Frost Warden Subclassing

ArchMikem · June 24

Before I even begin, as is customary when talking about Frost Warden Cryomancers... @ESO_Nightingale I SUMMON YOU!

Now that we can pull other class abilities and passives into our Frost Mages, which is the most ideal Skill Lines to subclass into while trying to remain within the theme of a full Frost Warden? Obviously when it comes to theme, active abilities doesn't really give us any options, however there could be some really nice passives out there a Frost Warden could make use of.

ESO_Nightingale · June 24

i have been summoned.

your main options here are Assassination, Herald of the Tome and Grave Lord when it comes to this but you could realistically use anything you actually want. I messed around with Aedric Spear using jabs as my spammable in IA and i loved it.

i would now class "Frost Warden" as Animal Companions+Winter's Embrace, so replacing green balance with any of those other ones works fine.

if you're interested, I'm currently using Assassination and have since done my first ever dungeon trifectas with this build while i slowly work on farming gear for my necromancer base.

this build is literally cobbled together with the stuff i already had on-hand so i don't exactly recommend it, but it's not bad by any means.

subterranean smasher has hilariously easy, we smashed that out in 1 attempt.

tsaescishoeshiner · June 24

Just speaking thematically, the other DPS skill from another class that could add to frostiness for mag DPS is Hurricane from Storm Calling, for an extra chilling winds–type of effect. The line has two DPS passives that apply to frost damage, but I suppose Surge vs Betty Netch comes down to preference.

ESO_Nightingale · June 24

tsaescishoeshiner wrote: »

Just speaking thematically, the other DPS skill from another class that could add to frostiness for mag DPS is Hurricane from Storm Calling, for an extra chilling winds–type of effect. The line has two DPS passives that apply to frost damage, but I suppose Surge vs Betty Netch comes down to preference.

Hurricane definitely works with arctic blast. Agreed. Though unfortunately theres no other wind based skill in storm calling.

Dark magic for the crystal kind of works if you pretend its purple ice but that skill line does nothing for you passively in a group.

Netch and critical surge are 2 different buffs. Crit surge is used for passive self healing and netch is used for resource recovery, purging and a small damage buff. It's really strong, not to mention free.

ArchMikem · June 24

ESO_Nightingale wrote: »

Netch and critical surge are 2 different buffs. Crit surge is used for passive self healing and netch is used for resource recovery, purging and a small damage buff. It's really strong, not to mention free.

It's just too bad the effect has to come from a floating jellyfish. Something that has nothing to do with Ice.

I had to reread the Passives from Nightblade's Assassination, and I'm starting to see why it's in most every Subclass Build. All that Crit Chance and Dmg as well as Impale for an Execute is too good to pass up. I've already Subclassed it onto my Warden and Dragonknight.

ESO_Nightingale · June 25

ArchMikem wrote: »

ESO_Nightingale wrote: »

Netch and critical surge are 2 different buffs. Crit surge is used for passive self healing and netch is used for resource recovery, purging and a small damage buff. It's really strong, not to mention free.

It's just too bad the effect has to come from a floating jellyfish. Something that has nothing to do with Ice.

I had to reread the Passives from Nightblade's Assassination, and I'm starting to see why it's in most every Subclass Build. All that Crit Chance and Dmg as well as Impale for an Execute is too good to pass up. I've already Subclassed it onto my Warden and Dragonknight.

im kinda used to the little buddy following me around but i've been playing warden for so long that it doesn't bother me at all.

RaptorRodeoGod · June 26

Ghostly Embrace is strong if you can hit at least two of the circles. The rest of the Bone Tyrant skill line is tank oriented tho

Highwayman · June 26

I realize this seems about solely PvE, but I have had some good moments chasing runners in northern storm with radiant oppression. I still haven't found anything that breaches the meme build to effective pvp build barrier without giving up the feel I was looking for with it.

