Welcome to the The ULTIMATE ESO Sorcerer Class Guide!  This guide will explain what makes the Sorcerer unique, the skills and passives along with recommended builds.

Table of Contents

Video Guide

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Class Overview

What do you need to know about the Sorcerer class in ESO?  Think of the Sorc as your typical range caster in the magicka playstyle.  The stamina Sorc is your ultra-aggressive and fast “bubble bee” doing damage and getting out before you figure out what happened.  The Sorcerer combines great range and melee options with pets, mobility and some of the most unique abilities in the game.  This class also excels at solo and group play.  It remains and has remained one of the strongest throughout the entirety of ESO’s history.

The Sorcerer skills are geared towards a couple of different playstyles.  For magicka, you have pet builds or non-pet build.  Each performs very well along with high magicka loadouts that increase your shield. Thus, magicka sorcs can run very low health and massive magicka and be just as survivable as anyone on the battlefield.  The stamina Sorc has incredible burst with skills like crystal weapons and major and minor expedition making it the fastest and most aggressive playstyle in ESO.  Pick up the Sorcerer if you like the typical range Mage from other MMOrpgs or stamina for Berserker type playstyle.


Ranking

PvP Stam = A Tier

  • The Stam Sorc in PvP has incredible burst and speed and is best played as a hit and run playstyle. The upside is with Crystal Weapons and Streak you can melt single target or groups and get away to do it again.  The downside, you don’t have the self healing like a Dragonknight and Templar possess nor a cleanse to remove negative effects.  Thus stam sorc playstyle is channeling Dark Deal for resources and healing, and smashing targets for a few seconds and rinse and repeat. One of the most unique styles in ESO.

PvP Mag = A Tier

  • The Mag Sorc remains one of the best in the game.  Combining range, group utility with a pet for insane healing and high single target burst.  You stack max magicka to get enormous shields allowing you to run very low health and still be survivable.  You remain one of the best solo classes because you can zoom away and live to fight another day.  It’s hard not ranking Mag Sorc as S Tier and the reason would be lack of massive AoE damage that Templar, Dragonknight and Necro provide.

PvE DPS Stam = B Tier

  • The Stam Sorc in PvE, especially solo is great for new players or folks that struggle with survivability.  With skills like Critical Surge it’s very survivable and with pets you can get burst healing out the gate.  However, it lacks the massive damage over time abilities that other classes have pushing it down the list.  I’d suggest stam sorc if you aren’t concerned about #1 DPS but survivability and don’t want to obtain the mythic Pale Order.

PvE DPS Mag = S Tier

  • Mag Sorc and Magblade are neck and neck for the best DPS in the game.  They possess range, hard hitting single target and AoE damage and are both insanely survivable.  The advantage of the Sorc is the pet loadout can be very simple to play and offer crazy burst healing when needed.  Not to mention it’s extremely fast and an absolute blast to play.  Mag Sorc is my second favorite ranged DPS to play because of this.  Does this parse the highest?  Probably not, but in actual content, you cannot beat the range, versatility and ease of a Mag Sorc.

Healer = B Tier

  • For straight burst healing on a mag sorc, one could argue they are the best. With Twilight Matriarch burst healing potential is incredible high even on a DPS character.  This becomes apparent in PvP, however in PvE the class brings little outside their minor buff to a group.  Thus you’re reliant entirely on outside skill lines  and gear for some type of group utility.

Tank = C Tier

  • Tanking is where the class really lacks with almost nothing interesting to bring to a dungeon or a Trial.  What the Sorc has is infinite sustain and great resistances.  However, end game isn’t about that, it’s about buffs and the Sorc tank really doesn’t bring anything to the table interesting.

Dark Magic Skill Line

Overview: consider this skill line your utility line with good passives.


Name Effect
Ultimate Skills
Negate Magic
Negate Magic
Create a globe of magic suppression for 12 seconds, removing and preventing all enemy area of effect abilities from occurring in the area. Enemies within the globe are stunned, while enemy players will be silenced rather than stunned.

Usage: this is a PvP focused ultimate and one of the strongest in the game.  It removes effects from a massive area and prevents them from being cast.  Combine this with a necro bomb, and you can wipe groups of 10 or 20.  Watch my Magcrow PvP Build video if you don’t believe me.

Suppression Field

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Suppression Field
Create a globe of magic suppression for 12 seconds, removing and preventing all enemy area of effect abilities from occurring in the area. Enemies within the globe are stunned, while enemy players will be silenced rather than stunned. The globe also damages enemies for 1038 Magic Damage every 1 second.

Usage: This is the go to morph because it does damage during that big huge bomb combo.  Not used in PvE at all due to other ultimates being much stronger.

Absorption Field

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Absorption Field
Create a globe of magic suppression for 12 seconds, removing and preventing all enemy area of effect abilities from occurring in the area. Enemies within the globe are stunned, while enemy players will be silenced rather than stunned. The globe also heals you and your allies for 1038 Health every 1 second.

