Opening

*ATTENTION - THIS IS A WALL OF TEXT AND A LOT OF INFORMATION. FOR AN ABRIDGED GUIDE, PLEASE SKIP TO THE tl;dr CHAPTER AND NAVIGATE TO SPECIFIC CHAPTERS FOR CLARIFICATION/REFERENCE*

So you want to be a big, bad, super strong Warrior huh? Well congratulations, you've come to the right place! This information should provide all of the information you need on becoming the top DPS in any situation! Please note - all information in this guide is for your consideration only. There is, of course, always potential for new builds to outshine current accepted builds with each patch update. Feel free to share this information with anyone who may need it. I do ask that you give credit for information gained from this guide, or even simpler, to provide a link for the guide itself.

Klydoria

My character in Wildstar is Klydoria, Public Relations Officer for Acme LTD. of the Dominion faction on the Orias server. I'm currently ready to raid, and we're working on getting all of our guild ready to go as well, with the majority of raid members on the World Boss phase of attunement. For those of you that don't know, Orias' Dominion population is EXTREMELY small, so small that there is really only enough players for potentially 2 guilds to pull off 40 man raids. While small and outnumbered, Orias is our home, and we love it there! We also encourage anyone looking for a place to call home with numerous opportunities to consider making a Dominion character on Orias. If you play well - there are spots available for you!

My previous MMORPG experiences go all the way back to Ultima Online. While I was young and not into end-game experiences, I did have an early start at the online gaming experience. The first game I got into end-game was EverQuest, which I played until the release of EQ2. Not sold on their interpretation of the second iteration of this game, I switched to World of Warcraft in a few months, and loved it! I was part of the Group raiding system on Lightning's Blade, where we became server first for many raid encounters. I continued playing World of Warcraft up to WotLK, when I officially switched all of my attention to Final Fantasy XI on the Quetzalcoatl server (which I had been playing casually for a time). I progressed fairly well as a Warrior sub Samurai (Ukko FTW) and had a great time. My friends called me back to WoW for Cataclysm, where I became the best geared Feral tank on my server (Malfurion). Here, I consistently pulled third on the damage meters, and second on the healing charts (all while tanking). While the class itself was pretty broken, that was still a fairly impressive feat - due mostly to the careful min-maxing of stats and proper ability usage (stance dancing out of bear form). Finally, I went back to Final Fantasy XIV at the release of A Realm Reborn, and had a ton of fun as a Warrior main! I played this for a while, but a lot of my friends wanted to switch to Wildstar - so here I am (and let me say, I'm having a blast)! Throughout all of this, I played many other MMOs, though not as hard core as my main games.

By the way - my other character names are frequently Kunarick, Malkonius, Deluhathol, and Tucaron. So, if you know me as one of those other characters, shout out to you, friend!

I know a lot of guides float around on the internet, so why trust mine? Well, good question! My first answer to this question is that you probably shouldn't. Never trust another person's work without testing it for yourself. I am posting information that has worked for me and those who have come to me for help. I run numbers myself and with my friends to come up with the best potential builds, and so should you! I am consistently top DPS in my groups, and even have beaten Warriors that have over 200 Ability Power more than me (this has been fixed since they've followed my advice :3)! Take this all into consideration - and be warned - this is my first *official* guide, so if I'm leaving out anything important, please let me know in the comments below! If this guide helped you, please make sure to leave a comment and up-vote!

Stats

STAT PRIORITY
Strike-through Cap>Assault Power>Brutality>Critical Hit Chance>Moxie>Critical Hit Severity>Finesse

Strike-through Cap is super important. Obviously, you do not want to be deflected, since that directly lowers your DPS. Also, your stuns CAN be deflected. The lower the chance of this happening, the better off you are in the long run. The cap is currently 8% for dungeons, 12% for raids. Most raids should have people running utility builds, which would allow for the cap to remain at 8%.

Assault Power is what our damage comes from. The higher this stat is, the more damage you do. Simple, yes? While Brutality is important (since it gives to our Assault Power), you get more bang for your buck from pure Assault Power modifiers (generally, look at each item closely to determine if the brutality increase is enough to off-set a pure Assault Power bonus).

