I get a lot of questions on advice and templates and it's pretty regular, so I thought i'd make an updated guide since I don't really see any that cover all the bases.This guide will compile all of my knowledge I've collected over the years to new and returning players, some of whom remember the warden to be somewhat lacking, so this might breathe new life into an old perspective. This guide will be focusing on beginning and advanced play for wardens.
Things to note, my specialty is a battle warden (solo/duo), however I've played warden every kind of way wardens can be played and they are all fun if you choose them to be. This guide will be pure experience and knowledge speaking, so here we go...
General Class Description
The warden is, at the heart of it, a naturalist. What this means is we are essentially a healer base class. What makes us different from other naturalists (Bard and Druid) is that we are melee hybrids. Wardens nowadays are coveted by groups because our heals have never been bigger and we offer extremely useful group chants such as the legendary PBT (Pulsing Blade Turn or bubble because of the graphic), Damage add w/ minor celerity, and minor group speed, with a special note of a personal chant that is an endurance regeneration chant (Endo 4 to be exact). Wardens get the ability to base buff (str/con/dex/armor factor) and trainable melee skills with the iconic to warden Master Level line, Battlemaster, which many many wardens will spec into over Perfector. While we can melee very well, the term well being subjective here, we are a threat solo because of our battle master styles that can drain power and endurance, or even shear buffs and dex/qui debuff your enemies, we are only wanted for groups as healers, although some groups will take and make a hybrid warden an extremely effective part of their setup. We are very defensive in RvR, rather than offensive, which sometimes is seen as a weakness, so if you're wanting to do big damage and take your enemies out quickly, chances are a warden may not be for you unless you go a certain spec which will be covered further down.
Skills we have available
Blades - Basic weapon spec, you spec into it and you'll have more styles available to you and you'll hit harder with a blade. Simple. More battle and hybrid wardens choose blades because of the side snare and sheer amount of high quality blades available as opposed to blunt weapons.
Blunt - Basic weapon spec, you spec into it and you'll have more styles available to you and you'll hit harder with a blunt weapon. Simple. Some niche wardens specs may spec as high as 34 blunt for the anytime Maul style which hits hard and offers good bonuses, however not as many good blunt weapons out there as there are blades weapons. Not as sought after for battle or hybrid wardens.
Shield - Offers stunning shield styles, very very important for battle wardens. Also offers the highly sought after Guard ability which allows you to block melee hits for a group member in addition to raising your chance to block significantly at higher levels. Many go as high as 35 shield to cap the block rate and get higher duration positional stuns.
Parry - The higher you go, the more you will parry hits. Simple.
Regrowth - Almost all wardens will spec into this. It offers greater single target and group heals. Also offers a good HoT, pure celerity, which is very highly valued in tank groups in RvR, and instant resurrection. Essential for healing wardens and slightly less so, but still highly wanted by hybrid wardens. Battle wardens usually go a bit lower to pick up more in weapon or shield.
Nurture - THE class defining spec. ALL wardens will spec into this, and unless you're a heal warden running a very specific spec suited to you, there's not much reason not to spec at least 45 into it. It offers damage add and celerity, PBT (Pulsing Blade Turn or 'Bubble' because of the graphic) which is a chant and will automatically refresh itself every six seconds at the highest rank in it. You've also got static bubbles, which are castable, non-pulsing bubbles that you may cast on your entire group or anyone in particular. You've got the soul resistance buffs, which are, at their highest rank, 24 extra magical resistance to Matter, Body, and Spirit. You've got a heal proc which is more important for battle and hybrid wardens as it requires you to hit rather than be hit like the bard healing proc. You have the highest endurance reduction spell in the game, which at 40% at it's highest rank, allows you to style and sprint pretty much nonstop. You also have the highest casted base haste in the game, which at 38% at it's highest rank, ensures your need for quickness is significantly lower than any other melee class in Hibernia.
