DocHoliday
I've been playing MMOs since SWG (left right around NGE) but also have been a MUD'er for over 15 years. I moved from SWG to DAOC and became an RvR addict and really liked their system. I somehow snagged an invite to the LOTRO beta in Feb. of 2007 and even though I was skeptical I fell in love quite quickly and snapped up my lifetime subscription as soon as they announced it. I mainly played my Captain and Minstrel as a relatively hardcore player on the Silverlode server primarily focused on raiding but also doing quite a bit of Monster Play. I wasn't part of any static groups, but was able to successfully experience the Rift and Helegrod lots on both my Minstrel and Captain. I was then a part of the Moria beta and instantly became attached to the Warden class. I rolled a bunch of them during beta to help test things out and then made my Warden my main character once Moria launched. I quickly leveled her to the cap and have tanked all of the Moria instances with the exception of the Watcher (I have killed it numerous times though) and just did DN for the first time recently. I was also involved in the Mirkwood beta and helped smooth the Wardens through the massive combat revamp. I still enjoy and drive towards the end-game/raiding content so most of my writing will be regarding those topics and content. Around the Mirkwood beta is when I started my blog with the goal to help better communicate to Wardens the other players what the class could and could not do. In addition to blogging, you can also find my guest spot on LOTRO Reporter episode 15.
Homepage: http://docholidaymmo.com/
Posts by DocHoliday
Wardens – Learning to Tank
Oct 22nd
The primary role of the Warden is tanking, but if you haven’t done it before you may be wondering how to learn and practice tanking. Now there’s the obvious “go get in a group” answer that while true, isn’t always possible nor is it always the best option. Luckily over the past few updates and expansions, there have been a number of additions that make learning how to tank an easier process.
Champions Begin to Become More Well Rounded
Oct 11th
When first leveling, Champions feel pretty one sided as pure DPS classes but as you pass level 15 and make your way towards 30 Champions start to get more fleshed out as a solid group class. Another huge addition to the class in this range, which comes at level 20, is the ability to wear heavy armor such that they’re not quite as squishy.
The other areas that see buffs in this level range are agro skills as you get a forced taunt which allows you to off-tank pretty well. I will caution you though that you should use forced taunt only when pulling off squishies as many tanks (including me) don’t like it when folks randomly force mobs off of them. A couple new AoE attacks and buffs pop up, and the Champ starts to see various skills impact targets with less then 25% health such that you become a finishing class.
Wardens, what to craft?
Oct 6th
I’ve talked quite a bit about the Warden class and mechanics of the class but one area I haven’t covered is the crafting system. I really enjoy crafting in LOTRO and have supreme masters in all professions except weaponsmith and scholar (although I will have scholar soon) and have definitely benefited from those crafters. When it comes to crafting, I think there are a couple important decisions to make:
- Do you even like crafting?
- Are you looking to purely make money from crafting?
- Are you crafting as a group, either with alts or friends/kinship members?
I’ll assume if you answered no to the first question, you’ve stopped reading by now so I’ll first talk about what I feel the Warden excels at and then also cover the later two questions at the end.
Bring on the DPS
Sep 23rd
I wanted to give a quick introduction on why I’m writing this column and my perspective on the Champion class. Some of you may know me from my Warden posts and blog and might be puzzled by why I’m writing about champions. Honestly I’ll admit I struggled with the Champion class for a long while, until I realized that Champions and Wardens both fit my playstyle very well. Check out my initial Champion post on my blog for a further comparison. These articles will be slanted towards that playstyle but I will also try to keep them broad as well. I’m not going to try and claim I’m the best Champion out there, but I wanted to try and help people learn about the class.
