Speaking from experience as a relatively new player who planned to play the game for a week or two (preo-ordered/played this game on launch, quit 2 months in because my caster tank didn't work, saw an ad recently, wanted to kill some time), I can safely say that with my refreshing my second month of ESO+ 2 weeks ago that, without any exaggeration, frost staff/magicka tanking is what is keeping me playing. It's why I played through MoP as a Warlock, when we had a tank glyph and quit when it was removed. It's why I prioritize games that allow casters to be as beefy as melee. Etc, etc.

However, now that I'm headed to end-game tanking vet trials for a guild, I've obviously butt my head against the barriers imposed by frost staves. Lower mitigation, higher block cost, no skill utility, skill slot requirements, etc.And most of all, the potential for a lot of flavor, but not a lot of give on that front. This isn't too big of an issue- I'm playing for frost staff tanking, not end-game, it's just a happy coincidence that competence and min-maxing can get you pretty far in this game - most of what I listed are percentages.

We all know the issue- there's a lack of separation between the elemental staves. Now, that's a little unfair- the destro line is clearly the skill line most dependent on destro staff type, with not only passives for different weapons, but also skills that take on completely new abilities. Which is great. So why why why ZOS, don't you separate them a bit more?

I get it. They seem to be pretty damn apprehensive about adding a new weapon, which would've been the "best" way (although maybe a bit less flavorful- besides, what niche would ice fit if it wasn't for tanking? *One* staff is going to parse highest for ST DPS, and *one* staff is going to parse highest for AoE, which leaves at least one staff lacking and looking for something unique to do). You clearly would prefer to alter weapon lines rather than make new ones.

And you know what? That's *fine*. If you, you know, do it right. You half-[snip] it and everybody knows it, but nobody really cares because it went from sub-par DPS tool to sub-par tanking tool, with no real invested audience in either pool to whine for tuning. A few months in though, everybody has probably seen a frost staff tank or two in their LFG runs (and a frost staff taunting DPS or ten in their runs...which we can hopefully address with these changes too).

So here's the my vague suggestions:

- Separate the taunt to a separate passive. .
- IMPROVE the passives and abilities for tanking.
- Give it unique elements over SnB, keep it as more than just flavor for tanking.

And here are my specific suggestions:

- Bake "Penetrating Magic" into "Tri-Focus", and remove the Frost Staff HA taunt, bubble, and magicka block from "Tri-Focus". Rename "Penetrating Magic" to "[Ice Pun]". This will have three points and go something like this: "With a frost staff equipped: Fully charged heavy attacks will taunt the enemy into attacking you 5/10/15 seconds. Heavy attacks will taunt the enemy for 3/6/10 seconds. Light attacks will taunt the enemy into attacking you for 2/3/4 seconds. Fully charged Frost Staff Heavy Attacks grant you and nearby allies a damage shield worth 5%+5%/7%+7%/10%+10% of your Max Health/Magicka for 12 seconds, and grant you minor protection for 10 seconds.. Fully charged Heavy Attacks grant a 10 second buff that reduces damage by 15% when charging Heavy Attacks for 10 seconds, and increases movement speed while blocking by 75% for 12 seconds. Blocking costs Magicka"
- Change "Ancient Knowledge" for the frost portion slightly: "Reduces the cost of blocking by **18%/36%**, and increases the amount of damage you can block by 10%/20%. Increases the amount of elemental of magical damage you can block by 8/15%"
- Change Elemental Susceptibility to also put on major fracture, but reduce the duration, remove the damage refresh, and make it no longer capable of being used without triggering combat. Two classes in this game do not have a baked in major fracture.
- Make Wall of Frost guarantee immobilize with the first 1/2 ticks. It's known that certain sets trigger on first ticks of DoT's but not any others, so it shouldn't be difficult. Also, up-time on Wall of Frost should increase block and spell cost, up to 8 seconds for -8% block cost and -16% spell cost, and stay at 8/16 as long as Wall of Frost is re-cast before expiring. Make unstable's explosion restore magicka based on number of targets hit.
- Make Minor Mangle, and therefore Pulsar, worth something. Easiest way is to make it work on bosses, but that might be a bit OP and even then doesn't "distinguish" Frost. As it is, it's a debuff with no real use in PvP as plenty of things will hit an enemy harder, at range, than a 10% hit, and it has no use on bosses in PvE. It would be much better off as a debuff that made enemies take increased damage at high HP, say 15% more damage for the first 25%. Ideally, make a new debuff like this and give it exclusively to frost pulsar. This would give real utility to frost staves, something about them that you can't find anywhere else, even on DPS with destro staves.
- Frost Touch/Clench/Reach ticks should give maim for its duration. Hitting targets who are chilled with the direct damage portion of Frost Clench will increase blocking mitigation by 8% for 10 seconds, and grant you and allies around you Empower. Frost Clench pulls target to the player.
- Crushing Shock serves its purpose as a ranged interrupt without any major changes. Make it grant minor heroism on cast, and major heroism if you successfully interrupt something while using a frost staff. Successful interrupts of chilled targets make abilities free to cast for you for 4 seconds, and allies around you for 2 seconds.
- Forward NB executioner changes to Destruction Expert, and add a frost specific perk. "If any enemy dies within 2 seconds of being damaged by a Destruction Staff ability, gain 1800/3600 Magicka back. If an enemy passes a 10% multiple threshold within 2 seconds of being damaged by a Frost Staff ability, gain 1000/2000 Magicka back.
- Increase the duration of elemental storm and it's morphs for the frost variants only, up to 15 seconds, but of course keep the same total damage (so drastically reduce the DPS). The guaranteed huge-AoE range Chilled is enough. Maybe make Eye of Frost give Major Berserk to nearby allies for 5 seconds, and Icy Rage cause Major Maim.

The intention with my changes is to mimic SnB's capabilities with debuffs and buffs to serve as the bread and butter, but have them apply in a more aggressive, active way. You have to watch DoT timers, watch for targets to interrupt, watch your Blockade placement, watch for chilled to proc. It's also more active on a staff attacks front, rewarding utilization of heavy attacks in fights with mitigation while charging and making the current shield worth something for you, and your team mates, favoring using them every ~10 seconds to maintain baseline HA charge mitigation, but not enough that it's smart enough to trade up the potentially 70%+ mitigation of blocking for 15% in portions of a fight that are damage heavy. It allows for rapid fire taunts of short duration to pick up trash with its light attacks. trading Pierce Armor's minimal cost for a significant reduction in duration. Major fracture/breach is, of course, not baked in with the taunt, so you have to keep an eye on that too, which is why I'd recommend a shorter duration. The shield is tied to Heavy attacking to incentivize HA'ing in the first place.

Overall, I think this type of situational awareness, multi-target, push and pull playstyle fits the idea of a magicka tank quite well, but what do I know. Any input?

[Edited to remove profanity]