Sorcerer Damage Dealer: Heavy Attack

One bar, two pets and a Lightning Staff. Heavy Attacks from range, a curse for your pets to chase, and about 114k on the dummy.

Update 51PvE · Damage DealerPure classBeginnerRangedMagickaHeavy AttackLast reviewed 2026-10-29

Overview

Buffs and debuffs you bring on bosses

You get

Major BrutalityMajor SavageryMinor ForceMinor BerserkEmpowerFont of Power

Enemies get

Off Balance

Your group gets

ExploitationCalculated Defense

Class Mastery

Pure-class characters with all three class lines at rank 50 can slot two Class Mastery passives (added in Update 50).

• Font of Power

  Any Sorcerer cast gives you a big Weapon and Spell Damage boost for 10 seconds, and four of your five skills are Sorcerer skills.

• Calculated Defense

  A short shield whenever you start a Sorcerer skill. If it doesn't break, you and the group get 6% Weapon and Spell Damage for 20 seconds.

Skill Setups

Every damage dealer build has a Boss setup for single targets and a Trash setup that swaps a slot or two for packs. The gear stays the same for both.

BossTrash

Single target: every slot either hits the boss harder or buffs you. Keep your damage over time effects and buffs up, then spam your spammable in between.

What this setup brings

You get

Major BrutalityMajor SavageryMinor ForceMinor BerserkEmpowerFont of Power

Enemies get

Off Balance

Your group gets

ExploitationCalculated Defense

Only bar (Oakensoul Ring)

Lightning staff · Sergeant's Mail

1

2

3

4

5

R

Slot	Skill	Why it's slotted
Bar 1	Unstable Wall of Elements Destruction Staff Cast time: Instant·Duration: 10 seconds·Cost: 2,970 Magicka Area damage that explodes when it ends, and Off Balance on Concussed enemies inside it, so your Heavy Attacks hit them 70% harder.	Area damage that explodes when it ends, and Off Balance on Concussed enemies inside it, so your Heavy Attacks hit them 70% harder.
Bar 2	Daedric Prey Daedric Summoning Cast time: Instant·Range: 28 metres·Duration: 6 seconds·Cost: 2,160 Magicka Your pets go for the cursed target and hit it 50% harder; it explodes after 6 seconds. Keep one up.	Your pets go for the cursed target and hit it 50% harder; it explodes after 6 seconds. Keep one up.
Bar 3	Crystal Weapon Dark Magic Cast time: 0.8 seconds·Range: 28 metres·Cost: 2,700 Magicka Your next three Light or Heavy Attacks hit harder and cut the boss's Armor. A Dark Magic cast, so the group gets Exploitation.	Your next three Light or Heavy Attacks hit harder and cut the boss's Armor. A Dark Magic cast, so the group gets Exploitation.
Bar 4	Summon Volatile Familiar Daedric Summoning Cast time: 1.5 seconds·Cost: 3,510 Magicka Permanent pet. Activate its pulse every 20 seconds for area damage around it.	Permanent pet. Activate its pulse every 20 seconds for area damage around it.
Bar 5	Summon Twilight Matriarch Daedric Summoning Cast time: 1.5 seconds·Cost: 3,510 Magicka Permanent pet and your heal: its special heals you and one ally.	Permanent pet and your heal: its special heals you and one ally.
Bar R	Summon Charged Atronach Daedric Summoning Cast time: Instant·Range: 28 metres·Duration: 15 seconds·Cost: 200 Ultimate A cheap Ultimate that shocks everything near it, with a Major Berserk synergy for the group.	A cheap Ultimate that shocks everything near it, with a Major Berserk synergy for the group.

Open the Boss setup in the Build Editor to change skills, gear and stats.

Simulate it on the Trial dummy to see its DPS, where the damage comes from and what each buff is worth.

The same bar. Unstable Wall of Elements is an area spammable, Daedric Prey explodes on everything near the target, and the familiar's pulse hits the whole pack. Lightning Staff Heavy Attacks hit enemies around the target too.

