WC3 Hero Spotlight: The Warden

[@HighLanderPonyYT]

"Recently, 10 years ago." Flashbacks from the Tyler1 VOD. lol

[@montygriswald7296]

Grub lives in night elf years

[@TheVanillatech]

My favourite hero in the game. Savage. Would sell her own babies if it meant tracking illidan down.

[@iuer4643]

those would be illidan's babies aswell

[@TheVanillatech]

@@iuer4643 OMFG

[@staren1991]

indeed, she was prepared to sacrifice Tyrande so...

[@TheVanillatech]

@@staren1991 Yep totally ruthless. Gotta respect that! Illidan is out there *somewhere* ...

[@mokacoffay2]

@@iuer4643 I actually think Maiev loved malfurion, you can see how pissed and jealous she is of tyrande

[@TheBlueDeath123]

Maiev was so effing badass in WC3. I wish she got more love in WoW but at least she made a peace of sorts

[@gregsmw]

a lot of iconic characters got shafted in wow

[@bashoot]

she was in legion a bit, was nice

[@HellecticMojo]

@@TheBlueDeath123 she's ultimate ACAB though. She lied to just get her way.

[@edgardsimon983]

rogue mage would be sick as rogue warrior

[@glisteningDiamond2512]

when Grubby mentioned Queen of Pain, I realised all of her first three spells are just taken directly from Maiev, and I played Dota and Warcraft 3 for more than a decade lmao

[@xetanth87]

QoP (Warden), Brewmaster and Lich all had 3 abilities exactly like their original hero. It's kinda funny when you think about the fact Breath of Fire and Drunken Haze are the only abilities with a direct combo, and yet they gave Brewmaster Thunder Clap instead, making this combo unusable in Dota

[@glisteningDiamond2512]

@@xetanth87 talking about Brewmaster, IceFrog (or Valve, idk which was around for Dota at that time) sort of brought it back by making Drunken Haze enhancing every ability that are considered "fire-based", I was sad to see it get canned quite quickly after just 1 or 2 patches. I still think Brewmaster's kit would have much more synergy if he kept Fire Breath

[@parham1023]

​@glisteningDiamond2512 they still work like this. Cinder brew(w) gets ignited upon receiving magic or pure damage. Thunder clap is magic

[@parham1023]

​@@xetanth87 no its not unusable

[@chiiing8288]

@@xetanth87 like the comment above, Cinder brew/Drunken haze can be triggered by any magic damage like Thunderclap, Im just not sure if it has to come from Brewmaster himself.

[@DrewPicklesTheDark]

I always found it funny the Warden is wearing what looks like plate armor, yet has less armor than the demon hunter who runs around with no shirt.

[@aventus1177]

Lol! I never thought if that but you’re right 😂

[@samuraizerro]

Rule of anime strikes again

[@alexureche6106]

The full body runes/tattoos of the demon hunter act as part of his armour, and the other part is his own skin being made marginally more thick from his fel energy. Source: World of Warcraft Demon Hunter skills and talents

[@pandaprewmaster325]

Dude the blademaster literally is shirtless and has higher armor than the paladin who is supposed to be very well armored its so funny how the logic in this game works headhunters somehow have medium armor while not even wearing an ounce of protection (unlike the archer) meanwhile the huntress runs around with a huge shield and adequate protection and has unarmored armor type

[@798jeremy]

@@pandaprewmaster325 Yes, but her black panther has less armor than her, and it has most of her HP, so if you kill it you kill the huntress, obviously...

[@taylorniall5756]

03:08 "Can be BLUNK into". Top Tier video.

[@ghost97915]

BLUNKED!

[@michaeladamson473]

BLUNKED!

[@liviuursegr]

Oh course. Blink, blunk, blunked. Didn't you know? 😂

[@theblackantonio]

Her death sound is the most epic and iconic in the game. 😂

[@Ball4184]

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH" *thump*

[@45johngalt]

I can't really remember hers, demon hunter is the one I remember the most.

[@iuer4643]

@@Ball4184 *one of most iconic little girl screams i remember xD

[@no.1machopfan503]

I'm surprised they didn't stick with the death sound from the campaign Warden from Reign Of Chaos, especially since they did reuse her death animation.

[@theblackantonio]

@@no.1machopfan503 I'm not aware they changed her death sound 🤔

[@pzalterias5154]

Maiev is such a badass. I think I loved play with her because the TP felt so modern at the time, I felt like a trickster. She's actually the ancestor of all LoL characters who flash

[@catto3924]

I used to have a crush on her. Her voice still sound majestic ❤

[@thelensimon7862]

Ayo 🤨🤨📸📸

[@TravellerBrianN]

Fun fact, her voice actor also played Tsunada from Naruto.

[@matiasbriceno6031]

Illidan is out there somewhere :@

[@adamkhant2865]

It's her voice and Potm of the moon's voice for me ❤

[@xetanth87]

@@TravellerBrianN That's Maiev, not the Melee Warden

[@franslair2199]

Warden is the clearest example of why people made and played maps like dota, various ORPGs, hero sieges, etc. A hero that really doesn't amount to anything in mass scale strategic gameplay, but is fun to control individually.

[@kenosgaming9937]

A game I'll never forget from WC3 was a 2v2 where my co-op buddy and I ran over the enemy night elf but they managed to keep their Warden alive. Warden proceeded to run over us for the rest of the game, never dying and always blinking out when we thought we finally had her shut down. Was wild to be on the receiving end of something like that.

[@Hellwolf36]

I lost a FFA once to a solo Warden. It was incredibly embarrassing. However, she was getting her XP off of the other players and didn't get to me until later in the game.

[@holaholahoy]

One thing I think would be cool if Grubby added at the end of the spotlight would be a model showoff. One closeup and maybe one rotation around the character in classic graphics and one with reforged graphics! Really liking these spotlights, and I haven't played WC3 in years!

[@Lezeik1]

The intro is such a nice way of saying: playing this hero will get you stomped 6 feet under.

[@ИосифЛуна]

Lore: Special guys who hunt down daemon hunters.... Game: Hard-countered by daemon hunters...

[@brandonwalker5011]

They were special units who guarded the jailed demon hunter, then when he escaped failed to catch him.

[@ИосифЛуна]

@@brandonwalker5011 Thanks, lad. I know WC lore all to well.

[@soldier22881]

they are jailers not hunters lol.

[@adamp6320]

Love the Warden, in my top 5 heroes for sure. I've kind of fallen in love with the Firelord now though, hope we get a spotlight on him.

[@relightrobot1543]

Glad you did Warden this early. She was always my favourite.

[@zomfgroflmao1337]

I still remember a Nelf called Satiini that, back in the day, enthralled me with some of the most exquisite warden games ever played.

[@scienceboy20814]

After hearing the in depth explanation of the Warden's strengths and playstyle, I'm impressed how well the Heroes of the Storm team nailed it with Maiev.

[@mpetrov2402]

Thank you Grubby. Please do more of those.

[@juliankanzuki2013]

I love this so much, as someone who played this game casually as a kid and is only recently picking it back up as an adult, I learned a lot here, like being able to avoid stormbolt with blink, I didn't know that. Awesome. I hope you do this as a full series for all the Heros!! That'd be cool. Can you do the Preistess of the Moon next? I know she's one of the weaker heros but she will always be my favorite, and she has some cool little mechanical secrets, like being able to increase her auto attack range if you manually cast searing arrows etc. or being able to attack during entangle effects that way too.

[@goomshill]

Strategically warden is a way to funnel your resources into damage output. Very little/no utility, no big combat math changing auras or buffs. She just farts out damage and lots of it, but costs lots of gold and moon juice to keep up her mana, really wants to keep leveling up even past 5 as a solo hero to horde all the experience, wants multiple items. And since she's the bottleneck through which all your resources flow, enemy control abilities like hex, ensnare, storm bolt, polymorph become all the more powerful A good contrast is the dreadlord. He has one of the next highest aoe damage outputs on heroes. But its limited in cooldown and overall mana usage, doesn't scale past 5-6, doesn't really need/scale with items as much as warden with blink. His aoe is so huge and long range he doesn't need to blink to set it up, he's got much higher base mana, he's just a one spell hero since sleep sucks. He can get away with sharing xp or being a 2nd/3rd hero. They can both show up to a HU base and massacre all the peasants, they can both pop a big ultimate at 6 and get a fat unit in a fight, but warden keeps scaling up and hunting heroes, DL can just use the mana from statues to wreck gyros.

[@Lucius_Chiaraviglio]

Sleep-surround is pretty powerful.

[@vagthegamer7429]

I cast: algorythm boost. May this video get recommended to more people!

[@andersfaret11]

Worked on me. Got it recommended when this comment was 1 day old....

