The Icebreaker — The Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind eGuide

Class: Warden

Race: Nord

Attribute Focus: Health/Magicka/Stamina

Weapon Types: One Hand and Shield, Destruction Staff

Armor Focus: Heavy

Mundus Stone: Lord

Bar 1: One Hand and Shield

Key Abilities

Ability	Description
	Pierce Armor: Morphed from Puncture (One Hand and Shield). This is your main taunt and debuff ability. It applies Major Fracture and Major Breach, reducing the target’s Physical and Spell Resistance. Keep the effects up while tanking, but plan your rotation to avoid over-taunting.
	Heroic Slash: Morphed from Low Slash (One Hand and Shield). This Stamina ability is your single-target attack and snare. It applies Minor Maim, temporarily reducing the damage done by the target. Each use also grants Minor Heroism, providing a bit of Ultimate generation over nine seconds.
	Absorb Magic: Morphed from Defensive Posture (One Hand and Shield). Slotting this Stamina ability increases the amount of damage you can block and reduces the Stamina cost for blocking. Activating it allows you to absorb an impressive amount of damage from the next spell projectile cast at you, healing you for a percentage of your Maximum Health.
	Deceptive Predator: Morphed from Falcon’s Swiftness (Warden > Animal Companions). This Magicka ability grants Major Expedition, increasing movement speed by 30%, and Major Endurance, increasing Stamina Recovery by 20%. It also grants Minor Evasion, increasing your Dodge Chance by 5%. Most importantly, slotting it keeps an Animal Companions ability on your main Bar.
	Arctic Blast: Morphed from Arctic Wind (Warden > Animal Companions). This Magicka ability heals you for 10% of your Maximum Health, after which it grants the same amount as a heal-over-time effect. It also deals Frost Damage to nearby enemies, making it both your self-heal and primary area-of-effect attack.
	Northern Storm: Morphed from Sleet Storm (Warden > Winter’s Embrace). This Ultimate Ability offers a nice mix of area-of-effect damage, crowd control, and protection. Slotting it also increases your Maximum Magicka by 8% and ensures that a Winter’s Embrace ability remains on your Bar. It contributes a lot to your damage potential, so use it often.

This is your main Bar. It contains the bulk of your attack abilities and should be used as much as possible. This loadout doesn’t feature an empty Bar slot.

Bar 2: Destruction Staff (Frost Staff)

Key Abilities

Ability	Description
	Ice Fortress: Morphed from Frost Cloak (Warden > Winter’s Embrace). This Magicka ability grants you and nearby allies Major Resolve and Major Ward, increasing Physical and Spell Resistance. It also grants the caster Minor Protection, reducing incoming damage by 8% for the duration of the effect.
	Shimmering Shield: Morphed from Crystalized Shield (Warden > Winter’s Embrace). This Magicka ability creates a shield of ice that absorbs up to three projectiles over six seconds. Each successful absorption grants you Major Heroism, increasing Ultimate gain for six seconds.
	Gripping Shards: Morphed from Impaling Shards (Warden > Winter’s Embrace). This Magicka ability summons icy shards that deal damage each second the effect lasts. It also immobilizes enemies caught in the initial blast, after which it snares enemies who enter the area. The damage done scales based on your Maximum Health, making it a versatile ability for hardier builds.
	Bull Netch: Morphed from Betty Netch (Warden > Animal Companions). This free-cast ability restores Stamina over 25 seconds. It also grants you Major Brutality and Minor Sorcery, increasing Weapon Damage and Spell Damage by 20% for the duration of the effect. Try to keep it active whenever you’re in combat.
	Elemental Rage: Morphed from Elemental Storm (Destruction Staff). This is your ranged Ultimate Ability. Use it to deal heavy damage from a safe distance. Slotting it also ensures that your Bar includes a Destruction Staff ability.

This is your ranged/utility Bar. Use it to apply and refresh buffs, attack from range, and deal extra area-of-effect damage. Use the remaining Bar slot for any ability you think you might need.

Priority Passives

Unless you opt to include a Green Balance ability, there’s not much to be gained from investing in that skill line’s Passive Abilities. Otherwise, invest in all core Passives and move on from there. Don’t forget about the Destruction Staff Passives—Tri Focus and Ancient Knowledge are what make the Frost Staff a useful backup weapon.

It’s also worth noting that Savage Beast (Animal Companions) is an important part of your Ultimate generation, and Flourish (Animal Companions) is a considerable help with sustainability.

Equipment Recommendations

Weapons
Priority Trait: Decisive
Priority Enchantment: Crushing
For your main Action Bar, you’ll need a one-handed melee weapon and a shield. Early on, use the highest-quality weapon/shield combinations you can find. Prioritize one-handed melee weapons that feature the Decisive trait and the Crushing enchantment.
For your shield, Sturdy is probably the most useful trait. Favor enchantments that boost Maximum Health, Maximum Magicka, or Maximum Stamina as needed.
When it comes to your backup Bar, you’ll generally want to use the highest-quality Frost Staff you can find. Defending is probably your best trait option, but Sharpened is useful if you add another attack ability to the Bar.
Remember that once you’ve invested in Tri Focus, your Frost Staff’s fully charged heavy attacks also serve as long-range taunts. If you’re not a group’s designated Tank, consider switching to a Lightning Staff to avoid unwanted attention.

Armor
Priority Trait: Sturdy or Infused
Priority Enchantment: Maximum Health, Maximum Magicka, or Maximum Stamina
This isn’t a main-Tank build, so you have a fair amount of freedom when it comes to equipment. Heavy armor should still be your focus, but there’s nothing wrong with taking advantage of the Passives found in other armor skill lines. As you work toward assembling your tanking sets, experiment with different gear options to find a balance that works for you.
Look for head, chest, and leg pieces that feature the Infused trait to get the most out of your enchantments. For the remaining pieces, prioritize the Sturdy trait to reduce the cost of blocking.
When it comes to enchantments, focus on Maximum Health, then start experimenting with Magicka and Stamina enchantments. Of course, a Prismatic enchantment is always the best option.

Jewelry
Priority Trait: Healthy
Priority Enchantment: Shielding
Until you collect a set you find useful, prioritize jewelry items that increase your Maximum Health and reduce the Stamina cost for blocking. As you obtain better gear, consider looking for jewelry that increases Magicka Recovery.

Archetype Advice

This build has a lot of survivability, but it lacks some of the most widely used tanking skills. If you hope to one day serve as a group’s main Tank, start ranking up abilities like Inner Fire (Undaunted) and War Horn (Assault), then invest in the most useful morphs. You might also consider exchanging your Frost Staff for another weapon/shield combination.

You don’t have many options for single-target damage, but you have some great tools for dealing with grouped enemies. Arctic Blast combines self-healing and area-of-effect damage, and Northern Storm combines great protection buffs with a nice damage effect. On your backup Bar, you have Gripping Shards and Elemental Rage.

Considering its resource needs, this build has fairly good sustainability. By switching weapons, you can use heavy attacks to regenerate Magicka or Stamina as needed without a huge drop in survivability—just remember that a fully charged heavy attack from your Frost Staff also serves as a long-range taunt.

Bull Netch is a versatile tool and should be a regular part of your attack rotation. At Rank 2, the Savage Beast Passive Ability grants 4 Ultimate each time you activate an Animal Companions ability (with a cooldown of eight seconds). Bull Netch is a cost-free cast, it grants multiple damage buffs, and it restores Stamina even while you’re blocking.