Developer Diary : Warden Class Changes in Helm’s Deep

“Hail and well met my friends!” as the Rohirrim are wont to say. It’s time for the Warden dev diary! For the upcoming expansion, the Warden is getting some snazzy new abilities, but we’ve also made a concerted effort to trim down the number of Gambits and skills you’ll have to memorise and store on your hotbars. We want to present a more streamlined, engaging experience that still rewards mastering the Gambit system.

Let’s talk about some basic changes! For one, the Warden will now only have two stances. “In the Fray” is the Warden’s melee stance. Folks who specialize in melee DPS or tanking will spend most of their time in this stance. “Assailment” remains the Warden’s Ranged stance, and folks who specialize in the same said line can expect to spend a fair bit of time in this stance. The reason for trimming down from three stances to two is simple: We used to rely on stances to modify your potency at dealing DPS, tanking, or hurling Javelins, but now we’re using the trait trees to do so! Another important note is that, with the exception of some special Gambits and skills which are found in the trees, almost all Gambits will be granted by level, regardless of your specialization.

Determination:

Determination is the Warden’s new tanking line. As far as tanks go, the Warden is an excellent AoE tank, and excels at handling multiple enemies at once. The AoE Morale-tap, “Exaltation of Battle”, can leech Morale from many enemies around the Warden. The new version of the Warden’s Force Taunt, “Defiant Challenge”, gives you bonus mitigation for every enemy affected by your taunt. The Determination Warden can also expect a fair bit of Critical Defence, as well as enhancements to Gambits which improve Block, Parry, and Evade. While there are some minor damage enhancing traits in this tree, you may want to buy into some traits in the Warden’s DPS line: Recklessness. The trait “Basic Strikes” will increase the damage from your Gambit Builders by up to 25%, boosting the damage output from your most frequently used attacks. Speaking of Recklessness…

Recklessness:

This is the Warden’s new melee DPS line. It specialises in stacking a multitude of Bleeds and Light Damage DoTs on a single target. There are ways of dealing AoE damage though! The trait “Spear Sweep” allows you to consume a bleed on a target to deal damage to nearby enemies. You’ll have to re-establish your DoT, but it might be worth it to help pare down the size of the force you’re facing. Wardens going down this road can expect bonuses to Spear Gambit Damage, Critical Rating, and Light Damage. For a little extra damage to your opening attacks on an enemy, you might want to consider delving into the Assailment line. The trait “Marked Target” enhances the eponymous skill which debuffs an enemy’s Physical Mitigation, causing your damaging effects to be that much more effective.

Assailment:

Before we get into the tree, an important note: We are removing the minimum range requirement on all Assailment Gambits! Getting caught in melee no longer means you have to dump the Gambit you’ve built up. There is a slight caveat, however. Being attacked in melee will build a stacking Ranged Damage debuff on you. It starts out as a mild debuff, but grows to be sizeable. This means that finishing off an enemy you’ve whittled down at range should still be possible without switching stances, but trying to take on a group of targets or a strong elite without doing so would get rather difficult.

Ok, now on to the specialization:

Assailment is the Warden’s Ranged DPS and Support line. Folks who specialize in Assailment will be able to rain Javelins upon their enemies, dealing significant weapon damage as well as weakening targets up for allies. The traits “Marked Target” and “Diminished Target” enhance a Javelin skill to debuff an enemy’s Physical and Tactical Mitigation, softening them up for yourself and your fellows. Ranged Gambit lines will also, by default, debuff enemies. Precise Blow and its subsequent Gambits, for example, will debuff a target’s Critical Defence.

Thanks for reading everyone! As always, your discussion is helpful to us when it comes to tuning our changes, and expect things to change as we receive feedback from the forums and beta testers. Cheers!