PVP with a Warden is very very different from a Hunter. First of all, there’s the incoming damage, not only does my Warden have 30-40% more morale than my hunter, but also some awesome Block/Evade/Parry rating (esp with Shield Mastery up). And dealing damage is quite different too, first of all the Warden has the super awesome Careful Step+Ambush combo which means that you can basically get the creep down to 50% morale before it can start doing damage itself. And with the Javelin toss range maxed out, the range is only slightly shorter than a Hunters range. Soloing is not only possible with a Warden, but also quite fun, with a Hunter (atleast for me) it was neither. But also grouping with a Warden is more fun. It’s lovely to be the one knocking down an enemy with Ambush, and see the rest of the raid finish it off.

Coming into melee range is quite different. You need to know exactly where your two-gambit icons are, one mistake building a gambit in the Moors will very likely end badly, there’s just not enough time to start over. My meele PVP weapon doesn’t deal very much damage yet either (Javelin toss range felt a whole lot more important to get up to max).

On a final note, I got my last piece in the Spear-Shaker set for my Warden yesterday. It’s nice to finally have 150 radiance, and that Recklessness set bonus will be awesome in PVP.

My Warden has now hit 59 which means that he can actually be of some use in the Moria instances. And yesterday I did my first “real” tanking with my Warden. We did a GS HM run and i got to tank Igash (while our guardian took care of the Devoted and his archers). I must say that i enjoyed it quite a bit!

I’ve studied tanking with a Warden a lot by reading on the web, mostly other blogs. Because of this I knew pretty much what to expect. I expected some trouble getting initial aggro, but that holding aggro once i got it would be no problem. Both these things were true.

Being used to playing a Hunter in the six man instances and raids, it was quite the opposite being a tank. Normally, with the Hunter, I do anything i can to not get aggro, which can get quite boring when all you want is to see really large yellow numbers. It was definitely more satisfying being a tank, where you don’t have to hold back, you just have to go nuts! Thankfully, I also had a lvl 65 Healer keeping me alive, making it a bit easier than it really should be.

The Warden class is really cool to play, for several reasons. First of all, there’s a lot of gambits, and even if they can be hard to remember at times, it’s a fun way to test out different ways to play. All the self-healing and morale-leeching gambits really help when taking on high-morale bosses, and the DPS on the spear-gambits actually isn’t that bad. Sure, a Warden can’t keep up with the traditional DPS-classes when it comes to DPS, but for a tank, it’s outstanding. I have now hit 44 on my Warden, and I’m planning on moving into Eregion very soon, first of all to collect the last pages for my book-deeds, but also to get ready for Moria.

On my journey to level 44 I’ve had a lot of help from different places around the web. The obvious ones are the Lore-book and the Lotro Wiki. For deeds/traits/virtues I’ve spent a fair bit of time at mmorsel’s Virtue Finder and the Virtues page at BurgZerg. But most important of all i think would be docholiday’s excellent Warden-blog.

Since most players in my kin (including myself) is casual players it can be quite hard to get a good group for the 6 and 12-man instances in LOTRO, but yesterday we did get a nice group to do Sammath Gûl. It was my first time and I really liked it.

It also meant i could now get my final rad-piece and I’m now ready for the greater challenges ahead. I also got the Bregloch earring, which sadly enough is really nice compared to my other crappy jewelery, I really have to do something about that.

Besides SG there has been a lot of deed-grinding going on for me lately. Trying to get those virtues up a notch, and fixing my legendary traits. My Hunter is now actually starting to look like a pretty solid build and all I really need is some new jewelery. A second or first age bow would also be nice of course, but my third age will be fine for now.

Also, I found this pic searching for info on the new skills

First of all, it’s obviously stolen from Tales from the Crypt, and the Great Barrows is kind of a crypt. But more importantly the Great Barrows was where i fully realized what LOTRO is all about. GB is the first time in the game where you really need a fellowship, before that I did everything solo, trying to level up as fast as possible. But playing in a fellowship for the first time made me realize that is what makes this game so awesome. It was a PUG, but it didn’t really matter, it really changed everything. I had been in fellowships before GB, but that was just to help someone, or get some help myself. This was the first time in a fellowship where you needed real teamwork.

