Warden Tank Build PvE for Elder Scrolls Online

“Frostbite”

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Changes from the previous version
• Resource Management
• Trials & Dungeons Setup
  • Gear
  • Skills
  • Champion Points (810, 600, 300)
  • Important Info (Food, Mundus, Race, Potions, Passives Attributes)
• Update Log

Introduction

Welcome to the Warden Tank Build PvE “Frostbite” for PvE Elder Scrolls Online. Make sure to bookmark the link as I will keep updating the build for each new Update of ESO. The Warden Tank Build is optimized for Dungeons & Trials!

Warden Tanks have amazing group support. You have access to good sustain and tons of support abilities. Ice Fortress gives everyone Major Ward and Major Resolve increasing their Armor & Spell Resistance by 5280 which is a lot of extra damage mitigation for the whole group! Leeching Vines add some extra heals for you or your group members, small heal over time. And passives like Nature's Gift make sustain also pretty easy as long as you can heal your groupmates! Overall the Warden has really good tanking options with a lot of class skills to choose. We focus on debuffing the boss as much as possible with Sets like Torug's Pact combined with Crusher and Weakening Enchant. And we use Ebon Armory to boost the health of all our group members. The Bloodspawn Monster Set also gives us a boost to ultimate regeneration, increasing our ultimate regeneration even further in combination with Shimmering Shield.

• Dungeon & Trial Build
• Warden Class
• Tank/ Support Setup
• S&B + Frost Staff setup
• Huge resources
• Good sustain
• High group support
• Good healing

In case you don’t know what what weaving light attacks is, make sure to check out the “Weaving Beginner Guide” which explains how to weave light attacks between abilities, aka animation canceling. If you want more information about tanking, I can also recommend reading the Advanced Tanking Guide.

Changes from the previous version

No changes to the build in the Scalebreaker DLC, Elsweyr Chapter.

Resource Management

Warden has a few good ways to sustain as a Tank. Every time we heal someone we proc the Nature's Gift passive which gives a lot of resources back. On top of that we do have the Bull Netch which gives us about 4800 Stamina over 24 seconds back, which is nice for blocking in general. And as you can see we have overall pretty high Magicka Recovery which means we can use a lot of support abilities. Shimmering Shield also restores a bit of Magicka when you get hit by a projectile, on top of that you gain Major Heroism increasing your Ultimate regeneration by a lot!

Healers can also support you with Energy Orb and Luminous Shards (Templar) to give you around 4000 Stamina back, that is also the reason why we have more Stamina than Magicka, because you gain resources depending on your higher resource stat. So our Stamina should be about 1500 higher than our Magicka pool, which means we will always get Stamina back from the Spears or the Orbs! Also, you do not always need to permablock, so when you have time, do some heavy attacks to restore some resources! Potions are also a key to manage your resources well, use the right potions to really get the edge on your resources! If you still have trouble then use Deep Thoughts (or Spell Sym), just be careful with those abilities, you need to use them in the right moment.

• Natures Gift passive
• Bull Netch
• Heavy Attacks
• Spears (Templar ability)
• Orbs (Undaunted skill)
• Resourceful (Argonian Passive)

Now that we have access to Psijic Order abilities, we are using “Deep Thoughts” that restore a huge amount of Magicka and Stamina per second. On top of that it also heals us every second. While we are channeling Psijic order abilities, we also gain 30% damage mitigation through the Deliberation passive that gives us Major Protection. Activate Shimmering Shield before using Deep Thoughts, so you are immune to all ranged attacks for a short time. The Major Protection also reduces the incoming damage on your Shimmering Shield.

Trials & Dungeons Setup

Gear

Remember that there is a ton of good Tank sets to choose from. Here are a few good sets to list them up:

• Ebon Armory
• Roar of Alkosh
• Torug's Pact
• Plague Doctor
• Powerful Assault
• Akaviri Dragonguard
• Perfected Claw of Yolnahkriin

Gear Setup 1

Lightning vs Frost Staff: You can use both options, a frost staff is better if you want to go the save route and get all the block mitigation on the backbar as well. The Lightning Staff is used in combination with Elemental Blockade to apply Off-Balance to the enemy, that way you can support your group and increase the overall damage output.

• Set allocation: It does not matter what gear sets you wear where, as long as you use those two combos, you should be fine.
• Monster Sets: There are various Monster Sets that you can wear along with this combination. You can also use Mighty Chudan, Pirate Skeleton, Bloodspawn etc.
• Swarm Mother: This set is very good for Dungeons, it automatically pulls almost all type of enemies to you without any cooldown.

Beginner Gear Setup

This beginner setup is here for people that do not have access to the other setup now. You can ask a friend to craft Fortified Brass and Torug’s Pact for you. You could also use Plague Doctor instead of Torug’s Pact as it is very cheap available in the Guild Stores.

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Where can I get the gear?
Ebon Armory: Crypts of Hearts
Torug's Pact: Craftable
Bloodspawn: Spindleclutch
Roar of Alkosh: Maw of Lorkhaj
Swarm Mother: Spindleclutch 1
Fortified Brass: Craftable
Torug's Pact: Craftable
Night's Silence: Craftable
Plague Doctor: Deshaan, Guildstore

Skills

• Polar Wind: Can be used to support heal on this tank, both for you and a group member.
• Shimmering Shield: When you absorb a Projectile, you gain Major Heroism, increasing your Ultimate generation by a lot.
• Pierce Armor: Your main taunt, also debuffs the enemy with Major Fracture and Major Breach, reducing Spell and Physical Resistance by 5280.
• Heroic Slash: Debuffs the enemy with a 15% damage reduction debuff and also gives you Minor Heroism, increasing your Ultimate generation.
• Deep Thoughts: Channeled ability that returns a lot of Health, Stamina and Magicka. You can not block while you are channeling this skill. Major Protection is applied to you while this is active, reducing your incoming damage by 30%.
• Enchanted Forest: Only use this Ultimate in case your group drops very low on health. Huge burst heal while ppl stand in that healing AoE.
• Leeching Vines: Keep this up all the time, very strong heal over time for you and your group.
• Bull Netch: Your most important stamina resource management tool, it is free cast and is active for a long time.
• Ice Fortress: Provided you with Major Ward and Resolve, increasing your Physical and Spell Resistance by 5280 plus another 8% damage mitigation from Minor Protection.
• Inner Rage: This is your ranged taunt, in case you can not get to a mob fast enough.
• Elemental Blockade: The ShockBlockade needs to be on the ground all the time, it is here to keep our crusher enchantment up a 100%. The crusher enchantment will even proc while you are on the frontbar, you just have to make sure to keep the blockade up.
• Aggressive Warhorn: Your main Ultimate, to buff the group with 10% more max resources and crit damage boost.

Championpoints

If you need optimized defensive Champion Points for a specific trial I recommend checking out my Maximize Damage Mitigation in Trials Article.

• Calculator: In case you need help distributing your Champion Points, make sure to check out the Champion Points Calculator!

Championpoints [810]

The Ritual
40 Precise Strikes, 10 Piercing
The Attronarch
47 Physical Weapons Expert, 73 Master-at-Arms
The Apprentice
100 Blessed
The Shadow
81 Shadow Ward, 61 Tumbling
The Lover
43 Tenacity
The Tower
56 Warlord, 21 Bashing Focus, 8 Sprinter
The Lord
18 Bastion, 12 Heavy Armor Focus
The Lady
56 Hardy, 56 Elemental Defender, 56 Thick Skinned
The Steed
72 Ironclad

Championpoints [600]

The Ritual
26 Precise Strikes, 1 Piercing
The Attronarch
73 Master-at-Arms
The Apprentice
100 Blessed
The Shadow
100 Shadow Ward, 50 Tumbling
The Lover
The Tower
50 Warlord
The Lord
The Lady
56 Hardy, 49 Elemental Defender, 23 Thick Skinned
The Steed
72 Ironclad

Championpoints [300]

The Ritual
The Attronarch
The Apprentice
100 Blessed
The Shadow
44 Shadow Ward
The Lover
43 Arcanist
The Tower
13 Warlord
The Lord
The Lady
27 Hardy, 27 Elemental Defender, 2 Thick Skinned
The Steed
44 Ironclad

Important Info for Warden Tank Build PvE

Buff-food

Longfin pasty with Melon Sauce (Max Health+Max Stamina+Max Magicka)

Mundus Stone

The Lord (Max Health)

Race

Nords: Please keep in mind, if you are a Nord you have more resistances than on other races because of your passives.

Nord (Recommended, fastest ultimate generation)
Argonian (Recommended, best sustain)
Imperial
Orc
Redguard

Potions

Tri-Stat Potion
(Health, Stamina, Magicka)
(Bugloss, Columbine, Mountain Flower)

Passives

• Animal Companion: Bond With Nature, Savage Beast, Flourish, Advanced Species
• Green Balance: Accelerated Growth, Nature's Gift, Emerald Moss, Maturation
• Winter’s Embrace: Glacial Presence, Frozen Armor, Icy Aura, Piercing Cold
• One Hand and Shield: Fortress, Sword and Board, Deadly Bash, Deflect Bolts, Battlefield Mobility
• Destruction Staff: Penetrating Magic, Elemental Force, Ancient Knowledge, Destruction Expert
• Heavy Armor: Resolve, Constitution, Juggernaut, Revitalize, Rapid Mending
• Medium Armor: Dexterity, Wind Walker, Athletics
• Light Armor: Grace, Evocation, Spell Warding
• Vampire: Supernatural Recovery, Undeath, Dark Stalker
• Fighters Guild: Banish the Wicked
• Mages Guild: Mage Adept, Everlasting Magic, Magicka Controller
• Undaunted: Undaunted Command, Undaunted Mettle
• Psijic Order: Concentrated Barrier, Deliberation
• Racial: All
• Alchemy: Medicinal Use

Attributes

You have to make sure to have a bit more Stamina than Magicka. Because of the Synergies you pick up give you back whatever stat is higher. You can change this to your liking, if you do not need that much health, get more stamina.

18 Magicka, 0 Health, 46 Stamina

Related Topics

• Necromancer Tank Build PvE
• Dragonknight Tank Build PvE
• Sorcerer Tank Build PvE
• Nightblade Tank Build PvE
• Templar Tank Build PvE

Update Log