Welcome to my Stamina Warden guide! This is a basic guide to harvesting the power of animals and nature to vanquish your foes
This guide is mostly designed for PvE group play but can work to some degree for solo play as well. (For extensive solo play, you may need to make a number of adjustments for survivability)
For a nontraditional but incredibly effective and easy-to-use alternative build, check out my Heavy Attack Build guide as well!
- Warden Basics
- Gear
- Skills and Passives
- Example Bar Setups
- Quick Guide to Skill Casting
- Rotation
- Priority Passives
Warden Basics
Wardens are themed based on nature and frost abilities. Many of their damage skills summon animals and creatures to help you out, and they have one semi-permanent summon in the form of a bear that can accompany you all the time to autonomously attack enemies. Wardens’ frost abilities allow them to apply special frost-based debuffs and damage to enemies, and their passives give extra benefits for using more animal abilities and dealing lots of frost damage
Gear
Basics
- We’ll use mostly medium armor. The Medium Armor skill line provides damage bonuses and stamina recovery that will be very helpful to doing as much damage as possible and keeping up our resources
- One or two light armor pieces can be helpful as well, as the Light Armor skill line provides penetration, one of the most potent of all stats. Most endgame builds will use one light armor piece and six medium
- We’ll use dual wield daggers on our frontbar. Dual daggers will provide the best damage stats of any weapon, mostly because of the Twin Blade and Blunt passive providing a large critical chance bonus
- If you’d like, you can also use a different weapon such as a bow or a two-handed sword. These will generally do a little less damage, but they’ll still do just fine
- We have a few different good options for our backbar weapon. Two-handed greatswords, bows, or even inferno staves will do nicely. My preference is a greatsword, so this guide will favor that option; however, a few different setup options will be shown for bows and staves
- Note that despite the magical inclination of a staff, we can still use a staff on a stamina-based build. There’s no penalty or disadvantage for doing so; in fact, using a staff backbar can be helpful to regulating our stamina usage, since staff skills cost magicka and won’t dip into our stamina
Gear Setups
There are many great options for gear. These are some of my favorites that I’ve found to do especially high damage, but experiment with other sets and find what works best for you!
Starting Gear
Try this setup until you reach CP 160 (the gear cap). These sets are all craftable! Ask for help in guild chat or Discord if you’d like someone to make them for you. The Training traits will get you a bunch of extra XP
If you have some extra skill points available to invest in the Light Armor skill line, swapping the head and/or shoulder piece to light armor will usually yield a little bit more damage
This setup uses Shattered Fate for a huge penetration buff to tear through enemies’ resistances, and Adept Rider for extra movement speed, perfect for new characters that tend to struggle to move quickly around the world. Night Mother’s Gaze is just filler for our last two pieces, providing a little extra crit chance
Gear Slot | Type | Set | Trait | Enchant |
---|---|---|---|---|
![]() ![]() | Medium | Night Mother’s Gaze | Training ![]() | Max Stamina ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | Medium | Adept Rider | Training ![]() | Max Stamina ![]() |
![]() | Shattered Fate | Robust ![]() | Stamina Recovery ![]() | |
![]() ![]() | Shattered Fate | Robust ![]() | Weapon Damage ![]() | |
![]() | Dagger | Shattered Fate | Training ![]() | Poison ![]() |
![]() | Dagger | Shattered Fate | Training ![]() | Flame ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() | 2H Sword or Bow or Inferno Staff | Shattered Fate | Training ![]() | Weapon Damage ![]() |
Alternatives
You can substitute Adept Rider with:
- Order’s Wrath for extra damage
- Heartland Conqueror for a small amount of extra kill XP
Intermediate Gear
Once you hit CP 160, swap off your training gear and set up for pure damage! This gear will serve you well through the vast majority of content throughout the game
If you have some extra skill points available to invest in the Light Armor skill line, swapping the head and/or shoulder piece to light armor will usually yield a little bit more damage
