Magicka Warden build ideas anyone? (Otherwise known as beating a dead horse?)

JerzeeDevil · July 2017

High Elf MagWarden: well over 630 CP and looking for outside sources and ideas!

Combination sets, build ideas, new metas, CP allocations?

Do my homework for me people!

humpalicous · July 2017

JerzeeDevil wrote: »

High Elf MagWarden: well over 630 CP and looking for outside sources and ideas!

Combination sets, build ideas, new metas, CP allocations?

Do my homework for me people!

Have a look at Alcast's website, he posts endgame meta builds for each class. Keep in mind that the Magden DPS is one if the worst in the game unfortunately.

But any combination of classic gear would suffice:

Spinners
Mother's Sorrow
Julianos
Infall Aether / Moondance
Willpower
VMA staves
Any sharp lightning staff really

Then we have the new trial gear that seems cool:

Master Architect

I wouldn't bother with War-Maiden, most of your abilities are frost-based.

But have a look at Alcast's site or channel, and definitely head on over to Gilliam The Rogue's channel for in-depth testing and content on dps classes.

craftycarper73 · July 2017

i have spinners and necro on my warden, although it works, wardens are pants.

Beardimus · July 2017

Some Wardens are pants, yet I've seen some pretty epic Magika versions in cyrodiil kicking ass.

craftycarper73 · July 2017

Beardimus wrote: »

Some Wardens are pants, yet I've seen some pretty epic Magika versions in cyrodiil kicking ass.

not played mine in pvp mostly pve, much prefer my magdk even with all the changes.

JerzeeDevil · July 2017

JerzeeDevil wrote: »

High Elf MagWarden: well over 630 CP and looking for outside sources and ideas!

Combination sets, build ideas, new metas, CP allocations?

Do my homework for me people!

I have looked at Alcast, his CP allocations and other ideas seem (to me, at least) same as all of his other builds.

I was just searching and was wondering about Netch's Touch and Overwhelming Surge? Spider Cultist, Destruction Mastery?

I require guidance!

Maybe Shadowrend + others?

fred4 · July 2017

I can only advise on PvP. There's a very obvious set: Necropotence. Activated from the netch, which you need to only slot on one bar. BIS for PvP, in my opinion. Nothing else comes close. It boosts both your shields and damage. Sets to combine that with include Wizard's Riposte, Transmutation, Julianos, Overwhelming Surge, Amber Plasm, Shacklebreaker, Imperial Physique, possibly War Maiden, possibly Seducer for no CP. Monster sets include Infernal Guardian, Grothdarr, or simply single pieces of these that give you more mgicka.

Whoever said Wardens do ice damage doesn't know what they're talking about. The shards are a good ice damage ability for PvE, and the ice ulti is an offensive / defensive alternative to the destro ult. However your main spammable, Cliff Racer, is magic damage, as is the one all round ability no warden can go without in PvP and PvE: Deep Fissure. I wouldn't go with Netch's Touch. I'd only use that on a sorc. Your only hard hitting shock damage ability is, potentially, the destro ult.

The abilities I prefer right now are:

Screaming Cliff Racer
Deep Fissure
Netch (either morph, your choice. You may, in fact want to go with stamina morph for PvP.)
Growing Swarm (i chose that morph more for PvE)

Healing Thicket
Living Trellis (very good as both heal over time and small burst heal)
Lotus Flower (only if you can't fit Inner Light or get Major Prophecy from potion)

Northern Storm (combine with Inner Light, Necropotence, correct race, Undaunted passives and magicka boosting armor to get up to 50K magicka, with CP, for both damage and shields).

Ice Fortress
Impaling Shards (for PvE, along with Elemental Blockade as your other ground AOE)
Shimmering Shield (amazing ulti gen)

The bear is said to be good for single target PvE. It can be strong in duels as well. In open world it is too unreliable.

