Gear Review
For this build, we'll be going with Kynmarcher's Cruelty as the primary five piece set. Coming out with Update 32, this set is quite strong as it can provide two unique Major Debuffs at the same time out of a random five in a 8 meter range around you on multiple enemies for 18 seconds each with a cooldown of 8 seconds. Four out of the five debuffs (Breach, Cowardice, Defile, Maim, Vulnerability) can be incredibly useful in general PvE situations minus the Defile. This can be useful too for single target situations particularly as you don't have a form of Major Breach since you're on a Frost staff build. It is incredibly easy to keep up as it procs off of any source of direct damage such as a skill or Light Attack.
Thje secondary five piece set will be Eternal Vigor and this set is to primarily offset the potential costs of the Spaulder of Ruin mythic piece that will take away 70 Magicka, Health and Stamina Recovery for every other ally hit for a hypothesized total of 3 others in a dungeon group (210 recovery). We're also accounting sustain on top of this for the actual fights whether it's in Hard Modes or DLC Hard Modes and aim to keep the Spaulder active at all times.
Spaulder of Ruin is an incredibly strong Mythic that offers an additional 260 Weapon and Spell Damage to any other group member and comes at little cost with this build and the additional damage the group would be offering - faster fights are safer fights after all still.
Magma Incarnate is also a sustain 1x set that will help with your sustain during fights but also sustain on the skills you need to run which are quite expensive such as Silver Leash although much of the build as we will discuss here shortly is centered around passive buffs with only a few active abilities.
As we're running Ice Staff on both bars we can enjoy the benefits of the full potency of an enchantment especially with Infused staves. Crusher can be on either bar although with the amount of times you will be spamming or even keeping up Frost Clench, it won't really matter. Your other enchantment is your choice but since we have guaranteed Brittle we don't necessarily need a Charged staff with a Frost enchantment so we can go even more sustain with the Prismatic Onslaught enchantment on an infused staff.
Traits-wise, Sturdy does indeed affect your Magicka block cost with the Ice staves. It is up to you if you think you need more Well-Fitted or Sturdy. Healthy traits on all jewelry pieces even with Imperial will only net you upwards of 39,000 Health with Minor Toughness active from the Warden's Maturation passive (10% more Max Health).
Skills Review
Frost Clench is your main spammable and Taunt you can use on your tank, it's incredibly cheap to cast even while holding Block which negates your Magicka Recovery (with the exception of the Blue Betty's Magicka gain) and helps you keep up Minor Brittle and Major Maim should your Kynmarcher's Cruelty not get you the Major Maim at specific times.
Silver Leash is your Pull ability that will help you stack trash/mobs faster in dungeons or during boss fights. Thankfully we're blocking with Magicka so your Stamina issues will be almost non-existent as it's solely for Pulling or Roll Dodging.
Revealing Flare is NOT meant to be used as it's just a passive slotted skill for the Major Protection passive which will stack with your other mitigation modifiers provided they're also not Major Protection.
Deceptive Predator is for the Major Expedition during fights or mob pulls where perhaps you may need to catch up to your group members. It also gives you a passive Minor Evasion mitigation modifier against AoE-based attacks.
Polar Wind is your main heal spammable that can also heal another player. This is also your main skill that will activate the Maturation passive of Minor Toughness that grants you 10% more Max Health.
Replenishing Barrier or Reviving Barrier is up to you as the Alliance War Support passive of Magicka Aid could potentially net you another 10% Magicka Recovery on the bar you slot this on. Whether you want more Ultimate gain or Healing is up to you.
Ice Fortress is your Major Resolve buff where you can get both Physical & Spell Resistances while also getting the Minor Protection mitigation modifier that will stack with the Major Protection, Minor Evasion and the resistances.
Overflowing Altar is quite a good skill to have not just as an emergency synergy heal for your team but also for the Minor Lifesteal debuff you can also take advantage of.
Blockade of Frost is your main way of getting the Ward Master slottable Champion Point to activate but also provides a projectile shield for you and the rest of your group. The shields upon expiration also grant you Magicka sustain through the Destruction Expert passive.
Blue Betty is a free skill that offers Magicka back through even Block while giving you an innate free Purge every time you cast it.
Elemental Drain is also another free skill that offers Magicka back upon damaging the afflicted target with a Damage over Time or direct damage ability through Minor Magickasteal.
Aggressive Horn is going to be your main way of buffing the group's damage by helping them get to the Critical Damage cap and also granting yourself an extra 10% Magicka and Stamina.
Craft
Warfare
Fitness
Champion Points Review
Despite the post-U32 nerf to Sustained by Suffering, it's still a great sustain option to have under the Fitness CP tree. Your Warfare slottables are the typical tank slottables that focus primarily on damage mitigation only.
Ward Master, as explained under the Skills Review, will be available to you so long as your Blockade of Frost's shields are active granting you this damage mitigation. Bracing Anchor will certainly slow you but the Deceptive Predator will more than compensate for it. Survival Instincts will help you sustain Roll Dodges, Block, Break Free and Sprint if afflicted with any negative status effect during trash fights or boss fights.
Introduction (Update 32, Deadlands)
This build is NOT recommended to take to Veteran Trials.
Winter's March is intended as a full on double Ice Staff wielding tank build intent on using the Tri-Focus Destruction staff passive of using Magicka instead of Stamina to Block.
As such compared to more orthodox setups, the foods/stats and of course playstyle will be very different on this build. However the differences in sustain and mitigation will be made up for by both the playstyle and the stats offered by the build that should cover even the worst possible mistakes.
The build is intended to be as simple as possible while stacking as many unique mitigation modifiers while also being able to keep up very high uptimes of Minor Brittle, something that will help your 4 man groups get to the Critical Damage cap in a non-Trial setting.
For a beginner's guide to tanking in The Elder Scrolls Online, you can refer to this guide.
Recommended Races for this build are Imperial, Nord, Argonian and Breton. For race recommendations you can refer to this video. Note that the Attribute allocation may differ depending on your race. For the purpose of the build showcase, we used Imperial.
Recommended potion for this build is an Essence of Health (tri-stat).
Recommended food for this build is Witchmother's Potent Brew.
Recommended Mundus Stone is The Serpent.
For gameplay and the video showcasing this build, refer to the video above.