What this setup brings

You get

Major BrutalityMajor SavageryMinor ForceMinor BerserkEmpowerFont of Power

Enemies get

Off Balance

Your group gets

ExploitationCalculated Defense

Only bar (Oakensoul Ring)

Lightning staff · Sergeant's Mail

1

2

3

4

5

R

Slot	Skill	Why it's slotted
Bar 1	Unstable Wall of Elements Destruction Staff Cast time: Instant·Duration: 10 seconds·Cost: 2,970 Magicka Area damage that explodes when it ends, and Off Balance on Concussed enemies inside it, so your Heavy Attacks hit them 70% harder.	Area damage that explodes when it ends, and Off Balance on Concussed enemies inside it, so your Heavy Attacks hit them 70% harder.
Bar 2	Daedric Prey Daedric Summoning Cast time: Instant·Range: 28 metres·Duration: 6 seconds·Cost: 2,160 Magicka Your pets go for the cursed target and hit it 50% harder; it explodes after 6 seconds. Keep one up.	Your pets go for the cursed target and hit it 50% harder; it explodes after 6 seconds. Keep one up.
Bar 3	Crystal Weapon Dark Magic Cast time: 0.8 seconds·Range: 28 metres·Cost: 2,700 Magicka Your next three Light or Heavy Attacks hit harder and cut the boss's Armor. A Dark Magic cast, so the group gets Exploitation.	Your next three Light or Heavy Attacks hit harder and cut the boss's Armor. A Dark Magic cast, so the group gets Exploitation.
Bar 4	Summon Volatile Familiar Daedric Summoning Cast time: 1.5 seconds·Cost: 3,510 Magicka Permanent pet. Activate its pulse every 20 seconds for area damage around it.	Permanent pet. Activate its pulse every 20 seconds for area damage around it.
Bar 5	Summon Twilight Matriarch Daedric Summoning Cast time: 1.5 seconds·Cost: 3,510 Magicka Permanent pet and your heal: its special heals you and one ally.	Permanent pet and your heal: its special heals you and one ally.
Bar R	Summon Charged Atronach Daedric Summoning Cast time: Instant·Range: 28 metres·Duration: 15 seconds·Cost: 200 Ultimate A cheap Ultimate that shocks everything near it, with a Major Berserk synergy for the group.	A cheap Ultimate that shocks everything near it, with a Major Berserk synergy for the group.

Open the Trash setup in the Build Editor to change skills, gear and stats.

Simulate it on the Trial dummy to see its DPS, where the damage comes from and what each buff is worth.

Flex skills

Swap these in when the fight or your group calls for it.

• Elemental Susceptibility

  Your own Major Breach, for mechanics that take you away from the group. Replace Crystal Weapon first.

• Crystal Fragments

  In Crystal Weapon's slot if you'd rather have a ranged hit than a buff to your attacks.

• Resolving Vigor

  A heal over time when the matriarch's heal isn't enough.

Passives

The passives that shape this build. They come with the skill lines, so there's nothing to slot.

• Tri Focus

  Fully charged Lightning Staff Heavy Attacks hit enemies near your target too.

• Expert Summoner

  More Max Magicka and Stamina with a permanent pet out: you have two.

• Exploitation

  Crystal Weapon is a Dark Magic cast, so your group gets Offensive Penetration from it.

• Dexterity

  12% more Critical Damage from 6 Medium pieces.

• Concentration

  Offensive Penetration from 1 Light piece.

• Undaunted Mettle

  Max Health, Magicka and Stamina, since your gear has all three armour weights.

Gear

Sergeant's Mail on the chest, two jewellery pieces and the staff stacks Heavy Attack damage, and Storm Master on five Medium pieces adds Light and Heavy Attack damage when a Heavy Attack crits. Slimecraw is a one-piece helm for Critical Chance and Minor Berserk, and Oakensoul Ring holds the build together. The Shock glyph Concusses the boss, which Unstable Wall of Elements turns into Off Balance; use Flame instead if your group already keeps Off Balance up.

Buffs and debuffs with this gear

Gold entries come from your gear; the rest come from your skills and passives.

You get

Major BrutalityMajor SavageryMinor ForceMinor BerserkEmpowerFont of Power

Enemies get

Off Balance

Your group gets

ExploitationCalculated Defense

Slots

Slot	Set	Type	Trait	Enchant
Head	Slimecraw Medium (monster)	Medium (monster)	Divines	Magicka
Shoulders	Storm Master Medium	Medium	Divines	Magicka
Chest	Sergeant's Mail Heavy	Heavy	Divines	Magicka
Hands	Storm Master Medium	Medium	Divines	Magicka
Waist	Storm Master Medium	Medium	Divines	Magicka
Legs	Storm Master Medium	Medium	Divines	Magicka
Feet	Storm Master Medium	Medium	Divines	Magicka
Neck	Sergeant's Mail Jewellery	Jewellery	Bloodthirsty	Increase Magical Harm
Ring 1	Sergeant's Mail Jewellery	Jewellery	Bloodthirsty	Increase Magical Harm
Ring 2	Oakensoul Ring Jewellery (mythic)	Jewellery (mythic)	Bloodthirsty	Increase Magical Harm
Front: main hand	Sergeant's Mail Lightning staff (two-handed)	Lightning staff (two-handed)	Precise	Shock

Sturdy and Divines are interchangeable on armour. Tri-Stat glyphs on jewellery are a fine swap if you need more resources.