Draqone · July 2017

humpalicous wrote: »

I wouldn't bother with War-Maiden, most of your abilities are frost-based.

No? Warden uses 1 frost ability....

Anyway!

On my MagWarden DPS I use the bear ulti and run Julianos frontbar + Master Architect backbar.

KingYogi415 · July 2017

Step1: Put on Necropotence.

Step 2: Throw birds.

Step 3: Profit!

WuffyCerulei · July 2017

Necropotence with the Blue Betty or Bear is pretty awesome. I run 5 Necro, 5 Julianos, and 1 Kena shoulder for that spell damage.

Jitterbug · July 2017

5 transmutation destro front.
5 wyrd tree resto back.
PvP healer.

Tenofas · July 2017

Here are a couple of posts with good infos:

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/347997/magicka-warden-pve-dps-hows-it-looking-for-you-and-can-we-make-it-work-in-its-current-state/p1

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/345638/elemental-guardian-a-magicka-warden-vma-dd-build/p1?new=1

JerzeeDevil · July 2017

Tenofas wrote: »

Here are a couple of posts with good infos:

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/347997/magicka-warden-pve-dps-hows-it-looking-for-you-and-can-we-make-it-work-in-its-current-state/p1

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/345638/elemental-guardian-a-magicka-warden-vma-dd-build/p1?new=1

I had searched the forum before starting this thread. I saw those and did not think they applied. Thanks for trying to help, though! It's genuinely appreciated!

Qbiken · July 2017

A set that would be interesting is Elemental Succession. Only problem is that the spelldamage buff is way to low for each element. ZOS should really consider buffing the spelldamage this set gives by a lot.

JerzeeDevil · July 2017

Qbiken wrote: »

A set that would be interesting is Elemental Succession. Only problem is that the spelldamage buff is way to low for each element. ZOS should really consider buffing the spelldamage this set gives by a lot.

Oooh. Perhaps with some crafted Daedric Trickery?

Masel · July 2017

JerzeeDevil wrote: »

Tenofas wrote: »

Here are a couple of posts with good infos:

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/347997/magicka-warden-pve-dps-hows-it-looking-for-you-and-can-we-make-it-work-in-its-current-state/p1

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/345638/elemental-guardian-a-magicka-warden-vma-dd-build/p1?new=1

I had searched the forum before starting this thread. I saw those and did not think they applied. Thanks for trying to help, though! It's genuinely appreciated!

As I am the author of one of those sets, what exactly are you looking for?

I am currently completing vHoF, did flawless vMA and the other old trials on my magicka Warden and I can say that the dps is indeed lower than on other classes. It is enough to complete all content, but the passives are just too weak in PvE to compete with other classes. Wardens have decent skills for everything, but don't necessarily excel at it. They have relatively high skill cost and the only recovery passive requires you to slot at least one specific ability on each bar. This also applies to all passives in that skill line.

For example, swarm is direct damage, but only ticks every two seconds and therefore doesn't suffice to make scathing mage better than julianos. Necropotence is overrated on wardens. The pets from wardens do NOT scale only with magicka and necropotence does almost nothing for your light and heavy attacks. So in a single target fight with light attacks only, necro is marginally better than julianos. But in a trial where you use lightning (or basically any) heavy attacks on trash and when adds are present, julianos is just significantly better than necro. I did the math on that in another thread but the rumour that necro is bis on wardens still persists
Wardens need (not all, but a few of them):

A cost reduction passive
A general recovery passive that isn't linked to skills
An execute that is not an ultimate that needs to be double barred. Let swarm hit higher on low health targets, maybe
A cold based single target dot
2% damage per animal companion skill is low (nbs get 6-7% passively for one skillpee bar, so do templars, sorcs have passives without condition, dks have stronger and more dots in general)
Bird of prey needs at least double the duration on minor berserk and endurance, it's not worth casting at this point
Fixing of the critical rating used for the ice based skills, they ALWAYS have ~20% lower crits than other skills.

