Stormwarden
Overview
Stormwarden is the combined class of Tempest Mage and Aegis. It is a STR/INT oriented class.
Specializing in close combat while also wielding tempestous power, Stormwarden fights by bombarding enemies with numerous ice-imbued attacks while also casting lightning spells for high burst damage. Due to its tanky nature, it offers high survivability without compromising much of its offense.
Passive Skills
| Endothermic Rupture | ||
|---|---|---|
| Description | Your Bludgeoning attacks cause icicles to burst forth from victims - even more so ones that are frozen, and deal increased damage against enemies with Cold Ailment. | |
| Unlock Requirement | 0 skill points spent on Tempest Mage and Aegis. | |
|
Lv1 | Inflict 30% Cold damage (based on Hybrid Attack Power) when dealing Bludgeoning Damage. Attack +30%. |
| Lv2 | Inflict 40% Cold damage (based on Hybrid Attack Power) when dealing Bludgeoning Damage. Attack +40%. | |
| Lv3 | Inflict 50% Cold damage (based on Hybrid Attack Power) when dealing Bludgeoning Damage. Attack +50%. | |
| Lv4 | Inflict 60% Cold damage (based on Hybrid Attack Power) when dealing Bludgeoning Damage. Attack +60%. | |
| Crystalline Panoply | ||
|---|---|---|
| Description | Your Defense is inceased based on your Cold and Shock Resistance. | |
| Unlock Requirement | 8 skill points spent on Tempest Mage and Aegis. | |
|
Lv1 | Cold and Shock Resistance +5. Converts 40% of Cold and Shock Resistance to Defense. |
| Lv2 | Cold and Shock Resistance +10. Converts 60% of Cold and Shock Resistance to Defense. | |
| Lv3 | Cold and Shock Resistance +15. Converts 80% of Cold and Shock Resistance to Defense. | |
| Lv4 | Cold and Shock Resistance +20. Converts 100% of Cold and Shock Resistance to Defense. | |
| Thunderous Determination | ||
|---|---|---|
| Description | Each stack of Resolve grants you bonus Shock and Cold Damage, more so when your Resolve is full. | |
| Unlock Requirement | 24 skill points spent on Tempest Mage and Aegis. | |
|
Lv1 | For each stack of Resolve you have: Cold and Shock Damage +10%. Extra +20% when you have full Resolve. |
| Lv2 | For each stack of Resolve you have: Cold and Shock Damage +15%. Extra +30% when you have full Resolve. | |
| Lv3 | For each stack of Resolve you have: Cold and Shock Damage +20%. Extra +40% when you have full Resolve. | |
| Lv4 | For each stack of Resolve you have: Cold and Shock Damage +25%. Extra +50% when you have full Resolve. | |
Active Skills
| Name | Icon | Requirements | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Glacial Domain | 
|
4 skill points spent on Tempest Mage and Aegis | Send out a frigid blast that Freezes and immobilises nearby units. Glacial Domain's effects are automatically triggered by Leaping Strike.
|
| Thundersledge | 
|
4 skill points spent on Tempest Mage and Aegis | Throw out hammers of thunder that encircle you and attack enemies. The number of hammers is increased when you have full Resolve.
|
| Lancing Lightning | 
|
16 skill points spent on Tempest Mage and Thief | Imbue your weapon with the power of lightning, causing chain lightning to arc from victims of your normal hits. Locks a percentage of Mana.
|
| Avalanche Ram | 
|
16 skill points spent on Tempest Mage and Aegis | Locks a percantage of Mana to imbue your shield with the power of frost, inflicting Cold Ailment upon enemies that attack you and causing your Shield Bashes to generate Freezing Blasts.
|
Weapon
The weapon type that synergizes best with Stormwarden's skills is Spear and Shield, more specifically the ones with the dash charged attack. Its continuous Bludgeoning hits triggers Endothermic Rupture very often, and it has access to skills such as Shield Bash (Aegis).
The best weapon for Stormwarden, however, is the Staff of the Archwizard. It guarantees the 24% All Damage modifier, which can boosts your damage output. Additionally, It provides the Twin Novae Fatebound, which is powerful with Glacial Domain, Leaping Strike (Aegis) and Shatter (Tempest Mage).
How to reach
Since the optimal build for Stormwarden does not use any early active skills from either base classes, it is okay to pick any of the two classes and use their respective active skills to progress easily in the early game. weapon.
Fatebounds
Some of the best Fatebounds for Stormwarden include:
Lifesteal: Causes your attacks to leech enemies' health. It is extremely important for most classes, Stormwarden included. It allows any of your sustained damage to heal instantly, as long as you have good damage output.
Twin Novae: Causes your Area-of-Effect skills to be casted twice. Extremely powerful, especially when combined with Leaping Strike and Glacial Domain, as it increases your damage output by a huge amount, and increases the chance of inflicting Cold Ailment or even Freeze (This also applies to Tempest Mage's passive Shatter).
