Sorcerer Class Builds for ESO

Welcome to the Sorcerer class build section for ESO. Here you can find all the Sorcerer builds that are optimized for the Elder Scrolls Online. There are both builds for stamina and magicka Sorcerer builds and for both PvE and PvP as well as beginner guides.

The Sorcerer builds that you can find here focus on optimizing your setup as much as possible, that way you can really perform as good as possible on your Sorcerer. Sometimes gear can be hard to acquire depending on the build you want to use, that is why I made sure to always include three different setups, the best in slot, advanced and a beginner setup.

Nonetheless, I would always recommend getting the best setup like described in the build, to completely optimize your setup. Please keep in mind that combat changes occur all 3 months in the Elder Scrolls Online, therefore it is possible that certain sets will change for your Sorcerer!

PvE Dungeon & Trial META Sorcerer Builds

The Meta Sorcerer builds listed below are meant to be played in a group. The Meta Sorcerer builds have a very cookie cutter approach and rely heavily on other group members.

• Magicka Sorcerer DPS
• Stamina Sorcerer DPS DW/2H
• Stamina Sorcerer DPS 2H/DW
• Sorcerer Healer
• Sorcerer Tank
• Magicka Sorcerer Heavy Attack Pet Build
• Werewolf Build

PvE Solo Sorcerer Builds 

The PvE Solo Sorcerer builds are optimized for solo gameplay. The builds below have a good balance between damage, survivability, healing and movement. Everything you need to get through ESO alone. Of course, you can also use these solo builds in a group, especially useful in random groups.

• Magicka Grind Build
• Stamina Grind Build
• Solo Magicka Sorcerer Build
• One Bar Magicka Sorcerer Build
• Solo Stamina Sorcerer Build

PvP Solo Sorcerer Builds

The PvP Solo Sorcerer builds do have both a Cyrodiil and a Battlegrounds setup. You can play with these builds alone, but it is recommend to always join a group to increase your odds of survival.

• Magicka Sorcerer Build
• Stamina Sorcerer Build
• Werewolf Stamina Sorcerer Build

Beginner Sorcerer Guides & Builds

The Beginner Sorcerer guides and builds are meant for new players. They introduce you to the Sorcerer class and give you a good starting point for your adventure in ESO.

• Magicka Sorcerer Guide
• Magicka Sorcerer Beginner 160CP Build

• Stamina Sorcerer Guide
• Stamina Sorcerer Beginner 160CP Build

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The Sorcerer Class

Sorcerers can use conjuration and destruction spells to hurl lightning bolts, wield dark magic to snare and stun, and summon Daedric combat followers from Oblivion.

The horrors of Oblivion and the power of lightning itself are yours to command with the Sorcerer Class. As a Sorcerer, unlimited power is at your fingertips, allowing you to call powerful lightning strikes from above, support your allies, suppress your enemies, or overwhelm your foes with Daedric monsters.

When wielding the full strength of the Sorcerer Class, all will fear your power.

The Sorcerer Skill-lines

The Sorcerer class has three class skill-lines like every other class in ESO. Below you can find a quick introduction to the Daedric Summoning, Dark Magic and Storm Calling skill-lines.

Sorcerer Class Synergies

The Sorcerer class in ESO has two class specific synergies, the Charged Lightning and Conduit synergy. Synergies are additional effects that some abilities offer.

Sorcerer Showcase

Below you can see an example of a Magicka and Stamina Sorcerer in ESO. Of course you can customize your character however you want, there are plenty of good outfit options in ESO!

The Sorcerer Story

It is not much known about Sorcerer lore, except a few books that can be found ingame, for example via bookshelves, they help level up your skill-lines too.

Dark Magic: Three Pretexts

It is unfortunate that the arcane discipline known as “Dark Magic” has acquired such a pejorative name in the common parlance, as it tends to relegate the practitioners into that class of Sorcerer slanderously known as “evil wizards.” To counteract such dangerous libels, it is handy to keep in mind the following three pretexts:

PRETEXT THE FIRST: Insofar as it negates, drains, and preys upon the magicka and power of other mages, knowledge of Dark Magic is a necessary safeguard that enables the reining in of rogue Sorcerers.

PRETEXT THE SECOND: Insomuch as it replicates some of the deleterious effects of spells cast by inimical Daedra, knowledge of Dark Magic is a useful tool for learning how to counter said effects.

PRETEXT THE THIRD: Whereas its application is regarded by the ignorant as frightful and loathsome, use of Dark Magic to inflict condign punishment upon transgressors is a deterrent to crime and therefore a social good.

That should silence the critics.

Mora’at’s Theory of Lightning

It happens to every amateur or apprentice mage: that first time one miscasts a shock spell. It recoils upon one, and one lets out a yip as all of one’s fur stands up straight and sparks jolt through one’s form and out the tip of one’s tail. And one wonders seriously for the first time: lightning–what is it?

Listen to Mora’at, for this one is in a position to explain. After much hard study and many repetitions of the entrance exam, Mora’at is now an officially-recognized Journeyman of the Corinthe Mages Guildhall, and therefore in a position to speak with some authority on magical matters. I have been doing research into this matter of lightning–specializing, as we scholars of the arcane do–and have also given the matter a not-inconsiderable amount of thought on my own.

As a result, this one has a Theory.

