Warden skill tips needed (healing and questing)

Homek · November 2020

Hi.

I need some easy tips for skilling a Warden while leveling. Me and some friends began with the game a few weeks ago, and while i was able to get my DK running as a tank and single player/questing DPS, a friend of mine (which much less time to his hands) is struggling.

Goal is, to have one bar as a dungeon healer (normal, no fancy stuff) and the other for easy questing/single player DPS.
Nearly all the guides you find are tailored for CP160 and masses of skill points/good equip, but my friend is level 8 right now ...

So, i need no step-by-step instructions, just some basic tips like e.g. "the first 3 healing skills are enough with a restoration staff, and you use a destruction ice staff with the following skills for questing" (as i said this is only an example, i have no idea of the real gameplay). Right now, we have *no* idea, how difficult the dungeons are (so how much healing dedication is needed) or what weapons types are best working together. Or if you play the questing bar with the same armor as a Magicka char or is a Stamina DPS better suited for single player gameplay?

Every help is appreciated, many thanks in advance for your help.

Taleof2Cities · November 2020

You're on the right track, @Homek.

Your friend should pursue a front bar Destruction Staff. Inferno Staff provides the best single target damage. Lightning Staff is more of an area of effect (AoE) damage. Ice Staff is best for crowd control. Deep Fissure is going to be your best Warden skill to slot for damage. Blue Betty gives your Major Sorcery.

Back bar is (of course) the Restoration Staff for healing. On my Warden Healer, I did use three (3) Restoration Staff Skills -- Radiant Regen, Combat Prayer, and Healing Springs. You can also substitute or complement those with a Warden heal ... such as Budding Seeds or Enchanted Growth.

Don't forget provisioning food or drink and the Mundus Stone. For Mundus, The Mage (max magicka), The Apprentice (spell damage), or the Ritual (healing done) can all work well with this setup.

Once your friend hits level CP160 they can decide how to tailor their Warden based on their playstyle ... which could even include a wholesale change to stamina (on the off-chance they didn't like a magicka setup).

etchedpixels · November 2020

Only thing I would add to that is a general comment - Wardens are buff/debuff machines so as well as healing a lot of what you want to be doing in group play is buffing your side and debuffing the enemy. Thus deep fissue and some players preferring corrupting pollen to budding seeds.

Early on it's not so important but I mention it because it's useful to realise how much it's about the buff/debuffs as you level up.

When levelling I always get arctic wind as soon as I can for solo play. It's not that useful as a group healer skill but for solo it and the bear are both very very handy.

Homek · November 2020

So, what i get from your answers is:

Get a destruction staff (with whatever element he likes) and a mixture of destruction staff and beastcaller skills (both use Magicka) on one bar, and a restoration staff with a mixture of restoration and Green Balance skills for the second bar.

Armor would be light (for the passives i guess), with Magicka enchantments and a matching Mundus stone.

And look out for buffing and debuffing. Sounds fine to me, many thanks you two :-D

Thraben · November 2020

Homek wrote: »

Or if you play the questing bar with the same armor as a Magicka char or is a Stamina DPS better suited for single player gameplay?

Stamwardens are basically better suited for everything, including healing.

You need 3 skills for it:

Nature's embrace -> Soothing spores -> Vigor

There are only 2 reasons why people prefer MagWardens:

1) Buffs and Buff sets are better with Magicka
2) Budding Seeds.

In every other aspect, a StamWarden is a better healer and most definitely a better duo partner.

etchedpixels · November 2020

The general rule is

Tank: Heavy armour buffs health and damage taken reduction

Stamina: Medium armour buffs stamina, weapon damage and weapon critical

Magicka: Light armour as it buffs magicka, spell damage and spell critical

Some of this comes from the skill line passives, some from the sets. The set parts are not cast in stone - many craftable sets let you put things like health/armour buffers on light or medium armour, or weapon critical on heavy and so on. You can also somewhat subvert the behaviour by putting say heavy armour types on rings/necklaces/weapons not your actual armour.

When levelling mix and match. If you die a lot add a couple of heavy pieces where it makes the most difference (chest for example), if you want to do more damage add a bit of medium etc. Full sets do matter but as you level your sets keep going obsolete so it's a lot of work to keep them up unless you have a friendly guild crafter, and you don' t need full sets for overland/questing.

