Warden

PvE DPS GUIDE

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Warden is a low-key powerhouse. Beneath its gentle, nature-loving demeanour lies a beast who skewers their enemies in ice and summons giant bears and bugs to pulverise them. Scorch hits like a truck, smashing everything in its path, while Feral Guardian outperforms most ultimates over long fights with constant damage and a built-in execute. Warden also has some of the coolest visual effects in the game, and clever interactions between class abilities which keep it interesting to play. Glacial Presence and Piercing Cold make it uniquely effective at Frost Damage and applying the Minor Brittle debuff, without making this the only way to play the class.

KEY PASSIVES

An 8% damage boost is pretty juicy, and so long as we include ANY Frost Damage in our rotation this passive should automatically get 100% uptime.

This makes Minor Brittle much easier to maintain and turns our Chilled ticks into a regular and major source of damage, rewarding us for stacking Frost abilities even when Brittle is not needed.

Equivalent to other class ultigen passives, this provides an extra incentive to use Animal Companions abilities. Sadly, the cooldown does not line up with any of our abilities, but at least it is easy to trigger.

This helps us reach the 125% Critical Damage cap more easily than other classes without things like the Kilt or Backstabber. The option to raise or lower the bonus on demand can also be useful.

Recent Changes

    • Weapon passives changed to shrink the gap between different weapon types.

    • Long Shots renamed Vinedusk Training, changed to a universal damage bonus.

    • Bonuses from Twin Blade & Blunt and Heavy Weapons reduced slightly.

    • Ancient Knowledge changed to boost damage types based on type of staff equipped.

    • Tri Focus restricted to the final tick of fully charged Lightning Heavy Attacks, rather than any tick.

    • Merciless Charge changed to increase all direct damage for 18s after casting Critical Charge.

    • 0.5s cooldown and 30% ramping damage per target added to Azureblight, base damage reduced.

    • Warchief, Battlereeve and General monster sets added to Cyrodiil.

    • Sourcing of Craglorn trial sets adjusted to fix curation.

    • Improved death notifications added to PvP areas.

    • Hundreds of bug fixes for quests, sets, items, companions etc.

    • Scorch fixed (apparently) to work against enemies with very large hitboxes (e.g. Taleria).

    • Arcanist class added.

    • Velothi Ur-Mage’s Amulet set added.

    • Default melee attack range increased from 5 to 7 meters.

    • Spectral Cloak changed to activate only when in combat.

    • Plaguebreak changed to apply only to enemy players.

    • Empower bonus reduced to 70% from 80%.

    • Cutting Dive DOT changed to apply on every cast, regardless of Off-Balance.

    • Shimmering Shield cost increased and shield reduced by 33%. Magicka gain replaced with Ultimate.

    • Resource gain removed from Crystallized Slab, damage reduced by 33%. Magicka restore changed to Ultimate.

    • Major Berserk added to Wrecking Blow.

    • Jewelry damage glyphs hybridised. Stamina/Magicka Recovery added.

    • Runecarver’s Blaze and Ozezan the Inferno sets added.

    • Light Attack scaling increased, but base damage capped at 3,850 for melee, 3,465 for ranged.

    • Taunt added to single target pull abilities and procs when target is not already taunted.

    • Taunt immunity changed to activate only after 5 taunts from 2 players.

    • Pearls of Ehlnofey ultimate gain reduced from 5 to 3. Resource threshold raised from 30% to 50%.

    • Elemental Susceptibility fixed so Major Breach no longer overrides the ability.

    • Harmony trait changed to restore resources rather than boost synergies.

    • Advanced Species changed again, from penetration to Critical Damage.

    • Glacial Presence changed to increase damage done by Chilled. Critical Damage/Healing bonus removed.

    • Piercing Cold changed to a 2% bonus to all damage done, increasing to 12% with a Frost Staff equipped.

    • Syrabane’s Ward and Back-Alley Gourmand sets added.

    • Target marker system added.

    • Elemental Drain duration increased from 23 to 60 seconds.

    • Elemental Susceptibility changed to apply Burning, Chilled and Concussed every 6s. Duration reduced to 30s.

    • Volley fixed to scale dynamically and not solely with Weapon Critical.

    • Healing from Vigor reduced by 10%.

    • Occult Overload damage reduced by 60%, now applies a random status effect.

Magicka

No setup is perfect everywhere. Check your tooltips regularly and tweak your setups depending on the group and the content.

