User:Thricej37/Warden

=The Warden=

Original Wardens
The original Wardens were shadowy Night Elf sentinels who served as an elite guard. They were usually employed as jailors or assassins, (the most famous being Maiev, jailor to Illidan the Betrayer). They used a combination of stealth, cunning, and mystical abilities to suprise and defeat their enemies, often appearing out of nowhere, quickly dispatching their foes, and vanishing from sight. The tactics they used were similar to those employed by Rogues, but while Rogues were often lawless mercenaries the original Wardens were highly disciplined soldiers. After the events of the Third War, The Night Elves emerged from the shadows of their forest homes and the Wardens declined in number.

New Wardens
The new Wardens have some similarities with the Night Elf warriors, but are in reality both far different and far more powerful. Like the original Wardens, these new protectors are an elite guard, selflessly sworn to a life of protecting the Emerald Dream but also dedicated to tracking down and eliminating their enemies by any means neccessary. As the dark forces of the Nightmare rampage throughout the Dream, the Wardens have emerged from the shadows and are now making their presence known across the world.

While the Night Elves and Tauren have a strong, spiritual connection to the Emerald Dream through their reverence for nature, the Wardens have a very different mission and so come from a wide variety of races. The Wardens guard the very fabric of the dream world and the mysterious powers of dreams themselves from the dark, twisted entities beyond that seek to corrupt them. It is to this mysterious aspect of the Emerald Dream that they are connected, and it is this connection that gives these new Wardens their terrifying power.

Combat
Wardens are a melee class and most of their DPS comes from dual-wielding a wide array of weapons. Their actual damage output is significantly less then that of a pure melee class such as a Rogue, but that is not where their true strength lies. Wardens posess powerful mental abilities that they can unleash against their enemies. Most are not damaging abilities, but they can weaken, disorient, and cripple whatever the Warden is fighting against, giving them a huge advantage.

Wardens also have a passive ability called Leech, where they absorb a small amount of energy from their enemy every time they hit with a melee strike. They can then convert this energy into self-heals or other useful abilities (such as removing debuffs, etc), which allows Wardens to outlast their opponents. As their enemy gets weaker, the Warden gets stronger.

Wardens dual-wield and can use any one-handed weapon. They can not use two-handed weapons or shields. They can train to use bows or thrown weapons but will not use crossbows or guns. Wardens can wear Cloth, Leather, and Mail armor.

Resources
Wardens have three bars next to their character icon, the top standard health bar and the two Warden-specific resource bars.

The middle bar is the Warden's Psionic Energy bar. Wardens use mental Psionic Energy to fuel most of their devastating abilities. In terms of use it is similar to mana for a caster class. The Warden also has a few abilities that will steadily drain Psionic Energy as long as they remain in effect, similar to some Death Knight abilities with runic power. Psionic Energy is also unique in that eating or drinking will restore Psionic Energy, which is good because it regenerates very slowly. Wardens are very powerful, but must rest between large battles to recover the massive mental energy they have expended.

The bottom bar is Absorbed Energy, which the Warden gains through their Leech ability. Absorbed Energy increases throughout combat as the Warden fights and can be used to heal or buff the Warden. Some powerful Wardens can heal others, by very limited means, either thorugh a channeled ability or an AoE burst heal that requires maxed Absorbed Energy and consumes all of it. While Absorbed Energy allows the Warden to stay alive in difficult situations, when it is not being continuously absorbed (when the Warden is OOC) it drains away very rapidly, much faster then a Warrior's rage.

Warden Abilities
Playing a Warden centers around weakening your enemy and keeping yourself alive long enough to DPS them down. To protect the Warden in difficult encounters, and also to keep the Warden from being really boring, they have a powerful aresenal of entertaining mental torments they can unleash against their hapless foes. Some examples of those and other Warden abilities are listed below.

Chaos
This talent tree enhances the mental attacks of the Warden that cause damage and disruption.

Psionics
This talent tree enhances the mental debuffs of the Warden.

Absorption
This talent tree enhances the self-healing and fortifying abilities of the Warden.