Tazzrin's Report & Question/ Answer about the VG Warrior

[Tazzrin Jaegernaut]

Ok soldiers listen up!

I have had the glorious opportunity to spend ample time on the battlefield of Vanguard's three continents. After whiping off the blood spattering from my enemies, I decided that it would be a good time to drop in and tell you soldiers whats what.

Now, I am going to leave most of our abilities out of it, because they are still being constantly tweaked. I will say, however, that Shout of Fury = absolute destruction for the offensive warrior.

Everything you have heard about us being the highest damaging defensive fighters is 100% true. We are melee masters. Hulcrors of combat. Monsters of mayhem. At the early levels we can even out damage the offensive fighters. On top of our extreme damage abilities, we have an enormous assortment of weapon types to choose from.

After level 10 you will be able to gain attribute points which you can add to your current stats. This is where there is the opportunity for maximum diversity between tanks. There are currently six different types of stats: Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, Vitality, Wisdom, Intelligence.

Do what you wish with your points. I am a stickler for the old-fashioned meat shield tank, so I always pump up constitution first, dexterity second, and vitality/ strength for my third choices. Do not forget about a point or two in wisdom and intelligence, because this will help you realize what is going on in battle.

Here is a snippet about Strength, Constitution, and Dexterity:

Strength: Your primary attribute that focuses on how hard you can hit and how much weight you can carry.
1 Strength = .08 Weight Carry
1 Strength = .21 Melee Attack

Constitution: This is your subsitute for the stamina attribute. Points here will help increase your hit points as well as your resistances.
1 Constitution = 3 Hit Points
10.2 Constituion = 1 to all Resists

Dexterity: Possibly considered as the "all around stat". Dexterity can help increase your critical hit chances, ability to evade or completely resist spell and melee attacks, help mitigate incoming melee damage, improve your chances to defend with defensive abilities, and help identifying certain incoming melee attacks.

I would strongly suggest that before you start spending your attribute points like a drunken sailor, try and come up with a strategic plan on what areas will be best for your tank.

Moving on to rescues: Learn them, use them, love them. They are great tools on the battlefield for instant agro. They have saved many grateful group members countless times. If you are able to master the use of your taunt abilities and your rescue abilities, then you will be a fine example of a battle commander. You will reach a point where you will literally command each battle.

Speaking of being a commander, we warriors will get battle commands which we can use on our group/ (raid?) members. We get two basic forms which are split into two different categories: Defense and Offense, and Group and Single target. I will give you the info on these skills here:

Command: Press the Attack

Description: By following this command, your defensive target will be granted a 25% damage increase on their next 2 attacks.
Level: 6
Power Cost: 38 Energy
Cast: Instant
Range: 5
Availability: Warrior Trainer
Cost: 20 Copper
Stance: Offensive/Defensive

Command: Defend I

Description: By following this command, your defensive target will be granted a 40% increase to mitigation for the next 3 incoming attacks.
Level: 18
Power Cost: 64 Energy
Cast: Instant
Range: 5
Availability: Warrior Trainer
Cost: 1 Silver 30 Copper
Stance: Offensive/Defensive


Group Command: Defend I

Description: By following this command, your group will be granted a 25% increase to mitigation for the next 2 incoming attacks.
Level: 28
Power Cost: 162 Energy
Cast: Instant
Range: 5
Availability: Warrior Trainer
Cost: 2 Silver 55 Copper
Stance: Offensive/Defensive

Group Command: Assault

Description: By following this command, your group will be granted a 15% increase on their next 2 attacks.
Level: 24
Power Cost: 180 Energy
Cast: Instant
Range: 5
Availability: Warrior Trainer
Cost: 1 Silver 2 Silver?
Stance: Offensive/Defensive

...Do not take these to heart, because they are still subject to being changed.

Ok soldiers come close and listen well: DO NOT leave the barracks without a shield. Sword and board is the way to go people! DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR!? I can count on one hand the times I have tanked for a group dual wielding. Go dual wielding when you are not the MT, or are killing various "weak" mobs. Two handers are very nice, but not really my style. Do what you will with your weapon specialty, but do not say I did not warn you about bringing your shield.