ESO_Nightingale · June 27

RaptorRodeoGod wrote: »

Ghostly Embrace is strong if you can hit at least two of the circles. The rest of the Bone Tyrant skill line is tank oriented tho

I like bone tyrant a lot as a line but yeah theres not many valuable skills outside of ghostly embrace, ruinous scythe and necrotic potency. Pummeling Goliath is super fun but as a transformation ult it lags behind dps ultimates.

Zodiarkslayer · June 27

I am currently enjoying Winters Embrace with Herald of the Tome and Grave Lord. That gives me a lot of penetration, crit damage and status effect chance. And I can have a lot of frost abilities.
U46 is the first time ever I feel like I am actually playing an Ice Mage. No flowers, no critters. Just Ice. Pure Ice.

I also wanted to make sure to have all the passives from HotT, so I came up with a rotation that will regularly create and consume crux by using scholarship and tentacles. The passives are just too good to pass up.

ESO_Nightingale · June 27

Zodiarkslayer wrote: »

I am currently enjoying Winters Embrace with Herald of the Tome and Grave Lord. That gives me a lot of penetration, crit damage and status effect chance. And I can have a lot of frost abilities.
U46 is the first time ever I feel like I am actually playing an Ice Mage. No flowers, no critters. Just Ice. Pure Ice.

I also wanted to make sure to have all the passives from HotT, so I came up with a rotation that will regularly create and consume crux by using scholarship and tentacles. The passives are just too good to pass up.

Just ice. And tentacles and bone boys.

ArchMikem · June 27

ESO_Nightingale wrote: »

Zodiarkslayer wrote: »

I am currently enjoying Winters Embrace with Herald of the Tome and Grave Lord. That gives me a lot of penetration, crit damage and status effect chance. And I can have a lot of frost abilities.
U46 is the first time ever I feel like I am actually playing an Ice Mage. No flowers, no critters. Just Ice. Pure Ice.

I also wanted to make sure to have all the passives from HotT, so I came up with a rotation that will regularly create and consume crux by using scholarship and tentacles. The passives are just too good to pass up.

Just ice. And tentacles and bone boys.

That's basically the gist of every single time the idea of a fully themed Ice Mage comes up. People just can't seem to actually do it. Its either Ice + Animals or Ice + Jabs or Ice + Book Beam/Tentacles.

Even my stubborn butt can't anymore now that I can have a proper execute with Impale.

BasP · June 27

ArchMikem wrote: »

ESO_Nightingale wrote: »

Zodiarkslayer wrote: »

I am currently enjoying Winters Embrace with Herald of the Tome and Grave Lord. That gives me a lot of penetration, crit damage and status effect chance. And I can have a lot of frost abilities.
U46 is the first time ever I feel like I am actually playing an Ice Mage. No flowers, no critters. Just Ice. Pure Ice.

I also wanted to make sure to have all the passives from HotT, so I came up with a rotation that will regularly create and consume crux by using scholarship and tentacles. The passives are just too good to pass up.

Just ice. And tentacles and bone boys.

That's basically the gist of every single time the idea of a fully themed Ice Mage comes up. People just can't seem to actually do it. Its either Ice + Animals or Ice + Jabs or Ice + Book Beam/Tentacles.

Luckily the Puncturing Strikes, Ice Blue skill style gives Jabs a frosty spear, at least... and we'll apparently get a Snow Bear style sometime in the future. Still - it's too bad we can't use Scribing to change the actual damage of those skills into Frost Damage or something. That'd be cool.

Anyways, since one of the PTS patch notes about Piercing Cold mentioned that we might get more sources of Frost Damage in the future ("We're temporarily inflating the damage of this passive ... until we can find better long-term solutions (like more sources of Frost Damage in general)") I hope we can build a proper Frost Mage some day. I'd personally like it if one or two additional Frost Damage morphs would be added to the Bone Tyrant skill line since it already has Ghostly Embrace.

