New warden: Most "fun" between stam and mag?

skyfiredraco · June 2017

hey guys. Just looking to toss out a heavily opinionated question here

But what do you guys consider the most "fun" between the two archetypes of warden (stamina or magicka?).

I am really just now sitting down with the game and so my warden is only level 7. I barely have any abilities etc. and am looking forward (my main is a champ 162 nightblade).

A note: i don't care about dps meters or pvp godliness (or lack thereof). I've spent enough time in cyrodil on a few alts to get vigor and ran a dungeon here and there but i play the game primarily to quest, explore, craft, level up and generally screw around. And yes, before you say it, i'm fully aware that you can get to max level naked and punching things if you REALLY try.

But i'm looking for FUN. Flashy. Self sustaining. Able to solo well and look damn cool doing it.

My current "plan" is to go stam and go full on "ranger' build with dual wield, bow and a focus on my bear. But i'm also eyeballing some of those frost powers and bigger heals and considering magic really hard.

So... while respeccing is cheap and rerolling is only a matter of lost hours instead of weeks... which do you guys prefer for your warden (if you, for example, played it to the higher levels in the beta or you've been marathon'ing one since the release lol)?

ty for any replies all

IcyDeadPeople · June 2017

mag warden allows you to use more of the class abilities, as only a few have stam morphs.

If you are not worried about PVP or high dps for endgame group dungeons and trials, maybe try hybrid, put on some pelinals and stack weapon damage, you should be OK for most of the overland content, public dungeons etc, and you will be able to do enough damage with both stam and magicka abilities.

Smasherx74 · June 2017

The stam morphs however are insanely fkn good. I'd imagine if a basic Duel wield crit stam build would do massive damage and self sustain since warden has access to stamina heals wheree as everyone else has to do PVP.

warden can make for a beaast stambuild, its just a matter of time before warden is #1 Tank, Healer and DPS.

Iselin · June 2017

Mag warden with a destro staff allows you to slot 3 AOEs (Scorch + Impaling shards + Wall of Elements) from level 4 or 5 and the magicka scorch morph has a stun. It's a grinder's dream or alternatively, it's a solo delve and public dungeon runners dream.

Draxius82 · June 2017

As a still new player without benefits of crafted gear or guilds or CP, my mag warden is clunky. He dies a lot and his time to kill is slow. This is of course speaking in relation to my mag dk/sorc and temp.

If you like bugs, bears, flowers (ice is kinda flashy) and a horribly animated bird. You may like this.

Speaking to the screaming cliff racer. This is how it feels in combat. 1) hit hotkey 2) wtf where is it 3) oh, there it is 4) why is it taking so long to get there 5) I just did three other damage abilities 6) ok, it just hit

phaneub17_ESO · June 2017

I'm loving my Magicka Warden, I'm doing triple AOE with Winter's Revenge, Unstable Wall of Frost, and Arctic Blast destroying everything in PvE; combined with Northern Storm on bosses makes short work on them. Other two slots have Screaming Cliff Racer for ranged targets and Blue Betty for infinite magicka restore. Healing is a little lacking in power, but grants a lot of utility to compensate. Using Combat Prayer, Mutagen, Enchanted Growth, Budding Seeds, and Lotus Blossom with Healing Thicket gives you a lot of HoTs you'll feel like a Druid from that other game that shall not be mentioned.

skyfiredraco · June 2017

well, i've played for most of the evening now so i figured i'd throw out an update

i respecced my stuff to magicka and i'm LOVING it =D

I'm only level 11 so far (i take my time to read/listen to quests, explore etc. so i level slow lol) but i'm already seeing some really nice wambo-combos.

Unstable wall of elements (with frost staff) + winter's revenge + force pulse does some insane AoE. Throw in deep fissure (the scorch stun morph) and i get MORE aoe with an on demand stun.

Fifth slot i'm using for a heal so i keep leveling my green balance stuff and ultimate i'm still using bear because i wanted a bear since i saw the first warden previews lol. Note: that bear hits HARD when using the ult and it only costs 75. Not bad

Gonna go resto staff as a backup at 15 for solo'ing purposes but, honestly, i think it'll make for some nice party options too (if not full dungeon finder or pvp it'll be interesting for public dungeons and world bosses... my main is a stamblade so i never did a healer before

)

If i had one complaint it would be that i sunk a point into the first destro staff passive before i realized i was gonna go all frost all the time... and now my charged attacks freaking taunt things...

The shield is nice i suppose... and i'm usually the target when solo'ing anyway... but taunting when other players are engaged and ripping off my bear (in those rare instances he has threat) just feels so wrong as a caster.

Might respec my points one more time while they are still cheap and go with the exact same build minus that passive.

Anyway, if anyone is reading this post and wants some early game suggestions, those above spell combos are insane. Still feeling out which heal i want to keep slotted on that bar for leveling purposes, but the whole setup is more fun than i expected.

Cheers guys