sorcerer beginner guide
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ByArzyeL

ESO Sorcerer Class Beginner Guide

This Sorcerer Beginner Guide will teach you everything you need to know about the Class in ESO! The Sorcerer is the class of Lightning and Summoning in The Elder Scrolls Online! One of the ESO classes available with the base game that can help you create a powerful Mage with affinity to shock damage. Like every other class in the game, Sorcerer can also assume the role of a warrior. The Sorcerer is a quite flexible and popular class in ESO that can fulfill almost every role. If you wish to learn more about every available ESO Class, you can read my ESO Class Guide!

Why Choose the Sorcerer Class in ESO

The Sorcerer is a very beginner friendly Class in ESO that will allow you to complete almost every content with ease. Especially the Magicka Sorcerer will help you defeat every kind of enemy, with the assistance of several Daedric Pets. Because of the ability to summon and command Pets, the Magicka Sorcerer is the closest Class to a summoner in the Elder Scrolls Online. If you do not like summoning Pets, do not worry! The Magicka Sorcerer can play without them as well.

This path is also great for pure Solo players that are looking for a Class powerful and flexible enough to tackle harder content alone. The Magicka Sorcerer relies mostly on Class abilities to create builds and less on other skill lines. The Stamina Sorcerer on the other hand is using a mix of Class and Weapon abilities with success!

In terms of PVE, Magicka and Stamina Sorcerers are a great option for offensive gameplay and to create DPS characters. The Magicka Sorcerer should also be your number one option for Solo gameplay, thanks to its several offensive and defensive tools. They are reliable in support roles too, as Tanks and Healers! In terms of PVP both Sorcerers are strong and can dominate the battlefield.

magicka pet sorcerer
Sorcerer Class Beginner Guide ESO

Sorcerer Beginner Builds:

What Skills are the Best for Sorcerer – Sorcerer Beginner

Before we can talk of the most important Sorcerer skills, you have to decide what kind of Sorcerer you wish to play! A Magicka based or Stamina based Sorcerer. This will determine the type of gameplay and the morphs of skills you should choose as you level up. To create a Magicka based Sorcerer(DD or Healer) allocate all your available attribute points to Magicka. To create a Stamina one, allocate your points to Stamina. You can also mix them up if you wish to make a Tank character.

Leveling a Sorcerer and its skills is similar to leveling any other class in the game. There are several methods you can follow to level up fast and efficiently, like grinding XP at specific locations, clearing Dolmens and completing group content. You can find a lot more info on how to level up a character fast and efficiently in my ESO Leveling Guide.

There are several important skills you should unlock and level up as soon as possible. Class, Weapons and Guild Skills that will help you create the build of your dreams! To level up skills and skill-lines, always have one or more of their skills in your active bar, even if you are not using them. So let’s start with the most important Sorcerer Class skills.

Class Skills – Sorcerer Beginner

The Sorcerer has three unique skill lines with abilities suitable for every role in the game. Both Magicka and Stamina Sorcerer can use the Class skills to create a potent Build!

The Sorcerer Class Skill lines are:

  • Dark Magic, for protection, defense and sustain spells mostly.
  • Daedric Summoning, with Pets to draw attention, attack and heal you
  • Storm Calling, with Shock damage based and support spells

Dark Magic

sorcerer beginner guide

Most important skills from this line include Crystal Shard, Dark Exchange, Negate Magic and their morphs. Crystal Shard offers a powerful offensive morph for Magicka Sorcerers, Crystal Fragments, that is valuable to every PVE or PVP Build. A potent ability that provides incredible burst damage and can help you defeat opponents faster. Its stamina morph Crystal Weapon, can work as a good spammable for Stamina Sorcerers in PVE or PVP Gameplay.

Dark Exchange is a great sustain skill that can restore Health and Magicka or Stamina, depending on your play style. Good skill to have in PVE builds for solo content and quite important for PVP gameplay. Negate Magic is mostly a PVP oriented ability that can disrupt enemies and help you win a fight. Encase and Daedric Mines offer a couple nice Support Morphs that can help you play as a Tank and Healer!

Daedric Summoning

sorcerer beginner guide

Every skill in this line is important for Magicka Sorcerers, especially if you are using Pets to deal damage. Summon Storm Atronach offers two powerful Morphs that both Magicka and Stamina Sorcerers can use to boost their damage. The Summon Volatile Familiar morph of Summon Unstable Familiar is a must have skill for Pet Sorcerers.