Warden's Useful Stats
Str - Strength (your damage dealing stat)
Con - Constitution (affects your hit points)
Dex - Dexterity (affects your casting speed and defense in melee)
Qui - Quickness (determines swing speed, but is of less than secondary concern as wardens can cap swing speed with little to no quickness in their templates)
Emp - Empathy (the casting stat for druids and wardens)Making your warden
There are 5 races that can be a warden
Celt - 60 str 60 con 75 dex 60 qui 70 emp - If you're going heal warden, leave your base points as they are, however battle wardens may find it better to put emp points into str and hybrid wardens can go either way
Celts are the most popular warden race for a reason, they've got the highest dexterity of any warden race, and since dex isn't the primary stat, it's a hot commodity on all wardensFirbolg - 90 str 60 con 55 dex 40 qui 80 emp - If you're going heal warden, leave your base points as they are, however battle wardens may find it better to put emp points into str and hybrid wardens can go either way
Solid choice for a warden, bigger heals with more empathy and more strength for a tad bit more damage in melee, however lack of dex hurts a little bit, but at 50 RvR, it's of little concern with DF templates and the almost requirement to cap dex in almost any warden templateSylvan - 70 str 60 con 70 dex 45 qui 70 emp - If you're going heal warden, leave your base points as they are, however battle wardens may find it better to put emp points into str and hybrid wardens can go either way
Solid choice for a warden as higher str than celt with almost same dex and same amount of emp will find the wooden warden can be extremely versatile and can fill any warden role.Minotaur - 80 str 70 con 65 dex 40 qui 70 emp - If you're going heal warden, leave your base points as they are, however battle wardens may find it better to put emp points into str and hybrid wardens can go either way
Added as a warden in the final expansion, Labryinth of the Minotaur when Minotaurs were made a playable race, these wardens find their fair share of uses. Higher str means they will hit a tad harder but low dex might means you get hit a bit more and you will find it difficult to hit the 374 dex breakpoint. Overall a solid choice for hybrid or battle wardens, but remember less dex means less defense even if it's minimal, and wardens are very suceptible to burst damage.Shar - 60 str 80 con 65 dex 50 qui 70 emp - If you're going heal warden, leave your base points as they are, however battle wardens may find it better to put emp points into str and hybrid wardens can go either way
Very new to the warden scene, shar haven't exactly taken off, though I can't see why they're a bad choice for a warden. 80 con means you'll have more hits and can take more damage, however a bit less dex means you'll spend more points to hit breakpoints. Having never played a shar warden, I can't say for sure how they play as battle or hybrid, however all heal wardens play the same when breakpoints are reached and are templated properly.Note: These stats you see before you are auto trained. They can be redistributed in any way you see fit. The redistributable points are in Emp and Dex.
Leveling your warden - The fun begins
Leveling is much much easier now than it once was. Either through the BGs, the safe way through the Towns, or the exploring way through Muire Tomb, and the newly revamped dungeons, you'll figure out quickly the fastest and easiest ways to level.
Part of leveling your warden is speccing it. You can do this one of 4 ways, full nurture with secondary focus on weapon and almost no shield, full nurture with main focus after on weapon and then some shield, full weapon with secondary focus on nurture and shield, or the support route of full nurture and secondary focus on regrowth which you'll only be doing with a group.
Full nurture with secondary focus on weapon and a bit of shield until you properly spec for a BG or 50 is usually the preferred method.
Playing your warden in groups
Path 1: The Healing Warden
As a healing warden, your main job is to sit back, keep pure celerity up IF you're running with a tank group, and heal away. Call for Bodyguard when melee are on you, and play it safe as you have no instant heals except for what you spec into with RA's. If you have some leftover points, it's not a bad idea to spec 10 blades and 42 or 46 or so shield for a little bit of defense and the style Glowing Blade, which is a 40% side snare that you can hit an enemy melee with which will allow them to be kited much more easily.
Healing warden templates should look for high constitution, capped dexterity, capped empathy, and capped casting speed, heal bonus, and hopefully close to capped duration and at least 15% buff bonus to cap base buffs for out in the field, with Infernal Sleeves and other toys such as Bracer of Zo'Arkat to shut down an enemy caster, and also power charges on either weapon, in template items, or both.
