When I started out with with the Warden I fell in love with it. I seriously thought that maybe this class would be one that would eventually replace my main of a Guardian. And as I leveled throughout the world of Middle-earth I was amazed at how everything was much easier and more laid back. Granted, I soloed for the majority of my time, but I still felt that when it came time to group that I would knock the socks off of anyone out there. And no matter how frustrated I was after leveling my other characters, when I finished up a series of levels my Warden always put a smile on my face!
But as soon as I got into a group and started trying to use Masteries, I was very, very lost. I miss my Guardian’s ability to instantly get aggro. I also find it incredibly frustrating that I now have to remember to use a different combination of keys to create gambits after 35+ levels of doing it a certain way. And frankly y’all, I’m lost. And I know from looking at the forums I’m not the only “n00b” Warden to feel this way, so I’m taking a different turn in this Altoholism article and instead of coming to you and telling you just what I do and my opinions I’d like to hear what you all do.
- What virtues do you use?
- What’s your rotation when you start a pull?
- What do you rely on for aggro?
- What do you look for in Legacies?
- What class traits are you utilizing?
Basically, I’m asking for help and all help is appreciated! And while I’ll also be pouring over Elborigorn’s previous articles, I am hoping that you too will help me do away with the “n00b” and help me delve into the epic that is the Warden class!
| Skill | Skill Effect | Gambit | Opinion | Level Obtained |
Muster in Evendim |
A Personal Teleport to Evendim | N/A | I’m a fan of every type of fast travel, but a Muster to Evendim sure would be a lot handier in the low 30’s than at 40 when you’ve probably moved on from that content. | 40 |
Dance of War |
Adds +1000 to a Warden’s Evade Rating and transfers a Moderate amount of Threat from each member of the Fellowship within 25 meters to the Warden. |   |
I did not use this gambit very much, and I felt a little foolish once I saw what it did. It seems to me this would be a really handy gambit to use. | 41 |
Resolution |
Drains up to 10 targets within 6 meters of their morale and transfers it to the Warden. |   |
I did use this gambit quite a bit; in fact this line was one that became very familiar to me. Although it’s not going to heal you to full, it helps a lot. | 42 |
Spear of Virtue |
Makes two attacks; one with main-hand damage and another that is Light-based. It also increases the Warden’s threat. | |
A good gambit for doing damage; especially with the Light-based attack. | 43 |
Muster in Rivendell |
A Personal Teleport to Rivendell | N/A | Another teleport spell that definitely is going to help you out. Rivendell becomes a very popular place to go at level 40 and beyond. | 44 |
Restoration |
Heals the Warden for an initial amount of Morale and then applies a HoT as well. |   |
A heal is a heal, and this one is a fairly decent one. It didn’t really make it into my rotation though because my mentality was that the morale leeches were more effective. | 46 |
Never Surrender |
This will heal the Warden for 75% morale and 50% power if they fall beneath 5% morale. However, they will then be unable to use any masteries or any HoT pulses for a duration of 5 minutes immediately afterwards. | N/A | A good “oh poop” button that is getting changed in Update 5 as well. However, it does help and I think most would agree that it’s a pretty good skill to have at the ready. | 47 |
Exultation of Battle |
Drains the health of up to 10 targets within 6 meters of the Warden. It will then transfer their Morale to the Warden. It also slightly increases the Warden’s threat over time. |  |
An upgrade to Resolution that also increases a Wardens threat. It’s hard to go wrong with this gambit in my opinion. | 48 |
Defiant Challenge |
A Forced Attack that also increases the Warden’s threat. It will also reflect a set amount of damage upon any Common, Fire, or Shadow Damage for a duration of 30 seconds. | |
I personally did not have this slotted and I wish I did after reading its description. I really wish I had given it a try because it sounds like it would be a good gambit to have in a tanking rotation. | 39+ Legendary Class Book |
Javelin of Deadly Force |
A Ranged attack affecting up to 10 targets. | N/A | I tried this, but I really didn’t think it was that great of a skill. I really wish I had taken the time to have Defiant Challenge equipped instead. | 39+ Legendary Class Book |
| Trait Name | Trait Effect | Opinion | Level Obtained |
Grand Master Weapons Training |
Increases your melee damage by 5%, increases your chance for bleeds (and their damage) from Spears, attack speed debuff from Clubs, and the hit bonus modifier from swords. | I didn’t slot this, but I’d be interested in hearing what more experienced Wardens think about the trait. | 39+ Legendary Class Book |
Way of the Warden |
Grants the following skills: Spear and Fist Spear and Shield Fist and Spear Shield and Fist Fist and Shield Shield and Spear Way of the Warden |
This trait is almost a “must have” because of how many masteries it adds to a character. It’s almost a bit ridiculous how many skills you get for having this equipped. And it’s not that I’m complaining, but it does seem a bit unbalanced to me. | Level 45 Class Quest |
November 16, 2011 at 9:53 am
I aggree with you about the masteries, when i first got them i was really confused by them and hardly used them at all. however once you get into instances and are tanking things you really need to learn to use them because, like you said warden’s don’t have that instant threat. i know when i first got my masteries i basically just took an hour and looked at them and compared them to my gambits seeing which patterns would most quickly and effeciently make themost important gambits i needed. So my Suggestion to masteries would just be to take some time, figure out some patterns to skills you’d use most and then constantly use those patterns till they’re branded into your brain.
