Warden Back-bar Suggestions

LootAllTheStuff

I've been playing a majicka warden (currently level 30) using the game's advised skills (mostly creature) and staff on the front bar. That's worked for story mode so far, and seems to fit the character well. I'm looking for back-bar suggestions to add some variety to the gameplay though (PvE focus).

What can work well with a majicka warden build for a fun build: archer, healer, soul magic, psijic, ...?

fred4

At level 30 it's really all about role-playing and exploring what you like. You can always respec at a shrine in one of the major towns. It's not that expensive.

If you have a view towards endgame at some point, I would have your character learn / level all the skill lines, especially if it's your first one. You'd need a lot of skyshards, but you can also just respec from time to time instead. You do not lose the progress of what you've learnt by doing that, only what you are currently invested in.

I really couldn't help you with a lore / role-playing friendly build. However in terms of how stuff works at endgame:

If you PvP, an offensive weapon on the front bar and a tanking one on the back bar, e.g. 1H+Shield or ice staff, is par for the course. Ice staff may also play into some of warden's passives, but they've been adjusted recently. Not sure how much it still does. It also has the advantage of not requiring more skill points, even though it's use is quite different from the lightning staff, which you should probably run on the front bar for maximum damage.

For being a PvE DD, on the other hand, a fire staff back bar is optimal at endgame, specifically a Maelstrom Arena one.

Bow takes you into the realm of stamina / hybrid and may cause you having to adjust your sustain. You may not notice this right now, but as you approach level cap (CP160), your true stats will include more damage, via typically more crit than you have now, but less innate sustain. Bow would be fine, but I see no particular advantage on a magden. A benefit of that weapon is gaining Major Expedition from dodge rolling, but you already have that from a warden skill.

A resto staff would prepare you for being a healer at endgame. At level 30 you honestly won't need it for whatever you're doing now. That said, wardens make some of the best healers later on. Very meta.

Dual-wield and 2H, well, they're stamina weapons. They can have some back bar uses, but I don't really see them fitting into your build on the back bar.

Soul magic doesn't have much going for it, except for the scribed skills in that skill line, which are some of the best scribed ones.

Psijic. Hmm. The uses of that are niche on a warden. Race Against Time is a bread and butter PvP skill, but warden has a class skill for that. The rest are mostly situational. The ultimate is neat, but again either for PvP, or only for some hardcore PvE soloing. Precognition allows you to solo some stuff that is otherwise a roadblock for a single player.

fred4

I want to add one more thing: You can do all manner of stuff, like slowing mobs, freezing them still (rooting), or meditating to gain resources. You'll find the most genuine use for that, and the most build variety in general, in PvP. In PvE, however, the longer you play and start to see combat for what it is, you'll find stuff like that is mostly pointless, unless you're the tank in a group. All it does is waste resources and slows down combat. It leaves you, seconds later, in exactly the same spot with no progress. In overland everything is so easy, that doesn't matter, but you may become aware that you're purely role-playing at that point. The most effective way of dealing with anything is to burn it. Damage rules and AOE (area of effect) damage rules for dealing with trash mobs.

As an endgame player and 9 year veteran of the game, my weapon choices are purely utilitarian these days. I could be running a dual-wield back bar, because that's what happens to work in Infinite Archive for my magicka build. I have a few remnants of role-playing, such as not being a vampire (which tends to hamper you in PvP), and I know other players who put "arbitrary" constraints on how they play as well, such as playing only one class. You can go quite far with that, even in PvP. I was killed by a pure ice warden, once, who knew and played their role-playing build really well. Generally, though, the further you progress into endgame, the more utilitarian you become. You simply go with what works.

Lest this sounds boring, I will say that I very much like my warden as a healer nowadays, but it is otherwise not my favorite class. I find Arcanist the most effective as a PvE DD, or certainly the easiest, and I find templar more fun because of how it's toolkit works. Warden is buff heavy, templar has more situational skills, e.g. a gap closer, execute and a cleanse. Their use depends on, well, the situation, whereas warden, at endgame, focuses more on doing the same thing all the time, regardless of the combat situation. That said, situational play is more relevant to PvP, because PvP is simply more situational than PvE. That said, also, the things I find most fun are movement skills in general, sorc's Streak, NBs Shadow Image, DK's Leap, templar's gap closer, and so on. Warden has a speed skill, but it's very vanilla. It also has a healer gap closer and a trap / displacement rune, but those skills are quite gimmicky. They don't work well in actual combat. Only in terms of parkour / housing, e.g. following someone climbing (or a sorc streaking) to inaccessible places, is the warden gap closer good.

LootAllTheStuff

Thanks for the detailed and thoughtful feedback. I'll have to chew over this a bit, and decide what my priorities are.

BasP

A Two Handed weapon on the back bar can be fun in PvE with the Stampede skill. You could start by casting Scorch, use Stampede to charge into your enemies from afar and then Scorch will most likely go off when you've arrived at your targets, leading to some decent burst damage which will make short work of most overland enemies once you've leveled up a bit.

I personally mostly use two Frost Staffs on my Magicka Warden though, as I like playing as a Frost Mage. That setup has been nerfed slightly this year, but it's still okay for a lot of PvE content.

LootAllTheStuff

BasP wrote: »

A Two Handed weapon on the back bar can be fun in PvE with the Stampede skill. You could start by casting Scorch, use Stampede to charge into your enemies from afar and then Scorch will most likely go off when you've arrived at your targets, leading to some decent burst damage which will make short work of most overland enemies once you've leveled up a bit.

I personally mostly use two Frost Staffs on my Magicka Warden though, as I like playing as a Frost Mage. That setup has been nerfed slightly this year, but it's still okay for a lot of PvE content.

What skills do you slot front and back for that?

Urzigurumash

For Xbox NA PvP, don't overlook the new great advantage of Sword & Board backbar: slapping a Health Enchant on the Shield and/or pieces with a Health Bonus, which can allow you to sit at 29k HP frontbar and 31k HP backbar, to take maximum advantage of the new version of the Piercing Cold passive. You can achieve this with backbarring the 4 and 5 of a set with HP on those lines, but that limits your set selection.

I specify the platform because I hear everyone on PC runs 40k HP in PvP, hardly anyone does on Xbox NA. People were saying PC PvP Wardens will all just sit above 30k and not access the Damage side of Piercing Cold, not sure how it's panned out for them.

BasP

LootAllTheStuff wrote: »

BasP wrote: »

A Two Handed weapon on the back bar can be fun in PvE with the Stampede skill. You could start by casting Scorch, use Stampede to charge into your enemies from afar and then Scorch will most likely go off when you've arrived at your targets, leading to some decent burst damage which will make short work of most overland enemies once you've leveled up a bit.

I personally mostly use two Frost Staffs on my Magicka Warden though, as I like playing as a Frost Mage. That setup has been nerfed slightly this year, but it's still okay for a lot of PvE content.

What skills do you slot front and back for that?

This is the skill setup I generally use. Please note that it isn't meta though. When playing in a group you'd preferably use the other morph of Deep Fissure that deals more damage, Subterranean Assault, and you'd probably slot two extra Damage over Time abilities instead of Lotus Blossom and Green Vigor to maximise the damage per second you can do. But for someone that generally only plays ESO solo like me, this setup works well enough.

If I use a Two Handed weapon on the back bar, I only trade Unstable Wall of Elements from the Destruction Staff skill line for the aforementioned skill called Stampede and keep the rest of the skills the same, by the way.