The Fighter is one of the base vocations you can choose to play as in Dragon’s Dogma 2. It’s also one of the most powerful and effective, serving in both melee and defense respectively. It’s a perfect starter vocation to get introduced to many of the game’s mechanics and it’s also a great vocation to use in general if you’re a big fan of melee but maybe don’t care about magic or those sorts of things. Here is the best Fighter build I’ve found in Dragon’s Dogma 2 that makes this vocation absolutely great to play.
Best Weapon Skills
The Fighter has many skills that you can choose from but at any time you can only equip four. When you head to a vocation guild you can purchase these skills for points. There are great ones that can definitely elevate your Fighter build and take it to the next level. The skills the Fighter can use are definitely made for more aggressive combat, but still provide some defensive-level skills and even some shield-based skills.
Blink Strike/Burst Strike
Firstly, this skill is perfect for closing in gaps on enemies and can be lethal when used effectively. The Blink Strike or Burst Strike is a perfect offensive move that lets you get in close with the enemy and draw them towards you instead. Additionally, it’s great to stun the enemy enough to give you a window to hit them with an impale, which could either kill them or dramatically destroy their health.
Shield Pummel
The next skill is the shield pummel. This one is a personal favorite of mine because it puts your shield front and center as more than just defensive, but also a pretty powerful attack tool. Using shield pummel, you strike the enemy by hitting with your shield and not your sword. This can be powerful enough to send enemies flying and can dramatically knock their health down. This is one that I personally used a lot during my time playing the Fighter. Its only downside is that really big enemies aren’t as affected by it but they’ll still take some damage.
Impeccable Guard/Flawless Guard
If you’re about to face off against a boss, you might consider swapping shield pummel with impeccable guard or flawless guard. Considering that the fighter is equipped for advancing and attacking on the front lines face-to-face with enemies, the impeccable guard is great for breaking your stagger and positioning yourself back into the fight, because you may stagger often with how much stamina you expend.
Airward Slash/Cloudward Slash
The third skill I found was good is airward slash, or the cloudward slash, depends on which stage you’re at in this vocation. The reason being is that in some areas of the game, you will find yourself often face-to-face with harpies of all kinds as well as a lot of flying beasts in general. The cloudward slash lets you get a bit of a high jump with a slashing motion of the sword. This is perfect for dealing damage, knocking down flying enemies, and I even found that it was good for bigger enemies that had higher statures because you could hit them at higher angles too.
Gouging Skewer
Finally, the fourth skill I found to be great was the gouging skewer. This one is awesome for bigger enemies because it’s just awesome in general. You can knock the enemies off balance with deflect and then get them on the ground to impale. It’s good for when you’re on a larger enemy and you’re climbing up because you can basically skewer them where you are and hit at some weak spots. This one is great for all sorts of enemies though, not just large ones.
Core Skills
Next up are the core skills. These are passive skills meanings that they don’t necessarily need any special buttons to use and apply to your combat situations. The Fighter’s core skills are very effective and helpful, so get as many of these as you can and don’t hesitate on them.
Onslaught
The first up is onslaught, which is a basic 3-hit combo attack that you can use to stagger enemies. It’s great to follow up with an impale and can be very effective in setting up your enemies for a staggering attack.
Empale
Empale is another skill that is very useful and it’s more of a heavy attack than onslaught. This one is great to hit at for off balance and knocked down enemies. It can also be used to finish off smaller targets if they are downed. For larger enemies, it can be effective on weak spots for extra damage.
Defend
Defend is the basic block tool for the Fighter but it is great for getting your enemies to stagger and get knocked down. Blocking with the shield is a vital aspect of this vocation because you will find yourself often facing some battles with a lot of enemies coming at you, so using the shield will get you an advantage against the enemies.
Deflect/True Deflect
Deflect or true deflect is achieved by blocking just as the enemy is about to hit you, which will send the enemy staggering back and knock them off balance. This is a great thing to master as a skill for the Fighter vocation because it can position you in a much better way compared to your enemies and lets you get an advantage over them for sure.
Tusk Toss
Next up is the Tusk Toss, which is a knock down move that launches enemies into the air and then follows up with the empale. This one is also great just from how effective it is at getting you an advantage over your enemies.
