Is warden as bad as people make it out to be?

Discussion in 'Priests' started by Smashey, Mar 17, 2023.

  1. Smashey Well-Known Member

    Anyone raided on a warden these last two expansions and have some actual numbers to compare healer output and ease of keeping groups alive?

    Is the epic 2.0 pet still useful at all?
  2. quisling Well-Known Member

    A warden is NOT a bad healer. But, compared to a fury, which is probably the most OP, in the sum of all its abilities, this game has ever seen, it lacks by comparison.
  3. Hennyo Member

    Playing with a raiding warden as a mystic, I can say they do quite good personal dps for a healer, they also have fairly decent defensive buffs that work in conjuncture with a second healer. They are really near the bottom of the stack when it comes to keeping groups alive solo, having mostly hots and a lack of DR like furies have. Also they provide very little in terms of offensive buffs for others. As a whole, the package is weak compared to the other options. Of all the healers, I would rank them second to the bottom only behind inquisitors for a raid force.

    All that said, a well played dedicated warden player is still a viable addition to a raid force, just not the ideal one. Also once in awhile a warden only gimmick like permanent group root immunity comes in handy.
  4. Kuulei Well-Known Member

    You mean I am not the only raiding warden left? I just don't have it in me to betray to a fury. I am not sure if I will finish the expansion as I am thinking it's time to just give up at this point. :(
  5. Moss Well-Known Member

    We have a warden that have been able to solo heal every content (raid/challenge) until RoR.

    He has so far no issue to solo heal in RoR raid (all T1/T2 flawless).

    But he is not able to solo heal all heroic H3 (until now). The problem is when surge damage is over player max health. Player could use max health bardings, temp adornment, and potions to reduce specific damage type, but so far there are fights when it is not enough.

    As wards are not working properly in H3 until you get insane stats and missing damage reduction abilities, it makes wardens a "lesser" heal for H3, compared to mystic who would bring so much more and have almost no issue.

    Warden definilty bring less value in RoR than fury. You could consider it is a real problem in RoR were every buff makes the difference between a 4min or a 1h fight, with a non linear progression.

    As long as you don't plan to solo heal H3 before the next stat increase you could continue to play warden safely in groups and raid if you accept you bring less to the group/raid.

    Edit: our warden is still outparsing our furies in RoR, but I don't think 100-200M more dps is really important anymore when some class do 10x to 20x more.
  6. Bhayar Well-Known Member

    Wardens are still very strong healers in groups or raids. We have several in our raid force. I have both. I play a fury for the raid instead of a warden because we already have several wardens. I still love my warden. I wouldn't call a fury "OP" by any means. Fury does have several spells that are quite excellent and probably the most notable is "Natural Cleanse." In this xpac with the devs love of overkill on game mechanics and stacking detriments every 5 seconds, it's a godsend. As far as effectively healing in groups, wardens are still terrific. The problem I would point to is the inconsistency in the design and play of several "H" zones where a healer can face knockback/porting, detriment and curse cure all at the same time. I don't know what lunatic design manual that came from, but it's overworked and shows up in several H1 zones. Those of you who heal know what I'm referring to. That aside, I still have a warm spot in my heart for the warden. And as we all know, the player behind the class can make a significant difference as can the gearing and adornments you're wearing.
    Jrox likes this.
  7. Jrox Well-Known Member

    I agree with Bhayar. We have one warden in raid. He can solo heal almost every fight we have encountered. So I would think anyone who knows the warden class can be really good. And his DPS hangs just slightly under a very well played Inqy.
  8. Smashey Well-Known Member

    One thing I noticed after having raided and run through some H3s is that H3 is insanely hard and borderline impossible if you dont bring your A-game. Its possible but other healers are vastly better.

    A second thing I noticed in raiding is that my damage output is pretty much Icewater Armor, ascensions and procs. A tiny bit of damage coming from Frostbite Slice if mobs are alive for long enough. If you can afford it and lose out of the CB and 15% dmg reduction Primordial Strike is one of the better abilities.

    Overall, most of the prestige tree is a waste and does not scale right. You want leftside Sunwall, Restoration, Potent Sestorer and then you gotta pick Clearwater and Icewater armor just for the damage output. The rest of the points you can spend on the other side, such as the Luck of the wild which is pretty good, but the critbonus from blinding sands is insanely low. Sandstorm Mastery is cool'ish.

    Third thing. Windblade is a complete waste and needs a huge bumping in proc rate and damage. The critbonus AA is around 21 per group member at 10 stacks for THREE prestige points. The healing almost never procs and should be changed to a ward or HoT.
    Bhayar likes this.