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How I'd Fix: The Warden
Vercingetorix
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The Warden is undeniably the least effective class for dps roles due to various issues: clunky animation, a few poor passives, and over-reliance on a pet that dies far too easily. Keep in mind that this post goes hand-in-hand with my Cold Damage post. With that said, here are the fixes I'd impose to improve the Warden class:
Animal Companions:
The Bear:
- The bear now has a flat 50% damage reduction to all incoming NPC damage.
- The bear is now immune to all NPC CC and AoE damage.
- The bear's bite attack can now "Smart Taunt" an enemy, allowing it to only taunt if a player isn't taunting that enemy. Should a player taunt it, the bear's taunt falls off and the bear resumes its normal rule of not interfering with player-controlled taunts while damaging the enemy.
Cliff Racer:
- Retooled as a ranged execute; with slightly lower cost, lower initial damage, and faster animation.
- Warden raises their hand for the animation and the bird appears over the target, immediately dive-bombing from above.
- Execute bonus damage threshold is 25% HP with the standard 300% damage scaling bonus.
- Magicka morph deals 15% additional damage based on your distance from target.
- Stamina morph deals 30% of the damage dealt to the target to surrounding enemies in a 5m radius.
Green Balance:
Healing Seed:
- Budding Seeds morph now additionally heals allies within its radius each second, finishing with the final burst heal.
- Corrupting Pollen no longer heals and instead additionally damages enemies within its radius each second, finishing with burst magic damage to enemies.
- The Harvest synergy for Corrupting Pollen now afflicts enemies in the radius with magic DoT damage for 5 seconds.
Winter's Embrace:
Sleet Storm:
- Northern Storm no longer grants Major Protection and instead significantly increases the cold damage per second dealt to enemies caught in the storm. This ability no longer grants 8% max magicka while slotted.
Arctic Wind:
- Arctic Blast's heal now scales with max magicka and spell damage. The cold damage is now dealt every second and the base damage is doubled to 700.
Crystalized Shield:
- Crystalized Slab's icy bolt is still cold damage, but the amount of damage dealt is now equal to the attack that was absorbed.
Winter Passives:
- Glacial Presence (Max Rank) now reads: "Increase chance of applying Chilled to enemies with Winter's Embrace abilities by 200%. Reduce the effectiveness of snares applied to you by 15%."
- Unyielding Winter (prev. Icy Aura) now reads: "You gain 5% additional max magicka and stamina while a Winter's Embrace ability is slotted."
There's the changes. Most of the changes are small tweaks to the abilities and some of them are overhauled. The dps changes were made to free the Warden from needing to rely on the bear for damage by giving the Warden its own execute for both magicka and stamina builds. While many will argue the bear may be too strong, I'd argue that the druid-based class should have the strongest pet. The Winter's Embrace passive change was to address the issue that the snare passive was far too weak by itself to be worth a passive. The new "Unyielding Winter" passive benefits EVERYONE: Tanks, DPS, and Healers.
Edited by Vercingetorix on July 3, 2018 2:34PM Animal Companions:
The Bear:
- The bear now has a flat 50% damage reduction to all incoming NPC damage.
- The bear is now immune to all NPC CC and AoE damage.
- The bear's bite attack can now "Smart Taunt" an enemy, allowing it to only taunt if a player isn't taunting that enemy. Should a player taunt it, the bear's taunt falls off and the bear resumes its normal rule of not interfering with player-controlled taunts while damaging the enemy.
Cliff Racer:
- Retooled as a ranged execute; with slightly lower cost, lower initial damage, and faster animation.
- Warden raises their hand for the animation and the bird appears over the target, immediately dive-bombing from above.
- Execute bonus damage threshold is 25% HP with the standard 300% damage scaling bonus.
- Magicka morph deals 15% additional damage based on your distance from target.
- Stamina morph deals 30% of the damage dealt to the target to surrounding enemies in a 5m radius.
Green Balance:
Healing Seed:
- Budding Seeds morph now additionally heals allies within its radius each second, finishing with the final burst heal.
- Corrupting Pollen no longer heals and instead additionally damages enemies within its radius each second, finishing with burst magic damage to enemies.
- The Harvest synergy for Corrupting Pollen now afflicts enemies in the radius with magic DoT damage for 5 seconds.
Winter's Embrace:
Sleet Storm:
- Northern Storm no longer grants Major Protection and instead significantly increases the cold damage per second dealt to enemies caught in the storm. This ability no longer grants 8% max magicka while slotted.
