In the Flames of Ambition patch, Wardens are an excellent choice for all different types of playstyles, excelling in each role. Wardens have great versatility with abilities that help improve their sustain, movement speed, while reducing enemies resistances and dealing out great AOE and single target damage. If you like the type of class that can be a Jack-of-all-trades, one of these Warden builds might be just the pick for you.
You can navigate through this page for different builds that will help your Warden better dominate Tamriel, or give you the information you need to create and experiment with playing the Warden class. First we’ll go over the main group Warden playstyles, with magicka dps, stamina dps, tanking, and healing. Further down we’ll hit on the best solo builds for magicka and stamina characters, and finish off with how to optimize your Warden for PVP.
Looking for the best race choices for Warden? Checkout our list here.
The Best Warden Builds in ESO: The 8 Top Picks
Let’s get started on ESO’s best builds for the Warden, starting with the heavy hitting damage dealers.
1/8
PvE Dungeons / Trials (Group Content) – Magden DPS Build
Race: High Elf (or Khajiit / Dark Elf) | Mundus: Thief | Food: Solitude Salmon Millet Soup or Equivalent (5395 health, 4936 magicka) | Attributes: 64 Magicka
The Warden’s skillset synergizes really well with the magicka playstyle, dealing not only great single target dps, but amazing AOE to take down those large groups of enemies that can be overwhelming for other classes to take on. For Magdens we suggest using a High Elf for their great magicka stats, but other races like Khajiit and Dark Elf are neck and neck in terms of DPS. If sustain is an issue, using Breton can be a great option too, trading in a small amount of overall damage.
Skills
Main Bar (Flame Staff) | Second Bar (Flame Staff) |
---|---|
Screaming Cliff Racer (Spammable) | Unstable Wall of Elements |
Deep Fissure | Winter’s Revenge |
Fetcher Infection | Channeled Acceleration |
Inner Light | Blue Betty |
Bird of Prey | Mystic Orb |
Eternal Guardian (Ult) | Eternal Guardian (Ult) |
The Magicka Warden has a bizarre feeling rotation of skills at first, focusing around the cool down of one of your major damaging skills called Deep Fissure. This Animal Companion’s skill has a three second delay after casting, and then blasts forward in whichever direction you are facing dealing high magicka damage as well as causing Major Breach to all enemies hit, reducing their resistances by 5984. When starting fights, you will want to buff up and then cast this first as you approach groups of enemies, so it fires as soon as you reach them while you follow up with your other skills.
Angling your character to make it hit as many enemies as possible can feel clunky at first, but once you get the hang of it this skill shines and helps you and your group deal a lot more damage to enemies without your tank having to cast pierce armor on each target. If your team doesn’t already have access to a spell that casts Minor Vulnerability on enemies, Fetcher Infection is a skill that’s a must for group content for the extra 5% damage the enemy takes when afflicted by it.
Armor & Weapons (All Light)
Slot | Gear | Trait |
---|---|---|
Head | Zaan | Divines |
Shoulder | Zaan | Divines |
Chest | False God’s Devotion | Divines |
Legs | False God’s Devotion | Divines |
Feet | False God’s Devotion | Divines |
Hands | False God’s Devotion | Divines |
Belt | False God’s Devotion | Divines |
Jewelry | Mother’s Sorrow | Bloodthirsty |
Weapon 1 | Mother’s Sorrow | Precise |
Weapon 2 | (Perfected) Crushing Wall | Infused (w/ weapon damage enchantment) |
Easy starting set alternative: 5 Law of Julianos (craftable), 5 Mother’s Sorrow (Deshaan), 2 Monster Set / Willpower Set
The armor sets we will be using for this Warden build focus on playability rather than what will get you the best numbers on a parse dummy. These sets will give you high consistent damage, and we’ll start off with a classic magicka set Mother’s Sorrow. Critical strike chance has grown more important in this patch as we don’t have as much access to it as we used to even with the new champion point system, so this set is very essential. Running the Thief Mundus for the additional critical strike chance along with this set is a great idea as well, helping to make sure our big damaging skills are gaining that nice extra critical hit damage multiplier. A flame staff will do the best single target damage, but Wardens will work well with a lightning staff for AOE, or even frost staff for the extra frost damage they passively get.
For our second set we are using (perfected) False God’s Devotion, which not only gives the Minor Slayer debuff, increasing all damage done to dungeon, trial, and arena monsters by 5%, but it also gives us spell critical and Major Expedition and 2454 magicka when an enemy damaged by you dies. The extra 30% movement speed from this and magicka helps to keep you agile in dangerous situations and allows you to easily manage your magicka pool so that you can cast more damaging skills as you carry on through fights. Keep in mind that this set gains the most benefit in the group settings of dungeons, trials, and arenas, but works great as an overland set too with the extra speed and sustain.
The monster set you will want to use depends heavily on the situation, but Zaan is a great go to for the amazing damage it provides. This set requires you to stay within 8 meters of the target, and deals flame damage that doubles every second, lasting for 6 seconds. The beam of fire that Zaan shoots out deals a wild amount of single target damage, but isn’t always realistic given that some fights require moving far away from the boss to stay alive. Alternatives for a monster set that focus on defense over offense would be Iceheart for the shield it grants when you deal critical damage. Another great choice is to use one piece of slimecraw as it has the best critical chance out of all monster sets, and the mythic item Harpooner’s Wading Kilt, which will increase your critical chance by 1250 and critical damage by 10% at full stacks. Keep in mind it is a medium piece, so you’ll want to go for a 5-1-1 build to gain that nice Undaunted Mettle passive that will increase all of your resources by 6%.
