Ice Mage Tanking Proposal

trowlk

Welcome to my Ice Mage Tanking Proposal. This is my own idea of how the Frost Staff should work. I will analyze any feedback or idea you have for this thread, so feel free to let me know if anything bothers you or if you agree with my proposal. Point at any grammatical mistake aswell and I will correct them. English is not my main language!

In my own opinion, it was a good initiative to transform the Ice Staff into a tanking weapon, sadly the idea was poorly developed. To raise frost walls, to conjure armors made of ice, just like the wardens do, to freeze the enemies until they cannot move at all, to make this possible we need to be creative, not just add some stats into a weapon and call it tanking staff.

I have some ideas to make the frost tank inmersive and helpful for magicka guardians, and I will add them by considering the current problems and then offer solutions to said issues.



Problem #1: By making the Ice Staff a defensive weapon, you have made a breach between this staff and its cousins, the Lightning and Fire Staff

Solution: Separate the Ice Staff from the Destruction Staff skill line. Doing so will allow you to opperate this defensive weapon without affecting or causing trouble to the two damage oriented staffs.



Problem #2: You are creating magickal tank which has a very similar approach to its counterpart, the physical tank.

Solution: The frost tanks must distinguish themselves from physical tanks by having an ample amount of magicka resouces and a high proficiency in magicka wards and barriers, not physical prowess and toughness. Force the Ice mage to rely on damage shields, healing and magicka to absorb and nitigate damage.



Problem #3: The current Ice Staff is entirely heavy attack dependant. A Heavy attack taunts the enemy, creates a damage shield on the user and restores magycka, while the light attack does nothing.

Solution:
1- The light attack could be an icicle which taunts the targeted enemy.
2- The heavy attack could be a channeled blast of cold that deals conal damage over time with a 10 meter distance. The last heavy attack tick, you will restore magicka resources and form a frosty damage shield, rewarding the time spent on the attack.



Problem #4: The Ice Mage is using his staff's pole to bash and physically mitigate damage. Also, with the new heavy attack mechanic, the ice staff needs a new channeling animation.

Solution: Make an special blocking animation for the Ice Staff, one that looks like they are casting a ward with their off hand. When bashing, the caster can push his ward foward.
Also, create a channeling animation for the frost blast heavy attack, similar to those of the restoration and lightning staff.



Problem #5: The Ice Staff abilties and aren't based on a tanking perspective, making them obsolete for both damage builds and tank builds.

Solution: The Abilities should deal Frost Damage, also they could boost the caster and allies with damage shields and reduce enemies defenses.

Here are some ideas for possible Abilities:

1- Frost Wall: Creates a Frost Wall in front of the caster with [X] Health that mitigates frontal physical attacks and projectiles to both caster and allies for a 10 seconds duration. Enemies close to the Frost Wall will recieve [X] Frost damage every second until the barrier is broken. Only one wall can be active at the same time.
Morphs:
1- (PvP) Increase the Frost Wall's lenght by 3 meters and the wall moves along the caster.
2- (PvE) Increase the Frost Wall health points by [X]%.

2- Freezing touch: Induce Frostbite on an enemy, dealing [X] Frost damage every second for 15 seconds and applying Major Breach.
Morphs:
1- (PvE) Also applies Major Fracture to the enemy.
2- (PvE) Applies Minor Magickasteal to the enemy.

3- Avalanche: Channel 1.5 seconds to conjure a deadly avalanche that will deal [X] Frost Damage to enemies that surrounds you. You also gain a damage shield of [X] health by every enemy affected by the Avalanche damage. The damage shield stacks with following avalanches up to [X] points.
Morphs:
1- (PvP) Knocks back enemies and set them off balance
2- (Pve) Removes the casting time.

4- Hibernate: When you activate this ability, you sacrifice a moderate portion of magicka over 20 seconds, granting you minor aegis and your damage shields recieve 8% less damage. You can activate this spell again to pop out your gathered magicka and an additional more if it completed its duration. If you ran out of magicka the spell cancels itself, returning the channeled magicka.
Morphs:
1- (PvP) Adds 5% damage reduction against players. The pop will heal the caster by 25% of the total hibernated amount.
2- (PvE) Makes the magicka cost less demanding while the magicka recovered remains unchanged if it completed its duration.

