Warrior

Classes:

The Warrior:	Skills •	Glyphs •	Weapons •	Armour

Warrior

Role	Offense
Combat range	Very short (2 meters)
Movement speed	Very fast (120%)
Weapon type	Twin swords
Armor type	Leather

"Swift blades bring swift defeat."

The warrior is a light armored class which uses a pair of twin swords for melee damage-dealing or tanking capabilities. The main traits of the warrior are their agility and fast execution skills. Although not the best when it comes to defense, the warrior makes up with its mobility and fast movement speed.

Korean name for class is geomtusa (검투사) or gladiator. Gladiators who fought with twin swords were known by name Dimachaerus in Ancient Rome.

Official description[]

"A warrior deals damage with impressive, deadly feats of swordplay while weaving in and out of enemies' attacks. It's the warrior's way to dive into the middle of the fray and mow down the opposition. Invulnerability while using the Evasive Roll skill means the warrior can do enough damage to hold aggro, and still dodge and roll out of harm's way. Coming up from behind an opponent after a roll enables the warrior to strike from behind, before his opponent can turn and counterattack.
The warrior's deft moves and quick dodges make it easy to hold aggro while avoiding damage. Quick to make decisions and quicker to draw swords, the warrior will not fall back on the battlefield. If you've misplaced your warrior, always look ahead—never behind."

General[]

Warrior in one of the oldest classes in TERA, one of the original two tanks (original classes were two tanks, two melee dps, two ranged dps and two healers). Warrior was dubbed as "Evasion Tank", a term that is still occasionally seen. Warrior was meant to keep boss attention while using dodges to avoid attacks. In practice this didn't work that well. Warriors got a block skill to mitigate attacks and proper DPS mode. In level 60 patch warrior got combo points system (like rogue class from certain popular MMORPG) to build combo points to use a finishing skill for a high damage hit. In DPS role warrior was a low-damage DPS class, specialized in debuffing enemies, until to class rework.

In class rework warrior was buffed to a high damage DPS class that instead of debuffs builds attack speed. Also rework got rid of so-called "shared Edge". Before rework combo points were shared which lead to DPS loss when there was more than one warrior attacking same enemy.

Warrior differs from other classes due to its ability to switch between Assault Stance that provides extra critical factor or Defensive Stance for tanking to boost endurance and balance.

Warrior tank has prolly the highest damage output of all tank classes and with buffs on par with Lancer. Although sometimes scorned by healers, since warrior tanks tend to often facetank boss attacks. Some warrior skills cut damage taken to half and also resists staggers and knockdown while used, a remainder of their tank role.

In PVP warrior is mostly played in Defensive Stance to allow blocking attacks. Warrior is generally good and even overpowered in duels and small scale fighting, but not favored in mass PVP.

Equipment[]

For more details on this topic, see Leather armor and Twin swords.

Geared with leather armor, the warrior takes advantage of such ease of weight in order to excel in mobility above all other classes. With the right amount of timing and precision, the warrior can hold down an enemy easily to a point where it could be considered a tank. Equipped with a pair of powerful twin swords, the warrior can use them to create large, quick and powerful attacks of damage to hit anything surrounding it as it dodges attacks.

Skills and racial traits[]

Skills[]

For more details on this topic, see Warrior skills.

Warrior are the most flexible class in TERA. Warrior can be played as offense damage dealing class via assault stance, or as a tank via defensive stance. However, Warrior starts with no stance and a stance must be switched on upon login, and each stance providing unique passives for their respective roles.

Dealing damage with warrior is heavily based on executing chained skills or combos and a system called Edge. Warriors increase their Edge counter by executing certain skills with generated edge being spent on Scythe (Warrior) or Aerial Scythe. This skill alone contributes to around 40% of warrior DPS.

