Looking for Ideas for Magicka Warden CC

Vynist

Hey so we can complain about the lack of a CC until the cows come home, but in the meantime let's just stay positive and find something that works until then.

1.) For a light armor/destro staff magicka warden, I can run the destro staff CC (destructive clench/reach) even though it's blockable/dodgeable -- having something is better than nothing. What else could this build run?

2.) For a heavy armor/SnB magicka warden, I really don't know what else I can run to CC. Warden has roots that work well with tank builds, but do you have any ideas for CC for magicka warden?

brandonv516

Maybe the new Psijic skill Time Stop?

Vynist

brandonv516 wrote: »

Maybe the new Psijic skill Time Stop?

That's not too bad an idea! Thanks for the input. I haven't played in a long time so I forgot about the new skill line. I will look into it and see if it is viable for mag warden.

Just curious, have you tried this ability?

Vaoh

It’s not too complicated tbh. You have only three non-Ult CC choices - Destructive Touch, Borrowed Time, and Volcanic Rune. Other non-Ult CCs are tied to Bow/1H&S/2H which you won’t use ofc.

Borrowed Time is a morph of Time Stop. It’s a ground-placed AoE CC that deals zero damage. It stuns all enemies in the AoE after 4 seconds, meaning your opponent has an entire 4 seconds to escape. You’ll be taking the instant cast morph because the other morph is a channel.... it’s pretty obvious why that won’t work well lol. Borrowed Time is a powerful skill for chokepoints in group play - horrible for normal application.

Volcanic Rune is a morph of Fire Rune. It has instant damage and a nice CC. However the rune is very easy to see, has a small radius, and even has an arm time. It has been in the game forever and yet many players don’t know what it is because it’s so bad. It could *never* work well at all for normal application CC. Don’t waste your time with this skill lol.

Destructive Touch (either morph) is a pretty good CC, but you’ll be forced into use a Flame or Shock Staff. This is literally the only CC available to Mag Warden that can truly be used in a normal fashion.... so use it.

Case in point - use Destructive Touch.

brandonv516

Vaoh wrote: »

It’s not too complicated tbh. You have only three non-Ult CC choices - Destructive Touch, Borrowed Time, and Volcanic Rune. Other non-Ult CCs are tied to Bow/1H&S/2H which you won’t use ofc.

Borrowed Time is a morph of Time Stop. It’s a ground-placed AoE CC that deals zero damage. It stuns all enemies in the AoE after 4 seconds, meaning your opponent has an entire 4 seconds to escape. You’ll be taking the instant cast morph because the other morph is a channel.... it’s pretty obvious why that won’t work well lol. Borrowed Time is a powerful skill for chokepoints in group play - horrible for normal application.

Volcanic Rune is a morph of Fire Rune. It has instant damage and a nice CC. However the rune is very easy to see, has a small radius, and even has an arm time. It has been in the game forever and yet many players don’t know what it is because it’s so bad. It could *never* work well at all for normal application CC. Don’t waste your time with this skill lol.

Destructive Touch (either morph) is a pretty good CC, but you’ll be forced into use a Flame or Shock Staff. This is literally the only CC available to Mag Warden that can truly be used in a normal fashion.... so use it.

Case in point - use Destructive Touch.

Good points. Borrowed Time definitely has it's uses (flags, defensive positions, chokepoints). That's more directed to group play though.

But yes, Destructive Reach would be really the go to choice.

Vynist

Vaoh wrote: »

It’s not too complicated tbh. You have only three non-Ult CC choices - Destructive Touch, Borrowed Time, and Volcanic Rune. Other non-Ult CCs are tied to Bow/1H&S/2H which you won’t use ofc.

Borrowed Time is a morph of Time Stop. It’s a ground-placed AoE CC that deals zero damage. It stuns all enemies in the AoE after 4 seconds, meaning your opponent has an entire 4 seconds to escape. You’ll be taking the instant cast morph because the other morph is a channel.... it’s pretty obvious why that won’t work well lol. Borrowed Time is a powerful skill for chokepoints in group play - horrible for normal application.

Volcanic Rune is a morph of Fire Rune. It has instant damage and a nice CC. However the rune is very easy to see, has a small radius, and even has an arm time. It has been in the game forever and yet many players don’t know what it is because it’s so bad. It could *never* work well at all for normal application CC. Don’t waste your time with this skill lol.

Destructive Touch (either morph) is a pretty good CC, but you’ll be forced into use a Flame or Shock Staff. This is literally the only CC available to Mag Warden that can truly be used in a normal fashion.... so use it.

Case in point - use Destructive Touch.

Thank you immensely for the detailed response! This really helps me out and it also makes me very sad that Fissure no longer has CC I can't believe I missed it by a week or two when they took it out lol!

On your point of flame or shock staff... I have only ever used flame staff, which has knock back. I am assuming the frost staff wouldn't be worth it since it only slows people down instead of CC'ing?

Vaoh

Vynist wrote: »

Vaoh wrote: »

It’s not too complicated tbh. You have only three non-Ult CC choices - Destructive Touch, Borrowed Time, and Volcanic Rune. Other non-Ult CCs are tied to Bow/1H&S/2H which you won’t use ofc.

