Furthest I've taken a warrior is about level 40. I enjoy the whole berserk aspect, but that's kind of it. I witnessed a paltry AS increase every training, only to come across creatures that can easily turtle your AS, then you're required to have some sort of disabling cman or warrior skill (tackle/disarm) to bring them back into your AS range. I, however, see people posting of the issue with low AS compared to Semis and Paladins at cap/post cap. Why not create a cman that may not necessarily boost your AS, but perhaps degrade the armor and/or DS level of your target? Here's what I was thinking:

Defense Penetration
Available To	Warriors
Mnemonic	[Defensepen]
Cost	None.
Requirements	200 ranks in Armor Use Skill, +25 ranks for every sequential step.
Prerequisites	Weapon Bond, rank 3. Only works with bonded weapon.

This is a passive skill. Once learned, it is always active as long as you're using your bonded weapon.

Rank	Square
1	3
2	4
3	5
4	6
5	7

Defense penetration is a combat maneuver that will allow a warrior that's well trained in Armor Use knowledge and equipped with his bonded weapon to exploit the weakness of their target's defense and armor. Each rank will provide a DS push down of -10, up to -50 DS at 5 ranks. Rank 3 will increase the warrior's AvD by 5 for each rank, +15 at rank 5.

Armor Use skill training required for each step:

Armor Use Ranks	Step #	Benefit returns
200	1	-10 DS
225	2	-20 DS
250	3	-30 DS, +5 AvD
275	4	-40 DS, +10 AvD
300	5	-50 DS, +15 AvD

For a warrior to max this skill out would mean they get a -50 DS push down against their target, plus +15 to overall AvD. This essentially gives you a +65 to your AS. It would also give a good incentive to keep training in Armor Use skill from the obvious benefit to Redux or just to simply overtrain. Something like this would put Warriors much more in line with AS to other capped weapon swingers.

Just an idea.

-Drumpel

As much as I hate to admit it giving warriors an effective +65 AS bonus is an overcompensation especially as a persistent bonus. However, +25-30 AS is debatable for Warriors to retain the bonus provided by berserk for more controlled usage. Widening the Armor Use thresholds would also impact a larger range of warriors while leaving the top tier bonuses for those that are over fully trained in armor use. How about this:

Armor Use Ranks	Step #	Benefit returns
100	1	-5 DS
150	2	-10 DS
200	3	-15 DS, +5 AvD
250	4	-20 DS, +10 AvD
300	5	-25 DS, +15 AvD

Also, if the entire package cannot be a persistent bonus, perhaps just the AvD bonus could be applied permanently when using your bonded weapon and the additional effects could use the standard success resolution system similar to Voln, Gos symbols and sigils. Factors being a Level comparison, Armor Use, Shield Use, Combat Maneuvers, Multi-opponent combat, AGI bonus, DEX bonus with Parry/Block/Evade mastery all offering a bonus as well. Stance should not be a factor, 10 stamina, 0 RT. Multi-target version possible where every 50 ranks of MOC allows you to effect an additional target at a cost of 5 stamina per target. Effect lasts for 10 seconds. Effect cannot be stacked or refreshed.

Single target:

>defensepen crawler
Using your knowledge of self defense techniques, you search the crawler for vulnerabilities before your next strike...

You see an opening in the rift crawler's defenses!

Multi-target:

>defensepen all
Using your knowledge of self defense techniques, you search all opponents in the area for vulnerabilities before your next strike...

You see an opening in the fetish master's defenses!
You cannot find any openings in the Vvrael destroyer's defenses.
You see an opening in the fetish master's defenses!
You see an opening the cerebralite's defenses!

Effect fading:

You no longer see an opening in the fetish master's defense.