WildStar Warrior DPS Guide

WildStar Warrior DPS Guide by Shunn

Hey everyone! My name is Shunn, people may know me by Kuramaa, my warrior in beta, (which will be named Shunn at launch) or from my stream. I’ve been playing a warrior since CBT3 and have leveled one all the way up to 50. I have had extensive Elder Game testing and feel like I should post a guide for those planning on playing warrior at launch, or still on the fence about warrior as a class in general.

1. Introduction

What exactly is a warrior? “Armed to the teeth and fearlessly wading into battle with multiple enemies, warriors are unstoppable juggernauts of brutality and combat! Peace is for the weak!” This guide is intended to be a source of information  to help others excel in becoming the best warrior dps they can be. It will be centered mostly on DPS builds, abilities, rotations, and anything else related to the damage side of the Warrior class.

2. Abbreviations
RS- Relentless Strike
PS- Power Strike
L- Leap
SS- Savage Strikes
WW- Whirlwind
RIP- Ripsaw
AB- Augmented Blade
SD- Smackdown
TM- Tremor
BS- Breaching Strikes
K- Kick
GR- Grapple
DG- Defense Grid
PL- Powerlink
DPS- Damage Per Second
CD- Cool down
UF- Unstoppable Force
KE- Kinetic Energy

3. Basics

3.1 Weapon/Armor

The warrior uses Power Swords and arm cannons, it also is restricted to wearing heavy armor. It is one of two classes that wear heavy armor, the other being an Engineer. The warrior can only use heavy armor and power swords.

3.2 Race/Path/Profession

In Wildstar, you race has exactly zero effect on your DPS and is only for aesthetic reasons.  The Warrior has six race choices, three for Exile, Human,Granok and Mordesh and three for Dominion, Cassian, Draken and Mechari.  The same goes for your path and professions as well, no matter which you choose it will not affect your combat output capabilities in anyway.

3.3 Resource

The warrior uses a resource known as KE (Kinetic Energy). KE can be built up by using builders and then starts to decay when using spenders.

4. Abilities

Listed below will be the main DPS abilities you will be using as a Warrior. For a complete list of all the Warrior abilities I suggest you visit http://ws-base.com/b…rator/warrior#/

Innate

Stance:Onslaught: Increase damage dealt by 35% and reduce all resistances by 2% (cooldown 1min)

Activate: Reset assault and support ability cooldowns and trigger overdrive for 8.0 seconds

Overdrive: Prevents Kinetic Energy decay, increases damage dealt by 25%, increases damage taken by 9.9% and reduces incoming healing by 10%

This is the DPS stance for the warrior. It has been through a lot of changes throughout the beta phases, but is arguably the best iteration the stance has received. The activate for this stance makes for insane burst on enemies whether it is in pve or pvp gameplay.

4.1 Assault

Relentless Strike: Cast time: Instant  CD:none  Range: 7m    Type: Freeform
Deal physical damage to 5 foes and build 180 kinetic energy.
T4: 20% chance to grant efficiency for 5s.
Efficiency: Reduce kinetic energy decay for 3.4% for 5s, stacks 3 times
T8: 20% chance to reset the cooldown on Power strike, Whirwind, and Tremor
Thoughts: This is your first ability you get as a warrior. It is your basic builder/spammer from level 1-50. The tier bonuses are extremely good and in Elder Game play this ability will always be T8.

Rampage (Formerly Powerstrike): Cast time: Instant   CD: 8s  Range: 7m   Type: Freeform
Deal physical damage to 5 foes. Can be used 3 more times with a reduced GCD before incurring the cooldown
T4: Deal an additional (16.9%) damage while above 400 KE and  an additional (3.92%) while above 750 KE
T8; Apply Empower for 6s. Empower: Increases Assault Power bu 1.7% of your current maximum. Stacks 3 times.
Thoughts: This is my favorite ability and the warriors hardest hitting ability overall. The animation pretty cool and this is and will be your main “spender” ability from level 1-50. This ability does not build any KE and as you are using it KE will start to decay. This ability makes you feel like a warrior, jumping into the air and landing a flurry of attacks upon your enemy! The ability is very mobile and works well when using other abilities in between swings. They made this skill go off super fast so much love for this skill now.