ESO_Nightingale · June 28

BasP wrote: »

ArchMikem wrote: »

ESO_Nightingale wrote: »

Zodiarkslayer wrote: »

I am currently enjoying Winters Embrace with Herald of the Tome and Grave Lord. That gives me a lot of penetration, crit damage and status effect chance. And I can have a lot of frost abilities.
U46 is the first time ever I feel like I am actually playing an Ice Mage. No flowers, no critters. Just Ice. Pure Ice.

I also wanted to make sure to have all the passives from HotT, so I came up with a rotation that will regularly create and consume crux by using scholarship and tentacles. The passives are just too good to pass up.

Just ice. And tentacles and bone boys.

That's basically the gist of every single time the idea of a fully themed Ice Mage comes up. People just can't seem to actually do it. Its either Ice + Animals or Ice + Jabs or Ice + Book Beam/Tentacles.

Luckily the Puncturing Strikes, Ice Blue skill style gives Jabs a frosty spear, at least... and we'll apparently get a Snow Bear style sometime in the future. Still - it's too bad we can't use Scribing to change the actual damage of those skills into Frost Damage or something. That'd be cool.

Anyways, since one of the PTS patch notes about Piercing Cold mentioned that we might get more sources of Frost Damage in the future ("We're temporarily inflating the damage of this passive ... until we can find better long-term solutions (like more sources of Frost Damage in general)") I hope we can build a proper Frost Mage some day. I'd personally like it if one or two additional Frost Damage morphs would be added to the Bone Tyrant skill line since it already has Ghostly Embrace.

It's not really frosty though. It's a dark blue.

Zodiarkslayer · June 28

ESO_Nightingale wrote: »

Just ice. And tentacles and bone boys.

No bone boys. I tried GLS and wasn't satisfied. So, in Order to have the passives, I only use Boneyard on the frontbar. Which, as of U46, is enough to utilize both Death Knell and Dismember.

Tentacles look terrible by themselves, I know. And they do not fit the "frost optics", which sucks. But at least they deal frost damage and not Poison Damage or Disease Damage. They also unlock a ton of additional stuff (Abyssal Ink, Fated Fortune, Psychic Leasion, Splintered Secrets), which pushes my build to a completly new level.

Is it the best way to play Frost Warden? No. The best way would be beaming. Bah. 🤢

And in real life tentacles make me shiver all the time. 🥶
Must be the reason they are frost damage. 🤔

ArchMikem · June 28

Zodiarkslayer wrote: »

ESO_Nightingale wrote: »

Just ice. And tentacles and bone boys.

And in real life tentacles make me shiver all the time. 🥶
Must be the reason they are frost damage. 🤔

That ability doing frost damage doesn't even make any sense thematically. It should be physical, or at the most poison.

Zodiarkslayer · June 28

ArchMikem wrote: »

Zodiarkslayer wrote: »

ESO_Nightingale wrote: »

Just ice. And tentacles and bone boys.

And in real life tentacles make me shiver all the time. 🥶
Must be the reason they are frost damage. 🤔

That ability doing frost damage doesn't even make any sense thematically. It should be physical, or at the most poison.

Flail is physical damage, isn't it? I guess for a magicka morph it would be weird to have poison damage. But you are right. It is equally weird that Tentacular Dread is frost damage. 🤷‍♂️

Maybe the reasonable explanation is where the tentacles come from. They must be somewhere cold before one summons them. 🤔
Now that I think about it, I don't want to know where old Hermeas Mora sticks all his tentacles. 😵

ESO_Nightingale · June 29

Zodiarkslayer wrote: »

ESO_Nightingale wrote: »

Just ice. And tentacles and bone boys.

No bone boys. I tried GLS and wasn't satisfied. So, in Order to have the passives, I only use Boneyard on the frontbar. Which, as of U46, is enough to utilize both Death Knell and Dismember.

Tentacles look terrible by themselves, I know. And they do not fit the "frost optics", which sucks. But at least they deal frost damage and not Poison Damage or Disease Damage. They also unlock a ton of additional stuff (Abyssal Ink, Fated Fortune, Psychic Leasion, Splintered Secrets), which pushes my build to a completly new level.