Steeled Foundation
Steeled foundation is a neat one that can help your Arisen brace against fall damage. This one basically lets you use the shield to break your fall if you’re knocked off a cliff side or have somehow found yourself falling. It doesn’t eliminate damage, but definitely minimizes its impact.
Enchanted Counter
Finally, enchanted counter is a skill that adds elemental damage from your weapon that is either emitted passively or some other way. It also works with your blocking and countering as well.
Augments
Augments are another important thing to consider when creating the ultimate Fighter build in Dragon’s Dogma 2. Augments are interesting in this game because they are not locked to certain Vocations like skills and core skills. Augments are useful across vocations, of course you need to be sure the arguments you’re applying are actually helpful. Now, you can use the arguments from the vocation alone, but I don’t recommend that. I always recommend you try to play through the other vocations and get their augments too because that’s the trick to making a successful build in this game augment-wise.
There are a few augments I recommend you add for the Fighter. Some of these are in general great for all vocations, but the ones I’m talking about are Vigor, which comes from the Thief because this one reduces stamina when you’re on top of enemies. Avidity is from the archer vocation and lets you climb cliffs faster which is great when you’re facing some goblins that invade from above. Dominance is from, the Warrior vocation and improves knockdown power. Exaltation from the Mage vocation improves stamina recovery speed which is vital for an aggressive vocation like this. There’s also endurance and lethality from the archer vocation as well and these improve max stamina and dealt damage respectively.
You can play around with any combination of augments, but these are definitely the ones you want to go for at a more advanced stage. If you’re still a beginner, the fighter augments are perfect too.
Maister Skill
Lennart is the Maister of the Fighter vocation and you probably met him very early on in the game, around when you get to Melve for the first time. The Riotous Fury is the skill you get from Lennart and you take on the quest Redavent of Calamity. This quest will let you help Melve survive a dragon’s attack. You don’t need to actually finish this though. You can just go to Lennart and give you a gift every day for a few days and he’ll eventually give you the skill. Make sure you’re playing as a Fighter, as I found that increases the chances for him giving it to you faster.
Party Setup
Building a party that supports you as the Fighter is essential because the Pawns you hire can make all the difference in how you play in combat. I always recommend having the Mage with you unless you’re a Mage because the healing powers that the Mage gives out are extremely vital for a combat class like the Fighter where you’re just in head-on combat constantly.
Furthermore, the Thief or Archer is great to have because both of these are fast but have different ways of dealing damage. I find the Archer is very beneficial because the archer can take out long distance and high ground targets which lets you focus on the ground. The thief is fast and can take out targets quickly as well as damage downed targets to let you focus on standing targets.
The sorcerer is also helpful to have, as the sorcerer can deal a ton of damage from a distance and support you while you’re fighting against a lot of enemies.
I ran with a Mage, Thief, and Archer actually and found that it was a good build, but you could swap Thief or Archer with sorcerer. Just keep the Mage on you because the Mage is very good for any party build honestly.
Armors and Weapons
Unlike some of the other vocations in Dragon’s Dogma 2, I find that the Fighter needs good armor and good weapons and you should be getting them as soon as you can. I recommend that you save up your money early in the game and just enchant your armor until you can get a really worth-it set of armor.
Some of the best armors you can find in the game are closer to Battahl, including at the checkpoint town and in Battahl itself. Here is where you’ll find some of the best looking armors early in the game as well as some of the most powerful ones, like this eagle helmet I’m wearing right now.
For the most part, buying armor and weapons, you need to look for if they have good defensive stats and health boosting stats, like the rings which you should keep on you because they are very useful.
Still, you need to make some good amount of money early in the game to find some of the best armors and fast because the armors can get very expensive very quickly.
Weapon wise, it’s about the same. Though, I recommend you pick up a better weapon as early as you can. The broadsword in Vermund is good for when you’re just starting out.
Zainah Yousef
Zainah Yousef is the author of The Fallen Age Saga and specializes in gaming, social media advice, and reviews. She's been writing all her life and she probably won't stop anytime soon.
