What WAR needs; compilation

It's common knowledge that Warrior needs some help. Not a lot mind you (imo) but there are some things that are rather lacking.

We've all heard the mitigation differences between PLD and WAR, so I won't tread on any of that well-worn ground. Suffice it to say, I've seen a lot of suggestions about what WAR needs to get on par with PLD, and I figured it was time to compile them.

First off, my personal suggestions.

1. Butcher's Block needs something else. If RoH reduces STR, I think BB should reduce INT. This way PLD debuffs physical damage and WAR debuffs magical damage.

2. Defiance works as it is for the most part, but the all-or-nothing of 5 stacks of Wrath hurts it. Change Wrath-using skills to scale based on the stacks of Wrath. I.e. IB would only require 1 stack of Wrath to use, but it would only heal you for 20% 60% of the damage dealt. Each stack would increase it by 60%, so you get the full 300% at 5 stacks (just like it is now). Steel Cyclone would add 20-100% extra threat, and Unchained could add 10-50% more healing for it's duration in addition to it's normal effect. Give Warriors more choice! As it stands now, the only choice we have is whether to IB or not IB, and that's decided by whether or not Infuriate is available.

Now, for the compilation of stuff we've all seen, from a variety of sources -

1. Making Defiance Better
It's not terrible as is, but it's needs something else besides just the raw HP. The most common thing I've seen floated is to provide some kind of damage reduction (10 or 20% seem to be the most commonly suggested numbers) on top of the current benefits.

Simple, easy to do, not terrible elegant (or Warrior-like) but it would get the job done. If we did this, I'd like to see 10% be the damage reduction, because we want to be put on par with PLD, not outclass them entirely.

2. Making Inner Beast Less Reactive
The most common idea floated here is to add some kind of shield component to Inner Beast. Whether it's replacing the heal with a shield that stacks (so it can be used proactively, and encourages Wrath usage) or else combining the heal with a shield effect (overheal adds a shield), Inner Beast needs something.

I'm partial to the heal + shield idea. It's fairly unique, doesn't change how IB works too much, and further differentiates WAR as the "meat" tank versus PLD as the "brick wall" tank.

3. Giving WAR's some actual defensive cooldowns
As far as defensive CD's go, WAR has Foresight and that's it. Bloodbath isn't a defensive CD so much as it is a means of sustaining during moments of tight healing (HM Garuda sisters for instance). The math is out there, and we all know Foresight sucks. It does what it's supposed to do, so it works in that sense, but the gain from it really isn't that much.

WAR needs something else. Whether it's to make Foresight worth more for us, or changing something we already have to also be defensive in nature, we need something. Bloodbath would be ideal for this, maybe adding a damage reduction component via the trait (in addition to the duration increase).

4. Giving WAR Some Utility
This ties into the BB suggestion I had earlier. PLD gets a silence off-gcd, a no-cd stun on the gcd, a blind, a silence off-gcd, and a strength debuff as a part of their main damage/aggro combo. That's a pretty nice suite to have for anyone.

WAR get's a single stun, off-gcd, with a 30s CD, and a slashing debuff that boosts the damage of WAR and PLD. WAR needs something else. The INT debuff added onto BB would be a great start for this, but more is needed imo. The best way to address this would likely be via MRD traits, such as adding some kind of extra debuff to Fracture in addition to the duration increase. Something like a -3% damage debuff, or a slow effect that only works on WS and spells but has no diminishing returns. Something unique that only WAR can bring but that isn't so strong as to be completely unbalancing.

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Originally Posted by Quor

As far as defensive CD's go, WAR has Foresight and that's it.

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???? Where is Featherfoot, Awareness and Convalescence?

1. I'd like to see Defiance be 25% more HP and 25% more health regained from all sources. Keep the damage buff on Wrath stacks, but make everything that uses Wrath stacks (Steel Cyclone, Inner Beast, Infuriate) based on the number of stacks you have. That way we can use 3 stacks for a heal if we need to, but only get 3/5th of the potency. I'd also like to see the damage reduction reduced to only 15%. Give us a real damage increase over using a Paladin.

