After Much Waiting...

[Orion]

I give you the first blog.

http://my.lotro.com/user-55/

[cmal]

War-cry
AoE DoT
AoE HoT; Slightly Improves Evade by a Rating for a moderate duration
+1%Tactical Damage to Nearby Fellowship members for 10 seconds
On Critical, Applies a Lifetap

Will that tap be applied on every crit of the dot? Crit on application? Same question goes for all uses of lifetap on crit.

Edit: Thanks for the teasers!

[Erasluindor]

Looking good so far. The dps looks like we will be applying small buffs to the fellowship as well. This could make us a bit more wanted. Ranged dps looks the most interesting by far changing gambit builders to ranged attacks. Sweet! Glad to see you got rid of the name salvation.
...
looking at tanking. Looks like war cry gives a buff to evade rating. Then brink of victory will give a longer buff if war cry is up. Is the magnitude of the buff increasing or just the duration? Then if Surety of death is stacked again will this increase duration/magnitude again or will it be just as effective if i hit BoV then SoD with the third stack useless? This still hasnt touched mitigation. I am assuming this will not be dealt with at all. Correct?

Edit: am i reading this correct? In determination each builder gives us a 2% chance for FULL B/E/P or is it reffering to partials? If full B/E/P then thats awesome!!! And if it is full B/E/P will it push us over cap temorarily? That would be the icing on the cake! And another thought here. War Cry says it gives off an AoE HoT? So we have more than conviction to heal fellows with?

[droid]

Agreed, hooray for no Salvation Although I still prefer Concentration to Assailment for the ranged DPS stance, I can live with it

Battle Prep - will there be a cooldown, or can we use this at-will outside combat? Does it mean we can fire off damageless skills like our HOTs and SM/ST out of combat?

Stances - what will the corresponding LI legacies change to? How will WotW work now, in regards to its own bonuses, as well as what stance-effects skills inherit? Obviously, if WotW counts as "no stance", then its going to be really inferior to any normal stance, even if it gives you more bonuses on its own.

I'd love to see WotW become a specifically "boss tanking" stance, since thats basically what its for with a 15m cooldown and expire-out-of-combat, with its own "uber stance-effects" for skills tailored to what you need most in boss fights - crit defense, mitigations, debuffs, group buffs, etc.

All three stances increase ICPR, was the goal to make us largely power-independent in short to medium fights, the way hunters are?

Drool at ranged spear gambits....Hampering Jav and Jav Toss Range legacies just got +++. Does Jav Toss Range affect the range of Spear Gambits too?

The new double-builder buffs are meant to counter our Finesse penalty, I'm guessing, to make up for our cr@ppy mits? You specifically mention common damage for those - Quick Thrust wont inherit your weapon damage type (or Shield damage type, if anyone ever used Spikes)?

Is the range damage bonus on skills in Assailment a buff on us or a debuff on the target?

Will skills remain Ranged jav skills in Assailment, even if we're in melee range, or like Hunters, will we automatically switch to melee mode? If the former, then Assailment might end up being superior to Recklessness even for melee DPS, since Javs have higher DPS ratings than Spears - depending on what bonuses Spear Gambits get in Reck vs A$$ (really need to think about that name again...)

Group buffs are awesome. Wardens should be much desired in groups as a DPS in Assailment.

Does Assailment turn melee Fist skills into ranged ones too?

Lifetap is a single drain, Pulsing Lifetap is a DOT drain, I figure?

[eethan]

So far this is looking good. I think there will be a lot to learn/relearn about playing a Wa(r)den.

I have a lot of questions as well, but until we see more I will hold off as most of it pertains to all the other skills we have and how they will be affected... along with our LI Legacy's ...

Good things come to those who wait.... and wait and are very persistant...

Thanks Orion for this first blog... will be waiting for the future ones...

[Caranwyn]

Blog quote: "Determination remains the tanking stance. Assailment replaces Conservation and becomes the ranged DPS stance."

Is it just me that's a little concerned about this? Currently on live my Determination does 156.1 icpr versus the 662.4 icpr in Conservation. While the 1429.7 icmr and 360 crit defence is nice, I prefer tanking in Conservation for the higher icpr and 600 evade/block which has lead me to choosing that stance over the apparent "tanking" stance for that reason.

