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[Chaz Darkbane]

Hey everyone sorry for the long wait but I after experimenting around with some classes looking for my next guide subject I have decided to go with something many of you might find similar to my last one, the Katari. Similar to the Reaver the Katari is a two handed warrior who is focused on damage, crowd control and very little else so expect me to draw some comparisons with my previous guide here.  Without further adieu here he is, the man himself; The Katari.

 

What Abilities should I bring?

 

While far less strict than the Reaver skill set the Katari has some pretty obvious Synergies that can get you started on your path to decimating enemy hordes.

 

1. Charging Bull: This skill is going to be your bread and butter for this build. It has pretty much everything, need to get from point A to point B? Charge, need to knock down a horde of enemies? Charge. Need some guard to provide a little health buffer? You guessed it, charge. 
2. Mighty Blow: You know what is better than a group of knocked down enemies? A group of dead ones. Mighty Blow does a tremendous damage spike to enemies that are already knocked down, when perked into it does even more and with the passive Coup De Grace you will always deal 30% more damage to knocked down enemies. Great for clearing waves of mooks. Did I mention it is also a detonator? Because it totally is.
3. Earthshaking Strike: Deals decent damage in an large aoe and applies a burn when perked into. Decent skill all around and great for holding a choke point.
4. Whirlwind: So you pull of your combo only to find yourself still completely surrounded or worse yet fighting an elite unit that cannot be knocked down, what is any barbarian to do? Flail his weapon madly of course. Whirlwind is an interesting skill in the fact it is better used in prolonged engagements rather than short ones. With the perk Rising Winds this skill gets better the longer you use it and with the passive Clear a Path it is more or less capable of going on indefinitely as long as there is multiple enemies to hit.

How do I play the Katari?

First of all, just like the Reaver the Katari is not a tank, but a damage dealer. He sacrifices the potential for infinite life that the Reaver has for easier positioning, guard potential and crowd control. You are a raging barbarian with a two handed weapon, if you were meant to have a shield you would have been given one. Your basic skill priority is as follows.

 

Charging Bull > Mighty Blow > Earthshaking Strike > Whirlwind

 

Something that should be noted is that unlike the Reaver the Katari is heavily reliant on positioning to do his job correctly, he is best suited at being behind enemy lines attacking them from the rear to create frequent procs on Opportunist and his main combo relies on lining enemies up to knock them down. While this can be seen as a detriment at first it is also a great benefit to the Katari; as long as there is a main tank he can frequently crit, and while his main combo relies on positioning he has the means to put himself into the correct position at all times. Once you knock down a group of enemies with Charging Bull cancel the skill (press the button again, enter another action or jump for a quick stop) turn around and cast Mighty Blow. This usually result in killing most members of a group almost instantly but should there be survivors Earthshaking Strike and Whirlwind insure you still have plenty of options.

 

The most essential thing to remember is that your job is to focus down the problem enemies. Charging Bull gives the Katari a great deal of survivability but most importantly, mobility. For the most part this skill cannot be stopped aside from shield Templar/Venatori and will make you pass through most enemies you encounter. This allows you to make a straight rush for the enemy back line, allowing you to kill of archers and mages before they can become a problem. Remember that aside from damage your most important role is crowd control. By using Charging Bull often you can insure a great deal of crowd control, allowing you to knock down and deal with enemies who might be on the edge of a battle or so alone they were not dealt with immediately. Charge everywhere. Seriously.

 

How do I deal with elite units?

 

Fantastic point, right now you might think that the build is very heavily reliant on the use of knockdowns correct? Well you would be right. Enemies who are highly resistant or immune to knockdowns are very resistant to the Charging Bull > Mighty Blow combo and as such can not be expected to be dealt with quickly by it like regular trash mobs can. With this in mind you want your priorities to shift towards positioning an Earthshaking Strike on to the enemy position and beginning to rev up your Whirlwind from behind them. As previously mentioned, Whirlwind (when perked) does increasing damage with every rotation. This makes it incredibly useful during extended fights, where keeping up aoe coverage and dealing increased damage is beneficial.

 

Why no Pommel Strike?