2. Inner Beast is fine as is, although making it heal based on a % of your HP rather than your damage would be nice.

3. Agreed. Maybe make Foresight also grant 60% parry rate, similar to PLD's Bulwark would be nice.

4. I don't think we really NEED utility. God knows I'm glad I don't have to play stun-bitch anymore

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Originally Posted by Prelat

???? Where is Featherfoot, Awareness and Convalescence?

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I'm talking about strictly WAR stuff. Obviously you use those (or Internal Release or Second Wind in place of Awareness).

But they aren't WAR abilities. This thread is about WAR abilities. Specifically what can we add to the WAR class, that is unique to WAR, to help put them on the same level as PLD.

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Originally Posted by Paikis

4. I don't think we really NEED utility. God knows I'm glad I don't have to play stun-bitch anymore

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If both Tanks were able to relatively fulfill the same role, what would be the deciding factor between the two? It's always going to come down to utility, whether you like it or not. Given that Warriors seem to be the "Bruiser" job, why don't we have more stuns/interrupts in our toolkit? If WARs swapped "Brutal Swing" for PLD's "Shield Bash", this would not only help our mitigation, but also improve our usefulness to the party.

I mean, would you really be satisfied with chaining the same combos and keeping yourself alive rather than helping out the party? If so, you may be playing the wrong game.

I think there's a design flaw on Defiance Warriors. SE made us scale our lifesteal from our damage, yet our tank stance nerfs our damage even more than Paladin's Shield Oath, thus hurting our life-steal mitigation. Sure, non-IB lifesteal is neglible right now anyway but, let's be honest, it shouldn't be, and Defiance's damage reduction doesn't make it any better.

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Originally Posted by Paikis

1. I'd like to see Defiance be 25% more HP and 25% more health regained from all sources. Keep the damage buff on Wrath stacks, but make everything that uses Wrath stacks (Steel Cyclone, Inner Beast, Infuriate) based on the number of stacks you have. That way we can use 3 stacks for a heal if we need to, but only get 3/5th of the potency. I'd also like to see the damage reduction reduced to only 15%. Give us a real damage increase over using a Paladin.

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This single change would mostly bridge the gap in the two classes on its own. The only meaningful difference would be PLD cooldowns and Block vs. WAR damage and bursty self-heals, which might not be *completely* on-par, but would go a long way towards a level playing field. Give WAR cross-class Rampart and call it a day.

I'd like to see some synergy between PLD and WAR in a party so it promotes bringing both tanks to events. Things like buff to slashing damage are in line with that. I'd like to see WAR and PLD working side by side effectively so that they work well on their own, but even better when paired up.

From what I've been reading in the forums, one of the most convincing arguments for me is the static vs dynamic mitigation. It seems most logical that the trouble WAR faces is that they can't scale their way of tanking against incoming damage like PLD can. I think all a WAR really needs is something that scales against incoming damage. Maybe some kind of CD buff that lets you take a percentage of incoming damage and heals you for that much. Or maybe each stack of Wrath gives you a percentage of incoming damage as a heal or something. That way, even if newer content comes out with bosses hitting harder and harder, WAR will still be able to dynamically handle it just as a PLD can.

Well, it's kind of fun to read/write these kinds of threads... But ultimately it goes nowhere. If they do decide to change something in terms of warrior abilities, then it'll be to some designer's vision -- not ours.

What has more chance of being fruitful (though still practically zero), is to consider the higher level overview:

Defensively: PLD > WAR
Offensively: WAR > PLD

Currently these are true. And they should be. It's part of the identity. But the argument that so many on these forums try to make (though not in so many words) is that the first is too large a difference. Possibly the 2nd is too small a difference as well.

