The Warden was the fifth class originally planned for The Elder Scrolls Online.

Back when The Elder Scrolls Online was in the early stages of development, the devs planned on releasing five character classes:

Dragonknight
Nightblade
Sorcerer
Templar
Warden

Out of the five, only the Warden was cut from the final release of the game.

ESO Warden

So what exactly happened? Why was the ESO Warden deep-sixed, never to see the light of Tamriel’s sun?

The exact reason has never been revealed, though many speculate that the Warden was too similar in spirit to the Templar class. Like the Templar, the Warden was envisioned as a healer. However, the class was alleged to be more “nature oriented,” and didn’t possess the Templar’s tanking or damage capabilities.

Classes

In The Elder Scrolls Online, classes are a starting point, and players are given lots of freedom to create and develop unique characters best suited to individual play styles. In an interview given to The Guardian back in 2013, Game Director Matt Firor explained:

We’re really trying to de-emphasise quote unquote classes. And make the player’s development more about their choices…

Because the MMORPG doesn’t revolve around a true “class-based system,” the addition of the ESO Warden would possibly have overcomplicated things.

Will The Warden Ever Be Introduced?

An interesting thread on the official Elder Scrolls Online forums theorizes how the Warden class could be implemented now. That said, any thoughts of introducing the ESO Warden are speculative and wishing thinking at best.

Now that The Elder Scrolls Online has matured, it’s unlikely that the Warden will ever make an appearance. The devs have publicly shown no interest in introducing additional classes, and the introduction of an ESO Warden would cause re-balancing issues that could change the game’s dynamics.

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Final Thoughts

So what are your thoughts regarding the ESO Warden? Was it a mistake not to introduce the Warden when the game first launched, and would you like to see a fifth class in The Elder Scrolls Online now? Share your thoughts and opinions in the comment section below.