Improving Magicka Warden (easy fixes)

MLGProPlayer · June 2017

As we all know, magicka warden is the worst DPS class in the game. Here are a few simple suggestions that could make it more viable:

1. Make the bear ultimate a single bar ability. It's way too weak to require double barring (there is absolutely no reason to use this ult in its current state). Turning it into a single bar ability would allow warden to slot a proper AOE ult like elemental storm, while still allowing them to pull respectable single target DPS via the bear.

2. Give the warden an execute. Cliff racer is a perfect candidate. Simply up its damage on targets below X%.

3. Improve how warden abilities scale with max magicka. This will allow the warden to find extra damage via gear choices (like Necrpotence). Abilities currently seem to scale better with spell damage than magicka on the warden.

Vizier · June 2017

Would kind of like to see the way the warden handles the "elements," done differently. For instance, the warden specialty is cold, but it doesn't "feel" like it really. There's still wardens going with fire staff because it just far outshines the rest for damage. I could be incorrect, but it seems ZoS has a love affair with fire damage they just can't break from.

What if other elements all revolved around "cold" for the warden, such as Cold Fire instead of Fire, or Super conductive electricity etc, where the effect was focused on cold rather than ice, fire, etc. This could totally alter the sets a warden might use....OR

They could just bring ice on par with the rest but I still like the above idea for totally changing up the feel of the warden while making thing's visually more dynamic.

I really like the idea of an execute in the form of the Cliff Racer spell. It makes a ton of sense. And I didn't realize the way magicka scaled was different on the Warden. That might explain why spells seem limp despite having a ton of magicka.

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO · June 2017

Zos has explicitly stated that the bear was the execute, they did not want warden to have a reliable execute or hard cc.

Lylith · June 2017

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO wrote: »

They have explicitly stated that the bear was the execute, they did not want warden to have a reliable execute or hard cc.

'they' need to reevaluate, then.

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO · June 2017

Lylith wrote: »

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO wrote: »

They have explicitly stated that the bear was the execute, they did not want warden to have a reliable execute or hard cc.

'they' need to reevaluate, then.

I knew I ought to have clarified that, thank you for proving me right.

MLGProPlayer · June 2017

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO wrote: »

Zos has explicitly stated that the bear was the execute, they did not want warden to have a reliable execute or hard cc.

But the bear is useless in its current state. It isn't an ultimate, let alone TWO ultimates. You should not be bringing this skill along in any endgame setting.

It just adds a little bit of single target DPS (and yet warden still has lower DPS than any other class) and provides no AOE damage like elemental storm, meteor, and sleet storm. The removal of health regen also means that it dies all the time.

They really need to rework that element of the class. The bear was the selling point of the class, yet right now it's a completely useless skill (for endgame content). Making it a single bar ability would go a long way towards that. Requiring something that provides so little damage and utility to be double barred is insane.

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO · June 2017

MLGProPlayer wrote: »

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO wrote: »

Zos has explicitly stated that the bear was the execute, they did not want warden to have a reliable execute or hard cc.

But the bear is useless in its current state. It isn't an ultimate, let alone TWO ultimates. You should not be bringing this skill along in any endgame setting.

It just adds a little bit of single target DPS (and yet warden still has lower DPS than any other class) and provides no AOE damage like elemental storm, meteor, and sleet storm. The removal of health regen also means that it dies all the time.

They really need to rework that element of the class. The bear was the selling point of the class, yet right now it's a completely useless skill (for endgame content). Making it a single bar ability would go a long way towards that. Requiring something that provides so little damage and utility to be double barred is insane.

I am not arguing for what I stated, simply relaying information that zos stated in one of the ESO lives.

I have not leved a warden yet but if your only argument is that the bear isn't optimal in end game senarios, I would say it is good enough. If you care about vet trials and you care about timed scored runs, you will not care about how you do it, you will just use the best you can and right now that is not a warden or temp or nb dps, it is sorc. That is the problem here, that mag sorc dps is so far ahead of the rest, that the rest look like garbage when they can complete all content in the get just fine.

MLGProPlayer · June 2017

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO wrote: »

MLGProPlayer wrote: »

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO wrote: »

Zos has explicitly stated that the bear was the execute, they did not want warden to have a reliable execute or hard cc.

But the bear is useless in its current state. It isn't an ultimate, let alone TWO ultimates. You should not be bringing this skill along in any endgame setting.

It just adds a little bit of single target DPS (and yet warden still has lower DPS than any other class) and provides no AOE damage like elemental storm, meteor, and sleet storm. The removal of health regen also means that it dies all the time.

They really need to rework that element of the class. The bear was the selling point of the class, yet right now it's a completely useless skill (for endgame content). Making it a single bar ability would go a long way towards that. Requiring something that provides so little damage and utility to be double barred is insane.

I am not arguing for what I stated, simply relaying information that zos stated in one of the ESO lives.

I have not leved a warden yet but if your only argument is that the bear isn't optimal in end game senarios, I would say it is good enough. If you care about vet trials and you care about timed scored runs, you will not care about how you do it, you will just use the best you can and right now that is not a warden or temp or nb dps, it is sorc. That is the problem here, that mag sorc dps is so far ahead of the rest, that the rest look like garbage when they can complete all content in the get just fine.