Daedric Curse Morphs can boost your damage with or without Pets summoned while Summon Winged Twilight offers the class’ powerful heal Pet, the Twilight Matriarch. Twilight Matriarch is an important skill for Solo Builds that will help you breeze through content. The other morph, Twilight Tormentor, is mostly helpful in group PVE gameplay. Conjured Ward offers two nice shields to protect yourself, survive longer and support your group.

Finally Bound Armor offers two different options for Magicka and Stamina Sorcerers. Bound Aegis, boosts defense and Max Magicka while Bound Armaments boosts Max Stamina and summons knives you can throw.

Storm Calling

Lightning Form and Surge are important skills of this line. Lightning Form offers Hurricane for Stamina Sorcerers and Boundless Storm for Magicka Sorcerers. Strong AOE Damage skills. Surge on the other hand provides the Class with a powerful passive self healing ability, Critical Surge. Critical Surge heals you with every critical hit and is a must have for every sorcerer, Stamina or Magicka and for almost every type of content.

Lightning Splash and its morphs can be useful in PVE while Mage’s Fury and its morphs can work as a nice execute ability. Finally Bolt Escape and its morphs, especially Streak, is an amazing Escape Skill for PVP. Critical Surge is a very important Sorcerer self-heal ability that you should unlock and level up as soon as possible. This line offers a few great skills for Shock DPS based Sorcerer Builds!

Sorcerer Subclassing

Subclassing allows you to combine skills from up to three Classes in ESO, in order to create powerful Builds! The Sorcerer is a great Class if you wish to create Pet based Subclassing Builds but not very good for other options. Daedric Summoning is the most important skill line for subclassing with options for DPS but also a strong Shield that can help Solo and Tank Builds. Storm Calling offers a great execute and Shock based abilities but again is not that important for Subclassing. Dark Magic also offers a few utility and Support skills but you can skip it easily.

Skills Priority – Sorcerer Beginner

Unlocking and leveling up your Class active skills and passives, should be your number one priority. This will unlock the potential of your Class and allow you to combine them for better results. Weapon and Guild Skills should follow after. Of course everything depends on your goals and preferred play style. Getting a strong spammable and a good AOE ability early will help you level up faster and more efficiently. Regarding Passives, I always recommend getting everything from the skill lines you are using. Again Class Passives, along with Racial ones, should come first, followed by Weapon and Guild ones.

Mundus Stones – Sorcerer Beginner

Mundus Stones offer strong buffs to your character that can help you complete content faster. They are located all around Tamriel and based on their offered buff are more suitable for PVE or PVP content. When you are leveling up you should get the Atronach Mundus that boosts Magicka Recovery or the Serpent Mundus that boosts Stamina Recovery. This will assist you with sustain and will allow you to use your skills for longer.

As you are getting more experienced and can sustain better, switch to the Lover Mundus. The Lover boosts your Physical and Spell Penetration, making it easier to kill enemies. A great option for early gameplay but also Solo content. For group PVE you want to switch to the Thief (better Critical Chance). For PVP get the Warrior(more Weapon Damage), the Apprentice(more Spell Damage) or even the Atronach/Serpent for better sustain. Tank characters can benefit from the Atronach Mundus while Healers can use the Atronach, the Apprentice or even the Ritual(better Healing).

Champion Points – Sorcerer Beginner

After level 50 you will start earning Champion Points. These allow you to unlock Passive and Slottable Stars in the Champion Points tab, that can further empower your character. You can earn Champion Points by simply playing the game and leveling up. In total there are three constellations in the Elder Scrolls Online:

Each constellation offers different Stars that can help with different roles and activities. Warfare is the constellation that is focusing more on combat and provides bonuses to Damage Dealers, Tanks and Healers. Allocating your Champion Points appropriately and unlocking the right Stars for the role you wish to fulfill is rather important. You can find more info on Champion Points and the right Passive and Slottable Stars for every Role in my Champion Points Guide.

Vampire or Werewolf – Sorcerer Beginner

Being a Vampire or Werewolf is not necessary to fully enjoy your Sorcerer. However a Stamina Sorcerer is an excellent Class to use for a Werewolf Build. You can find a lot more info on Vampires and Werewolves in my ESO Vampire vs Werewolf Guide.

Build Examples

There are more than one ways you can setup your Magicka or Stamina Sorcerer. It all depends on your favorite play style and the content you wish to complete. Some setups are better for Solo PVE, other for Group Trials content and other for Battlegrounds or Open World PVP. Here are some Builds you can use, depending on gameplay.