“Adept Sorcerer”
Table of Contents
Welcome to the Magicka Sorcerer Beginner Build for ESO (Elder Scrolls Online). This build is balanced for 160 Champion Points. It should be your next step to work on this setup after completing the Magicka Sorcerer Beginner Guide. The focus on this setup will be to get you ready for veteran dungeons with basic gear and to make sure that you have enough sustain and good survivability. With this setup you can start farming your gear for the end game Trial & Dungeon Builds on my website.
If you have more questions, you can also ask someone in our ESO community partner discord.
- Basic Gear Setup
- 160 Champion Points
- Good Sustain
- Good Survivability
- How to play Magicka Sorcerer
Resource Management
Resource management is one of the most important things for all builds, you need to learn how to be able to sustain yourself on the Sorcerer class. I will mention a few tricks in this section of the guide. In general you should make sure that you have around 1600-1800 magicka recovery fully buffed with a basic magicka potion active, the potion drops from killed monsters or you can also buy them in the guild store, though you probably don’t have the money yet (Potion gives you Major Intellect, increasing Magicka Recovery by 20%).
Alternatively you can also join a guild that supports new players and ask them for a few potions.
Witchmother’s Potent Brew Drink
The Witchmother’s Potent Brew drink is one of the key things that Magicka setups use to increase their magicka recovery and thus their sustain. It gives max health, max magicka and magicka recovery as stats. You can obtain this for a quite cheap price in most guild stores or you can join a guild that supports new players and ask there. Always make sure that you have this drink active. The drink scales with your level, that means you can use it with any level.
Heavy Attacks
Heavy attacks restore a huge amount of resources when you successfully hit the target. Make sure to do a heavy attack from time to time when you drop low on magicka. Also, when an enemy is off balanced, you will get twice the amount of magicka back from a heavy attack.
Absorb Magic Enchantment
Using an Absorb Magic Enchantment on our frontbar will also increase sustain. Every time the magic damage enchantment damages an enemy, we also get a small junk of magicka back. You can either craft the enchantment yourself but you probably won’t have the right level, therefore buying would be the second option. Often weapons already have this enchantment as a base enchamtent, that means chances are big you already have it active on your weapon.
Magicka Recovery Glyphs (optional)
I do recommend running one magicka recovery glyph on your jewelry, if you want you can also use a second one if you still think your sustain is too low. Please visit the Glyph List Guide to figure out how to craft this one. Alternatively you can also buy it in the store. Often jewelry already has recovery enchantments as a base enchantment equiped.
Gear Setup CP 160 for the Sorcerer Beginner Build
Here you will find two basic Beginner Setups for the Sorcerer Build. I do recommend getting the Setup 1 if possible which is a little bit more expensive, otherwise go for setup 2 which is also more than enough to beginn with. Make sure to get a Monster Set as soon as you hit 160 CP, the headpiece is a guaranteed drop when you finish a veteran dungeon, in our case Vaults of Madness, which is one of the easier dungeons to complete in veteran mode. If you do not have a Monster Set yet, just use some random gear pieces there.
- I will also explain down below what other sets that yo should start farming, sets that can always be handy to have somewhere in the bank.
- Try to get as close to this setup as possible, it isn’t a problem if you don’t have the exact same setup. However, the more sets that you have complete the better for your stats.
Beginner Setup 1
| Gear | Set | Weight | Trait | Enchantment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chest | Law of Julianos | Light | Divine | Health |
| Belt | Mother’s Sorrow | Light | Divine | Magicka |
| Shoes | Mother’s Sorrow | Light | Divine | Magicka |
| Pants | Law of Julianos | Light | Divine | Health |
| Hands | Law of Julianos | Light | Divine | Magicka |
| Head | Monster Set | Light | Divine | Health |
| Shoulder | Monster Set | Light | Divine | Magicka |
| Necklace | Mother’s Sorrow | Jewelry | Arcane | Magicka Recovery |
| Ring | Mother’s Sorrow | Jewelry | Arcane | Spell Dmg |
| Ring | Mother’s Sorrow | Jewelry | Arcane | Spell Dmg |
| Weapon 1 | Law of Julianos | Fire | Infused | Weapon Damage Enchant |
| Weapon 2 | Law of Julianos | Fire | Infused | Absorb Magic Enchant |
Beginner Setup 2
Here is a second setup without a Monster Set.