In the blog it says: "Determination increases Morale and Power Regeneration, Increases Critical Chance Reduction, Increases Block, Parry and Evade and alters many of the Gambits to reflect the goals of tanking."

So fingers crossed the stats will be kept the same that Conservation has currently or be bumped up a bit from the current Determination stance. I'm concerned that power will become more of an issue (for me at least) without the high icpr of conservation. A 500ish drop to current Determination levels is quite alot.

Please correct me on anything if I'm reading his blog incorrectly. I know things will/could change but the last thing I want to do is get or spread the wrong idea about what he currently has planned.

Edit: So I don't cast an entirely dark cloud, I love the suggestions/changes as a whole - despite my minor concerns about some things - and am really looking forward to seeing them go live so I can try it out.

Caranwyn

[Erasluindor]

Blog quote: "Determination remains the tanking stance. Assailment replaces Conservation and becomes the ranged DPS stance."

Is it just me that's a little concerned about this? Currently on live my Determination does 156.1 icpr versus the 662.4 icpr in Conservation. While the 1429.7 icmr and 360 crit defence is nice, I prefer tanking in Conservation for the higher icpr and 600 evade/block which has lead me to choosing that stance over the apparent "tanking" stance for that reason.

In the blog it says: "Determination increases Morale and Power Regeneration, Increases Critical Chance Reduction, Increases Block, Parry and Evade and alters many of the Gambits to reflect the goals of tanking."

So fingers crossed the stats will be kept the same that Conservation has currently or be bumped up a bit from the current Determination stance. I'm concerned that power will become more of an issue (for me at least) without the high icpr of conservation. A 500ish drop to current Determination levels is quite alot.

Please correct me on anything if I'm reading his blog incorrectly. I know things will/could change but the last thing I want to do is get or spread the wrong idea about what he currently has planned.

Edit: So I don't cast an entirely dark cloud, I love the suggestions/changes as a whole - despite my minor concerns about some things - and am really looking forward to seeing them go live so I can try it out.

Caranwyn

When i read that i kind of assumed that the current determination/conservation stances were just being combined. The new determination kinda feels like what WotW is now. At least im hoping this is somewhat the case. Ill wait for more from the dev before commenting further tho since at this point im just speculating.

[thunderchickn]

Looks awesome! Love the group support from Assailment, I knew a ranged DPS role could be good with less DPS than a Hunter heh. Can't wait to try all this stuff out, looks like a lot to learn

Blog quote: "Determination remains the tanking stance. Assailment replaces Conservation and becomes the ranged DPS stance."
...
In the blog it says: "Determination increases Morale and Power Regeneration, Increases Critical Chance Reduction, Increases Block, Parry and Evade and alters many of the Gambits to reflect the goals of tanking."

I wouldn't worry about it. At least one of the other stances is getting an overhaul, and just the fact that BPE is added to Determination means it is changing as well. I would assume the ICPR is going to be at or near current Conservation level.

[Milithion]

for all with the same blog-problem(redirection error) as me:

Wardens: Update 6 Blog #1

Posted On: January 27th, 2012
Posted By:

• Orion
  
  • View Profile

Posted in: Class Revision
REMINDER: Everything here can still change!
As with other classes revamp as part of last year’s expansion, I will be breaking down the changes that I am making to the Warden class over a series of days. I do this because there are a lot of changes. I think I mentioned on the forums that it would be somewhere between the Minstrel and Champion in terms of size and I ended up hitting that pretty much on the nose.
Battle Preparations
This is a skill that I have mentioned in a teaser and I glad that we should have this working for the release. Battle Preparations will turn basic gambit builders and gambit mastery builders into skills that require no target and that will be usable outside of combat. This will in turn allow the Warden to build gambits that will remain in the gambit UI until used or 30 seconds has passed - whichever comes first.
Battle Preparations can only be used outside of combat.
Stances
Determination, Assailment and Recklessness
Determination remains the tanking stance. Determination increases Morale and Power Regeneration, Increases Critical Chance Reduction, Increases Block, Parry and Evade and alters many of the Gambits to reflect the goals of tanking.
Assailment replaces Conservation and becomes the ranged DPS stance. Assailment reduces Block, Parry and Evade, Converts all Spear gambits into ranged attacks using the javelin implement, increases in-Combat Power Regeneration, Increases Ranged Damage and alters some gambits to reflect the goal of being ranged DPS.
Recklessness remains the standard melee DPS stance. Recklessness reduces Block, Parry and Evade, Increases Melee Damage, Lowers Attack Duration, Increases in-combat Power Regeneration and alters somes gambits to reflect the goal of melee DPS.
Gambit Builders
These remain the same as a base Warden and in the Determination Stance.
Quick Thrust
Deals nominal common damage in melee
Adds 2% to Block, Parry and Evade on successful hit (duration 20 seconds stacking up to 3 times)
5% chance to slightly decrease miss chance for 15 seconds
Shield-bash
Deals nominal common damage in melee
Adds 2% to Block, Parry and Evade on successful hit (duration 20 seconds stacking up to 3 times)
5% chance to slightly increase block rating for 15 seconds.
Warden’s Taunt
Deals nominal Light damage to a target at short range
Applies short Light bleed effect
Adds 2% to Block, Parry and Evade on successful hit (duration 20 seconds stacking up to 3 times)
5% chance to Slightly increase threat against targets
In Assailment
The gambit builders are altered as follows:
Quick Toss
Deals nominal ranged damage at 30m range
Adds 2% to Range Damage (stacks up to 3x lasts for 20 seconds.)
5% chance to add a bleed effect for 10 seconds
Behind the Shield
Deals nominal ranged damage at 30m range
Adds 2% to Range Damage (stacks up to 3x lasts for 20 seconds.)
5% chance to lower warden threat against the target
Warden’s Aim
Applies a Light DoT at 30m Range
Adds 2% to Range Damage (stacks up to 3x lasts for 20 seconds.)
5% chance to add an effect that will increase ranged skill crit damage against the target by 5% for 10 seconds
In Recklessness
The Gambit Builders are altered as follows:
Quick Stab
Deals nominal main-hand damage in melee
Adds 2% to Melee Damage (duration 20 seconds stacking up to 3 times)
5% chance to increase damage from Warden DoTs for 15 seconds
Shield-blast
Deals nominal main-hand damage in melee
Adds 2% to Melee Damage (duration 20 seconds stacking up to 3 times)
5% chance to slightly increase the Warden’s lifetaps for 15 seconds
Warden’s Scorn
Deals nominal Light damage to target in melee
Adds 2% to Melee Damage (duration 20 seconds stacking up to 3 times)
5% chance to reduce target’s Cry Resist for 15 seconds
Gambit Changes Part 1 (Fist Gambits)

In this section I want to explain the differences in gambits. To do this, I am color coding the effects that are generated by stance on the Gambit.

No Color Alteration = Standard Effects (All Stances and no stance)

Green = Determination Effects
Orange = Assailment Effects
Red = Recklessness
There will be cases where there are no color-coded entries, it simply means that the gambit functions as expressed in all stances.
Goad
Deals AoE Light Damage with DoT; 25% to Unlock Potency
Slightly Increases Threat
Slightly Decreases Threat
Precise Blow
Low Damage
Threat Gain & Threat Gain-over-time
+1% Ranged Damage to Nearby Fellowship members for 10 seconds
On Critical, Applies a Dot to the Target
War-cry
AoE DoT
AoE HoT; Slightly Improves Evade by a Rating for a moderate duration
+1%Tactical Damage to Nearby Fellowship members for 10 seconds
On Critical, Applies a Lifetap
Brink of Victory
AoE Light DoT;
Slight Threat Increase; Improves Evade by Rating for a short duration if the War-cry evade bonus is present the War-cry evade bonus is removed and replaced with a moderation duration version of this buff
+1% Tactical Damage to Nearby Fellows for 10s if +1% is present increases to 2%
On Critical, Lifetap
Fierce Resolve
AoE Lifetap
Piercing Strike
Main-hand damage and Level dependent Light damage;
Threat Increase
+1% Ranged Damage to Nearby Fellows for 10s if +1% is present increases to 2%
On Critical, DoT
Resolution
AoE Lifetap
Surety of Death
Main-hand damage + DoT;
Bonus Threat; Improves Evade by Rating for a short duration, if the War-cry or Brink of Victory evade bonus is present the War-cry evade bonus is removed and replaced with a moderate duration version of this buff
+2% Tactical Damage to Nearby Fellows for 10s if +2% is present increases to 3%
On Critical, Lifetap
Spear of Virtue
Main-hand Damage and Light Damage;
Increases Threat
+2% Ranged Damage to Nearby Fellows for 10s if +2% is present increases to 3%
On Critical, DoT
Aggression
Low Damage to a Single Target;
AoE Threat Gain
+3% Tactical Damage to Nearby Fellows for 10s if +3% is present increases to 4%
On Critical, Pulsing Lifetap
Desolation
AoE Dot (Chance to apply Fear)
Exultation of Battle
AoE Pulsing Lifetap;
Threat over Time; Increased Threat
+3% Ranged Damage to Nearby Fellows for 10s if +3% is present increases to 4%
On Critical, DoT
This is the first of a few posts. Feel free to comment, I will be reading everything…and by the time that we are done…there will be many, many questions.

