So what do you think of Warden so far?

[Vanish]

<DIV>Only level 23 at the moment but climbing fast:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Like the fact we can hold our own in healing.</DIV> <DIV>Can't stand the fact we can't track.</DIV> <DIV>Enjoy the fact that people want us in groups.</DIV> <DIV>Will accept the fact that we will most always go down first, heal agro with Bloom is insane.</DIV> <DIV>I like the buffs and my current line of spells.</DIV> <DIV>just don't understand how my Wolf form ... does not have "Spirit of the Wolf" speed.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Just a few thoughts.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Vanish  - Warden - Najena</DIV>

[Kyralis]

No complaints thus far (27) except Blessing of the Grove being broken, as I've posted elsewhere. Aggro is an issue sometimes, but most competent tanks can keep it off me and with wolf form one or two mobs with no arrows are hardly a threat to me. Very pleased to this point!

[Ika]

<DIV>only lvl 21 right now and I have no regrets or complaints at all.  Heh I am worried about the Blessing of the Grove spell coming up, but riht now I love it!!</DIV>

[Kyralis]

BotG isn't an issue till late 20s, and at that point all healers are feeling the same problem. It's just pushing us back to the "group must have two healers" situation that they tried to fix at the end of beta, not really a flaw in the druid class in particular, so don't let it damage your enjoyment of the class. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Gu]

<DIV>Warden 23 here (with 22% (or so) exp debt slowing me down from 24 (evil wisps for AQ5))</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Well I must say that wardens make for some nice healers in a party. If the tank can keep the aggro you can stack Regrowth and BotG and maybe throw in an extra healing spell if it's needed. Got 2 types of group heals, fairly OK single target heal spells, nice buffs... warden is a nice... errh... wait  a sec.. healer only?</DIV> <DIV>Damage? Lets see..</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I got a scimitar I looted from a named orc in the training grounds that is pretty neat.. I still don't do more then 4-9 dmg when I melee (+proc in wolf form, but how often does that happen?). Chill is more or less obsolete now and only reason it's still down there on the hotbar is because it's an adapt 1 version and blue to me; around 45-80 dmg. Stinging swarm is neat and does 25-31 dmg 4(?) times, I think. We get a DS which aint bad either.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Light armor forces us away from the tanking possitions... But we didn't like those anyway, so no worries there. (wait a sec... solo?  - Will get to that.)</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Bugged snare right now is... No idea, but the fact that any spell is bugged, is horrible IMO. Fix asap plzkthxbye!!11oneone <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>So how do we hold up?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Grouped we are neat!</DIV> <DIV>   Forget the fact that druids were only semi good at everything except quading in EQ1, if you're still thinking that way. We are a nice asset to any group and can pretty much with ease fill the only healer spot and keep tank above 70% (this is your key to heal) pretty easy. Might be a bugged start. But if you send the tank away with DS and regen while he pulls it makes it easier. (Yes I know the tank shouldn't pull... but that was in eq1. Here it seems to work just fine and with taunt, kind of weird right now, the tank is the best puller).</DIV> <DIV>I aint saying that the cleric or shammy line of classes would be outclassed or anything. Just saying that *I* have no problem keeping a group up, unless we get adds...or unless the tank is a dork that hasn't found the taunt button yet... (Totaly off topic: Or like how one guy in commonlands didn't want to taunt because then the mobs only focused on killing him....OK?)</DIV> <DIV>Anyway, heals are there and in place and a dot or a dd can be casted to releive some stress. Also remember that damaging and debuffing is a form of healing as well. Just not a direct form.</DIV> <DIV>Verdict: 7/10 - Would say we are a bit better the shammys, but don't have any first hand experience with shammys here and only clerics really beat us if large amounts of HP needs to be healed at once.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>So what about solo?</DIV> <DIV>   Well... Uh.. Not unless you really have to. We *can*, but we are definetly _not_ good at it. The 2nd best solo class (or best... necro vs druid has always been a tight battle) has become kind of sucky at soloing. Maybe this is a form of payback forced on to SOE by the community? "Make those stinking treehuggers weak at solo so we can laugh at them?" - OK, don't want to point any fingers but we sure aint no masters anyway. I feel... nerfed. Would rather have the group side nerfed then the solo side. *sob*</DIV> <DIV>Anyway... Slap a DS, SoW (you need it when sprint drained your power away for extra boost of speed), and keep regen up at all times. Pull with a DoT, start HO and then chain HO your way through the battle. Our dmg ratio is low... Crappy low. We make up for this a little with the ability to heal however.</DIV> <DIV>I aint counting the up arrows since they should be avoided if they aint grey.. They are for groups after all. But as for solo mobs: 1 yellow/white and then rest, 2 blue and sometimes 3 more (depends on mob) then rest. Green can be chainpulled, but any class can do that so it's nothing to cheer about really.</DIV> <DIV>5/10 - Stay in groups. The druids (wardens) glory of solo days is over. Maybe if they fix snare to what it was in EQ1 we'll raise to a 6/10, but don't see that happening.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>So how I personally feel about the warden in short; I got him above 20, I aint starting another class to grind with. Gonna keep going to 40 at least and then deside. The silly amount of melee damage have made me want to start a stronger race (I'm a dark elf warden) several times to see if it wouldn't be more fun that way. An ogre perhaps?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I am "ok" with my warden. Don't love it and don't hate it.</DIV>

