Skill Focus: Watch Yourself!
If Warriors sometimes seem a bit self-centered in their builds, there may be a valid reason for it. Nearly all of the warrior skills affect just the warrior or their foes. There is at least one notable exception, however: the shout "Watch Yourself!" bolsters not only the warrior, but all of his teammates nearby.
Skill Location
The Supplies for the Duke quest available from Gate Guard Hollis in Old Ascalon provides "Watch Yourself!" as a reward. You will need to complete Barradin's Advance before you can activate Supplies for the Duke. If you choose to not undertake these quests, you can buy the skill from Captain Osric, the skill trainer in Yak's Bend, or from Dakk in Ember Light Camp.
Skill Description
Skill Name: "Watch Yourself!"
Description: Party members near you gain +20 armor for 5...11 seconds.
Cost: 4 adrenaline
Activation: 0 seconds
Linked Attribute: Tactics
Skill Type: Shout
How it Works
Once you've charged up 4 adrenaline, you can activate the skill. It's effects are instantaneous, providing the warrior and all nearby party members a boost of +20 armor. Once activated, the effect will last it's entire duration since there are no ways to remove Shouts. While under its effect, the "Watch Yourself!" icon will appear on the upper left corner of the screen of all affected teammates.
To understand how far the "nearby" range covers, you can visit the Master of Area Effects in the Isle of the Nameless training grounds. Standing in the center of the concentrentic circles, the first ring is adjacent, and the second ring is for nearby. "Watch Yourself!" will affect all party members within that second circle.
More on Armor
Every 40 points of additional armor translates into receiving half damage. The reduction from 20 points of armor equates to nearly a 30% reduction (actually about 29.3%) in damage received. Armor reduces damage from all physical and elemental attack forms. The only damage types it does not reduce are chaos, holy and shadow damage attacks from certain Mesmer, Monk and Necromancer spells.
Armor boosting effects from different skills stack, so the armor bonus from "Watch Yourself!" combines with other armor boosting skills such as Defy Pain, Dryder's Defenses or Physical Resistance. It's possible to reach extremely high armor levels by combining various armor effects. However, due to the diminishing returns effect of how damage vs. armor works, trying to improve your armor level past a certain point becomes less and less useful.
Using the Skill
At first glance, the skill may seem very basic and almost trivial in its usage. You can simply activate it whenever you reach 4 adrenaline, gaining the effect until it wears off, then wait for it to recharge and repeat. If you're charging up adrenaline at a fast enough pace, you may be able to sustain it during the entire course of battle.
However, it's quite likely that you may encounter situations where you can't keep it in effect during an entire battle, especially if you have few or no ranks in Tactics. In that case, you need to be much more selective of when to use this skill. Due to it's instant activation, you can wait to activate it right before a devastating attack hits you and your nearby allies. For example, when facing elementalist foes, you can activate "Watch Yourself!" right before a punishing spell like Meteor Shower or Earthquake hits you and your nearby teammates. This way, you'll be ensured to have the maximum armor in effect to ward off those hard-hitting spells. Similarly, if you find yourself in the area of on on-going damage-over-time effect like Maelstrom or Searing Heat, you can immediately activate it to reduce some damage you'll suffer while in the effect radius.
Against melee and ranged attacks, you can often predict when a hard-hitting attack will be launched. For example, there's a brief flash from Warrior skills' activation. You can hold off on activating "Watch Yourself!" until you see a special attack being activated, and instantly respond by activating it to help reduce the damage suffered.
You can take advantage of the nearby range effect by moving close enough to an ally who is under attack and then activating the shout. For example, if your party Monk or Mesmer is getting swarmed by your foes, you can rush to their aid. When you get close enough, you can activate "Watch Yourself!" to help reduce some of the damage they are taking.
Impact
Reducing damage by nearly 30% can be a huge help for the party and its healers. Spike damage that might otherwise kill a teammate may instead leave the target badly hurt, but alive. For example, a combined set of enemy physical and/or elemental spike attacks that would normally deal 500 damage to the Warrior or his nearby comrades, is reduced to about 350 damage by the armor bonus from "Watch Yourself!" As a result, the party healers have a chance to save them, rather than being faced with finding a way to resurrect them.
Specific Combos & Team Builds
Using melee attacks during combat tends to have a side-effect on Warriors. They can easily wind up spread out during a battle, well away from the casters. If the party casters come under attack, running skills like Sprint can help to reach them more quickly. When you get close enough, activate "Watch Yourself!" to help protect them.
Battle Rage, Berserker Stance, "To The Limit", Wary Stance, Frenzy & Flurry are all warrior skills that can help gain adrenaline faster. Using any of these in combination with "Watch Yourself!" can help in activating it more quickly and re-activating it more often during an on-going battle.
Balthazar's Spirit helps to quickly recharge adrenaline. Using it in combination with "Watch Yourself!" can allow a Warrior/Monk or Monk/Warrior to maintain a near constant +20 armor during combat. This combo can be especially useful in certain solo builds, even with very few ranks in Tactics.
Dark Fury is a Necromancer spell that helps charge adrenaline of nearby party members. It's range is the same as that of "Watch Yourself!" offering an interesting synergy. Multiple characters in the party can benefit from the Dark Fury while also being covered by a single Warrior's "Watch Yourself!". A Warrior heavy team that moves from target to target (such as IWAY) can take advantage of this skill combo.
Potential Conflicts
The skill does not stack with itself. If the party's Warriors are staying near each other during most of the combats, only one of them needs to run this skill for both to gain the effect. Bringing more than one copy is redundant in that case.
Skills that empty your adrenaline pool like Hammer Bash, Heavy Blow, Wild Blow or Final Thrust can limit the usefulness of "Watch Yourself!". This is a bigger issue if you have few ranks in Tactics and try to use "Watch Yourself!" as a reactive skill right before a hard-hitting attack hits you or your nearby teammates. In that case, emptying your adrenaline pool may leave you exposed and unprotected for a sizeable period of time allowing multiple enemy spike attacks to connect at full effect.
Summary
Warriors aren't normally used as support characters, but one warrior using "Watch Yourself!" can greatly aid their entire team. It can significantly reduce damage received by the Warrior and his nearby party members, possibly even saving them from death. Even with few ranks in Tactics, the skill can be quite useful if activated before the enemy's dangerous spells or attacks are delivered.
