B-TIER | BUILD GUARDIAN GLADIATOR (@ascensionsidekick) | ASCENSION CoA

Build Guardian Gladiator Ascension CoA
Gladiator
great weapon arena fantasy tanky DPS

The Gladiator wears a tank's plate and shield but hits like a DPS: heavy Physical swings backed by just enough residual shielding to shrug off a mistake.

It's a bruiser — bring it when you want damage that can eat a frontal and keep on swinging.

Rate this build
Share your opinion on this spec: rate it across 4 game situations. Once enough votes come in, the community score influences the tier shown in the build rankings.
📊 Build
🏰 Dungeon
4.0
S
🐉 Raid
4.0
S
🥊 Arena
3.3
A
🌍 BG & Open World
4.0
S
WEIGHTED TIER B
3 votes
The community's weight grows with each new vote.
Dungeon
Raid
Arena
BG & Open World
Signature Spell
Glory

Your Ram now grants you a stack of Glory for 30 seconds. At 3 stacks, your next Ram within 30 seconds deals 150% increased damage.

Retail Feel

The closest retail analog is a Protection Warrior played in an offensive/PvP posture — a 'DPS-Prot' hybrid — with a good dose of Arms Warrior burst identity layered on top. Ram/Pulverize/Broad Sweep echo Shield Slam/Revenge, the block-scaled mitigation (Shield Training, Shield Combat, Bulwark Rush) mirrors Shield Block, and Battle Rush plays the role of Charge. Spear Throw's healing-reduction debuff grafts Mortal Strike's anti-heal identity onto a shield-tank frame — mechanically a block-rating melee kit built around reactive mitigation rather than passive healing, exactly how Protection Warrior plays defense in retail.

Role, tiers & resource
A
Dungeon
MeasuredAcross 206 fights (Mythic dungeons — no Mythic+ difficulty yet, phase 2) · index 1.31
B
Raid
MeasuredAcross 111 fights (Zul'Gurub, all difficulties, phase 2) · index 1.21
B
Arena
Not measuredSmall-scale duels & skirmishes
C
World Battlegrounds
Not measuredLarge-scale open-world PvP
RoleMelee DPS
Primary statStrength
ResourceEnergy

How is this number calculated?

Measured scope: Zul'Gurub, all difficulties — High Priest Venoxis, High Priestess Jeklik, High Priestess Mar'li, Bloodlord Mandokir, High Priest Thekal, High Priestess Arlokk, Jin'do the Hexxer, Hakkar, Gri'lek, Gahz'ranka.

These numbers come from Ascension Logs’ public combat logs, not an in-house guess.

The index compares each spec to the median player — the one sitting exactly in the middle of the ranking — on the same boss and the same group format: 1.00 matches that median player, 1.40 means 40% more damage than them. Only each player’s best fight counts, never their average — otherwise a player posting fifty fights would count as much as fifty different players, and averaging would mostly reward beginners still learning the spec rather than those who’ve mastered it. The comparison always happens on the same boss and the same format: a two-minute fight and a seven-minute one aren’t comparable, and a flex raid doesn’t give the same support as a 25-man.

Tiers (S, A, B…) aren’t picked by hand: the cutoffs are calculated from the real spread of every measured spec. A spec under 15 distinct players or 30 fights isn't ranked at all, rather than given a made-up grade.

View the source rankings ↗

How is this number calculated?

Mythic dungeons only — Ascension CoA has no Mythic+ tier yet (229 tracked encounters).

These numbers come from Ascension Logs’ public combat logs, not an in-house guess.

The index compares each spec to the median player — the one sitting exactly in the middle of the ranking — on the same boss: 1.00 matches that median player, 1.40 means 40% more damage than them. Only each player’s best fight counts, never their average — otherwise a player posting fifty fights would count as much as fifty different players, and averaging would mostly reward beginners still learning the spec rather than those who’ve mastered it. The comparison always happens on the same boss: 92.4% of dungeon fights are played in 5-player groups, and splitting by group size as well would discard more usable damage rows (4.5% lost against 1.4% when comparing by boss alone) for zero additional publishable spec — group size is therefore not part of the comparison.

Tiers (S, A, B…) aren’t picked by hand: the cutoffs are calculated from the real spread of every measured Dungeon spec — this column has its own distribution, it doesn’t reuse Raid’s cutoffs. A spec under 15 distinct players or 30 fights isn't ranked at all, rather than given a made-up grade.

Each performance above links to its own real combat report. Ascension Logs, however, doesn’t offer a rankings page covering every Mythic dungeon — unlike Raid, there’s no « View the source rankings » button here.

Ranking updated on August 17, 2026

These talents are a PvE configuration. The Arena and Battleground grades shown above rate the specialisation’s PvP potential — not this tree.

Stat Priority
PvE
Hit (until your specials stop missing a +3-level target) Expertise (until your attacks stop being dodged or parried) Strength (native Attack Power; also converts into block rating via Shield Training and Bulwark Rush) Agility (secondary stat, no confirmed direct conversion in the current kit) Armor Penetration (worth prioritizing once hit and expertise caps are met) Critical Strike Haste
PvP
Resilience Stamina Strength Agility Armor Penetration

Every big Gladiator hit — Grand Entrance, Pulverize, Centurion Strike, Ram — is a flat, Attack-Power-scaled Physical nuke. Strength stays the primary stat: it feeds Attack Power directly (Experienced Combatant, +20% of Strength) and also converts into block rating (Shield Training, 10% of Strength; Bulwark Rush, +25% for 6 seconds off Battle Rush) — there is, however, no Strength-to-Critical-Strike conversion anywhere in this kit. Armor Penetration only pays off once melee hit and expertise caps are met.

Build Abilities
Class Tree
Knightly Demeanor Guardbreaker Gallant Valiant Effort Glorious Arena Lord of the Arena Knight's Calling Net Throw Counter Stance Shield Wall Standard of Rallying Unstoppable Shrug It Off Brace Warstopper Valiant Warrior Light Nets Thick Shields Valiance Myrmidon Energetic Deflector Relentless Sturdy
Specialization
Might Built Different One-Handed Mastery Waste No Movement Tactical Combat Crashing Force Deadly Blow Myrmidon Legionnaire Supremacy Retiarius Sword Training Centurion Strike Heroism Clinch Brawler Double Duty Heroic Effort Bulwark Rush Upper Hand

See also: all Ascension builds · the talent builder

Talent data: ascension.gg · Spec tiers & analysis: ascensionsidekick.com
Editorial rewrite, interactive talent tree, tooltips and fact-checking: KAMI LABS