Warrior Class Guide - Black Desert Foundry (2024)

Introduction

The Warrior class was one of the original first 4 classes in Black Desert. Warrior uses a long sword as their primary weapon and a shield as their secondary weapon. They are the typical sword and board class, with blocks and taunts, but the vast majority of their skill set is offensive attacks. The Valkyrie class is the female counter class to the Warrior but Valkyre has more of a supportive skill set, while Warriors are closer to a knight. At level 56, Warrior unlocks his awakening weapon which is a two-handed Great Sword and swings it with a might that matches its size. His unmatched physical prowess brings utter chaos to the battlefield, supplemented by his surprisingly quick skills. Despite now lacking a shield, he can still block with his Greatsword.

Awakening VS Succession

Warrior Succession and Awakening can be unlocked after level 56 after speaking to the Black Spirit and completing the Awakening and Succession quests under the suggestions tab.

• The Awakening will unlock a completely new skill tree, which will be your primary skills from now on. The skills in the pre-awakening are mostly utility skills, and your main damage dealers will be your Awakening skills.
• The Succession skill kit enhances your longsword skills instead and only has a few awakening skills.

Your awakening weapon still affects your succession damage and vice versa. For example, if you are using the Succession kit, then 30% of your Awakening AP is still applied to the damage of Succession skills, as well as the additional item stats on the awakening weapon, such as Human/Species Damage and Accuracy.

In PVE, it really comes down to your preference, since their speed is fairly equal and not big enough to worry about. However, Succession is a much easier and more relaxed grind than Awakening. Choose whichever spec you enjoy the most, feels more natural, or you think looks the coolest.

For PVP, both awakening and succession are in a decent spot at the moment, with each having their own advantages and disadvantages in each scenario. Awakening offers more mobility, high damage, and an aggressive playstyle. It is very good in 1v1s and smaller scale, but lacks protected mobility and has unprotected combos that make large scale more difficult. In comparision, Succession is a tankier kit, since it gains additional damage reduction from the prime passive, a stronger block, and more protections. This makes them a slightly better choice in large scale. They do lack options for CC though and have much lower accuracy, so for 1v1s it really depends on the matchup.

Skill Builds

Since the skill point update in late 2022, you can obtain all skills for approximately 1,000 skill points. Focus on your main skills first, then level the passives. The Weight Training skill should be leveled last since it only gives you weight limit increase.

[Click to Show/Hide] Warrior Awakening Build - 1005 Skill Points

[Click to Show/Hide] Warrior Succession Build - 1002 Skill Points

Protected Skills

It is important to read through your skills to understand which skills have protection and crowd control effects. Read through your skills carefully to get familiar with what each skill does. You can also filter the different effects in the Skill Window (K).

Locked Skills

To lock a skill, press the lock icon on the top of each skill icon in the skill window (K).

Skill Enhancement (Rabam) Skills

Skill Enhancement skills can be obtained in the Skill Window (K) under the “Skill Enhancement” tab at the top. At levels 56, 57, and 58, you will have 2 different options to choose between. These skills have no skill points cost, but you have to have other skills leveled up to be able to take them.

Level 56 – [SHIFT + X]

• Frenzied Spear – Requires [Ground Smash IV] and [Piercing Spear]
• Seismic Strike – Requires [Ground Smash IV] and [Ground Roar IV]

These two rabams come down to preference, but most players choose Frenzied Spear for general PVP and 1v1s, and can swap to Seismic Strike for large scale PVP.

Frenzied Spear has a stiffness CC and is also good for movement. While Seismic Strike has Super Armor and down smash CC. The skill is also easy to cancel out of, but the full skill is a very slow animation with mediocre damage. Both skills give a +15 Magic DP buff.

Level 57 – [SHIFT + Z]

• Shield Tide – Requires [Ultimate: Shield Charge] and [Upper Shield Strike II]
  
  • (Preferred Choice)
• Shield Asssault – Requires [Ultimate: Shield Charge] and [Shield Strike III]

Shield Tide is the preferred choice of the two and useful for movement. The skill has Super Armor on the first attack and then Forward Guard. Unfortunately, Shield Assault is not a very good choice at all, it lacks damage and doesn’t really have anything else to offer.

