ESO Warden Tank Guide

Table of Contents

ESO Warden Tank Introduction

Welcome to our ESO Warden Tank Guide. On this page we’ll be taking a deep dive into everything you need to know about the Warden Tank, everything about the skills, passives, strengths and weaknesses.

The Warden Tank is a decent choice for Tanking in Dungeon, Trials and Arenas due to their useful group survival utility.

See more: Tank Class Overviews, Skills & Passives Information

ESO Warden Tank Class Skills and Passives

Animal Companion

Feral Guardian
(Situational)
A passive Ultimate you would not use but will give you 12% Magicka Recovery from the Flourish passive by having this slotted. You only need to slot this if you are not using another Animal Companion ability on your front bar.

Screaming Cliff Racer → Morph of Dive
(Situational)
This could be used in fights where you might play at range, you are able to apply Off Balance if you are 7+ metres away from an enemy.

Deep Fissure → Morph of Scorch
(Optional)
This skill provides AoE Major Breach and Minor Breach however both of these things can be obtained from multiple other sources.

Fetcher Infection → Morph of Swarm
(Vital)
An important single target skill that causes Minor Vulnerability increasing the damage the target takes by 5%. Removes the need for sets such as Infallible Aether being used.

Blue Betty → Morph of Betty Netch
(Optional)
It’s a free skill so you can spam it for a free purge, and it will always tick the first tick of resources so you can spam the skill for endless free resources, this one gives you back Magicka so if you are struggling for Magicka sustain and don’t have access to Balance then this is an option. Usually, the other morph is more useful but in Magicka intensive situations such as Cloudrest portals this could be a better option.

Bull Netch → Morph of Betty Netch
(Vital)
This is almost the same as the Blue Betty except you restore Stamina rather than Magicka. This is more likely the option to use for Tanking. You can keep the Netch running at all times and if you hit a situation where you are getting low on Stamina you just spam the free skill for an immediate tick of Stamina. It also purges you for free.

Deceptive Predator → Morph of Falcon’s Swiftness
(Vital)
You would use this for any situations where you either need a speed boost or you are taking a lot of AoE damage, and this will reduce the damage you take from AoE’s.

Bond With Nature
(Vital)
Each time a Animal Companion skill ends you’ll get a heal. Since you would be using Fetcher Infection in every fight you’ll always get a small heal when that ends.

Savage Beast
(Vital)
Just cast Netch every 8 seconds for some extra Ultimate or you’ll get this anyway if you are maintain Fetcher Infection.

Flourish
(Vital)
You want to always have this passive active on the front bar at least if not both bars if that is possible, 12% extra recovery is a lot to miss if you don’t slot an Animal Companion ability.

Advanced Species
(Unnecessary)
Will boost your damage which is ok but not necessary.

Green Balance

Enchanted Forest → Morph of Secluded Grove
(Optional)
Could be slotted to provide an emergency group heal along with Ultimate back if you heal a few people under 50% Health. It would have almost no negative impact to use this if you heal 5 people under 50% Health you would get the cost of the Ultimate back, but in general you would not use this over Aggressive Horn.

Enchanted Growth → Morph of Fungal Growth
(Vital)
If you are the only Warden in your group, you would cast this at your group if you are in melee range of them for the buffs Minor Intellect and Minor Endurance and it will also give a heal and it’s used to proc your Minor Toughness group buff.

Corrupting Pollen → Morph of Healing Seed
(Vital)
This is good for getting Minor Toughness onto your group as it’s a large AoE heal skill. It also inflicts Minor Defile and Minor Cowardice to enemies inside the AoE debuffing them. It finally provides a group synergy which can be sometimes needed if Alkosh is being used.

Living Trellis → Morph of Living Vines
(Situational)
A skill worth having but it’s not needed all the time. It applies to you or the lowest health target in front of you and it will give a heal every second and then a heal once the skill ends. If you can proc this on yourself, it’s really helpful for dealing with damage situations and will proc various passives. It’s a decent way to help maintain Stamina as you spend Magicka to cast the skill and then get Magicka and Stamina every second from Natures Gift passive.

Lotus Flower
(Not Needed)

Natures Grasp
(Not Needed)

Accelerated Growth
(Vital)
You can use this passive to force yourself to gain Major Mending by casting Vines as soon as you need the Major Mending and you are under 40% Health and then your other sources of healing will be boosted also.

Nature’s Gift
(Vital)
You can gain Magicka and Stamina every second so if you use any Green Balance skill that will proc this passive and help boost your sustain if you need it.

Emerald Moss
(Vital)
A small boost to your healing with Green Balance abilities for each one you have slotted.

Maturation
(Vital)
This is the Wardens unique group buff, the easiest way to maintain this is by using Enchanted Growth, Budding Seed or Energy Orb depending on your situation.

Winter’s Embrace

Sleet Storm
(Optional)
A skill that gives Major Protection to your group. You can gain Major Protection for yourself easily by slotting Revealing Flare.

Expansive Frost Cloak → Morph of Frost Cloak
(Vital)
One of the Wardens main group buffs. This more or less gives your whole group Major Resolve and reduces the damage they take so you want to keep this as active as possible. It has a huge metre range, so this is the preferred morph if you are using it for the group utility.

Ice Fortress → Morph of Frost Cloak
(Unnecessary)
This is the more selfish morph; it still gives the group buff but has such a small range it’s not a viable way to put Major Resolve on the whole group for the majority of situations. You gain Minor Protection when you cast this which will reduce your damage taken but you can obtain this by slotting Temporal Guard if you need it.