Borrowed Time is a morph of Time Stop. It’s a ground-placed AoE CC that deals zero damage. It stuns all enemies in the AoE after 4 seconds, meaning your opponent has an entire 4 seconds to escape. You’ll be taking the instant cast morph because the other morph is a channel.... it’s pretty obvious why that won’t work well lol. Borrowed Time is a powerful skill for chokepoints in group play - horrible for normal application.

Volcanic Rune is a morph of Fire Rune. It has instant damage and a nice CC. However the rune is very easy to see, has a small radius, and even has an arm time. It has been in the game forever and yet many players don’t know what it is because it’s so bad. It could *never* work well at all for normal application CC. Don’t waste your time with this skill lol.

Destructive Touch (either morph) is a pretty good CC, but you’ll be forced into use a Flame or Shock Staff. This is literally the only CC available to Mag Warden that can truly be used in a normal fashion.... so use it.

Case in point - use Destructive Touch.

Thank you immensely for the detailed response! This really helps me out and it also makes me very sad that Fissure no longer has CC I can't believe I missed it by a week or two when they took it out lol!

On your point of flame or shock staff... I have only ever used flame staff, which has knock back. I am assuming the frost staff wouldn't be worth it since it only slows people down instead of CC'ing?

Frost Staff version of Destructive Touch has a root/immobilize instead of a CC.

Flame Staff is a knockback, Shock Staff is a stun. They’re both essentially the same but the Flame Staff can knock people off ledges which is more helpful. You’ll also have more 8% more single target damage which is essential in PvP. You absolutely want to use a Flame Staff.

I’m guessing you want to be an “Ice Mage” sort of build? You can, but you’ll have no CC

Hutch679

Vynist wrote: »

Vaoh wrote: »

It’s not too complicated tbh. You have only three non-Ult CC choices - Destructive Touch, Borrowed Time, and Volcanic Rune. Other non-Ult CCs are tied to Bow/1H&S/2H which you won’t use ofc.

Borrowed Time is a morph of Time Stop. It’s a ground-placed AoE CC that deals zero damage. It stuns all enemies in the AoE after 4 seconds, meaning your opponent has an entire 4 seconds to escape. You’ll be taking the instant cast morph because the other morph is a channel.... it’s pretty obvious why that won’t work well lol. Borrowed Time is a powerful skill for chokepoints in group play - horrible for normal application.

Volcanic Rune is a morph of Fire Rune. It has instant damage and a nice CC. However the rune is very easy to see, has a small radius, and even has an arm time. It has been in the game forever and yet many players don’t know what it is because it’s so bad. It could *never* work well at all for normal application CC. Don’t waste your time with this skill lol.

Destructive Touch (either morph) is a pretty good CC, but you’ll be forced into use a Flame or Shock Staff. This is literally the only CC available to Mag Warden that can truly be used in a normal fashion.... so use it.

Case in point - use Destructive Touch.

Thank you immensely for the detailed response! This really helps me out and it also makes me very sad that Fissure no longer has CC I can't believe I missed it by a week or two when they took it out lol!

On your point of flame or shock staff... I have only ever used flame staff, which has knock back. I am assuming the frost staff wouldn't be worth it since it only slows people down instead of CC'ing?

The frost staff will also immobilize them.

Vynist

Vaoh wrote: »

Vynist wrote: »

Vaoh wrote: »

It’s not too complicated tbh. You have only three non-Ult CC choices - Destructive Touch, Borrowed Time, and Volcanic Rune. Other non-Ult CCs are tied to Bow/1H&S/2H which you won’t use ofc.

Borrowed Time is a morph of Time Stop. It’s a ground-placed AoE CC that deals zero damage. It stuns all enemies in the AoE after 4 seconds, meaning your opponent has an entire 4 seconds to escape. You’ll be taking the instant cast morph because the other morph is a channel.... it’s pretty obvious why that won’t work well lol. Borrowed Time is a powerful skill for chokepoints in group play - horrible for normal application.

Volcanic Rune is a morph of Fire Rune. It has instant damage and a nice CC. However the rune is very easy to see, has a small radius, and even has an arm time. It has been in the game forever and yet many players don’t know what it is because it’s so bad. It could *never* work well at all for normal application CC. Don’t waste your time with this skill lol.

Destructive Touch (either morph) is a pretty good CC, but you’ll be forced into use a Flame or Shock Staff. This is literally the only CC available to Mag Warden that can truly be used in a normal fashion.... so use it.

Case in point - use Destructive Touch.

Thank you immensely for the detailed response! This really helps me out and it also makes me very sad that Fissure no longer has CC I can't believe I missed it by a week or two when they took it out lol!

On your point of flame or shock staff... I have only ever used flame staff, which has knock back. I am assuming the frost staff wouldn't be worth it since it only slows people down instead of CC'ing?

Frost Staff version of Destructive Touch has a root/immobilize instead of a CC.

