Can Frost Staff DPS?

Vaerth

If I skip the trifocus skills to not taunt on heavy, can Frost staff be used for DPS? PvE

ArchMikem

Can you defeat things? Sure of course. Can you defeat them quickly? No. Not at all. Not outside overland mobs anyway. But hey good job paying attention to not using Tri Focus, that alone will earn you brownie points as a Frost user.

Vaerth

ArchMikem wrote: »

Can you defeat things? Sure of course. Can you defeat them quickly? No. Not at all. Not outside overland mobs anyway. But hey good job paying attention to not using Tri Focus, that alone will earn you brownie points as a Frost user.

Darn.

I usually go Stamina personally but wanted to try Magicka if I could DPS with Frost on a Magden. I just do know care for a fire or lightning staff to much, just personal preference lol.

Joosef_Kivikilpi

Icy Conjurer + Winterborn + Iceheart. Enemies shatter. You're welcome.

MartiniDaniels

ArchMikem wrote: »

Can you defeat things? Sure of course. Can you defeat them quickly? No. Not at all. Not outside overland mobs anyway. But hey good job paying attention to not using Tri Focus, that alone will earn you brownie points as a Frost user.

Come on, what will be dps difference between frost and inferno staff? 10%?

ArchMikem

Vaerth wrote: »

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ArchMikem wrote: »

Can you defeat things? Sure of course. Can you defeat them quickly? No. Not at all. Not outside overland mobs anyway. But hey good job paying attention to not using Tri Focus, that alone will earn you brownie points as a Frost user.

Darn.

I usually go Stamina personally but wanted to try Magicka if I could DPS with Frost on a Magden. I just do know care for a fire or lightning staff to much, just personal preference lol.

Dont get me wrong you can do it, and its fun, you just wont be pulling great numbers. I have an Ice Mage MagDen and i love it, but ZOS didnt design the Frost Staff for dps.

Varana

It can.
It will miss out on the damage boosts from the fire/lightning aspects of Ancient Knowledge, and better use a Warden for the Piercing Cold passive.
So it won't be as good as a fire or lightning staff but you can use it.

InvictusApollo

UJse your frost magden for pvp. Freezing ppl is a viable strategy.

Hortator Indoril Nerevar

Mattock_Romulus

Does a bear doo-doo in a restroom?

BrokenGameMechanics

Yes for all non-DLC content, even on Vet. Overland you can even solo most stuff, including Bosses. You can run non-Vet vMA pretty easy as well. DLC non-Vet is doable. I've done both as a Frost Tank and also as DPS. Low 20K-ish or more DPS is very achievable on a non-frills build with trash pots without requiring hours of rotation practice.

And before anyone says too low, too low. You can do better than that. Also keep in mind a large amount of this DPS is AOE AND you are literally CCing the ENTIRE room of ads and just melting them and the other three members of the dungeon run can just stand and watch if they want. Most likely the other DPS is going to be a traditional single target DPS so you are actually making a fairly balanced party. Won't break any timed run records but you'll actually make things easier with all the AOE CC'ing. Also remember there are passives everywhere that boost damage on immobilized targets, plus you are inflicting Minor Main on EVERYTHING as well with Chilled and Charged. Since much of your damage is steading ticing DOTS you don't need a frenetic rotation and you can even squeeze in some group buff skills as well.

Go for it.

Khivas_Carrick

ArchMikem wrote: »

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Vaerth wrote: »

ArchMikem wrote: »

Can you defeat things? Sure of course. Can you defeat them quickly? No. Not at all. Not outside overland mobs anyway. But hey good job paying attention to not using Tri Focus, that alone will earn you brownie points as a Frost user.

Darn.

I usually go Stamina personally but wanted to try Magicka if I could DPS with Frost on a Magden. I just do know care for a fire or lightning staff to much, just personal preference lol.

Dont get me wrong you can do it, and its fun, you just wont be pulling great numbers. I have an Ice Mage MagDen and i love it, but ZOS didnt design the Frost Staff for dps.

