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 | |
| 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 | |
| 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:
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:
60 Trait Points Build for Beginners:
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:
- Loyalty (Great for Vitality)
- Fidelity (Great for Vitality + Tactical Mit)
- Charity (Gives great amount of Resistance, decent Vitality and Physical Mit)
- Tolerance (Gives great amount of Tactical Mit, decent Physical Mit and Resistance)
- 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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