Med or heavy armor for stam warden pvp?

Rebirthment

I finally got just enough skillpoints to spec my warden for pvp but problem is, idk if i should go med armor with fortified brass or just go heavy armor with a sustain set like bone pirate?
Im planning on doing no cp pvp like BGs and stuff and im still pretty new to pvp so im kinda leaning towards heavy armor to make up for mistakes but i would like to hear your guys thoughts. Wood elf race btw.

Vermethys

Heavy Armor for sure, and you don't really need Bone Pirate since Artaeum Takeaway Broth is a much, much better choice than Dubious. Especially this patch because of the increased incoming damage. You should be safe with something like Bloodspawn + Shacklebreaker + Hunding's Rage (or Warrior's Fury). Fiddle around with your mundus and jewelry traits until you get a good balance between damage and sustain.

Rebirthment

Vermethys wrote: »

Heavy Armor for sure, and you don't really need Bone Pirate since Artaeum Takeaway Broth is a much, much better choice than Dubious. Especially this patch because of the increased incoming damage. You should be safe with something like Bloodspawn + Shacklebreaker + Hunding's Rage (or Warrior's Fury). Fiddle around with your mundus and jewelry traits until you get a good balance between damage and sustain.

I looked at both artaeum and dubious but artaeum only seems a little bit better cause of 600 stam increase and a little more than that for hp but can i do just fine with dubious or if i can't, should i just go ahead and farm bone pirate? Also with how tougher sustain is, i thought running a sustain set is a must

Vermethys

For me the selling point of Artaeum is the extra Health Recovery, which is very nice to have as an indirect counter to DoTs -- when using Dubious on my builds I have about 600 Health Recovery, but with Artaeum it becomes 1.2k at base. In other words, it's a survivability boost.

Even if you won't be using Artaeum, you should have more than enough sustain with the sets I suggested (upwards of 2k stamina recovery), mainly because you're a Wood Elf.

chrightt

Personally a fan of running brass + seventh on medium (seventh on weapon/accessory).

BaByDontHurtMe

I have always been an advocate of medium, I liked the faster more agile game play in 3 man groups or 1vX. I’m not about to run curse eater for some mag recovery or change to spam blue Betty for 1 dot purge when there are like 8 more on you usually, it’s not for me, if it works for people out there great.

Sadly we are in a strong dot meta and even if you put more CP to decrease dot dmg(when you try CP pvp), you still have 2 or 3 people just chasing tossing up strong dots. Since some dots aren’t dodgable and are meant to counter roll dodge play, I recommend heavy for the extra healing atm and makes it more bearable to 1vX or small resource farming.

Remember 1vX is still possible, play around with sets might mean no more Balrogh and go back to BloodSpawn but it’s doable and more and more people are posting up 1vX clips again in dot land.

I agree with people above, health recovery is something to consider now when you have more dots on you.

Imo Warden still easiest AP farm to push for EMP I feel, dat burst tho.

Happy Hunting.

lukoi

Just curious about ATB here...it says it increases HR only 351, but you are saying there almost 600. Is there something else happening that increases it by that much, that Im not seeing? Or is the uesp link incorrect by chance?

Vermethys

@lukoi It becomes more like 500 at the end. The Constitution passive increases it by 20% and Major Fortitude from potions increase it by another 20%. If you're a DK or StamSorc, you can get even more % increase.

lukoi

Ah ok. Appreciate the insight

Rebirthment

Vermethys wrote: »

For me the selling point of Artaeum is the extra Health Recovery, which is very nice to have as an indirect counter to DoTs -- when using Dubious on my builds I have about 600 Health Recovery, but with Artaeum it becomes 1.2k at base. In other words, it's a survivability boost.

Even if you won't be using Artaeum, you should have more than enough sustain with the sets I suggested (upwards of 2k stamina recovery), mainly because you're a Wood Elf.

Ok so what mundus stone do you recommend? ive heard people use steed for heavy armor but theres also warrior too and for 2h/s&b setup should i use a greatsword or battleaxe?

Vermethys

I've been enjoying the Steed this patch because of the improved speed and survivability, but the Warrior would take you above 3.5k WD (3.7k if you use 2 Infused WD jewelry and 1 Robust with cost reduction). It's up to you.

Regarding the type of 2h weapon, I'd use Battleaxe for any sort of build except Dizzying Swing builds. If you use Dizzying Swing, it might be better to use a Maul.

Rebirthment

Vermethys wrote: »

I've been enjoying the Steed this patch because of the improved speed and survivability, but the Warrior would take you above 3.5k WD (3.7k if you use 2 Infused WD jewelry and 1 Robust with cost reduction). It's up to you.

Regarding the type of 2h weapon, I'd use Battleaxe for any sort of build except Dizzying Swing builds. If you use Dizzying Swing, it might be better to use a Maul.

I plan on using dizzying but i can still do fine with battleaxe right? Also btw any tips against NBs?

Vermethys

Of course, just be sure to get used to light attacking between Dizzying Swings to apply that bleed more often.

I couldn't control NBs on my Warden as much as I do on my StamDK and StamSorc, I think the class falls a bit short against good NBs. But, you can reveal them by using Carve or Permafrost, or by aiming your Subterranean Assault in their probable direction. Be sure to stun and burst them as soon as you can.

Sav

It's a matter of preference. I played in heavy for a couple of months but I felt that Medium was more for my playstyle. However, I felt I was too squishy so I went from Bone Pirate + Spriggans to Med Fortified Brass + Spriggans.

Kadoin

Only use medium if you are pro enough. If you could fight without hugging a tree or wall before the patch, you won't have little to no difference this patch. If you can't, then soul trap, entropy, poison injection, etc. all gonna be brutal

EtTuBrutus

Medium, heavy passives pale on comparison.

MurderMostFoul

EtTuBrutus wrote: »

Medium, heavy passives pale on comparison.

Agreed.

I recently leveled a stamden, I tried heavy first then medium and found medium much more effective. I just really couldn't consistently get kills in heavy, and unless you are speccing to bring some serious utility to your team in BGs, if you're not getting kills you are not being particularly useful.

Iskiab

Best way to think of it is heavy armour’s passives are equivalent to an entire defensive set and medium’s equivalent to an entire offensive set.

Look at the passives of the armour. If you can do better defensively with a set then run medium with one defensive set. If you like the heavy then run all offensive sets with 5 heavy. If you want to be really tanky run heavy with a defensive.... etc.... you get the point.

Most people who see it as black and white haven’t tried a lot of sets.

MurderMostFoul

Iskiab wrote: »

Best way to think of it is heavy armour’s passives are equivalent to an entire defensive set and medium’s equivalent to an entire offensive set.

Look at the passives of the armour. If you can do better defensively with a set then run medium with one defensive set. If you like the heavy then run all offensive sets with 5 heavy. If you want to be really tanky run heavy with a defensive.... etc.... you get the point.

Most people who see it as black and white haven’t tried a lot of sets.

In NoCP, medium feels equivalent to damage and sustain set. Whereas heavy pretty much only offers defense. That's why I always go back to medium in BGs on my Stam toons.

Rebirthment

Thanks for the replies guys. So the other day I've been doing decent with heavy armor Hundings and Spriggans with bloodspawn and I did try to use fortified brass med in the past and while its ok which do y'all think would be better to use in BGs or cp Cyro?

Both seem pretty decent though I haven't tried the med set as much as I have heavy

PS Should I keep using dawnbreaker or swap to berserker strike and which morph? Cause I feel like dawnbreaker doesn't hit half the time but would like to know

Iskiab

Fortified brass is decent with 1H-6M, only issue is onslaught let’s people bypass resistances completely. I like barkskin too but Stam isn’t my thing, most of stamwarden is about lining up burst with shalks: shalks - crit rush - dizzy works well if you can line it up.

People who’re really good with it throw in light attacks and bashes, but it takes practice I haven’t put in because my main is mag.