Guide to playing as a warrior

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Contents

[edit] Overview

Warriors are the primary frontline characters, combining heavy armor with melee attacks. Warriors can tank effectively by virtue of their high AL, enabling allied casters to deal damage unmolested and taking pressure off healers. Warriors can also be DPS machines, well suited to applying pressure and spiking. While warriors do have some damage prevention abilities, they lack self heals. Many warrior skills (offensive and defensive) are adrenaline based, compensating for their limited energy pool.

[edit] Basic knowledge

A good warrior needs to understand the game elements described in these articles:

[edit] Selecting a Weapon

The damage you deal depends largely on your weapon. Unless you plan to trade/sell a given weapon, it is wise to customize it; customized weapons deal an additional 20% damage.

A warrior should keep an armory to maximize DPS. Some races and creatures have natural resistances and/or weaknesses. For example, ice creatures are vulnerable to fire and vice versa. Note that not all resistances/weaknesses are this intuitive.

Since damage dealt can be increased by up to 30% when using the right elemental/physical weapon, players put themselves at an advantage by bringing appropriate weapon(s) for a given environment/situation. See weapon swap.

[edit] Axes

  • Despite the wide range between minimum and maximum base damage, axes deal more damage than swords on average (if Axe Mastery is at 11 or higher) because critical hits are based on maximum base damage. Therefore, when using an axe, skills that inflict guaranteed critical hits do more damage. The significance of this varies because the chance of scoring a critical hit depends on the level of the warrior and the target. In PvP, where all characters are level 20, axes tend to have an advantage. In PvE, especially in later areas or in hard mode where opponents are often level 24 and above, this becomes less important.
  • The Axe Mastery line includes the only non-elite, non-conditional deep wound inflicting skill (Dismember) for warriors, making it popular in PvP.

[edit] Swords

  • Swords deal lower average—but more consistent—damage than axes.
  • Sever Artery and Gash is an iconic sword combo, inflicting bleeding and deep wound conditions on a foe.
  • Riposte skills, which deal armor-ignoring damage, require that you have a sword equipped to use them.

[edit] Hammers

  • Most unconditional knockdowns available to the warrior are hammer attacks.
  • Hammers deal the highest minimum and maximum base damage.
  • Hammers are the only two-handed weapons used by warriors. The increased damage output is offset by the lack of a shield (reducing AL and, potentially, HP).
  • Enchantments/hexes that are triggered by hits are less efficient on hammer users due to their lower attack speed.
  • Large creatures are often immune to knockdowns, limiting the usefulness of hammers in PvE.

[edit] Armor

Warriors have the highest basic armor in the game, further boosted by a shield. They also have the warrior-unique Rune of Absorption, which provides physical damage reduction. As such, warriors can usually get away with using a superior rune to enhance their weapon skill line.

Elemental protection can be further augmented with Dreadnought Insignia unconditionally or Sentinel's Insignia while having a level of 13 or more in Strength.

Since warriors need to be in melee range of their target and not blinded, a Rune of Clarity/Rune of Restoration is a good idea.

[edit] Understanding the profession

[edit] Warriors in PvP

[edit] DPS pressure versus spiking

In general, there are two ways to defeat your opponents in guild wars: To wear them down by pressure or to kill one of them quickly via spiking. Warriors are somewhat unique, since they are very well suited to do both at once. A pressure warrior will always use his attack skills as soon as possible, with no need of coordination with other team members. A spike warrior will wait for all his or her skills to recharge, and then use them all at once, together with other team members. Unlike other professions, warriors can use almost identical skill bars for both pressure and spiking. Deciding which to use in PvP makes part of a good warrior. In PvE, the usual mode is pressure; spikes are only needed for groups with (multiple) strong healers.

[edit] Calling

Calling is the act of leading your team in battle by "marking" the target (CTRL+attack, or CTRL+SHIFT+attack as used by good spike warriors) that everyone is supposed to attack. Since warriors are usually in the heat of the battle and have to charge their adrenaline skills, they are often the callers in a team.

Callers should identify the most dangerous target (or the one most likely to die in a spike if spiking) and attack that. The correct order depends on the situation and team formats. Typically shutdown casters (particularly domination mesmers), monks and frenzied warriors are prime targets for spikes

One should only call after having gained some experience prioritizing targets.

[edit] Self-heals

Warriors have only two direct non-elite heals (Healing Signet and Lion's Comfort), therefore many warriors depend on their secondary profession for self-heals. However in many situations it is very reasonable not to bring a self-heal at all and to depend on the backline healers, who have more efficient healing skills. Instead, consider bringing defensive skills to reduce the damage taken in the first place.

