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Krahg's Heavy Warrior Guide

Intro – Creation – What to Wield – Disciplines – Ingame Stat Runes – Skills – Getting Started – Powers – GvG

This is mainly focused on heavy tank warrior with sword weapons, any weapon tha warrior gets mastery of would follow pretty much the same pattern. Dex warriors need an entirely different approach and guide.

Basic stuff

ATR - Attack rating, formula is sword skill*4 + mastery skill*2 + dex/2. This is compared which the DEF of whoever you're trying to hit to determine sucess chance.
DEF - Not quite sure the formula, but it's based on the armour you're wearing's base DEF, and your wear armour skill for the type, DEX also, *shrug*. This compared with the ATR of the guy hitting you determines hit or miss.
STR - increase maximum weapon damage, also a big factor of wear armour skill (something like 2 STR = 1% addition to skill). Increase min damage on bows (only about half as effective as DEX)
DEX - increases DEF and ATR a bit, increase MAX damage for certain weapons (daggers, blade master, weaver, bows), the same way STR does for swords (and effects MIN on swords).
CON - Your HP and Stamina, get lots of it.
SPI - something those wimpy mages use *shrugs*
INT - Very useful, also your skill cap is 60 + INT.

Creation

Intro – Creation – What to Wield – Disciplines – Ingame Stat Runes – Skills – Getting Started – Powers – GvG

First thing is to drop your DEX and SPR down 5, don't need those. Next, traits, go for stat runes, Irekei warriors have low STR and CON compare to Dwarves or HGs, so we need to start making that up. None of the other traits are really good anyways.

I take healthy as an ox, and warlord's page for +20 max con. You have room for 3 traits (10 runes max, race, class, profession, 2 stat max runes (more on that later), 2 discs, traits. Maybe you plan on taking 3 discs though, in which case you just take 2 traits. 3rd trait I suggest taking sellsword(5% sword), or the +5 STR rune (don't think it's possible to get the +10 after the 2 CON). If you need more points, you can lower STR, or INT also by 5 (not a big deal, since for the traits you buy, most of the cost is for increasing current stats).

There's also the choice between 1h+shield, 2h, or dual wielding. You don't have to really choose between 1h+shield and 2h for a while if you're not sure, but if you want to dual wield, you need to buy the ambidex rune at creation (not sure if you can afford it as a 3rd rune after 2 CON, may need to cut a CON one down to +5).

What to wield?

Intro – Creation – What to Wield – Disciplines – Ingame Stat Runes – Skills – Getting Started – Powers – GvG

1-h + shield: This one gives you less damage than a 2 hander, but gives you a shield that gives a big DEF boost, and blocks well (especially arrows). A solid choice for a more conservative warrior who wants to stay alive a long time in battles. To take advantage of the extra DEF, you can't be in offensive stance, so that's even less damage.

2-hander: My favorite, extra damage! You also get more out of powers with this one (50% extra damage on a 200 dmg hit is more than 50% on a 125 hit). You don't have the extra blocking, so you're relying mostly on HP and resists to keep you going (which will still keep a warrior alive a long time. A warrior of this type isn't going to get much help from his DEF

dual wielding: Best way to kill stuff fast. Most damage output (you don't perfectly wield both swords though, offhand takes a damage penalty), you also get more ATR since the ATR bonus enchantments on both weapons stack. The cost is it's the least stamina efficient, costs 6 per round (opposed to 4 for a 2 hander), and you're getting a less than 50% more damage out of that 50% more stam cost). I don't like it much since stam is so important for us in big GvG battles especially.

Disciplines

Intro – Creation – What to Wield – Disciplines – Ingame Stat Runes – Skills – Getting Started – Powers – GvG

Bounty hunter: Has player track, detect hidden (maxing at adept), and a snare (melee range, not very good compare to our weapon powers). The track is nice, detect hidden not very useful except against high rank 2 rogues or lower.

Commander: Group damage bonus chant, group run speed chant, group stun break, ability to command siege engines (without special item). This one's a winner. The chants are probably lined up for a nerf soon, but it'll still be useful even if they get capped.

Huntsman: NPC tracking, grants bow skill, summon hunting wolf. NPC tracking isn't very useful in PvP (is for PvE, but a waste of points when it comes to what really matters). The wolfs are ok if you really want a pet.

Gladiator: Melee resist buff, ATR buff, heal. The resist and atr buffs are ok, trainable and last 60 seconds, good in a small engagement. The heal is useless (heals like 25 hp). A good choice.

Ingame Stat Runes

Intro – Creation – What to Wield – Disciplines – Ingame Stat Runes – Skills – Getting Started – Powers – GvG

Ingame off monsters, these runes randomly drop (the stronger the monster, the higher the rune). When applied, they increase a stat's MAX number you can raise it. +5 and +10 are free. But starting at +15, it costs you 5 attribute points (if you don't have them, it brings you into negative). The +20 rune costs 6, +25 costs 7, best is +40 for 10.

