Dragon's Dogma 2 - Fighter Skill and Augments Guide • DotGG

The Fighter is a relatively basic Vocation in Dragons Dogma 2, wielding a sword and shield to assault their foes. With said shield, they are able to defend, parry, and counter their attackers, and also come fitted with several abilities to make them effective tank, taking damage or aggro from your pawns, which is useful for your spellcasters. This best fighter skills guide goes over all active skills, when to use them, and my overall thoughts on their effectiveness and rather or not you should spend the Dcp on them.

Weapon Skills

Blink Strike / Burst Strike

Rushes forcefully toward the target and visits a powerful blow upon them.
The advanced skill Burst Strike allows the user to travel further and more swiftlly.
This is your go-to "stinger" / lunge move for fighter, allowing you to quickly close the gap between the opponent and yourself.
Perhaps useful early game, but due to the limited number of skill slots, this is likely to be replaced relatively quickly.

Airward Slash / Cloudward Slash

Performs a jump while slashing diagonally upward. An effective means of assailing flying targets.
The advanced skill Cloudward Slash reaches greater heights and inflicts greater harm. Can also be used mid-air.
In my opinion, a must have ability, as there are an abundance (in my opinion, too many) harpies that are very annoying to deal with as a fighter without this skill. It is also useful for reaching the head of crouched / stumbled larger foes for a powerful strike.

Compass Slash / Full Moon Slash

Spins with blade extended, drawing a deadly circle that slices through nearby targets.
The advanced skill Full Moon Slash extends the range of the slash, and slashes twice.
A good skill for the fighter to deal with being surrounded, although Flawless Guard is superior to this, this skill should be used up until that point.

Gouging Skewer / Gutting Skewer

Thrusts the blade into the target's body before raining further blows upon them. If strikes connect, the user clings to larger targets and pins down smaller targets that are flinching.
The advanced skill Gutting Skewer delivers a greater number of stabbing strikes, and can be used mid-air.
Not a very useful skill, you already deal considerable damage when attacking a downed foe, and this keeps you locked in place for longer, leaving you vulnerable and leaving out additional DPS from other skills you could have equipped instead.

Hindsight Slash / Hindsight Sweep

Ducks backward before charging in to deliver a slashing blow. Using it as an evasive maneuver increases it's power.
The advanced skill Hindsight Sweep delivers more strikes, each with increased damage.
While the evasive action is useful, a simple counter attack with your shield does more than enough, making this not worth the limited skill slots.

Shield Bash / Shield Pummel

Delivers a powerful blow with the shield that can knock targets off balance.
The advanced skill Shield Pummel strikes the target twice.
While this skill is fun to use and useful for knocking small targets off cliffs, the damage and utility against medium or large monsters leaves much to be desired.

Shield Summons / Shield Drum

Raps the shield loudly to attract the attention of nearby targets.
The advanced skill Shield Summons draws the ire of targets from a greater distance.
This is a useful skill if you have multiple sorcerers in your party, as the cast time for powerful spells can take quite a long time. Although, this skill is not really needed if you have the Provocation augment.

Springboard / Launchboard

Launches allies into the air using the shield.
The advanced skill Launchboard launches allies further and to greater heights at a decreased cost to Stamina.
While this is a fun skill to use in order to prop up your melee pawns to greater heights, this skill is better equipped for a pawn to have in order to boost you to new locations, or to quickly scale foes.

Impeccable Guard / Flawless Guard

Spins nimbly on the spot, blocking attacks from every direction with the shield. Employable even when flinching. Useful for escaping dire circumstances.
The advanced skill Flawless Guard consumes less Stamina and has a greater effective range.
One of the best skills in the game due to the amount of stagger ANY enemy can cause, even level 1 goblins. This skills makes it so that you cannot get staggered from small hits as this cancels the flinch, and also deals decent stagger damage in turn.

Counter Slash / Vengeful Slash

Parries a target's attack with the shield before delivering a swift slash in return. Consumes Stamina while defending.
The advanced skill Vengeful Slash consumes less Stamina while defending and affords greater range when counterattacking.
Not a very useful skill, you're better off again, just countering with your shield and attacking in turn. Save this for another skill.

Perfect Defense / Divine Defense

Guards against all manner of attacks from the front. Consumes a great deal of Stamina while defending.
The advanced skill Divine Defense consumes less stamina.
This is a decent skill that allows you to negate pretty much all damage, but you're unable to move, which in that case, Flawless Guard is a better version of this, even if it does not negate all damage.

Riotous Fury

Rains a flurry of powerful blows on the target, dealing massive damage at a great cost to Stamina. Leaves the user vulnerable if the first strike missing.
As the fighter maister skill, this is their most powerful ability, and is very powerful when used against foes that are stunned or knocked down in order to deal massive damage to their weak points.

Core Skills

These are key skills that don't take up any slots and that should be unlocked as soon as they are available, as they make the fighter not only more defensive, but also to deal more damage overall.

True Deflect

Deflects attack back toward the target with impressive might. While active, counterattacking consumes no Stamina.
The key ability of the Fighter's kit. Not only does it negate an enemies attack, but it often flinches enemies or causes them to stagger, allowing you to follow up with a critical strike.

Tusk Toss

Traces a grand skyward arc with the blade, sending lightweight targets flying into the air.
This is useful for dealing with smaller enemies as it causes them to lose their balance when they fall, allowing you to follow up with a powerful ground stab.

Steeled Foundation

Uses the shield to ease the impact from falling. Reduces fall damage and hastens recovery after a fall.
Useful for traversal if you don't feel like finding a safe path down a cliff, or if you're jumping off a monster before losing stamina and looking for a safer fall.

Enchanted Counter

When using Defend while enchanted, automatically counters with an elemental attack corresponding to the enchantment.
This will be useful if you have a spell caster on your team who can give elemental enchantments. This gives the fighter even more elemental damage outside of just attacking.

Augments

Thew / Vitality- Enables you to carry additional weight / Increases your maximum Health. These can be used interchangeably depending on what you want more of. Vitality is unlocked from Warrior
Lethality - Increases damage dealt when striking a target's vitals. I highly recommend this for any melee attacker as you want to attack weak points regardless of vocation in order to deal maximum damage. This is unlocked from Archer
Endurance - Increases maximum stamina. A must have augment for any class as stamina amounts to how much damage you can deal, the amount of time you can grip, as well as dashing. This is unlocked from Archer
Verve - Augments your strength. A must have augment for all physical damage based classes. Unlocked from Thief
Mettle - Augments your physical Defense. Since you're going to be up close and personal, as well as relatively slow as a fighter, this helps your survivability. Also helps with the tank role.
Provocation - Increases the likelihood of being targeted by foes. This depends on the team makeup, but most of the time, I would bring with along in order to take aggro away from your archer or spell casters.

What to spend Dcp on / Priority

First, unlock the core skills as they become available. After, unlock your important augments: Mettle and Provocation. For weapon skills, Cloudward Slash, Flawless Guard, Shield Drum, and Burst Strike will be the most useful, afterwards, you can spend your excess points on whatever you want, or save for another vocation.