Warrior in a Nutshell

[Dekayte]

Warrior in a Nutshell v1.0 by Dekayte

1. Introduction to Warriors
2. Abilities for Warriors
3. Sub-jobs for Warriors
4. Race for Warriors
5. Weapons for Warriors
6. Equipment for Warriors
7. Food for Warriors
8. Meripopo (Merits)
9. Shinies
10. Builds
11. Thank You

I. Introduction to Warriors

The Warrior job was one of the original jobs created for Final Fantasy XI. It was originally planned as a tanking job and a damage dealer. Which meant it could be very versatile. As the newer jobs started to come in (PLD and NINs specifically) the Warrior job started to lean towards a more focused damage dealing class. That's not to say that Warrior can't tank still (I'll go into this later). Warrior is what I consider the most well rounded job in the game.

II. Abilities for Warriors

Job Abilities

LV 1 Mighty Strikes
When activated all your hits will have a 100% chance of being a critical hit. This can be used to save your party.
LV 5 Provoke
This Job Ability generates a very large amount of hate, useful for when you want to tank or have a monster focus on you.
LV 15 Berserk
This one increases your Attack while lowering your Defense. One of the most important DOT (Damage Over Time) tools you'll have access to. It lasts for 3 minutes and has a recast timer of 5 minutes. This means for two minutes you cannot have Berserk up.
LV 25 Defender
Defender does the exact opposite of Berserk. It increases your Defense while lowering your Attack. It is a smart idea to use this Job Ability when you have hate to lower the amount of damage you receive. Unlike Berserk however, Defender lasts 3 minutes and the recast is 3 minutes so you can potentially have it up the entire time.
LV 35 Warcry
Warcry is a large AOE (Area Of Effect) ability that increases the attack of anyone who is hit by it. This move generates a lot of hate so be careful, the amount of hate generated is based on how many people are hit by it.
LV 45 Aggressor
Once you have access to this Job Ability you will want to pair it with Berserk for the rest of your Warrior career (I remember someone saying this about why you should pair them, “Why wouldn't you want your hardest hits to hit more often and your more accurate hits hit harder?”). This Job Ability increases your Accuracy in exchange for Evasion.

Job Traits

LV 10 Defense Bonus
Increase in Defense.
LV 15 Resist Virus
Chance to avoid being hit with Disease.
LV 25 Double Attack
Chance to swing twice instead of once.
LV 30 Attack Bonus
Increase in Attack.

III. Sub-jobs for Warriors

There are four popular sub-jobs for Warrior. NIN, THF, MNK, and WHM. Each sub-job has specific use for Warrior and can help them achieve certain tasks.

A. NINJA

Pros:

• Utsusemi. It allows you to negate damage taken 3 times before fading away. That means when you pull hate from the tank, you can allow the tank to grab hate back without having to waste MP from your mages. Later in the higher levels (74+) and you have access to Utsusemi Ni, you'll have the ability to main tank a lot of mobs with enough +Haste gear.
• Dual Wield. This lovely job ability lets you use another weapon in your offhand when using one handed weapons (Clubs, Daggers, Swords, Axes, etc.) The way Dual Wield works is, it adds the delay of your weapons and takes away a certain percentage depending on how much delay they add up to and what level Dual Wield you have.

B. THIEF

Pros:

• Sneak Attack. It makes your next hit a guaranteed critical hit. This is extremely useful before a Weapon Skill to increase it's damage.
• Trick Attack. After being used this makes it so all the hate you would receive from your next attack, be placed on someone you are standing behind. When combined with Sneak Attack (SATA), you can plant a lot of hate on a tank by doing a massive amount of damage from Sneak Attack + Weapon Skill, and all the hate from the damage will be put on the tank.
• Flee. It let's you run away quickly.
  
  

C. MONK

Pros:

• Dodge. Gives you a boost of evasion without any bad side effects. Useful for when you have hate.
• Boost. Your next attack will have an increase in Attack. This is usually used before a Weapon Skill for extra damage. It does generate some hate as well if you wish to tank at higher levels.
• Focus. Increase in Accuracy without any bad side effects. If you alternate this with Aggressor you can potentially go the entire time with Accuracy increase.
• Chakra. Instantly restores a small amount of Hit Points.