[neble]

<DIV>Warden 26 (closing on 27!) here.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Healing - Our primary role, absolutley no problems here.  I regularly form groups where I'm the sole healer for goliaths and lots of other nasty stuff and do just fine.  It helps to have a Enchanter in my group for power and crowd control though.  I think one of the key things to our healing is you really have to learn how to stack our spells right.  I see tons of Druids out there coming to a level 25 party with Arch and Minor healing.... NO NO NO!  :smileyhappy:  What I do is let the tank pull and as he's running in start preping Regrowth which goes off by the time he has his first taunt going.  From there you top off the tank with Bloom as needed that way your not only getting the 180-200ish instant heal, but you're also getting another 15-18 regen burst on top of the 85 bursts from Regrwoth.  If it gets ugly then use Efflorese as needed, but understand Eff casts slow so if you see your tank going down fast don't hestitate to start casting it.  If his damage intake slows down and you see regen kicking him back up you can always interupt Eff.  I do have Minor healing hot keyed (dropped Arch a long time ago), but only use it to top off a Mage cannibalizing for power, or a Tank before they go out to pull again.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Soloing - No problems.  Already posted on this in another thread, DOTs rock when stacked.  Add thorns, buffs and regen and you're a soloing machine.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I have only 2 true gripes so far -</DIV> <DIV>1) Wolf form should also include SOW, it's WOLF form afterall.  Not a big deal, just have to cast spirit of the wolf to put the spirit back in my wolf.</DIV> <DIV>2) Ensnaring roots = debuff with no snare.  Truly, please fix it.  :smileyhappy:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Overall I give our subclass a 9/10.... I'm a partying animal (literally) and there's no lack of need for me in groups thus far.</DIV>

[Kyralis]

Some responses to Guui.1) Regrowth and BotG don't stack. The icons do, but trust me, only BotG is ticking. It's broken. Don't use it.2) "Fairly OK single target heal spells"? I heal for more than the rest of the sorry priests that fail to understand the power of nature!3) Melee damage is worthless, of course. Same with all the priests. You're about to see your magic damage go *way* up, though. Cold Snap at 24 and Frost at 25 are very, very nice spells.4) Agree for the most part grouped, except that I'd place us very much on par with shammies and a bit better than the clerics, unless fighting a group of 3. At that point the cleric reactive heals very efficiently counteract basically all damage from the mobs, and I am rather in awe. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />5) Ensnaring roots is bugged, yes, but as I posted elsewhere since kiting will never be allowed snare is useless except for running anyway. The agility debuff is still nice, though I agree the spell still needs to be fixed. Can we *please* get a BotG fix first, though? *That* is what's hurting me, not Ensnaring Roots.6) Solo- see number 3 for why we suddenly get much better at soloing. Pull with stinging swarm. Start HO, hit Cold Snap. Hit Frost to finish HO. Start HO, Frost, Frost. Toss on a regrowth if your health hits yellow, use bloom/caress if it hits orange. Hitting for 120-160 with each frost and 90-150 with each HO completion, not to mention Cold Snap's 50/3 seconds damage in the background, and the slow but steady melee and vicious bite damage. I solo yellow/orange in Zek and EL all the time to complete various quests, and as long as I don't get two I don't have any problems.Nature's Caress at 29 made me much happier with my Warden again, I must say.

[Ballyh]

<DIV>I'm quite happy with the Warden.  It's hard to tell for sure, but I feel like I'm a more effective healer than Templars.  I like the predictable healing of a regen rather than the reactive heal, which relies on the target getting hit.  The only time I've questioned my choice was a couple of times when I've died before I even knew I had aggro.  Right after a heal I suddenly dropped dead.  I scroll back up to see a string of 300+ damage from mob specials.  I wonder if the heavy armor of a Templar would have helped in that situation?</DIV>

[GTmai]

<DIV>I am happy with my Warden but I do share some of the same gripes with a lot of other Wardens.  </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The occaisional regen/thorn/debuff agro I get is a bit annoying but its just something that takes adjusting when you can cast them.  I do get a bit bored as the secondary healer and I don't really feel others understand the added benefit they are getting from my buffs, regen, debuffs since it isnt as noticable as the other healers, but thats an aside. heh. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I do want to say, though, that I don't see a drop off in soloing ability one bit.  I can easily chain blue and white wildlife for great xp and have no problem killing yellows with only  20-30% of my power.  OJs take anywhere from 40-50% so I usually don't seek those while xp'ing.  It isn't uber but it is better then a lot of the other classes that have to continuously med.  I only go after group monsters if I need them for quests but I doubt any other classes can solo group mobs faster than I can chain through singles xp-wise.  </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Wardens are still the different function for different situations type of class and it keeps thing interesting.  </DIV> <DIV> </DIV>