Which is stupid imho. Fire and Lightning should be just as tank viable as Frost and Frost should be just as DPS viable as Fire and Lightning.

There has to be a way to make that happen lol

validifyedneb18_ESO

I run Magden with winterborn, Iceheart, Mothers Sorrow in a PVP setup. With a bit of optimization, Necropotence instead of winterborn and Zaans instead of Iceheart, should be able to hold 30k dps.

Hold 22k dps solo ST atm, frost staff both bars. Winterborn is near worthless for DD, as is iceheart, and I dont use Wall of Elements on offbar to hold an enchantment proccing from offbar too. So fixing that there's tonnes of space to get more damage.

Edit: Its important to have enough magic regen with this. You will not be able to heavy attack anything other than small trash for resource gain. I use 1 infused regen ring, Blue betty, Altmer racial, Witchmothers and Elemental Drain for no-healer sustain. But a healer feeding resources and buffs it should be easier. You could also use a mag drain enchant on offbar which would help considerably (Again, my build is for PVP, I make little to no use of my offbar)

JordanSharp

I have to admit I enjoyed playing my frost warden with Ysgramor? (Can't remember if it's that set, adds frost damage) + Winterborn + Iceheart. Never used it for any vet content but for normal and overland I enjoyed it.

Varana

validifyedneb18_ESO wrote: »

You will not be able to heavy attack anything other than small trash for resource gain.

He said he would not use the TriFocus passive, so heavy attacking should not taunt.

T3hasiangod

Yes, it can do enough DPS to get by most content in the game, even vet trials.

Here is the most memeworthy ice mage Warden build that I came up with pulling just over 33k on a solo parse.

I would not recommend bringing this to something like vet DLC trials, but 33k on a solo parse is fine for content up to vMaw, vAS + 0/1, and vCR + 0/1.

Chaos2088

Frost staff should have a rework into a proper destruction staff like the other two. Simples.

ESO_Nightingale

I see people have already answered the question.

If any of you want help with building something or just talking about it, feel free to join the frost discord. The link is in my signature just below.

We'd love to have more people. At the time of writing we have 96 members.

Vaerth

Mattock_Romulus wrote: »

Does a bear doo-doo in a restroom?

This might be the first time I looked for a dislike button on the ESO forums...

Vaerth

ESO_Nightingale wrote: »

I see people have already answered the question.

If any of you want help with building something or just talking about it, feel free to join the frost discord. The link is in my signature just below.

We'd love to have more people. At the time of writing we have 96 members.

Uh, thanks?

Not really needing a dedicated group of Frost loving people. I do like Frost over Flame and Shock attacks. But, I just went Stamina Sorc in the end because Frost is lacking quite a bit, to me at least.

validifyedneb18_ESO

Vaerth wrote: »

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ESO_Nightingale wrote: »

I see people have already answered the question.

If any of you want help with building something or just talking about it, feel free to join the frost discord. The link is in my signature just below.

We'd love to have more people. At the time of writing we have 96 members.

Uh, thanks?

Not really needing a dedicated group of Frost loving people. I do like Frost over Flame and Shock attacks. But, I just went Stamina Sorc in the end because Frost is lacking quite a bit, to me at least.

oof... choosing stamsorc because the alternative "is lacking quite a bit"

starkerealm

Vaerth wrote: »

If I skip the trifocus skills to not taunt on heavy, can Frost staff be used for DPS? PvE

In the most technical sense, yes. But, the results will be underwhelming. It will also negatively impact your other bar, assuming it's a destro staff.

Ice Staves shine in PvP, but in PvE they're extremely niche to the point that I wouldn't recommend one unless you just want a theme build and don't care about performance.

Zathras

BrokenGameMechanics wrote: »

Yes for all non-DLC content, even on Vet. Overland you can even solo most stuff, including Bosses. You can run non-Vet vMA pretty easy as well. DLC non-Vet is doable. I've done both as a Frost Tank and also as DPS. Low 20K-ish or more DPS is very achievable on a non-frills build with trash pots without requiring hours of rotation practice.

