Subtitle: Kat’s Introduction to the Warrior Class
Welcome to the general guide to all Warriors. I do not mean this to take precedence over any combo specific guides or to supersede anything that has gone before. I just thought I would try to tie together some information about Warriors as a class in one place for ease of access.
Who are Warriors?
First off, let’s have a look who plays Warriors? People who like big axes, loud noises and loincloths. Loincloths are very important. If you don’t like Arnold Swarzenegger in Conan and Red Sonia, this isn’t the class for you. In many ways we can be considered anti-Mages. Just as everyone who has ever lived can be divided into people that hate clowns and clowns themselves, so can MMO players be divided into those who like running up to mobs shouting, swearing and waving a large wickedly sharp weapon above their head, and those who like standing at the back, wearing a dress and wielding a ‘deadly’ stick. Call it a wand or staff all you want, it is a stick and everyone knows it.
What are Warriors not?
There are many misconceptions about Warriors, which have survived even Torankasu’s wonderful Warrior’s Handbook of Myths and Lies (unfortunately now lost in the mists of archivation).
Warriors are not tanks. W/K can be, but that doesn’t make the whole class a tank class.
Warriors do not have a huge advantage in getting 2 physical attack per strength, as the abundance of pattk stats undermines this as does the lack of any pattk from dexterity.
Wearing Chain does not give any great advantage to any degree. The differences in defence values between leather and chain is very nearly negligible an though it would appear that since Chapter 4 moves have been made to change this, it still makes little difference and Chain gear often now comes with ghost stats of accuracy (to make up the shortfall against dex stackers) but loses then +crit, leaving them further behind in DPS stakes.
Warriors do not have AoE or CC to rival a Mage. Warriors’ AoE adds an interesting string to their collective bows (especially W/S and W/Wd) but it is not on par with Purgatory Fire. Their CC seem really good to non-Warriors, but actually are very nearly non-existent (an exaggeration truly, but they promise so much and deliver so little, I feel that I am perfectly able to use such hyperbole).
What are Warriors?
Warriors are a DPS class, pure and simple. We stack physical attack, and are as squishy as any DPS by any meaningful definition. There are a few interesting anomalies in the class, but they only prove the rule of the rest of the Warrior combos. Warriors use axes and swords, as there is little to distinguish between them. The defining feature is our resource pool Rage, which can be a hindrance far more often than beneficial but is the only thing that actually sets Warriors apart from the other classes.
Rage
Rage is our main fuel in life, and bizarrely enough, it is in game as well. Uniquely among resource pools, the Rage counter starts at zero. Rage is built up before use – as opposed to Scouts or Rogues that can burn their resource and then must wait for a refill.
There are several ways to gain Rage.
First is hitting things. Every white hit (normal auto-attacks) generates Rage. The amount is normalized to weapon speed, so that all weapons generate around 7 Rage per second regardless of weapon speed. Dual wielding W/R also has their off-hand weapons to generate Rage (though at a lower rate due the off-hand penalty). It is important to note that while most melee range skills have a range of 50, white hits have only a range of 30 – meaning that you must keep an eye on how close you are to mobs and bosses as you must be closer than just close enough to use skills. Be outside the 30 range and you won’t be getting Rage.
Second is to get hit, physically. Magical damage won’t count, but physical damage will generate a set amount of Rage.
Third is to imbibe Rage potions (that come in different flavours up to 100 Rage) (I don’t even want to think about what they taste like if they get you that angry), or use the Dalanis Memento Set Skill Energy Restore (a channelled skill, i.e. you can’t move or attack during its cast, for 4 seconds restoring a total of 50 Rage). I group these as they are something that all Warriors can use.
Fourth are combo specific skills that generate Rage, or have a chance to generate Rage. That chance can be a kicker as we are so dependent on the proc’ing of these skills. These include Sword Breath and Aim for the Wound for W/S, Heroic Surprise Attack for W/K and others I won’t bother listing here as I am lazy and there isn’t anything that you can do about it.
Warriors by themselves are useless without Rage. Warriors require a secondary class to provide another resource pool to be able to do damage. In Chapter 3, Rage generation for Warriors was their number one concern. Warriors were unable to compete in the damage dealing stakes without Rage that all too often was not there. Many suggestions were given as to how to rectify the situation, such as generating Rage when other players in the party were hit. The solution offered by Runewaker in Chapter 4 balancing was not to change Rage generation but to hugely increase the weapon masteries that really helped make the Warrior combos with Rage generation problems a great boost, but also very much more empowered the two combos that are the top DPS for Warriors and arguably have the smallest issues with Rage, W/Wd and W/R.
