Magicka Sorcerer Solo Build
ESO Guide
Magicka Sorcerer Solo Build for ESO (also known as MagSorc). MagSorc has extremely good healing thanks to
Critical Surge and
Blood Magic passive which procs every time you use
Crystal Fragments.
Hurricane is a Major Resolve skill that also deals very good damage.
The build uses Nightblade's Assassination as a subclass, swapping out Daedric Summoning because pets are extremely bad for solo content. Assassination gives access to
Relentless Focus and
Soul Harvest, both strong abilities.
Relentless Focus is also very cheap on Stamina which helps with sustain, and
Soul Harvest also generates a lot of Ultimate from kills. It's a significant damage boost and the Sorcerer playstyle doesn't change at all. Pure class setups are also included if you don't want to subclass.
Capable of soloing every Veteran Dungeon that doesn't have a mechanic requiring multiple people, and most Hard Mode Dungeons. Soloed Veteran Bedlam Veil. Parses 66.7k in the regular setup and 56.9k in the crafted setup.
Looking for something simpler? Check out the One Bar Magicka Sorcerer Solo Build which can also solo Veteran Hard Mode dungeons with a single skill bar.
Subclassing
Subclassing is optional
Subclassing isn't mandatory and the build includes pure class skill setups
Combination
In this build, I'm trying to stick with the Sorcerer theme, which is why we subclass the Daedric Summoning skill line into Nightblade's Assassination. While there are skill lines that would provide more power, such as Herald of the Tome, these skill lines would require us to completely change our playstyle by for example focusing on Beam or Runeblades. Assassination provides a lot of power with very little change in gameplay, allowing us to preserve the "Sorcerer" theme.
If you're looking for the most powerful Subclass combination that doesn't care about keeping the Sorcerer theme, you should look at the Strongest Subclass Solo Build instead
Skill Setups
Base Setup
A base setup that will work for most situations and which should be your starting point when making situational setups
| Front Bar | Back Bar |
|---|---|
| Slot 1: Crystal Fragments | Slot 1: Hurricane |
| Slot 2: Ulfsild's Contingency | Slot 2: Critical Surge |
| Slot 3: Relentless Focus | Slot 3: Elemental Susceptibility |
| Slot 4: Barbed Trap | Slot 4: Elemental Blockade |
| Slot 5: Traveling Knife | Slot 5: Soul Burst |
| Ultimate: Soul Harvest | Ultimate: Shooting Star |
Crystal Fragments - a spammable which will heal you for 10% of Max HP thanks to the
Blood Magic passive. Casting any ability has a 33% chance to make next
Crystal Fragments cast stronger and cheaper
Ulfsild's Contingency (
Shock,
Lingering Torment,
Intellect and Endurance) - a 22 second DoT which also grants you Minor Intellect and Endurance, increasing your Stamina and Magicka Recoveries by 15%. It can also be used as an AoE spammable.
Relentless Focus - an ability that will cause your Light Attacks to generate up to 10 stacks. You can spend 4 stacks to fire a powerful arrow that also heals you if you're in Melee range. It will also passively grant you Major Savagery and Prophecy.