Usage: This morph is okay if you start a sorc and need an oh crap heal.  But outside of that I don’t see much usage in the healing morph.

Active Skills
Crystal Shard
Crystal Shard
Conjure dark crystals to bombard an enemy, dealing 2404 Magic Damage. Your next non-Ultimate ability cast within 3 seconds costs 10% less.

Usage:  Crystal Shard is you base morph of two super powerful abilities.  You can use this as a main spammable but the fun comes when you get to morph.

Crystal Weapon

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Crystal Weapon
Encase your weapon in dark crystals for 4 seconds, causing your next Light or Heavy Attack to deal an additional 2323 Physical Damage and reducing the target’s Armor by 1000 for 5 seconds. After casting, your next non-Ultimate ability used within 3 seconds costs 10% less.

Usage: First morph choice is Crystal Weapon which allows you to light or heavy attack doing massive damage instantly.  This is your combo skill as a mag or stam sorc with Overload or another ability to one shot players.  It does work on magicka builds too so don’t sleep on it.  Cast then charge in with streak, bang it hits like a hammer and can be used as a main spammable in PvP.  Outside of that I don’t use in PvE.

Crystal Fragments

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Crystal Fragments
Conjure dark crystals to bombard an enemy, dealing 2483 Magic Damage. Your next non-Ultimate ability cast within 3 seconds costs 10% less. Casting a Magicka Ability has a 35% chance of causing your next Crystal Fragments to be instant, deal 66% more damage, and cost 50% less Magicka.

Usage:  The common PvE morph is Crystal Fragments which is one of the most fun combat play loops in ESO.  While you’re casting magicka abilities, you get a 35% to cause next frag cheaper, harder hitting and cost less magicka.  The non pet loadout uses a skill like Crushing Shock from the Destruction Staff to “proc” this effect.  Your hands glow, the ability changes appearance on the bar and you frag out which is so dang fun.  The double pet loadout uses this as a main spammable even though it has a cast time.  And casting it, can well proc an insta cast.  I prefer the one Pet loadout in PvE and use the Crushing Shock/C-Frag gameplay loop.

Encase
Encase
Call forth Daedric shards from the earth to immobilize enemies in front of you for 4 seconds. If no enemies are immobilized, you restore 2851 Magicka.

Usage: this is a good AoE immobilization still that has a spot in some PvE and PvP builds.  Unlike the Dragonknight, this is in front of you whereas the DK is AoE all around you.  Still a decent skill with some utility.

Shattering Prison

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Shattering Prison
Call forth Daedric shards from the earth to immobilize enemies in front of you for 4 seconds. The shards deal 1799 Magic Damage when the effect ends. If no enemies are immobilized, you restore 2673 Magicka.

Usage: This morph deals damage which really isn’t needed as a tank or PvP utility skill.

Restraining Prison

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Restraining Prison
Call forth Daedric shards from the earth to immobilize enemies in front of you for 6 seconds. If no enemies are immobilized, you restore 2673 Magicka. Hitting an enemy grants you Major Vitality, increasing your healing received by 16% for 2 seconds plus 1 extra second per enemy in the area, up to a maximum of 6 enemies.

Usage: this morph grants major vitality and increases immobilization duration which is fantastic for PvE Tanks.

Rune Prison
Rune Prison
Imprison an enemy in a constricting sphere of dark magic. After a short duration they are stunned for 3 seconds. This stun cannot be blocked.

Usage: this is another skill that the sorcs have to stun lock a player.  It cannot be blocked so it’s very useful in PvP.  Downside is, you already have a much more powerful unblockable stun which is Streak.  Thus I typically shy away from this skill.

Rune Cage

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Rune Cage
Imprison an enemy in a constricting sphere of dark magic. After a short duration they are stunned for 3 seconds. Deals 1799 Magic Damage if the stun lasts the full duration. This stun cannot be blocked.

Usage: this morph simply deals damage and doesn’t have much usage.

Defensive Rune

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Defensive Rune
Place a rune of protection on yourself for 2 minutes. While active, the next enemy to attack you is imprisoned in a constricting sphere of dark magic, stunning them after a short delay for 3 seconds. This stun cannot be blocked.

Usage: I love this skill in PvP only.  You put a rune on yourself thus if someone tries to attack you, they are auto stunned.  This is the perfect counter to Nightblade gankers in Imperial City.  Put it on and it’ll allow you time to counter when they open up on you.

Dark Exchange
Dark Exchange
Bargain with darkness to restore 8090 Health and 3600 Magicka instantly, and an additional 2400 Magicka over 20 seconds.

Usage: here’s the S Tier recovery ability base morph.  Both morphs provide insane benefit.  This skill is mainly a PvP skill as in PvE you can use heavy attacks to sustain.  However, when leveling this can come in very handy.

Dark Deal

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Dark Deal
Bargain with darkness to restore 8090 Health and 3600 Stamina instantly, and an additional 2400 Stamina over 20 seconds.