Really this is by far one of the hardest choices I have had to make on a build. Pommel Strike is an incredibly useful skill in any situation. It provides solid damage, has a low cooldown and a very long stunning effect. What isn't to love? In the end I chose Whirlwind based on personal preference and maintaining aoe coverage and low stamina consumption but is completely up in the air on this one folks. I enjoy spinning quickly while Scenting Blood is active, maybe I was a helicopter or a Demacian in a past life. If you would prefer Pommel Strike for the hard cc and benefits it gives you to elite units then go right on ahead.

 

Why no To the Death?

First things first, I want to let everyone know that I love this skill, it is very powerful when used correctly and you can't deny the benefits that the guard and damage bonus gives you. There are a couple of reasons I didn't add this skill in, but because it has some popular demand I will address it.

• I made the guide as a general purpose explanation and build path for the Katari with his main focus being disruption and damage per second. With this in mind you should ideally be running with someone who is an actual tank who can take the full benefit of the skill such as the Legionnaire.
• Increasing a bosses damage is a risky thing if not managed and coordinated correctly. Getting a large guard bonus is always cool, but you will find the main time you will be using this skill is against boss enemies. Boss AoE damage is not something to be underestimated, increasing the Templar Commanders damage during a spin can end up killing teammates who might have otherwise been fine, same goes for the Venatori and especially so with the Demon Commander.
• The Legionnaire can use To the Death to his hearts content due to his large damage mitigation and benefits to his maximum guard, you don't have those things.
• It also is a skill you will be using pretty much soley for boss/miniboss fights, other mob types simply get wiped out too quickly to benefit much from it. So while it can be a powerful tool to be sure, it definitely is not a general purpose one. Try it out yourself if you like just to give it a try and decide for yourself.

 

What should my skill tree look like?

(Keep in mind, the player has a total of 19 ability points to work with. Two skills are free)

 

Onslaught Line

 

• Charging Bull: It is free and one of your best abilities, providing decent damage but mostly mobility and synergy with Mighty Blow. You have no choice but to grab it so enjoy it, but don't perk it out.
• Clear a Path(1): One of the most beautiful passives a guy completely focused on aoe could ask for. Take it and enjoy the limitless stamina.
• Mighty Blow(2): Talk about a way to make sure a group of people are dead. Grab it
• Easy Target(3): Oh you mean a skill that makes Mighty Blow better in every way we want to use it? Yes please.
• Warriors Resolve(4): Not the best passive in the world, the ideal goal as a damage dealer is to not be taking damage in the first place but seeing as you have to pick it up you may as well get something out of it.
• Flow of Battle(5): I cannot tell you how much I love this passive, this really helps with solve any issues you might have had with cooldowns as long as you attack from behind to proc Opportunist
• Opportunist(6): Increased critical chance when attacking the enemy from behind, if this doesn't give you a good idea where you should be I don't know what will.
• Coup De Grace(7): More damage to enemies that are knocked down, obvious buff to synergize with Mighty Blow
• Shield Breaker(8): Obvious choice for someone who should be critting as much as us.
• Whirlwind(9): Spin it to win it. 
• Rising Winds(10): Spin Harder
• Earthshaking Strike(11): Went over it earlier, pretty decent skill all around. Nothing crazy fantastic but certainly good to have.
• Shattered Ground(12): Provides stronger damage and choke point coverage for Earthshaking Strike. Who can pass up free damage?
• Fervor:(13) The guy meant to be killing things gets better at killing things when he kills things. Think about that.
• Scenting Blood(14): All around fantastic passive, movement speed affects skills and weapon speed as well. So getting high crit chance and speed just for being around nearly dead enemies (which should be all the time) is obvious. Increases how fast you spin, which means you spin more, which means you get the damage ramped up faster.
• Piercing Blows(15): More damage in general.

Tactics Tree

 

• Block and slash: It is free and we have no choice but to accept it.
• Adamant(16): Hey you are already wearing that heavy armor, might as well flaunt it for more value right?
• It'll cost you(17): Give a little sting back to those guys who dare hit you. Not a great skill but not bad for something we have no choice but to take
• Deep Reserves(18): So you know how I said that thing about unlimited stamina earlier? I meant it. Between this, Clear a Path and Warrior's Resolve you should have no stamina issues at all.
• Crippling Blows(19): Normally enemies with guard aren't so powerful as to require Guard Smasher so this is the obvious choice. If you are critting often (as you should be) then you will be constantly weakening your foes damage output. I would rather have a Pride Demon incapable of hurting anyone then one that was just dead a little faster.