SLOT ITEM TRAIT ENCHANTMENT
Head Selene's Guise Divines Magicka
Shoulders Selene's Epaulets Divines Magicka
Chest Relequen's Jack Divines Magicka
Hands Relequen's Bracers Divines Magicka
Waist Relequen's Belt Divines Magicka
Legs Relequen's Guards Divines Magicka
Feet Relequen's Boots Divines Magicka
Necklace Velothi Ur-Mage's Amulet Bloodthirsty Damage
Ring False God's Ring* Bloodthirsty Damage
Ring False God's Ring* Bloodthirsty Damage
Front Bar Main Hand The Master's Ice Staff Charged Poison/Frost
Front Bar Off Hand - - -
Back Bar Main Hand The Maelstrom's Greatsword Infused Weapon Damage
Back Bar Off Hand - - -

  • Perfected gear is NOT needed. The bonuses are nice to have, but small.

  • 2 x Light is recommended. It depends on your sustain, penetration and Critical Damage.

  • Use ANY set with a 2-piece Critical Chance bonus to fill the gap in the setup. False God’s is recommended only because the Perfected version is automatically gold when reconstructed, and as a Light set it gives us more flexibility with Armor weights.

  • A Maelstrom Inferno Staff back bar deals less damage, but works very well. Double Frost Staves also work, but this makes sustain harder and deals slightly less damage. Also, Brittle uptimes are so high already that it shouldn’t be needed.

CHAMPION POINTS

Deadly Aim - Exploiter - Master-at-Arms - Wrathful Strikes

These are for when Off-Balance, Brittle, Catalyst, Alkosh/Crimson and all necessary buffs/debuffs are provided.

Outside of these conditions, use Backstabber and/or Fighting Finesse to reach the 125% Critical Damage cap, and Force of Nature to meet the 18,200 penetration cap (adjusting Medium-to-Light Armor ratio also helps). If Off-Balance is not being triggered on cooldown, drop Exploiter and slot Thaumaturge to boost your DOTs instead.

FOOD & POTIONS

Ghastly Eye Bowl

Increase Max Magicka by 4936 and Magicka Recovery by 493 for 2 hours.

"Eyeballs" and live worms in a chilled banana and fleshfly broth. Squirms inside all the way down!

Drink > Delicacies
Worms, Fleshfly Larva, Bananas, Rose

Essence of Spell Power

Grants Major Sorcery which increases your Spell Damage by 20% for 47.6 seconds.

Grants Major Prophecy which gives you 2629 Spell Critical Rating for 47.6 seconds.

Restore 7582 Magicka immediately.
Grants you Major Intellect which increases your Magicka Recovery by 30% for 47.6 seconds (45s cooldown).

Corn Flower
Lady's Smock
Namira's Rot / Water Hyacinth

+

These are recommended for practice and easy content. Other options include:

Max-level Fruit recipes for maximum Magicka
Crunchy Spider Skewer for Magicka + Stamina Recovery

Max-level Savoury recipes for Health + Magicka
Witchmother’s Potent Brew for Health + Magicka + Magicka Recovery
Clockwork Citrus Filet for Health + Health Recovery + Magicka + Magicka Recovery
Bewitched Sugar Skulls for Health + Magicka + Stamina

Essence of Weapon Power for Major Brutality + Savagery + Endurance
Tri Restoration Potion for Major Fortitude + Intellect + Endurance

Essence of Heroism for Major Intellect + Endurance and Minor Heroism
(very expensive and very rarely needed)

ABILITIES

Front Bar: Subterranean Assault, Barbed Trap, Frost Reach, Elemental Susceptibility, Blue Betty, Wild Guardian

Back Bar: Stampede, Arctic Blast, Winter’s Revenge, Fetcher Infection, Carve, Wild Guardian

STATIC ROTATION
130k DPS

The Netch now buffs our damage by 5% every 5 seconds, so long as the auto-dispel is not triggered. This means better Magicka sustain without having to use Cutting Dive, which in turn improves Stamina sustain as well. Damage is also slightly higher!

We still need Stamina Recovery food with the Maelstrom 2H, but you can swap to Ghastly Eye Bowl and a Maelstrom Inferno with only a small DPS loss. This small change makes Magicka Warden easier to play and more effective in content. There are still a lot of DOTs to juggle, but the 6s rhythm makes it easier to keep track of everything. Keep all your DOTs rolling, never let Carve expire and avoid more than a few seconds downtime on the Netch.

Prebuff with Netch, Assault, Blast, Trap, and Guardian (skip Assault, Trap and Blast in the opening sequence).