Usage:  This morph is for stamina users, exchanging magicka for stamina and health.  Allowing the Stam Sorc to run zero recovery and relay solely on this skill for sustain.  The downside is, the gameplay loop can be very boring.  Constantly casting this in between fights over and over.  But it’s insane good and the fact that it heals you too puts it over the top.  This skill can be interrupted, so it’s great to counter sorcs by bashing when they are channeling.

Dark Conversion

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Dark Conversion
Bargain with darkness to restore 8090 Health and 3600 Magicka instantly, and an additional 2400 Magicka over 20 seconds.

Usage: this is the magicka version and why I run a massive max stamina pool on my sorcerer.  You go the max stat route vs per recovery due to this reason, you have infinite sustain channeling this repeatedly to get back magicka up front and over time.  Thus you should be constantly casting this.

Daedric Mines
Daedric Mines
Surprise your foes by placing 3 volatile Daedric mines around you, which take 3 seconds to arm and last for 15 seconds. When a mine is triggered it explodes, dealing 2479 Magic Damage and immobilizing the enemy for 2 seconds.

Usage: mines is another primary PvP skills for peeling and getting away.  Set mines, the arm, boom.

Daedric Tomb

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Daedric Tomb
Surprise your foes by placing 3 volatile Daedric mines at a target location, which arm instantly and last for 15 seconds. When a mine is triggered it explodes, dealing 2559 Magic Damage and immobilizing the enemy for 2 seconds.

Usage: this morph is the PvE morph allowing you to throw a bunch of mines.  I don’t use this skill because there are much better damage over time or burst skills the Sorcs have.  It looks cool, but Mystic Orb or Volcanic Rune will out parse this drastically.

Daedric Minefield

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Daedric Minefield
Surprise your foes by placing 5 volatile Daedric mines around you, which take 3 seconds to arm and last for 15 seconds. When a mine is triggered it explodes, dealing 2559 Magic Damage and immobilizing the enemy for 2 seconds.

Usage: this morph is fantastic for PvP.  Place mines and after they are, if people chase you it’ll do big time damage.  This is my go to skill if I’m constantly getting dog piled by the opposing team in Battlegrounds.

Passive Skills
Unholy Knowledge
Unholy Knowledge
Reduces the Health, Magicka, and Stamina costs of your non Core Combat abilities by 6%.

 

Blood Magic
Blood Magic
When you hit an enemy with a directly applied Dark Magic ability, you heal for 1600. This effect scales off your Maximum Health and can occur once every 0.5 seconds.

Notes: this means your C=frag heals you, and for a lot making you very survivable.

Persistence
Persistence
After blocking an attack, your next Health, Magicka, or Stamina Ability costs 15% less.
Exploitation
Exploitation
When you cast a Dark Magic ability you grant Minor Prophecy to you and your group, increasing your Spell Critical rating by 1314 for 20 seconds.

Notes: this is your unique class buff adding a bunch of spell critical.


Daedric Summoning Skill Line

Daedric Summoning:


Name Effect
Ultimate Skills
Summon Storm Atronach
Summon Storm Atronach
Summon an immobile storm atronach at the target location. Its arrival deals 2249 Shock Damage and stuns enemies for 3 seconds. The atronach zaps the closest enemy, dealing 1124 Shock Damage every 1 second. An ally near the atronach can activate the Charged Lightning synergy, granting the ally and the atronach Major Berserk, increasing their damage done by 10% for 8 seconds.

Usage: this is the base morph of an ultra powerful damage ultimate.  Consider one of the strongest single target in the game with great group utility this is a must have skill in PvE.

Greater Storm Atronach

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Greater Storm Atronach
Summon an immobile storm atronach at the target location. Its arrival deals 2249 Shock Damage and stuns enemies for 3 seconds. The atronach zaps the closest enemy, dealing 1124 Shock Damage every 1 second. An ally near the atronach can activate the Charged Lightning synergy, granting the ally and the atronach Major Berserk, increasing their damage done by 10% for 8 seconds.

Usage: this is one of the top single target DPS ultimate in the game and great as a starting player or later on in end game.  Major Berserk means great group utility and the duration being so long that it’s nearly constantly up with the low cost of this.  I swap in and out destruction staff ultimate depending on boss fights or situation.   Keep in mind in PvP this is insane for dueling and hard to counter in a 1 on 1.

Summon Charged Atronach

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Summon Charged Atronach
Summon an immobile storm atronach at the target location. Its arrival deals 2323 Shock Damage and stuns enemies for 3 seconds. The atronach zaps the closest enemy, dealing 1124 Shock Damage every 1 second, and periodically deals 2323 Shock Damage to enemies around it. An ally near the atronach can activate the Charged Lightning synergy, granting the ally and the atronach Major Berserk, increasing their damage done by 10% for 8 seconds.