What kind of Gear do I want?

Pretty much the same thing you would want with the Reaver, focus on base damage over most other effects and you will want to have Strength, Cunning and Constitution for attributes.

 

Closing

So here we are once again at the bottom of a new guide. once again I would like to remind everyone my guides are meant as a template for you to build on. Do not be afraid to try new things and swap things out and experiment. Tell me your own results or opinions on the class and know that while you can expect me to respond with either acknowledgement or a counter point it is always for the benefits of everyone involved that we discuss the class strategies in depth and learn more about it together. Thanks for reading everyone, I know a few of you have been requesting guides for other classes such as the Templar, Elementalist and Necromancer and know that I am listening to these requests and working on them but due to my work schedule may not be able to experiment with the classes and pump out these guides as quickly as I would like. Thanks again for reading

 

Update: Due to popular demand I have decided to address the skill To the Death and why I don't suggest it for a general purpose build.

[mission555]

You really don't need all those damage dealing skills on Katari to do damage..

 

Earthshaking Strike is pretty bad, Whirlwind is too situational (not to mention useless in Perilous unless your team is stacked). 

 

Those two skills are in my opinion just not worth your skill slots. They don't do much for you. 

 

While Katari is not a tank sometimes you'll be in a team where there is no real dedicated tank. Why not spend those two skills on abilities that help you deal with a greater variety of situations through utility and yes tankiness?

 

I take To The Death and Warhorn. To The Death is excellent against large enemies and bosses, oh yeah and it's a very easy way to get 80% guard. Katari without To The Death is Katari played wrong in my opinion. Warhorn is an excellent utility spell that gives your entire team a few seconds of respite, it's godlike CC and helps the entire team's damage as well. 

[IamTheAttack]

I find whirlwind only good on demons. Venatori and red templars ll block your  spin really easily and break your combo. Good feedback tho

[mission555]

Oh yeah let's be honest here if you're playing Katari you're mainly playing to stomp through Threathening rather than be all serious and go for Perilous, on Threathening To The Death is SO freaking good. You can serve as main tank no problem.

 

I'm still on the fence on this one but I also like Combat Roll a lot, I play with combat roll and Mighty Blow 50/50. They both have their perks but I think I'm better with Combat Roll, try it and you might find being an agile duelist master is just as fun as smashing faces in. Generally your team will have damage to finish most mobs off before they become a threat after your Charging Bull, the CC of Mighty Blow is a bit redundant. 

[Chaz Darkbane]

 

I take To The Death and Warhorn. To The Death is excellent against large enemies and bosses, oh yeah and it's a very easy way to get 80% guard. Katari without To The Death is Katari played wrong in my opinion. Warhorn is an excellent utility spell that gives your entire team a few seconds of respite, it's godlike CC and helps the entire team's damage as well. 

 

War Horn is something I completely advocated and defended in my Reaver build. This was due the the fact that panic allowed the Reaver to automatically crit and Dragon Rage has a built in lunge to catch enemies fleeing.

 

The Katari has neither of those things, and while I won't try to deny that War Horn is an excellent skill (fantastic crowd control) I don't think it is worth bringing in his case because he gains nothing from it like the Reaver does. I would never suggest To the Death on any general purpose guide, increasing a bosses damage is not something you want to take lightly, while you might decrease clear time I wouldn't recommend doing it unless you were with a group that you had communication with and certainly not be a general use PUG skill. I mainly used it as a way to force myself into becoming the main tank, and while that might be well and good it is certainly not something a damage dealer who wants to be behind the enemy would use.

 

Don't get me wrong here, I like the skill but I feel like it would be something more beneficial to the Legionnaire or Templar whose focus is tanking from the front (Templar ironically doesn't get it ). The guide was meant to serve as a general purpose tool and I feel like holding on to one skill just to use it during the boss fight doesn't quite fit that.

[mission555]

War Horn is something I completely advocated and defended in my Reaver build. This was due the the fact that panic allowed the Reaver to automatically crit and Dragon Rage has a built in lunge to catch enemies fleeing.

