Greetings! My current main is a 61 Fury. I'm thinking of starting a Warden (just because I have altitis and feel like trying another healer), but I'm not sure if they are enough different from Furies to make it interesting for me. (I don't really want a repeat of what I've already done, just in another form.) Just looking at spells and reading some of the posts on this board, it sounds like they really are two entirely different critters, but I was wondering if you Wardens had any feedback to give me. Now for the obligatory newb questions: Which race would you recommend? (I'm thinking Fae, simply because I've never played one.) Do Wardens solo well? (I play a Battle Fury and like to go toe-to-toe with the mobs, so I would probably be frustrated with having to deal with rooting and running away.) Thanks!
My Fury recently betrayed to Warden and I'm having alot more fun with it. If you like going toe-to-toe with mobs (and I'm exactly the same way) then you'll love the melee-warden. (Str Druid AA line +Warden 'Wardens' AA line that turns most attack spells into melee moves. Very fun!) Mine's an Arasai, which is nearly the same thing as a Fae and I think it really works well with druids in general. The gliding in particular is very addictive. With the SOW AA wardens get you'll never need a horse (which fae types look pretty silly on anyway)
I'm not a big fan of the idea of having both a Warden and a Fury. Yes it's possible to spec the Warden to make the playstyle slightly different (Nuker vs Melee) but outside of solo satisfaction, you limit the diversity of what you can add to a group. If a group already has a druid and wants a secondary healer, you'll most likely be rejected for your Fury and Warden. If you're hoping to get some melee action going, I'd recommend a mystic because the play style is different and they offer something different to a group. Templer is useful too but could take longer to solo.
Thanks for the replies! Hehe, one pro and one con. I hadn't even considered trying a Mystic. I have a Defiler, and she's such a pain to try to solo, I've turned her into a tradeskill ***** only. I haven't looked into the new betrayal quest (new since I was last playing in early 2006), so I'm a little clueless about it, but...would I be able to betray the Defiler to Mystic? The betrayal quest is one of the few I've never done with any character, so that might be interesting.
You should be able to handle the betrayal on the defiler. I was able to betray a templar (betraying to Neriak was easier than to Freeport, and I would guess it might be the same between Kelethin and Qeynos) and low-mid levels anyway, I think a templar matches a defiler in soloing woes. I found the assassination quests nice cause each one gave AA, so I got a huge chunk of that....though I would imagine you may not get the option for assassination quests betraying to good. Hehe I've only betrayed to good on the old betrayal quest where I had to kill 500 or so gnolls plus find rare names...bleh was that a pain. I do find warden and fury to play quite differently though, especially if you spec melee on the warden. Furies have a lot more tools to do the root/nuke thing and I see most playing more the mage style (especially solo). I wouldn't make the decision based on grouping, because the playstyle grouping really won't be that much different, unless you are trying to tank...and yeah, I have tanked stuff pre t8 with my warden. Can't do it reliably in t8 cause those mobs hit too darn hard.
Wardens are more fun to me due to the melee ability and if you can find the right equipment (which can be tough until lvl 77 with the faction MC or you get the battle druid gear from venders) healing is made better for GROUPS with the melee proc. I have 3 sets of gear specs though for raid named/tough zone for group) a melee with more emphasises on solo or easy groups, and a balanced set inbetween. Some pieces are in 2 or all 3 sets thouoh. One issue with warden and fury as I am sure you know is that we dont have any good tank/group buffs for defense other then a temp one. We only have one "DPS" buff which is only really good for tanks in defensive mode to help them do more damage for aggro and no group dps buffs like the fury. The instinct line, with diminishing returns, is wasted on any off tank or scout in offensive mode and is better used on yourself to proc group heals. Wardens are more slightly more power efficent then fury's though and once a warden gets their epic which procs a nice power regen on someone one we actually heal that is a crit, it becomes something you almost never have to worry about in a group unless you are doing a zone and the MT is the only one taking damage and not much of it at all and/or you are using your ca's/nuking a lot and/or their is no downtime between most pulls to regen power for yourself. Now the bad side is that if you planned on getting in to raiding, the warden has no raid utility and cant even buff a dps group like a Fury can. All a warden can do is heal and buff other healers so when the raid optimizes itself to increase hate game for the MT to allow for greater dps for faster kills and it gets to the point where it can clear the high end raid content (end of VP to avatar range I would say), you will be most likely sit out while the fury will still be wanted for the mage group or be a cure bot for the MT or maybe an OT group. Also while often raids will often run 2 of the 5 other healer subclasses in a raid since their direct heals are not half regen like the ours but only one warden. Two wardens will cancel roughly half of each other heals, making raids favor only one warden in raid unless they do not plan of the MT needing any heals from the non MT group warden or little enough not to need much healing from him/her.
