anotherway56
New member
Warden is a simple hero, and that's okay, but in current meta his ultimate feels way off to be called powerful, I know he's outdated but he really could use some love and minor tweaks, main problems are short range, low dmg early and the worst offender is the channel time, that in game with such vast mobility tools makes it rather hard to use, if not obsolete in most situations, enemies can easily retreat while Warden is aurafarming with channel and announcing his ult in a wide radius, in comparison, the Haze, an assasin archetype hero, has very similar ultimate after the rework, a frontal cone channel with bonus survivability built in, but it additionally works with her kit and applies item procs, WITHOUT any delay and channel time, it's not used as a last stand, it's 'im gonna ult and hope they will not just leave', it does not feel good to use, 'oooh guys we chasing them let me channel my ult and join you'.
It just doesn't hold on in current meta when compared to other ultimates, Doorman can banish you to prison realm without any interruption, Wraith can throw peoples like potatoes while moving, etc, there aren't really heroes in current rooster with ultimates as janky as the Warden (maybe Abrams but his ultimate at least grants cc and mobility), while recent addition, Celeste has a channel on ultimate, she can still move while holding it.
As his lore goes, he's basically a man conditioned since childhood to be a living weapon against the Patrons, it's not his desire, it's his duty, and it's very obvious when hearing his quotes like:
-I will stand as a beacon for my allies.
-Never show fear, no matter the odds!
-If I'm not willing to charge into battle, how can I expect others to do the same?
Conversations with other characters also point to the fact that Warden is rather dull, seemingly unhappy and his life is empty, yet this guy still holds on to his mission with his willpower and resolve, to finish the mission nobody else wants to do, because some eldritch entities tempting mortals with wishes in exchange for aiding them to cross over to our world are shady at best, and unfinished Geist VN confirms that if wish is not exactly stated the Patrons will provide just bare information necessary like they did to Abrams, they are not benevolent, just bound by their rules perhaps, which implies their intentions after crossing over to New York are not benevolent either.
So, his ultimate doesn't really match his vibe, at least for me, a duty bound man with a mission he carries out of necessity, it's not 'inspire allies so they follow me' or at least protect them, it's just bonus resists and beam that's easy to kite and predict, while behind in souls if Warden channels in wrong place or enemies are aggressive he's an target dummy to dump headshots into, when ahead and if enemies are unwary, he turns into a Victor and is hard to kill, it's hard to balance, if enemy team has Doorman and you build for ult, it's game over.
In current form it's more like a last stand of Muscleman from Regular Show shooting in random directions than actual epic last stand of cornered, duty bound man that leads his team while in frontline.
What I propose is, make it an actual charge into battle ability, similar to Centaur Warrunner from DOTA, an intitiation tool basically.
Another option is an actual inspiration of his allies and protection, something like an AOE support ability, an barrier perhaps.
Third option would be to just update it, remove the channel time or make it instant/faster while below certain hp threshold to keep the last stand fantasy and get rid of frontal cone, instead it empowers his bullets with spirit damage, as currently he's used mostly as a hybrid frontline.
And last one, probably my favorite would be to match the last stand theme with alchemist background, Warden imbibes a potion with great benefits that has side effects like debuffs after, which matches both themes, something really powerful to be used when situation is dire, with price of doing so being too high to use it normally, similar to Alchemist from dota, but with a drawback, while using it the Warden may yell ALCHEMICAL FLASK and gulp it down.
It just doesn't hold on in current meta when compared to other ultimates, Doorman can banish you to prison realm without any interruption, Wraith can throw peoples like potatoes while moving, etc, there aren't really heroes in current rooster with ultimates as janky as the Warden (maybe Abrams but his ultimate at least grants cc and mobility), while recent addition, Celeste has a channel on ultimate, she can still move while holding it.
As his lore goes, he's basically a man conditioned since childhood to be a living weapon against the Patrons, it's not his desire, it's his duty, and it's very obvious when hearing his quotes like:
-I will stand as a beacon for my allies.
-Never show fear, no matter the odds!
-If I'm not willing to charge into battle, how can I expect others to do the same?
Conversations with other characters also point to the fact that Warden is rather dull, seemingly unhappy and his life is empty, yet this guy still holds on to his mission with his willpower and resolve, to finish the mission nobody else wants to do, because some eldritch entities tempting mortals with wishes in exchange for aiding them to cross over to our world are shady at best, and unfinished Geist VN confirms that if wish is not exactly stated the Patrons will provide just bare information necessary like they did to Abrams, they are not benevolent, just bound by their rules perhaps, which implies their intentions after crossing over to New York are not benevolent either.
So, his ultimate doesn't really match his vibe, at least for me, a duty bound man with a mission he carries out of necessity, it's not 'inspire allies so they follow me' or at least protect them, it's just bonus resists and beam that's easy to kite and predict, while behind in souls if Warden channels in wrong place or enemies are aggressive he's an target dummy to dump headshots into, when ahead and if enemies are unwary, he turns into a Victor and is hard to kill, it's hard to balance, if enemy team has Doorman and you build for ult, it's game over.
In current form it's more like a last stand of Muscleman from Regular Show shooting in random directions than actual epic last stand of cornered, duty bound man that leads his team while in frontline.
What I propose is, make it an actual charge into battle ability, similar to Centaur Warrunner from DOTA, an intitiation tool basically.
Another option is an actual inspiration of his allies and protection, something like an AOE support ability, an barrier perhaps.
Third option would be to just update it, remove the channel time or make it instant/faster while below certain hp threshold to keep the last stand fantasy and get rid of frontal cone, instead it empowers his bullets with spirit damage, as currently he's used mostly as a hybrid frontline.
And last one, probably my favorite would be to match the last stand theme with alchemist background, Warden imbibes a potion with great benefits that has side effects like debuffs after, which matches both themes, something really powerful to be used when situation is dire, with price of doing so being too high to use it normally, similar to Alchemist from dota, but with a drawback, while using it the Warden may yell ALCHEMICAL FLASK and gulp it down.