Brutality, as it has been described in the above statement, is also super important. If possible, always opt for more Brutality. If it will lower you significantly below the Strike-through cap to do this, it is a bad idea. Yes, you will hit for higher damage. Yes, you will hit less often. Yes, that imperative interrupt you were going to pull off may be deflected and lead to a wipe. Fortunately for us Warriors, our Assault Power doesn't need to be nearly as high as other DPS classes. While you may see Espers and Slingers running around with 2,400 AP, we do just as well sitting at a nice 1,550 (unbuffed) and up.

Critical Hit Chance is super important to us as well. For one, if you are using , you will always be able to use it when it comes off cool-down if you're critical hitting more often. Also, more critical hits = more damage. Add this to using the weapon special: Impact (more damage whenever you critically hit) and you're in good shape. I personally think that critically hitting more often is better than critically hitting every once in a while for more damage. This is up for debate from many different people, and I will describe in more detail my opinion once we discuss Critical Hit Severity.

Moxie is a good stat for us as well. It raises both Critical Hit Chance and Critical Hit Severity. While it is generally more beneficial for us to get pure stats (such as Critical Hit Chance), do remember to look out for how much Moxie may be on individual pieces of gear, since it does help us out a little bit in two different areas.

Critical Hit Severity is an important stat, just not as important as Critical Hit Chance. This allows us to critically hit for more damage, but should not be increased at the loss of Critical Hit Chance. Let's look at some numbers, shall we?
Critical Hit Chance at 20% with 150% Critical Hit Severity. That means, on average, for every 5 attacks, we will have one that hits at 150% of our normal damage. Let's say we are hitting for 3.5k on average. This means that, usually, in 5 hits, one of our attacks will hit for 5.25k. Now add an Impact proc onto that and we're around 5.5k. Nice! Now, take the other side of this for consideration. 12% Critical Hit Rating and 180% Critical Hit Severity. This means that, on average, once every 8-9 hits will deal 6.3k damage. Looking at these two variants, we can assume that in 10 hits, the 20% Critical Hit Chance build will likely average around 39k (with Impact). The 12% Critical Hit Rating and 180% Critical Hit Severity build will likely average around 38.25k (with Impact). Miniscule difference? Yes. Are boss fights often sustained for long periods of time? Definitely. Over time, will this make a difference? Absolutely. These calculations only consider if we used only . Add in some hits and other abilities and you'll notice you are critically striking at a rapid pace with higher Critical Hit Chance. Please note, these numbers were made up based on different stats I often see people running around with. The damage itself is fictional, however, not too far from the actual. Even with a lower Critical Hit Severity, I often see 8k-10k critical hits.

Finesse is our least (but still) important skill. It gives us Strike-through and Critical Hit Severity. It's a pretty nice combo, however, it's much easier to hit the Strike-through cap with pure Strike-through bonuses, and Critical Hit Severity is not quite as important as Critical Hit Chance. Also keep in mind that once you hit the Strike-through cap, this stat becomes pointless, since you'd always be better off getting pure Critical Hit Severity and not raising a soft-capped stat.

Abilities

Knowing which ability to bring and when is crucial to us! This is our general set up. I will also note a few situations in which you would want to swap out a few abilities for others. Ability Points are assuming that you have not consumed any Ability Point Increase items.

Innate - Onslaught with Overdrive



Onslaught - This is our DPS stance. It increases our damage and reduces defenses. Make sure to use this instead of Juggernaut, as that will lower damage but increase defenses (as well as give a hefty threat bonus).

Overdrive - This gives us HUGE damage buffs, stops Kinetic Energy decay, resets Assault and Support abilities, and gives some debuffs to our resistances and healing taken. Make sure that you use this during Moments of Opportunity (MoO) if possible, as it will drastically increase the damage even further. I will talk more about good usage of this ability when I talk about our Wombo Combo.

(T8) - This is our main Kinetic Energy builder. Why do we want Tier 8? It gives us a 20% chance to reset the cool-down on - our heavy-hitting ability. The more we can use rampage, the better. This is a super important ability for us, and should be activated *almost* every time it is up. More on that later.

