Warrior
It is assumed you have already read through the Gear and Arena sections on this site before ready this guide, if not, you should do so first as there are concepts there that need to be understood first.
Skill points and Races in this build section should also be read first.
BASIC WARRIOR SKILL TREE (thanks to St. Nick! and material adapted from Pops' HW guide)
This is merely an example of a solid build for a versatile weapon + shield fighter just starting out in the arena. It’s designed to help you have a little of everything so you can decide how you like to play. Some things to note:
-
Most of the points are in Perks. This is because Perks cannot be taken away from you by a Stamina or Magicka ravaging weapon.
-
A few offensive spells are boosted to their basic max. Many offensive spells can safely be boosted because the cost/benefit ratio stays well worth it—you get a bunch more damage for not that much more mana cost. Since all offensive spells are going to have to overcome the 'huge' protection that Resist Elements level 5 offers, you need the extra oomph or you’re just wasting your Magicka.
-
No abilities are boosted past level one, because the reverse is generally true—the extra stamina cost is not worth the extra effect. Some exceptions are Guardbreaker (longer stun), Harrying Bash (longer skill lockout), and Piercing Strikes (more damage AND a higher bypass to opponents’ resistance). As you boost these, though, there is a point of diminishing returns where cost value reduces verses the extra levels boost.
-
Feel free to use different ability trees or offensive spells if you want. Here we simply selected the ones deemed easiest to use, not necessarily the “best” ones—that’s up to you and how you like to play. It is, however, better to specialize in a few things at once and do them well rather than trying to be jack-of-all trade it.
STATS
A good starting split is 540 Magicka / 350 stamina. WAIT. WHAT?
Yep, a warrior with more Magicka than stamina. Not what you expected, right? Here’s why:
The goal for most end game weapons includes ravage Magicka, ravage Stamina, or both. A max enchanted 2H weapon gets -53 max mag/stam. If you get hit with a quick strikes, that’s -106 to either of your stats, or both.
The cost of Staggering Bash 1 is 235 stamina. If you start with 350 and get hit with quick strikes with a double ravage weapon, you’re down to 244. Just enough to get that stagger bash off.
Same with spells, but in this case, we’ll look at Resist Elements (RE) 5. That cost is 315. Or consider Ward 1 twice. (205*2=410).
The idea here is to provide you with the opportunity to get your key attacks or defense off before you are completely ravaged of your resources.
SPELLS
There are offensive and defensive spells. In general, the warrior uses defensive spells. Of course, as mentioned above, warriors can also sling some offensive spells. Those that are casting both offensive and defensive spells WHILE fighting manually and with strikes and bashes are referred to as BATTLE MAGES. More on that later.
ABILITIES
The abilities chosen in the example above are often used by many players. Key points are: Quick Strikes (QS), Piercing Strikes (PS), and Recovery Strikes (RS) are called "double taps" (because you tap once and get a couple swings out of it). These swings deal elemental damage or ravage even if hitting into a high block. They are also stun-proof, meaning if you QS into a high block, you will not get stunned. RS is VERY helpful because it breaks your stuns, so you should always have this unlocked and equipped.
Some warriors also go with dodges because they also break stuns. But beware: dodges are slow. However, dodges are cool if you can time them right, you can also use them to avoid ice spikes and paralyze. It's important to keep all of these at skill level 1. Do not boost these (even with rings), because the added stamina requirements for the higher levels don't justify the small difference in damage. Keep them at 1 so that you can hit them more often (because at level 1 they have lower stamina cost requirements).
Bashes are a great asset to the shield user, but they require proper timing to be effective. Sending a shield bash into a high block will negate the debuff you want your opponent to receive (Harry Bash -> increased skill cooldown time). Opponents (and you, of course) can also avoid the debuff with the ABSORB spell. And if someone uses WARD against a shield bash, they will avoid the damage, but NOT the debuff (Stagger will stun through a ward if it is not also blocked, Harry Bash will increase cool downs through a ward). Beware the skilled battle mages who set you up for stagger bash followed by Ice Spike, then Paralyze. This tactic is super hard to pull off, thankfully. But I said we'd talk about the battle mages later... Eh hem.
Note that if you are an RE masher, then you probably also want the Maximum Power (MP) perk on your necklace to make it last even longer.
WEAPONS
Your best friend here are the Sigil store weapons. Get them in this order:
Baridan's Axe (often regarded as the best weapon in the game)
Serpent Strike
Thunderfell
Lichslayer (this is optional for PVP, but excellent for early abyss lich in PVE)
SHIELDS
Conventional wisdom says you need a shield with highest block rating, which protects you from taking damage from your opponent. In some builds, this would be correct and you will want to reach for a dragonplate shield, but just as with the rest of Blades, there are far more complexities involved in shield choices.
Shields are used BOTH for offense and defense.
In the picture above of a PRIMARY Sigil Store item, Shield of Stasis, are shown the various properties.
Defensive items: Block Rating and any additional light shield native benefits (+720 Block Rating against bashing damage, +961 Block Rating against frost damage).
Offensive items: Bash Rating, Primary and secondary enchantments
Artifact benefits: Some artifact shields, like Spellbreaker (also pictured above), include additional benefits (Spellbreaker creates a rank 5 Ward while blocking which stuns the wielder when the ward is broken).
So selecting the right shield for you depends on... yep, your play style.
If you are a mage, you might go for divine elven shields from the sigil shop for the bonus magicka regeneration. Stamina monster? You'll probably reach for a divine hide shield for the stamina regeneration. Additionally, your shield benefits can stack with other enchantments.