This setup uses Shattered Fate for a huge penetration buff to tear through enemies’ resistances, and Order’s Wrath for big bonuses to our critical hits. Night Mother’s Gaze is just filler for our last two pieces, providing a little extra crit chance
Gear Slot | Type | Set | Trait | Enchant |
---|---|---|---|---|
![]() ![]() | Medium | Night Mother’s Gaze | Divines ![]() | Max Stamina ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | Medium | Order’s Wrath | Divines ![]() | Max Stamina ![]() |
![]() | Shattered Fate | Robust ![]() | Stamina Recovery ![]() | |
![]() ![]() | Shattered Fate | Robust ![]() | Weapon Damage ![]() | |
![]() | Dagger | Shattered Fate | Precise ![]() | Poison ![]() |
![]() | Dagger | Shattered Fate | Charged ![]() | Flame ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() | 2H Sword or Bow or Inferno Staff | Shattered Fate | Infused ![]() | Weapon Damage ![]() |
Alternatives
I recommend the above gear for the simplicity in acquiring it, but here are some additional options
- Briarheart: Provides some extra healing along with extra damage
- Leviathan: Provides a big stat boost, somewhat similarly to Order’s Wrath
If you’re ready for vet dungeons, consider swapping out your Night Mother pieces for a monster set. These basegame monster sets are some of the easiest ones to get but are still quite powerful
Advanced Gear
Consider this setup once you have some trials and veteran dungeons under your belt. This setup uses very optimized sets and traits but will require significant trial and dungeon farming
The gear listed in the Intermediate Gear section is entirely adequate for most content in ESO. The gear listed below will often provide noticeably more damage, but crafted gear will be plenty for anything short of seriously dedicated veteran content. If you’re not interested in vet content and you’re not interested in farming, you can skip this section!
- This setup uses Ansuul’s Torment, which provides a flat 7% bonus to our damage. You can get a huge additional 7% bonus by interrupting enemies, but this is not a priority; we’re wearing this set mostly for the always-on bonus
- We also have Pillar of Nirn, which will proc extra DoT damage to run almost constantly as long as we’re dealing damage
- Velothi Ur-Mage’s Amulet is an excellent mythic that gives a flat 15% damage bonus as well as the Minor Force buff for extra critical damage and a big penetration bonus to tear through enemy resistances; however it has the drawback of mostly negating the damage of our light attacks
- Despite the damage negation, make sure to use light attacks anyway, because light attacks proc our weapon enchants and also cause us to generate ultimate
- The Merciless Charge arena weapon will give us some extra damage by buffing our direct damage (i.e. instantaneous non-DoT damage)
- Finally, we’ll top off our build with one piece of Slimecraw monster set, just providing a crit chance bonus
Gear Slot | Type | Set | Trait | Enchant |
---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | Light | Slimecraw | Divines ![]() | Max Stamina ![]() |
![]() | Medium | Pillar of Nirn | Divines ![]() | Max Stamina ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | Medium | Ansuul’s Torment | Divines ![]() | Max Stamina ![]() |
![]() | Velothi Ur-Mage’s Amulet | Bloodthirsty ![]() | Weapon Damage ![]() | |
![]() ![]() | Pillar of Nirn | Bloodthirsty ![]() | Weapon Damage ![]() | |
![]() | Dagger | Pillar of Nirn | Nirnhoned ![]() or Precise ![]() | Poison ![]() |
![]() | Dagger | Pillar of Nirn | Charged ![]() | Flame ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() | 2H Sword or Bow or Inferno Staff | Merciless Charge (or Thunderous Volley) (or Crushing Wall) | Infused ![]() | Weapon Damage ![]() |
Alternatives
A wide variety of additional options listed here
- Five-Piece Sets
- Whorl of the Depths: Excellent alternative to Ansuul, providing a proc to do large amounts of extra damage. However, Depths is a light armor set. To maintain your medium armor setup, you’ll need to use Depths on your jewelry and weapons, and swap Pillar to your body pieces
- Arms of Relequen: High single-target damage, but low AoE and requires very good light attack weaving to use well. For most purposes, another set will be better
- Coral Riptide: Provides a huge stat bonus as long as you can keep your stamina meter low. This set provides some of the very strongest damage, but only if you can keep your stamina constantly low without running out; most people will do better with a set that doesn’t have such a challenging gimmick