(T8) - This is our main Kinetic Energy spender. Why do we want Tier 8? Well, for one, Tier 4 gives us a huge damage increase when above certain Kinetic Energy thresholds. For this reason, you want to almost always be at 1,000 Kinetic Energy before unleashing . We get our biggest boost above 750 Kinetic Energy, and starting at 1,000 will ensure that you don't go below this point while knocking our enemies senseless. Tier 8 is even more amazing. It gives us a 2% Assault Power buff each time we hit with . This stacks 4 times (once per hit) giving us a total of an 8% increase. Don't let ANYONE fool you, this is NOT a minor DPS increase. This buff only lasts for 6 seconds, but has a cool-down of 8 seconds. How do we solve this problem? Tier 8 . This usually lets us reset before the 6 seconds wears off, then reapply our buff. If we don't manage to proc the T8 benefit from , don't fear. We only have to have approximately 1.5 hits of non-empowered damage. For these reasons, we will ALWAYS have Tier 8 and Tier 8 . You should not, in any circumstance I can think of, remove points from these abilities. Please note - as of the Sabotage patch, this ability only hits 3 targets instead of 5. For this reason, it may be a good idea to take instead of for fights with heavy add phases and no real crowd control effects, or for large trash pulls.

- Self explanatory, this ability is usable after critical striking and pierces armor. It's a nice, heavy hitting Kinetic Energy builder. Watch out for the long cool-down, but be aware to use it when you can. The tier upgrades for this ability are nice, but not nearly as imperative or helpful as spending your points elsewhere.

- This is one of our Interrupt Armor breakers. I will warn you to be very careful when you use this ability, as it will NOT interrupt the enemy. Yes, it can be used to remove an interrupt armor. No, it can NOT actually interrupt the enemy. Always use before your other interrupters, as it is only useful in PvE for this situation. It is not worth spending Ability Points for this ability in PvE. If you only need two interrupts on a fight, consider swapping in either (nice mobility) or (cleanse) if needed.

- This ability is the subject of many debates. First of all, it is incredibly useful to interrupt, and can be used to actually interrupt a cast (or remove an interrupt armor). Now, here comes the debate. A lot of players say it's worth pulling points out of other abilities to get Kick up to Tier 8. I disagree entirely. The argument for Tier 8 is that it removes 2 interrupt armor. This is VERY nice, however it comes at a MAJOR DPS LOSS! To do this, you would have to completely remove points from your third, non-maxed ability, as well as several points from both and . However, doing this would allow you to not use . The argument is that the utility of using two buttons is better since it is easier. My counter is this:

1 - You are losing DPS. Bad! *Cracks ruler across knuckles*
2 - Are you Strike-through capped? No? What happens when your is deflected? Now you only have 1 more interrupt. Have on your bar? Good for you, you're still contributing 2 interrupt armor breaks (and possibly actually interrupting an attack). People love Warriors for their 3 low cool-down interrupts, don't ruin this.
3 - This game isn't easy. Trying to work around that is a crutch (to an extent). Get used to being pro.

*Drops mic*

- Our last interrupter. Also incredibly useful to line up enemies to get them in AoE range for the group. Use wisely, use in a good position, but more importantly - use it to interrupt. The tier upgrades are not worthwhile for Grapple in PvE.

Now that we're done talking about the three interrupts, I will make a suggestion. If you know that will be up again before you are needed for an interrupt, use all 3 interrupts whenever you are needed. If you know for certain it won't, use sparingly. Also, if the enemy only has 1 interrupt armor, save . Use and ( first if you need to re-position the enemy, first if you want them knocked down where they are) instead. By doing this, you have ready to help out your group if they don't have enough interrupts for whatever comes while you're on cool-down.

- I have added this in my guide after talking to more people. I hadn't tested it myself, and failed to realize it was off Global Cool-Down. With this information, YES, take . It will be a very nice DPS boost, making up approximately 3.5% of your damage! If you know an enemy is about to be knocked-down, save it for a second to make sure you get the added bonuses!

- This is our crowd control break. Use this whenever you know the enemy has a nasty CC effect or if they disarm you (yes, it magically returns your weapon to your hand)! It can be swapped for in situations where you do not need to break CC or when doing so would be dangerous. The tier upgrades seem beneficial, but we don't need the effect to last longer (generally) and the movement speed shouldn't be a problem (more to come on this below). If you need three interrupts, making it a bad call to remove , but don't need a CC Break, consider throwing in this slot for mobility, or for a cleanse if needed. As mentioned above, in fights with large add phases or big trash pulls that don't require a CC break, consider swapping in now that only hits up to 3 targets. Use this whenever necessary!