They don't contribute to group dps as most of their damage is magic (the only build that does that that I know is the one I posted on the forums) and don't do enough dps to compare to the other classes. I went for a group support build because I thought if my dps will be subpar anyway I might just go with something that amplifies the damage of the others.

Ice based builds suck for damage, as ice staffs are simply not designed for it and also, the sets are very very underwhelming. I can get to 32k dps with Winterborn on a dummy, but other sets simply give more. Also, chilled status effect doesn't contribute any significant amount of damage.

Also 3 million dummy fights don't really say a lot, because most of them are significantly imbalanced as far as magicka regen and drain is concerned. Doesn't matter if you can do 40k dps on a dummy but can't sustain it if the fight is longer than 80 seconds. Funny to see the people that brag about their 40k+ dummy parses, but as soon as it gets to a robust one, it drops by 5k. So I usually at least use a robust one now so you see how you do in a trial fight.

Waffennacht · July 2017

When you say the pets Do Not scale to max magicka are you referring to the bear or also swarm, dive, and deep fissure?

@Masel92

JerzeeDevil · July 2017

Masel92 wrote: »

JerzeeDevil wrote: »

Tenofas wrote: »

Here are a couple of posts with good infos:

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/347997/magicka-warden-pve-dps-hows-it-looking-for-you-and-can-we-make-it-work-in-its-current-state/p1

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/345638/elemental-guardian-a-magicka-warden-vma-dd-build/p1?new=1

I had searched the forum before starting this thread. I saw those and did not think they applied. Thanks for trying to help, though! It's genuinely appreciated!

As I am the author of one of those sets, what exactly are you looking for?

No disrespect was intended! I meant that I was not planning any vMA or hard mode trials with this toon just yet. I am playing it just to have fun, and to enjoy the game! I genuinely appreciate your hard work and labor! I too keep hearing necropotence, repeatedly. I do not like frost builds at all is another reason that I started this thread, to get other people's perspectives.

Masel · July 2017

JerzeeDevil wrote: »

Masel92 wrote: »

JerzeeDevil wrote: »

Tenofas wrote: »

Here are a couple of posts with good infos:

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/347997/magicka-warden-pve-dps-hows-it-looking-for-you-and-can-we-make-it-work-in-its-current-state/p1

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/345638/elemental-guardian-a-magicka-warden-vma-dd-build/p1?new=1

I had searched the forum before starting this thread. I saw those and did not think they applied. Thanks for trying to help, though! It's genuinely appreciated!

As I am the author of one of those sets, what exactly are you looking for?

No disrespect was intended! I meant that I was not planning any vMA or hard mode trials with this toon just yet. I am playing it just to have fun, and to enjoy the game! I genuinely appreciate your hard work and labor! I too keep hearing necropotence, repeatedly. I do not like frost builds at all is another reason that I started this thread, to get other people's perspectives.

Waffennacht wrote: »

When you say the pets Do Not scale to max magicka are you referring to the bear or also swarm, dive, and deep fissure?

@Masel92

They do scale with max magicka, but just like all other skills do with 10.5 points of magicka converting into 1 spell damage. Sorcerer pets solely scale with magicka and not with your spell damage, which is why necro is strong on sorcerers but average on wardens. The amount of damage you gain on your skills from the magicka, you lose on heavy attacks.

If you like stronger Shields and either don't really weave or heavy attack, go with necro. But in HoF for example the additional shield strength on harness is not going to save you from getting killed. And due to the drain mechanisms there you're going to heavy attack anyway...

fred4 · July 2017

Masel92 wrote: »

Necropotence is overrated on wardens ... But in a trial where you use lightning (or basically any) heavy attacks on trash and when adds are present, julianos is just significantly better than necro. I did the math on that in another thread but the rumour that necro is bis on wardens still persists.