As of now, my virtues are just the highest ones i currently have that give me morale, armour rating and physical mitigation. (not a fan of a grinding virtues)
for a skill rotation when i pull, i always slot javelin of deadly force, which i use to hot as many mobs at once as i can just so i get that first initial hit, usually long enough for me to pop off another threat gambit before healer or champs take it away from me. after the javeling, i’ll usually hit off an exultation of battle through masteries because it has a nice threat over time when coupled with the legacy. after which i’ll usea warcry followed by a desolation to start pushing off mobs to help healers out. after desolation i pump out some avoidances. After that i basically jsut cycle through by morale leeches, avoidances and desolation, and whenever i have extra time i’ll hit conviction. I don’t exactly hold aggro by using aggro generating skills, i let my fellowship generate aggro and i steal theirs whenever possible. just seems easier that way.
For legacies on my main weapon i look for all the threat up legacies i can get minus piercing strike threat up cause that skills has too long of a pause before doing anything. for the javelin i usually look for the HoT’s and dark before the dawn power return. If i get ambush induction legacy or javeling range i’ll won’t try and get rid of them
for class traits in a group i must have least 2 fist traits for the aded threat generationg, one being force of personality and the other one that lowers resist rating for warden’s taunt. The rest of the slots i fill up with shield line to get better avoidances. in solo i go full red line with the two shield class traits that add one hot pulse. or if doing something a little tougher like soloing CD for class quest items i’ll go full shield plus capstone for the added hot pulses
November 16, 2011 at 11:27 am
Awesome, thank you so much. This helps quite a bit.
I will take your advice and start learning masteries one step at a time. 
November 16, 2011 at 10:32 am
It might be worth mentioning that Exultation of Battle is a Morale drain over time whereas Resolution is a one-time drain.
November 16, 2011 at 11:28 am
Ah, thank you Aeled!
November 16, 2011 at 10:47 am
I agree with your point on mastries i just finished Way of the Warden on my lvl 54 warden yesterday and mastries are very confusing for me.
November 16, 2011 at 3:22 pm
It’s understandable that masteries are confusing at first, but it’s also important you learn to work them into your rotation. They greatly speed up the rate at which you output gambits, which is useful solo and in groups. Just start one gambit at a time, and in your rotation, think: can i use masteries to do this faster?
Binding your masteries to easy to reach keys helps too.
November 16, 2011 at 11:25 am
I always start my pulls(if it’s a multi mob pull) with javelin of deadly force followed by a quick masteried War Cry (Fist-Shield) and one or two Precise Blows (Fist-Spear) on my target (assuming im rat). After i have the initial aggro i use some defensive gambits (Shield Mastery, Wall of steel, Dance of war etc..).
In the middle of a fight i rely on Precise blow(the one and only single target threat gambit) along with threat transfers to keep mobs on me.
For my main hand weapon i max out wall of steel parry rating and war cry threat up legacies and for my javelin i use a mix of HoT boosts legacies and dance of war/Shield mastery evade/block rating legacies.
When tanking i usually trait 7 way of the shield traits to keep my survivability as high as possible.
November 16, 2011 at 11:30 am
Thank you for the tips Gorgath! I was wondering when a good time to throw in some defensive gambits might be.