(T5+) - This is a big support ability for us. It increases the damage dealt by ourselves and surrounding group by a considerable amount. Tier 4 increases our damage by the equivalent of 5 individual tiers (very nice bonus) while Tier 8 gives us a stored damage buff. This should be at the highest tier available. A fresh level 50 should be able to pump this ability to Tier 5, and slowly increase it to Tier 8 via Ability Point consumables. If you have multiple Warriors with , make sure you work on timing your activations to continue off each other and not overlap.

Priority

Interrupts/Utility (as needed)>> (to 1,000 Kinetic Energy)>>Overdrive (as it comes up for the Wombo Combo/situational depending on fight)>

Interrupts and utility take priority. If you need to interrupt, do it! Don't wait to get that last hit off, it will likely still be waiting for you after you do your interrupts (they are off global cool-down). should be used whenever it procs, and is especially useful if you still need to build Kinetic Energy. You should, of course, use to build your Kinetic Energy to 1,000 as quickly as possible. At this point, you should usually use . This is, of course, situational - as it does give your party a buff as well. You will personally get more damage from it once you are at 1,000 Kinetic Energy though. Once you are at 1,000 Kinetic Energy, away! Do this whenever it comes off cool-down at this point, since you will likely stay up at 1,000 Kinetic Energy.

DAS WOMBO COMBO!

Warrior DPS has a Wombo Combo. It looks a little something like this:

1,000 KE->->->->OVERDRIVE->->-> to proc more

More descriptive, it goes a little something like this:

1,000 Kinetic Energy->Power Link->Breaching Strikes (if up)->Rampage->Breaching Strikes (only if it wasn't up before, it likely is now)->OVERDRIVE->Rampage->Breaching Strikes (at this point, Rampage takes priority to maximize damage within our Overdrive)->Relentless Strikes to proc more Rampages->Rampage

If possible, you want to use this during a Moment of Opportunity to maximize your damage. If you know the enemy won't have this, or it won't work in the time you have to fight, use it whenever you can to maximize damage. You can also save this if you know the enemy will die before finishing the combo. Remember - this will generate a TON of threat, so be careful when and where you use this. If the tank is moving a boss (or trying to, but then it is thrown into a MoO) and you pull this stunt, you may aggro. Remember, interrupts and utility still take all priority, so if you need to interrupt during your combo, DO IT! Losing a little damage is nothing compared to accidentally causing a wipe.

Secondary

So, now that you know how to do massive damage, it's time to talk about another Warrior strong point - Utility. There is a fantastic support ability that we did not keep in the normal LAS for the sake of damage - . It reduces all enemy resistances by 10% at base tier, which is really nice! It is important that, if you have multiple DPS Warriors, someone takes this ability. This is debatable in Dungeons, but should remain a law in Raid composition. Generally, you would want to replace with for a fresh level 50. This is a pretty decent DPS reduction, so use caution doing this if you are the only DPS Warrior in the group. The second option you have is to replace with in fights that don't require the CC break. It's helpful to the entire party, and mitigates quite a bit of damage. If you have a Warrior Tank running this ability, be sure to rotate with them so you have maximum coverage. I would also suggest, if your Raid composition benefits from it, to leave at base, keep , drop for , and max out at Tier 8. This shouldn't be a usual setup for a Utility Warrior, but I want to cover any situation I may be able to think of (only two DPS Warriors in a Raid composition).

Once you have all of your Ability Points unlocked, you get a better option for taking . At this point, you can get rid of , put at Tier 8, and run in place of .