Champion Points – Essentials in Order
Warfare: 20 Eldritch Insight, 20 Precision, 50 Deadly Aim (slot), 50 Biting Aura (slot), 20 Preparation, Fighting Finesse (slot) , 20 Elemental Aegis, 20 Hardy, 20 Flawless Ritual, 30 War Mage, 50 Master-at-Arms (slot), 20 Blessed
Fitness: 20 Hero’s Vigor, 50 Boundless Vitality (slot), 50 Fortified (slot), 50 Rejuvenation (slot), 30 Tumbling, 20 Defiance, 30 Fortification, 20 Tireless Guardian 50 Siphong Spells (slot)
Craft: 50 Steed’s Blessing (slot), 75 Liquid Efficiency (slot), 30 Rationer (slot)
2/8
PvE Dungeons / Trials (Group Content) – Stamden DPS Build
Race: Dark Elf (or Khajiit) | Mundus: Thief | Food: Garlic Cod with Potato Crust or equivalent (5395 health, 4936 stamina) | Attributes: 64 Stamina
Stamina Wardens are a great pick for a high damage dealing class that also has access to many skills that help them excel in any fight, large or small. Stamdens benefit greatly from the extra stamina and weapon damage Dark Elf has to offer, but Khajiit will also match closely for DPS for their extra critical hit damage. Wood Elf or Redguard can make a great Warden if you need some extra stamina sustain as well.
Skills
Main Bar (Dual Wield Daggers) | Second Bar (Bow) |
---|---|
Shrouded Daggers (Spammable) | Endless Hail |
Subterranean Assault | Consuming Trap |
Growing Swarm | Resolving Vigor |
Deadly Cloak | Bull Netch |
Birds of Prey | Barbed Trap |
Wild Guardian (Ult) | Wild Guardian (Ult) |
Similar to the Magicka Warden, Stamdens will use the delayed damaging skill from the Animal Companions tree, but morph it to the stamina verison called Subterranean Assault. This skill needs less attention for use in rotations as it recasts itself for free once it fires off the first time, so you’ll only need to come back to recast it every 6 seconds. Cutting dive is a great long range spammable that applies a bleed debuff to enemies that are off balance, the skill also causes enemies to be set off balance if cast at least 7 meters away from the target.
We’ll be using the spammable of Shrouded Daggers, which is great when paired with the arena weapon Executioner’s Blade (from Vateshran Hollows Arena), furthering its damage. Keep in mind that you will need to be behind your target to reap the benefits of this weapon, so positioning will be important.
Armor & Weapons (All Medium)
Slot | Gear | Trait |
---|---|---|
Head | Kinras | Bloodthirsty |
Shoulder | Kinras | Bloodthirsty |
Chest | Arms of Relequen | Divines |
Legs | Arms of Relequen | Divines |
Feet | Arms of Relequen | Divines |
Hands | Arms of Relequen | Divines |
Belt | Arms of Relequen | Divines |
Jewelry | Kinras | Bloodthirsty |
Weapon 1 | (Perfected) Executioner’s Blade | (w/ damage health poisons) |
Weapon 2 | (Perfected) Thunderous Volley | Infused (w/ weapon damage enchantment) |
Easy starting set alternative: 5 Hunding’s Rage (craftable), 5 Leviathan (Crypt of Hearts), 2 Monster Set / Agility Set
For this Warden build, armor sets we are using the classic single target damaging set, (Perfected) Arms of Relequen (from Cloudrest Trial), which deals increasing damage over time to a target you are light or heavy attacking. A stack of damage can be applied every half a second for up to 10 stacks, scaling off your higher weapon damage stat. Additionally you will get Minor Slayer which increases your damage done to dungeon, trial, or arena monsters by 5% which adds up over time. While Minor Slayer won’t help you in overland content, the damage proc from your light attacks will still do significant damage to overland bosses, so Relequen’s is a great set to wear anytime.
For the second set we will be using the great new set Kinras’s Wrath (from Black Drake Villa), that also activates off of light or heavy attacks. After five stacks, you gain Major Berserk, which increases your damage by 10%, and additionally gain a huge aura around you that grants you and your allies Minor Berserk, increasing everyone’s damage by an additional 5%. In total you’ll gain 15% increased damage from this set while it’s active, and while you are in combat using those light attacks, the uptime won’t fall off.
Instead of a monster set due to recent nerfs, we’ll be using the arena set Executioner’s Blade (from Vateshran Hallows Arena), which increases the damage of Shrouded Daggers by 250% on targets that are below 100%, while also returning 1890 stamina back if the target is below 50%. Keep in mind this set only applies these effects if you are standing behind the target. We’ll also be using Thunderous Volley (from Maelstrom Arena) on our backbar to increase our Endless Hail overtime damage significantly.
