Vitas Odium Parit

Hello all, just thought that seeing as how i’m sitting on a highly congested train on my way home, with someone’s arse in my face and the smell of battery chickens wafting nauseatingly through the air, i’d take a few minutes to explain to those of us who don’t know the reason some of us talk about ‘wards’.

Wards exist in tier4 only, and are a way of limiting the progression of the endgame content of players – funnelling their progression through the intended instances, one could say. There are currently a number of wards in the game, of varying levels. I’m doing this for memory, so if i’m incorrect i’ll amend it later but the ward levels go; lesser, greater, superior, excelsior...

Basically these wards serve only to lessen the damage taken from bosses in certain instances. Each ward will mitigate the damage done by 40%. So to put this in to practise: in Bloodwrought Enclave (BWE) and Bilerot Burrow (BRB), the city instances, a LESSER ward is required in order to receive less damage within the instance. So, I currently have 5/5 wards – this means I am taking 100% of damage. Let’s say you have no wards, this means you will take 300% damage. To put this in to practise, if you are unwarded, as a tank with fairly good stats like myself, expect to be hit for up to 3-4k from the bosses. Crits at around 8k. Similarly, if I have 3/5 wards, I will be taking 180% damage from bosses. Damage incoming will be high, but not unmanageable, dependant on the specs and gear of your healers.

[Yxiomel: Moreover, if you have 0 wards, you do 40% of your normal DPS. Each ward adds 15% of normal DPS back, so 4 wards puts you back at 100%, and 5 makes you do 115% against enemies in the ward-requiring area.]

Aha, you lucky thing! Inside BWE, Korthuk the Raging has dropped a pair of Sentinel Boots for your class and you’ve won! You equip them and you have a Greater Ward. “Does this mean I get even more damage reduction on Barakus the Godslayer?” you ask, hopefully. No. Greater Wards act as a Lesser ward within BWE, BRB but will also work within Lost Vale (LV). This means in order to do LV, you must collect a sufficient number of Greater Wards, either through the city instances or through Conq. Gear from RvR (good luck getting a lot from that, though.)

Whilst wards are also required for the RvR, this is less so and our main focus right now is PvE in terms of wards, anyway. Yes, you need Excelsior Wards to kill the king, but who cares? We’re a long way from that, so let’s go one step at a time. Start with getting your Annihilator gear, or with getting items from Bastion Stair.

Happy hunting all, and any further questions send me a message.

Caz.

[Yxiomel: For the record, it goes: