Hello all,

I've been an Awakening Warrior main since 2016, and I wanted to write about the challenges the class is currently facing and how PA could address some of the more glaring issues. This will likely be a long post, but I will try my best to be succinct with my points. Additionally, when I refer to "Warrior" in this post, I will be referring to Awakening Warrior (as that is what I know) and, specifically, it's performance in PvP. Finally, please keep in mind that these suggestions are just my own opinions, and I recognize that I may be biased as I don't really play any other classes.

So how is Warrior doing these days?

I'd argue - not well. This due to a culmination of multiple factors:

1. General power creep: PA has been gradually adding more and more protected movement and CC back to the game. More specifically, they've been adding FG-defeating protected CC (more on that later).

2. Loss of Chopping Kick and Ground Smash bound effects: These were arguably our best and most reliable CCs outside of our grab. Although we gained full protection on Reckless Blow as compensation, the loss of these two CCs significantly reduced the pressure that Warrior can apply to an opponent. It's now much more difficult for us to punish enemy grabs or FGs.

3. Over-reliance on FGs: Warrior relies heavily on FG for both its CC (e.g. Shield Charge) and movement (e.g. Shield Charge, Charging Thrust, Frenzied Dash, Shield Tide). This problem has only been further exacerbated by the addition of numerous FG-defeating CCs to the game (basically any CC dash that lacks collision). Against many classes, using a FG dash means that you will almost certainly be CC'd.

4. Grab changes: Warrior's lackluster state was only worsened by the grab changes. Our grab, which used to be our most reliable CCs, is now slow, buggy, and unreliable.

5. Numerous unless/redundant skills in our Awakening kit: Skills such as Knee Kick, Hilt Strike, Merciless, and Frenzied Strikes are niche or almost useless from a PvP perspective.

I won't go into the other problems today, such as the numerous micro-gaps in our protection, the loss of our Gravedigging slow (with no compensatory buffs), or the loss some of our most important cancels, as I want to keep this somewhat brief. However, it'll suffice to say that Warrior is not in a good state.

What should PA focus on?

Given the current state of the game, I believe that PA's short-term goals for Warrior should be:

1. Give Warrior more SA movement.

2. Give Warrior one of its protected CCs back.

Longer-term goals should be:

3. Rework useless Awkening skills.

4. Fix the micro-gaps in our protection.

What are some ways to achieve this (without making the class OP)?

1. Change Frenzied Dash from a FG to SA. I think this is the most logical way to give Warrior some of the SA movement that it desperately needs. With SA, the skill would be a great way to reposition or disengaging in large fights. The skill has a fairly long cooldown, and so I don't think this would take away from Warrior's Q-block playstyle.

2. Give either Chopping Kick or Ground Smash it's bound effect back. Alternatively, if PA wants to shift more CC to the Awkening kit instead, giving stiffness to Solar Flare or SA to Merciless would be great options as well. Both these options would have the added benefit of freeing up a Core slot for a possible Core: Heaven's Cleave, which many players have been asking for. This change, in combination with SA on Frenzied Dash, would help reduce Warrior's over-reliance on FG, without making the class completely SA protected.

3. Merge the effects and damage of Hilt Strike into Balanced Strike and delete Hilt Strike. Merge the effects and damage of Knee Kick into Heaven's Cleave and delete Knee Kick. I can't think of any better options here. Hilt Strike and Knee Kick are pointless skills that shouldn't exist. Eventually, I'd like to see Frenzied Strikes improved so that it is usable in PvP, but that isn't a super pressing issue.

4. Warrior has tons of microgaps in it's protection, particularly when leaving your Q-block or when chaining certain SA skills together. These gaps are incredibly frustrating, especially in large fights where CCs are bring thrown around like crazy. It feels terrible when you get CC'd and die when trying to iframe out of your Q-block, and its honestly something that makes me not want to play the class sometimes. I think the best solution would be to add a tiny, 0.1s duration lingering SA to our block. This would dramatically improve this problem.

Please keep in mind, these are just my opinions on what Warrior needs to stay viable in the current power creep environment we find ourselves in. I've made these suggestions based on the assumption that PA wants to continue to buff underperforming classes rather than nerf the overperforming ones. Warrior certainly could use alot of love, and I hope PA really takes the time to understand what Warrior needs. They did an awesome job designing the class that we all love to play, but it needs some improvements to keep it competitive in 2025. Thanks for reading.

Nice and collected post.
I'd add that having q-block can no longer be a reason for not buffing the class. Block break skills and regen preventing status effects where introduced since a while now. Anyone who plays uncapped knows your block blows up from 3 spinns from a deadeye. Other classes can stay (or even move distances) in iframe for extended periods of time which is a way superior way of negating damage. Q-block is a stationary and has little to offer in this metagame.
It's probably time for deleting the skills that stay permanently locked on the kit since years and replace them with new ones or rework the class in whole.

(Picked up awak ninja recently. It's astonising to me how many nice things a spec can get over the years while we lost so much. There is no reason why warrior should not have some aswell. At this point it seems class designers are disconnected or they do not care.)

It still bothers me that Awk Warrior got one of the best collab outfit (I know, the Berserker armor was sold to every class) but the Dragonslayer is an Awk warrior exclusive outfit weapon, and still, even the sucession where you can't use/see this piece of iron is stronger in pve (sometimes pvp). I agree with every changes you guys suggested, but by this time, I think PA would rather lose all of his player base instead of making awakening warrior relevant again.. I mean, after the buff in pve and then the consecutive nerfs, I was starting to lose my hopes, ofc there was this tiny buff with 6% damage increase for pve, but as I said, it's tiny. Right now I just want Awk Warrior to be relevant on pve, bc I'm hopeless on the pvp part.