Warden

Class Difficulty: Advanced

Role: Damage/Tank

Available to races: Dwarf, Elf, High Elf, Hobbit, Man, River Hobbit, Stout-axe

Gameplay: Wardens are mobile combatants who use Javelins for initiating combat and against ranged foes. Their unique Warden Shield and a variety of defensive skills allow them to stay in the fight longer than most. Basic Warden skills build up their Gambit chain, which can be spent to unleash special Gambit skills. In Fellowships, a Warden forces enemies to attack themself, so their more fragile allies will not be harmed by the foes.

Lore: The Warden patrols the borders of civilized lands, preventing the encroachment of fell creatures from the Wild. They limit themselves to medium armour, so they can travel swiftly and silently to defend those they protect from threats. Wardens all have some military training, and have mastered a style of combat that uses combinations of basic attacks to create masterful Gambits.

The class was inspired by the marchwarden of Lothlórien, Haldir, and his brothers Rúmil and Orophin.

A female Hobbit Warden

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Gameplay

Wardens use the unique Gambit system in place of having regular skills. They have wide capabilities in any role they choose, able to deal damage, heal and protect themselves, and generate aggro. They build up  Advanced Technique by completing Gambits, which they use to empower some of their skills.

• Blue-line (Tank): Wardens specialized in the Determination trait tree use Gambits to gain threat. While lacking Heavy Armour, their Gambits allow them to considerably increase their mitigations. They are especially strong in self-healing, making up for their lack of strong defensive cooldowns. Of all tanks, they have the greatest capability at retaining threat of a huge number of enemies.
• Red-line (Damage): Warden specialized in the Recklessness trait tree use Gambits to inflict potent bleeds on their enemies. Certain Gambits, like  Unseen Strikes and  Cauterizing Steel, consume bleeds to deal additional potent damage. They rely on their Mastery skills to quickly build up Gambits for their bleeds.

This class is incredibly hard to learn, as it requires muscle memory and a strong understanding of the class to play well. Once learned though, it is very rewarding, easily being one of the best leveling classes in the game. It is also strong at the higher end, albeit requiring greater focus than other classes.

Gambits

Gambit panel with no Gambit Icons.

Gambit panel with the Power Attack Gambit.

A Warden's most powerful abilities are achieved through the use of Gambits -- advanced skills built from special sequences of basic attacks or Gambit Builders. These builders add a Fist, Shield, Spear or Javelin icon at the end of the sequence in the Gambit Panel on the player's screen. At level 1, these sequences are limited to two icons, but sequences of up to five icons are learnt as the Warden levels up.

As they level up, Wardens obtain skills which interact with gambits. From level 24,  Battle Preparation allows a Gambit to be pre-built before combat, enabling the Warden to execute a complete gambit immediately upon entering combat. The gambit can be built using either the standard builders or mastery skills.

From level 30, Wardens build  Advanced Technique by completing gambits. A chain of four gambits will contribute one count of Advanced Technique up to a maximum of three. Advanced Technique enhances several of the Warden's skills such as  The Way of the Spear,  Desperate Combat, and  For the Free Peoples. Executing a skill that uses Advanced Technique will consume all counts.

From level 38, the four dual-icon gambits grant the  Potency effect, which stores the next gambit executed into  Battle Memory. The Warden can then execute the stored gambit without having to rebuild it.

From level 39, the Warden can make use of mastery skills to build gambit sequences faster. These are special skills that immediately grant two gambit icons without using the basic builder attacks, and have very little animation time.