Healing warden specs might look something like the following:
45 Nurture 35 Regrowth 44 Shield and Parry - This spec allows you to have your yellow greaters, yellow pure celerity, slam, and shield snares which are pretty long duration. You miss out on the casted Confusion spell though.
45 Nurture 36 Regrowth 42 Shield 10 Blades and Parry - This spec is just a variation of the above spec, only with the Blades side snare instead of shield snare and pulsing disease cure 2 from regrowth
41 Nurture 40 Regrowth 42 Shield 10 Blades and some Parry - This spec allows for the super useful confuse spell, Slam, Blades side snare, and higher regrowth spec for slightly bigger numbers from your still yellow Greaters. This is probably the most popular spec as it allows you to defend yourself from attackers extremely well, the ability to kill theurg/weapon pets with Confuse, and the ability to self peel with your Slam and weapon snares.
Note: Something to note is that a health buff is different from a HoT, or heal over time. What this is, is essentially adding to your natural health regeneration, rather than having an active series of 'ticks' on you. Ticks meaning the each individual increments that a HoT actually heals the small amount it says it will.
45 Nurture 50 Regrowth 10 Blades 23 Shield 6 Parry - This spec allows your biggest heal available to you which will essentially bring someone from almost dead to full health in 1 or 2 casts. Red celerity, red HoT, red health buff
Pros: You're a healer and a half, but with great power comes great power drain. Again, a good template with infernals is almost required to run this spec. You get red pure celerity, which will cap swing speed of everyone in your group. KEEP THIS UP AT ALL TIMES!!! That can't be stressed enough. You've also got red PBT and red body resistance buff.
Cons: Only your body buff will be red so you have to deal with having less energy and spirit resistance than you could have. No red damage add, so red celerity MUST be casted every 15 seconds or so to keep your tanks swinging at capped speed. No Fury of Nature, although some would consider the gains from that buff fairly minimal.49 Nurture 40 Regrowth 34 Blades 2 Shield 6 Parry - This spec allows for a more classic warden playstyle, while keeping the goods people want you for. You have hardly no defense, but you are one of the best peelers and healers in the game. You'll have all the buffs from nurture and with a decent power pool, infernals, and a greater power mythirian, your heals are huge, but not quite as power draining as the red ones, so that's a good thing. You've still got yellow celerity and yellow greaters, but this spec will suit a very specific playstyle. This is more of an advanced spec as it allows you to do more than just heal, but it tests your skills in peeling enemies and keeping your group alive in 8v8 tank fights.
Notes: Those a few example heal warden specs, they're super high in the support spec lines and sometimes have melee, with a decent bit of defense. Be creative and experiment, wardens are EXTREMELY versatile and can fit into almost any environment.
Regrowth Warden RA's:
These are some RA's considered beneficial as a healing warden:
Aug Dex - There's not much to say about this one, you spec into it, and it'll give you higher dex. Healing wardens want this until they hit the breakpoint of 374 dex to cap their casting speed. Also provides a bit of a defensive bonus.Serenity - Worth taking to rank 1, but gains vs. points required are generally considered a wash unless very high RR. Rank 1 will give 1 extra power regen and costs 1 point. Rank 2 gives 2 power regen and costs 3 points, and so on in that pattern
Ethereal Bond - EB - Got capped power pool in template but need more? Ethereal Bond increases your power pool so more power pool = more healing before you run out of power. Good RA if you've got the points.
Avoidance of Magic - AoM - This RA will raise your magic resistance allowing you to take punishment from casters far better than someone without it. Note that it doesn't make you superman, but it will help you live until you can line of sight or the druid can toss a heal.
Mastery of Parrying - MoParry - Generally better for battle and hybrid wardens, this raises your chance to parry considerably. Good even as a heal warden though if you want to keep the enemy off of you for a bit longer, although most healing wardens won't spec into this.
Wild Healing - WH - Unlocks the ability to crit with heals and raises that chance all the way to a 39% chance to crit heal. VERY important for heal wardens as it's essentially a chance to get 2 heals out of one cast.
Mastery of Healing - MoHealing - Raises your healing effectiveness considerably. It makes your small heals big and your big heals monstrous. At rank 9 combined with Wild Healing 9 makes you one of the best healers in the game, even able to keep someone up through extreme damage with smaller heals. VERY important for healing wardens.