Usage: this morph doesn’t really make sense to me and I honestly never select it.

Active Skills
Summon Unstable Familiar
Summon Unstable Familiar
Command the powers of Oblivion to send a Daedric familiar to fight at your side. The familiar’s attacks deal 347 Shock Damage. Once summoned, you can activate the familiar’s special ability for 3510 Magicka, dealing 580 Shock Damage every 2 seconds for 10 seconds to enemies near him. The familiar remains until killed or unsummoned.

Usage: the skills base morph is awesome damage and distraction for running a pet.  I’d suggest using this right away as stamina or magicka user because the morph choices are strong right from the start as a sorc.  In ESO make sure to double bar the pet so it doesn’t turn on and off and keep in mind they do die and you’ll need to recast them.

Summon Unstable Clannfear

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Summon Unstable Clannfear
Command the powers of Oblivion to send a Daedric clannfear to fight at your side. The clannfear’s headbutt deals 358 Physical Damage, while its tail spike hits nearby enemies for 358 Physical Damage after 1 second. Once summoned, you can activate the clannfear’s special ability for 4500 Magicka, healing you for 5121 and the clannfear for 2560. The clannfear remains until killed or unsummoned.

Usage: this thing not only does damage but heals you! Consider this the stamina based morph but it’s great starting the game when you have limited healing.  Just recast and boom burst heal.  As a stamina sorc running this and critical surge you’ll be as sturdy as a tank.

Summon Volatile Familiar

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Summon Volatile Familiar
Command the powers of Oblivion to send a Daedric familiar to fight at your side. The familiar’s attacks deal 358 Shock Damage. Once summoned, you can activate the familiar’s special ability for 3510 Magicka, dealing 599 Shock Damage every 2 seconds for 10 seconds to enemies near him. The final pulse will stun all enemies hit for 3 seconds. The familiar remains until killed or unsummoned.

Usage: this is your typical magicka morph.  If you have good healing, you can use this out the gate for good damage, distraction and a stun!

Daedric Curse
Daedric Curse
Curse an enemy with a destructive rune, dealing 2904 Magic Damage to the target and 1335 Magic Damage to all other nearby enemies after 6 seconds. You can have only one Daedric Curse active at a time.

Usage: this is your hard hitting damage over time that explodes.

Daedric Prey

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Daedric Prey
Curse an enemy with a destructive rune, dealing 2904 Magic Damage to the target and 1335 Magic Damage to all other nearby enemies after 6 seconds. While the curse is active, your pets deal an additional 20% damage to the target. You can have only one Daedric Prey active at a time.

Usage: this morph is for the double pet loadout in PvE or PvP.  It strengthens your pets damage by 20% but you have to recast more frequently every 6 seconds.  Most folks drop a main spammable, slot two pets and use crystal fragments as a main spammable and keep this up most of the time.  It works well, but I consider it a dull playstyle and avoid it.

Haunting Curse

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Haunting Curse
Curse an enemy with a destructive rune, dealing 2999 Magic Damage to the target and 1379 Magic Damage to all other nearby enemies after 3.5 seconds. The curse will continue to haunt the enemy and explode a second time, dealing 2999 Magic Damage to the target and 1379 Magic Damage to all other nearby enemies after an additional 8.5 seconds. You can have only one Haunting Curse active at a time.

Usage: This is the 1 pet or no pet DoT in PvE and PvP.  This does great damage and explodes twice.  It’s much easier to maintain and in PvP you can center your burst around the time this blows up for huge damage in a small window.

Summon Winged Twilight
Summon Winged Twilight
Call on Azura to send a winged twilight to fight at your side. The winged twilight’s zaps deal 347 Shock Damage and its kicks deal 347 Shock Damage. Once summoned, you can activate the winged twilight’s special ability for 4590 Magicka, causing it to heal a friendly target for 3486 and itself for 1742. The winged twilight remains until killed or unsummoned.

Usage: here’s the second pet which does a lot of damage just having it slotted.  The base morph is insane strong because  you can recast for magicka and heal your or a target.  It scales off highest offensive stats thus even as a damage dealer you can get massive burst healing with it in PvE or PvP.

Summon Twilight Tormentor

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Summon Twilight Tormentor
Call on Azura to send a twilight tormentor to fight at your side. The twilight tormentor’s zaps deal 718 Shock Damage and its kicks deal 718 Shock Damage. Once summoned, you can activate the twilight tormentor’s special ability for 2970 Magicka, causing it to deal 53% more damage to enemies above 50% Health for 15 seconds. The twilight tormentor remains until killed or unsummoned.

Usage:  this morph is the damage dealing morph.  It’s great in PvE because even just double baring this will give you massive amounts of damage.  Cast above 50% health for even more damage so consider this another DoT or something to keep in your rotation until bosses near 50% HP.

