My first tank, an Ice Warden tank/mage, have questions

billp_ESO

I've been playing MMO's for a long time, starting with DAOC. I usually play DPS, or support, or healer. This is my first real tank.

So I made an Argonian Ice tank/mage warden, lvl 20 so far. I start out with Ice Staff heavy attack taunt and then Ice Elemental Blockade followed by Gripping Shards. By the time the mobs get to me, I've switched to sword/board and then use Deep Slash to debuff the enemy's dmg, and Pierce Armor to debuff their resists, and to taunt again. They're debuffed and have two aoe dots on them. The aoe dots are good for mass taunting.

That's when I really start to block, using stamina and switching to ice staff if I need to rest stamina. Staff block uses magicka.

I went all stamina for attributes, and at 240 CP, went all health and stamina recharge. All heavy armor with stamina boost/recharge enchants.

Is this viable later on? I've just started grouping and seem OP, invincible. Is using AOE's for taunt reasonable? Magicka food will help the mage side, should I go with some stuff like Julianos, or Mother's Sorrow, to boost magicka dmg? Or go for health or stamina only as a tank? Put some CP's into magicka?

I think tanks live by their ability to taunt, so I have ice staff heavy attack taunt, pierce armor sword taunt, and AOE's. What else is there?

Any help is appreciated.

VaranisArano

Hi! I main a MagDK tank, not a warden, but I'll try to make this applicable to all classes.

Your available taunts are Pierce Armor (with Major Fracture and Breach, this is my preferred taunt), Inner Fury from the Undaunted skill line (a ranged magicka taunt), and the Ice Staff heavy attack. There are no AoE taunts, unfortunately. However, you can attract mobs' attention by attacking them with AoEs.

The basic job of the tank is A. hold boss aggro and B. don't die. Sounds like you've got that down! If you run into problems, you can look at increasing your resistances or health. You've got your taunts and you are debuffing the boss, so that's great!

After the basics, tanks apply crowd control to mobs, and buff the group. It sounds to me like you've got the crowd control down with ice blockage and gripping shards. Using these crowd control spells to attract and then lock down mobs is exactly how I like to play my tank. These aren't a taunt, and so enemies might still go after you DPS or healer, but they really do help you control the fight. If you are looking for other options, the monster set Swarm Mother will aid with pulling in ranged adds if you range taunt them and then block their attacks. With warden, you've got a lot of options for buffing or healing your group if you have open skill slots and the resources to use them.

I think your build sounds fine. You've got the right types of skills to fill the tank role and it sounds like its been working well for you, which is always a good thing. I'd far rather play with a build I have fun with than a BIS/meta build I dislike.

If you get to veteran dungeons and find yourself struggling, it will probably be a matter of adding health, adding resistances, or adjusting whether you use more magicka or stamina. Your skills and technique seems fine to me.

Have fun tanking!

Taleof2Cities

As long as you can come to grips with not doing a lot of damage (when you reach the higher levels), you'll be fine.

Warden ice tanks can do remarkably well in a lot of content ... especially group dungeons.

RouDeR

In normal content u can run naked with bow , and still can tank all the bosses , but u will become a patato for VET. If you wanna be tank and deal Good amount of AoE dmg go for Pure Health Warden , which has 2 great aoe dots that are scaling with your max health, in addition u can sets like Harbinger to increase your dmg even more . My main tank is a Health argonian Warden and i've tanked all vet content with him .

GreenhaloX

RouDeR wrote: »

In normal content u can run naked with bow , and still can tank all the bosses , but u will become a patato for VET. If you wanna be tank and deal Good amount of AoE dmg go for Pure Health Warden , which has 2 great aoe dots that are scaling with your max health, in addition u can sets like Harbinger to increase your dmg even more . My main tank is a Health argonian Warden and i've tanked all vet content with him .

