This ability has had a rough time seeing gameplay after it was changed to a projectile stun. The AoE frost was good for applying chilled to groups and was a good choice for tanks.
Because we will likely not get the original back I feel like we should discuss what can be done to make this ability more competitive. To do this I am going to bring up the biggest pain points of the ability.
Damage/Heal
This ability currently does no damage, so it doesn’t have any use to a PvE player, likewise the heal is generally to small for any normal build (anything other then a healthden) to utilize.
Assuming 20k health you are looking at 3,000 initial with 600 ticks. Cut those in half for PvP players.
This leads to 9000 heal over 10 seconds (3000 initial + (600*10 ticks)
To combat this I think the heal should remain, but instead should work as a % of current health.
I propose it have the mechanics as follows.
When activated you heal for 4 values over a 4 second duration with ticks occurring every 1 second.
10%, 30%, 50%, and last 75%
On a 20k bar with 10k as current health it would be as follows (pvp in parentheses)
2000(1000), 2400(1200), 2800(1400), 2100(1050).
These values allow for 9300(4650) over a 4 second duration. Which I feel makes it more reasonable to the 9,000 over 10.
I am aware that this also means at lower health values the heal will be more potent but to prevent wardens from avoiding executes I made the first 2 heal ticks significantly weaker then the final 2.
Now before I get the posts about spamming it let’s get to the next part of this.
Utility
Currently the utility this ability offers is a stun that can be blocked, dodged, and reflected. (Source:
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/443822/arctic-blast-interactions-reflect-block-dodge-roll)
I feel this is restrictive because of the interaction with how necessary as stun is in a wardens kit.
I propose a new idea that works as follows
Shoot a projectile at an enemy, this projectile can be dodged but not blocked or reflected. It puts an icy chill into the enemy applying a snare that gradually increases every second (starting a 10% and ending at 40%), at the end of the snare the enemy is stunned for 3 seconds.
This allows some counter play as it gives a 4 second window for people to prepare for the stun, while also not copying petrify and allowing warden to have a unique class stun.
I also recommend this ability only be allowed to be active on one person at a time to prevent stacking the heal.
Recap/TLDR
So all together the tooltip would read as follows
Shoot an projectile at an enemy. When the enemy is hit heal for 10,30,50,75 % of current missing health every second over 4 seconds. During this duration the enemy is hit with a snare that increases in potency as the duration continues, starting at 10% and ending at 40%. At the end of the 4 second duration the enemy is stunned for 3 seconds. This ability can not be blocked or reflected.
Please feel free to engage in discussion and criticism. If you would like feel free to link me using @.
Edit: changed a few typos and added a bolder sentence about spamming.