Multishot: You summon more projectiles, but each one deals slightly less damage. Potent when used with Thundersledge, as the increased number of hammers means Endothermic Rupture will trigger more often, and the overall damage is increased. Endothermic Rupture will also shoot out more icicles, resulting in a huge damage boost.
Heavy Ordinance: Slows down your projectiles, but they do increased damage. The damage increase makes up for the damage loss from Multishot, but the slower projectiles means that Endothermic Rupture will trigger less frequently. Also boosts the damage of the icicles summined by Endothermic, which results in anoverall damage increase.
Mage Vestments: Grants Skill CD reduction and huge Mana regeneration. Allows you to spam your skills without running out of Mana, which is imperative since you would be having at least 30% of your Mana locked. The Skill CD reduction allows for skills to be used more frequently It can be obtained by wearing 3 Int Armor pieces.
Other notable Fatebounds include:
Epicenter: Increases the damage of melee attacks and Area-of-Effrct skills at the cost of their range. Effective for charged attacks, but your Area skills become less effective in crowd-clearing. Most suitable for bosses/singular enemies.
Blowout: Increases the range of your melee attacks and Area-of-Effect skills. Powerful when combined with Epicenter, making your skills more effective in crowd-clearing, and allowing your charged attacks to hit more enemies.
Frigid / Charged Core: Increases your Cold/Shock Resistance respectively, which bolsters your defense (given you invest into Crystalline Panoply). Also provides Cold/Shock damage increase to make your skills more powerful.
Sets
There are some notable Boss set for Aegis main, you can mix 2-2-2 or 3-3 for the Spirit effect. Choose based on your playstyle.
Archwizard Set:
Arugably the most effective set for Stormwarden, the Archwizard set provides the Fatebound Echocasting in the Intelligence set, and Twin Novae in the Dexterity set. Both of these Fatebounds are crucial in the optimal Stormwarden build, hence the boss set being regarded as the best for Stormwarden.
Sandworm set:
Suited for Tank playstyle. The Spirit passively reduces the damage you take, making you essentially unkillable. The damage from this set is below average, so it is inefficient when playing on Solo Mode. Best for Co-op.
Note: Sometimes bosses have a healing mechanic and this set just provide survivability, so this will make killing bosses tedious if your offense is inadequate.
Boar King/Goblin High Priest Set:
Similar to Archwuzard set, both of these sets provide important Fatebounds for Stormwarden, those being Heavy Ordinance and Multishot from the Boar King set and the Goblin High Priest set respectively. They are often used with 3 piece Archwizard Set.
Recommended Skill Point allocation
- Max out Endothermic Rupture. The 60% damage boost is very helpful to increase your damage output, and the icicles summoned by this passive can rack up some damage, especially when the enemy is frozen.
- Max out Thunderous Determination. You will have max Resolve very often, and this passive can grant you a massive damage boost when you have max Resolve.
- Max out Kinetic Barrier and Unflinching (both Aegis). These two are crucial in ensuring Stormwarden's survivability, as the shield is very tank and the invincibility can grant some relief under precarious situations.
- Invest in Tempest Aura (Tempest Mage) and Devotion Aura (Aegis). These two auras can provide many passive benefits, such as extra damage for Tempest Aura and survivability for Devotion Aura.
- Invest in Crystalline Panoply. The passive provides some extra Shock and Cold reisstances, which can strengthen your defense and helps you survive better.
Strategies
Thundersledge Spamming
As the name suggests, the player spams the active skill Thundersledge and move around shredding enemies and bosses' health. The player usually uses another skill, such as Glacial Domain while Thundersledge is active. Most Stormwarden players use this strategy, and it is regarded as the optimal Stormwarden Build.
Lightning Chain
A less used strategy is to utilise the passive skill Lancing Lightning to clear out huge waves of enemies. The player usually min-max their Shock damage output using the Medusa Set, and uses Fatebounds such as Multishot and Lock-On to trigger Lancing Lightning more frequently.
Shield Basher
As the name suggests, this player spams the active skill Shield Bash to defeat enemies. The Fatebounds Sortie and Light Armor is important as it reduces the attack animation's duration, while also increasing the dash distance with the increased movement speed. This strategy provides a lot of mobility, and defense because any attacks is blocked when using Shield Bash.
Leaping Maniac
Here, the player uses the active skills Leaping Strike and Glacial Domain to deal huge burst damage and also to move around quickly. The Fatebound Twin Novae is important, as it causes the area damage to occur twice, essentially doubling the damage output. Mage Vestments and Concentration is also useful, as the cooldown reduction allows for Leaping Strike stacjs to recover more quickly.
Charged Attack Demon
As the name suggests, the player spams their charged attack using a Spear and Shield weapon with the dashing charged attack. This strategy relies heavily on Endothermic Rupture to generate perposterous amounts of icicles to rack up massive damage. Important Fatebounds include Concentration for shorter charging time, Backlash to double the icicles generated and Sortie to increase the damage and distance coverage while dashing. It is extremely effecfive on stationary targets, but any moving targets invalidates this strategy. (Only Prospectum uses this)