How do I play Warrior?

Hi
I'm a beginner at playing Warrior and I was inspired by this video to play Warrior.
But as I get all the abilities, I don't even know how to play it.
I general I can't understand when it's the right time to use what stance.
Also what Combo I should use and how to generate stacks properly.

Thanks in advance

Defiance is your bread and butter "Tank" stance. If you expect you're getting hit, it's generally safe to say Defiance is the right stance.
Deliverance is your "DPS" stance. You can learn to stance-dance into this while tanking but there are things to be aware of

• Your Max HP is 25% lower
• Your Healing Received rate is 25% lower
• You generate less enmity

Your primarily rotations fall into 3 groups

• Threat Generation: Heavy Swing > Skull Sunder > Butchers Block ... BB-Combo
• Damage Mitigation: Heavy Swing > Maim > Storm's Path ... Path-Combo
• Increased DPS: Heavy Swing > Maim > Storm's Eye ... Eye-Combo

Opening threat rotation and threat management are key to being able to stance-dance. When you are MTing you will want a good opening rotation (this is what I use, might not be BEST but it works for me)
Defiance > Infuriate (before pull) > Heavy Swing > Unleashed > Skull Sunder > Berserk > Butchers Block > BB-Combo > Deliverance > Heavy > Maim > Fell Cleave > Fracture (at this point you will be pacified)

After that you're probably going to have solid hate for a good 2 minutes before needing to worry about someone creeping up behind you.
Path-Combo / Eye-Combo will help reduce damage you take and increase damage you deal
Fell-Cleave is your best single target ability you can usually use it as soon as you get stacks build up
Decimate is your best AoE attack, if you have stacks use them! overpower is great but will eat your TP like no tomorrow.

If you know there is high incoming damage you will need to decide how many cooldowns to use. Outside of maintaining threat, consider Defiance to be a cooldown that can be used as needed (at a DPS loss). Many fights once you learn the mechanics don't require the use of Defiance often.

Hope this helps get you started!

I haven't played for that long since my start in FF14 (played a bit over 40 days maybe).
What do you mean by "how many cooldowns to use"? I understand cooldown as a skill which is not available to use like in any other games.
And what should I use for Cross Class-skills?

Cross Class

• Provoke - MUST have
• Convalescence - Increased Healing Received
• Flash - Blind is overlooked for group tanking
• Awareness - pairs well with Raw Intuition
• Inner Release - Increased Damage

GCD - Global Cooldown, the timer which affects the majority of your attacks

Cooldowns - These are usually things off the GCD which you can execute to reduce expected damage (although some are not)

• Thrill of Battle / Convalescences
• Vengeance
• Foresight
• Raw Intuition / Foresight
• Defiance / Inner Beast*
• Berserk / Inner Release / Blood Bath / Storm's Path*

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Teleniel

Flash - Blind is overlooked for group tanking

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The Blind is a trait on PLD, WAR's Flash doesn't have it.

Point well taken... Still not a bad utility skill given the other option is Second Wind which has a meh-heal at best (in my experience) and when you click it you need an OMG heal

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Teleniel

Point well taken... Still not a bad utility skill given the other option is Second Wind which has a meh-heal at best (in my experience) and when you click it you need an OMG heal

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SW is pretty good - it can be used in Deliverance whereas Equilibrium (your other self heal) is locked to Defiance. Flash, meanwhile, does no damage and doesn't give as much enmity as Overpower or Steel Cyclone. It's only real use is if you're struggling with TP from spamming OP too much. It's not a horrible cross class skill, it has it's uses, but I much prefer running SW over Flash.

e: Also important to note is that SW is affected by Berserk (same with Equilibrium), so you can actually boost the healing potency if you plan on using it in your Berserk window.

Warrior is the fun tank to play! While it doesn't have the upfront mitigation of a PLD or DRK, WARs get to offset this with higher HP, higher damage, and abilities which allow it to self-heal and increase healing received by huge amounts. Our primary role in most raid situations is the Off-tank (OT) but we also make very good main tanks (MT) and can solo most old content and PotD pretty well because of our damge and healing.


WAR Stances
Defiance (Tank Stance) : Increases maximum HP by 25%, while lowering damage dealt by 25% and increasing enmity. Increases HP recovery via healing magic by 20% for self. Also increases chance to hit by 5%. Using certain actions while under the effect of Defiance will grant Wrath. Each unit of Wrath increases parry rate by 2%. When five units are stacked, you will become Infuriated. Cannot be used with Deliverance. If Deliverance is executed while using Defiance, all Wrath is converted into Abandon. Recast: 10s.