Arctic Wind:
- Arctic Blast's heal now scales with max magicka and spell damage. The cold damage is now dealt every second and the base damage is doubled to 700.
Crystalized Shield:
- Crystalized Slab's icy bolt is still cold damage, but the amount of damage dealt is now equal to the attack that was absorbed.
Winter Passives:
- Glacial Presence (Max Rank) now reads: "Increase chance of applying Chilled to enemies with Winter's Embrace abilities by 200%. Reduce the effectiveness of snares applied to you by 15%."
- Unyielding Winter (prev. Icy Aura) now reads: "You gain 5% additional max magicka and stamina while a Winter's Embrace ability is slotted."
There's the changes. Most of the changes are small tweaks to the abilities and some of them are overhauled. The dps changes were made to free the Warden from needing to rely on the bear for damage by giving the Warden its own execute for both magicka and stamina builds. While many will argue the bear may be too strong, I'd argue that the druid-based class should have the strongest pet. The Winter's Embrace passive change was to address the issue that the snare passive was far too weak by itself to be worth a passive. The new "Unyielding Winter" passive benefits EVERYONE: Tanks, DPS, and Healers.
“Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.”
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Starlight_Knight✭✭✭✭✭
✭So you're happy to take away the last bit of timed burst a warden had - and you're still good with no cc?
Cant say these changes would make me happy tbh. But it doesn't matter what we suggest really ZOS hasn't listened and wont. might be next year when we see a class balance change and then it will just be more nerfs. best not waste the energy.0 -
jypcy✭✭✭✭✭Haven’t really thought about the whole post, but not sure about your changes to sleet storm. It sounds like this would just make it a cheaper but less powerful icy rage.1 -
Vercingetorix✭✭✭✭✭
✭Hayden_Knight wrote: »So you're happy to take away the last bit of timed burst a warden had - and you're still good with no cc?
Cant say these changes would make me happy tbh. But it doesn't matter what we suggest really ZOS hasn't listened and wont. might be next year when we see a class balance change and then it will just be more nerfs. best not waste the energy.
I actually agree that the Scorch morphs should have their Stun returned, but there's more people who apparently want it gone. No more timed burst? Are you serious? I just gave BOTH the stamina Warden and the mag Warden a class ranged execute! The stamina one is basically Reverse Slice at range and the magicka morph can scale up to 315% additional damage. Also, remember that my changes are in tandem with my Cold Damage post so Northern Storm is now quite deadly if the enemy lingers in the radius too long and gets Chilled.Edited by Vercingetorix on July 3, 2018 2:20PM“Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.”0 -
POps75p✭✭✭✭Vercingetorix wrote: »The Warden is undeniably the least effective class for dps roles due to various issues: clunky animation, a few poor passives, and over-reliance on a pet that dies far too easily. Keep in mind that this post goes hand-in-hand with my Cold Damage post. With that said, here are the fixes I'd impose to improve the Warden class:
Animal Companions:
The Bear:
- The bear now has a flat 50% damage reduction to all incoming NPC damage.
- The bear is now immune to all NPC CC and AoE damage.
- The bear's bite attack can now "Smart Taunt" an enemy, allowing it to only taunt if a player isn't taunting that enemy. Should a player taunt it, the bear's taunt falls off and the bear resumes its normal rule of not interfering with player-controlled taunts while damaging the enemy.
Cliff Racer:
- Retooled as a ranged execute; with slightly lower cost, lower initial damage, and faster animation.
- Warden raises their hand for the animation and the bird appears over the target, immediately dive-bombing from above.
- Execute bonus damage threshold is 25% HP with the standard 300% damage scaling bonus.
- Magicka morph deals 15% additional damage based on your distance from target.
- Stamina morph deals 30% of the damage dealt to the target to surrounding enemies in a 5m radius.
Green Balance:
Healing Seed:
- Budding Seeds morph now additionally heals allies within its radius each second, finishing with the final burst heal.
- Corrupting Pollen no longer heals and instead additionally damages enemies within its radius each second, finishing with burst magic damage to enemies.
- The Harvest synergy for Corrupting Pollen now afflicts enemies in the radius with magic DoT damage for 5 seconds.
Winter's Embrace:
Sleet Storm:
- Northern Storm no longer grants Major Protection and instead significantly increases the cold damage per second dealt to enemies caught in the storm. This ability no longer grants 8% max magicka while slotted.
