How Dragon's Dogma 2's Fighter and Warrior Vocations Differ…

Summary

Dragon's Dogma 2 expands on its predecessor, offering advanced partner AI and increased enemy interactivity in the contrasting kingdoms of Vermund and Battahl.
The game introduces new classes like the Trickster, aiming to redefine fantasy RPGs and make each Vocation feel unique with exclusive weapon types.
Despite similarities, Dragon's Dogma 2 differentiates Fighters and Warriors to emphasize their distinct roles in party composition and combat styles.

Picking up where its predecessor left off, Dragon's Dogma 2 is delivering another serving of its unique detail-oriented action RPG adventures. The first Dragon's Dogma slowly built up a following thanks to its advanced partner Pawn AI and enemy interactivity, and now its sequel can inherit all of that to assume Dragon's Dogma's most complete form yet. Now set in the contrasting kingdoms of Vermund and Battahl, Dragon's Dogma 2 should keep players coming back for more with a scope that guarantees they can't see everything in one go.

Many mechanics and monsters return from Dragon's Dogma 1, and their complex web of interlocking systems has only grown larger. Even the game’s classes, known as Vocations, have increased in number with few among them being outright replaced. It's unclear how many Vocations there will be in Dragon's Dogma 2, but the ten revealed so far cover everything a player could ask for. There seems to be an effort to differentiate these Vocations more than Dragon's Dogma 1’s already were, but new players would be forgiven for struggling to tell some of them apart.

Dragon's Dogma Wants Its Vocations To Feel Unique

Despite there being a clear progression order through Basic, Advanced, and Hybrid Vocations, Dragon's Dogma 1 and 2 do not view the different tiers as strict upgrades. Dragon's Dogma 1's best Vocations suffered some balance issues in this regard, with the Sorcerer invalidating the Mage and the Magick Archer outperforming the archery-oriented Ranger. However, the Basic Vocation Strider keeping up with the Hybrid classes, and the Fighter outdoing its Advanced Warrior counterpart through sheer utility, prove that there was an effort to keep Vocations viable.

How Dragon's Dogma 2 Makes Every Vocation Feel Fresh

This is being reinforced in Dragon's Dogma 2, as every Vocation now seems to have an exclusive weapon type. It’s a larger change than it sounds, thanks to skills being tied to specific weapons, and some DD1 Vocations being able to use up to three different weapon types. The confirmed changes in Dragon's Dogma 2 so far include the Strider and Ranger having their dagger and bow skills separated into the basic Thief and Archer Vocations, the Fighter-overlapping Mystic Knight being replaced by the wholly original Mystic Spearhand, and Mages doubling down on their speed and utility to contrast with the offensively-specialized Sorcerers. Despite DD2's best efforts, however, the Fighter and the Warrior may still be hard to parse.

Fighter and Warrior Demonstrate Dragon's Dogma’s Variety Despite Seeming Redundant

Fighters remain among Dragon's Dogma 2’s Basic Vocations, while Warriors are once again their Advanced equivalent. Similarly to Mages and Sorcerers, Warriors sound like strict upgrades over Fighters, but they were designed to fill different roles in party composition. Fighters are physical melee classes with an emphasis on survivability like their namesakes in classic Dungeons and Dragons, while Warriors attack relentlessly like Baldur’s Gate 3’s Barbarians. They may both use swords and heavier armor than other Vocations, but that's ignoring just how different their fighting styles can be.

Breaking Down Dragon's Dogma's Fighter and Warrior Vocations

Fighter	Warrior
Wields One-Handed Swords and Shields	Wields Two-Handed Weapons (Longswords, Hammers, Etc.)
Mystic Knight may be gone, so Fighters are currently the only Vocation with a shield, and thus the most defensive. Their counter-offensive abilities are especially strong.	Warriors deal the highest potential physical damage in Dragon's Dogma, and have innate resistance to staggering during their attack animations.
Able to play as both a tank and support melee, though skills to draw aggro are unreliable and Dragon's Dogma emphasizes the importance of damage.	They are frontline melee combatants that gain good passives for playing other classes, and that's it. Mounting tall monsters is also tough due to their low speed.
Fighters' varied skill list supports different play styles, though the player's build quality and game knowledge determines how effective they are.	Warriors have one job and do it well, but only having access to three combat skills, while every other DD1 class gets six, is a glaring weakness DD2 should address.

Despite appearing to be cut from the same cloth, Dragon's Dogma 2 sells its Vocations through just how differently Fighters and Warriors handle on the battlefield. Players should quickly feel the difference between each class once they have hands-on time with them in Dragon's Dogma 2.

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