- Kinras’s Wrath: Gives us Major Berserk, a big boost to our damage. Reasonable alternative to Pillar but requires very good light attack weaving to keep up the buff; for most purposes, another set will yield more consistent results
- Monster Sets (requires rearranging your gear setup, e.g. swapping out the Velothi mythic)
- Maw of the Infernal: Great mix of single target and AoE damage
- Stormfist: Great AoE damage
- Selene: Great single target damage
- Zaan: One of the highest damage monster sets, with good AoE damage, but stops working if you get too far away from the enemy. Also requires fairly good light attack weaving to work well
- Kjalnar’s Nightmare: One of the highest single target damage of all monster sets. Requires very good light attack weaving to work well
- Arena Weapons
- Thunderous Volley (Bow): Enhances the Volley bow skill with a ramping damage increase
- Crushing Wall (Inferno Staff): Enhances the Wall of Elements skill with a simple damage boost
- Mythics
- Harpooner’s Wading Kilt: Gives us a huge stacking damage boost. This mythic can yield higher damage than Velothi, but only if we can keep up the buff stacks by not taking direct damage. Anytime we take direct damage will drop a large portion of the buff, so use this set with caution
Skills and Passives
Skills
I’m listing way more skills than will actually fit on your bars, just to emphasize how many good options there are. See Example Bar Setups below for specific examples of bar setups, but ultimately you can just pick whatever skills you like best!
Choose a spammable
This is the skill you’ll be casting most often, while your DoTs are still running
Cutting Dive: A ranged spammable that also applies a nice DoT to the enemy
Silver Shards: Also ranged, and does some cleave damage to nearby enemies
Whirling Blades: AoE spammable. Does extra execute damage, hitting enemies harder when they’re already at low health percentages. Use this when fighting large packs of enemies. Less damage per target than the above options, but more damage overall when you hit multiple enemies with it
Choose one of these high-damage skills
This skill will make up a significant portion of our damage and will more or less define the rhythm of our rotation
Deep Fissure: Provides two huge damage bursts, making up a significant portion of the warden’s damage. Be careful not to re-cast this skill early, since it does a big damage burst at the end of its cooldown. Also applies the Major and Minor Breach debuffs. Can be useful for sustain since it costs magicka
- Fissure has a nine-second cooldown. For optimal damage, cast it consistently every 9th cast
Subterranean Assault: This morph does a bit less damage than Fissure, but on a shorter cooldown. This morph has a six-second cooldown, so for optimal damage, cast it consistently every 6th cast
Choose some DoTs
Fill up the rest of your skill slots with DoTs, and optionally utility skills (see below)
Fetcher Infection /
Growing Swarm: Nice DoT. Also provides the Minor Vulnerability debuff to make the enemy take more damage from everyone. Use Infection for extra single-target damage (or if you need a magicka skill for sustain), or Growing for AoE damage
Stampede: Great AoE DoT, also a gap closer to bring you into melee range
Barbed Trap: Provides Minor Force to increase your crit damage, as well as applying a DoT
Winter’s Revenge: Another AoE DoT. Also helps apply the Chilled debuff, which does lots of damage via our Glacial Presence passive
Carve: Another AoE DoT. Gets an extra-long timer if you re-cast it before it finishes. Also provides a damage shield
Deadly Cloak: Good AoE DoT that also protects you with Major Evasion
Rending Slashes: Decent single-target DoT
Arctic Blast: Only a mediocre DoT, but helps apply the Chilled debuff, which does lots of damage via our Glacial Presence passive. Also an excellent burst heal
Anti-Cavalry Caltrops: Decent AoE DoT
Choose some utility skills (optional)
Miscellaneous skills you can use for buffs, recovery, and extra damage
Resolving Vigor: Powerful heal skill. Also protects us with Minor Resolve
Bull Netch: Useful sustain skill; also provides Major Brutality/Sorcery for some stat boosts, and purges negative effects
Deceptive Predator /
Bird of Prey: Slot this passively for Minor Berserk or Evasion. I prefer Deceptive for group content and Prey for solo, since group healers normally already provide Berserk. Also useful as a utility skill for the Major Expedition movement speed boost