Barbed Trap - a DoT that will also apply Hemorrhage status effect at the start and grant you Minor Force buff, increasing your Critical Damage by 10%. It will also passively grant you 3% Weapon and Spell Damage through the
Slayer passive
Traveling Knife (
Physical,
Lingering Torment,
Berserk) - a 20 second DoT which grants you Minor Berserk, increasing your damage done by 5%
Soul Harvest - a cheap ultimate that increases target's damage taken from you by 20%. This is the ultimate you should use in Single Target fights. Having it slotted will also cause you to regain 10 Ultimate whenever you deal a final blow against an enemy
Hurricane - your source of Major Resolve which is a crucial defensive buff, and it also deals decent damage
Critical Surge - your source of Major Brutality and Sorcery that will also heal you for 3300 whenever you deal critical damage, up to once every second. The heal itself can also be a critical heal
Elemental Susceptibility - an extremely loaded ability that does a multitude of things. It's completely free to cast so it'll help you sustain. It applies Major Breach, which reduces enemies' armor by 5948 which is a massive damage increase. It also applies Burning, Chilled and Concussed status effects at the beginning and then every 7.5 seconds. All of these Status Effects deal decent damage, but Concussed will also apply Minor Vulnerability for 4 seconds, increasing enemies' damage taken by 5%. Chilled will also apply Minor Maim for 4 seconds, reducing enemies' damage done by 5% and it will also apply Minor Brittle for 4 seconds if you were on your Ice Staff bar while the Chilled effect procced, which is always going to happen at the beginning when you cast
Elemental Susceptibility. Minor Brittle increase Critical Damage taken by 10%. The Chilled proc will also synergise with our
Elemental Blockade
Elemental Blockade - this ability will constantly apply your
Weapon Damage enchantment. It will also constantly apply Minor Breach to enemies who are Chilled, and they'll be Chilled thanks to
Elemental Susceptibility
Soul Burst (
Shock,
Lingering Torment,
Courage) - an AoE DoT which grants you Minor Courage, increasing your Weapon and Spell Damage by 215
Shooting Star - a powerful ultimate that deals damage in an AoE and grants you Ultimate for each enemy hit with the initial blast, up to 6 enemies. Use it in AoE fights or when you start fights with high amount of Ultimate stored up
Soul Burst is the first skill that has to go when you need to slot something situational, unless the situational skill specifically says that it's replacing something else. If it has to be a frontbarred skill then the first skill that has to go is
Ulfsild's Contingency
Resolving Vigor - use it for more difficult fights where the pressure is constant and thus you need the Minor Resolve. It can also be used as your main source of healing in fights with invulnerability phases where you can't heal with
Ring of the Pale Order or
Critical Surge
Silver Leash - a chain ability that you can slot in trash packs to stack enemies and get through them faster
Ulfsild's Contingency (
Shock,
Gladiator's Tenacity,
Force) - a replacement for
Barbed Trap in fights where you need more damage mitigation. It's a delayed AoE damage that also grants you 8% damage reduction for 8 seconds and Minor Force for 22 seconds, which increases your Critical Damage by 10%. You should recast it every 8 seconds when under pressure and every 22 seconds otherwise
Razor Caltrops - a source of AoE Major Breach for trash fights or boss fights with lots of important adds
Revealing Flare - slot it for more difficult fights where you need more damage mitigation. It's a skill that passively grants Major Protection, reducing your damage taken by 10%. It will also trigger the
Magicka Aid passive, which increases Magicka Recovery by 10%
Precognition - an ultimate that breaks you out of some otherwise unavoidable stuns, you'll need it to get around some mechanics which are otherwise impossible or very difficult to solo, like for example Inferno's Hold in Zaan the Scalecaller fight
Ball of Lightning - an ability that teleports you forward. Use it in fights where you need more mobility or in fights where this teleport allows you to invalidate some mechanic
Priority List
This is just a list of priorities. Simply recast abilities when they run out and follow this list of priorities when there are multiple things to refresh
- 1.
Critical Surge - 2.
Hurricane - 3.
Elemental Susceptibility - 4. If you have
Crystal Fragments proc, use it - 5.
Elemental Blockade - 6.
Barbed Trap - 7.
Traveling Knife - 8. If you're at 9 stacks use
Relentless Focus - 9.
Soul Burst - 10.
Ulfsild's Contingency - 11. If it's an AoE fight or you're starting at or close to 185 Ultimate, use
Shooting Star - 12. If it's a Single Target fight, use
Soul Harvest - 13. If you have at least 4 stacks use
Relentless Focus - 14.
