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HEAVY ATTACK SORCERER PVE DPS BUILD

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Heavy Attack Sorcerer PvE DPS

Table of contents

Skill Setups
Passives
Gear
Champion Points
Race
Mundus
Attributes
Food
Potions
Parse

Last updated: Update 44 - 20th March 2025

This build focuses on amplifying Heavy Attacks with the Sergeant’s Mail item set and the Empower buff, sourced from the Might of the Guild passive, procced by constantly using Ulfsild's Contingency. Sorcerer is the perfect class for that because of its pets, because Heavy Attacks take up a lot of time making you unable to spare many GCDs for other abilities.

SKILL SETUPS

This is the regular skill setup

Front Bar	Back Bar
Slot 1: Ulfsild's Contingency	Slot 1: Bound Aegis
Slot 2: Daedric Prey	Slot 2: Elemental Blockade
Slot 3: Summon Volatile Familiar	Slot 3: Summon Volatile Familiar
Slot 4: Summon Twilight Matriarch	Slot 4: Summon Twilight Matriarch
Slot 5: Banner Bearer	Slot 5: Banner Bearer
Ultimate: Flawless Dawnbreaker	Ultimate: Summon Charged Atronach

SCRIBING

INFO

Heavy attacking takes up a lot of time so we want to prioritize skills that are entirely (or almost entirely) passive, like the Banner Bearer, Bound Aegis and pets
Ulfsild's Contingency - your source of crucial Empower buff, which increases damage done by Heavy Attacks by 70%. Since Ulfsild's Contingency is a Mages Guild skill, it will trigger the Might of the Guild passive, which grants you Empower for 10 seconds. It also deals decent damage in an AoE and grants you Minor Force buff, increasing your Critical Damage by 10%. Ulfsild's Contingency is delayed until the next skill cast but whenever it's needed you can activate it early by bashing your enemy. If you cast this ability as you're finishing your Heavy Attack, the Empower you gain from it will start working just in time to boost the final tick of that Heavy Attack you just finished
Daedric Prey - an ability that deals decent damage and increases the damage your pets do to that target by 45%
Summon Volatile Familiar - an ability that summons a pet, which can be reactivated to deal damage in an AoE around this pet over 20 seconds
Summon Twilight Matriarch - an ability that summons a pet, which can be reactivated to heal 2 friendly targets
Banner Bearer - increases your Magical damage done by 6%, grants 60 Weapon Damage thanks to the Celerity Champion Point and grants Minor Heroism, increasing your ultimate generation. It also severely decreases your sustain but it's not an issue on a Heavy Attack build
Flawless Dawnbreaker - an ultimate we'll keep slotted to activate the Slayer and Banish the Wicked passives which increase Weapon and Spell Damage by 3% and generate Ultimate on kills. You can also use it towards the end of the fight if it's obvious you won't get enough Ultimate for another Summon Charged Atronach
Bound Aegis - an ability that will passively increase your Max Magicka by 8%. It will also grant you Minor Resolve and Minor Protection, increasing your survivability
Elemental Blockade - a ground DoT that will constantly re-apply your backbar weapon enchantment. It will also deal increased damage thanks to the Crushing Wall set and proc Off Balance if your supports aren't already doing it
Summon Charged Atronach - the most powerful ultimate Sorcerer has access to. It will also keep proccing Concussion status effect which will keep up the Minor Vulnerability debuff, which increases enemies' damage taken by 5%. An ally can also activate the Charged Lightning synergy which grants all nearby allies Major Berserk for 10 seconds, which increases damage done by 10%

SITUATIONAL

A skill setup for parsing on the practice dummy

Front Bar	Back Bar
Slot 1: Ulfsild's Contingency	Slot 1: Bound Aegis
Slot 2: Daedric Prey	Slot 2: Elemental Blockade
Slot 3: Summon Volatile Familiar	Slot 3: Summon Volatile Familiar
Slot 4: Summon Twilight Tormentor	Slot 4: Summon Twilight Tormentor
Slot 5: Banner Bearer	Slot 5: Banner Bearer
Ultimate: Flawless Dawnbreaker	Ultimate: Summon Charged Atronach

