Hello there With EoF coming out tomorrow, i decided last week that my next alt (which i hope will become my main character) will be a warden. I started playing 1,5 years ago, then took a break of around one year and came back in september. My main character is a 70 coercer, i really like her, maybe too much, i find it too "perfect" for me and it gets boring on the long run because i can do everything i want, too easily :smileytongue: I know it sounds weird but that's it. I tried many classes (54 troubador, 52 inqui (that was my first high level character ), 37 fury, 34 brigand, and more already deleted. I have some love for the druid class in this game, my second character was a fury, and the first to reach lvl 20+, then i deleted her because i wanted a pure healer, and made my templar with a friend (later betrayed to inquisitor). I made a fury again some months later, and if the character is exactly what i want "on paper", in game, i have a weird feeling, and i'm not very happy with it. I think the casting times are too long for me, and i want something more defensive. So now with EoF coming out, i will make a Fae anyway (i love them so much, i created my second fury ONLY for the dark fairy form, for RP purpose ), and i looked at the warden new stuff and... wow ! I'm already in love with that. Soloing is very important for me (i play about 60% solo, 35% group, 5% raid). First, the run speed. I made my troubador (later betrayed to dirge ) only for that. More than 50% run speed with J boots and the AA, it's really amazing, and now i read wardens will be able to get the same (1% less with max AA). Although fury get the root and in combat run speed, i just can't imagine playing anything else than a warden now. I would miss a lot the evac from my scout, well, warden get evac too :smileyvery-happy: I will buy all the totems i need for invis, and i see there will be a trinkering thing with FD charges. That, + all the healing skills (i like them, druid spells are nice to look, and fun to use with fast casting time), nice buff, a very efficient power use (i'm used to have almost "infinite" mana with my coercer, i missed that a lot when trying other characters), what's more to say... I think this class is perfect for me :smileywink: Needless to say, as soon as i saw that, i ran to the broker and bought everything i needed. I already have the full mastercrafted sets up to T4, about a dozen masters, dozens of adepts 1-3, a few fabled items and even the food sitting in my bank. I will make some potions with my alchemist tonight so i will have really everything i need. And all that without ever playing a warden so... I'm still a bit worried. On paper, it's awesome, i love the class, it will be perfect. But i still don't know if i will have a good "feeling". I really, really tried to like my fury, i gave her good stuff and all but... i just felt bad. So here i come, with a few little questions for you experienced wardens. -first, is it really more fun than a fury ? I think shorter cast times, and more healing spells will be nice. I hated the fact that my healing spells are simply "heals" on my fury. I played my healer before the DoF revamp, and i got used to the added effects on heals (such as mit for templars), i miss them a lot, and that's why i didn't play much my healers since then. Wardens seem to still have them, under the form of small HoT added to the heals. Are they really worth it, or is it something like 10hp/tick HoT after a 800hp heal ? -at what lvl will i get a spell that will make me say "Woot ! I love it § I really feel as a warden now !" ? I think every class gets that, the charm and all CC spells for coercer, the stuns/ruse for brigand, mezz and speed for troubador, etc... When looking at the spell list, i think the sandstorm buff looks appealing, as well as the ancient spells (the tree, i love it ). Anything lower ? -do you have any advice, something like an item or a quest "must have", not really from a gameplay point of view (i already know that, manastone, good gear, etc...), but more a "fun" thing for druids ? Monks use to look for their gis, with my coercer i always tried to find a crazy pet in my area that gave me good laugh, so what's for druids ? -about leather armor. The mastercrafted one looks ugly, not as much as the chainmail (i even took a mastercrafted robe on my brigand, the chainmail graphics are a nightmare until T6), but is there any cool looking leather stuff ? And are the T6/T7 decent looking ? -same for weapons, i love the swords and i hate the maces (that was a problem with my inqui), is there any cool looking sword for a druid ? A sabre or something like that would be perfect :smileyhappy: And finally, do you have anything special to say to a new warden ? I don't care for raiding so the AA are not a big problem for me, i think (or should i say, i hope ) i will