Advice on dealing with frost wardens?

Epicgamertag199

Ever since the Imperial City event I've been hooked on running the IC districts, but one thing I'm consistently getting crushed by is frost magwardens.

First off, I play a 2H/Bow stamblade and therefore prefer to be up close in melee range. My bow bar is mainly buffs/heals, with a poison DoT and Barrage ult.

Particularly, I'm struggling with the combo of arctic blast and permafrost surrounding them, thereby chilling me, reducing movement speed and damage done while also ticking for around ~700-1000dps combined. Throw on gap closers like critical rush followed by dizzying swing and there's just no getting away and no staying close. With the huge AoE there's no stealthing away to get into bow range, and even if I do then they just close the gap again. The only success I've found to have is from big, full-kit ganks bursting them down before it's too late.

I'm running Balorgh's, Briarheart and Stuhn's. At this point I'm tempted to toss on a cold resistant glyph or two on my jewelry just to survive the AoE and make it a more-normal melee v melee fight.

Any tips are welcome

pauld1_ESO

Immovable pots and avoid. Of course if you listen to them they are the victims here and we should just fall upon their swords and die.

xxslam48xxb14_ESO

Well you have a very small chance of bursting them down from stealth if you use the ole simmering frenzy snipe. That is like the perfect storm of abilities to deal with a nb, on top of being unbelievably tanky. I would abandon the idea of going into melee range entirely and just stick to max range sniping from stealth.

I did make a mini build to deal with very tanky single targets and it works pretty decent. You already have balorgh's, so just equip 5pc new moon and swamp raider. Use warhorn as an ult at 500 ultimate points(both to gain extra crit damage and get a full power balorgh proc), buff up with accelerate and momentum, use simmering frenzy until you are nearly dead, and then snipe(lethal arrow) that tanky SOB until he is dead. Best if used in an area where he will not hear your horn or in areas with few obstructions. Only an actual 60k hp tank should be able to survive a sneak attack like that. Think bomb blade, but for killing single targets instead of a whole zerg.

Epicgamertag199

xxslam48xxb14_ESO wrote: »

Well you have a very small chance of bursting them down from stealth if you use the ole simmering frenzy snipe. That is like the perfect storm of abilities to deal with a nb, on top of being unbelievably tanky. I would abandon the idea of going into melee range entirely and just stick to max range sniping from stealth.

I did make a mini build to deal with very tanky single targets and it works pretty decent. You already have balorgh's, so just equip 5pc new moon and swamp raider. Use warhorn as an ult at 500 ultimate points(both to gain extra crit damage and get a full power balorgh proc), buff up with accelerate and momentum, use simmering frenzy until you are nearly dead, and then snipe(lethal arrow) that tanky SOB until he is dead. Best if used in an area where he will not hear your horn or in areas with few obstructions. Only an actual 60k hp tank should be able to survive a sneak attack like that. Think bomb blade, but for killing single targets instead of a whole zerg.

I'm not much of a bow player, other than applying DoTs and the occasional 100-to-0'ing someone unaware with Toxic Barrage, I'd rather get up close and watch the despair in their eyes as they die personal. My typical "full kit gank" goes identify person distracted by farming/attacking something > pre-buff with major savagery, major brutality (potion); minor force and major expedition (channeled acceleration); siphoning strikes; de-buff with piercing mark > strike in the back with Ambush to inflict minor vulnerability > surprise attack in the back to stun > incapacitating strike for damage and +20% follow-up damage and +500 weapon damage from Balorgh's > executioner and/or surprise attack until dead.

For squishies this is usually all it takes, but for DKs and frost wardens they've usually done their 10%-to-100% burst heal right around the time incap strike finishes, and are now free to pop their AoEs and counter stuns.

I already just avoid most DKs, especially if I've dueled them once or twice in IC and know it's just not worth it. I'd rather not add Wardens to the list, as I don't believe that ESO should be a rock-paper-scissors type of deal, and I must be doing something wrong. But at the same time I feel like having to re-kit my entire skill bars based on who's around is a little ridiculous. Is that kind of just how it goes? I already do similar to stamplars (jump on em, hit hard, then roll away and pelt with bow to stay out of range of biting jabs until their hp is low enough to jump back in).

Epicgamertag199

Also, double-post to clarify, I don't want "nuke and gank" to be my only playstyle. In my mind, a proper gank sets you up for a strong advantage in the ensuing duel or 1vX. If they happen to die then great, if not then you should have the upper hand.

erio

Smile and /wave at the incoming major prot nerfs