Other main damage skill is the Blade Draw. Blade Draw alone casts very slow and requires itself to be chained after certain skills. When glyphed, Blade Draw generates 2 Edge, has a 50% chance to reset (60% after Apex) and has double the chance to crit. Common chains to Blade Draw are:

Charging Slash -> Blade Draw (3 Edge)
Rising Fury -> Blade Draw (3 Edge)
Combative Strike -> Traverse Cut -> Blade Draw (3 Edge)
Vortex Slash -> Blade Draw (2 Edge)

Upon Blade Draw not resetting, filler skills are used to generate edge. Chaining Combative Strike into Rain of Blows should be prioritized, otherwise, Poison Blade would be a decent skill that should be used as it generates 2 Edge, even if itself does marginal damage. Backstab generates 2 Edge (if glyphed) but has longer cooldown. Charging Slash is sometimes used alone as filler skill or few hits from Rising Fury.

Scythe (Warrior) reaches its maximum crit chance 8 Edge and does it's maximum damage at 10 Edge, and anything over it is wasted. Scythe has to be chained from Blade Draw, Poison Blade, Rain of Blows, Evasive Roll, or Leaping Strike (Warrior).

Several warrior skills have special characteristics. Poison Blade gives opponent poison debuff which drains HP, Rising Fury slows down enemies, Combative Strike gives opponents endurance debuff (usually overwritten by tank's debuff), Traverse Cut increases warrior's attack speed, Vortex Slash pulls enemies together.

In Defensive Stance warrior is fully featured tank. There are few skills usable only in this mode. Warrior can now block attacks with Cross Parry. Cross Parry uses Resolve like Lancer's equivalent skill and block cannot hold forever. Correct timing on block increases Edge. Also warrior can counterattack with Blade Draw after blocking a hit. Other skill is Infuriate to force boss to enrage at the start of the fight.

For movement and evasion warrior gets standards skills: Backstab moves behind target and stuns target. Evasive Roll moves short distance and can be used to pass through enemies. Both skills also have iframe to dodge special attacks. In addition of these dodges warrior gets also Death From Above, that generates Edge, and doesn't use Resolve like Evasive Roll does. DFA also keeps position. Generally warrior is thought to have best dodge skills of all classes since Evasive Roll can be cast four times in row with correct build and DFA has very low cooldown.

Warrior also gets quite standard boost skill for extra damage: Deadly Gamble buffs crit chance by 50% for 20 sec and halves skill cooldowns.

Castanic warrior shadow — warrior shadow

Perhaps the most peculiar skill of warrior is to summon shadows of themself. There are two skill that do this. Smoke Aggressor summons a shadow that takes aggro from warrior and monsters start chasing the shadow. Also it's used to absorb damage, since shadow takes 50% of damage warrior would take during 20 seconds it lasts. Other version is Smoke Flanker, only usable in tank mode. After blocking an attack and while holding the block, this skill summons shadow in front of boss and teleports the warrior behind the boss, while boss keeps attacking the shadow.

Apex changes[]

After awakening warrior gets several new skills.

Blade Waltz is new skill that can be used to interrupt any other skill. Also it chains to Blade Draw and Scythe. It can be cast twice before cooldown hits. This skill totally changes how warrior is played. This skill can be used for 2 quick BD combos, and to interrupt Scythe animation after damage is done. It can also totally replace Rain of Blows as filler skill. This skill has improved crit chance (+10%) and 2.2× in Assault Stance. It also gives next attack skill double crit chance. In Defensive Stance it blocks attacks from front.

Aerial Scythe is second Scythe skill to spend Edge. This skill has two parts, first part gives 2 Edge and second hit uses all Edge. Therefore it should be cast at 8 Edge. This skill requires no combo, but can be cast anytime.

Blade Frenzy is high damage attack that also works as iframe. This is "ultimate skill" with several minutes cooldown. Last hit from the skill hits about twice the damage full Scythe hits. It should be cast after either Scythe for faster activation. This skill should be saved for Deadly Gamble and/or dragon proc.

Racial traits[]

For more details on this topic, see Playable races and Racial traits.

