ESO Solo Warden Magicka Build for PvE

This guide explains how to use the best Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) Solo Warden Magicka PvE Build, skills, gear, champion points, and more!

This build has been updated for the Updated 42, the Gold Road Chapter of the Elder Scrolls Online (ESO).

Why Should You Play ESO Solo Warden Magicka Build for PvE?

ESO Magicka Warden PvE Build is for players looking to complete solo content with a well-rounded class and great healing. This build is excellent for beginner player, but it really starts to shine once you unlock the Master’s Ice Staff. It has a lot of buffs and healing built in that doesn’t require potions or outside skill lines. The Magicka Warden is strong due to the chilled emphasis. Our solo build is enjoyable to play and can be brought straight into Infinite Archive without missing a beat. You’ll want to run Corrupting Pollen and slightly different gear sets, but that build can push pretty far with minimal changes.

Warden Class Pros

• Great Class Buffs: Wardens have always been great at solo mechanics in group content because they source most of their buffs through their kit.
• Minor Brittle: Minor Brittle hits hard and provides extra critical damage, which many other classes find difficult to access.
• AOE Major and Minor Breach: Penetration is very easy to source on the Warden due to Deep Fissure.

Warden Class Cons

• Lower Raw Damage: The Warden’s damage is mainly caused by DoTs and status effects, which can sometimes feel like less damage.
• Sustain Difficulties: The Warden has great buffs and damage, but sustain takes more active management than other classes.
• Double Slotted Ultimate: Wild Guardian is still the best ultimate choice for damage, but it doesn’t allow you to slot a utility ultimate because it requires a double bar.
• Gear Dependent: The Master’s Ice Staff is such a major dps increase that this build just isn’t nearly as strong without it.

ESO Solo Warden Magicka Build for PvE Playstyle

Wardens get a class boost to Chilled damage, making for a really unique playstyle in comparison to other classes. You get to use ice staves, which also boost your survivability, but the downside is this build becomes overly reliant on the Master’s Ice Staff. If you don’t have it yet, you might want to change the build or run the solo stamina warden build, which is much easier to obtain.

The Master’s Ice Staff is so good because it gives a massive weapon and spell damage boost, but you do need to reapply the buff every 4 seconds to keep the buff up. That requires casting Frost Reach every 4th skill cast, which can be quite challenging for newer players to keep track of.

You also want to proc Deep Fissure on every mob you’re attacking, as this is your main source of penetration in this build. Deep Fissure is one of the reasons why Wardens are often a little more difficult in content. It procs twice, once after 3 seconds and again after another 6 seconds. Because of this second proc, you want to make sure you don’t recast this skill early. This also means you get to pre-cast Deep Fissure before engaging your target.

Other than that, you’re simply applying your Damage over Time (DoT) abilities as soon as they expire and spamming Frost Reach whenever you have downtime with all your DoTs applied.

Sustain

Wardens gain healing through the passive Bond with Nature, allowing you to heal any time an animal companion ability expires. Other than that, healing is actually quite low on this build, which is why we opted to run the mythic item Ring of the Pale Order in solo content.

If you run out of resources, you can do a heavy attack and return to your rotation. Both weapons in this build return magicka on a heavy attack, and Wardens constantly keep off-balance on their target, giving you a chance to return double the usual amount of magicka if your target is off-balance. As usual, making sure you’re keeping your food and potions on will significantly increase your damage, survivability, and resource sustain.

ESO Solo Warden Magicka PvE Build Features and Mechanics

Below are some of the features found using the PvE Solo Warden Magicka in the Elder Scrolls Online:

• Class – Warden
• Weapon One – Frost Staff
• Weapon Two – Frost Staff
• Armor Types – 6 Light, 1 Medium
• Mythic – Pale Order
• Race – Dark Elf
• Attributes – 64 Magicka
• Mundus Stone – Thief
• Best Grimoires – Ulfsild’s Contingency

Skills

Front Bar – Frost Staff

Front Bar Weapon Style Choices:

1. Frost Staff
2. Dual Wield
3. Flame Staff
4. Lighting Staff

Frost Reach (Morph of Destructive Touch | Skill Line : Destruction Staff) – Provides initial burst hit of magic damage, followed by a dot. Also applies the element’s status effect on hit and buffs our damage if using Master’s Staff.

Deep Fissure (Morph of Scorch | Skill Line : Animal Companions) – Hard hitting and major debuff must keep up priority.

Cutting Dive (Morph of Dive | Skill Line : Animal Companions) – Stamina morph now causes additional DoT Bleed damage. Also causes Off Balance if you are more than 7 meters away from target.

Fetcher Infection (Morph of Swarm | Skill Line : Animal Companions) – 10 second damage over time that grants minor vulnerability. This skills is great to place on one or more target due to the debuff and damage over time. In combination with fissure, you’ll lower resistance and increase damage for your group just by maintaining these two abilities.

Arctic Blast (Morph of Arctic Wind | Skill Line : Winter’s Embrace) – Your burst heal that can apply status effects. Maintain the 20 seconds of this ability’s even if you don’t need healing.

Wild Guardian (Morph of Feral Guardian | Skill Line : Animal Companions) – this ultimate is double bared so it does not come on and off. It’s absolutely incredible damage. I can hit 87,000 critical strikes sub 20% health on bosses due to it attacking like an execute. You’ll treat this ability like another attack because it’s ultimate cost of 75 is so low. Keep in mind to recast your bear if it dies or goes away. It will also stun enemies and attack as a decoy and I prefer this over any other ultimate of choice due to the reason above.

Back Bar – Ice Staff

Back bar options:

1. Ice Staff
2. Two Handed
3. Inferno Staff
4. Lighting Staff

Blockade of Frost (Morph of Wall of Elements | Skill Line : Destruction Staff) – Massive AoE and explosion makes it a great DoT. With Maelstrom back bar staff, this is essential back bar buff to increase our overall dps. You can recast repeatedly for an explosion and AoE damage. Combine this with Winters Revenge, Mythic Orb and Fissure, you’ll have massive AoE damage.

Winter’s Revenge (Morph of Impaling Shards | Skill Line : Winter’s Embrace) – 12 second damage over time which applies Chilled status effect. This is great damage over time, chilled status effect increase chance and great snare. I’ll cast this before Unstable because it’s 12 second duration.

Ice Fortress (Morph of Frost Cloak | Skill Line : Winter’s Embrace) – Grants Major Resolve and Minor Protection for 30 seconds.

Blue Betty (Morph of Betty Netch | Skill Line : Animal Companions) – Our sustain tool on back bar.

Lotus Blossom (Morph of Lotus Flower | Skill Line : Green Balance) – Light and Heavy attacks restore health. Also gain Major Prophecy and Savagery while active.

Wild Guardian (Morph of Feral Guardian | Skill Line : Animal Companions) – Double bar this skill so it doesn’t turn off.

Scribing Skills & Grimoires

Ulfsild’s Contingency is the only Grimoire (skill) worth running for a solo Magicka Warden PvE build. Contingency grants powerful area-based damage and buffs. You can put chilled damage as a focus script on Contingency, making it useful in proccing more chilled damage. If you do want to run it, you’ll replace Fetcher Infection with Contingency, since you can apply aoe minor vulnerability. Below are the suggested combination of Grimoires, focus, signature, and affix scripts:

• Ulfsild’s Contingency (Mage Guild) – Cold Damage (focus script), Lingering Torment (signature script), Vulnerability (Affix Script)

The Scribing System utilizes one of 11 new skills from the Gold Road Chapter called Grimoires.  With Grimoires, you can customize spells via Scripts.  The scribing feature requires the purchase of the Gold Road Chapter (sponsored link).  To learn more about scribing, check out our full guide here.

Passives Skills

Below are the lines of the passive skill that adds power without requiring a skill slot while playing the ESO Solo Warden Magicka Build for PvE. Consider taking all the skill passives in the skill tree listed below:

• Winter’s Embrace (class skill line)
• Animal Companions (class skill line)
• Green Balance(class skill line)
• Destruction Staff (weapon skill line)
• Light Armor
• Medium Armor
• Undaunted
• Psjiic Order
• Racial
• Alliance War Support
• Alliance War Assault
• Crafting, Alchemy Medicinal Use

Gear – Best in Slot

The gear chart below represents the best gear for ESO Solo Warden Magicka Build for PvE:

Slot	Type	Set	Trait	Glyph
Head	Light	Perfected Whorl of the Depths	Divines	Magicka
Shoulders	Light	Valkyn Skoria	Divines	Magicka
Chest	Medium	Perfected Ansuul’s Torment	Divines	Magicka
Legs	Light	Perfected Whorl of the Depths	Divines	Magicka
Gloves	Light	Perfected Whorl of the Depths	Divines	Magicka
Boots	Light	Perfected Whorl of the Depths	Divines	Magicka
Belt	Light	Perfected Whorl of the Depths	Divines	Magicka
Weapon One	Frost Staff	Perfected Ansuul’s Torment	Charged	Flame
Weapon Two	Frost Staff	Perfected Ansuul’s Torment	Infused	Weapon Damage
Necklace		Perfected Ansuul’s Torment	Bloodthirsty	Weapon Damage
Ring 1	Mythic	Pale Order	Bloodthirsty	Weapon Damage
Ring 2		Perfected Ansuul’s Torment	Bloodthirsty	Weapon Damage

Monster Helms and Mythic

Valkyn Skoria: obtained in City of Ash II veteran. Gives a powerful one piece bonus for penetration.

