War Guide

[Apoca1ypse]

You will have a very slow swing rate with 2H weapons, and slow initiative.

Once you train up armor agility, you'll find yourself swinging a little earlier, and once Warcry is unlocked, train that up too. Warcry gives a major boost to initiative in the first round.

If you find yourself doing little damage with your swings, you may need a little more strength too, but see how you go.

[Kemperz]

My issues with Caramon have got even worse since I took your advice, and I've made several alterations of my own (e.g. getting a sword weapon), but the issues now are so bad that I'm going bankrupt, because my gladiator has a 20+ losing streak, and I deal 1-3 attacks during the course of the whole fight (around 30-70 damage each) and most every fight kills me. Here are my new stats:
Level: 31
Record: 172-174-9
Health: 766
Fight Strategy:
1) Standby; AL:6; Fighting Style: Parry Slash; Aiming: Shield Arm; Defending: Torso; BL: 5
2) Opponent is Blinded; AL:7; Fighting Style Slash; Aiming: Shield Arm; Defending: Torso; BL: 6
3) Opponent can't defend; AL:7; Fighting Style Slash; Aiming: Shield Arm; Defending: Torso; BL: 6
4) Opponent is Disarmed; AL:7; Fighting Style Slash; Aiming: Shield Arm; Defending: Torso; BL: 6
5) Opponent has an Attack power penalty; AL:7; Fighting Style Slash; Aiming: Shield Arm; Defending: Torso; BL: 6
Weapon: Brutal Flamberge:
Damage: 104-183
DPR: 143.5
IL: 29
Mods & Buffs:
+ 17 Strength
+ 4 Agility
+ 12 Presence
+ 6 Chi
+ 6 Attack Power
Skills:
2handed Weapons: 9(.4)
Create Distance: 7(.1)
Any more advice? I feel like I'm doing something really wrong, I'm losing fights to gladiators in grey gear 15 levels below me, and I'm still on Tiny Avenger (still not a single hit on him across all my goes at him).

[Dainoji]

Hmm, for starters that's a pretty sub optimal strategy you've got there. Your choice of triggers basically means your gladiator will almost never switch out of strat 1 since the triggers you've chosen don't happen that often. You would be better off using the health or endurance triggers, possibly even the activity level triggers.

Often the best thing to do in this case is disable your 3, 4, and 5 strats and get two of them working well together. For example if you are trying to tank n' spank then keep your strat 1 as it is, or switch it to tank and then set your strat 2 to trigger when your opponent is moderately tired and then go slash and crank up your AL.

If you want to go out hard and then shell up and try and exhaust your opponent, then do the reverse.

Once you have two strats working together you can add in a 3rd and then a 4th and finally the 5th.

Crow, you want to add to this, looks like he is trying to make a build like your boy Eruption.

[Kreegan]

