Azeroth vs. Tyria part 2: The Way of the Warrior

Now that we've laid the groundwork for how weapons work in Tyria compared to Azeroth, we can move on to something I'm sure most people are curious about: the classes, or professions as they like to call them. As of right now there are seven known professions available to anyone looking to do some adventuring in Tyria. Supposedly there's an eighth one out there somewhere, but if there's anyone who actually knows what that profession is, they're apparently keeping their mouth shut. Regardless that still leaves us seven other professions to talk about, and at the rate I write, number eight might be unveiled before this series is finished anyways.

For those interested in some adventuring work, the choices so far are elementalist, engineer, guardian, necromancer, ranger, thief, and warrior. At first glance it looks like there's some familiar names amongst that group for us Azerothians. We're used to warriors, hunters have been called rangers in some parts of the world, and thief is just another synonym for rogue to us. Elementalist is a little more vague since we know both mages and shamans that are big into the whole "summoning the elements" thing. Guardian and necromancer are new to us though and engineering to us is just a tradeskill, not an identifying name. Well, unless you're Medeleth.

Names aside, most of us probably look at a list like that and think, "Ah, I'll just find the closest analog to what I am now and go with that. I'll have a real short learning curve compared to everyone else, then I'll show those rookies how a real adventurer gets things done!" Yeah... that's not gonna work. Just like the skills I mentioned last time, the professions operate a bit different than what we're used to. For today let's start with the warrior profession.

You'd think that comparing an Azeroth warrior to a Tyrian one would be a pretty simple job. We both hit people with assorted weapons, we both yell at friend and foe alike, and we both wear heavy plate for armor. True though those may be, there are some differences buried in the details. In addition, there are some tricks the Tyrians have that we don't.

Let's start off with weapons since those are pretty iconic for warriors. Now like I mentioned last time, to most of us from Azeroth, one weapon is as good as another. My Devastate, an Arms warrior's Mortal Strike, and a Fury warrior's Bloodthirst all hit the enemy the same regardless of whether it's a mace or a sword. In Tyria however weapon styles have their own specific skills and their own strengths/weaknesses, so this isn't the case. If I were using a sword, then I'd be more mobile and be using a lot of bleeding techniques, but switching to an axe would give me access to more burst damage. If I needed some AoE, then I could break out a greatsword or a bow. Yes, you read that last part right - a bow.

For all of us Azerothian warriors (and honestly the casters too but this is about us warriors), our ranged weapons served one purpose: stats on a stick. We didn't pull with these unless every single other ranged trick we had was on cooldown and the only time we used them in combat was if a dragon was flying and we felt like doing something other than twiddling our thumbs till it came back down. Gun, bow, thrown weapon - didn't matter to us. All we wanted was more strength for DPS and more stamina for tanks.

In Tyria though both bows and guns serve completely different purposes. If I want to pick off a single target at range, then I can break out a gun and start pounding away at it until it gets close enough that I need to switch to melee. If there's a group of monsters that need taken out, then I can switch to a bow and start raining fiery death from the sky.

Not sure why I get fiery sky death, but I won't say no to it

So weapons determine our attack skills and being a ranged warrior is no longer considered a sign of mental instability. Next on the list of similar yet different? Stances. Azerothian warriors used to think about their stances, but honestly that's a thing of the past with additions like Warbringer and Juggernaut. I can't actually remember the last time I had to switch out of Defensive Stance; there just isn't really any need to anymore. You find the one that suits you and the skills you have to use and it's just this passive buff that always exists.

For Tyrians stances are similar in that they have no buff duration or cast time (they're either just on or they're off), but they're not meant to be permanent. Let's use Berserker Stance as an example since both worlds have one. In Azeroth Berserker Stance is just a flat 10% damage increase and fury warriors use it because their skills require it. In Tyria Berserker Stance doesn't add a passive damage bonus. Instead the entire time you're in the stance, you build additional adrenaline, which I'll get to in a second. Suffice it to say that adrenaline is always good to have. However the entire time you're in this "yay adrenaline!" stance, you're losing energy - the resource required to actually use any of your skills. This makes the stance a tactical choice rather than a passive bonus: do I use the stance now to build my adrenaline for short-term gain or do I forgo the bonus for the purpose of having resources for a longer fight?

Since I just mentioned adrenaline, let's go ahead and compare that to its closest analog for Azerothians, rage. To an Azeroth warrior, rage is everything: it's what fuels our abilities, and with enough rage, we can destroy anything in our path (assuming we live through whatever was pounding on us to supply said rage). However rage is merely a resource for us and cannot do anything when it's not being used.

