Warden class animal companion

swook33b16_ESO

Hey Zenimax.

When is the Warden class going to get more Animal Companions to choose from like wolves, Sabre cats, Senche Tiger/Panther Bristleback, Durzog, Lions, Mammoth, Nix-hound, Ursauk etc and other Bear fur colors to choose from? I mean how long has it been since Warden class was released to Eso.

MrGarlic

I totally agree. I'd love a Warden wolf combat pet.

LunaFlora

more combat pets via Scribing Grimoires would be very awesome.

and the Slate Grey colour is a skill style in update 44 so we will likely get more Feral Guardian skill styles.
Though first just fur colours i imagine

Heren

I always found funny that all the animals you call on as a warden are Morrowind related - except for the bear. But we can see how trying to tame kagouti can go in Telvanni Peninsula.

FelisCatus

The warden has a wack identity issue. I've said this before. I know the class was released with Morrowind but it's weird that the druid class is themed only after the weird insect/alien nature of morrowind.

Also frost and nature makes no sense. I've always said that frost should of went as it's own class or to DK as dragons are usually fire/ice.

What would make sense is if the poison from DK (which makes little sense with fire) would go towards the nature class.

The bear should have more skins, the cliff racers should be able to be hawks. The mushroom line should be able to be more trees/flowers/vines. The bugs could be changed to moles or badgers.

There is so much opportunity to turn it into a true druid but insects and ice is really strange.

Bradyfjord

As others have said, there's a lot of opportunities with scribing to fill gaps in our skills. Also hopefully expand on our class fantasy as well.

Danikat

I've been wanting this since the warden was added and we got the grey bear as an alternate skin. I was very surprised we didn't get more options over time. Now we've got scribing that seems like an ideal way to add them in and I keep hoping it will happen at some point.

Personally I'd be fine with it being purely a cosmetic effect, so there's no balance issues from the skill changing. I just want my breton wyress warden to be able to summon a wolf instead of a bear.

Stafford197

Definitely would like to see more summons as Grimoires! Flame Atronach for Sorc, Sabre Cats for Warden, Skeletal Warrior for Necro, etc

tiriusavarao

I'd have expected this years ago, to be honest - crown store animals to replace your bear especially. It would be fun for group content, we could have a whole menagerie with us! I like the bear well enough, but it might be fun to have say a senche for my Khajiit to use as well.

FlopsyPrince

Wardens should have been more like World of Warcraft hunter class, but they are far from that in reality. No taming wild beasts and no serious control over your pet (bear only).

Syldras

Heren wrote: »

I always found funny that all the animals you call on as a warden are Morrowind related - except for the bear. But we can see how trying to tame kagouti can go in Telvanni Peninsula.

And it's getting even weirder considering that, according to lore, this class is related to the spinners of the Bosmer religion:
"Wardens are defenders of the Green, master storytellers whose nature tales become magical reality. They wield frost spells against enemies and summon animals to aid them."

Danikat

Syldras wrote: »

Heren wrote: »

I always found funny that all the animals you call on as a warden are Morrowind related - except for the bear. But we can see how trying to tame kagouti can go in Telvanni Peninsula.

And it's getting even weirder considering that, according to lore, this class is related to the spinners of the Bosmer religion:
"Wardens are defenders of the Green, master storytellers whose nature tales become magical reality. They wield frost spells against enemies and summon animals to aid them."

The warden was initially developed for the base game, but for some reason they felt the need to redesign it to tie it into Morrowind as much as they could, but also didn't want to change any of the existing design.

I'm not sure if it's because Morrowind was the first chapter and they felt like they had to make the class fit as part of the package or if it's because the entire marketing plan was nostalgia hype and they honestly believed cramming Morrowind references into the class as well would make it more appealing for players. Either way I'm glad they toned that down for later chapters and I think it's a shame it left us with a weird mash-up for what could otherwise have been a class with a really strong and versatile theme.

FelisCatus

Syldras wrote: »

Heren wrote: »

I always found funny that all the animals you call on as a warden are Morrowind related - except for the bear. But we can see how trying to tame kagouti can go in Telvanni Peninsula.

And it's getting even weirder considering that, according to lore, this class is related to the spinners of the Bosmer religion:
"Wardens are defenders of the Green, master storytellers whose nature tales become magical reality. They wield frost spells against enemies and summon animals to aid them."

I've never seen any snow in Valenwood.

Syldras

FelisCatus wrote: »

I've never seen any snow in Valenwood.

That's the next thing that doesn't make any sense (although one could argue of course that even in Valenwood, people know about temperature changes, and what's a frost spell if not reducing the temperature?). But the flavor text definitively refers to the spinners. Telling stories that magically change reality is exactly the thing they do. Also: "defenders of the Green". Of course ZOS can bend lore accordingly (and they do it all the time), but using Bosmer terms, Yffre worship (which isn't a common religion among most of Tamriel's cultures) and Vvardenfell animals (plus a bear, for what ever reasons) for a class that is made available for every race seems a little... "unusual".

FelisCatus

Syldras wrote: »

FelisCatus wrote: »

I've never seen any snow in Valenwood.

That's the next thing that doesn't make any sense (although one could argue of course that even in Valenwood, people know about temperature changes, and what's a frost spell if not reducing the temperature?). But the flavor text definitively refers to the spinners. Telling stories that magically change reality is exactly the thing they do. Also: "defenders of the Green". Of course ZOS can bend lore accordingly (and they do it all the time), but using Bosmer terms, Yffre worship (which isn't a common religion among most of Tamriel's cultures) and Vvardenfell animals (plus a bear, for what ever reasons) for a class that is made available for every race seems a little... "unusual".

Frost is almost antithetical to nature, it kills plants and makes animals hibernate. Honestly doesn't make sense.

Syldras

FelisCatus wrote: »

Frost is almost antithetical to nature, it kills plants and makes animals hibernate. Honestly doesn't make sense.

I'd say frost is a part of nature, like every "element" (element in the rpg sense). It also kills insect pests and losens the ground, with the better circulation helping plant growth after the period of dormancy is over in spring. Dormancy periods also mean the plant is able to save energy and produce more blossoms and therefore more fruit later. Warm winters lead to less fruit production.

But of course, if one wants to keep it obvious, frost isn't the best choice for a "plant/forest mage" or druid type of class.

Danikat

I think the fact that Valenwood doesn't normally get freezing temperatures and snow makes frost magic a more logical choice for a bosmer mage looking to do damage, because most the things they're fighting are unlikely to have resistance to it or defenses against it. (Although the main reason is because fire, frost and lightning are the 3 elemental Destruction magic types in TES lore and the other two were already available.)

The weird mix of animals is harder to justify. As well as bosmer Y'ffre is worshipped by some bretons and to a lesser extent some altmer, but has no relevance to dunmer or Vvardenfell society so it's very unlikely many wardens would be from there and hard to explain why they'd summon animals unique to the island.

Since we don't get a choice I'm glad the one semi-permanent summoned creature is a bear which is at least somewhat generic, I can mostly ignore the theme of the others because they're only seen for a few seconds (and often there's too much else going on to see them clearly). But the warden is the class I think could most benefit from the cosmetic aspect of the Scribing system, allowing them to change the animations for spells to fix a lot of the discrepencies by having a Morrowind theme shoved into a partially complete class.