Warrior Feedback from longtime player, going into Endwalker

I want to start by saying I appreciate the work the developers’ put in for Endwalker, all the content new and old. And as an avid player I’d like to give my feedback at least for my favorite job in the game for 5 years straight, Warrior. As I feel the design of the job for the past few years has been very underwhelming for the most part, with neat additions here and there.
I have mixed feelings on the changes for warrior. On one hand I’m all for the adjusted mitigation tools, even if some feel too small. “Bloodwhetting” especially seems fun to use. So far Warrior remains extremely fun and powerful in the defensive department.

My main issues that I want to address are the damage abilities, rotations and overall job dynamic. Simply put it’s TOO simple. It is TOO bare. Being the simplest job in the role is acceptable, but this is beyond simple, it’s lazy to the point of being boring.

Changes we can anticipate going into Endwalker:

1. What little skill there was to account for upheaval is now gone. Honestly not a big deal if there was something to replace it or a new mechanic to work with. But there is none.
2. The Inner release 3 charges on 60 seconds cooldown is a nice QoL change more than anything, it’s very nice QoL change that I like.
3. Using inner release gives you the ability to use “Primal Rend” once every time.

The new inner release while loses the ability to crit with upheavals and onslaughts, is more flexible and more frequent. An overall nice change. But my main issue is everything else when not in inner release. You simply keep up a buff, build gauge, and dump 50 gauge with another attack. With the occasional off global attack, that now just press it when its back up again. I find this extremely boring and barebones. And the main reason I hear people give when they say why they don’t like Warrior.


Changes I would like to see:

Mitigation tools are wonderful. New Inner release and primal rend are fantastic. But the combo attacks, gauge interaction and infuriate giving “Super” fell cleave here and there is way too simple. So, I would love if the normal combo rotation and Fell cleave’s usage with gauge is a bit more nuanced or changed, even if slightly. Every job has different challenges that some players enjoy. And I understand the developers’ intent on not making jobs too complex, but warrior sadly sits at the other side of this complexity spectrum to the point that it’s too simple.

My main reason for posting here is to provide feedback as a player, in hopes that this feedback alongside other people’s is considered when adjusting warrior going forward. Either in a patch or another expansion, I sincerely hope the devs take this feedback and others like it into consideration. I love what they did for other jobs like Summoner, and I think Warrior deserves some more changes in the future, even if nowhere near as large.

Hmmm.

I agree Warrior is fairly simple to play. I mean it IS the large axe wielding job, so it should have feel a little slow. Also the weight of all the skills just feel great.

With the recent changes to storms eye buff being called "Tempest Storm", or something like that. I would LOVE...LOVE LOVE it if they just brought back Butchers Block in place of Storms Eye skill.

I think Warrior is going to be even more technical with the changes to upheavel not needing to be used within Inner Release window. And the choice of an AOE vs. Single target is great. Doubt it will pay off though in Extreme/savage as there probably won't be very many adds to deal with.

The changes to Raw and Nascent are going to take some getting used to. But Raw basically does the same thing Nascent currently does...maybe better as it's stupidly powerful now. Nascent will just be there for MT healing or party support.

Now for the best part....Onslaught is no longer used by gauge...and we get more charges. I'm going to be zipping around the battle field with that. And with the way Inner Release only gives Fell Cleave/Decimate charges...onslaught is all but useless during IR window. So I'm glad for that. And it's 20yalms!!! That's a LONG distance.

Primal Rend is ALSO a gap closer apparently from the media tour highlights. This is HUGE. All this means is that I don't have to sacrifice IR uptime at risk of getting hit. I can move away, and Primal Rend back in!

I honestly feel Warrior is full of SOOO many choices now and basically from my understanding...has been set loose from it's cage. Warrior looks kind of chaotic for 6.0, and much more free to release the beast.

Simple and Easy to Play is kind of the point with Warrior and I'm rather happy that there's a lot of quality of life updates coming in Endwalker to make the self-healing smoother and Storm's Eye 10% buff less clunky to maintain.

I enjoy how straight forward and unrestrictive the current Warrior plays and how all the most frequently used skills can fit on just 1-2 Hotbars cleanly, no fuss or worry.

All the Weapon Skills & Shortest Cooldown skills can fit on Hotbar 1, Mitigation & Utility on Hotbar 2 with plenty of slots to spare. None of your hardest hitting single target or AOE skills are locked behind a restrictive combo- it's all on demand, go balls to the wall nuts anytime.

If Warrior is not relaxing enough then Dark Knight is an alternative, at least from my perspective.

If more Tank complication, activeness and restrictive combo mechanics is preferred then a Gunbreaker or Paladin are good alternatives.

Curious Gorge should have been clear this job is very simple. It's like even more simpler than WHM for healers, but for tanks.

Unga-Bunga.