Camouflaged Hunter: Another skill you can slot passively for the Minor Berserk and Major Savagery/Prophecy damage buffs
Shrouded Daggers: Mostly useful as a ranged interrupt. Also cleaves to multiple enemies and provides Major Brutality/Sorcery
Choose ultimates
Very high damage skills you can cast when your Ultimate meter is full. Slot one on each bar (either two different ones, or the same one on both)
Wild Guardian: Summons a bear pet to fight with you! Cast it while summoned for an extra attack, especially when the enemy is at low health for the execute bonus
- Needs to be slotted on both your bars, or else the bear will un-summon when you swap
Using the bear is a great way to put out easy, passive damage, but some people find pets inconvenient and obtrusive. If you don’t want to use the bear, some other good ultimate options are:
Shooting Star: The next-best ultimate choice, though requires the daunting task of leveling the Mages Guild skill line
Northern Storm: Not as powerful as Shooting Star, but is easier to acquire and will do some decent damage
Flawless Dawnbreaker: You can optionally slot this passively on your frontbar for the Slayer passive in Fighters Guild, with Shooting Star or Northern Storm on your backbar
Example Bar Setups
Consider these setups as templates for your own setup; there’s not necessarily a need to follow them exactly. Skills marked “Flex” in particular are good candidates to be replaced with other skills that you prefer, or ones of the opposite stat cost if you’re having sustain trouble
Single-Target Fight
Fighting a boss? This setup will do nicely
![]() ![]() | ![]() ![]() | ![]() ![]() | ![]() ![]() | ![]() ![]() | ![]() ![]() |
Cutting Dive | Deep Fissure | Barbed Trap | Quick Cloak | Camouflaged Hunter | Wild Guardian |
![]() ![]() | ![]() ![]() | ![]() ![]() | ![]() ![]() | ![]() ![]() | ![]() ![]() |
Stampede | Carve | Fetcher Infection | Arctic Blast | Bull Netch | Wild Guardian |
A bow backbar can substitute in Endless Hail and
Anti-Cavalry Caltrops for
Stampede and
Carve
A staff backbar can substitute in Unstable Wall of Elements and
Anti-Cavalry Caltrops
How To
Cutting Dive is our spammable. You’ll be casting this skill much more than all other skills
Deep Fissure does a large amount of damage and also provides Major and Minor Breach debuffs to lower enemies’ resistances and let us do much more damage. Make extra sure to cast this skill on cooldown, every 9 seconds
- We have a variety of DoT skills (
) that will put out lots of extra damage throughout a fight
Bull Netch provides us with extra resources, as well as a big stat buff
Arctic Blast is our heal (as well as being a DoT); use it for emergencies when your health is running low
- If you find you need a stamina-based heal, swap this out for
Resolving Vigor
- If you find you need a stamina-based heal, swap this out for
- Don’t cast
Camouflaged Hunter; it’s just giving us passive buffs to our critical chance, and also to our weapon damage through the Slayer passive
- Activate your
Wild Guardian’s special ability to make it do extra damage, especially when the enemy is at low health, which will let the bear do extra execute damage
AoE Fight
Try this setup if you’re fighting a large pack of enemies. You’ll get less damage on each individual enemy, but much more damage overall as you hit more enemies at once. We’ll dispense with most single-target abilities here
![]() ![]() | ![]() ![]() | ![]() ![]() | ![]() ![]() | ![]() ![]() | ![]() ![]() |
Whirling Blades | Deep Fissure | Deadly Cloak | Growing Swarm | Camouflaged Hunter | Flawless Dawnbreaker |
![]() ![]() | ![]() ![]() | ![]() ![]() | ![]() ![]() | ![]() ![]() | ![]() ![]() |
Stampede | Winter’s Revenge | Carve | Arctic Blast | Bull Netch | Shooting Star |
A bow backbar can substitute in Endless Hail and double-barred
Camouflaged Hunter for the 2H skills
A staff backbar can substitute in Unstable Wall of Elements and double-barred
Camouflaged Hunter
How To
Whirling Blades is our spammable. You’ll be casting this skill much more than all other skills
Deep Fissure does a large amount of damage and also provides Major and Minor Breach debuffs to lower enemies’ resistances and let us do much more damage. Make extra sure to cast this skill on cooldown, every 9 seconds
- We have a variety of DoT skills (
) that will put out lots of extra damage throughout a fight
Bull Netch provides us with extra resources, as well as a big stat buff
