So I have come back due to the free time on EQ2, and I want to play Warden because it is the most 'similar' to the EQ live Druid. However I cannot decide on the race. I was going to pick Woodelf, but the Fae/Arasai have a cool Safe Fall ability which seems ... too 'good' to pass on. I think the High Elves get some kind of toggled Safe Fall, but I'm only really interested in the Wood Elves and the faes. Bah I hate deciding Fae seem cool - I did play a couple fae last time I played ... but I dunno anymore ... My character HAS to look good. If I get to level 80 and find that my hair clips through armour - as an example - i'd literally have to reroll What races do you guys like for Warden?
Shiine wrote: Agree. This is more important than raid-fabled gear, IMO. My main Warden is a High Elf, and the featherfall ability is a full-time buff that has really made the difference. Back in 'the day', this character was probably the clumsiest Elf you have ever heard of. Far from being graceful and lithe, she'd fall from everything and either die, or greviously injure herself. Now she nimbly runs around going wherever she needs to with no fear of falling. This is similar to the fae/arasai glide.. Dark Elves have it as well - (and can be quite nice looking). Wood elves don't get it as a racial ability, but dang, they do look good. (They do get a racial ability that is a heal crit - which is nice for a Warden). If you decide to be a Wood Elf, though, you can get a lining for your capes that minimize falling damage. There's a couple of bits of loot that have this ability too, but they are from harder raid zones that you might not see for awhile. There's also a Legends of Norrath card game loot card that provides an item like that too. If I had to pick between fae and arasai, I'd pick fae, and if I had to pick between fae and wood elf, I'd pick woodelf. I leave the female wood elves in the regular 'look' and the males in SOGA - where they do look realy nice. Females in soga look anoretic, but that's another post altogether. Hope you find the look you are after! Warden's a really fun class, as well. Glad you chose it.
A fun combo with a Fae Warden is getting your run speed up to 55% with AA's and picking the Fae glide racial trait. Then you don't need a mount, and with glide, you can jump around from place to place and nearly fly everywhere at high speed. It makes it much more fun just to run around! Still, even with that, you'll never be as cool as a halfling, especially now that we can show our feet!
I'd go with the fae/arasai just to get the extra speed bonus personally heh SoW AA + Hiero speed + jboots + racial speed would just be cool even if I didn't keep it permanently and only did it for leveling purposes. That should be like 75% runspeed if I remember right.
Functionally and practically Fae are my favorite race with Kerra a close second (for scouts and mages). My favorite for appearance and flexibility in customizing colors and looks for armour are Fae, Kerra, and Wood Elf. All three of those look really cool in different armour set / weapon combos and can be customized nicely. I personally like the Fae wing and hair options over the Arasi which look like posers from a bad 80's punk rock glam show. I like the wood elf color combos as well and their cool body art. High Elves and Fae have the nices looking humanoid facial structure, in my opinion, if you are playing a female.
I went Sarnak - Besides loving the look.. I liked the 5% racial run along with the 36 second 50% speed burst, plus they get 2% melee or heal crit. I also like the 2% added resists they can get. I dont get why people worry about fall damage now, Its no where near as bad as it used to be, now you can pretty much leap off anything within reason and not even take 1/2 damage. To counter all the cutesy offers people add here.. I will say go Troll, Ogre, Sarnak, Iksar!! heck Barbarian have some great little racial traits too.
This all makes sense, but I think the best race for racial abilities is the Dwarven female. They get beards.
Why not Ogre? Tons of str, sta, and melee bonus's from traditions. A nice stun attack (great for interupting casters). For a melee warden it sounds BOSS to me. PVP of course.
Although the OP already made a racial choice- just a reminder that you can choose race based on the racial abilities, then do the racial bone collection quests and take on the appearance of any race you want. So, for example, you can have the benefits from being a darkelf, but the coolness of being a dorf.
The problem to that approach is you can do little to adjust your appearance for that race you get what you get. Druids in general being a speedy spot healer primarily can prolly do nicely as an Erudite for the defaulted 5% cast speed bonus racial. Although they really prolly make better furies. With casting speed you can at least make an effort to "bully" in your spot heals first and be less likely to heal partial amounts because another healer landed his stronger upfront heal some miniscule partial second sooner. Could potentially improve heal parses by sapping it away from your competition (other druids and non-MT* clerics and shammies) You can keep the extra +heal and heal proc stuff for grouping (especially if solo healing to bolster the total heal amounts. DPS is a secondary role still and would be recommended for the soloist. However, for the most part you'll see more gains from gear than from racial traits on the whole. *Multi-tank encounters would give those respective shamans and clerics their ward/reactive edge of course
<casts resurrect on thread> Also thinking Fae for the glide, speed, etc but am worried about how to make him into a melee warden with a 10 starting strength, especially for the first 20 levels. Should I just make all my racials as +str? Or do i really need to look at a different race if i want to melee warden?
<casts resurrect on thread> I'm a sarnak warden, carpenter who is totally tired of being a sarnak who's clothes if show at all look horrible. With all the changes and unsure where to find the updated information about each race... Can someone either guide me to a website or give me suggestions as to which race would be a nice change. Had thought about erudite, elf of some sort.
Xye wrote: Doesnt matter much regarding the warden. For exampke 2% crit is nothing in the end. 2% base is more though. Look at the other racials. Personally i love the tracking ability of my halfelf. The gliding of the Fae is nice, but i got my harvester cloak and we are almost even now. Size doesnt matter in newer dungeons (Barabrian in Stormhold was always a pain), they are all huge. You can browse the racial traditions here http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Character_Race
Thank you so much for the link and suggestion. It will be scarey transforming into a different race which makes it a hard choice. Can't help but wonder how much of a playability impact the change will make? Most likely will be going from evil to good, stat changes along with innate abilities. As she stands now my warden is a great character. What I fear the most is her becoming unplayable because I chose vanity instead.
Xye wrote: Update: The transformation process went very smoothly. There is only a slight playability difference between the two races. Not enough to fret over. Thank you again for your support and information.