So, as a recap, as a fresh level 50, your support LAS should look like this:
>>>>>>/>

With all Ability Points unlocked, it should look like this:
>>>>>>/>

Amps

Luckily for us, the DPS Warrior Amps are straightforward. I will be explaining these, again, as if you are playing a fresh level 50. They are as follows:

Hybrid A/S:
Strikethrough II

Assault:
Critical Hit III
Assault Power III
Radiate
Detonate
Power Hitter
Kinetic Fury
Armor Shred

Utility:
Cooldowns III
Kinetic Drive
Speed Burst
Power Link

Let's discuss, shall we?
Strikethrough II - This helps us immensely. Each point here gives us 1% Strike-through. While I usually say it's more important to spend Elder Gems on Ability Points first, I would recommend snagging one extra Amp Power before all else to raise this to Rank III. This allows us to allocate a lot more into our Assault Power and Brutality since we would remove 3% of our Strike-through from our gear.

Critical Hit III - At Rank III, this gives us 6% Critical Hit Chance. More critical hits = more damage.

Assault Power III - 7.5% increased Assault Power at Rank III. Again, more damage = more damage.

Radiate - AoE DoT when you hit full Kinetic Energy. Considering we constantly go from 1,000 KE to ~800 from Rampage, one or two Relentless Strikes will proc this effect over and over again.

Detonate - Makes using our Overdrive deal TONS of damage to our surrounding enemies. Nice added burst to setting off our Innate.

Power Hitter - Aha! So that's how Warriors with lots of Critical Hit Chance and not much Critical Hit Severity do so much damage with their critical hits! This grants us a 7.5% boost to our Critical Hit Severity for 10 seconds when we critically hit, and it stacks 5 times! Considering an approximate 20% Critical Hit Chance, this means we will most likely, in a sustained fight, get a constant 37.5% boost to our Critical Hit Severity. Nice!

Kinetic Fury - 9% damage increase over 750 Kinetic Energy. By stacking to 1,000 KE then using and refueling, you will almost NEVER be under 750 KE. Constant extra damage for us!

Armor Shred - Reduces all resistances by 8.6% for 15 seconds, 20 second cool-down on the proc. 50% chance to land on any hit. All I see when I read this is more damage from everyone almost all the time. Take it!

Cooldowns III - At Rank III, this is a 10.2% cool-down reduction. This will help keep our interrupts off cool-down more often, and help get off more quicker in case our T8 doesn't proc - leading to increased Empower time.

Kinetic Drive - Building Kinetic Energy while sprinting in combat. Sounds kind of dumb, right? Wrong! You know those movement phases where you can't really do much attacking, or there is nothing to fight for a moment? This helps keep our Kinetic Energy up (and also gets it going when the tank pulls at the beginning) so we can go right back into the fray at full power!

Speed Burst - Gives us a 10% movement speed buff when we dash (double tap movement key). This helps tremendously in high-movement fights, and removes the need to pump Ability Points into Unstoppable Force (see, told you we'd get to it). Pair this with the armor special: Calisthenics on your boots to get a massive speed boost (8% from the boots on top of this, so 28% total - then try sprinting and see what happens).

Power Link - Unlocks our ability. If this needs explanation, please see the ability description above.

Eldan

I've had a lot of questions asking what to spend Elder Gems on, in what order, etc. This is not the easiest question to answer, since the answer changes with many circumstances, however, I will give what is my honest opinion.

1) 1 Amp Power Upgrade
2) All Ability Points possible
3) Remaining Amp Power Upgrades
4) Third LAS.
5) Gear/Other

Why this order?

1) Upgrade to Strikethrough III - this is VERY important so that you can focus more on other stats on gear while remaining at the Strike-through soft cap.

2) More Ability Points = more customization within your LAS. It now becomes viable to make Tier 8 in certain situations where you will not need to use (or don't need to throw points into) (such as having 3 Warriors). I do highly suggest keeping at Tier 8 once you unlock all of your Ability Points, however, as long as you keep and at Tier 8, it's your call. You may also choose to occasionally throw on your LAS and pump it to Tier 8 at this point, but try to only use this ability when the situations described above occur.

3) You can now unlock a couple more Amps to have at your disposal. I recommend:

Assault - Laceration: This gives you a chance to put a DoT on your opponent whenever you deal damage to them. It's a low chance (10%), so I don't recommend it before gaining more Amp Power.

Assault - Critical Hit Severity III: This one is a toss up. You can go ahead and put Amp Power into this if you would like to beef up your critical strikes. At this point, you should be critically striking very often, so it would definitely be a nice DPS increase (12% added to your critical hits).