I still do most my playing solo. But it’s the times when you’re in a fellowship or raid that you’ll remember. You don’t remember killing hundreds of animals to get a deed, or running around the map like crazy for a exploration deed. I can’t even remember most of the epic quest line. What i do remember is things like GB, Grand Stairs, Sword Halls and taking down that enormous, ugly turtle!

There is one other thing that has stuck in my memory too. I had just come to the North Downs for the first time, being level 20-something I had probably done the first quests you get at Trestlebridge but had now gone up to Colbert the Mad and his little camp overlooking the Fields of Fornost (Probably the quest The search for Idalene that brought me there). As I stood there looking out over the dead forest ahead of me, with my back turned to the green fields, a hobbit standing there picks up his lute and starts playing Concerning Hobbits from the movie soundtrack. Epic moment!

I’m probably gonna put a lot of time into my warden, it’s a fun class to play, but not an easy class. I also started a new char, another Hunter. With my Man/Hunter at 65 I felt the need to start all over with a new one. This time I know from the start what i need, and what I can be without. It’s an Elf/Hunter this time, and I will do everything I can to max that DPS out.

Not an easy decision, but one that had to be made. I finally picked my Captain (at level 28 at the time). The Captain is an awesome class to play. Solo play is great fun, and quite easy as long as you don’t start hitting the red mobs. In a fellowship you are extremely adaptable, being able to both tank and heal, or just DPS.

I have now hit 38, and I’m taking a break from levelling to complete som low-level-area deeds. I’ve already finished up everything i Bree-land, almost everything in the Shire, and am now working on the deeds in Ered Luin. After that, I’ll go through the lone Lands and North Downs finishing deeds before I resume the hunt for 65.

I intend to make this a solid build, with a wide variety of level 10 virtues to choose from. All the race and class traits unlocked for use and ofcourse all the legendary traits too. It will take many hours to get the perfect build, but as I already have the Hunter at 65, I’m under no pressure, I can still do endgame content with my kin.

Is i crazy to want the perfect build?

The first two bosses are usually no big problem. So here comes a small “guide” for thoose who wants to try it out with three hunters.

• Stay in strength stance
• Bring power pots
• The hunter that gets aggro – kite
• The hunters that don’t have aggro – DPS
• When you get aggro – start running
• When you’re nearing the end of the fight – Burn hot & Heart seeker

The only thing you’ll really be missing (except for some descent healing) will be the lack of interuptions and corruption removals (before the target hits <50% morale)…

Make sure you go in as much buffed as possible, try to get a captain to give you some buffs, and bring food. Also bring fear and wound pots. And ofcourse, power and morale pots.

And i absolutely LOVE them. So far I have nothing bad at all to say about them, they are great. I’ve levelled to 62 just on skirmishes, but that also leads to another problem. I’m only on Chapter 2 in book 9, wich means some skirmishes are still locked for me. Oh well, I’ll get there when I get there.

My favourite so far, is probably Ford of Bruinen, with Prancing Pony not far behind. Last night, the kin did a 12 man raid in Thievery and Mischief, wich was really fun, but we completely failed at the bosses in the end. Four bosses with 150k+ morale and healing buffs was just too hard. And before we could discover any good strategy people had to leave and go to bed (me among them). But we’ll have to give it a try some other day.

At first, I choose an Archer as my soldier, and being a Hunter myself, we sure did massive DPS. But my morale was always in danger, and I never had any power, so eventually I abondoned the Archer for a Herbalist, and it’s worked great so far. Sure, it takes a lot more time to kill all enemys, and you have to be careful not to let the Herbalist get to much aggro, but in the end, it does more good then bad, because I still got some morale and power left after a fight.

I would love to test a protector too, but i fear that they would (as Guardins do) have problems holding aggro while I’m in strength stance, and doing solo-skirmishes in endurance? Don’t think so.

Lastly, I just have to mention the Barrow-downs skirmish. It’s completely insane! In a good way. Can’t wait to try that one out in a raid. We did it with a six man FS and it’s, well, impossible to stay alive for longer than perhaps ten minutes. One lieutenant had an AOE attack giving everyone in the FS 3k damage… Insane.. And I’m loving it!