I don't think you were addressing me, but just to say, yes, I had heard this, which is why I was careful to state I'm coming from a PvP perspective. I'm looking for as big shields as I can get, in PvP, and thus prefer stacking magicka over spell damage.

eso_nya · July 2017

For pve, cheap&easy solution:

5 Julianos, 4 IA or Moondancer, 2 llambris, fire/storm staffs

Deep Fissure -> Winters Revenge -> 2xFletcher Infection -> Wall of Flames -> Deep Fissure -> Heavy Attack (Lightning) -> Repeat
Eternal Guardian, whenever its ready.

Replace Julianos with necro, bsw, scathing when u feel like grinding. Winterborn might be cool aswell.

Lil warning ahead tho:
Following the math i did on the sets:
Necro is overrated as best, and slightly underperforming towards julianos, over the thumb, when u have more than 3k spelldmg and less than 40k magicka, w/o any of the two, necro is better. with higher max magicka and lower spelldmg, julianos is better.
bsw, on perfect uptime, is 2% better than julianos (means u can expect your dps to be 2% higher)
scathing is equal to julianos at 60% uptime, and can be up to 5,85% better at 100% uptime. On above rota: w/ a 20% proc chance on deep fissure crits at a 3 sec delay -> 2 out of 3 casts should crit, 1 out of 5 crits should proc it => 12% chance to proc all 3 secs => 6 secs uptime every 25 seconds => estimate uptime: 24% +/- 2% for lazy rounding)...24% uptime => - 5% towards julianos; equal to 4 julianos + 1 pc kena :P
Cant compile winterborn, as i cant normalize the set effects towards statincrease numbers. Id need a parse log for that. If u feel like it: Parse against dummy w/ julianos, take the dps nummber, decrease it by 8%, calculate average dps of winterborn proc, see if the number is higher or lower.
Over the thumb, since last balance patch, the sets r pretty much on equal grounds. id estimate winterborn to be somewhere between +/- 5% towards julianos.

Sidenote: U should really do your homework, especially math, is really helpfull in the real world, lol

@Masel92

Masel92 wrote: »

Necropotence is overrated on wardens ... But in a trial where you use lightning (or basically any) heavy attacks on trash and when adds are present, julianos is just significantly better than necro. I did the math on that in another thread but the rumour that necro is bis on wardens still persists.

Can u please link to that threat? I like your math alot

malcolmhagger · July 2017

I ended going with Necro + Shacklebreaker with a 1 piece inferno guardian tri stat enchant for max mag. along with tri stat food i have enough resources for sustain and CC's breaks to counter how terribly squishy magdens are. (at least mine is)

C0ndor · July 2017

One of the set up that I prefere for pvp is necropotence, one piece infernal (shadowrend if non cp) vma inferno with entrapping poison in main bar and wizard reposte in backbar, witchmother food. Keep bird of prey and living trellis, ice fortress and netch. Main bar for combo fissure+dive+cs. Harness and healing ward as shield. Other skill are flex spots, always inner or northern storm (sometimes both) if I go with inner sometimes I use dawnbreaker or ice comet as ulti, if I use northern storm I go with inner light/growing swarm/shimmering shields, sometimes clench for duels. I would like to try also warmaiden/julianos in main, wizard backbar and pirate skeleton, someone already tried it?

Masel · July 2017

eso_nya wrote: »

For pve, cheap&easy solution:

5 Julianos, 4 IA or Moondancer, 2 llambris, fire/storm staffs

Deep Fissure -> Winters Revenge -> 2xFletcher Infection -> Wall of Flames -> Deep Fissure -> Heavy Attack (Lightning) -> Repeat
Eternal Guardian, whenever its ready.

Replace Julianos with necro, bsw, scathing when u feel like grinding. Winterborn might be cool aswell.

