Is "Ward" usefull?

I just found 2 items with "Ward" and I'm wondering how usefull it is?

It seems like just another energy shield, but without any possible upgrades from the skill tree?

Also, it does not always seem to help. I loose in 2 seconds my energy shield and 75% hp, but my ward is sitting there saying "nope, nothing to ward against, why?"
Is this because it only works on hits and I somehow did not recieve hits but other forms of damage?


A very confused casual player

In theory, I would imagine it works very well in combination with Block and Dodge, and Evasion, since those things decrease the frequency with which you receive damaging hits, and therefore increase the chance that Ward is up by the time you receive a damaging hit.

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Zigiran wrote:

Also, it does not always seem to help. I loose in 2 seconds my energy shield and 75% hp, but my ward is sitting there saying "nope, nothing to ward against, why?"
Is this because it only works on hits and I somehow did not recieve hits but other forms of damage?

That's the only explanation that makes sense to me.

I'm pretty sure ward only protects against hits same as guard skills. Any damage source that does not hit will bypass ward.

The refresh time is too long for it to be useful IMO.

Maybe if they add more ways to actually invest in it, it might be good for very high avoidance characters since they could rely on it being up when they inevitably get hit. Until then it's just kinda like a crappier energy shield that doesn't protect against damage over time.

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kaijyuu2 wrote:

Maybe if they add more ways to actually invest in it, it might be good for very high avoidance characters since they could rely on it being up when they inevitably get hit. Until then it's just kinda like a crappier energy shield that doesn't protect against damage over time.

There was a post on reddit (not the main sub, the builds sub) that showcased using the Unique Iron Flask that refreshed Ward on use with the Instilling enchantment "Use when you take a Savage Hit." It had a frame-by-frame animation of instantly going from about 600 Ward to 800 Ward after taking a hit. It was pretty cool.

Personally, I don't like builds that rely heavily on flasks (guess how many Pathfinders I've made? I'll give you a hint - it's less than 1), so Ward may still be "DOA" for my personal playstyle. But for people willing to leverage the Unique Iron Flasks, Ward seems pretty good.