Warden Suggestions for ZOS

Lynx7386

I've played ESO since launch and followed it since the early alpha builds, back when the warden was supposed to be one of the initial release classes for the game. I beta tested morrowind, and despite an abundance of feedback regarding the implementation of the warden, most of it was ignored and the chapter launched with an essentially broken class. Changes made to the warden up through the current build, and especially what we've seen on the PTS for summerset, are not taking the class in the direction it needs to go, and at the risk of sounding accusing I honestly dont think ZOS knows what they're doing anymore with this class' design. We havent heard anything about a warden class rep being elected, so I'd like to offer my contribution to improving the class and its abilities.

Here's what I would really like to see happen to bring up all aspects of the warden class to where they need to be:

Green Balance

Fungal Growth & Morphs: either increase the width of the conal effect, or make this a square effect like combat prayer or Refreshing path. Right now it is simply too difficult to aim, particularly on moving targets.

Healing Seed & Morphs: Make healing seed (initial ability) a 8 second heal over time, restoring health every 2 seconds and having the large burst heal at the end of the duration. Make budding seeds increase the duration to 16 seconds, and allow the user to trigger the ability again to instantly grant the burst heal. Remove the heal from corrupting pollen and make it deal disease damage over 8 seconds and apply major defile to enemies in the area.
This gives tanks a burst heal option via budding seeds, where the tank can lay down a 16 second effect and then use the burst heal when it's needed, while providing healing over time to melee dps. Stamina or magicka characters can use corrupting pollen as an aoe DPS supplemental ability (costs magicka and scales with spell damage/max magicka, but gains benefits from disease damage boosts via champion points, allowing it to be moderately useful for both roles).

Living Vines - Leeching Vines Morph: Make this morph self-cast only (not on an ally), remove the minor lifesteal, and cause it to restore magicka and stamina whenever you take damage (in addition to the health restore). This would make it a more useful sustain tool for tank wardens, where often times the ability casts on someone who isnt actively taking damage instead of yourself. Also synergizes with nature's gift better for tanks.

Lotus Flower & Morphs: Make this ability heal you -and- a nearby ally on light and heavy attacks, rather than you -or- an ally. This is a survival tool for the user as much as it is for your team.

Nature's Grasp & Morphs: Completely overhaul this ability. The pull self to an ally and wonky targeting are, currently, terrible and render this ability unused by all but a few niche pvp builds. I would suggest the following:
Nature's Grasp: Encases an enemy with choking vines, reducing movement speed by 40% and dealing X magic damage over 10 seconds.
Morph: Bursting Vines: When the effect ends or is purged, the vines explode for X magic damage to all nearby enemies.
Morph: Nature's Embrace: Also applies minor lifesteal for 10 seconds, causing allies to heal for 600 every 1 second when dealing damage to the target.



Winter's Embrace

Arctic Wind & Morphs: Remove the healing effect from this skill entirely. Tank wardens can get their burst heal with the budding seeds change listed above. Instead, this ability now does the following:
Arctic Wind: Envelop yourself in a windstorm, Periodically pulling enemies within 15 meters to you over 10 seconds. This makes the ability a gathering skill for tanks - you pop it and it sucks enemies in, like an automatic chains for close range enemies. Probably at a rate of 1 enemy every 1 or 2 seconds.
Polar Wind: Enemies pulled toward you by the wind are afflicted by minor vulnerability, increasing the damage they take by 8% for 10 seconds. This would be the primary tank morph, causing your group to deal additional damage, and giving wardens something on-par with engulfing flames as a unique debuff that cant really be obtained elsewhere (except through sets).
Arctic Blast: No longer pulls enemies towards you. Instead deals frost damage in an area around you every second for 10 seconds. This is the DPS morph, essentially functioning in a similar fashion to hurricane/boundless storm (but no ramp up).

Crystallized Shield & Morphs: Remove this as a damage shield, and instead have these abilities create a wall of ice on the ground in front of you (just like NPCs use). While you are within 5 meters of the wall, it absorbs projectiles directed at you. This creates a stationary gameplay mechanic, making the shield less powerful in pvp situations. Revert the cost changes.

Frozen Gate & Morphs Get rid of this ground-placed pull idea. As useful as it can be at times, it just pales in comparison to DK chains or the new silver leash for pulling purposes. I would propose a new ability in it's place:
Frozen Shard: Throw a javelin of ice to impale an enemy, knocking the target down and dealing frost damage.
Morph 1: Frozen Grip: Yanks impaled enemies back to your location and afflicts them with major maim for 4 seconds. This is the new version of the ability as a tank pull.
Morph 2: Coldsnap: Frozen shard now deals 50% additional damage to chilled enemies, and 100% additional damage to frozen enemies (Frozen, in this case, would count as any enemy rooted by gripping shards or wall of frost). The dps morph, obviously.

Piercing Cold (Passive): Rather than increasing all frost and magic damage by 6%, change this ability to give you a flat 6% damage bonus to any enemy that is chilled. This would allow you to get the bonus when using non-frost abilities, and also help out stamina wardens by boosting physical/poison/disease damage types against chilled enemies as well.



Animal Companions

Feral Guardian & Morphs: Aside from combat changes, we would really like to see other animal skins made available for this ability. It's clear that was the intention when it was designed and released with a gray war bear skin option. I'd like to see senche, direwolf, etc. as options.
That said, on to the changes:
Eternal Guardian is obviously bugged and not working as intended with the animation on revival, so I suggest removing that effect entirely. Instead, change eternal guardian to Winter Guardian: Activating the guardian's attack creates a blizzard, dealing frost damage every second for 10 seconds to enemies around it (in addition to the current execute-claw attack). This gives it an aoe option.
Wild Guardian also needs improvements, as it currently offers nothing over the base ability. Suggested change: When activating the attack of the guardian, it will charge at the target up to 28 meters away and snares them for 1 second.

Cutting Dive: As with the wild guardian, this ability gives no real benefit over the base ability. Cutting Dive should grant you empower for 5 seconds.

Swarm & Morphs: The base damage of swarm and both morphs should be increased by approximately 20%.
Fetcher Infection should be made into a stamina ability dealing disease damage. Rather than granting extra damage on every other cast, recasting fetcher infection on a target already afflicted by it should deal additional up-front damage. This would make it necessary to recast at the last second in order to get the most damage and efficiency out of the ability, adding some skill play.
Growing swarm should be changed to a ground placed AoE effect, spawning a cloud of swarming insects that deal damage to all enemies in the area. The cloud should grow in radius and damage every 3 seconds, with a total duration of 12 seconds, essentially acting like a placed hurricane effect.

Netch & Morphs: No combat/mechanic changes are needed, but I would really like to see the 'beam' effect removed entirely (simply make a pulsing blue or green aura around the netch to indicate it's functioning), and I would love to see skins for this ability to turn it into an owl or something instead of a floating jellyfish.

Falcon's Swiftness & Morphs: All morphs of this ability should have the 14 second duration (better yet, 20 seconds, as precedence is already set by grim focus / merciless resolve for nightblades).