Arctic Wind:
- Arctic Blast's heal now scales with max magicka and spell damage. The cold damage is now dealt every second and the base damage is doubled to 700.
Crystalized Shield:
- Crystalized Slab's icy bolt is still cold damage, but the amount of damage dealt is now equal to the attack that was absorbed.
Winter Passives:
- Glacial Presence (Max Rank) now reads: "Increase chance of applying Chilled to enemies with Winter's Embrace abilities by 200%. Reduce the effectiveness of snares applied to you by 15%."
- Unyielding Winter (prev. Icy Aura) now reads: "You gain 5% additional max magicka and stamina while a Winter's Embrace ability is slotted."
There's the changes. Most of the changes are small tweaks to the abilities and some of them are overhauled. The dps changes were made to free the Warden from needing to rely on the bear for damage by giving the Warden its own execute for both magicka and stamina builds. While many will argue the bear may be too strong, I'd argue that the druid-based class should have the strongest pet. The Winter's Embrace passive change was to address the issue that the snare passive was far too weak by itself to be worth a passive. The new "Unyielding Winter" passive benefits EVERYONE: Tanks, DPS, DPS, and Healers.
it will be a cold day in hell when this happens, easier to just dump the line, I use mine only as a bank0 -
Vercingetorix✭✭✭✭✭
✭Haven’t really thought about the whole post, but not sure about your changes to sleet storm. It sounds like this would just make it a cheaper but less powerful icy rage.
Remember that Permafrost is being left alone. I'm only changing Northern Storm so you can still get Major Protection from Permafrost. Northern Storm is a Winter's Embrace ability so it has an increased 200% chance to proc Chilled on enemies. If you recall my Cold Damage post, Chilled is now quite powerful when used in tandem with an Ice Staff's Ancient Knowledge passive. Northern Storm will be similar to Eye of Frost, but with all the benefits of Winter's Embrace and the Chilled status proc actually INCREASING its overall damage potential.“Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.”0 -
jypcy✭✭✭✭✭Vercingetorix wrote: »Haven’t really thought about the whole post, but not sure about your changes to sleet storm. It sounds like this would just make it a cheaper but less powerful icy rage.
Remember that Permafrost is being left alone. I'm only changing Northern Storm so you can still get Major Protection from Permafrost. Northern Storm is a Winter's Embrace ability so it has an increased 200% chance to proc Chilled on enemies. If you recall my Cold Damage post, Chilled is now quite powerful when used in tandem with an Ice Staff's Ancient Knowledge passive. Northern Storm will be similar to Eye of Frost, but with all the benefits of Winter's Embrace and the Chilled status proc actually INCREASING its overall damage potential.
Yes my mistake, I meant northern storm and eye of frost. But the only warden passive I can think of offhand that only affects winters embrace abilities specifically (not cold damage in general) is the one that increases the chance to provide chilled, by 200% iirc, which is more powerful than the destro passive admittedly, but they still seem like two remarkably similar ults. Maybe some hurricane-like effect instead, that the radius grows and deals more damage as it does? And/or grants some degree of evasion to those inside? Though choosing between protection and evasion seems weird imo, so idk that that would be a reasonable edit.0 -
josiahva✭✭✭✭✭
✭Vercingetorix wrote: »The Warden is undeniably the least effective class for dps roles due to various issues: clunky animation, a few poor passives, and over-reliance on a pet that dies far too easily. Keep in mind that this post goes hand-in-hand with my Cold Damage post. With that said, here are the fixes I'd impose to improve the Warden class:
Animal Companions:
The Bear:
- The bear now has a flat 50% damage reduction to all incoming NPC damage.
- The bear is now immune to all NPC CC and AoE damage.
- The bear's bite attack can now "Smart Taunt" an enemy, allowing it to only taunt if a player isn't taunting that enemy. Should a player taunt it, the bear's taunt falls off and the bear resumes its normal rule of not interfering with player-controlled taunts while damaging the enemy.
Cliff Racer:
- Retooled as a ranged execute; with slightly lower cost, lower initial damage, and faster animation.
- Warden raises their hand for the animation and the bird appears over the target, immediately dive-bombing from above.
- Execute bonus damage threshold is 25% HP with the standard 300% damage scaling bonus.
- Magicka morph deals 15% additional damage based on your distance from target.
