Question about 1H+Shld Warrior

[Atima]

Got a question about Warriors and some of the Job Traits they get. I'm seeing a lot of job traits that would promot Axe + Shield gameplay (Fencer, Shield Mastery, & Shield Defense Bonus), so my question is: Do many Warriors play this way? Do they try to DPS Tank it up with a 1h Axe and a Shield?

I know a lot use GAxe to do stupid amounts of Dmg, but could a Warrior increase their survivability with a shield while still maintain "decent" (emphasis on "decent," not amazing or GAxe numbers) dmg with a 1h Axe?

Does anyone have any experience with this playstyle? I'm curious because my Warrior is coming up on a few of these traits and I'd like to know if I should just go GAxe all the way to cap or would taking advantage of these traits pay off in a duo/leveling situation?

[hideka]

people tend to avoid it beause the Damage mitigation is subpar compared to other tanking styles, and the dd output is far less then you could get with a greataxe.

[Mirage]

I was hoping they would make it a viable option when I saw the update notes for the update that added those abilities. I was however pretty disappointed

[Atima]

So from a leveling standpoint I'd be better off just going /Nin for Shadows or just /Sam to burst stuff down and the occasional Third Eye? I duo with a Whm so staying up isn't an issue, I was just asking to see if I can have better mitigation and decent dmg as well. Thanks for the responses.

[kingfury]

I have in fact tanked using this style and it's very interesting to say the least, but SE hasn't given WAR a viable shield that has the block rate increase bonus to make it realistic in the long run. I've built a high shield skill set from gear and capped my shield skill, but block rate doesn't proc anywhere near as often as a PLDs shield does. If WARs could have used the new Abyssea shield then perhaps things could have been vastly different. Also if WARs could use Shield Bash.
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Unfortunately, the Biggest benefit from using an Axe + shield set up is the stun from smash axe, which is just fun against magic mobs and nasty TP moves. The benefit list really stops there though in terms of Tanking/DD'ing.
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So until WAR gets some new toys and JAs in this field, I'll have to advise sticking with /sam and a GA due to the high versatility for both Tanking/DD'ing. /nin doesn't offer the choice to swap between tanking(seigan+third eye) and DD'ing(hasso+all war buffs lol) like /sam does, both of which are rewards for using a 2handed weapon.

[Kyrial]

I try to use a shield when skilling up 1-handed weapons just to get shield skillups. But that's just cuz I like blue numbers, not for any practical reason. >_>

[Atima]

Cool deal, thanks for the detailed responses.

[Nepharite]

A warrior using the axe/shield combo would have a hard time holding hate over a properly geared DD.
Overall the damage mitigation from the shield wouldn't be worth it.
PDT set > Shield.

[Harukusan]

PDT and MDT sets are situational and for the most part, in Abyssea, aren't even really necessary if you have a WHM who can pay attention. My advice would be to focus entirely on the DD aspect of WAR. Tanking NMs and lesser mobs doesn't necessarily mean taking less damage while you have hate, just getting hate and holding it. Any well geared DD can do this easily. A lot of the best low man groups (2-6 people) put their best DD on the front line to kill their targets as quickly as possible. Survivability becomes much less of an issue when your enemies don't live long enough to kill you. Needless to say, using a shield as WAR is entirely unnecessary and unconventional. The main reason PLD can block much more frequently than all other jobs is because their skill is much higher. Wielding a single one-handed weapon would dramatically slow down your TP gain, which translates to fewer weapon skills, which means even less damage, which likely means you won't be taking much hate to be blocking or retaliating for TP. There's a lot of math involved that I don't want to get into that shows how one-hand and two-hand weapons differ... So I'll just say... /SAM + G.Axe onry! And this concludes my not-so-well-thought-out segment of the day.

[Gakaroth]

For low level duo like you're suggesting, it can work, but then again, so can sword and shield, or club and shield, aslong as you keep your JA's and ws flying, your WHM shouldn't pull hate, WAR is the most versitile job in the game when it comes to it's arsenal, and it's up to you entirely how you use it Though for all intents and purposes, try and keep your GA skilled along with whatever weapon you end up using as at the highest levels, you'll end up using it most.