how do you maximize storm's path?

after getting inner beast, i was really looking forward to SP for it's healings, but it feels a little underwhelming i.e. i'm probably not using it right.

please note i'm talking about 38 to 50 so I'm not going into the whole warrior-is-inferior-for-endgame area at all.

anyhow, here is my basic 'rotation'

1. i basically activate bloodbath and berserk tgt whenever they are ready, and i do get a nice bit of hp back from them
2. i use inner beast whenever it is available and if i'm being attacked. this heals me for almost 1/5 of my hp, and since i religiously maintain my combos, i get wraths pretty fast, so i honestly doubt i'm missing much of the extra healings as just because i'm not infuriated does not mean that i do not have wrath bonuses - i still do, only slightly lesser. bottomline: i could heal myself quite well with inner beast
3. i try to pop second wind tgt with berserk if i'm being attacked, but if it is at an easy phase, i save it for later.
4. generically, i use thrill of battles when second wind is cooled down to halfway point, esssentially to maintain a constantly amoutn of healing i can do to myself.
5. if i expect spike damage, i save the second wind and thrill of battle for that.

now to SP - i just feel that it is not healing enough. i usually pick a monster about 5 to 7 levels above me, summon my chocobo and try to fight it to emulate tanking in a party. i could pretty much stay at 90% all the time with inner beast and all that, so i was thinking maybe SP could help me to maintain my hp even if i become thrifty with IB, but it wasn't really the case as it just wasn't healing enough. I have leveled via dungeons only thus far for both pld and war (except 35 to 38, where parties for temple and qarn are kinda rare and not all of them were viable). I am about to go into cutter's cry where I am expecting a lot of incoming damage, so I wanna figure this out before proceeding, and no I dont wanna fate because i wanna 'master' all the dungeons.

Any advise on how to best use this?

The best advice for using Storm's Path is to not use it at all. It's worthless. The TP cost is absurd for what it gives. If, for some reason, you're desperately clinging to life it may be worth using, but those opportunities are few and far between

But not using it seems counter intuitive.

First, it combos off Maim (a buff I believe should always be up), and stopping at Maim to go back to Heavy Swing means that I am wasting a Wrath, as the Wrath I could be getting from that SP must now be obtained from a HA > SS. If we really are going to self-heal, getting back as much Wraths as possible should be the priority imo?

Secondly, there must be a reason for it to exist. Or at least I believe there should be lol.

It's best if you just maximize your DPS. Whatever the 20% damage you get from Maim and resistance debuff from SE will outweigh the heals from SP when you need to use IB. Other than that maybe pray for lucky crits when you blow berserk + inner release.

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Originally Posted by Shuon

But not using it seems counter intuitive.
Secondly, there must be a reason for it to exist. Or at least I believe there should be lol.

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OMG. Can I give you some kind of prize for being the first player on this forum so far who actually GETS IT?!

The best use of it currently, according to all the data I have to go on is:

With or without internal release (release is better).

Use it as the first, at the start of your 3 bloodbath combos, when you don't have Infuriate and you need to build wrath. It gives 50% damage as health. Maim reduces the damage penalty and BloodBath's bonus stacks with Storm's Path's bonus to give you 75% as health. This is a respectable number already, crit it and you're laughing.

I follow up with Vengence, then a butcher's block. 5 stacks of wrath, Inner Beast with a lovely 25% bonus on top of it's 300% bonus, WHICH ALSO STACKS. yay.

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Originally Posted by Lhun

It gives 50% damage as health. Maim reduces the damage penalty and BloodBath's bonus stacks with Storm's Path's bonus to give you 75% as health. This is a respectable number already, crit it and you're laughing.

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That isn't how math works.

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Originally Posted by Ninjiitstu

That isn't how math works.

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Storm's Path
Delivers an attack with a potency of 100.
Combo Action: Maim
Combo Potency: 250
Combo Bonus: Absorbs 50% of damage dealt as HP.
Grants Wrath when used with Defiance.
Duration: 30s

Bloodbath
Converts 25% of physical damage dealt into HP.
Duration: 30s

Assume you do 185 damage with Storm's Path (that's what I get with defiance on). With your magic math that somehow works differently then actual math, how much health do you get back?

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Lol he's trying to justify it with math. No matter what you do Maim+SE debuff IB > Storm's Path. Learn to manage infuriate.

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You're the one who doesn't know how to manage infuriate.

You missed the part where you do 3 total combos during blood bath's duration. Yes, the Maim+SE debuff is awesome. That's why you do it as the SECOND COMBO, or, if you've already got SE debuff up and running, you do heavy->sunder->BB, THEN heavy->maim->SP because your maim just ran out.

If you pay attention, the game practically tells you how to play Warrior for maximum damage and health back. (you're basically doing combos to make sure Eye and Maim are always on) Also, SP generates wrath. using that combo with berzerk and venge and bloodbath is the fastest PATH to Infurate. Get it?