Lil warning ahead tho:
Following the math i did on the sets:
Necro is overrated as best, and slightly underperforming towards julianos, over the thumb, when u have more than 3k spelldmg and less than 40k magicka, w/o any of the two, necro is better. with higher max magicka and lower spelldmg, julianos is better.
bsw, on perfect uptime, is 2% better than julianos (means u can expect your dps to be 2% higher)
scathing is equal to julianos at 60% uptime, and can be up to 5,85% better at 100% uptime. On above rota: w/ a 20% proc chance on deep fissure crits at a 3 sec delay -> 2 out of 3 casts should crit, 1 out of 5 crits should proc it => 12% chance to proc all 3 secs => 6 secs uptime every 25 seconds => estimate uptime: 24% +/- 2% for lazy rounding)...24% uptime => - 5% towards julianos; equal to 4 julianos + 1 pc kena :P
Cant compile winterborn, as i cant normalize the set effects towards statincrease numbers. Id need a parse log for that. If u feel like it: Parse against dummy w/ julianos, take the dps nummber, decrease it by 8%, calculate average dps of winterborn proc, see if the number is higher or lower.
Over the thumb, since last balance patch, the sets r pretty much on equal grounds. id estimate winterborn to be somewhere between +/- 5% towards julianos.

Sidenote: U should really do your homework, especially math, is really helpfull in the real world, lol

@Masel92

Masel92 wrote: »

Necropotence is overrated on wardens ... But in a trial where you use lightning (or basically any) heavy attacks on trash and when adds are present, julianos is just significantly better than necro. I did the math on that in another thread but the rumour that necro is bis on wardens still persists.

Can u please link to that threat? I like your math alot

It was in @stileanima 's thread that was mentioned simultaneously to mine before in this thread.

Waffennacht · July 2017

malcolmhagger wrote: »

I ended going with Necro + Shacklebreaker with a 1 piece inferno guardian tri stat enchant for max mag. along with tri stat food i have enough resources for sustain and CC's breaks to counter how terribly squishy magdens are. (at least mine is)

I still need tri Glyphs, but I run this too (I do chokethorn/Shadowrend for a bit more Regen) and I really like it.

Trying out a new bar set up, Fire and Ice - using the slows from the Ice abilities to gain a semi CC type thing

JerzeeDevil · July 2017

I have crafted Julianos from days gone by when the Dro Mathra style was new...

So use that and Moondancer so my gal looks pretty, you say?

@eso_nya nice burn in the end!

I did plenty of homework ages ago!

Waffennacht · July 2017

For moondancer I only have a sharpened sword (1 run only, nice score huh?)

But... My necro staffs are only precise (mf rng)

So for my jewelry set, I'm wondering wtf to use

JerzeeDevil · July 2017

Waffennacht wrote: »

For moondancer I only have a sharpened sword (1 run only, nice score huh?)

But... My necro staffs are only precise (mf rng)

So for my jewelry set, I'm wondering wtf to use

Myself and a group of friends used to farm the 1st boss. I do not think I have even 1 sword, CONGRATS!

malcolmhagger · July 2017

Waffennacht wrote: »

malcolmhagger wrote: »

I ended going with Necro + Shacklebreaker with a 1 piece inferno guardian tri stat enchant for max mag. along with tri stat food i have enough resources for sustain and CC's breaks to counter how terribly squishy magdens are. (at least mine is)

I still need tri Glyphs, but I run this too (I do chokethorn/Shadowrend for a bit more Regen) and I really like it.

Trying out a new bar set up, Fire and Ice - using the slows from the Ice abilities to gain a semi CC type thing

i use crystalized shield since the one winter passive increases chance od chilled effect by 200 not including destro staff passives

JerzeeDevil · July 2017

Ended up going Moondancer and Julianos.

Thanks everyone. Keep the discussion going though, we made huge progress!

Tenofas · July 2017

I am trying Julianos + Necro, as I just reached max level (with 480CP). Will start to farm for Ilambris monster set soon.
So far it's not too bad. Have to test it in vMA.