 

The Katari has neither of those things, and while I won't try to dent that War Horn is an excellent skill (fantastic crowd control) I don't think it is worth bringing in his case because he gains nothing from it like the Reaver does. I would never suggest To the Death on any guide, increasing a bosses damage is not something you want to take lightly, while you might decrease clear time I wouldn't recommend doing it unless you were with a group that you had communication with and certainly not be a general use PUG skill. I mainly used it as a way to force myself into becoming the main tank, and while that might be well and good it is certainly not something a damage dealer who wants to be behind the enemy would use.

Warhorn is so good though and it's not like it's somehow not worth it because you're not benefitting as much as another class. Does Earthshaking Strike really increase your dps significantlly? Really? Or does it just feel good to slam your giant two handed weapon into the ground and watch the fireworks. Is Whirlwind really vital enough to deserve a place in your ability bar? Is it something you can use every fight, no I find. It's fun but not vital, you'll save a few seconds using it to clear a nice clustered group. Meanwhile you're missing out on a shitton of damage mitigation in the form of guard and the utility of increasing damage against tough mobs. 

 

You're not the first one to dismiss To The Death based on that reason, when people dismiss it like that I get the feeling they never tried it. On paper the skill looks bad, I know, I thought it was bad at first as well. Then I tried it and Holy **** suddenly I'm running around clearing Threathening without getting a scratch. The key thing to realise is that besides increasing a mob/boss' damage you're also taunting them and that Katari has excellent means to deal with the 1v1 fight or avoid the damage all together. With a bit of skillfull use the risk of using To The Death is entirely negated, when your team suffers from you having that skill it's because you messed up, meanwhile it makes bosses a breeze.

[Shinnyshin]

Mighty Blow, I agree with.  Earthshaking Strike I can maybe see--might not take m'self but could certainly see the argument.  Whirlwhind, though, just looks bad--at least until we've got a reliable AoE spam primer character.  The few successful Katari I've seen--and I don't mean those just taking advantage of a facerollishly stompy group--have all run To the Death and it certainly seems worth at least slotting over Whirlwind, which it feels like you never want to use in a kit with Charge, Mighty Blow, and Earthshaking.

[xlm1994]

Really?  You are not even gonna provide a video link?

[-PenguinFetish-]

Disagree with Whirlwind. Its just... bad. Blocked by too many things and is useless unless you have someone controlling the enemies for you (pull of the abyss).

[xROLLxTIDEx]

He never provides video.

 

I'd drop Whirlwind and replace it with Pommel Strike.  Whirlwind is lackluster and is useful in spots where as Pommel Strike is AMAZING.

 

Whatever you have to do, whatever you have to give up.. Bear Mauls the Wolves is the single best passive in all of the the warrior's skill trees.  

[killsion]

Adding in that Whirlwind is indeed absolutely atrocious. The second a Templar or Venatori blocks, you're kicked out of it and there goes the cooldown. Very wasted skill. Also even Charging Bull can be blocked and kick you out of your charge. Katari needs some serious looking into.

[Beerfish]

I use whirlwind strictly for the cool factor.

[xROLLxTIDEx]

After re-reading this guide, I believe Chaz did an excellent job of detailing how to play the Katari.

As he said, you have no shield so you are not supposed to stand there and let them hit you, ever. Always Charge. Charge atleast twice an engagement, more for longer engagements. If you are toe to toe with an enemy, Charge for a brief instant into him to knock him down. You do not have to save your charges for long distances. Always Charge.

At the beginning of each engagement, charge through the enemies to their back line. Immediately. Mighty blow and earthshaking strike back to back as fast as possible. If there were only 4 enemies or so, try to end the engagement/kill the last guy with charge.

Pommel Strike is AMAZING. It hits quick. It does good damage. And it stuns enemies. Don't lead with it. Use it as needed when charge and your main attack combo of charging bull-mighty blow-earthshaking strike are on cool down.

Bear Mauls the Wolves makes you immune to flanking. The biggest damage boosting stat in this game is flanking damage. YOU MUST TAKE THIS PASSIVE. I think it is mandatory on every warrior.

