Sorc, Stamina, 5/5/2 Sets, 5/1/1 Pieces, 2H/Restoration

An unorthodox approach to building a Tank utilising 2 handed damage output and shielding in conjunction with a restoration staves affinity for healing and magicka regeneration to fulfil the role of tank and auxiliary healer/support in a group. This build is also capable of soloing most world bosses and equivalent strength content.

It's weakness lies in its inability to burst damage to single targets, so clearing bosses with a healing mechanic alone can be burdensome. However, due to the intrapersonal design of much of the build. You'll find that pairing up with a singular glass cannon or alike DPS will allow you to take on almost anything.

Item Sets add strong bonuses to the structure of a build. They can reinforce weaknesses or enhance strengths.
For this reason, I like to utilize the following two sets:

Tormentor (Banished Cells):
2 items: Adds 1206 Maximum Health
3 items: Adds 4% Healing Taken
4 items: Adds 4% Healing Taken
5 items: When you deal direct damage with a Charge, Leap, Teleport, or Pull ability, you gain 3642 Physical Resistance and Spell Resistance and taunt the enemy to attack you for 15 seconds.

The Tormentor set is used to free up a taunt from the action bar and allow both the Critical Charge and Silver Bolts morph to act as taunts. So that there is an AoE leap and a ranged pull. Good for managing clusters such as imps or stragglers like healers.


Brands of Imperium (White-Gold Tower):
2 items: Adds 1206 Maximum Health
3 items: Adds 1206 Maximum Health
4 items: Adds 4% Healing Taken
5 items: When you take damage, you grant you and your group members within 8 meters a damage shield that absorbs 11260 damage for 6 seconds. This effect can occur once every 12 seconds.

The Brands of Imperium is for the party surrounding you, mostly, but if either set were to be substituted it would likely be this one.
When taking damage you gain a significant shield, in conjunction with Spike Wall and Brawler, you'll find yourself almost always nursing a shield. What this means, is that all the healing provided by Critical Surge or a healer present can act unimpeded upon your actual health.
For grouping, this is a particularly good set for maintaining your DPS through auxiliary means.
In that, 'glass-cannon' members of your group are much less likely to be immediately shattered by a wayward AoE; meaning that your DPS application as a unit will retain a more constant level.


These two sets are used in tandem with a monster helm set.
From the pool of Monster helm sets, almost any can be used while out solo, which makes for some fun and interesting mixing and matching.
Some of the sets I like to use and the situations they are handy in will be listed below.
(Note, I usually try get these pieces as Light/Medium as to fill out the potential from the Undaunted Passive.)

Bloodspawn (Spindleclutch II, Maj):
1 item: Adds 129 Stamina Recovery
2 items: When you take damage, you have a 6% chance to generate 13 Ultimate and increase your Physical Resistance and Spell Resistance by 3731 for 5 seconds. This effect can occur once every 5 seconds.
>A Decent, simple set for adding a little extra tankiness and trying to get your ultimate charged up sooner, works well with Suppression Field and Dawnbreaker for increased uptime and CC.

Engine Guardian (Darkshade Caverns II, Maj):
1 item: Adds 129 Health Recovery
2 items: When you use an ability, you have a 25% chance to summon a Dwemer automation to restore 550 Stamina or Magicka or 1955 Health to you every 0.5 seconds for 6 seconds. This effect can occur once every 10 seconds.
>A low DPS option, but this will make you nearly un-killable in many situations. Being able to utilize mana into Stamina means that no roll from this set is inherently bad, though you'll be praying for the Stamina surge over any other.

Iceheart (Direfrost Keep, Glirion):
1 item: Adds 833 Spell Critical
2 items: When you deal Critical Damage, you have a 20% chance to gain a damage shield that absorbs 5000 damage for 6 seconds. While the damage shield holds, you deal 500 Frost Damage to all enemies within 5 meters of you every 1 second. This effect can occur once every 6 seconds.
>A slightly higher DPS option. The bubble tends to last it's full duration in most circumstances as other shields seem to 'wrap' this one; as to say your Brawler shield seems to be destroyed prior to this one, despite proc order. The spell critical helps your Critical Surge activate ASAP through your Lightning Cloak. Good when doing dungeons with a lot of swarming mobs, like imps or skeletons. Less effective on single, heavier targets.

Infernal Guardian (City of Ash I, Glirion):
1 item: Adds 1096 Maximum Magicka
2 items: When you apply a damage shield to yourself or an ally, you have a 50% chance to lob 3 mortars over 2 seconds at the furthest enemy from you that each deal 4430 Flame Damage to all enemies within 5 meters of the blast area. This effect can occur once every 6 seconds.
>Probably the best damage option you'll find while keeping true to the Tank archetype. This set will have no problem activating. Even just blocking will set it off thanks to the Psjiic passive. One strange reason I like this set when doing dungeons is that in a way it can help me locate all the wayward mobs in an area. A visible mortar will show you where the distant mobs are quickly and clearly, which opens them up to being pulled in with Silver Leash. Once all the mobs are stacked up on you, this will provide a good blanket damage to the group.

(TBC)