Currently we can add 1 more as well:
Utility: PLD > WAR

This could go either way I think, without compromising the identity of either class. (True because Shield Bash and Spirits Within mostly, as compared to ... Holmgang)


Defensively: PLD > WAR
Offensively: WAR > PLD
Utility: PLD > WAR

So when would you prefer a WAR and when a PLD?
Personally, I'd prefer to be a WAR in Amdapor Keep right now than a PLD (ilvl 70-90 gear). In other words, when you vastly overpower the content. PLD fine of course.
PLD preferred when the content is more difficult. When there is serious danger of dieing to boss hits on tank. Currently, I wouldn't even attempt to put a WAR tank on Titan HM or coil t4 Dreadnaughts. WAR can do ok as a 2nd tank on coil t1-4. Maybe even WAR/WAR on t1/t2 at some point, though I haven't tried that yet. But PLD is favored because less dmg taken & utility.

Current: "PLD always at least OK, sometimes necessary - including a few of the toughest fights. WAR usually OK, slightly preferred in easy content"
Please change to something like: "PLD & WAR both always OK" or "PLD for X, and WAR for Y" where X and Y are similarly desirable.

Changes to Warrior that could make the class better:

1. [Defiance] - Keep it the way it is, but remove 5% of the damage reduction for every stack of "Wrath" you have. This way you make a choice of holding the stacks or using it.

2. [Bloodbath] - Add an effect (into the trait) where consuming all 5 stacks of wrath will grant a moderate Regen based on 10% of your MAX HP. Of course this is only available while Bloodbath is.

3. Because Defiance is changed to reduce Damage reduction upon stacking "Wrath", the following skills need a rework:
[Unchained] - Rename this to "Rage", increase the cooldown to 5 minutes. Instant cast, for 10 seconds your HP cannot fall below 1 and all outside healing is reduced by 25%. All attack modifier effects are doubled in this state.
[Steel Cyclone] - Additional effect when cast in front of the target: Blind. Enmity gained is increased by 10% for 5 seconds.
[Inner Beast] - Reduces damage taken by 5% if used at full HP. (Additional Effect)

4. [Butcher's Block] - Increase amount of HP restored by actions by 5% for 10 seconds. (Additional Effect)

5. [Foresight] - Give the ability to parry at a 40% rate (Trait)

6. [Vengeance] - Increases amount healed by 10% if standing still. (Additional Effect)

7. [Holmgang] - Reduces damage taken by 10% for caster and target. (Additional Effect)


Of course the job right now is playable as is, but I personally feel unrewarded when I use half these skills. It feels like I have to use several skills to feel like I am a tank.

5. Rename Bloodshower.
Because why is it called Bloodshower if a shower is usually quicker than a bath.

Roxus,

I kind of like those ideas, but I wouldn't reduce healing for Rage (PLD equiv gives pure invuln, why would the buff be a purely inferior version of that), the Inner Beast additional effect would basically either never be triggered, or ensure IB is overheal. Steel Cyclone needs to be an AOE bind+ blind, and Holmgang would NEVER be used if it reduced damage on the target. That's..the opposite of what you want in every encounter. But overall it's a good set of ideas.

What I want out mercy stroke:
>Make the basic cooldown 60 second (warrior trait is 60 seconds, 120 sec non trait I think)
>Make the enhanced mercy stroke trait modify the effect into (heals user 20% of max hp if monster dies within 5 seconds after mercy stroke is used, heals 10% if monster does not die within 5 seconds)
>Non warriors that can use this basically has a 60 second cooldown mercy stroke and has to kill the monster with the skill to gain that heal.

Ideas for Warrior Changes/General Additions
(gonna be a bunch of posts due to the 1,000 char limitation)
Understand that this comes from someone who played warrior in 1.23 and loved it, i find current war to be very fun but when i played pld i noticed the difference immediately (and fell asleep because pld is just a snorefest for me personally, i even fell asleep tanking in coil lol)but some changes have to be made for reals.