Leap: Cast time: Instant  CD: 15s  Range: 20m   Type: Freeform
Leap forward 20m’s and deal physical damage to 5 foes
T4: CC break: Break free from roots, holds, snares, and tethers
T8: Roots foes for 1s, Root: prevents movement
Thoughts: This is the warriors bread and butter movement cooldown. This ability will get you out of so many jams or let you catch up to your enemy and punish them. I love how this ability works, it is great for jumpin up to higher elevations, as this is the only movement CD in the game that actually, on use, makes you jump higher slightly more even after a double jump. Overall this ability will always be on my bar and should be on yours

Savage Strikes: Cast time: Instant  CD: 10s  Range: 7m  Type: Freeform
Deal physical damage twice to 5 foes and build 125 KE on each strike
Knockdown bonus; Deal (x%) damage
T4: Knock down also applies to blind and tethered foes and deals an additional (7.98%) damage.
T8: 50% chance to have no cooldown, cannot occur twice in a row.
Thoughts: This skill has it’s niche in the game, mainly pvp.  as the mobs can be cc’d and have the appropriate debuffs needed for the knockdown bonus. In a raid setting this ability imo is completely garbage and should never be on your bar, because in raids bosses can’t be knocked down or blind/tethered for you to get the bonus knockdown damage, which is the only time you would ever use it. Overall I wouldn’t use this ability unless you’re low level questing or in pvp, and I think most warrior pvper’s are staying away from this ability now.

Ripsaw: Cast time: Instant  CD: 8s  Range: 7m   Type: Freeform
Deal technology to 5 foes every 2s for 10s. Applies a snare for 5s
Snare: Reduce movement speed by 35%
T4: Damage per tick reduced and stacks 2 times
T8: Deal (x%) technology damage to foes with 2 stacks. All stacks on that foe are consumed.
Thoughts: This ability is good for questing and pvp. it allows you to either kite your foes or keep them withing range with the snare applied to them. The T4 is a great tier bonus, but unfortunately T8 bonus is absolutely garbage and I would advice no one to ever T8 this ability, and would also like to see Merkal change the T8 bonus before launch.

Augmented Blade: Cast time: Instant  CD 15s  Range: self  Type: Freeform
Add technology damage and wound to your next sword attack. Wound:Reduces incoming healing by 40%
T4: landing a critical hit on a foe wounded by your Augmented Blade grants a 15% chance to reset the cooldown.
T8:Deal (x%) technology damage to any foe who lands a heal on a foe wounded by your Augmented Blade.
Thoughts: This ability is a pretty decent pvp healing debuff and can also be utilized in a raid setting. Although the damage it adds to your next attack is pretty decent it requires a gcd and is not suitable as a standard ability when doing endgame pve content. The stalkers phlebotomize is a better healing debuff and probably will be sued in a raid setting over the warriors. This ability can be good for low level content, but will quickly be replaced once you get breaching strikes. Overall I feel the tier 4 and tier 8 bonuses are lackluster and would recommend never tiering it past base level. Good pvp skill ot so good for pve.

Whirlwind: Cast time: 3 sec hold  CD: 4s  250 KE (built up before can be activated)  Range; 7m   Type: Mobile
Deal physical damage to 5 foes every 0.5s. 25% chance to have no cooldown
T4: Gain swiftness while casting.  Swiftness: Increase movement speed by 45%
T8: Gain 1 interrupt armor while casting
Thoughts: Whirwind seems to only have a place in pvp or questing. The damage on the ability itself is lackluster compared to your other spender powerstrike and the hold function is clunky to say the least. I have never used this ability accept for the one time i tested it out, and that was enough for me to never use it again. I know some people like it for pve/pvp and I can see the use for it in pvp, but for pve and raiding this should never even be thought of or ever in the back of your mind.

Smackdown: Cast time: Instant  CD: 10s  Range: 7m  Type Freeform
Deal physical damage and apply Expose to 5 foes. Expose: Reduce all resistances by 10% for 9s.
T4: 20% chance to reset the Cd on Breaching Strikes.
T8 Applies Blunder for 3s. Blunder; Causes foe’s attacks to have a 15% increased chance to be Deflected.
Thoughts: This is currently one of the best raid debuffs to bring into a raid setting. No other class has an ability that can reduce all the foe’s resistances at once. I recommend at least one warrior in raid has this ability on their bar and keeps it up 100% of the time. Typically you make the warrior with the lowest dps/gear run this ability. In pvp it can give everyone a slight boost in damage, but I do not know how often people actually utilize this ability in pvp.

