The COLD BLOODED Build is a Magicka Warden set up for Solo or Group content in The Elder Scrolls Online, with a special focus on Vampire abilities. Combine the powers of Ice magic with ESO’s Vampire skill line using this powerful new build!
Primary Sets
Winter’s Respite provides an amazing healing effect that is always active as long as our ground-based DOTS are active – this also lets us get greater benefit from our Vampire abilities which cost health to cast.
Necropotence is another very powerful set that gives this build LOTS of max magicka while our Betty Netch is active.
Finally, Iceheart rounds out the Cold Blooded theme for this build while also giving us extra critical chance and a free damage shield.
Winter’s Respite
LVL 50 – CP 160
SET BONUS
(2 items) Adds 129 Magicka Recovery
(3 items) Adds 1096 Maximum Magicka
(4 items) Adds 1096 Maximum Magicka
(5 items) Casting abilities that leave an effect on the ground will create a circle of healing frost for 10 seconds. You and your group members restore 2358 Health every 1 second while inside the circle. This effect can occur once every 10 seconds.
Necropotence
LVL 50 – CP 160
SET BONUS
(2 items) Adds 1096 Maximum Magicka
(3 items) Adds 1096 Maximum Magicka
(4 items) Adds 1096 Maximum Magicka
(5 items) While you have a pet active, your Maximum Magicka is increased by 3132.
Iceheart
LVL 50 – CP 160
SET BONUS
(1 item) Adds 657 Critical Chance
(2 items) When you deal Critical Damage, you have a 20% chance to gain a damage shield that absorbs 5000 damage for 6 seconds. While the damage shield holds, you deal 500 Frost Damage to all enemies within 5 meters of you every 1 second. This effect can occur once every 6 seconds.
Alternate Sets
Some good alternative sets to use on this build include Bahahra’s Curse, which has a healing effect similar to Winter’s Respite as well as Spinner’s Garments or Law Of Julianos for the extra damage. For Monster sets, Mother Ciannait also provides a free damage shield with increased magicka recovery.
Bahraha’s Curse
LVL 50 – CP 160
SET BONUS
(2 items) Adds 1206 Maximum Health
(3 items) Adds 1096 Maximum Magicka
(4 items) Adds 1096 Maximum Stamina, Reduces your damage taken from environmental traps by 40%.
(5 items) When you deal damage, you have a 25% chance to create desecrated ground for 5 seconds, which reduces the Movement Speed of enemies within 3.5 meters by 60%, damages them for 960 Magic Damage every 1 second, and heals you for 100% of the damage done. This effect can occur once every 5 seconds.
Spinner’s Garments
LVL 50 – CP 160
SET BONUS
(2 items) Adds 1096 Maximum Magicka
(3 items) Adds 1096 Maximum Magicka
(4 items) Adds 129 Weapon and Spell Damage
(5 items) Adds 3460 Offensive Penetration
Mother Ciannait
LVL 50 – CP 160
SET BONUS
(1 item) Adds 1096 Maximum Magicka
(2 items) While in combat, casting an ability with a cast time or channeling an ability grants you a damage shield that absorbs 5000 damage for 6 seconds. If the damage shield is broken, you restore 822 Magicka. This effect can occur once every 6 seconds.
Gear Setup
| Weapon/Armor | Set | Trait | Weight | Glyph |
| Main Hand | Lightning Staff Of Necropotence | Precise | NA | Absorb Magic |
| Backup | Ice Staff Of Necropotence | Infused | NA | Spell Damage |
| Head | Iceheart | Divines | Heavy | Health |
| Shoulder | Iceheart | Divines | Medium | Stamina |
| Chest | Winter’s Respite | Divines | Light | Magicka |
| Waist | Winter’s Respite | Divines | Light | Magicka |
| Gloves | Winter’s Respite | Divines | Light | Magicka |
| Legs | Winter’s Respite | Divines | Light | Magicka |
| Feet | Winter’s Respite | Divines | Light | Magicka |
| Necklace | Necropotence | Bloodthirsty | NA | Spell Damage |
| Ring 1 | Necropotence | Bloodthirsty | NA | Spell Damage |
| Ring 2 | Necropotence | Infused | NA | Spell Damage |
Consumables, Race, Mundus
Race
High Elf is a strong choice for this build due to the increased spell damage, max magicka and stamina sustain (Spell Recharge). Breton also is a great choice for Vampire builds overall because of the magicka cost reduction. For more details on all ESO Races and passive bonuses be sure to check out our Full ESO Race Guide.