Crystal Fragments
Pre-buff
These abilities can be pre-cast before entering combat
Final Setups
A few examples of final setups you could end up with after applying the situational skills to the base setup
A setup for dealing with trash packs
| Front Bar | Back Bar |
|---|---|
| Slot 1: Crystal Fragments | Slot 1: Hurricane |
| Slot 2: Ulfsild's Contingency | Slot 2: Critical Surge |
| Slot 3: Relentless Focus | Slot 3: Razor Caltrops |
| Slot 4: Barbed Trap | Slot 4: Elemental Blockade |
| Slot 5: Traveling Knife | Slot 5: Silver Leash |
| Ultimate: Soul Harvest | Ultimate: Shooting Star |
What Changes
Razor Caltrops replaces
Elemental Susceptibility, because it provides AoE Major Breach
Silver Leash replaces
Soul Burst because it allows you stack adds
A setup with lots of damage mitigation for bosses that hit very hard
| Front Bar | Back Bar |
|---|---|
| Slot 1: Crystal Fragments | Slot 1: Hurricane |
| Slot 2: Revealing Flare | Slot 2: Critical Surge |
| Slot 3: Relentless Focus | Slot 3: Elemental Susceptibility |
| Slot 4: Ulfsild's Contingency | Slot 4: Elemental Blockade |
| Slot 5: Traveling Knife | Slot 5: Resolving Vigor |
| Ultimate: Soul Harvest | Ultimate: Shooting Star |
What Changes
Revealing Flare replaces
Barbed Trap, because it provides 10% damage mitigation
Ulfsild's Contingency changes the
Lingering Torment script to
Gladiator's Tenacity because it provides 8% damage mitigation, and the
Intellect and Endurance script to
Force to make up for unslotting
Barbed Trap
Resolving Vigor replaces
Soul Burst because it's a strong HoT which provides the Minor Resolve buff
A setup you should use when not using Subclassing
| Front Bar | Back Bar |
|---|---|
| Slot 1: Crystal Fragments | Slot 1: Hurricane |
| Slot 2: Deadly Cloak | Slot 2: Critical Surge |
| Slot 3: Haunting Curse | Slot 3: Elemental Susceptibility |
| Slot 4: Barbed Trap | Slot 4: Elemental Blockade |
| Slot 5: Camouflaged Hunter | Slot 5: Bound Aegis |
| Ultimate: Flawless Dawnbreaker | Ultimate: Summon Charged Atronach |
What Changes
Deadly Cloak replaces
Ulfsild's Contingency
Haunting Curse replaces
Relentless Focus
Camouflaged Hunter replaces
Traveling Knife
Bound Aegis replaces
Soul Burst
Flawless Dawnbreaker replaces
Soul Harvest
Summon Charged Atronach replaces
Shooting Star
A setup I've used when fighting Shattered Champion in the Bedlam Veil dungeon
| Front Bar | Back Bar |
|---|---|
| Slot 1: Crystal Fragments | Slot 1: Hurricane |
| Slot 2: Silver Leash | Slot 2: Critical Surge |
| Slot 3: Relentless Focus | Slot 3: Elemental Susceptibility |
| Slot 4: Barbed Trap | Slot 4: Elemental Blockade |
| Slot 5: Traveling Knife | Slot 5: Soul Burst |
| Ultimate: Soul Harvest | Ultimate: Shooting Star |
What Changes
Silver Leash replaces
Ulfsild's Contingency, so that you can chain in Glass Atronach and Glazier adds
A setup I've used when fighting The Blind in the Bedlam Veil dungeon
| Front Bar | Back Bar |
|---|---|
| Slot 1: Crystal Fragments | Slot 1: Hurricane |
| Slot 2: Ball of Lightning | Slot 2: Critical Surge |
| Slot 3: Relentless Focus | Slot 3: Elemental Susceptibility |
| Slot 4: Barbed Trap | Slot 4: Elemental Blockade |
| Slot 5: Traveling Knife | Slot 5: Soul Burst |
| Ultimate: Soul Harvest | Ultimate: Shooting Star |
What Changes
Ball of Lightning replaces
Ulfsild's Contingency, so that you can evade the Condemn mechanic
Passives
