SoM 4 Guardians

[Dams]

Taken from forum:


High Points:
We get an extra vitality bonus. We (along with Warden's) now get 5 morale per vitality point as opposed to 3. When you log in December 1st you'll see a definite morale boost (even with the loss of morale from radiance no longer granting hope).

We along with Warden's get passive crit defensive bonuses. Champions will get a similar (smaller) bonus but only while in glory.

The Keen Blade DPS bonus has been increased by 5%. With Raw Power and 4 traits in KB your DPS bonus is now 31% instead of 26%.

There is a new legacy on our belts for Shield Damage (Which is on some now) perhaps thry mean Bash Damage). There were reports of crits as high as 1600-1800 for Shield Smash. The legendary is now truly legendary.

Sword and Board will be an even more viable leveling soloing stance in MoM.

Level 62 gets you Brutal Charge. It upgrades Charge from a run buff to a run buff with a DPS boost (+10% Melee damage for the duration of Charge, which is 7 seconds but there's a legacy to lengthen the duration (still))., sets run speed to 150% as opposed to being +50%, and is on a cooldown of 2 minutes.

Points are increased on our LI  Belts.
Traited and fully legacied stamp is now 5 seconds instead of 12!

Low Points:
We got hit with a bona-fide nerf. The rumors about OP are true. Overpower stance is now longer usable with a shield. It is a 2-hand only stance. The stated reason was the devs are trying to make a true distinction between offensive and defensive play. When you have a shield equipped you are in a defensive mode. When you have a 2 hander equipped you are in an offensive mode.
Amendment: Technically yes you can use a shield but it is cosmetic. You don't get to use any shield skills, and you do not get the defensive bonuses. Basically there is no more one hand true sword and board in OP. In the beginning of beta you had to un-equip your shield to go into OP. Now you can leave your shield equipped but it is disabled if you go into OP.

Melee/Ranged/Tactical vuln are now capped at 15%.

More points. The crit defenses breakdown as follows:

Guardian's and Warden's get a 5% passive, Champs and Captains get a 3% passive but the champs only get it in glory. In ardour they get a 1% passive.

Heavy shields add an additional 5% passive and normal shields add a 3% passive.


Since OP is now only useable with a 2 hander there will be no overpower legacies on one handed weapons.
Legacy exchange scrolls are available at the Guardian Trainer shop to switch out OP legacies to stat legacies for one handed weapons.



b]Legacy Tables – Guardian[/b]

*Legacies with (1h) or (2h) may only appear on appropriate weapons, New or changed legacies are in bold/italics

1h (1-handed) Weapon Pool A

Overwhelm Critical Rating (new)
Vexing Blow Damage (new)
Bash Damage (new)
Guardian’s Pledge Cooldown (new)
Guardian’s Ward Duration
Sweeping Cut Damage
Whirling Retaliation Damage
Guardian Area Effect Melee targets

2h (2-handed) Weapon Pool A

Overwhelm critical rating (new)
Overpower Power Cost
Brutal Assault Damage (new)
Guardian’s Pledge Cooldown (new)
Guardian’s Ward Duration
Sweeping Cut Damage
Whirling Retaliation
Damage Guardian Area Effect Melee Targets

Weapon Pool B

Targeted Melee Skills Range
To the King Damage
Guardian Bleed Damage (increased)
Charge Duration
Warrior’s Heart Duration
Stamp Cooldown
Guardian Bleed Pulses
Turn the tables Cooldown

Guardian Belt Pool A

Catch a Breath Morale Heal
Skill Threat
Cry Resist Chance
Challenge Targets
Guardian’s Ward Damage
Sting Damage
Guardians Ward Block Rating
Guardians Ward Parry Rating
Catch a Breath Cooldown (new)
Shield Damage

Guardian Belt Pool B

Guardians Threat Parry and Block Rating (combined)
Shield Wall Range
Reactive Block Damage
Power Restore on Reactions (increased)
Warrior’s Heart Morale Heal
Stagger Effect Duration
Shield Smash Damage
Increased Block, Parry and Evade from Protection (new)
Stagger Positional Damage
Stagger Critical Rating

Removed Guardian Legacies

*These legacies will no longer appear on new Legendary Items but will stay in place on existing Legendary Items.