What the sets do

SlimecrawMonster

1 piece · Wayrest Sewers I (veteran) + Undaunted chest

Only 1 of 2 pieces, so the top bonus is off.

• (1 item)Adds 657 Critical Chance.
• (2 items)Adds 113 Critical Chance.
• (2 items)Gain Minor Berserk at all times, increasing your damage done by 5%.

Storm MasterDungeon

5 pieces · Tempest Island

• (2 items)Adds 657 Critical Chance.
• (3 items)Adds 657 Critical Chance.
• (4 items)Adds 129 Weapon Damage and Spell Damage.
• (5 items)When you deal Critical Damage with a fully-charged Heavy Attack, your Light and Heavy Attacks deal an additional 1542 damage to monsters for 8 seconds. This effect can occur once every 5 seconds.

Sergeant's MailDungeon

5 front / 3 back · Wayrest Sewers

Full bonus on the front bar only.

• (2 items)Adds 1206 Maximum Health.
• (3 items)Adds 129 Health Recovery.
• (4 items)Adds 129 Weapon Damage and Spell Damage.
• (5 items)When you deal damage with a Heavy Attack, you gain a stack of Sergeant's Focus for 5 seconds, increasing the damage of your Heavy Attacks by 645 per stack. This effect can occur once every second and stacks up to 4 times.

Oakensoul RingMythic

1 piece · Antiquities

• (1 item)While equipped, you are unable to swap between your Primary and Backup Weapon Sets and gain Minor Berserk, Minor Courage, Major Brutality, Major Savagery, Minor Force, Minor Protection, Major Resolve, Minor Mending, Minor Fortitude, Minor Intellect, Minor Endurance, Minor Heroism, Minor Slayer, Minor Aegis, and Empower.

Alternative sets

• Noble Duelist's Silks

  About 2% more damage than Storm Master, in Light, but only for attacks in melee range. Take it if you'll stand next to the boss anyway.

• Rakkhat's Voidmantle

  The full damage version: Heavy Attacks hit 50% harder. It replaces Oakensoul, so you run two bars and bring your own buffs; about 10% more damage.

• Anthelmir's Construct

  Heavy Attack monster set, in place of Slimecraw when you drop Oakensoul.

• Highland Sentinel

  Crafted fallback for either body set: Critical Chance, more while you stand still.

• Order's Wrath

  Crafted fallback for Sergeant's Mail. An all-crafted build does about 20% less damage.

Champion Points

Slottable stars only. Spend passive points in each tree along the path to these stars.

Good swaps

• Reaving Blows

  Your damage heals you, if you need more healing.

• Biting Aura

  More area damage, in place of Deadly Aim on trash.

Race

• High Elf

  Max Magicka and Weapon and Spell Damage, and less damage taken while you channel.

• also goodDark Elf

  Max Magicka and Stamina and Flame damage. Strong on every build.

• 4-playerKhajiit

  Critical Damage and Healing. Better in dungeons, where you rarely hit the Critical Damage cap.

Mundus

• The Thief

  More Critical Chance. Divines on the armour makes it bigger.

• PenetrationThe Lover

  Penetration, if your group doesn't bring Crusher, Alkosh or Tremorscale.

Attributes

Food

• Artaeum Pickled Fish Bowl

  Max Health and Max Magicka. Enough Health to live, and Magicka for damage.

• full damageTomato Garlic Chutney

  Max Magicka only, for under 1% more damage when you can do without the Health.

Potions

• Armor potion

  Oakensoul Ring already gives Major Brutality and Major Savagery, so drink Major Resolve and Health instead.

• stunsImmovability potion

  Immune to stuns and knockbacks, so nothing interrupts your channel.

Gameplay

1. 1Summon both pets before the pull, and pre-cast Daedric Prey.
2. 2Fully charge a Heavy Attack, then cast one skill, then the next Heavy Attack. Only cast what's running out, most important first: Daedric Prey, the familiar's pulse, Unstable Wall of Elements, Crystal Weapon, and Summon Charged Atronach when it's ready.
3. 3Use the matriarch's special when you need a heal, not on a timer.
4. 4Don't cut a Heavy Attack short. Sergeant's Mail and the Tri Focus cleave both want the full channel.
5. 5Stand anywhere in range. If you take Noble Duelist's Silks instead of Storm Master, stand next to the boss.

FAQ