| Gear | Set | Weight | Trait | Enchantment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chest | Law of Julianos | Light | Divine | Health |
| Belt | Law of Julianos | Light | Divine | Magicka |
| Shoes | Mother’s Sorrow | Light | Divine | Magicka |
| Pants | Law of Julianos | Light | Divine | Magicka |
| Hands | Mother’s Sorrow | Light | Divine | Magicka |
| Head | Mother’s Sorrow | Light | Divine | Magicka |
| Shoulder | Mother’s Sorrow | Light | Divine | Magicka |
| Necklace | Willpower | Jewelry | Arcane | Magicka Recovery |
| Ring | Willpower | Jewelry | Arcane | Spell Dmg |
| Ring | Willpower | Jewelry | Arcane | Spell Dmg |
| Weapon 1 | Law of Julianos | Fire | Infused | Weapon Damage Enchant |
| Weapon 2 | Law of Julianos | Fire | Infused | Absorb Magic Enchant |
Where can I get the gear?
Law of Julianos: Craftable
Willpower: Guildstore
Mother’s Sorrow: Malabal Tor, Guildstore
Monster Sets (Recommended)
Ilambris: Crypts of Hearts 1 (Head), Undaunted Pledges (Shoulder, Gilirion treasure chest)
Grothdarr: Vaults of Madness (Head), Undaunted Pledges (Shoulder, Glirion treasure chest)
Sets that you also should farm after reaching 160 Champion Points
In addition to the basic Magicka Sorcerer Beginner setup that is listed up there you should also farm some other sets that you will need sooner or later.
Ilambris Monster Set
Ilambris is the most popular Monster Set for Magicka Sorcerer setups. It provides a lot of extra magicka and fire & shock damage. It works both for Single Target and AoE damage which is very nice.
Grothdarr Monster Set
Grothdarr is a very good alternative to Ilambris, as the AoE effect of it moves together with you. But you also have to stand close to the targets in order for the Monster Set to have an effect!
Skills
This skill layout will be very similar to the normal skill setup that we use in endgame builds like the Magicka Sorcerer Mystic Build. You might not have all the necessary skills yet, but I suggest that you start working on obtaining those specific skills as soon as possible.
| Fire Staff Mainbar | Fire Staff bar |
|---|---|
| Slot 1: Hardened Ward | Slot 1: Unstable Wall of Elements |
| Slot 2: Crystal Fragments | Slot 2: Lightning Flood |
| Slot 3 Crushing Shock | Slot 3: Haunting Curse |
| Slot 4: Critical Surge | Slot 4: Elemental Drain |
| Slot 5: Twilight Matriarch | Slot 5: Twilight Matriarch |
| Ultimate: Shooting Star | Ultimate: Elemental Rage |
Skill Explanation
- Hardened Ward: This is your best protector, it gives you a huge shield, this means your health can not be damaged. if there is a lot of monsters on you keep this ability up to mitigate most incoming damage. If you want more sustain, you could use the other morph. (Useful Guides: How do Shields Work?, How do Shields Scale?)
- Lightning Flood: Small shock AoE damage effect that deals an insane amount of damage. Friendly group members also can active a synergy that deals good damage.
- Crystal Fragments: You only want to use this ability when it is instant cast, so whenever you use any other skill, for example Crushing Shock, Crystal Fragments proc can happen, making it instant cast, that is when you should use this ability.
- Crushing Shock: This is you main spammable ability, it does decent damage and also interrupts casting enemies.
- Critical Surge: Gives you Major Sorcery (20% Spell Damage) and also heals on crits.
- Twilight Matriach: Has to be slotted on both bars. This is your main heal, the pet will passively attack the enemy and when you activate the skill, it will heal you.
- Shooting Star: While this is slotted, we get 2% more max magicka on this bar and you can use this ability when a lot of monsters are on you, it will stun them and deal a lot of damage.
- Unstable Wall of Elements: This ability is an AoE damage effect that covers a huge area in fire. It is both strong for single target and aoe damage.
- Haunting Curse: This is a 12s duration skill, that damages the enemy on explosion, once after 3.5 seconds and once after 12 seconds.