If they want us to be a more offensive oriented tank, then change sub classes to pgl and lnc, currently pld sub is meh and with proper changes adding lnc instead of gla for subclass would make war more self sustainable

It's stupid that as a offensive oriented tank that PLD can keep up with us on dmg, like really...? I don't mind PLD having a full arsenal of defensive abilities, that's fine. In fact if they add even more then no problem, but give us an edge, a reason to bring a WAR to the battle, give us a clear damage advantage over PLD and not simply ~5% more dmg. (whoopdefuckin doo)

Our main problem is survivability/mitigation and high risk/no real reward (which should be more dmg by a clear mile than pld but nope!)

Before you get your panties in a bunch, a friendly reminder of all the mitigation/buffs/utility PLD has

PLD:
1. Static -20% damage taken
2. Able to Parry also at 23% dmg if not mistaken
3. -20% (Rampart)
4. -23% (Block)(26% i believe with shield +1 or allagan shield)
5. 60% Block (Bullwark)
6. -40% (Sentinel)
7. Access to self Stoneskin (10% HP)
8. Strength Down
9. Silence
10. Stun (6 seconds recast)
11. Blind
12. +30% Healing (Convalescence)
13. Invincibility (Hallowed Ground)
14. lolAwareness
15. lolForesight
16. Fight or Flight (great ability with no downside)
17. No -damage simply for putting on the tank stance <--- my personal biggest wtf
18. Bloodbath (stack this with fight or flight and you're getting decent self heal and just continue with your 1-2-3 combo)

WAR:
1. lolForesight
2. Bloodbath (if self heals are our thing then you gotta integrrate this to defiance, boost the self heal return or add it to all of our weaponskills for constant self heal)
3. Inner Beast (integrate a shield of sort)
4. Storms Eye (reduces slash resistance, which helps with WAR and PLD dps/hp recovered -50% seems only useful for future pvp unless they add a boss that heals itself by a lot and requires this debuff)
5. Storms Path (gimp self heal every 7.5 seconds, would rather do butchers block or storms eye combo, simply doesn't cure enough against incoming dmg)
6. Defiance (remove the -25% dmg dealt so we can do more dmg like we're supposed to and help with self heals)
7. Brutal Swing (cant stun bosses that matter)
8. Berserk (Remove the stupid pacification)
9. Mercy Stroke (on a boss fight we need those heals NOW not at the killshot which defeats the purpose)
10. Thrill of Battle
11. Second Wind
12. lolfeatherfoot (unreliable)
13. Convalescence

Doesn't have to be all of them but some of them would help out a lot, these are just ideas that can help change WAR.

Let us be parry masters like before. Make parry % value higher for warriors in nature by making STR give a larger boost than any other class (i'd like to go str over vit on stat points thank you very much)

Introduce an offhand for Warriors or 2 handers in general like for WHM(Thyrus)/DRG(Gae Bolg)/BLM(Stardust rod) like "Grips" in FF11 that will give them additional stats or new ability/passives? Hell they could even add like a "Relic grip" or crafted grips.
Perhaps something like:

1. Grip with STR+/Determination +/Skill Speed +
2. Grip with VIT+/Parry +/Dex+
3. Grip with unique ability like "Double attack" (would give us a unique ability which doubles the next weaponskill/abilities dmg on a large cooldown like 5min)
4. Grip with a passive trait, something like example "Retaliation"(counter's damage at a certain % or something) or "Enhanced Berserk"

Steel Cyclone: this used to be like our bread and butter back in the day, now its pointless use of wrath, to make it more useful/engaging
change it to the following options:

2 wrath stack: 150-200 aoe dmg like it is right now with an enmity modifier (our version of flash so to speak)
3 wrath stack: 200 aoe dmg with +5% crit or dmg bonus for a duration
4 wrath stack: 250 aoe dmg with a 50%? heal according to dmg
5 wrath stack: 250-300 aoe dmg & -20% dmg taken for a duration

Just a random idea and it may take some tweaks and/or reverse the orders or w/e but at least this way theres more options according to situation and steel cyclone is useful.