5- Hail: The Ice Mage cast a hailstorm at a pointed location with a duration of 15 seconds, the hail deals [X] Frost damage to enemies every second and applies a damage shield of [X] health points on the caster and allies every 3 seconds, the damage shields last for 6 seconds.
Morphs:
1- (PvE) Applies Minor Fracture and Minor Breach on enemies inside the hail.
2- (PvE) Allies will stack Hail's damage shields up to [X] points. Caster is not affected by this morph.

Ultimate- Atmoran Blizzard: Forms a blizzard at a pointed location after 2 seconds that last for 10 seconds. The blizzard deals [X] Frost Damage every second to enemies and reduce their speed by 50%. An ally can activate the sinergy Atmoran Blizzard to drag all the enemies to the epicenter, dealing [X] Frost Damage, and staggering them every 2 seconds while they remain inside.
Morphs:
1- (PvP) Unstopable Blizzard: If the sinergy is activated, allies inside the blizzard will recieve Minor Expedition and granting them inmunity to slows and inmovilizations.
2- (Pve) Rampaging Blizzard: The sinergy no longer drags the enemies to the epicenter, but refreshes the total duration of the blizzard and applies Major Slayer to the allies inside of it.

Problem #6: Because Frost Staff was forced to share the destruction staff passives, its perks were limited in terms of tanking.

Solution: The Passives could increase the damage sheild potency and return magicka resources when they get damaged. Also they should slow enemies affected by the Ice Staff Abilties and steal resources when an enemy is slain.

Here are some ideas for possible Passives.

1- Intolerable Cold: While wielding an Ice Staff, your light attacks taunt your target and your heavy attacks create a damage shield.

2- Cryopreservation: While wielding an Ice Staff, when any damage shield applied by you is attacked or destroyed, 20% of the total absorbed damage is restored to your magicka pool. Doesn't apply to Frost Wall.

3- Iceberg's Fortitude: While wielding an Ice Staff, your blocking cost is reduced by 30% and the amount of damage your damage shields and blocking can mitigate is increased by 20%

4- Hypothermia: Increase the chance to apply chilled status effect by 100% and when you deal damage with an Ice Staff spell, you reduce the enemies speed by 30% for 5 seconds.

5- Kleptothermia: When an enemy is killed and you assisted in his downfall, you steal his corpse life and magickal essences, recovering said atributes over 5 seconds.

Problem #7: With the removal of Ice Staff from the destruction staff skill line, weapons such as Maelstrom, Master and Assylum became obsolete.

Solution: The Ability Altering Weapons could boost either the abilties damage or their caster or group utility.

Here are some ideas for possible Ability Altering Weapons:

1- Frost Wall:
- (Damage) Enemies affected by Frost Wall damaging area will recieve extra damage from light and heavy attacks dealt by you and your allies.
- (Support) Your Frost Wall health points will increase by a flat amount and when it gets damaged, it will be affected by your Cryopreservation passive.

2- Avalanche:
- (Damage) Increases the direct damage from Avalanche and applies chilling status effect on its victims.
- (Support) The stackable damage shield that is applied to you will affect allies that are inside the avalanche.

3- Hail:
- (Damage) Increases the damage of hail by an X amount every time it ticks.
- (Support) The hail reinforce your gear and provides to you and your allies Minor Ward and Minor Resolve.

Changelog:

16/01/2018: Removed the explanations of Abilties, Passives and Ability Altering Weapons.
17/01/2018: Added spoilers to hide the Abilties, Passives and Ability Altering Weapons ideas.

idk

Way to long for me to read. I suggest narrowing it down and get to the point.

Besides stating you think it was a good initiative to transform the ice staff into a tanking weapon then going on to say this was problematic being contradicting, some of your ideas would make for very weak skills/passives.

You kinda seem to understand what the real issue is. The real issue is Zos attempted to retrofit a dps weapon into a tanking weapon instead of building one from the ground up. Essentially, you are doing the same thing, working with the ice staff, instead of starting fresh which is what would be needed to make to more comparable to it's cousin.

With that, it is possible Zos did not intend the frost staff to come close to supplanting S&B for tanking, but merely as a slightly inferior alternative or an option for the back bar.