IB is great always. Maim + Eye debuff is great too. Path + Eye debuff + bloodbath is GREAT and nobody uses it.

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Shuon:
the maths is correct.
1. start with maim combo ending with SE (for buff and debuff) (2 wraths)
2. blooodbaths + berserk
3. BB combo (4 wraths)
4. HS - maim (infuriated) - IB - SP
5. BB combo (blood bathe and berserk should end sometime in this phase) (3 wraths)
6. stun during pacification
7. BB combo (infuriated) - IB

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This is one way of weaving it, yes. I save Berserk for Second Wind personally. in step 5 you assume bath wears out at this point (it doesn't) And you missed vengeance In there, which can skip the second (redundant) maim in step 4, making you infuriated sooner, and you're not using maim on top of itself. Avoid that. I do the butcher's block combo after Eye in the beginning of the chain.

Hate will absolutely not be a problem at all, your best tool for holding hate (butcher's block) has been hit 3 times by the end, on top of all the massive damage you're doing. Also, Vengeance is great damage. I would toss a fracture after SP usually too.

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I find the amount of HP that SP returns hardly earns it a space on my shortcut bars.

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Only because you're not comboing it with bloodbath. It should be run after Eye debuff is up, when you're building wrath (it has a wrath modifier), and used to reset the maim timer.

Lol he's trying to justify it with math. No matter what you do Maim+SE debuff IB > Storm's Path. Learn to manage infuriate.

You get 92.5 HP back, from three GCD rotation. GCD ~ 2.5, so: 92.5HP / 7.5s which equals around 12.27 HP/s (I am not counting Bloodbath, because you can get more Bloodbath HP gain from doing other WAR combos, than doing Path-combo). This is in the extremely optimist situation that you can just spam SP combo and not worry about anything else. It doesn't really matter, considering you are also denying yourself SE debuff and more damage through BB combo.

IB is good because you can use it as massive burst heal, my WAR has far from perfect gear but I can still crit over 2k heal from IB, which is far more useful than ~100HP every 7.5s.

I find the amount of HP that SP returns hardly earns it a space on my shortcut bars. The time it takes for you to get to the combo stage of using it the damage you've sustained is likely far higher than what you get back from it. It may seem good now but later on it's borderline worthless against HM primals and higher level dungeons. You're better off with your enmity combo until you get Storm's Eye, even then that's just for a short dps buff/debuff combo.

the maths is correct.

so....

1. start with maim combo ending with SE (for buff and debuff) (2 wraths)
2. blooodbaths + berserk
3. BB combo (4 wraths)
4. HS - maim (infuriated) - IB - SP
5. BB combo (blood bathe and berserk should end sometime in this phase) (3 wraths)
6. stun during pacification
7. SE combo (infuriated) - IB

i wonder if hate will be a problem,and it still doesnzt provide a constant amount of healing, or is it not meant to?

You can get one stack of Wrath from either Vengeance or Berserk, so you do not need to start 3rd combo to get Infuriated. I personally just leave SP off my bar to maximize SE uptime.

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Originally Posted by Lhun

It gives 50% damage as health. Maim reduces the damage penalty and BloodBath's bonus stacks with Storm's Path's bonus to give you 75% as health. This is a respectable number already, crit it and you're laughing.

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That isn't how math works.

20% of 100 is 20.
20% of 65 is 13.

Welcome to fourth grade. I will be your teacher until I pass out from boredom.

Storm's Path is a tricky skill to utilize but its not one that should be ignored.
Before I get into the lengthy explanation I'll start with the short version. When using Storm's Path you want you ask yourself a progressive list of 2 questions:
1. Do I have a substantial amount of hate? If no, use Butcher's Block combo. If yes go on to question 2.
2. Am I going to use Inner Beast in the next 15 seconds? If yes, use Storm's Eye combo. If no, use Storm's Path.

Of course that is the overly simplified logic it. While the debuff from Storm's Eye is nice, if you're not using Inner Beast the extra damage it provides and the hate attached to it is not always needed and the little bit of health from Storm's Path will go further towards the goal of keeping you alive longer.

That logic though for an early warrior is at it's root flawed. Not to the point of being useless but you really have to consider when it is appropriate to use it and when not to. Honestly there really is not set in stone methodology behind its use and the best way to figure it out is through experience. How frequently you can use this skill and its effectiveness depend on the fight, your party, and your playing style. But generally I stand by a rule of 3, which is if you aren't going to commit to using it at least 3 times in 1 minute... then don't use it.