Equipment

There is a LOT of information flying around about "Best in Slot Pre-Raid" this, that, and the other. I want to set one thing straight. With this game, getting a true BiS piece is EXTREMELY DIFFICULT (thank you Rune Slots). Getting a true BiS full equipment set should not be a realistic goal of yours. If it is your purpose in this game, have fun. I won't try to stop you, but I won't be joining you on this quest. Anyway, a lot of players recommend going for pure Brutality crafted gear. This is NOT a bad idea for a fresh level 50. I would suggest swiftly adding in some purples to even out your stats a bit once you hit above 1,600 Assault Power. The main reason for this is that you will likely be severely lacking on Strikethrough if you go with pure Assault Power. I will give you a list of good crafted gear for a fresh 50, as well as some other REALLY good pieces to shoot for quickly. Please refer to the sections below for Runes and item specials.

FRESH 50:
Weapon: 'Epochos' CW-1GRS Battle Blade (Impact)
Helmet: 'Epochos' HA-1H Combat Helmet (Concentration)
Shoulders: 'Epochos' HA-1S Combat Shoulders
Chest: Type III Galactirum Weave Plastron
Gloves: 'Epochos' HA-1G Combat Gauntlets
Legs: Galactium Protoweave Leg Plates (No Fear)
Boots: Galactium Protomorph Treads (Calisthenics)
Gadget: Protection (FROM PvP VENDOR)/Ghostpyre Voodoo (Northern Wastes Quest)
Gadget Part 2: Battlemaster's Rage (Siege of Tempest Refuge) [Replaces Ghostpyre Voodoo].

NOT-SO-FRESH 50:
Weapon: 'Adventus" CW-4GS

GOOD FOR EVERYONE:
Energy Shield: Berserker Aegis (Western Grimvault - Phagelabs - Technology Elementals/AH)
Weapon Attachment: Pirate's Bane (Veteran: Skullcano)
Support System: Captured Energy (Veteran: Stormtalon's Lair)
Implant - Fusion Xenocite Essence (Rare Crimson Badlands drop/Dungeon Drops)

I left most non-armor equipment for the "GOOD FOR EVERYONE" section just because they aren't super hard to get, and are at least decent pieces of gear. They definitely wouldn't meet a BiS list (other than potentially Berserker Aegis and Pirate's Bane) - but they should be able to get you into Raids with good Rune slots. For the crafted gear, I would suggest trying to get as much Brutality as possible without dipping below 6.5% Strikethrough. Any lower than this and you will be putting yourself and your party at serious risk. I would also suggest trying to upgrade to the Grim-Grim Curseblade Vest (from the Glorious Walatiki Prize Sack) for a nice balance of Stats. Remember to reference the Stats section of this guide for more information on what to stack and what to avoid - and use this information more than you would a BiS guide.

Runes

I often have people coming and asking me which runes to use. I want to say, first off, that there is a FANTASTIC online guide for this, which you can find by clicking here. Now, let's talk about what I believe to be your best bets on rune slots.

First and foremost, rune sets are important! They give stat boosts as well as special effects when you have a certain amount of those runes. The most important sets for a DPS Warrior are the following:

General Rune Sets:
Assassin - Fire, Logic, Life
Weapon Specialist - Fire, Logic, Earth

Eldan Rune Set:
Fusion Blast (Assassin, Shadow Blast)- Fire, Fusion, Air

Notice that handy-dandy fire slot in each set? So did I. Not only is it found in each of our important sets, but the stat we get for using a fire rune in these sets is Ability Power! You not only build into these nice set bonuses, but get a direct damage increase while doing so. For this reason, a BEST in slot piece of gear should include the following rune slots:

Fire, Fire, Fire, Fusion

Why is this? Well, for one, we want to fill those fire slots with one rune from each of the sets above. The game will not let you get a bonus from having more than one of the same set rune in a single piece of gear - and will not allow duplicates of the same rune (i.e. two fire runes of the same stat). For this reason, we cannot use the logic of "Oh, I'll get a piece of gear with Fire, Logic, and Life and put Assassin in each!" Carbine thought ahead and decided to not let us stack that way. Fortunately, this DOES mean we can get a lot more Ability Power out of each piece of gear (if we're lucky enough to roll these rune slots). After slotting the fire slots, you can put another pure Ability Power rune in the Fusion slot.

