ESO Sorcerer Tank Introduction
Sorcerers (Aka Sorcs) are a very good option for Tanking in The Elder Scrolls Online. Sorc have pretty much everything you could needs as a Tank, they have a skill to convert Magicka into Stamina, amazing self-heals, great self buffs, some nice group utility and an emergency panic button to give them huge damage mitigation for 3 seconds. They have a few group buffs and a skill to provide a group synergy, the only issue with a Sorcerer Tank is that they can easily be replaced by 1 single other Sorcerer in a group which then means they provide no group utility. Sustain is super easy on a Sorcerer as you can build a high Magicka Recovery build and then you simply use Dark Deal to convert Magicka into Stamina. The Clannfear heal is a heal based on your Max Health which means if you have high Health then your heal will do more healing. When this heal crits it can easily heal 30k+, and can be buffed even higher with the use of Restraining Prison which buffs you with Major Vitality. Sorcerer Tanks are really in their element in trash pulls and for things like vAS Off Tanking because they have skills such as Ball of Lightning and Boundless Storm which means they can move around extremely quickly. Sorcs have the option of Bound Aegis as a panic button, it only lasts for 3 seconds but if you time it with hard hitting mechanics it makes it very easy to survive since it gives you 40% damage mitigation which is huge. In terms of group utility, you have a few useful group buffs which really benefit a Magicka group but are not very useful within a Stamina group. The only major downside to the Sorcerer Tank is crowd control is not as good as the Dragonknight, Restraining Prison is not bad but having a 360 degree immobilise would be nicer and having a Magicka based pull skill would also help a lot.
Choosing a Sorcerer Tank is a very good idea because they are the full package when it comes to Tanking. You can play both as a Main Tank and an Off Tank well because you are able to take a lot of damage, heal yourself well and provide a range of group support.
Strengths
- Great self healing
- Panic button to boost damage mitigation really high
- Multiple group buffs for Magicka groups
- Stamina groups able to reach pen cap easily with Sorc using Crystal Weapon
- Very fast and able to manoeuvre quickly with the correct skills
Weaknesses
- Easily replaceable within a group by using 1 other Sorcerer
- No Magicka chain/pull ability
- Sustain skill Dark Deal drops your block when casting
Group Buffs
- Minor Prophecy via Exploitation
- Minor Intellect via Empowered Ward
- 1000 Extra Penetration via Crystal Weapon
- Group synergy via Liquid Lightning
Skill Lines
Dark Magic
(Unnecessary)
A good Ultimate to use until you get Warhorn. You wouldn’t usually have this slotted as it offers no passive benefits, but if you know a specific fight where you want to stop enemies from doing AoE abilities you could use it for that exact situation, it also does a heal and stun but overall this is unnecessary compared with Warhorn.
(Vital)
An important skill for Stamina groups especially, you activate the ability and then do a Light Attack which will reduce the enemies Armor by 1000. This is important to consider if you are trying to help your group reach the 18200 penetration cap, this skill should be used if your group is not hitting high enough pen. Could be used by a Sorc Main Tank but more likely to be used on an Off Tank as it needs reactivating every 5 seconds. Restraining Prison
(Vital)
So this is a way to immobilise enemies that are in front of you – this is mostly useful for 4-Man dungeons and arenas and a few limited trial situation. The main use for this skill is the Major Vitality. You actually gain the Major Vitality just by using the skill on a target, even if you cannot immobilise them such as bosses. So in hard hitting fights you could use this on a Boss to gain the Major Vitality to increase your incoming healing plus it will also proc the group buff Minor Prophecy from the Exploitation passive. Dark Deal
(Vital)
You use this skill to trade Magicka for Health and Stamina, a very good tool for sustaining as a Sorcerer Tank. This will drop your block however so you really need to time the use of this when you are not taking a major mechanic or Heavy Attack. Dark Conversion
(Optional)
This does the opposite of Dark Deal, so you trade Stamina for Health and Magicka. You will usually just use Dark Deal however there are some fights where you block a lot less and have time for Heavy Attacking so using this morph as a Heal/Magicka Sustain can be used, plus you need to have at least one Dark Magic skill available so it could be this if you don’t need the Stamina. Daedric Minefield
(Optional)
Another way of immobilising targets, the way this differs from Restraining Prison is this places 5 mines around your location and when an target walks into it they get immobilised, where as Prison just Immobilises 6 enemies stood in front of you. Prison would be the better skill at the start of fight and this would work better mid-fight.
