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The Warrior may sound like the main tank in Runes of Magic, but
they’re actually better suited to play the role of off-tank.
They may not be able to wear the strongest armor in the game, but
donned in their layers of chain mail, they can still take more of a
beating than any class other than a Knight.
Warriors harness their rage to gain berserker-like abilities, trading
off defensive capabilities for higher (and faster) damage dealing
skills. Similar to a Mage’s mana bar, Warriors have a Rage
bar that builds up as they fight.
style="font-weight: bold;">Note:
This guide was created from the perspective of the human starting
area. The names of monsters and places will vary for those choosing the
starting area for the Elves, but the numbers, spells, and skill for the
Warrior remain the same.
Crunching the Numbers
All Warriors start out with the exact same statistical setup. As they
level up, they’ll also gain a set amount of points in their
attributes. The only way to alter your stats from those of anyone else
is through the use of equipment, runes, and the 10% attribute boost you
receive from your secondary class. The beginning stats and available
equipment skills for a Warrior are:
Starting Attributes
- Strength: 28
- Dexterity: 23
- Constitution: 26
- Intelligence: 10
- Wisdom: 17
Starting Equipment Skills
- Robes
- Cloth
- Leather
- Chain
- Shield
- 1H Sword
- Dagger
- Wand
- 1H Axe
- Mace
- 2H Sword
- 2H Staff
- 2H Axe
- 2H Hammer
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Getting Your Bearings
Runes of Magic does a nice job of getting you into the action quickly
without tossing you into the deep end of the pool in the hopes
you’ll learn to swim. There’s a very quick optional
tutorial available when you first start. I suggest doing so for a
couple of reasons. First, it gives you some nice rewards and a 48-hour
20% attribute bonus. As a quick note, the timer for this bonus
continues to count down whether you’re online or not. The
second reason to do the tutorial is it literally takes little more than
3 or 4 minutes to complete. In exchange for the aforementioned
attribute bonus, it’s well worth it.
Once you finish the tutorial, you’re placed in a starting
village and immediately sent out on a number of different quests. The
majority of these consist of kill tasks and speaking with various
village residents. The kill quests are typical MMOG fare but they serve
their purpose in getting you familiar with your particular brand of
combat, so I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing.
Being sent to speak with the local village residents is another long
used staple in the MMOG bag of tricks to show you where to go in order
to learn how to craft, buy weapons, and get a general feel of the land.
It may be one of the oldest tricks in the book, but that
doesn’t make it any less effective.
Unleash the Beast
The last thing your Warrior will ever want to think about is taking an
anger management course. That’s because just like the Hulk,
the madder they get, the more dangerous they become. Think of them as
Norse Berserkers. They’re more concerned with dealing out
massive amounts of damage than they are about their own safety. This
makes them extremely dangerous to any and all enemies.
While the Warrior can use nearly every weapon in the game,
you’ll probably want to stick with those that coincide with
your abilities the most. This means that most of the time, you should
be using a 1-handed sword, 1-handed axe, or any 2-handed weapon. The
bleed effect some of your attacks can inflict requires a sword or axe,
the Thunder skill requires a 1-handed weapon, while your Tactical skill
requires a 2-handed weapon.
One of the things that make the Warrior such an attractive class are
the choices you have and knowing you're not just a clone of the Warrior
beside you is a good thing. Some may choose to go the board and sword
route by using a sword and shield, while others prefer to stick with
2-handed weapons.
The choice is up to you.
Unlike a Mage, the Warrior starts out a little slowly.
There’s nothing in the early levels of the game that will
actually cause you any trouble, but you’re not going to be
able to kill many opponents with a single blow. This doesn’t
mean you should give up though, for as you gain in levels, your power
drastically increases.
Most of the damage your skills inflict are based off a percentage of
your current weapon. In the beginning, some of these skills only cause
40% of your weapon’s potential damage. Before you reach level
10 though, these same skills will be causing 200% or more, depending on
how you choose to distribute your skill points. As you continue to
level, this will only get better, so be sure to hang in there.
The Warrior isn’t the class of choice for everyone. If
you’re looking for a class that allows you to get in the face
of your opponent and are more concerned about causing damage than
resisting it though, you should think about rolling one up. The Warrior
is the perfect class for those that think the dark side of the Force is
where it’s at… give in to your hate and rain hell
upon your foes.
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