I feel so conflicted now!! Thanks for all the great info! Since I do most of my playing solo and don't really care about raiding, those factors don't matter too much to me. While I of course would want to be helpful to any group I did wind up in, probably 95% of my time would be solo. It sounds like Melee Warden would be the way to go! Anyway, I made my wee Fae Warden and took her over to Tim Deep. She's level 7 already and is getting some ridiculous armor! AND I'm going to research the betrayal quest and make my Defiler into a Mystic! (Did I mention that I have a really serious case of altitis??) So many characters...so little time! Thanks again. I suspect I'll be back perstering y'all later as my Warden grows up!
Defiler solo's way nicer than Templar if INT spec'd, IMO. I'm leveling a Defiler at 64 and a Templar at 74 - and its the Templar thats doing DPH. The Defiler is reminding me of Warden soloing back before AAs. Not bad at all. I betrayed Templar to Inquis and back, and think Defiler would go even faster. There are even some faction quests you can do that don't involve much killing at all. Check out eq2i.com for the timeline to see which they are, if you are intent on doing that.
Allyra wrote: The betrayal is quite easy actually, and I think you will Love being a melee Mystic. With the changes coming to dog dog, 100% crits, 6 melee CA's, ALOT of strength, Ancestry for procs, melee mystics are a very fun class to play. Personally I would also betray your fury to a warden if Melee is your style... I have 80 fury and 70 warden that I tried melee on ... the Warden is SOOO much better at it ( even with less AA's and much worse equipment ) then the fury ... changed the Fury back to a hybrid wizard. Of the 2 my Mystic can about triple the DPS of my warden ( Procs accounting for well over 1/2 of that ) and are able to group without needing to change AA's .... Most of the Mystic AA's are garbage cept those centered around melee =/
Well, betraying my Fury to Warden isn't something I would consider. In fact, the idea makes me a little ill...I would have to change her whole personality. I know most people Don't Do RP, but some of us do. Even if I'm not actively RPing (and RP seems to scare my current guild, hehe), the things my characters do are entirely IC. So to take a cold-blooded Dark Elf Fury who enjoys using the powers of Nature in experimentation on other creatures and turn her into a Warden...*shudders* And I'd have to give up her Dungeon of Doom! (Man, I had fun building that thing!) So, yeah, I'm keeping my Fury a Fury. Since I do have my infant Fae Warden, I'm probably going to wait on trying the betrayal stuff with my Defiler. Especially since I finally realized that she'd be giving up a ton of tradeskill faction. I'll probably wait to do it until after they change the amount of faction per tradeskill writ. That way, I won't wince quite so much when thinking about giving her current faction up. (Unless it somehow converts to the new city's faction, which I highly doubt.)
Allyra wrote: Well..not necessarily. My PvE Warden is a Tunare Worshipping High Elf. Goodness, light..etc. My PvP Warden is a level 70 Dark Elf Dreadnaught...which means she's killed a lot of people in order to get that title. My RP for her is "I bend nature to my will" and "Hug a Tree or die". There's no experimentation...Nature just does what I tell it to vs. Me and Nature in Harmony as the High Elf. She doesn't have a dungeon, but could. Ice has it's uses in a dungeon...::wicked laugh::: It's not that huge of a jump!
Hehe, "Hug a Tree or die" - I like that! But it still doesn't match what I want for my Fury, so I think I'll keep her the way she is. I do love hearing how other people play their characters, though. So many different ways to see all the races/classes! My Defiler will be thrilled to betray, since right now she lives a paltry existence as my Fury's House Decorating Slave. She only gets to move between the tradeskill instance, the bank, and my Fury's estate. And if she displeases the Fury, well...she gets to spend some quality time with the bloodstained chair she built with her own two hands... Muahahaha. So I do have a great RP reason for the Defiler to betray!
