Discussion: Lvl 55 Warden - I'm confused post U6

First note - I am almost exclusively a solo player.
Prior to U6 I had a fairly good (but hardly expert) idea as to what I was doing with my Warden. I was happily stacking some DOT's on a target, maybe firing up a HoT if I needed it and strolling through the long dark that is Moria. I was traited 4 blue/2 red and had JoDF and WoTW traited for my legendaries.

I'd generally stick with either determination or conservation - depending on whether I was having power issues or not.

Ok, so after taking a break and fooling around with a champ for a while, I'm back trying to sort things out.

I've learned all the new gambits, dumped WoTW (since I only used it for the builders) for GMWT, dumped one of my blue traits that seemed redundant and sloted the new way of the shield one instead. I've add preparedness to my quick bar. having 4 blue/2 red conviently gives me all the builders.

I've been mostly using determination stance now - but I missed the DoT cycle: 1-2-3 bam 1-2-3-1 bam. Whats the better damage output cycle now in determination?

Orion talks about recklessness being the best solo stance now - but it's lacking the HoT that I seem to have optimized my traits for (+4 HoT pulses) I am killing stuff faster in recklessness, but my survivability seems to take a hit - especially vs more than one mob.

I think I understand battle preparedness (ie fire off shield mastery before a big fight) but haven't wrapped my head around battle memory.

Any tips or suggestions for me? I'm not exactly getting smacked down out there, but it definately feels like I'm not making the best of the new changes. Switching stances and going over every gambit to see what it's changed to is a bit of a nightmare.

Should I be changing my build around to be 4 red/2 blue? (or heck yellow?!) The chance of me using assailment is zero, so no need to add that to the confusion.

My warden is level 50, but I haven't played that much since the update...
Anyway, I traitted all red and tried a couple of skirmishes and field mobs.

Determination is still your survival friend (you don't need to be traitted blue unless you are tanking in a group).

Anyway, from what I can see, you can easily run around in Recklessness and switch to determination for the hots and buffs when things get a little tougher.

I personally stack the Determination and Recklessness shields most of the times, for instance (Determination gives you avoidance bonus and Recklessness gives you a damage reflect).

It's fun, but It will always take a while to get used to.

Haven't used Assailment yet (from what I can tell, it's not really good for solo players anyway... I probably would try it in a group context, but first I'd like to get used to these other two).

Firstly, don't hate on Assailment too much. It hit surprisingly hard which makes it a very nice option for pvp, some instances, and for taking out slow or ranged enemies in the field. You can certainly get by without it, but don't ignore it completely.

As for your questions:

In Determination we only have 3 bleeds now: our fist bleeds (3-2-3) (3-2-3-2) and Unerring Strike, which is the final spear bleed. If I am trying to throw out some DPS in Determination I get these three running, and then use Wall of Steel, Wardens Triumph, and Dark Before the Dawn, as all three are some of our best upfront DPS skills; regardless of stance.

You should also consider stance dancing. In Recklessness you get a load of awesome damage reflect effects from Wall of Steel, Shield Up, and Shield Mastery. If you put your defenses up in Determination and then bounce to Recklessness to throw up some reflects (You can have 5 up at most: 1 from Shield Mastery and 4-5 from Wall of Steel) you can enjoy being a turtle while at the same time allowing enemies to back themselves to pieces. I do it in the moors all the time and it's hilarious. Assailment has one of the best reflect effects, 36 damage reflects and stacks up to 5 times, on Wall of Steel but applying this and stacking it is generally more trouble than it's worth.

For killing standard mobs though, Recklessness and some red and yellow traits are a great option. You may feel squishier, and you are, but you can mitigate that with morale taps and the older morale leaches. Against a single enemy, if you feel you are taking a bit too much damage, blast them with some Offensive Strikes (1+3). This gives you a type of weak hot while at the same time putting a weak dot on the enemy. As it can stack (and very easily with battle Memory) you can get a few of these going to slow down the damage you are taking. Against multiple mobs you can still use the old morale leaches, they are better than ever. DPS is exactly the same as it ever was, stack the spear bleeds. The only difference is that our bleeds now last quite a bit longer, meaning you can stack more bleeds against enemies.

My warden is lvl 58 and i am able to solo small fellow quests by maintain my moral at the cost my damage dealt. The best stance for me is the determination and i equip shield line traits even if am soloing in order to survive longer. I soloed my way through moria so far and stand undefeated except when i fall into pits.

The stance u use depends n ur style of play, for instance, i use determination when fighting elites or soloing small fellowship quest and use recklessness when am tanking for low lvl characters.


Ur whole survivability depends determination stance and shield traits. i particularly dont find assailment useful because wardens ranged combat is not that good. Recklessness seem to be for players who depend on blades to survive.


In trait wise Shield traits determine how long u survive in a combat and the number of enemies u can hold at once, while spear traits is very useful when u want to lvl up fast so u turn to deal only damage and conserve power, i dont now use fist traits bcos i dont usually use DoT.

I think they made the warden a bit undefeatable when equipped with shield traits and using determination stance.

One quick advice i will give u is Always be ready to tank

To get the most of the new warden you need to switch stances in the middle of combat this is being called stance-dancing the basic idea is build up your HoTs and Buffs then switch to recklessness and put on your DoTs then switch back to renew your HoTs and Buffs. This gives you a good balance of Healing and DPS especially in Solo play. Also if you are surrounded by more then 3 mobs throw a Fierce Resolve into the rotation somewhere to get a light bleed and stacking HoTs.

If you don't want to switch stances. To do DPS in determiniation at that level you don't get many bleeds for DPS i suggest spamming Onslaught it actually does decent damage for a 3 builder more then power attack in determination anyway. If you really want bleeds then your best bet is some of the fist gambits Brink of Victory and Surety of Death for single targets and Fierce Resolve, War Cry and Desolation for groups.

For Healing in Recklessness it is much harder at that level your only options are Conviction, and Fierce Resolve. Neither of these give that much healing but Fierce Resolve stacks up to 10 times.