Ever wanted to swing a massive maul into someone’s face?  Well don’t do it unless you’re playing the Elder Scrolls Online.  This is my latest Sorc build the Velvet Hammer.  It’s focused on massive AoE cleave damage and armor debuff.  It’s fast, hard-hitting, and a blast to play.  Let’s out our latest ESO Sorc DPS Build the Velvet Hammer!

Updated 2.0 PvP/PvE Build Here

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Table of Content

• Build Objective
• Skills
• Gear
• DPS Priorities
• Summary

 

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Build Objective

The Velvet Hammer is more of a solo or PvP build.  Objective is to “rambo” in via Critical Rush, smash some enemies enough to use your ultimate, and get out.  It’s devastating when played right, but not sustainable in say a trials group.  It’s perfect for soloing any content such as Dolmens, Delves, or World Bosses.

The above picture illustrates what I’m trying to do, strip opponents armor.  There’s two passives in the Two-Handed skill line that add to this and additionally the Night Mother’s Gaze set combined with a Crusher enchantment will them naked.

The character I use is Aitled (or Deltia backwards) a High Elf Sorcerer currently at Veteran Rank 5.  If I were to “re-roll” for an optimal stamina based Sorc, I’d probably pick Redguard.  Though High Elf leaves me with tons of options too, just your choice.  Let’s look at strengths and weaknesses:

+ Massive AoE damage

+ Solo machine (no healer needed)

+ Absolutely a blast to play

– Sustained damage

– Limited CC

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Skills

As with any build, it should have four key elements: gap closer, crowd control, a finisher, and healing.  This setup really shines at healing and gap closing with limited CC.  You’ll be spending most of your time in bar one focused on area damage.  The bow is your defensive and or single target pressure bar.  Here’s my abilities and usage for them.

Bar 1 | Two Handed (Mace or Hammer)

• Critical Rush – This is our gap closer that automatically crits.  This alone with strip opponents of nearly all armor with our passives, enhancements, and weapon.  Plus if you have Crit Surge running, you’ll be healed for a big chunk.  Use this to zoom around targets and keep up that “time on target.”
• Critical Surge – Oh yea, massive weapon damage and self-heals on critical hits.  Good thing we have a guaranteed crit with rush.  Make sure you keep this running at all times and save magicka just in case.  You’ll be able to live through near anything just by smiting fools with your hammer.
• Carve – This is our bread and butter stamina dump that generates a massive amount of ultimate.  Essentially you’ll keep up Crit Surge, leap in, and spam this until you’ve got enough ultimate for a bats.
• Streak – I put this on the bar because it can CC a group, generate ultimate for minor damage, and creates space.  You’ll want some space so you can Crit Rush again, thus healing and stripping opponents of armor.  It’s also a great escape tool in PvP or anywhere for that matter.
• Mage’s Wrath – This is our finisher that I use over the two-handed skill line finisher, Execute.  I use this because it has range, I’m usually full on magicka, and it can self-heal with Crit Surge too.  I want to keep stamina up for Carve and always have a Bats up if needed.
• Flawless Dawnbreaker (Ultimate) – This is the standard for weapon based classes.  It passively adds weapon damage and will really help your DPS.  Though, you’re not to actually use this ultimate, only in rare circumstances.  Make sure to swap to bar two and drop a bats.  This is just for additional damage.