D. WHITEMAGE

Pros:

• Curaga II. It creates a lot of hate if used correctly.
• -Na Spells. Cures status effects.
• Teleport. Access to Teleport Dem, Holla, and Mea.
• Divine Seal. Enhances your Cures.
• Sneak. Allows you to go past sound aggressive monsters.
• Invisible. Allows you to go past sight aggressive monsters.
• Stoneskin. Negates a certain amount of damage.

IV. Race for Warriors

Before I go into this, please understand that you should seriously play whichever race you like because this is a game and you should enjoy it.

When looking at Warrior you have to understand that STR (Strength) is the most important attribute for Warrior. It increases your damage and that is what you want. Galkas and Elvaans have the highest STR, followed by Mithras and Humes, then Tarus. At level 75, there is a noticeable difference in the amount of STR that an Elvaan and a Taru have. Even though I said that you should pick whatever race you want to be, you need to know that the best equipped Elvaan will do better than the best equipped Taru. That's all there really is to races for Warriors, honestly just pick whatever race you want to be because more than likely you won't be a Warrior forever if you plan on playing this game for a long time.

V. Weapons for Warriors

Warriors have the biggest variety when it comes to weapons. They have proficiency in almost every weapon class there is (The ones they don't are Katana, Great Katana).

Warrior Proficiency:

Great Axe A+
Axe A-
Scythe B+
Great Sword B+
Sword B
Staff B
Dagger B-
Polearm B-
Club B-
Hand to Hand D
Throwing D
Archery D
Marksmanship D

I recommend sticking to Great Axe or Axe as a Warrior. They will out damage all your other weapons until you get to 75 and can merit the difference in skill levels for the lower weapon types.

A lot of Warriors opt to go with sword in the mid level range because of the very nice swords available at that level. The ones that come to mind are TM Espadon, and Bloodsword.

Once you're in the higher levels and have access to merits you can start meriting Axe, Great Axe, Sword, etc. Almost all of my Warrior friends agree that +8 Sword merits is the way to go if you have access to Joyeuse and/or Ridill. When you put +8 merits into Sword, you get +16 skill levels of it and thus lessen the difference between B and A+ weapons. If you want to stay as an Axe Warrior, you can merit it further and that will allow you to replace +ACC/+ATK gear with other nice effects like +Haste.

[Dekayte]

Re: Warrior in a Nutshell

VI. Equipment for Warriors

Once you start getting access to +ATK, +ACC, and +STR equipment, you should focus on them. Instead of making a list of what you should be wearing at what level, here are a few items that I think make a very large impact on your damage.

Sniper's Ring, Woodsman's Ring, Jaeger Ring.
You almost have to have two of these rings (Jaeger is rare/ex so Jaeger plus another) to wear for TP building in order to have enough Accuracy to hit the mobs at a good rate. Sniper's and Woodsman's both give +5 ACC, while Jaeger is +4. On my server Sniper's are 500K more expensive than Woodsman's, and Jaeger is free since Carmine Dobsonflies aren't ever camped.
Haubergeon
This one piece of equipment will probably make the largest difference in damage. It is considered the best piece for any melee DD class that can wear it. It gives an obscene +5 STR, +5 DEX, +10 ATK and +10 ACC. Haub should be #1 on your list of things to buy, it lasts forever.
Life Belt
+10 ACC is a god send and very few items can give that. This belt will last you forever.
Amemet Mantle
The NQ on my server is 10K or less, and it is a very good piece. Although I think the +1 is well worth the money (+5ATK and +1 STR more) the NQ will probably be the biggest increase in +ATK for your back piece you'll get.

VII. Food for Warriors

I'm almost afraid to touch this topic since I'm positive someone will argue one way or another. There will forever be a Meat vs. Sushi debate and this is my take on it.

Meat generally gives +ATK while sushi gives +ACC. My general rule of thumb is, 80-85% hit rate is where I want to go. If I'm eating meat and I can't reach 80-85% I switch to sushi. If I'm eating sushi and hitting 90-100% hit rate, then I try meat and see if I can hit my sweet spot.

They both have their place in your inventory. You should carry at least one stack of each so you can be able to switch with the situation.

