“Frag Out!” By definition this is a term used to indicate throwing a grenade in combat.  However, in Elder Scrolls Online this is our Sorcerer PvP Build that focuses on high burst damage via Crystal Fragments.  Frag Out will absolutely destroy single targets and frustrate enemies.  So let’s get to our ESO Sorcerer PvP Build Frag Out.

Updated PvP version here, PvE one here for ESO 2.0.

UPDATED: For patch 1.5 HERE.

Table of Contents

• Objective
• Skills
• Gear
• Fighting

 

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Objective

The idea behind this build is to time your burst damage with stuns, CC’s and most importantly survive.   I’m not usually a fan of range damage (DPS) but this is too fun not to try.  You’ll be in the background as an ideal target caller for a small or medium group.

The character I’m using is Aitled, a High Elf Sorcerer in the Aldmeri Dominion faction (for the Queen).  You’ll need a magicka based race, so something like Breton for Draggerfall or Dark Elf for Ebonheart Pact would be ideal.  Sorcs are meant as casters and optimizing this will only improve your damage and survivability.

With that being said, you’ll have to get use to this type of PvP experience.  Keeping your distance, kiting and stuns are important to surviving.  Once you start to learn these skills you’ll be the King of the Killing Blow.  Here’s my breakdown on strengths and weaknesses of this build.

+ Range

+ Massive burst damage

+ Survivable

– Susceptible to Dragonknights

– Not a front line fighter

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Skills

Bar One | Destruction Staff

This is where you’ll spend most of your time.  This bar has two stuns, a ranged finisher, and a great defensive.  It has everything you need to be a ranged DPS caster and more.  The “Frag Out” combo is a Velocious Curse, Mages’ Wrath then a C-Frags to the face.  If the target dips below 20% when that goes off, it’s over for them.

• Streak (morph of Bolt Escape | Storm Calling skill line) – What would a PvP Sorc be without Streak?  This is our main escape and offensive group crowd control.  You’ll need to use this carefully because if you’re out of magicka, you’re dead.  I stun and create distance from melee targets with Streak.  I’ll also time my burst and wait for the opponent to be CC’d then Streak straight into a Frag Out  combo to utterly destroy them.
• Velocious Curse (morph of Daedric Curse | Daedric Summoning skill line) – The one range skill Sorc’s have that can penetrate an annoying Dragonknight’s Reflective Scales.  Not only that, but it’s a great AoE damage ability too that gives us some much needed ultimate if the opponent is in the crowd.  Just make sure to wait the full 3.5 seconds before reapplying, because only one curse can be active at a time.
• Hardened War (morph of Conjured Ward | Daedric Summoning skill line) – Our bread and butter survival tool.  This can generate around 1000 point damage shield that protects against everything!  That’s why I have it on every bar.  Not only that but it procs our C-Frags and has a 20 second duration.  Keep this up when in combat because you never know when the next 1,500 point Snipe is coming.
• Crystal Fragments (morph of Crystal Shards | Dark Magic skill line) – OMG I love me some frags.  The name behind the build is for this one ability, a stun, ranged burst and an insta proc.  There’s so many ways to use this like waiting for an opponent to be stunned and vulnerable FIRST.  I’ll also fake people out with this and cast it, only to hold block at the last second if a Dragonknight has Reflective Scales up.  Then I’ll switch to Velocious Curse, stun them with Streak, put a Mages’ Fury on them and bang Frag Out.  These will all pop at once essentially insta killing someone for upwards of 3,000 damage if critical hits apply.
• Mages’ Wrath (morph of Mages’ Fury | Storm Calling skill line) – The Killing Blow (KB) King Mages’ Wrath.  Your goal with this ability is to know when someone may drop below that 20% health mark.  You can apply it earlier and then boom it goes off only to score the KB.  I do this when someone is on their own and I know four people beating on them will drop them quickly.  I’ll also scout the battlefield in the middle of combat to see wounded opponents and drop a Wrath on them to score another KB.  On a good night, I can average 1 of 3 kills is a KB.  That’s pretty good even fighting in a Zerg.
• [Ultimate] Energy Overload (morph of Overload | Storm Calling skill line) – No, I’ve switched from the Vampire Sorcerer default template in PvP.  Since patch 1.5 is coming soon with a 30% healing debuff to Vamps, I wanted to build something that could hang without using Devouring Bats.  Energy Overload is only on the primary bar because it allows access to a third bar.  Active it then go in your skills section, arrange your bar the way you like and cast abilities.  When you deactivate, you’ll go back to your normal two bar setup.  So yea, Sorcs are the only class with three bars 🙂

Bar Two | Restoration Staff

Our back bar provides great defensive utility to you and your group.  If things get really bad, come to this bar to double bubble and stay alive.

