Justin's foray into gaming started with classic Resident Evil 3 and has only expanded since then. He graduated from RIT in 2021 and aspires to have his name in the credits of a video game one day.
Reviewed by Benjamin Barr
Sometimes the simple choice is the correct one. That statement is no less true with the Warrior Doctrine in Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader. Become the wall between your retinue and the heretical forces in the galaxy and strike down anyone who gets in your way with the most devastating melee weapon you can find.
If you’ve been wondering what the best way to build your Warrior is then read on. In this guide, I’ll be breaking down how to become the true arm of the Emperor.
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Homeworld
Before we get into the actual abilities of the Warrior and advanced Doctrines, we need to build a strong base during character creation. This starts with our homeworld. The best homeworld for the Warrior is by far the Death World homeworld. It gives us a +5 to Strength, Toughness, and Agility which are all useful for the Warrior. It also gives us access to powerful Talents that make us deadlier in combat.
Origin
Our origin will help us fine-tune how we want to play and roleplay our character. With how versatile the Warrior Doctrine is you can reliably choose any origin and be incredibly effective. If you want to triple down on the strengths of the Warrior then choose the Commissar origin. You get a +5 to Weapon Skill, Fellowship, Coercion, and Athletics. You’ll also be allowed to upgrade Fellowship and Coercion after character creation.
Archetype
We obviously want to grab the Warrior Doctrine for this build. What you’ll notice however is that each Doctrine has access to specific Advanced Doctrines. The Warrior has access to Assassin, Vanguard, and Arch-Militant. Each Advanced Doctrine will further specify your character into doing more melee damage with the Assassin, being able to sustain more damage with the Vanguard, and being a switch-hitter between guns and blades with the Arch-Militant.
Characteristics
Finally, we get to the base characteristics of our character. As a Warrior, we want to be deadly in melee with a high health pool to keep us alive. This means high Weapon Skill and Toughness. We also want high Strength to keep our damage up.
Here’s a characteristic breakdown with the Death World homeworld and Commissar origin:
| Stat | Amount |
|---|---|
| Weapon Skill | 40 |
| Ballistic Skill | 35 |
| Strength | 45 |
| Toughness | 45 |
| Agility | 35 |
| Intelligence | 25 |
| Perception | 30 |
| Willpower | 30 |
| Fellowship | 30 |
Warrior Leveling
As you level up through Warrior you’ll be able to choose Doctrine-specific talents to use during combat until you hit your Advanced Doctrine. Whenever given the chance you should always choose a Doctrine talent over common talents since your chances to grab them are limited.
You’ll also be given the option of certain abilities and special abilities specific to the Warrior. Like the talents, you can’t grab all of them so you want to ensure you grab the best ones for your playstyle. Below will be a breakdown of the talents, abilities, and special abilities to grab while leveling through your basic Doctrine.
Warrior Talents
- Level 4: Contempt
- Level 5: Epicentre of Slaughter
- Level 8: Thick Skin
- Level 10: Impetus
- Level 13: Ramming Speed
These talents will help you get into the thick of combat quickly and dish out some impressive damage while staying alive with relative ease.
Warrior Abilities and Special Abilities
- Level 6: Sworn Enemy
- Level 9: Daring Breach Upgrade 2
- Level 11: Taunting Scream
- Level 15: Daring Breach Upgrade 4
These abilities are an excellent mix of mob clear when using your Daring Breach ability as well as single target and grabbing aggro. This way you can protect your squishier companions while also doing some extra damage to whoever the hardest hitter is.
Advanced Doctrine
As I mentioned earlier, the Warrior gets access to three Doctrines once you finish leveling through Warrior. This decision is entirely up to what your team composition is and what your party needs, as each Advanced Doctrine fills a specific role. If you need more damage, choose the Assassin. If you need a strong frontline tank, choose Vanguard. If you need someone equally effective at range and up close, choose Arch-Militant.
Your companions share all these Doctrines, so there will likely be some overlap between Advanced Doctrines in your party. Each option is powerful in its own way and with how strong the Warrior Doctrine is you should have no problem being effective in the later stages of the game.
Assassin Leveling
For this guide I’ll be going over a possible level route through the Assassin Doctrine. This Doctrine focus’s high damage and dodge, while reducing the dodge of their opponents. And their unique ability Seek the Opening ensures you are always doing a percentage of your opponent’s health as damage. If you want a character to be the main damage dealer of your party, then the Assassin Doctrine is the right choice.
Since the Assassin use’s Agility for a lot of their abilities, we’ll also be shifting the focus of what stats we upgrade as well. We still want to keep Strength, Weapon Skill, and Toughness in mind, but Agility will be our primary focus. When determining what stats to upgrade while leveling Assassin, prioritize Agility first, then Strength, then Weapon Skill, then Toughness.
Below I’ll go over a breakdown of the Assassin talents, abilities and special abilities to grab while you level. And just like when leveling through Warrior, you should prioritize Assassin talents over the common talents whenever possible.
Assassin Talents
- Level 18: Killing Spree
- Level 21: Carmine Whisper
- Level 23: Deadly Calculation
- Level 25: Imminent Demise
- Level 28: Professional Acumen
- Level 31: Keep your Distance
- Level 33: Seize the Advantage
These talents help make us into one serious deadly combatant. Killing Spree allows us to continually increase the amount of damage we do as long as we’re hitting openings. This means the longer a fight goes on, the stronger we get. We also take abilities like Deadly Calculation to let us do Direct Damage, which is damage that can’t be lessened by things like armor.
Assassin Abilities and Special Abilities
- Level 17: Death Whisper
- Level 22: Poised to Strike
- Level 27: Dispatch Upgrade 1
- Level 30: Elusive Shadow
- Level 35: Dispatch Upgrade 2
Just like the talents, I choose abilities and special ability upgrades to increase the damage output of our Rogue Trader. Death Whisper is excellent against bosses as it provides free damage every turn if you land the initial attack. Pair that with one of the talents we took, Carmine Whisper, and the boss will be dropping some serious health before you even swing your weapon.
The upgrades for Dispatch are also great for fighting bosses since we can use it to strip the boss’s defenses while increasing ours and doing a fair bit of damage in the process. Couple all of this with the talents and abilities we grabbed from Warrior and we become a true nightmare on the battlefield.
Exemplar
The Exemplar is the third tier and last Doctrine you’ll unlock while leveling up in Rogue Trader. While technically every class gains access to the Exemplar Doctrine, it is unique in that this Doctrine is somewhat made up of your previous two Doctrines.
Use this Doctrine to fine tune what you want your character to be. Pick up any archetype talents you couldn’t grab while leveling the previous Doctrine’s and round out whatever weakness your character may have while moving into the end-game.
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