Defiance has +20% HP recovery on it. Each Wrath Stack maintains the current 2% Crit and 1-3%+ parry (the parry% + might be asking for too much, no problem if not given)

Damage penalty removed from Defiance, WAR won't come close to a real DD job but there needs to be a clear dps advantage over PLD

Holmgang is great... for PVP... (only has small use for example i
stun a dullahan go behind him and holmgang, or i use it on CM/Prae bosses to avoid knockback but its just a minor annoyance but it doesn't work on bosses so its honeslty pointless for pve on stuff that matters)
I like the holmgang animation, so change it to our version of Provoke and give us the bind ability under another name or w/e when they release the pvp abilities)

Mercy Stroke: Change the 20% healed upon use(need those heals NOW, not at killshot which defeats the purpose on bosses)

Foresight: Change this to parry+ % (+40% like someone mentioned would be sweet) like in 1.0 otherwise it's stupid or simply make it less garbage(or keep the 5% mitigation but add parry boost via a trait to war or make it damage taken -, magic damage taken -20%, anything useful)

Overpower: Good ability, tp cost is high however we would be able to use invigorate to gain some tp back when necessary

Berserk: Remove the pacification, its stupid, it can be removed by esuna/leech but thats highly unecessary work for a healer (which is already most likely spamming cures on you) and PLD has fight or flight which from what i've read is better than berserk... (dmg done vs attack %)

Brutal Swing: Lesser the animation slighty, it takes about 1 whole second for the stun to proc. Make brutal swing be a unique stun that will land on bosses and interrupt, PLD's have that silence ability and a low cooldown stun, why not give us something similar/reliable? if not no biggie

Storm's Path: Recovery is simply not enough against incoming dmg, its a joke; either remove the ability and add the healing property to storms eye or butchers block(which would be better imo for more hate generation when you are competing against very good geared dd's) or change the % increased and incease potency

Inner Beast: The shield/stoneskin effect idea sounds alright, or the scaled of hp% or something like all overhealed will turn into shield/etc.

Unchained: Cooldown is way too long imo. Has its uses, mainly use it at start of a fight but it wouldnt be wise to use it on coil unless infuriate is up. Would be pointless anyways if they remove the -dmg done with defiance up, but it they dont then at least lower unchained to 60sec so every minute we can do what we're supposed to do... more dmg to self heal better/etc.

With the change to LNC we would lose the following GLA abilities:

Convalescence (legit ability that i use often, however if they change the healing +20% towards Defiance and not dependant on stacks then i think it's a fair tradeoff)

Flash: this would kinda hurt for just initial of fights/pulls where theres a bunch of mobs or those retarded dps that go hurr durr all out mode before i even whip out my weapon, but after you line em up for overpower theres no need for this unless you are sleeping mobs for some reason.

Provoke: if they change holmgang to the above then it would alright to lose this.

Awareness: ok'ish/meh ability from the looks of it

Savage Blade: lol really.... waste of ability slot which could have been something more useful like rampart. The same for PLD, why would they give PLD Skull Sunder... waste of an ability slot. C'mon SE...

With the change to LNC we would obtain the following abilities:

Feint: Make it so we can land the slow on bosses reliably (an extra reason to bring us plus the+20% slow would help with tanking)

Keen Flurry: yes plz

Invigorate: TP regen, I often find myself running short on tp when running AK, i can only imagine the tp drain on turn 4 coil from videos i've seen, so Invigorate would be welcome

Life Surge: I realize this is a LNC/DRG ability only but if they would change it so WAR could use then it can be used to guarantee an Inner Beast crit for max possible self heal when necessary

General wishful thinking:

Introduce attack food, this would buff second wind and general self heal/dmg done/ dd jobs in general.

