Hmm since this is my first post on the forum...seems that I should say "Hello" to all my fellow warriors out there...."So greetings to you all". Then I should say something insightful about why I chose the Fighter class....off we go.....

Hulk smash!!

Seriously I have always enjoyed the up close battles that most tank classes provide and I am an avid solo-er in most of the MMOG that I play in the years. The tank class offers up the ability (most of the time) to be able to solo without much fear of multiple adds and offer me a viable class to take in the group play with the ability to take most of the damage from mobs. And it usually the first class I try out in any MMOG to learn the system with the exception of WoW in which the hunter class was best suited to me for solo play and I liked having a pet as back up.

Oh yeah D&D......I was a grey elven rogue and was horribly stuck up but I also ran a human barb who was a lot like Cam from the Dragonlance novels.

'Nuff said.

Rather than answer the same questions over, and over, and over, and over in the game, a guide here will serve the purpose equally well! Soo, without further ado, welcome to the "How to make a reasonable fighter in 10 (or more) easy-ish steps!"

Firstly, until the classless system is fully implemented, fighters are not mages. They can use certain skills well, and I'll touch on these later, but on a whole don't expect to rely on magic. You simply won't have enough mana to pull it off properly... 4 points per point of int leaves you with a massive problem when you start getting into spells that are 500+ mana to cast. Fighters with bows? Sure.. damage reduction overall because of the lack of focus on agility, but it can work if played properly! And remember, this is a guide of the way I played my fighter, and isn't anything more than that.. the real key is to experiment! Try builds, try skills, and play the way that works for you!

Stats

STR : This is the critical primary stat for any fighter. All of your damage for melee weapons comes from your strength rating, so don't skip on it. Additionally, your defense rating is linked to this as well, approximately 6 points of defense for every point into strength, so it serves a double purpose.

END : Your hitpoint pool. Some people like a lot, some people don't really care. As a rule, if you just go with what you get on gear you'll be sitting at 10k + by level 50. More hp means your potions become more efficient, so if you're having monetary problems, this might be the way to go.

AGI : Attack rating! More important for rangers, but useful for a fighter as well, this determines how often you'll connect with a hit. If you find you're missing a lot, bump your agi for the next few levels and you should see an improvement. Most fighters ignore this, but remember if you're hitting for 2500 damage and miss every third hit, you've dealt 10k in 6 hits.. if I hit for 2000 and connect every time, I'm 2k up in the world.. It really does make a difference as you go!

INT : Meh.. it has it's uses, but there are ways around it. A pool of about 1k mana will serve a standard fighter quite nicely with the right equipment.


The Gear

The vast majority of the gear out there you'll have to test for yourself, but I have a few basic guidelines to help with the decisions that crop up level to level.

Health Steal - Eh.. You need 10% or greater to see any real effect. IMO the amount stolen is not x% of your health but x% of the enemies. Hit a boss and watch it jump.. kill fodder and nothing really happens.. can be used effectively with the right gear combos.. common on weapons and necklaces.

Mana Steal - Extremely useful.. 2% will keep your pool full most of the time, and you won't have to tote around those pesky mana potions. most commonly found on necklaces, shoulders, helmets and weapons.

% boosts - 4% to slashing damage will give you more than +18 dps to slashing.... and will last you longer between gear upgrades.. most commonly found on rings.

2 handed vs Dual Wield - use what works for you. I prefer 2 handers as I hit hard and fast, and a single cleave can depopulate a room of fodder. But it's your choice. If you're heavily into health steal, Dual wielding ludicrous speed weapons is the way to go.

Grandma speed weapons - They hit hard.. the problem is, they hit very slowly, and some hit slower than others... the open ended wrench variety are the worst for this.. something in the attack animation makes them slower than a comparable grandma speed hammer, so it might be wise to steer clear of them. They also seem to miss significantly more than most weapons, and that becomes an issue with the very slow attack speed.

Mythics I've used over the levels include The Gavel, The Wicked Barb, and the Celestial Blade.

The rest is the choice of the warrior in question. Balance your stats the way you want them, and then see how it works, and tweak it accordingly.

The Levels

1 - 10 : Dew Valley, most of Algernon
11- 15 : Algernon, Sissirat, Agrocks Gauntlet.. start considering the Horrific Dungeon of Legend at this point
15- 25 : Agrocks Field, HDoL, Vergrims Vexation
25- 35 : Widowers Nest, Algors Frostbite, The Mutinous Malaise, HDoL.. consider farming Algor for very good drops and experience
35- 45 : Embercore Path, farm Rotgut in TMM for gear, Farm Abaddon in the Cleft of the Searing Knight
45- 55 : Abaddon, Shadows Embrace, HDoL.. start farming the Shadow Queen for gear
55+ : HDoL

Out of 77 levels, 60 of those I gained in HDoL. For a competent fighter the xp per hour ratio simply can't be beat. The bosses offer better chances at gear, but when it comes down to grinding, HDoL is where you want to be.

