Temporal Warden/notes

The following may be out of date.

Last updated for version 1.2.3 Much of this guide is outdated due to the revamped skill trees for temporal warden and paradox mage.

Overview

The Temporal Warden is a hybrid character with both melee and ranged attacks, and is augmented by a range of primarily support spells. It uses the Paradox resource to fuel its spells, and will consequently be considered hostile by Zigur. The class is unlocked by completing the Temporal Rift in Daikara.

The main theme of the Temporal Warden is the ability to instantly switch between primary and secondary weapons with the Celerity talent. This allows the Temporal Warden to equip both ranged and melee weapons, using each as the situation calls for. The starting gear of a long sword and dagger in one weapon set, and a bow and quiver in the other is a reflection of this design. A host of chronomancy spells for mobility and position control further enhances the Temporal Warden's ability to dictate the range of engagement.

One of the biggest challenges confronting this class is the sheer number of options available. The Temporal Warden benefits directly from investment in 5 out of the 6 stats (everything except Cunning), and has a large number of diverse talents. This allows players to choose a balanced hybrid approach, or to specialize in either ranged combat or dual-weapon combat. The Paradox based magic talents serve as support for either style.

Ranged

Ranged attacks with bow and arrows are the mainstay in combat for Temporal Wardens. All the archery talents benefit greatly from several points of investment, so it is important to reserve enough class talent points for them. Scatter Shot can be used as the opening strike in any battle to inflict stuns. It beats Dual Strike in both range and area of effect, and is more reliable than Stop and Temporal Wake since it uses your accuracy to power the stun effect, which can be easily boosted with Combat Accuracy.

The Temporal Warden also has unparalleled mobility options that aid it in ranged combat. Dimensional Step is your staple instant use teleport. Temporal Wake, Swap, Banish and Wormhole give you even more options to control battlefield positioning. Wormholes can even be used to escape from areas that otherwise prohibit teleportation. Remember to max out Spacetime Mastery to reduce the cooldown of these talents.

Melee

The Temporal Warden can be fragile in close combat, but the high burst damage of its Dual Techniques talents are great for hit-and-run attacks. Flurry works particularly well if you have many on-hit effects, and Sweep can do a surprisingly large amount of damage over time. Unfortunately, the Dual Weapons tree is rather lackluster and generally not worth unlocking. Using a sword/mace/axe in the main hand and a dagger in the off-hand is highly recommended as it will allow you to take advantage of a larger variety of weapons.

While melee combat is much riskier than ranged combat, it will typically deal much higher damage than bow and arrow, and it can generally inflict many more on-hit effects. Keep an eye out for equipment that grants slow on hit, as they can stack together to greatly hinder your opponents.

Spellcasting

Aside from the numerous teleportation spells that improve mobility and position control, the Temporal Warden also has many buffs, debuffs and utility spells. Damage Smearing is particularly important for enduring high damage attacks, and Invigorate will greatly reduce the cooldown of all your talents, including runes and infusions. Stop, Slow and Time Skip all help with crowd control. Haste is useful in any situation, and it can leave a huge number of after images on the battlefield if you combine it with movement infusions. Weapon Folding has relatively weak damage, but it is the most reliable means of lowering your Paradox in a long battle. Precognition can scout out areas that normally prohibit tracking, telepathy, or other means of remote scouting (e.g. vaults). Finally, Echoes from the Past is a strong counter to high health bosses as it can deal a ridiculous amount of damage very quickly.

Character Development

The Temporal Warden plays well with any race, but has a special synergy with the Shaloren's Timeless racial talent, which can extend the duration of Invigorate while also benefiting from its cooldown reduction, thus granting an almost permanent double cooldown rate. This particular interaction between the two talents may be fixed in a future patch however.

In the early game, focus on Dexterity. This supports damage for both the longbow and the dagger, as well as giving you a boost to combat accuracy and defense. Strength is less important early on, as you have Strength of Purpose to tie you over until later levels. While most early talents are one point wonders, Bow Mastery (faster reload), Dimensional Step (mobility), and Celerity (movement speed makes it much safer to step out of a corner) all warrant some investments.

Special attention should be paid to collecting equipment with void-type affixes that provide the Out of Phase buff, which improves resist all, defense, and reduces the duration of detrimental status effects after you teleport. This buff will last 5 turns after using any teleport, so you can easily retain it for as long as your Paradox holds out. The bonus from multiple pieces of equipment will stack together too.

Important Notes

• Version 1.0.0: Precognition is a bit buggy around the "return to regular timeline upon death" aspect, with some instances working properly and others giving the standard death procedure. If you Precog into a life-threatening situation, canceling the spell early (right-click its status icon) before dying can help avoid nasty surprises.
• Version 1.0.0: Anti-Magicians can nullify the Precognition status despite it being listed as an "other:time" status and not specifically "magical." Regardless, if you spot an anti-magician while Precog scouting, you may want to consider canceling the ability early.
• Version 1.2.3: Precognition can sometimes cause the game to forget that you have cleared a level, causing the level to be regenerated upon your next visit. This seems to happen most frequently in Dreadfell, and can be both a blessing (more loot and experience) and a curse (repeating levels is time consuming).