Gripping Shards → Morph of Impaling Shards
(Vital)
This is the Wardens immobilising skill that also reduces movement speed and can proc the Chilled effect and Minor Brittle if wielding a Frost Staff, it’s actually a decent Tank damage ability also, since the damage scales with your Max Health.

Winter’s Revenge → Morph of Impaling Shards
(Optional)
This morph works better when trying to maintain Minor Brittle in trials because Gripping Shards only activates around you were as this morph can be places in a location of your choosing.

Polar Wind → Morph of Artic Blast
(Vital)
A really nice burst heal that also heals one other person and it scales from your Max Health so it’s a pretty big heal. The heal can crit and also be boosted by other modifiers such as Major Mending from your Green Balance passives so it can turn into a huge heal in the correct situation. You also get a small Heal over time.

Shimmering Shield → Morph of Crystallized Shield
(Vital)
This is a great skill for any situation where you take projectile damage. It’s such a huge shield that you don’t even need to block when you have this active as it will eat up the whole projectile damage and the shield can be hit up to 3 times. If that wasn’t strong enough, you gain Major Heroism which really can boost your Ultimate gain a lot to gain back your Horns really fast.

Frozen Device → Morph of Frozen Gate
(Situational)
This is the Wardens version of a chain; it can be really great if used correctly but it’s often not completely viable because it can be slow and inaccurate compared to Silver Leash. If you are in a fight where the adds are moving to a particular location or you know where they spawn then this is when this ability is amazing, so things like Arenas and certain trials. You can pre-place 3 Frozen Devices on the ground in the locations you know the adds will be. The devices will stay on the ground for a short time or until they get used so if you know where adds spawn, you place the Device and when the add walks onto it they teleport straight to you and become Major Maimed also.

Glacial Presence
(Vital)
The main use for Tanks to apply the chilled effect is to proc Minor Brittle. It will snare and immobilise enemies which is great for 4-person content.

Frozen Armor
(Vital)
You will always have some Winters Embrace skills slotted so this will just increase your resistances which are worth taking as a Tank.

Icy Aura
(Vital)
Really useful passive for any fights where there might be snares and it will reduce their effectiveness.

Piercing Cold
(Unnecessary)
Increases your damage, you can use it if you want.

ESO Warden Tank Overview

Within the current game meta, Warden Tanks are decent but infrequently used mostly because you only need one Warden per group and Warden Healers are very popular so they can cover everything that a Warden has to offer to a group.

Wardens have been built fairly well for Tanking and they are well equipped for the job along with helping group members ability to survive, providing allies with Major Resolve which works out at 9% Damage Mitigation.

Warden Tanks also have the Maturation passive which provides the Minor Toughness buff increasing allies Max Health by 10%, to maintain this as a Tank you need to use an AoE Heal. Wardens also provide a range of other group buffs including added recovery with Enchanted Growth and also enemy debuffs including Minor Vulnerability with Fetcher Infection and Minor Cowardice with Corrupting Pollen along with Off Balance with Cliff Racer.

Other group support offered by the Warden Tank includes a heal to 1 ally with Polar Wind and a group synergy with Budding Seeds.

When it comes to dealing with multiple enemies and crowd control, the Warden Tank is almost as well equipped as the DK Tank. The Warden Tank has Gripping Shards which is a really nice Tank ability as it is a 360 degree immobilise and snare which roots enemies in place. The damage caused by Gripping Shards and chance to apply the Chilled status effect are both scaled with Max Health which for a Warden Tank is obviously very nice.

For pulling in enemies, you can use Frozen Device which teleports the enemies to your location, and costs Magicka which is great. Frozen Device is best used in situations where you know where an enemy will spawn, and you can pre-place your Portals so that the enemy will teleport to you as soon as they walk into the Frozen Device. It can often be difficult to place this accurately, or on a focussed target mid-combat which is where it is sometimes better to use Sliver Leash from the Fighters Guild Skills are this Chain works a little quicker than Frozen Device.

Other good things you might find with a Warden Tank include Shimmering Shield which is a huge Shield which can completely absorb some projectiles that you would usually need to block, or they would kill you in 1 hit. Sustain is quite good for the Warden Tank and you also get a free Purge by using the Betty Netch. Self-healing on a Warden Tank is extremely easy with Polar Wind which is a Burst Heal and a Heal over Time plus it will heals 1 nearby ally, all of this scales with Max Health meaning the healing from it can be huge especially when it crits.

A lot of groups usually opt for a Warden Healer, in this situation a lot of your group benefits become a little redundant. If you are using a Warden Tank in a group with a Warden Healer it would be a good idea to discuss who will use what abilities for the Buffs and Debuffs, if a Healer uses Frost Cloak then you can use Balance for example.

ESO Warden Tank Strengths, Weaknesses & Group Buffs

Strengths

  • Group survival buffs and utility
  • Able to completely absorb projectiles
  • Good self healing and sustain
  • Crowd Control is good better than all other classes other than the DK

Weaknesses

  • Frozen Device is a little slow compared to Silver Leash
  • No need for more than one Warden per group and Warden Healers are very common
  • Really poor quality passives compared to other Classes

Group Buffs

ESO Warden Tank Conclusion

Overall, the Warden Tank is a good option for Tanking mostly when your group doesn’t have one already and a Warden Tank can be used in all types of content in The Elder Scrolls Online.

They offer good group survival benefits, for actual Tanking they are subpar in comparison to other classes but are brilliant in very niche situations, mainly when dealing with big projectile damage. It’s useful to have a Warden Tank available for Trial groups who might not have a Warden Healer but require all of the benefits of a Warden.

ESO Warden Tank Videos