Blue Warden

Blue Line Tank Warden Build

By Eadondryt of Evernight – Updated for Yondershire, U33

Table of Contents

Introduction

Welcome, here you will find a build for Warden Tank “Tankings back on the menu boys!”

This guide is a follow on to my previous Blue warden guide and focuses on the new content. In this update the majority of the damage taken is BPEable again, so this will be the focus of the guide, how to build and play a BPE warden.

  • Excellent mitigations: 70% both Physical and Tactical (self buffed).
  • Best DPS Tank: Great for content where sustained DPS
  • Best BPE Self buffs.
  • Group wide mitigation bonus (45k Tactical and 76k Physical at top tier) for 20s – This is useful for fights where you know a spike damage is coming in, like lightning phase in Remmo, or Woe of the Willow when puddles drop everywhere.
  • Outgoing Damage Debuff – 5-10%

What does the warden lack?

  • A good way to kite – we don’t have in combat run speed to avoid damage. And to do our mitigation gambits, we have to stop, turn hit, and run again. So in kiting fights – a warden is not good unless the boss can be slowed.´
  • Self-Heals – I have found on T5 3-man instances, that the self heals are just not good enough to tank solo and keep you and your party alive if big hits are involved. A healer is recommended.

After everything considered, Blue Warden is still a good option to take into 3/6-man content.

Stat Goals


Wardens are excellent at self-buffing their BPE stats as well as their mitigations, therefore we pretty much only need vitality essences, but we have to pay close attention to our gear, set bonuses and LIs.

These goals are kept with Essence & Gear planning in mind, as to which Essences are to be prioritized over others. These goals can also be used when picking Virtues.

Resistance > Tactical Mitigation > Physical Mitigation > Vitality

After Resistance is at a good level, and Mits are capped or near capped (with self Gambit buffs also included), then Vitality essences can be used to fill remaining essence slots. Generally, only Tactical Mitigation essences will be needed, as Physical Mitigation gets capped with just cap-level Gear and Virtues. At the beginning of expansion, Essence slots are really limited, this gets easier as better items become available later down the line.

* Before planning Essences, slot the right Virtues (more on that down below). This way you can plan your setup better, and utilize Essences perfectly, and you can dump the remaining Essence slots in Vitality, Finesse, or other Stat of your choice after meeting Stat goals mentioned above.

Gear

With new Raid released, new gear for Tanking Warden is published in the tables down below. They will use 4-pieces of the Blue set and 3-pieces of the Red set for additional stats. There are 2 published Builds, one for Endgame and one for Starters.

End-game Build

Armour Pieces

Gear Slot Set Piece Location
Helm Hiddenhoard Raid
Chest Hiddenhoard Raid
Shoulders Hiddenhoard Raid
Gloves Hiddenhoard Raid
Legs Hiddenhoard Raid
Boots Hiddenhoard Raid
Cloak Hiddenhoard Raid
Off-hand Hiddenhoard Raid
Class Item Throne Raid Barter

Use Class Essence
here.

Jewelry Pieces

Gear Slot Set Piece Location
Earring 1 Hiddenhoard Raid
Earring 2 Hiddenhoard Raid
Necklace Hiddenhoard Raid
Pocket Hiddenhoard Raid
Bracelet 1 Storvagun Winter Festival
Bracelet 2 Storvagun Winter Festival
Ring 1 Hiddenhoard Raid
Ring 2 Hiddenhoard Raid

Starter Build

The 140 Level Gear from this Build can be acquired by playing the 3 and 6 man instances, higher difficulty will award better loot. Having this gear will allow to progress level capped Raids. As for Essences, you can use the ones you get from Questing or Crafting (whichever Tier is fine), and try to follow the Stat Goals above and Slot the ones which are needed by your Class.

Armour Pieces

Gear Slot Set Piece Location
Helm Gundabad 6-Man Instance
Chest Gundabad 6-Man Instance
Shoulders Gundabad 3-Man Instance
Gloves Gundabad 3-Man Instance
Legs Gundabad 3-Man Instance
Boots Gundabad 3-Man Instance
Cloak Gundabad 6-Man Instance
Off-hand Embers Box
Barter
Class Item Throne Raid Barter

Use Class Essence
here.

Jewelry Pieces

Gear Slot Set Piece Location
Earring 1 Gundabad 6-Man Instance
Earring 2 Gundabad 6-Man Instance
Necklace Gundabad 6-Man Instance
Pocket Gundabad 6-Man Instance
Bracelet 1 Storvagun Winter Festival
Bracelet 2 Storvagun Winter Festival
Ring 1 Gundabad 6-Man Instance
Ring 2 Gundabad 6-Man Instance

Essences

Essence Name Essence Note
Class Essence Use this on Class Item.
Tactical
Mitigation
Use these to reach
Tactical Mitgation
cap, or near cap.
Vitality Use these to
fill Slots safter
Mits are capped.
Finesse Use some of
these if there’s room.
Tank Mitigation
Trigger 1
Use 1 of these
if there’s room.
Tank Mitigation
Trigger 2
Use 1 of these
if there’s room.