Sidenote: templer and legionnaire get bear mauls the wolves, turn the blade, turn the bolt, which means in my interpretation that gives them immunity to flanking so 50% damage resistance to all ranged attacks and 20% dr to all melee attacks. I could be wrong but that's my interpretation.

[Stinja]

You're not the first one to dismiss To The Death based on that reason, when people dismiss it like that I get the feeling they never tried it. On paper the skill looks bad,

 

How does To The Death's Guard generation work?

Is it activate instant 25% guard;  or does it build slowly to max;  or 25% then increase slowly as enemy damaged?  It seems very poorly worded.

EDIT:  nvm, saw in another thread it's 25% per hit on marked target.  Which seems very decent.

 

I've just got my Katari to level 10, so have to decide which branch to go down.  I'm face stomping thru bronze (yeah yeah lol bronze l2p) and he seems very good if you're careful when to expose yourself.  Seems to have more potential for varied play compared to the Reaver, and i'm thinking an AoE ability like Earthshaking would be more useful than single target, as the team often has high single target dpsers.  

Same problems as Reaver though:  you have to hide and pick your moments, whereas other kits just blow thru things.  Fun, i hope for buffs.

[Chaz Darkbane]

Sorry for the late responses guys. Work and such.

 

He never provides video.

 

I'd drop Whirlwind and replace it with Pommel Strike.  Whirlwind is lackluster and is useful in spots where as Pommel Strike is AMAZING.

 

Whatever you have to do, whatever you have to give up.. Bear Mauls the Wolves is the single best passive in all of the the warrior's skill trees.  

 

 

Adding in that Whirlwind is indeed absolutely atrocious. The second a Templar or Venatori blocks, you're kicked out of it and there goes the cooldown. Very wasted skill. Also even Charging Bull can be blocked and kick you out of your charge. Katari needs some serious looking into.

 

 

I use whirlwind strictly for the cool factor.

 I have to admit, I use whirlwind strictly for the cool factor as well. When Scenting Blood is active you go full Garen on the enemy lines enough to make the templar commander jealous, but I will be the first to admit it is a rather lackluster skill. When Scenting Blood isn't active it takes too long to get the damage revved up and can be countered by blocks rather easily. This is why I threw out there that Pommel Strike is an amazing skill and could easily be switched out with it in the guide. I just like spinning, I believe my grandfather was a helicopter or something.

 

Interesting Theory: Earlier while testing out my Katari I noticed that enemies do not seem to be able to block Whirlwind if they are to your sides rather than in front of you, this might have been sheer coincidence however and I will be looking into it more.

 

As for the subject of blocks kicking you out of Charging Bull I haven't really had that problem. Most of the time I use it as an initiator to hit the enemy back lines immediately, melee type enemies don't react quickly enough to stop the initial charge and ranged units are incapable of blocking. I will agree it does get annoying when you try to disengage from a melee unit and charge through them, only to have them stop you dead in your tracks. These mooks must lift to stop a charging Qunari.

 

 

Really?  You are not even gonna provide a video link?

 

If reading is too difficult I apologize for the excessive use of words but I don't enjoy going through the hassle of making a video for a build. I find it easier to simply explain it seeing as I can easily change the guide as updates and patches come along without having to re-record anything. I realize having to read through text isn't the most exciting thing in the world so I apologize in advance for the lack of pretty colors as well.

 

 

 

I've just got my Katari to level 10, so have to decide which branch to go down.  I'm face stomping thru bronze (yeah yeah lol bronze l2p) and he seems very good if you're careful when to expose yourself.  Seems to have more potential for varied play compared to the Reaver, and i'm thinking an AoE ability like Earthshaking would be more useful than single target, as the team often has high single target dpsers.  

Same problems as Reaver though:  you have to hide and pick your moments, whereas other kits just blow thru things.  Fun, i hope for buffs.

 

 

While I can agree that the Katari relies heavily on positioning and picking your moments to go ham the Reaver is pretty much just a psycho dps machine. Right now it is pretty much the only melee class with obvious synergy between every abiity and you can have Rampage up indefinitely if you use your skills at the right time with the correct passives. Right now the only complaints I have about the Reaver are a few bugs, namely 

• Dragon Rage takes much more than 2% life to cast.
• Rampage stops healing you if you die while the effect is active and are revived.