November 16, 2011 at 11:57 am
It all depends on what group you are in
. If you’re in a group with buddies or players that dont mind waiting a little before attaking it might be a good idea to get some defenses up before using threat gambits since wardens are pretty squishy without our buffs 
.
November 16, 2011 at 12:41 pm
These are the hardest levels to be a warden. Don’t let it get you down.
I wouldn’t recommend slotting Disco Challenge long term. The animation is too long and too many bosses in your level range are immune anyway. It would become a crutch and interfere with learning how to do a real tanking rotation. JoDF is by far the better legendary to slot.
For single mob fights, percise blow 31 is your friend. There is no reason to use any other gambit for threat building purposes. start with a few javelins at distance, pop off 2 or 3 percise blows, and then go into a defensive/HoT rotation, and between rotations throw 2 more PBs. If somebody can gank your aggro without trying really REALLY hard to do so, I’d be impressed.
For many-mob fights, it gets more fun. Here’s a sample rotation that might be good for your level. Start out with JoDF to get everybody’s attention. A legacy’d (on the spear) and mastery’d ( [31][23]2) EoB is agreat gambit opener. follow quickly by a legacy’d (also on spear) and mastery’d War Cry. Now would be a good time to pop Shield Mastery [21]32. Then a Resolution 3[12]3 would be in order. By now your dps has built up a good amount of aggro, so a Dance of War is a good threat leech+defense choice. What you do after that becomes very fluid. What do we need? dps? then use 1212 to dps and buff defenses. Hots? Then alternate your Hot-line gambits with your health leach gambits. Is aggro the problem? Then make sure you keep EoB running and DoW whenever one of the masteries (23 or 32) is available. You generally don’t want to do non-mastery’d DoW because of the long time to build and the overly-long animation. It could actually end up being an overall DROP in aggro is you spend too much time on it. and don’t be afraid to use liberal amounts of of manually built Percise Blow on the main dps target and War Cry for the rabble.
multi-mob tanking is at it’s most difficult at this time for warden since lvl 20 and the great barrow, but everything seems brighter once you get Conviction. It, for the most part, replaces DoW in your rotation. It’s a threat steal + significant group HoT (when legacy’d and shield line). It’s during this time that wardens generally get a bad name because they get thrown this new mechanic (masteries) that are difficult to incorporate while also getting thrown into the first difficult group content of the game. Content that some people are expecting to be able to just waltz thru because they’ve done it with 3-4 characters now.
For virtues, focus on mitigation and morale/vit. I don’t remember fully what they are anymore, but I remember that zeal is very good now.
For legacies, these are my pre-RoI weapons.
http://lotrotools.mmorsel.com/lispender?li=8211&lg=l914:69;l930:69;bin:12;l972:69;l920:69;l944:69;l005:67;&x=1
http://lotrotools.mmorsel.com/lispender?li=8011&lg=l924:69;l932:67;l942:69;bin:16;l940:69;l968:68;l970:63;&x=1
This setup may change now with RoI, adding more of the defensive legacies, but I’ve shelved my warden until at least Update 5 hopefully fixes the problems that RoI has brought.
As for your list of new gambits. Ignore spear of virtue. Your aren’t going to use it.
For class traits. you want blue line. red line is for solo’ing and advanced dps tanking. yellow line is pointless. Pre-RoI I ignored the +rating traits, as I was at cap anyway, but now that might change. We’ll see after U5 comes out.
November 16, 2011 at 12:54 pm
I agree the the warden’s forced taunt is pretty much a waste of time seeing as it’s only a 5 second forced taunt but there are other uses to slotting the legendary and using it multiple times in a fight and thats the buff it gives which reflects a large amount of damage. Last time i actually looked at it was at level 65 and it was reflecting 47 damage i do believe and most instance mobs were hitting for around 200 – 300 damage. Animation may be long but i think it’s worth it considering you’d be mitigating an extra 1/4 or 1/6 of incoming damage
November 16, 2011 at 3:25 pm
For legendary traits, there might not be room for JoDF, because Way of the Warden is almost necessary for masteries. Going 5 deep in a trait line means you might as well get the legendary cap, and GMWT is a really nice dps boost, spear or sword. If you dont like your trait cap or GMWT, you could get JoDF, but those are rally the only good options for legendaries.
