Warden EndGame

[Araglane]

Ok i'm new to LOTRO, I don't have any friends who play so ill mostly playing solo, until i get to 65. I look the look a feel of the warden, but from what i have been reading, warden tanks are not liked that much. Was hoping someone could shed some light for me. and maybe what another good solo class would be.

I apologize if this has been asked before.

[Aidus]

Ok i'm new to LOTRO, I don't have any friends who play so ill mostly playing solo, until i get to 65. I look the look a feel of the warden, but from what i have been reading, warden tanks are not liked that much. Was hoping someone could shed some light for me. and maybe what another good solo class would be.

I apologize if this has been asked before.

Every class in the game can solo adequately. I would advise ou to play what you really like and look for a kin to associate yourself with between now and 65. I know in my raid groups Wardens are not avoided, we just know they are different than Guards and frankly we like having one of each.

[Dalthyn]

Ok i'm new to LOTRO, I don't have any friends who play so ill mostly playing solo, until i get to 65. I look the look a feel of the warden, but from what i have been reading, warden tanks are not liked that much. Was hoping someone could shed some light for me. and maybe what another good solo class would be.

I apologize if this has been asked before.

Well, it depends on a lot of things. Wardens seem to be more accepted as tanks on some servers than others. Wardens are DEFINITELY more accepted as tanks in some kinships and totally overlooked/denigrated/etc in others.

It also depends on how good you are with the class, and in the tank role. If you're capable, it won't take long to make it onto friends lists, and "get your name out there", so to speak.

For any 3-man and 6-man content in the game, you shouldn't have much trouble finding a group as main tank. If you want to get into endgame raids, it will all depend on your kinship. Many kins as I said are dead-set against Warden tanks in raids. That doesn't mean they can't do it, though. It does take some dedication to learning your class role, learning the fights, etc, but it's perfectly doable. Guards have more margin of error due to their various "panic skills", but Wardens can tank any boss. I've tanked every raid boss in the game on my Warden, and the only one we've not downed yet is the Lieutenant but we're working on that.

If you like the class, go for it. Just remember it's an advanced class and you'll have to remain dedicated to playing the class to the fullest if you want to tank every bit of content out there. It's an advanced class though so that's to be expected.

Every class in the game can solo adequately. I would advise ou to play what you really like and look for a kin to associate yourself with between now and 65. I know in my raid groups Wardens are not avoided, we just know they are different than Guards and frankly we like having one of each.

This is even more true now. For all the various fights that require or favour aggro swapping, a Warden/Guard combo is fantastic. With the resist rate changes, the Warden/Guard pair helps the guard tremendously, too. Wardens can build threat more reliably, IMO, since our primary source of threat is threat-over-time, you stack enough ToTs on something, it doesn't matter if a tick gets resisted here or there. For aggro-swapping fights this works tremendously well, because when it's the Guard's time to take the aggro, they can use Engage, and copy all of the threat the Warden has built up. Then when it's the Warden's turn to take it back, they're building up even more threat. This results in an absolutely enormous amount of threat to the 2 tanks, which makes the DPS very happy.

[Fladrif]

Ok i'm new to LOTRO, I don't have any friends who play so ill mostly playing solo, until i get to 65. I look the look a feel of the warden, but from what i have been reading, warden tanks are not liked that much. Was hoping someone could shed some light for me. and maybe what another good solo class would be.

I apologize if this has been asked before.

you can go pvp and pwn or you can challenge yourself with pve that no other classes can pull off

[Pyropax]