Being able to pick between one of the seven races proves to be a tough choice. Each race has their own unique racial traits that can effectively improve the gameplay of the warrior, depending on race choice:

Amani have a lot of defensive capabilities coming from Last Aman Standing, Blood of Dragons and No Stranger to Pain which can greatly increase defense, when they do get hit.
Baraka have Ancient Wellspring, a healing ability that can fully recover all health, and more mobility coming from Gather No Moss, and Indefatigable which gives them more health than any others, only when they constantly die.
Castanic have Skirmish Running which increases their running speed during combat for dodging magic circles, and Dirty Fighting which gives them a higher chance to shoot a critical hit from the back.
High elves have Core Infusion which completely recovers their mana, and Resilience of Mind which restores an amount of mana upon revival to get back into combat quickly.
Humans have Deft Footwork and Indomitable Spirit which greatly increases their defense when facing enemy players, aside from that, they have Resilience of Body which restores an amount of health upon revival to get them back into combat quickly.
Poporis and elins have nothing that could assist a warrior in combat. Instead, they get multiple abilities for non-combat situations such as swimming and movement speed outside combat.

Castanic and Elin have long time been favourite races for min-maxing warrior due their animation speed. Human female is in par of these races. Female High Elf clearly have some problems with their Rain of Blows. This is not big problem since Apex.

Gearing and Attributes[]

Warrior differs from other classes in its build due to its ability to switch between Assault Stance provides extra critical factor or Defensive Stance to boost endurance and balance. Furthermore, Warrior main damage skill Scythe has a triple chance to land a critical hit when at full edge.

Scythe can reach its crit cap (100% crit chance) at 224 critical factor with a Castanic warrior being at 211 critical hit factor due their racial passive.^[1] (Note: this only applies to level 65.)
However, more critical factor is recommended since casting scythe with lower edge, Blade Draw (2x crit chance), and other skills will have a lower base critical hit rate. As result warrior should be use mixed build with rings, earrings and necklace and underwear for desired crit rate + power ratio.

Recommended critical hit rate in the warrior Discord is recommended between base +181 to base +230. For builds with double cooldown reduction or tank warriors, higher critical hit rate is recommended, as damage dealing shifts to Blade Draws, while on lower crit rate it's mainly "safe crits" like Scythe.

At early level 70 endgame content such as Akalath Quarantine, warrior should gear for full power. DPS Warrior reaches Scythe crit cap purely from base the base critical hit, assault stance, and full skill advancement crit. Newest Corrupted Skynest dungeon has 300 crit resist boss, while AQ boss has 220 crit resist. Basicly crit needed vs new level 73 bosses is same as in 65 vs. level 68 bosses.

Full Warlord power set and Karas' Halidom V and Elinu's Relic V are enough. Only tanking may require some extra crit.

With patch 93 new passives were introduced. The warrior scythe skills now scale with Physical Crit Power value. Physical Crit Power and Physical Piercing are the most sought after stats for warrior.

Glyphs and crystals[]

Crystals[]

Warrior uses standard ranged Weapon Crystals: Spiteful, Savage, Focused and Pounding. If crit rate is low, Pounding can be switched to Carving.

Weapon Crystals for tanking include Wrathful and Focused crystals. Carving is especially good for tanking since crit chance is same even from front.

Since crystals are now used only when leveling Wrathful is a good idea, since you end up fighting mobs mostly from front. This crystal does not drop anywhere and is not available from merchants, so you have to Crystal Fusion to get one.

Glyphs[]

For more details on this topic, see Warrior glyphs.

Specializing in glyphs like all classes means a great deal to customization. Notable glyphs are:

Scythe (Warrior): Carving Scythe: Triples the chance to crit when attacking monsters.
Scythe (Warrior): Empowered Scythe: Increases Edge damage by 30%
Blade Draw: Empowered Blade Draw: Increases skill damage by 25%
Blade Draw: Persistent Blade Draw: 60% chance to eliminate cooldown (Apex glyph)
Blade Draw: Advantageous Blade Draw: Increases Edge generation by 1 per hit.
Blade Draw: Carving Blade Draw: Doubles the chance to crit when attacking monsters.

