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I'm wondering what role abilities everyone is taking for WAR. I figure I need provoke and awareness. I grabbed Convalescence to help with healing me when things go bad. Took low blow to give me an interrupt again. I'm not sure what to take as the last skill though.
Ultimatum looks nice but basically a PBAoE provoke with a 90 sec cooldown.
Rampart looks nice with reduced damage taken
Shirk looks like it's meant for provoke and tank swaps.
the rest kind of seem really meh.
Thoughts?
for me
rampart and conva is a must
and then awareness to cover raw intuition weakness
and then provoke/ultimatum and reprisal for tank swapping and damage reduction
i will use provoke for raid, and ultimatum for normal dungeon
In descending order of the likelihood I'll ever use it (higher rated skills will fill lower level slots first):
1. Low Blow (except PLD because of Shield Bash, which case I don't take this)
Lv. 12 Ability Instant 25s Stuns target.
Duration: 5s
2. Interject (Unlike Stun, it only works on spells. Only taking it if a boss has interruptible spells AND is 100% Stun-resistant, but not Silence-resistant.)
Lv. 40 Ability Instant 30s Silences target.
Duration: 1s
3. Ultimatum (War-only because their other AoE threat skills cost either TP or Gauge)
Lv. 44 Ability Instant 90s Provoke nearby enemies, placing yourself at the top of their enmity list.
4. Provoke (longest ranged pull a tank has, and also an emergency skill if pug healers go Medica II-happy)
Lv. 16 Ability Instant 40s Gesture threateningly, placing yourself at the top of a target's enmity list.
5. Rampart (damage reduction is 0.2*20/90 ~ 4.44% per second).
Lv. 8 Ability Instant 90s Reduces damage taken by 20%.
Duration: 20s
6. Reprisal (effective damage reduction is 0.1*5/60 ~ 0.833% per second to one target, making this okay for off-tanks and worthless for main tanks - even worse than Anticipation.)
Lv. 32 Ability Instant 60s Lowers target's damage dealt by 10%.
Duration: 5s
7. Shirk (useful for off-tanks and worthless for main tanks)
Lv. 48 Ability Instant 120s Diverts 25% of enmity to target party member.
8. Convalescence (less priority than Rampart as it requires healer input and its CD is longer). More a main tank thing.
Lv. 20 Ability Instant 120s Increases own HP recovery via healing magic by 20%.
Duration: 20s
9. Awareness (assuming critical damage averages 1.5x, this would be 1/3*25/120 ~ 6.9% if used in a scenario where you always get crit (say, together with Raw Intuition). If the enemies' critrate is 30% or higher this will be worth taking over Anticipation.)
Lv. 36 Ability Instant 120s Nullifies chance of suffering critical damage.
Duration: 25s
10. Anticipation (worthless as parry reduction is 20%, so the effective additional damage reduction is 0.2*0.3*20/60 = 2% per second, which makes it less than half as useful as Rampart in spite of requiring a higher level).
Lv. 24 Ability Instant 60s Increases parry rate by 30%.
Duration: 20s
So for instance, if main/solo-tanking:
In a Warrior, I'd take:
Low Blow - Ultimatum - Provoke - Rampart - Convalescence
In a Paladin it would instead be:
Provoke - Rampart - Convalescence - Awareness - Anticipation
While in a Dark Knight it would be:
Low Blow - Provoke - Rampart - Convalescence - Awareness
If off-tanking:
In a Warrior, I'd take:
Ultimatum - Provoke - Rampart - Reprisal - Shirk
In a Paladin or Dark Knight it would instead be:
Provoke - Rampart - Reprisal - Shirk - Awareness
Swap all instances of Low Blow for Interject if the boss is Stun-resistant, Silence-vulnerable AND I am main-tanking. Paladin is a special case as Spirits Within lost its silence, so that would be Interject - Provoke - Rampart - Convalescence - Awareness.
Provoke - Rampart- Conva - Awareness - Optional
Optional Cross Role #1 Is reprisal, after that maybe shirk for tank swaps.Lowblow or Interject depending if you need it. On single Target Fights like susano you could take off awareness.
Ultimatum and Anticipation are pretty worthless.
So far I've been going the tanky set up.
Rampart, Convalescence, Awareness, Anticipation, then I usually take Provoke, but I seem to hardly ever need/use it, so I've considered swapping it for something more useful.