Mastery of Blocking - MoBlocking - Generally better for battle and hybrid wardens, this raises your chance to block considerable. Good even as a heal warden though if you want to keep the enemy off of you for a bit longer, although most healing wardens won't spec into this.
Determination - Det - Sometimes specced into by any spec of warden, it reduces the amount of time casted crowd control affects you, meaning everything but melee CC (snares and stuns). Generally looked over in favor of Purge 5, it still has it's uses if you have the points.
Ignore Pain - IP - Instant self heal usable in combat, very straight forward. Costing 5 points per rank instead of 1, it gets expensive quickly.
First Aid - FA - Instant self heal not usable in combat, usually used for recovery after a fight in anticipation of another, it's not really needed for a warden, but i suppose could be situationally useful. Costing 5 points per rank instead of 1, it gets expensive quickly.
Mastery of Concentration - MoC - A timed buff that allows you to not be interrupted by anything but hard CC (mezzes and stuns). VERY useful for when you have a tank train on you and although you won't heal at full effectiveness, at rank 5 with high ranks of Wild Healing and Mastery of Healing, this RA ensures your group won't go down soon. Costing 5 points per rank instead of 1, it gets expensive quickly.
The Empty Mind - EM - A magic reduction charge. Pop it and take much less magic damage than before. Usually a choice between this and Avoidance of Magic, this situational, but powerful if you use it correctly. Costing 5 points per rank instead of 1, it gets expensive quickly.
Mystic Crystal Lore - MCL - Power charge RA in case you don't have enough in your template and your power regeneration isn't cutting it. Works like First Aid where it can't be used in combat, but can be useful. Costing 5 points per rank instead of 1, it gets expensive quickly.
Raging Power - RP - Power charge RA in case you don't have enough in your template and your power regeneration isn't cutting it. Works like Ignore Pain where it can be used in combat. Useful if you find your template lacking toys. Costing 5 points per rank instead of 1, it gets expensive quickly.
Purge - Not much to say about this one. It clears any and all negative effects on you instantly at rank 2 and above, 5 second delay at rank 1. Very highly recommended RA by the general DAoC community to go rank 5 in. Costing 5 points per rank instead of 1, it gets expensive quickly.
Vehement Renewal - VR - Instant group heal usable in combat. VERY powerful ability as it's the only instant group heal available to wardens. (The only other instant heal being Ignore Pain, and it's self only) Very highly recommended to obtain as a healing warden. Costing 5 points per rank instead of 1, it gets expensive quickly.
Thornweed Field - TWF - The warden special, TWF. This is a very powerful ability at even rank one, having the ability to clear out entire rooms in keeps due to massive AoE interrupting. A ground targetted 1500 range 500 radius AoE, it snares and damages all enemies inside of it. At rank 5, it's deadly. Costing 5 points per rank instead of 1, it gets expensive quickly.
Regrowth Warden's ML Path
Perfector - The main choice for most regrowth wardens. It offers a cure all spell, heal radius buffs, which allow your next heal or group heal to essentially branch out and heal everyone around it, instead of just that target. It offers a group cure disease, Font of Power, Font of Healing, and other useful tools.
Battlemaster - The bread and butter of hybrid and battle wardens. This offers decent melee ability, though with low weapon you won't be doing much damage, however you can bodyguard, which allows you to prevent 100% of melee damage from reaching the group member you're bodyguarding, provided you're both standing still. Grapple, which essentially stuns you and locks your victim in place. While your victim can't melee, they can cast so beware. 2 Style chains, one that places an offensive proc on yourself and everyone around you allowing you to have a 10% chance to hit someone with an essence DD which delves at 137, it's called Essence Flames and hits hard, even for wardens. The follow-up to Essence Flames is called Essence Sear and debuffs your enemy to essence damage, which makes your TWF and Essence Flames proc hit harder. Your second chain is Essence Dampen and Essence Shatter, the first of which places a dex/quick debuff on your target, and the follow up to it being a style while will shear a random buff from your target and anyone within 350 units of your target. Two other styles to note are your power and endurance tapping styles. They drain a large amount of power or endurance to your target and anyone within 350 units of your target. Some healing wardens will actually spec Battlemaster over Perfector to buff shear or power tap the enemy, or to grapple one trying to escape.