And before anyone says too low, too low. You can do better than that. Also keep in mind a large amount of this DPS is AOE AND you are literally CCing the ENTIRE room of ads and just melting them and the other three members of the dungeon run can just stand and watch if they want. Most likely the other DPS is going to be a traditional single target DPS so you are actually making a fairly balanced party. Won't break any timed run records but you'll actually make things easier with all the AOE CC'ing. Also remember there are passives everywhere that boost damage on immobilized targets, plus you are inflicting Minor Main on EVERYTHING as well with Chilled and Charged. Since much of your damage is steading ticing DOTS you don't need a frenetic rotation and you can even squeeze in some group buff skills as well.

Go for it.

Great post. I gave you an awesome.

A lot of people overlook/ignore/aren't aware of what an Ice Warden brings to a group. When you consider what their strengths are, they are quite useful and rather fun.

deleted201022-005645

I tried a couple of meme-worthy ice parses just for the fun of it earlier this PTS patch. Ice is definitely viable, but also far from optimal.

In my opinion if you can pull the numbers to run the content you want to do, and have fun at the same time, frost is definitely an option.

6m


50m

SoLooney

Frost staff can do some dps, but its gonna be inferior to the single target damage and burn from flame staff and concussion/off balance and aoe damage from lightning staff

But if you wanted to play with an ice staff casually, no ones stopping you

luen79rwb17_ESO

My frost magden can easily hit 30k on dummy parses with master architect, winterborn and Iceheart.

Switch winterborn and Iceheart with BIS gears and you definately have a decent frost based DD.

DKMaestro

benjamindjb wrote: »

I tried a couple of meme-worthy ice parses just for the fun of it earlier this PTS patch. Ice is definitely viable, but also far from optimal.

In my opinion if you can pull the numbers to run the content you want to do, and have fun at the same time, frost is definitely an option.

6m


50m

ehhh lol?

Far from optimal and you pull 45K? Frost is perfectly viable for 99.5% of all the content, and if you pull 45K DPS, I will venture a guess and say that pretty much any trial group will take you on.

Frost has a lot of utility as well and really is under-used.

If author wants to go full frost-dude, he will be just fine for any content. People need to calm their freckles..

Vaerth

DKMaestro wrote: »

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benjamindjb wrote: »

I tried a couple of meme-worthy ice parses just for the fun of it earlier this PTS patch. Ice is definitely viable, but also far from optimal.

In my opinion if you can pull the numbers to run the content you want to do, and have fun at the same time, frost is definitely an option.

6m


50m

ehhh lol?

Far from optimal and you pull 45K? Frost is perfectly viable for 99.5% of all the content, and if you pull 45K DPS, I will venture a guess and say that pretty much any trial group will take you on.

Frost has a lot of utility as well and really is under-used.

If author wants to go full frost-dude, he will be just fine for any content. People need to calm their freckles..

You inspired me to make a Frost mage skipping TriFocus

idk

Frost staff always under performed even was made a tanking weapon. It has worked best in PvP due to the snare. Niche in pve and mostly for fun.

Sevn

Vaerth wrote: »

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DKMaestro wrote: »

benjamindjb wrote: »

I tried a couple of meme-worthy ice parses just for the fun of it earlier this PTS patch. Ice is definitely viable, but also far from optimal.

In my opinion if you can pull the numbers to run the content you want to do, and have fun at the same time, frost is definitely an option.

6m


50m

ehhh lol?

Far from optimal and you pull 45K? Frost is perfectly viable for 99.5% of all the content, and if you pull 45K DPS, I will venture a guess and say that pretty much any trial group will take you on.

Frost has a lot of utility as well and really is under-used.

If author wants to go full frost-dude, he will be just fine for any content. People need to calm their freckles..

You inspired me to make a Frost mage skipping TriFocus

Frost mages can be awesome. You should never let naysayers stop you from even trying it for yourself as I'd wager many of them have not. That happens a lot around here.

Excellent posts by Brokengamemechanics and DKMaestro.

Wildberryjack

If Frost could be on equal footing to Lightening and Fire ZOS that would be nice. I'd much rather play with ice than fire or lightening.