Edit: no offense. Great to think of ideas. Mostly I suggest narrowing down the thoughts. Refine them into an easier read.

trowlk

idk wrote: »

Way to long for me to read. I suggest narrowing it down and get to the point.

Besides stating you think it was a good initiative to transform the ice staff into a tanking weapon then going on to say this was problematic being contradicting, some of your ideas would make for very weak skills/passives.

You kinda seem to understand what the real issue is. The real issue is Zos attempted to retrofit a dps weapon into a tanking weapon instead of building one from the ground up. Essentially, you are doing the same thing, working with the ice staff, instead of starting fresh which is what would be needed to make to more comparable to it's cousin.

With that, it is possible Zos did not intend the frost staff to come close to supplanting S&B for tanking, but merely as a slightly inferior alternative or an option for the back bar.

Edit: no offense. Great to think of ideas. Mostly I suggest narrowing down the thoughts. Refine them into an easier read.

No offense taken, I could remove some explanations I gave for passives and skills. They aren't necessary, just a little backgroud to reinforce the ideas.

trowlk

17/01/2018 Edit.
Added some spoilers to hide the Abilties, Passives and Ability Altering Weapons ideas.

Maura_Neysa

Some very interesting ideas. I have thought some about this too, not to such length.
My idea was to give Frost staff
- The same block animation as S+B with your staff in your right hand and rez a shield in your left. - would be a simple adjustment on game side.
- Then while blocking you reduce the damage of melee enimies by (X) amount. This would make Frost tanking stronger against melee but weak against range (because no Deflect Bolt)
- Lastly a passive with a Frost Staff equiped the effectiveness of snares is reduced (similar to the Warden passive) . This would be the counter to S+B's Battle Field Mobility.

In general I would love to actually test out your ideas though. The ultimate sounds a little strong specificly the cc aspect. Also not sure how well the "and allies" aspect would work. S+B doesn't help out allies in anyway like that.

Cybercore_Death

This is a great idea and some real
Thought has gone into this which is good to see.

I appreciate the detail you’ve gone into.

To make this viable as a split off from the destruc staffs it might be worth adding a second tanking staff along the lines of Air or Earth. And like Flame and Shock have different passive suited to different situations do people can get creative on builds then. That’s my thought anyway. Not sure what you’d call the skill line though lol

Valykc

Great ideas but I think Ice Staff shouldn’t have reduced block cost and reduced damage to shields. I like the idea of the shields/wards being the object that mitigates Damage. I would be afraid that adding reduced block cost might just create a Monster for PvP scenarios. Obviously, this is hypothetical and I think the ideas you created were neat, they would need adjusting but so does 75% of this game lol. Great Job and a very engaging read. I did not think it was too long because if you are interested in the idea of Ice Staff Tanking then you would find this post very welcoming and intriguing. Good use of visuals to separate the discussion areas!

Maura_Neysa

Valykc wrote: »

Great ideas but I think Ice Staff shouldn’t have reduced block cost and reduced damage to shields. I like the idea of the shields/wards being the object that mitigates Damage. I would be afraid that adding reduced block cost might just create a Monster for PvP scenarios. Obviously, this is hypothetical and I think the ideas you created were neat, they would need adjusting but so does 75% of this game lol. Great Job and a very engaging read. I did not think it was too long because if you are interested in the idea of Ice Staff Tanking then you would find this post very welcoming and intriguing. Good use of visuals to separate the discussion areas!

@Valykc He only listed the current already given values, which actually go up with Update 17. After the update it will be 36% Block Cost and 20% Damage Reduction, which matches 1 hand + shield but still misses the 1H&S 15% Damage Reduction of Ranged. So now we are just talking shield of with we already have Blazing shield, Bone Shield, Harden Ward, Shimmering Shields so as long as the new ones stayed in that range or lower for any shield ally types.

Either way I hope the OP's list makes it onto @Wrobel 's list mentioned in the ESO Live stream.

