Warrior

The Warrior is the most effective melee profession, having many skills designed to enhance the use of sword, axe, shield or hammer. Warriors are able to don the most powerful armor in the game, letting them stand in the face of the biggest, meanest foes and trade hits back and forth. Many of their skills revolve around combining straight-up physical damage with crippling status conditions. They also have access to Stances which modify their abilities, and Shouts to boost the 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 and won't have access to their primary attribute, 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
 * General Warrior Skills

Profession Combinations

 * Warrior Elementalist
 * Warrior Necromancer
 * Warrior Monk
 * Warrior Ranger
 * Warrior Mesmer

Related Articles

 * Warrior Skills
 * Warrior Armor
 * Tank