magwarden without bear

Octopuss · January 2020

I hate pets. I never use them. They're awkward to use and I'm an awkward player or something. I also don't have access to the Psijic skill line, which seems to be very popular part of lots of builds since Summerset.
I guess there are more people like me, so what kind of setup can be used in this situation? I haven't played for like a year and am trying to catch up.
I have the usual class skills, destro stuff of course, but warden feels a bit more complicated to put together.
There really only is Alcast out there to get some inspiration from, but he goes all the way for max dps for the most advanced HM trials, which is not necessarily what most people do, so it's not of that much use to semi-casual players who just run some vet dungeons from time to time.

I've got the usual Animal companion skills on the front bar, Fissure, Cliff racer, Fetcher Infection, Wall and Winter's revenge, Harness magicka and Betty on the rear, but there are some free slots I can't figure out what to fill them with. For ultimates I guess I could use Meteor and Elemental rage. I haven't really played warden much in past so I don't have much personal experience to build on.

Unseelie · January 2020

I use Werewolf as an alternate to bear

Aelorin · January 2020

You have most things figured out allready.

Back bar: Wall, winter's revenge, Shield, Betty, and you could add lightwheight beast trap for the extra crit damage. I would put Elemental rage on the back bar too.

Front bar: Shalks, Cliff racer, fetcher infection, structured entropy, and a flex spot (soul trap, scalding rune, or magelight if you do not want to use the expensive crit potions) I would put Shooting star on the front bar.

Octopuss · January 2020

I am kinda torn about Inner light, because the crit bonus only applies to one bar, so it's tough to choose.
It's even worse with sorcerer (whom I'm revisitng as well) and Bound Aegis for example where this approach makes even less sense to me.

macsmooth · January 2020

Can you not just build towards ultimate generation and use northern storm from your back bar and have meteor on your front bar for passive, pop northern every time it’s up and enjoy 30 seconds of frosty bliss after the 30 seconds just hang around have a chat or a coffee while your ultimate builds back up again

Spartabunny08 · January 2020

For the record lol. They made the psijic line necessary by nerfing all other options into lesser forms of what the psijic line offers. They just wanted more money apparently they don't make enough lol. This really pissed me off they nerfed major expedition across the board for this and right before they put it in the crown store. They made one of the worst grinds and sell you a pass for 30 dollars. Sad.

CaffeinatedMayhem · January 2020

Aelorin wrote: »

You have most things figured out allready.

Back bar: Wall, winter's revenge, Shield, Betty, and you could add lightwheight beast trap for the extra crit damage. I would put Elemental rage on the back bar too.

Front bar: Shalks, Cliff racer, fetcher infection, structured entropy, and a flex spot (soul trap, scalding rune, or magelight if you do not want to use the expensive crit potions) I would put Shooting star on the front bar.

Yep, this is essentially my magwarden no bear setup. Wearing False Gods/Mothers Sorrow/Zaan or Skoria.

You can do vMA with the same setup: wear Iceheart, switch in Permafrost or Northern storm for Shoting star. Vines are a nice self heal.

Iskiab · January 2020

Is using northern storm a dps loss compared to the destro Ult? I don’t like pets either, that’s what discouraged me from warden.

Runefang · January 2020

Just front bar ice comet and back bar destro ult. otherwise you run the typical warden build. If you are running cheap pots you can live with inner light only on the front bar in my opinion, you spend a lot of time there casting shalks every 3 seconds.

I also might be the only Magden not running cliff racer still, I cannot get it to beat the dps of a pure dot build. At least in a static rotation.

Octopuss · January 2020

I used to use Force Pulse and still have it slotted from way back then, but I guess that's so not current meta...

I like the cliff racer's visuals.

MashmalloMan · January 2020

Spartabunny08 wrote: »

For the record lol. They made the psijic line necessary by nerfing all other options into lesser forms of what the psijic line offers. They just wanted more money apparently they don't make enough lol. This really pissed me off they nerfed major expedition across the board for this and right before they put it in the crown store. They made one of the worst grinds and sell you a pass for 30 dollars. Sad.

Thats simply not true if you follow the patches that changed Force Pulse vs Ele Weapon. Ele Weapon only does better single target damage due to passive orbs, but Force Pulse and morphs cost virtually the same, have 20% chance to apply Chill, 20% chance to apply Burning and 20% to apply Concussed per cast, used to be 6%. (This is considering Destro Passives and was changed after Summerset). Ele weapon is more clunky and less reliable in real fights, it only gives back half resources instead of 100% like it did at launch when you don't use it. Most people don't like it. Force Pulse gives more AOE damage, also better sustain since it uses the return magicka passive if it kills an enemy.

The only other skill that might be necessary for a DD is Channeled Acceleration for minor force and even that is worse than using Barbed Trap, since barbed trap actually does damage and does not use your main resource, it just requires melee range which you should be close to anyway, since it's required to be grouped up for your healer.

So no, you can take off your tinfoil hat. They made efforts over patches to make other spammables much more competitive vs Ele Weapon if you cared to notice.

zvavi · January 2020

Uh, few information points i would like to add.
1. As others stated, wall of elemenals backbar (or unstable) reason is simple. The enchantment of your back bar, procs of the skill, even when you are on front bar.
2. Mage light and bound aegis are damage buffs. People put them on the bar they spend more time on. The bar with the spammable

Hope i helped shade light a bit.

Octopuss · January 2020

Do you mean the backbar behaves differently? Also, which enchant? Is this an universal thing? I don't think I fully understand.

Grianasteri · January 2020

Octopuss wrote: »

I hate pets. I never use them. They're awkward to use and I'm an awkward player or something. I also don't have access to the Psijic skill line, which seems to be very popular part of lots of builds since Summerset.
I guess there are more people like me, so what kind of setup can be used in this situation? I haven't played for like a year and am trying to catch up.
I have the usual class skills, destro stuff of course, but warden feels a bit more complicated to put together.
There really only is Alcast out there to get some inspiration from, but he goes all the way for max dps for the most advanced HM trials, which is not necessarily what most people do, so it's not of that much use to semi-casual players who just run some vet dungeons from time to time.

I've got the usual Animal companion skills on the front bar, Fissure, Cliff racer, Fetcher Infection, Wall and Winter's revenge, Harness magicka and Betty on the rear, but there are some free slots I can't figure out what to fill them with. For ultimates I guess I could use Meteor and Elemental rage. I haven't really played warden much in past so I don't have much personal experience to build on.

For 4+ years I never touched pets, as you mention, they are awkward and generally look awful. The latest changes finally forced me to slot a pet on my magsorc. But that is to date still the only one I use.

None of my Wardens use the bear, and likely never will.

You know something that has always bothered me regarding Wardens, they are suppose to be the animal whisperers, so to speak, yet they dont actually have any pets, Netch doesnt count, and the bear is an ultimate. Compare that to Sorcs, who get two, damage dealing, aggro stealing pets, and a "pet" ultimate... just seems stupid. Wardens should have had a skill that summons wolves (or something) to fight by your side, similar to Werewolves.

Stibbons · January 2020

Sadly the bear is pretty weak. In pvp it has no brains like all other pets and cannot catch up anything.