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Before I hop into the meat of the post, I wanted to mention the Warden’s roundtable I was part of over on the Casual Stroll to Mordor podcast.  I you haven’t listened to that yet, there’s a ton of Warden stuff in there, including discussion on today’s topic: gear for your Warden!  In my previous posts, I’ve mainly been covering the leveling and skill progression, but not so much on your equipment choices.  I wanted to take a little time to cover that issue, not only as you level but at the end-game as well.  Certainly some of this information will not necessarily be Warden-specific, but I will keep it focused as much as I can.  I did a similar post on my blog, but things have changed a bit since then, so I wanted to do another version of it.

I’m not really going to provide any leveling specifics as there are so many options available depending on where you go to level.  For me as I leveled I was pretty much always using a mix of crafted items and quest drops.  For the first 20 levels or so, I wouldn’t even stress about your equipment as you out-level it so darn fast.  When you get into your 20s and especially into your 30s your equipment will really start to make a difference as with better gear you’ll be able to handle tougher content and potentially skip over certain zones or cruise through “quest gaps” that many have commented on.

Another thing to keep in mind is your weapon choice, and for leveling I really think there are two “better” choices.  If you find yourself missing often with your melee attacks, I’d highly suggest using a sword as that will help quite a bit.  I used a sword primarily when I was in the 20s but I did switch over to a spear as I hit my 30s and for the most part, I haven’t switched since.  The spear first off just looks cooler, but it does have a chance to add a very strong bleed effect that makes a significant difference in DPS.  The other weapon I use from time to time is a club, which I mainly use while tanking for the chance of putting an attack speed debuff on my enemies.  But at the end of the day, weapon choice won’t make or break your Warden, so if you love maces or find that Dagger of Pure Awesomeness you just can’t part with, you’ll still be able to function.  :)

What I did while leveling was keep track of when the next “guaranteed” upgrade was coming. For me this was just from crafting (armor, jewelry, and weapons), but this will now also include skirmish rewards.  Depending on your situation, you may not have access to all the crafting you might like, so I’d suggest talking to your kin-mates to see if they can help out.  (If you are looking for a kinship to join, please check out Cor Pethroni on Brandywine server, or Lacho Calad on Landroval server; see here for more information on those kinships.)

Another option for gear is to look on the Auction House for people crafting the items you’re looking for and see if they’ll make things for you if you provide the materials.  Most will do this at a very reasonable price, if not free.  Knowing what’s available as you level will allow you to save money, skirmish marks, and time gathering materials, as you’ll be able to realize there’s a skirmish item that’s better then that crafted item, for example.  Also, I found that there were many times when the quest rewards were better than even the best crafted sets at a certain level, so don’t always assume that crafted is better.  I do highly recommend the Trollshaws gear set and the Angmar sets (all are quest rewards), as I used those sets for quite a while while leveling through the 30s and 40s.

As for determining which items are better than others, this is up for some debate, but I did have some “rules” I applied.  First to check was armor value and DPS as those jump pretty significantly as you level and will be more beneficial than a few extra points of some random stat.  After that I mainly focused on Might, Vitality, Morale, and Power, but mainly just did a quick check to see if it was an upgrade somewhere.  When you get up near the level cap, you should have a good feel for how you’re playing the class and what stats are important to you.  I try to focus on power regeneration, vitality, morale/power, and then might followed pretty closely by a combination of other stats that are important to me, personally.

The other item you’ll need to be on the lookout for is a good Carving.  This item is used in our class slot and provides one of the following benefits:

  • + Melee Defense
  • + Light Damage
  • +Tactical Defense

plus:

  • Reduction in gambit power cost for a particular line (fist, shield, or spear)

For the most part, I think the melee defense carvings are the best.  I usually upgrade my carving based on what I’m focusing on and what line I’ll be using more.  There are some carvings available from the Warden Trainers, but the better ones are crafted by Woodworkers.

As you start to approach the level cap, this is where getting the best gear for your needs takes a bit more planning.  There’s some good discussion on the forums for things like jewelry and cloaks.  For armor, I’d suggest looking at the spreadsheet I put together showing all the end-game sets, including the radiance sets and the various crafted sets.  (I also have spreadsheets for Captains and Minstrels.)  I organized this spreadsheet by set and by armor piece so you can really play around with it.  The other thing I’d suggest is to check out various Warden MyLOTRO pages (here’s mine), looking to see what they have equipped, and then check the Lorebook or forums to see where those items come from.  I also inspect other Wardens in-game to see what they have on and either search or just ask them where the item is from.  On my Level 65 Warden, I’m currently using a mix of items dropped from mobs and crafted items for my gear.  For jewelry, the Galadhrim crafted items are some of the best, so I strongly recommend those.  Then run some of the high-level instances to try and get the other items.  My only drops so far are:

As for shields, I currently use the Mirkwood crafted shield for the in-combat power regeneration (ICPR) boost, but also carry Jubut-hum in case I need to do some common-damage mitigation.

Please feel free to contact me at my blog, to let me know if you have specific questions or if there are specific topics you’d like me to cover.