Warden Mines of Moria Dev Corner October
- No gambit skills have inductions. The process of builing up the correct icon pattern to execute advanced Gambits is sufficient delay.
- Wardens have the use of all of their equipment at level 1, medium armor, medium shields, shields, javelins, and 1h weapons.
- Almost all of the Warden's melee skills are part of the Gambit system, either generating gambit icons or the Gambits themselves. The Warden does have other skills outside of the gambit system, primarily the javelin skills and various utility skills.
- The Warden's primary role is to attract the monsters' attention so that they attack the Warden rather than the less defensive members of the fellowship.
- It is probable that building up icons for long Gambits will be more difficult, but the icons in the display are only lost when the Warden is out of combat so Wardens will eventually be able to use any of their gambits. The javelin skills are also a big help in Pvp.
- Warden's can use any 1h weapon. They have inherent bonuses to damage and increases to the inherent bonus abilities of the weapons for spears, clubs and swords.
- Wardens can not use bows.
- Wardens start with length 2 gambits. They gain an additional slot at 15 (length 3), 30 (length 4) and 45 (length 5).
- Javelins are shorter range than bows (mostly 25) but they don't have as high a penalty to-hit for moving.
- Wardens fully DPS traited can put out a lot of damage. Warden DPS is also more dependent on player skill than other classes.
- A DPS Warden would be in the mid to high range as far as damage goes. Not Champion or Hunter numbers but better than most of the other classes.
- Warden Legendary skills pre-Moria
Grand Master Weapons Training - a passive skill that gives even more bonuses to spears, swords and clubs
Defiant Challenge - 5 icon gambit that is an area of effect force attack (short duration) plus a damage shield.
Way of the Warden - a stance that combines all of the benefits from the other Wardens stances into one. Lasts for the duration of combat.
Javelin of Deadly Force - throw a javelin with such force that it hits all monsters in a line extending out from the warden to a range of 30. - Careful Step is indeed intended mostly to allow Wardens to set up their Ambush attack. The 20 second duration can be extended by Legendary Weapon legacies. It has a 3 minute cooldown. I am sure inventive Wardens can figure out some uses for the skill other than Ambushing.
- Wardens have no special abilities to trigger fellowship maneuvers.
- Javelins are made by woodworkers.
- The lack of dwarf wardens is primarily a resources issue. Wardens use entirely new combat animations. Dwarves take the most time to animate and we made the decision to spend our animation time making better animations rather than more of them.
- A well-played Warden can tank anything in LoTRO. I believe that there are some situations where the Warden would even be the best choice for main tank.
- Warden as tank: Wardens generally have higher block/parry/evade ratings than other classes, especially when they keep their short term defensive buffs going. The higher block/parry/evade combined with an extremely high in-combat morale regen available in one of their stances combined with their self-Heal over time gambits allow them to tank in medium armor.
- Warden shields, in addition to having a unique look, have armour ratings more or less halfway between heavy shields and shields.
- The skills that add Gambit icons can be used on the move. These icons are only lost at the end of combat, when the Warden executes a Gambit or when the Warden removes them with special skills.
- Our animation staff animates a single representative model, in the Warden's case a human male, and then replicates the animations to the other race/sex combinations. Dwarves complicate this process because they are short, not proportioned the same as humans and have massive beards.
- Warden's can move while in Stealth from Careful Step although with a 50% movement penalty. There is no penalty or bonus to the Stealth level. Racial stealth abilities have an interesting synergy with Wardens because their Ambush skill loses its long induction while in Stealth .
- Spear Gambit is just a category name for Gambits that feature primarily physical melee attacks. We named it for the representative weapon of the Warden but there is no restriction on any of the Gambits from the primary hand weapon.
- Shield Gambits however generaly do require a Shield because most of them are shield bashes or use the shield defensively.
- The Warden bonuses for spears are marginally better than the bonuses for clubs and swords. The inherent spear bleed is also a lot more visible than the inherent effects on clubs and swords so I expect that given equal weapons Wardens will generally choose spears.
- Fellowship Maneuvers are separate from the Gambit system. A Warden in the process of building a Gambit would contribute to the Fellowship Maneuver as normal and then go right back to where the Warden was in the Gambit.
