tips for playing warlord?

[Demon Dog]

so I bought warlord because he seemed cool, but if anyone could give me some tips on how to use him, some combos and his strengths and weakness's that would be awesome.

[Kvervandi]

Good choice!
I'll note down some thoughts below to get you going. I don't know your level, so apologies in advance if this stuff is beneath you, but having just picked up Warlord - I'll for the sake of this post assume you are new, in which case, welcome to the game!

Warlord is a character that seems rather "Basic" when you first pick him up, and he does not have as many flashy moves as some of the other characters, but he is strong if played correctly.

As Fatboy suggested above, Youtube is normally a great way to learn, but I'm not familiar with any really good warlords. If you type Warlord For Honor on Youtube, most of it is spammed by a guy called Kenzo, who's gameplay is mediocre at best. If anyone has a specific channel to link, please fill me in.

General Warlord Tips:
-You have one of the highest HP pools in the game

-Your heavies have hyperarmor (Once they are mid-swing, attacks will not interrupt you)
Use these two points to trade into your opponents attacks.

-Light parries guarantee a Side Heavy (listen for the light parry sound)
-Heavy parries guarantee a light attack. (+see below)

Not so general Warlord Tips:
-Your fullblock stance is very situational and you can't CGB during. However, your heavy attack come out faster from Fullblock. Baiting people into GB'ing you can work. If they start parrying your heavy, mix it up with lights or headbutts from Fullblock.
To my knowledge, fullblock only guarantees a Heavy if you block a dashing attack.

-Upon any parry (light or heavy), if you GB IMMIDIATLY after, Warlord will bash them with his shield, which drains stamina and guarantees a light (similar to Headbutt). Use this on Heavy parries for that extra bit of stamina damage.

Bread and Butter:
-Crashing Charge/GB mixup. With Shieldbash and headbutt, you have tools to drain your opponents stamina. The Warlord is very strong against an OOS opponent, so this is your goal.
If someone throws a heavy from 50% stamina and you parry it, punish with shield bash, and following up with a headbutt. At this point they should be out of stamina. Unlock your character and sprint towards them.
At this point you can do 1 of 2 things:
A) Crashing charge (will knock down OOS opponent)
B) Lock on and GB (will knock down OOS opponent, if they dodge, they can't CGB)
Once they are knocked down, optimal punish is Heavy & light, or the leaping heavy into headbutt + light, depending on your own stamina.

If you are quick, you can do this twice, during an OOS rotation - which can be really oppressive.

Keep in mind Crashing charge can be used mid-fight also. Run someone into a wall guarantees a heavy. (Top heavy does less damage but is faster. To get a side heavy, stop the charge some distance away from the wall, and you can side-heavy him before he can recover from wallsplat animation, similar to raider throws).

- Headbutt / GB Mixup.
Headbutt is well known as one of the "safest" attacks in for Honor, which in most tier lists is Warlords redeeming factor. Because it is so quick, many people will dodge already when you dodge forward (first part of the animation). On occassion, try dashing forward and delaying your button press, so that you GB instead of Headbutting. Mix this up and keep your enemy guessing.
GB Guarantees a top heavy.

Despite hyperarmor, Heavies should be used with Caution, as you have no softfeints and no mixups. Light attacks and zone however, come out at decent speed. I like to Light - Heavyfeint - Light in the same direction, which will often punish parry-hungry opponents.

With my "bread and butter" above, people may call you a turtle/Taxilord or whatever, but in my opinion this is the optimal way of playing Warlord with the tools you have at your disposal.

[Tommy]

Ledge

Done.

[Kvervandi]

Originally posted by The Night King:

Ledge

Done.

This would be the cancerous way of playing Warlord. If this is your style, disregard everything I wrote above and ledge.

[Конструктор]

Originally posted by Kvervandi:

-Light parries

How do I Light Parry?

[Dorito Man]

Originally posted by Kvervandi:

snip

Kenzo’s pretty decent. I would definitely say he’s above average. If you want to learn about Warlord, watching Kenzo play him would not be too bad of an idea.

[Kvervandi]

Originally posted by Dorito Man:

Originally posted by Kvervandi:

snip

Kenzo’s pretty decent. I would definitely say he’s above average. If you want to learn about Warlord, watching Kenzo play him would not be too bad of an idea.

Oh absolutely, for starting out Kenzo is more than fine. He tends to talk a lot without really saying much, and he plays a lot of Dominion etc. which imo is not the best arena for finetuning moves of a specific character, but maybe that's just me .
Youtubers like; Mapra and FluxDelux (Both raider) & Ohmagosh and Cho Cho (Both Highlander) have very high level content, which is something I really appreciate watching, often going back in the video to see how they did something particular.
I've not come across anything of this quality on the Warlord specifically.
I'm not here to bash Kenzo, I just prefer other types of videos for learning purposes.