Higher damage, double crit chance and chance to reset for your main damage skills.

Rain of Blows: Empowered Rain of Blows: Increases skill damage by 25%

This is your main filler skill before apex skills are unlocked.

Charging Slash: Energetic Charging Slash: Decreases cooldown by 25%
Charging Slash: Powerlinked Charging Slash: Increases skill damage of Combative Strike by 50% for a few seconds (good to have)

Charging Slash is fastest combo to Blade Draw.

Deadly Gamble: Energetic Deadly Gamble: Decreases cooldown by 25%
Deadly Gamble: Lingering Deadly Gamble: Increases effect duration by 20%

Evasive Roll (Warrior): Affirmative Evasive Roll: Reduces RE cost by 120

Evasive Roll normally costs 500 of warrior's 1500 RE. This glyph allows warrior to do four Evasive Rolls in row.

Evasive Roll (Warrior): Swift Evasive Roll: 40% chance to increase attack speed 15% for 10 seconds (for advanced users)

You can do Evasive Roll at the start of battle, when glyph activates backstab boss. This gives attack speed bonus at the start. Later to roll back when extra attack speed is needed, like before Deadly Gamble.

Death From Above: Energetic Death from Above: Decreases cooldown by 30%

Traverse Cut: Lingering Traverse Cut: Increases effect duration for yourself by 50%

Backstab (Warrior): Advantageous Backstab: Increases Edge generation by 1
Backstab (Warrior): Lingering Backstab: Increases effect duration by 50%
Backstab (Warrior): Energetic Backstab: Decreases cooldown by 25%

Last two are most useful in PVP.

Combative Strike: Powerlinked Combative Strike: Increases skill damage of Rising Fury by 20% for a few seconds

This is for getting last piece of damage, but expensive and low effect.

Vortex Slash: Energetic Vortex Slash: Decreased cooldown by 30% (optional)

Very useful utility skill when handling mobs.

Rain of Blows: Restorative Rain of Blows: Recovers 0.5% of total HP per hit (7 hits) (optional)

File:Binding Sword.png Binding Sword: Energetic is useful.

Warrior crit chance glyphs only work in PVE. You need to make other setup for PVP. Skip Scythe and Blade Draw crit chance since those are useless in PVP. Vortex Slash, Binding Sword and even Leaping Strike damage are more useful.

Enhancement Points[]

Strengthen Offense:

Mighty Attack, always max this first
Deadly Gamble: Force
Deadly Gamble: Extra-Force

EP Damage is generally not useful.

Speed Increase:

Rising Fury: Chained Speed Skating, max this
Binding Sword: Velocity, for PVP

Resource Recovery:

Charging Slash: Reload. Gives 20% reset chance to 2nd best BD combo. Max.
Reaping Slash: Reload. Max 20% reset chance for a skill that's very useful vs. mobs. May be worth it.

Actually everything in this tab is useful. Your pick.

Defense/Special:

Mighty Defense, max this
Mighty Phoenix, use 1 point
Poison Blade: Amplification, Poison Blade is reworked to high damage and scales with amp, this may be worth the points
Smoke Flanker: Constancy. Do you use warrior tank? Do you use this skill. If answer is yes, put your points here.

Skill Advancementment[]

Level 67 Rain of Blows unlocks are really good.

Rapid Strike is must in DPS mode.
Dueling Scar is meant for tanking. It's really good against mobs while soloing in tank mode. You can keep group of mobs in perma-stun and cut their defense by 9%. This really helps Exodor quest line and dailies.

Level 69 Deadly Gamble options are reworked least 2 times after level 70 patch. Use Bellicosity for DPS mode, it increases Deadly Gamble duration by 20% while in Assault Stance.

Do not use Spirit of Iron unlock. If you want something like that, go play brawler instead.