The only passive you specifically have to skip is
Tri Focus
Class - Dark Magic
Unholy Knowledge - Medium Priority
Blood Magic - High Priority
Persistence - Low Priority
Exploitation - High Priority
Class - Storm Calling
Capacitor - High Priority
Energized - High Priority
Amplitude - High Priority
Expert Mage - High Priority
Class - Assassination
Master Assassin - High Priority
Executioner - High Priority
Pressure Points - High Priority
Hemorrhage - High Priority
Class - Daedric Summoning
Rebate - Medium Priority
Power Stone - High Priority
Daedric Protection - High Priority
Expert Summoner - High Priority
Weapon - Dual Wield
Slaughter - High Priority
Dual Wield Expert - High Priority
Controlled Fury - High Priority
Ruffian - Medium Priority
Twin Blade and Blunt - High Priority
Weapon - Destruction Staff
Tri Focus - Do Not Unlock
Penetrating Magic - Low Priority
Elemental Force - Medium Priority
Ancient Knowledge - Medium Priority
Destruction Expert - Low Priority
Armor - Light Armor
Grace - Low Priority
Evocation - Low Priority
Spell Warding - Low Priority
Prodigy - High Priority
Concentration - High Priority
Armor - Medium Armor
Dexterity - High Priority
Wind Walker - Low Priority
Improved Sneak - Not needed
Agility - High Priority
Athletics - Low Priority
Armor - Heavy Armor
Resolve - Medium Priority
Constitution - Low Priority
Juggernaut - Medium Priority
Revitalize - Low Priority
Rapid Mending - Low Priority
Guild - Fighters Guild
Intimidating Presence - Medium Priority
Slayer - High Priority
Banish the Wicked - Medium Priority
Skilled Tracker - Medium Priority
Bounty Hunter - Not needed
Guild - Mages Guild
Persuasive Will - Not needed
Mage Adept - High Priority
Everlasting Magic - High Priority
Magicka Controller - High Priority
Might of the Guild - Low Priority
Guild - Psijic Order
Clairvoyance - Low Priority
Spell Orb - Not needed
Concentrated Barrier - Low Priority
Deliberation - Not needed
Alliance War - Support
Magicka Aid - Medium Priority
Combat Medic - Not needed
Battle Resurrection - Not needed
Race - Your Race
Get all of your racials, no matter which race you are
Craft - Alchemy
Solvent Proficiency - Not needed
Keen Eye: Reagents - Not needed
Medicinal Use - High Priority
Chemistry - Not needed
Laboratory Use - Not needed
Snakeblood - Not needed
Gear
Base Setup
A base setup that will work for most situations and which should be your starting point when making situational setups
Switching gear for trash packs isn't worth it unless you're using gear-swap addons
Don't stress too much about obtaining the best gear. The DPS difference between the best gear and crafted gear is only 14.76% (66,761 DPS vs 56,904 DPS), and the difference is even smaller in Overland content such as World Bosses because the best gear includes Minor Slayer which doesn't work there
Default setup
| Gear Slot | Set | Weight/Type | Trait | Enchantment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Head |
Light | |||
Shoulders |
Light | |||
Chest |
Medium | |||
Hands |
Light | |||
Belt |
Light | |||
Legs |
Light | |||
Boots |
Light | |||
Necklace |
Jewelry | |||
Ring |
Jewelry | |||
Ring |
Jewelry | |||
Frontbar Main Hand |
Dagger | |||
Frontbar Off Hand |
Mace | |||
Backbar Main Hand |
Ice Staff |
If you want to switch to a situational set it's best to replace
Ansuul's Torment if the situational set you're getting has a Minor Slayer line, and replace
Beacon of Oblivion otherwise.