Notes: It's not a clear choice which ML path you wish to be, but your playstyle and group setup will determine your preference. There is no right or wrong here as long as you're good and knowledgeable with it.
Path 2: The Hybrid Warden
As a hybrid warden, you are extremely versatile. You're somewhere between a battle warden and a healing warden with unique elements of both, however you will walk a lonely road as there aren't many employing this spec, but if you own it and you can play it effectively, you're a force to be reckoned with.
Hybrid warden templates should look for the Conjured Bulwark shield, should be weaponless to allow the swapping of many different weapons, and should focus on capping spell speed, healing bonuses, and getting as much strength con as you can while capping dex and getting your melee ToAs as close as you can. That includes weapon and shield as well. Hybrid wardens will want many toys such as Bracer of Zo'Arkat, Bracer of Eternal Retribution, Crown of Zahur, and more. Infernal sleeves are almost a requirement as a battle warden with a bit of power pool to maximize your output on support.
A hybrid warden spec might look something like the following:
49 Nurture 35 Regrowth 35 Shield 15 Blades 10 Parry - This spec as a hybrid warden allows you to adapt to any playstyle. You will fit in to duoing, smallman, 8 man, and you get fury of nature for 30 seconds of beast mode with battlemaster styles.
Pros: Abilities, instant rez, defense of a battle warden, all around awesome utility, survivability, and playability.
Cons: Offense is way worse than a battle warden so you might have problems landing hits. This isn't recommended as a solo spec.45 Nurture 35 Regrowth 29 Shield 32 Blades 8 Parry
Pros: This is a spec that's almost on par with a battle warden without 40 blades in terms of damage. You get the weaponskill buff style which makes you penetrate defense much better and hit a bit harder, and you have extremely high heals for something that isn't a healing warden. You get instant rez, blue HoT, celerity, and other great Regrowth utilty. This spec can basically be played in any setting
Cons: There aren't many. Probably the biggest con of this spec is the loss of Mangle and only 32 blades, but the tradeoff for your high healing makes it worth it if you're gonna be duoing or higher.Notes: This is the most versatile type of warden out there. As a true hybrid, you can do just about anything demanded of you.
Hybrid Warden's RA's
Generally RA's to look for as a hybrid warden are TWF, MoPain, Ignore Pain, Purge5, or Vehement Renewal, depending on your playstyle. Wild Healing 1 to unlock crit heals and some Mastery of Healing. Defense is king on a warden so look for shoot for MoParry5 and MoBlocking3-5. Be creative, as creativity is the whole point behind a hybrid warden. Experiment and explore for yourself and decided what you want in your warden.
Hybrid Warden's ML Path
Battlemaster is the clear choice for any hybrid warden, as Perfector offers no bonuses you would really need as a hybrid. (See description of Battlemaster and Perfector above)
Path 3: The Battle Warden
Battle wardens generally will not run with large groups, instead preferring to solo or duo. Battle wardens are dangerous because they can be extremely tough to take down, and because of the tools available to them, they can break their enemies piece by piece. They're especially deadly against foes without a lot of defense as you will land many more shearing styles and essence flames against them. They're not quick killers, but 1v1 or even more than 1 will find it extremely difficult to kill a properly played battle warden.
Battle wardens will want to look for shieldless if possible, although most will run with the Brimstone Shield of Anarchy, or Conjured Bulwark. Any battle warden template should be weaponless to allow the swapping of different weapons for different procs. They want to focus on capping strength, dex, con, and getting a fair bit of empathy since they won't have high in regrowth. You want to cap spell speed, healing bonus, and melee ToAs. Capping weapon skills should also be a priority over regrowth or nurture. Spell duration is nice if you can get it but don't drive yourself crazy trying to get everything.
