WARRIOR - In Heavensward

I am going to be leveling this class to 60 first.

My goals for this thread are to get advice on
1. New skills for Warrior 50-60.
2. How to play the role of Warrior in the new dungeons and raids.
3. I play on PS4, so how to set-up good hotbars with the new skills added.

Any other additional information on Warrior is also helpful.

1. http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...0a926fddc9eca8
2. Won't know until it comes out.
3. Personal preference. But I'd personally put up the main combos at least, IB. ToB. Vengence, Berserk,Tomahawk, BB, fracture, and provoke on the first hotbar(one you'll mainly be on). This may change with the expansion once new moves are figured out in the over all role of warrior.

Learn to time IB in junction with other abilities to take big hit's. Should be a lot of material on the web, Bluegartr, reddit and here some where on how to throw your own HP back up to aid your healers in keeping you alive, that can better explain it than myself.

1. http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...070.1406766498
2. Hit things with your axe. Don't die.
3. Not really sure. PC master race.

WAR dps stance + the new DRG crit party buff will wreck! =D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by kumo21

WAR dps stance + the new DRG crit party buff will wreck! =D

---

Until we're all overgeared muscleopaths...I'd say DPS will be last on your list of worries.

Then again, you brutes ain't got that BLOCK like a PLD does.

Separating my post due to limit
Begin:

Got to 60 today, a very long and exciting journey; I can say to all warriors you are in a treat.

Here is the list of the new abilities from my experience as an active WAR since 1.0:

- Deliverance: We deliver. But without enmity; hence losing hate of an enemy in a pack can cause problems specially that Deliverance and Defiance share cooldown.

- Fell Cleve: Raw 500 potency damage. Very powerful; you will hear it. Basically crits (comparing with a 60 BLM friend, same iLvL) damage is between Fire 3 and 4. (hints: crits ~4.5k with ilvl170 weapon)

- Raw Intuition: Beautiful. Short on CD (90 seconds) and -20% incoming physical damage (most the time). Lasts for 20 seconds. AND grants a Wrath/Abandon; I sometimes use it for the Wrath/Abandon for DPS rotation(explained later). The trick though, is Lock-on; with that you can move left and right without getting hit from sides. ( I think it is the reason why SE nerfed Parrying effect)

- Equilibrium: Amazing. Animation and effect. I believe it gets scaled with Berserk, crits for about 6000 (LvL 60) give or take. Its a true life-saver, with a short (60 seconds) cooldown.

- Decimate: Mehh. It does what it should do. It deals damage; but not enough. crits for about 2.2k. (Flare crits 3k+)
Considering its an AOE effect; I understand the low damage output. And giving us the equivalent of Flare is gonna make us way too OP. But compared to Steel Cyclone its useless. I would rather crit for 2k (with enmity) than dealing enmity-less Butcher's Block-ga. Animation is amazing though.

As you can see we basically got 3 offensive abilities and 2 defensive. I tried to spend most of my time playing as the DPS (OTing and trying to deal the most damage possible); and I find it brutal. Seriously, you will hit hard and strong. Fell Cleve is very powerful, with buffs and Bloodbath, it heals a good amount (reasonable to sustain damage while in Deliverance), also Butcher's Block combo is stronger (+5%, Deliverance), I roll with Internal Release for extra crit (I heard a friend saying that they modified crit rating, basically it affects crit damage aswell; not sure though). Unfortunately I can't get numbers on PS4 (Praying for add-ons), but I believe that we can be equivalent (sometimes strongly considering the burst aspect) a top DD damage for a short period (usually 20~ seconds), you can land 3 Fell Cleves/Inner Beasts (Using Raw Intuition's Wrath/Abandon).

For the defensive part, Raw Intuition is basically your new Foresight, with -20% Damage taken effect. You just need to lock-on the target. Equilibrium is nice when you combo it with Second Wind (if you have it), it gives a good burst heal; saved me many times. Equilibrium is truly the key for stance dancing. When you switch to Defiance in mid-fight, you will increase your HP pool, which indicates a loss of 25% HP from your defensive-stance. With Equilibrium (60 seconds CD) you can stance dance freely without worrying about you HP.