For example, a default setup for trash packs would replace
Ansuul's Torment with
Sul-Xan's Torment
Gear that can be stronger than the setup from the table in specific situations or when specific circumstances are present
Sul-Xan's Torment - the best set for trash packs and for bosses that regularly spawn smaller adds
Order's Wrath - better than
Ansuul's Torment in Overland content where you don't benefit from the Minor Slayer and penetration bonus lines
Vestments of Olorime - provides 430 Weapon and Spell Damage, 5% damage reduction from Minor Aegis and can be back-barred without losing anything, allowing for much more flexibility with gear. It's the ideal set for more difficult fights
Roksa the Warped - a monster set which provides a lot of sustain. You'll only have space for it when back-barring
Vestments of Olorime
Armor of the Trainee - 1 piece bonus of this set provides 1454 max health. It also comes in any weight so we can use it on the chest piece, which combined with the
Reinforced trait will provide a lot of armor
Gear that is easier to obtain and can be used while you work towards the best gear
Crafted
All of these are tradable and can be bought from other players
No Overland, Dungeon or Trial gear is listed as the Crafted options are superior.
Additional tips
- Use two Daggers instead of Dagger/Mace if you intend to focus on non-instanced content, where enemies have less armor
Final Setups
A few examples of final setups you could end up with after applying situational rules to the base setup
This is the crafted gear setup you can start with
| Gear Slot | Set | Weight/Type | Trait | Enchantment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Head |
Light | |||
Shoulders |
Light | |||
Chest |
Heavy / Light | |||
Hands |
Light | |||
Belt |
Light | |||
Legs |
Medium | |||
Boots |
Light | |||
Necklace |
Jewelry | |||
Ring |
Jewelry | |||
Ring |
Jewelry | |||
Frontbar Main Hand |
Dagger | |||
Frontbar Off Hand |
Mace | |||
Backbar Main Hand |
Ice Staff |
The weight distribution of the setup from the table is 1 Heavy 1 Medium 5 Light so that you can start leveling up all your armor skill lines. Once you transition to Regular setup you'll be using 1 Medium 6 Light most of the time, switching to 1 Heavy 1 Medium 5 Light only against more difficult fights
The setup in the table uses only crafted gear, but if you already own parts of the Regular setup like
Ring of the Pale Order you can start using them immediately
This is a setup you should use if you have no access to any Trial gear
| Gear Slot | Set | Weight/Type | Trait | Enchantment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Head |
Light | |||
Shoulders |
Light | |||
Chest |
Medium | |||
Hands |
Light | |||
Belt |
Light | |||
Legs |
Light | |||
Boots |
Light | |||
Necklace |
Jewelry | |||
Ring |
Jewelry | |||
Ring |
Jewelry | |||
Frontbar Main Hand |
Dagger | |||
Frontbar Off Hand |
Mace | |||
Backbar Main Hand |
Ice Staff |
Ansuul's Torment gets replaced by
Tide-Born Wildstalker
This is the ideal setup for trash packs
| Gear Slot | Set | Weight/Type | Trait | Enchantment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Head |
Light | |||
Shoulders |
Light | |||
Chest |
Medium | |||
Hands |
Light | |||
Belt |
Light | |||
Legs |
Light | |||
Boots |
Light | |||
Necklace |
Jewelry | |||
Ring |
Jewelry | |||
Ring |
Jewelry | |||
Frontbar Main Hand |
Dagger | |||
Frontbar Off Hand |
Mace | |||
Backbar Main Hand |
Ice Staff |
Ansuul's Torment gets replaced by
Sul-Xan's Torment
This is my suggested setup for soloing extremely difficult fights in dungeons.
