A beginners guide to being a Meat Shield *Warrior*

Krais

A viable necessity in all aspects of this game, from PvE to PvP, the Warrior will be needed and depended on.
As some of you might see the Warrior as one who is just responsible for
being the "meat shield" of the group, that is, the one who sits there taking
all the damage while the other professions have all the fun doing damage. With Guild Wars' style of action-packed combat, this is far from the case. The Warrior can deal a great amount of damage, and combined with the right set of skills and knowledge, the Warrior's presence will be felt throughout the battlefield. There are of course, many ways to go about doing this, but id like to start out with the basics.

Attributes Explained

1. Strength - This attribute affects the amount of armor penetration for a
Warrior. This is the Warrior's primary profession only Attribute, and the
formula for calculating the amount of armor penetration is x%, where x is the amount of attribute points you have invested in Strength. For all Warrior primary professions, this is really a huge want for your build, as armor penetration will be important in dishing out more damage for your build.

2. Axe Mastery - This attribute reflects your proficiency in axes. The more
you have invested to Axe Mastery, the better the axes you will be able to
equip. Not to mention that skills based on Axe Mastery will increase in
damage output.

3. Hammer Mastery - This attribute reflects your proficiency in Hammers. The more you have invested to Hammer Mastery, the better the hammers you will be able to equip. As well as increasing the power of your Hammer Mastery skills.

4. Swordsmanship - This attribute reflects your proficiency in Swords. The
more you have invested to Swordsmanship, the better the swords you will be able to equip. Also, it increases the power of your Swordsmanship skills.

5. Tactics - This attribute will raise the stats of some key defensive skills.
There are no outside benefits to tactics other than raising the level of
skills requiring Tactics investment.

Weapon Types Explained

As you can see above, based on your possible attributes, you will have a
choice between 3 weapons, a choice that only the Warrior class has a privilege to make. Those 3 weapons are of course the Axe, the Sword, and the Hammer. Now I'm sure you are asking yourselves this question, "Which one should I pick?"
Well, here is a breakdown on the different weapon types so you can make that choice easily:

Axe - This weapon is a 1 handed weapon, which will enable you to equip a
shield as well. The maximum damage on the Axe is higher than the Sword, which is also a 1 handed weapon. However, the minimum damage is lower than the Sword (the minimum damage for an Axe is 6 at the high end Axes, while I believe the minimum damage for a sword at the high end Swords is 15, comparatively the maximum damage for a sword is 22 at the high end while 28 for an Axe at the high end.) Some of the skills are pretty effective in PvE, a very useful choice for PvE. Even in PvP, some of the skill combos generated by the Axe can be quite useful, like Axe Rake and Eviscerate can be a deadly combo. Also the Axe is ideal for spiking builds, as it has the potential for the highest damage based on attack speed. For builds dependent on burst damage (burst is doing enough damage in a short timeframe so the monks won't be able to heal
him back.) Definitely a great combo all around.

Sword - Another 1 handed weapon, and quite the weapon it is. The pros to a sword is the fact that the min damage is 15, making it an ideal weapon for average damage over time. You can also unleash a few degens on your target, combine that with a skill like "Victory is Mine!" and that would be a nice health booster. Also Final thrust has the potential for some of the highest damage for a warrior. However the downside being that the max damage is 22, which is less than the axe. For adding degen to your build the sword can be a good choice, and DoT (damage over time).

Hammer - This is the 2 handed weapon, and your starting weapon when you first start off as a Warrior. The damage range can be from 19-35 at the highest level of hammers, so the extra damage can be appealing for some. Also, if you are able to pull some strings and find the right skills, a Hammer build can
easily trounce a Sword build any day, however, it is finding those skills that might be a problem for you. Still, the extra damage is always a plus, useful in PvE because of this. In PvP there has been a huge shift towards hammer warriors as of late due to their impressive damage over time with knockdowns.
Strap on some stoneskin gauntlets (increase knockdown time), combined with huge pressure damage and hammer warriors work quite nice. They force an enemy monk to spend a lot of time healing your target, so in the case of multi targetting hammers work quite well.

Secondry Proffesions For a War

Now that we have the basics, we move on to one of the harder decisions
you will have to make as a Warrior, what will your secondary profession be?
Now before someone asks this, no, there really is not a best choice over all the other professions, in reality, all of the professions can be a good choice for a secondary profession, that's the way Guild Wars was designed to be. It's how you make your character is what makes you come on top. So instead of telling you to choose this profession, I'll just list some information on how you can use any class to your advantage as a Warrior:

Ranger - Well, naturally the first thing that comes to mind with W/R is IWAY. IWAY is short for "I Will Avenge You!" a skill that increases health regen and attack speed when allies are dead. Pets trigger IWAY, so warriors send the pets to die so they can activate IWAY. However, IWAY isn't the only possible use for a W/R. There is also the ever popular tiger's fury W/R, which will be a short burst of attack speed for extra DPS. In PvE Storm Chaser and Troll Unguent can be useful for running skills or just plain PvE in general.

