Warden | Balance Change Ideas | Forums

[Okt0g00N]

So as we know Warden isn't the strongest in all points, well mostly, his shoulderbash is a very a pressurizing move that is hard to avoid due to standard delay and charge up.
His kit is not all that great, have you seen high level plays, it's literally 20% of kit being used.
So my suggestions will be probably over the top, ignored and hated mostly because everyone has formed a negative idea about Warden.
Here goes nothing.
(My intention to start this post was due to another post called "Warden" and by no means im trying to spam but improve on each post and actually get some attention on them so the team can see.)

Moveset Changes

Valiant Breakthrough
Can now be feinted at the 300-400ms mark.
Damage increased from 20 to 30
While in recovery of any move, you are able to dodge forward and initiate this move.
Soft-feinting can be done while Valiant Breakthrough-ing.
With these changes on "Valiant Breakthrough" he should be able to mix up enemies, put more pressure and actually do something to running opponents.

Shoulderbash
Move changed, instead it's a 500ms bash, close range, deals 10 damage, costs 13 stamina but only chains into heavy finishers | any heavy can be soft feinted into this move
Can only be intiated from side and forward, lights, and heavies | animation wise - just a quick deep shouldbash type
Still continues to have pressure but not so frustrating, fixed timing, no guaranteed damage 500ms bash, and still quite some pressure due to it comboing into UB finishers

Zone Attack
Now deals 23 damage and is undodgeable.
Can combo it as a chain finisher or inner chain move.
Solid suggestion in my opinion, giving him a solid fast move to work with is great seeing a huge loss.

Delayed Timings/Hyperarmor
All heavies can be delayed by up to 400ms+
Heavy attacks gain hyperarmor from 600ms.
These changes should massively increase Warden's pressure.

Damage Changes/Speed Changes

Starter top heavy (40 to 35)
This will lower the frustration of getting hit by those, and while lowering their damage, they wont be a big factor into his "vortex"

Double light second light now deals 10 damage increasing the whole double chain's damage to 22.
Due to massive loss in pressure, high damage is required to put somewhat of a vaguely pressure.

Opposite side light (600ms to 533ms)
This is mainly for the Warden when they miss a double light, will mostly get rid of that easy parry/

Unblockable top heavy finisher now deals 45 damage.
Having it's damage to a quite high number will help with his new "vortex"

Side into top light is now (600ms to 433ms)
Fast light option to surprise enemies when they are not expecting, overall better at avoiding easy parries and actually doing something.

Crushing counter deals (40 to 35) and will stun for 1.3 seconds.
Will better help with it's pressure and overall better.

Passives

Warden's Might
Each attack grants you shield equal to damage/5(45 into 9 shield)

Blocking grants you 2 shield
Parrying grants you 4 shields (is not triggered by minions)
Landing a shoulderbash grants you 2 shield
Avoiding an attack grants you 3 shield

Each 1 seconds the shield decays by 1.
Consuming shield while in a 1v2+ scenario gains the shield consumed times x1.2 as revenge%
This passive should not only make Warden tanky and able to sustain pressure even in 1v2+ scenarios, but make him a great anti-ganker and suggest a more aggressive type playstyle to get the maximum out of him

[Soldier_of_Dawn]

Some may not be sure about the bash changes but, overall, this is good. Being a mixup guy, I've wanted the Warden to use both his zone attack and Valiant Breakthrough inside chains and as finishers/chain extenders rather than just chain starters. Letting heroes start offense and change direction in a range of ways is fundamental in my eyes. Making VB feintable was also on my list. It would also be nice to see him have a full set of 3-hit chains to help max out his mixup potential and let players worry about what chain they need for the situation rather than work around limited chain sets.

[Herbstlicht]

I guess you mean good, but this would make warden, who is still performing well, completely op. So yes, absolutely over the top.
My reasoning:

Valiant breakthrough is fast, has insane tracking (remember those clips where warden runs around whole pillars or blocks of wall and still gets his hit?) and reach and is a heavy. This simple catch up move would be massively overloaded.

Double light more damage? Well, he is already good. Look at the new heroes and their numbers. If that's any indication, wardens lights are fine.

Side light speed increase? Fine with me.

433 top light? Hell no. I hate 400ms light on lawbringer. Mainly because it's such an isolated case. But the whole balance would need to change. You can't make assassin's and speedy characters slower then heavy armored ones only because many people like those and want to be even stronger.

More damage for top ub? Like, why? It's already high enough, it's ub, it can be feinted.

Stun on crushing counter? Like raider stun from stunning tap? Would be ok.

Now for a new form of bash mix-up ... Maybe, would be nice if they tested some on the test servers.



Overall, I want a lot of changes and all those changes you suggest would be nice if we would not have a for Honor where ... Well yes, just guess where the new guy, Zhanhu would stay? No bash. 15 damage lights. You can easily parry almost everything. Pretty much positioned in a bottomless pit. So balance is a serious issue and personally I got no idea where the developers want to go.

More combos, options and more delayable stuff? Would be awesome.
More pressure that's not bash based? Awesome too!
Lower parry punishes? Yea, awesome as well.

But, back to reality: as nice as those changes look, they might catapult warden way over the top in the meta that right now seems to be playing out in the game.