Flame Staff is a knockback, Shock Staff is a stun. They’re both essentially the same but the Flame Staff can knock people off ledges which is more helpful. You’ll also have more 8% more single target damage which is essential in PvP. You absolutely want to use a Flame Staff.

I’m guessing you want to be an “Ice Mage” sort of build? You can, but you’ll have no CC

Hutch679 wrote: »

Vynist wrote: »

Vaoh wrote: »

It’s not too complicated tbh. You have only three non-Ult CC choices - Destructive Touch, Borrowed Time, and Volcanic Rune. Other non-Ult CCs are tied to Bow/1H&S/2H which you won’t use ofc.

Borrowed Time is a morph of Time Stop. It’s a ground-placed AoE CC that deals zero damage. It stuns all enemies in the AoE after 4 seconds, meaning your opponent has an entire 4 seconds to escape. You’ll be taking the instant cast morph because the other morph is a channel.... it’s pretty obvious why that won’t work well lol. Borrowed Time is a powerful skill for chokepoints in group play - horrible for normal application.

Volcanic Rune is a morph of Fire Rune. It has instant damage and a nice CC. However the rune is very easy to see, has a small radius, and even has an arm time. It has been in the game forever and yet many players don’t know what it is because it’s so bad. It could *never* work well at all for normal application CC. Don’t waste your time with this skill lol.

Destructive Touch (either morph) is a pretty good CC, but you’ll be forced into use a Flame or Shock Staff. This is literally the only CC available to Mag Warden that can truly be used in a normal fashion.... so use it.

Case in point - use Destructive Touch.

Thank you immensely for the detailed response! This really helps me out and it also makes me very sad that Fissure no longer has CC I can't believe I missed it by a week or two when they took it out lol!

On your point of flame or shock staff... I have only ever used flame staff, which has knock back. I am assuming the frost staff wouldn't be worth it since it only slows people down instead of CC'ing?

The frost staff will also immobilize them.

Yeah it looks like I will definitely have to stick with fire staff then... that's too bad! Hopefully Ice staff will get a CC or warden gets a class CC

Thanks for the input. I will also probably try to run the Time Stop as well

wheem_ESO

One other thing to add to the list is Drain Essence (and its morphs) from the Vampire skill line. You'll have to interrupt your channel if you want to make the most effective use of it in PvP, which may get tedious, but I believe the stun does go through block. All of the options available to Magicka Warden are vastly inferior to Petrify, Rune Cage, and Fear, but so was the Deep Fissure stun before.

While Frost Staff roots can be quite strong, you have to factor in the opportunity cost of a stun and +8% single target damage (or +8% damage on your shalks if using a Lightning Staff). If you're not playing with a premade group that can cover for your lack of a stun, you'll need to give up another bar slot somewhere else in order to have any sort of hard CC, and that's kind of hard to do.

It's also worth mentioning that Time Freeze has a decent snare attached to it, though it doesn't give the % on a tooltip anywhere. It's a really nice skill overall, but finding a place to put it on an offensive Magicka Warden is a bit tough.

Vaoh

wheem_ESO wrote: »

One other thing to add to the list is Drain Essence (and its morphs) from the Vampire skill line. You'll have to interrupt your channel if you want to make the most effective use of it in PvP, which may get tedious, but I believe the stun does go through block. All of the options available to Magicka Warden are vastly inferior to Petrify, Rune Cage, and Fear, but so was the Deep Fissure stun before.

While Frost Staff roots can be quite strong, you have to factor in the opportunity cost of a stun and +8% single target damage (or +8% damage on your shalks if using a Lightning Staff). If you're not playing with a premade group that can cover for your lack of a stun, you'll need to give up another bar slot somewhere else in order to have any sort of hard CC, and that's kind of hard to do.

It's also worth mentioning that Time Freeze has a decent snare attached to it, though it doesn't give the % on a tooltip anywhere. It's a really nice skill overall, but finding a place to put it on an offensive Magicka Warden is a bit tough.

Ahh forgot about that one.

If you are a Vampire you can also use Drain Essence for a CC. I would highly recommend not doing that though - it’s really bad for practical use.

Vynist

wheem_ESO wrote: »

One other thing to add to the list is Drain Essence (and its morphs) from the Vampire skill line. You'll have to interrupt your channel if you want to make the most effective use of it in PvP, which may get tedious, but I believe the stun does go through block. All of the options available to Magicka Warden are vastly inferior to Petrify, Rune Cage, and Fear, but so was the Deep Fissure stun before.

While Frost Staff roots can be quite strong, you have to factor in the opportunity cost of a stun and +8% single target damage (or +8% damage on your shalks if using a Lightning Staff). If you're not playing with a premade group that can cover for your lack of a stun, you'll need to give up another bar slot somewhere else in order to have any sort of hard CC, and that's kind of hard to do.

It's also worth mentioning that Time Freeze has a decent snare attached to it, though it doesn't give the % on a tooltip anywhere. It's a really nice skill overall, but finding a place to put it on an offensive Magicka Warden is a bit tough.

Duuuuude I totally forgot about the vamp drain!

Although, I have been having a hard time against DK's...so that 25% extra fire dmg is tough to balance out.

Vynist

Vaoh wrote: »

wheem_ESO wrote: »

One other thing to add to the list is Drain Essence (and its morphs) from the Vampire skill line. You'll have to interrupt your channel if you want to make the most effective use of it in PvP, which may get tedious, but I believe the stun does go through block. All of the options available to Magicka Warden are vastly inferior to Petrify, Rune Cage, and Fear, but so was the Deep Fissure stun before.

While Frost Staff roots can be quite strong, you have to factor in the opportunity cost of a stun and +8% single target damage (or +8% damage on your shalks if using a Lightning Staff). If you're not playing with a premade group that can cover for your lack of a stun, you'll need to give up another bar slot somewhere else in order to have any sort of hard CC, and that's kind of hard to do.

It's also worth mentioning that Time Freeze has a decent snare attached to it, though it doesn't give the % on a tooltip anywhere. It's a really nice skill overall, but finding a place to put it on an offensive Magicka Warden is a bit tough.

Ahh forgot about that one.

If you are a Vampire you can also use Drain Essence for a CC. I would highly recommend not doing that though - it’s really bad for practical use.

Just curious, why do you recommend against it? I have had a couple people in BG's animation cancel this ability on me and it seems like a fairly good CC for a magicka warden (all things considered)

Vaoh

Vynist wrote: »

Vaoh wrote: »

wheem_ESO wrote: »

One other thing to add to the list is Drain Essence (and its morphs) from the Vampire skill line. You'll have to interrupt your channel if you want to make the most effective use of it in PvP, which may get tedious, but I believe the stun does go through block. All of the options available to Magicka Warden are vastly inferior to Petrify, Rune Cage, and Fear, but so was the Deep Fissure stun before.

While Frost Staff roots can be quite strong, you have to factor in the opportunity cost of a stun and +8% single target damage (or +8% damage on your shalks if using a Lightning Staff). If you're not playing with a premade group that can cover for your lack of a stun, you'll need to give up another bar slot somewhere else in order to have any sort of hard CC, and that's kind of hard to do.

It's also worth mentioning that Time Freeze has a decent snare attached to it, though it doesn't give the % on a tooltip anywhere. It's a really nice skill overall, but finding a place to put it on an offensive Magicka Warden is a bit tough.

Ahh forgot about that one.

If you are a Vampire you can also use Drain Essence for a CC. I would highly recommend not doing that though - it’s really bad for practical use.

Just curious, why do you recommend against it? I have had a couple people in BG's animation cancel this ability on me and it seems like a fairly good CC for a magicka warden (all things considered)

A few things:
1. It raises Vamp Stage very quickly. If you don’t want to go past Stage 1 or Stage 2, it will be a very annoying skill for you.
2. The damage is very low, and it’s a channel which makes you vulnerable and unable to cast other skills/light or heavy attacks.
3. It sounds better on paper than in practice. This is the main thing. It’s really not good lol. Better than Time Stop (depending on if you’re in BGs or not) and always better than Volcanic Rune. However, if your goal is to just stun one target, Destructive Touch is totally superior.

Please feel free to try all of the options (four in total) and see what you like best! It may be that Destructive Touch somehow isn’t best for you lol. Always test instead of strictly going off of feedback others give you

_Ahala_

Fire Destro Reach is your only reasonable option... which is really sad... why does the ice themed class need to throw fireballs to be competitive?

As a side note, if zos gives us a class cc they should also make ice staff dps passives more competitive with fire and shock passives and remove the “while destro staff ability is slotted” condition so we can fit this new class cc ability on our bars while fighting with a thematically appropriate weapon and not sacrificing the destro offensive passives to do so...

And before people complain that this would ruin ice staff tanking... ice has always been an element of destruction... zos should make a new alteration staff focused on earth, shadow, and nature archetypes with 5 tanking passives, 5 tanking actives, and a tanking ult so we don’t have to deal with this strange tank dps ice DESTRUCTION staff (cough cough 1600 damage shield on heavy attack and all offensive abilities and ability altering weapons cough cough)

jaws343

I run the frost staff Destro Clench for the root and immobilize on my Warden.

Vaoh wrote: »

Vynist wrote: »

Vaoh wrote: »

wheem_ESO wrote: »

One other thing to add to the list is Drain Essence (and its morphs) from the Vampire skill line. You'll have to interrupt your channel if you want to make the most effective use of it in PvP, which may get tedious, but I believe the stun does go through block. All of the options available to Magicka Warden are vastly inferior to Petrify, Rune Cage, and Fear, but so was the Deep Fissure stun before.

While Frost Staff roots can be quite strong, you have to factor in the opportunity cost of a stun and +8% single target damage (or +8% damage on your shalks if using a Lightning Staff). If you're not playing with a premade group that can cover for your lack of a stun, you'll need to give up another bar slot somewhere else in order to have any sort of hard CC, and that's kind of hard to do.

It's also worth mentioning that Time Freeze has a decent snare attached to it, though it doesn't give the % on a tooltip anywhere. It's a really nice skill overall, but finding a place to put it on an offensive Magicka Warden is a bit tough.

Ahh forgot about that one.

