High dex warriors as DPS

[bertbarian]

1. Make either a halfing or Dwarf warrior for good stats
2. pump their dex with all the beginning stat points for high dex
3. stay at frenzy in groups... with an item that degens your hp? (does such an item exist?)
4. enjoy adding crippling blows to group dps

would this be viable?

[jijii]

5. Get aggro from dps and require heals

[gotrocks]

not viable.

not only would you be a terrible tank (probably, since im assuming you're putting all your gear choices towards dex as well?), but you wont get that much benefit from a high dex vs a high str.

As a warrior you need ac/hp first, then str, then resists, then everything else. pretty much thats all their is to it.

[Tecmos Deception]

OP isn't talking about being a tank, hence the post in the melee section of the forums and all the talk about trying to maximize his DPS. And as far as "5. Get aggro from dps and require heals" ... all anyone can ever talk about on the forums is how mediocre warriors' aggro is until they have epics/VP weps, I don't think a zerking warrior swinging a staff of battle is going to be pulling off a competent knight. Plus, ya know, root.


OP - warriors aren't bad DPS, they get some pretty nice weapons and they can crit/crip and they have top-notch skills. And at high-levels, they actually have great discs for DPS (especially for velious I believe, where they have 3-minute discs and other DPS just have the 12-ish second discs) and get triple attack. But groups expect warriors to be tanks.

Your best bet to play a DPS warrior would probably be to do it in a small group, either duo or trio. Tank stuff while zerking with a sham partner, or zerk while you fear kite with someone, or something along those lines. You can pull it off in groups too, but most of the time people will scoff at you for not wanting to tank unless you know them and they have seen you have success with your method and stuff. I still think you're going to want to gear like a warrior normally would though... hp first (more buffer to sit under 40%), ac second (since you will still get beat on frequently especially if you're not in full groups with a knight tank), and then str/dex after that. And be prepared to be the real tank frequently, even though you don't really want to do it.

[kaleran]

A Zerk specced warrior can be *awesome* with the correct support. I'd say give it a whirl. Most healers worth their salt can keep a decently geared warrior ~40% health all the way up to the 50's. And in fact spec'ing for crips (STR/DEX/HP) will make you one of the rare breeds of tanks that can actually overlap with other tanks.

I played one to 35 when Kunark was just out and the tanks were *plentiful*. Typically one warrior would do the pulling, and the other would stay at 40% with a wurmslayer/lammy, or a weighted axe if they wanted to go for the big crips.

If you make friends with a Shammy even better. They'll be the perfect duo partner for you.

[Tecmos Deception]

Oggok cleaver might be a better way to get big crips without sucking otherwise ;)

[koros]

Crit/crip rate seem unusually high here, especially crips, but I haver parsed it to see. On live they were 3.5% or so (at 255 dex), not normalized like procs. This would be a pretty minor dps gain even with crips. If its higher here, hell it may well be viable. I know on my ranger I'd often tank pre-50s or even post 50 if the healing was adequate, to let a war with duel wurmslayers do dps, it seemed solid.

[Aabdel]

to let a war with duel wurmslayers do dps, it seemed solid.

wurmy is primary only mate, no duelies. that would be fun though

[falkun]

You'd want a warrior in frenzy range if he's DPSing. He can negate natural regen by starving (you are hungry). DEX won't help much, and you won't want to wield proccing weapons. You'll want highest DPS weapons + haste + STR you can find.

Staying between dead - 40% as the tank is more difficult than having someone else tank and staying in that range. And even with added cripples/criticals, no zerk warrior should be pulling aggro off a competent knight.

[koros]

I was referring to it in past tense when you could DW em.