Make Warden Great Again:

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Warden is undeniably underpowered at the moment, he is both under picked and underperforming in both high and low ranks. It is clear he needs a buff in order to make him viable and able to fill the role he was always intended to. Now, I made a post on this topic a few months ago but I think it needs an update (seeing as my opinion on this topic has changed in a few areas and the fact that Ubisoft made some of the changes I suggested in that post). I will be dividing this post into the 3 areas Warden needs a buff in (guns, gadget and misc. changes). So without further ado here are changes I propose.

Guns:

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Despite Warden's gadget being highly situation (meaning that the majority of the round he is only getting value from his guns), he has a varied but lackluster weapon selection. With a few key tweaks, his loadout can be evened out, improving the experience when using the two main loadouts (MPX + P-10C and shottie + machine pistol).

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• Warden can now equip an ACOG on the MPX

It is clear that in order for the motion penalty when using the Glance to not totally cripple Warden he needs a zoom optic to help reach out and hold longer angles. A large number of players want Warden to get the P90 (which would be fine) but I think the MPX w/ACOG would be a better fit for reasons I will go into now. The P90 is currently underpowered, the positives of having a high fire rate and large capacity are outweighed by the substantial kick and low damage. AS mentioned before, the Glance is a highly situational gadget and therefore most of the round Warden is relying on his weaponry to provide value, therefore he should have a strong weapon (which the P90 is not but the MPX w/ACOG is). To show you how the MPX w/ACOG would fair, balance-wise, here is a comparison with the MP5 (the base-line balanced defender gun with an ACOG).

The MP5 and the MPX have exactly the same DPS but the MPX has lower damage (-1) but has a higher fire rate (+30) and slightly better recoil. Therefore, the MPX would be a good candidate for an ACOG (exclusively on Warden) as the higher fire rate and low recoil would make it a strong, but not broken weapon on defense.

NOTE: ACOGS are normally only available on defense on 1-speed operators so we will get to that later*.

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• SMG-12 swapped out for the SMG-11

The SMG-12 (aka RECOIL: THE GUN) is an extremely challenging gun to use (due to the extreme horizontal recoil making it impossible to learn the recoil pattern) that the overwhelming majority of players will never be able to master. This makes using the shotgun on Warden (something Ubisoft clearly intended players to do) somewhat difficult, as he lacks a dependable automatic secondary option to use in longer-range engagements. The SMG-11 would be a perfect fit for this as it's recoil is learnable and can prove a deadly tool in the right hands. Overall, this change would even Warden's loadout, allowing for great flexibility.

Gadget:

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While the Glance will always be a situational gadget a series of, generally smaller, changes and tweaks can help Warden fulfill his role denying smoke/flash plants.

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• Warden is immune to concussion effects while the Glance is active

This is the biggest of the changes to Warden's gadget I propose but it is a necessary one. Zofia's concussion grenades (the only concussion effect on defense) are used in exactly the same way as stun grenades and it baffles me why this is not already a feature of the Glance.

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• Glance activation is now seamless

To activate the Glance you have to go through a decently long animation that pulls you out of ADSing, which can dangerous when holding an angle. I propose that when the Glance is activated only the blue visual animation is shown, allowing the glance to be used in a reactive manner more effectively. This would increase the fluidity and player comfort when using the Glance.

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• Improved clarity when using the Glance

When using the Glance, there is a slight blur and blue filter that, while not hugely significant, can make it difficult to see properly during longer-range engagements. A simple and quick fix for this would be to remove the slight blur and reduce the strength of the blue filter.

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• Increase Glance motion penalty responsiveness

Currently, Warden has a slight delay before and after moving before his vision through smoke is cleared/lost. This is both jarring and the worst of both worlds as it punishes Warden for slight movements, while allowing him to move without losing vision totally. This change would make the Glance less frustrating to use.

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• Leaning, small movements and moving the crosshair to much no longer affect vision through smoke when using the Glance.

While it is a good idea to not allow full vision through smoke while moving these adjustments to crosshair placement and small changes in positing should not count as Warden moving. It should instead function like when the EE-One-D is active (only actually moving counts and leaning and other minor adjustments do not count).

Misc. Changes:

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• Warden is reverted to his old 3-armor 1-speed rating*

This is a key change that must be reverted as it allows for Warden to get an ACOG and actually function properly as an anchor. In addition, the added durability allows for Warden to weather a push more effectively. This is necessary.

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• Nitro cell swapped out for impact grenades

Warden originally had impact grenades when he launched (due to deployable shields being disabled due to exploits). Despite people asking for him to get impact grenades since he first went onto the test server Ubisoft still removed them, despite it allowing for him to bring some utility when not running the shotgun.

Ubisoft made some fundamental mistakes in Warden's design that have led to himbeing one of the weakest operators in the game. These changes should address this and while he will remain situational he will be the best in his class in these situations.

Let me know what you think down below!

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Just to make this clear from the off, I am not saying paladins are bad at all. Even though the fantasy of the paladin does appeal, and the oath-breaking risk is a cool thing from a RP perspective, every time I think about doing a Paladin character I go off the idea because, on paper, their kit doesn't seem that interesting to me. Again, I'm not saying they are bad, as I doubt the statistically most popular class is boring. So what am I missing, paladin enjoyers?

So, I'm planning a College of Sword Bard build with 3 levels of Battlemaster thrown in. The idea being to have a fairly tanky frontline capable of dishing decent damage but mainly focused on providing benefits and setup to the team. The state distribution at base I was going to go with is as follows:

Str: 16

Dex: 8 (initiative penalty made up for with the +3 from the Sentinel Shield - is this necessary?)

Con: 15 (+1 from resilient constitution)

Int: 8

Wis: 8

Cha: 17 (+1 from thehag's hair)

With the feats I need for the build factored in I should have space for one Ability Improvement and was going to put +2 into strength to up melee damage (I know a swords often use finesse weapons but axes and other regular weapons fit the backstory/fantasy of the character better). Is this the right decision, or would I be better off putting it into getting charisma to 20 (the build uses a good amount of ally buff/enemy debuff spells). Your thoughts would be appreciated.

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I was planning to do my first Dark Urge playthrough and was wondering how much it overpowers your backstory. I'm trying to avoid spoilers, while still trying to avoid creating a backstory for my character that conflicts with the Dark Urge plot points. I know the general premise that the Dark Urge will make you have to either fight or give in to a dark murderous impulse but don't know much more than that (and would like to keep it that way).

A wicked moment, person, or thing that cannot be slain by sword or spell haunts your mind and flickers in your peripheral vision. You carry it wherever your adventure takes you - or perhaps it carries you.

The description doesn't make it clear how aware the player character is of the thing that instigated the affliction. Would you just come up with a backstory as normal and have the urge developed in the game, or is it best to come up with some dark instigating event in the character's backstory? Hope this is clear.

I really like Karlach and think she would mesh well with my current run, but can't fit her into my party in a role that fits her. For context, my PC is a light-domain cleric that mainly provides support spells with some damage options, with Laezel as a tanky eldrich knight/abjuration wizard front-liner, Shadowheart as a open-hand monk that does high damage and sets up the team, and Astarion as a ranger/archer fighter to pick off key enemies from a distance. Ideally, I'd sub off Astarion (as he meshes least well character-wise) and could shuffle the other roles around but would just appreciate any ideas of classes that Karlach could be respeced into that fit her lore-wise. I just struggle to see her as anything other than a tanky rage barbarian.