Ring of the Pale Order: Mythic obtained by collecting five pieces. This gives great healing for doing damage and allows you to focus on pure damage.

FLEX OPTIONS (if you switch to monster setup, drop the ring and replace it with Vicious or flex piece)

• Stormfist – always works, easy to obtain and  AoE DPS set.
• Iceheart = is great for survivability.
• Velothi Ur-Mage’s Amulet: new mythic that is incredible damage if you have good survivability and don’t require Pale Order.
• Mora’s Whisper = set and forget high critical mythic but requires a collection of Mages Guild books.
• Death Dealer’s Fete = high max stats and requires no effect but in combat.

Gear Sets

Perfected Whorl of the Depths: Trial set that drops in Dreadsail Reef. Great aoe cold damage for less mobile fights.

Perfected Ansuul’s Torment: Obtained in Sanity’s Edge, Necrom Chapter Trial. It’s the best medium armor set and forget set in the game, and it deals almost as much damage as other options.

FLEX OPTIONS

Because you run one five piece set, you need a trial set with Minor Slayer on it. You’ll then run a 2 piece of any other set that offers critical strike chance as the 2 piece.

• Ansuul’s Torment: Incredible medium set and forget set. Proccing this set with an interrupt is a huge boost to damage too.
• Arms of Relequen: Insane single target dps. Not often used outside of a target dummy, but you could swap into it for a boss fight.
• Coral Riptide: Challenging to sustain low stamina with, but you can manually keep your stam low with Cutting Dive if you want to run Coral.

Gear – Beginner

This setup is for someone who just started and doesn’t have access to Monsters, Mythics, Trials gear

Slot	Type	Set	Trait	Glyph
Head	light	Withered Hand	Divines	Magicka
Shoulders	light	Withered Hand	Divines	Magicka
Chest	light	Mother’s Sorrow	Divines	Magicka
Legs	light	Mother’s Sorrow	Divines	Magicka
Gloves	light	Mother’s Sorrow	Divines	Magicka
Boots	light	Mother’s Sorrow	Divines	Magicka
Belt	light	Mother’s Sorrow	Divines	Magicka
Weapon One	Frost Staff	Willpower	Precise	Flame
Weapon Two	Frost Staff	Willpower	Infused	Berserker
Necklace		Withered Hand	Arcane	Magicka Recovery
Ring 1		Withered Hand	Arcane	Magicka Recovery
Ring 2		Withered Hand	Arcane	Spell Damage

• Withered Hand – found in Alikr Desert overland or in build traders. Gives resources back on kills.
• Willpower – is obtained in dungeon daily rewards or cheaply from build traders. Gives you a big magicka stat boost.
• Mother’s Sorrow – found in overland Deshaan or bought from guild traders. Useful for high critical and base game easy to obtain.

Race

The best racial choice for the Magicka Warden is below:

1. Dark Elf: Gain max magicka, stamina, and weapon and spell damage. The flame resistance is also helpful and considered the strongest overall PVE DPS race.
2. High Elf: Gain resource sustain passive, max magicka, and weapon and spell damage. The downside of High Elf is a lack of stamina or flame resistance.
3. Khajiit: This race gets recovery, max stats, and critical damage and healing. Consider the Khajiit a great option if you aren’t over the critical cap of 125%.

Attributes

The best choice is 64 magicka, which increases damage, healing, and DoTs.

Mundus Stone

The Thief is the best Mundus Stone for PvE Builds because it gives Increases Weapon and Spell Critical Strike a chance.

Champion Points – ESO Solo Warden Magicka Build for PvE

Craft	Warfare	Fitness
Treasure Hunter	Fighting Finesse	Siphoning Spells
Liquid Efficiency	Deadly Aim	Boundless Vitality
Rationer	Master-at-Arms	Rejuvenation
Steed’s Blessing	Wrathful Strikes	Fortified

Warfare Constellation Champion Points

Below is a step-by-step method for slotting your champion points in the Warfare tree (blue).  We have used the minimum possible to reach four slottable selections, all maxed out.  If you have more CP, consider taking more in the passives for optimal performance.

