Sorcerers are masters of the arcane and daedric rituals. Using magic; fire, frost and lightning to hail destruction upon their enemies and summoning dark daedric creatures to aid them in combat, sorcerers make powerful spellcasters in ESO.
Sorcerer Skill Lines
Sorcerer’s skill lines are Dark Magic, Daedric Summoning and Storm Calling.
Each skill line includes one ultimate skill, five active skills and four passive skills. The ultimate skills and active skills can be morphed. Morphs enhance the original skill, giving you more room to customize your character and play it just the way you want. Each ultimate skill and active skill comes with two morph options. Once you have morphed an ability, it will replace the original ability.
- Instant
- Target: Ground
- 28 m. range
- 8 m. radius
- 8 sec. duration
- 250 ultimate
- Dispels enemy placed effects in area for 8 seconds, while silencing enemies and stunning monsters nearby.
Morphed from Negate Magic
- Allies in area also gain 32 Spell Resistance.
Morphed from Negate Magic
- Restores 12% Health and Magicka for each successful dispel while standing in Absorption Field.
- 1.3 sec. cast
- 28 m. range
- 53 Magicka
- Deals 29 Magic Damage to enemy and knocks down for 2 seconds.
Morphed from Crystal Shard
- Also deals 8 Magic Damage to nearby enemies.
Morphed from Crystal Shard
- 35% chance to make your next use an instant cast and cost 50% less when activating ability with a Magicka cost.
- Instant
- Target: Area
- 15 m. radius
- 4.5 sec. duration
- 70 Magicka
- Immobilizes enemies in front of you for 4.5 seconds.
Morphed from Encase
- When effect ends, enemies are snared for 4 seconds.
Morphed from Encase
- Deals 9 Magic Damage when effect ends.
- 1.5 sec. cast
- 28 m. range
- 28 Magicka
- Disorients enemy for 15.1 seconds.
Morphed from Rune Prison
- When disorient ends, target is stunned for 3 seconds.
Morphed from Rune Prison
- Spell Power of next attack against target is increased by 35.
- Instant
- Target: Self
- 3 sec. duration
- Restores Health and Magicka while channeling, but drains 23% Stamina per second.
Morphed from Dark Exchange
- Stamina cost per second reduced to 15% instead of 23%.
Morphed from Dark Exchange
- Increases Armor and Spell Resistance by 80 while channeling, but loses 11% Health when effect ends.
- Instant
- Target: Self
- 30 sec. duration
- 84 Magicka
- Summons 3 mines for 30 seconds. Mines take 3 seconds to arm, then deal 13 Magic Damage to a nearby enemy.
- Enemies damaged by mines are immobilized for 1.5 seconds.
Morphed from Daedric Mines
- Summons 5 mines instead of 3.
Morphed from Daedric Mines
- Mines are armed instantly.
Unholy Knowledge (0/2)
- Reduces ability Magicka and Stamina costs by 3%.
Blood Magic (0/2)
- Hitting an enemy with a Dark Magic spell heals player for 3% Max Health.
Persistence (0/2)
- Increases duration of Dark Magic spells by 10%.
Exploitation (0/2)
- Increases Critical Strike chance by 7.5% when attacking targets affected by Dark Magic.
- Instant
- Target: ground
- 28 m. range
- 6 m. radius
- 200 ultimate
- Summons an immobile storm atronach to targeted location for 15 seconds. Enemies in the area are stunned for 3 seconds and take 22 Shock Damage.
- An ally may active the Charged Lightning synergy Channeling, causing the atronach to deal 150% additional damage for up to 5 seconds.
Morphed from Summon Storm Atronach
- Storm atronach duration increased from 15 seconds to 25 seconds.
Morphed from Summon Storm Atronach
- Storm Atronach has a powerful area effect attack.
- Instant
- Target: Self
- 95 Magicka
- Summons a familiar to attack enemies. Toggle to activate. Reduces Max Magicka by 10%.
Morphed from Unstable Familiar
- Summons a clannfear instead of a familiar. It deals 15% additional damage and can charge and tail swipe nearby enemies.
