Fighter as damage dealer

[HelpHelpHelp]

How good are Fighter as damage dealer?

[Caerdon]

A bit underappreciated, IMO. Good especially if you want something very low-maintenance (but bad if you want something with lots of active abilities and tactical options). They have great accuracy, and that in itself leads to good damage output.

[VioNectro]

They are quite meh until you get the talents to raise accuracy and convert grazes into hits etc. then they become OK.

[Longknife]

The issue is that to make it happen, you need to get some talents focused on damage dealing instead of tanking. Fighter is undeniably the best tank in the game, so it makes little sense to commit anything to damage instead of defense when it's much easier to commit that offense to your Rogue or Wizard or the like.

[gkathellar]

They do good single-target damage while being relatively durable. An aggressive fighter isn't as good as others at either thing, though, and this game favors specialization.

 

So, adequate, but not fantastic.

 

Fighter is undeniably the best tank in the game,

 

Nooooope

[Longknife]

 

 

 

Nooooope

 

 

Care to back up that claim at all or just gonna leave it at that?

[LadyCrimson]

^ My guess would be the whole Cipher-tank build stuff.

But I think as a tank that can just soak damage forever (vs. dealing damage) and engage many enemies the fighter may still beat in that regard. Other "tank" builds may be almost as good at tanking but can dish out dmg. as well, however  (eg, better for solo runs maybe?). At least, that's my impression. I could be totally wrong.

[Mortal]

warriors get high accuracy per level up, so they are probably better suited for damage dealing than paladins (which doesn't really mean much )

 

haven't really tried to play a dps warrior, but my Eder tank isn't half bad at dishing out some pain despite the fact he's specced for sword and board duty and is in def stance all of the time. warriors don't seem to have a whole lot of dps abilites (do they even have any?), but a dps fighter with the ability to knock down stuff probably isn't a bad thing. i think when someone is knocked down attackers have a higher chace to hit/crit, so the twice per combat knockdown might be ssen as a dps talent in disguise.

[mforww]

I have a 2-handed pollaxe wielding Eder that was leading my party in damage for a good portion of the game. Now that I'm at level 9, I'm sure he's probably not due to the absurd AoE from Aloth's fireballs, but he's still probably #2.

 

If you go 2-handed with just chainmail armor (-35%), along with the right specs, they can deal a lot of damage. I'm not sure where people are getting this "nah, they don't do all that much" stuff from.

[LadyCrimson]

If you go 2-handed with just chainmail armor (-35%), along with the right specs, they can deal a lot of damage. I'm not sure where people are getting this "nah, they don't do all that much" stuff from.

It's not that they can't ... it's that if you build them with all defense in mind (talents, skills, gear) then their dps can be fairly limited compared to non-defense oriented builds. eg, it's hard to be both very defensive and very dps. Do that and they're just middle-of-the-road. Which can be fine, of course, depending on one's playstyle and goals.

 

A poleaxe etc. is not generally a defensive build weapon choice.

[Darkpriest]

I am actually trying a part of 6 warriors. 2 with shield 2 with reach weapons and 2 with arbalests. Want to check if they can make through although I already can see that some battles will be super hard unless i will be crafting.potions and scrolls for them

[Jimmysdabestcop]

If you give Eder dexterity boosting items, plus dex rest bonus, focus on dual wield he can dish out some good damage and still take a lot of hits. got him with 2 unique sabres. With the penetrating melee modal because the speed bonus from dual weild cancels that out. And you can still have defender modal activated at the same. Because he cdan get the armor reducing penallty for -16% which is pretty close to canceling the 20% from the defender modal.

 

And you can early game boost him to +4 to +6 dexertiy pretty consistently. And you can still have backup weapon slot with a hatchet and shield if you absolutely have to tank all of a sudden and don't need him to deal damage.

 

I kind have focused on turning Durance into my main tank. I just couldn't ever find a build for him that ever produced a significant damage. But found a build that pretty easy to turn him into a tank. That way he can tank on 1st line and just cast any buff/debuff/healing he needs too. Honestly my Durance barely takes any damage. He is always taking the min damage possible.

[Caerdon]

warriors get high accuracy per level up, so they are probably better suited for damage dealing than paladins (which doesn't really mean much )

 

haven't really tried to play a dps warrior, but my Eder tank isn't half bad at dishing out some pain despite the fact he's specced for sword and board duty and is in def stance all of the time. warriors don't seem to have a whole lot of dps abilites (do they even have any?), but a dps fighter with the ability to knock down stuff probably isn't a bad thing. i think when someone is knocked down attackers have a higher chace to hit/crit, so the twice per combat knockdown might be ssen as a dps talent in disguise.

 

Yeah, Knock Down and Disciplined Barrage both inrease your accuracy relative to your target's deflection, so both function as DPS talents. Other than that, a fighter's DPS comes from passives: Weapon Focus & Specialization, Confident Aim and even Armored Grace in a way.

[bonarbill]

 Fighter is undeniably the best tank in the game,

 

 

lol

[dirigible]

They are quite meh until you get the talents to raise accuracy and convert grazes into hits etc. then they become OK.

Fighters have the best accuracy in the game...

[dododad]

 

 Fighter is undeniably the best tank in the game,

 

 

lol

 

 

Says the man that uses Durance as main tank.

[MaxDamage]

THey must be very good damage dealers because they have max acc like rangers and monks and they have weap specialization perks.

[Taritu]

I have a party with a dual-wielding warrior - sword and axe (with a blunt offset when necessary) and she is doing a lot of dps, while being relatively hardy.  As much as a rogue?  No.  But still #1 in the group and requires less finicky control to keep alive than a melee rogue.  (I was going to go two axes, but the magical sword I found was just too good.)