More than likely, you will not be seeing gear with these rune slot rolls on them very often. In this case, try to maximize your fire slots as much as possible, and aim to unlock Weapon Specialist bonuses first (you get one at 4 runes, 8 runes, and 12 runes). Assassin should come second (again at 4 runes, 8 runes, and 12 runes), while Fusion Blast reaches it's potential at 20 runes. Take note that the Assassin bonus from Fusion Blast WILL stack with the Assassin set. Of course, if you do find a piece of gear that has multiple rune slots that fit the different sets, fill them out as best as possible, picking the stats that are most beneficial for each. Also, it is important to try to get a Fire slot in at least the first rune slot, since you get diminishing returns on each rune past the first in a single piece of gear. The more Assault Power, the better! If you cannot put in runes from the sets listed, look at your secondary stats and see what could stand to get a boost. Often, people find that they can get a bit more Strike-through from some bad rune slots, or at least a little Brutality.

On my home server, Orias, you can expect to spend about 75 gold on the materials for each of the General Rune Set runes. The Fusion Blast runes can and will cost significantly more.

Specials

Another topic for discussion is that of item specials. Which are good for me? What are the most beneficial? Here, I will aim to shed some light on this subject, and hopefully answer any of those questions for you!

Weapon Special:

Impact - Whenever you critically hit an enemy, you deal extra damage. This can occur once every 2.50 seconds. With the amount that you should be critically hitting, this helps get our critical numbers up even higher! It is generally seen as being an effective ~300 DPS increase. Luckily, this is the default weapon special on our CW-4 Great Sword!

Armor Specials:

Boots: Calisthenics - Gotta go fast! This increases your base movement speed by 8%! It also gives you a buff once you deplete your endurance that increases your armor by 320 for 5.0 seconds. Being a melee DPS class, being able to move is important to... well... everything! This will help you stay alive easier and get in position much quicker!

Gloves: Rage - DAMAGE, DAMAGE, DAMAGE! Whenever you critically hit, your Assault and Support Powers are increased by 7 for 6 seconds. This can stack up to 3 times! Get your crit on!

Shoulders: Shoulder the Load - Attacks against you do less damage. Self explanatory!

Helmet: Concentration - Whenever you cast an ability, you have a 10% chance to increase all of your primary stats by 60 for 6 seconds. This is beneficial no matter what class you play (though there are better options for tanking).

Legs: No Fear - When your shield is depleted, it increases all of your stats for 10 seconds. It's not a permanent, fantastic buff - however - it does give you a nice little boost for whenever your shield does get depleted. If you're playing well, you will likely recharge your shield during the course of combat (due to not getting hit often), allowing you to take a small hit every once in a while to proc this special.

There are more specials that are worth looking at (and on other pieces of equipment), but these are by far the most beneficial in most situations. For instance, the Grim-Grim heavy chest piece gives Killing Machine, which increases primary stats by 12 for 8 seconds each time you kill an enemy. Not really fantastic for a dungeon or raid setting, but certainly not a BAD special either. Spiked Armor shouldn't be overlooked either. While it isn't imperative, it can cause some extra damage back to attackers (though ideally, you shouldn't be hit very often).

No-No's

So, some of you may think, "Hey Kly! Why didn't you choose _______? I think it's pretty snazzy!" Well, here's where I explain my choice on leaving out some other popular abilities. Please note, I will not cover Amps further here, as they have been explained fairly thoroughly as to why I picked certain Amps over other viable Amps above. This is solely for abilities.

1)
Carbine seems to REALLY want us to use this ability. And you know what, it's good! Especially with nerfs, it seems that this would be the correct choice! It still hits 5 enemies, and it does decent damage. Well... it's missing one thing that has - Empower. The Empower buff is so strong and important that it trumps choosing over it. Sorry Carbine, try again next time :D.

2) Tier 8
This. Is. REALLY good. If your Raid composition has MANY Warriors (1 Utility Warrior and 2 OTHER DPS Warriors) I'd say go for it. At this point, you can sacrifice Tier 8 since 2 other DPS Warriors should be rotating it. Yes, if you have Tier 8 , you could have it CONSTANTLY up with full power. Really, this isn't as important as just ALWAYS having it up (get those rotations down with other Warriors). By taking Tier 8 , you'll be adding enough damage to justify only using a base tier .

