Beginner's guide to playing a warrior
The Warrior profession is both popular and easy to jump into for a beginning player. A warrior fights with weapons and is armored, lightly at first and progressively to full plate. Most new players will start with a shield then pick their play style as you are introduced to the game. What makes a Warrior particularily attractive is that they have among the best all around fighting capabilities. They are easily proficient with multiple weapon types, sometimes two or three, and have opportunities to be diverse in their training paths.
It is encouraged that you check out the New Players' Guide before returning here.
If you ever get lost or need help we implore you to find a Silverwood Manor location in your respective town and ring the bell. You should get assistance.
Character Creation
Now that you understand what a warrior is and the basics of playing lets expand on some of those concepts of how you become one. You will need to choose your gender, race, and statistics to begin followed by assigning your training points and then you are brought into the world of Elanthia. We'll attempt to detail what is most common for starting players throughout this guide, but some unique builds do exist that you are free to attempt later.
Primary Statistics
All stats have growth patterns in Gemstone IV that incrementally increase as you level to 100, the games level maximum. There is advancement beyond level 100 in that you continue to generate training points to expand your skill set.
Warriors require a decent range of statistics, but are less reliant on them compared to other classes. It is recommended you strive for balance.
Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, Discipline, and Logic are probably the key components to being a successful warrior both early and late into your career. Careful not to set them all to 100, but 60-80s are not horrible decisions and can be fixed later.
Race
The most common warrior races are Giantmen, Dwarves, Human, and then Elves followed by the rest.
Giantmen are the strongest race in Elanthia. Dwarves are both strong and sturdy. Humans are the most balanced and have few weaknesses. Elves are fast and agile, but lack the strength of some of the others.
Skill selection
Based on certain statistics you generate training points of the physical and mental variety. As Warriors are relatively easy to play you should have enough to cover the basics as you learn without much concern so jump right in. I have detailed a few core skills and additional training recommendations below to get you started.
Core skills
| # | Cost (PTP/MTP) | Skill | Reasoning |
| 2x | 2/0 | Physical Fitness | Necessary to firstly attain full Hitpoints and defense maneuver attacks. It also contributes to damage redux for warriors in the mid-game. You should eventually train 3x in this skill as your career progresses for additional benefits. |
| 2x | 3/1 or 2/1 | Weapons | One handed edged or OHE and two-handed weapons or THW are the most common. Polearms are particularly devastating. |
| 2x | 4/3 | Combat Maneuvers | CM contributes to special combat moves, attack strength bonus, and defense of similar moves and is a warrior must. |
| 2x | 2/0 | Armor Use | Training in armor is required to wear heavier armor properly and maneuver with less hindrance. |
| 22/8 | Total | These points form the core of your training as a warrior and should put you on the path to success. |
Additional training
The way to use the rest of the points will depend on the player.
| # | Cost (PTP/MTP) | Skill | Reasoning |
| 2x | 2/0 | Shield Use | If you have chosen a one handed weapon you should couple it with a shield use training. |
| *1x | 4/3 | Dodging | 1x with shield, 2x if you are using a two-handed weapon. |
| 1x | 0/3 | Perception | Creature maneuver defense in offensive stance. Up to 30 ranks to start. |
| 1x | 4/3 | Multi-Opponent Combat | MOC assists in dealing with defending against multiple opponents (FoF) and multi-strike capabilities for engaging. 30, 55, and 90 ranks are milestones. |
| 1x | 3/0 | Climbing | Required to reach certain areas. You may stop at 20-25 ranks and assess use later. |
| 1x | 2/0 | Swimming | Required to reach certain areas. You may stop at 20-25 ranks and assess use later. |
| 1x | 2/0 | First Aid | Helps tend wounds for survival and skin creatures in the wild. |
| 1x | 2/0 | Survival | Helps in certain areas against weather conditions and skinning creatures. |
| * | 2/0 | Ambush | Allows you to aim your weapon at certain body parts. Later consideration |
This is meant to give you some advice specifically early in the game. Feel free to modify things as you progress and re-assess the start/stop points that fit your play style. These are only some common options and opinions for training.
A few plateau's that are held by later game are you need 30 ranks of climbing and swimming where some will advise 40 or even 50 ranks for end-game areas. Ambush to 24 or 30 ranks tends to be common as you approach level 50. MOC will vary depending on the milestone you are looking to reach. THW warriors train 2x in dodge, but shield warriors because of the dodge modifier are 1x or less depending on perceived value. Most end-game warriors are 3x per level in Physical Training. The concept of DF redux is a late game one and warriors don't tend to see results until level 42 or so. Armor Use can also be 3x trained, but 2.5 tends to be more common.
Your style will evolve and as you gain understanding these concepts will make more sense so you can choose the best path for yourself. This guide is intended to achieve about level 15, but it is good to open your understanding to them early.
Town selection
As you begin your journey you have three primary city options. Icemule Trace, Ta'Vaalor, and Wehnimer's Landing. There are some expanded options for Premium subscribers that include Solhaven.
Once you've arrived the wisp will show up to help you and introduce you to the concepts in the New Players' Guide that we suggested you read first, but it's a great time to revisit that section now to refresh. You are probably having a better understanding at this point of what it all meant by now.
After this familiarize yourself with the local Inn. In the case of Wehnimer's Landing it's the Raging Thrak, but both Ta'Vaalor and Icemule Trace have similar NPCs that expand on some additional basics and grant an XP award.
