Erika “DEViled_Egg” Ng makes her return in the latest Developer Diary for the Riders of Rohan expansion. Wardens have been put in an interesting position since Update 6, where they gained a massive change to how the class functioned in its group roles. Erika acknowledges this and states how this was one of her focuses this time around.
Update 6 brought with it some pretty substantial changes to the class. Unfortunately, things were a little rough around the edges upon release. Even though a lot of polish has been done since then, we still feel there was some streamlining to be done. Because of that, this update has a lot of tuning, usability, and quality of life improvements coming to the Warden.
But first, she talks about the new and improved skills coming to the class.
New Skills in Riders of Rohan
- Improved Hampering Javelin
- Level 77
- Adds a 2 second root
- Resounding Challenge
- Level 80
- New Gambit (Fist + Shield + Fist + Spear/Javelin)
- Targeted AoE with a 25m range
- Hits up to 6 targets within a 10m radius from the initial target
- In Determination: Adds “high instant threat” to all targets it hits
- In Recklessness: An AoE attack that does “moderate” light-based damage
- In Assailment: An AoE attack that does “moderate” light-based damage and a de-taunt effect.
- Call to Battle
- Level 83
- New Gambit (Fist + Shield + Fist + Spear/Javelin + Fist)
- Targeted Aoe with a 25m range
- Hits up to 6 targets within a 10m radius from the initial target
- In Determination: Grants an “initial pulse of medium threat” and places a “medium threat -over-time effect” on the mob.
- In Recklessness: Does “moderate” light-based damage and puts a “moderate” light-based DoT on the target.
- In Assailment: Does “moderate” light-based damage, puts a “moderate” light-based DoT on the target, and a de-taunt effect on the target.
For taking purposes the Warden is getting two new AoE gambits that are AoE taunts (with no damage components) and for their DPS roles they are getting two light-based AoE attacks. Both of these new gambits should be welcome addition to the Warden’s arsenal. Also, much like the Hunter, they are getting level-appropriate travel skills to the Misty Mountains and Lothlórien.
Skill Adjustments
- Assailment gambits that had multiple hooks are being condensed into one big attack hook.
- All Shield-Spear gambits in assailment will now have a range of 25m and will benefit from the Javelin Max Range Legacy.
- The Assailment versions of Persevere and Impressive Flourish are swapping their effects.
- The Assailment versions of Safeguard and Maddening Strike are swapping effects.
- Celebration of Skill will now give a 4% Ranged Damage Buff if Safeguard’s Ranged Damage Self-buff is active.
- Wall of Steel’s parry buff duration is now 30 seconds.
- Shield-Spear gambits will now generate a “small amount of threat” while in Determination. This can be increased by the Shield-Spear Threat Legacy.
- Life-taps will now display the exact damage and healing done.
It looks like all of these are pretty good changes as most of them are increases and improvements to skills. Although I was curious about why some of the skills were having their effects swapped, Erika kindly explains the reason herself within the diary:
This was done in order to bring all the ranged damage self-buffs under one line, and build a little synergy between the individual gambits. This also means you’ll be able to buff your ranged damage from range, instead of having to run into melee to do so.
Trait Line Changes
- Force of Personality now affects all Warden Gambit DoTs
Currently this skill only affects Gambits that are initiated with a Fist Symbol. Changing it so that it affects all Warden DoT’s seems to make it more viable, but I will defer to those with more experience should they choose to disagree with me.
Legendary Item Changes
- The Fist-Spear Gambit Threat Legacy will now portray its bonus in percentages.
- The Shield-Spear Threat Legacy will now affect the threat generation of Shield-Spear Gambits in Determination, and the threat reduction to Shield-Spear Gambits in Assailment has been increased
Again, a couple of quality-of-life improvements that should make the life of Wardens better.
Conclusion
Wardens have definitely had an interesting year. And while the class has had some difficulties during these transitions, but most of them seem to have been ironed out. But again, I’m not a full-time Warden so what do I know? So please Wardens, chime in and tell us what you make of the changes below!
August 23, 2012 at 4:33 pm
I play a warden, and these are some good changes to the class. The new taunt gambits look great, because they won’t break cc and have a 25 meter range, which is good because all of our other taunts excluding threat leaches have a dot component, and are 6-10 meter ranges. The wall of steel parry duration may not look much to other classes, it is one of the best updates here. Parry is our hardest avoidance to cap, and previously the buff only lasted 15 seconds.
Lots of changes to our range stance, which I don’t know much about. I only use it for fun occasionally, mostly because of the 5 meter minimum range. I can’t use it solo unless it’s against ranged mobs, and in groups it doesn’t do enough dps to substitute for a hunter.
All in all, this dev diary is a lot like all the others, nice little changes and tweaks that just make life easier.