The Warrior Combos
Warrior/Mage
Mage General Skills
W/M Elite Skills
Every family has one, and this is the black sheep of the Warrior clan. I have mentioned Mages earlier and their penchant for small bits of wood and wearing dresses. Well here is the Warrior that does exactly the same. A lot of useful information will found for this combo in the Mage section of the forums (where you can read such interesting threads as ‘Twirling your wand like a baton: How to be even more girly’, ‘Kiting guide for Mages: Because mobs are big, scary and can get your dress dirty’ and ‘Important Issues for Mages: What is the best 2h staff in game and does it make my bum look big?’
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The Warmage may have originally been intended to be a normal Warrior that could use Magic skills as a side line and to that effect had skills that can increase magical attack. Of course, it turns out that it is simply more effective to turn full Mage and strut your funky stuff. Warmages were something of a novelty in Chapter one as they could out single target damage a Mage, in the days that that was an achievement. The issues that affect all magical DPS (as explained
here) also effects the Warmage, and so time has not been kind to the Warmage as they do not have the crucial thing for magical DPS and that is long cast-time skills. However, they can their white hits to do some awesome damage, even though their skills are somewhat lacking. It is a sad thing though to rely on white hits for damage, though I believe that Wd/D can do a likewise feat. There is also the worry that the huge hits these skills can do were never intended and will be ‘fixed’ at a later date. In short a Warmage is a cloth wearing, Intelligence stacking, melee range Mage that relies on white hits for most of their damage, buffing with a strange mix of attack speed reducers and magical damage enhancements. Warmages also have no skills beyond what is available to all Warriors to generate Rage.
Warrior/Druid
Druid General Skills
W/D Elite Skills
This is a strange combo, which on the surface doesn’t have a lot of love put into its creation. The downsides are fairly apparent at first glance. Zero skills to increase Rage. Zero mana-based skills except for Tremor, that is the third skill in a three skill chain-combo. This leaves the W/D with nothing to do but twiddle their thumbs and self-heal while waiting for Rage.
Now let’s have a look at what might save this combo from the fiery pits of a role-player only designation. They do get a buff to their white hits which puts on an additional bleed, though I must hold my hand up and say that I have no idea how effective it is, though I would imagine not very when compared to a W/Wd spamming Power of the Wood Spirit.
What might be more interesting is the burst damage potential of this combo. With the resources available to all Warriors they can fill that Rage bar, and then thanks to the 50/50 Elite do some awesome damage with Slash-Tactical Attack-Probing Attack-Open Flank-Tremor cycling through the entire Warrior combo with Stifle’s increased damage with the top DPS 2h weapon. In theory this should be pretty devastating (thanks to phatmandrake for this theorising, my apologies should I be misrepresenting any of it, but you did kind of refuse to explain yourself very thoroughly). Though it does leave you self-healing while questing and taking mobs down with white hits. Difficult to say whether the burst damage would be worth it. The main problem is that perennial Warrior issue – no Rage, no damage.
Warrior/Knight
Knight General Skills
W/K Elite Skills
This is a tough-as-nails combo that can do both respectable damage and respectable tanking. Can fully tank up with plate and has awesome single target aggro generation. What holds this combo back from being a complete MBT (main battle tank) is no AoE aggro skill and not enough damage mitigation skills. The damage is also a bit mediocre, as to do the maximum damage a W/K must use a 2h weapon that means a lot of the W/K Elites cannot be used. Should there ever be another moment of madness as there was in the time of the Sword of Fear (a 1h sword that had more DPS than any 2h weapon) then W/K along with W/R would benefit greatly. The shield skills of the W/K have been greatly improved but are very mana hungry. W/K is pretty much what you would expect of a decent off-tank. Few surprises until you throw you shield into someone’s face. W/K also has an anti-root/stun for PvP, but must watch out for M/R’s as Demoralize will still work.
