Rise of Isengard : Warden Class dev diary

Lord of the Rings Online: Rise of Isengard is coming next week and there is yet another developer diary post on the official website. This one is giving us insight on how they have reshaped the Warden class. It looks like they have done a lot of work with it. New skills, addressed shortcomings... Read on for details.

Lord of the Rings : Rise of Isengard will be released next week and while we wait to get our hands on it, devs are posting informative posts on the official website.

This one focuses on the Warden class.

Shortcoming I - DPS

There is no mistaking the Warden for a DPS class. They can hold their own and are an excellent solo class, but they only fill one role in group play – a tank. Their DPS rotation typically ends in using one or two skills over and over and over. It gets boring. It’s not an ideal way of playing the class because, in order to be remotely viable, you use those two skills or you look like a Warden.

To address this, we have changed the way that the spear skills (Mighty Blow and Unerring Strike) will work.

If the Warden has a current low bleed present on a target and then uses Mighty Blow, they will deal extra damage to the target and also apply a moderate bleed to the target as well. If there is a moderate bleed on the target and Unerring Strike is used, bonus damage will be applied to the target and the high bleed will be applied to the target.

While this does not provide a completely new way of dealing damage, it does even out the Warden DPS and provides them with alternative DPS methods while attempting to fill a DPS role.

Shortcoming II - Threat (Gaining, Dumping, Maintaining)

As we have continued to build LotRO we have created encounters that require players to quickly swap tanks. Without a way to drop or gain aggro quickly, the Warden is at disadvantage versus his other tank cousins. In order to fix this deficiency, we have added new skills to the Warden's gambit system.

Deflection - Deflection requires Fist-Shield-Spear and will significantly drop the Warden's threat on the current target. This skill is available at level 70.

Aggression - Aggression is a quicker way for the Warden to grab aggro from all fellowship members nearby. It takes a significant portion of aggro from fellowship members and transfers it directly to the Warden. This skill requires Fist-Shield-Spear-Fist. The more fellowship members that are around the Warden, the greater the effect of the skill becomes. This skill is available at level 72.

Never Surrender - When a Warden is defeated in group play they cannot quickly recover aggro. This single event can lead to a total failure of the fight. In an effort to address this issue, we have changed Never Surrender to do the following: The skill is now activated by the Warden and will last for 5 minutes. During that 5 minutes the Warden cannot be defeated and if their morale drops below 5% of their maximum morale they will be healed for 75% of their maximum morale and 50% of their maximum power. They will also receive a debuff that will bar the usage of their mastery skills for the next 5 minutes and significantly reduce the efficacy of the HoT effect by removing the ticks from the HoT. (This only triggers if the Warden receives the heal.) The cooldown of this skill has been reduced from 30 minutes to 15 minutes.

Because the Warden will no longer be defeated, they will not lose aggro and should be able to continue the fight. Of course, they are drained because their efforts were channeled into survival and cannot use their masteries, but the time has been reduced and the chance to complete a battle without having a complete wipe should ease that concern somewhat.

Shortcoming III - No Stun Immunity

Another issue is the prolific use of stuns in the game that can cripple a Warden's ability to complete their gambit chains. To alleviate this we have included another new gambit they can earn at level 74: Shield Tactics.

Shield Tactics - The Warden is able to stop stun effects from affecting her for 10 seconds and increases their tactical defence for 60 seconds. This requires the Warden to build a gambit of Shield-Fist-Spear-Shield. You cannot gain the effect of the stun immunity more than once every 30 seconds. While the 10 second stun immunity is active, Wardens will not be able to re-activate Shield Tactics.

Stances and Power

With those few shortcomings out of the way let's look at what has changed with stances and how we are addressing the concern with power that Wardens have always had.

Determination – We’ve kept the in-combat morale regeneration and added a slight increase in critical chance reduction and some in-combat power regeneration. These changes should help the stance be a little more useful, but not overpowered.

Power Issues - Wardens have long had power issues and we made pretty significant changes with Isengard by reducing the overall power costs of Warden skills by 10% across the board.

read the rest at LOTRO website

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