A battle warden spec might look something like the following:
45 Nurture 25 Regrowth 35 Shield 32 Blades and Parry - This spec as a battle warden allows you to put out fairly respectable melee damage as a warden and you will find you can handle 1v1s and even 1vX fairly easily with some skill and line of sighting. This is definitely more of a survival spec than the spec mentioned below, and is more of a pre-patch warden spec as you won't hit the crazy damage numbers that 40 blades offers, but will be able to still do decent damage and have the regrowth HoT to help survivabilty.
45 Nurture 0 Regrowth 35 Shield 40 Blades and Parry - This spec as a battle warden allows you even better melee damage as, at RR8, it allows you to composite 52 your weapon spec, you will have the extremely useful back snare, and you'll have access to the Stone styles. These will give you a 25% weaponskill buff, a 50% ABS debuff, and a very high damaging style. Extremely useful and almost required for a battle warden if you're trying to do damage, which you will definitely be able to do with this spec.
Notes: This is a purely combat focused warden. As such, you will spend a minimum amount of time healing and about 90% of your time fighting. This spec doesn't focus on big heals, although your single target greater will pack a punch with a bit of rank and Master of Healing. This is a difficult path to walk without a bit of rank under your belt (RR5+) Most wardens suggest healing before going battle until at least rank 5 if battle is your end goal, just so you get the all around feel for a warden. Wardens are all about experimentation, try the two above specs with 29 shield if you're not comfortable with side stuns, to pick up extra utility or healing.
Battle Warden's RA's
Generally, RA's to look for as a battle warden are TWF5, IP, Purge5, AoM, MoBlock5, MoParry5, MoPain(at least 5), and Toughness. Anger of the Gods and First Aid are also useful abilities for dealing with multiples or for bursting someone down.
TWF5 - allows you to kite people, deal with multiples, reset fights, or just simply burst someone down. Very useful.
IP - is an instant heal, very powerful.
Purge5 - will get you a reduced timer on purge, and purge allows you to break any and all negative effects on you. (5 being a 5 minute timer)
AoM - will greatly lessen damage from magic, that includes attackers with legendary weapons.
MoBlock5 - will greatly increase your chance to block, up to the cap.
MoParry5 - will greatly increase your chance to parry, up to the cap.
MoPain(at least 5) - will make you crit much more often. VERY useful for battle wardens as it allows you to somewhat overcome the stigma that wardens can't do damage and simply delay an inevitable defeat, which simply isn't true.
Toughness - will give you more hit points. Very useful as wardens have low hit points, but high defense and more ways to regenerate their health than most classes. Useful for surviving burst damage. Remember, a warden isn't done until he hits the ground.
Battle Warden's ML Path
Battlemaster is a no brainer here. It's your bread and butter as a battle warden, and if you're not speccing this then you're not doing it right
Basic Tactics for playing a Battle Warden solo
Composite weapon is still a priority on a warden if you wish to melee a lot, as is high strength and capped melee ToAs (Melee damage, Style damage and Melee speed) and mythical DPS. Aim for composite 51 or ideally 52 weapon spec. This will allow your Battlemaster and Blades styles to cap out, will decrease melee variance to almost nothing as opposed to not having capped composite, and will help you penetrate defense a lot better.
Blades will give you six very useful styles:
21st level style, Horizon Blade, will give you an off block bleed. This nullifies health regen and adds an additional 20 damage per tick. Keep this on your opponents as much as you can. Very effective vs. skalds and minstrels because they don't have much defense yet have high health regen due to songs.
25th level style, Kinetic Blade, will give you an off parry dehaste, also known as ASR (attack speed reduction). Not as good as the dehaste from a Fine Steel Long Sword, but can be used with any weapon, effectively cutting down on the amount of weapons you need to carry, if you so choose.
34th level style, Revenging Blade, will stop people trying to kite, or simply run away from you. VERY important style to have as it prevents smart skalds and minstrels from resetting fights.
32nd level style, Stone Shaper, will give you a 25% weaponskill buff. This will bump your damage a bit and make it easier to penetrate passive defenses. It does medium damage and hits almost as hard as Essence Flames. One note about the weaponskill buff is that it cannot be refreshed until it's duration is up.
