Update 10: Warden Stat Change – Agility Wardens!

By: Erika "DEViled_Egg" Ng

Hey everybody! DEViled_Egg here to talk about the Warden stat changes. I’ll be going over what’s changing, how, why, and what we’ll be doing to ease this transition. RockX will also provide some more details on the change and what this means from an itemization perspective.

So, what’s changing?

Wardens will be converted from a Might-based class to an Agility-based class. Starting with Update 10, Agility will provide the following for Wardens:

• 10 Physical Mastery Rating
• 5 Tactical Mastery Rating
• 2 Parry Rating
• 4 Evade Rating
• 1 Crit Rating

And Might will provide the following:

• 2 Parry Rating
• 4 Block Rating
• 2 Physical Mitigation

Block / Evade Ratings

Since Wardens will be switching from Might to Agility, it also means they’ll be trading Block for Evade as a primary avoidance. Every point lost in Block Rating from dropping Might will be re-gained as a point of Evade from Agility. All of the Wardens self-buffs which currently affect block will continue to do so. Warden shields will also continue to provide a hefty amount of Block Rating.

The Trait “Skillful Blocking” is being changed to “Combat Positioning” and will increase the potency of your Evade self-buffs as well as trigger its heal off of Evades instead of Blocks. This change was made because it is anticipated that Wardens will Evade more than Block come Update 10, so it made sense to put the 1% heal on the Avoidance that will trigger most often.

Mitigations

Physical Mitigation will continue to remain on Might. However, we will provide ways for Wardens to shore up their Mitigations via Itemization and class advancement.

The Grace Period

RockX here! We realized early on when planning these changes that if we were to just flip the switch, all Wardens would immediately be super-nerfed since they’d have only Might gear. To avoid this, we’re instituting a grace-period during in which both Agility and Might will contribute Physical and Tactical Mastery at the same rate. This will allow Wardens to swap out their Might-gear for Agility-gear without experiencing a major loss of damage in the meantime. We’re also planning on converting a substantial amount of the Might-based Warden Shields and Medium Armor to use Agility as the primary stat during this time. The Grace Period will last for all of Update 10, possibly longer. Once we feel the class is in a good position gear-wise and Wardens have had ample time to adjust, we will remove the Physical and Tactical Mastery contributions from Might. Agility will then be the reigning primary stat for the Warden class. We believe this grace period will provide ample time for even casual Wa(r)dens more than enough time to re-gear.

Final Thoughts

We understand that a change of this magnitude is likely to be met with apprehension, but please know that we’re doing everything we can to ensure this transition is as smooth as possible. RockX and I play Wadens too you know!

Finally, some of you on our forums have speculated that this change is in some way tied to the upcoming class changes hinted at in our Dev Chats. <_< … >_> …maaaaybe.