Thread: Beginner~ Warden

Hey guys, looking for any tips and answers to a few questions for my Warden.

I am a level 28 Warden, had the char for over a year I think but only came back to the game a few days ago, an overall noob so I don't understand many of the acronyms, please be very clear with any awesome advice you might be able to offer.

Pretty much I started as a Hunter, got him to 23, found him boring and started a Warden. Fell in love almost immediately to how awesome the Warden could solo things by combining self heals with damage and good power regen in Determination. Leveled him to 26 and went afk for around a year. I am now back and interested in Warden again.

The changes don't effect me to much since I had already forgotten most things, they do confuse me a bit though. I just want to know the Wardens general role. I can solo very well and it is also apparently a tank class (tried it once in GB, failed hard)

My question is, can I be useful for anything other then tank? Tanking seems to take a fair amount of skill which I lack right now but I still want to be all around useful in a fellowship. It just seems to me that now matter what aggro move I use to build threat on something if a Hunter, or any class really, opens up on it I lose hostility.

Also, any advice at all. I am very much new to Warden and this type of gaming as well (never really played LotRO type games before this) so hoping folks can clear some confusion.

Thanks

While tanking is our main role, you could potentially be a decent DPSer if geared right. If you want to DPS, then stack Might instead of the usual Vitality. Look for anything that will give you damage bonuses. Run in Recklessness instead of the Determination Stance. Determination is for tanking. Recklessness is for melee dps. Give that a go and see how it is!

EDIT: While in Recklessness, focus on DPS gambits too. If you aren't going to be tanking, don't do any self heals or defensive gambits unless you grab agro by accident. Power Attack (Spear, Shield, Fist) is your first good Bleed gambit that you have access to at level 28. Use that and keep the bleed going on as many enemies as possible. Then use Combination Strike (Spear, Fist, Spear) for regular DPS in the mean time. War Cry (Fist, Shield) and Brink of Victory (Fist, Shield, Fist) both also have a bleed effect to them which damages the targt over time.

Hi, welcome back fellow Warden.

I'm in exactly the same situation as you. I've been on a break from LotRO for about 6 months or so and i have a lvl 50 warden who is my main character (funnily enough i also tried a hunter first).

There i so much versatilty with this class but i also think it can perform admirably in a specific chosen role if you do your homework and practice.... a lot!

I had originally wrote a very big and cumbersome post and have decided to edit it and stick with the obvious stuff.

I have decided to stay with my current character (well there was no chance of re-rolling really) but in your case i would seriously consider re-rolling as you're only at lvl 23 and i think it would be better to re learn from the beginning. I can totally understand though if you want to keep him/her and keep going. You have still got a lot of gambits to unlock and these will be unlocked to you at a steady pace instead of having to relearn all of them at the same time.

These gambits are where the biggest changes for the Warden have occured and i think the best (and obvious) way to go about it is just to farm lots of mobs at your level and practice every gambit you can do many, many times and write down your most useful ones. Most if not all of the gambits have been tweaked providing some unexpected bonuses sometimes and if you dont keep notes for this game then i would reccomend you do.

It is important to notice that you can produce different results from using the exact same gambit by just changing the stance you are in. So basically you have a 'no-stance', a stance for up close attacking melee style combat, a stance for defence and buffs and a stance for ranged combat where you use your javelin from a distance. This last one enables you to provide a much better dps than before and overall these changes give the Warden the opportunity to provide different roles within a fellowship or group.

I have only been back for about a week and i am still nowhere near ready for anything other than solo play for fear of messing things up. If by any chance you are on the Laurelin server then it could be useful to help each other out with this ingame.

You definetely should read the latest update news and changes for the Warden and also the game itself, I was pleasantly surprised to learn of the new premium wallet which i bought and i also think the Warden is in the best state i've known since i started playing a year ago.

This list of changes can be found here http://lorebook.lotro.com/wiki/Category:LOTRO_Releases

The latest update is 6.1.

Tanking is tough at low levels. You lack many of the aggro-management skills that you'll rely on endgame...unlike Guards, who get many instant aggro skills at very low levels.

I dont think you even have Det stance anymore, till you get to L30? For the meantime, you can focus on your DPS in Reck, thats easier for lower-level Wardens, and you'll probably see better DPS now than you did before you left. Power management, though, is something else...but in groups in the L30-40s, you'll fill the DPS role in groups nicely, and you can transition to tanking as you acquire more skills for it.

For soloing, in Reck, remember that 1-3 is your healing skill now and you dont have all the HOTs you used to in Reck. Once you get to L30 and get Det stance back, you can swap between Reck for DPS and Det for healing, when solo, as needed.

Originally Posted by droid

Tanking is tough at low levels. You lack many of the aggro-management skills that you'll rely on endgame...unlike Guards, who get many instant aggro skills at very low levels.

I dont think you even have Det stance anymore, till you get to L30? For the meantime, you can focus on your DPS in Reck, thats easier for lower-level Wardens, and you'll probably see better DPS now than you did before you left. Power management, though, is something else...but in groups in the L30-40s, you'll fill the DPS role in groups nicely, and you can transition to tanking as you acquire more skills for it.

For soloing, in Reck, remember that 1-3 is your healing skill now and you dont have all the HOTs you used to in Reck. Once you get to L30 and get Det stance back, you can swap between Reck for DPS and Det for healing, when solo, as needed.

Determination comes at level 20, Assailment is at 30.