Building a Better Warrior Series: Part 2 - In-Depth Build Creation

Level: Beginner Background Info This guide is a follow-up of Part 1 of the series, which can be found here. Those who were able to create their own builds that withstood the level 24 charr have improved their game and walked away from the experience as better warriors. However, there are some who still struggle with it, as well as some who are newer to the game. Thus, instead of writing a more advanced guide, I will be taking a step back and will go through an in-depth walkthrough of build creation. Lesson 1: Know Your Enemy The first part of creating a build almost always involves evaluating what you will be up against and deciding how you will counter it. As a point of reference, we will be tackling the level 24 charr once again, since those mobs include a good mix of all classes. Once again, I will list out the relevant skills we will be facing, as well as some of my own thoughts on them. 1. charr axe lord o dismember - deep wound will cut hp down, but it shouldn't be much of a problem
o

axe twist - weakness will reduce damage output, but +dmg from skills is unaffected

2. charr flame lord o mark of rodgort - burning is a potentially dangerous condition

o

fireball - will need to reduce this dmg

3. charr ashen lord o life siphon - a few pips of degen is nothing too major
o o

putrid explosion - armor ignoring damage rend enchantments - probably shouldn't rely on enchantments

4. charr mind lord o ether feast - could out damage this, but it might be better to interrupt it 5. charr stalker lord o ignite arrows - will need to reduce this damage
o o o

dual shot - will need to reduce this damage greater conflagration - will be dangerous if mark of rodgort is on you troll ungent - should interrupt it

6. charr shaman lord o zealot's fire - can't be helped

o

some heals *shrugs* - out damage it with force

Overall, we will be facing a potentially dangerous combination of conditions, but no blind. We will want to reduce damage from their normal attacks, attack skills, and spells. Lastly, there are a few skills we will want to interrupt.

Lesson 2: Build Creation A good build template to start from takes the following form: <attack skill 1> <attack skill 2> <attack skill 3> <utility skill 1> <utility skill 2> <damage reduction 1> <damage reduction 2> <healing> This build structure offers a very balanced offense, defense, and self healing. A lot of the good solo builds that have been shared publicly take some variation of this template. Using our notes from the previous section, we can start to fill the build out. Keep in mind that you don't have to get it perfectly right the first time, and there should always be room to test and tweak it. I will be creating a build for a W/R, since it is a less common combination in pve. First off, let's deal with damage reduction/healing. Let's see if we can handle not dealing with the conditions for now. However, we will still need to reduce damage from their attacks and spells. A good way to do this is to raise your armor level. As a warrior, a common way to do this is by using the combination of Dolyak Signet and "Watch Yourself!" Healing Signet is also a pretty common self heal to use for a warrior. So, this is what we have: <attack skill 1> <attack skill 2> <attack skill 3> <utility skill 1> <utility skill 2> "Watch Yourself!" Dolyak Signet Healing Signet Next, we need to decide what weapon to use. To be a perfectly versatile warrior, you should never limit yourself to a single weapon and should know the advantages/disadvantages of each. Most solo builds don't use a hammer because you lose the additional armor and additional mods from a shield. We will need to interrupt key skills, and axes have a better interrupt than swords. Because of that, let's pick axes. So, we will be adding in Disrupting Chop to interrupt key skills like Troll Ungent, Mark of Rodgort, Ether Feast, Life Sypphon, etc. The next step is to choose an elite. Most people prefer Eviscerate for the deep wound effect, but I will choose Cleave for it's constant dps and spammability. I'll also add in Penetrating Blow and Power Attack. So, now we have: Penetrating Blow