If you are a Vampire you can also use Drain Essence for a CC. I would highly recommend not doing that though - it’s really bad for practical use.

Just curious, why do you recommend against it? I have had a couple people in BG's animation cancel this ability on me and it seems like a fairly good CC for a magicka warden (all things considered)

A few things:
1. It raises Vamp Stage very quickly. If you don’t want to go past Stage 1 or Stage 2, it will be a very annoying skill for you.
2. The damage is very low, and it’s a channel which makes you vulnerable and unable to cast other skills/light or heavy attacks.
3. It sounds better on paper than in practice. This is the main thing. It’s really not good lol. Better than Time Stop (depending on if you’re in BGs or not) and always better than Volcanic Rune. However, if your goal is to just stun one target, Destructive Touch is totally superior.

Please feel free to try all of the options (four in total) and see what you like best! It may be that Destructive Touch somehow isn’t best for you lol. Always test instead of strictly going off of feedback others give you

I recently started running this on my stage 4 magblade dot build. Hit them with Entropy, Debilitate, Swallow Soul and then Drain Essence to CC and make them eat as many ticks of damage as possible. Also works to drop meteor followed by Drain Essence. I also like to use drain essence while remaining mobile, circling an opponent while it is active to get behind them and avoid any attacks when they come out of the stun. If they are still alive after this, I can hit them with an execute to finish them off.

However, I don't think this would work well on a Warden. Not enough strong Dots that can be applied prior to hitting Drain Essence. And, the main spammable has a delayed cast and the lack of an execute means you will very rarely actually finish a player off using Drain Essence in a combo.

brandonv516

jaws343 wrote: »

I run the frost staff Destro Clench for the root and immobilize on my Warden.

Vaoh wrote: »

Vynist wrote: »

Vaoh wrote: »

wheem_ESO wrote: »

One other thing to add to the list is Drain Essence (and its morphs) from the Vampire skill line. You'll have to interrupt your channel if you want to make the most effective use of it in PvP, which may get tedious, but I believe the stun does go through block. All of the options available to Magicka Warden are vastly inferior to Petrify, Rune Cage, and Fear, but so was the Deep Fissure stun before.

While Frost Staff roots can be quite strong, you have to factor in the opportunity cost of a stun and +8% single target damage (or +8% damage on your shalks if using a Lightning Staff). If you're not playing with a premade group that can cover for your lack of a stun, you'll need to give up another bar slot somewhere else in order to have any sort of hard CC, and that's kind of hard to do.

It's also worth mentioning that Time Freeze has a decent snare attached to it, though it doesn't give the % on a tooltip anywhere. It's a really nice skill overall, but finding a place to put it on an offensive Magicka Warden is a bit tough.

Ahh forgot about that one.

If you are a Vampire you can also use Drain Essence for a CC. I would highly recommend not doing that though - it’s really bad for practical use.

Just curious, why do you recommend against it? I have had a couple people in BG's animation cancel this ability on me and it seems like a fairly good CC for a magicka warden (all things considered)

A few things:
1. It raises Vamp Stage very quickly. If you don’t want to go past Stage 1 or Stage 2, it will be a very annoying skill for you.
2. The damage is very low, and it’s a channel which makes you vulnerable and unable to cast other skills/light or heavy attacks.
3. It sounds better on paper than in practice. This is the main thing. It’s really not good lol. Better than Time Stop (depending on if you’re in BGs or not) and always better than Volcanic Rune. However, if your goal is to just stun one target, Destructive Touch is totally superior.

Please feel free to try all of the options (four in total) and see what you like best! It may be that Destructive Touch somehow isn’t best for you lol. Always test instead of strictly going off of feedback others give you

I recently started running this on my stage 4 magblade dot build. Hit them with Entropy, Debilitate, Swallow Soul and then Drain Essence to CC and make them eat as many ticks of damage as possible. Also works to drop meteor followed by Drain Essence. I also like to use drain essence while remaining mobile, circling an opponent while it is active to get behind them and avoid any attacks when they come out of the stun. If they are still alive after this, I can hit them with an execute to finish them off.

However, I don't think this would work well on a Warden. Not enough strong Dots that can be applied prior to hitting Drain Essence. And, the main spammable has a delayed cast and the lack of an execute means you will very rarely actually finish a player off using Drain Essence in a combo.

Does this include a little Sloads and Skoria?

Waffennacht

You're supposed to block or swap cancel drain

jaws343

brandonv516 wrote: »

jaws343 wrote: »

I run the frost staff Destro Clench for the root and immobilize on my Warden.

Vaoh wrote: »

Vynist wrote: »

Vaoh wrote: »

wheem_ESO wrote: »

One other thing to add to the list is Drain Essence (and its morphs) from the Vampire skill line. You'll have to interrupt your channel if you want to make the most effective use of it in PvP, which may get tedious, but I believe the stun does go through block. All of the options available to Magicka Warden are vastly inferior to Petrify, Rune Cage, and Fear, but so was the Deep Fissure stun before.

