Elden Ring took our pandemic-starved brains by storm when it was released by FromSoftware in early 2022 and was an immediate hit based on its Dark Souls-like gameplay, selectively multiplayer online world, and extensive worldbuilding by FromSoftware in cooperation with A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin. It doesn’t hurt that Elden Ring also has excellent graphics.
Of the nine classes in Elden Ring, the Warrior represents a martial arts style that emphasizes mobility and quick hit-and-fade strikes. The best defense for a Warrior is not being there to absorb attacks. While the perks outweigh the problems, there are some considerations a player should make before setting about on their quest as a Warrior.
10 Best: Complexity of Play
For players who are into precision dodging, stealth-game assassinations, and light-footed hit-and-fade gameplay, the Warrior may be one of the more difficult, but more rewarding, classes they can play as. Low Hit Point (or HP) total but high mobility and decent damage make rapid and relentless movement a key to survival early in the game.
Careful management of the Stamina bar, one of the primary game mechanics of Elden Ring, takes special prominence here. Running out of stamina in mid-strike might expose the player to retaliation, and result in a painful death.
9 Best: Movement-Based Playstyle
Warriors work extremely well if a player’s style incorporates a lot of movement. For those who enjoyed the Twin Fists of Malphon in Hades, they may well enjoy playing a Warrior, which involves a lot of the same high-mobility, one-two-punch-and-move gameplay on display in successful runs of 2020’s popular Roguelike action RPG.
Pattern recognition is crucial as well, as successfully dodging the massive wind-up blows of enemies requires good timing and an alert thumb on the dodge button.
8 Watch Out: An Early Stats Disappointment
While it may be true that Souls-like games are hard to master, the Warrior is one of the most difficult classes for new players to use when entering the world of Elden Ring, second only to the Wretch.
Poor strength and a complicated early game that requires the player to spend most of their early levels pumping Vigor to avoid one-hit or two-hit kills do not a beginner-friendly class make. Warriors can be very rewarding to play, but they are not an easy way to get into a very difficult genre of video games.
7 Best: Kite, Don’t Tank
Warriors in Elden Ring have fairly mediocre hit points in the opening hours of the game, only able to take two to three serious hits at level 8 (the starting character level for Warriors). Daggers, darts, and other means of pulling out individual opponents in order to attack them one-on-one with minimal hazard exposure from other mobs in the area are a must.
Early on, the Warrior can’t absorb enough hits to make the job of tanking worthwhile to them. They are better off focusing on doing and avoiding damage, not taking it.
6 Best: Damage, Damage, Damage
The primary game-mechanical focus of any action RPG, is how to turn mobs into scenery? The Warrior does excellent damage with their twinblade possibilities. While it is certainly possible to play a Warrior as a sword-and-board type, an extended battle is not their forte. Warriors’ high-damage playstyle also lends itself to rune-farming, allowing quick advancement in the early game.
Attacking and running away with a Warrior is the class’ meat and potatoes, and the fact that this is the only class in the game to come with two weapons from the jump (plus a tiny buckler-style shield that can also be used as a weapon in addition to parrying) reinforces that playstyle by allowing the player to experiment with it from the beginning of the tutorial.
5 Watch Out: Complicated Evasion Mechanics
As new players figure out evasion and where they have the skill to tread, the rapid deaths will wane after a few hours, but the learning curve can be more of a learning cliff.
4 Best: Twinblader Playstyle
One of the unique features of the Warrior from the beginning of the game is the twin scimitars. While upgrading these weapons can be a bit costly – players will have to spend twice as many runes to upgrade their armament as a class focusing on a single weapon would – it’s rewarding.
The Warrior class has an excellent ratio of damage done to points of stamina used. Damage per second is gratifyingly high, but the high damage and low resilience can lead to overconfidence.
3 Best: Field Lawnmower Potential
The Warrior does extremely well from starting level at mowing down individual enemies in the field. With fast twinblade moves that take relatively little of the Warrior’s copious stamina to perform, a Warrior can eliminate a single Godrick soldier in the field in only a handful of hits.
If a player should opt for a stealthy approach, even if they miss the instakill backstab, or the enemy is too powerful for a backstab to instakill, they will still inflict massive damage before the enemy can turn and get a bead on them.
2 Watch Out: To Your Health
Like the Ranger or Rogue in Dungeons & Dragons, the Warrior sacrifices pure durability for versatility. If a player prefers more conventional stand-and-fight game mechanics, they might do well to consider playing as a Vagabond instead.
1 Best: Build Flexibility
Perhaps the only playstyle not explicitly supported by a Warrior build, due to mediocre mental statistics (not poor, just mediocre), are magic-using styles, as it will be quite a bit of time before the Warrior is ready to cast spells effectively.
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