Mesmer - Some handy skills like Physical Resistance and Elemental Resistance could be a nice addition to a Warrior. Also taking in Illusion of Weakness might be an idea to consider for a self healing skill, possibly Distortion, though with the lack of energy that might not work out too well.

Necromancer - I've seen some interesting builds with plague touch, especially in arenas where Warriors just wait until they have a bunch of conditions on them and transfer them over to their enemy. Always nice to do something like that, especially in the crag map in Arenas. Also some people have toyed with a virulence build, where putting on conditions on your opponent with a sword warrior than using virulence to give them mass conditions is an interesting idea to consider. Also I've even seen an interesting idea where you have a Warrior/Necro bring Blood Is Power, due to the fact that it is only 5 energy and that Warriors are generally the last to be targetted, and no one would suspect a W/N using BiP. However that could always have its downsides.

Elementalist - Home to one of the most popular builds back in the day, the
KD AS builds (Knockdown Aftershock build), where a Warrior would knockdown their target with a hammer skill then use aftershock on their opponent for high DPS. Now a days you don't see this used as much anymore, but there is a new popular builds with a W/E, and that is the Gale build. Gale only requires 5 energy, and only needs 5 air magic to make it non failable. The exhaustion can also be brought back with a few hits with a zealous weapon, making it an ideal skill to knockdown fleeting opponents. However there is a good chance there will be a nerf to the skill in the coming months, so be prepared for that.

Monk - Of course, one of the most popular builds played now a days, a
Warrior/Monk build, also known as the Paladin build. This build basically
focuses on you being a huge tank, you cast spells like healing hands or
mending to keep yourself alive, then you just hack at your opponents, waiting for your teammates to dish out the major damage. Some find this build boring, others find it necessary, me, I find it useful, annoying, and powerful all in one. However, this build can be easily countered when you are facing a pure debuffer, but hey, all builds can be countered, that's the way Guild Wars was designed to work. A good choice for a Secondary, but if you are looking for uniqueness, this certainly is not the choice for you

Anything i missed please feel free to message me, but please dont be asking for what build you should be running as there is no perfect build for a war, it all depends on its use

/krais
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Krais The Guardian (Wammo - Main) LVL 20
Krais V Trensetter (Monk) LVL 20
Spawn Of Krais (Necro) LVL 11
Kasumi Krais (Ranger) LVL 20
Krais Asakura (Ele) LVL 20
Levvi Krais (Derv) LVL 4
Orihime Krais (Mes) LVL 9

Lady · Guest

But Krais, in pvp the wammo's r just annoying. As a monk i'm expected to heal, fair enough, but i aint following you into that Luxon base boy. You can take on the whole luxon side if you want cos i aint. Then they get all pissed when they realise i'm not there and infact have gone the other way Very Happy

Tiny Purple Dragon · L1 Joined: 18 Jun 2007 Posts: 504 Location: Texas

Nice Job Krais, keep up the good work.

Lundis · L1 Joined: 16 Jan 2007 Posts: 819 Location: Finland

Nice guide, Krais

You should att this to the wep section though: axe/sword attack speed = 1.33s and hammer = 2s ^^
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Click here to donate blood *really evil laugh* MUAHAHAHA ^^

sorreg · L1 Joined: 27 Feb 2007 Posts: 193 Location: england

Nice guide Krais,are you going to add anymore such as other secondary professions?

LairdHex · Guest

yeah for me the choice of secondary is always a problem, not just for warrior characters arena net has done such a great job of making the professions well rounded that i barley use the 2nd profession.

Krais · Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 11:10 pm Post subject:

i will at some point but after i got that far through typing the original post i was starting to suffer from *wall of text syndrome*

at some point i will get around to updating the secondry proffs, ill go a little more into the differences between pve and pvp builds, and then if i can be bothered i even go into build set up for areas such as farming etc, and then if i can be bothered after that ill start explaining the diff in the wars armor lol like the -3 dmg vs +10 arm etc Razz

seriously i have not come across a more versiatile but complicated proffesion in gw, and the warrior on gw is a lot more dynamic and flexible than on most other mmorpg's.
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Krais The Guardian (Wammo - Main) LVL 20
Krais V Trensetter (Monk) LVL 20
Spawn Of Krais (Necro) LVL 11
Kasumi Krais (Ranger) LVL 20
Krais Asakura (Ele) LVL 20
Levvi Krais (Derv) LVL 4
Orihime Krais (Mes) LVL 9

Lady · Guest

Krais, its a well known fact that Mesmers are the most complicated Very Happy

Lukas. · M5 Joined: 27 Nov 2007 Posts: 235 Location: Finland

Guah?! Is warriors versatile and complex.. I though it was crash and smash until your health gets low and then if you're a good warrior you cancel frenzy before you use healing signet and if you're not a good warrior.. you die.. Wink

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Lundis · L1 Joined: 16 Jan 2007 Posts: 819 Location: Finland

Rob Roy · Guest

Hehe, must be me that's on my warrior all the time trying out new ways of farming

gotta love the high AL and the high damage output from weapons Smile