Defensive - 2-Hand Weapon using War Build

THIS GUIDE IS OUT OF DATE DUE TO A CHANGE IN THE SKILL TREES AND GAME ON 1/12/2013. GENERAL INFO MIGHT STILL BE USEFUL BUT ANYTHING PERTAINING TO STRATEGY OR SKILL BUILDS IS LIKELY OUT OF DATE.

2 Hand Weapon War Build - Defensive

There is 2 main ways to make these builds. One that is based more on defense and the other more offensive in nature going more into the Rage tree. I will focus here on the Defensive type. The offensive build will be written separately.

Defensive 2-hand war build- Let’s begin with the gladiator him or herself. First thing you will need is a glad with proper attributes. First thing he needs to be is BIG!! This type of gladiator needs to benefit from the largest and heaviest armor available. After that I would advice in not worrying about having a glad with super strength or super fast, I would get one that has even stats greater than 70 in Strength, Intellect, Agility, and Stamina. A 70+ in Chi would be nice as well. A high combo in agility and intellect I believe makes for a better defensive fighter…I am still testing this out.
Now the next thing to do is to pick his/her race. Being defensive my first choice would be Spite. Spites, have a big bonus in defense which will definitely help. Of course the drawback to spites are they inflict less damage. You can always tack on attack power achievements to help with this. Or if you don’t like being a little spite, then my other 2 choices would be either Human or Dunder. Humans have no drawback, and since the emcumberment nerf that wars have gotten recently, they are rarely going to get the jump on rages now, so go with the increased damage bonus from dunders and the less initiative will not hurt as much.
What to expect from this build. Early in this build you will win a lot fights by exhaustion, and lose a few from it as well. Also you should be able to mow through dual hand blade rages because they will not be able to get through your armor yet. The counter striking theatrics will wear you down though. Then later when you start to hit the wall and glads are starting to bust through your armor with regularity, get ready for a bunch of losses. Then later in your career you will again start to see a lot of wins, except from the dual blade rager. His amount of powerful attacks is just too much for this build (as of right now)
Now for the build. What is the first thing any warrior needs to be able to do? Answer be a master of their weapon. So yes get that weapon skill to 10. The next question might be what weapon do I choose? My recommendation for early in their career would be a battle flail..It is the lightest of the 2-hand weapons and you will not have to crank the activity too high to be able to swing once a round. Let’s talk about this aspect as well. Yes your glad will only swing once a round. A frustration that you will have to learn to live with. If you equip with a great sword type weapon or a large hammer or axe, you will swing less than once a round. You will miss rounds from time to time at critical moments of the fight.
The next thing is to start to develop his other skills. First thing is he needs to be able to hit HARD! So get that Brute strength up. Next thing he need to be able to do is fend off attacks, so Create distance is an absolute must!!! Now since he is wearing heavy armor, get that armor movement way up. Also if you want and this is optional you can train up Feint, so you can get through that defense and cause that extra bit of damage.
Now you should have unlocked his bread and butter skills. HAMSTRING the only active attack given to the wars. This is an absolute must for any war build. Take this to 10 and do not hesitate. And because you only hit once per round, you better make it count, so get his athleticism up. Now you want to make your opponent hesitate to swing early in the round so get your war cry up and you can beat a lot of rages to the punch.
Okay now you should have unlocked your 5th tier skills. The only one I recommend using is Combat Instincts..why well because you are swinging once a round, your glad is going to take a lot of shots. So this will help him/her keep their attack power even though they have low health power.
Now for the last skill…Battle Hardened. Probably the best our of the 3 tier 6 skills. It increases your glad’s defensive skill. Get this skill pumped up and you will see a lot more parries by your glad. I believe this skill should be pumped up a little more, because way too many of these small blade shots still seem to get through sometimes.
As for strategy I would recommend bash or slash depending on your weapon until you get battle hardened trained up. After that you can start parrying with lots of success. Like with any glad learn what he/she likes so learn and adjust using your tavern fights. Also key to remember..if you are missing attacks then you are either going too fast or too hard.

Defensive 2-hand war rundown
Weapon skill- 10
Brute Strength- 10
Create Distance- 10
Armor movement-10
Hamstring -10
Athleticism - 10
War Cry - 10
Combat Instincts -10
Battle Hardened -10
The last 10 skill use where ever your please :)

nice write-up crow :)

I've added it to the Player Guide listing in the newbie section. maybe ask Eric to sticky it as well :)