Level 58 – [Quickslot Only]

• Dusk Slash – Requires [Spinning Slash IV] and [Scars of Dusk]
• Counter Slash – Requires [Spinning Slash IV] and [Counter III]

For the 3rd Rabam skill, there isn’t really a good choice. Some players don’t bother learning either of the rabams since it can actually mess up your movement if you accidentally trigger them with LMB after Shield Tide.

Skill Add-ons

Below are some examples of PVE skill add-ons you can take.

If you would like example skill add-ons for other scenarios, please refer to the Class Discord and its resources.

I recommend experimenting with your add-ons and figuring out what is best for you because it really depends on your personal preference and how you play your class. If you’re simply not sure what to take then you can blindly follow the examples below and they will still be effective.

You can also check our Skill Add-on guide for a complete list of Skill Add-ons.

Armor

For your armor, you will make a choice between Damage Reduction or Evasion gear. I recommend reading our guide about the two different DP stats if you want to learn what the two different stats do.

Generally, you are recommended to build Damage Reduction on Warrior.

Accessories

There are various different accessories in the game. At first, just focus on using the accessories that give you the highest AP in each slot.

There are also “free” accessories that all new players should get:

Accessory	How to obtain
Tuvala Accessories	Tuvala accessories are starter accessories obtained from the Season Server. Try to push up your accessories to PEN if possible, but if you don’t have much time to play Season, then focus on your Weapons and Armor first.
PEN Capotia Necklace	You can obtain a FREE PEN Capotia Accessory from the Season Servers Special Reward. For your first season, it is recommended to get the PEN Capotia Necklace because it gives the most AP. You then want to create another Season character in the next season to get the PEN Capotia Belt, and finally the PEN Capotia Ring or Earring.
PEN Ring of Crescent Guardian	You can obtain a PEN Ring of Crescent Guardian by completing Jetina’s PEN Accessory quests. These are daily quests that take a minimum of 45 days to complete. Every new and returning player should complete these as early as possible for a highly discounted PEN accessory.

Common Starter PVE accessories:

• TET Black Distortion Earrings or TET Narc Ear Accessory (PEN Capotia Earring)
• TET Basilisk’s Belt (or PEN Capotia Belt)
• TET Ring of Crescent Guardian
• TET Ogre Ring/Laytenn’s Necklace (or PEN Capotia Necklace).

Crystals

Below is an example starter Crystal build for PVE. Some of the crystals are expensive. You can obtain the Rebellious Crystal by completing the main story questline. For more example crystal builds, including an end-game PVE crystal build, and PVP Crystal builds, check our Crystal Preset Guide.

There are a few different viable choices for both Artifacts and Lightstone combos. Warrior is the “Melee Damage” type so you want to go for Melee Accuracy and Melee Damage for offensive artifacts.

For PVE Lighstones there are a few different options to min-max. For certain spots, you may want to use Species damage combos (eg. The Wild: Demihumans, The Wild: Kamaslyvia, The Wild: Humans). Species damage combos perform better if you are reaching the monster AP caps at a certain zone.

A more generic PVE combo is listed below that is recommended for your class and will work at any spot.

You can also find more information about Artifacts and Lightstones, and how to obtain them, in our guide. We also have a list of Best in slot Artifacts and Lightstones.

Useful Links/Credits

I highly recommend checking out the Warrior Class Discord for resources about your class. The class discords always have the most up-to-date information and tons of experienced players that can help with questions or gearing advice. I would like to give a shoutout to the Mods and Helpful roles in the Warrior discord for all their hard work gathering resources. You can find some of their own guides below. I honestly cannot recommend enough to join the discord.

Useful links to check out:

• Official Warrior Forums
• Warrior Guides by Tylondys
• Warrior Awakening Guide by Mazuu
• Warrior Awakening Guide by BPGaming
• Warrior Succession Guide by the Warrior Discord
• Warrior Succession Guide by Mercuel
• Warrior Succession PVE Combo by YuvaLeeUs6Eva

PVP Montage Videos:

• Awakening Warrior PVP by Snow
• Warrior Awakening Arena of Solare PVP by Goldsteinburg
• Warrior PVP by Goldsteinburg
• Warrior PVP by DoobiedoobieDapdap
• Succession Warrior RBF and Arena of Solare PVP by Mercuel