Deliverance (DPS Stance) : Increases damage dealt by 5%. Using certain actions while under the effect of Deliverance will grant Abandon. Each unit of Abandon increases critical hit rate by 2%. When five units are stacked, you will become Uncontrollable. Cannot be used with Defiance. If Defiance is executed while using Deliverance, all Abandon is converted into Wrath. Shares recast timer with Defiance. Recast: 10s.


WARs are the only tank that takes the same amount of damage in tank and damage stances. The key difference being how much more HP you have to soak that incoming damage and how easily it is to heal you after taking that damage. This is why Warriors actually spend so much time stance dancing or just play mostly out of Deliverance. There are very few times outside of raiding that we take a bunch of damage, and we're so good at healing ourselves back up against small damage that most of the time we can just opt for the 30% damage increase our other stance provides us.


WAR Abilities
▲ = Abilities marked with this symbol grant one stack of Wrath/Abandon when used in Defiance/Deliverance. Each stack has a duration of 30s.

Lv. 1 : Heavy Swing - The combo starter for all three of your skill trees.

Lv. 2 : Foresight - Useless against magic damage. Most useful during trash pulls or as a low tier buff against bosses who deal high physical damage. The better your gear, the better this buff will be.

Lv. 4 : Skull Sunder ▲ - Combos off of Heavy Swing. Your first and main enmity generator at low levels. Enmity = 3.5x DMG.

Lv. 6 : Fracture - Unfortunately, the incredibly low damage return for this DoT, despite its lengthy duration, makes the steep TP cost just not efficient. Usually only a dps increase if used fully buffed and ensure maximum up-time.

Lv. 8 : Bloodbath - WAR's first foray into self-healing. Most effective against large groups of enemies or with Berserk rotations. A bloodbathed triple Fell Cleave combo can keep most Deliverance tanks at full health on their own during dungeon boss encounters.

Lv. 10 : Brutal Swing - Off GCD Stun ability with a 20s recast time. Makes WARs effective one-time stunners, but can also very easily immunize mobs against Stuns. Weave this ability into your damage rotation every 20s against enemies that do not require stunning.

Lv. 12 : Overpower - Important ability for gathering AoE hate after pulling. Like Flash, its potency is affected by Attack Power and Berserk. Unlike Flash, Overpower can crit! Just be careful to hit all enemies within your cone as Overpower has steep TP cost so you will want to use as sparingly as possible. Additional uses include Big Pull self-healing when spammed with Vengeance + Bloodbath + (optional) Berserk. Enmity = x5 DMG.

Lv. 15 : Tomahawk - Used for pulling enemies at range. Use this sparingly. I've gotten so I hardly ever use it. Most enemy groups spawn grouped together, so its more effective to run in and grab hate with Overpower so you can start your combo rotation sooner. Even against solo bosses, running in and grabbing initial aggro with Overpower often nets higher enmity grab for roughly same TP cost. Or, can just run in and grab solo bosses with Heavy Swing - your pick. Enmity = 3x DMG.

Lv. 18 : Maim ▲ - The 20% damage buff should be kept up at all times. There is no excuse for letting Maim drop in combat. Warriors possess higher damage and enmity generation than other tanks probably because we need to alternate between enmity and damage combos to be effective. If you find you are having trouble holding hate, it's probably because you aren't maintaining Maim.

Lv. 22 : Berserk ▲ - This ability is the end-all-be-all for a WAR's damage, self healing, and enmity generation decimation. This ability greatly increases the potency of your enmity generating abilities such as Butcher's Block, damage abilities like Fell Cleave, and healing abilities like Equilibrium. A more detailed guide to Berserk can be found in the Rotations section below.

Lv. 26 : Mercy Stroke - Mostly used for extra dps, but if you're lucky, you can score a pretty decent self-heal by killing a trash mob with this. Absolutely great when soloing.

Lv. 30 : Butcher's Block ▲ - Your strongest damaging weaponskill and single greatest enmity generator. At higher levels, and properly buffed, a geared WAR can hold hate on a boss for its entire lifespan with one or two Butcher's Blocks. As tempting as it is to test that, keep using Butcher's Block as part of your damage rotation, even when Off Tanking, as it is your highest potency weaponskill. Enmity = x5.5 DMG.

Lv. 30 : Defiance - This is your tank stance. All abilities used when in Defiance generate 2.7x the enmity they normally would. Additionally, Defiance increases max HP and HP recovery via healing magic. It's like having Convalescence up all the time. Healers love it. This stance is recommended for Main Tanking in Raids, trash pulls in dungeons, and establishing enmity dominance in Hunts, Bosses, etc before swapping to Deliverance for damage. Remember that this stance is Off GCD, meaning you can swap to Defiance whenever needed - usually for emergency Inner Beast or Equilibrium heal. OH! That 10% Parry rating is useless, so use Inner Beast or Steel Cyclone as soon as you get 5 stacks of Wrath unless you're saving it for the next pull or incoming tank buster (TB).