Below are recommended Warfare Champion Point selections for the ESO Solo Warden Magicka Build for PvE:

1. Precision 10
2. Wrathful Strikes (slottable) 50
3. Fighting Finesse (slottable) 50
4. Extended Might – sub constellation – piercing 10
5. Deadly Aim (slottable) 50
6. Master – at- Arms (slottable) 50

This would be the bare minimum setup, spending 220 CP (660 total required). The next step is to max out passives that do not require a slottable but increase performance.

1. Precision 10
2. Piercing 10
3. Tireless discipline 20
4. Eldritch insight 20
5. Blessed 20
6. Quick recovery 20
7. Flawless ritual 40
8. War mage 30
9. Battle mastery 40
10. Mighty 30
11. Elemental aegis 20
12. Hardy 20
13. Preparation 20

This would max out the Warfare tree with all active and passive champion points at 520 spent 1,560 total spent.

Fitness Constellation Champion Points

Below are recommended Fitness Champion Point selections for the ESO Solo Warden Magicka Build for PvE:

1. Fortified (slottable) 50
2. Boundless vitality (slottable) 50
3. Rejuvenation (slottable) 50
4. Sprinter 10
5. Winder chaser – sub con – hasty 8
6. Hero’s Vigor 10
7. Siphoning Spells (slottable) 50

This would be the bare minimum setup, spending 228 CP (684 total required). The next step is to max out passives, that do not require a slottable but increase performance. 

1. Hero’s Vigor 10
2. Tumbling 30
3. Sprinter 10
4. Defiance 20
5. Hasty 8
6. Tireless guardian 20
7. Fortification 30
8. Nimble 6
9. Mystic tenacity 50
10. Tempered soul 50
11. Piercing gaze 30
12. Savage defense  30
13. Bashing brutality 20

This would max out the fitness tree with all active passive champion points at 542 cp spent and 1,626 total spent.

Craft Constellation Champion Points

Below are recommended Craft Champion Point selections for the ESO Solo Warden Magicka Build for PvE:

1. Steed’s blessing (slottable) – 50
2. Breakfall 10 
3. Wanderer 15
4. Steadfast 10
5. Treasure hunter 50 (slottable)
6. rationer (slottable) 30
7. liquid effiency (slottable) 75

This would be the bare minimum setup, spending 240CP (720 total required). The next step is to max out passives, that do not require a slottable but increase performance.

1. Steadfast enchantment 40cp
2. Breakfall 40 cp
3. Wanderer 60
4. Fortunes favor 50
5. Friends in low places 25
6. Out of sight 30
7. Fleet of phantom 40
8. Soul’s reservoir 33
9. Gilded fingers 50
10. Fortunes favor 40
11. Inspiration boost 45
12. Infamous 30

Consumables

The best consumables for the solo Magicka Warden PvE build are Mistral Bananan-Bunny Hash food and Heroism potions. Mistral Bananan-Bunny Hash gives the most damage possible, though Clockwork Citrus Filet is good for resource sustain if you struggle. A third balanced option for more hybrid resource pools is Bewitched Sugar Skulls. The best potions if you have spell critical and spell power buff is Heriosm (the essence of magicka). Another option is Spell Power potions if you lack the buffs or tri-stat Essence of Health. Below are our recommended food and potion choices:

Mistral Bananan-Bunny Hash (best damage no sustain) – Increases max health and max magicka. Crafted with Provisioning ingredients of Small Game, Bananas, and Seasoning.

• Clockwork Citrus Filet – Increases max health, health recovery, max magicka, and magicka recovery. Crafted with Provisioning ingredients of Red Meat, Lemon, Frost Mirriam, and Perfect Roe.
• Witchmother’s Potent Brew – Increases max magicka, max health, and magicka recovery. Crafted with Provisioning ingredients of Nightshade, Bervez Juice, Rice, and Small Game.
• Bewitched Sugar Skulls (tri-max stats) – increases max health, stamina, magicka, and health recovery. Crafted with provisioning from ingredients of Scrib Jelly, Flour, Columbine, Bervez Juice, and Honey.

Heroism Potion – Restores stamina and magicka and grants minor heroism for a time. Crafted with Alchemy from ingredients of Columbine, and Dragon’s Blood, Dragon Rheum.

• Essence of Spell Power – grants major critical, major spell power buff, and magicka recovery. Crafted with alchemy from ingredients such as Corn Flower, Lady’s Smock, and Luminous Russula (other combinations).
• Tri-Pots – grants immediate health, stamina and magicka, along with tri-recovery. Crafted with Alchemy from ingredients of Bugloss, Columbine, and Mountain Flower.

Build Summary – ESO Solo Warden Magicka PvE Build

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