VIII. Meripopo (Merits)

It doesn't matter what order you do them in, but these are what is generally agreed upon as the best merits for Warrior.

Increased Critical Hits
Axe/Sword (Depends on if you want to go Axe/Axe, or /Sword)
Double Attack
Berserk and Aggressor (Try to keep them the same recast)
Strength
Strength should be the very last thing you merit since it is the most expensive category. STR takes 9 merits for level three, four, and five. Double Attack and Critical Hit Rate are the most important for me followed by the weapon merits.

Some Warriors get one MP merit so they can have access to the Rune weapons. The latent is activated when you have MP, so with that one merit (which is extremely easy to get) you can have the nice benefits without having to wear something that gives MP.

IX. Shinies

There are a few items that I think are very nice even though they are expensive. They are definitely not required but to me they make Warrior better. I didn't include them in the “Equipment” section because they are definitely not as important as the items mentioned there. This equipment should only be purchased after those in the “Equipment” section.

Enkelados' Pallas' Alkyoneus' Bracelets
Enkelados Bracelets give you +7 STR, Pallas give +9, and Alkyoneus give +11. On my server Alkyoneus Bracelets are about 50M, Pallas is around 10M, and Enkelados is about 1M. So pick whatever your budget allows.
Swordbelt +1
+12 ATK is very nice. If you have very good ACC, you should switch to Swordbelt +1 to do more DOT.
Spiked Finger Gauntlets
Another +12 ATK equipment. People like to joke that they are the “Swordbelt +1” gloves.
Unicorn Leggings
+3% Haste and +STR. They made with two Behemoth leathers, so it's really expensive. A very important part of a Haste build for an end game Warrior.
Dusk Gloves and Feet
If you don't have the money for Unicorn Leggings, get Dusk feet. They are half the price of Unicorn Leggings for only 1% less Haste. Dusk Gloves are very good because they give +ATK and +Haste in the hand slots. They are another important piece of a Haste build.
Juggernaut
People who own the axe, swear by it. It has amazing stats and is probably hands down the best off hand weapon for an Axe/Axe Warrior. It gives +30 ATK, and +3 STR, and is one of the biggest status symbols for Warrior.
Brutal Earring
It's an extra +5% Double Attack, who can say no? It is extremely useful and well worth wearing it. It costs 75 Ancient Beastmen Coins so you need Sea access for this one. Brutal's DA doesn't stack with weapons like Ridill and Joyeuse.
Peacock Charm/Amulet
+10ACC in the neck piece. With this you can macro in other ACC pieces out for more ATK, STR, or other attributes.

X. Builds

To me there are only two legitimate 'builds' for a damage dealing Warrior. The normal ATK/ACC stacked Warrior, and the newer 'OHMYGODIMSOHAWT' Haste Warrior.

The Haste build works extremely well in merit burn parties, and when you're tanking. It gives you extra attack rounds and lowers Utsusemi recast. The normal ATK/ACC build works better vs things that are a lot stronger/harder to hit like Gods, HNMs, Kings, etc. You usually have to sacrifice ATK and/or ACC for Haste in your equipment. Also you need at least 10% Haste to make it worth the switch, which isn't hard these days.

Important Haste Equipment
Swift Belt / Speed Belt
Byakko's Haidates
Unicorn Leggings / Dusk feet
Dusk Gloves
Walahra Turban / Panther Mask

XI. Thank You

There are lots of Warriors that have helped me along the way so here is a shout out to them. They have been very useful by giving me advice and debating/arguing certain topics with me.

Malithar
Jerch
Duatha

[Bravura]

Re: Warrior in a Nutshell

Anyway... As for subjobs there is also DRG (Jump, ACC Bonus, etc.) and with Wyvern Earring its even better.

I've also seen Rune Chopper used with it... Pretty crazy shit...

EDIT: Oh yeah, might want to throw in PCC for shines too, also WS element gorets.

[nanatsu]

Re: Warrior in a Nutshell

Sushi before 45-50 for anyone but thf makes baby Jesus cry. Rice Dumplings up until then if you're really hard up for accuracy. You also left out warrior's B- Polearm skill. There is also Tilt Belt at level 40. +5 accuracy -5 evasion. Other than that it's a decent guide.