You peeps need to stop patronizing that all normal PvE contents are so easy. Goodness, gracious and all that jazz. Yeah, ok.. go ahead and run your naked bow self against Stoneskin gargoyle boss in Rivenspire, Rage Claw in Eastmarch, the cute little Bittergreen guar boss in Deshaan, for example; or any of those "normal" DLC world boss pits. Yeah, go at it with your naked bow self against Zandundunoz (whatever the hell that's actually spelled) or the Mad Ogre. Wtf..man. Ha ha

OP, seems like what you're doing is fine. I run an Imperial StamDK tank and another Dark Elf MagDK tank. Although, both differ in Stam and Mag as well as having its plus and minuses, both tank just fine against any boss or dungeons. I actually solo many world boss pits with them. I haven't tried an Argonian tank (no offense to Argonians, I just don't like the look) or a warden tank, but if you can hold an aggro throughout and maintain your resources without wiping, you're good with any. I like the DK because of the Burning Embers which spamming that while holding aggro from Piercing Armor, I'm constantly rejuving health, and in turn, allows my stam to regen (when I'm not blocking, that is.) Plus, I use the Magma Shell and the only time I use Igneous Shield for a stam. For higher hp, the more greater is the Igneous. Both skills are very good aid for protection on the allies. I also combo heavy attack and Piercing Armor which regains a lot of stam and maj back. So, resource management isn't bad at all. Plus, that Magma Shell of the DK also gives a good boost of stam/maj back, as per the DK's passive.

Dubhliam

Just max out your block cost reduction (Sturdy + Shadow Ward CPs + Shieldplay enchantments) and you should have no trouble tanking.

Try to slot Leeching Vines to proc the Nature's Gift and Maturation passive.

Frozen Device is a nice substitute for not wearing Swarm Mother. Not as good as DK chains, but hey... other classes don't have even that much.

Shimmering Shield is a great ulti generation skill, for a high uptime of those sexy Agressive Horns.

The Netch is also a great skill. If you have no problem sustaining your stamina, you might take the Blue Betty morph to have an on demand cleanse.

billp_ESO

Thanks for all the replies!

What about magicka? Should I put some attribute points into it? CP points? use jewelry or enchants? or rely on food?

It looks like I'm going to need to buff mag somehow.

RouDeR

billp_ESO wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies!

What about magicka? Should I put some attribute points into it? CP points? use jewelry or enchants? or rely on food?

It looks like I'm going to need to buff mag somehow.

Tri stat emchants, and max health and Magika rec drink

RouDeR

GreenhaloX wrote: »

RouDeR wrote: »

In normal content u can run naked with bow , and still can tank all the bosses , but u will become a patato for VET. If you wanna be tank and deal Good amount of AoE dmg go for Pure Health Warden , which has 2 great aoe dots that are scaling with your max health, in addition u can sets like Harbinger to increase your dmg even more . My main tank is a Health argonian Warden and i've tanked all vet content with him .

You peeps need to stop patronizing that all normal PvE contents are so easy. Goodness, gracious and all that jazz. Yeah, ok.. go ahead and run your naked bow self against Stoneskin gargoyle boss in Rivenspire, Rage Claw in Eastmarch, the cute little Bittergreen guar boss in Deshaan, for example; or any of those "normal" DLC world boss pits. Yeah, go at it with your naked bow self against Zandundunoz (whatever the hell that's actually spelled) or the Mad Ogre. Wtf..man. Ha ha

OP, seems like what you're doing is fine. I run an Imperial StamDK tank and another Dark Elf MagDK tank. Although, both differ in Stam and Mag as well as having its plus and minuses, both tank just fine against any boss or dungeons. I actually solo many world boss pits with them. I haven't tried an Argonian tank (no offense to Argonians, I just don't like the look) or a warden tank, but if you can hold an aggro throughout and maintain your resources without wiping, you're good with any. I like the DK because of the Burning Embers which spamming that while holding aggro from Piercing Armor, I'm constantly rejuving health, and in turn, allows my stam to regen (when I'm not blocking, that is.) Plus, I use the Magma Shell and the only time I use Igneous Shield for a stam. For higher hp, the more greater is the Igneous. Both skills are very good aid for protection on the allies. I also combo heavy attack and Piercing Armor which regains a lot of stam and maj back. So, resource management isn't bad at all. Plus, that Magma Shell of the DK also gives a good boost of stam/maj back, as per the DK's passive.

Its not my fault that u cant do it dude , l2p

Soleya

I've been tanking on my stam warden and actually find it quite fun. Front bar is sword and shield, back bar is ice staff. I'm at about 44k health, 20k stam, 15k magicka.

One ability I would recommend in trash pulls is subterranean assault (stam morph), it applies major breach/fracture on all enemies hit. Its essentially like doing pierce armor on every mob (without the taunt), I usually do this first, then gripping shards to lock everything in place so dps can burn them.

I use the ice staff for range taunts + magicka return, and sword and shield for most of my tanking because my stam is higher and pierce armor is quick cast, whereas the ice staff full heavy is slow.