Vanguard

The Vanguard is the second playable class in DaggerQuest: a two-handed greatsword wielder who gives up a shield for a toolkit built around speed, reach and control. The Vanguard is for players who would rather solve a fight than survive it, and it has active abilities and combat prayers of its own.

Starting Equipment

The Vanguard begins with a Greatsword and wears default head, chest, and leg armor. Unlike the Chevalier, the Vanguard cannot equip a shield, committing fully to two-handed offense.

Basic Attack

The Vanguard swings a sweeping downward slash that pierces, cutting through every enemy in its path rather than stopping at the first.

Active Abilities

The active abilities a Vanguard carries, in their default places on the bar:

Ability	Key	Description
Whirlwind	Q	A full-circle spin hitting everything in a wide ring around you
Pommel Strike	W	A close-in hilt-strike that stuns the target
Battle Trance	E	Raises attack speed, action speed and slash damage for a time
Sunder	R	An overhead chop that halves the target's armor for a time

Combat Prayers

Prayers are toggled stat buffs bound to A, S, D, and F, each providing a constant bonus while enabled:

Prayer	Key	Effect
Bladesong	A	Raises attack speed
Longpoint	S	Extends attack range
Unflinching	D	Raises flinch resistance
Second Wind	F	Grants health regeneration

Where the prayers of the Chevalier cover armor, health, slash and smash, those of the Vanguard cover ground the Chevalier never touches: speed, reach, stagger and sustain.

Playstyle

The Vanguard is a straightforward class that rewards aggressive play. Without a shield you take more hits, so what keeps you standing is the prayer bar rather than armor. The piercing swing rewards drawing a group into a line and cutting through it, instead of picking enemies off one at a time.

The toolkit follows from that. Battle Trance and Bladesong speed up a naturally slow weapon, Longpoint and Unflinching buy back some of what the missing shield cost, Pommel Strike is the class's hard control, and Sunder is a blow worth building a fight around.

Strategy

• The swing pierces, so a row of goblins can be cut down together rather than one after another.
• Without a shield, armor pieces become more important, so visit the Merchant at the hideout to buy protective gear.
• Sweep through a group rather than singling one enemy out; the piercing swing is what does the work.
• Position carefully against ranged enemies like the Goblin Archer and Goblin Warlock, since you have no shield to block incoming projectiles.
• Whirlwind and a piercing swing clear packs quickly, which makes the Vanguard a fine class for farming XP.