SCRIBING

INFO

Heavy attacking takes up a lot of time so we want to prioritize skills that are entirely (or almost entirely) passive, like the Banner Bearer, Bound Aegis and pets
Ulfsild's Contingency - your source of crucial Empower buff, which increases damage done by Heavy Attack by 70%. Since Ulfsild's Contingency is a Mages Guild skill, it will trigger the Might of the Guild passive, which grants you Empower for 10 seconds. It also deals decent damage in an AoE and grants you Minor Force buff, increasing your Critical Damage by 10%. Ulfsild's Contingency is delayed until the next skill cast but whenever it's needed you can activate it early by bashing your enemy. If you cast this ability as you're finishing your Heavy Attack, the Empower you gain from it will start working just in time to boost the final tick of that Heavy Attack you just finished
Daedric Prey - an ability that deals decent damage and increases the damage your pets do to that target by 45%
Summon Volatile Familiar - an ability that summons a pet, which can be reactivated to deal damage in an AoE around this pet over 20 seconds
Summon Twilight Tormentor - since we won't ever need a heal during a dummy parse, we can use the more DPS focused morph of this ability
Banner Bearer - increases your Magical damage done by 6%, grants 60 Weapon Damage thanks to the Celerity Champion Point and grants Minor Heroism, increasing your ultimate generation. It also severely decreases your sustain but it's not an issue on a Heavy Attack build
Flawless Dawnbreaker - an ultimate we'll keep slotted to activate the Slayer and Banish the Wicked passives which increase Weapon and Spell Damage by 3% and generate Ultimate on kills. You can also use it towards the end of the fight if it's obvious you won't get enough Ultimate for another Summon Charged Atronach
Bound Aegis - an ability that will passively increase your Max Magicka by 8%. It will also grant you Minor Resolve and Minor Protection, increasing your survivability
Elemental Blockade - a ground DoT that will constantly re-apply your backbar weapon enchantment. It will also deal increased damage thanks to the Crushing Wall set
Summon Charged Atronach - the most powerful ultimate Sorcerer has access to. It will also keep proccing Concussion status effect which will keep up the Minor Vulnerability debuff, which increases enemies' damage taken by 5%. An ally can also activate the Charged Lightning synergy which grants all nearby allies Major Berserk for 10 seconds, which increases damage done by 10%

PASSIVES

There are no passives you need to skip with this build

Class
Weapon
Armor
Guild
Alliance War
Racial
Craft

Class - Dark Magic

Unholy Knowledge - Low Priority

Blood Magic - Medium Priority

Persistence - Low Priority

Exploitation - High Priority

GEAR

Default setup for dungeons and trials

Gear Slot	Set	Weight/Type	Trait	Enchantment
Head	Anthelmir's Construct	Medium	Divines	Magicka
Shoulders	Anthelmir's Construct	Light	Divines	Magicka
Chest	Deadly Strike	Medium	Divines	Magicka
Hands	Deadly Strike	Medium	Divines	Magicka
Belt	Deadly Strike	Medium	Divines	Magicka
Legs	Deadly Strike	Medium	Divines	Magicka
Boots	Deadly Strike	Medium	Divines	Magicka
Necklace	Sergeant's Mail	Jewelry	Bloodthirsty	Increase Physical Harm
Ring	Sergeant's Mail	Jewelry	Bloodthirsty	Increase Physical Harm
Ring	Sergeant's Mail	Jewelry	Bloodthirsty	Increase Physical Harm
Frontbar Main Hand	Sergeant's Mail	Lightning Staff	Precise	Shock
Backbar Main Hand	Crushing Wall	Lightning Staff	Infused	Weapon Damage

When choosing different situational sets you can only replace Deadly Strike, Crushing Wall and Anthelmir’s Construct. Sergeant’s Mail is too strong and too crucial for this build to ever be replaced. Ideally you want your 2nd 5-piece set to be Medium weight, but choosing a Light set is also an option in dungeons if none of your group members are providing any penetration