November 16, 2011 at 3:27 pm
Relearning all of the gambits using masteries is a bit challenging, but will be helpful in the long run. To practice, find some easy mobs and use individual gambits on them using the masteries. Practice makes perfect.
As for virtues, I would stick with anything that gives +physical mitigation. This takes priority over morale virtues. Remember to use the best warden carvings available to increase your physical mitigation as well as save power for specific gambit lines (shield, fist, spear).
In my opinion, nothing beats shield line for class traits. For group or solo play, the added survivability is very helpful. I personally use seven shield traits, but if threat generation is a problem for you, five blue and two yellow is a very good setup due to the added 10% perceived threat bonus. For legendary traits, shield capstone is great, as is Javelin of Deadly Force. Way of the Warden is a must now because of the masteries.
I only have one set of legendary items, so they are devoted solely to tanking. I only use the war cry and exultation of battle threat legacies, as the rest of the threat legacies affect skills I never use in rotations because of their negligible single target threat gain. For the rest, I use celebration of skill healing, conviction healing bonus, -safeguard gambit line power cost, and conservation in-combat power regen. -Fierce Resolve gambit line power cost is also very nice to have. For relics, stick to ones that increase avoidances or incoming healing rating.
And finally, tanking rotations. For single target threat, nothing is better than precise blow (fist-spear). For a single mob pull, always spam this atleast two or three times at the beginning of the fight. After that, all defensive gambits should be used: shield mastery, wall of stell, and dance of war( defensive strike if you want as well – shield-shield). By this time, your group has done some damage to the mob, so conviction is great for the HoT and the threat leech. For down time between defensive gambit renewals, precise blow for more threat, some dps through the spear gambits, or some HoTs from the shield line – whatever is needed (frankly, I tend to stick to threat and HoTs – better to over generate threat than all of a sudden lose it).
For multi-mob pulls, JoDF is a great way to start it out. If you don’t have JoDF traited, it is still fairly easy to generate threat. War cry is great to use once or twice, especially coupled with the legacy and the fact that you can use the fist-shield mastery to get one off very quickly. This should be followed by Exultation of Battle, which helps with initial survivability and threat. Precise blow spam on the main target to be downed first, and then begin a defensive gambit rotation. If there are more than three or four mobs, Resolution (fist-spear-shield-spear) is the best way to help heal yourself, along with Exultation of Battle when the morale leeches run out. If there are three mobs or fewer, HoTs from the shield line are best to help heal yourself.
There are just a few general tips I would like to share as well (sorry this is an extremely long-winded post). The number one priority for a tank is to get aggro (as I am sure you are aware of), then worry about survivability. Unlike the Guardian, who has the high mitigations, instant intial aggro, and low defensive upkeep throughout the fight, the Warden playstle is much different. It is essential that you lock down threat before you ever start using your defensive gambits and HoTs. It is tougher on the healer, but it is why the healer is there.
Wardens have the potential to out threat everything in the game, especially when you get closer and closer to the level cap. We can spam our threat generating skills while a Guardian has to rely on procs to generate threat while waiting for force taunts to come off cooldown. However, just spamming precis blow, war cry and exultation of battle won’t be enough. Our threat leeches are what make us so potent at aggro generation. Conviction and Dance of War are very important to a rotation, so if you are having to rush through a rotation, try NOT to skip these gambits, because they will make your job easier.
There is a fist line trait that increases the max number of targets for Goad (fist-fist) from three to six. Goad is the warden’s most powerful AoE threat over time gambit, so keep this in mind if using a five blue, two yellow build.
Unless you really need the extra HoT running to help your survivability, always avoid using safeguard (shield-spear-shield). The gambit does not have a significantly better HoT than persevere (shield-spear), yet I am fairly certain the power cost is almost double that of persevere.
Make sure there is a Raid Assist Target in your group, and that it is either you (the tank) or an aware class (hunter or captain). This will make tanking much easier, so that all dps is focused on one target, which you can focus on to keep threat.
That is about all I have to offer. After masteries, tanking mechanics only get easier from here (although survivability will become a major issue after level 65, but that can be explained at a later time). Just stick with the class, and don’t give up on learning the masteries.