While Frost Staff roots can be quite strong, you have to factor in the opportunity cost of a stun and +8% single target damage (or +8% damage on your shalks if using a Lightning Staff). If you're not playing with a premade group that can cover for your lack of a stun, you'll need to give up another bar slot somewhere else in order to have any sort of hard CC, and that's kind of hard to do.

It's also worth mentioning that Time Freeze has a decent snare attached to it, though it doesn't give the % on a tooltip anywhere. It's a really nice skill overall, but finding a place to put it on an offensive Magicka Warden is a bit tough.

Ahh forgot about that one.

If you are a Vampire you can also use Drain Essence for a CC. I would highly recommend not doing that though - it’s really bad for practical use.

Just curious, why do you recommend against it? I have had a couple people in BG's animation cancel this ability on me and it seems like a fairly good CC for a magicka warden (all things considered)

A few things:
1. It raises Vamp Stage very quickly. If you don’t want to go past Stage 1 or Stage 2, it will be a very annoying skill for you.
2. The damage is very low, and it’s a channel which makes you vulnerable and unable to cast other skills/light or heavy attacks.
3. It sounds better on paper than in practice. This is the main thing. It’s really not good lol. Better than Time Stop (depending on if you’re in BGs or not) and always better than Volcanic Rune. However, if your goal is to just stun one target, Destructive Touch is totally superior.

Please feel free to try all of the options (four in total) and see what you like best! It may be that Destructive Touch somehow isn’t best for you lol. Always test instead of strictly going off of feedback others give you

I recently started running this on my stage 4 magblade dot build. Hit them with Entropy, Debilitate, Swallow Soul and then Drain Essence to CC and make them eat as many ticks of damage as possible. Also works to drop meteor followed by Drain Essence. I also like to use drain essence while remaining mobile, circling an opponent while it is active to get behind them and avoid any attacks when they come out of the stun. If they are still alive after this, I can hit them with an execute to finish them off.

However, I don't think this would work well on a Warden. Not enough strong Dots that can be applied prior to hitting Drain Essence. And, the main spammable has a delayed cast and the lack of an execute means you will very rarely actually finish a player off using Drain Essence in a combo.

Does this include a little Sloads and Skoria?

Neither actually. Running pirate skeleton, war maiden, and shackle breaker. Good defense in light armor and good damage. No cloak either.

Siliziumdioxid

there is one other stun that noone named: heavy attacks
you need to spec your cp different for the tactician passive so you can set your enemies off balance but it would give you a cc. And you would need decent stam sustain on your setup.
I'm already running this succesfully on a stamdk and a stamtemplar but never really considered this for magicka... is the resto or the lightning staff heavy attack dodgeable?

Waffennacht

Siliziumdioxid wrote: »

there is one other stun that noone named: heavy attacks
you need to spec your cp different for the tactician passive so you can set your enemies off balance but it would give you a cc. And you would need decent stam sustain on your setup.
I'm already running this succesfully on a stamdk and a stamtemplar but never really considered this for magicka... is the resto or the lightning staff heavy attack dodgeable?

They are not dodgeable

jaws343

Siliziumdioxid wrote: »

there is one other stun that noone named: heavy attacks
you need to spec your cp different for the tactician passive so you can set your enemies off balance but it would give you a cc. And you would need decent stam sustain on your setup.
I'm already running this succesfully on a stamdk and a stamtemplar but never really considered this for magicka... is the resto or the lightning staff heavy attack dodgeable?

I use the tactician passive on my stam DK Curse of Doylemish build. Works really well for a stun. Also works really well on a group of players. Nothing like roll dodging into a dragon leap.

Could actually see this working pretty well on a magden if you spec into the roll dodge CPs and run tristat food. You could hit shalks, and then roll dodge forward for the stun, and then spam birds to finish them off.

DeadlyRecluse

Vynist wrote: »

2.) For a heavy armor/SnB magicka warden, I really don't know what else I can run to CC. Warden has roots that work well with tank builds, but do you have any ideas for CC for magicka warden?

I've found Reverb Bash to be pretty sustainable as a CC on magicka toons rocking sword and board. It's not ideal, and you can't really afford to keep multiple opponents CCed, but if you are focusing on one target it's not too bad.

Waffennacht

DeadlyRecluse wrote: »

Vynist wrote: »

2.) For a heavy armor/SnB magicka warden, I really don't know what else I can run to CC. Warden has roots that work well with tank builds, but do you have any ideas for CC for magicka warden?

I've found Reverb Bash to be pretty sustainable as a CC on magicka toons rocking sword and board. It's not ideal, and you can't really afford to keep multiple opponents CCed, but if you are focusing on one target it's not too bad.

On a warden you can slot bull to maintain reverb + CC break

jaws343

Waffennacht wrote: »

DeadlyRecluse wrote: »

Vynist wrote: »

2.) For a heavy armor/SnB magicka warden, I really don't know what else I can run to CC. Warden has roots that work well with tank builds, but do you have any ideas for CC for magicka warden?

I've found Reverb Bash to be pretty sustainable as a CC on magicka toons rocking sword and board. It's not ideal, and you can't really afford to keep multiple opponents CCed, but if you are focusing on one target it's not too bad.