Mundus
The Lover
Food/Drink Buff
Mistral Banana-Bunny Hash
Potions
Tri-Stat Potions
Skills
Main Weapon: LIGHTNING STAFF – Click on a Skill Name to learn more
- Sated Fury
- Deep Fissure
- Inner Light or Leeching Vines
- Fetcher Infection or Blood For Blood
- Bird Of Prey
- ULT: Shooting Star
Backup Weapon: FROST STAFF – Click on a Skill Name to learn more
- Elemental Blockade
- Winter’s Revenge
- Elemental Drain
- Blue Betty
- Ice Fortress
- ULT: Northern Storm or Swarming Scion
Skills Discussion & Rotation
Buffs
Keep up Blue Betty, Ice Fortress and Lotus Flower. Be sure to apply Elemental Drain to any boss.
Rotation
Start with Backbar DOTs: Blockade Of Frost and Winter’s Revenge. Bar Swap:
Then: Sated Fury -> Deep Fissure -> Fetcher Infection -> Heavy Attack -> Deep Fissure -> Heavy Attack -> Bar Swap
Then: Recast Blockade and Winter’s Revenge -> Bar Swap -> Deep Fissure -> Fetcher Infection -> Heavy Attack -> Deep Fissure -> Heavy Attack -> Bar Swap
Notes
Rebuff after the above rotation. Turn off Sated Fury as needed once the health loss is too strong to heal. For example, you may want to turn off Sated before you rebuff.
Companions
If you like playing Solo, this build can benefit greatly from using Companions! This Solo build will benefit the most from the additional healing and defensive options a tank-focused Companion can offer, so if you are going to use a Companion I would suggest a full tank build for them. I recommend Bastian Hallix for Companion on this build with the setup below. More information on Companions Builds and Skills can be found in our detailed Companion Guides section.
Recommended Gear
- All Heavy Armor – Mixed Vigorous and Quickened Traits
- One Handed Weapon and Shield
Recommended Skills
1. Provoke
3. Kindle
4. On Guard
6 ULT. Unleashed Rage
Additional Skills
The skills below may also be helpful in other situations such as trash pulls.
Full Companion Build: GUARDIAN DRAKE
The Guardian Drake is a strong option for Bastian Hallix as a Tank. Bastian is one of the new Companions available to ESO players starting in the Blackwood Chapter. The theme of this build is focused around Self-Healing and Survival, allowing Bastian to keep himself alive against many tough opponents and even bosses with very little help from others.
Champion Points
Below you will find the recommended Active and Passive Champion Point Stars for this build, broken down into 300, 600, 900, and 1200 CP ranges.
For more information on Champion Points click on a Star name below or browse our detailed Champion Points Guides.
Constellation Descriptions:
Craft
The Green Craft Constellation is focused on crafting and utility-centered upgrades.
Warfare
The Blue Warfare Constellation focuses primarily on increasing player damage, healing and defenses
Fitness
The Red Fitness Constellation is focused on character survival and sustain.
