Category: Best ESO Builds, Best Sorcerer Builds, Beginner Builds
This Magicka Sorcerer build for The Elder Scrolls Online is extremely easy to play and offers great damage, defense and self-healing. This build is perfect for any beginner to ESO!
What you will learn in this beginner build guide:
- The best item sets to use with the Magicka Sorcerer Beginner Build, and why they are important.
- How the skills work, synergies with the gear, and your rotation.
- The best consumables, race, and mundus, and most importantly, why you should select them.
This guide has been updated for The Elder Scrolls Online Update 50.
Magicka Sorcerer Beginner Primary Sets
Our main 5 piece set on this build is Mother’s Sorrow, a light armor set from the base game zone Deshaan. This set provides a substantial bonus to our build’s spell critical, which is important both for dealing damage and healing on the sorcerer class.
The second set on this build, Law Of Julianos is another fantastic beginner damage set that offers great stats and is also crafted or commonly sold on guild traders, so it should be easy to obtain.
For the final two pieces of gear on this build Armor Of The Trainee is recommended for the extra Health and Magicka.
Mother’s Sorrow
LVL 50 – CP 160
SET BONUS
(2 items) Adds 1096 Maximum Magicka
(3 items) Adds 657 Critical Chance
(4 items) Adds 657 Critical Chance
(5 items) Adds 1528 Critical Chance
Law Of Julianos
LVL 50 – CP 160
SET BONUS
(2 items) Adds 657 Critical Chance
(3 items) Adds 1096 Maximum Magicka
(4 items) Adds 657 Critical Chance
(5 items) Adds 300 Weapon and Spell Damage
Armor Of The Trainee
LVL 50 – CP 160
SET BONUS
(1 item) Adds 1454 Maximum Health
(2 items) Adds 1454 Maximum Magicka
(3 items) Adds 1454 Maximum Stamina
Magicka Sorcerer Beginner Alternative Sets
For alternatives, I also recommend sets such as Spinner’s Garments for the extra penetration or Winter’s Respite for a bit of extra self-healing.
Spinner’s Garments
LVL 50 – CP 160
SET BONUS
(2 items) Adds 1096 Maximum Magicka
(3 items) Adds 1096 Maximum Magicka
(4 items) Adds 129 Weapon and Spell Damage
(5 items) Adds 3460 Offensive Penetration
Winter’s Respite
LVL 50 – CP 160
SET BONUS
(2 items) Adds 129 Magicka Recovery
(3 items) Adds 1096 Maximum Magicka
(4 items) Adds 1096 Maximum Magicka
(5 items) Casting abilities that leave an effect on the ground will create a circle of healing frost for 10 seconds. You and your group members restore 2358 Health every 1 second while inside the circle. This effect can occur once every 10 seconds.
Magicka Sorcerer Beginner Gear Loadout
| Weapon/Armor | Set | Trait | Weight | Glyph |
| Main Hand | Armor Of The Trainee Inferno Staff | Precise | NA | Absorb Magic |
| Backup | Armor Of The Trainee Lightning Staff | Infused | NA | Weapon/Spell Damage |
| Head | Law Of Julianos | Divines | Light | Magicka |
| Shoulder | Law Of Julianos | Divines | Light | Magicka |
| Chest | Law Of Julianos | Divines | Light | Magicka |
| Waist | Law Of Julianos | Divines | Light | Magicka |
| Gloves | Law Of Julianos | Divines | Light | Magicka |
| Legs | Mother’s Sorrow | Divines | Light | Magicka |
| Feet | Mother’s Sorrow | Divines | Light | Magicka |
| Necklace | Mother’s Sorrow | Arcane | NA | Spell Damag |
| Ring 1 | Mother’s Sorrow | Arcane | NA | Spell Damage |
| Ring 2 | Mother’s Sorrow | Arcane | NA | Magicka Recovery |
Magicka Sorcerer Beginner Attributes
The best attribute for a Magicka Sorcerer is Magicka because it increase the effectiveness of our spells. Additionally, increased magicka can increase the size of a shield and healing spells. It’s best to pick one attribute pool and “stack” for optimal damage and resource sustain. Therefore, I recommend 64 magicka, 0 health, and 0 stamina.
64 Magicka
0 Health
0 Stamina
Magicka Sorcerer Beginner Race
The best overall race for a Magicka Sorcerer beginner is the High Elf. This race gives a balance between resource sustain and damage. However, it’s not a commonly used race for end-game serious PvE DPS. If that’s your goal eventually, use the Dark Elf. If you struggle with resource sustain and want to spam cast spells, choose the Breton. And if you want something that looks different, take the Khajiit for burst damage, and Argonian for survivability. For more details on all ESO Races and passive bonuses be sure to check out our Full ESO Race Guide.
Magicka Sorcerer Beginner Mundus
The Thief is the best mundus stone for the Magicka Sorcerer build because you cannot reach a “cap.” Critical damage (Shadow mundus) and offensive penetration (Lover) both can reach a hardcap where you see no benefit. Most Veteran enemies have 18,200 armor, thus Shadow becomes ineffective if using light armor. Meanwhile, the hardcap for critical damage is 125% which can be reached in trials with medium armor equipped. This is why the Thief is superior as an all around mundus stone, giving you the best benefit regardless of the content.
Increases the Critical Strike rating by 1333
With 7 Divines armor pieces
Increases the Critical Strike rating by 2167
The Lover
Increases Physical and Spell Penetration by 2744
With 7 Divines armor pieces
Increases Physical and Spell Penetration by 4489
Magicka Sorcerer Beginner Food & Drink
Witchmother’s Potent Brew is the best beginner Magicka Sorcerer food or drink because it increases your max magicka, health, and grants magicka recovery. As a new player, you desperately need resource sustain as well as damage, which is why this is selected. Later as you advance, other food is used like “bi-stat” which forgoes magicka recovery for higher max stats. But, this comes with a big downside and that is weak sustain and not recommended right away.
Witchmother’s potent brew
Increase Max Magicka by 2856, Max Health by 3094, and Magicka Recovery by 315 for 2 hours.
These effects are scaled based on your level.
Ingredients: Nightshade, Bervez Juice, Rice, Small Game
Magicka Sorcerer Beginner Potions
The best magicka potions for the Magicka Sorcerer are the base potions that give you magicka recovery. The recover, with medicine use passive from alchemy, can run 47.5 seconds. With potion cooldown only last 45 seconds, you can maintain 100% up time on an additional 20% recovery. As you advance, tri-potions (all three stats), spell power potions (buffs and recovery), or even heroism potions (ultimate generation buff) can be used. However, consider using these right now depending on your level and don’t be shy about drinking them.
Magicka Sorcerer Beginner Skill Loadout
Main Weapon: INFERNO STAFF – Click on a Skill Name to learn more
Backup Weapon: LIGHTNING STAFF – Click on a Skill Name to learn more
- Elemental Blockade
- Structured Entropy
- Elemental Drain
- Boundless Storm
- Critical Surge
- ULT: Greater Storm Atronach
Magicka Sorcerer Beginner Skill Explanation
Front Bar – Inferno Staff Explanation
- Endless Fury: your execute meaning it should only be applied at 20% health or less, or just as an enemy is about to reach 20% health for optimal damage.
- Hardened Ward: grants a damage shield based off your max magicka and capped based on your max health, spam as survivability tool.
- Inner Light: This is passively slotted to increase max magicka and provide the critical buff.
- Crystal Fragments: can be manually cast or a sound and visual indicator if you “proc” a instant cast lower cost version of Frags.
- Haunting Curse: acts a burst damage skill that triggers twice and can only be placed on one enemy, so wait for it blows up a second time before reapplying.
- ULT: Suppression Field: removes ground effects inside and does damage, used to shutdown spellcasters and protect you from incoming spells.
Back Bar – Lightning Staff Explanation
- Elemental Blockade: used as strong AOE damage over time that triggers status effects
- Structured Entropy: damage over time, range, that also does healing over time to a single target.
- Elemental Drain: this debuffs the enemy by lower armor, increasing your damage and also giving you resources when attacking the mob.
- Boundless Storm: buffs your armor with Major Resolve, thus reducing incoming damage while also giving speed boost and lighting damage to enemies near you.
- Critical Surge: grants you spell and weapon damage buff and gives healing everytime you deal critical damage based on damage done.
- ULT: Greater Storm Atronach
Magicka Sorcerer Sample Rotation
Rotation: Start on the Backbar by casting Boundless Storm, Critical Surge, Elemental Drain, Elemental Blockade -> Bar Swap -> Cast Haunting Curse, then Crystal Fragments x 6 -> Bar Swap Back.
Notes: Make sure to light attack between each skill. Elemental Drain only needs to be cast on boss type enemies every 3-4 rotations. Swap Crystal Fragments to Endless Fury once the enemy is below 20% health.
Magicka Sorcerer Important Passives
- Unholy Knowledge
- Power Stone
- Expert Summoner
- Capacitor
- Evocation
- Prodigy
- Concentration
- Tri-Focus
- Ancient Knowledge
Magicka Sorcerer Class Mastery
Players that reach level 50 in ESO while also fully reaching Rank 50 for their class skill lines and not subclassing can use 2 Class Mastery passives to improve their build. For the Sorcerer class I recommend Font of Power which increases your Weapon and Spell Damage based on the higher of your Max Magicka or Stamina and Static Reverberation which gives you a chance to deal additional shock damage.
Font of Power
Within you is a wellspring of near unlimited power.
Effect
Upgrades rank 2 of Exploitation to work with any Sorcerer ability and increases your Weapon and Spell Damage by 16% for 10 seconds. The Weapon and Spell Damage increases by 1% for every 1750 Max Magicka or Stamina you have, whichever is higher.
Static Reverberation
The battlefield crackles with untapped potential. Make use of it.
Effect
When you deal damage, you have a 5% chance to deal 747 Shock Damage, up to once every 0.3 seconds.
The chance increases by 1% for every 1% missing Health the target has. The chance is divided by 1 plus every permanent pet you have active.
How To Create Powerful ESO Builds
Crafting the Perfect Build for you in The Elder Scrolls Online can be frustrating. Which skills are best for each class? What about passives? The best race? The best armor type and weapons? The best trait and glyphs? There are literally THOUSANDS of different options!
This is why we created the ESO Zero To Hero Build Academy – A Simple, yet Powerful build system that teaches the fundamentals of ESO Theorycrafting, step-by-step.
Build your character exactly how YOU want by following this simple process from start to finish and FINALLY start enjoying ESO the way you want to play it!
Our Guides are designed with New and Intermediate players in mind! Stop wasting hours searching the internet for the best ESO build information – get what you need NOW to succeed!
More Sorcerer Builds For ESO
Want more Sorcerer Builds? Check out our dedicated Sorcerer Builds overview page for even more great options!