Skills

Intro – Creation – What to Wield – Disciplines – Ingame Stat Runes – Skills – Getting Started – Powers – GvG

Sword: "Focus" skill, raises ATR, damage, gives you powers, and access to better weapons. Can't go wrong getting is as high as possible, try for way past 100.
Sword mastery: Adds extra ATR when holding 1h sword weapons, also grants (better) powers. You need 50% sword skill to get it.
Great sword mastery: Same as sword mastery, but for 2h. Need 50 skill to get it.
Parry: Chance of stopping melee attacks
Block: Chance of stopping melee attacks and arrows, requires shield.
Toughness: Every 1% adds 3 HP and more the higher the skill goes. It tops off at adding 6 HP per skill point.
Wear armour heavy: Increases DEF and is required for better armour.
Indomitable will: Stun, snare and root break power. Auto-trained to GM.
Challenge: PvE pull, needs 1 train only
Hold the line:
Shield bash: Trainable stun that becomes available once block skill is raised a certain amount. The more you train it, the longer it lasts. 1h + shield warriors should definitely invest in it.

Getting started

Intro – Creation – What to Wield – Disciplines – Ingame Stat Runes – Skills – Getting Started – Powers – GvG

Unlike most traditional fantasy (where young warriors are good, and young mages suck), SB is an opposite, and warriors aren't so great. Mages start doing high damage thanks to good INT and SPR stats, while most archers pump up their DEX early on. For a warrior, bring up your CON. This lets you survive better, and lowers the level at which you can actually start tanking well in PvE. Until then, just try and find groups with good archers and mages.

At around lvl 15-20 you get enough HP to tank. You still don't do much damage though, mostly because you need to be in precise to hit anything (since most groups are fighting stuff at least a few levels higher than their chars). If you can get your hands on a weapon with a nice ATR bonus, you might be able to hit stuff while in normal or offensive stance which helps. Anyways, keep going at it, you pretty useless in PvP, but you can tank in PvE which at least contributes to groups (can't kill much though).

Character building:

By lvl 25 or so, you'll have maxed your your STR and CON, My advice is to bring INT up to at least 50. 60, even 70 is good. Now you need to get your hands on some of those +MAX stat runes. Get a +30 or even better one for CON, and a +20 or +25 one for STR, that'll last you to level 60. The rest is pretty straightforward, keep raising skills! You don't really need to spike, untill you get into high lvl 50s.

Powers

Intro – Creation – What to Wield – Disciplines – Ingame Stat Runes – Skills – Getting Started – Powers – GvG

Bleeds: Last 5 mins, do 3-10 damage every 5 seconds. Very useful on casters, since it will interrupt their spells. Good on rogues also, prevents them from stealthing.

Attack speed debuffs: Lasts between 60-90 seconds, slows down weapon attack rates by over 50%. Good on melees and archers.

What to use:

Red blade, you get it early, 2nd sword power, 5 stam bleed.
Crossed blades, 4th sword power, costs 15 stam, but attack speed debuffs are useful in PvE, and you need it to tank. You get better one at lvl 29.
Crimson mist, another good 5 stam bleed, sword mastery 21/lvl 21 (like gut render, people with 2h swords can use it still)
Riposte, lvl 29, 40 sword mastery, 5 stam attack speed debuff. Even people using 2h should go for it.
Trueson's taunt, taunt power for PvE use. It won't get the monster on you if some guy has already gotten it down to half health, and you join in. But if say an archer started outdamaging you and it went after him, this can bring it back on you for a while.

Higher level PvE

Past mid rank 3, the warrior is much more of a complete package in PvE. Since monsters hit over 200, no one else can tank them. Also in offensive stance, you can outdamage most archers and mages. Depending on how good your healers are, you may not be able to last the entire fight. To pull you can use challenge power. The good thing about challenge is that it isn't impaired by lack of LOS. So if an orc is stuck in a hut, or behind a building, and you use it, he'll come out (sometimes teleports onto you if stuck). Challenge is a taunt power that adds agro, and it has longer range than xbow.

PvP tips

Intro – Creation – What to Wield – Disciplines – Ingame Stat Runes – Skills – Getting Started – Powers – GvG

So now you should know how to build your char, and be useful while doing it. Time to learn about what a warrior does in the REAL game of SB!

In large GvG battles, the warriors job is to make a lot of noise, and get the enemy's attention focused on trying to take you down, while other, weaker classes do their work. 1 warrior isn't too effective at this, because he can easily be snared, rooted and finished off, but get 5 or more charging the enemy together, and they've got a real problem. So warriors role in GvG is mostly offensive.

You can defend your archers and mages against enemy melee also, but it's a bit of a waste. Archers (with armour piercing bows) and mages are much better at killing them, us melee'ers would have trouble doing significant damage against their resists, so we are better on soft targets.

Also, just a quick tip, if you're not hitting something, don't run around in combat mode. Stamina is life on the battlefield, so don't waste a point of it. Be careful with powers also, going nuts with them will quickly make you a sitting duck. In case you don't know, for faster stamina regen, sit, then enter defensive stance.

Vs mages: close distance, use bleed hack hack hack. Against flying mages it's a little trickier, best to just call out "so and so is flying chan," for the archers and mages to take care of him. If you can't, and have nothing else to do, go into defensive stance and tank the spells. When he's out of mana and, then stam, he's yours.

Vs archers: these guys are tricky, in big GvG they can't run around the battlefield kiting us so easily (and if they try, just forget him and start hitting someone else), but in smaller engagements, they are a pain. If you train up indomitable will high, you could break scout snares, but it probably needs to be maxed since they are GM level like I said. Vs flying archers, just run or get help, you can't beat these guys. Only hope is to go into defensive stance and sit under him, and hope you can run him out of stamina (unlikely if he is ranger or scout).

Member Guide

The Terror Priest is an Irekei Healer/Channeler dedicated to support. He has some offensive capability, but his focus both in training and in play is on keeping his groupmates alive and effective.