Champion Points – Essentials in Order
Warfare: 20 Tireless Discipline, 20 Precision, 50 Deadly Aim (slot), 50 Backstabber (slot), 20 Preparation, 50 Fighting Finesse (slot), 20 Hardy, 20 Elemental Aegis, 20 Battle Mastery, 30 Mighty, 50 Master-at-Arms (slot), 20 Blessed
Fitness: 20 Hero’s Vigor, 50 Boundless Vitality (slot), 50 Fortified (slot), 50 Rejuvenation (slot), 30 Tumbling, 20 Defiance, 30 Fortification, 20 Tireless Guardian
Craft: 50 Steed’s Blessing (slot), 75 Liquid Efficiency (slot), 30 Rationer (slot)
3/8
PvE Dungeons / Trials (Group Content) – Stamden Tank Build
Race: Imperial (or Nord) | Mundus: Lord | Food: Longfin Pasty with Melon Sauce or equivalent (4462 health, 4105 stamina / magicka) and Bewitched Sugar Skulls is a more expensive option for better survivability with more recovery (4620 health, 4250 magicka/stamina, and 462 health recovery) | Attributes: 20 Health, 44 Stamina
Next up in our list is the a tank build — the Warden Stamden tank build, arguably the best tank build in ESO.
Tanking with a Warden feels like a breeze with your mix of defensive abilities built into the Warden kit along with healing skills that can help you or your team get out of hairy situations. We recommend Imperial for the great health and stamina bonuses, but also keyly for the reduced cost of all abilities. Nords are still a great pick however, with their increased physical and spell resistance, along with that built in ultimate generation.
Skills
Main Bar (One Hand and Shield) | Second Bar (Ice Staff) |
---|---|
Piece Armor (Taunt) | Elemental Blockade |
Heroic Slash | Bone Surge |
Defensive Stance | Resolving Vigor |
Shimmering Shield | Bull Netch |
Frozen Device | Ice Fortress |
Permafrost (Ult) | Aggressive Warhorn (Ult) |
First we’ll go over the basics of tanking in ESO on your Warden. If you are confident in your tanking basics, feel free to skip this paragraph. First and foremost you want to taunt the high priority enemies that have the ability to one shot your team members, like bosses and some of the other non-boss big monsters that you encounter during dungeons and trials. Taunt will fall off every 15 seconds, so be sure to reapply taunt every 12-13 seconds so that if you get stunned right before you go to taunt again, mayhem does not ensue.
Always face enemies away from your group so that any AOE or splash damage attacks don’t wipe out your unsuspecting team members. As a tank you can use Silver Leash to control where extra enemies are standing, but for Wardens you can use Frozen Device which teleports the enemy over to you and reduces their damage they can deal by 10% with Minor Maim.
Armor & Weapons (All Heavy)
Slot | Gear | Trait |
---|---|---|
Head | Encratis’s Behemoth | Reinforced |
Shoulder | Encratis’s Behemoth | Reinforced |
Chest | Battalion Defender | Reinforced |
Legs | Battalion Defender | Sturdy |
Feet | Battalion Defender | Sturdy |
Hands | Battalion Defender | Sturdy |
Belt | Battalion Defender | Sturdy |
Jewelry | Powerful Assault | Healthy |
Weapon 1 | Powerful Assault and Sturdy Shield | Decisive 1h (w/ flame enchantment) |
Weapon 2 | Powerful Assault | Infused (w/ crusher enchantment) |
Easy starting set alternative: 5 Ebon Armory (Crypt of Hearts), 5 Plague Doctor (Deshaan), 2 Monster Set / Endurance Set
Here are some details about the two sets that make up this Warden build. We’ll use Battalion Defender (from Rewards of the Worthy coffers) as our body set that will help keep our group members healthy while we tank naturally. Whenever you successfully block with this set on, you heal yourself or a group member based on your max health, and this can be done every second. This will be our defensive set that is aimed for group benefit, but if a fight is very difficult consider putting on a selfish set like Leeching Plate so that you can keep standing, keeping the heavy hitting enemies off of your group directly.
Our second set will be our offensive tanking set, called the Powerful Assault. This set gives you and up to 5 group members 307 weapon or spell damage for 10 seconds, whenever you cast an assault ability. In our build we have two assault abilities, being the ultimate Aggressive Warhorn, and then Resolving Vigor, our burst heal ability. Resolving vigor can easily be cast every 10 seconds, doubling as a great heal and a huge damage boost to our group. The extra spell damage for healers will increase the potency of their healing abilities as well, so that’s a nice added feature to this set. If you are running a trial with 11 others, use (perfected) Claw of Yolnakhriin instead as it will give your whole group of 12 an additional 215 weapon and spell damage with Minor Courage each time you taunt, instead of the limited 6 person buff with Powerful Assault.
For the Warden Tank’s monster set, we’ll be using a mix of different sets. The one showcased in this build will be Encratis’s Behemoth, which is focused on increasing a magicka group’s flame damage by 5% while also doubling up with giving the group 5% flame resistance. To have this effect go off, however, you need to deal flame damage, which is why we have our main hand sword enchanted with a flame glyph. For stamina heavy groups, Tremorscale will be the better option, as it reduces an enemies physical resistance by an additional 2395 whenever you taunt an enemy. Earthgore will be the best set to use when more defense is needed to get through a fight, as it will heal the lowest group member a whopping 30,000 over 10 seconds and proccing off healing yourself or a group member who is under 50% health. Battalion Defender will naturally toss out heals every second that you block, so Earthgore will proc more readily without you having to think about it.