Is it the best way to play Frost Warden? No. The best way would be beaming. Bah. 🤢

And in real life tentacles make me shiver all the time. 🥶
Must be the reason they are frost damage. 🤔

You say this right as I'm in the final stages of finishing my Ice Beam build lol

Zodiarkslayer · June 29

ESO_Nightingale wrote: »

You say this right as I'm in the final stages of finishing my Ice Beam build lol

Psychic Connection. 🤯

Nah, just kidding. I tried it out, too. And while I was getting top results, the feeling wasn't right. For me.
How far along are you? Do you wish to discuss it?

ESO_Nightingale · June 29

Zodiarkslayer wrote: »

ESO_Nightingale wrote: »

You say this right as I'm in the final stages of finishing my Ice Beam build lol

Psychic Connection. 🤯

Nah, just kidding. I tried it out, too. And while I was getting top results, the feeling wasn't right. For me.
How far along are you? Do you wish to discuss it?

I haven't done any proper testing with it. I'm finishing the leveling of the weapon lines right now and the gearing is done, at least for the moment.

Then i need to parse to get good at the rotation and play content with it.

I was hoping to do my necromancer base build but that's either next or after frost warden.

Wolfy2512 · July 6

I'm running an Ice Mage at present with just Winter's Embrace skills from Warden, and (eventually) Boneyard (haven't decided which morph yet) and Glacial Colossus from Grave Lord. Combined with double ice staff and destro skills all frost based.

She's a vamp, a Volkihar, although they were more ice breath but it seemed to fit for the character I wanted, but I'm considering curing her.

ESO_Nightingale · July 9

Wolfy2512 wrote: »

I'm running an Ice Mage at present with just Winter's Embrace skills from Warden, and (eventually) Boneyard (haven't decided which morph yet) and Glacial Colossus from Grave Lord. Combined with double ice staff and destro skills all frost based.

She's a vamp, a Volkihar, although they were more ice breath but it seemed to fit for the character I wanted, but I'm considering curing her.

did you need any advice?

Wolfy2512 · July 10

ESO_Nightingale wrote: »

Wolfy2512 wrote: »

I'm running an Ice Mage at present with just Winter's Embrace skills from Warden, and (eventually) Boneyard (haven't decided which morph yet) and Glacial Colossus from Grave Lord. Combined with double ice staff and destro skills all frost based.

She's a vamp, a Volkihar, although they were more ice breath but it seemed to fit for the character I wanted, but I'm considering curing her.

did you need any advice?

Not exactly, just adding my thoughts on the thread although my character is really early days yet, she's still around level 25, it's a play around build at the minute.

Only real question would be to cure vampirism (pale skin went with the frost/ice vibe) and what skills to add, or what are most needed from Winter's Embrace and Grave Lord to go with the build?

ESO_Nightingale · July 10

Wolfy2512 wrote: »

ESO_Nightingale wrote: »

Wolfy2512 wrote: »

I'm running an Ice Mage at present with just Winter's Embrace skills from Warden, and (eventually) Boneyard (haven't decided which morph yet) and Glacial Colossus from Grave Lord. Combined with double ice staff and destro skills all frost based.

She's a vamp, a Volkihar, although they were more ice breath but it seemed to fit for the character I wanted, but I'm considering curing her.

did you need any advice?

Not exactly, just adding my thoughts on the thread although my character is really early days yet, she's still around level 25, it's a play around build at the minute.

Only real question would be to cure vampirism (pale skin went with the frost/ice vibe) and what skills to add, or what are most needed from Winter's Embrace and Grave Lord to go with the build?

Winter's Revenge and Arctic Blast are the most crucial from winter's embrace. for grave lord, blighted blastbones, skeletal archer and boneyard are pretty good additions. i'd take detonating siphon too though.

