[Archived] Warden’s Apprentice – Magicka Warden PvE Build

[ARCHIVED]: This build has been archived, which means it is no longer being updated. However, this web-page will be left up for those who still would like to refer to it.

Build Written By: Dottz Gaming – PC NA

Role: Damage Dealer

Patch: Wolfhunter

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Setup
   1. Gear
   2. Attributes
   3. Skills
   4. Vampire vs. Werewolf vs. Mortal
   5. Champion Points
   6. Other Important Info (Food, Mundus, Race, Potions, Passives)
3. Resource Management & Rotation
4. Contact Info
5. Update Log

Introduction

Welcome to DottzGaming.com’s Magicka Warden DPS PvE Pet Build, the Warden’s Apprentice, for the Elder Scrolls Online! This build is intended for group play (veteran and normal dungeons) and solo adventuring! You can modify the build for harder veteran dungeons and trials, and these changes are noted in the skills section of the build.  This build is catered toward someone new to the Elder Scrolls Online who is looking for a solid build to get started with.  This build will not only perform well in solo PvE and dungeons (which is the primary content of many players), but will easy to pick up and use.  The rotation is simple, the gear isn’t overly difficult to acquire, and you’ll really be able to learn how to use your Magicka Warden with this build!

This is a theorycrafted build and has NOT been tested yet.  This means it is not fully optimized and tuned yet, but is the blueprint for the build and explains the thought process behind it.

Setup

Gear

Note: You can feel free to replace the back bar Julianos staff on the final build setup with a vMA staff once you acquire one (Shock recommended).

Attributes

All points into Magicka.

Skills

Main Bar – Fire Staff: Screaming Cliff Racer, Deep Fissure, Winter’s Revenge, Growing Swarm, Elemental Blockade, Eternal Guardian

Back Bar – Fire Staff: Blue Betty, Ice Fortress, Lotus Blossom, Enchanted Growth, Harness Magicka , Eternal Guardian

NOTE: Your front bar is for damage, and your back bar is for buffs and healing.  This is to make a very easy delineation between the bars’ purposes, making it easier for a new player to understand when they should be on either bar.

Trials Setup:  Eventually, you might find yourself wanting to use a more trials focused setup if you decide that’s the type of content you want to do.  On the other hand, if you already have the basics for Magicka Warden under your belt, you may be looking for something more advanced to bring into a trials environment. This build can easily be changed to a viable trials build with just a few tweaks to the skills:

• Place Inner Light on both your front and back bar, removing Enchanted Growth and Lotus Blossom, and moving Elemental blockade to your back bar.
• Remove Screaming Cliff Racer and replace it with Force Pulse to maintain a destruction staff ability on your front bar (since we moved Blockade to the back bar).
  • You could also just use Force Pulse instead of Cliff Racer if you aren’t a fan of Cliff Racer.
• Remove Ice Fortress and replace it with Channeled Acceleration from the Psijic Order skill line, which will give your character access to the minor force buff. If you don’t have access to Summerset, use Rearming Trap here instead.
• Fetcher Infection: If you feel you have enough AoE and want better single target damage, replacing Growing Swarm with Fetcher infection will increase your single target DPS.

Vampire vs. Werewolf vs. Mortal

You are playing a vampire for this build.  I feel that when playing a magicka warden in PvE, at least from my experiences in veteran dungeons, the benefits from having vampirism outweigh the negatives.  It isn’t mandatory, but I use it.

Champion Points

CHAMPION POINT 780 SETUP

THE MAGE (BLUE)

• Elfborn – 56
• Elemental Expert – 56
• Spell Erosion – 39
• Staff Expert – 16
• Master-at-Arms – 56
• Thaumaturge – 37

THE THIEF (GREEN)

• Warlord – 66
• Arcanist – 75
• Tenacity – 56
• Tumbling – 37
• Shadow Ward – 26

THE WARRIOR (RED)

• Ironclad –  66
• Spell Shield – 39
• Hardy – 43
• Elemental Defender – 43
• Thick Skinned – 56
• Bastion – 13

CHAMPION POINT 300 SETUP

THE MAGE (BLUE)

• Elfborn – 23
• Elemental Expert – 32
• Spell Erosion – 6
• Thaumaturge – 16
• Master-at-Arms – 23

THE THIEF (GREEN)

• Arcanist –  49
• Tenacity – 49
• Warlord – 2

THE WARRIOR (RED)

• Ironclad –  23
• Hardy – 23
• Elemental Defender -23
• Thick Skinned – 23
• Light Armor Focus – 8

Other Important Info

Buff Food

Witchmother’s Potent Brew – Maximum Health, Maximum Magicka, and Magicka Recovery

Mundus

Apprentice – Increased Spell Damage

Race

1. High Elf
2. Dark Elf
3. Breton
4. Nord

Potions

Any potions that give magicka restoration

Passives

Class (all), Light Armor (all), Heavy Armor (all except the ones that require you to wear 5 pieces), Medium Armor (all except the ones that require you to wear 5 pieces), Destruction Staff (all), Vampire (all except Blood Ritual and Savage Feeding), Undaunted (all), Racial (all), Fighter’s Guild (Banish the Wicked), Alchemy (Medicinal Use)

Resource Management & Rotation

One of the biggest things I have found with brand new players is they struggle with a rotation.  Because of this, it was my goal to make the rotation of this build as easy as humanly possible.  The rotation below assumes your starting a fight un-buffed.

Start on your back bar
Blue Betty > Light Attack > Ice Fortress > Light Attack > Lotus Blossom > Bar Swap > Winter’s Revenge > Light Attack > Growing Swarm > Light Attack > Elemental Blockade > Light Attack > Deep Fissure > Light Attack > Screaming Cliff Racer > Light Attack > Screaming Cliff Racer > Light Attack > Winter’s Revenge > Light Attack > Growing Swarm > Light Attack > Elemental Blockade > Light Attack > Deep Fissure > Light Attack > Screaming Cliff Racer > Light Attack > Screaming Cliff Racer > Repeat.

You may be looking at that and thinking “that does not look simple at all!”, I’ll break it down even easier. Assuming you have your skills placed on your bars exactly like I have them shown, you start on your back bar, press 1, 2, 3, swap to your front bar, 3, 4, 5, use your 2 and get in two 1 attacks, and then do the front bar rotation a second time: 3, 4, 5, press 2 and get in two 1 attacks.  Then, you just start the full thing over.  Since the buffs on the back bar are so long, I think you should be able to get in two full rotations on the front bar before needing to refresh the back bar buffs.

Contact

If you have any questions about the build, join our discord server and ask @Dottz about the build!

Update Log

1/22/2018 – Build created.
2/12/2018 – CP Updated
4/10/2018 – Alternate abilities added and back-bar staff changed to fire
5/23/2018 – CP and Gear updated for Summerset
7/10/2018 – Trials skills section updated
8/13/2018 – CP updated for Wolfhunter