Champion Points – Essentials in Order
Warfare: 20 Tireless Discipline, 20 Preparation, 50 Duelist’s Rebuff (slot), 50 Unassailable (slot), 50 Enduring Resolve (slot), 50 Bulwark (slot), 20 Eldritch Insight, 20 Hardy, 20 Elemental Aegis, 20 Blessed
Fitness: 20 Hero’s Vigor, 50 Boundless Vitality (slot), 50 Fortified (slot), 50 Rejuvenation (slot), 20 Tireless Guardian, 30 Fortification, 30 Tumbling, 20 Defiance, Strategic Reserve (slot)
Craft: 50 Steed’s Blessing (slot), 75 Liquid Efficiency (slot), 30 Rationer (slot)
4/8
PvE Dungeons / Trials (Group Content) – Magden Healer Build
Race: Breton (or High Elf / Argonian) | Mundus: Mage (More Magicka = stronger / more heals) | Food: Solitude Salmon Millet Soup or equivalent (5395 health, 4936 magicka) | Attributes: 64 Magicka
Healing on a warden feels amazing, as Wardens work as natural healers with their skill set and passives and draw about even with Templars as the best healers in ESO. Incorporating this healer build into your Warden is sure to keep your group members healthy and happy. Many of the Green Balance tree skills work really well for healing, and paired with other restoration staff skills your team will become unkillable. We recommend using a Breton for their extra magicka resource, recovery, and reduction in magicka ability cost, but other races can work really well for this build. High Elf and Argonian passives make them both easy natural healers, and can be used instead with minimal healing losses.
Skills
Main Bar (Restoration Staff) | Second Bar (Lightning Staff) |
---|---|
Illustrious Healing | Elemental Blockade |
Radiating Regeneration | Fetcher Infection |
Combat Prayer | Energy Orb |
Enchanted Growth | Blue Betty |
Budding Seeds | Elemental Drain |
Healing Thicket (Ult) | Aggressive Warhorn (Ult) |
As a healer in ESO, your job is to not only keep your group members alive, but also to help buff them and debuff the enemy so that you can get through fights more quickly. Healing on the Warden naturally buffs your group members up with the Green Balance passive Maturation, giving all that you heal Minor Toughness, increasing their health by 10% for 20 seconds. This Warden passive can help groups that focus more heavily on just dealing damage gain the extra survivability they need to get through difficult mechanics. Having more Green Balance skills on your healing bar will also help you heal for larger amounts, as each green balance skill you have increases the potency of green balance heals by 2%. Our set up has three Green Balance abilities, increasing their potency by 6% each.
Armor & Weapons (All light)
Slot | Gear | Trait |
---|---|---|
Head | Symphony of Blades | Divines |
Shoulder | Symphony of Blades | Divines |
Chest | (Perfected) Vestment of Olorime | Divines |
Legs | (Perfected) Vestment of Olorime | Divines |
Feet | (Perfected) Vestment of Olorime | Divines |
Hands | (Perfected) Vestment of Olorime | Divines |
Belt | (Perfected) Vestment of Olorime | Divines |
Jewelry | Hollow Fang | Arcane |
Weapon 1 | (Perfected) Grand Rejuvenation | Powered |
Weapon 2 | Hollowfang | Infused (w/ Weakening Enchantment) |
Easy starting set alternative: 5 Law of Julianos (craftable), 5 Sanctuary (Banished Cells), 2 Monster Set / Willpower Set
The sets we will use are to maximize our group’s damage as well as maintain their health at the same time. The first set we’ll use in this Warden healer build is (Perfected) Vestments of Olorime (from Cloudrest trial), which places a circle on the ground over top where you have placed ground effects before giving group members inside Major Courage for 20 seconds, increasing their weapon and spell damage by 430. This set will have great uptime and will help not only your group deal more damage, but also increase the potency of your own healing while you stand inside your AOEs. This does mean that you have to place your AOEs strategically to reap the most benefit out of the set.
Our second set is Hollowfang Thirst (from Moongrave Fane), that gives your team both Minor Vitality which increases their healing received by 8% as well as 1750 magicka. Critically healing or critically damaging a target will spawn a ball of Hemoglobin at their location that explodes after 2 seconds, so it’s important that you and your team stand inside it to gain its effects. Some group members who have not seen it before may roll dodge out of its way thinking it’s an enemy effect, so you may need to explain to your group that they do indeed want to stand inside while it explodes. This will be backbarred so you will need to switch to your destruction staff every 9 seconds or so to have this ability go off.
The monster set that works best for Warden Healers is situational, but Symphony of Blades is always a strong pick to give your group better resource management. When healing an ally who has under 50% of their primary resource, they gain a buff that restores that primary resource by either 570 magicka or stamina every second for 6 seconds. This set allows your group to go wild and cast their highest damaging abilities off of cooldown, not needing to heavy attack or drink potions as often to gain back their resources. Sentinel of Rkugamz can also be an effect set if you want to focus more heavily on providing healing while also giving out other resources. When healing yourself or an ally a dwemer spider will spawn that heals for 1000 health and restores 125 magicka / stamina to you and your allies within its 5 meter radius every second for 8 seconds. This set requires a pretty tight radius to stand in, so it can be difficult to reap its full benefits. Finally the main hand weapon you will use is (Perfected) Grand Rejuvenation (from Dragonstar Arena), that gives your group members 117 magicka and stamina every one second for 4 seconds from the initial heal of Illustrious Healing.