Adrenaline, while similar to rage, does have some distinct qualities. For one it only comes with attacks from the warrior, not received by him like protection warriors are accustomed to. Next it's only a secondary resource. Energy is used for the bulk of warrior skills with only a handful benefiting from releasing adrenaline. However unlike rage, adrenaline can help even when not in use. As adrenaline is acquired, it builds up like rage and once it passes certain levels, every attack from the warrior will hit harder. This will continue as long as there is adrenaline built up, so until either the battle ends and the adrenaline fades or until the warrior releases it all through a burst skill. These skills can do anything from applying conditions to just dealing a bunch more damage to your target. This means you'll have to choose whether you want to spike the enemy down as soon as you build up enough adrenaline, save up for a maxed out burst skill, or just sit on the adrenaline and chain a bunch of powered-up regular attacks until a better opportunity presents itself.

Speaking of chains, that leads me to my next point. Anyone from Azeroth is pretty familiar with the idea of an attack chain or rotation. We've all done our research to find out what our optimal attack order is and when we should use which attack. Well, chains are sorta similar, but they're more self-contained. Remember those five skills I said were associated with each weapon style? For this example let's say you're using a sword. One of your skills will be called Sever Artery. Now in the middle of a fight, you'll be doing your thing and at some point you'll use that skill. If you take a look at your HUD afterwards, you'll notice that there's something new in the spot where Sever Artery used to be. Now it's called Gash. That's because those two are part of an attack chain: Sever Artery, Gash, and Final Thrust. Chain skills add two more moves you can pull off against your enemies, but they need to be in order, or "chained". If you use Sever Artery and Gash against an enemy, but then you switch to a different skill, you'll have to start the chain again if you want to land a Final Thrust. This means you'll have to think about whether or not you'll have enough time to finish a chain against your enemy or if you'd be better off using a different skill like your self-heal or a charge skill.

A true warrior adds some variety instead of just mashing Bloodthirst or Mortal Strike

Charge skills are going to be a bit odd for most Azeroth warriors. Other than using a mount or crafting, we're all pretty much used to instant reaction. Unless you're a DPS warrior trying to use Slam without Bloodsurge, the only time we see cast times are for crafting or summoning mounts. Well, charge skills are kind of like cast time skills, but the time's variable. The longer you want to wind up your swing/stab/etc., the harder it'll hit. Note that there is a limit to how long you can charge up though. No matter how much you may want to, you can't just sit outside of town for five hours waiting for the first thing that comes in range so you can hit it to the moon. It'll take more than shouts and banners to make your swing that powerful.

Shouts we're all pretty familiar with: I yell out something that either makes all of my friends stronger/tougher/etc. or I say something mean about my enemy's mother and lower their attack/defense/etc. Fairly standard warrior tool that even the Tyrians didn't see any real need to fix. They did however decide to add another buff to their arsenal though: banners.

Banners to me were always just something the guild summoned either to show off or to signify "stand here, you easily distracted morons". Other than a slight bonus to experience (which meant absolutely nothing to us raiders), they served no real purpose beyond that. In Tyria though, these serve as sort of a warrior totem. The example I could find was the Banner of Courage, which makes friendly melee attacks around the banner hit harder. The warrior would place this banner and then continue to fight. However, this doesn't have to be the case. For a more mobile situation, say a large group chasing after a giant monster, a stationary buff doesn't help all that much. In this case the warrior can pick up the banner and run around with it. It means he won't be able to attack along the way since his hands will be full, but all of his allies in the surrounding area will benefit from the buff while he follows the group. Once they finally stop somewhere for some stationary fighting, the warrior can plant the banner and get back into the thick of things.

That just about covers the major differences between the two types of warriors. There are a few other details like warhorns, but I covered the important parts. There's also traits, but that's another one of those "needs its own post" topics. For the most part, anyone from Azeroth who enjoys being a warrior and getting into the thick of things should be happy with what Tyria has to offer. In addition any warriors who fancied themselves as a pretty good marksman can still be proud warriors and not feel required to join the ranks of the rangers. It won't be quite the same for all of us and honestly it's probably going to require quite a bit more paying attention that some of us have been used to from the days of Wrath (and honestly quite a bit of early Cataclysm raiding), but I think we can handle it. Hell, for those of us that are old Onyxia and Blackwing Lair veterans, it'll feel like the old days of stance dancing. I've kind of missed that. The stance dancing part, mind you, not the 40 man part; you couldn't pay me enough to do that nonsense again.