enjoy the class. I will probably stay in a nuke/root setup, since i plan to solo a lot and go for big heroic nameds (same as my coercer, i love to try to solo things that nobody can). I'm not sure about AA but the charm one looks interesting, even for animals only, did i already say i have a coercer, and i love it ? :smileywink: Last thing (i know, that was a long post and probably full of bad grammar/spellings, but see my sign), what about exp as a warden ? Mainly soloing. I think with good gear and adept/master spells it will be fast, but i have no idea if the dps/mana consumption is good when soloing, so any input on that is welcome. I often have lag spikes, so i prefer not to be the only healer in a group, that's why i plan to solo a lot anyway. I don't feel good coming in a group as a healer, knowing that my modem may reboot anytime and give me a 20sec lag spike where i can't do anything. I realize that it was a bit long, so thank you if you managed to read everything ! :smileyvery-happy:
I’ll take an initial stab at this :smileyhappy: Keep in mind everything may change tomorrow with EoF. My Biases: I love playing my Warden. My fist char was a Bruiser, (I had a lot of fun playing him to 70), but now he hardly sees the light of day and has been replaced by my Warden as my main char. To contrast, I have a mid-level Inquisitor and a baby Defiler. Due to my personal taste and play style, I consider my Warden more fun than my Defiler and considerably more fun than my Inquisitor. Wardens vs. Furies: There are tons of posts on this. Basically, imo from what I know of Furies, Wardens are slightly better at healing, and if EoF delivers, much better at curing due to associated buffs. Similarly with the new cap level increases, the extra wisdom that Wardens have should make this healing gap increase (though I’m not familiar enough with the mechanics to know by how much). Furies will do twice the damage, and therefore in theory should be faster at solo adventure leveling, especially with the new root they get with EoF. To the Wardens defense, we have 2 roots, 1 single target and 1 encounter. By using both, we can keep a mob at bay better because I find they seldom both break at the same time. I enjoy soloing quite a bit, and quite frankly our evac, something that furies do not have, makes it easier to solo with confidence. Raids: Wardens pair very well with other priest classes, especially with the pending wisdom stat cap raise. So it is good to have one in the main tank group. We are “good†DPS group healers; however, the offensive buffs of a Fury along with their additional dps, makes a Fury an excellent dps group healer, and Furies are not in short supply. From what I hear the whole feel of raids is changing, so I’m in kind of in wait and see mode. Groups: I generally receive compliments for my healing when in group, and I get invites quite easily. In fact, when leveling, it wasn’t hard to find groups of folks 3-5 levels above me, allowing me to cruise through xp. The best thing about being a Warden in a single healer group imo, is that we heal fast, have nice group heals and don’t burn through mana as fast as most other priest types. To contrast, being a single group healer with my Inquistor, aggro stealing cloth wearers were often doomed. I didn’t have the power to always place the group reactive out there, and I didn’t have enough time to switch targets and get through the long cast time to save their bacon. They would complain, and though often it was their fault for not managing their agro and not paying attention to their position next to wandering monsters, I couldn’t help but feel bad for those little cloth wearing blighters. Cons: The only one thing I don’t like about my Warden is how well we handle very large damage spikes. From what I’ve read, this may be less an issue with the new combat changes in EoF. If not, just make sure to pair up with a shammy. Message Edited by GinFan on 11-13-2006 02:13 PM
Warden vs. Fury - I think they are generally very similar. All the discussions about their differences really step around the fact that they're 90% the same, but that is going to change in EOF a bit. In terms of healing, they are nearly the same. You want to use HOTs, group and solo, as your main heals. Wardens receive better efficiency, but their heals all have HOT effects (not fun for major burst damage). Furies heal faster but spend more per HP. Furies get BITF, another direct heal, while we get the tree group healing pet. DPS, very similar. Furies get INT buffs which make them seem like they do more damage, but with enough INT they are very similar. Furies get an AOE and have bigger nukes with longer casts/recasts. Nuking with wardens sometimes is like an ADD thing, seriously, but you can do alright. Wardens get the wolf pets which can put out some decent damage on a single target. Buffs & util, again pretty close. Furies have some buffs that benefit DPS, where wardens buff AGI and WIS a bit more. AGI is not particularly useful at the moment, but INT isn't desirable in a MT group on a raid, either. Both buff single target power, either with WIS or INT respectively. Furies get a big temporary mitigation buff that stuns them where wardens get a HOT with a power feed. (not very useful) Furies get a single target STR/INT buff where wardens buff offensive skills. On raids, you can basically remove the defensive stance penalties on the MT which is nice. Furies get group invis, wardens get evac & roots. Furies will get a root in EOF. There are some other minor differences but that's pretty much the quick view. As far as the heal effects... The HOT effects on the direct heals are sort of a boon and a curse. When the MT is just dropping like a stone, you really wish you had every HP possible and none of it delayed. But on the other hand, you can just spam a lot of heals knowing that even if you go overboard, because of the effects it'll still be beneficial for a while. Warden healing is a lot of casting your main HOT, then spamming like mad if bad things happen. If you really lay down a lot of heals, wardens can produce an amazing amount of HPs healed at a very good power ratio, but getting behind the curve can be really scary. With another type of healer, you might be praying that big heal hits, knowing that if it lands you'll be ok. With wardens, you're praying you can get 3 heals off and that the first 1 or 2 land fast enough that you stem the bleeding. Warden healing encourages sloppy button mashing, but it's actually far better to do that than to try and make it perfect. It just works. Once you have a real feel for how fast the tank is getting damaged, you can tune it down really nicely and spend most of your time nuking. The fast casting is great for cures, too. I'm not sure there's really a "defining" moment for a warden, because we really dont' get any spells that are that great by themselves. The wolves at 55 are pretty nice because you finally get some damage. I think the most "defining" moments I've been through are some monster fights with a zillion adds, a zillion HPs healed, and somehow you didn't run out of power even though you should have. Other healers just can't last as long as heal as many raw HPs as a warden. Wardens are the best group healers. You can restore a lot of HP on your group from AOE in a pretty efficient manner. (Furies are pretty good at it, too) I don't really like the look of any leather in the game. In KOS you often look like something that fermented in the woods. I guess most of my recent experience has been raiding. For group healing, I think wardens are the best bar none. In small groups (like a trio), furies might be better because of their group invis and better INT buffs. Wardens are great soloers in terms of what they can kill. Their roots & power efficiency make for long, boring, safe fights. Furies might have the edge because invis is just so handy, and they will also have a root. All healers are terribly slow soloers. It used to be for leather you got better dps, but there's really no benefit to it anymore and it is a factor if the mobs can close with you. The roots are vital. Hope that helps.
Whew!!! ya that was a long post ... lol and it sounds like you might like the warden to much. But even still why not give it a try......sounds like youve got plenty of time..if your writing posts like this :robotvery-happy: I dont think any other char can play the root game as well...but the nukeing department....hmmm The fury root probly wont be as good...and the wardens root will be getting enhanced if you pick the movement line........so thinking we will have the best roots in the game...wich is what you need for going solo...plus we can take more damage compared to the cloth wearers playing the root and nuke game. But just to give you some statistics on the healing pwr.....in T7......heres a hot stacking senario on the main tank healing grand total for 14 sec elapsed time. protecting grove was allready up,....greaterchloroplast,verdantbliss,sylvanstreams,wave of heal has 1 major burst around 1500 when verdant bliss went off.....5 more burst around 600-800....with alot of 100-200 in the middle parsing every .5 sec...after wave of healing..........to a grand total of around 8000 for a cost of about 1000 pwr. Sure .....if the main tank is taking 1000 dps regularly....your not gona solo heal.....but grouped with even another druid youll usually do just fine.................and you can throw on the emergency in the pinch........takes no pwr and its instant cast.........if every thing was cast just right/spores procd......we could stack up to 9 hots for a brief moment.......hmmm i think ill try to figure out the parse on that one. :smileytongue:
