Duty Finder Tanking On WAR: How to win without losing your mind

[HiirNoivl]

Hi guys,

Hiir, here, just trying to help out my fellow WAR as you realize that Duty Finder (DF) will put you in the tank position with folks who may or may not understand the concepts of the game yet. While they learn, it's up to MRDs and WARs to somehow keep hate on loads of mobs and manage not to run out of TP while you compete for hate with classes with higher DPS than you. It's a difficult prospect but we're up to the challenge.

When you're entering the instance of Duty Finder you will be thrown into a party that consists of a tank, 2 Damage dealers and a healer. When you enter, the party will be corralled in a pen which prevents everyone from running off individually. But running off alone is what you actually want to do.

While you're corralled take stock of your party. If you have 1 Ranged DD you need to be on heightened alert. Archer range is insane and you have to keep a huge distance ahead if you're going to keep that guy from pulling hate. He will WS and AA before you can even get 1 hit in if you let him.

The most important rule is: Be extremely jealous of first pull. Don't even give anyone else a chance to hit the mob or pull before you. Don't ask "Ready?" Because the DF asks that before you enter. If they're there, they're ready.As soon as the Corral lifts, run for the first group of mobs.

Tomahawk / Mark the first mob (Use in game macros to mark mobs)

Then Overpower get some hate on the whole group.

Now if you have all Melee DDs, you're in luck because you can probably pull off a Skull Sunder Enmity combo before they catch up to you to get a head start on your mark's enmity. But if you have an ARC or a THM, you need to watch your enmity meters, the white boxes to your left. If the ARC or THM is hitting something other than what you've targeted you must switch immediately to that mob or they will pull it from the group and you'll just have to watch it eat his face and he'll get upset and leave you.

After the first mob is at about 3 small rotations in, Overpower again. The Healer will be building hate on the other mobs you're not hitting because of all the Cures. Overpower will keep them in line.

Once you're down to about 2 mobs out of the group, hit the brakes on WS and start regenning TP. Once you're down to one mob, it's okay to let the melee take the hate because you'll need your TP for the next pull. Once that last mob is down to about 10-15% HP Mercy Stroke it and run off to the next group to start the process over.

Keep your party behind you at all times. I cannot stress this enough.

Bosses and Adds

Bosses are straightforward tanking and easy to manage. Now you can't just take hits like a GLA/PLD, so dodging and watching for heavy hitting moves is important. Watch for a charge up bar above the monster's HP meter. Move to the side or behind while the monster is charging up for a hit. Once that bar disappears run back into position. The move won't hit you even though the animation goes off with you in it.

Watch your map. Adds will pop up as red dots. Your Healer will be Spam curing you at times so it's important to lasso the adds as soon as they pop. Adds tend to pop at around 75% so once you approach that magic line start regenning TP. When you see Adds in a group, run up to them ASAP. The adds will be stationary for about 2-3 seconds long enough for you to get ahead of the party and Overpower them before they head for your healer or before your ranged can get that first pull.

If they're separated, use your enmity bar to target one at a time and Tomahawk them in to submission. When they come to you Overpower.



Please let me know if you have any more tips on how to tank on WAR/MRD in adverse tanking situations.

[AmandaHuggenkiss]

Thanks Hiir!

[HiirNoivl]

Small edit: Confused people were confused about keeping the party Behind you.

What I mean is, when you are running dungeons, don't let people get to the trash mobs first. You should be the first person in the boss room. The first person to the adds. Etc. Etc. Etc.

Don't go with the rest of the group chasing chests, go to the next group of mobs.

[Mjollnir]

Run forward
Tomahawk
Overpower the group until there's one left
Axe it
Carry on

Bosses have their individual tactics, but essentially
Run forward
Tomahawk
Axe it
If it becomes immune, hit adds (probably with Tomahawk)
Open chests

Troubleshooting
If you screw up and miss the overpower and mobs go after the healer, Tomahawk them back to you. If the DDs are laying into a different mob, just hold the others while they sort it out.


I used the duty finder a lot and didn't run into any problems with that method. I even opened my fair share of chests (and other interactible dungeon bits). I guess I'm saying that, aside from tactics for specific situations which need to be discussed, the basic gameplay for the dungeons is very simple. Maybe it was just good fortune that I didn't get partied with idiots, but I kinda just think no-one's too stupid to understand their role in a party.

[Pwnagraphic]

Not sure how WAR is compared to MRD, but I've held hate better than the GLA I was partied with pre-DF. Once I got into the DF and was main tank, I held hate good enough to keep it off the healer to where she/he barely had to do anything except heal me every so often.

There's a lot of bad experiences on the beta forums, but I had some good parties whether I was tanking, or DD using the Duty Finder.

[HiirNoivl]

Yeah I've had some very good experiences. It's a genuine delight to play with folks who know what their doing so I don't have to resort to extreme unorthodox methods to just do my job. Playing with new people can also teach you a lot about thinking outside the box to deal with situations you would never run into with an experienced group.

The opposition to my post has been pretty strong, all from folks who can't bear the thought of rushing into battle way ahead of the party or actually not going for full enmity of every mob you pull. My suggestion that you regen TP after every pull even if it means that the last mob isn't red on your bar when it dies was especially controversial.