The change of Defiance (10% parry instead of 10% crit) is the way of SE saying do not use Defiance if you want to DPS. Switching the crit buff to Abandon stacks, makes the change a fix, not a nerf.

You will never regret it Warrior of Light. ;)



- Fun fact: Raw Intuition enables you to be critically "healed" by a teammate if he/she casts it from flank/rear. Will be fixed I believe.

-- The xpan is good and all; but I want my Mighty Strikes back !

--- PM me any questions you got, I will try my best to help ! GL


EDIT: fixed post syntax.
---- Apologize for the many-many posts.

:End

I got WAR to 60 last night. Overall very pleasantly surprised with the new skills.

Deliverance: Amazing stance that gives +5% Damage plus Defiance's former Stacking Crit Buff. Makes all your skills stronger
Fell Cleave: 500 Potency Attack! We've been talking about our Inner Beast Crits in 2.0 but a Berserk'ed Fell Cleave does so much damage. WAR's ability to burst is so high now: Berserk -> Fell Cleave -> Infuriate -> Fell Cleave
Decimate: Similar ability to Steel Cyclone except no enmity but more damage. Very good in dungeon runs to finish off large groups of mobs after you've established aggro
Raw Intuition: Guaranteed parry from front, while taking critical damage from flank and rear. A bit trickier to use, as repositioning with this up will make you susceptible to crits, but you can mitigate it with awareness, so it's good to stack those together.
Equilibrium: Big heal (~3000K while leveling) in Defiance, 200 TP in Deliverance. This is a really versatile skill which I like, you get a mini invigorate or a decent heal at a VERY LOW 60s cooldown.

These skills are nice on paper, but what makes WAR absolutely amazing is twofold:
1) Ability to stance dance off the global cooldown without interrupting combo. You can seamlessly go from deliverance into defiance and vice versa. You can quickly switch from Defiance into deliverance without skipping a beat. I typically do this in dungeons when there are only 1 or 2 mobs left in the pull. It allows you to output more damage without really increasing your risk of dying. It works the other way around.

2) Stacks remain when switching stances. This cannot be understated enough. You can do so much with this. It allows you to build up stacks in one stance and quickly use them in another. You can build up Wrath while tanking, and then if you want some extra burst, quickly switch to Deliverance for a very fast Fell Cleave -> Infuriate -> Fell Cleave burst. Afterwards you can switch back to defiance without skipping a beat.

Overall I'm very happy with the WAR changes as the freedom of stance dancing off the global cooldown opens up a lot of powerful possibilities. This is something that the other tanks do not have.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Amazing

Butcher's Block-ga.

---

They need to make that a real skill.

Maybe this will help you for the controller part. I play on PC but I like the controller feeling and I found the command /chotbar to be very useful.
You can basically change your ability on the fly when switching stances.

My macros are:

Defiance
/micon "Defiance"
/ac "Defiance"<me>
/chotbar set "Steel Cyclone" 1 LD3
/chotbar set "Inner Beast" 1 LD4

Deliverance
/micon "Deliverance"
/ac "Deliverance"<me>
/chotbar set "Decimate" 1 LD3
/chotbar set "Fell Cleave" 1 LD4

What it does is it sets Steel Cyclone to cross hotbar 1 on the slot L2 + right D-Pad and Inner Beast to cross hotbar 1 on the slot L2 + down D-Pad when I use Defiance.

Same with Decimate and Fell Cleave with Deliverance.

