Fighter

Fighter is a Basic Vocation in Dragon's Dogma.

Description
Wielding a sword and shield, fighters stand in the fray of combat. Their primary role is group protection, drawing enemy attention away from the defensively inept pawns in your party while dishing out heavy damage. Fighters do not have any ranged abilities and are therefore forced into strategic game play, pulling and taunting foes out of reach. They must bide their time until the perfect moment to strike. Fighters excel at ground combat and are a deadly class to be reckoned with.

Primary Weapon: Sword

Secondary Weapon: Shield

Strengths and Role
Solid Defender: Fighters offer a variety of defensive abilities with their shield that allow them to serve as veritable “tanks” for the party, allowing ranged and offensive classes to deal damage from further away. Fighter is the best "tank" vocation.

Strong Offense: Fighters possess a variety of deadly sword skills ranging from dashing attacks that allow fighters to quickly close the gap on an enemy, to skills that allow them to skewer enemys and deal constant damage.

Defensive Offense: The skill Sheltered Assault allows fighters to both shield themselves and deal damage.

Combat Utility: Fighters are able to launch allies into the air using their shields to grab flying enemies, making them invaluable when fighting winged enemies. They can also lure flying enemies closer with Shield Drum, making it easier to attack them.

Highest Defense Growth: Fighters have the highest defense growth of all vocations in the game, which helps increase your character's physical defense after leveling a few times in it.

Weaknesses
Low Magick Defense: A down side to their above average defense is their well below average defence against magick attacks. Best to avoid any if possible, which is as easy as sprinting.

Short Range: Fighters have trouble hitting enemies high in the sky or at any distance further than blink strike.

Reduced Movement: When using shields, fighters have reduced movement speed, which exposes them to unblockable attacks that must be dodged, including magick attacks.

Tips

 * Fighters possess  devastating  close quarters sword play skills. Attacks such as Dragon's Maw, Burst Strike and Soul Taker can easily quell most foes in one to three strikes. Dragon's Maw is a must have skill to quickly decimate a large monster and is especially effective when focusing on a weak spot of a downed monster. The Wyrm Hunt 03:39, June 7, 2012 (UTC)
 * Traveling with a powerful Sorcerer is an excellent addition to the Fighter's play style. While the Fighter draws enemies toward him or her self, this gives ample time for the Sorcerer to charge up devastating magical attacks. This tactic is especially useful in all large monster battles. The Wyrm Hunt 03:39, June 7, 2012 (UTC)
 * Fighter's tend to drain endurance rather quickly in combat therefore it would be wise to have a large quantity of endurance curatives. Luckily the game provides ample sources of said curatives such as mushrooms which are just about everywhere you will be adventuring. They can be located around trees, in caves, on logs and if you have the gold to spend, you can pick them up from vendors around Gransys. The Wyrm Hunt 03:39, June 7, 2012 (UTC)
 * The Soul Skewer and Blink/Burst Strike skills is very useful for stopping the movement and knocking down any monster up to the size of a Saurian, while dealing good damage. Useful for those annoying Wolves.
 * When launched by a Pawn's Shield you will automatically grab any monster you touch, you DON'T need to press RT/R2 to grab, it does it for you.
 * Sheltered Assault is a very good skill for attacking a boss in the middle of an attack. It may burn up more stamina but you will be safe while stabbing at the boss.
 * Shield Strike/Storm is perfect for breaking the guard of any enemy.
 * Skyward/Heavenward Slash is useful for knocking low flying enemies from the sky and attacking tall enemies.
 * Tusk/Antler Toss is good at quickly knocking down foes, making it easy to follow up with a heavy jump attack.