Arctic Blast is our heal (as well as being a DoT); use it for emergencies when your health is running low
- If you find you need a stamina-based heal, swap this out for
Resolving Vigor
- If you find you need a stamina-based heal, swap this out for
- Don’t cast
Camouflaged Hunter; it’s just giving us passive buffs to our critical chance, and also to our weapon damage through the Slayer passive
- Always use
Shooting Star for your ultimate;
Flawless Dawnbreaker is just slotted passively, giving us some extra damage from the Slayer passive
- You can swap either or both of these ultimates out for
Northern Storm if you haven’t completed the fairly substantial tasks of unlocking them
- You can swap either or both of these ultimates out for
Quick Guide to Skill Casting
Remember, there is a one second global cooldown (GCD) for casting skills. After you cast a skill, you are unable to cast another skill for one second. Therefore it is ideal to cast skills on a consistent rhythm of one skill per second, the maximum speed allowed by the GCD. Consider using a metronome addon to get accustomed to this rhythm
- Naturally, casting this frequently will burn through a lot of resources, but any second where you’re not casting a skill is a second wasted where you could have been doing more damage! But see Sustain Tips below if you’re running out of resources
- Also remember to weave a light attack between each skill. Along with dealing extra damage, this will cause you to generate ult and also assist in applying your weapon enchantments, which are activated by light attacks and weapon skills. A successful weaver will cast one skill and one light attack in each one-second interval
Rotation
Watch your skill timers! Your main goal in your rotation is to keep your DoT timers all running as much of the time as possible. When you see a timer run out, cast that skill again
Your goals in your rotation are:
- Keep your DoT and buff timers running at all times
- Cast a useful skill on every one-second GCD
Your priorities in casting your skills are:
- Whenever one of your DoT timers has run out or is about to, cast that skill again to keep it running!
- Whenever your cooldowns are all still running, hit your spammable skill (
) for extra damage
- Try to avoid recasting DoTs long before their timers expire, unless the enemy has moved out of the skill’s area. This will usually not provide much or any additional damage
You should spend most of your time on your frontbar. Just go to your backbar briefly to refresh skill timers
Casting skills infrequently is one of the biggest things that holds back most DPS from doing lots of damage. Dealing with mechanics and staying out of enemy attacks can take some time to get used to, but once you’re familiar with the fight, pushing your damage skills as close to that one-cast-per-second rhythm as possible will let you put out huge amounts of damage. Don’t spam your skills as fast as possible, since only one skill per second will cast, but don’t cast too slowly either
Priority Passives
All passives are useful for something, but these are the passives that will be most relevant to combat
Animal Companions: Everything: Bond With Nature, Savage Beast, Flourish, Advanced Species
Green Balance: Maturation
Winter’s Embrace: Everything: Glacial Presence, Frozen Armor, Icy Aura, Piercing Cold
Dual Wield: Everything: Slaughter, Dual Wield Expert, Controlled Fury, Ruffian, Twin Blade and Blunt
Two Handed: Forceful, Heavy Weapons, Balanced Blade
Light Armor (only if wearing some light pieces): Evocation, Spell Warding, Prodigy, Concentration
Medium Armor: Dexterity, Wind Walker, Agility, Athletics
Fighters Guild: Slayer, Banish the Wicked, Skilled Tracker
Undaunted: Everything: Undaunted Command, Undaunted Mettle
Assault: Continuous Attack
Racial: Everything
Alchemy (if using potions): Medicinal Use
Character
Race
Racial differences are relatively minimal, so I advise simply picking a race you like. But if you’re wanting to optimize, the best options are:
Attributes
All 64 points belong in Stamina. Your skills do more healing based on your Max Stamina value (or Magicka, whichever is higher), so it is ideal to build one value as high as possible
![Attributes](https://wtu.fyi/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/attributes-stamina.png)
Mundus Stone
The Lover
- Gives you extra penetration to shred through enemies’ defenses. This is a great option for (1) when you’re leveling, or (2) when you’re not with a particularly organized group. When in doubt, Lover is likely the way to go