For example, a default setup for trash packs would replace Deadly Strike with Sul-Xan’s Torment

SITUATIONAL

ALTERNATIVE

ADDITIONAL INFO

Setup for parsing on the practice dummy

Gear Slot	Set	Weight/Type	Trait	Enchantment
Head	Anthelmir's Construct	Medium	Divines	Magicka
Shoulders	Anthelmir's Construct	Light	Divines	Magicka
Chest	Highland Sentinel	Medium	Divines	Magicka
Hands	Highland Sentinel	Medium	Divines	Magicka
Belt	Highland Sentinel	Medium	Divines	Magicka
Legs	Highland Sentinel	Medium	Divines	Magicka
Boots	Highland Sentinel	Medium	Divines	Magicka
Necklace	Sergeant's Mail	Jewelry	Bloodthirsty	Increase Physical Harm
Ring	Sergeant's Mail	Jewelry	Bloodthirsty	Increase Physical Harm
Ring	Sergeant's Mail	Jewelry	Bloodthirsty	Increase Physical Harm
Frontbar Main Hand	Sergeant's Mail	Lightning Staff	Precise	Flame
Backbar Main Hand	Crushing Wall	Inferno Staff	Infused	Shock

CHAMPION POINTS

Warfare

Weapons Expert (20% Light and Heavy Attack Damage)
Deadly Aim (6% Single Target Damage)
Fighting Finesse (8% Critical Damage and Healing)
Exploiter (10% Damage against Off Balance enemies)

Fitness

Boundless Vitality (1400 Max Health)
Fortified (1731 armor)
Celerity (10% Movement Speed)
Rejuvenation (90 Health, Stamina and Magicka Recovery)

ADDITIONAL INFO:

Replace Deadly Aim with Biting Aura in AoE fights

RACE

The difference between best and worst race is about 5% of DPS and there is no content in the entire game that you'd be blocked from completing because of choosing a bad race.

Best race for 12-man content - High Elf, Dark Elf

Best race for 4-man content - Khajiit

Other decent options: Orc, Breton

MUNDUS

Most of the time you should use The Thief Mundus, which increases your Critical Chance

In 4-man dungeons, you'll most likely need to use The Lover Mundus, which increases your penetration. It won't be needed if you're wearing Light Armor or if your tank is using penetration sets like Crimson Oath's Rive, but in the end it's more optimal for the tank to brings sets that boost other stats like Weapon Damage (Powerful Assault, Vestments of Olorime), Critical Damage (Lucent Echoes), or provide important debuffs (Turning Tide) while you bring the penetration yourself, especially since the penetration provided by the tank could end up wasted if other Damage Dealers in your group are Light Armor users (Concentration passive) or Arcanists (Splintered Secrets passive)

You can also use bring the penetration yourself with the Roar of Alkosh item set, as I mentioned before in the gear section, and I think this is the best option as long as you can rely on your teammates to provide synergies, because even though Alkosh is a support set it has really good stat lines and a Minor Slayer line, so you’ll most likely end up with more DPS with Alkosh and The Thief Mundus, rather than with a regular DPS set and The Lover Mundus. And even if you end up with a slightly lower DPS yourself, it’s definitely going to increase your overall group DPS, which is what matters most.

ATTRIBUTES

HEALTH

STAMINA

MAGICKA

You should always put all 64 attribute points into Magicka

FOOD

Artaeum Pickled Fish Bowl - Max Health, Max Magicka. Use it for most of regular content. Solitude Salmon-Millet Soup is a cheaper alternative
Tomato Garlic Chutney - Max Magicka. Use it for practice dummy parsing

POTIONS

Use the Spell Power potions (Increase Spell Power, Spell Critical, Restore Magicka). They'll provide Major Sorcery and Major Prophecy which are crucial buffs. You can craft them by combining Lady's Smock, Namira's Rot and Corn Flower.

PARSE

Combat Metrics screenshot of the 115k parse

Recording of the 115k parse

THANKS FOR READING

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Check out other Sorcerer builds

Solo Sorcerer Guide and Build

Solo Heavy Attack Sorcerer Build and Guide