Champion Points – Essentials in Order
Warfare: 20 Eldritch Insight, 20 Blessed, 50 Soothing Tide (slot), 50 Swift Renewal (slot), 20 Precision, 50 Enlivening Overflow (slot), 20 Elemental Aegis, 20 Hardy, 20 Blessed, 50 Fighting Finesse (slot), 20 Tireless Discipline
Fitness: 20 Hero’s Vigor, 50 Boundless Vitality (slot), 50 Fortified (slot), 50 Rejuvenation (slot), 30 Tumbling, 20 Defiance, 30 Fortification, 20 Tireless Guardian
Craft: 50 Steed’s Blessing (slot), 75 Liquid Efficiency (slot), 30 Rationer (slot)
5/8
PvE Solo Content – Magden DPS Build
Race: Khajiit (or Breton) | Mundus: Thief | Food: Solitude Salmon Millet Soup or equivalent (5395 health, 4936 magicka), and Bewitched Sugar Skulls is a more expensive option for better survivability with more recovery (4620 health, 4250 magicka/stamina, and 462 health recovery) | Attributes: 64 Magicka
Soloing content as a Magicka Warden feels very easy with their affinity to both single target and AOE damaging skills, allowing you to complete any solo content in the game. For this solo Warden build, we suggest using a Khajiit for their balanced increased stats and recoveries along with their bonuses to critical damage and healing. We’ll focus on high damage as well as survivability. We will also be using the mythic item Ring of the Pale Order for this solo Magden build which is only available through scrying, but the life steal is too good to pass up.
Skills
Main Bar (Flame Staff) | Second Bar (Flame Staff) |
---|---|
Force Pulse (Spammable) | Unstable Wall of Elements |
Deep Fissure | Winter’s Revenge |
Fetcher Infection | Harness Magicka |
Mystic Orb | Blue Betty |
Bird of Prey | Ice Fortress |
Eternal Guardian (Ult) | Eternal Guardian (Ult) |
When soloing content, dealing high damage will get you through content more quickly, but more importantly survivability is king. You can have the highest damage in the game, but if you can’t survive the last boss in an arena, you won’t be getting those set pieces. Luckily the Magden has great skills that help their survivability while still dishing out great damage, and the ultimate we use Eternal Guardian will act as a personal tank of sorts.
The Eternal Guardian is a grizzly bear companion that will follow you and fight alongside you dealing consistent damage as well as significant execute damage to low health enemies when you activate your ultimate again. Without a formal tank, Deep Fissure will help reduce the resistances of enemies, so it will be your bread and butter skill.
Weapons & Armor (5 Light / 1 Medium / 1 Heavy)
Slot | Gear | Trait |
---|---|---|
Head | Slimecraw (Medium) | Reinforced |
Shoulder | Necropotence | Divines |
Chest | Medusa | Reinforced |
Legs | Necropotence | Divines |
Feet | Necropotence | Divines |
Hands | Necropotence | Divines |
Belt | Necropotence | Divines |
Jewelry | 2 Medusa, 1 Ring of the Pale Order | Bloodthirsty |
Weapon 1 | Medusa | Precise (w/ flame enchantment) |
Weapon 2 | (Perfected) Crushing Wall | Infused trait (w/ weapon damage enchantment) |
Easy starting set alternative: 5 Law of Julianos (craftable), 5 Mother’s Sorrow (Deshaan), 2 Monster Set / Willpower Set
The sets we will use for our Solo Magden will primarily focus on increasing our damage with the Ring of the Pale Order focusing on defence. Our first set will be Necropotence (from Rivenspire), which will synergize with our Eternal Guardian ultimate that we have up all of the time. If you don’t want to use the Eternal Guardian ult, don’t worry, Blue Betty counts as a pet and will give you the Necropotence 5 set bonus! Necropotence gives 3288 magicka regardless, and another 3132 on top of that while you have a pet active. As our Eternal Guardian instantly respawns when it dies, you’ll have 6420 additional magicka at all times, increasing your spell damage and ability to cast spells consistently by great amounts.
Our second set will be Medusa (from Arx Corinium), which focuses primarily on increasing our spell critical. The Medusa set gives Minor Force at all times, increasing critical damage by 10%, which will help burst through enemies even quicker when you land those big critical hits. This is a heavy armor set, so we’ll be using it mainly on our weapon and jewelry, having one piece on our chest for the great amount of physical and spell resistance it will give us.
Instead of a full monster set, we will use one medium piece of slimecraw (from Wayrest Sewers 1) to gain the high amount of critical chance it offers, along with the Ring of the Pale Order (from scrying). We go for a 5-1-1 build here using 5 light, 1 medium, and 1 heavy to gain the benefits of the Undaunted Mettle passive which will increase all of our resources by 6%. The Ring of the Pale Order restores 20% of the damage you deal back as health, which will help your survivability by great bounds in solo play. Make sure to take it off if you decide to group up with others, as you cannot be healed by others with it on and the 20% value is decreased by 4% for each ally you are grouped with.
Champion Points – Essentials in Order
Warfare: 20 Eldritch Insight, 20 Preparation, 20 Precision, 50 Deadly Aim (slot), 50 Biting Aura (slot), 20 Elemental Aegis, 20 Hardy, 50 Fighting Finesse (slot) , 20 Flawless Ritual, 30 War Mage, 50 Wrathful Strikes (slot), 20 Blessed
Fitness: 20 Hero’s Vigor, 50 Boundless Vitality (slot), 50 Fortified (slot), 50 Rejuvenation (slot), 30 Tumbling, 20 Defiance, 50 Siphong Spells (slot), 30 Fortification, 20 Tireless Guardian
Craft: 50 Steed’s Blessing (slot), 75 Liquid Efficiency (slot), 30 Rationer (slot)
6/8
PvE Solo Content – Stamden DPS Build
Race: Wood Elf (or Orc / Redguard) | Mundus: Thief | Food: Garlic Cod with Potato Crust or equivalent (5395 health, 4936 stamina) and Bewitched Sugar Skulls is a more expensive option for better survivability and more resources (4620 health, 4250 magicka/stamina, and 462 health recovery) | Attributes: 64 Stamina
Next up on our list is a top ESO Warden solo build — the Stamden DPS build.