Two useful things to know

1. Wearing 3 pieces of an armour type gives you the skill line, and you can then just swap your armour back, so do that early for each.
2. Having at least 1 piece of a type worn means you'll bump that skill line up as you play, so wear at least one bit of each type when levelling so you end up with the skill lines levelled even if you don't use skill points in them.

Recapitated · November 2020

Maybe more information than you're ready for.

DPS/support bar:

Bear ulti, especially if your healer doesn't plan on swapping bars. Otherwise just put Healing Thicket on both bars for simplicity.
1/ Deep Fissure: When playing DPS it's essential to use it every 3 seconds, it's a hard-hitting AOE. It will help when lots of adds are around to reduce resistances.
2/ Unstable Wall of Elements triggers your staff glyph and does good damage.
3/ Fetcher Infection gives Minor Vulnerability, a unique debuff that you as a DK tank can't provide. It can be morphed for extra DPS but it's not a priority. Since it lasts ten seconds like Unstable you don't have to juggle two different timers.
4/ Gripping Shards gives you nice crowd control for keeping adds inside your AOEs. Arctic Blast is a self-heal alternative. Both proc the Glacial Presence passive to increase enemy damage taken.
5/ Betty Netch is free Magicka. Major Sorcery helps your heals and your damage.
No spammable, just use heavy attacks as filler.

Heals bar:

- Healing Thicket is a cheap ulti option to have when things go wrong.
1/ Combat Prayer is a spammable heal that helps your team's damage and resistance.
2/ Radiating Regen and 3/ Illustrious Healing are long heals over time that should always be up.
4/ Enchanted Growth is an expensive burst heal. That's nice to have when things get out of hand but shouldn't be crutched on.
5/ Expansive Frost Cloak saves your group the trouble of slotting a resistance buff.

You want to use both Netch and Cloak, and you can keep things simple by putting them in the same spot on different bars. For DPS, the rotation looks like this - I like having the skills on my bar in the order I use them...

Fissure > Netch > (bar swap) Cloak (bar swap) >      { Prebuff 
Fissure > Wall > Fetch > Grip >  /
Fissure > HA >                       {  Main loop
Fissure > HA >                        \
Fissure > Wall > Fetch > Grip >  /
Fissure > HA >                  {  Main loop
Fissure > HA >                   \

As a general rule, you layer your DOTs and use short filler skills to do something with the remaining space.

The "rotation" for healing is just keep Cloak and Netch up. Also always have Illustrious and Rapid Regen on your team (who should be trying not to run around too much so they stay in your heals). Combat Prayer at least once every 8 seconds. Enchanted Growth if Combat Prayer isn't enough, and ulti if things are going really badly. If you really want a rotation it can mirror the one for DPS.

Combat > Cloak > (bar swap) Netch (bar swap) > { Prebuff
Combat > Illustrious > Radiating /
Combat > HA >                   {  Main loop
Combat > HA >                    \
Combat > Illustrious > Radiating /
Combat > HA >                   {  Main loop
Combat > HA >                    \

The way we've done this the button presses for the two rotations are exactly the same. The only difference is which bar you start on, and there's one less press in the heal rotation.

Your friend should make it a goal to get used to bar swapping. Here is an easy rotation that is just a mix of the two above:

Fissure > Netch > (bar swap) Cloak {debuff adds and prebuff
Combat > Illustrious > Radiating (bar swap) /
Fissure > Wall > Fetch > Grip >            {  Main loop
Combat > HA >                               \
Combat > Illustrious > Radiating (bar swap) /
Fissure > Wall > Fetch > Grip >            {  Main loop
Combat > HA >                               \

---

- I actually think a lightning staff is more comfortable for questing and heavy attacking.
- Savage Beast, Flourish, Accelerated Growth, Maturation, Glacial Presence and Piercing Cold are the most important Warden passives for your purposes. Skip all the others as your friend will level the skill lines faster with more skills on their bars.
- All destruction staff passives are important.
- The first three resto staff passives are pretty important.
- In the long run your friend will have to adjust their heals to the pace of the fight, having a rotation keeps things simple early on.

What server are you on? I can craft your friends some stuff.