- Liquid Lightning: Small shock AoE damage effect that deals an insane amount of damage. Friendly group members also can active a synergie that deals good damage.
- Elemental Drain: Apply this on monsters that have a lot of health, this will increase your sustain and it will decrease the enemies resistances so you deal more damage, the debuff holds for over 20 seconds, so it should be easy to keep it on the enemy.
- Thunderous Rage: This is your main ultimate, it deals a lot of damage. Use it whenever possible.
If you do not want to use the pet:
- Inner Light instead of Volatile Familiar: This ability increases our max Magicka by 7%. You do not really actively use the skill in combat. 5% from the ability and another 2% from the passive from the Mages Guild Skill line. It also gives us Major Prophecy, increasing our spell critical by 10%.
Skill lines you have to work on
You want to make sure to max out all the following Skill-lines and grind up all the skills and morphs of:
- All Sorcerer Class Skill-lines
- Destruction Staff
- Light Armor
- Mages Guild
- Undaunted (Passives only)
- Psijic Order (optional)
- Provisioning (Gourmand & Connoisseur)
- Alchemy (Medicinal Use)
Yes, that is a lot of Skill-lines, it will take a fair bit of time to completely level up all of those, but it will be worth it. If you want more information about each of the skill lines, make sure to visit ESO-hub.com. The website has all the skill lines up to date for ESO (Elder Scrolls Online).
Champion Points
Below you can find the Champion Points setup for this build. Work your way from top to bottom in your allocation. For more information on Champion Points, please visit the Champion Points Overview Page on ESO-Hub.com.
Hovering over each perk will give you insights on what it does. Presets are also provided for each of the allocations below.
Click the tab below to open the allocation.
Important Info for Magicka Sorcerer Beginner Build PvE
Buff-food
Witchmothers Brew (Max Health, Max Magicka, Magicka Recovery)
This Drink is scaling with your health, so you can use it with any level!
Mundus Stone
For this setup The Lover Mundus Stone is recommended, as it increases overall damage. For more information on all Mundus Stones in ESO please visit the Mundus Stone Overview Page.
The Lover Mundus Stone (Increased Spell Penetration)
Race
All Magicka based races work with this setup. More about each race can be found on the racial overview page.
High Elf
Breton
Dark Elf
Argonian
Khajiit
Orc
Potions
You can use those potions, they drop from Monsters, so you should have plenty of them. You can also buy those potions in the guildstore, they are very cheap.
Passives
In the end you want to have all these passives active with this build:
- Dark Magic: Unholy Knowledge, Blood Magic, Persistence, Exploitation
- Daedric Summoning: Rebate, Power Stone, Daedric Protection, Expert Summoner
- Storm Calling: Capacitor, Energized, Amplitude, Expert Mage
- Destruction Staff: Tri Focus, Penetrating Magic, Elemental Force, Ancient Knowledge, Destruction Expert
- Light Armor: Grace, Evocation, Spell Warding, Prodigy, Concentration
- Mages Guild: Mage Adept, Everlasting Magic, Magicka Controller, Might of the Guild
- Undaunted: Undaunted Command, Undaunted Mettle
- Racial: All
- Alchemy: Medicinal Use
- Provisioning: Gourmand, Connoisseur
Rotation
If you can’t pull of a rotation yet don’t worry too much about it. using the spammable is already enough in most cases.
Activate Power Surge then swap to the backbar and apply Elemental Drain on the monster, then we start of with applying our Damage over Time effects on the backbar.
Unstable Wall of Elements > Light Attack > Lightning Flood > Light Attack >Haunting Curse > Weapon Swap
> Light Attack > Crushing Shock > Light Attack > Crushing Shock > Light Attack > Crushing Shock > Light Attack > Weapon Swap
Restart
- Use the Crystal Fragment proc whenever it gets ready, so you can use the Fragment instead of a Crushing Shock.
- Also reapply Power Surge and Elemental Drain every 20 seconds to get the heals you need and the extra sustain and damage.
In case you don’t know what what weaving light attacks is, make sure to check out the “Weaving Beginner Guide” which explains how to weave light attacks between abilities, aka animation canceling.
What’s next?!