EDIT: fix'd

[AngryUndead]

Re: Warrior in a Nutshell

I'd suggest throwing in some Cons to those sub-jobs so people know what they're getting in to. Plus it looks odd to see "pros" and not "cons".

[Dryhus]

Re: Warrior in a Nutshell

I'd suggest throwing in some Cons to those sub-jobs so people know what they're getting in to. Plus it looks odd to see "pros" and not "cons".

I think only Pros were listed because no subjob has drawbacks. No subs are going to give -15 ATK or anything like that. The only "con" I suppose would be what would be lost in giving up another subjob. He has that covered, though, in listing the Pros of every sub.

[Kakusaijin.]

Re: Warrior in a Nutshell

Just an edit note, you missed Dusk Gloves in your Haste build.

And also something you should probably mention in it's description, Brutal Earring isn't as uber as it's made out to be if you're using a Joyeuse. I'd still get it if I had access to it (For those times when you need both axes.) but it's been tested that Double Attack never procs on a Joyeuse or Ridill. I could see it as a macro item for Rampage, though. You can never Double Attack enough with it. :D

Also, you should throw Warrior's Mufflers in there under Spiked Finger Gauntlets. They're better. (Once you can equip them.) They give the same Attack+, but they have VIT+5 and 22(?) defense.

And uh, I don't think you can get Cure IV out of /WHM. Could be wrong, but I seem to remember the highest cure /WHM gave was Cure III. (Seeing as how I am a BST, had to live with that tiny spell list for 60 levels. Went /NIN after that, but partied with /WHM'ers still.)

Other than that assorted stuff, nice guide. And to anybody who feels the need to say "Stfu Kaku your WAR is only 37!" all I have to say is that I don't have to play a job to know how to do math.

[nanatsu]

Re: Warrior in a Nutshell

Yes you're right Kakusaijin, Cure IV is a lvl 41 spell for whm. You can't sub it.

[Dekayte]

Re: Warrior in a Nutshell

I think only Pros were listed because no subjob has drawbacks. No subs are going to give -15 ATK or anything like that. The only "con" I suppose would be what would be lost in giving up another subjob. He has that covered, though, in listing the Pros of every sub.

Exactly why I did it the way I did.

Anyway... As for subjobs there is also DRG (Jump, ACC Bonus, etc.) and with Wyvern Earring its even better.

I've also seen Rune Chopper used with it... Pretty crazy shit...

Correct, forgot to add DRG. With regards to Rune Chopper, I guess I should add a little bit in merits about getting one MP merit to keep the latent active.

And also something you should probably mention in it's description, Brutal Earring isn't as uber as it's made out to be if you're using a Joyeuse. I'd still get it if I had access to it (For those times when you need both axes.) but it's been tested that Double Attack never procs on a Joyeuse or Ridill. I could see it as a macro item for Rampage, though. You can never Double Attack enough with it. :D

Also, you should throw Warrior's Mufflers in there under Spiked Finger Gauntlets. They're better. (Once you can equip them.) They give the same Attack+, but they have VIT+5 and 22(?) defense.

And uh, I don't think you can get Cure IV out of /WHM. Could be wrong, but I seem to remember the highest cure /WHM gave was Cure III. (Seeing as how I am a BST, had to live with that tiny spell list for 60 levels. Went /NIN after that, but partied with /WHM'ers still.)

You're right Brutal wouldn't be as useful with Ridill or other multiple hit weapons, since like you said they don't stack. On the other hand, DA does stack with Justice Sword, and Amood (Great Axe).

You're also right about Warrior Mufflers. Trying to add in more random shinies.

The Cure IV was a mistake, thanks for catching it.

[Kakusaijin.]

Re: Warrior in a Nutshell

Hm, yeah I'd like to see the explaination on the whole /DRG and Rune Chopper bit.

This is one of those things I've never seen before. Would be cool to gain an understanding. (Since Warrior is my next job. I like to research. :/)

[ZQM]

Re: Warrior in a Nutshell

Hm, yeah I'd like to see the explaination on the whole /DRG and Rune Chopper bit.