The Thief
- Increases your critical chance, which is another excellent stat for maximizing damage. This is the best option when you have skill points, Champion Points, and group support invested into maxing out your penetration already
Consumables
Foods/Drinks
Dubious Camoran Throne: Max Heath/Stamina, Stamina Recovery
- Good for general use, with a good mix of stats and sustain
Braised Rabbit with Spring Vegetables /
Garlic Cod with Potato Crust /
Sticky Pork and Radish Noodles (all equivalent): Max Health/Stamina (CP 150+)
- Use this if you don’t need extra sustain; higher stats but no sustain buff
Lava Foot Soup-and-Saltrice: Max Stamina, Stamina Recovery
- Use this for low-pressure situations where you don’t need extra survivability; higher stamina and recovery but no health buff
Potions
Crown Tri-Restoration Potion: Max Health/Magicka/Stamina, Health/Magicka/Stamina Recovery
- Easy free option if accumulated from daily rewards
Stamina Potion: Max Stamina, Stamina Recovery
- Also a probably-free option that is easily looted from the wild; also craftable
Weapon Power Potion: Max Stamina, Stamina Recovery, Major Brutality/Savagery
- This will give powerful damage buffs but is a more expensive option to craft
Champion Points (level 50+)
A rough progression of what CP nodes to start with once you hit level 50. You’ll be able to use more and more of these nodes as you gain experience and accumulate more Champion Points. Fill each node completely before moving on to the next one
Warfare ![](https://wtu.fyi/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/cp-mage.png)
- Start with Precision and (in the Extended Might sub-tree) Piercing
- Then add these four slottables: Deadly Aim, Wrathful Strikes, Thaumaturge, Exploiter (in the Extended Might sub-tree). (Make sure you add them to your Champion Bar or they’ll have no effect!)
- Next grab Tireless Discipline, and also the non-slottable CP from the Extended Might sub-tree (i.e. skip any CP with the “Add to Champion Bar to activate” note)
- Finally add the rest of the non-slottable CP throughout the Warfare tree
Fitness ![](https://wtu.fyi/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/cp-warrior.png)
- Take these three slottables: Rejuvenation, Boundless Vitality, Fortified. (Make sure you add them to your Champion Bar or they’ll have no effect!)
- Grab Sprinter, Hasty (in the Wind Chaser sub-tree), and Hero’s Vigor
- Take the rest of the non-slottable CP throughout the Fitness tree, including those in the three subtrees
- At some point during the above step, take one more slottable CP of your choice (Celerity (in the Wind Chaser sub-tree), Bloody Renewal, Spirit Mastery are some of the most useful ones)
Craft ![](https://wtu.fyi/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/cp-thief.png)
- Use whatever you’d like here; these points mostly don’t affect your combat skill. There are lots of options for crafting, stealth, movement speed, and more in this tree
- Some early nodes I find good for very general usage include Steed’s Blessing, Breakfall, and Wanderer
Sustain Tips
Try to avoid heavy attacking for extra stamina when possible. A heavy or two once in a while is okay, but doing many heavy attacks takes lots of time away that you could be using to cast skills and do more damage. It’s much better to improve your sustain in other ways whenever possible
Need some more stamina sustain? Try these tips, in roughly this priority order:
- Have you bought all your passives? Your Medium Armor and class skill lines in particular have several passives that will give you extra stamina
- Are you using mostly medium armor? If not, consider doing so to get lots of extra stamina from the Wind Walker passive
- Do you have CP points in the Rejuvenation passive (red tree)?
- Are you using several magicka-costing skills like
Deep Fissure,
Fetcher Infection, and
Arctic Blast? The more you use magicka skills, the less you’ll be using up your stamina
- Are you using food with a stamina recovery buff, like
Dubious Camoran Throne?
- Are you using a potion with a stamina recovery buff? If so, do you have the Medicinal Use passive unlocked from the Alchemy crafting skill line? Without this passive, your potions will run out a while before you’re able to drink another one, but it does unfortunately require leveling Alchemy
- Are you using stamina recovery glyphs on some or all of your jewelry? (This is only recommended if needed, since weapon damage glyphs will provide more damage)