Mic1007

Valykc wrote: »

Great ideas but I think Ice Staff shouldn’t have reduced block cost and reduced damage to shields. I like the idea of the shields/wards being the object that mitigates Damage. I would be afraid that adding reduced block cost might just create a Monster for PvP scenarios. Obviously, this is hypothetical and I think the ideas you created were neat, they would need adjusting but so does 75% of this game lol. Great Job and a very engaging read. I did not think it was too long because if you are interested in the idea of Ice Staff Tanking then you would find this post very welcoming and intriguing. Good use of visuals to separate the discussion areas!

Considering how Shields work in PvP, it should be fine. If you want to spam shields while on your Frost Staff for the mitigation, have fun actually doing much damage.

I love all the ideas in the top post.

Maura_Neysa

Mic1007 wrote: »

Valykc wrote: »

Great ideas but I think Ice Staff shouldn’t have reduced block cost and reduced damage to shields. I like the idea of the shields/wards being the object that mitigates Damage. I would be afraid that adding reduced block cost might just create a Monster for PvP scenarios. Obviously, this is hypothetical and I think the ideas you created were neat, they would need adjusting but so does 75% of this game lol. Great Job and a very engaging read. I did not think it was too long because if you are interested in the idea of Ice Staff Tanking then you would find this post very welcoming and intriguing. Good use of visuals to separate the discussion areas!

Considering how Shields work in PvP, it should be fine. If you want to spam shields while on your Frost Staff for the mitigation, have fun actually doing much damage.

I love all the ideas in the top post.

You or at least I am not damage focused Frost is all about the cc and stamina burn. Not very easy to escape an Ice Tank, 30% slowed when you're not being immobilized.

trowlk

I considered the PvP perspective since I created this post. Let me try to explain you the
Ice Staff weaknesses in PvP:

1- Ice Staff doesn't have a gap closer, Sword and Shield does. This will cause the Ice Staff users to rely on a different secondary weapon to keep at enemies range.

2- Ice Staff damage shields are not big bubbles like the Light Armor Skill Annulment. These damage shields increase over time and depending of how many enemies were damage by the abilties.

3- Ice Staff weakness is ranged opponents. Deliberately I didn't add ranged damage reduction. If I added the latter reduction, magicka users would have a difficult time fighting an Ice Staff Tank.

4- Ice Staff passives only affect the user if they are currently wielding an Ice Staff. Once you swap to a different kind of weapon, the fortified damage shields, block costs, and magicka refund from damage sheilds would not apply.

5- Ice Staff PvP tanks are more susceptible to Crowd Control Abilities, this is because they are forced to stack magicka instead of stamina to block and increase their overall performance.

Edited to remove some grammatical errors

Lynx7386

1- Ice Staff doesn't have a gap closer, Sword and Shield does. This will cause the Ice Staff users to rely on a different secondary weapon to keep at enemies range.

That doesnt make much sense considering that staves can attack at melee range just as effectively as long range.

2- Ice Staff damage shields are not big bubbles like the Light Armor Skill Annulment. These damage shields increase over time and depending of how many enemies were damage by the abilties.

Ok, but you need to understand something fundamental about tanking in this game: Damage mitigation is not applied to damage shields.
Most tanks run with max or near max damage mitigation via armor, and supplement that with additional damage mitigation from block and abilities. Damage shields are put "in front" of all your mitigation, so they do not benefit from it at all. This is the reason damage shields are more effective as a defensive measure for light armor damage dealers than they are for heavy armor tanks.

Basing a tanking weapon around damage shields simply doesnt work. There's only a couple of damage shield tank builds in the game (DK and templar have options for them) and both of them are gimmick setups that dont work well in high end content.

3- Ice Staff weakness is ranged opponents. Deliberately I didn't add ranged damage reduction. If I added the latter reduction, magicka users would have a difficult time fighting an Ice Staff Tank.

It makes very little sense to have a ranged weapon weak against ranged weapons, especially when put up against point number 1 above where you say you need to keep enemies at range. You're obviously wanting this to play more like a damage dealer which is the exact opposite of what we need.

trowlk

@Lynx7386

TLDR:
- I proposed a Ice Staff which is no longer a Ranged Weapon, you have to be close to enemies to achieve its true potential.
- Ice Mages are not forced to wear heavy armor nor mitigations as long as they can keep their shields up.

---

1- In my proposal, I talked about how the new Ice Staff could have a different light and heavy attack approach:

trowlk wrote: »

Problem #3: The current Ice Staff is entirely heavy attack dependant. A Heavy attack taunts the enemy, creates a damage shield on the user and restores magycka, while the light attack does nothing.

