Warrior Tanking

[bokchoykn]

I'm not a big fan of using macros for the sake of using abilities that you forget to use.

It sacrifices control for convenience. You don't necessarily want to use all of your abilities on cooldown like that, so why would you glue a bunch of abilities to your Heavy Swing? And what if you only want Thrill of Battle without Convalescence or vice versa?

Glueing abilities together is simply a substitute for executing your abilities in a more controlled fashion. It might not seem like a huge deal, but it puts you at a disadvantage, one way or another.

[Paikis]

I'm not a big fan of using macros for the sake of using abilities that you forget to use.

It sacrifices control for convenience. You don't necessarily want to use all of your abilities on cooldown like that, so why would you glue a bunch of abilities to your Heavy Swing? And what if you only want Thrill of Battle without Convalescence or vice versa?

Glueing abilities together is simply a substitute for executing your abilities in a more controlled fashion. It might not seem like a huge deal, but it puts you at a disadvantage, one way or another.

I agree. However I know a lot of people have trouble remembering to use foresight while keeping their rotation going. It is probably better for them to get used on cooldown no matter what than to not get used at all because the WAR does have a lot going on just maintaining their rotations.

[bokchoykn]

I agree. However I know a lot of people have trouble remembering to use foresight while keeping their rotation going. It is probably better for them to get used on cooldown no matter what than to not get used at all because the WAR does have a lot going on just maintaining their rotations.

In many fights, particularly Extreme Primals, the Warrior spends a lot of time NOT tanking.Your proposed macros would blow your defensive cooldowns during periods where you aren't even being attacked.

I realize that this guide is for Warrior basics and aimed towards novice players, but I don't think any guide should encourage macro shortcuts as a substitute for proper management of cooldowns and skillful play. Guides should encourage proper play, not lazy shortcuts. Warriors should learn how to weave off-GCD cooldowns between their weapon skills and manually activate abilities that fit the situation and not glue abilities together for convenience.

Warriors reading this guide: Every ability should be on its own spot on your hotbar, not glued together with macros. Manually activate each ability appropriately to each situation.

[Kitru]

I'm not a big fan of using macros for the sake of using abilities that you forget to use.

Neither am I, but I make sure to remember to use all of my CDs regularly. The only macros I've got for my WAR are announcement macros that let my healers know when I've activated one of my big CDs (Vengeance, ToB, Conv, Holmgang) and when they fall off (I just love /wait). While it hasn't helped *me* appreciably, it's been a huge boon to my healers because I've seen a steep drop off in overhealing and panic since I made 'em.

[Sivara]

Thank you for writing this. I had a pretty decent understanding of Warrior just from learn-by-doing but I felt it was somewhat insufficient. I've been reading gear threads and tanking threads and they almost always degenerate into MMO jargon about mitigating your rotation to glargacept your blargey-blargh VITSTRPAR or whatever, or people end up dick-fencing about stats, and I can't comprehend what's going on because my eyes are rolling so hard. Your write-up is pretty clear and easy to follow and some concepts are starting to click with me.