Furthermore, shields seem somewhat rare at this point. When you find a shield upgrade, be sure to cherish it.

For you PvP people I will say one thing and one thing only: Leap Attack. Remember this when you are rooted/ snared/ immobilized. It is your best tactic when trying to overcome these abilities. Other than that the only other thing I can advise is do not use taunt when fighting other players :P .

I am going to turn into the barracks for now soldiers. If you have any questions regarding Vanguard's warrior feel free to ask.

[Saty]

Nice review mate, thanks for your insights.

[Tazzrin Jaegernaut]

Originally Posted by Saty

Nice review mate, thanks for your insights.

Np,

Feel free to ask any questions you guys may have concerning the warrior. That is if you can pull yourself away from beta :lol:

[chevelleking]

First off, thanks for the info, new poster, thought this would be a good opportunity to get some warrior info.

About enrage, its activated below 50%, I'm assuming it has a duration, does it cancel if you are healed above 50%? Also can Barrier of Steel be used on PC's?

Thanks again

[Tazzrin Jaegernaut]

Enrage I
This ability increases your strength while reducing your mitigation as your health drops below fifty percent, increasing in effectiveness for every ten percent drop. This ability may only be used once your health is below fifty percent.

* Level: 16
* Type: Buff
* Source: Purchased
* Price: 115 copper
* Range: 5
* Cost: 105 endurance
* Cast: Instant

This shows that the ability can only be used once your health is below fifty percent. Which means it will cancel above 50%. I have not tested this since beta 4 to see if it has changed, and I will do so soon enough. Although I suggest that you should be careful using this ability, because it will most likely kill you. And since your healers are going to be trying to keep you above 50% anyway, you will most likely seldom use this ability.

As for barrier of steel, I believe it has been taken out of the game.

[skatobot]

I just started Beta yesterday and am still wondering about defensive and offensive stance. It seems i have offensive on all the time...maybe, but no defensive anywhere to be found.

And all the talk about opening- bridge- finisher is that true? Im only up to 7 but i have a finisher that I have no idea how to trigger it to use.

[Tazzrin Jaegernaut]

Originally Posted by skatobot

I just started Beta yesterday and am still wondering about defensive and offensive stance. It seems i have offensive on all the time...maybe, but no defensive anywhere to be found.

And all the talk about opening- bridge- finisher is that true? Im only up to 7 but i have a finisher that I have no idea how to trigger it to use.

Ok, the warrior trainer that you will see soon enough will have a quest for you in order to train defensive stance. You have to be a certain level in order to get the quest, but the level evades me at this point. I know that it is under level 10.

As for the opening- bridge- finisher, that system is gone. As it stands now, we have openers & finishers. In order to be able to use a finisher you must land a critical hit with one of your "normal" abilites.

For example, you land a critical hit with Brutal Strike on your offensive target which opens up your finisher Decimate.

IMO this system is better because it makes it more simple. And a favorite term I like to use is this:

"K.I.S.S.- Which stands for: Keep It Simple Stupid"

[Lightning]

Defensive stance quest comes at level 8

[skatobot]

Thanks guys!!

Woohoo that system is alot simpler, now if youll excuse me Im gonna log in and split someones head before i go to work....Good day




ps: Any Vulmane guys know where the npc is for defensive stance. I have the quest now but cannot find him anywhere. I was gonna report it but not sure if im just being slow

[Cynical]

Few questions for you beta guys:

tazz:

1: have you played any other tank classes, if so, do they all mitigate damage evenly? (in terms of quad damage and crits) Are warriors as one dimensional as they sound compaired to other tank classes? If so, do they make up for it in defensive ability, i.e. defensive stance?

2: now that racial abilities are out, do you forsee an overwhelming abundance of lesser giants to take on the role of (mt)tanks. if so do you believe they will nerf the 50% hp increase?

3: how easily can characters move from continent to continent and potentially meet up with real life friends to play together? are there level caps to when you will be able to venture from qalia to thestra (so on and so forth?

Hopefully you guys/gals can shed some light on these subjects.