It is sadly true that a lot of the time, wardens aren't trusted.
However, this is COMPLETELY unfair as wardens are as good tanks as guardians.
They are great at solo, but know that this doesn't at all hinder their effectiveness in groups.
Many players from SoA do not trust the warden OR the RK for that matter. I'm sure some of you guys remember when RK was considered inferior for DPS and healing (especially healing) and wasn't trusted for a lot of instances. Now, it is rare to hear a "need mini", instead you will usually get "need heals" in LFF chat. Wardens are becoming accepted also, but it is harder for them due to the typical MMO depiction of a tank as a big guy in heavy armor. If you ignore the DPS part, the RK could pass as a fairly typical healer class, for instance, but my theory is that it is hard for the warden to 'click' as a tank in the minds of many fantasy/RPG buffs. I don't think the issue that people have with the warden is as much gameplay-based, but some of it is. For instance you hear a lot of, "oh, wardens cant tank, they dont have snap agro guard ftw"
The warden can get aggro within a few seconds, so what if the guardian can do it one second sooner. Unless your healer is terrible, one or two hits on a hunter isn't going to change the course of the entire fight. Plus you can heal yourself as you maintain aggro, more than making up for your lack of mitigation. They are TANKS, period. They aren't off tanks, they aren't support tanks, they aren't jack-of-all-trades, they are just tanks, and great ones, too!

And if soloing is your thing, warden is superior to all other classes. Just note that it takes a bit more skill, as you don't have any instant, "Oh Snap!" buttons to press, but if you set up your HoT's properly you don't need them. And you have leeches, allowing you to drain an entire group of attackers' morale into your own. This is especially fun in skirmishes, where you can solo 10+ on-level mobs

So if tanking and soloing are your primary concerns, you really can't go wrong with the warden. You should make your own class choice, but based on your post, I think you will enjoy it a lot.

Have fun, and welcome to ME!

[Felaedor]

From a class mechanics standpoint Warden's are more than capable tanks, and a larger kinship will tend to recognize that.

The disconnect which causes a lot of people to mistrust Wardens is that there is a wider possible skill-gap between a badly played Warden and an exceptionally played Warden, than there is between a badly played and an exceptionally played Guardian.

A badly played Warden in a group will be completely worthless, whereas a badly played Guard will at least be able to hold agro via forcetaunts and agrocopies for SOME period of time.

As it is a safe assumption in a PuG group that the entirety of the group besides yourself is horrible, it's a safe bet the Warden will be completely worthless.

It's a nice surprise when you get a good one, but as far as I can tell, there are very few Wardens actually PuGing, and the majority that PuG are PuGing because they don't have a kin that will even take them to do runs with, and it tends to give the class a bad rap.

[vodspeedkills]

From a class mechanics standpoint Warden's are more than capable tanks, and a larger kinship will tend to recognize that.

The disconnect which causes a lot of people to mistrust Wardens is that there is a wider possible skill-gap between a badly played Warden and an exceptionally played Warden, than there is between a badly played and an exceptionally played Guardian.

A badly played Warden in a group will be completely worthless, whereas a badly played Guard will at least be able to hold agro via forcetaunts and agrocopies for SOME period of time.

As it is a safe assumption in a PuG group that the entirety of the group besides yourself is horrible, it's a safe bet the Warden will be completely worthless.

It's a nice surprise when you get a good one, but as far as I can tell, there are very few Wardens actually PuGing, and the majority that PuG are PuGing because they don't have a kin that will even take them to do runs with, and it tends to give the class a bad rap.

I saw the thread start, I told myself "OH geez, let the champ flaming begin." But I couldn't agree more with this. Get in a groove make a name for yourself and you will be just fine in end game. But once you get your gear started roll an alt because it never hurts to have options. I.E. A guard in my kin doesn't have alts, I'm not going to **** him out of a run so I bring my burg. If we run it twice before the locks reset then I'll get my turn to tank.

[DackRover]

I apologize if this has been asked before.

Seriously??? This is like the most popular topic ever on this forum...but as above, it is GREAT to see some sincere and polite responses rather than the usual banter.

[sunaris]

But once you get your gear started roll an alt because it never hurts to have options.

i keep trying to do this...but everything else isn't as "action packed" as the warden. I've had a guard sitting in his 50's forever, and several toons in the 35+ range. One day though i'll have an alt....one day.

[DackRover]

i keep trying to do this...but everything else isn't as "action packed" as the warden. I've had a guard sitting in his 50's forever, and several toons in the 35+ range. One day though i'll have an alt....one day.

I hear you Holy...reverse for me...stalled warden and burg sit waiting, the former (of course) why I give a rat's tail as to what goes on here.