The two-handed Wars are a bit problematic because they are - by far - the slowest fighters on the sands and can be rendered nearly immobile easily.
However your strategy is pretty bad indeed (why do you use "Opponent is blinded" at all, do you have the respective Signature move?).
The skills first. Create Distance is among the life-savers so it has to be at least on 8 (even 9) for a level 30 War. You will want to develop Armour Movement and War Cry to high levels as soon as possible (at least 8 points each, preferably 9) so you can strike first so if you haven't done so already, get to it. Hamstring is VERY important to have so it has to be developed fast too (note that it needs at least 8-9 points to have any real effect). Don't bother with Death from above, the extra damage is hardly spectacular and you can also safely ignore Athleticism, except if you are aiming for Battle Hardened. Feint could be pretty good but if you decide to develop skills from the Rage tree and particularly Brute Force, don't take it. On the other hand Barreling Attack works nicely with 2H Wars because it reduces the number of hits they get as long as the opponent is on the ground. Do NOT go for Signature move from the Theatrics tree - the only useful move for a 2H War is Stun, the rest will just consume your action without dealing damage and thus will help the opponent.
The strategies. First of all, I've never seen a 2H War attack more than once per round no matter the Agility and the activity level. I usually set something like Activity 5 - Slash (or Bash depending on the weapon) - Bloodlust 10 as my default strategy for a 2H War BUT provided that the respective gladiator already has good levels of Armour Movement and War Cry (otherwise the Rage opponents usually act first and hit hard before your guy can answer). Being on the ground is a problem for your gladiator because he'll almost stop hitting but will receive hits as usual, so set a defensive strategy for "I am on the ground" to something like 7-8 Activity - Parry-Slash/Bash - 7-8 Bloodlust (actually the bloodlust is not that important, the aim here is to parry a few strikes). You can also try to tank while on the ground but if for some reason your gladiator can't get back up, he won't strike back and will usually slowly get beaten.
Alternatively, you can try to switch between tanking and offensive. I tried that with one of my 2H Wars some time ago with somewhat good results so here's how it looks like.
1. Start of fight/Standby - 10 Activity - Tank - 1 Bloodlust (this one can actually be offensive depending on your opponent)
2. Opponent is Stunned - 8 Activity - Slash/Bash - 10 Bloodlust
3. Opponent is on the Ground - 8 Activity - Slash/Bash - 10 Bloodlust
4. Odd number of rounds - 10 Activity - Tank - 1 Bloodlust
5. Even number of rounds - 8 Activity - Slash/Bash - 10 Bloodlust.
The point here is to counter all fast fighters - especially Rages - who bring you down with a sheer number of hits. Tank will absorb a large portion of the damage if the attacker uses fast weapons with relatively low hitting power and sometimes helps even against big, hard-hitting weapons (but not always). Half of the battle you are getting little damage, the other half you are attacking (but then you are more exposed). In case the opponent gets stunned or knocked down, the gladiator switches to offense in order to avoid losing hits if he's supposed to tank during the respective round. This is well-tested, gives excellent results against fast fighters (Rages with fast blades for instance), works decently against 2H gladiators and shield-users but is generally vulnerable against Axes/Maces which are just too effective against any kind of defense.

[Kemperz]

ok thanks for the help, my skills seem really low, is the best way to improve them by just spamming the tavern as much as possible?

[Alba Kebab]

Athleticism really helped my pole-arm war to make every hit count, unless severely outclassed, he almost never miss with 8 ranks in athleticism.
Don't tank if you are not well armoured, obviously. :P
Also I think by their very nature 2h weapons are better off attacking than defending, except pole-arms.

[Kemperz]

I've checked out the boss's stats, and I've found his agility at level 19 is higher than mine at level 32...should I start stacking agility to increase my swings or not, and continue looking for strength and attack power in my armour and weapon? (I managed to get a hit on him today, for the first time ever- 32 damage!)

[crow]

With a 2-hand war, create distance is a must. You have to be able negate an opponents attack. War cry and armor movement also must be maxed, so you can get that first shot in the round, or you might not swing at all. Athleticism is also a must you have to make each swing count.

As far as high agility is concerned, even with high agility you will usually just get 1 attack per round with an occasional 2. If you train in last stand I have seen some guys get 3 attacks when this triggers. I would focus on stamina and strength in order to get the most out of each hit and to ensure your glad does not tire out too quickly as this glad's stamina burns quickly.

As for strategy I would start out swinging then go into your parrying if that is what you want to do.

[Kemperz]

I've taken your advice, and started to see an absolute explosion in my winning streak, winning most fights in the 45-90 seconds area, I am managing to hit extremely powerfully, however, I have yet to be able to increase the number of skills I have, and so I'm still struggling to get my hits in, and my opponents are usually the first to get the initiative and hit first. I believe that this is the reason why Tiny Avenger is still pasting me, however, I am starting to get some powerful shots in. The fight strategy of changing between tanking and attacking seems to be working well, thank you for all the help!

[Alba Kebab]

Tiny avenger is just difficult to catch, try chasing him down with AL10 BL5, see how your accuracy does on that then adjust as needed.