The Skills

I'll try to touch on most of them as I remember them with my opinion as to their use value for a fighter.

*******Ranger Skills*********

Anything involving a bow is probably not going to help you very much, so I'm going to avoid these ones for now.

Gaseous Blast - Handy.. good for clearing out fodder, low mana cost. Becomes ineffective past level 65.

Spirit of the Hare - Excellent for digging out healers and ranged enemies. A must have

Acidic Blight - Critical skill for a fighter. Their armor drops, you hit more and hit harder.. what more could you ask for? Excellent skill since the .49 patch extended it's duration.

Poison Resist - Has situational value.. good for sissirat, good for rotgut.. not so great to tote around all the time.

********* Mage Skills **********

Fire/Ice/Shadow Resist - Again, situational value only.. use them as you need them.

Bolt skills - Meh.. most fighters don't have the int to use these effectively, though cold bolt can be used to slow down fleeing casters if this is a problem for you.

Shadow Lightning - Mediocre damage with low int, huge mana drain.. probably best to avoid

Ring of Fire - Good replacement skill for gaseous blast at higher levels.. more consistent damage. Combine with cleave for maximum effect.


********** Fighter Skills **********

Righteous Stomp - Situational.. good for Vergrim, not so much use most of the time.. you want enemies close so you can beat on them..

Fear of Gosh - See above

Soul Rend - Excellent skill. A must in any warriors arsenal. Link it in the left mouse button with a 2% mana steal and go to town

Cleave - Totally worthless at lower levels but improves as your damage increases. At higher levels it's very useful for clearing normals and fodder.

Butcher - The exact opposite. The knockdown misses most of the time now, and the damage just isn't enough at higher levels to make it terribly useful. Often hits for 0 damage.. possibly a bug

Divine Ascendancy - Honestly never use it.. seems a waste of a skill slot for minimal use value

Divine Resistance - Again, situational.. Handy against Vergrim, waste of space otherwise.

2H/1H swivel arm action - You NEED this for whatever weapon type you like to use.. faster hits = faster killing.. enough said.

Unnerving Shout - Good if you're outmatched in a melee boss fight.. not so great otherwise.. use as needed.

Thickheadedness - Good for fighting most bosses, and anything that involves whisker blademasters

Retribution - I was finding that damage from this skill, since it is essentially reflected damage from an enemy, will actually heal certain elemental creatures, or generate a whole pile of IMMUNE messages... has it's uses, but certain isn't needed.

very nice guide, im only lvl 28 but its almost what i've been doing and what is working very well for me.

One sentence kind of shocked me though:

"Firstly, until the classless system is fully implemented, fighters are not mages."

If i remember right i started as a mage for about 5 levels before i went fighter. does this mean i get less hp per end or something like that? put the fighter passives in the bar of course.

My style: high ac and hp (alil in INT), stand there and take hits while I combo skills. Two examples....
1) Gaseous Blast then Righteous Stomp
2) Acidic Blight then Cleave

JesusFreak, before you copy/paste some other guys guide (and not even mentioning his name... (written by pelmen btw)), please atleast explain to the new persons that this guide is for build 0.49!! We are currently at 0.83 and alot has changed.

Quick guide to succesful fighter:

Stats
Keep a ratio of 2:2:1 Str:Agi:End
This is with equipment boost included. The base doesnt matter, it all boils down to the total.

Skills
Hover mouse above each skill and you get a full explanation of what it do. Pick the ones serving your playing style.

1h or 2h?
Usually faster at lower levels with two 1h weapons. At later levels when Cleave start doing 100% of your damage you really wanna think about getting one big azz 2h hammer for maximum Cleave effect!

Equipment
Mainly look for +stats and +% damage items. What kind of stats depends on your base stats. See above.

Have to love how Jesus just swiped this and claimed it as his own work. I guess this is what they are teaching kids in school today why write your own papers when you can just download one on the internet. I hadn't read this post before the above comment, but the biggest giveaway is "until the classless system is fully implemented". Put this up here isn't bad but at least give credit to the author (have to stand up for Pelmen since he isn't around much anymore) and also update it to reflect current build not 4 builds ago.