Here are the slots names (bold for PS controller):

LT(L2) + ← = LDL(LD1)
LT(L2) + ↑ = LDU(LD2)
LT(L2) + → = LDR(LD3)
LT(L2) + ↓ = LDD(LD4)

LT(L2) + X(□) = LAL(LA1)
LT(L2) + Y(△) = LAU(LA2)
LT(L2) + B(〇) = LAR(LA3)
LT(L2) + A(Ｘ) = LAD(LA4)

RT(R2) + ← = RDL(RD1)
RT(R2) + ↑ = RDU(RD2)
RT(R2) + → = RDR(RD3)
RT(R2) + ↓ = RDD(RD4)

RT(R2) + X(□) = RAL(RA1)
RT(R2) + Y(△) = RAU(RA2)
RT(R2) + B(〇) = RAR(RA3)
RT(R2) + A(Ｘ) = RAD(RA4)

Hope this helps.

- lvl 52 -

Deliverance: 5% damage increase, 10% crit increase @ 5 abandon. Great DPS stance on it's own, but only gets better with the next action.

- lvl 54 -

Fell Cleave: 500 potency attack, uses 5 abandon. You can get a minimum of 2 buffed Fell Cleaves in your opener as OT, and a maximum of 3. It is the strongest attack available to WAR.

- lvl 56 -

Raw Intuition: 20s Rampart. also gives 1 stack of Wrath/Abandon. Used in similar situations to when you would use Vengeance, IE on a big pull or before a tank buster. IB + Raw Intuition is nothing to scoff at.

Note: Currently this skill is bugged where all heals that hit you under the effect of Raw Intution will crit. Thus, for the time being, Conv + Raw Intuition is actually extremely powerful... but don't get used to it.

- lvl 58 -

Equilibrium: 1200 potency cure or 200 TP restore (stance dependent) with a 60s recast timer. With Fell Cleave taking up a good amount of GCDs, this can leave you with basically endless TP as OT. 1200 potency cure is also really strong, and being able to use it every 60s is verrrrry good.

- lvl 60 -

Decimate: 280 pot aoe attack. Good if you're OTing multiple mobs or if you can afford 10s of Deliverance stance while tanking multiple mobs.

What's Changed About WAR?: OT

Same as before, except now you use Fell Cleave whenever it's available.

If you pre-Infuriate -> 30s -> Raw Intuition -> 15s -> Opener then you'll be able to fit in 3 Fell Cleaves, if not you'll get 2. Something to keep in mind is that Raw Intuition sits on a 90s recast timer and can be used to build 1 stack, so it's not just a defensive tool but also an offensive one for building 5 Abandon faster. Same with Vengeance, though Vengeance sits on a 120s timer.

Equilibrium should be used as close to 800 TP as possible and then again every time it's up, unless you need to tank something soon and would like the heal instead of the TP.

Decimate will deal higher overall potency than Fell Cleave @ 2 or more targets, so if you have Deliverance up and there are 2+ things in front of you, use Decimate. Obviously if one needs to be burned quicker than the other, use Fell Cleave instead.

What's Changed About WAR?: MT

Instead of IBing in your opener, switch to Deliverance and Fell Cleave. Obvious exception to this is if you need the IB over the damage (IE: T9, T10, T12), so don't go too crazy.

Raw Intution is a strong defensive CD on a relatively short timer and Equilibrium is a strong heal on a 60s CD timer, so they fit neatly into a 40s tank buster rotation:

Vengeance + IB + Equilibrium

40s pass

Thrill + Conv + IB + Foresight

40s pass

Raw Intuition + IB + Equilibrium

(use Equilibrium every odd tank buster as long as it's available)

and a 60s tank buster rotation:

Vengeance + IB + Equilibrium

60s pass

Thrill + Conv + IB + Foresight + Raw Intutition + Equilibrium

Something important to note is that if the tank buster is magical, then Raw Intution isn't going to mitigate it, but will mitigate the following auto attacks. Equilibrium meanwhile will always give you the 1200 potency heal.

As always, if your tank stance isn't needed for certain phases, use Deliverance instead.

Raw intuition is useless if the 'auto attacks' of the enemy cannot be parried.
Which is the case for spell casting enemies. Or would be useless if not for the fact that it provides crit heals.

There are enemies that cast magical tank busters but their auto attacks are physical, such as Akh Morn and the auto attacks in-between and after. But yeah, it's useless against a completely magical enemy like Ramuh.