Since warriors can be rendered entirely useless by the blind and often cripple conditions, a condition removal skill can be useful instead of (or in addition to) a self-heal.

The monk enchantment spells Mending and Healing Breeze are often used as a warrior self-heals by inexperienced Guild Wars players. These are poor choices for such a role as they are only effective with heavy investment in Healing Prayers, something that leaves warrior with fewer attribute points to spend on Strength/Tactics and weapon attribute.

Alternatively, a Warrior can combine with Assassin as secondary boosting Shadow Arts and Deadly Arts for increased mobility through shadow step, blocking capabilities and self-healing using skills like Death's Charge, Heart of Shadow, Shadow Refuge and Shroud of Distress.

[edit] Overextending

Overextending means moving so far forward that your own backline healers can no longer reach you with targeted heals.

[edit] IAS

Increased attack speed (IAS) skills allow you to attack faster, considerably boosting a warrior's damage output. All but pure tanking warriors should contemplate bringing one of these stances along, since they are one of the easiest ways to improve a warrior's performance.

Frenzy is generally considered the best all-round IAS skill for PvP; warriors are rarely the focus of attention due to their heavy armor, so the doubled damage taken is not a disadvantage. However, bringing a cancel stance (such as Rush) is a good idea in case your opponents start targeting you. In particular, do not use Healing Signet while in Frenzy; the combination means you will take quadruple damage.

[edit] What to avoid

Many new warriors fail in their positioning. Overextending (or worse, over-aggroing) is a common pitfall. Similarly, unwise use of Frenzy (one of the most common warrior IAS skills) will get you killed much faster.

Spreading attribute points around would leave you with unsustainable skills with marginal effects.

For warriors, it is important to know the hexes placed on them. Some (e.g. Empathy or Spiteful Spirit) rely on you attacking. If hexed with these, it is best to stop attacking and call for a hex removal from your monks.

Finally, warrior builds need to strike a balance between energy- and adrenaline-using skills. Many ineffective builds only rely on one, frequently resulting in a constant shortage of that and a waste of the other.

[edit] Play styles

[edit] Melee

The Warrior in Guild Wars is able to excel not just defensively, but offensively as well. Their attacks can cause many conditions such as bleeding or deep wound. Masters of the axe, sword, and hammer, Warriors generally favor focusing on skills from a single mastery, as skills from one line cannot be used while a weapon from another is equipped - for example, regardless of attribute levels a Warrior will be unable to use Decapitate if he or she is not carrying an axe.

The axe deals very high base damage (maximum unmodified 6-28) and has a fast attack rate (every 1.33 seconds), combining with many powerful skills to deal damage, such as Eviscerate. Axes revolve around the condition Deep Wound using it to cause Cripple, Weakness, and to interrupt. However, they have a very unstable damage structure, and the amount of damage dealt can range wildly from 6 or 7 points of damage to 44 with just the customize bonus.

Swords also attack quickly (every 1.33 seconds) and deal more consistent damage than axes (maximum unmodified 15-22) but don't hit as high on a critical (34 with customize bonus). Sword skills can cause Bleeding, Cripple and Deep Wound. Sword skills tend to be expensive but strong. Final Thrust is the strongest attack available when your opponent is under 50% health.

Hammers are the slowest of the weapons (every 1.75 seconds), but each hit deals massive amounts of damage hitting well above 50 damage on a critical. Hammers offer many attacks that can knock down an enemy. (Backbreaker is one such example). Hammers can cause Deep Wound, Blind and Weakness.

More aggressive Warriors take advantage of increased armor penetration through Strength, the warrior's primary attribute. As suggested by the raw damage increase of Strength, Warriors can produce an impressive, steady damage output. While Warriors typically focus on one target at a time, their damage is formidable. Many warriors forgo the use of defensive skills entirely, finding it better to kill their enemies quickly: "The best defense is a good offense". In PvP a Warrior will usually avoid going defensive, choosing instead to deal as much damage as possible to enemy players.

[edit] Running

Warriors have stances and shouts that increase their run speed. They make very good "runners" and when combined with a Monk or a Ranger as a secondary profession they can escape from and survive extremely dangerous situations. The use of Warriors as runners has, however, declined since the release of Guild Wars: Nightfall and the Dervish profession, equipped with useful running skills such as Vow of Silence. A useful running build consists of speed enhancements, healing spells and various other skills.

[edit] Tanking

Tanking means to act as meat shield for the rest of the party. This play style is applicable only in PvE. Warriors, due to their high natural armor, are better suited to act as tanks than other professions. Tanking is usually done by aggroing a mob and holding their aggro on yourself, allowing your teammates to cast spells at said mob without the fear of being chased and then killed. In doing so you must make sure that there is no one else inside your aggro bubble when you attack, and that others do not come near you until the mob has stopped moving and is focusing the entirety of their wrath on you. However when their backline starts to nuke, make sure that your Elementalists are ready to return the favor.