Bar 2 | Bow

• Focused Aim – I struggled with Venom Arrow or Focused Aim here.  Considering this is more of a casting bar, I like the huge opener that buffs my ranged damage.  I could see putting something else here, maybe even Elude as a defensive.
• Lighting Flood – Flood generates so much AoE damage and is great for group play.  It has a low duration of three seconds which is key four this build.  C-Frags is our main objective, to keep casting spells in order to proc that and smashing opponents from ranged.  Consider this one tool to use that goes great with a group.
• Draining Shot – This is our standard knockback but actually can do a lot of damage as well.  If you Snipe a target at range then spam this as they approach, you can hit some high DPS.  I consider this a must have for range protection or a single target stamina dump.
• Crystal Fragments – C-Frags baby, I love this ability!  Huge range, self-heals, a CC, and hits like a truck.  Our goal is to optimize or improve our chances of procing this (meaning sound and buff showing that it’s instant/reduced cost).  We go from casting Curse/Flood and bang launch this once we hear that beautiful sound.
• Velocious Curse – I like this ability because it too only last for three seconds and explodes.  Combine this with Lighting Flood, we’ll be casting constantly and generating a lot of C Frags.  This single target rotation can actually do a decent amount of damage and is good for boss fights at ranged.
• Devouring Swarm (Ultimate) – This is our bread and butter ultimate with a reduced cost of 128 in stage four Vamp.  It’s just too good not to pass up.  If you’re really into PvP, you could go with the invisible version, but since I use this for leveling, Devouring Swarm is amazing for self-heals.

Later I’ll cover the rotations or how I open and close a fight.

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Gear

Weapon Damage to soft cap (with crit surge running) > health at 2200 (prevent being one-shot) > stamina

• Armor Weight – 5 medium and 2 light seem to be the sweet spot for damage and resource regeneration.  If you went all medium, you would probably do more damage though might be magicka starved especially on bar two.
• Traits – I do my usual setup on large pieces, e.g. Head/Chest/Legs with infused.  This gives me more bang for my buck or more stamina per piece.  I then do Divines for more damage off my Mundus Stone.  On the weapons, my Two-Hander doesn’t need more crit since I have a guaranteed one, so infused works to maximize the armor striping.  On bow, no guaranteed crit so I like precise.
• Set Bonuses – I use the Night Mother’s Gaze set for the auto-crit armor debuff.  It’s a great set regardless but this specifically is perfect for my build.  Next up is Ashen Grip for extra health to reach that important 2200 and more weapon damage.  With this combo, crit surge running and Flawless Dawnbreaker running, I hit like a hammer.
• Attributes – You could go a bunch of different ways here, but I like balance over pure DPS.  I go 24 magicka/1 health/ 24 stamina.  Since I’m also using stamina and magicka, I don’t rely on one more than the other except in glyphs.
• Glyphs – Really you could use a different combination as long as you reach those important numbers with weapon damage, health, and dump the rest into stamina.  On the weapons, I think it’s pretty obvious, strip them of armor!
• Jewelry – Here’s where you have some flexibility in your gear.  Since I’m a Vamp, one piece is for fire resist.  The other two are open.  Since I reach weapon damage soft cap, I go with stamina regeneration so I can keep Carving people and dropping bats.  But really you could a lot of different things depending on your play-style.
• Mundus – Oddly, I use the Shadow (crits hit harder) over the Thief (more crit).  My main ability is Critical Rush procing an armor debuff and self-heals.  The amount of healing I receive is due to how hard I hit.  Since I know I’m going to crit, I want to hit as hard as possible for 65% health return.  Though Thief is still a good choice.
• Food – For consumables, use the standard purple VR 5 food and weapon crit/power and stamina regeneration potions.

Now that we’ve covered gear, let’s discuss how I fight.

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DPS Priorities

Area Damage (AoE)

• Two-Hander – Critical Surge > Critical Rush > Carve until 128 Ultimate > Bar Swap to 2 > Bats > Back to one for more Carve
• Bow – Lighting Flood > Curse > Flood > C-Frags > Curse > Flood

Single Target

• Two-Hander -Critical Surge > Critical Rush > Carve until stamina low > Streak > Turn around and Critical Rush (dead)
• Bow – Critical Surge/bar swap > Focused Aim > Curse > Flood > C-Frags > Disorient Shot x2 > repeat

 

For survival, I’ll keep up critical surge and Rush, Streak, Rush, Carve, Bats.  You’re number one priority is to create space for a Rush and or generate ultimate for Bats.  Once Bats start going, block and you won’t be dying anytime soon.

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Summary

I can’t wait to upload the video and show you this setup.  I can truly rambo through all the story content soloing anything.  PvP is also fun zooming in and out of combat and putting pressure on other players.   Let me know what you think and if you’d make any changes!

Thanks for reading.