Summon Twilight Matriarch

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Summon Twilight Matriarch
Call on Azura to send a twilight matriarch to fight at your side. The twilight matriarch’s zaps deal 347 Shock Damage and its kicks deal 347 Shock Damage. Once summoned, you can activate the twilight matriarch’s special ability for 4590 Magicka, causing it to heal 2 friendly targets for 3600 and itself for 1799. The twilight matriarch remains until killed or unsummoned.

Usage: I prefer this morph in PvE outside of a trial and PvP due to the utility.  You can literally carry you team EVEN as a DPS using this ability.  Healer goes down, no worries bird spam.  Tank goes down, no worries I got it, dodge roll bird spam.  Everyone near death in PvP, no worries bird spam.  One of the most powerful abilities in the game for utility because it scales so well even as an offensive build.

Conjured Ward
Conjured Ward
Conjure globes of Daedric energy for protection, granting a damage shield for you and your pets that absorbs 3718 damage for 6 seconds. Damage shield strength capped at 50% of your Maximum Health.

Usage: this is your survival tool as a mag sorc.  These shield scale in effectiveness off max magicka.  Thus maintaining high max magicka pool is your survivability mechanism in PvP primarily.  This is why most mag sorcs get 45,000 to 50,000 shields and if you constantly cast them, you’ll never touch their health.  However, it takes a high amount of skill to constantly keep up a 6 second shield so if it doesn’t come natural, that’s the case with everyone.

Hardened Ward

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Hardened Ward
Conjure globes of Daedric energy for protection, granting a damage shield for you and your pets that absorbs 5121 damage for 6 seconds. Damage shield strength capped at 60% of your Maximum Health.

Usage: this morph is the tankier of the two giving you 10% more shield strength.  If you’re good at bar swapping and maintaining shields, this is it!

Empowered Ward

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Empowered Ward
Conjure globes of Daedric energy for protection, granting a damage shield for you and your pets that absorbs 3718 damage for 10 seconds. Damage shield strength capped at 50% of your Maximum Health. Also grants Minor Intellect to you and nearby allies, increasing your Magicka Recovery by 15% for 10 seconds.

Usage: this is the group utility morph and one I select in solo or group PvE outside of trials.  Because your group with get 15% magicka recovery and that extra 10% doesn’t matter than much in PvE.

Bound Armor
Bound Armor
Protect yourself with the power of Oblivion, creating a suit of Daedric mail that increases your block mitigation by 36% for 3 seconds. While slotted, your Maximum Magicka is increased by 5%

Usage: this base morph is a bit odd, but consider this skill a good set and forget skill. It increases magicka so starting its great and doesn’t require mages guild.  You can cast it for block mitigation but with 3 second window, I never use it in PvE tanking.

Bound Armaments

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Bound Armaments
Arm yourself with the power of Oblivion for 40 seconds, causing your Light and Heavy Attacks to summon a Bound weapon for 10 seconds, up to 4 times. You can reactivate the ability for half cost to arm the weapons, causing them to strike your target for 972 Physical Damage every 0.3 seconds. While slotted, your Maximum Stamina is increased by 8% and your Light Attacks deal 10% more damage.

Usage: this is the stamina based morph that builds up stacks for a massive attack.  At 4 stacks your icon will change color similar to C Frags and you’ll fire it off for big time damage.  Slotting gives you massive benefit increasing stamina and light attack damage. Thus you can see how powerful slotting this along with Crystal Fragment is for a light attack nuke. You can even use the psijic order skill elemental weapons too and get similar results.

Bound Aegis

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Bound Aegis
Protect yourself with the power of Oblivion, creating a suit of Daedric mail that increases your block mitigation by 40% for 3 seconds. While slotted, your Maximum Magicka is increased by 8% and you gain Minor Resolve, increasing your Physical Resistance and Spell Resistance by 2974.

Usage: consider this the magicka users choice and with a whooping 8% magicka it’s the go to front bar slot for PvE and PvP.  It also increases mitigation for slotting making a great all around skill.

Passive Skills
Rebate
Rebate
You restore 300 Magicka or Stamina when one of your non-Ultimate Daedric Summoning abilities end. The resource returned is dictated by the ability’s cost.
Power Stone
Power Stone
Reduces the cost of your Ultimate abilities by 15%.

Note: Sorcs don’t have an ulty generation passive, this is what you get.  Dirt cheap ultimates instead.

Daedric Protection
Daedric Protection
Increases your Health and Stamina Recovery by 20% while you have a Daedric Summoning ability slotted.

Note: this is important to note and why there’s a big benefit in double baring a pet or summoning skill.

Expert Summoner
Expert Summoner
Increases your Maximum Health by 8% while you have a Daedric Summoning ability active on yourself.

Note: same thing here, maintaining ability = huge health pool.


Storm Calling Skill Line

Storm Calling


Name Effect
Ultimate Skills
Overload
Overload
Charge your fists with the power of the storm, replacing your Light and Heavy Attacks with new, stronger abilities. Light Attacks become lightning bolts, dealing 2323 Shock Damage to an enemy up to 28 meters away. Heavy Attacks blast enemies in a 4 x 6 area for 2090 Shock Damage. Attacks deplete Ultimate until you run out, or the ability is toggled off.