The playstyle I’m referring to is the arrogant “I’m gonna run into this group and see what happens” kind of attitude. On the Warden this works rather well with all the self-heals, and on the Champion this works as you can kill things so quickly. However, having both a tank and healer that I play at max level, doing this much damage can cause problems for grouping. Early on, the worst thing that happens is you’ll die, which I’ll admit I’ve done my fair share of. However, in groups, this can be very annoying so I’m going to offer my suggestions on how to best balance your DPS. I’m not going to cover this quite yet, but don’t worry that’s something I will get to. If you’re a DPS class (Champion, Hunter, Runekeeper, etc.) while soloing you certainly can go all out, but when in groups you really need to be careful and toe that line.
Playing Second Fiddle
Sep 17th
First up, a little public service announcement – my blog that I refer to quite often in my posts has moved over to DocHolidayMMO.com, same content and everything just a new hopefully more flexible site. And now back to your regularly scheduled Warden post.
I’ve primarily focused on how to not only solo effectively as a Warden but tank and hold agro as well. However, a recent post on the Guardian forums got me thinking that I should put down some thoughts on off-tanking as a Warden. I will admit that I’m not the greatest off-tank on my Warden as I do tend to just end up tanking, mainly due to my arrogance when on my Warden :). However, in some cases it may make sense to off-tank so here are some ideas for you.
Proper Traits for Your Warden
Aug 13th
First a quick administrative detail, I mentioned last week that I’ve posted the new radiance armor set data and screenshots, but this week Turbine applied a stealth update to the sets so I did a quick update you can find on my blog for those interested.
And now back to your regularly scheduled post – I’ve hinted at this post for a while now and have changed how I originally planned to do it. I originally thought about going through things individually but thought that might drag out a bit too long so I’m going to cover this from a bit higher level. I’m going to cover Virtues, Class Traits, and the Legendary Traits but certainly this is my perspective and others may have different opinions.
Warden updates coming with Free to Play
Aug 6th
Compared to other classes, Wardens haven’t changed too much from their current build. There were two primary changes which pretty much can be seen as one buff and one bug fix that some were using to their benefit.
The good news is we got a pretty nice reduction in our power costs overall as the various carvings are no longer just limited to power reduction on gambits they’ll reduce the power on the builders as well. Some will argue on how much of a difference this really makes but any reduction is a welcome one especially if you’re leveling and don’t have all the masteries available. The other side benefit of the power reductions is that we don’t have to throttle back nearly as much which allows for more DPS or more threat depending on what you’re trying to do. Your mileage may vary, but for me I was able to complete skirmishes with a low power level about twice as high on Bullroarer as compared to Live while doing about 10% more damage.
Quick Warden Trick
Aug 2nd
My next major post will focus on virtues and traits (for a older and slightly out-dated post, check out my blog), but I just recently came across this trick while catching up on the main LOTRO forums that was news to me so I thought I’d share it. Now hopefully if you’d read through my previous posts you have a pretty good feel for the gambits and how to build them. Plus when you reach level 50 you start to earn the traits for the Masteries which allow you to populate your gambit bar with 2 builders as opposed to one. Now here’s where the trick comes in, you can use the Masteries to build up an “invalid” gambit that allows you to more quickly fire of the gambit you want to.
Keeping your Warden Well-Equipped
Jul 9th
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.
Wardens grabbing all the attention
Jun 2nd
In my previous posts I’ve mainly covered the leveling curve and what to do at the end game, all the while skirting around the main role of Wardens, and that is tanking. I’ll start off with some differences between Wardens and other tanks, and then move on to some basics strategies, slight changes for tanking multiple mobs, and sprinkle in some general group dynamics. Also check out a couple of similar posts I’ve made on my blog regarding the changes with Mirkwood and tanking specific gambits.
One thing to point out up front is that with the introduction of Skirmishes, there’s now an opportunity to learn how to tank in various situations. Certainly your soldier and the NPCs won’t pull nearly as much agro as other players but it is a better learning experience then just soloing through content. If you can’t keep things off those guys, you’ll be in serious trouble in a group! Skirmishes also are a good practice ground for handling lots of mobs as that can get a little crazy.
