Which of my slaves to use

[Dom]

Hey,

I want to make a gladiator that parries attacks and hits when enemy is out of position (yes I read the guide). So I went to the slave market and started to ask for new slaves and buy the ones I think are good. The two slaves I bough have: (in the official order of attributes)
74, 63, 61, 80, 53, 65, 58 (trug)
81, 76, 70, 60, 74, 62, 47 (trug)

So which one would be best for my tank gladiator, or if one of them has amazing attributes for some other types of build, you can also tell that to me.

Thanks for the help,
Dom

[Kreegan]

Both of them are not very suitable for a defensive (parrying, tanking) War. The first one is very small so he'll be seriously encumbered if you put more than 1-2 pieces of heavy armour on him (especially chest armour). The second one is more or less OK in most areas but too low on Stamina. Defensive Wars rely heavily on plentiful health + endurance combo so they can outlast their opponents (either to exhaust them to 0 endurance or to remain on their feet until the endurance penalty hits the opponent so he/she becomes easier to beat) so this stat is very important.

[Dom]

So I should concentrate on size and stamina. Alright I'm gonna try to buy a new slave that fits your description. Thanks :)

And how is the two-handed rage guy? I also kind of like him. I have 2 gladiator places after all

[Kreegan]

Well, in MY opinion going for a strictly defensive War is not a recipe for success at the moment. Such a build normally has very poor offensive capabilities and in the end game (Primus and Blood Gods) offense beats defense quite decisively + poor offense means that no matter how much you reduce the damage you receive, you will also deal very poor (or no) damage and this puts you in disadvantage against hybrid builds which burn their endurance slowly and especially vs. bleeders. If you don't plan to make a Blood Gods candidate out of him, defensive build will work but don't expect incredible performance after that. So yes - Size, Stamina, also good Strength are quite important for such a build.

[Dom]

Yes that's logical. I want something that is very hard to counter. Sorry but because of my excitement towards the game I have made a theatrics gladiator. What possible builds are there that are strong for the long run. I'm thinking of dodging instead of blocking maybe, so the big damage guys wouldn't hurt so much because they can't land their hits. I don't know yet how deep this game is, but by plain logic, if I would make the other guy miss his hit and his out of position and then attack, that would yield good results in my opinion. Currently I have trained up 3 levels in my exotics weapon skills. What can I do with this? What tactic? My glads stats are 72, 75, 73, 74, 67, 67, 74. This guy has very high numbers but is also balanced. So I immediately took the chance and bought him. So far I have won 11 battles and lost none. These battles were very brutal. I could set in my blood lust and activity level so my guy ALWAYS hits and damages around 60 dmg, which means at my level, 3 round and other guy is out. What could I possibly build for him. As I have told you before I have already spent 3 levels on my exotics, so I would be happy if that could keep that.

Nate was right, the community is amazing. Can't wait to get addicted to this game :)

[Pit Lord]

First you must sort out what are you expecting from your gladiator. He has very good starting stats. I actually never saw a regular slave with so high stats. He has what is necessary to enter the HoL. This is reasonable goal for you new gladiator. I don't see him performing well in the long run if you join the last bracket with him. Since veteran players had retired their normal slaves long time ago and already developed their premium slaves your gladiator will be mini warrior if he enters that.
I can understand your desire to have a build that is impossible/very hard to counter but such doesn't exist ;). Every type of gladiator can be strong or weak. The more important thing is what you want your gladiator to be. Even the above mentioned defensive warriors can be really strong (you will see Hubba Gubba in top 10 if you check the rankings - he is 100/100 war tree) but it will take time and patience even for experienced player to achieve that.
Since you are starting now it will be a good time to run various gladiators and see what you like the most,experiment with strategies etc.
For your slave:
Good that you didn't made it warrior. The size is very low. It is good for both theatric and rage spec.
As I can see you are enjoying the big and brutal hits and already trained in exotics go falchion and kris probably. Note that exotic weapons are either very slow or very fast (no medium speed).
And don't forget to train your weapon to level 9/10 or you will start missing hits soon enough.

[Kreegan]

Even the above mentioned defensive warriors can be really strong (you will see Hubba Gubba in top 10 if you check the rankings - he is 100/100 war tree) but it will take time and patience even for experienced player to achieve that. A note to that: the Wars with 2H weapons (be them swords, mauls, spear, halberds, etc.) are probably the most consistently performing fighters on the arena for the two years that I've been playing this game. They are just good.
On the other hand, 2H weapons immediately make your fighter at least somewhat offensive. They have "natural" offensive capabilities like being much harder to parry than anything else - even by heavily defensive builds - and of course hit hard even if you don't have much else to boost your fighter's aggressiveness. So in general I agree that a "defensive" 2H War could make a really powerful gladiator.

[Dom]

Pit Lord, why would you recommend falchion over trident? Right now I am using a trident as my main, because I haven't had the chance to change it yet. What is the difference?