Usage: this is a burst ultimate that you can combine with crystal weapons to one shot players in PvP. This use to be the strongest single target ability in ESO for VMA back in 2016 but not that effective in PvE due to nerfs.  Mainly consider this a good PvP 1 v 1 skill.  When you activate it, your hands will glow and it’ll seem a bit odd.  But you can skill use abilities and no longer do you have a third bar.

Power Overload

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Power Overload
Charge your fists with the power of the storm, replacing your Light and Heavy Attacks with new, stronger abilities. Light Attacks become lightning bolts, dealing 2640 Shock Damage to an enemy up to 32 meters away. Heavy Attacks blast enemies in a 6 x 8 area for 2375 Shock Damage. Attacks deplete Ultimate until you run out, or the ability is toggled off.

Usage: this morph further amplifies the effect and can absolutely nuke players. I’ve been on the receiving end of this many times.  Typically people will cast crystal weapons or elemental weapons first, light attack with this active and boom.

Energy Overload

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Energy Overload
Charge your fists with the power of the storm, replacing your Light and Heavy Attacks with new, stronger abilities. Each attack restores 1192 Magicka. Light Attacks become lightning bolts, dealing 2399 Shock Damage to an enemy up to 28 meters away. Heavy Attacks blast enemies in a 4 x 6 area for 2160 Shock Damage. Attacks deplete Ultimate until you run out, or the ability is toggled off.

Usage: consider this a good resource sustaining tool as a new player.  I don’t use this ability in PvE or PvP because the other ultimate choices are so strong and I can get resources else where.

Active Skills
Mages’ Fury
Mages' Fury
Call down lightning to strike an enemy, dealing 870 Shock Damage. If the enemy falls to or below 20% Health within 4 seconds of being struck, an explosion deals an additional 3195 Shock Damage to them and 695 Shock Damage to other enemies nearby.

Usage: this is the sorc’s execute.   The downside is, it starts at 20% health whereas other ultimates start becoming effective at higher health pools.  The update is, the explosion will proc if it’s reached under 4 seconds.  Thus, in PvP you can front load curse and this and if a player drops below 20%, they instantly take a massive amount of damage and most likely not be able to counter it.  Great skill in PvE and PvP.

Mages’ Wrath

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Mages' Wrath
Call down lightning to strike an enemy, dealing 871 Shock Damage. If the enemy falls to or below 20% Health within 4 seconds of being struck, an explosion deals an additional 3195 Shock Damage to them and 1438 Shock Damage to other enemies nearby.

Usage: this is the morph I typically chose because sustain is very easy on a magicka sorc. It’ll do AoE damage as shock around nearby enemies just allowing you to clear trash or more damage to other players quickly.

Endless Fury

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Endless Fury
Call down lightning to strike an enemy, dealing 871 Shock Damage. If the enemy falls to or below 20% Health within 4 seconds of being struck, an explosion deals an additional 3195 Shock Damage to them and 696 Shock Damage to other enemies nearby. If any enemy is killed within 5 seconds of being hit with this ability, you restore 4860 Magicka.

Usage: this is a good morph if you struggle with sustain or playing something like a solo arena and you want tons of sustain.  I find Mag Sorc very easy sustain so I go with damage.

Lightning Form
Lightning Form
Manifest yourself as pure lightning, zapping nearby enemies with electricity dealing 230 Shock Damage every 1 second for 15 seconds. While in this form you also gain Major Resolve, increasing your Physical Resistance and Spell Resistance by 5948.

Usage: this is your armor buff mainly used on tanks in PvE and PvP both magicka and stamina builds.  It has a very long duration so it’ll be easy to obtain and it does damage around you too.

Hurricane

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Hurricane
Manifest yourself as pure air, buffeting nearby enemies with wind dealing 238 Physical Damage every 1 second for 15 seconds. The winds grow in damage and size, increasing up to 150% more damage and up to 9 meters in size. While in this form you gain Major Resolve and Minor Expedition, increasing your Physical Resistance and Spell Resistance by 5948 and your Movement Speed by 15%.

Usage: this morph is unique in that it grants minor expedition giving you even more speed.  Moreover it grows in size and damage and hits very hard.  You’ll want to consider this one of your top priorities as a stam sorc in PvE or PvP.

Boundless Storm

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Boundless Storm
Manifest yourself as pure lightning, zapping nearby enemies with electricity dealing 238 Shock Damage every 1 second for 23 seconds. While in this form you also gain Major Resolve, increasing your Physical Resistance and Spell Resistance by 5948. Activating this grants Major Expedition for a brief period, increasing your Movement Speed 30% for 4 seconds.

Usage: this is the more magicka based morph giving a brief boost in speed and converting to shock damage.  I use this primarily in PvP and don’t use in PvE DPS.