[Liltaro]

At first glance, delicious. One surprise: no changes to Desolation? Main idea of that gambit seems to stay unchanged.

[Jeger_Wulf]

So far it looks pretty interesting.

[wiles.zack]

I'd love to see WotW become a specifically "boss tanking" stance, since thats basically what its for with a 15m cooldown and expire-out-of-combat, with its own "uber stance-effects" for skills tailored to what you need most in boss fights - crit defense, mitigations, debuffs, group buffs,

This.

OMG. I can't express how much i love this idea. This stance would carry the gambit effects of determination, and come with REALLY high B/P/E evade ratings, and add enough mitigation so we average about the same damage as a guard. I love the idea.

[Rashy]

I prolly know the answer already, but

With these changes that you've proposed to the class, are there gonna also be changes on our avaiable Legacy pools?

[bacho]

I started my wa(r)den to play a complex and fun class and I did.
Now I've got three classes and I'm more and more excited. Thank god nobody is home right now, it would have been embarassing knowing that my flatmates heard me cheering and shouting.

I hope we won't need an agi-setup for ranged dps, I fear a 3rd set of legendary weaponry is already too much for me.

For the redirect error Milithion mentioned: use IE-tab in Firefox.

[schizoid19]

These changes sound nice so far. However, I am concerned with mitigations and morale/power regen in determination and how legacies will affect them.

[Mysterion]

Looks interesting. Guess ranged stance will be best for conviction kiting now. Can fire it off using more than just masteries.

[Mrhasty]

Thanks Orion... see you next month...

[horus418]

Looks great to me so far, more than I hoped for actually. The evade bonuses are most welcome... Buffs to our group is killer.

[Solyaris]

I generaly like the "improving" gambits idea, altought it is a bit unclear at this part:
- War-cry gives t1 evade with short duration
- Brink of Victory gives t2 evade with short duration if war-cry is presented
- Surety of Death gives t2 or(?) t3 evade (in other words, will the evade bonus for SoD be larger then BoV?) if war-cry and/or BoV buff is active, respectively?

What if the attack fails (missed or B/P/E), will the buff still be applied?

Will there be a way to keep the tactical/ranged fellowship-buffs up at 4% or will you have to start over when t4 (4%) expires (or will it be like RK wriths, it tiers down, either normaly, or maybe with a new trait). Also, will these buffs add to existing buffs (10% from minstrel buffs + 4% from wardens == DPS * 1.14) or mulitplied as a separate source (DPS * 1.10 (10% from minstrel buffs) * 1.04 (4% from warden buffs))?

As another poster questioned; will the buffs from [sp],[sh],[fi] now be pure avoidance or was that a typo?

Most importantly: since it looks like you're taking us along the avoidance path of reducing damage (which aint a bad idea itself), will anything be done to wardens and finesse? if mobs have increasing finesse with difficultness of encounter (which I assume), this will once again make us God-like solo/3-man and then increasingly worse with harder instances (esp. consider how our HoTs work). I understand that you cant remove finesse altogether, but giving us a buff such as <reduce -50% of mobs outgoing finesse> will scale much better with content then pure avoidance.

[droid]

What if the attack fails (missed or B/P/E), will the buff still be applied?