This is one of those things I've never seen before. Would be cool to gain an understanding. (Since Warrior is my next job. I like to research. :/)

It's all about stacking as much haste as possible. Haste is capped at +70% (I've tested this myself, which you can read about here)

The general merit PT has a BRD and a haster, and the BRD sings March+Minuet. This will grant 25% haste. So a WAR needs 45% haste in equipment to cap it out.

/DRG grants the most haste possible. I have +40% haste in my /DRG setup, with a possible 3% more in equipment (Dusk Gloves+1 and Unicorn Feet+1, I have NQ Dusk in both slots).

Rune Chopper is, hands down, the best Great Axe for damage in a EXP PT setup outside of Relic and really is the key to make a good Great Axe setup. Amood could possibly be better due the rumored high double attack rate (90%+, aswell as stacking with the Job Trait to allow Triple Attacks), but due to the retarded latent it's not exactly a valid option.

Due to Great Axes A+ rating, it's very easy to use ATK food in a EXP setup even without Great Axe merit points and still maintain 90%+ hit rate without much +ACC in gear. The food I would suggest is Hedgehog Pie (+90 ATK, +5 ACC). Red Curry (+150 ATK) is also an option, though a lot more expensive and rare. Using ATK food is also one of the big things to make a Great Axe setup good, sushi will not cut it when comparing to a dual wield setup.

With all of the haste equipment, it allows you to swing your weapon with only 150-200 delay. And with ATK food, you hit extremely hard per hit. The main downfall though is WS damage. I have close to the best equip you can get for WS, and my RR's do a consistant 700-750 damage on full hit.

There's also jumps to take into consideration. The first jump is pretty basic damage, about the same damage as a normal hit. The second jump does more damage, but is on a longer cooldown. Another one of the big reasons jumps are so good is the added TP gained. In 3 minutes, you'll be able to use 3 jumps for ~43.5 TP. In comparison, Meditate is 60% TP every 3 minutes but doesn't add damage like jumps do, so jumps are argueably better. Double Attack trait also stacks with jumps (Aswell as Multi-hit weapons, allows for a Ridill /WAR DRG to do even more insane damage), allowing for even more TP and damage when it procs.

If you don't have DRG leveled, SAM subjob is also valid for Great Axe. The Store TP traits allow you to gain 100% TP one round faster, aswell as ofcoarse Meditate every 3 minutes.

[Kakusaijin.]

Re: Warrior in a Nutshell

Interesting...Thanks.

[Armando]

Re: Warrior in a Nutshell

Nice guide. Aside from the others' suggestions, you may want to add a section for Breaks. They're underestimated and underused, mainly because people don't know about them. Shield Break's effect is ice-based, and gives the mob -40 Evasion. Armor Break is wind-based, gives the mob -25% Defense. I haven't tested Weapon Break or Full Break (not high enough to use them,) but they say Weapon Break is -25% Attack (makes sense) and Full Break is -20 Evasion, -20 Accuracy, -12.5% Attack, -12.5% Defense (makes sense too.) Weapon Break is water-based, Full Break is earth-based.

Kind of off-topic, but ZQM, I have a link to an old thread where you and Apple Pie are doing Haste testing. In that thread, someone suggested that separate Haste effects (haste spell, equipment, songs, etc.) stack by multiplication. Is this so? Or do they simply stack additively?

[AngryUndead]

Re: Warrior in a Nutshell

I still think PRO's looks funny with no CONS, thats just me. Matched set and all.

Also: Haste appears to be multiplicative and not additive. At least thats whats all the monks seem to say. I'm not big in to haste, so I havn't paid them much attention.

[ZQM]

Re: Warrior in a Nutshell

-Physical damage damage gear is additive. This was tested by 1000 Needles. One could easily assume off that that haste is additive. All my test have shown it to be additive aswell, however they aren't exactly 100% controlled due to how the game is.

Something interesting though which was shown with 1000 needles testing, +/- percent items are not measured in 100ths but rather in 256ths. So Jelly Ring is actually only -4.6% damage, Haste Spell is only +14.8% haste, and so forth.

EDIT:

Something I forgot in my first post about /DRG is Barone Body and Legs, you can macro those in on jumps to get even more TP back off them.