On a warden you can slot bull to maintain reverb + CC break

Would be hard to lose the purge from blue betty.

DeadlyRecluse

It's pretty sustainable without bull netch, tbh.

You only have access to it if you are using a Sword and Board, too, so you can always sneak in a "stam heavy" or two to keep your off resource up.

It's not an ideal solution, but it does help on classes with weak class CC suites (warden, templar) and can help get away from the destro/vamp CCs. Plus the defile is beastly, if you aren't getting it from somewhere else.

Waffennacht

Is imbue + blockade on frost staff reliable enough to drop Reach or Gripping?

I dunno

BaByDontHurtMe

If you surf the zerg or group play there is nothing more hilarious then constantly rooting targets and see them get swallowed by the Zerg thanks to frost clench and blockade.

Maulkin

Vaoh wrote: »

Vynist wrote: »

Vaoh wrote: »

It’s not too complicated tbh. You have only three non-Ult CC choices - Destructive Touch, Borrowed Time, and Volcanic Rune. Other non-Ult CCs are tied to Bow/1H&S/2H which you won’t use ofc.

Borrowed Time is a morph of Time Stop. It’s a ground-placed AoE CC that deals zero damage. It stuns all enemies in the AoE after 4 seconds, meaning your opponent has an entire 4 seconds to escape. You’ll be taking the instant cast morph because the other morph is a channel.... it’s pretty obvious why that won’t work well lol. Borrowed Time is a powerful skill for chokepoints in group play - horrible for normal application.

Volcanic Rune is a morph of Fire Rune. It has instant damage and a nice CC. However the rune is very easy to see, has a small radius, and even has an arm time. It has been in the game forever and yet many players don’t know what it is because it’s so bad. It could *never* work well at all for normal application CC. Don’t waste your time with this skill lol.

Destructive Touch (either morph) is a pretty good CC, but you’ll be forced into use a Flame or Shock Staff. This is literally the only CC available to Mag Warden that can truly be used in a normal fashion.... so use it.

Case in point - use Destructive Touch.

Thank you immensely for the detailed response! This really helps me out and it also makes me very sad that Fissure no longer has CC I can't believe I missed it by a week or two when they took it out lol!

On your point of flame or shock staff... I have only ever used flame staff, which has knock back. I am assuming the frost staff wouldn't be worth it since it only slows people down instead of CC'ing?

Frost Staff version of Destructive Touch has a root/immobilize instead of a CC.

Flame Staff is a knockback, Shock Staff is a stun. They’re both essentially the same but the Flame Staff can knock people off ledges which is more helpful. You’ll also have more 8% more single target damage which is essential in PvP. You absolutely want to use a Flame Staff.

I’m guessing you want to be an “Ice Mage” sort of build? You can, but you’ll have no CC

Why is single target damage essential for Warden in PvP? Your hardest hitting skill (Fissure) and your damage ultimate (be it DBoS, Northern Storm or Ice Comet) are definitely AoE.

If you want burst, the best way to create it is with a Master's Lightning staff and pulling off a Fissure->Meteor->Reach(stun) combo. Especially if you've put down a Blockade first.

It works like a treat in BGs anyway. But you sacrifice all the roots and snares offered by using Master's Ice Staff with Frost Blockade. You become quite cancerous when you snare and root people constantly but you sacrifice some damage.

Vynist

Maulkin wrote: »

Vaoh wrote: »

Vynist wrote: »

Vaoh wrote: »

It’s not too complicated tbh. You have only three non-Ult CC choices - Destructive Touch, Borrowed Time, and Volcanic Rune. Other non-Ult CCs are tied to Bow/1H&S/2H which you won’t use ofc.

Borrowed Time is a morph of Time Stop. It’s a ground-placed AoE CC that deals zero damage. It stuns all enemies in the AoE after 4 seconds, meaning your opponent has an entire 4 seconds to escape. You’ll be taking the instant cast morph because the other morph is a channel.... it’s pretty obvious why that won’t work well lol. Borrowed Time is a powerful skill for chokepoints in group play - horrible for normal application.

Volcanic Rune is a morph of Fire Rune. It has instant damage and a nice CC. However the rune is very easy to see, has a small radius, and even has an arm time. It has been in the game forever and yet many players don’t know what it is because it’s so bad. It could *never* work well at all for normal application CC. Don’t waste your time with this skill lol.

Destructive Touch (either morph) is a pretty good CC, but you’ll be forced into use a Flame or Shock Staff. This is literally the only CC available to Mag Warden that can truly be used in a normal fashion.... so use it.

Case in point - use Destructive Touch.

Thank you immensely for the detailed response! This really helps me out and it also makes me very sad that Fissure no longer has CC I can't believe I missed it by a week or two when they took it out lol!

On your point of flame or shock staff... I have only ever used flame staff, which has knock back. I am assuming the frost staff wouldn't be worth it since it only slows people down instead of CC'ing?

Frost Staff version of Destructive Touch has a root/immobilize instead of a CC.

