Following up on my previous post, here is a graphical representation of the Shield (green) gambits for the Warden class:
The Shield gambits are also relatively well organized. Only one odd gambit stands out, at the top right corner of the illustration, shield + fist places a Damage-over-Time effect on the opponent and a Heal-over-Time effect on the Warden. The continuation of the same sequence in alternance then produces a threat transfer effect – the Warden gets the threat accumulated by all other fellowship members, which on paper looks like a good way to ensure he always stays at the top of the mobs’ attention. The end of the shield + fist sequence adds again a Heal-over-Time effect.
Now like in many other MMOs, healing produces threat of its own, so HoTs are desirable not just for added survivability but also because they raise the threat threshold for the warden.
The left column produces defense bonuses in increasing order, with first the double Shield giving 20s block bonus, then shield->spear->fist (-> shield) adding 30s (1 min) bonuses to block, parry and evade. With my puny level 10 Warden, I’m far from seeing these in action but I suspect these too will become part of the gambits a tanking Warden will want to keep running at all time.
Finally, in the center column, the shield+spear sequence, which mostly produces direct damage and a heal-over-time. One important point here is that while the Warden’s threat abilities (we’ll see in the post about the Fist gambits that there’s a notion of ToT, Threat over Time) stack, HoTs do not, so getting multiple different HoTs running at the same time will both add to survivability and threat level.
And if I got these mechanisms wrong, I’d be grateful for any reader to correct me, the comments section is ideally suited for that.
The Fist gambits post will eventually follow, that is, as soon as I manage to make sense of that ragtag mess or give up and just mash it all together. We’ll see.
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