Lightning Splash
Lightning Splash
Create a nexus of storm energy at the target location, dealing 347 Shock Damage to enemies in the area every 1 second for 10 seconds. An ally standing within the nexus can activate the Conduit synergy, dealing 2249 Shock Damage to enemies around them.

Usage: this is a decent damage over time effect that you can place at range.  The benefit is allies can activate a synergy with it.  End game, synergies are sought after in group play due to the undaunted command passive.  The morph you have, the better sustain.  The better your groups sustain, the more damage you can spec into.  I typically use Mystic Orb over this because it’s single target and AoE damage but it’s a great option.

Liquid Lightning

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Liquid Lightning
Create a nexus of storm energy at the target location, dealing 347 Shock Damage to enemies in the area every 1 second for 14 seconds. An ally standing within the nexus can activate the Conduit synergy, dealing 2249 Shock Damage to enemies around them.

Usage: first morph and this is the long duration morph.  It’s okay but I think there’s better choices for higher DPS.

Lightning Flood

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Lightning Flood
Create a nexus of storm energy at the target location, dealing 431 Shock Damage to enemies in the area every 1 second for 10 seconds. An ally standing within the nexus can activate the Conduit synergy, dealing 2249 Shock Damage to enemies around them.

Usage: this is my preferred morph because it increases radius and damage.  You can use this effectively in arenas with heavy spawn mechanics, because unlike Curse, it doesn’t require a target.  Combine this with Mystic Orb for insane AoE DoT damage with two synergies.

Surge
Surge
Invoke Meridia’s name to gain Major Brutality and Sorcery, increasing your Weapon Damage and Spell Damage by 20% for 33 seconds. While active, dealing Critical Damage heals you for 2550 Health. This effect can occur once every 1 second.

Usage: one of the best survivable skills in all of eso, surge will allow you to get healed for critical damage you deal.  Thus, allowing the sorc to play super aggressive as long as you maintain this buff.  It also grants important spell and weapon damage buff and frees up potion options for you.

Power Surge

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Power Surge
Invoke Meridia’s name to gain Major Brutality and Major Sorcery, increasing your Weapon Damage and Spell Damage by 20% for 33 seconds. While active, activating a Critical heal causes the ability to heal you and your allies around you for 2550 Health. This effect can occur once every 3 seconds.

Usage:  this morph is more for group utility healing others around you. I personally don’t use this morph and find it very niche.

Critical Surge

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Critical Surge
Invoke Meridia’s name to gain Major Brutality and Sorcery, increasing your Weapon Damage and Spell Damage by 20% for 33 seconds. While active, dealing Critical Damage heals you for 3300 Health. This effect can occur once every 1 second.

Usage: this is the S Tier survival morph giving you massive healing and it can happen every one second! Thus, PvP, PvE, stam, magicka it doesn’t matter, the sorc can throttle damage on aggression and survive!

Bolt Escape
Bolt Escape
Transform yourself into pure energy and flash forward, stunning enemies near your final location for 3 seconds. This effect cannot be blocked. Casting again within 4 seconds costs 33% more Magicka.

Usage: another one of ESO’s most powerful abilities, and the #1 in mobility in the entire game.  Cast it, dash forward.  If you cast again within a short 4 second window it cost much morph.  Not only this, but you stun enemies in front of you in an AoE and they cannot block it. This does so many things for you I could write a novel.  Stuns so you can kill enemies in PvP.  Get away tool allowing you to cover massive distances.  And it looks incredibly cool!   I don’t use this in PvE but PvP it makes the sorc worth playing just to spam this.

Streak

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Streak
Transform yourself into pure energy and flash forward, dealing 1438 Shock Damage to enemies in your wake and stunning them for 3 seconds. This effect cannot be blocked. Casting again within 4 seconds costs 33% more Magicka. This ability scales with your highest offensive stats.

Usage: now with this morph you’ll even add damage to the ability!  And it’s a lot of damage.  How I use the skill in PvP is load up a crystal weapons and charge thru someone turn light attack and ability.  It’s so much burst damage it’s hard to counter.  Light someone up with a Mages Fury before you charge in and boom!

Ball of Lightning

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Ball of Lightning
Transform yourself into pure energy and flash forward. After reaching your location, you become immune to snare and immobilize effects for 2 seconds. A ball of lightning is created at your end point, which intercepts up to 1 projectile attack made against you every 1 second for 3 seconds. Casting again within 4 seconds costs 33% more Magicka.

Usage: I’m not a big fan of this ability but it’s great if you want to use this primarily for escaping only.

Passive Skills
Capacitor
Capacitor
Increases your Magicka Recovery by 10%.
Energized
Energized
Increases your Physical and Shock Damage by 5%.
Amplitude
Amplitude
Increases your damage done against enemies by 1% for every 10% current Health they have.
Expert Mage
Expert Mage
Increases your Weapon Damage and Spell Damage by 2% for each Sorcerer ability slotted. Current bonus: 0%.