Tremor: Cast time: Instant  CD: 8s   250 KE Range 20m  Type Freeform
Deal physical damage and apply a 2m pushback to 10 foes. Damage is dealt around the nearest foe.
T4; Increase charge count to 2
T8: Deal an additional (x%) damage to foes below 30% health.
Thoughts: This ability is fun to use. It is great for questing and dealing a good amount of aoe damage. In a pvp aspect this ability can slightly kock foes away from you giving you slightly more time to get away or catch up. This ability for pve is very useful for questing and leveling. In a raid setting this ability does not unfortunately give you a overall dps increase so it should not be on your bar unless you wanna mess around on big trash pulls and use it.

Breaching Strikes: Cast time: Instant  CD: 10s  Range: 7m  Type: Freeform
Deal physical damage to 2 times to 5 foes and builds 125 KE. Pierces X armor. Useable after landing a critical hit.
T4: 30% chance to have no cooldown.
T8: Pierces 70% armor.
Thoughts: This is one of your best dps abilities. It swings twice and builds KE. BS makes for nice burst in pvp and pve. The only thing about this ability is that armor pierce does not work in pve in the way it does for pvp. In pvp you will get the full percentage of armor pierce on other players, but in pve mobs share a 50-50 resistances, meaning when armor piercing things it reduces stats from the armor and from the mobs individual resists. Which causes armor pierce in pve to be complete garbage and basically moot when factoring in dps from the ability based on armor pierce.

4.2 Utility

Kick: Cast time: Instant   CD: 20s  Range: 7m  Type: Freeform
Deals physical damage and knockdowns 5 foes. knockdown: Prevents any action,except dash< for 3s. Destroys 1 interrupt armor.
T4: Cooldown Reduced to 18s.
T8: Destroys 2 interrupt armor.
Thoughts: This is one of 2 interrupts a warrior will have on at all times when it comes to pve content, mainly raiding. Kick is your standard interrupt and in this game interrupts are something that greatly help you survive and make enemies go into MoO (Moment of Opportunity) where they take 150% increased damage. Warrior clas has the shortest cooldowns for interrupts out of any class, both Kick and grapple are on 20s cd’s which makes them that much better for all content. The knockdown is great, but can be easily broken out of by dashing to roll out of it while on the ground while in pvp. Overall this ability will see plenty of use in pvp and pve content.

Grapple: Cast time: Instant  CD: 20s  Range 20m  Type: Freeform
Deal technology damage, pull 2 foes and apply root for 1.2s. Destroys 1 interrupt armor.
T4: Increase charge count to 2.
T8: Apply snare for 4s after the root has expired or been removed. Snare: reduces movement speed by 30%
Thoughts: This is the 2nd interrupt warriors will have on their bar for when they get into dungeons and raiding. Once again it is on a 20s CD and is off gcd like Kick. The pull effect only works if the mob does not have any interrupt armor on them. The root is quite nice for pvp and being able to pull in foes is extremely nice. Overall this skill will be used religiously throught you play time in Wildstar.

Power Link: Cast time: Instant  CD: 25s  Range: 20m  Type: Freeform
Grant yourself and 4 party members Empower. Empower: Increase damage dealt by 18% for 10s.
T4: Increase Empower by 2.5% for you and party members within 10m.
T8: When you or a party membered empowered by Power Link lands a direct attack you gain 1 stack of storing power. Stacks 50times  When Powerlink expires deal 14.635% technology damage for every 10 stacks of storing power, to 5 foes. Within 10m.
Thoughts: This ability is absolutely amazing. Not only is it a good self buff to you and a self dps increase, it also buffs party members in your raids. T4 makes the ability an even bigger raid dps gain by not limiting the amount of people the 2.5% damage buff hits, while 4 others get the 18% damage buf who are linked to you, the T4 allows for those within 10m of you to get a 2.5% damage increase and they don’t feel so left out. Some people might complain that warriors shouldn’t be pigeon holed into getting this ability, but how is a clear self dps increase and raid dps at the same time ever being pigeon holed into a “utility’ ability??? This is single handily one of the best abilities in the game bar none. Every warrior should run this in a pve setting because you will be able to link up all 20 raid members in a 20man  raid, The down side to this ability is that Power Link is not smart targeting, it has a chance to link someone else who is already linked which cause the buff on them to refresh not stack. Overall this ability is amazing and once you use it you will see why.

5. LAS/Builds

In WildStar, your character is able to choose 8 of their class specific abilities to have on their action bar at a time. This system is known as a Limited Action Set or LAS, sometimes referred to as your loadout or action bar.  You are not limited in any way as to which abilities you choose to put on your action bar, but some combination of abilities are much more effective than others. Once you reach level 50 you are will begin to earn Elder Gems that can be spent to acquire an additional 10 amp points and 7 skill tier points. As of now, these will most likely be a top priority of buying them before some of the gear. Prices still may change so I will keep this updated. Here I will list some of the more common load outs and which situations they are best in.

