Awareness

Hrathen is correct, it is a damage normalization ability.

Of note, a time this cool down shines is in turn 4 when tanking a knight/soldier pair.

Any time you are tanking multiple enemies awareness is very strong.

That said, it is an ability that can't do much to save you once things have gone poorly. Its not a sentinel, once you are in that last third of your hp, awareness isn't teh skill to look to. Its when you've just engaed a large group and looking to stay in that top third of your health then this skill is very potent.

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Originally Posted by Sapphidia

So I macroed Awareness to Fast Blade.

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I've avoided doing anything like this because of animation delays, though now I'm wondering. If you put Fast Blade in first with a /wait and then Awareness after that, you might get around it. It might also be better since Awareness is typically best used while AoE tanking to put it on Flash instead of Fast Blade. The only drawback is it might interfere with Circle of Scorn, which I almost always try to use as a follow up to Flash.

I always assumed it was for that one big hit on bosses (if it can crit), but mostly a pvp skill that will be needed in 2.1

It's best used in trash pulls IMO. Boss fights it's pretty useless since nobody can determine when the boss will (or can) crit. During trash pulls you are usually tanking more than 1 mob and most of those mobs can and will crit. Awareness makes it easier to tank multiple mobs. Or at least that's what I have noticed.

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Originally Posted by Wyndam

I've avoided doing anything like this because of animation delays, though now I'm wondering. If you put Fast Blade in first with a /wait and then Awareness after that, you might get around it. It might also be better since Awareness is typically best used while AoE tanking to put it on Flash instead of Fast Blade. The only drawback is it might interfere with Circle of Scorn, which I almost always try to use as a follow up to Flash.

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Why not cast CoS first in the macro?

/ac "Circle of Storm" <t>
/ac "Flash" <me> (or is it <t>?) I haven't tested this yet.
/ac "Awareness" <me>

You can smash the marco to make sure you cast CoS flash and cast awareness after everything.

It has decent uses in pve, but like mentioned previously, it will definitely shine in pvp. Being uncrittable for such a long time is extremely valuable.

Flash is more threat, I always want to lead with it. So perhaps make the macro Flash, CoS, then Awareness. If you were mashing it, Awareness wouldn't go off until after the second flash, but better late than never. Either that or simply put the buttons all next to each other to remind me they go together.

I macro most of my defense CD buffs.

Awareness/Foresight

Bulwark/ Temperance (nothing fancy, but it's worked so far)

Bloodbath/Rampart

Cover/Hallowed Ground (occasionally)

Except for the big one (name escapes me right now). Never had a problem having a buff up come mountain buster either.

Hound Lights!