While tanking you must not cause your mob to flee or change targets, dealing rapid area of effect damage and / or moving will cause the mob to flee/look for new targets.

While tanking, keeping yourself alive is far more important than dealing damage, therefore a shield is a must. Armor mods on the weapon are a good bonus and should be preferred over health mods, unless heavy health degeneration is expected.

Skills that increase your armor are a must, as it is a good way to reduce the amount of damage taken. However, due to the cap of +25 armor (A single skill exceeding this will still take full effect. ex: Mesmer stance- Physical/Elemental Resistance, Elementalist enchantments- Armor of Earth/Kinetic Armor, etc), it is wise to bring only one armor booster.

While having high armor is good way to reduce damage taken, denial stances are even better. Blocking attacks stops bonus damage from hurting you.

Flail and Tiger Stance are the IAS skills of choice for PvE.

Two skills that are very useful for tanking are Defy Pain and Endure Pain. These skills increase a warriors health to well over 1000, greatly annoying anyone who is about to kill you, making them switch target, which will lead to you taking less damage. These skills are useful for tanking because, combined with several insignias, a warrior is usually the last one standing in a fight.

[edit] Strength Tank

Heavy investment into primary warrior attribute strength and the weapon attribute, with little or no points spent on Tactics. Utilizing a shield and a one handed weapon (preferably an axe) Strength Tank is the party's meat shield, using survivability skills of the strength line to drastically reduce damage taken as well as attacks to deal out blows with high armor penetration. Suitable for dealing with multiple and sources of low to moderate elemental and physical damage as well as dealing considerable amounts of damage and causing Deep Wound.

[edit] Tactics Tank

Heavy investment into Tactics and weapon attribute (preferably a sword), with little or no points spent on Strength. Capable of utilizing multiple stances of Tactics line to block attacks avoiding damage as well as dealing repeated armor ignoring hits to any melee attackers, with skills such as Riposte. High Tactics makes Healing Signet into a valuable source of self healing, where blocking stances will cover the use of the signet nearly removing it's drawbacks. Suitable for tanking multiple melee-only attackers while not hindered by high damage as hits are avoided.

[edit] Hammer Warrior

Hammer warriors utilize extensive array of knockdowns and Weakness inducing skills present in the Hammer skill line. Skills such as Dwarven Battle Stance make hammer warriors very effective against single strong targets that can be knocked down. Lack of shield makes Hammer Warriors less durable.

[edit] Condition Dealer

Warriors that use extensive array of condition inducing skills to weaken their foes. Quickly building up adrenaline is the key to rapidly dealing out conditions either through skills, rapid attacks or attacking multiple targets. Depending on the weapon the warrior chooses they are presented with different array of conditions. Axes are primarily for Deep Wound, swords for Bleeding and Hammers for Weakness. Follow up with a second condition-inducing skill often results in augmented effect, Dismember may be followed by Axe Twist or Axe Rake resulting in Weakness or Cripple, while Sever Artery may be followed by Gash resulting in Deep Wound. May use Apply Poison to spread Poison as well, especially when combined with such skills as Cyclone Axe or Whirlwind Attack to spread it to multiple foes at once. Must be combined with damage dealing skills to be effective.

[edit] Attack Spammer

Warriors that use several attack skills in rapid succession to deal consistent moderate damage to single foe. Tend to have high weapon attribute as well as high strength, thus combines well with Strength Tank. Axe or Hammer is advised over Sword for higher DPS. Tend to use high damage attacks such as Soldier's Strike, Power Attack, Counterattack as they have very short recharge. Energy attacks may be fueled by Zealous Weapons and/or Warrior's Endurance both combine well with IAS stances such as Flail. Combined with additional condition dealing skills, such as Dismember, may quickly take down individual enemies or spread out damage across several foes. Another common combination is For Great Justice! and Dragon Slash, which can be used in a nearly unending combination. Very effective throughout entire spectrum of PvE and tends to be affected less by Weakness than other warrior types.

[edit] AoE Damage Dealer

Warriors that use physical area of effect attacks to deal damage to multiple foes simultaneously. If you use swords you could use Hundred Blades with Sun and Moon Slash. If you are using an axe try Triple Chop and Cyclone Axe.For hammers you could use Crude Swing and Yeti Smash. Players with Nightfall can also use the PvE skill Whirlwind Attack with any melee weapon to further boost the number of times you can hit your foes (Especially if you are using a sword with Hundred Blades active as it would activate for every foe you attack). Combined with skills that give bonus damage such as a Conjure enchantment, Strength of Honor, Brutal Weapon, and Splinter Weapon, the Warrior can increase its damage dealing capabilities even further.