5.0.1 Amp Locations

If you can’t find an amp listed here, it is most likely a random world drop, or will be added to vendors later on.

D ELLEVAR: LIGHTREACH MISSION; Lady Saphis
– Full Force
– Vigor
– Bust Out
– Shock Absorber

E ALGOROC: GALLOW; Merchant Clara Clearfield
D DERADUNE: BLOODFIRE VILLAGE; Mika
-Radiate
-Laceration
-Bust Out
-Shock Absorber

E GALERAS: SKYWATCH; Provisions Officer Windfree
D AURORIA: HYCREST; Merchant Voxic
-Cheap Shot
-Stance Dancer

E WHITEVALE: THERMOCK HOLD; Fenan Sunstrider
D WHITEVALE: PALEROCK POST; Zephix
– Bloodlust

E FARSIDE: Walker’s Landing; Reya Resinbough
D FARSIDE: Dakahari;
– Health Sponge
– Armor Shred
– Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop

E Wilderrun: Fool’s Hope; Merchant Snowglimmer
D Wilderrun: Provisioner Jazira
– Fury
– Detonate
– Overwhelming Presence
– Energy Banks

E THAYD; Supply Officer Clayre
D LLIUM; Supply Officer Phenoxia
-Kinetic Buffer
-Festering Blade
-Speed Burst
-Cornered
-No Escape
-Fortify
-Sunder
-Bring it
-Recklessness

Quest rewards:
-Power Hitter
-Full Defense
-Unyielding

Exile
CELESTION: Gienview’s Bulkwark; Greenbough’s Guardian Quest Line
Starts at Arwick Redleaf
1) Reclaiming Greenbough
2) A Fiery Escape
3) Greenbough Guardian (AMP reward)

ALGOROC: Tremor Ridge; Loftite Rush Quest Line
Starts at Pappy Grizzleston
1) The Loftite Hunt Begins
2) Troublesome Tremors (AMP Reward)

Dominion
DERADUNE: MOODIES! Quest Line
Starts at
1) Mojo Moodies
2) Tamolo’s Necromojo
3) The Staff and the Shaman (AMP Reward)

ELLEVAR: quest line with the Stormseekers:

The final quest “Unfortunate Force” given by Guardian Zelcon

5.1 PVE

The Warrior in PVE may seem slow at first when leveling, admittedly it is, but that changes once you hit around level 31 and finally get all your abilities.

Solo/Questing

While low level questing you will see be experiencing pretty much relentless strke spam with power strike in between and the occasional kick before a mob dies. You are able to pull decent size packs, somewhere around 1-3 mobs fairly easily and kill them thanks to your heavy armor. once you get Breaching strikes you will have another ability to throw in that deals a good amount of damage and can take you away from the spamming of relentless strike. Later on you will be able to acquire Defense Grid which is located in the utility tree. This ability provides a very nice dmage mitigation buff to you and anyone standing inside of it, thus allowing you to eventually pull larger groups of mobs when questing/soloing. You might see stalkers just run up and 2 shot mobs and be jealous of them, but just remember your class is a build up class and the sustain and defense we have makes it all worth it in the end.

Make sure to always use your interrupts on enemies when they are casting an ability to put them in MoO to deal more damage and make your kill times shorter and more efficient. With the way our innate works I would suggest building up max KE then using powerstrike, then use your builder and then activate your innate to have power strike come back up immediately for some really great burst.

Veteran Dungeon/Raid DPS Build

I have found that when doing veteran and raid content my build is basically the same throughout the dungeons. On certain fights you may be required to take UF ( your cc break) and replace a skill on your bar. For the most part this is the LAS/Amp setup you want to use when doing endgame pve content.

http://ws-base.com/b…96.97.151.91.98

5.1.1 Rotation

The rotation is fairly simple for warrior dps. At the start of each fight you either want to sprint in (taking advantage of the kinetic drive amp) or leap in. Start using relentless strike until you have full KE and then immediately use PS. In between when you crit you will want to use BS to help build back up KE for when you start to decay after using PS. With the T8 of relentless strike you want to make an auramastery setup to let you know when Power strike comes off CD, If you PS and then use relentless and after the first sweinf the T8 of relentless procs, your PS will be back off cd and you want to immediately use it again. PS refreshes take priority over everything, but make sure you have full KE ALWAYS before using it. Power Link will always be used as it comes off CD for that extra damage boost. Make sure to always pop your innate after a power strike to immediately refresh your Assault abilities and gain an extra 25% damage bonus. Basically it’s a rinse repeat rotation mixed in with a power link cd and BS when you crit.

