Thread: New Warden seeking tanking tips.

I recently returned to LOTRO, had to quit before due to a junky computer. Loaded LOTRO back up the first day I got my new computer and couldn't be happier. So I wanted to start fresh and relearn the game, I normally play a tank and usually a ranged dps alt. The Warden looked perfect to me medium armor speedy tank. So far I am really liking the warden. I was a little nervous at first about remembering the Gambits and what not, but all that has clicked for me now. I'm ready to tank, but i don't wanna be a bad warden I wanna be a warden that wins people over to our tanking style so I wanna make sure to do it right.

I am level 37. From what I have read here on the forums it seems for multi-mob I should start the pull with a jav attack hit 2x war cry gambits and then get a couple of PB's in on main target (i will probably be pugging so that's prolly wishful thinking I will be lucky to have 2 people hitting the same mob i would guess). Then some of the things i read said to get a furious resolve up some said not to worry with it. And looking at the skill it doesn't seem to have any added threat and it being a leech only the damage it does to the mob would cause threat and not the heal right? So should I worry with this skill or just skip it? And in multi mob if I do skip it should I then go to my defensive gambits or start throwing WC or spreading PB around?

Single mobs/boss seems to be a little more straight forward get a few pb's in, get defenses rolling then go back to pb or toss in some spear gambit dps which ever is needed.

Any tips on this from you experienced tank wardens would be much appreciated. I just don't wanna go out and make warden tanks look bad. After all doing good in groups now will just make finding a group that much easier for me later (and other wardens as well if I do it good enough)

I break up tanking like this:

Single target- three targets: PB's for aggro, Precise Blow is your strongest threat tool, love it. I usually Use either Goad or War-cry for these pulls to make sure the mobs come into my melee range but the threat is not particularly impressive from either skill and will not hold aggro over an AOE DPS class. Try to put at least 1 PB on every target to give yourself a firm aggro lock.

4+ targets: Putting a PB on every target is not necessarily a great idea for these large pulls, your best option will be to use Conviction (which you sadly don't get for any levels yet) to hold aggro in these pulls. At your level just throw out some extra War Cry's and keep your morale leaches up.

Also, as a note about tanking in general: remember that your ONLY job in a group is to hold aggro and be survivable. If you also DPS or do something like that, well that's just gravy on the Po-Ta-Toes. Also, your morale leaches are absolutely awesome, but its widely accepted that the only time they should really be sued and maintained is when there are more than three enemies present and within range.

Ok thanks for the tips. It did answer a question. I wasn't sure how effective WC and furious resolve would be at holding mobs. Sounds like AOE tanking might be a little hairy with the tools I have at my disposal, especially if there are any trigger happy DPS in the group.

Well I'm feeling confident that I have the gambits down well enough to start tanking. I will try to put together a PUG this weekend and try it out.

Thanks