I hope they add the unique ability buffs/passives on AF/Future AF upgrades like AF3 version or whatever, like WHM body: cure potency +15%, WAR body: Double Attack x%, BLM: Increase x magic potency + x%/etc but very hard to get (harder than coil stuff for exmaple)
or they could add that stuff right now if they added "special materia" that's only gotten from crystal tower/coil and meldable only once per armor piece or only meldable on af2. (im a personal believer that allagan gear should have come from mythology and af2 from coil (just feels like af2 should be the iconic gear people should be aiming for but whatever doesn't really matter that much)

Make AF1 Revelant in the future, necessary to upgrade to AF3 for example.

There's so much potential for this game =/

Erm..how about change PLD instead?

Shield Oath - 15% reduced damage taken
Rampart - Cross Class skill (buff to 25% reduction for paladin)

Storm path could absorb some more health.
I don't have much qualm with WAR but I don't like Storm path's heal. If I pop unchained + Berserk and crit, then it's visible otherwise I don't think a healer can feel it. Sure if im soloing and do say 6 Storm paths I'll see a difference between how much health I have with that combo vs if I had done BB combo, it'll be small but it's there. However against a boss it's hard to justify.

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Originally Posted by castillle

Erm..how about change PLD instead?

Shield Oath - 15% reduced damage taken
Rampart - Cross Class skill (buff to 25% reduction for paladin)

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Nerfing Paladin doesn't really help warrior though. Come any new content you will see warrior struggling even more with the same issues unless they add some changes to the class to improve it.

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Originally Posted by Hitokirinomad

Roxus,

I kind of like those ideas, but I wouldn't reduce healing for Rage (PLD equiv gives pure invuln, why would the buff be a purely inferior version of that), the Inner Beast additional effect would basically either never be triggered, or ensure IB is overheal. Steel Cyclone needs to be an AOE bind+ blind, and Holmgang would NEVER be used if it reduced damage on the target. That's..the opposite of what you want in every encounter. But overall it's a good set of ideas.

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My reasoning is purely to offer trade-offs for the gains this set would give Warriors, according to developers Warriors are already "good enough, l2p" I am offering things that require combos to completely work. The reason Rage reduces healing is to differentiate from Hallowed Ground, where reduced healing + low hp = LB buildup. Holmgang was a way to offer scaling damage mitigation to the warrior without just copying the Paladin one. Ideally it would be used for very hard hitting skills and Holmgang can be removed via MNK "One-Ilm Punch".In my opinion Inner Beast is good as is, I just added something that wouldn't waste overheals. I think Warriors have potential, but ultimately they will be inferior with static mitigation (Current skillset).

Also, I would keep Warrior on the "Self-healing tank who need no direct mitigation" niche, leave the parry-specialization to the possible Samurai Tank job that many people are speculating.

Defiance is fine as is. Its the wrath stacking that kills it. I think all (if not most) of the skills when under defiance should produce wrath of some kind. i.e Overpower produce's 0.5 stacks meaning spamming OP 4 times would give you two stacks.

There should also be a rotation bonus for successful execution. That way you can build 5 stacks in two rotations rather than 2.5.

i.e Heavy Swing > Skull Sunder (add one stack) > Butcher Block (add one stack) > (one stack bonus for next Heavy Swing) > Heavy Swing (add one stack) > etc.

And I do not agree with giving wars more def cd's cause the point of a war is to "manually" mitigate the damage. Meaning "you" the "player" must mitigate it yourself and that is the true nature of how wars should be treated. Not as a passive buff like shield oath. Also fix Storm's Path because the tp cost far outweighs its utility and the measly 50% of hp absorbed (roughly 70-120 hp) is not worth the 10% slash debuff from Storm's eye imo.

just saying some ideas.

make Steel cyclone and Inner beast have buff after used.
example;
Steel cyclone : reduce damage taken or increase some defensive stat for 10s
Inner beast : increase some offensive stat for 10-15s

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Originally Posted by Ledarius

If both Tanks were able to relatively fulfill the same role, what would be the deciding factor between the two? It's always going to come down to utility, whether you like it or not. Given that Warriors seem to be the "Bruiser" job, why don't we have more stuns/interrupts in our toolkit? If WARs swapped "Brutal Swing" for PLD's "Shield Bash", this would not only help our mitigation, but also improve our usefulness to the party.

