Stamina Warden - Heavy or Medium?

EthicX · November 2018

Hi, all -

I’ve recently leveled a stamden and I’m having an identity crisis as to whether I should go medium or heavy armor. I am PvP focused with the majority of my time in BGs, and occasionally in Cyrodiil and sewers.

I’ve read several builds for the class and I see a decent split between going Heavy or Medium focused. Right now I have 7th legion and I’m still working on weapons. I do have 2H/SnB currently, but I’m wondering if I should swap to Dh/Bow or something else. I find the dizzy swing to be clunky and it makes 2H sort of a pain to play with.

I feel my damage is mediocre at best but boy can I take a beating...if I were to switch to Medium, do I become extremely squishy but can pack a punch? I have a NB and he doesn’t take my hits before he’s dead. Hes using medium of course. Now I know that I can’t have my cake and eat it too, but I’m hoping that there’s a way to make the heavy armor route hit a little harder?

Most of my current build guidance has been from Alcast/Dottz/King of Games/ kevduit

Thanks for any suggestions!

RajinPVP · November 2018

Most people that play warden solo in pvp.. would pick heavy armor over medium and i cant blame them tbh.. HA have tankyness and honestly HA user hits hard if built correctlly. Im maining stamDen and i like to use medium because i dont like HA playstyle.. i like to be a little bit more agile and i also like to play in group or with someone so i can afford to be a little bit squish! if you play mostly non cp pvp then i suggest going medium for a little bit easier resource management. Just make sure you have atleast 23k+ max health

For starters maybe Try : 5x impreg, 5x bone pirate , 2x bs on 5 medium + 2 heavy armor build using 2h + dual wield for example.

macsmooth · November 2018

My stamden is heavy armour wolf build and I like it a lot she takes a hit and can hit back too plus I have little stamina and magicka issues with her but I like Heavy Armor as I can go tank in pve and swap out sets and do fine in PvP but of course you would have more PvP focus cp placement than me just because I like to go cross boarders from time to time

7th is a great set for stamdens because it can help trigger the health boost passive as well as the increase in wp

I run dual wield and board just because I’ve not been able to get a 2h to try, it does ok in a group or solo with blood craze as much as possible, I don’t find bow helpful on the stamden as you can always use the cliff racer for the range (keep walls) or bird to get in close (helps with animal species passive) or bring your target to you instead

I don’t follow meta builds much, as I like to build around my character and their strengths and weaknesses with my play style but I will admit I like kevduit videos as they are funny and dotz has some good builds but not always for non top tier players and that’s the issue with some of the builds they require top tier items

Casul · November 2018

macsmooth wrote: »

My stamden is heavy armour wolf build and I like it a lot she takes a hit and can hit back too plus I have little stamina and magicka issues with her but I like Heavy Armor as I can go tank in pve and swap out sets and do fine in PvP but of course you would have more PvP focus cp placement than me just because I like to go cross boarders from time to time

7th is a great set for stamdens because it can help trigger the health boost passive as well as the increase in wp

I run dual wield and board just because I’ve not been able to get a 2h to try, it does ok in a group or solo with blood craze as much as possible, I don’t find bow helpful on the stamden as you can always use the cliff racer for the range (keep walls) or bird to get in close (helps with animal species passive) or bring your target to you instead

I don’t follow meta builds much, as I like to build around my character and their strengths and weaknesses with my play style but I will admit I like kevduit videos as they are funny and dotz has some good builds but not always for non top tier players and that’s the issue with some of the builds they require top tier items

This is the most important part of picking an armor style in my opinion. If you go medium and become squishy then yes you can do some damage but if you play better with a reactive playstyle then it will be a bigger detriment then it is worth.

WoppaBoem · November 2018

My open world StamDen is different and I like it really a lot, just started with the class.

But for BG's Hide of the Werewolf - Shacklebreaker - Troll King/Bloodspawn. 5 Med - 2 Heavy. DW front Bar - H2 backbar only for the buff Rally or Forward.

Build up ultimate, time your sub terrain assualt / down breaker spin to win and you will win

evoniee · November 2018

Heavy 5/2 or 5/1/1 redguard. 7th, bone / shackle / fury, bloodspawn.
1h/s front poison / restore stamina nirn, 2H back wpdamage infused.
steed mundus, 3 stat glyph big pieces.
the other things is personal choice. (dont use swift ffs, it is not worth)

heroic, vigor, spores, shimer, bird, DBoS
slice, sub, FM, netch, fort, forest

make sure to spend minimal 37 on thick skinned and 27 quick recovery to sustain a lot of dots damage, a lot of dots = easier proc on 7th and bloodspawn.

The_Brosteen · November 2018

Imo, you almost need heavy to have enough magicka for shimmering and vines. The ol' 2h heavy attack, db shalk reverse slice combo still kills most people. Wrecking blow as a cc causes you to loose too much mobility and leaves you with just db as a defensive cc, so I find using reverb to be must better. Warden isnt as good comparatively to other stam classes considering the past, but its still very viable.

Vapirko · November 2018

Probably go heavy to start and once you get really comfortable, you can try and go medium to see what you like better. If you do go medium be sure to pump up that crit resist to 3.5k if not 4K+ which is where impreg becomes a popular medium choice.

Parobro · November 2018

I never read so much nonsense what people are saying here.

Just so u know what I mean: one dudes says he don’t wanna play meta but don’t give u any advice at all just straight up shitposting you how awesome he and some skills are.

Another dude writes u the exact meta crap.

Another one tells u to waste points or put to few to be useful into cp trees with meta gear and insisting then „helps for legion“ but who the F plays legion holy.

So in my conclusion u got a lot of very bad zerglings telling you how awesome they are or they’re copy paste build. Gg well played quest faction eso forum.

I can tell you now some of my experience: starting with medium; I like to play medium on a stam warden nord, because of the passive makes u in any medium besides fortified brass as strong like in heavy.

In heavy i like to use orc because I’m then almost as fast as a medium user and have a bit more damage output.

My skills are 2h: dizzy, reverse, sub, forward, bird of prey and DBoS.
SNB: shimmering, vigor, Netch, lotus/vines, fortress, precognition/ healing thicket.

One is for defensive/ group and the other for offensive/ solo play on snb bar.

A tip: u can’t hit dizzy? Well then don’t rely on it but have it for burst combos against bad players or when u get better at using it.

Good monstersets for medium and heavy are: bloodspawn, troll king, earthgore, pirate skeleton. Pretty much anything depending if you solo/ group/ support or ganking.

The real hard stuff are the other 2 sets and it is highly depended if u go dot build, tanky for time to burst, supporting, smallscale or whatever.

I do mostly solo so I go for builds that help me and not other people, for example bloodspawn, bonepirate and fury.
For small group build I would switch out bonepirate for gossamer and bloodspawn maybe for trollking or earthgore.
For dot build I would run instead of fury viper and so on.

The only real answers someone like me can give you right now, try to have 11k Magicka, 35k stam and Around 25k Health without minor toughness.
20k resistence ish, 3k crit resist, with Dubious Camoran Drink around 1,5-1,6k stamrecovery, I wouldn’t go more then 1,8k that all buffed only with bufffood not with potions or skills in Cyrodiil Pc campaign.

Hope it helps you until I have my website ready and running.