You've had the most fun playing? And why was it fun?

Also, how do you decide what spec to learn first if you've never played a warrior past 18 before?

I've had alot of fun with cloud pole/mace. And cloud pole/axe.

I've also had alot of fun with felar spear/hand.

I recently had some fun with elf sword/dagger, but that's hard to pull off.


As for what spec, especially if you never played a warrior past 18, I would suggest taking one of the "defense" specs first. For a number of reasons.

(pole/staff-spear/sword) The extra defense skill is nice to help your survivability. And, getting it as first spec means you will be tanking alot early, which means your defense skill will go up nicely. It's often very hard to work on a defense skill of a second spec. Why? because at 40+, what groups you will be in will want either good tanking, or lots of damage. And at 40+, if you don't have a high% in your defense skill, you will tank like poopy. And at 40+, the mobs you have to tank in order to get decent skill ups will kill you FAST. So take a spec with a defense skill as your first spec.


Pole is STR/size based with the "distance" skill (it's defense skill). That means Giants to get the most from it.

staff/spear is dex based. So a high-dex race will get the most from it. Also, wielding one weapon will limit your damage output unless you are a Felar. Felar get claw attacks, and have decent dex, which is why felar are typically choose staff/spear more than other races.

Keep in mind, however, that most of the high-dex races also have very low strength. If you let your carry weight get over half of your max total, you will start to tank like poopy. between 20-45 this can be difficult to deal with. Sometimes, just the eq you are wearing, and one extra weapon will take you to half your max weight. Meaning you will never be carrying much more than 2-3 pieces of food...if you want to actually tank better than a sleeping, drunk orc with parkinson's disease. Often, I've had to choose really bad eq over available really good eq, because the bad eq was not heavy and the good eq was heavy. I made this choice so that I could carry 10-20 pieces of food and spend a decent amount of time out ranking/exploring without returning to town to buy food every 20 minutes.


Sword is interesting, in that it has skills that are str based, and skills that are dex based. With high dex, you will get the most out of your defense skill, flourintine. But with high str, you will get the most out of skills like flurry and doublethrust. Significantly.

Keep in mind also, that many of the half-decent and better swords out there aren't light...and you have to wield two of them. I will never play an elf sword spec again because of this. I'll never play another sword spec with less than 19 str. Which is what I would consider minimum to have enough available wield weight to not have it be a real struggle to stay under half. Arials and h-elves get 19 str.

I guess before I mention mechanics I should say that you should play whatever you think you'll enjoy from an RP angle. No matter how strong of a warrior you build, it's ability is limited (or helped) most by experience. Example: Worst possible thing you could be is felar sword/axe. If you had something like fire giant sword/axe with greeting (a classically powerful build) you'll still get eaten alive by a veteran felar sword spec just based on experience.

My point: Don't feel like you need to pick something powerful, pick something that you think your going to enjoy messing around with. Personally, I play a lot of dwarf warriors. Not because dwarf warriors are really all that great, but because I always laugh hysterically when I play dwarves. Nough said.

Now, from the strickly mechanical side of things (since that was the nature of your question) here is what I think you should make:

Arial
1st spec: mace
2nd spec: spear

1st legacy: Dance upon the southern wind (helps you dodge more)
2nd legacy: Soul of the Mountain (adds 200hp)

Reasons:

1) This is a build with a lot of capability, that will be very useful to groups, and doesn't require a tremendous amount of finesse to be successful with.

2) The combination of legacies makes you very durable, thus the character will absorb your mistakes easier.

3) Arials tank fine with maces because they rely more on dodge than parry. Early on maces will do a significant amount of damage while you are doing said tanking.

Cranial can lag anyone but invokers with the right shield up. This is monumentally useful.

Backhand is one of the most underrated skills in the game - but very useful at low levels. Low, low lag on an unmodified attack, great for whittling down prey.

Boneshatter: 2 rounds of lag for serious -dex/-str. A great way to start just about any fight with anyone. Personally my favorite maladiction that warriors have.

Drum: With the edge "balanced percussionist" you can pump out serious damage with drum. More so if you are a Maran dual wielding the silver maran maces that do flaming bite. On a good drum, you lag the guy like you tripped him.

Please don't use dent on me.

4) I think this is one of the most easy to use yet highly versatile spec sets for the beginning warrior. The downside for most characters is that maces don't parry well - not really an issue for arial warrior.

5) Spear/staff as your second spec, because as you draw close to 51 you won't be tanking as well with maces as you did when you were 30. Spear staff will pick up some of that slack.

6) Other spear/staff highlights are:

Defensive spin: why you'll tank great on your final push toward hero.

Misdirect: lags when cranial won't. Part of the reason why the specs work good together.

Impale: -str/-dex and causes bleeding. Extremely powerful when coupled with boneshatter. Even in this day and age where ppl are smart enough to gear for dex and str, it's very hard for anyone to fight on when both boneshattered and impaled.

