Aplix
New member
I recently went through all the characters in the game recently, and thought to myself "Who is the most underrated?"
My answer immediately went to Warden, but he's not actually underrated. While his kit is powerful, he stands out overall as feeling weirdly put together and slightly incoherent. His gameplay theme seems to be "Chase after enemies really hard and disable/punish them, then ult when things go wrong", but it locks him into a very specific way of playing. His cage is pretty awesome, but overall he feels "Weird" and therefore kind of unfun to play with a lot of mismatching parts.
I recently had a discussion with someone else, who brought up the idea of Warden being a vigilante, similar to characters like Batman. They brought up the idea that he could synergise with active items somehow, treating them like gadgets in a toolbelt, and I instantly loved the idea. Alongside a visual rework to make him look like a scruffy homeless soldier/vigilante, here is my rework of Warden.
Gun:
Warden currently seems to have the "default" gun, which is similar to the one Viscous and Kelvin use. It's neat, but I think it would be awesome if he got slightly more close range potential. Therefore, he could be given a Glock or similar gun that has slightly higher fire-rate, but lower accuracy. Like Victor's gun but without the ramp-up in firing speed.
Abilities:
1st Ability: Flask feels fun to use and fair to play against. It's fast, fun and cool to use, and the reduced weapon damage + move speed encourages players to chase after enemies and out-dps them. This ability stays the same, but the gun changes make it feel more fun to use and intentional.
2nd Ability: Vigilance. This replaces Willpower. While willpower is fun, it also feels fairly shallow and doesn't synergise with much. It lets you move faster and tank some damage, and that's it. Vigilance is also simple, but fun. Vigilance reduces the cooldown of ALL of your other abilities by 2 seconds, which includes all of your active items. It also gives you a temporary boost in spirit power. With additional upgrades, you get temporary spirit lifesteal too. When using this ability, warden is visually enveloped in a dark alchemical energy for one second
3rd Ability: Binding Word. Warden's cage is super fun and honestly feels really interesting. It's extremely powerful, but also very easy to avoid by default (with items like slowing hex changing this). It's also thematically appropriate that the guy called "Warden" can imprison his enemies.
4th Ability: Last Stand. Warden's ultimate is honestly really strange. It makes him less mobile, which is strange for a mobility-themed character, and it encourages running into the enemy team like a tankier character. It's also really easy to counter and doesn't provide much utility like other big ultimates.
Warden's new ultimate is called "Dead Reckoning" (physics joke). It temporarily gives him bullet/spirit lifesteal, as well as making all of his abilities and active items timers tick down 3x as fast, which allows you to use them all very quickly. Combined with your other abilities, you can unleash tons of flasks and cages + active items. You could even use his ult in a support build.
Aside from bullet/spirit lifesteal and big cooldown reductions, his ultimate gives him the ability to teleport every 2 seconds. This teleport is identical to Warp stone, but without the bullet resistance. Overall, his ult still turns him into a massive threat, but he relies more on mobility now, and can be countered with high skill, good aim and high damage.
My answer immediately went to Warden, but he's not actually underrated. While his kit is powerful, he stands out overall as feeling weirdly put together and slightly incoherent. His gameplay theme seems to be "Chase after enemies really hard and disable/punish them, then ult when things go wrong", but it locks him into a very specific way of playing. His cage is pretty awesome, but overall he feels "Weird" and therefore kind of unfun to play with a lot of mismatching parts.
I recently had a discussion with someone else, who brought up the idea of Warden being a vigilante, similar to characters like Batman. They brought up the idea that he could synergise with active items somehow, treating them like gadgets in a toolbelt, and I instantly loved the idea. Alongside a visual rework to make him look like a scruffy homeless soldier/vigilante, here is my rework of Warden.
Gun:
Warden currently seems to have the "default" gun, which is similar to the one Viscous and Kelvin use. It's neat, but I think it would be awesome if he got slightly more close range potential. Therefore, he could be given a Glock or similar gun that has slightly higher fire-rate, but lower accuracy. Like Victor's gun but without the ramp-up in firing speed.
Abilities:
1st Ability: Flask feels fun to use and fair to play against. It's fast, fun and cool to use, and the reduced weapon damage + move speed encourages players to chase after enemies and out-dps them. This ability stays the same, but the gun changes make it feel more fun to use and intentional.
2nd Ability: Vigilance. This replaces Willpower. While willpower is fun, it also feels fairly shallow and doesn't synergise with much. It lets you move faster and tank some damage, and that's it. Vigilance is also simple, but fun. Vigilance reduces the cooldown of ALL of your other abilities by 2 seconds, which includes all of your active items. It also gives you a temporary boost in spirit power. With additional upgrades, you get temporary spirit lifesteal too. When using this ability, warden is visually enveloped in a dark alchemical energy for one second
3rd Ability: Binding Word. Warden's cage is super fun and honestly feels really interesting. It's extremely powerful, but also very easy to avoid by default (with items like slowing hex changing this). It's also thematically appropriate that the guy called "Warden" can imprison his enemies.
4th Ability: Last Stand. Warden's ultimate is honestly really strange. It makes him less mobile, which is strange for a mobility-themed character, and it encourages running into the enemy team like a tankier character. It's also really easy to counter and doesn't provide much utility like other big ultimates.
Warden's new ultimate is called "Dead Reckoning" (physics joke). It temporarily gives him bullet/spirit lifesteal, as well as making all of his abilities and active items timers tick down 3x as fast, which allows you to use them all very quickly. Combined with your other abilities, you can unleash tons of flasks and cages + active items. You could even use his ult in a support build.
Aside from bullet/spirit lifesteal and big cooldown reductions, his ultimate gives him the ability to teleport every 2 seconds. This teleport is identical to Warp stone, but without the bullet resistance. Overall, his ult still turns him into a massive threat, but he relies more on mobility now, and can be countered with high skill, good aim and high damage.