Stamina Wardens have great ease when clearing solo content similar to their magicka counterparts, and can be played either as a 2 hand/bow or bow/bow build. We suggest using a Wood Elf as they have increased stamina and stamina recovery which will be useful for maintaining our damage in our build. Orcs and Redguards are also great for their extra survivability, respectively gaining back health or stamina resources from damaging enemies. The Stamden also benefits from having the Ring of the Pale Order, so we will be using this item in our build here as well.
Skills
Main Bar (Two-Handed Sword) | Second Bar (Bow) |
---|---|
Cutting Dive (Spammable) | Endless Hail |
Subterranean Assault | Resolving Vigor |
Brawler | Green Lotus |
Reverse Slice (Execute) | Bull Netch |
Growing Swarm | Ice Fortress |
Wild Guardian (Ult) | Wild Guardian (Ult) |
Soloing requires dealing heavy damage while also taking a large amount as well, but with skills like Brawler and Resolving Vigor, a lot of damage can be mitigated over time. The Brawler skill swings your weapon in an AOE slash in front of you, damaging any enemy hit while giving you a massive damage shield that increases in size by 50% for each enemy hit, up to 300%. Resolving Vigor is a heal over time that gives you a significant amount of health back over 4 seconds, so use this as a buff when you go into a fight, mitigating damage dealt to you while you focus on beating down the enemies in your way.
Cutting Dive is a great spammable as it passively increases your other damaging skills by 2% with the Advanced Species passive, increasing your damage done by 2% for each Animal Companion skill slotted. With our build above, on your front bar you’ll gain 8% increased damage. That being said, if you enjoy using weapon skills instead, Wrecking Blow is a good contender.
Armor & Weapons (All Medium)
Slot | Gear | Trait |
---|---|---|
Head | Slimecraw | Divines |
Shoulder | Tzogvin’s | Divines |
Chest | Briarheart | Reinforced |
Legs | Briarheart | Divines |
Feet | Briarheart | Divines |
Hands | Briarheart | Divines |
Belt | Briarheart | Divines |
Jewelry | 2 Tzogvin’s, 1 Ring of the Pale Order | Precise (w/ damage health poisons) |
Weapon 1 | Tzogvin’s | Powered |
Weapon 2 | (Perfected) Thunderous Volley | Infused (w/ weapon damage enchantment) |
Easy starting set alternative: 5 Hunding’s Rage (craftable), 5 Leviathan (Crypt of Hearts), 2 Monster Set / Agility Set
A great soloing set for stamina builds is Briarheart (from Wrothgar), as it gives you both 450 weapon damage for 10 seconds when you deal critical damage, and also heals you whenever you land a critical strike. This set also gives weapon critical making it easier to start its weapon damage buff up. Keep in mind that it takes 15 seconds to proc again, so you’ll have some down time without the extra damage and healing, but the Ring of the Pale Order will keep us safe during that time.
Our next set is Tzogvin’s Warband (from Frostvault), a set that focuses on increasing weapon critical. When you deal critical damage, you’ll gain a stack of precision, increasing your weapon critical by 177 up to 10 times. At max stacks you gain Minor Force, increasing your critical damage done by 10%. You can keep this effect going as you maintain damaging enemies with critical hits, which will be very easy to do with that extra weapon critical from the max stacks as from both of the armor sets item bonuses of increased weapon critical.
Finally, this Warden build uses one piece of Slimecraw (from Wayrest Sewers 1), and the Ring of the Pale Order in place of using a full monsterset. Slimecraw will help us get some nice extra critical chance to help kickstart our other sets, and the Ring of the Pale Order will increase our survivability significantly. 20% of all damage you deal is returned to you as health, making it easier to focus purely on damaging skills to maintain our own health. We still have other forms of healing built into the kit as well as through sets, but this will be a major source of managing our health resource.
Keep in mind that wearing this mythic ring makes it so that you cannot receive any healing from other players, and the 20% is reduced by 4% for each ally you are grouped with, making it detrimental in group play. Don’t forget to take it off during dungeons or trials so your healer doesn’t panic when they cannot heal you, or better yet so you don’t die during an important fight!