Lv. 34 : Thrill of Battle - This ability has too many practical applications to list, but most importantly it cushions high damaging tank-buster abilities. Combined with Convalescence, Thrill of Battle acts as the poor man's Defiance when dealing damage in Deliverance. At low HP, popping Thrill of Battle can act as a clutch self-heal, healing back 20% of your total HP.

Lv. 35 : Inner Beast - A geared WAR can return a decent chunk of their HP using Inner Beast as a self-heal. However, IB is most commonly used as clutch mitigation. Careful timing is required to 1) time Wrath stacks to have IB available before enemy tank busters and 2) use IB during enemy casting to ensure effect doesn't fall off before the damage actually calculates against you. Takes some practice, but it's definitely a WAR's tanking bread and butter.

Lv. 38 : Storm's Path ▲ - Unfortunately, a largely ineffective self-healing ability, however, its damage debuff against bosses makes it an invaluable asset against high powered attackers. When Main Tanking Raid content, be sure to keep this on rotation if dps is not a concern. When fighting an Expert Dungeon boss with a dead healer, its possible to repeat this combo in between other self-healing abilities like Equilibrium, Inner Beast, or Second Wind to survive just about any boss in game.

Lv. 40 : Unchained - Largely ineffective now that Deliverance stance is a thing, however, it still makes a great opener for initial hate grab on just about any boss you're trying to Main Tank. Combined with Berserk, expect to see incredible Butcher's Block numbers.

Lv. 42 : Holmgang - Truthfully, the most butt-clenchy ability in the WAR's arsenal. Timed carefully, it can be an effective FU to an enemy's tank buster. However, used improperly, Holmgang has a penchant for binding twitchy WARs in the middle of AoE circles and losing effect just as they go off. It's other use includes a clutch second stun against enemies susceptible to knockback/draw-in by displacing them during casting.

Lv. 45 : Steel Cyclone - Your most effective AoE hate generator. A TP free, self-Aoe that deals medium damage and generates an average 30% more enmity than Overpower. Most useful when fighting trash mobs. Effective self-healing ability when combined with Bloodbath. Enmity = x3 DMG.

Lv. 46 : Vengeance ▲ - A WAR's single best buff. Not only does Vengeance give only a slightly weaker mitigation rating than Sentinel for 5s longer, but it also counters all physical damage with a weak potency attack. Meaning that each counter not only deals damage that scales with attack power, but it also can be used to generate self-healing through Bloodbath and potential AoE enmity generation. Use while Berserked for greatly increased potency.

Lv. 50 : Storm's Eye ▲ - Reducing an enemy's slashing resistance increases the dps of WARs, PLDs, DRKs, and NINs, so prioritize it if any of those are in your party. As a WAR in your own party, prioritize it if damage is your main focus and healing is of no concern, aka most of the time. I suggest keeping your own Storm's Eye buff up even if you have a Ninja in your party as it frees up their rotation and generally because I don't trust other people in DF to keep a buff that's vital to my damage up consistently.

Lv. 50 : Infuriate ▲V - Your key to instant gratification! For those (sometimes) emergency situations when you need that Inner Beast, Steel Cyclone, Fell Cleave, or Decimate up NOW. It has a short 60s recast time that plays itself nicely with my Berserk rotation. Hint: This is how you achieve 3 Fell Cleaves in one Berserk duration and skyrocket your WAR's dps.

Lv. 52 : Deliverance - If you weren't already having fun as WAR (shame on you) you will now! Deliverance is WAR's much needed lol DPS stance. You also get rid of that useless 10% Parry for 10% Critical Hit Rate which is much more useful to WAR's overall damage. The obvious cons are that you loose out on the HP and HP recovery you've gotten used to having while under Defiance. However, both of these can be remedied with effective cooldown usage and remember that you can swap back into Defiance for quick recovery whenever necessary.

Lv. 54 : Fell Cleave - This is what makes the Heavensward WAR a DPS. Damage typically ranges anywhere from 3-13k DMG depending on attack power, buffs, and the amount of crit you have. Remember that you can pop up to 3 of these in one Berserk (20s) duration. That's a lot of spike damage.

