Hi all, I came back to EQ2 after close to 7 years off and was in time to nab at level 85 character and I chose Warden based my affection for healing and I was told Warden was a flexible healer that could also solo easily. Based on the spec that was setup out of the box and gear and the selected spells on the hotbar I found most of the solo mobs from 85 to 90 to be trivial at best. I could easily pull 5 to 7, HoT myself and dps all of them down without a sweat. This was fun at first, being that badass and all, but it wasn't the reason I chose the class... I want to heal others and feel some level of difficulty and accomplishment. I have not touched the spec as I don't want to mess anything up, but I have read the spells and watched them in action for the past week or so, so I have an idea of what they do and what to expect as an outcome. In general.... kind of. I have scoured the Googles looking for an up to date guide that points out the Warden's bread and butter, and the Oh #@&#$ buttons and have yet to find any info of value. So I come here to the official forums asking if the Warden is all read and react, or to you pre-HoT the tank and do an AoE heal, and send out your wolf pack. I would love to heal but I have no idea where to start. Thanks for any assistance in advance, Munkie!
For difficult content, you definitely want to get photosynthesis and heal storm rolling pre-pull. Make sure you do Epic Repercussions.. with the buff you get from that, the two heals I mentioned get bigger with each tick. Oh <Bleep>! abilities: It will also give you Infuriating Thorns, which is a single target 3-hit stoneskin. With AA you can get Cyclone, single target 10 sec total damage immunity. Herophantic Gensis is a massive HoT with small power proc. Tunare's Watch is a group-wide death save (only saves the first person who dies though) and Nature's Revival which is your single target death save. Tortoise shell (druid page AA) gives you a powerful AoE blocker that comes back fairly quickly. It also increased block chance by 100.
First and foremost, Wardens are the DEFENSIVE druid, but they are still OFFENSIVE healers, depending on how you define that term. Unless you're going to die repeatedly try to go in and melee mobs, that's what you should be doing. Keep your HoTs rolling, and smack things with your hammer. Cure everything ASAP. When you get more AAs, and later on more levels, there's some other neat stuff that comes into play: Spirit of Druidism in the Heroic tree has a chance to ward your group when you hit things, as well as increase their A mod and cast speed. The ward part actually parses a lot better than it looks on paper. Howling With the Pack is useful in a lot of different situations. The CC break is the most obvious, and for soloing the DR can be fantastic too... But the really neat part is the 25% heal to your group. When you get the right side prestige stuff, using Sandstorm and HoWtP on large groups of mobs means you can effectively spam your CAs and keep the group alive. It's perfectly wonderful. I've yet to try out the ward in the heroic tree, but I'm sure it has its uses too. I don't see many people take Faith of the Fallen, except in PVP. If you take it, which honestly you probably shouldn't unless you give up the heal on Windblade, the Emergency heal to two targets in the middle of the prestige tree is pretty massive too. Wardens are basically the kings of "OH CRAP!!!" situations. There are so many tricks we have that it's not even funny.
Oops, another thing on Howling.... Make sure you know if there's some CC you need to break coming up before you use it for something else. It seems that a lot of mobs like to disable the healer in some way and then start hitting the group REALLY hard... Try not to let that wipe you.
Adding to what Mermut said about Death saves: Wardens are the only priest that has 2 death saves - one single target and one group. With AA, the group death save (Tunare's Watch) reuse timer is reduced by half, and both death saves can proc a save twice (with AA spec'd this way). So that's Four chances at a death save if you cast them well. They don't stack and have a 20 second duration, but you can cast them one right after the other, if you practice. Cast Tunare's Watch even if you have a single target you are protecting ..because the reuse time is shorter. Both these abilities are very large "Oh $*%&" buttons. Besides Tortoise Shell (2nd column from the left in the Druid AA tree, 4th ability down), you should spec Cyclone (Warden AA Tree, very last ability) which is a damage absorb. It's a great twitch ability to save someone or absorb what you know is going to be a massive hit on pull, or whatnot. Since you say you are scouring the Internet for builds, my best advice is to get a drink, sit down, and just read everything you can do. Instead of following some spec someone posted, or even the game created spec's (which are not very good, IMO), once you read and understand the abilities you have it's pretty clear which are useful and which not. There are only a very small handful of things that look good on paper but don't help in actual game situations. ...and those are really apparent the first time you try to use them. Other Wardens can help with spec advice, but unless you know WHY you have chosen an ability or upgrade, you will constantly be at a loss and most likely not play your Warden to best advantage. That Why is best gained with practice, IMO. As far as healing - You can pre-heal your target and get HoT's 'rolling'. Assuming it's a tank and that they are going to taunt early on, your heals with the HoT component are usually adding up on the hate list just under the Tank's hate generation. If they are body pulling, you could get your butt handed to you. Other healer types that Ward or Reactive on the pull have insta-top of the list hate because the intial heal is so large and can get one-shotted if they aren't paying attention - so just get situationally aware before you try to get fancy. Warden has changed A LOT since the last time you played. Been to Hell and back (she says, dramatically), but is now a very playable class. The best way you can learn to heal with your character is to ...heal. Go for it.
I'm in a similar boat OP. To practice skills and solo I'm working through The Hole in Sundered Frontier. Like you said overland mobs are very melty. I think The Hole one of those new solo heroic zones so they offer a little bit more of a challenge. Make sure you don't choose the other group heroic instances or it will remind you just how squishy you are. Anyway, it gives you a chance to practice some of your skills in a challenging but forgiving environment.