Stampede is paired up with Blast every 18s to ease bar swaps. Revenge, Carve and Susceptibility must be recast on cooldown, and you can do the same with other DOTs for extra DPS. If Magicka sustain is very tight, replace a few Reach casts with Susceptibility early on in the fight. Nothing changes in execute - just line up your DOTs and in the last 5s spam Reach until the target is dead. Enjoy!

SLOT ITEM TRAIT ENCHANTMENT
Head Prior Thierric's Mask Divines Magicka
Shoulders Prior Thierric's Epaulets Divines Magicka
Chest Jack of Sul-Xan’s Torment Divines Magicka
Hands Burning Spellweave Gloves Divines Magicka
Waist Burning Spellweave Sash Divines Magicka
Legs Burning Spellweave Breeches Divines Magicka
Feet Burning Spellweave Shoes Divines Magicka
Necklace Velothi Ur-Mage's Amulet Bloodthirsty Damage
Ring Ring of Sul-Xan’s Torment Bloodthirsty Damage
Ring Ring of Sul-Xan’s Torment Bloodthirsty Damage
Front Bar Main Hand Ice Staff of Sul-Xan’s Torment Nirn/Precise Absorb Stamina
Front Bar Off Hand - - -
Back Bar Main Hand Burning Spellweave Inferno Staff Infused Weapon Damage
Back Bar Off Hand - - -

  • Perfected gear is NOT needed. The bonuses are nice to have, but small.

  • 3-5 x Light is recommended. It depends on your sustain, penetration and Critical Damage.

  • For important nukes, you can use Acuity, Elf-Bane and Balorgh.

  • Other useful monster sets include Grothdarr, Stormfist, Kra’gh and Skoria, depending on what you need.

CHAMPION POINTS

Biting Aura - Exploiter - Master-at-Arms - Wrathful Strikes

The best choices depend on your group and how long the fight lasts. Use Backstabber if you are below the crit cap (or Fighting Finesse if you cannot flank). Drop Exploiter if no one in your group is triggering Off-Balance consistently. And if trash pulls are lasting longer, DOTs will provide a higher proportion of your damage and Thaumaturge may be worth slotting.

ABILITIES

Front Bar: Subterranean Assault, Bird of Prey, Frost Pulsar, Camouflaged Hunter, Inner Light, Flawless Dawnbreaker

Back Bar: Blockade of Fire, Winter’s Revenge, Anti-Cavalry Caltrops, Proximity Detonation, Arctic Blast, Shooting Star/Fiery Rage

Stamina

No setup is perfect everywhere. Check your tooltips regularly and tweak your setups depending on the group and the content.

SLOT ITEM TRAIT ENCHANTMENT
Head Selene’s Mask Divines Stamina
Shoulders Selene's Epaulets Divines Stamina
Chest Relequen's Jack Divines Stamina
Hands Relequen's Bracers Divines Stamina
Waist Relequen's Belt Divines Stamina
Legs Relequen’s Guards Divines Stamina
Feet Relequen's Boots Divines Stamina
Necklace Aegis Caller Necklace Bloodthirsty Damage
Ring Aegis Caller Ring Bloodthirsty Damage
Ring Aegis Caller Ring Bloodthirsty Damage
Front Bar Main Hand Aegis Caller Dagger Charged Flame
Front Bar Off Hand Aegis Caller Dagger Charged Poison
Back Bar Main Hand The Maelstrom’s Greatsword Infused Weapon Damage
Back Bar Off Hand - - -

  • Perfected gear is NOT needed. The bonuses are nice to have, but small.

  • 1 x Light is recommended. It depends on your sustain, penetration and Critical Damage.

  • You can swap Aegis for Nirn or Whorl according to situation or preference.

  • To add a Mythic such as Coil to this setup, use 1 x Slimecraw and one of your primary sets on the head/shoulder.

CHAMPION POINTS

Deadly Aim - Exploiter - Master-at-Arms - Wrathful Strikes

These are for when Off-Balance, Brittle, Catalyst, Alkosh/Crimson and all necessary buffs/debuffs are provided.

Outside of these conditions, use Backstabber and/or Fighting Finesse to reach the 125% Critical Damage cap, and Force of Nature to meet the 18,200 penetration cap (adjusting Medium-to-Light Armor ratio also helps). If Off-Balance is not being triggered on cooldown, drop Exploiter and slot Thaumaturge to boost your DOTs instead.

FOOD & POTIONS

Lava Foot Soup-And-Saltrice

Increase Max Stamina by 4936 and Stamina Recovery by 493 for 2 hours.

A seasonal meal enjoyed during the New Life Festival. A good serving of this Dark Elf meal keeps the scrib on the surface of the broth.

Food > Delicacies
Saltrice, Flour, Potato, Scrib Jelly

Essence of Weapon Power

Grants Major Brutality which increases your Weapon Damage by 20% for 47.6 seconds.

Grants Major Savagery which gives you 2629 Weapon Critical Rating for 47.6 seconds.

Restore 7582 Stamina immediately.
Grants you Major Endurance which increases your Stamina Recovery by 30% for 47.6 seconds (45s cooldown).

Blessed Thistle
Dragonthorn
Water Hyacinth / Wormwood

+

These are recommended for practice and easy content. Other options include:

Max-level Vegetable recipes for maximum Stamina
Lava Foot Soup-and-Saltrice for Stamina + Stamina Recovery
Candied Jester’s Coins for Stamina + Magicka Recovery

Max-level Ragout recipes for Health + Stamina
Dubious Camoran Throne for Health + Stamina + Stamina Recovery
Artaeum Takeaway Broth for Health + Health Recovery + Stamina + Stamina Recovery
Bewitched Sugar Skulls for Health + Magicka + Stamina

Essence of Weapon Power for Major Brutality + Savagery + Endurance
Essence of Spell Power for Major Sorcery + Prophecy + Intellect
Tri Restoration Potion for Major Intellect + Endurance + Fortitude

Essence of Heroism for Major Intellect + Endurance and Minor Heroism
(very expensive and very rarely needed)

ABILITIES

Front Bar: Subterranean Assault, Barbed Trap, Rapid Strikes, Winter’s Revenge, Camouflaged Hunter, Wild Guardian

Back Bar: Stampede, Arctic Blast, Fetcher Infection, Bull Netch / Executioner, Carve, Wild Guardian

STATIC ROTATION
130-132k DPS

Netch is now worth using on the Stamina Warden, not because it directly increases our damage (in fact, no Executioner and fewer spams means DPS is about the same) but because it makes Riptide much easier to use. The single target gains are small, but in multi-target fights it will matter more, plus the Netch lets us run bi-stat food much more easily than before.

All-round damage is solid and the rotation is pretty easy. It can also be adapted to work with Bows and various other setups. Prebuff with Netch, Assault, Blast, Trap, and Guardian (skip Assault, Trap and Blast in the opening sequence).

Keep the rotation as static or dynamic as you like. You can absolutely squeeze out more damage by optimising all casts, but Rapid Strikes makes it tricky to do and this rotation feels close to the sweet spot for damage and ease of use.

Recast Assault every 6s, Stampede every 18s, keep up Revenge and Netch on cooldown and activate Guardian the instant it is ready. You can push a little higher by maximising damage during Off Balance phases. Nothing changes in execute until the last 6-8s. Then cast one final Assault and spam Strikes (or Executioner if you have it on the back bar) until the target is dead. Enjoy!

SLOT ITEM TRAIT ENCHANTMENT
Head Slimecraw’s Guise Divines Stamina
Shoulders Burning Spellweave Epaulets Divines Stamina
Chest Jack of Sul-Xan’s Torment Divines Stamina
Hands Bracers of Sul-Xan’s Torment Divines Stamina
Waist Belt of Sul-Xan’s Torment Divines Stamina
Legs Guards of Sul-Xan’s Torment Divines Stamina
Feet Boots of of Sul-Xan’s Torment Divines Stamina
Necklace Velothi Ur-Mage's Amulet Bloodthirsty Damage
Ring Burning Spellweave Ring Bloodthirsty Damage
Ring Burning Spellweave Ring Bloodthirsty Damage
Front Bar Main Hand The Master’s Greatsword Nirnhoned Absorb Stamina
Front Bar Off Hand - - -
Back Bar Main Hand Burning Spellweave Inferno Staff Infused Weapon Damage
Back Bar Off Hand - - -

  • Perfected gear is NOT needed. The bonuses are nice to have, but small.

  • 1-2 x Light is recommended. It depends on your sustain, penetration and Critical Damage.

  • You can swap Slimecraw for a Stormfist, Kra’gh or Skoria 1-piece, depending on what you need.

  • Hitting the penetration cap of 18,200 in trash pulls is important. Using a Sharpened Master’s Maul on the front bar, upgrading to the Perfected version and wearing more Light pieces are some of the things you can do to get there.