Lv. 56 : Raw Intuition ▲ - This ability got nerfed pretty hard near the start of Heavensward after it was discovered this ability also caused WARs to take critical healing from flank and rear as well as damage. Now that the ability is "working as intended" its applications are much more limited, ie only useful against solo bosses or popping to grant an additional Abandon stack. The problem is that most trash pulls won't stack properly causing one or two mobs on the outside to crit your flank when you're swapping between targets. That said, combine this ability with Awareness to nullify crit damage for at least 15s of the 20s duration. That rough ~4s of 100% crit chance is still risky unless you're an experienced WAR or your healer is made aware.

Lv. 58 : Equilibrium - One of the juiciest additions to the Heavensward WAR's arsenal. This ability's cure potency, like Second Wind, is affected by Attack Power, meaning that Berserk will greatly increase your returns. Berserked Equilibrium crits can see an upwards of 17k or higher HP return depending on gear. That combined with a panicked healer's Lustrate or Tetra is usually enough to bounce most WARs back from nothing to full in one go. It also has decent enmity return, meaning it has uses in large trash pulls, generating as much as or more enmity than an Overpower against all enemies before other party members can start nuking. In Deliverance, it also restores 200 TP, effectively eliminating 2.0 WAR's TP woes.

Lv. 60 : Decimate - Because more damage! That's why! Essentially, Decimate is a much stronger Steel Cyclone. It doesn't have an enmity modifier, but it doesn't really need one either. You're looking at dealing 2-5k damage per mob depending on crits and buffs.


Cross-Class Abilities
I posted my picks for WAR cross-classes in another thread, but I'll quote below. Also included in the original post are notes as to why Flash is not a recommended cross-class.

GLA Lv. 22 | Provoke: Essential cross-class for tank swapping or recovering hate when used properly. Honestly doesn't see a lot of use outside 8-man content, but it's just something good to have for when you need it. Seeing as how you're (possibly?) newer to FFXIV tanking, I feel like it should be said Provoke only places you 1 enmity above the target's highest enmity value. Meaning if you have 0 enmity against an enemy and your healer has hate with 7,500 enmity, your provoke will net you 7,501 enmity. 1 enmity is hardly enough to be substantial. So unless you have an additional enmity ability at the ready to use on the provoked enemy, it will return to its original target pretty quickly. Additionally, if you are in #1 hate lead on a boss/mob and you use Provoke just because, you've basically wasted a 40s recast emergency ability increasing your overall enmity by a grand total of 1 point.

GLA Lv. 10 | Convalescence: Another essential cross-class for WAR. This mimics Defiance's 20% increased recovery via healing magicks effect. I always pair Convalescence with Thrill of Battle since they have matching cooldowns to simulate a poor-man's Defiance while in Deliverance stance. Combining these buffs while in Deliverance essentially shorts you -5% max HP but gives you +30% damage dealt over Defiance stance for 20s. Great for easing healers into your MTing in dps stance. Can also use this combination while in Defiance for +45% max HP and +40% Healing for healing massive damage if you're so inclined.

PGL Lv. 12 | Internal Release: Why would you not want free +10% Crit? It's your best secondary stat by far. This buff stacked with Berserk helps achieve some massive dps numbers. IR will be available 30s before your Berserk is, however, but I prefer holding the buff for this pairing. For WARs, this buff and 5 Abandon stacks can achieve an additional +20% CHR on top of gear, which is a crit advantage the other tanks and most other classes don't have access to.

PGL Lv. 8 | Second Wind: A pretty decent self heal when used in Deliverance stance or in tandem with Berserk + Internal Release. While its cooldown is double that of Equilibrium and usually only nets between a 3-5k HP heal, I still consider it one of the best cross-classes. Considering a WAR's main source of effective mitigation is self-healing, why scoff at one more self-healing skill? Like Equilibrium, Second Wind's healing potency is affected by Attack Power, so prioritize its use during Deliverance or Berserk if possible.

GLA Lv. 34 | Awareness: Nullifies critical hits for 15s. You can time this with Raw Intuition to negate it's negative effects when suffering flank damage- usually WARs get clipped when trying to dodge AoEs. This makes it so you only have to carefully mind your flank for 3-4s instead of 20s. Unfortunately, its recast is 30s longer than Raw Intuition's. I get the most use out of this buff because I like to use Raw Intuition in my OT Berserk rotation because RI matches Berserk's recast timer, but Awareness is also useful on its own when doing Big Pulls of trash in dungeons. I usually avoid using RI in those situations, but even on Awareness's own, I'd rather not have 10+ mobs critting me. This buff does nicely streamlining my incoming damage.


GCD Combos
WARs have three basic weaponskill combos and each of the three provides some utility to the fight. Massive enmity spike, increased damage, or increased mitigation.

Enmity Combo: Heavy Swing | Skull Sunder▲ | Butcher's Block▲
Damage Combo: Heavy Swing | Maim▲ | Storm's Eye▲
Mitigation Combo: Heavy Swing | Maim▲ | Storm's Path▲

Notice that each of your weaponskills grant a stack of Wrath/Abandon when combo'd, except Heavy Swing. That's an important first step to getting the hang of WAR's stacks.


Cooldown Combos
Thrill of Battle + Convalescence | Recast: 120s
I call this the poor man's Defiance. While these buffs can effectively be used in Defiance to mitigate and recover from a devastating tank buster, I prefer to use these buffs together while in Deliverance to create a faux-Defiance effect on my lowered HP and absent HP recovery buff. Instead of Defiance's 25% HP increase and 20% HP recovery, this combination gives me 20s of 5% less max HP and same HP recovery, but with a 30% damage increase over Defiance. This is a great combo to use when swapping to Deliverance during trash pulls to refresh TP with Equilibrium or against bosses when first swapping from tank opener to dps stance full time to give the Healer time to adjust and throw out damage.

Raw Intuition + Awareness | Recast: 120s
I always try to use these two buffs in unison, as Awareness counteracts the negative effects of Raw Intuition for 3/4s of its duration. Unfortunately, Awareness's recast is 30s longer than Raw Intuition, so you'll either have to wait or risk popping the buff on its own.

Foresight + Bloodbath | Recast: 90s
While not a wholly impressive buff on its own, Foresight helps Bloodbath regulate the amount of small damage I take over the course of a fight. I will usually try to pop this a weaponskill or two before my Berserk rotation so that I benefit from a little extra mitigation and a lot of extra heal returns for the next 20s.


WAR Rotations
Note: I don't claim these to be the "best" rotations, but this is what I use and it serves me quite well. I don't make use of Fracture, usually.

Abilities will be divided like so " | Ability | " to demonstrate the GCD timer. When " | Ability + Ability | " appears, the first ability in sequence will always be one that activates the GCD and each additional ability added inside the brackets is a cooldown which should ideally be weaved before the GCD resets and the next ability in sequence is executed. At most, two cooldowns may be weaved in between each GCD ability without inflicting a delay penalty on the next action in sequence so long as they are used in rapid succession. In some cases, it is best to only attempt weaving one cooldown per GCD if a cooldown delays its activation. To maximize DPS potential, you should attempt to never delay the use of a GCD ability on an off-GCD cooldown ability.

Boss Opener MT (Defiance - No Stacks)
(Optional: Overpower) | Heavy Swing + Brutal Swing | Skull Sunder▲I | Butcher's Block▲II |
Heavy Swing | Maim▲III + Bloodbath | Storm's Eye▲IV + Berserk▲V + Unchained |
Heavy Swing + Internal Release | Skull Sunder▲I + Vengeance▲II | Butcher's Block▲III + Brutal Swing |
Heavy Swing | Skull Sunder▲IV | Butcher's Block▲V + Deliverance |
Fell Cleave + Infuriate▲V | Fell Cleave | <PACIFICATION>

Comments: This is how I open against any solo tank dungeon or raid boss when I enter the fight with no Wrath stacks. Optional Overpower is for initial hate spike if you have nuke-y or trigger happy DPS. As a WAR even after nerf, the first Butcher's Block combo is enough to hold hate until the second, Berserked, Butcher's Block combo is completed. This opener generates an enormous amount of enmity, but it takes more time to prep your Berserk, which can have drawbacks in some dungeons.

Why Overpower and not Tomahawk against a single target?
Overpower: 430 dmg x 5.0 multiplier x 2.7 defiance = 5805 enmity
Tomahawk: 475 dmg x 3.0 multiplier x 2.7 defiance = 3847 enmity

Considering the TP cost difference between Overpower (130) and Tomahawk (120) is only +10, I consider the 50% higher enmity gain to be more effective for the niche purposes of snap-gaining enmity to prep your Opener Rotation.

Boss Opener MT (Defiance - Minimum 2 Stacks)
Heavy Swing + Brutal Swing | Maim▲III + Bloodbath | Storm's Eye▲IV + Berserk▲V + Unchained |
Heavy Swing + Internal Release | Skull Sunder▲I + Vengeance▲II | Butcher's Block▲III |
Heavy Swing | Skull Sunder▲IV | Butcher's Block▲V + Deliverance + Brutal Swing |
Fell Cleave + Infuriate▲V | Fell Cleave | <PACIFICATION>

Comments: To pull this combo off, you have to aggro the dungeon or raid boss with at least 10s remaining on your II+ Wrath stack. Again, optional Overpower for initial hate grab, but opening with Overpower is counter-intuitive to the purpose of this rotation. Which is, to deploy a full Berserk rotation before the boss uses its first fight mechanic.

Boss Opener OT (Triple Fell Cleave) (Deliverance - No Stacks)
Heavy Swing + Brutal Swing | Maim▲I | Storm's Path▲II |
Heavy Swing | Maim▲III | Storm's Eye▲IV |
Heavy Swing + Berserk▲V + Internal Release | Fell Cleave + Infuriate▲V | Fell Cleave + Raw Intuition▲I + Awareness |
Heavy Swing + Brutal Swing | Skull Sunder▲II | Butcher's Block▲III |
Heavy Swing | Maim▲IV | Storm's Eye▲V | Fell Cleave | <PACIFICATION>

Comments: This I use pretty exclusively for raid bosses in which I am not the MT. More importantly, raid bosses where I have no desire to take hate. To accomplish this, I avoid opening with a Butcher's Block combo to allow the MT to build hate, opting instead for Storm's Path, though honestly if you want to open with Butcher's Block you can if you think you can avoid taking hate. Notice that unlike the previous two opener rotations, this one uses three Fell Cleaves instead of two. To accomplish this, you delay popping Berserk until after your third Heavy Swing and after immediately burning your first two Fell Cleaves using your prep stacks and Infuriate, sacrifice a defensive buff such as Raw Intuition or Vengeance for the extra stack needed to pop the third Fell Cleave at the end of your Berserk rotation. Make special note that in the OT rotation listed I popped Raw Intuition and Awareness instead of Vengeance. This is because Raw Intuition's cooldown matches Berserk's perfectly and will be again available for use in the exact same spot in your rotation every time. Vengeance's cooldown will not, and should be saved for the MT'ing combo where you can utilize the dps gain and mitigation effectively and then save Raw Intuition for the following Berserk rotation. Also important to note that because you delayed Berserk with the extra Heavy Swing, your Storm's Eye debuff will fall off before your third Fell Cleave if you do not refresh it as your second combo during Berserk like its shown above.


Repeat Damage Rotation Mid-Fight MT/OT (Triple Fell Cleave) (Deliverance)
Heavy Swing + Brutal Swing | Skull Sunder▲I | Butcher's Block▲II |
Heavy Swing | Maim▲III | Storm's Eye▲IV |
Heavy Swing + Berserk▲V + Internal Release | Fell Cleave + Infuriate▲V | Fell Cleave + Raw Intuition▲I + Awareness |
Heavy Swing + Brutal Swing | Skull Sunder▲II | Butcher's Block▲III |
Heavy Swing | Maim▲IV | Storm's Eye▲V | Fell Cleave | <PACIFICATION> 5s

Heavy Swing | Skull Sunder▲I + Brutal Swing | Butcher's Block▲II |
Heavy Swing | Maim▲III | Storm's Eye▲IV |
Heavy Swing | Skull Sunder▲V | Fell Cleave | Butcher's Block▲I + Brutal Swing |
Heavy Swing | Maim▲II | Storm's Eye▲III |
Heavy Swing | Skull Sunder▲IV | Butcher's Block▲V |
Heavy Swing | Fell Cleave | Maim▲I + Brutal Swing | Storm's Eye▲II | REPEAT UNTIL BERSERK RECAST||

Comments: This builds upon the previous Deliverance Opener and continues the basic DPS rotation for WAR. Essentially, for maximum damage, alternate Butcher's Block and Storm's Eye combos, making sure to pop Brutal Swing whenever it is off cooldown. Why use your hate combo when you're not tanking? Because Skull Sunder has a higher attack potency than Maim, and Butcher's Block has the highest attack potency of all your combo finishers. By spamming Maim+Storm's Eye, you're losing out on DPS, and by using Storm's Path for DPS rather than utility, you are effectively gimping your max damage.

Always use Fell Cleave as soon as you reach five stacks of Abandon, especially when your next weaponskill adds another stack of Abandon. This will happen every other Storm's Eye/Butcher's Block rotation and always after using Maim or Skull Sunder as seen above. When your fifth Abandon stack falls at the end of your combo after Storm's Eye or Butcher's Block, you can postpone using Fell Cleave until after your next Heavy Swing, to profit from the extra 10% critical hit rate for that attack.

Use Berserk whenever it is available, but be sure to always properly prep your Berserk combo! Make sure your Storm's Eye accounts for your fourth Abandon stack. If Storm's Eye gives the second or third Abandon stack instead, repeat the Storm's Eye combo until you have sufficient stacks (IV+) to begin your Berserk combo.


Pulling Tips
Pulling with Overpower can take a little getting used to, but I made a post related to this earlier today so I'll just link to that here.




I hope that helps!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sounsyy

snip

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Lore-God has spoken, close the thread everyone.

Omg, that is a fantastic read! Thanks very much for posting all that (how on earth did you defeat the 1000 character post limit?!?). Going to be coming back to that once I get PLD to 60 and start working WAR!

Hi I haven't finished reading your guide (it's nearly 5 AM in CH).
What exactly is a "tank buster" that you mentioned.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by VermilionHaru

Hi I haven't finished reading your guide (it's nearly 5 AM in CH).
What exactly is a "tank buster" that you mentioned.

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High damage ability on the tank, requires a CD.

Soooooo. What PLD and/or DRK wants to give their class the same treatment as Sounsyy gave WAR? :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lyraele

(how on earth did you defeat the 1000 character post limit?!?)

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Editing a post doesn't restrict your word count, so type everything up, cut everything but the first sentence/paragraph, edit, paste it all back in and save. ^^

Quote:

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Originally Posted by VermilionHaru

What exactly is a "tank buster" that you mentioned.

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Tank Busters (TBs) are heavy hitting abilities used by bosses that can demolish most of your HP or even one-shot-kill you without mitigation in some cases. Most if not all 8 and 24-man content bosses have some sort of TB. Usually, they are used as part of a fixed rotation which makes them predictable. Sometimes tank busters have a cast bar, other times they have no cast indicator and you just have to know it's coming by paying attention to the boss.

is it recommended to switch from defiance to deliverance while MT?
If it is possible, in what kind of situation can you change to deliverance from defiance and when do you change back to defiance?
Does it cause you to reduce your enemity?
There are some dungeons which require tank swapping. Mind giving a tip on what should i do?

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Originally Posted by Hrimfaxi

is it recommended to switch from defiance to deliverance while MT?

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Yes you can switch to Deliverance from Defiance as the main tank.

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If it is possible, in what kind of situation can you change to deliverance from defiance and when do you change back to defiance?

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For main tanking:

You want to switch to Deliverance once you know you have a solid enmity lead over the rest of your team, and it is safe to do more damage in Deliverance. Deliverance lets you do strong attacks such as Fell Cleave, Decimate, and also lets you use TP restoring version of Equilibrium.

You switch back to Defiance to either get more enmity or to be more tanky. Defiance gives you Inner Beast, HP restoring version of Equilibrium, increases the effectiveness of HP restoring spells, and more total HP. You also get a cool ability called Unchained that lets you do a lot of damage in tank stance and generates a whole lot of enmity.

Once you and your team know the encounter very well and you get more gear, you can switch over to Deliverance a lot more often. If you can survive with slightly less HP and slightly less healing received, Deliverance is a good option for more DPS. Typically you try to smooth out the damage your receive in Deliverance by using cooldowns such as Thrill of Battle, Vengeance, Convalescence, Foresight, and Bloodbath. With regard to Bloodbath, doing more damage means more self-healing. Holmgang can be an option as well to tank in Deliverance (for a few seconds at least).

For off tanking (a.k.a. DPS-mode time):

Stay in Deliverance at all times.

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Does it cause you to reduce your enemity?

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You generate less enmity in Deliverance compared to Defiance.

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There are some dungeons which require tank swapping. Mind giving a tip on what should i do?

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When you want to switch from off-tank to main-tank on mobs, there are generally two ways. Switch to Defiance. One way is Heavy Swing > Skull Sunder > Provoke > Butcher's Block. The other way is Heavy Swing > Provoke > Skull Sunder > Butcher's Block. Butcher's Block has an animation lag, so some players prefer one method over the other.

When you are trying to switch from main-tank back to off-tank, do not use Butcher's Block combo. Just do Storm's Eye combo or Storm's Path combo. When it is apparent that you are now the off-tank, switch back to Deliverance. Put in a Fracture to be nice to your other tank while they are trying to establish an enmity lead. Generally speaking for off-tanking, resort to Storm's Eye combo > Storm's Eye combo or Storm's Eye combo > Storm's Path combo. You could do Storm's Eye combo > Butcher's Block combo, but if your other tank is out of tank stance, you may eventually overtake them in enmity.


Basically, the higher DPS Warriors try to optimize how often they can stay in Deliverance instead of Defiance. There may be times where it just better to turtle up and be in Defiance, however.

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<PACIFICATION> 5s

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What is the meaning of pacification followed by the time?

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Originally Posted by VermilionHaru

What is the meaning of pacification followed by the time?

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Berserk "pacifies" you (5 second debuff that means you cant use weapon skills), I assume this is from a macro for Berserk which I personally recommend not using.

Wow, just wanted to jump in and say as another novice WAR thanks for all the comprehensive answers (and to Vermilion for asking).

