When playing a warden in groups (or grouping with one) it is usually a good idea to make sure everyone is clear who’s doing what. This isn’t a bad idea for any group, but I mention it for wardens as there usually is some level of confusion. I mainly run into this when I’m grouped with either another guard, champ, or even more fun another warden. In most cases, I’m confident enough that I’ll suggest I be the main tank, and the others can off-tank. Have the guard throw protection on you and he/she gets your block/parry response effects and then can go into Overpower mode with a Two-hander for DPS. Both the champ and guard in OP can do better DPS then a warden and are also better at snap taunting anything that gets away. Although if you’re properly rotating through your agro skills not much should get through.
Now sometimes this changes a bit during boss fights. Depending on what tricks the boss has up his sleeve, it might make sense for someone else to tank. For instance, if the boss has lots of very painful inductions that must be interrupted, or corruptions that need to be removed it makes sense for the warden to handle this role while the other class tanks. When it comes to corruptions and interrupts, wardens are arguably the best class to handle them as we can very quickly spam the appropriate gambit. One can do all these at the same time, but sometimes it can be tricky and missing one induction/corruption can lead to a wipe.
Also, for very hard hitting single targets guards are usually better main tanks due to their higher mitigations. In this case, we’ll switch roles and I’ll grab the other trash mobs up while the guard tanks the boss. It is a good idea for the guard to pull the boss away such that he’s out of range of any AOE taunts, but for the most part it isn’t necessary. If it is just the boss all alone, I’ll focus on DoTs and spear line attacks as that’s our best DPS while trying not to draw too much agro.
A few group skills to be aware of:
- wardens have threat leaches that steal threat from the whole group
- burgs have the ability to pump threat to the tank via Provoke
- guard’s Challenge the Darkness legendary skill can bump them to the top of the agro list
- Champs can both steal and dump agro from/to a single target with Rising/Ebbing Ire
The real issue you’re trying to avoid is multiple people fighting for agro – in most cases if you’re trying to get agro you’re sacrificing something. So if you have it all agreed on ahead of time your group becomes that much more efficient.