HEAVY ATTACK WARDEN PVE DPS BUILD
Last updated: Update 45 - 24th April 2025
This build focuses on amplifying Heavy Attacks with the
Sergeants Mail item set
and
the Empower buff, sourced from the
Might of the Guild passive, procced
by
constantly using
Ulfsild's Contingency. Warden is
the
perfect class for that because of passives like
Piercing Cold which straight up
boosts
all damage done by 8% and
Glacial Presence which buffs the
Chilled status effect, which makes long duration skills like
Elemental Susceptibility worth it,
which gives us more time to channel Heavy Attacks.
SKILL SETUPS
This is the regular skill setup
| Front Bar | Back Bar |
|---|---|
| Slot 1: Ulfsild's Contingency | Slot 1: Bull Netch |
| Slot 2: Deep Fissure | Slot 2: Arctic Blast |
| Slot 3: Barbed Trap | Slot 3: Elemental Susceptibility |
| Slot 4: Inner Light | Slot 4: Elemental Blockade |
| Slot 5: Banner Bearer | Slot 5: Banner Bearer |
| Ultimate: Wild Guardian | Ultimate: Wild Guardian |
Ulfsild's Contingency -
Frost,
Lingering Torment,
Force.
Use
Scalding Rune instead if you
don't have access to Scribing
Banner Bearer -
Magic,
Cavalier's Charge,
Berserk. You can change
Berserk to
Heroism if you can rely on your Healer to provide the Minor Berserk buff. Use
Camouflaged Hunter on frontbar and
Winter’s Revenge on backbar instead if you don't have access to Scribing
Ulfsild's Contingency - your
source of crucial Empower buff, which increases damage done by Heavy Attacks by 70%. Since
Ulfsild's Contingency is a
Mages Guild skill, it will trigger the
Might of the Guild passive,
which grants you Empower for 10 seconds. It also deals decent damage in an AoE and grants
you Minor Force buff, increasing your Critical Damage by 10%.
Ulfsild's Contingency is
delayed until the next skill cast but whenever it's needed you can activate it early by
bashing your enemy. If you cast this ability as you're finishing your Heavy Attack, the
Empower you gain from it will start working just in time to boost the final tick of that
Heavy Attack you just finished
Deep Fissure - deals a lot of
damage per cast and provides 4% Critical Damage through the
Advanced Species passive
Barbed Trap - a DoT that will
also apply Hemorrhage status effect at the start and grant you Minor Force buff, increasing
your Critical Damage by 10%. It will also trigger the
Slayer passive
Inner Light - passively
provides 7% Max Magicka - 5% from the skill itself and 2% from the
Magicka Controller passive
Banner Bearer - increases your
Magical damage done by 6%, grants 60 Weapon Damage thanks to the
Celerity Champion
Point and grants Minor Berserk or Minor Heroism, depending on the script you used. It also
severely decreases your sustain but it's not an issue on a Heavy Attack build
Wild Guardian - a free ultimate
that has to be double-barred that summons a permanent Bear pet, that deals decent damage to
your enemies. While the Bear is summoned, you can activate this ability for 75 Ultimate to
command the Bear to maul an enemy. Deals 100% more damage to enemies below 25% Health. It's
also going to trigger the
Advanced Species passive,
increasing our Critical Damage by 4%
Bull Netch - an ability that
grants us a 5% damage buff and automatically cleanses a debuff every 5 seconds. You can
recast it early if you need to cleanse an important debuff. The skill's duration is 25
seconds but the 5 second 5% damage done buff refreshes at the end so you only have to recast
it every 30 seconds
Arctic Blast - an ability witha higher chance to proc the Chilled status effect, which deals increased damage thanks tothe
Glacial Presence passive
Elemental Susceptibility - an
ability which procs Burning, Concussed and Chilled status effects at the start and every 7.5
seconds for 30 seconds. It will deal a lot of damage per cast thanks to the
Glacial Presence passive
Elemental Blockade - a ground
DoT that will constantly re-apply your backbar weapon enchantment. It will also deal
increased damage thanks to the
Crushing Wall set and proc Off
Balance if your supports aren't already doing it
- Whenever you need to slot situational skills, replace
Inner Light
Resolving Vigor -
