There have been some really good posts and discussion on the forums lately regarding our beloved class. I’ve replied to some, but not all as there’s some really good wardens there who are much faster to reply 😉 So, in no particular order here’s my re-cap:
There’s a good discussion on some of the math regarding warden threat generation up on the boards as well. I’m going to try to summarize, but it might be a good one to read through yourself. I suggest taking a look back as these 2 posts of mine as a refresher if you get lost 🙂 Threat Definitions and Gambits Part 3 – tanking. The following math equations :
- The magnitude of threat effects is approximately:
.5x -Slightly increased threat
1x -Moderately increased threat
2x -Increased threat
3x -Greatly increased threat - Total Threat = U(t) + (4 * T(t))
U = Initial threat magnitude; see gambit tooltips for the listed magnitude of initial threat, and insert the associated value from Graalx2’s list above
t = equivalent threat generated by damage from a single auto-attack
4 = this is a constant; per Graalx2 above all threat over time skills have a duration of 4 pulses
T = threat over time magnitude; see gambit tooltips for the listed magnitude of threat over time, and insert the associated value from Graalx2’s list above
are pretty helpful in understanding the various threat components. However, there’s some disagreements on the legacy information in this thread and I agree with LagunaD from the forums that we have no quantitative information on threat legacies. I’ve changed my stance a bit on legacies in that I’m still looking for them but I’m not concerned if they’re all not there. Pretty much I want at least EoB or War-cry and the rest is gravy.
A usual question that comes up when picking equipment for wardens is always how much ICPR as we are quite the power hogs? This thread has some good discussion on that topic. I currently sit at about 1300 in Conservation and also routinely use power pots. I don’t use them when I’m low, I start with I first use about 800 power, or start to drop below 2000 power. This way I can try to keep ahead of things and not run completely bone dry. I will most likely switch shields shortly to the Mirkwood Crafted one which will add another 100 ICPR for me. I’m pretty much of the opinion that unless you have a pocket LM – if you can increase ICPR without gimping yourself do it.
A question also came up with regards to what attacks do we have that are tactical in their type. Most things we do are melee or ranged, however our heals and taunts are considered tactical and that crit rating will impact their effectiveness. With that said, I don’t think it is a viable strategy to stat +tactical as usually you’ll have a choice between tactical, melee, and ranged and melee should always be your first choice. The only exception I could see would be a ranged build for the moors.
From the wardens rock perspective, there’s some good chest thumping over here on soloing sword halls the 3-man Dol Guldur instance. I have to admit I have tried it a couple of times and am real close. I will probably try a couple more times after swapping over to the shield capstone line.
Which is a great transition for the next topic on that shield capstone. I’m not a huge fan of it, but then again I really haven’t tried it. So as part of my sword halls adventure I will keep it slotted for a bit to see how I like it. Probably the biggest issue I’ll have is re-learning gambit combos now that I’ll have the shield masteries slotted. I’ve posted my thoughts on these earlier and I don’t think it has changed too much unless I really love this little experiment I’m going to run.
As you’ve probably noticed I do read the LOTRO boards quite a bit, but mainly I use the various RSS feeds to go through them. Now granted sometimes I will miss something good from an old thread, but for the most part I’ll subscribe to the ones I think are important. However, after struggling with the dev tracker feed, Goldenstar from CStM pointed out that there’s a good Yahoo Pipe that helps with those issues. I’ve made a few pipes, but mainly to do things like strip out adds or merge different feeds into one and strip out duplicates. But I just recently made one to pretty much search the LOTRO boards for keywords Threat, Agro, Taunt, and tank. You can check out these two as well as my other pipes at my Yahoo Pipes page. I have one that is titled “LOTRO Threat” which I did yesterday and works well but I also did the “LOTRO Tank” which should work too but I’m not 100% sure it does yet. Feel free to use the feeds from there, or copy/tweak them as you want.