So what exactly IS the issue with Warrior?

[Deceptus]

Not really. The only people who think that WAR is confused as to its role are people that look at the axe and assume that WAR is supposed to have higher damage than PLD (which isn't true; WAR and PLD are pretty much tied on damage dealt). Maim and Storm's Eye are just mechanisms to enforce a rotation that's more complex than just spamming a single combo ad infinitum (*cough*PLD*cough*). Even when not in Defiance, PLD and WAR are pretty evenly matched on damage dealt thanks to Sword Oath.

Here's where the argument is lost. If both have the exact same damage output, why would you ever bring a warrior when a paladin brings the same damage as well as a shield and better mitigation?

[Kitru]

Here's where the argument is lost. If both have the exact same damage output, why would you ever bring a warrior when a paladin brings the same damage as well as a shield and better mitigation?

It's not even an argument because PLD isn't *supposed* to have better mitigation. The devs up a said it in the last live letter. WAR and PLD are *supposed* to have the same effective damage and same effective survivability so that the choice between them is largely based upon secondary utility and player preference, much like deciding between healers and DPS. You're acting as if the classes are already in a balanced state when they're not.

WARs aren't sacrificing survivability to increase their damage, like some people seem to think. They've simply got lower survivability and people attempt to justify it by claiming that WAR has better damage because they want the game to always be perfectly balanced and everything to be fair (even though a tank with higher damage and lower survivability is pretty much worthless in the confines of a trinity MMO). Right now, PLD and WAR are not on equal footing; PLD is explicitly better. The devs have explicitly said that they're going to address this in 2.1 and specifically said that they're going to be changing WAR in 6 different ways.