Crescent: Decent damage when you need to both tank and hit.

BONUS: Arials have really high intelligence, means your skill %s will be high.

7) Dance upon the southern wind will make an already dodgy character even more dodgy. It will make you a good tank at a time when warriors are not usually the best tanks any longer.

8) With maces (being blunt) and staff (also being blunt) you'll do well as a neutral or goody trying to hero on Calyndryl.

9) Soul of the mountain will give you about 900 natural hit points on an arial - which covers one of the downsides to the class and makes you just a touch harder to kill.

Summary: This will be a build that can be any alignment, any cabal. It will make you good in all areas, at the sacrifice of being GREAT in one particular area. This is EXACTLY what the newer player needs.

While I recommend it to the newbie, it's also a character that I would play myself as a vet.

Hope that helps.

Thanks, but I didn't ask what you think I should roll for a warrior. Though I do appreciate the suggestion and the way you broke it down.

What warrior race/spec did you have the most fun playing and why did you find it fun?

This isn't me asking for a power combo. This is me just asking what warrior race/spec you had the most fun with.

And my real question is: How do you go about choosing what spec should be your first spec once you hit 20.

I went axe first as I wanted to kick a lot of asses when young so that people were warey f me later.

The decision about what specs comes from the enemies you think you will be facing. I chose axe because most mages cant parry it and it has a god lagging move in incer which is useful in most cases, bar one. The polearm I chose because I needed some defense to add to my offense. I new I would end up fighting hidden imperials, sylvan warders (similar to outlanders) and shapeshifters and so charge set was very useful. As a scout my damage output with critical hit is measured and people can time it and get away. It is not unpredictable like deathblow so the cut off skill would also help me snag a few people, mostly in raids.

Basically it all boils down to 'Who or what will you be fighting?'

-----Abernyte

P.S. I also had whispers and chilling legacies by choice and was given riddle after raiding scions when Quimo and Anith were on and then single handedly prevented the invoker and mongoose from retrieving. Riddle and whispers was awesome.

I put a lot of time into that post too. :(

Well, to answer your question I always have the most fun playing dwarf warriors. Or maybe that's just that I have fun playing dwarf anything, because I like the RP. From a mechanics perspective I like the finesse of playing elves, and the quick skill gains.

As to what to pick first, yea Abernyte said it right. Who are you and what are you going to be fighting? I still say mace is one of the best all around specs, and a solid choice.

>I put a lot of time into that post too. :(


Its not like nobody else will read it... ;)

Made me want to play a warrior.

Kastellyn the Devourer of Magic, Lord of Legends

*** Email me your testimonials or two-line blurbs. Help our marketing efforts! ***

Since you have a hell of a lot more experience with warriors than I do, I have to ask: what are your opinions on going spear/staff first, and then taking daggers instead of maces? What about for legacies to go with dancing/striking as well instead of dancing/mountain?

First let me say that the proposed warrior build is/was meant to be extremely newbie friendly.

As to your questions...

If you are going to do daggers as a warrior, I highly recommend that you start with that as your 1st spec. The damage you take on failed skills is proportionately lower, so your able to practice them much more effectively. Additionally failing them in PK is a lot more of a problem at hero than at level 30. I could tank with my arial dagger spec decently pre-40. This gave me a long, long time to get concealed up. Had I taken it as my 2nd spec, I wouldn't have been tanking.

Arial spear/staff as 1st spec kinda bores me all the way to level 40. There just isn't a whole lot of offensive stuff going on... just impale, crescent (about as fun as kick) and misdirect. I guess there are edges now, but... meh. "Your mileage may vary."

If I were going to do dagger/spear I'd take spear as my 2nd, so that I could keep tanking all the way to hero. I would surmise that an arial spear/staff with dance could solo relatively easily all the way to 51.

As to your legacy choices, stsf/dance is like... well extremely popular. "Cookie Cutter" might be another way of putting that. :) That said, if I were going to do those legacies and dagger I'd almost certainly take flail as my second spec. Mace would be my second choice.

very awesome, thanks man :D i've been a chronic mage player for a couple years now so i decided to try rolling a warrior up and figured an arial spear/dagger would be incredibly newbie friendly sooo yeah :p already went spears and am almost level 40, but i'm sure i could make up for it with a bit of time. basically just a test character that i'm running through anyway so yeah. tons of help, thanks.

I think on the 1st time around it's easy to overlook some of the ancillary warrior skills like shieldcleave, offhand disarm, pierce/thrust/slice, drive etc. There is a lot more in the tool kit than I think an average warrior uses. Exspearamint! (Yes, that's a spear spec joke.)

I'm so cheesy.

ANYWAYS...

I think preps are monumentally important in the hero ranks. At the least get fillets and fly potions. It's also good to have aura and shield if you can as well. If you make good use of all the tools + preps you will do well.