August 23, 2012 at 4:40 pm
Sorry for postig twice, deviled egg made a post detailing a few changes to life taps. There is now 1 affect that drains life from the opponent to you instead of placing a dot on them and a hot on you. Because of this, you can no longe heal off of dead targets, and traits adding pulses to hots or dots no longer affect lifetaps. The cap of 10 lifetaps at a time has been removed, but you can only have 1 leach per mob.
Not really a big deal, it’s just fixing lifetaps to how they were origionally supposed to work.
August 23, 2012 at 4:58 pm
I was checking out the warden forums, and it actually sounds like wardens may be in trouble. Like… post RoI trouble. Here’s a snip from one that made me extremely sadfaice:
“Yes, at the moment its just like we were at RoI launch, extremely feeble at times, worthless heals, low mits, and on par with captains.
…
The mitigation gap has gotten worse, far worse. @85 the difference between a gaurd/rden [seewhatidithar?] is vast and wide, ward takes around 200+ per hit more now, and with the lacking self-heals, and the {obvious} inability to keep up all the NEEDED defensive buffs AND three tiers of hots, warden just gets eviscerated, VERY hard to keep up. (IRL mini friend of mine is my pocket healer IG). While a guardian on the other hand, is incredably solid, was kept up with an RK in dps spec/mode (3rd on the dps chart mind you).”
http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?475962-NDA-Lifted!-Wardens-Sound-Off!&p=6375337#post6375337
If this is the case, I’m extremely peeved, and worried. I love tanking, and yet if RoR launches and I’m back in a position where wardens aren’t wanted for instances I’m stuck with a character I’ve spent countless hours playing for nothing. It’s enough to make me want to delete my 75 warden and just start over with a guardian. It’s like they can’t seem to get it right with us.
August 23, 2012 at 5:44 pm
Yes I’ve heard that too. I’ve also heard that Deviled egg is working with players in beta to find a solution. If this is the case, I think wardens will be fine by october 15th.
I agree with you but I’m not worrying too much about it.
August 24, 2012 at 1:21 pm
You will be fine because you actually won’t have to tank anything significant till “before the new year” for the instance cluster to come out.
August 24, 2012 at 2:35 pm
But what about after that?
August 25, 2012 at 2:10 pm
That dude Superbean’s just doomsaying. Nor does he know how relative comparisons work. He talks about taking 200 damage more per hit, but its percentages he should be paying attention to.
For one, I generally maintain at least 3 hots, Shield Mastery, Fi-Sh evasion, Sh-Fi crit D + evasion, and threat (Aggression + the buff gambits I just mentioned). “Obvious” inability to do that my foot.
Not counting our superior BPE, the higher damage we take compared to guards (or tank captains or tank champions) is a constant thing. The hits we actually do take are 67% bigger than those that hit guards. It’s like this currently. It will be the same with RoR. Same % difference.
BPE of raid-geared wardens and guards will go down until they get raid-geared again. That’s due to the level term in the denominator of basically all formulas converting a stat’s rating to a %. Then we’ll get geared again and go back to where we are now (or better, once the new raid comes out).
That same fellow made an assertion on the Beta forums that enemy finesse is increasing. This is baseless and laughable claim, seing as he hadn’t tested at 85 by his post’s admission (wardens in build 3, class feedback forum). The rating may increase to maintain the same %, but the devs are smart enough to know that finesse should only increase if we get the extra stats to increase our BPE accordingly.
Mob strength goes up by level. They will be a certain percentage stronger than they were at level 75. Because the mitigation gap will be just the same at 85 as it is now, as long as our heals scale up at the same RATE as mob strength does, we’ll be just fine.
August 23, 2012 at 7:11 pm
I didn’t know what was meant by, “assailment gambits that had multiple hooks are being condensed into one big attack hook,” so I looked a little further at the Dev Diary.
My interpretation is that gambits that currently make multiple attacks (like Onslaught or Offensive Strike) will instead perform one large attack in Assailment.
August 24, 2012 at 2:24 am
I think the after-cast animation might be the same as boar’s rush (Sp-Fi-Sp-Fi)
that or we might have proper javelin throw times (compare speed of building Mighty Blow with using Hampering, Shield-breaker and Javelin Toss)
August 24, 2012 at 1:57 am
Those two new gambits are going to totally change how every battle is opened.
August 25, 2012 at 9:16 am
This news should go over well creep side.
The team forgot the endgame. They forgot Tolkien’s world too.
Sorry if I upset anybody,but that is how I see it.
You have a gem here and you choose to emulate and copy other stuff. Just rotten, cheap and without real conscience. Please show some talent.
August 25, 2012 at 9:30 am
My comment was meant for the whole approach to the game. Every meeting they have should end with”would Tolkien approve?” The store is fine,but this is becoming less middle earth and more generic mmo. Please stay away from that and develop something we can all really appreciate.