Notes: this is unique to the Sorc and a good reason to load up the bar with skills from Storm Calling.


Recommend Gear and Builds

Magicka Sorcerer PvE DPS Build & Recommended Gear Sets

5pc Primary Offensives (slotted on body)

5pc Secondary Offensives (slotted on jewelry & weapons)

Monster Helm

Mythic

Arena Weapons

  • Willpower = beginner 2pc item set for max stats
  • Trainee = beginner 2pc item set for max stats
  • Perfected Crushing Wall = great back bar weapon

Stamina Sorcerer PvE DPS & Recommended Gear Sets

  • Hundings rage = good craftable
  • Briarheart = good beginner 5pc
  • Agility = beginner 2pc weapons
  • Deadly Strikes = easy DPS for jabs
  • Vicious Serpent = great solo sustain set
  • Perfected Maelstrom 2H/Bow = good back bar weapons
  • Pale Order = god tier solo survivability
  • Stormfist = great dps monster
  • Engine Guardian = sustain help
  • Scourge Harvest = healing
  • Kjalnar’s Nightmare = great single target damage
  • Selene = hard hitting proc set
  • Relequen = bis single target 5pc
  • Vicious Serpent = resource sustain
  • Sul Xan = perfect for dungeons and arenas damage set
  • Leviathan = good dungeon set for high crit chance
  • Tzogvin’s Warband = great damage and easier procs
  • Kinra’s Wrath = great overall damage if you are good with light attack weaves
  • Beserking Warrior = insane damage in trials if you can light attack weave
  • Pillars of Nirn = great dungeon proc set without light attack weaving
  • Briarheart = great overland set for the front bar
  • New Moon = great craftable set for the front bar

Magicka Sorcerer PvP Build & Recommended Gear Sets

  • Engine Guardian = sustain
  • Malabeth = healing
  • Balorgh = burst
  • Zoal = counter gank
  • Magma Incarnate = great all around and group support
  • Perfect Vestment of Olorime
  • Clever Alchemist = crazy burst damage
  • Kynmarcher’s Cruelty = massive AoE debuff good solo or group
  • War Madien = great spell damage if using front bar
  • New Moon = great spell damage on front bar
  • Scathing Mage = good spell damage set that will help with your damage and healing
  • Ironblood = great for duels
  • Daedric Trickery = great all-around defensive
  • Pariah = good for armor keep on body all times
  • Buffer of Swift = awesome damage reduction
  • Grace of Gloom = insane survivability if you have high health

Stamina Sorcerer PvP Build & Recommended Gear Sets

  • Engine Guardian = sustain
  • Malabeth = healing
  • Balorgh = burst
  • Zoal = counter gank
  • Magma Incarnate = great all around and group support
  • Wretched Vitality = insane sustain
  • Powerful Assault = group utility and damage
  • Clever Alchemist = crazy burst damage
  • Plaguebreak =  AoE DoT damage
  • Unleashed Terror =  gap closer damage
  • New Moon =  good damage craftable set
  • Kynmarcher’s Cruelty = massive AoE debuff good solo or group
  • Markyn Ring of Majesty = best overall mythic
  • Torc = resource sustain
  • Wild Hunt = speed

Sorcerer Tank Build & Recommended Gear Sets

  • Sentinel of Rkugamz: obtained in Veteran Dungeon Darkshade Caverns I, and Undaunted vendor Maj for shoulder.
  • Powerful Assault: found in Imperial City sewers vendor and sold on the traders.
  • Torug’s Pact to take advantage of Crusher enchant
  • Perfected Puncturing Remedy: Veteran Dragonstar Arena in Craglorn though can do normal and get lesser version.
  • Encratis’s Behemoth (helm found in Black Drake Villa): flame attacks proc increased fire damage and decrease flame for entire team
  • Engine Guardian for selfish sustain, Bloodspawn for more ultimate or Sentinel for group sustain.
  • Perfected Claw of Yolnahkriin: obtained in Veteran Sunspire or normal for lesser version.

Sorcerer Healer Build & Recommended Gear Sets

  • Spalder of Ruin = insane 2pc mythic for damage added
  • Symphony of Blades = good resource sustain
  • Spell Power Cure = major courage easy to obtain and mobile
  • Perfected Stone-Talker’s Oath = god tier group resource sustain
  • Perfected Grand Rejuvenation = god tier group resource sustain
  • Sentinel of Rkugamz = beginner sustain 2pc monster
  • Magma Incarnate = best in slot dungeon monster
  • Earthgore = super burst heal
  • Vestment of Olorime = longer duration major courage though lacks mobility
  • Jorvuld’s Guidance = paired Roaring Opportunist in trials
  • Roaring Opportunist = used to provide major slayer
  • Way of Martial Knowledge = damage added when sustain is high
  • Master Architect = great back dungeon set

Thanks for reading!