Champions Begin to Become More Well Rounded

When first leveling, Champions feel pretty one sided as pure DPS classes but as you pass level 15 and make your way towards 30 Champions start to get more fleshed out as a solid group class.  Another huge addition to the class in this range, which comes at level 20, is the ability to wear heavy armor such that they’re not quite as squishy.

The other areas that see buffs in this level range are agro skills as you get a forced taunt which allows you to off-tank pretty well.  I will caution you though that you should use forced taunt only when pulling off squishies as many tanks (including me) don’t like it when folks randomly force mobs off of them.  A couple new AoE attacks and buffs pop up, and the Champ starts to see various skills impact targets with less then 25% health such that you become a finishing class.

Over all while leveling I did feel a tad on the squishy side and made quite a few mistakes on pulls but I’m sure that’s more a matter of me forgetting that I’m not on my Warden then actual class issues.  Two mobs seems to be about my comfort level with a third just getting a bit too painful.

At level 20 you can now open up and unlock the Skirmish system.  This is a huge system added that allows not only for different kinds of content and diversity in leveling, it also provides additional gear you can obtain.  One of the first decisions to make is what soldier to use as there are a number of choices.  This is definitely a personal choice and I see a number of worthy choices.  If you feel like you just need more DPS, then Sage or Archer are the way to go, although I think the Champ has enough DPS and there may be other more complementary choices.  A protector might be nice as it could hold all the agro while you beat things down, but considering many tank classes have issues holding agro off champs, I’m not sure a solider could.  Bannerman seem to be intriguing options as buffs are always good, and they also have some tanking ability that could prove handy.  I chose an Herbalist as healing seems to be my biggest issue and I think this will allow me to also do more challenging skirmishes.  While leveling I’ve trying to keep all my soldiers skills right around my level as I’ve gone up such that we’re equally matched.

Another area to focus on as you level are your class deeds.  I’m not going to cover them specifically quite yet, but you should be unlocking them and checking out what skills you need to do in order to progress them.

Like my first post, I’ve color coded the skills with green being ones that increase fervour, yellow for skills that don’t require fervour, and red for skills that require fervour.

• (16) Cleave – Full AoE hitting up to 5 targets that causes damage and a bleed.  It requires 2 Fervour.
• (18) Sudden Defence – Adds a buff to evade and parry, which overwrites any de-buff from stances.  This can be very handy when getting wailed on as it only requires 1 Fervour and especially if you’re in the Fervour stance as it allows you to somewhat defend yourself.
• (20) Let it Fly -  Single target ranged attack with a Bow – very handy to use while pulling.
• (20) Relentless Strike – high damage single target attack that can’t miss nor can it be parried or blocked, only evaded.  It requires 4 Fervour.
• (22) Champion’s Challenge -  Single target forced taunt.
• (24) Merciful Strike – Single target attack that adds 2 Fervour – Target must be below 20% health
• (26) Fighting Dirty – Attack that adds 1 Fervour but also a 25% damage buff for 30 seconds on your  AoE attacks.  Downside is your target must be below 25% health.
• (28) Sprint- temporary speed buff, handy when trying to run away or run through areas.
• (30) DIre Need -  Our first oh poop button that uses half of your power and transfers double that amount into your Morale pool.  I usually don’t have any issues with power so this is a quite welcome trade.
• (30) Glory – Our third stance that is the tanking stance as it increases threat by 50% but reduces damage output by 25%.  It also has the lowest fervour and in-combat power regen of all the stances.

The other thing during this range is trying to keep your champion well equipped.  I’ve always thought Champions rely quite heavily on have good gear as you can usually find yourself walking the tightrope between the easy and the insane :)  Luckily there are lots of options with quest rewards, crafting, and skirmishes.  If you have a metalsmith/weaponsmith alt or friend you can keep yourself pretty well equipped.  But if you don’t, the rewards from skirmishing are actually quite good as well and in some cases a better fit.

I’m more or less writing this guide as I level, so please feel free to let me know if there are things I’ve left out or other areas you want me to focus on.