I have a Warden that I normally heal in groups with. But now and then one do play solo or now days more molo (solo with merc). Now I have never been one to enjoy melee fighting, I am more of a caster type of player. My question is will I when running around playing solo have much less damage as ranged compared to melee, or is it about the same? Is there any other down sides with ranged warden vs melee? I normally runs around with a tank merc, so I don't have to worry when I come up against harder encounters. I know this also take some out of the dps, is there a scout merc that can tank fairly while doing good dps, or is there a tank merc with more dps than the others?
If you want to be a caster, then betray to Fury. Otherwise you are wasting your time as a weak version of Fury. Your spells as a Warden are going to be much weaker than your combat arts. As an Inquisitor I couldn't imagine just using my spells and trying to dps: I'd be a weak Templar.
I guessed what would be the case, but I wanted to doublecheck with people who has better insight in the ins and outs of this game Gonna see if I can find out what I will be missing/gaining as a healer if I betray. Thank you for your reply.
I'd have to agree with Leeroy.. if you want to play a ranged druid, fury is the way to go. Wardens really are a melee focused priest,,, from the path their AA steers them down to their buffs. If you're standing back (more then 10' from your tank and melee dps) you're not giving them all the buffs you should (from tortoise shell, windblade and beyond) and you're not proccing all the heals and wards you can should (natural boons, druidism, etc). Warden offensive stance also screams melee. A warden going ranged will not be as effective as either a melee warden or a ranged fury (at healing, dps, group-buffage, etc).
I agree with all of the above. The best benefits for wardens come at melee range. If you want to be a caster, betray to fury. You will be much happier.
You will love fury! I love playing him when i can. You can solo heal heroic and a mage group in raids. Furys have plenty nice spells to use to enjoy any content. Good luck!
Thanks for all the input. One more question, when you go as a healer in a group. I understand one should stay close to the melee for the buffs. But should I actually do damage also? I'm normally busy with healing. Does Natural Boon really do that big diff. compared to skipping the str line and go down f.ex. int line?
Intelligent line is more for furys dps. Infusion if specced for a passive spell gives additional damage on aoe, which furys specialize in. Natural boon is good when you are going for melee specc. It wouldn't go off if you not damaging. If you stay mostly healing i would suggest to get all percs of agility lune tortoise shell inluding. Though you don't need additional healing aa proc. Druids have enough spells to keep a group green...
As a warden I also take the int line, it's not a 'fury thing' dps from your heals rocks... plus the AA further up that 'increases spell damage' also increases the damage of the warden's melee conversions. I agree that tortoise shell is almost a 'must' if you're going to be running groups, not to mention raids, in current tier content.
Natural Boon is a pretty big chunk of my healing parse. If you're going to stick with a melee build warden, the strength line is pretty much a must. I avoided the INT line with the sole exception of putting some points into the first option that's a melee attack. Unfortunately, there are some raid mobs that simply must be ranged. I take a bit hit in the heal parse when I can't melee, so I grabbed Stormcaller's Renewal from the Sentinel's Fate line to give me some heal proc on ranged spells. I honestly proc so many heals that it's not hard for me to keep a group green. I'd say I spend about 70% of the time attacking the mob, and only about 30% of the time healing/curing. And yes, tortoiseshell is pretty much a must as well. Both group and raid mates will expect you to have it.
Well... yeah heals that proc from dmg they rock... i have to admit I agree For such purpose i've specced a double conversion on fury prestige tree to get a lightning syphon. It's not really that heals proc from damage. It's rather a hybrid spell: a damage and a heal together. Very nice one for grouping if a tank or an eager dps takes too much agro
Nice, not a bad I must say. I have always been a little to afraid to go for dmg over heals AA, maybe I should rethink this. Or at least try to take both. I have earlier not Taken glacial Assault because of this.. Will test it out and see how a dps healer can work. I agree Tortoise Shell is a must have. Other skills I like and usually tries to take is Serene Knowledge and Serenity. I also like the Shatter Infections cure (I just started to do some pvp and really like it in there). When I played a long time ago the Fairy and the Tree was kinda useless. I like them and uses them but it would be good to know how much use they really are?
Fairy and Tree are still next to useless, Shatter Infections is very nice to have when pulling encounters that front load a bunch of AEs landing within a few seconds of each other (ST contested, ST raid trash, some PoW trash) I don't PvP, but having mentioned it I can see where it would be excellent if it works the same as PvE. To your original question, it's certainly possible to be a ranged Warden, but as others have stated, you lose out on many of the classes strengths if you decide to play that way. You'll still kill things solo/molo, just with much much less efficiency. You can also look into getting a Mirror of Reflected Achievements. With this you can keep a second AA spec that you can use when needed. Mine swaps out the Int line for the Stamina line to give me Serenity for fights where I have to solo heal and need to not be stunned or stifled among other things
Dont betray for this. The warden works very well as caster too. Put AA into Stromcallers Reneval and later into Windblades healing ability. It works almost as well as melee. Even melee i rather use Winds of Permafrost on single targets then Whirl of Permafrost. When moloing i rather cast the do melee.
Go with Str/Agi/Int on the druid tree.....maybe swap out either str or int lines for sta line for serenity, but for the most part I would go with STR/AGI/INT at all times as a warden. If you really want to be a range druid, fury is ideal, however there are some defensive things you will be giving up. If you want to be most effective as a warden you will be meleeing. TBH from what I hear, furies are also most effective meleeing (just using spells instead of CAs) Warden dps will drop around 60% if you are trying to cast spells at range instead of using all your tools. Warden heals will drop about 10% if you try to stand at range instead of using all your abilities.
