So with all the Tell the Community Threads of late (Captains, and today’s Guardian), I figured I’d get ahead of the game here and post what I’d like to see for our beloved class. Most likely these ideas aren’t new or original, but I thought I’d toss out some ideas and provide a means for others to share as well. I will also be adding these when they post the Warden TtCT, but figured I’d get people’s juices flowing ahead of time.
First up for me is power reduction. I think the main area is with our builders so any mechanism that can cut down on those costs would be quite welcome. We have a number of ways to reduce the power costs of gambits, but they’re just a small portion of our overall usage. If any (or all) of these would apply to the builders as well as the gambits it would make a HUGE difference as I rip through power even with 1400 ICPR, critted Tier 6 food, and sucking power pots whenever possible. I realize the masteries do help cut down some but I will admit there are quite a few times when all my masteries are on cool-down, granted I only slot 2 so that might be part of it. I just don’t think we should be forced to slot masteries to remain power efficient. And yes, I know probably I should slow down some but I don’t see any class having to throttle down nearly as much as we do to not run out of power.
Another area I’d like to see tweaked are our legacies in that most of our legacies (except for the welcome new ones with Mirkwood) are single gambit legacies. Now while these are good, I’d really like to see them apply the gambit line logic they introduced with Mirkwood to damage and threat legacies in place now. Sadly this may require a complete overhaul of the legacies, but I can still dream can’t I?
Another area that I feel needs to be addressed is that I’d like to have the same travel options as the hunter. And I don’t mean a group port, I just want a muster to places like Forochel 🙂 I don’t think there are that many places we don’t have, and in all honesty Forochel may be the only one I really care about – well, that and Angmar.
We really need to get rid of the Skill and Power trait as for the most part I like our traits, but this one serves absolutely zero purpose. I’m of the opinion that if you’re using the Gambit Default (or not a valid gambit built) you’re doing it wrong. Something like increased DoT damage on the Power Line would be MUCH better and still not terribly overpowered.
And finally, I was originally advocating something like a threat catch-up skill for if we happen to die mid-fight (Durchest fight for example). I put this last as I can sort of understand why we don’t have it, as this provides an area where Guardians shine, and this problem can be mitigated with good champions dumping agro to you. However, I’d like to see some sort of a compromise where maybe we don’t just to the top of the threat list but perhaps a threat regeneration where we sacrifice some amount of damage output or power to get us back to the threat level we were at before we died.
What about the rest of you, what do you wish for our class?
Doc Holiday's LOTRO Blog 
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I agree with your first two point Doc. The last one is very interesting. I loved Graalx^2’s ( I think it was him) answer to the threat catch up skill a while ago. “Just don’t die.” I think that is very much apart of the challenge of having wardens tanking. Also another reason why I LOVE almost to the point of requiring a guardian in my group. It’s not that I can’t tank, it’s that it makes it much easier if things go bad. I love the warden, and some people I play with think that they are overpowered. I don’t think they are, I can see how someone observing a well played warden could think that. It is one thing that I think help keep us humble, for lack of a better word. Maybe a threat transfer increase for dance of war and conviction as a legacy might be a compromising step in the correct direction.
Yeah, I think it was graalx2’s post that put me on the fence too as I originally wanted a full catch-up. Maybe even just a “large” burst threat skill on a long cooldown?
I think most classes have to throttle down to conserve power. I cant say for every class but on my hunter I know that i cant just go all out and expect to not run out. and definitely on my captain (but they have tons of issues with other things so cant really complain about that yet).
I don’t know if it’s just me, or I tend to play classes that get nerfed all the time. But everytime I see a warden ask for buffs to their class, it makes me shake my head. I mean you guys have a very solid class with very small issues compared to some of the other classes out there.
You have 2 very good points, but my other toons are a captain and a war-speech minnie and my warden far outpaces the captain on power usage and my minnnie is only a tad faster to burn through power. I’m not saying I shouldn’t have to pull back, I would just like to see it a bit more balanced.
And don’t get me wrong, the warden is a phenomenal class and they are very well off. But no class is perfect and while some certainly need more help then others, they all can always use some tweaking.
I agree with all your points, especially the travel skills. I see no reason why our travel skills shouldn’t have the same locations as Hunter’s have, while of course still just being a solo travel. Also, power is a big issue for me as well. My ICPR is only about 1200 but my power pool is actually up to about 3000 so I can last awhile but I do find myself running low on long boss fights. I think a solution to this would be to reduce or maybe even eliminate the power cost of the builders and this would probably solve the problem by just doing that. Another way of doing it would be to give us another Power building Gambit like Dark Before the Dawn, maybe one that does not give as much power but does not require you to be at half health either. Another idea is to maybe have a legacy that you can get for your Legenday Weapon that would make it to where you only have to be at say 3/4 health or something to use Dark Before the Dawn instead of half health. I don’t know, interesting ideas, and it will be good to see what changes that they ultimately make. I don’t really see the Warden class as being OP because, while they can be kind of OP with a skilled player, most people are not good enough at it to be able to be OP with a Warden as the class is that complex.
I’m not sure about removing the builder power cost, that might be a bit too far 😉 But another power return gambit – or PoT gambit possibly? And I do like the legacy for DBD that increases the %health it can be used at as that would be nice.
And I agree with you, most classes with skilled players can do things that could be considered OP 🙂