Skills
It's definitely important to talk about skills so that you actually understand a lot of my remarks. I'm not going to say what they do, only my opinion about them

Useless Skills-

*Directional Buffs: Effects aren't worth wasting the 1 second to cant them. they rarely work on teammates anyway.
*4 Hour Buffs(except FW, Inspire, Vitalize): Just read what they do...
*Guarded Frenzy: I can't stress enough how useless this is. If you take hits in frenzy you are doing something wrong.

Brute Tree skills:

*Feint Attack(FA)/Hail of Furious Strikes(HoFS): The Damage doesn't scale right. They practically do the same damage at level 60 and 80.
*Guard of Dancing Steel(IGoDS): Unless you plan to ONLY fight Assasins or Barbs 1v1 it sucks. Caster's don't proc it and soldiers won't be phased.
*Overcome the Odds(OtO): Useless 1v1, you won't take much damage in groups to it doesn't matter
*Blessed Conquest(BC): Short immunity, terribly debilitating debuff, not worth 10 wasted points.
*Lumbering Hulk(ILH): You move WAY too slow to be effective in PvP, and it takes too long to cancel to be used as a burst buffer.

Carnage Tree Skills:

*Flashing Defence: You already have five 5 key combos, and 3 that are actually really good. It's impossible to actually use four in one fight, especially one that's as useless as flashing defense. 33% for 6 points? not worth it.
*Defiance: Not worth 8 points for a MINOR heal.
*Warlord's March: Out of Combat... enough said.
*Rally/Breech: Neither of their effects are worth the time it takes to use the combo for PvP. Maybe for PvE...


Useful Skills-

*Directional Buffs: I lied, they are good, but ONLY!!!! for burst buffing
*Improved(Imp) Frenzy: I'm not a fan but 10% is definitely worth 5 points if you want the burst damage
*Imp Defense/Life Saver: You should spend 95% of your time in Defense stance so feel no shame in making it better
*Stone/Iron Skin: You can't kill if you don't live... 5 points is worth 5% IMO
*Cunning Deflection: So godly against CoS and other big attacks. Not because it deals damage back,but because it buts their damage in half.
*Batter Aside(BA): I don't classify this as a Brute skill because the only reason it is so good is because you can switch to a 2H and use it while you are DW.
*Volcanic Rage(VR): Quite good with Reaping Blade and Rend Flesh, great burst buffer

Brute Tree skills:

*Burst of Aggression(BoA): As far as I know, I've never failed to KD a Guardian with this skill, while I do all the time with Batter Aside. That and the fact that it's almost instant make it great.... too bad it's a Brute skill.
*Throat Slash(TS): Great for interrupting... that's about it
*Crushing Onslaught{CS): Pretty much a Snare
*Imp Vitalize: Good if you are put in a group with ONLY casters
*Legendary Heroic Call: Nice buff, the best thing is that it can be cast even if you are stunned/KD/whatever. Gives nice Damage, nice regen. Not amazing though, long cooldown.

Carnage Tree Skills:

*Whirlwind(WW): Literally our best skill. Can crit for 3000+ with a fairly short cast time. The cooldown is the only thing that makes it not OP in my opinion.
*Annihilate: One of our best skills. There is a VERY high chance to crit, excellent burst buffer
*Imp Fire Weave(FW): Good Lord... a useful offensive buff... Adds about 100-200 damage depending on Stance, and the burn hits several times for 11-30
*Warlord(WL): Non-cast group Stam/Mana buff, not shabby. Amazing only because it costs 1 point.
*Imp Inspire: One of the main strengths of our class... In combat stam regen. This skill alone allows us to beat Guardians 1v1 (without pots)
*Imp Bloody Hack/Bloodbath: Bleeds are one thing that makes our class viable in battle. Plus, you can slow your opponent.
*Crippling Bloodbath: Actually works with Bloody Hack, nice slow for 1 point.
*Reaping Blade(RB): Burst buffer, great skill, almost doubles your damage.
*Rend Flesh(RF): When used in tandem with RB it is so amazing.... really. you might think (oh, adds about 40-70 damage?) Well try it in frenzy with RB on... 800 dmg whites.
*Bladeweave: It's nice when you're against a heavy melee group, but I'm not a very big fan, for 1 point it's quite good though.
*Skirmisher: A moderate skill increase with minor debuffs. Good for when you are circle strafing. Especially for 1 point.
*Rend and Tear{R&T): I don't like this skill, but bleeding damage is money for Conqs.


Skill Points-

Endurance and Run Speed are essential for Conqs. Though Run Speed only works out of combat, it is used to chase down runners or even just to get a jump on your opponent. Things like Hiding, Climbing, or Perception can me used at your discretion and won't effect your fighting ability much. Bandaging is quite useful as well, while recovery is actually pretty pointless for a Conq IMO as their stamina is already amazing due to Inspire and WL.

Skills Overview:

As you no doubt have noticed, while all the main skills in the 2H tree are pretty useless, most of the main skills in the DW tree completely dominate. Many people like to say "Well the CC from the Brute tree is so good!" Yeah I call bullshit on that. Two KDs, an interrupt and a Snare don't outweigh the fact that your character is totally worthless otherwise. With DW you do great damage AND you can always switch to 2H and BA. Sorry, but I'll take DW any day of the week. Oh, and for those of you who are thinking "Hell, I'll just use DW and splice 17 points into the Brute Tree to get BoA and TS." DON'T DO IT! In what would does it make sense to kill 15 feat points to get a KD and a 2 second stun. Go spend those 15 points into the Gen tree.

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Strengths

I've found that I can be an killer in both 1v1 and group combat. This thread will describe WHY we don't suck and what you can do to ensure that you aren't one of those players bitching on the forums.


The main things that you need to realize about the Conqueror is that we were never meant to be a tank class, just because we have a lot of health. People say we can never be a Barb, and that's true, but our battle standards have the similarities. This is where the whining and QQing is derived from, because you just CAN'T! play like them at all. Where Barbs can be considered glass canons and can take very little damage while dealing HUGE amounts, Conqs deal significantly less damage in defensive stance and take significantly MORE in frenzy stance. Ironically, stances are where our main strengths come in.

Tanking

You can't

Stances

Neutral:
Use it ONLY against mages, or anybody without physical damage.

Defensive:
Starting from level 15 or so, you get a couple of stances, one being Defensive. By default Defense Stance gives you 5% invulnerability to Slashing, Crushing and Piercing damage, while simultaneously reducing your damage by 15%. The improved version upgrades your defense to 8%, a notable increase. You should be in this stance AT ALL TIMES while not engaged in battle, and about 90% of the time during a fight. Remember, 8% of a 4000 damage CoS is 320 damage. It's really up to you whether you want Improved Defensive/Lifesaver or not.

Frenzy:
You deal 60% extra damage but take twice as much. Improved Frenzy increases damage to 70%, a nice gain for 5 points. The amazing thing about Frenzy is that the added damage applies to EVERYTHING you do. That makes +damage on gear, crossbow damage, bleed damage, burn damage, GoDS damage, even the damage you do from cunning deflection is increased by 60%. This makes you deadly. Since you take double damage, you are weaker than a clothy; therefore, it is imperative that you NEVER get while in Frenzy Stance. Never use frenzy for more than 1 or 2 STRONG or unrequited attacks. This is where Stance dancing comes in.