Endgame =/= competing for high scores. Simply completing vet trials and vet DLC dungeons comfortably requires decent DPS (not necessarily the absolute best). Warden DPS is quite a bit lower than any other class at the moment which makes completing endgame content unnecessarily difficult.

The warden needs the bear to be viable in order to bring its DPS up to a respectable level (hence why I suggested making it a single bar ability). If the warden was 2-3k DPS behind mag sorc instead of 8-10k, it would be a lot more viable (again, not for getting a high score, but just making the completion of vet content more comfortable for you and your team). Of course they could buff other areas, but the bear seems to be an easy target, and it is the class' defining feature, so why not emphasize it?

Anhedonie · June 2017

Main bear problem is it's often stuck somehwere else and your ult is wasted in that case.

SanTii.92 · June 2017

Increase bear ult proc to 100 and allow it to be single bar it. Currently is unslottable for pve singe the aoe part of destr ult is just too strong to pass by.

SodanTok · June 2017

It is permanent pet. These are double slotted.
Dont waste time suggesting stuff that simply wont change. You have far better chance they will make the ultimate proc nuclear bomb that will wipe the whole dungeon than making it one slotted.

Not to mention bear is not the problem. Sorcs arent using atronach or negate either. If the DPS suck while you use destro ult or shooting star like all other mag builds then the problem is obviously somewhere else.

Btw almost all magicka damage abilities in the game on all classes or weapons scale with magicka and spell damage the same way. There is nothing abnormal with warden in that regard and it should stay that way.

Lughlongarm · June 2017

I was thinking about:
1) giving some of the "Animal Companions" abilities massive buffs on chilled targets(like 25%).
Best candidates are cliff racer and Fletcher Infection. The bonus to cliff racer can replace the the current range buff which doesn't help in group PVE play.

2)replace "Icy Aura" passive with a new one "shattering ", Physical attacks on a chilled target, have a % chance to set the target, "off-balance".

The Idea is to find synergy with the "frost damage" theme of the class, for both stamina and magica, without giving wardens unnecessary buffs in PvP, especially in the burst department.

MLGProPlayer · June 2017

SodanTok wrote: »

It is permanent pet. These are double slotted.
Dont waste time suggesting stuff that simply wont change. You have far better chance they will make the ultimate proc nuclear bomb that will wipe the whole dungeon than making it one slotted.

Not to mention bear is not the problem. Sorcs arent using atronach or negate either. If the DPS suck while you use destro ult or shooting star like all other mag builds then the problem is obviously somewhere else.

Btw almost all magicka damage abilities in the game on all classes or weapons scale with magicka and spell damage the same way. There is nothing abnormal with warden in that regard and it should stay that way.

The problem is simply lack of damage. More damage ticks = more damage per second. That's why having a way to keep bear up alongside a normal ult makes sense. Warden DPS with the bear ult is low. Without it, it's just awful. You'd need to buff the other warden skills substabtially to bring up the overall DPS. Making bear single bar let's you avoid that.

And how do you know that all abilities scale the same when this information is hidden? And even if they did all scale the same, there is nothing wrong with changing it for the warden if it would result in higher DPS. Changing their scaling is easier than buffing them outright.

subtlezeroub17_ESO · June 2017

They could just fix the bugs with the bear, let it regen health, make all of its attacks AoE, including the execute, and make it increase magicka by 5%.

That would be worth a double barred summon.

SodanTok · June 2017

MLGProPlayer wrote: »

SodanTok wrote: »

It is permanent pet. These are double slotted.
Dont waste time suggesting stuff that simply wont change. You have far better chance they will make the ultimate proc nuclear bomb that will wipe the whole dungeon than making it one slotted.

Not to mention bear is not the problem. Sorcs arent using atronach or negate either. If the DPS suck while you use destro ult or shooting star like all other mag builds then the problem is obviously somewhere else.

Btw almost all magicka damage abilities in the game on all classes or weapons scale with magicka and spell damage the same way. There is nothing abnormal with warden in that regard and it should stay that way.

The problem is simply lack of damage. More damage ticks = more damage per second. That's why having a way to keep bear up alongside a normal ult makes sense. Warden DPS with the bear ult is low. Without it, it's just awful. You'd need to buff the other warden skills substabtially to bring up the overall DPS. Making bear single bar let's you avoid that.

And how do you know that all abilities scale the same when this information is hidden? And even if they did all scale the same, there is nothing wrong with changing it for the warden if it would result in higher DPS. Changing their scaling is easier than buffing them outright.

I know the problem is lack of damage (and contrary to popular belief, stam warden using warden skills has exactly the same problem). Having bear alongside normal ult does not make sense, because for one it will never happen. Perma pets are double slotted by design. And for second people arent going to use bear in endgame content even one slotted, by nature of its design. There is no point in changing something that has such low impact.
Yes, you need to buff other warden skills substantially. That is the obvious choice and solution ZoS will take. The second is changing the whole class because it is full of supporting abilities and almost no damaging.

What information is hidden? Nothing is hidden. Math sees everything (btw).
How would changing scaling help warden in any way? You could just put more % in the passives that increase damage and you dont have to break the whole design behind scaling that every ability uses. Not to mention not limiting the whole class to one set (Necro).

In short. Warden lacks overall damage and damaging skills. The overall damage affects both stam/mag and will be fixed (if) only by increasing damage of skills/passives. The lack of damaging skills is only mag warden problem and wont be fixed unless ZoS reworks the whole class.