I mean, would you really be satisfied with chaining the same combos and keeping yourself alive rather than helping out the party? If so, you may be playing the wrong game.

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It isn't. It is a self sustaining tank. (Heal focused) I think steel cyclone was poorly implemented because as it is it is only a damaging ability and makes people focus on dealing damage.

Have Second Wind affected by convalescence and Wrath
Steel cyclone reduces Fire resistance.
Bloodbath: +25% (50%) absorb under Defiance
Storm Path + 100% (150%) absorb under Defiance

Ok, this is the way i see the War

Warrior: Self sustain (heals) and DPS (higher damage)

as of right now, warriors do a horrible job at that, 100 dps extra that warriors have is almost noticeable when in a 4 man group. I think that if you fixed it so that warriors did a good job at their more specific philosophies, we would be more forgiving of the faults

Favorite ideas
Self sustain:
1) Self heals (does not apply to friendly heals or potions) will add to a shield that degrades exponentially over time (example: 100 shield degrades slowly, 3k degrades rather quickly), allowing for things like bloodbath to never be a useless buff.
2) make Storm's Path useful... to put things in perspective, since it takes 3 attacks to trigger it, it has a healing potency of ~40 on gcd (or 10% of second wind). I would personally be happy if you took it off the combo and took away its wrath generation (imo: up heal to 66%, lower damage to 150)

Extra DPS:
Decrease damage resistance instead of slashing resistance. actually noticeable damage difference in a party of 8 would be awesome (~12% difference instead of ~2% vs Paladins)
remove damage debuff from defiance, it seems counter productive to the mentality of a Warrior. Unchained could just be a damage buff

Notice: I'm not a number cruncher, so please be forgiving if my numbers are off, but i'm just trying to get a general idea out there

Eh I think there should be faster ways to build up Wraith to help utilize Inner Beast and Steel Cyclone better, otherwise give us ways to reduce the useage of Wraith.

Some Examples

- Let Heavy Swing build Wraith
- Boost the amount of Wraith by 2 when Unchained is in effect.
- Allow all abilities to build Wraith when Unchained is in effect
- When Unchained in effect all Wraith moves consume one charge.
- Increase the recast of Unchained but abilities will no longer consume wraith during it's effect.

Just throwing out some ideas there.

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Originally Posted by SwordCoheir

- Let Heavy Swing build Wraith

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Please, for the love of god, please. THIS.

MRD
- Foresight: Increased Defence bonus to 40%.
- Enhanced Foresight: Shortens recast to 90s and also increases Magic Defence by 40%.

Foresight is a pretty poor ability because the mitigation bonus it provides is so low when taking the recast time into account.

- Skull Sunder: Additional effect altered: Front bonus: Additional enmity.
- Butcher's Block: Additional effect altered: Front bonus: Additional enmity.

Front bonus added so off tank or dps MRD/WARs can use their main combo without fearing pulling enmity from the main tank. Main tank MRD/WARs can still generate extra enmity by being in front so the only situation in which this has negative impact is where a mob is making a B line to someone else but there are other skills for dealing with that.

- Mercy Stroke: Replaced with [ Antagonize: 45s recast, Unleash a threatening roar that generates a great amount of enmity in a 5 yalm radius. ]
- Enhanced Mercy Stroke: Replaced with [ Enhanced Antagonize: Also reduces enemy damage by 15% for 8s. ]

Mercy Stroke is also a pretty poor ability and didn't seem to make the transition from 1.xx to ARR very well. Replacing it with an ability that provides "offensive defense" would suit the MRD/WAR play style, by "breaking" enemy damage instead of taking less damage themselves.

