In general, I feel that OnnMacMahal has hit some points, but missed the main point. The proposed changes feel like another classic SSG overhaul: some random tidying-up, erase some of the obviously good stuff, ignore systemic issues.

The systemic issues that most affect the warden are the following:
- Block, Parry, and Evade have been repeatedly nerfed and the rating-to-percentage conversion offers really bad value.
- Likewise, Outgoing Healing offers really bad value, and wardens don't get any from their main stats. Warden healing is a bit underwhelming in general.
- Warden DPS rotations are very monotonous and quite inflexible, apart from Seize the Moment.
- It's not viable to cover multiple roles in the same fight, even to a very limited extent. For example, it's not worth speccing or gearing to do even a little DPS on a tank, and it's not worth holding even a single add on a DPS.
- The warden is a slow class by design, but it doesn't have adequate tools to be successfully slow, if you will. For example, wardens were terrible at interrupting for the longest time, and the tool they got was a bog-standard immediate interrupt on a separate skill, instead of, say, an interrupt-over-time on Wall of Steel.
- Trait trees are badly designed and don't allow for many different builds. Warden trait trees are especially badly designed. Nearly all the trait ranks in red line are boring increases to damage.

I don't think any of these issues are identified, much less addressed, in this pretty sizable developer diary. And yes, that's partially due to SSG's approach to developer diaries, which are more "general musings" and less "specific solutions", but you get credit for what you write, not for what you may be designing behind the scenes.


Current State Overview

So what headwinds are wardens currently facing?

Arguably the biggest issue facing wardens is a lack of defensive cooldown abilities for Determination wardens.
Yes, it is. But you don't say much about it. Nothing specific at all, in fact. We need details, or we can't provide useful feedback.

Also: No, For the Free Peoples is not a "strong effect". As cooldowns go, it's decidedly poor. So is Never Surrender, actually. NS gets mentioned a lot because it's unusual, not because it's strong; it works very well against a few very specific effects, and it can occasionally save a raid, but it's nowhere near the level of Juggernaut, or Last Stand, or Thickened Hide, or any of the brawler stuff.


Gambit chains are an underutilized tool.
No, they're really not. Gambit chains are stupid. You don't ever want to use gambits from shortest to longest, and you shouldn't encourage that. It runs counter to the whole concept of gambits.

The idea of gambits is that your biggest gambits are highly efficient (in terms of effect over cast time, including build time (but not effect time)), and your smaller gambits in the same class are progressively less efficient.

If you want to do a bit of damage, you can do so very efficiently--hit three big DPS gambits and you're done. That leaves you with 20+ seconds of spare time in you rotation; you can use that time to heal, or move, or debuff, or whatever. But if you don't want to do any of that, if you want to do a lot of damage, you can fill that time with more DPS gambits. Since your bleeds don't stack, you don't get to use those highly efficient gambits again (if you could, you would have too much DPS). You have to use smaller gambits, instead. So you go down the list, casting weaker and weaker gambits, until you're reduced to Precise Blow or whatever. (In practice, of course, people work out the smallest gambit they're going to get to, then order their gambits for efficient mastery use, which isn't necessarily largest-to-smallest.)

Because of this natural progression of gambits, wardens are most efficient when combining different types of gambits--a few big healing gambits for very efficient healing, a few big damage gambits for very efficient damage/aggro, and so on (this was the basis of warden solo performance, as well--this, old DC, and 100% partial BPEs). In theory, anyway. In practice, healing gambits on DPS wardens are so weak you might as well not bother, and vice versa for tank wardens. That is something that could do with a change, but not through gambit chains. Gambit chains suck.

(Now, if you want to re-tool gambit chains into a "set bonus" for using different gambits in the same class in a short amount of time, that could be a thing. But ordering them from small to large is stupid.)


For damage-oriented wardens, Seize the Moment looms too large over all other class mechanics [...]
I agree. It's quite fun, though, and about the only thing that breaks the deterministic warden DPS rotations. There is no need to change Seize the Moment, unless you have a really fun substitute ready. Strong Foundations does not sound that fun. It sounds like it will, in practice, work out to a pretty generic mastery cooldown reduction, which will sometimes line up well with what you want to do, and sometimes not. *Shrug*.

For what it's worth, Recklessness (the skill) isn't fun either. It's boring.


Damage-dealing wardens also have a distinct lack of instant damage.
Yes, they do. We should have appropriately massive long-term damage to compensate (which we don't), not a ####ty version of burst damage so that we can pretend to play the burst damage game while the champions/burglars/hunters smile condescendingly. It's a damage-over-time class. The one thing it's not supposed to have is instant damage. It's supposed to have so much damage over time that you'll bring a warden to a fight even if you lose burst, just because you gain so much damage in the long run.


While it isn’t a major issue facing wardens, the class also has a considerable amount of effect clutter.
I mean... yes, but touch this last, please. As you say, it's not a major issue at all.