Once you've visited the town, the Inn, and have wandered around you are likely about 2nd level and ready to take your next steps or get a job running messages at the Town/City Hall until you reach 3rd level.
When you are ready to venture beyond the cities walls be sure to remember where the Town Square is so when you get wounded, require a cleric for blessing weaponry, or when you get killed you'll probably end up there.
Explore
With the implementation of the Adventurer's Guild the staff there is always a good guide to give you missions within about 5 levels of your skill. You also receive a badge that as you complete missions has a mechanical bonus you can customize. When you have reached level 3 or so this is probably the best place to start as it directs you around the area on various assignments.
Maps are going to be important because you probably won't have a good grasp of where to finish these tasks initially. Most commonly they can be found for each region in the respective Hunting Areas. You'll become more confident as you venture out more routinely with knowing your surroundings.
Before venturing too far you should gain some favor with Lorminstra in the form of deeds. Ask local adventurers for advice. They can be arranged with coins or gems depending on the location usually at the temple.
Arm yourself
By now you know your way around your starting city and you've probably engaged the local denizens that the Adventurer's Guild or locals have directed you to cull their numbers. You've also probably raised enough funds to purchase a weapon and some armor the armory, the weaponsmith or maybe a wandering merchant, or other adventurers.
Warriors tend to focus on full body armor types. The first you will likely wear is double leathers at 8 ranks of armor training. This is attained early at probably level 2. You may have some minor hindrance or attack a bit slowly, but it should be minor.
Brigandine armor at rank 30 in armor use will be your next step as you build in training. Warriors do want to build to 140 armor use ranks for full plate in their career, but it tends to be around level 52 so for the purpose of a new player you will spend a large part of your career in either double leather or brigandine as you progress early on.
Hauberk at rank 80 in armor is next followed by full plate armor at 140 armor use ranks. These do go a bit beyond this guide and you should have the proper understanding of your role as you approach them.
5th level is a good time purchase your first magical weapon of the skill type you've chosen. Most often it will be of a metal called Mithril or Ora. Occasionally you might choose elemental flaring weaponry such as drakar, rhimar, or others and sometimes you find such weaponry and armory adventuring in the wild.
These all tend to +5 AS (attack strength) in the case of mithril or +10 AS for ora and later weapons similarly that increase your combat prowess to about +20 AS. In the case of each type you need to be half the level of the enchant so for a +20 weapon you must be level 10. We tend to call them 1x, 2x, 3x, and 4x. This is your standard weaponry and can serve you all the way through your career.
Warriors rarely have issues with creature DS ((defensive strength)) modifiers for combat through our readily available AS ((attack strength)) or CMAN and Warrior Guild counters, such as feint, bull rush, shield bash, etc. Warriors are weak against CS ((casting strength)) through our low TD ((target defense)) because of usually low wisdom and lack self-cast spells outside of common protection to bolster our defenses. Choose creatures accordingly that suit your understanding and capabilities. As you become confident Warriors are among the most robust and powerful professions in Gemstone IV.
Additional Training II & Combat Maneuvers
As you begin to engage in the nuances of combat and have trained a handful of times you will have access to CMANs through your Combat Maneuvers training. In addition to naturally gaining attack strength every 2 ranks you get points to assign to customization in combat.
Core CMANs for Warriors tend to be Specialization because of it's automatic attack strength improvements based on the weapon of choice and later Weapon Bonding. You will also likely want Surge of Strength to augment your physical strength through stamina use and Cunning Defense to defend against increasingly complex creature tactics.
If you are a shield user you gain SHIELD options from shield use training and options starting probably with shield focus based on the type you have chosen and Shield Bash to begin.
ARMOR is the last of these martial character options and you gain them from armor use training for every 20 ranks. This can be bestowed by better trained warriors up to rank 5 in your local town square normally so you aren't rushed into this. Armor support is currently the most popular, but mileage varies.
Societies
There are currently 3 societies within Gemstone IV that bestow mechanical benefits on their members and are tier based. Around level 3 you are able to join one of your choice so we've detailed them below. The New Players' Guide references them all. For the sake of this guide we've detailed joining one of them and their direct benefits to Warriors.
Order of Voln - good auxillery skills including group fog escape, undead travel grounds, lifekeep while dead, increase of spiritual defenses, and combat helpful to defeating undead. The source of power for Voln is through accumulation of slain undead in the form of Favor.
Guardians of Sunfist - neutral / sworn enemies of trolls, ogres, etc. that add heavy hitting and defensive capabilities and also providing access to warcamps to engage in sworn enemies that are pop up hunting grounds. The main source of power is stamina use for this society.
Council of Light - evil soul powers that can stop bleeding, increase powers, and defensive capabilities at the cost of mana and spirit.
Warrior Guild
You've survived to level 15. It's time to join the guild!
Be sure to review that you didn't train in redundant skills through CMANs.
The guild offers training in Berserk, Warcries, Warrior Tricks, Disarm, and Tackle to rank 63. Rank 5 CMANs are equivalent to 50 ranks in any guild profession so there is an advantage to Warrior Guild training if you are willing to invest.
Closing out the basics
Now that you understand the general perimeters of being a warrior, fought your first creatures, died, adapted your tactics, equipped yourself, and started down a path in a society it's probably time to find a mentor and expand on your basic knowledge.
Good luck!
See Also
- Warrior (main article)
- New Players' Guide (a comprehensive beginner's guide for new players of any profession)
- Warrior Guild
- The Art of Roleplaying in GemStone IV (guide)
- Player Guide Contest