Warhammer: Chaosbane classes: Empire Soldier
First off let's talk about what Warhammer: Chaosbane actually is. It is a Diablo-esque hack and slash RPG game of sorts. The game is driven by the pursuit of better loot which as you would expect gets better and better the further into the game that you go. Just like Diablo, the game doesn't rely terribly on any actual strategy and the base game is actually extremely easy to beat. The added content and online multiplayer is where the real fun and challenge lies.
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The skills that each characters have, as you would expect, vary widely and there are a total of 5 classes to choose from. You just need to decide which one suits you the best. I'll start with one of the easier classes to pick up straight away and this guy serves primarily as someone who get up front and dishes out melee damage.
Imperial Soldier
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While the game doesn't really give any clear cut way in which each class behaves in a certain role, most people would consider the Imperial Soldier to be a tank class since most of his skill evolved around blocking and being able to endure damage. This isn't to say that his armor rating is better than the other classes, because it isn't necessarily, but he possesses a lot of skills that are designed around not taking damage due to blocks of various nature.
Personally, I prefer ranged play so this class didn't really appeal to me, especially when faced with ranged enemies whose AI will always make them run away from you. This is particularly annoying earlier on in the game when enemies are actually faster than you and you find yourself chasing them all over the battlefield as they take pot shots at you. The basic skills you receive almost immidiately are called Slash and Incisive Breakthrough are zero range attacks but the latter does a moving attack that causes pretty high damage to all enemies that get right in front of you. This normally makes quick work of any enemy that is also constructed around a melee attack.
One of the more useful skills that really starts to shine in multiplayer is the use of any of the soldier's Banner skills that will make an area on the screen that improves the attack and defense of all members of your team. As you develop this skill that circle becomes larger so that it covers nearly all of the screen. You can sill attack after the initial banner placement and it provides a really nice buff to all of your team mates which includes increased damage dealt, decreased damage taken, and a reduction in cooldowns which is something I think we can all agree is pretty awesome.
The nature of all of Chaosbane's combat is an overwhelming amount of enemies all at once in an attack pattern that I liken to a Zerg Swarm. However, most of these sorts of enemies are very easy to kill, particularly when you start involving skills like Whirling Slash which does high damage to all enemies around you in a nearly 360 degree way.
There is a skill that you get much later in the game called Sigmar's Wrath which is one of the most devastating attacks in the game to the point where it almost seems unfair. When this is activated you will have flames surrounding you in a wide ark that travels with you as you move. Using this skill you can basically plow down all enemies in your path and provided you can avoid their attacks, it will make quick work of most elite enemies and even bosses. You can see this skill displayed in the first 1 minutes of this "build video"
Overall, I would say that leveling up the Imperial Soldier was my least favorite character to level up but the Mastery skills that you acquire later are out of this world. So there is a tradeoff, you have to go through what I consider to be the most frustrating and annoying leveling up of any of the characters in order to later have access to skills that are highly sought after by most online groups.
I rarely use this character if I can not find a group online that needs it. This is a decent class to intro you to the game since you are basically indestructible for the first 10 levels or so but then when you reach the midway part of the game it starts to become exceptionally boring. However, since it is an integral part of any group especially due to the buffs, you may wish to go through the 2 hours or so that it will take to reach level 50 and unlock the higher level skills.