[edit] Choice of Secondary Professions

The Warrior profession combines well with any secondary, as long as you keep in mind their smaller inherent energy pool.

Monk, Ritualist or Paragon is often used to provide a reusable resurrection skill.

[edit] Ranger Ranger

Taking Ranger as a secondary does offer advantages to the Warrior class. These include a pet companion, and survival skills (specifically Troll Unguent). In addition, adrenaline can be built up for a warrior with a bow from afar even before the fighting begins (although it is worth noting that a Ranger secondary is not required to use a bow for adrenaline purposes).

  • Apply Poison (Wilderness Survival) is another useful skill that can increase melee solo effectiveness. Best when used with AoE attacks to cause large amounts of health degeneration.
  • Antidote Signet (no attribute) is a useful skill that can remove conditions without using energy and only has a 4 second recharge time, and will always remove Poison, Disease, and most importantly, Blind, in addition to one extra condition.
  • Pets (Beast Mastery) are used to great effect in the heroes' ascent gimmick 'IWAY' team build.
  • Poison Tip Signet (Wilderness Survival) is useful for applying poison to one target, without having to spend 15 energy on Apply Poison.
  • Troll Unguent (Wilderness Survival) Gives you 13 seconds of +4 health regeneration at a measly 2 Wilderness Survival which can be very helpful for soloing or running through groups of enemies in PvE. An added bonus to this useful skill is the fact that Troll Unguent only costs 5 energy to use.

[edit] Monk Monk

Warriors with this combination are often derogatorily named "Wammos", as the disadvantage of Upkeep Enchantments or more expensive spells is that Warriors have only half the energy-income or need a big part of their energy pool. Due to this, many players discourage using skills like Mending and Healing Breeze, as one could have a similar but better effect if using other skills like "Watch Yourself!".

However, self heal may be useful during battle, and some skills are handy for farming, as e.g. using Vigorous Spirit with Cyclone Axe or Whirlwind Attack, where the Warrior will gain health every time they hit a target.

  • Mending Touch can remove up to two conditions.
  • Restful Breeze can help regeneration between fights or, for runners, between two bigger enemy crowds.
  • Strength of Honor increases melee damage. With zealous weapons, the upkeep cost of Strength of Honor is even less of a burden.

[edit] Necromancer Necromancer

  • Plague Touch can be used to inflict conditions back on enemies. This is particularly useful with Headbutt for an easy daze condition, as, unlike most necromancer skills, Plague Touch is not a spell, so it is not penalized by the Dazed condition.

[edit] Mesmer Mesmer

Some Skills are useful when farming, e.g. when fighting things that deal elemental damage like Hydras, Mesmer stances like Mantra of Flame are helpful in negating damage and gaining energy. Physical Resistance is also a common skill for solo FoW farming.

[edit] Elementalist Elementalist

Despite conflicting battle strategies (Warriors have the lowest energy regeneration and total of all the professions, while Elementalists have some of the most expensive spells), there are a few popular skill choices for a secondary Elementalist.

[edit] Assassin Assassin

Assassin shadow step skills can be useful for warriors that tank. Shadow stepping into the middle of a group while others stay out of range helps to retain aggro during the rest of the battle.

In general, Warriors with added Shadow Arts and/or Deadly Arts have increased mobility with shadow step and blocking capabilities with skills like Shroud of Distress, making them tougher to target and eliminate in 1-vs-1 or PvP situations.

[edit] Ritualist Ritualist


  • Splinter Weapon can be used in combination with Whirl Wind attack, and Hundred blades for swords, Triple Chop, and Cyclone Axe for axes, or Crude Swing, and Yeti Smash for hammers, for a low cost AoE upgrade

[edit] Paragon Paragon

[edit] Dervish Dervish

  • Harrier's Haste is a solid IMS, increasing damage and maneuverability.
  • Some Dervish self-heals (such as Natural Healing) can work well, even with a Warrior's low energy pool.
  • Vow of Strength works extremely well because of its long duration and need of only a handful of attribute points to make it effective.
  • Several Dervish attack skills (such as Eremite's Attack and Mystic Sweep) are actually Melee Attacks; as such they can be used with ANY weapon, such as a Warrior's Sword, Axe or Hammer.

[edit] External links

Guides for all Professions
Core: Warrior Warrior • Ranger Ranger • Monk Monk • Necromancer Necromancer • Mesmer Mesmer • Elementalist Elementalist
Factions: Assassin Assassin • Ritualist Ritualist        Nightfall: Paragon Paragon • Dervish Dervish
Retrieved from "http://www.wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Guide_to_playing_as_a_warrior"