3)
This is a cool Ability. Unfortunately, the Pushback (and required Amp unlock) kills its viability.

4)
Again, I see people using this for PvE and my jaw drops. It's another ability that is REALLY focused for PvP. It is not consistent enough to be used in PvE.

5)
To be fair, I don't see this one very often. It's damage is too low to be useful for a pure DPS Warrior, and the Snare isn't quite good enough for a Utility Warrior. Good for PvP though!

6) Support Abilities other than when needed.
Really, none of these are as worthwhile as other Abilities discussed in the main/secondary builds. I could see the argument for , especially at Tier 4, however, it's not good enough to remove Ability Points from other Abilities. is also good, but doesn't allow you to avoid as many attacks as does.

7)
This could be good on a Utility Warrior, but I feel the other abilities outweigh it. If everyone is playing well, it shouldn't be necessary, and is using up a slot best used for other abilities.

8)
Not bad if you are going to preemptively stop a CC effect. However, you can do the same with , with the added bonus that it actually breaks an active CC.

tl;dr

Hate walls of text? Here's the EXTREMELY abridged version:

*CAUTION - USING JUST THIS INFORMATION MAY LEAD YOU TO MAKE MISTAKES BASED ON MISCONCEPTION OF DETAILS*

Stats:
1) Cap Strike-through to 8% for Adventures/Dungeons, 12% for Raids (can be achieved with utility buffs)
2) Assault Power (1,550 + is a good goal)
3) Brutality (Soft cap is more than enough)
4) Critical Hit Rating/Moxie
5) Critical Hit Severity/Finesse

LAS:


Priority:
Interrupts/CC Breaks when needed>>1,000 KE via >>

Secondary LAS:

Support:
Replace with .
Replace with when it's not needed.
Once you have all additional Ability Points, put at Tier 8.

Amps:
Hybrid A/S:
Strikethrough II

Assault:
Critical Hit III
Assault Power III
Radiate
Detonate
Power Hitter
Kinetic Fury
Armor Shred

Utility:
Cooldowns III
Kinetic Drive
Speed Burst
Power Link

Elder Gems:
1) Buy 1 Amp Power upgrade for Strike-through III
2) Buy all Ability Points
3) Finish buying Amp Power
4) Buy 3rd LAS
5) Gear/Other

Equipment:
High Brutality/Assault Power gear is a good start - crafted gear works well. Make sure to try to get at least 1 fire slot per piece of gear (preferably first slot). Do not dip below 6% Strike-through for more Brutality, at this point it will seriously hurt your performance.

Runes:
Best slots - Fire, Fire, Fire, Fusion (in that order).

Focus Assault Power>Brutality>Stirke-through>Critical Hit Chance>Critical Hit Severity for runes not of these slots. Finishing Rune Sets takes priority over other stats (i.e. putting a Weapon Specialist in Earth if no other Weapon Specialist Rune in that piece of gear). Each piece of gear will only benefit a Rune Set once (no double stacking).

Rune Sets - General:
Weapon Specialist - Fire, Logic, Earth (first priority, max benefit from 12 runes, make them in Fire slot with Assault Power).
Assassin - Fire, Logic, Life (second priority, max benefit from 12 runes, make them in Fire slots [if possible] with Assault Power).

Rune Sets - Eldan
Fusion Blast - Fire, Fusion, Air (third priority, max benefit from 20 runes, make them in Fire slots [if possible] with Assault Power).

Specials:
Weapon - Impact

Armor:
Boots - Calisthenics
Gloves - Rage
Shoulders - Shoulder the Load
Helmet - Concentration
Legs - No Fear
Chest - Whatever you can find (things like Killing Machine on Grim-Grim Heavy Chest).

Conclusion

I hope this guide has proven beneficial for any prospective/current DPS Warriors out there! If you have any feedback, please leave it in the comment section below, I'd love to hear from you! I will try to update this guide with every major patch if possible, so check back often! I hope to see you in game, and if you happen to wander onto Orias, feel free to send me a tell!