• Efficient Purge (morph of Purge | Alliance War Support skill line) – Even though I’m not a pale crusty white Vamp, I still need a purge on my bar for oil pots, ballista and normal combat fire damage with DoTs or damage over time.  Not to mention this is a huge help to my team as some may not have access to this ability.  Preventing damage is just as important as healing damage.
• Healing Springs (morph of Grand Healing | Restoration Staff skill line) – A cheap heal that is nearly free with the gear setup I’m running.  Between this and some bubbles via Healing Ward, I can keep up a small team just long enough to wipe another opposing group.
• Dark Deal (morph of Dark Exchange | Dark Magic skill line) – I’m running the Adroitness set which generates stamina constantly (more on this later).  So Dark Deal comes in handy when I’m safe and need some magicka for the next fight.  It also heals me, though the trick here is to save enough stamina for a CC break if needed.  With our set bonuses Way of the Arena, this is roughly 300 stamina or so.  If you can’t break CC, you can’t bubble and the main reason I die though rare.
• Hardened Ward (morph of Conjured Ward | Daedric Summoning skill line) – It’s just too powerful not to have on this bar as well.  I tried without it only to be focused down by ranged NB’s casting endless Snipes.  With Ward on all my bars, they learn to swap targets after near endless protection.
• Healing Ward (morph of  Steadfast Ward| Restoration Staff skill line) – Another bubble for emergency heals to you or allies.  Say I’m in trouble with bar one, I’ll swap to bar two, pop Hardened Ward FIRST then Healing Ward.  If the enemies can’t penetrate the first bubble, this will pop and heal me to near full.  It’s a nasty combo that will take some practice.  You can even go back to bar one and Streak away while waiting on the six second Healing Ward bubble.
• Absorption Field (morph of | skill line) – The mother of Sorc ultimates in PvP and a must have in my opinion.  You should know what this does by now but how to use it is a different story.  I like to do the stun and gun trick with my Negate.  Wait for a choke point or a small closed off space where the enemies have to come through.  Drop Negate, swap to bar one, then Streak thru them.  They’ll most likely CC break but your job is to nuke one down before they can leave the Negate or find someone who CAN’T break CC because of low stamina.  Then just Frag Out and laugh, believe me this is awesome to witness.

Bar Three | Energy Overload

Once again, I’ve contacted ZOS to see if this is an exploit or working as intended.  They have not responded nor have I seen or heard of any bans for this so I’m posting on it.  If that changes or anyone can cite a source, I’ll take this off.  Otherwise, it’s the single reason to use Overload so we can have a bar dedicated to survival and attacking the massive ZERG!

• Lighting Flood (morph of Lighting Splash | Storm Calling skill line) – A massive area (AoE) ability that doesn’t require a weapon to use like the Destruction Staff ability Impulse.  It has great ranged and a synergy if a teammate is in the area.  I keep throwing these in to rack up the ultimate prior to a Negate bomb.
• Volcanic Rune  (morph of Fire Rune | Mages Guild skill line) – A awesome ranged stun that if paired with Lighting Flood can produce high damage results.  Frag out with a Rune, then if a group is stunned, drop a Flood on top of them for huge damage.
• Hardened Ward (morph of Conjured Ward | Daedric Summoning skill line) – Yep, good ol Ward here, if we are going up against a Zerg, we’ll need massive defense at some point.
• Crystal Fragments (morph of Crystal Shard | Dark Magic skill line) – And we might as well have Frags on our bar just in case some poor innocent little  Dragonknight is out of stamina to break CC.  When in doubt, FRAG OUT!
• Harness Magic (morph of Annulment | Light Armor skill line) – When facing the impending Zerg rush, two bubbles is better than one.  Even though we’re going to keep max range, there will always be at least two derpy Nightblades waiting to nuke you with a double Sniper.  Always buff up and with 20 seconds duration, you’ll have some enough time for offensive before rebuffing.
• [Ultimate] Energy Overload (morph of Overload | Storm Calling skill line) – You can’t change this and it’s self explanatory.  Only thing to remember is NOT to light attack.  This will drain ultimate regardless if you’re hitting something.  So if you turn on the third bar, stop weaving in light/heavy attacks.  I have trouble with this since my brain is ingrained to weave in light attacks.

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Gear

GOAL = Soft cap spell power > 3000 health in Cyrodiil > Magicka

Since most people run impenetrable trait on their armor, spell critical is not of major concern.  Really we need spell damage to hit like a truck.  I’ve seen crits of 1,000 on Frags and 1,100 on Fury.  Now pair that up with a 800 damage Curse, bang they dead!