Stamina-costing heal over time which also grants you Minor Resolve which reduces your damage
taken. Use it when you need a self-heal
Living Trellis -
Magicka-costing ability that heals you when you take damage and at the end, which means you
can spam it to constantly re-proc the direct heal. Use it when you need a self-heal you can
spam under pressure. This ability can also target allies which can be either a good or a bad
thing depending on the situation
Winter’s Revenge - replacement
for
Barbed Trap for trash fights
and boss fights which require more AoE damage
Priority List
I don't use a static rotation so this is just a list of priorities. Simply recast abilities when they run out and follow this list of priorities when there are multiple things to refresh
For maximum DPS, it's more optimal to switch from Heavy Attack weaving to Light Attack weaving when you have many DoTs to refresh, though it's not mandatory and you can do massive DPS even while sticking to just Heavy Attacks
- Always start a Heavy Attack roughly a second before Off Balance immunity ends, this way you'll be able to fit 3 Heavy Attacks within an Off Balance window
- Use
Ulfsild's Contingency if your
Empower is out or if it's going to run out by the end of the Heavy Attack you're channeling
- Use
Wild Guardian if it's ready
- Use
Elemental Blockade - Use
Deep Fissure - Use
Barbed Trap - Use
Bull Netch - Use
Elemental Susceptibility - Use
Arctic Blast - Use
Ulfsild's Contingency
Pre-buff
These abilities can be pre-cast before entering combat
PASSIVES
There are no passives you need to skip with this build
Class
Weapon
Armor
Guild
Alliance War
Racial
Craft
Class - Animal Companions
Bond with Nature - Medium Priority
Savage Beast - Medium Priority
Flourish - Low Priority
Advanced Species - High Priority
GEAR
Default setup for dungeons and trials
| Gear Slot | Set | Weight/Type | Trait | Enchantment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() Head |
Medium | |||
![]() Shoulders |
Light | |||
![]() Chest |
Medium | |||
![]() Hands |
Medium | |||
![]() Belt |
Medium | |||
![]() Legs |
Medium | |||
![]() Boots |
Medium | |||
![]() Necklace |
Jewelry | |||
![]() Ring |
Jewelry | |||
![]() Ring |
Jewelry | |||
![]() Frontbar Main Hand |
Lightning Staff | |||
![]() Backbar Main Hand |
Lightning Staff |
When choosing different situational sets you can only replace
Ansuul's Torment,
Crushing Wall and
Anthelmir’s Construct.
Sergeant’s Mail
is too strong and too crucial for this build to ever be replaced. Ideally you want your 2nd 5-piece set to
be Medium weight, but choosing a Light set is also an option in dungeons if none of your group members are
providing any penetration
For example, a default setup for trash packs would replace
Ansuul's Torment with
Sul-Xan’s Torment
Gear that can be stronger than the setup from the table in specific situations or when specific circumstances are present
Mora’s Whispers - combined with 1
piece of
Slimecraw
it's an alternative to
Anthelmir’s Construct in fights
where you can't retrieve the Anthelmir axe
Domihaus
- alternative to
Anthelmir’s Construct if you don't
have enough lorebooks to make use of
Mora’s Whispers
Sul-Xan’s Torment - the best set
for trash packs and for bosses that regularly spawn smaller adds
Highland Sentinel - the strongest
set if you are able to stand still in a certain encounter. Usually when using it you should also
change
Anthelmir’s Construct to
Mora’s Whispers
or
Domihaus,
as
Anthelmir’s Construct
requires you to stand very close to the boss, which means they'll be pushing you around, which
will cause you to lose
Highland Sentinel stacks
Roar of Alkosh - a support set that
allows you to provide 6000 penetration for your team, as long as they provide you with at least
1 synergy every 10 seconds. It's extremely beneficial to have at least 1
Alkosh
user in groups. If your team isn't providing any penetration your two most efficient options for
getting it yourself are
Alkosh and the Light Armor
Concentration passive, and you'll
get better DPS with
Alkosh even though it's a support
set, because Medium Armor passives are just that good
Noble Duelist - the best option for