Flame Staff is a knockback, Shock Staff is a stun. They’re both essentially the same but the Flame Staff can knock people off ledges which is more helpful. You’ll also have more 8% more single target damage which is essential in PvP. You absolutely want to use a Flame Staff.

I’m guessing you want to be an “Ice Mage” sort of build? You can, but you’ll have no CC

Why is single target damage essential for Warden in PvP? Your hardest hitting skill (Fissure) and your damage ultimate (be it DBoS, Northern Storm or Ice Comet) are definitely AoE.

If you want burst, the best way to create it is with a Master's Lightning staff and pulling off a Fissure->Meteor->Reach(stun) combo. Especially if you've put down a Blockade first.

It works like a treat in BGs anyway. But you sacrifice all the roots and snares offered by using Master's Ice Staff with Frost Blockade. You become quite cancerous when you snare and root people constantly but you sacrifice some damage.

I really like the idea of running ice staff on mWarden and just be super annoying with the roots (like a mDk)

For Magicka Wardens that are running ice staff, what is your CC?

Vaoh

Maulkin wrote: »

Vaoh wrote: »

Vynist wrote: »

Vaoh wrote: »

It’s not too complicated tbh. You have only three non-Ult CC choices - Destructive Touch, Borrowed Time, and Volcanic Rune. Other non-Ult CCs are tied to Bow/1H&S/2H which you won’t use ofc.

Borrowed Time is a morph of Time Stop. It’s a ground-placed AoE CC that deals zero damage. It stuns all enemies in the AoE after 4 seconds, meaning your opponent has an entire 4 seconds to escape. You’ll be taking the instant cast morph because the other morph is a channel.... it’s pretty obvious why that won’t work well lol. Borrowed Time is a powerful skill for chokepoints in group play - horrible for normal application.

Volcanic Rune is a morph of Fire Rune. It has instant damage and a nice CC. However the rune is very easy to see, has a small radius, and even has an arm time. It has been in the game forever and yet many players don’t know what it is because it’s so bad. It could *never* work well at all for normal application CC. Don’t waste your time with this skill lol.

Destructive Touch (either morph) is a pretty good CC, but you’ll be forced into use a Flame or Shock Staff. This is literally the only CC available to Mag Warden that can truly be used in a normal fashion.... so use it.

Case in point - use Destructive Touch.

Thank you immensely for the detailed response! This really helps me out and it also makes me very sad that Fissure no longer has CC I can't believe I missed it by a week or two when they took it out lol!

On your point of flame or shock staff... I have only ever used flame staff, which has knock back. I am assuming the frost staff wouldn't be worth it since it only slows people down instead of CC'ing?

Frost Staff version of Destructive Touch has a root/immobilize instead of a CC.

Flame Staff is a knockback, Shock Staff is a stun. They’re both essentially the same but the Flame Staff can knock people off ledges which is more helpful. You’ll also have more 8% more single target damage which is essential in PvP. You absolutely want to use a Flame Staff.

I’m guessing you want to be an “Ice Mage” sort of build? You can, but you’ll have no CC

Why is single target damage essential for Warden in PvP? Your hardest hitting skill (Fissure) and your damage ultimate (be it DBoS, Northern Storm or Ice Comet) are definitely AoE.

If you want burst, the best way to create it is with a Master's Lightning staff and pulling off a Fissure->Meteor->Reach(stun) combo. Especially if you've put down a Blockade first.

It works like a treat in BGs anyway. But you sacrifice all the roots and snares offered by using Master's Ice Staff with Frost Blockade. You become quite cancerous when you snare and root people constantly but you sacrifice some damage.

@Maulkin
I mean as a whole, the damage you put out will be essentially the same once you cast the very same burst combo including Ult with either staff. Shock Staff will give a bit more damage to Deep Fissure and your choice of Ult (is the initial damage on the original target when using Meteor considered AoE?). Flame Staff will give more damage to all of your applied DoTs (including Dawnbreaker’s DoT), Light/Heavy Attacks, and a more powerful Destructive Touch. It’s really going to be preference really, though the Flame version of Destructive Touch has better benefits vs the Shock version and as a whole you will get slightly more benefit out of using a Flame Staff as a whole.

Two important things to remember are the differences between the Destructive Touch and Heavy Attack of each Staff.

For Heavy Attacks, Flame is greater for burst damage, quicker to cast, and can be pre-charged. You can also jump immediately as you charge your Heavy Attack and pretty much have it cast once you land (takes like a second after landing), meaning Flame Staff Heavy Attacks don’t feel as burdensome on your mobility. Shock Staff takes longer, needs a target the whole time, and is not ideal for burst damage, but it *is*undodgeable.

For Destructive Touch:
Shock -> Stun+tiny bit of AoE Dmg
vs
Flame -> Knockback+More Damage

Pretty sure Flame is straight up better here. Knockback is more powerful and obviously it’s better to deal more single target damage. Lastly Fire Damage >>> Shock Damage vs Vampires.

In the end it’s up to you. Flame Staff is simply better in actual use though. The extra burst damage of a Flame Heavy Attack within your burst combo alone will increase your damage well above what a Shock Staff could provide. The choice is entirely up to you ofc. Both are viable.