Warden advice

[Feachador]

So, my Warden is finally where I want him to be in terms of traits, so I've started to look at his equipment. I think for now, I'm going to try out the new ranged DPS thing, and worry about equipping him for tanking later. The problem is, with the Warden at least, I feel like I don't have a good handle on the class. I understand how gambits work, and what each gambit (or gambit line) does, more or less, but I can't shake the feeling that I'm just not grokking the class. I think fixing my equipment will help. Fortunately, I have a Westfold Taylor (With Riders rep) and a Westfold woodworker, so I can make a lot of the gear. The warden is a explorer, so I get sigils just by existing, apparently, so getting mats isn't a problem. What I'm not sure is how to most efficiently use them.

So, to start off, I know my legendaries suck. Here's what I have right now.



So, my first question is, should I make a level 75 third age (I have all the mats for both a javelin and a spear right now.) or wait and make a level 75 second age (I don't have any Worn Symbol of Celebrimbors).

As for the rest of my gear, here is my stats and gear page. I can make all the armor from theodred's rep stuff, and I'll be able to buy any kindred stuff shortly. (I'm a couple thousand points away from kindred.) So, my question here is, what stuff should I craft, and what should I get from questing/rep/raids? Nothing annoys me more than making an item, then having the next quest I turn in give me something better for that slot. Also, so far, I've been kind of stacking Might and Vitality, on the assumption I was building for tanking, but now I don't know if I should go in a different direction for the ranged DPS build.

So, any advice?

[Pyreal]

I understand there are big warden changes coming with Monday's update. I wonder if it's worth deciding any of this until you get a chance to work with the class update. Anything you decide now may just change on Monday.

[Feachador]

Yep, I'm not going to make any definite changes until after the update. The "ranged DPS" spec is one of the major changes they're making, but beyond that, I'm not sure, since they never did a Dev Diary. Here's everything we know about the changes right now:


Warden
Warden’s have undergone a massive revision. It is advised that all Warden players visit their trainers. There are a number of skills that you will need to train in order to properly experience this change. When we say massive we mean like the mass of a black hole or star collapsing into a black hole. Just go to your trainers and then have some fun!

* Warden’s Aim will now work while the Warden is using a Javelin implement.
* The tooltip for Warden’s Aim now accurately reflects the bonus to ranged damage that it will confer; the bonus effect increasing ranged critical damage has also been applied.
* Resolution will now apply a restore health effect for each target affected by the damaging portion of the Lifetap.
* Reversal can now be used from Ranged – as it should be available. (Remember to train the ranged version of Gambits!)
* All potent Ranged Gambit will now function as they should.
* The display information for the potent version of Safeguard has been updated.
* Ranged Combination Strike will now correctly be filed in the Javelin section of the skills lists.
* The misleading text of ICMR – Determination has been addressed.
* Muster in Stangard will now correctly return the Warden to Stangard.
* Offensive Strike will correctly add a pulsing Lifetap to the Warden when in the Recklessness stance.
* Mastery skills will now correctly add their boosts when using the traits that confer the boosts to masteries. Confused? If you are using the Mast of X masteries the boosts normally only offered by the baseline gambit builders is extended to your masteries.
* Mighty Blow now contains extra information about the bonus damage applied when layering your DoTs.
* The improved version of Shield Tactics conferred by the three-depth bonus of Way of the Shield now displays its tooltip.
* Celebration of Skill is now available in Assailment stance. (Make sure to train the skill at a Bard!)
* Unerring Strike now displays the bonus damage that it would deal when layering DoTs. As well, the bonus effects are now correct in all stances.
* Boar’s Rush no longer displays or allows for a chance to Daze a target in all stances.
* Deflection has been fixed to correct tooltip issues and functionality issues.
* Adroit Manoeuvre will once again apply the attack bonus to the warden.
* DBD (Dark Before Dawn) no longer requires the health component in any stance. The power restoration has been lowered accordingly and the small PoT effect has been added to the skill.
* Shield Tactics no longer has a chance to fear targets while in Recklessness stance.
* Maddening Strike now displays the correct value that it should confer to the Warden when used in Assailment stance.
* All Lifetaps are now working as they should. There is an issue with tooltip display only showing the damage output. I know that I cannot get this fixed in time for release to U6. So sadly this will show only the damage in the tooltip display.
* Dance of War will once again add evade boosts while in any stance. You gotta get something for that goofy looking dance.
* Spear of Virtue and Surety of Death now identify the correct amount of bonus that they will apply to your fellowship when using the Assailment stance.
* Cleaned up the text for Keen Response.
* Exultation of Battle now displays the pulsing damage that will be dealt by the associated lifetap. The lifetap tooltip issue that makes it so only damage is shown applies here too. Yes, it sucks. Yes, I wish I could fix it. My option here is to say: Will deal damage and heal you, kthxbye.
* Impressive Flourish has been fixed. Cryptic, no. Ultimately there was an issue with the potent version showing the wrong range. This has been corrected.
* Piercing Strike, while in Assailment stance is now correctly identifying itself as a ranged skill. This required us to make the skill file for the proper documentation from state and local officials. Once this was completed, the skill complied with our request and identified itself. Are you still reading? Cool. You must be a Warden.
* Find Weakness, the Warden trait, now correctly identifies the skills that it modifies. You go on modifying those skills Find Weakness.
* Go look at the new armour in the Ettenmoors. We think that you’re going to like the way you look. (Well, maybe not the way you look, but certainly the benefits that the armour confers should make you a happy little Ferret!)
*Most of the old Armour sets for the Warden have been updated with benefits that are related to the new changes. If we missed any bug them and we will get them addressed.
* Defiant Challenge is no longer a Gambit. It is now a slottable skill.
* Masteries are now trainable at level 20. What you say? All your masteries are belong to you. Wow, that was 11 years ago. Do you ever really think about those weird pop culture references…? I do. But yeah, go to your trainers. We told you to do that at the outset of these notes. Why haven’t you done this already? Geesh!
* Legacies have been revised. Look at your IA weapons. See the differences? Would you like to know more? There’s a Dev Diary on the way…oh, okay…well there really are too many to list here. Most of the legacies have be made a little more general to increase their value.
* Know Your Enemy now has a tooltip that reflects the new state of the trait.
* We have established a modicum of consistency with like Tooltips.
* Effects that drain health from a target and add health to the warden can now be independently modified. This means that the damage dealt and health incoming can be higher or lower than one another now.
* With the changes to the Warden class, the 'Porbad' and “Fist-way' armour sets have been altered. The sets will now give Wardens Damage-dealing stats, instead of the Tanking stats they previously gave. In addition, their set bonuses have been altered as follows:
o Porbad 3-set (and Fist-way 5-set) - Changed to give +10% Critical Multiplier to all Javelin skills
o Porbad 5-set - Changed to give +10% chance to apply bonuses when using Warden's Taunt, Warden's Scorn and Warden's Aim
* Warden heals have been adjusted to scale with elevated monster damage added with ROI.
* The new effect that provides wardens with a boost in their partial defensives has had its duration increased to 20 seconds.

[Feachador]

An additional thing that will help is that Worn Symbols will be available through Skirmish vendors, so that may help get the second age weapons.

[Marithil]

Here is the dev diary.

http://www.lotro.com/gameinfo/devdiaries/1829-update-6-developer-diary-warden-changes

I would be more than happy to help you, and anyone else who is in need of warden advise. I know there are a couple. I have played with the new warden in beta and pretty much understand the changes. If people would like, I will set up an event to help "train" anyone who would like it, in a mass warden event.

[Feachador]

sure, I'm all up for that. Thanks for the diary, I'll go read that now.