Solution:
1- The light attack could be an icicle which taunts the targeted enemy.
2- The heavy attack could be a channeled blast of cold that deals conal damage over time with a 10 meter distance. The last heavy attack tick, you will restore magicka resources and form a frosty damage shield, rewarding the time spent on the attack.

Imagine this new attack mechanic like using the Sorcerer's ability Overcharcher. It's almost the same.

2- An Ice Staff tank is basically a magical tank, not like most tanks who run with mitigation via armor, that is a physical tank. I proposed a new tanking perspective:

trowlk wrote: »

Problem #2: You are creating magickal tank which has a very similar approach to its counterpart, the physical tank.

Solution: The frost tanks must distinguish themselves from physical tanks by having an ample amount of magicka resouces and a high proficiency in magicka wards and barriers, not physical prowess and toughness. Force the Ice mage to rely on damage shields, healing and magicka to absorb and nitigate damage.

3- Because my proposed mage stacks Spell Power, Magicka and Damage Shield potency, they can surely use a different staff on their secondary weapon slot to deal damage. Not even one of the spells I listed above are meant to deal ranged attack, except Hail which is a static damaging area.

Jamdarius

Just no... I will never agree to this idea because some of us like to play cromancer RP (roleplay) DPS even in it's current bad state and your idea would make it even worse.
I like the idea of conal blast on heavy attack though.

idk wrote: »

Way to long for me to read. I suggest narrowing it down and get to the point.

Besides stating you think it was a good initiative to transform the ice staff into a tanking weapon then going on to say this was problematic being contradicting, some of your ideas would make for very weak skills/passives.

You kinda seem to understand what the real issue is. The real issue is Zos attempted to retrofit a dps weapon into a tanking weapon instead of building one from the ground up. Essentially, you are doing the same thing, working with the ice staff, instead of starting fresh which is what would be needed to make to more comparable to it's cousin.

With that, it is possible Zos did not intend the frost staff to come close to supplanting S&B for tanking, but merely as a slightly inferior alternative or an option for the back bar.

Edit: no offense. Great to think of ideas. Mostly I suggest narrowing down the thoughts. Refine them into an easier read.

2 Long to read? Are you serious? do not mean to be rude but maybe you shouldn't voice opinions such as this on forums where making topic and reading them is kinda mandatory especially when you want to comment on some ideas... Do not be lazy and read it.

Tasear

@ESO_Nightingale this sounds like a thread for you.

ESO_Nightingale

Tasear wrote: »

@ESO_Nightingale this sounds like a thread for you.

yes I've already had a look at it and already explained how i feel about it on https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/447223/frost-staves-and-their-future#latest

ESO_Nightingale

trowlk wrote: »

Welcome to my Ice Mage Tanking Proposal. This is my own idea of how the Frost Staff should work. I will analyze any feedback or idea you have for this thread, so feel free to let me know if anything bothers you or if you agree with my proposal. Point at any grammatical mistake aswell and I will correct them. English is not my main language!

In my own opinion, it was a good initiative to transform the Ice Staff into a tanking weapon, sadly the idea was poorly developed. To raise frost walls, to conjure armors made of ice, just like the wardens do, to freeze the enemies until they cannot move at all, to make this possible we need to be creative, not just add some stats into a weapon and call it tanking staff.

I have some ideas to make the frost tank inmersive and helpful for magicka guardians, and I will add them by considering the current problems and then offer solutions to said issues.



Problem #1: By making the Ice Staff a defensive weapon, you have made a breach between this staff and its cousins, the Lightning and Fire Staff

Solution: Separate the Ice Staff from the Destruction Staff skill line. Doing so will allow you to opperate this defensive weapon without affecting or causing trouble to the two damage oriented staffs.



Problem #2: You are creating magickal tank which has a very similar approach to its counterpart, the physical tank.

Solution: The frost tanks must distinguish themselves from physical tanks by having an ample amount of magicka resouces and a high proficiency in magicka wards and barriers, not physical prowess and toughness. Force the Ice mage to rely on damage shields, healing and magicka to absorb and nitigate damage.