[kalel78]

I am actually trying a part of 6 warriors. 2 with shield 2 with reach weapons and 2 with arbalests. Want to check if they can make through although I already can see that some battles will be super hard unless i will be crafting.potions and scrolls for them

 

with a high lore and survival this should be completely doable i would think   but yes.. potions and scrolls i would assume would need to be utilized.. especially at the higher difficulty levels

Edited April 11, 2015 by kalel78

[gkathellar]

 

Nooooope

 

Care to back up that claim at all or just gonna leave it at that?

 

Do you care to back up yours?

 

Fighter brings, what ... Engaging extra enemies? Worthless. Defender? Pretty good once you take the child talent, but monks and paladins both get similar tricks that can be used with Cautious Attack.. Constant Recovery? I'd rather just avoid taking damage. Vigorous Defense is pretty good, sure, as is Critical Defense, but they're kind of it. Unbending and Unbroken help a bad tank, I guess.

 

Defenses are the most important part of tanking, and paladin has them in spades.

 

^ My guess would be the whole Cipher-tank build stuff.

 

But I think as a tank that can just soak damage forever (vs. dealing damage) and engage many enemies the fighter may still beat in that regard. Other "tank" builds may be almost as good at tanking but can dish out dmg. as well, however  (eg, better for solo runs maybe?). At least, that's my impression. I could be totally wrong.

 

No, you're totally on target, which is why Paladin takes the cake.

 

Fighter is great for more aggressive tanks, just like monk, but if you're looking to stand around looking invulnerable, paladin is the way to go.

[Wintersong]

I go dual wielding swords but anything else (maces for DR could be sweet) including ranged should work. Other classes being better at those is irrelevenat unless you must go for most efficient/effective OR difficulty setting (PotD?). No knockdown but disicplined barrage (which I wish I could get extra charges much like you can with knockdown) so you get boost to accuracy early. Weapon focus/specialzation for extra accuray/damage. Modal for DR. Stuff like Unbroken for the protection side of things because damage happens. Mostly in bosses/bounties.

 

A DPS fighter is good. A rogue would be better but fighter is still good if you like the style. In my party, only Aloth (which has never left the party since he joined) is close to damage done*. Sagani was raising fast for a late comer but I have switched for Pallegina in last part of the game (need more melee to distract big ogres and stuff like that while Aloth and Mother do their mumbo jumbo).

 

* and only Edér is close to damage received.... 

[luzarius]

For trial of iron, a fighter damage dealer has good damage and survivability. 

 

I like using a fighter dps with a reach weapon and light armor behind the tank.  If the tank goes down, then the fighter can still tank for a while because of constant recovery.

[Daemonjax]

warriors get high accuracy per level up, so they are probably better suited for damage dealing than paladins (which doesn't really mean much )

 

I'm 99% percent sure everyone gets the same amount of accuracy at level up.

[KDubya]

At hard difficulty a two hander fighter with an estoc, with max might, high dex, per and res, high single digit con and int at 3 can tank well enough to stand in the fray without soaking up all your heals while hitting for big damage with a high accuracy. He leads my team with damage with more than 3X the closest, his average hit is 40+. His only active skill is the accuracy increase buff that lasts 10 seconds. The max might also increases his passive endurance regen. Him and Eder each fire one shot and then rush into the fray. My focus is then on the rest of the team and firing off their per encounter abilities and focusing fire on ranged threats.

 

I have:

 

armored grace which gives -16% armor penalty which effectively gives you +16% attack speed

 

Weapon focus, spec and mastery that gives +6 accuracy, and +25% damage - this applies to the whole weapon group so you got a two hander, one hander and ranged that all get the bonus.

 

Two handed style for another +15% damage

 

Savage attack modal for another +20% damage at the cost of 5 accuracy. Not sure I would take this again, with all of the stacking bonuses that affect the base damage, the net effect is about +10% of the total damage at the cost of 5 accuracy. At PotD the loss of 5 accuracy for 10% damage might not be a good trade off.

 

Confident aim- the one that changes 30% grazes to hits and adds 20% to minimum damage. I think I would skip this in the future. I thought the minimum damage increase was for the base weapon damage as in 10-17 damage goes to 12-17. Instead it is for when DR totally stops your attack and you do a minimum of 20%. With an estoc this situation had not occurred yet as far as I can tell. Also the +30% graze to hit does not hardly ever fire as my accuracy is high enough that most swings are hits and almost 30% are crits.

 

Total bonuses are +33% might, +25% spec, +15% style, and +20% savage attack for +93% damage for a two handed weapon with +12% attack speed from dex and -16% armor penalty for +28% speed. He has +58% damage with a war bow.

 

The MkII version will drop savage attack and confident aim for the wary defender modal that adds +15 deflection, +10 saves, +2 engagements at the cost of -20% attack speed for use when I need to tank something or engage an extra 2 guys.

 

A fighter spec'd for damage is a real lunch box blue collar type, without any flash or style he just goes and does his job which is holding the mob at bay and grinding them down.

[Daemonjax]

A fighter specced for dps would be built exactly like a rogue except:  No starting 1.5 damage modifier.

 

They'd have more health and the ability to wear better armor at less of a speed penalty -- neither helps dps at all.

Instead of crippling strike and blind you'd get 3x prones per encounter -- I'd call that an even enough trade to consider it a wash, even though it favors tanking more.

 

No other meaningful differences, really, but the lack of the free 1.5 damage multiplier is significant enough -- which is offset somewhat at the cost of a talent for weapon specialization.    

 

I wouldn't bother making a dps fighter since most of its better abilities would go to waste.

Edited April 11, 2015 by Daemonjax