I'm not sure if it's still too early to talk about abilities and weapon skills, but after looking at the abilities and weapon skills from the official site, I'm seeing some interesting combinations of abilities from different classes.
I'm not sure if I'm right, but since they have abilities and weapon skills for each class, I'm thinking maybe when you learned an ability from a specific class, you are able to carry to another class. As for weapon skills, you can only use those skills when you equip that specific type of weapon. And I'm assuming there's a limitation of abilities/skills you can put in the hotkey list (or marco), let's say 10 for example. So I looked through all abilities from the Disciples of War and just for the fun of it, I came up with a list of 10 skills for solo, DD (in party) and tank (in party).
Solo:
Weapon Skills:
1. Jarring Strike: Strike at an enemy's joints, dealing blunt damage and stunning the target.
This ability would be a great to use as a combo: Featherfoot > (evade) Jarring Strike > Blindside.
2. Victimize: Exploit an enemy's weakneeses, dealing slashing damage and increasing your critical hit rate.
This ability is good to use after using Marauder's Disorient and Lancer's Comrade in Arms.
3. Shoulder Tackle: Charge at an enemy with devastating force, dealing blunt damage.
Since I'm giving myself a limitation of 10 skills, I would choose Shoulder Tackle over Haymaker simply because I want to use Jarring Strike everytime I evade an attack following by Blindside.
Abilities:
4. Mocking Provoke (Pug): Whistle tauntingly to increase enmity.
This ability can be replaced by Gladiator's Rousing Provoke, depend on which ability is more effective.
5. Blindside (Pug): Strike from an enemy's rear, increasing attack power by half of dexterity.
I'm assuming this ability is similar to Thief's backstab in XI, which is the highest damage from this class.
6. Chakra (Pug): Channel your vital energies, consuming TP to restore HP.
Will have to see how effective this is, tho it's the only ability for Pug to heal himself during battle.
7. Featherfoot (Pug): Tread lightly, increasing evasion.
I'm seeing this ability as one of the most important abilities for Pug when soloing and tanking.
8. Disorient (Marauder): Flick dust, sand, or soil at an enemy, reducing the target's evasion. Effect may stack up to three times.
I think this is a good debuff to put on a mob, less evasion meaning higher chance for me to hit it.
9. Comrade in Arms (Lancer): Bolster morale, consuming TP to place an enfeebling effect on the target which grants attacking party members enhanced TP generation.
I would assume faster TP generation rate means less rest time between battles.
10. Life Surge (Lancer): Make sport of an enemy, gaining the ability to absorb HP. While active, successful attacks reduce the target's evasion.
This is a second ability for my Pug to heal himself during battle, another great feature of this ability is that it'll also reduce the target's evasion.
10a. Bloodbath (Marauder): Revel in the blood of an enemy, converting a percetage of the damage dealt by your next successful attack into HP.
This is another option for the last ability, the decision will be based upon which ability is more effective. However, I would prefer Life Surge over Bloodbath because LS would also reduce the mob's evasion.
DD in party:
Weapon skills:
1. Jarring Strike: the stunning effect is always good for the party. However, since this skill can only be used after evading an attack, so it has to be used after I taunted the mob, then evade its attack, then cast this skill. And as soon as the mob wakes up, the tank has to taunt it away from me.
2. Victimize: I'm sure the mob will be full of debuffs when we play in a party, so this skill is a very good way to increase my crit rate.
3. Shoulder Tackle: Since the DD class is not supposed to get hit much, so again, I would think Haymaker is a less important skill for this build.
4. Seismic Shock: Create powerful tremors, increasing attack power and dealing earth damage at range to all enemies between you and the target.
This looks like is Pug's only AOE attack, I don't know how often we'll encounter battles with multiple mobs, but just in case we do, this would be a good skill to grab enmity away from the casters.
Abilities:
5. Mocking Provoke (Pug): Since Pug has defensive stance, I would always assume my Pug to be a secondary tank in terms of emergency, so this ability is a must for all circumstance.
6. Blindside (Pug): As stated earlier, I see this as Pug's most powerful attack.
7. Featherfoot (Pug): As a secondary tank, this ability is a must for a Pug.
8. Murderous Intent (Marauder): Throw yourself into your attacks, increasing critical hit rate and reducing TP generation.
I'm not sure if this ability's effect would stack with Victimize, if it does, it'll be the best way to maximize a Pug's crit rate.
9. Ferocity (Lancer): Trigger an adrenaline rush, consuming HP to increase the attack power of your next attack.
This ability would make a great combo with Blindside after increasing my crit rate with Victimize and Murderous Intent.
10. Collusion (Lancer): Employ deception, transferring the enmity generated by your next successful attack to an ally positioned between you and the enemy.
Since I have abilities and skills to increase crit rate and attack power, I'm assuming I'll be generating lots of enmity as well, so this skill would be nice to use if I ever OT the mob and try to put its attention back to the tank.
10a. Chameleon (Archer): Blend in with your surroundings, consuming TP to reduce enmity.
This would be another option for my last ability, depends on which ability is more effective on losing the mob's attention.
Tank in party:
Weapon Skills:
1. Jarring Strike: I would imagine myself spaming Featherfoot and Jarring Strike when tanking. The more I can stun the mob means less damage will be made by it.
2. Haymaker: Deliver a massive strike, increasing attack power and dealing blunt damage.
3. Shoulder Tackle
4. Seismic Shock
Abilities:
5. Mocking Provoke (Pug)
6. Chakra: Channel your vital energies, consuming TP to restore HP.
7. Featherfoot
8. Defender (Marauder): Tighten your guard, increasing defense and reducing attack power. Increases enmity generation while in steadfast stance.
The only concern about this ability is that I'm not sure what's steadfast stance, if this is a Marauder-only stance, then this ability may not be able to use at all.
9. Cover (Gladiator): Protect an ally, positioning yourself between them and the enemy to redirect damage dealt to yourself instead.
10. Rampart (Gladiator): Protect yourself, increasing defense and magical defense.