champion Points. For your 4th slottable Champion Point, you can choose something you feel your build is missing. You can consider Crit damage, Spell Penetration, or Weapon and Spell Damage.