Problem #3: The current Ice Staff is entirely heavy attack dependant. A Heavy attack taunts the enemy, creates a damage shield on the user and restores magycka, while the light attack does nothing.

Solution:
1- The light attack could be an icicle which taunts the targeted enemy.
2- The heavy attack could be a channeled blast of cold that deals conal damage over time with a 10 meter distance. The last heavy attack tick, you will restore magicka resources and form a frosty damage shield, rewarding the time spent on the attack.



Problem #4: The Ice Mage is using his staff's pole to bash and physically mitigate damage. Also, with the new heavy attack mechanic, the ice staff needs a new channeling animation.

Solution: Make an special blocking animation for the Ice Staff, one that looks like they are casting a ward with their off hand. When bashing, the caster can push his ward foward.
Also, create a channeling animation for the frost blast heavy attack, similar to those of the restoration and lightning staff.



Problem #5: The Ice Staff abilties and aren't based on a tanking perspective, making them obsolete for both damage builds and tank builds.

Solution: The Abilities should deal Frost Damage, also they could boost the caster and allies with damage shields and reduce enemies defenses.

Here are some ideas for possible Abilities:

1- Frost Wall: Creates a Frost Wall in front of the caster with [X] Health that mitigates frontal physical attacks and projectiles to both caster and allies for a 10 seconds duration. Enemies close to the Frost Wall will recieve [X] Frost damage every second until the barrier is broken. Only one wall can be active at the same time.
Morphs:
1- (PvP) Increase the Frost Wall's lenght by 3 meters and the wall moves along the caster.
2- (PvE) Increase the Frost Wall health points by [X]%.

2- Freezing touch: Induce Frostbite on an enemy, dealing [X] Frost damage every second for 15 seconds and applying Major Breach.
Morphs:
1- (PvE) Also applies Major Fracture to the enemy.
2- (PvE) Applies Minor Magickasteal to the enemy.

3- Avalanche: Channel 1.5 seconds to conjure a deadly avalanche that will deal [X] Frost Damage to enemies that surrounds you. You also gain a damage shield of [X] health by every enemy affected by the Avalanche damage. The damage shield stacks with following avalanches up to [X] points.
Morphs:
1- (PvP) Knocks back enemies and set them off balance
2- (Pve) Removes the casting time.

4- Hibernate: When you activate this ability, you sacrifice a moderate portion of magicka over 20 seconds, granting you minor aegis and your damage shields recieve 8% less damage. You can activate this spell again to pop out your gathered magicka and an additional more if it completed its duration. If you ran out of magicka the spell cancels itself, returning the channeled magicka.
Morphs:
1- (PvP) Adds 5% damage reduction against players. The pop will heal the caster by 25% of the total hibernated amount.
2- (PvE) Makes the magicka cost less demanding while the magicka recovered remains unchanged if it completed its duration.

5- Hail: The Ice Mage cast a hailstorm at a pointed location with a duration of 15 seconds, the hail deals [X] Frost damage to enemies every second and applies a damage shield of [X] health points on the caster and allies every 3 seconds, the damage shields last for 6 seconds.
Morphs:
1- (PvE) Applies Minor Fracture and Minor Breach on enemies inside the hail.
2- (PvE) Allies will stack Hail's damage shields up to [X] points. Caster is not affected by this morph.

Ultimate- Atmoran Blizzard: Forms a blizzard at a pointed location after 2 seconds that last for 10 seconds. The blizzard deals [X] Frost Damage every second to enemies and reduce their speed by 50%. An ally can activate the sinergy Atmoran Blizzard to drag all the enemies to the epicenter, dealing [X] Frost Damage, and staggering them every 2 seconds while they remain inside.
Morphs:
1- (PvP) Unstopable Blizzard: If the sinergy is activated, allies inside the blizzard will recieve Minor Expedition and granting them inmunity to slows and inmovilizations.
2- (Pve) Rampaging Blizzard: The sinergy no longer drags the enemies to the epicenter, but refreshes the total duration of the blizzard and applies Major Slayer to the allies inside of it.

Problem #6: Because Frost Staff was forced to share the destruction staff passives, its perks were limited in terms of tanking.