Wolfy2512 · July 10

ESO_Nightingale wrote: »

Wolfy2512 wrote: »

ESO_Nightingale wrote: »

Wolfy2512 wrote: »

I'm running an Ice Mage at present with just Winter's Embrace skills from Warden, and (eventually) Boneyard (haven't decided which morph yet) and Glacial Colossus from Grave Lord. Combined with double ice staff and destro skills all frost based.

She's a vamp, a Volkihar, although they were more ice breath but it seemed to fit for the character I wanted, but I'm considering curing her.

did you need any advice?

Not exactly, just adding my thoughts on the thread although my character is really early days yet, she's still around level 25, it's a play around build at the minute.

Only real question would be to cure vampirism (pale skin went with the frost/ice vibe) and what skills to add, or what are most needed from Winter's Embrace and Grave Lord to go with the build?

Winter's Revenge and Arctic Blast are the most crucial from winter's embrace. for grave lord, blighted blastbones, skeletal archer and boneyard are pretty good additions. i'd take detonating siphon too though.

Level 26, currently running Boneyard, Winter's Revenge, Vampiric Drain, Elemental Drain, Force Pulse, Glacial Colossus.
Boneyard (to level up), Arctic Blast, Arterial Burst, Unstable Wall of Frost, Frost Clench, Northern Storm on backbar (or what I call up close and personal bar).
Plan was to swap Force Pulse for Pulsar once I get that far, and put that on the backbar and Frost Clench on front.

MindOfTheSwarm · July 12

Winter’s Embrace
Grave Lord
Shadow

Full on Icy Shadows

Your Shadow Pet is basically a ghost.

Morvan · July 17

Wolfy2512 wrote: »

I'm running an Ice Mage at present with just Winter's Embrace skills from Warden, and (eventually) Boneyard (haven't decided which morph yet) and Glacial Colossus from Grave Lord. Combined with double ice staff and destro skills all frost based.

She's a vamp, a Volkihar, although they were more ice breath but it seemed to fit for the character I wanted, but I'm considering curing her.

Oh that's interesting, I've also been running an Ice Volkihar build, with Assassination + Grave Lord + Winter's Embrace, it's kinda strong tbh.

ESO_Nightingale · July 17

Morvan wrote: »

Wolfy2512 wrote: »

I'm running an Ice Mage at present with just Winter's Embrace skills from Warden, and (eventually) Boneyard (haven't decided which morph yet) and Glacial Colossus from Grave Lord. Combined with double ice staff and destro skills all frost based.

She's a vamp, a Volkihar, although they were more ice breath but it seemed to fit for the character I wanted, but I'm considering curing her.

Oh that's interesting, I've also been running an Ice Volkihar build, with Assassination + Grave Lord + Winter's Embrace, it's kinda strong tbh.

can confirm, @Morvan did multiple dungeon trifectas with me on this build.

ArchMikem · July 17

Can we Scribe abilities that do Frost damage?

I've only unlocked scribing on my Nightblade Main and essentially ignored it since, but I noticed there was a Destruction Staff Grimoire called Elemental Explosion. What if we made a Frost Damage skill out of that? Or a Frost Soul Burst?

ESO_Nightingale · July 18

ArchMikem wrote: »

Can we Scribe abilities that do Frost damage?

I've only unlocked scribing on my Nightblade Main and essentially ignored it since, but I noticed there was a Destruction Staff Grimoire called Elemental Explosion. What if we made a Frost Damage skill out of that? Or a Frost Soul Burst?

Chilling explosion is horrible.

The only decent frost damage grimiores are chilling knife and chilling contingency. You can theoretically use chilling soul and burst too but they're not supported by good passives.

ESO_Nightingale · August 3

Hey everyone, just wanted to jump in and share my build doc for the frost dps builds i made this patch

It contains traditional double ice staff frost warden, winter's embrace beam build and a winters embrace necro build. The latter 2 are stamina based dual wield builds because i just kind of can't recommend ice staff for anything other than nostalgia.

Sorry for the wait.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1r8EetS24FhPRjPbgTgE_ffbd3fplDexqYflxssxSHug/edit?usp=drivesdk