Warrior/Warden
Warden General Skills
W/Wd Elite Skills
This is the top of the line DPS Warrior closely followed by the W/R. W/Wd has some awesome short term self buffs for pattk, meaning it probably has the highest pattk potential in-game. Added to the fact that this combo uses a 2hander weapon and you get some awesome burst damage and even a party-wide pdmg buff. Sustained damage is still good as unlike many Warriors, W/Wd can still output a good damage rotation without Rage, but falls behind W/R as the mana-based skills are not as powerful as W/R’s Rage based ones and W/Wd does not have the same kind of Rage generating potential. W/Wd also has a mana-based AoE with a 4 second cooldown, something that as being a W/S for the majority of my RoM career is the one thing that really fills me with unadulterated fury. So unfair, that really I can’t trust myself to talk about here. There isn’t really anything wrong with W/Wd that is worth mentioning. Even by changing to Wd/W can you turn this combo into a tank that is arguably the best in-game. One of the most common misunderstandings in RoM is the W/Wd 25/25 Elite, that gives Slash (
and Open Flank) 50% extra damage on the tooltip against ‘vulnerable Humanoids and Beasts’. The vulnerable here is a meaningless emphasiser, it does not mean that you need to use PA to put on the Vulnerable debuff. Not at all. Though this buff is selective, it again packs a pretty huge punch when compared to other Warrior combos.
Warrior/Rogue
Rogue General Skills
W/R Elite Skills
This combo is one of the top DPS combos in the game. Excellent burst damage combined with great sustained damage, as dual wielding gives a flat 60% increase in Rage generation from white hits, which for a DPS in an instance is where an awful lot of it comes from.
W/R has a whole host of big hitting skills, meaning that even when having a one hand weapon they don’t suffer the same penalty that a W/K must do with a shield for example. The downsides of W/R are that in burn mode they have 68% less physical defence and that they are about the only combo (with also P/W, and maybe R/W) that needs a DPS one hand weapon. This leaves them open to ‘nerf by itemisation’, as with what happened when there was no RT platinum one hand axe. These are still not very big downsides, and with added weapon and movement speed, W/R pretty much always comes up smelling of roses.
Warrior/Scout
Scout General Skills
W/S Elite Skills
What is often called the most fun class in RoM. A lot of that fun was removed for me when Shot was given the GCD, meaning that it no longer had to be woven into and through the rotation. For players who like that kind of thing, the closest replacement I have found is R/W with a handswap macro – though even that is being removed with both axes giving Shadowstab Bleeds and Daggers have more DPS anyway. W/S have a range of useful skills, improved AoE (I’m just going to ignore W/Wd with a mana-based 4-sec CD AoE), interrupts, debuffs (though not so useful at times), have ranged attacks and can generate their own Rage reasonably successfully. W/S damage is somewhat mediocre though – as they do not have a great filler attack, do not have any meaningful self-buffs for damage, and do not have hard hitting skills. What holds them back even more is that Sword Breath and Aim for the Wound only have a chance of generating Rage, and so it is not unusual to find a W/S all out of Rage and Focus. This is still a versatile combo that can still be productive in DPS stakes, but falls well short of the DPS monsters of the class.
Warrior/Priest
Priest General Skills
W/P Elite Skills
W/P was one of the really big losers of Chapter 4. The main issue that most people had with the W/P was that Bloodlust took 20% HP to generate 30 Rage. It was argued that this was just too high once the HP values of endgame toons became so high. W/P is another combo that has no real non-Rage skills, so relied on giving up HP for Rage to use skills and had Opportunity as a big hitting skill to augment the normal Warrior attacks. W/P also has a nice interrupt and party buffs. However, Chapter 4 changed Bloodlust to give 30 Rage from 10% HP, but put a 10 sec cool-down on the skill. This severely limited the Rage that could be created, and though still leaves the W/P far better balanced than say W/D as they actually can generate their own Rage and have far more useful skills, it means that their main advantage (limitless Rage) is gone, as is the definitive 'Suicide Button' of the combo. W/P's that I knew liked nothing better than to burn down to 20% health unexpectedly just to scare the bejesus out of the healers.
This could still be a very useful solo quester, but its salvation has actually been its destruction as a relatively useful combo for PvP (Holy Aura and mdmg reduction, though the 'Suicide Button' wouldn't have worked well here), soloing (self-heals) and DPS (limitless Rage).
Quoted from "KatalanOrk;508729"
ER is unavailable for Warrior secondaries, as it will restore the primary resource pool.
Actually I notice now I had Throw Shield and Shield Bash confused. That should change my rotation a little bit 
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