Traditionally, self-buffs apply even when the attack misses. Debuffs need the attack to land to stick the effect.

Most importantly: since it looks like you're taking us along the avoidance path of reducing damage (which aint a bad idea itself), will anything be done to wardens and finesse? if mobs have increasing finesse with difficultness of encounter (which I assume), this will once again make us God-like solo/3-man and then increasingly worse with harder instances (esp. consider how our HoTs work). I understand that you cant remove finesse altogether, but giving us a buff such as <reduce -50% of mobs outgoing finesse> will scale much better with content then pure avoidance.

Our double-builder gambits will apply 2% BPE, stacking up to 3 times. That will negate up to 18% of enemy Finesse. As long as you're using at least one double-builder gambit every rotation (which you probably are for BM already), you should be able to keep this up at Tier 3 at all times.

I have no idea how much Finesse endgame bosses have right now, someone else might be able to give an estimate based on how much they actually BPE right now, but I have to imagine 18% will erase a sizeable chunk of that.

In non-boss fights, I assume we're going to be god-mode again. 50% phys mit and capped BPE across the board without needing to change our rotations at all? Yes thank you! We'll still be vulnerable to tactical damage since we cant boost or protect our Resistance, though.

Of course thats assuming over-capping your BPE will actually mitigate Finesse. If the calculations subtract Finesse penalties from your over-capped values, we're golden. If the calculations cut off your over-capped values, THEN apply Finesse penalty, we're still boned.

[Erasluindor]

Traditionally, self-buffs apply even when the attack misses. Debuffs need the attack to land to stick the effect.



Our double-builder gambits will apply 2% BPE, stacking up to 3 times. That will negate up to 18% of enemy Finesse. As long as you're using at least one double-builder gambit every rotation (which you probably are for BM already), you should be able to keep this up at Tier 3 at all times.

I have no idea how much Finesse endgame bosses have right now, someone else might be able to give an estimate based on how much they actually BPE right now, but I have to imagine 18% will erase a sizeable chunk of that.

In non-boss fights, I assume we're going to be god-mode again. 50% phys mit and capped BPE across the board without needing to change our rotations at all? Yes thank you! We'll still be vulnerable to tactical damage since we cant boost or protect our Resistance, though.

Of course thats assuming over-capping your BPE will actually mitigate Finesse. If the calculations subtract Finesse penalties from your over-capped values, we're golden. If the calculations cut off your over-capped values, THEN apply Finesse penalty, we're still boned.

I have looked the blog over for this double mastery thing you mentioned and i do not see it. The buffs you described look like the ones that appear to coming from the gambit builders. I may have missed it tho.

[thunderchickn]

Before we get too excited let's make sure this wasn't just a typo.

Orion, is it supposed to be +2% BPE on each builder or +2% partial BPE? If it's the former, I'm with droid this is awesome!!1!!1!

[horus418]

Before we get too excited let's make sure this wasn't just a typo.

Orion, is it supposed to be +2% BPE on each builder or +2% partial BPE? If it's the former, I'm with droid this is awesome!!1!!1!

Exactly, wait for confirmation before this goes off on a 10 page discussion.

Personally, unless it busts the BPE caps, I'd rather just have the partial buffs.

[droid]

I have looked the blog over for this double mastery thing you mentioned and i do not see it. The buffs you described look like the ones that appear to coming from the gambit builders. I may have missed it tho.

You're right, sorry, I misread - I thought these were on the double builders, not the single builders in Determination. If its just partials, then yeah that doesnt solve our mitigation gap/finesse penalty problem. Sad sigh

If it is full and not partial BPE though, I think we'll see a bit of "stance dance", and I dont know if I like that...jump to Recklessness, build a Spear gambit and refresh your T3 Melee Damage timer, jump back to Determination for the rest of your build and keep your BPE timer refreshed.

Maybe not so much in group play where the small Melee damage isnt worth it, but in solo/3-man play it definitely would be worth it to keep both buff timers up. Just a bit of a nuisance to have to stance-dance every rotation. Afraid it might lead to more macroing...

Guess we'll have to wait till Monday and see if O checks back in...

[Lord_Sauron]

I'm not gonna lie this update looks more awesome then the Champ and Mini update I'm completely psyched. Awesome job Orion!!!!!!!!!