- Thrill of Battle: 60s base recast.
- Enhanced Thrill of Battle: Also shortens recast of Thrill of Battle to 45s.

Thrill of Battle is one of the great few long recast abilities a MRD/WAR has. It contains a heal which scales very well throughout the game and a health buffer to boot. Allowing the use of this skill more often would allow MRD/WARs to use it as a pseudo absorption shield for heavy hitting attacks like Mountain Buster and Tonberry King's Grudge.

- Storm's Path: Redesigned: [ Storm's Path: 50 TP / 15s Recast / Delivers an attack with a potency of 230. Front bonus: Additional enmity. (No combo action) ]
- Storm's Eye: Combo action: Storm's Path. Duration extended to 20s.

Storm's Path is in an odd position. The healing it provides is too little to make a difference, the TP cost is greatest of all the combo skills and is sits at the end of a combo, becoming replaced by Storm's Eye at 50. I think it is agreed by at least 90% of the MRD/WAR community that Storm's Path in it's current iteration has no place on the skill bar (at least at 50). Making Storm's Path into it's own combo starter and giving it a recast time would be a good way to differentiate it from the other skills. Changing the Storm's Eye combo action to Storm's Path would also open up a combo pathway for future "Storm" abilities in further content, controlled by the recast time on Storm's Path.

- Holmgang: Also increases damage to the target by 30% and reduces damage taken from the target by 30% for 6s.
Holmgang is a very situational ability and is nigh useless in most situations that matter. Once again the concept is "offensive defense" in that it acts as a defensive option tied into an offensive action.


WAR:
- Wrath: No longer provides a bonus to healing.
- Defiance: Additional effect: Increases HP restored by curative magic by 15%.

One of the big problems with WAR is that using your signature ability, Inner Beast, is not always a net gain of healing. That is because Wrath, the resource spent and required to use Inner Beast, also provides a passive healing bonus. Infuriate, the ability, helps to mitigate this problem slightly but it doesn't change that using Inner Beast can be a counter productive skill especially in late game content where the 15% extra healing you receive from magic will easily out heal the average Inner Beast heal.

- Unchained: Recast removed. Duration shortened to 12s.

I like to thing of this ability as a metaphor for modern DLC in the gaming industry. It provides you with nothing new, content that was cut away at the release and resold to you for a premium. In essence it is giving you back something you technically already had. Joking aside the recast time is way too long especially when using it requires precious Wrath stacks. By removing the recast and shortening the duration to 12s a WAR can make a conscious choice between self preservation (Inner Beast) or extra damage and enmity. With a low duration a WAR would have to potentially sacrifice all of their Inner Beasts to keep it at 100% up time, if such a thing is possible.

- Heavy Swing: Grants Wrath when used with Defiance. Grants additional Wrath if a critical hit.
- Skull Sunder: Grants additional Wrath if a critical hit.
- Butcher's Block: Grants additional Wrath if a critical hit.
- Maim: Grants additional Wrath if a critical hit.
- Storm's Path: Grants additional Wrath if a critical hit.
- Storm's Eye: Grants additional Wrath if a critical hit.
- Overpower: Grants Wrath when used with Defiance. Grants additional Wrath if a critical hit.

Aside from skill speed Wrath gain stays static at all levels of play. Inner Beast does not scale well enough into late game that it provides the power it does during leveling and early 50. Increasing Wrath gain through the use of a normally offense orientated stat, critical hit rate, provides the WAR with a means to increase the speed of Wrath gain. Even if Inner Beast does not heal as much in ratio compared to incoming boss damage at later game stages the increased use of Inner Beast (and all other Wrath spending skills) will serve to act as active pseudo mitigation similar to increasing block rate but in bigger spikes and bursts.

Personally I think just adding back the leech buff to Storm's Path would go a long way. Ensure it's long enough that we can do a couple of rotations without going back to Storm's Path and when you couple that with Bloodbath you'll have some very good boosted self-healing for when things get a bit rougher.