Staying in-tune with whats going on around you is key. For health return while surrounded by multiple creeps fire off some EoB and Fierce Resolve, those will hit every creep around you and stack heals on you while they lose health. If your going one on one while running Reck don't forget about Offensive strike stacking. It doesn't hit for a ton but it stacks multiple times and the health return can act as a bit of DOT mitigation while you burn them down. For a quick build up of heals switch to Det and start stacking HoTs on urself ( Perserve, Safe-guard, Celebration and Restoration). The way that gambits change from stance to stance is a huge buff to us in pvp so don't be afraid to stance dance a bit when you need to .
For defense its really about your playstyle. I say play your warden aggressively. Chase them down in Assail then make them bleed with Reck. A strong offense can be the best defense ( go ask champs). Getting ready to charge in on a fort? Battle prep in Det and pop Shield mastery and DoW.
The warden has been the only class I have played that can really play super aggressive and have the defensive and survivability to pull themselves out of the worst of situations.
In PVP, what health gambits do you use?
I.E: To restore your health and protect yourself?
What gambits do you use overall, both for damage and personal protection?
To restore my health when there are multiple enemies around, I spam lifetaps. If it's really getting dicey, I switch to Det and pop Defiant Challenge and spam lifetaps. If there aren't multiple enemies around, chances are I don't need to restore my health, haha. I don't generally slot for self-heals, don't generally use them out there except occasionally conviction, very occasionally resto.
I second the observation that warden is able to play very aggressively and get away with it. Know when to stance dance. Keep Det shield mastery up whenever you can. And don't be afraid to charge into some handy lifetap nodes (by which I mean enemy NPCs) if you need to heal up -- I love darktide wolves, and Grothum is basically a warden playground.
Ah, sweet.
What would you say the best gambits to take a black arrow out would be?
I try to keep as many bleeds on them as I can, and keep them slowed to stay in melee range. They try to kite you around and use their trap, slow, and put lots of fire dots on.
For the bleeds you need to be in reckless stance to be most effective, but you can switch between this and assailment to get some ranged hits on the BA as well if he gets away from you. Use bleeds whenever you can, since you will probably not be in melee range as much as you want. Practice switching between reckless and assailment -- it helps for BA fights, and learn the bleed gambits for each (yes -- assailment has ranged bleeds)
Make sure you keep up restoration and conviction or you will find yourself dead before you realize it. BA's can put out a lot of DPS. And make sure you have high tactical mitigation.
Ah, sweet.
What would you say the best gambits to take a black arrow out would be?
With a question like that, I'm going to assume you're pretty inexperienced on your warden, so I'm going to give some general tips.
In general, if you're fighting a BA, if they let you slow them and close to melee range, you can lay on your spear bleeds (I usually use a Persevere-MightyBlow-UnerringStrike sequence) and destroy them pretty handily in recklessness. If they manage to slow you instead but let you stay far enough for Assailment, I like the Combination Strike and Unerring Strike bleeds. Either way make liberal use of Wall of Steel as well -- it's an interrupt, it does a nice chunk of damage, and it gives you a damage reflect buff. If they are skilled at kiting and manage to keep you in the "too close for assailment, too far for melee" range, you'll probably be in trouble. If they pop moving target, Desolation is nice to use (in fact use it anyway) since it's tactical so evasion doesn't work on it.
In general, your basic strategy against individual creeps is to lay as many bleeds on them as quickly as possible, so even if they get away from you, you have a good chance of finishing them off anyway. Hampering Javelin is your friend. Wages of Fear is great on fleeing enemies. Tiering the spear bleeds in order gives some nice bonus damage. And especially in a melee fight against wargs or reavers, don't understimate the power of your damage reflects (Wall of Steel and Shield Up/Shield Mastery in Recklessness) -- in parsing some of my 1v1 melee fights reflected damage has been the first or second largest single source of damage, comprising up to a quarter of my total damage output. Wall of Steel reflects common, fire, and shadow damage, meaning it works on everything except spider's acid damage.
^ Some excellent tips up in there. Worth a re-read for sure. +rep Hethyba
Only thing I'd add is to pay attention to your surroundings when you're fighting a BA. If you are unable to close the distance and get into melee range, switch to Assailment and utilize any trees/rocks/etc around you. Build your gambits from cover, popping out only to use manual builders and to deliver the damage. Being kited is no fun and can get you dead pretty handily, so don't feel like you have to play by the rules they're setting. If you catch yourself getting dragged all around creation, snap out of it, find a tree, and make them come to you or at least change their strat.
Oh, and while I'm playing the "Zub-guru" and dishing out advice, I'll throw in a couple points about build rather than strategy.
Get the range extension legacy and max it out (it affects javelin skills but you find it on your melee weapon). This is a non-negotiable. The difference between a 25m range and a 40m range is ENORMOUS in the moors.
Slot Force of Personality (+2 dot pulses). Again, this makes a huge difference to your damage output. Expert hurler is my other always slotted trait, because decreased cooldown on Wages of Fear and Hampering Jav is awesome.
I don't know if this even needs to be said, but slot Defiant Challenge. It's so stupidly awesome in the moors that I refer to it as my godmode button. Getting the reduced cooldown legacy is highly recommended but the cooldown is pretty short anyway so not 100% necessary. Use it when you've got multiple creeps on you, when running into a keep or OC after fleeing or hiding enemies, when leading the charge against the creep raid, when playing the "how many creeps and npcs can I kite around Grothum" game... Do keep in mind that it's so good it's generally considered unfair/unsportsmanlike in a friendly 1v1 if you're into those.
Don't be married to shield spec, at least once you have semi-decent gear. Audacity means that even in red or yellow line you've got plenty of survivability. I will either slot red line + expert hurler + 1 blue trait (perseverance or skillful blocking), or yellow line + Force of Personality + 1 blue trait, depending on what I feel like slotting. Either one will give you 32 second bleeds (36 seconds on the javelin toss bleed), which is awesome. Nothing like seeing "your mighty blow topples WargThatHipsed20SecondsAgo" on your screen.
Tactical mitigation is important. I have about 45% unbuffed in my moors gear, could get a little higher by switching virtues but I find that's enough.
Senior Member Online status:
Reputation:
Century Member Online status:
Originally Posted by Banshee1020
Reputation:
Reply With Quote
Posting Permissions
