Who is tanking with a Warden?

Fellwitch

So I started leveling up my warden last night and was able to do a thorough inspection of the passives for the class.

At first glance, it seems to me that warden is quite a ways behind DK in terms of tanking passives and (for example) has none related to stam/mag/health regen. There are active use skills to help but in general it seems to be much more reliant on having your betty netch out there all the time.

It would be nice to know how someone with more experience tanking on a warden feels about it.

I guess what I am trying to say is that it feels very lackluster at the moment. I hope it gets better ^^

SirCritical

I also hope that the class will get some buffs, but anyhow I'll tank with my Warden, that's why I created him (and spent some amount of Crowns on Imp Edition and char slot )

Liofa

I will just copy paste a comment I posted earlier on Morrowind beta forum .

Warden is definitely a good tanking class but not as a Main Tank . Let's take a look at their skills that deserves some worth looking into .

Bull Netch : Allows user to restore stamina while blocking . Doesn't have a cost . Amazing skill overall but nowhere close to Helping Hands and/or Battle Roar . Gives 12% magicka recovery thanks to Flourish passive . I guess that's something .

Leeching Vines : Best sustain tool Warden has . Just read Natures Gift passive . Self explanatory .

Expansive Frost Cloak : This skill needs to be toned down or Hardened Armor needs a buff . Too much utility in 1 button .

Gripping Shards : Basically Talons without Minor Maim . Looks fine .

Shimmering Shield : Absorb everything . Ultigen machine . Major Heroism being on this class and nowhere else except CP is kind of annoying . There are lots of stuff you can absorb during trials . Definitely needs to be toned down a bit . Make it give a decent stable number instead of Major Heroism maybe ? Or only gives Major Heroism if 3 projectiles are absorbed within the time of just 1 cast . Not every damn time .

Frozen Device : Every question in mind . Chains or Device ? Chains are faster , Device applies Major Maim . Make Warden off-tank use Device and make DK Main Tank use talons to hold whatever your off-tank ported in . Major and Minor Maim stacks > benefit . Obviously not as fast as both DK tanks using chains but much more damage reduction this way .

Overall , Warden is a good tank but some skills are just absurd . Especially Shimmering Shield . Expansive Frost Cloak is still ok since Hardened Armor activates Burning Heart passive but Shimmering Shield is just ... Making a huge Major buff available to a single class and with such easy access ... I don't like it to be honest but maybe that will be the reason people will go Warden Tank , who knows .

I have 1 rule while creating a tank . Can this build tank 5 axes in vAA HM or not ? If answer is no , I don't bother . Warden definitely is capable of doing it , even after nerfs to sustain . With correct item sets and good gameplay , it won't be an issue for Warden to tank axes . Rest looks at the support capabilities . Warden is more of a healer tank while DK is more of a shielding tank . If you look at 3 guilds who completed vHoF , they had high health DK tanks for shielding . Personally , I was wearing Ebon/Alkosh (Main Tank) on last boss with 50k health when we completed it and off-tank had Plague/Alkosh .

Btw , I already mentioned it on the quote but want to say again in case you missed it . Main resource regeneration of Warden comes from Natures Gift passive . When you heal people with Green Balance Skills , you get 250 Stamina or Magicka , whichever is lower . Leeching Vines seems to be the best option to use it . Can be combined with other healing skills as Natures Gift passive doesn't have a cooldown . I guess making a Ultigen tank with Green Balance ulti spamming might be a nice build . Would be nowhere as strong as a traditional DK using Warhorn but still would be viable

Draekony

going to try out alcast warden tank, sounds fun
https://alcasthq.com/eso-warden-tank-build-pve/

Waffennacht

I can dream

coplannb16_ESO

as a Dk Iam still upset that Wardens get my armor buff and can buff a whole raid with it. >:(

paulsimonps

I've tanked on one for sometime now on PTS an when Playtesting at ZOS. Now seeing the changes that have been made since then and leveling my warden now. I love tanking on it. Its a different feel to the DK and if it wasn't for the fact that Achievement points are not account wide I would have made it my new main. I will be forced to spread my time between alts a lot more than before cause its a lot of fun and effective playing a Warden Tank. Gonna make a build page for it and my current DK later.

Ferretstalker

coplannb16_ESO wrote: »

as a Dk Iam still upset that Wardens get my armor buff and can buff a whole raid with it. >:(

Sorcs have it too but it applied minor expedition and physical damage.

Anyway, any warden intent on main tanking will take the 8% damage reduction over increased range, severely limiting the group utility for ranged characters maintaining distance.

RavenSworn

I intent on tanking with a magicka based, High Elf warden. Frost staff back bar with sword and shield front bar. It's quite a good setup imo. Aoe melee damage with Knight mare and Lich / Withered Hand.

I also plan to have a second warden, stamina based this time with the imperial race. thinking of using the max health tank, with Gripping Shards, Polar winds + Green Lotus / Soothing Spores combo. I'll add Bone Shield for kicks and also Frozen Retreat for the weird pseudo "I am the beacon of hope, come to me" gameplay.

Is it optimal? Hell no. Is it viable for fun? HELL YES.

