Stam Warden DPS

Zardayne

I've been testing my DPS on a training dummy at the guild hall quite a bit lately. I've been doing these tests using my stam warden and my stamplar. The add on I've been using is combat metrics. Before I begin I'm going to say I've never been a number cruncher in my past 20 years of mmo experience but using that experience I do run the best of the best abilities I have available (through my own trial and error and tons of reading) and the best gear I have available. Both characters were running (5) Spriggans and (5) Either Hundings or Automaton. My weapons are agility. All CP 160. I have 538 CP. Unfortunaly a lot of this game is cookie cutter and not really play as you want so like everyone else my backbar is bow, with Poison inject, Endless Haill, Caltrops, and beast trap. Front bars were tested using both 2 hander and dual wield on both classes. Ultimates tested were flawless Dawnbreaker, Bear, or the templars stam spear ult (can't remember off the top of my head)The warden's spammable was either the bird mixed with light attacks (with 20% physical weapons expert buff) while waiting on shalks to hit. All the while making sure hail, caltrops, trap, and poison arrow are up. Here's where it gets good and it's probably information a lot know but at no time during the 30+ 1 minute tests did the stam warden ever beat my stamplar. When I removed the bear it became even worse. From normal playtime I've experienced my wardens burst with a 2 hander in pvp or on normal mobs but it didn't seem to pan out in an extended fight.

After all of this testing I feel the DPS issues this class suffers (minus the burst if the stars align on a moving target) is due to the super slow animations. Slamming your fist into the ground to summon shalks has a long animation and costs valuable time and calling the bird as we all know takes time. I can pretty much weave in 2 light attacks after the bird and before firing shalks off again. Remove the bear and I end up with horrible dps. I know a lot of you guys probably know this but after testing for myself and trying to figure out WTH is happening I wanted to share my findings too. They need to speed these animations up and make the bear worth a damn because in normal play, not beating on a stationary dummy, he doesn't show up to the fights till late, he misses occasionally, has no AOE, and the control of pets in ESO sucks. I just wish the warden felt more fluid in his animations (they look great though) because I was so looking forward to this class all the way back to the beginning when I heard their was one. I find myself going back every other week with a new idea to make this warden work and after some tests I slink back to my stamplar where it feels solid. Anyone else feel the same way or think the animations are the killer for good dps? Any suggestions from stam wardens out there who feel like they do good dps in dungeons and wants to share their magic rotation? I see alot using dual wield but my dps was always better using 2 hander. Any help , comments, etc is appreciated.

Taleof2Cities

Though adequate for group dungeons and most content, the Warden simply isn't designed for end game DPS.

Off-tank and Off-heals are the target audience for end game.

Wish you would have checked some of the forum threads first ... although, again, you'll be fine in most of the game content.

DarkAedin

Dw: rearming trap / blood craze / flurry or birds(i like birds bc ranged) /shalks / deadly cloak or vigor : dbos

Bow: poison injection / green lotus / endless hail / caltrops / bull netch : ballista (bow ulti - use this for single tardt)

Keep ur ground aoe down, time ur shalks. Git good practice with weaving amd getting those heavies in.

I believe in ya.

GilliamTheRogue on youtube/twitter/twitch has great mechanic info and he mains a stam nb. Turn to him for tests so u dont have to do the legwork farming and testing gearsets

Zardayne

I check the forums quite often and have had this guy at 50 about a week and a half after it dropped on PC. I was always happy with the burst with a 2 hander in solo pve and pvp if shalks and dizzying swing hit at the same time but when i began doing dungeons it just felt like it wasn't bringing it like my stamplar in longer fights. Not only that as we all know some of the abilities just feel so awkward and clunky. That's what initially had me going back to my stamplar. I kept hearing folks talk about the dps not being the greatest so I had to see for myself and no matter what I did, as I mentioned, it always fell short. Drop the bear and it fell even more. Of course to me the bears always been so wonky I wouldn't dare give up two ultimate slots for it. The pets in ESo really need more control like GW2. It would be nice to be able to toggle the bear from single target to Aoe mode or have him use an ability when needed. Ultimately I guess I just needed to see the numbers myself. As I said normally I'm not a number cruncher but something just felt "off" and in my opinion those long animations are killer.

Throughout this wardens lifespan he's been from stam to mag and back to stam again. I use to hear a lot of complaints about magdens dps but I always felt it was better than my stam builds. At least from a pve standpoint. Drop all of my AOEs and hit them with shalk and birds and most stuff just melted. It also felt more fluid than it does when I play as stam. <shrug> Maybe it's just me...

Zardayne

DarkAedin wrote: »

Dw: rearming trap / blood craze / flurry or birds(i like birds bc ranged) /shalks / deadly cloak or vigor : dbos

Bow: poison injection / green lotus / endless hail / caltrops / bull netch : ballista (bow ulti - use this for single tardt)

Keep ur ground aoe down, time ur shalks. Git good practice with weaving amd getting those heavies in.