| Gear Slot | Set | Weight/Type | Trait | Enchantment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Head |
Medium | |||
Shoulders |
Light | |||
Chest |
Heavy | |||
Hands |
Light | |||
Belt |
Light | |||
Legs |
Light | |||
Boots |
Light | |||
Necklace |
Jewelry | |||
Ring |
Jewelry | |||
Ring |
Jewelry | |||
Frontbar Main Hand |
Dagger | |||
Frontbar Off Hand |
Mace | |||
Backbar Main Hand |
Ice Staff |
Beacon of Oblivion is now front-barred instead of being fully on body
Ansuul's Torment and
Crushing Wall get replaced by back-barred
Vestments of Olorime- This creates space for adding a Monster Set -
Roksa the Warped, and 1 piece
Armor of the Trainee on your chest slot, with Heavy armor weight and
Reinforced trait - You can change some (or all) of the
Magicka enchants to
Health ones for extremely hard hitting bosses
Champion Points
Race
For solo PvE you need both damage and survivability, so every race brings something to the table, but these two stand out as the best options for damage and survivability respectively
Mundus
Attributes
For most content you should put all 64 points into Magicka. For difficult content you should devote as many attribute points as necessary to Health - for some content you'll be able to get away with 32 Health 32 Magicka, for the extremely difficult stuff you'll need 64 Health.
Food
Your sustain can vary greatly because it's impacted by your armor weight composition, your race and how much blocking/dodge rolling you're required to do in a certain fight. Choose the food with more recoveries if you can't sustain
Potions
Most of the time you should use Tri-Stat potions. They'll greatly improve your sustain.
Heroism potions provide 100% uptime on Minor Heroism which generates Ultimate, but they're extremely expensive.
Parses
All parses are recorded on the 6 million Target Dummy
Patch: Update 47
Using Regular setup
Patch: Update 47
Using Crafted Only gear setup
Gameplay
Here you can see this build tackling Veteran dungeons
Fashion
| Slot | Style | Dyes |
|---|---|---|
| Head |
Guardian Blue
Legate's Black
Legate's Black
|
|
| Shoulders |
Guardian Blue
|
|
| Chest |
Prefect's Gray
Guardian Blue
Obsidian Black
|
|
| Hands |
Guardian Blue
Guardian Blue
Obsidian Black
|
|
| Belt |
Guardian Blue
|
|
| Legs |
Guardian Blue
Prefect's Gray
Guardian Blue
|
|
| Feet |
Guardian Blue
Guardian Blue
Obsidian Black
|
|
| Frontbar Main Hand |
Empty
Empty
Empty
|
|
| Frontbar Off Hand |
Empty
Empty
Empty
|
|
| Backbar Main Hand |
Guardian Blue
Guardian Blue
Guardian Blue
|
|
FAQ
Yes, you can replace the Dual Wield Daggers with other weapons. Greatsword, Lightning Staff and Bow will cause the smallest DPS loss (≈2%), then Inferno (≈4%), and then support-oriented weapons (Ice Staff, Restoration Staff, One Handed and Shield) will cause bigger DPS loss (≈7%). You will also have to replace
Traveling Knife with some situational ability, or with an ability from one of the weapons you swapped to (for example
Smash with the same script combination when switching to Greatsword). Replacing backbar weapon is a lot more troublesome, because
Elemental Susceptibility is extremely powerful skill for Solo.
Yes, Sorcerer is one of the better classes for solo.
Critical Surge heals you on every critical hit,
Blood Magic procs healing every time you use
Crystal Fragments, and
Hurricane provides Major Resolve along with strong AoE damage. This build can solo every Veteran Dungeon that doesn't have a mechanic requiring multiple people, and most Hard Mode Dungeons.
The best gear for a Magicka Sorcerer Solo build in ESO is
Beacon of Oblivion with
Ansuul's Torment,
Slimecraw monster set,
Ring of the Pale Order, and a
Perfected Crushing Wall backbar staff. For overland content, swap
Ansuul's Torment to
Order's Wrath because Minor Slayer doesn't work outside of instanced content.
Khajiit is the best race for damage thanks to 12% Critical Damage from
Feline Ambush, which won't be wasted in solo content because there are no tanks or healers providing Major Force. Nord is the best race for survivability, providing around 5-7% damage mitigation through the
Rugged racial passive.
No, the base setup from this guide works for both Maelstrom Arena and Vateshran Hollows without any changes.
THANKS FOR READING
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Head
Shoulders
Chest
Hands
Belt
Legs
Boots
Necklace
Ring
Frontbar Main Hand