Shock, like Flame and Frost, is an expression of magical power that takes the form of a natural force. Everyone has played with this force when one was a ja’khajiit, scuffing one’s feet across a rug and then stinging a sibling with a small spark from an extended claw, or rubbing an inflated rat’s-bladder against one’s fur until the hairs stand up and the bladder “sticks” to one’s chest or arm.

So it was apparent to this one, even from an early age, that shock was an inherent property of fibrous matter, a property stimulated by friction into sparks. This also explains lightning, as clouds, which resemble nothing so much as huge Tenmar cotton-balls, generate shock when storms cause friction through colliding masses of buoyant fiber.

Therefore, when one of we mighty wizards of the Mages Guild casts a Shock spell, what is actually happening? This one explains it as follows: the reality of the Mundus is a great tapestry woven of strands of matter and magicka. A Shock spell channels and manipulates magicka through the local warp and weft of the tapestry, agitating its fibers. This generates sparking, which coalesces into magical lightning. Yes?

Perceptions such as these come easily once one is a skilled mage. When I present this theory to our magister, this one anticipates well-earned praise and encouragement. In fact, now that Mora’at is a bona fide magical scholar, this one may even have another theory tomorrow!

On the Utility of Shock Magic

As Tamriel’s leading wizard, I have often been called upon, usually by individuals of royal birth, to impress them with some demonstration of my magical skills. When I ask what they’d like to see, they nearly always reply, “Throw a fireball! A really big one. I’d love that.”

This just shows how poorly educated Tamriel’s aristocrats are about the magical arts. The Flame spells have their uses, of course, but the true magical scholar gives pride of place in his grimoire to the Shock spells. For whatever reason, manipulating arcane lightning is easier than forcing magical flame, and it can be employed for a greater variety of effects. Here are just a few:

–The mage can cloak himself in an aura of lightning that will turn aside certain physical and magical attacks, as well as shocking nearby enemies.

–Lightning can be cast on a surface in the form of a rune that will explode if touched or after a certain delay.

–A wizard can cast a bolt to a nearby target and then instantly “ride the lightning” to that destination.

–And, of course, lightning bolts can be cast directly at enemies in a number of variations.

It is possible, I suppose, that ways to manipulate Frost and Flame will be discovered that make those elemental magics as flexible as Shock–but if I haven’t discovered how to do it, who else could?

Principles of Conjuration

Conjuration is the arcane art of summoning creatures and items from other planes for the usage and benefit of the conjurer. Its study has long languished due to its inherent perils, for summoned entities, particularly the more intelligent Daedra, resent being brought to Nirn to do another’s bidding, and often seek to do the conjurer a mischief.

The notable success I have had in formulating safe and reliable conjuration spells comes from my system of defining such magics as always having two essential and interlocking components: a summoning incantation and a binding rune. It is the latter part, of course, that protects the conjurer from the entity or item summoned by enthralling it to the summoner.

Heretofore conjuration has been quite a dangerous pursuit due to the fact that a conjuring wizard had to cast summoning and binding as two separate spells, and if the binding was miscast or cast too slowly, the conjurer might pay for the error with his life. My innovation has been to interweave the magics of summoning and binding so that they become one spell that manifests both effects simultaneously, thus ensuring that what is summoned is also necessarily bound.

The apprentice is urged to apply himself diligently to study of the spells in the accompanying grimoire: though my methods have rendered conjuration less perilous, it is by no means an art to be attempted lightly and carelessly. The apprentice who does so will only briefly be a burden to his or her master.

Sorcery is Not Necromancy!

A mage of supreme power and erudition such as myself may be called upon to exercise his skills in almost any corner of farflung Tamriel, so for a native of Morrowind I am widely traveled. Thus I can tell you with the authority of personal experience that petty local officials, regardless of race or culture, are universally suspicious and ill-informed. “A Sorcerer, eh?,” they say. “Well, we’ll have none of your raising the dead in this jurisdiction, is that understood?”

I cannot tell you how many times I have been subjected to some variation of the above conversation. These ignorant and self-important functionaries have no conception whatsoever of distinctions within the arcane arts. As far as they are concerned, every manipulator of magicka is just waiting for midnight before skulking off to the cemetery to animate the corpses of their neighbors and ancestors.

Imbeciles. Fools. BUREAUCRATS.

Now, it is true, of course, that conjuration is a common tool of sorcery, and we Sorcerers often resort to summoning aid from Oblivion when a problem is best solved by judicious application of vicious brute force. It is also true that summoning Daedric spirits to possess and animate corpses, or calling up the souls of the dead for information or other services–in short, necromancy–is a subset of the art of conjuration, albeit inherently distasteful and degrading. However, to infer from this that all sorcerers are de facto necromancers as well is false, misleading, and libelous.

That said, everyone was young once, and it’s typical of youth to experiment with things dangerous and forbidden. It is long since I was a lad in Tel Aruhn, and my memory of the early First Era is inexact, but it’s just possible that as an apprentice I may have tried out an animation spell or two–never on corpses of anyone I knew, of course (or at least, nobody I knew well), and never for long. To my recollection.

So, at any rate, I know whereof I speak when I say to you: sorcery and necromancy-there IS a difference.

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FAQ Sorcerer Class

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ESO Sorcerer Class Content List