CHAMPION POINTS

Biting Aura - Exploiter - Master-at-Arms - Wrathful Strikes

The best choices depend on your group and how long the fight lasts. Use Backstabber if you are below the crit cap (or Fighting Finesse if you cannot flank). Drop Exploiter if no one in your group is triggering Off-Balance consistently. And if trash pulls are lasting longer, DOTs will provide a higher proportion of your damage and Thaumaturge may be worth slotting.

ABILITIES

Front Bar: Subterranean Assault, Reverse Slice, Carve, Stampede, Bird of Prey, Flawless Dawnbreaker

Back Bar: Blockade of Fire, Winter’s Revenge, Anti-Cavalry Caltrops, Proximity Detonation, Arctic Blast, Shooting Star / Fiery Rage

Recent Changes

Update 44

  • Banner Bearer Grimoire introduced.

  • Azureblight Reaper set reworked. Base damage reduced, scaling damage per target massively increased.

  • Critical strike chance removed from Pyrebrand set. Damage adjusted.

  • Golden Pursuits and 2-sided Battlegrounds introduced.

  • Imperial City Keys and Vaults system replaced with Imperial Fragments and merchants.

Warden

  • Glacial Presence passive changed to increase Chilled chance from any source.

Update 43

  • Spattering Disjunction, Pyrebrand, Corpseburster, Umbral Edge, Beacon of Oblivion, Aetheric Lance & Aerie’s Cry sets added.

  • Curation added to dungeon-specific Undaunted Monster set shoulder coffers.

  • Undeath passive damage reduction lowered to 15% from 30%.

  • New arenas, bosses, Verses and Visions added to Infinite Archive.

  • Various Scribing tooltips tweaked, Affix Script compatibility increased.

  • Home Tours introduced.

Warden

  • Arctic Blast initial hit changed to either heal OR deal damage, not both.

  • Piercing Cold reworked to grant damage OR survivability based on max Health.

Gold Road (Update 42)

  • Scribing and Skill Styling systems introduced

  • Lucent Echoes and Highland Sentinel sets added.

  • Gradual Ravage Health potions fixed to not trigger item sets.

  • Various damage reduction effects fixed to be multiplicative rather than additive.

  • Mages Guild passive Everlasting Magic duration increased changed from 20% to 2s.

  • Delay added to Rush of Agony proc, range increased from 10m to 12m.

  • Various Werewolf abilities tweaked to increase its general effectives in PvE.

Warden

  • 5% damage done added to Betty Netch (and morphs) when auto-dispel is not triggered.

Scions of Ithelia (Update 41)

  • Status Effects system overhauled, bringing them closer together in power.

    • Burning damage reduced by 6%.

    • Chilled damage increased by 106%.

    • Concussed damage increased by 106%, plus 15% extra to recently Concussed enemies.

    • Diseased damage increased by 88%, AOE damage added.

    • Hemorrhaging damage reduced by 20%, stacking added, Mangle removed.

    • Overcharged damage increased by 106%, Magicka restore added.

    • Poisoned damage reduced by 30%, duration reduced, ramping execute added.

    • Sundered damage increased by 106%, bonus Weapon & Spell Damage added.

  • Charged trait reduced from 365% to 235% increased status effect chance.

  • Barbed Trap changed to apply Hemorrhaging only on the initial hit.

  • Guaranteed Sundered status effect added to Snipe.

  • Guaranteed Hemorrhaging status effect added to every tick of Lacerate.

  • Executioner changed from Physical to Bleed Damage.

  • Runecarver’s Blaze fixed to apply Burning more often; a significant damage increase.

  • Mantle of Siroria perfected bonus changed from Max Magicka to Weapon & Spell Damage.

  • Vitality and Defile changed to affect damage shield strength as well as healing.

  • Inner Rage cost reduced by 40%, damage reduced by 10%, multi-synergy added.

  • Inner Beast damage increased by 80%, Minor Vulnerability & Minor Maim added.

  • Torc of the Last Ayleid King Mythic introduced.

  • Rewards system updated for XP, gold and Undaunted Keys

  • Buff/debuff tray updated to track taunt stacks.

  • Unified repair kits and stackable siege weaponry introduced

  • Role Play and Story playstyle options added to the Group Finder.

Warden

  • Glacial Presence damage boost to Chilled decreased by 50% (due to status effect buffs).

  • Northern Storm damage increased by 50%, stat bonus changed to a stacking effect.

  • Permafrost tooltip damage decreased by 32% due to Chilled changes.