Mag Warden - on paper (question)

Snowy_Wyndra_Karn · November 2022

Hello...

Without testing... just as an on paper kind of thing... now that I'm an ice mage, what are your thoughts?

1 full 5 piece set - front and back (Medusa, because I don't have Tzovgin)
Harpooner's Wading Kilt
1 Master's Ice Staff - front
1 Maelstrom Ice Staff - back
1 Monster Ser - Nunatak
2 random pieces (Order's Wrath) to slightly boost crit chance

All for PVE

Thanks

WrathOfInnos · November 2022

The problem with Medusa is that you would be forced to run at least 2 pieces of heavy armor, which leaves only 4 light (with the medium kilt). You would have better results going with 5 Whorl of the Depths (the best frost damage set), or even 5 Frostbite. 5 Order's Wrath could also work. IMO there's no reason to use Tzog or Medusa with Barbed Trap being so strong.

dmnqwk · November 2022

No. Here's a bit of reference to aid you:

1. Relequen set will provide you approximately 9% damage
2. Backbar Nirn set will provide you approximately 6% damage, plus Haemorrage procs (hard to judge with bear of course) that should be 2-3%.
3. Medusa will provide 6% damage if you have 100% crit and 125% crit damage, the absolute MOST it brings to the mix.
4. Kjalnar, the monster set I'm mostly wearing, provides about 5-6%. I haven't tested Zaan much for comparison and Stormfist is only on my hybrid tanks so it's not worth comparing.

Already you can deduce that Medusa is useless versus Relequen or Nirn. Whorl is comparable to Rele, around 8% or so but I have less experiencing remembering the numbers since only my Templar wears it atm.

If you don't want to farm/use fancy sets, then do the following:
1. Equip Back-Alley Gourmand
2. Equip Order's Wrath
3. Equip Stormfist monster set, since it's so easy to obtain
4. Give up with Maelstrom and DEFINITELY give up Master's staff.

For the cheap/starter setup you can give Back-Alley Gourmand and Order's Wrath a try.
Gourmand and Wrath combine to grant you 16.3% crit and 21% crit dmg, plus 258 spell dmg. If you get 20% from animal companion passives to crit dmg you're gonna be looking at hitting 65% crit, 100% crit dmg (before barbed trap). If you wore the Kilt on top of this you could be 75% crit, 125% crit dmg with trap out. Is it top damage? No, you'd be better off wearing Whorl of the Depths and Pillar of Nirn, but it's better in overland and easy dungeons where burst beats longevity.

WrathOfInnos · November 2022

dmnqwk wrote: »

No. Here's a bit of reference to aid you:

1. Relequen set will provide you approximately 9% damage
2. Backbar Nirn set will provide you approximately 6% damage, plus Haemorrage procs (hard to judge with bear of course) that should be 2-3%.
3. Medusa will provide 6% damage if you have 100% crit and 125% crit damage, the absolute MOST it brings to the mix.
4. Kjalnar, the monster set I'm mostly wearing, provides about 5-6%. I haven't tested Zaan much for comparison and Stormfist is only on my hybrid tanks so it's not worth comparing.

Already you can deduce that Medusa is useless versus Relequen or Nirn. Whorl is comparable to Rele, around 8% or so but I have less experiencing remembering the numbers since only my Templar wears it atm.

If you don't want to farm/use fancy sets, then do the following:
1. Equip Back-Alley Gourmand
2. Equip Order's Wrath
3. Equip Stormfist monster set, since it's so easy to obtain
4. Give up with Maelstrom and DEFINITELY give up Master's staff.

For the cheap/starter setup you can give Back-Alley Gourmand and Order's Wrath a try.
Gourmand and Wrath combine to grant you 16.3% crit and 21% crit dmg, plus 258 spell dmg. If you get 20% from animal companion passives to crit dmg you're gonna be looking at hitting 65% crit, 100% crit dmg (before barbed trap). If you wore the Kilt on top of this you could be 75% crit, 125% crit dmg with trap out. Is it top damage? No, you'd be better off wearing Whorl of the Depths and Pillar of Nirn, but it's better in overland and easy dungeons where burst beats longevity.

Some good advice here, but I don't agree with all of it.

Master's Perfect Ice Staff is a good choice for single target fights if you are on brittle duty. 700 spell damage is significant, and you should be casting Frost Reach every 4s anyway for 100% minor brittle uptime. Front bar Master also allows for back bar Whorl staff, and you keep the Minor Slayer on both bars.

Maelstrom staff is not the best for single target damage, but it us great for area damage. You don't need both this and Master's, but for trash and fights with cleave it is worth using Maelstrom back bar and Whorl front bar.

I find Pillar of Nirn to be overrated on Magicka builds. The proc damage is pretty good, at 6-7% DPS, but the 1pc max stamina contributes nothing to damage which ends up being about 2% DPS loss compared to the 2-4pc bonuses of many other sets. I could see an argument for Pillar if there were no other back bar set options, but Whorl already fills that role perfectly, so a 2nd 5pc set can be worn on armor/jewelry and things like Order's Wrath or Kinras perform better.

Don't get me wrong, Pillar is excellent on builds like Stam Sorc and Stamcro, but it loses it's edge on Max Mag stacking builds that don't need a back bar set.

Stormfist, Zaan and Kjalnar are all similar damage, but IMO it's better to go with Kilt + 1pc Slimecraw in most encounters (some fights will eat your Kilt stacks, so monster set pulls ahead).

Zodiarkslayer · November 2022

I think the warden has to be very flexible with its set choices in PvE! More than the other classes. All thanks to the advanced species passive and its crit bonus. Even if you do not use wings, netch and birds as the spammable you will have at least 12% additional crit damage, because bear, flies and shalks are too strong to not run.

So, what sets you wear is greatly depending on the abilities you run as a warden. And obviously what buffs and debuffs your teammates provide.

As a rule of thumb Masters Ice Staff frontbar and Whorl backbar is a great combination for any content. But the second set, mythic and monster sets are very tricky to choose. In a trial group as a frost warden you will easily be over the 125% crit cap if you run Kilt and Order's Wrath together. Depending on your healer and tanks you might be even at or close to the cap without both.

And how many stam abilitties you run directly impacts how much stam sustain you want, i.e. how many medium armor pieces you need or can afford without loosing too much penetration, to be 100% of the time at that cap.
Relequen is an option, but there is the double minor slayer now. Pillar is also subperb in a trial. But it is typically the backbar set. So where goes Whorl now?

And then we haven't even talked about 4 man groups or even SOLO PvE.

Wardens have to be really flexible. 🙄