dungeons if you can't rely on your team to provide penetration and they're not providing you
with synergies, which means you can't use
Roar of Alkosh
Gear that is easier to obtain and can be used while you work towards the best gear
Crafted:
All of these are tradable and can be bought from other players
Overland:
All of these are tradable and can be bought from other players
Mother’s Sorrow (Light) - Deshaan
Back-Alley Gourmand (Light) - Galen
and Y'ffelon
Dragonguard Elite (Medium) -
Southern Elsweyr
PvP:
All of these are tradable and can be bought from other players
Deadly Strike (Medium) - Bruma
Elite Gear Vendor
Dungeons:
Storm Master (Medium) - Tempest
Island
Undaunted Infiltrator (Medium) -
Arx Corinium
Undaunted Unweaver (Light) -
Blackheart Haven
Tzogvin’s Warband (Medium) -
Frostvault
Some additional tips
- If you can rely on your supports to provide Off Balance you can replace backbar Lightning Staff with an Inferno Staff
- For purely Single Target fights with no adds that could accidentally "eat" your
backbar enchant proc, you can change
Weapon Damage enchant to
Frost
Setup for parsing on the practice dummy
| Gear Slot | Set | Weight/Type | Trait | Enchantment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() Head |
Medium | |||
![]() Shoulders |
Light | |||
![]() Chest |
Medium | |||
![]() Hands |
Medium | |||
![]() Belt |
Medium | |||
![]() Legs |
Medium | |||
![]() Boots |
Medium | |||
![]() Necklace |
Jewelry | |||
![]() Ring |
Jewelry | |||
![]() Ring |
Jewelry | |||
![]() Frontbar Main Hand |
Lightning Staff | |||
![]() Backbar Main Hand |
Inferno Staff |
CHAMPION POINTS
Warfare
Weapons Expert (20%
Light
and Heavy Attack Damage)
Deadly Aim (6% Single
Target Damage)
Master-at-Arms (6%
Direct
Damage)
Exploiter (10% Damage
against Off Balance enemies)
Fitness
Boundless Vitality
(1400
Max Health)
Fortified (1731 armor)
Celerity (10% Movement
Speed)
Rejuvenation (90
Health,
Stamina and Magicka Recovery)
ADDITIONAL INFO:
- Replace
Deadly Aim with
Biting Aura in AoE fights
RACE
The difference between best and worst race is about 5% of DPS and there is no content in the entire game that you'd be blocked from completing because of choosing a bad race.
Best race for 12-man content - High Elf, Dark Elf
Best race for 4-man content - Khajiit
Other decent options: Orc, Breton
MUNDUS
Most of the time you should use
The Thief Mundus,
which
increases your Critical Chance
If your group isn't providing penetration you have to either put on
Roar of Alkosh,
put on some Light Armor set (like for example
Noble Duelist) or switch your
Mundus to
The Lover.
Roar of Alkosh is the best
option
as long as you can rely on your teammates to provide synergies, because even though
Alkosh
is a support set it has really good stat lines and a Minor Slayer line, so youll end up
with
more DPS with
Alkosh and
The Thief
Mundus, rather than with a Light Armor set, or with a regular Medium DPS set and
The Lover
Mundus.
ATTRIBUTES
HEALTH
0
STAMINA
0
MAGICKA
64
You should always put all 64 attribute points into Magicka
FOOD
Artaeum Pickled Fish Bowl
-
Max Health, Max Magicka. Use it for most of regular content.
Solitude Salmon-Millet Soup
is
a cheaper alternative
Tomato Garlic Chutney -
Max
Magicka. Use it for practice dummy parsing
POTIONS
Use the Spell Power potions (Increase Spell Power, Spell Critical, Restore Magicka).
They'll
provide Major Sorcery and Major Prophecy which are crucial buffs. You can craft them by
combining
Lady's Smock,
Namira's Rot
and
Corn Flower.
If you need more damage mitigation you can use the Armor potions, though this is only
possible if you didn't replace
Inner Light with any
situational skill. It will be a small DPS decrease as you will no longer have Major
Savagery
and Prophecy on your backbar. You will also have to refresh
Bull Netch every 25 seconds
instead of 30, as it will now be your only source of Major Brutality and Sorcery. You
can
craft them by combining
Bugloss,
Mountain's Flower
and
Mudcrab Chitin.
PARSE
Combat Metrics screenshot of the 121k parse
Recording of the 121k parse
OTHER PARSES
Anthelmir's Construct / Ansuul's Torment / Sergeant's Mail - 116.8k DPS
THANKS FOR READING
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