Just curious im lvling a melee warden and wondering if a melee warden will solo as well as a SK or is it even close in survivability? Thanks in advance
I've got a well geared and AA'd SK and Warden, both about the same level, in the 30-40s. They both solo quite well, but each has its own strong points. The SK is better at killing groups of enemies, due to the quantity of AoEs, Battle Hardening, and how Reaver works. The Warden tends to be better off against a single tough mob than the SK, due to superior healing. And for what you are reasonably likely to wind up fighting, without going out of your way to get into nastier fights, both are beasts.
As long as you know how to pull and where to fight so as to avoid patrol aggro, both should be able to do fine. The warden might have problems in an area where you will get multiple groups. The SK might have problems if a mob hits too hard. There's basically limits to what each can handle. But both can handle quite a bit. And it depends a bit on the dungeon, of course. Deathfist Citadel, for example, has boss mobs that hit considerably harder and have a lot more hp than Stormhold, relative to level, not to mention can have annoying abilities like Fear. Overall, if you can body pull* well, the Warden can probably handle places the SK cannot go yet. But once things get a bit easier, say you've got a few more levels, the SK can do them faster. *Body pull is inching forward until mobs aggro on you, then backing up to a safe spot to fight. If you hit a mob with an offensive ability, it tends to call out for help, leading to potentially aggro'ing multiple groups. But if the mob aggros on you because of proximity, it typically will not aggro other nearby encounter groups.
Depends a lot on race how armor looks. Personally, I'm not overly fond of the leather look on either my gnome fury or Iksar warden. But that doesn't matter much. At level 20, you gain access to appearance slots, which let you wear stuff you think looks good, cosmetic only, no stat bonuses and such from that. My Iksar wears cloth armor meant for mages in those slots. There's also pieces of armor that is appearance only you can get. For example, in Butcherblock, the dwarves there will sell you plate looking armor if you have enough faction with them. Anyone can wear it, so if you want a Warden in a plate look, you can do it.
I have both abit Warden is at higher lvl, in my experience Warden is great at mauling down single target and tough it out with all the heals and utility spells if you go with Melee spec, SK is great at killing softer multiple target encounter. Warden's early advantage is their ability to travel at ease and that goes very well with lot of quest, and their healing abilities which if you manage your pace correctly can let you go very steady none stop, but I feel once you get higher up in lvls and gain access to lot of gears and AA, SK can come very close to Warden's staying power with faster killing pace.
An SK can take a harder hit than a warden due to plate vs leather, but a warden heals better than an SK. I have a 90 warden and can easily solo single and multi mobs up to 3, sometimes 4 depending on the stats of the MOBs. My warden can handle yellow heroics up to 2 up arrows and occasionally one heroic with 3 up arrow - once again depends on the type of MOB it is. My warden is spec melee hybrid. As for speed in taking down a mob, a SK can do that faster than a warden can as their hits and dmg are a lot higher. However, SKs do run out of heals purdy quickly while the warden can keep on healing over and over and over. As to how a warden looks in armor? Well, with the appearance slots, you can make your warden or any character look how you wish. There are tons of appearance gear from plate, chain, leather, cloth in the game. And wardens can wear any type of useable armor of leather or cloth. Yes, you can solo some dungeons - the ones in which don't require two or more professions in order to defeat a boss. My warden has solo'd parts of instances including Wailing Caves, Fallen Gate, Stormhold, Nek Castle, RE, Bixie Hive (solo'd entire instance) and others at level. Of course, it depends on how well you can utilize your warden, too.
I've been a melee warden for years. I can solo comparable to an sk. Takes many to kill me. It is difficult sometimes to kill, warden doesn't have any killer blows, so other classes can usually run from you.
Knigth are much stronger, my new paladin can take down yellow ^^^ toe to toe, as example he killed the spirit of the lake in Zek at 32. He can also solo most of varsoon, he also killed the books in varsoon with a level 42 assasin (mentoring him so we were two 32). My warden could never had done that, at 32 if she had pulled the master taylor she would had died despite her massive healing power. Warden cannot kill enemies that hit too hard, if something 1 shot you no matter how strong are your heal you wanna die. There are plenty of ^^^ named heroic that will kill you even if ALL you HOT are running. For sure as a warden you can still kill those monsters by using a root and nuke method, but it's tedious. For less extreme encounters (green heroic, ^^ x2 that can be rooted, ^ x3, nomral mob) Warden do very well. I did the red drake at 90, jojo ( a real joke), and she can solo Vd1 trash or any named in up sebilis (she don't go down due to trash that fears too often). A knigth with a shield and a good MC armor is a Battleship that can selfheal, i think they even solo better than tainted heal necros. Paladins have a strong ward, 2 very stong self heal (3 with aas), divine aura, large block skill, very high mitigation. For anyone like me who played mostly healers before they appear as invulnerables, the difference in mitigation with a mystic or a warden is simply amazing.
