Mythical #4 – Warden
stargrace 
Last night Paradise Lost decided to do a Leviathan run, and then shortly after they headed to Veeshan’s Peak with about 20 pick up players in tow. Brave souls. I tagged along for Leviathan on my druid. There’s a very long history to my warden (who used to be a fury, a few times). Back in DoF (Desert of Flames) my main was my templar. Then in KoS (Kingdom of Sky) I switched over to the fury. When EoF came out (Echoes of Faydwer) I betrayed over to a warden, and played her for about half of the expansion before switching to my illusionist, and then my troubador for RoK (Ruins of Kunark). Shortly after that I stopped raiding all together. I never got as much done on any other character as I did with the warden – and there was one main reason why I stopped playing her. It’s a silly one too.
Everyone and their dog has a druid.
Druids are quite possibly the easiest healer to play in EQ2. They have fast casting heals, and while they don’t offer a lot of ‘extra’ to a group (no real hp buffs, and their stat buffs are quite lacking) they are simple. They have some great death prevention spells, they can invis (fury) they can evac (warden) and heals over time are a wonderful way to heal.
Of course there ARE ways to tell between a good druid and a bad druid. You can tell exceptional players no matter what they’re playing. Still, I was discouraged by the sheer amount of druids out there. Enough so that it made me want to play something else. After all, isn’t one of the reasons we play these MMOs so that we’re given a chance to shine in some capacity?
I’m a good healer, it doesn’t matter what class I play (sorry, not trying to toot my own horn here, it just comes from playing them for years now) but I always enjoyed the warden most out of all of them.
One of my closest friends plays a shadowknight and has for five years now. Despite the fact that this year saw an explosion of Shadowknights (thank you TSO) he continued to play the class. He’s probably the best tank I’ve ever seen before, and he never let the fact that there were a billion other SKs around determine whether or not he should continue to play one. I envy that line of thinking, I’m not even sure if I’m capable of feeling that way.
Anyway, as I was saying. I didn’t go to Veeshan’s Peak with them, but I did zone in for the Wasp Queen kill that would grant me my epic. This marks the fourth mythical that I’ve been able to get without being a raider. I have the mystic, illusionist, troubador and now warden with their mythical version epics. The rest have their fabled versions (minus the ranger, and I think she can just wait).
It was still nice to get, even though it was my 4th and I was still pretty excited. I keep flip-flopping over who I am going to play when Sentinel’s Fate comes out, but I’m thinking that maybe it’s time to stop caring so much what everyone else is playing, and just play what I enjoy. Even if there are a billion of them already in game.
Doesn’t mean I can’t still shine.