– 300 Champion Points –
GREEN
BLUE
- 20 Precision
- 20 Piercing
- 50 Deadly Aim (Slot)
RED
– 600 Champion Points –
GREEN
- 50 Steed’s Blessing (Slot)
- 50 Gilded Fingers
- 10 Fortune’s Favor
- 15 Wanderer
- 40 Steadfast Enchantment
- 30 Rationer (Slot)
BLUE
RED
- 50 Boundless Vitality (Slot)
- 50 Rejuvenation (Slot)
- 10 Sprinter
- 8 Hasty
- 20 Hero’s Vigor
- 10 Shield Master
- 50 Bastion (Slot)
– 900 Champion Points –
GREEN
- 50 Steed’s Blessing (Slot)
- 50 Gilded Fingers
- 10 Fortune’s Favor
- 15 Wanderer
- 40 Steadfast Enchantment
- 30 Rationer (Slot)
- 50 Breakfall
- 50 Treasure Hunter (Slot)
BLUE
- 20 Precision
- 20 Piercing
- 50 Deadly Aim (Slot)
- 50 Biting Aura (Slot)
- 50 Thaumaturge (Slot)
- 50 Fighting Finesse (Slot)
- 20 Eldritch Insight
- 10 Quick Recovery
- 20 Preparation
RED
- 50 Boundless Vitality (Slot)
- 50 Rejuvenation (Slot)
- 20 Sprinter
- 16 Hasty
- 20 Hero’s Vigor
- 10 Shield Master
- 50 Bastion (Slot)
- 50 Siphoning Spells (Slot)
- 30 Tumbling
– 1200 Champion Points –
GREEN
- 50 Steed’s Blessing (Slot)
- 50 Gilded Fingers
- 30 Fortune’s Favor
- 15 Wanderer
- 50 Steadfast Enchantment
- 30 Rationer (Slot)
- 50 Breakfall
- 50 Treasure Hunter (Slot)
- 75 Liquid Efficiency (Slot)
BLUE
- 20 Precision
- 20 Piercing
- 50 Deadly Aim (Slot)
- 50 Biting Aura (Slot)
- 50 Thaumaturge (Slot)
- 50 Fighting Finesse (Slot)
- 20 Eldritch Insight
- 20 Quick Recovery
- 20 Preparation
- 20 Hardy
- 20 Elemental Aegis
- 30 War Mage
- 20 Tireless Discipline
RED
- 50 Boundless Vitality (Slot)
- 50 Rejuvenation (Slot)
- 20 Sprinter
- 16 Hasty
- 20 Hero’s Vigor
- 10 Shield Master
- 50 Bastion (Slot)
- 50 Siphoning Spells (Slot)
- 30 Tumbling
- 20 Defiance
- 20 Tireless Guardian
- 30 Fortification
How To Create Powerful ESO Builds
Crafting the Perfect Build for you in The Elder Scrolls Online can be frustrating. Which skills are best for each class? What about passives? The best race? The best armor type and weapons? The best trait and glyphs? There are literally THOUSANDS of different options!
This is why we created the ESO Zero To Hero Build Academy – A Simple, yet Powerful build system that teaches the fundamentals of ESO Theorycrafting, step-by-step.
Build your character exactly how YOU want by following this simple process from start to finish and FINALLY start enjoying ESO the way you want to play it!
Our Guides are designed with New and Intermediate players in mind! Stop wasting hours searching the internet for the best ESO build information – get what you need NOW to succeed!
Similar Builds For ESO
Amazing 13,000+ Spell Damage Magicka Templar Build
The THRASSIAN Build is a Magicka Templar Damage Dealer Build for Solo or Group content in The Elder Scrolls Online. Thanks to the use of the Thrassian Strangler Mythic, this build can also reach over 13,000 Spell Damage quite easily! This is a Member’s Only Video.
Powerful Magicka Necromancer VAMPIRE Solo Build – BLOOD MANCER
Magicka Necromancer Solo VAMPIRE PVE Build for ESO. Use powerful blood magic and raise corpses to fight for you!
Ultimate Vampire Dragonknight Tank Build
The IRON VAMPIRE is a unique look at PVE tanking with a Vampire theme!
Powerful Magicka Nightblade VAMPIRE Solo Build
Magicka Nightblade Solo VAMPIRE PVE Build for ESO. A frenzy of blood! Massive damage potential and great survivability in a unique combination of Nightblade and Vampire skills.
Powerful Magicka Warden VAMPIRE Build – COLD BLOODED
The COLD BLOODED Build is a Magicka Warden set up for Solo or Group content in The Elder Scrolls Online, with a special focus on Vampire abilities. Combine the powers of Ice magic with ESO’s new Vampire skill line using this powerful new build!
Amazing Magicka Sorcerer VAMPIRE Build For ESO
The SHOCK SCION is the ULTIMATE Magicka Sorcerer Build for The Elder Scrolls Online with a special focus on Vampire abilities!
