Warden
Wardens start to become powerful
Mar 25th
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.
Wardens start to get a little more complex
Mar 12th
As I thought about how to break up the progression of the Warden class, I thought it would make sense to break them up by the length of the gambits available. So my first post focused on the levels where gambits only had 2 builders, this post will focus on the next step in the progression and talk about the new 3 builder gambits and the progression up to level 30. If you haven’t read the first post, I would suggest it as I assume you understand some of the basics on the class at this point and terms like HoTs, DoTs, and ToTs.
Introducing Doc Holiday, Warden Columnist for LOTRO Reporter
Feb 24th
I’d like to take a moment to introduce Doc Holiday, the new Warden columnist for LOTRO Reporter. He has his own blog, Doc Holiday’s LOTRO Blog here: http://docholidayj.wordpress.com/.
I’ve been reading Doc Holiday’s blog for a while now, and we where even lucky enough to have him on the podcast a few episodes ago (Episode 15, if you’re interested). He has been playing LOTRO for a long time, and was even in the beta when the Warden was being finalized as a class, so he really know his stuff!
I look forward to reading his bi-weekly column, and I hope that you do too!
See you in-game!
Starting a Warden
Feb 24th
I’m excited to become a columnist here at LOTRO Reporter as I love listening to the podcast and it gives me a different audience to focus on. For my first post here, I thought I’d step back a bit from my blog which is more focused on the end-game and write from a broader perspective. I will certainly cover some higher level content but at first I’m going to focus on getting started with the class as it is quite a different animal from the other classes currently in LOTRO. For those of you who want to know more about me, I just updated my About page on my blog with some more information such that I can jump right into the main topic.
Now the Warden class is one of the two new classes added with the Mines of Moria expansion and I think has been one of the more mis-understood classes in the game. For many reasons (which I won’t go into now) there are many misconceptions surrounding the class and that was one of the primary drivers behind me starting my blog. My focus here will primarily be on helping folks as they level their Wardens and progress through the various stages of their development.
Warden Blog
Sep 20th
I was lucky enough to have docholidayj make a couple of comments on my column about keeping threat as a Warden. He made some great comments! In fact, the other night I began putting War-Cry in my rotation to gain threat, and it worked GREAT! I can’t say thank you enough!
As a community, we’re all going to be a little luckier now, as docholidayj has started up his own Blog to discuss Warden. I know that I’ll be checking it out regularly, and I would recommend that you do the same.
You can find his site at http://docholidayj.wordpress.com/
Keep going with the blog! I look forward to learning tons about Warden from you.
See you in game!
c
Threat Generation as a Tank
Sep 18th
As many of you have probably heard on the podcast (found through iTunes or the link on the right of the page), my main is a Warden. I’ve gotten him up to the low level 30s now, and am loving the mechanics of the class, as well as playing a tank in instances. As you can see from some comments in previous posts, Bill and I disagree about the mechanics, as he feels that they need an overhaul to make it easier to remember/know the combinations of attacks needed for Gambits, while I find that they work just fine. To each their own!
Overall in LOTRO, both as a Guardian and a Warden, I’ve found threat generation to be very different in LOTRO than in other games. Maybe I’m doing it wrong, but it is nearly impossible for me to have all of the mobs attacking me, while the DPS in the group attacks my target, then we move to the next target, etc. If we do manage to get all of the mobs attacking me, we often have to have our Rune Keeper move to healing, so that both the Minstrel and the Rune Keeper are healing me. Otherwise, I go down quick.
As far as the Guardian was concerned, I found that it was simply a lack of attacks that would allow me to gain threat. The threat increase attacks that I did have where also reliant on a parry or a block before I could use them. I found it very difficult in a group to get ANY of the mobs to attack me. Maybe I was doing something wrong, but it just didn’t work for me.
When I moved to the Warden as my main, I was ecstatic that I had threat generation attacks almost right away. It made it much easier. However, as we go through the game, and keep running instances, I find that it’s large groups that give me trouble. I just can’t get them all to attack me. If I use all my threat attacks, then I don’t have any of my defense buffs up, and go down quickly. If I use my defense attacks to get those buffs up, the mobs attack the other members of the party.
So, what am I doing wrong? I’ve got my Gambits down pat, so I know which ones give me threat, etc. I have found that Maddening Strike is next to useless. I was trying to use it to transfer the threat from my felllowship members to me, and it didn’t do anything. I ended up just going back to Precise Blow and Piercing Strike to attack single targets, and moving from one to the other to keep them off the healers.
Here is how I see the attack so far: I throw a spear to start the pull. Then I use Piercing Strike on the first mob. Our fellowship attacks my target, and I keep using my Piercing Strike to keep gaining threat, but one of the mobs will move to the healer. I then use Precise Blow or Piercing Strike to pull the mob off of the healer. I also use Goad when I have all of the mobs on me to keep gaining threat. The mobs will then start to attack different members of the fellowship, and it is nearly impossible for me to get the mobs back. We do sometime split things up, however, when we are fighting a boss. We might get our hunter and/or our champion to attacks the adds in the group while I stay on the boss. Otherwise, we usually have the group attack my target.
So, please o wise LOTRO Reporter community: What am I doing wrong?
See you in game.