[@onescYT]

I really enjoyed the lore segment at the start. I would love to hear you do more in depth retellings of the stories behind the races, heroes and units in Warcraft.

[@45johngalt]

One of if not my favorite hero in the game. Yes, she's quite weak early game and you can not make mistakes, but once she gets to level 5 and beyond, she's like a locomotive. I always prioritized shadow strike and blink. Kinda sad to hear they nerfed blink at level 3 from one second cool down to three second. I loved being able to just (almost) infinitely blink all over the place.

[@Delebriel]

Death sounds instantly launches her to the top of the list. But jokes aside, she has been my favourite hero since TFT was released... by far.

[@apanjafar13]

Great video, Grubs! I was looking forward to Warden guide she is such a fun and interestingly designed heroine! (I love her in HotS too but she is even harder for me to play there)

[@Gabrielpereirabc]

she was my favorite hero because of the campaign. then i was hooked on Mortred of dota 1 because she was the same model, but only today I realised that QoP had the same kit xD

[@lilhaxxor]

This video takes me back 20 years or more. The Night Elf campaign when Frozen Throne came out. I perfectly remember how we used blink to escape the collapsing island. And there was this elite sentinel who died in this chapter, I was so sad. Also, I think there was a powerful item we got there ? I still have a strategy book from that time. Well, I don't think the content was that good, but it's like a collector item, like owning the DND books. I started playing NE from that point on, alternating with Orc... because Moon vs Grubby. Damn, the nostalgia is too strong, such a good game Warcraft 3 TFT.

[@gumhoy5054]

I think one thing I appreciate about the Blink difference is true of many things in WC3 If the player is deliberately going out of their way to pay attention to the mechanic, they can squeeze a little extra out of it. Think Worker Bumping for slightly faster Gold, or spamming Return to make your Workers move faster. This also applies for many other things, but I always appreciate moments like that in WC3. If the person is good enough to abuse it, give them a very slight advantage.

[@41rmartin]

Warden is probably the clearest example of why WC3 resulted in a new genre (MOBA) accidentally being invented. A one second CD on rank 3 blink was never going to be remotely relevant in ranked (though apparently it was strong enough for a slight nerf) but oh my god it made the Frozen Throne NE campaign feel cool as fuck.

[@mvpmvp2980]

moba was invented before wc3

[@ananaskarandash1060]

Proof​@@mvpmvp2980

[@aventus1177]

@@mvpmvp2980example?

[@aventus1177]

@@mvpmvp2980any examples? Because Dota was a custom game in WC3 and is widely regarded as the first MOBA

[@Avyernan]

DotA had predecessors in Starcraft custom maps- Aeon of Strife and the like.

[@しらこ-465]

I love playing Warden even though it reduces my MMR btw for future entries in the series, if you could highlight good hero matchups that would be cool. Might give us an idea to try different heroes out if we know our opponent always goes AM into BM or whatever.

[@songsan807]

One of my favorite WC3 heroes. Fan of knives and Vengence Avatar. Her storyline where she is able to use blink and get the black orbs is fun.

[@alexhorchoff5970]

Firelord deep dive would be EPIC!

[@haiio1348]

Warden is basically year 2003 and year 2004 in a nutshell

[@gubigubigubigubi]

Warden was always one of my favorite heros in the entire game. Still waiting for a god damn warden class in wow to this very day.

[@garagavia]

Rogue is similar, has most of her skills like fan of knives and shadow strike, although mages got blink instead

[@gubigubigubigubi]

@@garagavia I really don't like the "well its similar to x class" argument. Its the same reason we don't have Necromancers and the game is way worse off for it imo Its an RPG game RP wise Warden and Rogue are not at all similar.

[@myself2noone]

​@@gubigubigubigubiAccording to the quest text, Night Elf Rogues are Wardens. So it's not similar. It is that.

[@gubigubigubigubi]

no they arent. idc what lazy ass shit blizzard tells me. wardens are not rogues lol ​@@myself2noone

[@BladeRabbit]

10/10 ball animation

[@woody6856]

Really enjoying your hero spotlight.

[@mokacoffay2]

That comment about overblink is actually crazy, I have done this several times during the campaign when I was younger and I could never figure out why "it didn't go that far that time"

[@chill_fridge]

At time of writing, four heroes have now been covered: Archmage, Blademaster, Pitlord, and Warden. This is a courtesy comment to allow others to make an informed decision on which hero they'd like to see next from the pool of Human, Orc, Night Elf, Undead, Tavern or Campaign heroes. edit: Thanks for reminding my pitiful mistake

[@TofuofLight]

Pitifully forgetting pitlord

[@mokacoffay2]

she is the iron hand of justice

[@spike333s3]

Warden is my favourite hero only in Campaign, who affect my entite life. Because she has the most wonderful spell: Blink, which makes tons of possibles.

[@glenngehrs7913]

Amazing video Grubby. Packed full of tips and tricks, and I really appreciate that you explain why Warden tends to need to be solo hero, and what you win/lose by building another, like DH. Would love to see Crypt Lord or Blood Mage next!

[@geluflamma6896]

Wow, insane CGI (during the animation explanation).

[@oscara1573]

Maiev is basically batman from w3, i wish she had a more prominent role and protagonism in the warcraft lore

[@pandaprewmaster325]

"IM THE IRON HAND OF JUSTICE" the warden is one of if not the best assassin in the game I remember playing lost temple heroes custom map and getting games as her or against her as her it was so much fun never getting caught shadow striking INT heroes against her it was pure torture to even catch her like dude its crazy personally I like her how she is with 1 second blink its simply too cool to nerf man one thing I would add is a slight attack speed increase (actually reduction) just a slight one not that its needed but would be a little good buff.

[@stuartdalrymple]

Love these spotlights, keep them coming Grubby!

[@Mossmyr]

Interesting you brought up the blink-skill-dodge at the end there. I used to play a custom wave-based survival map where you could cast spells on the opposing side's heroes (who were very far away). There was a stun spell based on Thunder Hammer you could cast, but it also gave an indicator on the target when the spell was cast (a small lightning effect). If you were attentive nad reacted fast enough to this indicator, you could use Blink to avoid being stunned.

[@dariobseuw]

her scream death is iconic

[@facundomoralesdiorio3802]

Here is not a trick but common knowledge you can pin Grubby: Warden is the sexiest unit in W3

[@Kievlar]

I exclusively play Warden as my first hero. This video is 🤯. I a noob! Thanks cutie Grubby!

[@BMahecha123]

Thanks for making this video! Would love to see Mountain King next 🙏🙏!

[@kodrakhan4410]

Nevet noticed in all those years that the blink icon was a warden. Never played wc3 but i do play wow.

[@ddewcifer]

She will always be my favorite hero even though I’m terrible at using her lol.

[@WishYouWellGaming]

[@ghost97915]

the fan of knives pun got me XD good one

[@austinpotter7679]

Yes finally! Good video grub!

[@harooooo1]

didnt expect that prison break reference at the start :D

[@sen6516]

22:38 Thank god that is finally nerfed: mines still one shot probes and drones but at least there's an audio notification now if a mine burrows in vision. Terrans also have to actually research drilling claws now instead of getting it for free for just building an armory. But yes, my sentiment is still the same: screw widow mines.

[@GrubbyTalks]

TOO LATE FOR ME. ALREADY PTSD'D

[@Defileros]

i love Warden, the resident assassin tsundere

[@el33tkrew]

The Prison Break reference I cant xDDD

[@loadedstapler1459]

Awesome video! Would love to see a spotlight on the dark ranger.

[@supaonyxian]

I was hoping this video would have a segment where you were talking about warden but there is just footage of amara from stormgate. Excellent video though

[@mahmoudrabya585]

i haven't played this game since i was a kid in 2004, feels nostalgic

[@xSolBadguy]

Crypt Lord! 😊

[@Robvagab]

In the right hands warden with level 3 blink and Ss is something scary .

[@Slava22222]

25:45 - Grubby to Editor after realizing it made to upload. Grubby: "You walking on thin fkin ice, editor, and I'll be under it when breaks".

[@dakapo8985]

25:44 top tier animation

[@beliar91]

My favorite hero in the entire game

[@FatCatMrMilks]

Love these! Go Lich next!

[@NilsHunyadi]

you can blink even further if you stand next to a wall and have range over half of the obstacle, you'll end up on the other side

[@Knuckles2761]

When I am looking at Warden I am thinking how WC3 community prefer naive gameplay, stuck in 2000-s meta. Let's compare to SC2 - they have reapers, a fast unit who can climb in some places, unavailable to other units. Used to harass workers. Somewhat similar to Warden in concept, but less powerful. And they still nerfed reapers 10 times, after every SC2 pro player shenanigans. So it feels like nobody really tried to abuse Warden's mechanics. Feels like she could have kill count of 50+ workers in any game, completely destroying enemy economy, steal every major artifact drop, deny and footman/grunt reinforcement, etc.