Morphed from Unstable Familiar
- Summons a Volatile familiar, which deals 15% additional damage. Volatile familiar explodes on death, causing 20% of your Max Magicka as damage and stunning affected enemies for 2 seconds.
- Instant
- 8 m. range
- 39 Magicka
- Enemy is cursed for 6 seconds. When effect completes target takes 22 Magic Damage, and nearby enemies take 11 Magic Damage. Only 1 curse may be active at a time.
Morphed from Daedric Curse
Morphed from Daedric Curse
- Curse duration is decreased to 3.5 seconds from 6 seconds. The damage remains the same.
- 1.5 sec cast
- 95 Magicka
- Summons a Winged Twilight to attack nearby enemies. Toggle to activate. Reduces Max Magica by 10%.
Morphed from Summon Winged Twilight
- Increases Magicka regeneration of nearby allies by 10%.
Morphed from Summon Winged Twilight;
- Heals when player’s Health drops below 35%, this can only occur once every 30 seconds.
- Instant
- 70 Magicka
- Increases Armor by 11 when toggled on, but reduces Max Magica by 10%.
Morphed from Bound Armor
- Increases Armor even more.
Morphed from Bound Armor
- Increases Heavy Attack damage by 8%.
- Instant
- Target: area
- 20 m. radius
- 46 magicka
- Creates a damage shield on self and summoned creatures for 20 seconds.
Morphed from Conjured Ward
- Summoned creatures deal 17% additional damage while the ward holds.
Morphed from Conjured Ward
- Shield strength is increased by 30% on self.
Rebate (0/2)
- Player receives 10% max Magicka when one of their summoned creatures is killed.
Power Stone (0/2)
- Reduces the cost of Ultimate abilities by 8%.
Daedric Protection (0/2)
- Increases player’s Health regeneration rate by 10% with any Summoning ability slotted.
Expert Summoner (0/2)
- Provides bonuses for summoned creatures. Winged Twilight has Damage Increased 5%, Familiar and Clannfear have Movement speed Increased 10%, and Atronach has range Increased 15%.
- Instant
- 125 ultimate
- Light and Heavy Attacks are replaced with empowered versions that drain ultimate. Toggle to activate.
Morphed from Overload
- Light and Heavy attacks also restore Magicka.
Morphed from Overload
- Range and radius of Heavy attacks are increased.
- Instant
- 28 m. range
- 32 Magicka
- Deals 7 Shock Damage. Explodes for an additional 27 Shock Damage if the target falls below 20% health within 4 seconds. The explosion deals 5 Shock Damage to enemies within a 4m radius of the target.
Morphed from Mages’ Fury
- Killing an enemy with Endless Fury restores 100 magicka.
Morphed from Mages’ Fury
- Explosion deals more damage.
- Instant
- 6 sec. duration
- 53 Magicka
- Increases Armor and Spell Resistance by 40 for 6 seconds and deals 2 Shock Damage to nearby enemies every 1 second.
Morphed from Lightning Form
- Also increases Movement speed by 24% when active.
Morphed from Lightning Form
- Duration increased to 8 seconds from 6 seconds.
- Instant
- Target: ground
- 28 m. range
- 4 m. radius
- 46 Magicka
- Creates a pool of lightning for 3 seconds that deals 3 Shock Damage every 0.5 seconds.
- A nearby ally may activate the Conduit synergy, instantly shocking enemies for 22 Shock Damage.
Morphed from Lightning Splash
- Radius increased to 6 m. from 4 m.
Morphed from Lightning Splash
- Initial hit deals 50% additional damage.
- Instant
- 70 Magicka
- Increases weapon damage by 3 for 17 seconds.
Morphed from Surge
- Critical strikes heal player for 50% of damage inflicted.
Morphed from Surge
- Duration increased from 17 sec. to 34 sec.
- Instant
- 56 Magicka
- Teleports player forward and stuns nearby enemies for 1.5 seconds.
Morphed from Bolt Escape
- Absorbs incoming spell projectiles for 5 seconds.
Morphed from Bolt Escape
- Deals 13 Shock Damage to enemies moved through and disorients them for 2 seconds.