If you are an elemental weapon user and you're counting on conditioning your opponent to increase damage through PDOC and/or EDOC, enchanting your shield could give you +points to conditioning. Recently, +15% to main enchantment (elemental) and +points to conditioning have been the shields of choice. This way, your opponent is helping condition themselves while they hit your shield.
SELECTING ARMOR
The first decision when it comes to armour is Plate or Mail? This will affect the fighter you become as well as what additional gear to grind for. Pops started with Plate and the big advantage here is Armor Rating (AR). With Plate armour, you can become a "turtle" and sustain quite a lot of physical damage.
Mail armour has the advantage that you get 2 free resists. These resists come at a reduction in AR which makes you slightly "squishy". If you choose to go Mail, then start with Dragon Scale because it's a lot easier to obtain. Daedric, Stalhrim, and Leather you'll need to get from the Sigil Store as "Divine" and then hope you get good secondary enchants with them (and you won't). So, start with Dragon Scale which you can get from your smithy and, once you level up above 45, you can find in Elder and Legendary chests as well as boss mob drops in jobs and sigil events.
ENCHANTING ARMOR
How do you enchant your armour? Your chest piece, helmet and boots should all be enchanted with Peerless Health. Since health obtains a 3x multiplier in the Arena, it only makes sense to take advantage of that.
GAUNTLETS
You can enchant your gloves with elemental damage matching your chosen weapon for a loadout, or magicka/stamina if you find you need a faster recovery in the arena. Secondary enchantments are always key, and you're looking for +26 PDOC, +11 EDOC, +6 EDIR or combinations of those. You want to stay consistent because it will stack with Enchantment Synergy (ES).
Once you have all of your gloves crafted, then you can start looking for the EDIR+PDOC combos.
RINGS
WARLOCK'S RING
As a warrior, you have a choice to use Warlock's Ring (WR) or not. It DOES give 24% attack speed boost (meaning you can typically get 2 crits in when your opponent stuns instead of just 1) and it gives you 24-29 points of retal against every element when cast from a spell (24 vs. frost and shock and 29 vs. fire and poison). HOWEVER, you will lose a ring slot that you could potentially be stacking with elemental damage. WR is a legendary artifact, so you can only get it in a Gold, Elder, or Legendary chest. You might get it quickly, you might never get it. When you do, celebrate and then head over to Staki and practice crits with your new attack speed. Many top level players practiced 30-60 minutes a day before they really got the hang of it. Don't feel stupid working with Staki - it's worth it.
If you choose to use WR, you'll want 1 of the rings described next. If you do not have WR, you'll want 2 of them.
You'll want to work on your elemental rings next. As with gloves, you'll want level 10 enchants regardless, but work on either PDIA or PDOC (whichever you chose for your armor).
Once you have all of your rings crafted, then you can start looking for the EDIR/PDOC/EDOC combos.
NECKLACES
Necklaces are a giant pain in the butt. You know how crappy of a job Lond does crafting necklaces? He almost never gives you the primary boosts you want. You know how crappy of a job Severio does enchanting literally anything? Now, put those together... the odds of getting Lond to make the necklace you want and then having Severio give you the secondaries you want are amazingly low. Regardless, you'll get something and that's better than nothing.
So what do you want? As a versa fighter, you want the following primary boosts (in order):
* +5 Enchantment Synergy (ES)
* +5 Matching Set (MS)
* +5 Armsman
* +5 Augmented [frost, shock, fire, frost] Ranks
If you don't have +4 or +5 ES, the necklace is junk and should be scrapped. To be super clear, without ES the necklace is useless to you. Don't even waste the materials to enchant these.
Assuming Lond ever gives you something useful (and he will), you take it over to Severio and what do you want from him? It's best to craft "retal" necklaces.
Then, the secondary bonuses you'll want are any combination of:
* Shorten Stun 20%
* EDIR
* PDOC
* EDOC
Again, you want to match with the enchantments on your gauntlets to get the most benefit from Enchantment Synergy.
CRITICAL STRIKES
Fighting as a warrior benefits greatly from Critical Strikes (crits). If you hit your crits, you'll win a lot of fights, especially if you work in a few combo crits. Timing is everything and lag is your enemy here. Getting good at crits is a matter of spending time with Staki and practicing. Unless you're a Stamina Monster, which we'll explain later, before or after the Battle Mage.
When you get Warlock's Ring, be prepared to go back and train with Staki until you get the hang of critting with the new speed.
Once you are able to crit Staki at will, take it to the arena. The speed is slightly different from practicing with Staki, your brain is processing a lot of input, and you'll have lag. All those things make it hard to crit, so practice in the arena as well. Give yourself a few rounds where you don't care about winning or losing, just how well are you critting.
ATTACK CANCELS
Attack cancels are your ticket to stunning your unsuspecting foe. However, once you're tagged an attack canceler, people are wary of it and get a lot harder to stun, so just be advised that it's not a silver bullet. You'll get away with it from time to time, but the better players will avoid it.
TO RE OR NOT TO RE
When you start a match, you have a choice to make in the first 0.1 seconds. Do you mash Resist Elements (RE) or do you go on the attack? It's really up to you and how you like to play. Keep people guessing. That's the plan. Try not to do the same things over and over.
Note that if you are an RE masher, then you probably also want the Maximum Power (MP) perk on your necklace to make it last even longer.