Wardens start to become powerful

My previous article left off at level 30 with length 3 gambits and just shy of the next class quest.  If you’re starting with this post you might also want to check out that article as well as my first post to catch up.  As my title indicates this was really the part of the leveling curve that I felt my Warden getting REALLY strong, which is good as this is also the part of the leveling curve most people dread :)  I was able to do quests in zones that I didn’t think I could and survive pulls and adds that I could’ve sworn were going to be the end of me.  I’m going to stop this just before the acquisition of the level 45 class quests, but don’t worry there are lots of good things for Wardens in those 15 levels including your first legendary trait.  Also during this range you’ll probably end up tanking more and we definitely do get stronger in that area.  I mentioned it in my first post, but as you read the tool-tips for our gambits you might be confused by the different definitions, which the developer Graalx2 has commented quite a bit about on the forums and I’ve summarized on my blog.

At level 30 you not only get the passive trait for length 4 gambits, but you also get your 2nd class quest “A Defence in the Darkness” which takes you up to the North Downs.  In this quest you are summoned to aide the elves of Meluinen who have barely survived a massive battle.  I will admit that this quest doesn’t stick out too much in my memory, but being a protection quest again you will need to make sure you pull agro as soon as possible and also make sure you keep yourself alive with HoTs and defensive buffs.  Remember, Precise Blow () is your best single target taunt and War Cry ( ) is arguably your best AoE threat gambit.  The rewards for this quest are the “Ward of Justice” trait which boosts your defense gambit ratings and a choice of weapons.  The trait is probably handy at this level range as most likely you’re still working to acquire all the traits but as I’ve mentioned on my blog it isn’t one of my favorite traits to slot.  As for the weapon, I would suggest picking whichever is better compared to what you have currently as you will progress past it soon enough.

While leveling it is also important to keep an eye out for equipment upgrades.  Being my last toon to level, I already had a maxed jeweler and could save enough hides to max Tailor on my Warden so I had Jewelry and Armor covered, plus a SM Metalsmith for my shields.  I realize this isn’t the case for everyone, but it is a good idea to see what you have available from your characters as well as what your friends/kinnies have available too.  Leverage the Lorebook to know when item upgrades are available and find out what materials are needed to make the items.  From my experience, most crafters are more then happy to craft things for you if you provide the materials.  The one vocation I don’t have is a woodworker, so I ended up searching the Auction House for items and looking to see who was crafting them and sent them an in-game mail to see if they would make the items for me :)

One item I failed to mention in my previous post is that at level 20 Wardens gain the ability to wield Carvings in their class slot.  Until level 50 all these can do is reduce the power cost to execute gambits of a particular line – so all gambits that start with a spear or fist or shield.  I say “all they can do” because at level 50 there are new carvings that also provide additional benefits in addition to the power reduction that I’ll get to later.  But, for now it would be a good idea to grab a couple of them and swap out depending on what gambits you find yourself using the most.

As I’m sure you imagined, in these 15 levels there are 9 new gambits that you’ll get with the level you get them in parenthesis:

• (30) Mighty Blow () – damage + DoT – one of the best overall damage gambits you can use, so use it often :)  The DoT stacks with Power Attack so use them together and this attack also is very hard to evade or parry.  Again, remember that sadly the fist +tick traits don’t apply to this DoT.
• (31) Boar’s Rush () – damage + stun on crit.  This gambit actually can be rather handy at times as when you stun the mob (if you crit) you can also land a Critical Strike attack on them for added damage.  It is situational certainly and shouldn’t be relied upon for stuns/interrupts but certainly useful and has a very cool animation ;)  This gambit used to have a HUGE delay at the end of it, but now that it has been fixed I actually do use it from time to time.
• (32) Wall of Steel () – damage + parry buff + interrupt.  This actually is one of the more important defensive skills as parry is the hardest defensive stat to max out.  In addition to the damage and buff, it is handy as an interrupt skill too.
• (36) Shield Mastery () – defensive buff – large boost to Block, Evade, and Ranged block.  One minute duration so you can put it up at the start of the fight and not have to worry about it for a while.
• (37) Celebration of Skill () – damage + HoT – once you get this HoT, you should use it in place of Safeguard () as it does more damage, heals more, and costs less power.  I will stack this and Persevere () first and only applying Safeguard only when I really need the heals.
• (38) Surety of Death () – damage + DoT + Moderate Threat – good overall damage when you include in the DoT damage and also provides a single initial threat component.  While tanking, I’ll usually apply the Fist line DoTs for the extra DPS and threat as part of my rotation.
• (41) Dance of War () – evade buff + Threat transfer – really handy gambit, although it does have a bit of a long animation, as it allows you to transfer threat from your fellowship to you.  Don’t use this gambit at the start of the fight, but a bit into it such that your group actually has some threat built up.  This works great with DPS heavy classes as well as times when you Minstrel needs to heal quite a bit up front.
• (42) Resolution () – AoE morale drain – this gambit is the start of where Wardens become THE AoE tank as this drains up to 10 targets of ~ 190 morale (@65) and transfers that to the Warden.  This gambit is spamable, so you can leach ~1900 morale every time you use it as fast as you can build it.  There’s no threat component to this gambit, but it really helps out the Minstrel and allows us to pull, tank, and most importantly survive through lots of Mobs.
• (43) Spear of Virtue () – damage and initial Threat.  I’m a bit on the fence about this one as it does good damage and has nice burst threat capability but for the length and the total threat it generates, it really isn’t as good as Precise Blow () so I usually use this towards the end of a fight when I have agro locked on but just want to do some more damage.