While it is a fact that as a tank your main job... you're only job, really, is to keep hate, in this particular case, you're dealing with maverick parties that may throw a banana peel in the the middle of your carefully orchestrated dance. I built this method in order to be prepared for anything that gets thrown at you. And whatever gets thrown at you, you have to handle it immediately and without hesitation. I'm more comfortable being able to freely use my Conal AoE and ranged enmity ability whenever I want to. But especially for fast solid pulls that gets loads of enmity before anyone else can even think of doing anything.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of Flash.

The most common problems were DD not assisting the Tank, Ranged DDs pulling before the tank establishes hate or even gets to the enemy group and Adds that are aggro'ed by the healer's cures after they appear.

I've tried to address all these issues by being ready before they happen and staying ahead and on top of everything that happens. Of course, there's always more than one way to do things.

[Molly_Millions]

It's usually not an issue unless one of the DDs gets off a big move before you can get in an enmity combo. Even then it's pretty easy to get hate back on WAR.

[HiirNoivl]

Thanks Molly! I'm a bit proactive in my approach on Duty Finder because I guess I'm just a control freak. If I don't let them get first hit and then I don't have to worry about getting hate back. Getting hate back spends more TP than just getting it and holding it. :3

WAR single Target Tanking

Because of the problems with MRD tanks, people often think that WAR is a thin skinned tank that just can't take damage like a PLD/GLA can. But PLD and WAR tank use different methods for the very same result. Max hate generated and HP is maintained through out the fight.

Currently, Cancer, the crustacean boss in the FATE "It's Not Lupus", is the toughest boss in the game and perfect for testing WAR survivability.

I have a pool of 5432 HP to draw from (Defiance Buff included). Cancer hits on average 300-400 for his Big Claw attack and 600-700 for his Bubble attack which crits for about 1050.

WAR has almost no mitigation abilities. Foresight raises your defense by 20% so your gear directly effects this stat. Cross class, you have Awareness, which lowers your chance of receiving Critical Damage, and Featherfoot which raises your evasion chances.

WAR is not PLD that depends on mitigation, so many people have said that it can't withstand big hits. I'm here to tell you it can but with self-heals.

WAR builds up a Status called Wrath, certain combos and abilities stack Wrath 5 times. On Wrath V you enter a state called Infuriated. Infuriated will let you use 3 abilities: "Inner Beast" a melee skill that is 100% absorbed as HP. "Steel Cyclone" an AoE ability and Unchained an ability that allows you to be free of the 35% damage nerf that occurs when you use Defiance.

Your ability to stack Wrath effortlessly and constantly will be what makes a WAR tank work.

Main Combos for Wrath Stacking:

Heavy Swing > Maim > Storms Eye (Wrath I)
Heavy Swing > Skull Sunder (Wrath II) > Butchers Block (Wrath III)

Abilities for Wrath Stacking:

Thrill of Battle
Brutal Swing
Berserk
Vengeance

When tanking Single Target, build hate quickly by starting out with Berserk and the first 2 combos and then Vengeance. You'll have a brief 5 sec Pacification but this really means nothing but TP regen. Follow up with Convalesence and Inner Beast. Then start a regular rotation of the 2 combos listed used with Berserk > Bloodbath.

Efficiency matters.

Be mindful that you don't waste TP or your Wrath. For example, if Skull Sunder will put you at "Infuriated" status, don't follow with Butcher's Block, because you would be using TP but not building any more Wrath. Always use Berserk with Bloodbath. They have the same cooldown and will be sure that you're getting the max HP out of all your moves.

Using Infuriate is great. Berserk > Bloodbath > Inner Beast > Infuriate > Inner Beast is one of your highest self heals. Berserk > Bloodbath > Inner Beast > Infuriate > Unchained is even better.

As you can see, WAR self heals constantly throughout the fight in a Single target situation. Once you become adept at efficiently using your Wrath abilities, you will be at full HP throughout your single target tanking experience even without a WHM, unless of course, you're tanking a primal or something with an Astral Flow. And even then, WAR is its own regen.

Still some will say, "Yeah that'll work so long as you have TP but the minute you run out..."

Actually, you don't run out so long as you pace yourself. One tick of TP should pass between each of your Weaponskills. Many of your skills don't use TP at all, so they're not a drain. So long as you don't spam WS after WS, you'll be fine with no BRD song.

Multi-target Tanking

Even though people like to say that this is where WAR is most suited, this is actually more challenging. You still need to build Wrath but your combos include two new abilities that are Wrath draining.

Steel Cyclone : A Wrath V only ability that is high damage but doesn't add enmity.
Overpower : A ability that adds enmity but doesn't build Wrath

The main issues we have here is that Overpower takes 100 TP while not building any Wrath. Your Wrath chain suffers a hiccup and you lose 2 ticks of TP. Steel Cyclone does not regen any HP unless it's used with Bloodbath. So when you use it instead of Inner Beast someone or something (Kweh?!) else will need to make up for that.

So Inner Beast gets replaced by Steel Cyclone + Bloodbath and Berserk. Overpower sucks TP and interrupts Wrath building so use it only with Berserk, Bloodbath and Unchained for max efficiency. And even then, only once.

But even this ends up being only a minor issue in 8 party situations.