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Originally Posted by VermilionHaru

What is the meaning of pacification followed by the time?

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Berserk's tradeoff for boosting attack power for 30s is that when it wears off you have "pacification" debuff for 5 seconds - this means no weaponskills for a short amount of time. Spells and abilities are available however (e.g flash, stun). Some people like to make healers/bards aware so they can remove the debuff, while others just wait out the 5 seconds.

I have a question of my own actually: I haven't honestly put much thought into a proper rotation (seeing so many variations, some outdated, so again thanks to replies above for some inspiration), but I kinda feel overwhelmed when trying them for myself (not that i do cutteng-edge stuff anyway). Is something like e.g. ... Tomahawk -> Overpower x2 -> BB-Combo -> Maim (IR) -> Eye -> (Deliverance) -> Berserk -> FC -> BB Combo -> Eye Combo -> Vengeance - > FC -> Pacification ... okay for like basic stuff up to DR:Ex?

Speaking of DR:Ex, since people there love "pull everything"... Are there any recommended multi-target rotations? Right now I'm just doing the standard (e.g above) but doing Heavy / Skull / Butcher and Heavy / Maim / Storm on cycled targets.

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Originally Posted by Apoptomon

Speaking of DR:Ex, since people there love "pull everything"... Are there any recommended multi-target rotations? Right now I'm just doing the standard (e.g above) but doing Heavy / Skull / Butcher and Heavy / Maim / Storm on cycled targets.

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Spam Overpower, basically. It's 120 potency multiplied by each enemy hit - that means at as low as 3 mobs it is your highest potency GCD that doesn't use stacks (Fracture = 300, OP @ 3 targets = 360). It does have high TP cost, but you will lose a lot of damage by trying to conserve TP especially in big pulls. You'll want to be spamming OP with Maim up and ideally with 5 stacks (but don't manually build them in any situation where you could, instead, be using OP) so that you can get the crit bonus before using Decimate (make sure Decimate is still in your Berserk window). With Bloodbath, Berserk, and Vengeance up while spamming OP you basically become a self healing machine - especially in Deliverance. When those aren't up you've got Thrill, Conva, Foresight, Awareness, and RI. Also don't forget about Equilibrium - if you're using it for the heal make sure it's in the Berserk window before you go Deliverance (usually this isn't needed) and if you're using it for the TP use it as soon as you'll get the full benefit out of it as you want it on CD as soon as you can get it there.

I've had bad warriors question the use of Thrill of Battle. This one is totally a no brainer. It will heal you and raise your MAX HP. Say you got 10,000 HP, thrill of battle will heal and raise your HP by 2,500. That's 2,500 HP of throw-away HP, so it's X(after damage reductions) - 2,500. A large portion of attacks end up more away from nothing than your actual HP.

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Originally Posted by Sounsyy

WAR Rotations
Note: I don't claim these to be the "best" rotations, but this is what I use and it serves me quite well. I don't make use of Fracture, usually.

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I don't feel these rotations are recommendable. Why are there two MT openers, with the second one accounting for two stacks? What an odd choice. Infuriate-unchained-SE-berserk-BB-fracture-FC- SE works for any MT situation. Your OT triple FC rotation double weaves awareness into raw intuition, but if you're not tanking, why worry about getting hit? Double weaves are always risky, and while fracture may not always be everyone's cup of tea, it is a good idea to use it if fully buffed. Using BB combo during a berserk results in SE falling off, which you do address, but that is a dps loss for the next GCDs until SE is applied again. Simply put, maim isn't deployed soon enough and SE falls too often in your rotations.

I was wondering if someone can clear something up for me. Should I be prioritizing eye over path or vice versa? I feel like the damage mitigation is more important than the spa I get but I'm wondering what the community has to say on the issue. As a side note I'm still going through 4 man content

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Originally Posted by Spartan926

I was wondering if someone can clear something up for me. Should I be prioritizing eye over path or vice versa? I feel like the damage mitigation is more important than the spa I get but I'm wondering what the community has to say on the issue. As a side note I'm still going through 4 man content

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Eye takes priority over Path 99% of the time. As amazing as Path is, it's not actually more beneficial than the slashing resist down from Eye. In 4man content you'll basically never need Path, especially if you're not leaving Defiance. Even if you do decide to do Eye -> Path -> repeat, though, you're only delaying the damage reduction by ~4 GCDs whereas by delaying Eye you're losing damage on ~4 GCDs (you also lose some healing from Path, though that's incredibly minor).

triple fell cleave shouldn't be use if you need RI or Vengence in the next 90 secs if not do double fell cleave. path takes priority over eye if the group is taking huge damage or healers having a hard time healing