[GUIDE] Warrior: Skill Intensive Tanking

Figured I would link my blog to here and offer some tips and provide answers regarding the more intense of the two tanking classes.

Stats
STR, VIT, Parry, Enmity (order of importance)
Argument: STR vs. VIT

Reasoning: STR raises damage, self-healing, enmity (threat generation), and parry rating with defiance while VIT raises your HP from 400-600 by end-game.

Conclusions: Negligible any way you cut it, using your defensive/self-healing skills properly and maneuvering out of big hits makes either stat equally useful given the boss and situation you find yourself in, more maneuvering favors VIT while more damage intensive favors STR for the threat gain so your DPS isn't holding back as much when the last few seconds count between phases.

Cross-Class Abilities:

Glad (22), Pug (8)
Flash, Convalescence, Featherfoot, Second Wind, Provoke

Combos and Rotations
*see Macros section before applying these
Combos

Main Combo
Heavy Swing/Inner Beast, Skull Sunder, Butcher's Block

Self-Healing Combo
Heavy Swing/Inner Beast, Maim, Storm's Path

DPS Combo
Heavy Swing/Inner Beast, Maim, Storm's Eye

AOE Combo (boss adds)
AOE Macro x4

Rotations

Opener:
Tomahawk/Provoke, Main Combo or AOE Combo depending on if there are adds or not.

Standard Rotation:
Main Combo, DPS Combo, Bleeds Macro x2

Self-Healing Rotation:
Self-Healing macro x3, Self-Healing combo, Main Combo

Burst DPS Rotation:
DPS Combo, Burst Damage Macro x2, Massive Hits Macro x3, Main Combo

Notes on Rotations:
1- You can add macros/abilities between combos or cut mid-combo and just restart it if a boss suddenly activates an ability or summons adds when you're not ready. You can even combine rotations for increased effectiveness, such as:
Self-Healing Macro x3, DPS Burst Damage Macro x2, Massive Hits Macro x3, Main Combo

2- Defensive macro feeds more into the self-healing macro than anything else, more often then not I find myself tapping the defensive macro once or twice before my self-healing combo. The DPS combo also improves it, so if your maim/storm's eye effect is still active it's better to use it before a DPS rotation if you're floating around 50-75%.

3- An unused cool down (CD) is a wasted CD, that being said it's important to keep an "oh shit" CD or two up depending on the boss and whenever possible. I tend to like Thrill for Battle for my last resort as it raises your HP by 30% giving your panicking healer some nice over-heal without wasting mana.

Macros:

PS3 specific

Heavy Blow/Inner Beast/Tomahawk
/ac "Inner Beast" <t>
/ac "Heavy Swing" <t>
/ac "Tomahawk" <t>

Defensive

Self-Healing
/ac "Bloodbath" <me>
/ac "Convalescence" <me>
/ac "Second Wind" <me>

Damage Mitigation
/ac "Foresight" <me>
/ac "Featherfoot" <me>
/ac "Thrill of Battle" <me>

Offensive:

Burst Damage
/ac "Unchained" <me>
/ac "Berserk" <me>

Massive Hits
/ac "Infuriate" <me>
/ac "Inner Beast" <t>
/ac "Mercy Stroke" <t>

Bleeds/Dots
/ac "Vengeance" <t>
/ac "Fracture" <t>

AOE (Boss Adds)
/ac "Infuriate" <me>
/ac "Steel Cyclone" <t>
/ac "Flash" <t>
/ac "Overpower" <t>

Some notes on Macros:
1- if you don't have the ability it will flash a red warning that the ability was called incorrectly in your general chat tab, macro still works just fine but can clutter things unnecessarily if you don't have the same abilities I picked or are under 50.

2-these macros will fire in order every time without fail. The ONLY exception is the Tomahawk macro and is why I labeled it as really "PS3 only” You can chop tomahawk off for a nice clutch inner-beast/heavy swing combo which is what I've done, but there are SO many better ways to spend 120TP than tomahawk.

3-rotations and combos simply say to hit the macro button X number of times depending on the abilities, this is for simplicity's sake. If the ability is on the GCD or 'Global Cool Down' like Inner Beast or Steel Cyclone they require the same 1.2 seconds as any other ability- while other abilities like Defiance or Vengeance don't follow a GCD and can be used simultaneously if you rapidly hit the button.

Macro Logic: If "First ability" is available use it, if not use "Second Ability" if it's available, if not use "Third Ability" if it's available, if not use "Last Ability".

Note*
This is what happens every time you hit the macro button, or access it if you hotkey, and why they are called "sure fire."

If you have any questions on this guide, macros, bosses, etc feel free to reply to the post or contact Rage Bladerunner, Typhon server on the FFXIV main page, link to my blog post:
Rage's Warrior Blog if you want quick answers or in-depth strategies on bosses immediately (aka mid-fight in some cases X_x)

Provoke isn't obtainable until level 22* GLA, not 15. Also there's no mention of mantra? It's a useful CD (PGL 42). Also, why tie Inner Beast to something like Tomahawk + Heavy Swing? It's not something you use on CD.

Edit: It's Awareness that is gained @ lvl 34 GLA not Provoke, also another useful CD that isn't mentioned here.

Buffs also obey the ANIMATION cool down, I.E. You can not simultaneously cast buffs, while they are outside the WEAPON SKILL cool down, you must wait for the first buff's animation to begin before being able to apply the next one and so on.

Note on End-Game:
As I'm tired of hearing the excuse "gladiators are better," I'm simply going to fix that statement and point out "gladiators are simpler to use." Less combo dances, less choices in terms of enmity generation or damage boosts, and block value buffs make the warrior's parry rate a joke when compared. Fact of the matter is simple, warriors don't get picked for Coils of Bahamut runs simply because 90% of the warriors out there don't play their class properly. Most warriors I end-game with outside my company fail to use defensive or self-healing properly, their rotations are shoddy/half-assed at best, and most don't understand they have another bleed that isn't Fracture which their rotation doesn't even use because the see the small damage value and shrug it off.

It's called a "target dummy," use it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Phreak

Provoke isn't obtainable until level 34 GLA, not 15. Also there's no mention of mantra? It's a useful CD (PGL 42). Also, why tie Inner Beast to something like Tomahawk + Heavy Swing? It's not something you use on CD.

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Good point, I'll fix that in the guide. Mantra's 10% bonus to healing, even if it effects the whole party, is less than desirable than the 22-31% second wind, or the 15% dodge bonus of featherfoot. If you're party doesn't have a monk it's worth considering but I challenge you to show where it out performs second wind or featherfoot even in that situation.

On the point of adding Inner Beast to a commonly hit macro, it's simply for the point of saving space and how frequently it's used. Typically you will use it 80% of the time without tying it into your DPS rotation, so pairing it with Heavy Swing merely lets you double tap the most used ability on the Warrior's bar for the most effect with the least amount of thought.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Exrage

If you're party doesn't have a monk it's worth considering but I challenge you to show where it out performs second wind or featherfoot even in that situation.

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I wouldn't trade either of those for Mantra, but I would definitely trade out Flash in some cases.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Exrage

and most don't understand they have another bleed that isn't Fracture which their rotation doesn't even use because the see the small damage value and shrug it off.

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What is the other bleed? I don't see any other PoT ability accessible by WARs other than Fracture.