Champion Points – Essentials in Order
Warfare: 20 Tireless Discipline, 20 Preparation, 20 Precision, 50 Deadly Aim (slot), 50 Biting Aura (slot), 50 Fighting Finesse (slot), 20 Hardy, 20 Elemental Aegis, 20 Blessed, 50 Wrathful Strikes (slot), 20 Battle Mastery, 30 Mighty
Fitness: 20 Hero’s Vigor, 50 Boundless Vitality (slot), 50 Fortified (slot), 50 Rejuvenation (slot), 30 Tumbling, 20 Defiance, 50 Bloody Renewal (slot), 30 Fortification, 20 Tireless Guardian
Craft: 50 Steed’s Blessing (slot), 75 Liquid Efficiency (slot), 30 Rationer (slot)
7/8
PvP (Best for Group PvP) – Magden DPS Build
Race: High Elf (or Khajiit / Dark Elf) | Mundus: Lover / Apprentice | Food: Solitude Salmon Millet Soup or equivalent (5395 health, 4936 magicka), and Bewitched Sugar Skulls is a more expensive option for better survivability with additional recovery (4620 health, 4250 magicka/stamina, and 462 health recovery). | Attributes: 64 Magicka
The Magicka Warden works very well in groups of PVP players, known commonly as Zergs. To get the amount of damage you want, you’ll need to run at least 5 pieces of light armor, making you more vulnerable to damage. This build can still work very well in solo pvp play, but it excels in groups. For this Magden we suggest using a High Elf as this build can gain a lot from their magicka passives. Khajiit and Dark Elf fall in closely behind, and might work better for you depending on your playstyle.
Skills
Main Bar (Frost Staff) | Second Bar (Restoration Staff) |
---|---|
Crushing Shock (Spammable) | Healing Ward |
Deep Fissure | Dampen Magicka |
Fetcher Infection | Arctic Blast |
Shimmering Shield | Blue Betty |
Bird of Prey | Ice Fortress |
Northern Storm (Ult) | Life Giver (Ult) |
Keeping up your buffs and defensive skills are a must before entering into a fight, so managing your magicka resources with blue betty and potions will be important as you move around in Cyrodiil or battlegrounds. From a distance you’ll be able to stay very safe due to Shimmering Shield, which absorbs up to 3 projectiles, giving you magicka back as well as Major Heroism for 6 seconds.
Applying Minor Brittle will be something you will excel at as a Magicka Warden, and the debuff causes enemies to take an additional 10% critical damage. This will play nicely into the set we have lined up that helps you deal increased damage to enemies with this debuff. Following up your defensive skills with Deep Fissure to reduce the enemies resistances and Arctic Blast which will stun when an enemy is hit by 3 waves of damage from this skill will allow you and your group to burst down enemies with ease.
Armor & Weapons (5 Light / 1 Medium / 1 Heavy)
Slot | Gear | Trait |
---|---|---|
Head | Balorgh (Heavy) | Reinforced |
Shoulder | Balorgh (Medium) | Reinforced |
Chest | Necropotence | Impenetrable |
Legs | Necropotence | Impenetrable |
Feet | Necropotence | Impenetrable |
Hands | Necropotence | Impenetrable |
Belt | Necropotence | Impenetrable |
Jewelry | Frostbite | Infused (w/ Spell Damage) |
Weapon 1 | Frostbite | Sharpened (w/ Weapon Damage Enchantment) |
Weapon 2 | (Perfected) Mender’s Ward | Powered |
Easy starting set alternative: 5 Law of Julianos (craftable), 5 Mechanical Acuity (craftable), 2 Monster Set / Willpower Set
Necropotence (from Rivenspire) is a great set for Magicka Wardens as the use of Blue Betty should be cast on cooldown. This skill costs nothing so keeping it up is very easy while it gives you magicka overtime and Major Sorcery and Brutality, increasing your spell and weapon damage by 20%. Necropotence gives 3288 magicka naturally, and another 3132 on top of that while you have a pet active. This additional 6420 magicka at all times will increase your spell damage and ability to cast spells consistently by large margins.
Our second set is a new set called Frostbite (from Blackwood), that increases the damage done with frost abilities by 8%. It further increases your damage done against chilled enemies by 4%, and then on top of that increases it by another 2% against those afflicted with Minor Brittle. With all of this, you’ll be gaining 14% increased damage to enemies when you are using your frost damaging abilities against them. Wardens naturally benefit from using frost damage with multiple passive increasing their effectiveness. Wardens gain an extra 10% damage with the Piercing Cold passive, and Glacial Presence increases the chance of applying Chilled to enemies by 200%.
Finally we use the monster set Balorgh (from March of Sacrifices) to gain increased spell damage and penetration when we use our ultimate abilities. Balorgh gives as much spell and weapon damage equal to the amount of ultimate charge you had when you cast your ultimate ability, maxing out at 500. You also gain spell and physical penetration equal to 23 times the number of ultimate you used up when casting the skill. If cast with full ultimate, you gain 500 spell / weapon damage, and 11,500 spell / physical penetration. Northern Storm costs 200, and will give you at least 200 spell damage and 4,600 spell penetration, which increases your overall damage output by a great amount. Holding onto your ultimate for longer can benefit you in the long run, but it will always be situational in PVP.
Champion Points – Essentials in Order
Warfare: 20 Eldritch Insight, 20 Precision, 50 Biting Aura (slot), 50 Fighting Finesse (slot), 20 Elemental Aegis, 20 Hardy, 20 Blessed, 50 Untamed Aggression (slot), 20 Flawless Ritual, 30 War Mage, 50 Arcane Supremacy (slot)
Fitness: 20 Hero’s Vigor, 50 Boundless Vitality (slot), 50 Fortified (slot), 50 Slippery (slot), 50 Rejuvenation (slot), 30 Tumbling, 20 Defiance, 30 Fortification, 20 Tireless Guardian, 30 Piercing Gaze
Craft: 50 Steed’s Blessing (slot), 75 Liquid Efficiency (slot), 30 Rationer (slot), 50 Breakfall, 30 Out of Sight
8/8
PvP (Best for Solo PvP) – Stamden DPS Build
Race: Wood Elf (or Orc) | Mundus: Lover or | Food: Garlic Cod with Potato Crust or equivalent (5395 health, 4936 stamina) and Bewitched Sugar Skulls is a more expensive option for better survivability with additional recovery (4620 health, 4250 magicka/stamina, and 462 health recovery) | Attributes: 64 Stamina
Last up in our Warden builds list, is one of the top solo builds in ESO — the stamina Warden PvP build.