[sunaris]

I hear you Holy...reverse for me...stalled warden and burg sit waiting, the former (of course) why I give a rat's tail as to what goes on here.

i got brutal assault and to the king last night, so it's time to put the pedal to the metal.

[DackRover]

i got brutal assault and to the king last night, so it's time to put the pedal to the metal.

Interested to hear your eventual feedback once your guard is built out, since I am coming at things from the opposite direction. Tanks ftw...btw, I consider a burg a sort-of special tank...different form of CC but very similar defensive tools as a guard, with many more bells and whistles

[Rainyman]

Interested to hear your eventual feedback once your guard is built out, since I am coming at things from the opposite direction. Tanks ftw...btw, I consider a burg a sort-of special tank...different form of CC but very similar defensive tools as a guard, with many more bells and whistles

Highly recommend the burg as well. The gambles are entertaining to a point, and having lots of escape skills is handy. Just don't forget to use them when you need to. Plus it's nice to take a break from tanking.

[DackRover]

Highly recommend the burg as well. The gambles are entertaining to a point, and having lots of escape skills is handy. Just don't forget to use them when you need to. Plus it's nice to take a break from tanking.

And here you are giving me useful feedback...making me feel badly for calling you out in another thread after a couple of submarine attacks from you...

[vodspeedkills]

A Burg is my play toy as well, obviously not as built as my Warden but he is fun. We ran 3 burgs in SG last night, amazing... Guard went LD right before boss 4 so we just had one of us tank him, not to mention the fun out in the moors. On topic, Wardens in end game are like fat kids in a cheesecake factory they fit right in, as long as there are others making them feel comfortable.

[striverg]

A Burg is my play toy as well, obviously not as built as my Warden but he is fun. We ran 3 burgs in SG last night, amazing... Guard went LD right before boss 4 so we just had one of us tank him, not to mention the fun out in the moors. On topic, Wardens in end game are like fat kids in a cheesecake factory they fit right in, as long as there are others making them feel comfortable.

I ran SG with 2 burgs once... neither could mes the LMs and they refused to help me with interrupts when I asked them to... after wipe number 3 on gorothul I left the group and one of the burgs proceded to tell me I was garbage at playing my class and that I should be able to get every single interrupt without failing. Instead of making this more of a problem by just going back and forth, I inspected both burgs and realized neither of them had burg tools with addle cooldown. So I took my Khuzdul tablets down to dolven, got 2 sets of burg tools with addle cooldown, and sent each of them one with the message "Don't fail at interrupts next time."

then they blamed the healer (not joking, it wasn't the healer's fault at all)

anyways, wardens at endgame. are awesome.

learn the class's ins and outs, strengths and weaknesses and you'll be one of the most valuable assets to any 3-man 6-man or raid. wardens can tank easily, interrupt, remove corruptions (you probably don't know what those are yet, they don't come into play until moria), and heal the group for a decent amount every few seconds with conviction.

[sunaris]

Interested to hear your eventual feedback once your guard is built out, since I am coming at things from the opposite direction. Tanks ftw...btw, I consider a burg a sort-of special tank...different form of CC but very similar defensive tools as a guard, with many more bells and whistles

will do dack, to be honest i'm mainly going to use the guard for OP moors action

[DackRover]

will do dack, to be honest i'm mainly going to use the guard for OP moors action

can't fault ur logic there

[Matin]

A well played Warden is the Swiss Army Knife of a character in end-game situations. My Hunter basically does DPS and bus driving. My Warden can do a bit of everything.

Main Tank - My current role is main tanking in SG. We use an Ambush and Champion yell on the Brutes. On the bosses, I mainly use Precise Blow and Conviction to keep the threat up and help the Minstrel with the healing. I can lose agro to our Champion, but he ebbs back to me and I get the Burglar to Provoke to re-establish agro when that happens.

Solo - I can go any where and defeat just about any elite with my Warden. I may not be fast, but I pretty much always win.

The only real issue with a Warden in the end game is power. When doing DPS, I burn through power fairly quickly. Generally, in my fellowship, I'm almost always the first to run out of power. My LM sends over some power when I'm really low in my fellowship so that isn't too bad. Pots and food takes care of that problem when going solo.