Stannum

I'm going to tank with frost staff and high regen stam build..

exeeter702

coplannb16_ESO wrote: »

as a Dk Iam still upset that Wardens get my armor buff and can buff a whole raid with it. >:(

What a ridiculous comment..

Every class has the ability to gain the major resistance buffs. Instead how about you stop and think of what the presence of a warden in your trial group does for you in the form of potentially freeing up a skill slot in your bar.

exeeter702

paulsimonps wrote: »

I've tanked on one for sometime now on PTS an when Playtesting at ZOS. Now seeing the changes that have been made since then and leveling my warden now. I love tanking on it. Its a different feel to the DK and if it wasn't for the fact that Achievement points are not account wide I would have made it my new main. I will be forced to spread my time between alts a lot more than before cause its a lot of fun and effective playing a Warden Tank. Gonna make a build page for it and my current DK later.

Yep, we did alot of extensive testing in the beta with a warden main tank and as expected it performs very well. Good luck convincing the player base that they are equally viable tanks to DKs (they objectively are).

Autolycus

I've been playing on a Warden and currently developing a full build for it. I haven't yet decided if I'll post a full guide for it yet or not. I intend to use it both for main and off tanking in all veteran content.

Tiitus

Liofa wrote: »

I will just copy paste a comment I posted earlier on Morrowind beta forum .

Warden is definitely a good tanking class but not as a Main Tank . Let's take a look at their skills that deserves some worth looking into .

Bull Netch : Allows user to restore stamina while blocking . Doesn't have a cost . Amazing skill overall but nowhere close to Helping Hands and/or Battle Roar . Gives 12% magicka recovery thanks to Flourish passive . I guess that's something .

Leeching Vines : Best sustain tool Warden has . Just read Natures Gift passive . Self explanatory .

Expansive Frost Cloak : This skill needs to be toned down or Hardened Armor needs a buff . Too much utility in 1 button .

Gripping Shards : Basically Talons without Minor Maim . Looks fine .

Shimmering Shield : Absorb everything . Ultigen machine . Major Heroism being on this class and nowhere else except CP is kind of annoying . There are lots of stuff you can absorb during trials . Definitely needs to be toned down a bit . Make it give a decent stable number instead of Major Heroism maybe ? Or only gives Major Heroism if 3 projectiles are absorbed within the time of just 1 cast . Not every damn time .

Frozen Device : Every question in mind . Chains or Device ? Chains are faster , Device applies Major Maim . Make Warden off-tank use Device and make DK Main Tank use talons to hold whatever your off-tank ported in . Major and Minor Maim stacks > benefit . Obviously not as fast as both DK tanks using chains but much more damage reduction this way .

Overall , Warden is a good tank but some skills are just absurd . Especially Shimmering Shield . Expansive Frost Cloak is still ok since Hardened Armor activates Burning Heart passive but Shimmering Shield is just ... Making a huge Major buff available to a single class and with such easy access ... I don't like it to be honest but maybe that will be the reason people will go Warden Tank , who knows .

I have 1 rule while creating a tank . Can this build tank 5 axes in vAA HM or not ? If answer is no , I don't bother . Warden definitely is capable of doing it , even after nerfs to sustain . With correct item sets and good gameplay , it won't be an issue for Warden to tank axes . Rest looks at the support capabilities . Warden is more of a healer tank while DK is more of a shielding tank . If you look at 3 guilds who completed vHoF , they had high health DK tanks for shielding . Personally , I was wearing Ebon/Alkosh (Main Tank) on last boss with 50k health when we completed it and off-tank had Plague/Alkosh .

Btw , I already mentioned it on the quote but want to say again in case you missed it . Main resource regeneration of Warden comes from Natures Gift passive . When you heal people with Green Balance Skills , you get 250 Stamina or Magicka , whichever is lower . Leeching Vines seems to be the best option to use it . Can be combined with other healing skills as Natures Gift passive doesn't have a cooldown . I guess making a Ultigen tank with Green Balance ulti spamming might be a nice build . Would be nowhere as strong as a traditional DK using Warhorn but still would be viable

im responding to yur quote... i find it funny that u say warden is a good tank but not a main tank then proceeds to suggest a number of skills that would make them desirable over DK tank be nerfed? how can they have "OP" utility skills but at the same time not be considered as a main tank this makes no sense? the idea is to have them be just as appealing for vet trails/dungeons as DK tanks.

Liofa

Tiitus wrote: »

im responding to yur quote... i find it funny that u say warden is a good tank but not a main tank then proceeds to suggest a number of skills that would make them desirable over DK tank be nerfed? how can they have "OP" utility skills but at the same time not be considered as a main tank this makes no sense? the idea is to have them be just as appealing for vet trails/dungeons as DK tanks.

Because utility is more of a off-tank job . As for main tanking , self sustaining and tankiness comes first . Warden has nice self-sustaining and tankiness skills but not on par with DK . That's why I said not a main tank . DK is obviously the better class for main tanking and as developers said before Warden is more suitable for off-tanking/off-healing . They are more of a support class . I am not saying Wardens can't be main tanks . They are second best class to be main tanks in my opinion . They are just not as good as DKs when it comes to main tanking . That's all .

Fellwitch

Guys I totally tanked fungal grotto I on my LVL 16 warden last night. It was like totally awesome and the cp600 players that were in my party made it enjoyable