I believe in ya.

GilliamTheRogue on youtube/twitter/twitch has great mechanic info and he mains a stam nb. Turn to him for tests so u dont have to do the legwork farming and testing gearsets

Thanks for the encouragement!

I normally check his and Alcast for their build ideas and after 3+ years of this game I run pretty much what they run before I even go there (unless some major change happens on PTS that I miss). Perhaps some of my issue is rotation, especially with the warden, since the animations kind of throw me off even after leveling to 50 with him. Some of his abilities just seem so clunky to me. I mean I feel I do very well on my stamplar and I've even had a few compliments lately in PUGS from people running some kind of group damage add ons. That tells me my normal ground pounding aoe rotation (hail, caltrops, poison arrow, trap) is pretty much down. The main difference between the 2 classes (temp and warden) on my builds are the spammable (jabs vs birds/rapid strikes) and the burst skill (Power of the light vs Shalks). Both of these warden skills have a slow cast and a timed hit vs a fire and immediate hit mechanic. To me those warden skills, the ones you have to use all of the time, throws it all off.

DarkAedin

Zardayne wrote: »

DarkAedin wrote: »

Dw: rearming trap / blood craze / flurry or birds(i like birds bc ranged) /shalks / deadly cloak or vigor : dbos

Bow: poison injection / green lotus / endless hail / caltrops / bull netch : ballista (bow ulti - use this for single tardt)

Keep ur ground aoe down, time ur shalks. Git good practice with weaving amd getting those heavies in.

I believe in ya.

GilliamTheRogue on youtube/twitter/twitch has great mechanic info and he mains a stam nb. Turn to him for tests so u dont have to do the legwork farming and testing gearsets

Thanks for the encouragement!

I normally check his and Alcast for their build ideas and after 3+ years of this game I run pretty much what they run before I even go there (unless some major change happens on PTS that I miss). Perhaps some of my issue is rotation, especially with the warden, since the animations kind of throw me off even after leveling to 50 with him. Some of his abilities just seem so clunky to me. I mean I feel I do very well on my stamplar and I've even had a few compliments lately in PUGS from people running some kind of group damage add ons. That tells me my normal ground pounding aoe rotation (hail, caltrops, poison arrow, trap) is pretty much down. The main difference between the 2 classes (temp and warden) on my builds are the spammable (jabs vs birds/rapid strikes) and the burst skill (Power of the light vs Shalks). Both of these warden skills have a slow cast and a timed hit vs a fire and immediate hit mechanic. To me those warden skills, the ones you have to use all of the time, throws it all off.

I dont suffer from lag usually, chill at about 100 ping. Havent had much issues with weaving on the warden. Maybe slow down ur button presses a bit till get used to them!
Also dont forget that eso works off button release, not pressing, so u may be clicking the next attack too quickly. I usually get 2 birds off between shalks light weaving the whole time.

My main before stamden was also stamplar btw

Zardayne

DarkAedin wrote: »

Zardayne wrote: »

DarkAedin wrote: »

Dw: rearming trap / blood craze / flurry or birds(i like birds bc ranged) /shalks / deadly cloak or vigor : dbos

Bow: poison injection / green lotus / endless hail / caltrops / bull netch : ballista (bow ulti - use this for single tardt)

Keep ur ground aoe down, time ur shalks. Git good practice with weaving amd getting those heavies in.

I believe in ya.

GilliamTheRogue on youtube/twitter/twitch has great mechanic info and he mains a stam nb. Turn to him for tests so u dont have to do the legwork farming and testing gearsets

Thanks for the encouragement!

I normally check his and Alcast for their build ideas and after 3+ years of this game I run pretty much what they run before I even go there (unless some major change happens on PTS that I miss). Perhaps some of my issue is rotation, especially with the warden, since the animations kind of throw me off even after leveling to 50 with him. Some of his abilities just seem so clunky to me. I mean I feel I do very well on my stamplar and I've even had a few compliments lately in PUGS from people running some kind of group damage add ons. That tells me my normal ground pounding aoe rotation (hail, caltrops, poison arrow, trap) is pretty much down. The main difference between the 2 classes (temp and warden) on my builds are the spammable (jabs vs birds/rapid strikes) and the burst skill (Power of the light vs Shalks). Both of these warden skills have a slow cast and a timed hit vs a fire and immediate hit mechanic. To me those warden skills, the ones you have to use all of the time, throws it all off.

I dont suffer from lag usually, chill at about 100 ping. Havent had much issues with weaving on the warden. Maybe slow down ur button presses a bit till get used to them!
Also dont forget that eso works off button release, not pressing, so u may be clicking the next attack too quickly. I usually get 2 birds off between shalks light weaving the whole time.

My main before stamden was also stamplar btw

I'll give it a shot. Thanks!

Nemesis7884

well they had to take away our passive WHY HUH WHY???