Power Attack Cleave {e} Disrupting Chop <utility skill 2> "Watch Yourself!" Dolyak Signet Healing Signet What should we add as a last skill? Taking equipment into consideration (which you should also always do), I will most likely use an axe with an in stance damage mod and the collector's Crimson Carapace Shield (+45 hp, -2 dmg in stance). It would be good to add in a stance to take advantage of those, but defensive stances won't be as effective since the damage doesn't just come from attacks. How about an IAS stance? Frenzy would be bad because of the increased damage intake. We could use Flurry, but we also have Tiger's Fury available from our secondary. Let's go with TF to add in variety to the build, which is: Penetrating Blow Power Attack Cleave {e} Disrupting Chop Tiger's Fury "Watch Yourself!" Dolyak Signet Healing Signet Now, let's set our attributes. We want to keep Axe Mastery relatively high since it is the source of our offense, while keeping Strength and Tactics balanced for our damage reduction skills. Any leftover points can be put in to increase TF's duration. Let's try out this attribute spread: Strength - 10 + 1 Axe Mastery - 10 + 1 (helm) + 3 Tactics - 9 + 1 Beast Mastery - 7 (8 sec TF) Lesson 3: Testing and Tweaking I could post the build on the forums and ask for feedback from people, but the best thing to do would be to actually test it myself. During your first few test runs, learn how to time your skills properly to make the most of them. Always be attentive and take notes on what is effective/ineffective, as well as what could potentially go wrong. After a few test runs, I discovered that the build I created above works.

However, the defense was just enough to hold off against small, carefully pulled groups. Against the wrong mix of the larger mobs, the build is quickly overwhelmed. Deep wound and weakness from the axe lords reduced hp and the damage output. Burning from the Mark of Rodgort + Greater Conflagration combo, as well as Life Syphon from the ashen lords created constant high degen. The build wasn't enough to take on these larger mobs, and needed to be tweaked accordingly. So what can we do? The conditions and hexes are what overwhelm the build. We could try to figure out how to counteract them, or we could potentially use that to our advantage. Melandru's Resilience might be a good elite to add in, as it provides +3 hp regen and +1 energy regen per condition/hex. We will have to sub in another attack for Cleave, since MR will be taking the elite slot. We can drop TF, since the trial runs showed that the 10 energy cost was a bit expensive to keep up. MR will be our new stance, and we don't want to spread attributes between too many lines. So, the new tweaked build should be: Penetrating Blow Power Attack Executioner's Strike Disrupting Chop Melandru's Resilience {e} "Watch Yourself!" Dolyak Signet Healing Signet Let's now redistribute the attribute points to get a good duration time out of MR. Our

new point spread should be: Strength - 8 + 1 (helm) + 1 Axe Mastery - 10 + 3 Tactics - 9 + 1 Wilderness Survival - 9 (15 sec MR) After going out to test this new build, I discovered that it worked marvelously.

Final Notes Is this the best build possible? Most likely not, but it is just a good example of how to actually go about creating one. The same process of thinking through it, testing, taking in feedback during testing, and tweaking the build should be repeated until you are satisfied with your build. And in pve, if it works and works well, why fix it? Here's a few Strider tips to keep in mind when creating new builds. -A very effective and generic way of boosting your defense as a warrior is the Dolyak Sig + "Watch Yourself!" combination. With the right attribute spread, it's +50 armor that cannot be stripped. However, keep in mind the most time, Dolyak Sig is only effective in a solo build. It works fine in team situations as long as you are with a trusted group that understands how aggro is controlled. However, in most PUG situations, Dolyak Sig is a self snare that may be a bad idea to bring. Also, don't forget to fit in a Res Sig in team builds. -Stances are good for damage reduction, but only when the majority of damage you are taking is from attacks. When you have spells and degen mixed in, most defensive stances will just be wasted on your skill bar. This is the reason why I will continue to assert that going in as a stance tank isn't a good idea in FoW. -If the mobs you will be facing are primarily or all melee, it is a tried and tested fact that Gladiator's Defense {e} + Riposte + Deadly Riposte are good combinations to use. -Similarly, if most of the damage you will be taking is primarily either physical or

elemental, using a /mes secondary for the Physical/Elemental Resistance stances are a good idea. They provide good bonus armor and will activate any stance mods you may have on your equipment. -Sword vs. Axe vs. Hammer? I use all 3. I will never pick a favorite, and neither should you. Learn the advantages and disadvantages of all 3 to be a well-rounded warrior. -Don't be afraid to mix in skills from your secondary. This game should be fun, and the wide variety of skills available allows for that. Well, that's it for now. I hope this guide helped those who needed it. Keep in mind that the most important aspect is to have fun. If you are having trouble finalizing a build, feel free to post it in the build forums to receive feedback and critique from others on the board. Stay tuned for the next installment of the Building a Better Warrior Series!
Last edited by striderkaaru : 03-06-2006 at 01:36 PM.