Now for some VERY amatuerish late night math while I get into the meat of it:
First off you have to look at it's effectiveness. Before looking at the amount you can heal for, lets look at how often you can use it. Now if you are at the beginning of your rotation you can get one every 7.5 seconds but since you're most likely going to be in the middle of battle when you use it, odds are you'll be at the end of your rotation so lets assume you can use SP every 10 seconds. That is 6 uses every minute. In those six uses lets say you average any where between 100-150hp return. That is 600-900hp a minute. Now realistically you are not going to pop off 6 SP's in a row. But this is where you start to see how this skill can add up over time.

The real utility comes later in the WAR's career. Once you start getting really good gear and start weening yourself off of Vit and start adding more to your offensive stats. There will come a point where you can get enough HP to reach the survivability threshold or maybe depending how good you AND your party is maybe even a little under it. Once you start hitting harder this move starts to get better, and that is where most WAR's come to a crossroads. To keep their bonus points invested into VIT or to invest them into STR for a high risk high reward type of play style. If you go with the second option this is where your use of this skill will pick up. You'll hit harder so you will be generating more hate, and you'll be using Inner Beast more often which will pile on more hate. And your Storm's Path has more room to operate in and it will 'fill in' for the max HP lost from taking your bonus points out of Vit.

Until then Storm's Path is not really NEEDED, but if you plan to be a balls to the wall kind of WAR it is still good to get in the practicing and finding out what kind of conditions you can fit it in to your play style and which you don't. But that is not that end of it though. Knowing when to use is the most important part. For example:

If you know your healer's cure heals you for 800 and you take 700 damage. Don't use it. If you know your healer cure II's hit you for 1200 and you take 1400. That is a good time to get in a use. (Another rule of thumb in this is to only really consider using it when you are at the 3/4's or 1/2 hp. But of course there are many times I'm getting Storms Eye ready so I can use Inner Beast only to be cure bombed back to near full HP and rather than ending with SE I just used SP to top myself off. And vice versely, there have been times I've overestimated my health reserves to have a hit take me down to the double digits and a well time SP was enough for me to survive the auto attacks that followed and be cured. But those are situational examples, most times I stick to my rule of thumb.)
Also if you want higher returns from your Blood Bath... that is a GREAT time to follow the rule of 3. It lasts 30 seconds. You can get 3 uses of SP in that time and double tip on that health recovery.
Also one exception to the rule of 3 is sneaking in a SP right after you use Inner Beast. Inner Beast generates a healthy amount of hate so you can get away with playing off for one rotation. But if you're not familiar with the hate management it is safest for your group if you have provoke slotted on your hotbar if you are going to experiment, lol.

There are lots of little niche places to fit Storm's Path into your rotation. Timed correctly it can be the different between your healer having to healing you once or having to hit you will another cure to buff you back into a safe zone. But the same reason I love WAR so much is the same reason I can't really give you any hard sealed advice. WAR is a very organic class, your play style not only has to adapt to the random ebbs and flows of battle but also with the random mannerisms and habits of your fellow party mates. When I play PLD I can pretty much get away with playing it relatively the same way for 80-90% of the groups I play with but when I play WAR my play style changes so drastically depending on the skill and preferences of the people I'm playing with.

And while it make not be the most impressive skill I can tell you this. If you learn to make the most of it, it will serve you well.

Worth using to finish off a maim combo until you get Storm's Eye. After that it really is limited in its application.

Also in any form of lengthy boss fight (all 50 8 man fights), you will burn your TP into non-existence using it. Warriors (tanks in general really) have no extra TP regen outside of a Bard (who you can't rely upon unless a mate). It's not worth it unless you seriously are sitting on <10% health and are trying to buy time.

personally the only time I've used Storms Path is when the healer is occupied. And by Occupied I mean out of range to cast spells (they're not keeping up with me), Raising someone, Dead, Entombed ... things of that nature.

If you find yourself in AK, against demon wall... you can survive fairly well on your own, in the purple goo with just your self healing stuff (if you haven't burned it all earlier).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ninjiitstu

That isn't how math works.

20% of 100 is 20.
20% of 65 is 13.

Welcome to fourth grade. I will be your teacher until I pass out from boredom.

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i think u misunderstood him, he meant, if you are hitting for 100 with SP, bloodbath gives u 25 and the SP regen gives 50, therefore a total of 75 percent of how hard SP hits if you manage to perform a SP under bloodbath. Besides, he meant reduce, not removes. Just chill out xD

Didnt use it since I hit lvl 50 because its just not worth it.

AT 50, you *can* use it as a constant (but very small) damage over time component in long fights.

To get anything out of it, you must

1) have built up a substantial threat lead over everybody else because it's terrible for threat generation
2) You will be doing a good chunk less DPS in order to spam this because it is A) our weakest combo and B) no storm's eye (unless you want to cut the healing in half)
3) You need forced breaks from DPS as part of the fight so you don't run out of TP (why on earth does it cost 90TP?!)

Just be warned, it is not very substantial by any stretch of the imagination, so don't expect to really notice it doing much of anything. But I suppose when you're doing everything to stay alive, every little bit can help.