Spell Suppression + Barkskin (Warden) is kinda slept on

Spell Suppression is great, everyone knows that. It is busted to the point people in AR/ES area want to have it

when capped it is simply 40% less spell damage. Twice the power of Fortification (spells only), great

enter Barkskin and Suppression Mastery

Warden has this node (taken by pretty much nobody) that says:

Lesson of the Seasons
Prevent +3% spell damage per Bark below maximum. So if you are at 0 Barks it means you reduce spell damage by 40+30->70%

Enter Suppression mastery nobody takes:

-2% spell suppression chance per hit taken recently
+1% spell damage prevented per spell hit taken recently

If you:
- overcap Spell Suppression chance to like 140-150% and
- have your Bark stacks halved (i.e.: to 5)
- have been hit recently 5 times

that means that you reduce incoming spell damage by:
40+15+5 -> 60%

if you get mauled it can easily reach 100% reduction (but then your chance is most likely no longer 100% - important for Ancestral Vision users)


aaaaand you can combine that with
Defiance Banner that provides VERY strong -flat damage AND suppression chance to keep you overcapped for spell suppression and COMPLETELY negate elemental hits

It might not be great vs ubers and stuff (hit rarely, flat reduction isnt very high etc) but for mapping? it is kinda insane how tanky it makes you vs spell damage even in juiced, crowded content like Ulti. the mandatory 'hole' in this is ofc phys damage but there are ways for that as well


why I am typing it all?

Because Barkskin is in a very weird state when you want it to be at ZERO stacks all the time, because all the advantages are gone once you start gaining stacks (no, you cannot self-remove stacks)

it is typical POE when the 'basic' version of something is mostly useless.. and all you want and should use is some weird corner case that either was ommited or never re-balanced after exploit has been found.

Barkskin at 10 ofc does something - flat damage reduction is way stronger than what people give it credit for, but at 0 it is MUCH stronger and that is kinda weird


hope it gets some fixes and maybe make people play Warden more - it is actually very good class with something more than stacking shocks and perma freeze

SSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Warden is sleeper OP, I swear. Tried it for the first time this league and it just has a lot to offer. Barkskin does what it's supposed to do quite well imo and adds an extra defence layer we can appreciate

stacking suppression is overrated, all you really need to do is get 90%+ dodge with evasion, some good recovery and suppress cap. add in a cwdt steelskin and you're golden

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Rextec#4521 wrote:

stacking suppression is overrated, all you really need to do is get 90%+ dodge with evasion, some good recovery and suppress cap. add in a cwdt steelskin and you're golden

I'm not sure on what authority you are speaking here but Evasion is not damage reduction and not every build has access to the same defensive layers. What an unnuanced take without any perspective

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ArtCrusade#4438 wrote:

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Rextec#4521 wrote:

stacking suppression is overrated, all you really need to do is get 90%+ dodge with evasion, some good recovery and suppress cap. add in a cwdt steelskin and you're golden

I'm not sure on what authority you are speaking here but Evasion is not damage reduction and not every build has access to the same defensive layers. What an unnuanced take without any perspective

many forms of recovery in the game, and if you're warden you can easily get evasion

focusing on spell suppression alone is really "whatever" when you really only need it ubers/t17s and i guess 16.5s

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Rextec#4521 wrote:

stacking suppression is overrated, all you really need to do is get 90%+ dodge with evasion, some good recovery and suppress cap. add in a cwdt steelskin and you're golden

spoken like someone who has never made this character. I would not want to be the person who follows your advice.

You accidentally said something right amidst a whole lot of wrong: simply that spell suppression isn't mandatory.

But if you had read the posts....that wasn't AT ALL the point being made. You digested NONE of why spell suppression is being talked about in this specific thread about specific Warden interactions. You just said in another thread that you only read the OP and nothing else.....it seems you don't even choose to do that.

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Rextec#4521 wrote:

many forms of recovery in the game, and if you're warden you can easily get evasion

focusing on spell suppression alone is really "whatever" when you really only need it ubers/t17s and i guess 16.5s

I really don't understand what argument you are trying to make here.

Every build needs recovery, why are you bringing that up?

Every build needs damage reduction. You bring up Evasion, which is just avoidance, not reduction. Don't get me wrong, avoidance is a fantastic extra defence layer, but Evasion is only one example of that and only works for attacks.

Then you cite Steelskin which is just one Guard Skill when multiple viable options exist. Like...?

There's many, many ways you can fix your character's defences and you are distracting from the ACTUAL conversation which is about Barkskin in particular and how it's inconsistent and unreliable for many situations.

My heartfelt advice to you: read past the first sentence before posting a reply.

I think the elephant in the room here is that both the elemental and tincture package are so good, that whatever defence you're getting from Barkskin is simply dwarfed by the offensive output you otherwise would have gotten. You would have to be trolling to spend 4 points to get moderately more tanky and cut your dps in half from doing so. At that point you may as well go svalinn gladiator and actually be immortal.

Most meta warden builds are either bow or wand, and fantastic at clearing but aren't that great at bossing until enough currency is poured into the build, which is often a significant chunk of your income (imagine running t17 sanctuary at 60c each but skip the boss - you might not break even without the fragments). Obviously, i'm making certain presumptions, but in the current warden environment, this basically leaves us with some unexplored warden builds that are deliberately aiming to be tanky, which in the current environment hasn't been explored very much.

Is it a hidden gem? It does has potential, but it's very niche and I doubt we will see many people pick it until new interactions are either added or discovered.

I actually followed my own idea:

Defiance Banner + Suppression + 4 points in Barksin (2 more in Tincture and 2 in Hoarfrost) + AR/EV Hybrid (unbuffed ~23k of each) - the entire package is ofc costly, because ranger ascendancies are packed with damage nodes so the opportunity cost is huge

i did not min max it, still have 11 passives to spend at lvl93, many temporary gear pieces (no suppression on gloves nor helmet)

but it works very, very well

Defiance Banner from 105 valour gives:
+92% Suppression
-138 damage from suppressed hits

that meshes perfectly with suppression mastery and Barkskin suppression node - to the point you can afk in whatever spell based content and shrug everything off because you reach 100% spell damage reduction AND you can still keep 100% suppression chance despite losing 2% per being hit recently

it is kinda crazy strong

i use generic melee skill but i think the best use case scenario for that is one of the DoT skills (Conflagration, Caustic Arrow) resulting in absurdly tanky, consistent farmer. big part of efficient farm is not dying, and this setup wont die easily esp if you get 'cannot be poisoned/bleeding/CB immunity' corruptions and burning ground immunity pantheon solving biggest danger to this setup (i have ~3.7k hp.. not dying, can stand afk in juiced T16 destructive play and let all bosses take their turn dealing 0 damage)

there are few build breaking map mods ofc but it is what it is.

10/10 recommend (despite knowing nobody will try it out because 'damage is king')

but I do not want to hear ever again that Warden is squishy and ranger side of the tree is less defensive than marauder's