Stamina Wardens are great brawlers, and can handle themselves very well in 1v1 as well as 1vX scenarios given enough practice. Given this particular Warden build focuses on AOE damage, you’ll find yourself fending off large groups and dealing high damage, but be careful to buff up properly and have unstoppable potions at the ready in case you get locked down. We suggest using Wood Elf for their great stamina stats, extra penetration, and movement speed. Wood Elf passives will get you a long way, but going Orc can be better for more of a defensive playstyle, as you gain health back upon dealing damage every 4 seconds and that extra weapon damage is always nice.
Skills
Main Bar (Dual Wield Maces) | Second Bar (Sword and Shield) |
---|---|
Cutting Dive (Spammable) | Pierce Armor |
Subterranean Assault | Resolving Vigor |
Arctic Blast | Green Lotus |
Whirling Blades (Execute) | Bull Netch |
Bird of Prey | Ice Fortress |
Dawnbreaker of Smiting (Ult) | Permafrost (Ult) |
You’ll set up a lot of skirmishes by casting Subterranean Assault from behind a wall or area that you are safe behind, and then move into fights while it is about to come out. You’ll want to buff up beforehand with Bull Netch, Ice Fortress, Green Lotus, and Resolving Vigor. As you make your way towards the enemy, you’ll use Arctic Blast to lock them down and can follow up with Cutting Dive to bring them low enough to use a Dawnbreaker Ultimate followed up by your Whirling Blades execute. If you are taking on just one enemy, start off with Pierce Armor to bring down their resistances, before following up with your damaging abilities. When things get dangerous, use Permafrost to help you exit with the strong 70% slow it puts on enemies as well as Major Protection you and your allies will gain, reducing your damage taken by 10%.
Armor & Weapons (5 Medium / 2 Heavy)
Slot | Gear | Trait |
---|---|---|
Head | Balorgh (Medium) | Impenetrable |
Shoulder | Balorgh (Medium) | Impenetrable |
Chest | Eternal Vigor | Reinforced |
Legs | Eternal Vigor | Impenetrable |
Feet | Dagon’s | Impenetrable |
Hands | Dagon’s | Impenetrable |
Belt | Dagon’s | Impenetrable |
Jewelry | 3 Eternal Vigor | Infused (w/ weapon damage enchantment) |
Weapon 1 | Dagon’s | Sharpened (w/ damage health poisons) |
Weapon 2 | (Perfected) Puncturing Remedy | Infused 1 hand (w/ weapon damage enchantment) and Impenetrable Shield |
Easy starting set alternative: 5 Hunding’s Rage (craftable), 5 Spriggan’s Thorns (Bangkorai), 2 Monster Set / Agility Set
Our first set is our defensive armor, Eternal Vigor (from Western Skyrim) which will give you 129 bonus recovery for every stat along with 337 stamina and magicka recovery while your health is above 50%. This last set bonus switches to 1011 health recovery when you drop below 50% health, helping you cast skills when you are healthy and recover from damage when you need to. As PVP areas reduce your healing by 50%, so any amount of health recovery you can get is important. In the meanwhile having that extra stamina and magicka recovery will make maintaining casting spells along with resources enough to break free from crowd control possible for you.
Our second set is Dagon’s Dominion (from The Cauldron), giving all of your area of effect abilities an additional 492 weapon damage. This huge amount of weapon damage will help your Subterranean Assault, Dawnbreaker of Smiting, and execute Whirling Blades deal a huge amount of damage to enemies, which are all already amazing damaging skills you will be using regularly. The set also adds a flat 258 weapon damage and 1096 stamina, helping to increase the damage of your non-AOE skills as well.
Finally our monster set will be Balorgh (from March of Sacrifices), as it offers such a useful amount of weapon / spell damage, but mainly provides a huge burst of physical / spell penetration that you cannot find in other sets. Capping at a value of 500 ultimate, Balorgh will give you weapon and spell damage equal to the amount of ultimate consumed upon casting, along with 23 times the amount of that value in physical and spell penetration. Gaining 500 weapon damage is already amazing enough, but tacking on 11,500 physical penetration on top of that makes it so you can cut through even the tankiest players in PVP.
Champion Points – Essentials in Order
Warfare: 20 Tireless Discipline, 20 Precision, 50 Deadly Aim (slot), 50 Duelist’s Rebuff (slot), 20 Hardy, 20 Elemental Aegis, 50 Untamed Aggression (slot), 20 Battle Mastery, 30 Mighty, 50 Wrathful Strikes (slot), 20 Blessed
Fitness: 20 Hero’s Vigor, 50 Boundless Vitality (slot), 50 Fortified (slot), 50 Slippery (slot), 50 Rejuvenation (slot), 30 Tumbling, 20 Defiance, 30 Fortification, 20 Tireless Guardian, 30 Piercing Gaze
Craft: 50 Steed’s Blessing (slot), 75 Liquid Efficiency (slot), 30 Rationer (slot), 50 Breakfall, 30 Out of Sight
The Elder Scrolls Online Navigation
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