A former WAR's Paradigm Shift

Uh ever since 2.1 WAR DPS was at where it was relative to DPS currently, without the DPS stance. Competing and beating bad DPS isn't anything new, however it seems like recently (since FCOB) people picking up DPS classes are seriously starting to lack in DPS overall. It's probably because theres more to do as a DPS now that people aren't able to keep their rotation fulltime and lose gcds. That or they just flat out don't care.

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Originally Posted by PerihVashai

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Competing with bad dps is one thing, competing with good dps is another.

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Originally Posted by Kassiekane

Which is why I'm glad that strength tanks will be abolished and content is going back to being mechanic-heavy in 3.2.

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What indication do you have that Strength tanks are going to be "abolished". Mechanic-heavy content is one thing, but I doubt we'll see using Strength accessories go away completely.

The part that I find unbelievable is the claim that nobody was looking for a WAR during early progression. At that time, WARs were significantly less played than PLDs and DRKs were not far behind despite them being a new job.

http://www.finalfantasyxiv.com/Eorze...N_Census_L.PNG

As a recruiter for numerous statics as well as an applicant, everyone wanted a WAR and there was a huge over-saturation of PLDs. Every single static I applied to asked if I could play WAR or DRK (so that the other tank could switch to WAR) alongside my PLD. Next to BRD/MCH, they were the most in-demand class at the time and finding a good one was exceedingly difficult because most were just bad.

So I can't believe this was a class issue. It was either a player issue or a server issue.

These days, If I wanted to find a new static as a WAR, it would still be incredibly easy.

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Originally Posted by Kassiekane

I liked that fact that I could cover somebody before they could get hit by holy shield bash / Soul Ascension the first time, then cast stoneskin on targeted party members for subsequent Soul Ascensions.

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Yeah, this is the sort of thing that makes playing Paladin fun, but your ability to god-mode mechanics where other tanks can't means that these mechanics will never be anything but minor or non-existent in raid content. It's really unfortunate, but I find it very hard to foresee a future where tanks will be anything but a DPS with cooldowns in anything but dungeons.

If anything, I would like to see a lot more mechanics like this that can be worked around multiple ways so that different jobs can find a unique method around it.

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Originally Posted by Kassiekane

Then 3.0 rolls around. SE dishes out a DPS stance that gives warriors powerful attacks. At first I was really excited, especially for Decimate. But then, once I stepped into Bismark extreme I knew something was wrong. I was competing with anyone that was not a dragoon or a monk, and when bursting on the back, my dps skyrockets to the top of the charts. I'm just sitting there asking myself: "Is this what's supposed to happen?". So I started looking at theorycraft posts on reddit and parse videos on youtube just to find that my war's dps is horrifically close to that of the highest dps achieved with a theorycrafted rotation (at the time). Since then, I started to feel less like a tank and more like a glorified DPS that can take hits.

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Were you wearing str accessories? Because being a tank it was not intended for us to wear "Slaying" as we have our own set, "Fending". If someone can parse a 5 min war (deliverance) in slaying vs fending this would make some clarification on the whole war dps debate.

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Originally Posted by Kassiekane

My love for the job really stated to dwindle when Alex savage was released. I couldn't find a group because all groups had a warrior already. I was surprised, and started wondering where the hell did all these warriors come from.

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SE messed up AS by focusing on dps checks rather than mechanic checks hence the war/drk comp. It was just a knee-jerk reaction to FCOB being cleared in a week.

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Originally Posted by Kassiekane

Since I was unable to participate in any savage raids, I just decided to level AST in my spare time. There was this one particular run in the Aery with a tank being a WAR decked out with dreamwyrm glamour and strength accessories. Now this was before the AST buff, and I stepped into the dungeon with a weapon from the previous dungeon, so my healing was not very strong. This person would chain pull mobs, overpower a few times, and tank in deliverance. I burned all of my mana because she was taking a lot of damage and one of the dps ran out of TP on the previous pull and did not have enough to aoe again. When she went down, she called me a scrub. When I visited the tank forums a few days later, I started seeing threads and posts of people complaining about tanks, especially WARs, that tank in strength accessories. This was confusing, since it was something that was previously accepted. But I couldn't help but to assume the worst: is this how others perceive of me when I tank?

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you're not a scrub, that tank is. Any pro tank knows that they are only as good as their healer healing them. Also I've seen those war tanks when leveling my alts and I just shake my head because they will never understand what tanking is about, which is to keep the enemies off your party and not how much damage you are doing.

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Originally Posted by Marxam

If someone can parse a 5 min war (deliverance) in slaying vs fending this would make some clarification on the whole war dps debate.

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People have. Slaying is much better for WAR. And for DRK. And even for PLD. Right now, Slaying is just better once you reach ilvl170.

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because they will never understand what tanking is about, which is to keep the enemies off your party and not how much damage you are doing.

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Um, actually...it's both. However, if your healer can't keep you alive (even through use of CDs), then you need to slow down.

Tanking has two fundamental goals: (1) keep hate and (2) stay alive. Tank DPS is incidental to the second goal, but it's really difficult to measure just how much mitigation value can be gained by gearing for DPS (though it's arguably more than fending - look through the Parry thread(s) to see more discussion here). I am of the opinion that Slaying gear is better for boss fights and Fending for trash, but that's also because I like having an enormous HP pool and think parry doesn't get enough credit (again, different thread).

I'm hoping 3.2 fixes a lot of it, though, and makes tank gearing more straightforward. There's a lot of dissonance around Slaying vs. Fending right now, and it will be good to finally have a clear and definitive "get this gear to be good." At least I hope that's what they're doing.

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Originally Posted by Marxam

Also I've seen those war tanks when leveling my alts and I just shake my head because they will never understand what tanking is about, which is to keep the enemies off your party and not how much damage you are doing.

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The major point of being a warrior is to dish out massive damage with their giant axe which gives them more self heals seeing how their skills revolve around that. A warrior in this game makes you feel like a friggin warrior out there to wreck enemies rather than not doing much other than take hits.

When you think of paladins you think of having strong defenses and protecting your party. This is not what a warrior is primarily about.

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Originally Posted by DGladius

The major point of being a warrior is to dish out massive damage with their giant axe

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Then they were given the wrong role...
And months ago, people talked trash about DRK players thinking they'd just act like would-be DPS to cope out the fact that it's a tank...