Warden

Overview

Wardens are Medium Armor off-tanks, they have both a ranged and melee skills. One of the most unique items about the warden is their "gambit" sequence - when they successfully pull off either taunt, spear attack and/or shield attack combos, a gambit opens up for use which can provide the following: Heal over time, Block, Parry and Evade buffs, Threat over Time, Damage over Time, AoE and mulitiple attacks on one target.

Tactics

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The main thing to take away when facing a Warden is to Keep moving and interupt (pounce and similar skills) Here is a summary of a warden's arsenal of skills:

  • Javelin Skills - These skills have more range than a champion/guardian with a bow, but not the range of a hunter. There are 5 javelin skills  which have a higher "to miss" if the warden is moving.
  1. 2 of the skills provide main weapon damage + additional damage bonuses.
  2. 1 provides weapon damage + a 30% speed/movement reduction,
  3. 1 provides weapon damage in addition to a -2640 block rating for 20s.
  4. The last skill will attack up to 3 targets with weapon damage + bonus.

The main thing to keep on mind is that 4 of the 5 skills have a 30 second cool down. Keep the warden moving around while they are throwing their Javelin - there are skills/legendary weapons that a warden can use that will increase the damage, range and "to hit while moving" but keeping them moving increases the likelihood they will miss.

  • Gambits - there are 2, 3, 4 & 5 combo gambits - obviously the higher the number of skills used in the gambit = more damage, threat, healing or B/P/E buffs.  It takes practice and time to learn and effectively pull off the gambits and there are slight delays between each skill (taunt, weapon or shield) used to build the gambit. However a skilled warden can stack DoT's on a target VERY effectively and can also stack HoT to make killing them difficult. The main strategy to remember is that they have to face their target to pull off spear and sheild attacks to build the gambit, keep moving around the  back side of the warden and it makes it harder for them to build their gambit. They do have some "combo" skills (Shield/Fist, Fist Spear) that they can trait and slot which minimizes having to stand still to build and execute a gambit - however, those are on a 15 sec CD, so it does limit how quickly the warden can stack DoTs and HoT on a moving target.
  • Ambush - This is a pretty deadly skill for the warden since it has 110% Main weapon damge + Bonus damage and a 5 second stun.  It does have an induction time 3-5 seconds average, and has to be started out of combat. Best strategy here is to attack the warden while they are "crouching" to ambush, that interupts the skill.
  • Careful Step - This has a small induction and provides stealth for 15-30 seconds depending how the warden has legendary and traits slotted. The biggest benefit to the warden is that it provides Ambush with no induction time.

So in observation of how a warden operates, They can stealth for 15-30 seconds in order to get within javelin range - Ambush their target and stun for 5 seconds. Run towards the target hurling Javelin attacks that do damage, 30% slow, lower block chance (which could have a creep to 1/2 health at this point). Fire off a couple B/P/E gambits and HoT, then finish off the creep with multiple attacks, DoT stacks and additional javelin attacks because CD as over.