- Stamina morph deals 30% of the damage dealt to the target to surrounding enemies in a 5m radius.
Green Balance:
Healing Seed:
- Budding Seeds morph now additionally heals allies within its radius each second, finishing with the final burst heal.
- Corrupting Pollen no longer heals and instead additionally damages enemies within its radius each second, finishing with burst magic damage to enemies.
- The Harvest synergy for Corrupting Pollen now afflicts enemies in the radius with magic DoT damage for 5 seconds.
Winter's Embrace:
Sleet Storm:
- Northern Storm no longer grants Major Protection and instead significantly increases the cold damage per second dealt to enemies caught in the storm. This ability no longer grants 8% max magicka while slotted.
Arctic Wind:
- Arctic Blast's heal now scales with max magicka and spell damage. The cold damage is now dealt every second and the base damage is doubled to 700.
Crystalized Shield:
- Crystalized Slab's icy bolt is still cold damage, but the amount of damage dealt is now equal to the attack that was absorbed.
Winter Passives:
- Glacial Presence (Max Rank) now reads: "Increase chance of applying Chilled to enemies with Winter's Embrace abilities by 200%. Reduce the effectiveness of snares applied to you by 15%."
- Unyielding Winter (prev. Icy Aura) now reads: "You gain 5% additional max magicka and stamina while a Winter's Embrace ability is slotted."
There's the changes. Most of the changes are small tweaks to the abilities and some of them are overhauled. The dps changes were made to free the Warden from needing to rely on the bear for damage by giving the Warden its own execute for both magicka and stamina builds. While many will argue the bear may be too strong, I'd argue that the druid-based class should have the strongest pet. The Winter's Embrace passive change was to address the issue that the snare passive was far too weak by itself to be worth a passive. The new "Unyielding Winter" passive benefits EVERYONE: Tanks, DPS, and Healers.
"Crystalized Shield:
- Crystalized Slab's icy bolt is still cold damage, but the amount of damage dealt is now equal to the attack that was absorbed."
If you want a DK, play a DK, this is why warden is 2nd best choice for a tank....this is a sad substitute for wings, and gate is a sad substitute for chains. I along with many others are tired of other classes stealing DK skills
"
Animal Companions:
The Bear:
- The bear now has a flat 50% damage reduction to all incoming NPC damage.
- The bear is now immune to all NPC CC and AoE damage.
- The bear's bite attack can now "Smart Taunt" an enemy, allowing it to only taunt if a player isn't taunting that enemy. Should a player taunt it, the bear's taunt falls off and the bear resumes its normal rule of not interfering with player-controlled taunts while damaging the enemy."
Not sure why you think a pet should taunt for you to begin with...you want a tank, run with a tank.
"
Cliff Racer:
- Retooled as a ranged execute; with slightly lower cost, lower initial damage, and faster animation.
- Warden raises their hand for the animation and the bird appears over the target, immediately dive-bombing from above.
- Execute bonus damage threshold is 25% HP with the standard 300% damage scaling bonus.
- Magicka morph deals 15% additional damage based on your distance from target.
- Stamina morph deals 30% of the damage dealt to the target to surrounding enemies in a 5m radius."
I already get enough Cyrodiil bird spam...this would make it as bad as mage's wrath. This wont happen anyway...they still haven't given DKs a class execute...and warden already has one(albeit not a good one).
No, what Warden needs is a complete rework...all the abilities are delay-cast with focus being on animations. The need to remove the ice-magic line from Warden entirely and give it to a new class(frostcaster) which would have more ice damage spells to make an ice-mage viable. The should then make a new skill line to the warden more in tune with the nature-magic druid theme...maybe a couple of non-ultimate combat pets to replace the bear...then a different ultimate in place of the bear and a couple more magic damage DPS spells that are instant cast....THAT is the only way the warden will ever be fixed. They could give the warden a nice root to replace the ice-skill line...maybe vines sprouting from the ground to root enemies, etc.
There are 2 problems with the warden:
1. All the delay-cast spells. These make it NOT FUN to play, even if you have all the timing needed to line them up...I much prefer to hit a button and have something happen than wait 2 seconds watching my toon wave his arms around.
2. They tried to make the warden everything at once...a tank, an ice mage, a healer, and a druid...and the inevitable result was a thoroughly mediocre class that does none of the above the best.0 -
White wabbit✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭No leave attic blast is I'm using it in PvP on a health tank so changing it to magic would ruin that0