[@sandro5535]

One thing about her is that not only has she relatively low hp for a melee agility hero but her base damage is like half of DK or BM so she relies on her spells fully.

[@KungsZigfrids]

Ive never understood why the Nightelves imprisoned Iladen when without him they would all be dead.

[@joemunson4908]

Double warden in 2’s when shadow strike was 65 was so fun.

[@kesc170]

Love these! Hope you make them all 24 :D

[@Attila-1994]

Grubby's knowledge is next level.

[@YasaiTsume]

1:46 Angry clap. That pun got me.

[@TofuofLight]

Grubby I think it be cool if you talk a little more about Shadowmeld for warden and POtM as they are the only 2 heroes that have access to it. As most first engagements in 1v1 happens on the first night with both heroes at lvl 2ish having access to shadowmeld is a big advantage to avoid surrounds and damage (and also to wait for spells to come off cooldown, especially blink to escape)

[@2nightwehunt]

Oh baby, Christmas is early! Illidan next please!

[@reakdx8692]

Should also be mentioned that warden can utilize cloak of shadows which pairs very well to preserve HP when waiting for her cooldowns inside of a goldmine track of peons.

[@memesofdestruction5601]

nice new spotlight

[@guyd7924]

She is just tsundere, oh Illidan-kun notice me please!

[@russellbutler836]

i've been using the damage build (ss + fon, no blink) warden with mass hunts and it seems to be working well. fan of knives is a good counter to lots of things that counter mass hunts (like rifles)

[@mattachtemeier5296]

Would love to see a exp gaining deep dive among other areas of wc3 that I seem to suck at compared to my opponents.

[@abbemartensson3850]

Blinked? Blanked? Blinkt? Grubby: "BLUNK"

[@khatack]

I'd bet Moutain King is even hungrier for circlets. More Strength means more hp and damage, essential for a melee hero. Agility gives more attack speed, increasing the frequency of bash procs and thus making it easier to keep enemies stunned, and finally intelligence is nice for more storm bolts and thunder claps.

[@foolwreckerxd1135]

Thanks for the guide! It was very helpful. Is there any pro player in recent or past years that focused heavily on Warden gameplay? I’d like to find some VODs that I could review

[@antoinelussier6329]

For the next Hero spotlight I would like to see eighter Death Knight or Taurent chieftain. Their aura intrigues me.

[@rinsgravity2007]

I've come to recommend my favourite hero next, TC. The Best hero, and I will not be convinced otherwise.

[@Commander_Pandashan]

I freaking looveveveveveve this concept ❤❤

[@drunkdragon12888]

Would love to see a bloodmage version, but we need an UD hero to balance things out right now lol

[@yetigaming8711]

Misha!!!... i mean Beastmaster! My favorite in Hots

[@General12th]

Hi Grubbs! But did you know that Illidan is out there somewhere?

[@kakregax]

How much fun could be had in a 2v2 with an undead for free corpse generation? Can you leave a spirit of vengeance back to spawn and send waves of immune units endlessly?

[@carnivoriousleaf]

No when you summon a 6th lesser spirit one despawns.

[@natosen]

Ah Maiev was my favorite

[@dakapo8985]

If i remember correctly (long time since i played wc3, dota and TDs) the invisible max range of blink was 800 and if you tried blinking over that you would go 600. And the way to count the range was that 1 square on the map grid (that you see when placing buildings) was 50 range. Correct me on the numbers if i am wrong please.

[@parham1023]

She is a "Fan of knives" that git me dead from laughing xD

[@pkhr9189]

New spotlight, jastes

[@miorioff]

For Jastes! I hope he will see this comment 😂

[@798jeremy]

You didn't talk about her Shadowmeld ability. She's the only 2 heroes with the PotM that has it. And she might be the best user of this ability thanks to her very unique set of spells imo...

[@GrubbyTalks]

That's true, missed out on an important detail! :o

[@kafkatt4388]

@@GrubbyTalks can you disjoint abilities with meld?

[@LiviuXSA]

blink past tense is blinked not BLUNK XD

[@wallsofa]

Tell that to Day9

[@ElvenSpellmaker]

It's weird isn't it, while blunk doesn't exist strong verbs are weird and aren't even consistent between various forms of English. It's like dive --> dived in the UK, but the US say dove. And it's sneak --> sneaked in the UK, but the US say snuck.

[@drdfrgplls]

who would have thunk