Good guide to WAR?

So its been a while since I played WAR, I got mine to 60 back in HW, and then basically dropped him when stance dancing became the only way to play them. With the new changes that have rolled out, I want to level my WAR again, (Ideally I would like to level DRK, but I know they're in a crappy spot right now) but I'm not sure how to go about playing one anymore. A lot of guides that I find are ARR guides and are now outdated, and half the WAR's I see in the game just run things in DPS stance because lololololdeeps. Is there a good guide anywhere on the forums that can explain to me how the new warrior works, or a decent video on youtube? I heard that WAR now is supposed to be easier to play, potentially easier than DRK and PLD, so I'm hoping that maybe I can handle it now.

There is nothing wrong with either of them really it is just more optimal to play a PLD and a WAR in raids. Just play the job no need for guides, you major changes are the beast gauge where you spend your abilities on that bar, so it became your stacks if you are coming from HW. Other than that just play the game man. If you want an older guide you can google moogle post-war guide. there is some information there.

For dungeon use defiance on trash pulls. IR for one big pull, unchained for the next. Use CDs as needed. In boss fights, use defiance for opener, then stay in Deliverance. Use IR on cool down. Use upheaval on cool down. Spend guage on FC or something, it doesn't matter. Use CDs as needed for tank busters.

https://www.twitch.tv/xenosysvex

I feel ya a bit. I stopped playing Warrior back in HW as well when Str tanking started to become required. Without getting into that much, it's still the major way Warrior is played. Not much has changed with the base rotation, and as Faeon mentions we have a Beast Gauge for Inner Beast/Fell Cleave/Upheaval/Onslaught now instead of the old wrath/abandon stack formula. As for stance swapping, it's still kind of a thing. High end Wars mostly tank in Deliverance for an entire fight, but War is capable of very nice mitigation and damage due to the fluidity of changing stances compared to the other tanks, so it's certainly something you should be comfortable with if you want to play War optimally. I'll admit it took a while for this style to grow on me, but after leveling all 3 tanks, War is by far the best at it.

As for ease of play, I don't know, I guess it's easier after the recent IR change (doesn't feel much different to me honestly). Difficulty is different for different people. Paladin supposedly has a braindead easy rotation too, but because I never played Pld much during HW I never got used to the 3 combos (most of my time on Pld was during ARR) even though it's basically the same as the 3 War combos. Throw in the switching between physical and holy spirit spam and it's nothing but a big ol bowl of spaghetti for me lol

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Anienai

https://www.twitch.tv/xenosysvex

---

I hate watching youtube guides. I find them completely unappealing and prefer written guides. Are there any good written guides out there?

Not really a need for a written guide, honestly. It is so straightforward now it is near impossible to mess up, so long as your SS is balanced enough to get in the extra fell cleave. I've got just under 1100 SS and use a rotation simply made from watching what the traits do. Tomahawk > emnity chain > onslaught (this point, your emnity is usually set for a while) > eye chain > path chain x 2 > eye chain > swap deliverance > cleave > infuriate > cleave x 2 > wait til GCD is triggered, spend this time putting up thrill of battle > inner release > fell cleave x 6 (can get 6 if you catch it right as IR goes up easily), with upheavel and onslaught weaved between GCDs > finish with throwing on raw intuition and shake it off to apply a bubble to the whole pty right before ToB drops. Then just swap back to defiance and throw eye chain and a couple emnity chains (using unchained before skull sunder) with OGCDs weaved, you'll never lose hate, and still keep a very high and comfortable DPS level.

minimum SkS needed is 1,020.
I aim for 1,080, to be safe. But SkP only works in incriments of 60, so if you're at 1,020 and ur thinking of adding a single SkP materia, it wont do anything, w/o the other 20 more skill speed.

Also remember uncahined and zerk are both 90s, so after ur zerk window, and all ur guage is spent, swap to defiance, and unchained for a few GCDs (and throw in equilibrium for heals/threat) and you'll keep good threat.

If you're OT, you wont need to jump into defiance for threat, unless u need to pick up adds.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Truefaith87

Not really a need for a written guide.

---

Just stating the fact that everyone always does Youtube guides. I don't want to listen to someone talk about how to tank, dps, or heal.

Stay in defiance for trash pulls. Use unchained when pulling bosses, then switch to deliverance when it wears off. For big group pulls, use inner release + Steel cyclone. For bosses, use inner release + Fell cleave. Keep the maim debuff and the storm's eye buff up as long as you can. Always weave in onslaught and upheaval when inner release is activated. Defiance is useless if threat is maxed and upheaval and equilibrium are on cooldown, so get comfortable with dpsing. There's zero reason to be afraid of doing some dps: It's fun to see big numbers pop up on the screen. I don't even do challenging content, but even casuals like me get good benefits from ooga booga mode, the most prominent being faster daily clears. If you're one of those chickens who think you'll break in half the second you stance dance, you really ought to get over it. You're playing half a class being that way.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Truefaith87

Tomahawk > emnity chain > onslaught (this point, your emnity is usually set for a while) > eye chain > path chain x 2 > eye chain > swap deliverance > cleave > infuriate > cleave x 2 > wait til GCD is triggered, spend this time putting up thrill of battle > inner release > fell cleave x 6 (can get 6 if you catch it right as IR goes up easily), with upheavel and onslaught weaved between GCDs > finish with throwing on raw intuition and shake it off to apply a bubble to the whole pty right before ToB drops.

---

Your opener ignores the infuriate trait. Your IR window is delayed far too late. A better opener would be [unchained>toma+infuriate+equil>eye combo>deliverance>FC>IR+5x FC+upheaval+onslaught]. If you want to be extra safe with aggro, you can add a butcher's block combo while under unchained's effect. You blow too many defensives for an opener that is mostly covered by the healers too.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Truefaith87

Not really a need for a written guide, honestly. It is so straightforward now it is near impossible to mess up, so long as your SS is balanced enough to get in the extra fell cleave. I've got just under 1100 SS and use a rotation simply made from watching what the traits do. Tomahawk > emnity chain > onslaught (this point, your emnity is usually set for a while) > eye chain > path chain x 2 > eye chain > swap deliverance > cleave > infuriate > cleave x 2 > wait til GCD is triggered, spend this time putting up thrill of battle > inner release > fell cleave x 6 (can get 6 if you catch it right as IR goes up easily), with upheavel and onslaught weaved between GCDs > finish with throwing on raw intuition and shake it off to apply a bubble to the whole pty right before ToB drops. Then just swap back to defiance and throw eye chain and a couple emnity chains (using unchained before skull sunder) with OGCDs weaved, you'll never lose hate, and still keep a very high and comfortable DPS level.

---

This is monstrously inefficient. You are waiting 19 gcds before you even zerk. That is 47.5 seconds. That's half of a zerk, deleted. You wait over 40 seconds to even use infuriate. You are just throwing away free damage to do bb, eye, path, path, eye. Before you do anything. Don't do 6 full combos before you bother to actually use an opener. You miss every raid buff window too.

Unchaimed. Toma. Infuriate. Eye combo+equal for threat+tob. Deliverance+IR. FCx5+onslaught+upheaval. That's the opener.

Followed up by path, FC, infuriate, FC, eye combo. Then your on ez street with another upheaval and standard eye, path, path with FCs and upheavals as able.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Aana

This is monstrously inefficient. You are waiting 19 gcds before you even zerk. That is 47.5 seconds. That's half of a zerk, deleted. You wait over 40 seconds to even use infuriate. You are just throwing away free damage to do bb, eye, path, path, eye. Before you do anything. Don't do 6 full combos before you bother to actually use an opener. You miss every raid buff window too.

Unchaimed. Toma. Infuriate. Eye combo+equal for threat+tob. Deliverance+IR. FCx5+onslaught+upheaval. That's the opener.

Followed up by path, FC, infuriate, FC, eye combo. Then your on ez street with another upheaval and standard eye, path, path with FCs and upheavals as able.

---

there an echo in here?