Armor Weight – All light obviously here.  Does anyone use medium or heavy?  That’s a joke, but for casters it’s just necessary.  I tried two heavy and five light, but with massive magicka I can constantly keep up my Wards.  This is my defensive over armor or increased CC immunity.

Set Bonuses – There will take a minute to get, but wow it’ll make a big difference.

Light of Cyrodiil (PvP rings for 248,000 Alliance Points)

• Spell Power

Adroitness (drop set in Veteran Rank Crypt of Hearts dungeon)

• Spell damage, magicka, and magicka recover
• Recover magicka and stamina when you deal damage (only every 5 seconds)
• *NOTE* I’ve only found low level Staffs and don’t know if VR 12+ are in the game yet.  This is a big damage debuff on our light attacks, but the resource generation is significant.  It’s your call on the gear, but it works for me.

Way of the Arena (crafted eight trait set)

• Adds Health, Magicka, Stamina
• Reduces CC break by 40%

Since the Adroitness Staff uses a Destruction Staff for the five piece set bonus, we will only get reduced CC cost on Restoration Staff.  Which is fine considering this is our primary defensive bar.  Meaning, traveling in between areas you’ll need to be on bar two for a quick CC break.

Traits – Impenetrable is a must in PvP and needs to be on each item we craft.  There’s not a lot of control over the Adroitness stuff so yea, we’re stuck with something useless.  But tons of resources is a worth while trade off.

Glyphs – Main thing to focus on here is high spell damage and health.  Once those things are at an optimal level, go with magicka recover or magicka.

Jewelry – Spell POWER!  Enough said.

Mundus – I went with Thief though you could change this up if you STRICTLY want to stick with PvP.  Atronach or something else would be a good choice.

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Fighting

 

Verse Dragonknights – You’ll see this picture constantly if facing a DK.  Yes the dreaded Reflective Scales.  What we want against DKs is space.  What they want is to leap in and Burning Talons us.  Use Streak and dodge roll combinations to create space.  Let them burn through resources while you Ward constantly, then Streak for a stun once you have a Frags proc.  Now death time, while they are Cursed, give them a Mages’ Fury and FRAGs fast before they can Reflect.  BOOM they should be near death with nearly no magicka or stamina.  Keep on Cursing them and heavy attacking and stunning when you can.  They are not easy to kill, but create space and be patient.  If fighting in a group, let them over extend past their group and focus them down with AoE.

Verse Nightblades – NB’s advantage is stealth which we can counter by being prepared.  While traveling, make sure you’re using the Restoration Staff bar.  This will give you reduced CC break cost because that’s their plan, CC and burst you down.  Next step is to constantly Ward up.  Yes if you get hit while on your horse this isn’t possible, but when in doubt have that Ward up.  Now survive their initial onslaught with double bubbles via Healing Ward then Hardened Ward.  Once you’re in the clear, Streak through them in go on the offensive.  Same thing here, create space and FRAG OUT!

Verse Sorcerers – By now you should realize what a Sorc wants, but Sorc on Sorc crime can be trouble.  This is really down to resource management and timing burst.  Pay close attention to when and how they are using their ward.  Look at their Staffs actual graphics, see if they’re swapping bars constantly.  This is when we trap them on their non-ward bar and FRAG OUT.  Additionally, most dueling or solo fights comes down to initial engagement and momentum.  Don’t be afraid to launch in with a Streak and initiate combat.  Sometimes the best defense is a good offense.

Verse Templars – The typical cookie cutter Templar will be very similar to the Dragonknight fight.  Only difference here is they’re reflect is only in front of them.  So just like the DK’s, keep distance via Streak, dodge roll, and kiting.  Continue to burst their bubbles (Blazing Shield) until they’re out of resources.  And if you can’t create space, drop a Negate on them, Streak to stun them and FRAG OUT!

Verse the “Zerg” – Sooner or later you’ll be faced in opposition to the all mighty Zerg or numbers of people.  Take advantage of them by swinging wide or to their flank and swapping to bar three.  Pick out a DK not using Reflective Scales, stun and flood them with damage and FRAG OUT!  Remember that you’ll be reward Alliance Points for merely surviving so that’s your number one priority.  Keep up wards (both) and off-heal allies.  Even if they suck, less of your allies equals more of the enemy.

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Summary

I hope you enjoyed this PvP article and I had a lot of fun with the Sorc.  I feel almost cheesy just hanging out in the back nuking players.  That quickly passes after the 30th killing blow of the night.  And remember, “when in doubt, FRAG OUT!”