Warrior Class Guide (Classic - Prophecy of Ro)
This guide covers the Warrior class from Classic - Prophecy of Ro (PoR). Warriors are the best raid tanks in all of Everquest; to put it another way - they're the only viable raid tank in all of Everquest. SKs and Paladins are great for groups but you will rarely if ever see one of them tank a hard hitting raid boss because they lack the same innate level of mitigation that Warriors have.
From Classic EQ to about OoW you'll find Warriors to be rather one dimensional. They have a few skills and disciplines but the majority of their threat will come from Auto Attack. To be more specific, the procs from your weapons are what generate you the most threat in these early eras. You can find threat augs for sale at vendors in home towns on the TLPs, you'll also want to get a weapon like Blade of Carnage that has procs built into it already.
My experience with the Warrior class is quite extensive. I have mained one in basically every era of EQ and it's the class that I primarily play when I play this game. Seeing as how Warriors are the best tanks in the game and I am an avid boxer when I play EQ, naturally the head of my box team is a Warrior.
Important Stats & Focus Effects
Your stats will give you the biggest benefit until you reach Luclin-PoP and you start maxing them out with raid gear and buffs. Once you max out your stats you can only raise them with AAs or with Heroic Stats which are a feature of the later expansions. Warriors will want to prioritize Strength, Dexterity for damage along with the Attack stat which appears on gear less commonly in the early eras. More damage means more threat; almost all of your threat during the early era of the game comes from your damage output and your weapon augs.
Of course you'll also want to get an item that caps your Haste too - just like all melee this will give you one of the largest DPS improvements. For tanking you'll want to get AC, Stamina and Agility for increased mitigation and health.
Strength: This increases your Attack and weight limits.
Dexterity: Increases chance to proc during combat and accuracy.
Stamina: Gives you HP.
Agility: Increases AC.
Planes of Power adds Heroic Stats into the game and these become more and more common until eventually they are on every piece of gear. These stats will let you increase your character's potential in ways similar to their non-heroic counterparts. Much like the normal stats, Heroic Stats will come with caps too.
Heroic Stats get a soft cap, when you go over this you'll start to get diminishing returns for every point put into them. For this reason it's typically best to spread out your HStats a bit. As a Warrior you will primarily want Heroic Dexterity, Heroic Agility and Heroic Stamina. It doesn't hurt to sprinkle in a little bit of Heroic Strength too but that is much less useful than the other 3.
Heroic Dexterity (Accuracy/Proc Chance): Heroic Dex increases your accuracy and proc chance during combat; it has diminishing returns later in the game once you start getting a lot of it.
Heroic Agility (Avoidance/Strike Through): Increases AC, Dodge, Block and Many of the most important Mod2s. Use my Heroic Stats Guide for more information.
Heroic Strength (Strength): Increases Endurance. Improves the percentage of AC that gets tranfered from your shield to be used for damage mitigation. It also improves melee attack damage very minimally.
Heroic Stamina (HP/Mitigation): Increases HP, HP Regen, and HP Regen Cap. It also gives you some Mod2s which help with damage and stun mitigation.
Want more information about Heroic Stats and what they do/how they're beneficial? Curious what Mod2s are? Take a look at my Heroic Stats Guide for more information about what each stat does and why we're getting the ones that we're focusing on.
Important Focus Effects
Starting in Luclin and becoming more common as the game goes on certain pieces of gear will come with Focus Effects. For melee classes you don't start getting tons of Focus Effects until OoW and beyond. Below are the main Focus Effects that you want to get on your gear when they become available.
****Haste: Not really a focus, but this is the most important secondary thing you should get on your gear. Eventually it becomes a staple on your gear in the future and you don't have to seek it out anymore.
****Cleave: Increases your chance to crit with all combat skills by a significant amount. This is the most important focus you should seek out once it's available.
***Ferocity: Your chance to double attack is increased by a small amount. Your second biggest melee DPS increase will come from this.
***Improved Dodge: Chance to Dodge is increased by a moderate amount. Pretty much gives you a bit more survivability.
***Improved Parry/Block: Chance to Parry and Block is increased by a moderate amount.
Important Skills, AAs & Disciplines
As a Warrior you will get Bash, Disarm, Kick and Taunt as skills. I strongly recommend you use either Bash or Kick, if you're using a Shield then it's Bash that you will want to use. Kick is what you'll use if you're doing Dual Wield or 2h. For those of you playing on the TLPs or on live in general, you'll be able to do /autoskill Kick or /autoskill Bash. This will automatically use the skill and make it so you don't have to press the button constantly!
Disarm is a useless skill which you shouldn't even bother with. I have never found it to be useful. Taunt is of course going to be one of your most important skills. You'll want to give Taunt its own button and it stays that way forever, nothing will ever replace it.
AAs
Like with all of my other classes, I am going to cover the clicky AAs only. Starting with Luclin you can get Area Taunt which is basically an AoE taunt and War Cry which makes your group immune to fear for 10 seconds. There's also Rampage in Luclin which is garbage until later on during this era. It has too long of a cooldown and the damage is too low when you first get it.
Once Gates of Discord hits you will get Warlord's Tenacity which becomes one of your main cooldowns which you will pop to tank better. Once Omens of War is added you will get Press the Attack and Bold Attacks, I find Press the Attack to be kinda useless and Bold Attack is super useful. That's all we get as Warriors until later expansions. Most of the great skills we get will come in the forms of Discs during this era.
Disciplines
All of the discs during Classic - PoP can be found on Teniyu Emua in West Freeport and Entock Malso in Commonlands. Once Planes of Power is released you'll want to shop at Heldin Swordbreaker located in Plane of Knowledge.
Provoke (20) - Classic (Allakhazam, Lucy)
This line of discs is how you will build threat on your Warrior; it's very important (and good for pulling too)!
Bellow (52)
Incite (63)
Bellow of the Mastruq (65) You can make this or acquire it from the GoD Spells Quest.
Ancient Chaos Cry (65) Just like Mastruq, this comes from a GoD Spells Quest.
Bazu Bellow (69) This one is rather unique since it doesn't share a cooldown with any of your other hate spells. This is true into the future too, you'll be using this awhile.
Mighty Strike Discipline (54) - Kunark (Allakhazam, Lucy)
Chance to crit increased by 10,000%. This is the main disc you'll want to use for threat and damage until you get something better later.
Defensive Discipline (55) - Kunark (Allakhazam, Lucy)
This line of discs increases your melee mitigation by 45%; by far your most important disc for tanking.
Stonewall Discipline (65) - GoD Replaces Defensive once you get it, same mitigation but with less drawback.
Fortitude Discipline (59) - Kunark (Allakhazam, Lucy)
Avoidance increased by 10,000%. If you aren't facing your enemies it's worthless, make sure they are in front of you!
Spirit of Rage (61) - GoD (Allakhazam, Lucy)
Increases agro multiplier by 50%.
Whirlwind Blade (61) - DoN (Allakhazam, Lucy)
Deals minor damage to all enemies surrounding you; think of it as a much better version of your Rampage AA.
Cyclone Blade (69) - DoN You'll be using this version of the skill most during this era since it's the highest level one
Aura of Runes (66) - OoW (Allakhazam, Lucy)
This will absorb a small amount of damage occasionally.
Savage Onslaught Discipline (68) - OoW (Allakhazam, Lucy)
Your chance to crit is increased by 270% and your chance to score a Crushing Blow is increased by 100%.
Commanding Voice (68) - DoDh (Allakhazam, Lucy; this comes from a DoDh Quest during this era, eventually it's sold on the PoP Merchants)
Increases your chance to dodge by 20%.
Mock (70) - PoR (Allakhazam, Lucy)
Small hate increase & chance to mitigate melee damage on hit.
Champion's Aura (70) - PoR (Allakhazam, Lucy)
Armor increased & chance for weapon procs increased.
How to Play: Warrior Basics
Warriors are an extremely basic class to play from Classic - OoW. Most of your threat is generated through auto attacks during this era and the procs on your weapons. For the most part during this period you'll be using two weapons so you'll want to /autoskill Kick to get the most damage. When you switch to a shield remember to do /autoskill Bash instead, both of these commands will work on the TLP servers.
During Classic the only discs you'll be using a lot are Provoke/Bellow. You can use these to pull mobs and build agro, it's better if you have a ranged weapon but these will work too. Kunark introduces the first discs that we'd call "cooldowns" in later EQ, you get Mighty Strike Discipline, Defensive Discipline and Fortitude Discipline.
All 3 of these are extremely important and you will be using them for most of this era. Fortitude is good forever, nothing ever replaces it. Eventually you get Stonewall Discipline which will replace Defensive and Savage Onslaught Discipline which replaces Mighty Strike. Many Warrior discs share cooldown so the main criteria for determining if the disc is worth using -- is whether or not it shares a cooldown with these 3 discs.
Once GoD comes out you'll also get Spirit of Rage which is worth using when you need it. Then which each new expansion you'll typically get something good. OoW and DoN both add some new stuff, Cyclone Blade in DoN becomes your better Rampage. You'll get new ranks of this with each level increase. Aura of Runes is worth using too, it will absorb some incoming damage.
You'll also get Bazu Bellow during OoW which is a unique one, it's like your other line of provoke skills but it doesn't share a cooldown with them. This makes it useful until I think Seeds of Destruction which is when it gets a replacement. During DoDh you'll get Commanding Voice which stacks with most things and is very useful too.
Finally, once Prophecy of Ro hits you will unlock Mock and Champion's Aura. You'll want to keep Champion's Aura up at all times, it's good until Rain of Fear and I think even beyond that. As for Mock, it's something you'll want to use when it's available. It isn't the best but it's useful and everything helps.
Warrior BiS Lists
I have BiS gear lists for this class which include both Tower and Pre-Tower BiS items. For those of you who care less about a BiS list and just want a list of good gear options, I have included that at the bottom of each page too.
Kunark Warrior BiS Gear List
Velious Warrior BiS Gear List
Luclin Warrior BiS Gear List
PoP Warrior BiS Gear List