November 16, 2011 at 9:36 pm
I use the Tonicbar plugin to create an individual quickslot for each gambit I use in my tanking rotations. Then I insert different combinations of masteries, builders, and the quick recovery skill to construct the gambit. I try to create at least 2 different combinations for each gambit, this way if the masteries in one combo are on cool down, I have another option to use. Also, I try to orient these quickslots so that mastery cool downs are completed every 3 gambits if possible. It takes time to set up this way, but makes things quicker when speed is necessary.
November 16, 2011 at 10:14 pm
After I got my masteries, the only way I could retrain myself and be somewhat productive was to use TonicBars. It takes awhile, but once you have it all set up and have figured out your builders with the masteries it’s suddenly even easier than it was.
Courage, Merric. I think every warden wants to fall on his javelin when he hits the Masteries hurdle.
November 16, 2011 at 11:33 pm
Lots of good advice in here.. For single target aggro, Piercing Blow is all you need.. I have shared this in raids with a kin Warden everyone considered to be awesome in the past.. and it was ridiculous to see the change in his aggro. Of course, two wardens dual PB’ing.. yeah.. some fun.
At any rate, what I thought I might add is my Mastery setup, since no one has really mentioned that..
So my 1-4 is normal, 5, 6, 7 are taken with other stuff, and then I lay out my masteries.. I learned my masteries based on an EoB rotation- so I set my first two masters to be Fist-Spear [3-1] and then Shield-Fist [2-3] so that I would have a quick EoB just by adding a shield.. Admittedly, shield can be tricky sometimes if you haven’t closed (with JoDF or whatever else you want), but it’s not terrible. My next two masteries are Shield-Spear [2-1] and Fist-Shield [3-2]. So those 4 are in a row on my bottom row, then I stack my spear masteries on top with Spear-Shield [1-2] and Spear Fist [1-3] on top.
I use my left hand to hit builders and the gambit, and then the mouse to hit masteries. It works fairly well for tanking and DPS rotations, but I admit to not being the most efficient Warden ever. For group tanking, I have EoB super handy, then can hit a Fist builder + [1-2] mastery for the small leach, then can go Shield, [3-2] mastery and then finish either DoW or Conviction manually.. That leaves me [2-1] to start a defensive gambit or [1-3] free.. you can also start with [3-2] for a quick War Cry, then EoB and start over.
For DPS, it is pretty great too.. I go diagonal from the top [1-3] [2-1] and Fist.. then go top to bottom [1-2] [3-1] and Shield, then a pair of Spear [2-3] Spear or Spear [3-2] to build a couple of quick attacks.. Rinse wash repeat.
So anyway, play with what order you set your masteries up and make it work for you. It took me a while to learn them, and mine might be a little idiosyncratic, but I have tanked DN and then OD with some success, so it works..
Will leave build suggestions to the rest of the crew. 
Good luck!!
November 17, 2011 at 11:32 am
I play a warden as well and would agree with most of the comments above. I don’t use War Cry as much as others (probably because I never quite had all the traits to make it as extrapowered as others) because once you get all the Masteries down, you can do some pretty quick threat & survivability generation with EoB.
The hardest part for the Warden is that first pull, which is why I think I had both Javelin of Deadly Force and Deadly Challenge slotted at one point and eventually just went to having just Deadly Challenge. Don’t get me wrong, I loved Javelin, but it’s purely DPS and not an aggro generator so I felt like Deadly Challenged served me better in the long run.
As others mention, there are a few great abilities ahead that will make everything easier: look out for Desolation at 56 and Conviction at 58!
November 17, 2011 at 3:10 pm
On a more simple note, why has there never been a Muster in Angmar skill?
November 17, 2011 at 3:25 pm
That’s a really good question
November 17, 2011 at 3:25 pm
I would like to take a moment and thank everyone for all their help. You all really stepped up and helped with some great suggestions. Thank you so much!
November 19, 2011 at 7:38 pm
I use the numpad for my masteries (shamelessly (OK, perhaps a little bit of shame in there) stolen) from Elb’s excellent guide:
http://www.casualstrolltomordor.com/2011/08/a-wardens-guide-part-2-mastering-masteries/
His scheme is quite effective at helping me remember. I also bind my “Remove last icon” skill to the numpad ‘.’ and the full clear to the ‘+’.
And remember, if you get mired in confusion, remember you can always fall back on your basic builders.