Non-specialization Assailment
This is fine. It's not good by itself, mind--it still needs to be done well. But it's fine. You can also just remove half the traits. Warden trait trees have far too many traits, and most don't change the way you play the class.


Goals

Wardens specializing in Determination should be able to stand side by side with Guardians, Captains, Brawlers, and other main tanks with confidence. In addition to your defensive gambits, you should have a few normal tanking skills, bound by cooldowns rather than being gambits, which still interact with the gambit system. This should help you deal with brief moments of significant spike damage like other meta tanks do, but without fundamentally altering your skill flow.
Yes. Unspecific, but yes.


Wardens specializing in Recklessness should still be versatile damage dealers with a wide range of gambits for dealing with different situations. In a pinch, offensive wardens should be able to line up some skills and gambits to deal meaningful instant damage during encounters. While damage-over-time effects should still be your most reliable and consistent damage, we don’t want wardens to feel completely shut out in encounters with a greater emphasis on groups of mobs that have smaller morale pools.
No. You misunderstand the class. Wardens are not versatile and should not be versatile. Wardens do one damn thing, and it's indiscriminately delivering lots of damage while indiscriminately taking (healing) a lot of damage. It's unwieldly, slow, late damage/healing, but there is lots of it. Well, should be lots of it. Ought to be. We'd like it to be. Can we finally get our "lots"?

It's worth noting that you've consistently nerfed and removed versatility in the game. It's now virtually impossible to cover multiple roles with the same build or to change builds in combat. Consequently, covering multiple roles in the same fight, even to a limited extent, is not really done anymore. Lore-masters come closest to being versatile, with all their different tricks. Wardens are nothing like lore-masters.


Gambit effects should be cleaned up a little bit across the board. This will be covered in greater detail later on, but the general principle is that there are a lot of different gambits, so no individual gambit needs to have more than one or two effects.
That doesn't follow, but in practice, I don't think you need to do any work here.

Gambits already do only one thing you care about, and some do nothing (Combination Strike), or have a beneficial secondary effect (Desolation). Only Persevere/Safeguard really have two noticable effects, but those effects are individually pretty weak.

Different gambit classes are already associated with specific effects. It's not on the level of spear/shield/fist gambits, because those classifications are mostly meaningless (wardens have more than three kinds of gambits), but SP-SH interrupts, SP-SH-FI bleeds, SH-SP heals/blocks, and so on.

Also: spear gambits don't naturally make sense for instant damage at all. Spear gambits have the lowest instant damage of all--it's fist gambits that have significant up-front damage. Spears have a bleed as a weapon passive, for crying out loud!

Finally, a note about wardens leveling up for the first time. We’re planning to reinstate the leveling paradigm for wardens in which you start off with access to only 2-length gambits, later unlocking 3-length, then 4-length, then 5-length gambits. This will have no impact on any warden already over level 50, but will hopefully help make learning the class a little more manageable for those stepping into it with little prior knowledge of the class or specific gambits.
I don't think this works at all. Early wardens are easy to play because they have a one-size-fits-all solution to combat: Surety > Restoration. And since these are long gambits, you either have to be really really slow, or you learn to use masteries. But you only have to use the two masteries that are obviously relevant to Surety, and the two that are obviously relevant to Restoration, which is a nice easy starter.

What we do need is a better class tutorial. For example, something that explains the paragraph above. But then all LOTRO classes have terrible tutorials (insofar the game contains tutorials at all), and I haven't seen any efforts towards improving those at all.


Gambit Chains
Gambit Chains will be staying with the class, but they will become a little more flexible. Completing a gambit chain will require using a three-gambit sequence: a 2-length gambit, followed by a 3-length gambit, and then completed by subsequently using a 4- or 5-length gambit. After beginning a gambit chain with a 2-length gambit, the following gambits in the chain will gain improved damage, healing, and buff durations.
Okay. I don't really care for gambit chains, as mentioned above, but this is fine. Not really necessary, and doesn't fix any problems with the class, but fine.


Advanced Technique
Several new Warden skills will be ‘normal’ skills bound by cooldowns, rather than gambit skills requiring builders. These skills will have short, strong effects and moderate cooldown times. However, rather than being freely available at full strength, their potency will be driven by Advanced Technique. Each skill will require at least one Advanced Technique, consume all of your Advanced Technique when used, and will become stronger with each additional Advanced Technique consumed when the skill fires.

And how will you earn Advanced Technique? You’ll receive one count every time you complete a gambit chain, up to three maximum, until they are either consumed by a skill or you leave combat.
This sounds like a nightmare. Gambit chains are stupid. Nearly all two-icon gambits are useless. You'd be deliberately using gambits you don't need just to earn Cooldown Points so you can survive what guardians and brawlers can already survive for free.


We hope this has been a helpful primer on some of our plans and goals for the upcoming warden changes. A few core mechanics will change, augmenting the inherent power and flexibility of the gambit system. We’re excited to share more information with you soon, including a closer look at specific changes and some actual gameplay.
Based on this information, I'm not looking forward to the changes.