6.1.2 Genetic Archives

This section contains  bosses in the 20 man raid Genetic Archives from my warrior DPS POV. Most mini bosses don’t require a specific LAS but I will update this section with any tips, skills, and videos that may be useful. For the most part, the core abilities will always be the same, you will just cycle 1-2 of your slots for other abilities you may need. Amps shouldn’t ever change

Experiment X-89

Video: http://www.twitch.tv/shunntv/c/4136003

Kuralak the Defiler

Video: http://www.twitch.tv/shunntv/c/4133346

Phage Maw

Video: http://www.twitch.tv/shunntv/c/4037309

7. Stats

For leveling: Brutality always and forever! Always choose the piece of gear that will give you the most Brutality as Assault Power is king when leveling. But also use good judgement, don’t give up 1,000 health 50 Moxie and 50 Finesse for 1 brutality and always pay attention to your milestones.

Level 50: As of right now Brutality is basically your go to stat just aim for gear with the most Brutality and you will be fine. I will update with possible stat caps and priorities once I have gathered more information. Strikethrough cap for PvE bosses is 14%, but if you are able to get 9% for raid then other classes deflect debuffs on bosses should put you in a good place.

7.1 Runes

At level 50 when you earn a new piece of gear it will most likely contain rune slots. The different types of rune slots are: Fire, Water, Air, Earth, Life, Logic, Fusions, and Omni. You are then able to create your own runes and place them in a rune slot of the same element, while an Omni slot can hold any rune element type. Additionally, the first rune slot in your gear receives 100% of the stat, and each rune after it receives less and less of their stat. This means, if possible, you want to put your best stats in the first few slots to gain the most value out of them. Each rune element has a few different stats associated with it so naturally some elements have much better rune choices for the Esper than some others. Listed below are the rune elements with their best stats in order of most wanted to least wanted:

Fire: , Brutality,Moxie, Crit, (Assault Power with rune Frags)
Fusion: Assault Power
Life: Crit, Brutality
Logic: Moxie, Crit
Water: Strikethrough, Finesse
Air: Moxie. Strikebound
Earth: Brutality

With the removal of secondary and tertiary runes, the best runes you can place in your gear is straight Assault Power in Fire and Fusion slots, along with Omni.

7.1.1 Rune Sets

Along with normal runes you are also able to obtain special rune fragments that can be used when crafting runes to make a special rune apart of a Rune Set. Theses runes have the same stats on them, but provide you with a bonus when you have a certain number of them equipped in your gear. Also, each set has three elements associated with it and you are only able to create runes of those elements for the set. Each rune set stacks with the preexisting rune bonus i.e 4set stacks with 8set etc.. Some of the best rune sets for Warriors and their elements are:

Assassin: Fire, Logic, Life
(4) Assassin: Increases Assault Power by 16 and grants a 25% chance to deal an additional 20 physical damage when landing a hit on a foe below 30% health.
(8) Assassin: Increases Assault Power by 16 and grants a 25% chance to deal an additional 30 physical damage when landing a hit on a foe below 30% health..
(12) Assassin: Increases Assault Power by 16 and grants a 25% chance to deal an additional 40 physical damage when landing a hit on a foe below 30% health.

Shadow Blast: Fusion, Fire, Air
(8) Assassin: Increases Assault Power by 16 and grants a 25% chance to deal an additional 30 physical damage when landing a hit on a foe below 30% health.
(12) Assassin: Increases Assault Power by 16 and grants a 25% chance to deal an additional 40 physical damage when landing a hit on a foe below 30% health.
(20) Shadow Blast: When you Critically Hit an Enemy with a direct attack you have a 5% chance to deal 1616 bonus damage to that enemy and the 3 closest enemies within 6 meters.

Weapon Specialist:  Earth,Fire,Logic
(4) Weapon specialist:  increase physical damage by 1%.  Has a 10% chance to apply Expose for 5.0s: reduce the targets armor by 240
(8) Weapon specialist:  increase physical damage by 1.5%. Has a 10% chance to apply Expose for 5.0s: reduce the targets armor by 360
(12) Weapon specialist:  increase physical damage by 2%.  Has a 10% chance to apply Expose for 5.0s: reduce the targets armor by 480

Right now the best rune sets for warriors are 12/12 Assassin and 12/12 Weapon specialists.

Feel free to check out my stream every weekend to see the warrior POV in a rading scenario. http://www.twitch.tv/shunntv