Solution: The Passives could increase the damage sheild potency and return magicka resources when they get damaged. Also they should slow enemies affected by the Ice Staff Abilties and steal resources when an enemy is slain.

Here are some ideas for possible Passives.

1- Intolerable Cold: While wielding an Ice Staff, your light attacks taunt your target and your heavy attacks create a damage shield.

2- Cryopreservation: While wielding an Ice Staff, when any damage shield applied by you is attacked or destroyed, 20% of the total absorbed damage is restored to your magicka pool. Doesn't apply to Frost Wall.

3- Iceberg's Fortitude: While wielding an Ice Staff, your blocking cost is reduced by 30% and the amount of damage your damage shields and blocking can mitigate is increased by 20%

4- Hypothermia: Increase the chance to apply chilled status effect by 100% and when you deal damage with an Ice Staff spell, you reduce the enemies speed by 30% for 5 seconds.

5- Kleptothermia: When an enemy is killed and you assisted in his downfall, you steal his corpse life and magickal essences, recovering said atributes over 5 seconds.

Problem #7: With the removal of Ice Staff from the destruction staff skill line, weapons such as Maelstrom, Master and Assylum became obsolete.

Solution: The Ability Altering Weapons could boost either the abilties damage or their caster or group utility.

Here are some ideas for possible Ability Altering Weapons:

1- Frost Wall:
- (Damage) Enemies affected by Frost Wall damaging area will recieve extra damage from light and heavy attacks dealt by you and your allies.
- (Support) Your Frost Wall health points will increase by a flat amount and when it gets damaged, it will be affected by your Cryopreservation passive.

2- Avalanche:
- (Damage) Increases the direct damage from Avalanche and applies chilling status effect on its victims.
- (Support) The stackable damage shield that is applied to you will affect allies that are inside the avalanche.

3- Hail:
- (Damage) Increases the damage of hail by an X amount every time it ticks.
- (Support) The hail reinforce your gear and provides to you and your allies Minor Ward and Minor Resolve.

Changelog:

16/01/2018: Removed the explanations of Abilties, Passives and Ability Altering Weapons.
17/01/2018: Added spoilers to hide the Abilties, Passives and Ability Altering Weapons ideas.

Problem #1:
This is a bad idea. If ZOS did this they would remove most damage aspects of frost. People still want to be frost DPS. I would however understand if they made an Alteration Staff as a tanking weapon because of how the spells fit as "physically altering". But it would not be a destruction staff.

Problem #2:
I can get behind this. Its a very interesting idea and it would synergise well with dk's shield skill. However i would have to say that it would have to be on an alteration staff skill line.

Problems #3 and #4:
These are interesting proposals. #4 would be a want but not really a need. But hell it would look so much better. #3 light attack taunting on a tank only weapon would make inner fire worthless. But it would be helpful. But the heavy attack idea is cool. Again it would work best on an alteration staff. frost dps still exist and want to be heard.

#5 and #6:
Yep because the staff wasn't tanking originally it was all DPS and they just pasted some crap over it and called it a day i agree that a mag tanking weapon needs skills that benefit tanking.

Conclusion:
Id love these changes but frost was never for tanking and it was a lazy idea that everyone has to deal with now. I dont really see them adding a new weapon but these are the options:

1: Make the ice staff a better tank weapon and defencive dps weapon by updating passives and adding tank effects to some unused morphs.

Or

2: rework frost staff again to be a real dps weapon. Maybe still defencive. Or it could gain bonuses to critical damage. And introduce the alteration staff as a fully fledged tanking weapon with passives and skills from the get-go that actually benefit tanks.

There are problems with both of these ideas. But i think the most realistic goal is the former and something I've been promoting because it means that ZOS doesn't have to do that much. Which means it's more likely to happen. At the same time its a jack of all trades master of none. But it should make most people a little happy

The latter would be so awesome as an end goal as it would make frost dps happy that they finally have a really good weapon. And mag tanks would have a really effective staff while also still having the frost tanking theme in winters embrace. It would really be a unique tanking weapon and i really like the ideas. Just not on the frost staff.

I hope you understand where im coming from but this juggling of wants to try and suggest balance ideas is pretty hard.

If you want to talk about this more, check out the discord link in my signature. Its the Unofficial ESO Frost Discord.