*Note: Finesse and Trigger Essences for Tanks are optional/situational. Use only if you have room for them, although the Tank Trigger essences can be quite nice for harder group content.

Trait Trees

This is how I trait to Blue Warden:

Blue Tree for Tanking

Yellow Points:

This is mostly about Marked/Diminished target, we want to invest enough points to get the AoE version, so we can debuff any adds as well. Picking up the finesse line to help with any resists of our javelin taunt and AoEs.

Shields Up: 5% extra block when changing from ranged stance to melee is now a must have, makes stance swapping very useful and lasts 15 seconds. When fully buffed our chance to block can be at 20%.

Finally: Hurry up with that. If we will be swapping into ranged regularly, might as well throw a ranged Adroid Manouvre for induction buffs on the healers/dps.

Red Points:

I had three points left over, and could not think of anywhere else to put them, possible in the AoE damage for morale taps, but those skills are not used at all in my rotation, unless its lots of trash, then the extra damage is nice, but does not make a big difference.

35 Trait Points Build for Legendary Servers:

35 Points Build

60 Trait Points Build for Beginners:

60 Points Build

Virtues

These are the virtues I use to reach the Stat Goals. I use these 5 virtues on all my tanks as I find these exact ones to be the best for tanks.

Here are the Virtues which go along with the Stat Goals:

  1. Loyalty (Great for Vitality)
  2. Fidelity (Great for Vitality + Tactical Mit)
  3. Charity (Gives great amount of Resistance, decent Vitality and Physical Mit)
  4. Tolerance (Gives great amount of Tactical Mit, decent Physical Mit and Resistance)
  5. Innocence (Gives great amount of Physical Mit, decent Tactical Mit Mit and Resistance)
    • If you are over Physical Mitigation cap, swap Innocence with Honour

If you don’t have these virtues, here are some alternatives:

  • Honour (Gives decent Tactical Mit, Morale and Critical Defence)
  • Fortitude (Gives decent Morale, Resistance and Critical Defence)
  • Compassion (Gives great Physical Mit, decent Tactical Mit and Armour Value)

Legendary Items

With the new LI revamp, Warden received some interesting new Traceries, which can be utilized well for Tanking Wardens. They will need 2 LIs dedicated for tanking.

*Note: Please use Word of Craft Traceries as per Stat Goals.

1-Hander Weapon

Type Sockets
Heraldic Tracery Heraldry of the Sparrow
Word of Power Base Morale Multiplier
Word of Power Incoming Heal Bonus
Word of Mastery Defiant Challenge Damage Return
Word of Mastery Fist Gambit Damage
& Critical Chance
Word of Mastery Gambit Builder Damage
Word of Mastery Gambit Lifetap Damage
Word of Mastery Spear Gambit Damage
Word of Mastery Surety of Death Damage Over Time
Word of Craft Grand Willpower
Word of Craft Grand Willpower

Warden’s Javelin

Type Sockets
Heraldic Tracery Heraldry of the Sparrow
Word of Power Area Effect Target Count
Word of Power Incoming Damage Reduction
(Physical)
Word of Power Incoming Damage Reduction
(Tactical)
Word of Mastery Heal Bonus for Conviction
Word of Mastery Marked Target Double-cast Chance
Word of Mastery Mastery Cooldown
Word of Mastery Shield Gambit Line Healing
Word of Mastery Shield Tactics
Tactical Mitigation Debuff
Word of Mastery Steadfast Cooldown
Word of Craft Grand Armour
Word of Craft Grand Armour

Rotation

How to Tank 

First you need to make sure you know which gambit lines buff what, here is a handy guide:


Shield-Spear line: Self-Heals, Block buff, Partial Block Chance Buff and Incoming Healing
Fist-Shield line: AoE Dmg and Evade Buff
Shield-Fist line: Mitigation buffs and tactical mitigation rating.
Wall of Steel: Parry Buff


Plugins:

Personally I use Buffmonitor, so I can see which of my buffs are about to expire and refresh them based on that.


Pre Fight Battle Preparation:


This takes a while to set up, but it is worth it.
Dance of War – 3% Physical Mitigations
Conviction – 3% Tactical Mitigations
Shield Mastery – Big Evade and Block Buff
War Cry – Evade Buff
Maddening Strike – Evade Buff
Surety of Death – Bigger Evade Buff


Rotation:


I start with a warning shot to ensure I have aggro for 5 seconds.
Sh-Spsp -> Defiant Challenge -> Sh-Spsh -> Sh-Sp-Shsp (This gets your Block and ICHR maxed and lock aggro in)


Depending on how long you waited before the fight started, your Dance of War/Conviction/Shield Mastery will begin to expire.


Swap Ranged Stance, use shield-mastery, swap melee stance for block buff.


Refresh evade buffs, then throw in Wall of Steel for the parry buff and ranged adroit manouvre when you have time. I usually do a battle memory for one of these, as the buffs do not last long and take a while to build.


You can also use the 2/3 gambit builders for the 2% extra mitigations, but I found its not worth the time to build them, compared to having BPE maxed.

Rotation Video

Consumables

There are the consumables to use on Warden:

Updated as of U33.

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