40th level style, Stone Temper, will place a 50% ABS debuff on the target. This style is how wardens do damage now. Get this and Essence Flames up to really start putting the hurt on a target, no matter how heavily armored they are.
40th level style, Stone Breaker, will do very high damage and remove your weaponskill buff and the target's ABS debuff, but will trade those for a huge hit. If a target is extremely low on HP, this may just be the way to take them out if you know another Essence Flames or Stone Shaper won't do enough damage.Pet procs are your friend. Traitor's Dagger and Astral Blade of Illusions are examples of pet proccing weapons. These pets can procs your essence flames so stacking people with pets and backpeddling is an easy way to deal with someone who doesn't dance. If it's against someone that DOES dance, the pets allow you to bypass defenses since they're still attackers. Large shields can only block 3 attackers at a time, so keep that in mind.
Some things you want to have as a battle warden are strong invig pots, plenty of /uses, and a lot of RR. You won't kill fast but you'll effectively wear the enemy out. Since defense is so prevalent on a warden whereas offense is not, some basic tactics for dealing with multiples are as follows:
Make sure Zo bracer is up. This will allow you to fire of 5 small pets to keep an enemy archer off of his bow so you can deal with the other one. Line of Sight archers and casters and if you find casters have popped MoC, get out of there and kite them until it's up. Anywhere with line of sight, like bridges or mazes, is normally where you want to be to deal with ranged players.
Have ground target macros set for TWF. I personally have 3 ground target macros made. 1, 500, and 1500 are the ones i find the most useful. TWF is one of 3 burst tools you have for taking someone out of a fight quickly. The other two bring Fury of Nature, which effectively makes you hit twice as hard and all style damage from the extra damage is converted into healing for your group. After a lot of testing, i've found that the damage bonus of x2 it claims is actually more like 1.5x. Still extra damage though, and still will take someone out. Your third burst tool is Anger of the Gods, which is a massive damage add. Your normal damage add chant is only 10.0 whereas this one will go up to 30.0 damage add. Very useful for taking someone out of a fight quickly if you have to. Also notable is AoTG is on a 10 minute timer along with Thornweed Field and Fury of Nature, which are also on 10 minute timers. Combine these 3 to push your damage through the roof and rip someone apart.
Pop ablatives and other uses ahead of time if you're anticipating a fight. It's a 250pt hybrid ablative so it can really save your life. Combine with other toys to make even assassin burst damage seem negligible.
Understand that you are not a heavy tank, you are a hybrid. You are susceptible to burst damage and without purge you're capable of being killed in a single slam if nothing is going on to save you (armor proccing, enemy missing, etc)
Going to reiterate this again, line of sight is your friend. It can save you from archers and casters, and will give you a chance to heal yourself. Play to your surroundings and make them work for you, don't go to your enemy. Wardens are susceptible to being kited and if you let it get out of hand, you're prone to being taken out be an archer, skald or minstrel, or even worse being led into greater numbers you might not be able to handle.
Weapon swaps are extremely important. I cannot stress this enough, and the weapon you swap specifically is why blades is a clear choice for any battle warden. Examples of my bags of weapons are as follows:
Spear of Kings, Traitor's Dagger, Aurulite Blade, Venomous Warden Blade (CL15), Fine Steel Long Sword, Heat and Energy legendary weapons for dealing with foes with leather or metal armor, Astral Blade of Illusions, Cuuldurach's Fang, Champ weapon (for melee shield buff if you anticipate a stun soon and purge is down), and Technomancer Blade. You can have even more than that, however that's what I generally work with. Also recommended is Malice's Axe, Battler, and Bruiser.Outro
I've tried to cover all points I've been asked about before and those I haven't been asked, but felt necessary to include anyway. If you're still wondering whether the warden is for you or not, just give it a go and see for yourself, you may fall in love with the class as I have. Wardens are an amazing and fun class that has gone leaps and bounds since our inception as nothing more than terrible druids with bubble chant and no shield or weapon spec. If you still have questions that I may not have addressed, feel free to contact me in game or on Postcount. I hope I've helped at least someone with this guide and i'm hoping it stands true to everything I think the class and it's players are.
Peace out
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