Warrior

The Warrior is the only melee profession available. He makes use of a shield paired with a sword or an axe, or a heavy two-handed hammer. His job is to stand in the face of the biggest, meanest foes and trade hits back and forth. Most of his skills revolve around a combination inflicting crippling status conditions, and straight-up physical damage. He also makes use of Stances to modify his abilities, and Shouts to boost his party's performance and impair groups of enemies.

Anyone who's looking to do some melee fighting should take Warrior as either their primary or secondary profession. If it's taken as a secondary, however, keep in mind that you won't be able to wear their armor (which is the strongest of any profession) and won't have access to Strength. Even without those, however, the Shouts can be a wicked tool for a backline spellcaster.

The Primary Warrior's base armor provides high protection and +20 Armor versus Physical attacks. A starting Primary Warrior can expect to have 20 Maximum Energy and 2 Energy Recovery.

Attributes

 * Strength: Armor penetration, some shields, and pure damage are influenced by Strength.
 * Strength skills
 * Swordsmanship: A versatile weapon, Swordsmanship impacts success and damage of swords.
 * Swordsmanship skills
 * Axe Mastery: A wide damage range coupled with heavy physical status effects is found in Axe Mastery.
 * Axe Mastery skills
 * Hammer Mastery: Increases the damage you do with hammers and your chance to inflict a critical hit.
 * Hammer Mastery skills
 * Tactics: Shouts, Stances, and most shields are the province of Tactics.
 * Tactics skills