Few questions regarding Warrior tanking

1. Brutal Swing seems incredibly unreliable, especially on boss mobs. Sometimes it stuns, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it stuns for five seconds, sometimes it stuns for one or two seconds. Is this considered a necessary skill? Or can I forget about it?

2. Should I ignore Steel Cyclone and Inner Beast, and just use Unchained? Although it might deal more damage and garner more enmity outright, Steel Cyclone doesn't sound very useful when I could just spam Flash and Overpower, especially with Unchained activated. Same thing for Inner Beast. I'd rather spam some combos with Unchained up than waste all of my Wrath on one weaponskill.

3. Do I really need Provoke pre-endgame? I have it, but excluding the rare occasions when I die, get raised and attempt to get hate back, I never use it.

Mobs have stun resistance. Each stun lasts shorter than the last. Usually after 3 stuns the 4th will be resisted so if you need to stun a certain boss move ask your melee not to use stuns.

Steel cyclone costs no tp to use. Great with infuriate to get good initial hate on a group of adds. You will run out of tp quickly if you spam overpower. Inner beast is great for surviving big hits and also costs no tp which helps in long fights.

Provoke is absolutely necessary for fights that require tank swapping. Pre endgame it can be useful every now and then. Especially pulling longler distances and snatching back lost aggro.

1. Brutal Swing isn't really a must have skill for the majority of fights but it is an off-gdc skill so it's a free damaging spell.

2. Inner Beast is quite a needed spell during endgame to handle high damage attacks, also you'll be able to use a number of wrath attacks in between each unchained cd. As for steel cyclone it can be used for initial hate, especially if the mobs are around you in a circle and it will be hard to use Unchained+OP

3. No. You don't have to, it won't matter much until endgame bosses with tank swap mechanics.

1. Brutal swing is mainly an interrupt and stun that is off the GCd which makes it very useful but due to the cooldown not as reliable to always be up. Very useful skill that relies more on timing than being spammed.

2. Inner Beast is your primary way to reduce damage in fights, it is extremely useful. Unchained is great for burst and I usually pop that with Berserk and other cooldowns. Steel Cyclone is very good damage for AOE and has high enmity on top of that, so very useful on trash and dungeons where you want threat now on multiple mobs.

3. Provoke is mostly for Tank swaps or grabbing a mob, and needs to be followed up with a solid hit.

Well everyone explains all the skills and when to use them. But I liked to use brutal swing on t5 after death sentence so when it the cool down is done I know I got about 10 secs to get storm path up and sit on inner beast till the next death sentence is coming

1. Brutal swing is an oGCD stun....why would you not use it? Save it for abilities that HAVE to be stunned and if there aren't any just use it for damage.

2. Have you read the tool-tips for any of the three abilities you listed here? Inner beast is 20% damage mitigation for 6 seconds and you will have 5 stacks of wrath about every 20 seconds. Steel cyclone is good for snap-aggro and aoe tanking. Unchained is on a 2 minute CD....why would you want to save your 5 stacks you get every 20 seconds for an ability on a 2 minute CD?

3. Provoke is for tank swaps. People wont want you in fights that require tank swaps if you don't have it.

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Originally Posted by anubis1820

Well everyone explains all the skills and when to use them. But I liked to use brutal swing on t5 after death sentence so when it the cool down is done I know I got about 10 secs to get storm path up and sit on inner beast till the next death sentence is coming

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Brutal swing is only a 20 sec CD. Fracture would be better as a timer for DS since its 30 seconds.

1. Brutal Swing is very useful, either as a dps bonus (ogcd attack) or as an interrupt. Not every mob can be stunned. There is something called diminishing returns in this game. The more often you stun a mob, the faster the stun falls off (until the mob is immune).

2. Steel Cyclone generates way more aggro than Overpower and costs no TP. Inner Beast is the most important skill you have.

3. Provoke is needed in endgame content and you really should have it and know how to use it pre level 50.

1. Brutal Swing seems incredibly unreliable, especially on boss mobs. Sometimes it stuns, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it stuns for five seconds, sometimes it stuns for one or two seconds. Is this considered a necessary skill? Or can I forget about it?
>> Some mobs are completely immune to stun. But none to the damage part. For those that are vulnerable to stun, all stuns (yours and other players) share "diminishing returns". The first stun hits for full, the 2nd for half the time, the 3rd for a quarter, and usually the 4th doesn't stun at all. After some period of time, all of this is forgotten and you can stun again for the full time. I pretty much always use Brutal Swing as soon as it is off cooldown just for the free damage - unless I know I will need to interrupt an ability soon.

2. Should I ignore Steel Cyclone and Inner Beast, and just use Unchained? Although it might deal more damage and garner more enmity outright, Steel Cyclone doesn't sound very useful when I could just spam Flash and Overpower, especially with Unchained activated. Same thing for Inner Beast. I'd rather spam some combos with Unchained up than waste all of my Wrath on one weaponskill.
>>All have different uses. Unchained = damage over time. Biggest total damage. Also has a long cooldown, so even if you use it every time can use IB or SC in between also. Inner Beast = big single target hit, small heal, and defense buff. Extremely important for staying alive sometimes, and good for damage sometimes too. Steel Cyclone = Big area agro and damage. You can think of it as just a big overpower when Unchained is on cooldown. If 2 or more targets, it's bigger total damage than IB. Also, it can work like a big Flash for picking up agro. Of course all 3 allow you to regain a tick of TP in cases where that might run low.

3. Do I really need Provoke pre-endgame? I have it, but excluding the rare occasions when I die, get raised and attempt to get hate back, I never use it.
>>Endgame of course you'll need it. Before that it can be useful for pulling at extremely long range, or when taking back agro that you've lost.