This level range is where Wardens really start to shine as AoE tanks as with Resolution, Shield Mastery, Dance of War, and our HoTs we can not only generate enough agro to hold everything but we can keep ourselves alive while doing it.  This also allows us to pull all sorts of crazy stuff while soloing too – the same methodology applies there :).  I actually use my solo play to help me practice for group experiences as when you push yourself while solo you’ll be better prepared for all possibilities when grouped, as sadly things won’t always go as smoothly as you’d like.

There are a few other skills and abilities Wardens get in this range too.  We polish off our travel skills as we get self-ports to Esteldin (32), Evendim (40) and Rivendell (44) which all come in VERY handy.  We also get a new stance Recklessness (34) which provides a boost to damage and attack speed at the sacrifice of defense.  Many really like Recklessness which I can understand but I usually prefer to just pull LOTs of mobs so I run in Conservation for the ICPR buff and defensive bonuses.  And the final skill of this level range is Wages of Fear (38) which is a javelin attack that has a very large bonus to damage when used from behind.  This is useful in a few areas:

• if you can pull from behind a mob – use Ambush, then Wages of Fear (WoF), and continue to plink with all javelin attacks before the mob can get to you
• slightly different pull method is to Ambush, run up and crit strike, and then get behind the mob for WoF.
• while tanking, if a mob happens to run away launching WoF does lots of damage and might bring the mob back to you.

Another thing I want to mention is a trait you can open up at level 40 which is Master of the Spear and is obtainable from using the length 4 spear gambits.  This trait when slotted grants you 2 new “skills” which allow you to populate your gambit bar with either or with a single skill.  This is the first mastery available and you’ll get the other 2 at level 50.  These masteries are INCREDIBLY helpful as it drastically speeds up the gambit building process.  It does take up a trait slot, so it is a tradeoff to consider between building gambits faster and the other traits we have.  For Wardens, our strength and power comes from getting gambits off as quickly as possible which easily outweighs the small benefits the builders have by themselves.  I have a more detailed breakdown of all our traits over on my blog.

The last topic today is the start of your legendary traits which you can begin at level 39.  This has changed recently and is quite a bit easier as well as uniform across all classes.  When you hit 39, I’d suggest going to your trainer and buying the three books that are available to you – Bullroarer’s Boy, Chieftains of the Dunedain, and the Watch Against the Night.  Once you do this you’ll unlock deeds for each of these which require you to find 8 pages of these books to earn the appropriate trait.  This pages drop off of Humanoid mobs and the first 4 pages drop in Angmar and Eregion and the last 4 in the Misty Mountains and Forochel.  Depending on your play-style you can either do these while farming kill-deed traits in these regions or just general questing if you’re more patient :)  Here’s the breakdown of which book gives you which legendary and a bit more about them:

• Bullroarer’s Boy grants Defiant Challenge () which is a length 5 gambit (can’t use until level 40) that is a short duration AoE forced taunt.  While it can be handy, the short duration of the effect and the long build time coupled with the animation make it not as desirable as you might think.  Still useful, but I still think there are better ones available.
• Chieftains of the Dunedain grants Grand Master Weapons Training () this trait boosts not only the damage of Clubs, Spears, and Swords, but also the frequency and magnitude of the procs these weapons can apply.  This is a very nice legendary :)
• The Watch Against the Night grants Javelin of Deadly Force () which is another cool legendary that I love.  It is an AoE attack but it doesn’t target a mob it is just launched in the direction you’re facing and hits mobs in its path.  So you have to be a little careful with using it and make sure things are lined up, but it is one of my favorites.

That’s all for this post, my next one may bring us to the level cap but I might have to split that up depending on how it goes as there’s a LOT of information to cover over those 20 levels.  Feel free to contact me here or on my blog if you have questions or topics you’d like me to cover.