(Vital)
Good passive for Tanks, reducing all ability costs. Blood Magic
(Unnecessary)
We generally don’t use any direct Dark Magic abilities so this passive isn’t that useful and we can heal with actual Healing abilities that are much stronger than relying on this passive. Persistence
(Vital)
Since we are blocking pretty often as a Tank this is an amazing passive reducing the cost of our next abilities by 15% after we block. Exploitation
(Vital)
This is the Sorcerer group buff and it’s an important buff to maintain for your group. It’s only useful for Magicka DD’s but its a strong buff adding approximately 2k DPS to each DD. You should cast a Dark Magic ability every 20 seconds, usually Prison if you are the Main Tank in a high damage trial or Dark Deal.
Daedric Summoning
(Unnecessary)
This is more of a DPS/Solo Ultimate, you could potentially use it for the stun and to increase concussion on targets but it won’t provide as strong support as Warhorn.
(Vital)
This is the main Sorcerer Tank heal and it’s a really strong heal since it scales on Max Health, the more health you have the bigger the base heal will be. You need to have the pet summoned and then when you press on the pet again it will do it’s special ability which is the Heal to you and the heal can also crit. You need to double bar the skill or your pet will unsummon. Summon Twilight Matriarch
(Situational)
You don’t really need this skill often, but you could use it for the passives and for group healing assistance when in situations where you are unlikely to take damage or need the burst heal from the Clannfear such as Range Tanking on vSS Lokkestiiz. Empowered Ward
(Situational)
You would only slot this if you have the bar space, it is to give your group the Minor Intellect buff to increase their Magicka Recovery. Bound Aegis
(Vital)
You would slot this initially for the 8% Max Magicka and Minor Resolve, and then the actual ability would only be used for very spefic situations. You want to time the use of this ability to gain the huge 40% damage mitigation but it only lasts 3 seconds. You can recast it as much as you want but this would become expensive to sustain so you just want to time the use of this with heavy hitting mechanics.
(Vital)
It’s not often your pet will die but if it does you’ll restore Magicka equal to about half the cost of the ability to re-summon it. Power Stone
(Vital)
Ultimate cost reduction, great way to help us use our Ultimate/Warhorn more often/consistently. Daedric Protection
(Optional)
A small boost to our Health Recovery is a slight help, Stamina recovery is mostly unnoticeable due to our low base Stamina Recovery and the fact we are blocking a lot and not getting it anyway. Expert Summoner
(Vital)
You’ll pretty much always have the Clannfear summoned since this is the Sorcerer Tank main heal so you’ll benefit from the 8% increased Health which in turn increases our Healing from the Clannfear with it scaling on Max Health.
Storm Calling
(Unnecessary)
This might be used as a DD/Tank Hybrid for doing extra damage. Boundless Storm
(Vital)
This is the initial skill you use for Major Resolve until you can get Balance, but you should still use this for add pulls. When using this you also gain Major Expedition for 4 seconds and because it does Shock Damage there is a chance that you will concuss an enemy which can help to cause Minor Vulnerability and Off Balance which will cause your DD’s to do more damage to those targets. This would be good when dealing with adds as it’s an AoE shock damage so you could cause a whole pack of adds to be inflicted with Off Balance and Minor Vulnerability. Liquid Lightning
(Vital)
You would want to use this as a Tank if you are not wearing Alkosh so you can provide an extra synergy to the Alkosh Tank. It also does Shock Damage so it has a chance to cause Concussion/Minor Vulnerability/Off Balance which will increase your groups damage to the target inflicted with those debuffs. Critical Surge
(Unnecessary)
Could be used in solo situation to provide some small incoming Heals over time and increase your Spell and Weapon damage which will increase your damage and healing also. Streak
(Optional)
This morph would be used for adds and 4-man content. You Streak through the target and will stun them if they are not a Boss or Elite target. You also inflict Shock Damage which can help with Concussion/Minor Vulnerability/Off Balance. Ball of Lightning
(Situational)
This is the morph which is better for Boss fights. You become immune to snares and immobilisation. You also create a Ball of Lightning at the location you moved to which will absorb projectiles. Generally this will absorb most projectiles even within a Trial environment and from bosses but it wont absorb projectiles based heavy attack.
(Vital)
10% Magicka Recovery, vital for Tanking. Energized
(Optional)
Not a necessary passive it increases our damage. Worth having if you occasionally play solo content and you might as well use it to increase the damage you output. Increasing shock damage wont increase the chance/effect of things like concussion. Amplitude
(Optional)
Increased damage against targets based on their health, again not super important but if you have the skill points it worth just having it and doing a little extra damage. Expert Mage
(Optional)
Increased weapon and spell damage increases the healing we do so you should take this passive even though it will have very little impact.
Find out about the other Tank Classes in ESO and more Sorcerer information on our YouTube channel.