Engage Max Range
Overpower Evade
Stagger Attack Duration
Stagger Movement Speed
 

Shields:

There are three new crafted shields (Light, Medium, and Heavy) that re-use previous skins. They're elven recipes because you're dealing with elves and thus look about the same as the Lorien shields.

There's also one of the later chapters of the Epic (Chapter 16) that offers a reward in the form of three different shields (one for each weight) or an 83.7k Mirkwood IXP rune. The heaviest of these may be to your liking.

Omitting the name and descriptions to avoid spoilers:

[Jeldin]

Overall this looks reasonably balanced.
The OP nerf for 1-H is a bummer, but understandable from the perspective of the Guards primary (grouped) role as MT.
Legecy pools actually look pretty well thought out too.
I'm actually pretty happy with most of this. Solo will be a little slower, but OP with a 2-H is fun.
Will be interesting to see how the "new" Guard fits into group play with mods to all the other classes.
What are your impressions Dams?

[Dams]

i rarely solo'd in op/2h.... im a Sword and Board man.... well hammer.


ps. sent you a pressie Jeldin.

[Dams]

I am liking the heavy shield

[Jeldin]

niiice!

[Dams]

Here's a new shield that drops from the DG raid if anyone's curious.

[Dams]

Guardian

    * Guardians may no longer retain the benefits/bonuses of shields while in Overpower stance. When Overpower is activated, your shield is automatically disarmed until Overpower is deactivated.
    * With the change to Overpower to disallow the use of shields, existing Legendary weapons with Overpower-dependent legacies have become less useful. Guardian trainers throughout Middle-earth have acquired powerful scrolls that will allow Guardians to replace these Overpower dependent legacies with new legacies.
          o Overpower Cost => Vexing Blow Damage
          o Overpower Evade Chance => Bash Damage
          o Stagger Attack Duration => Vitality
          o Stagger Movement Speed Debuff => Might
    * The Guardian legacy that extends the range of Engage is no longer functional. No ranks can be purchased in this legacy. Engage range is now extended by the Targeted Melee skills range legacy. Guardian trainers have a legacy replacement scroll for this defunct legacy that replaces the Engage range legacy with Overwhelm Critical chance legacy.
    * The critical defense bonuses from Guardian's Fighter of Shadow trait set have been converted to use the new Critical Defence ratings.
    * Shield Wall will now overwrite and toggle off Protection if applied to the same Fellowship member.
    * Guardian's Blocking Force trait will now reduce the cooldown of Force Opening as well as giving a Block event on a critical hit.
    * Overpower: It's now possible to use 1-handed swords with Overpower, but your shield will automatically be disarmed.
    * Guardian's power costs have been reduced by 10% and their Overpower penalty has been increased by 10%.
    * The debuffs from the Guardian's Stagger skill have been split into 2 effects. There is no change to the way the run speed debuff is applied. The attack speed debuff will now be applied 10% of the time regardless of position or critical hit status.
    * Fixed a bug that was allowing the Corruption removal effect on the Guardian's "Improved Sting" skill to continuously overwrite itself on subsequent attacks and preventing it from actually removing a corruption after 10 seconds. Now you will be prevented from applying a new corruption removal effect until the previous one has expired.
    * Guardians will be able to purchase an improved version of Charge, called Brutal Charge, from the Guardian trainer at level 62.
    * The Guardian trait Litany Master will now trigger the threat-over-time effect on critical hits from the 2nd attacks of Shield Swipe and Sweeping Cut.

[LymnLunteEdum]

HA I started that Guardians roster thread just in time :

I hope this is real and not a joke. I think Kirkmans corner of the Image universe is strong enough to have a Guardians spinoff. Long as Wolf-Mans a member, Ill be happy.

[Guinevere]

HA I started that Guardians roster thread just in time :

I hope this is real and not a joke. I think Kirkmans corner of the Image universe is strong enough to have a Guardians spinoff. Long as Wolf-Mans a member, Ill be happy.

wtf ??

[Dams]

It's a bot Gala..... delete it.

[snowdrop]

That's a bizarre thing for a bot to post. What does it achieve??

[sonmica]

mass confusion and hysteria!

[Dams]

just ban his email domain, listed alot on stop spam site

http://www.stopforumspam.com/ipcheck/94.27.104.195

[Dams]

That's a bizarre thing for a bot to post. What does it achieve??

they do it, because they can.