C9 Warden PvP Skills Guide

C9 Warden PvP Skills Guide by TsurugiOni

Some skill summaries and thoughts on pvp.

As a main point, Frost Breath is ur main damage skill. Pretty much all skills are meant to set up Frost Breath. If you can bait a rising attack then you almost get a guaranteed Frost Breath which chains into Helldive Burst + Ice ball + Frozen Flasher. You can take out over 1/2 an opponent’s life with a combo like this. Warden has MANY ways to setup Frost Breath.

-Freezing Sword – Freezing is amazing except in 1 occasion which is landing a Frost Breath. Max it.

-Frost Wall – Great, but never use to block a charge since enemies will often go around the sides and still hit you during animation cd. It knocks up, so it’s great to use when your opponent is getting off the ground and wants to use a small-distance closer to intiate on you. Frost Wall is perfect to set up a Frost Breath as the opponent tries to go around the side of the wall to close in.

– Tempest – Gives super armor and great dmg output. A great random toss-in after Frost Wall if you know your opponent is trying to close in after you quickly (often they’ll run into it if you use Tempest rarely). Best used in assassin / shadow after they use shadow dash since they can grab you out of it.

– Frozen Slasher – Amazing damage and a good midrange skill to either keep your opponent on his feet or buffer against a close in like shadow dash. If you’re thinking they’re gonna use a closer use it at ur feet and it’s a knockup.

– Frost Breath – Your main damage skill and combo skill. The whole point of the match is to try and land ur Frost Breath. Insane damage and keeps opponent “mini-stunned” the whole time.

– Blizzard – Great if your opponent doesn’t have any instant-invincibility-closers after a knockup , or if an opponent short-steps with a closer (shadow dash, taoist dash, etc.), or on frost wall.

– Frozen Wind – This is one of your saving-grace skills that helps to reset the battle at melee distance. Gives super armor and knocks up opponent. After mind-games at midrange you can often just walk up to people and Frozen Wind them once they close the gap.

– Divine Assault – Knocks down. One of your best skills to counter charges or reset the battle @ melee.

-Ice Ball – Mediocre skill in itself. Hard to land unless you chain with Frozen Slasher or Frost Breath. It’s good to use after those skills and Frost Wall or after Ice Crystal to help reset the battle to mid-range.

– Natural Fog – Amazing if you need a near-instant invincibility in melee range. U can often counter right after by using Frozen Wind to reset the battle.

– Frozen Step – Crap in pvp and pve IMO. Don’t ever consider using in pvp .

– Ice Witch – If you can manage to blow all evasion / rising cooldowns on opponent at midrange Ice Witch is a great skill to use. Extremely impressive damage and like a scout’s trap, forces the oppponent’s hand in how long they can stand in 1 spot to combo (like blademaster or taoist).

– Ice Crystal – Amazing skill. I maxed. It’s a slow moving ball that does moderate damage. The point of this skill it to help set up a buffer zone for casting your other skills. Think of it like a slow-moving mine. So versatile. In fact @ melee range if you land an Ice Crystal you’ll often have enough time to land a Frost Breath right after. Use Ice Crystal after Frost Wall to block off 1 side, and if they get hit, follow by Helldive Burst. Can be used to set up a Frozen Flasher also. Just an amazing skill to prevent melee from initiating on you and creates so much space to setup other skill. If they move around the Ice Crystal it usually baits a perfect Assault Smash.

– Helldive Burst – Just a solid skill that can be used in melee -> mid-range. Chains well after landing a Frost Breath.

– SkullJape – It’s a toss on this one. Unbeatable for PVE, but can die relatively quickly in PVP. When using Skulljape you either wanna bait the opponent into attacking it (which almost always lands you a free Frozen Flasher) or you can Witch Step to the SkullJape and land a Tempest. It does amazing dmg in pvp too. If the opponent attacks you Skulljape attacks him. At higher levels his dmg can outdmg many of your skills. I decided to max it for it’s flexibility in PVE.

-Jack horizon – One of your best skills by far, never use on ground. Extremely long range. Knocks down on use and a 2s cd. Always try to keep dagger stacks up. You can have opponent waste so many counters by landing these, which helps setup the Frost Breath eventually. A HUGE part of Warden is mind games by making the mid-range extremely deadly and hard to bypass, then creating a gap where you let the opponent close in and counter with Frozen Wind or Assault Smash. If you ***** at landing Jack Horizon you’ll do horribly at Warden. If you could imagine a Scout with 3x long distance aoe knockdown skills combined with the melee mind-games potential of traps, this is the dynamic by which Warden plays using Horizon Jack. Against nearly any class (even Ranger / Scout) you can force them to try to engage you because Horizon Jack will outrange nearly any skill of theirs. A tradeoff between getting hit by Horizon Jack (and then Frozen Flasher ) is much worse than almost any class’s long distance spell they can land, so it forces them to try to engage because your trades are much more effective.

– Frost Bomb – Amazing skill for kiting, I usually use it after I miss a Horizon Jack in close range. Knocks down and helps reset battle.

– Witch Step – Plain amazing saving grace skill and a relatively low cd. I almost always use this skill when I desperately need to get away in melee or if the opponent charges me. If opponent charges witch step towards them and it essentially resets the battle at mid range. Waste of charge and reset at your ideal threat range.

Hope you enjoyed my quick summary.