Capacitor (0/2)
- Increases Magicka regeneration by 5%.
Energized (0/2)
- Increases damage of Storm Calling abilities by 3%.
Disintegrate (0/2)
- Gives all Lightning spells a 5% chance to instantly disintegrate low Health targets.
Expert Mage (0/2)
- Reduces the cost of Storm Calling spells by 5%.
Dark Magic
Dark Magic is an interesting skill line which focuses mainly on support and crowd control abilities.
The ultimate skill Negate Magic should not be overlooked. It dispels enemy effects and silences everything in its radius. There is a severe lack of dispels in ESO, so the value of Negate Magic will be very high in certain situations, especially in PvP. Negate Magic is possibly the best skill a Sorcerer can bring to the group in PvP.
Crystal Shard is a standard single target knockout with a pretty high damage component as well. Encase roots enemies in front of you. It can be a very useful skill when used wisely. You can root a group of melee mobs and pick them one by one to buy you more time.
Rune Prison is a powerful single target crowd control ability. It disorients the target for 15 seconds. Note that you can break free from disorient effect at the cost of 50% of your total Stamina, and any damage will also break the effect.
Dark Exchange is a channeled cast which trades your Stamina to Health and Magicka. This is a way to regenerate Magicka quicker. It’s worth noticing that the Stamina trade off is a flat percentage of your total Stamina, so having more Stamina does NOT enable you to regenerate more Magicka with this ability. The downside of this ability is the long channeling time, rendering the Sorcerer useless for the duration.
Daedric Summoning
Daedric Summoning gives a mixed set of skills, but its fair to say that it focuses on the summoning of Daedric creatures (who would have thought, I know!).
Summon Storm Atronach is an amazing ultimate skill, definitely the best ultimate skill a sorcerer can have for levelling. Not only does it stun the enemies around it, but also deals massive AOE damage. It’s a great option for leveling because of this, and will save your hide in many occasions.
Unstable Familiar is one of the daedric pets a sorcerer can summon. The Unstable Clannfear morph will turn the Familiar into a Clannfear instead. Sorcerers also get Summon Winged Twilight, which comes with two useful morph options.
Daedric Curse is your standard damage-over-time spell with an AOE explosion at the end. Bound Armor is an useful toggelable Armor buff, but it does reduce your Magicka by 10%. It’s one of the skills that makes Sorcerers, even in light armor, a viable tank.
Conjured Ward creates a damage shield on the player and the summoned creatures. Hardened Ward morph increases the shield’s strength by 30% on the player, potentially making it a powerful way to mitigate damage.
Storm Calling
Storm Calling skill line focuses on lightning based damage.
Overload is the ultimate ability of Storm Calling. It’s heaps of fun to use and very effective. The morph Evergy Overload gives a nice way to restore Magicka when the ultimate is active.
Mage’s Fury is a powerful execute ability. It deals additional damage to targets that are below 20%, and it also has a small AOE damage component built in it. The morph Endless Fury is what makes this skill interesting. Killing an enemy with the skill will restore 100 Magicka. It will be a great option for levelling, because you’ll be able to quickly dispatch mob after another with that extra Magicka you gain from the killing blows.
Lightning Form is a must have for any sorcerer who wants to tank. It gives a 6-second buff to Armor and Spell Resistance, and also deals Shock damage to targets around you.
Lightning Splash may not look that great on paper, but the true strength of this AOE Shock damage ability comes from its Conduit synergy. It will be very useful in dungeons as long as your group is able to use the synergy.
Surge provides a 17-second buff to weapon damage. When morphed to Critical Surge, the ability becomes very interesting. All crits will heal the player for 50% of the damage dealt. If you can find a way to consistently land critical hits, possibly with crit potions or abilities from other skill lines, Critical Surge becomes a great survival skill.
Bolt Escape is the Blink spell in Elder Scrolls Online. It teleports the player forward and stuns everything infront of the player. It’s a great way to quickly retreat, but also works as a way to interrupt your enemies. The morph Ball of Lightning suddenly makes the skill look appealing from tanking perspective, since it enables you to absorb all spell projectiles for 5 seconds after you use the skill.
