Making WAR More Diverse/Fun Again

[kro]

So the first obvious thing is to allow MRD/WAR to wear offensive gear again. In 1.23, PLD WAR & DRG could all equip the offensive Darklight Armor, with the Heavy variant being reserved for just WAR & PLD. Now it's LNC/DRG only, and that blows. It was fun being a high HP dps in 1.23, and it strikes me as a bit silly that a Job that wields such massive great axes can't double as a dps role, so that's step 1 (Allagan gear too of course).

Have you looked at the stats of DRG and MNK gear? Heavy Allagan Armor and Allagan Cuirass of Maiming have the exact same STR and VIT. The main difference is that the tank gear has way more def and mdef. If Warrior had the option to use both, they would never choose to wear DRG gear.

The other (bigger) change is to rework Unchained. In its current form it simply allows you to deal full damage again for 20 seconds. I'd much rather it be changed to an alternate stance skill similar to Defiance, but with DPS buffs instead of tanking. Instead of gaining wrath with each attack as you do with Defiance, in this new form it gradually builds up over time/as you attack and grants bonus effects to your weaponskills based on how much wrath you have. Enmity is also lowered rather than increased.

Warrior's DPS stance is turning off Defiance. Enmity is reduced and they deal 25% more damage. They can even do it off the GCD unlike PLD. Having another stance similar to Sword Oath that maintains the Wrath mechanic would be cool, but what we have now works pretty well.

People seem to have this perception that Warrior was an amazing DD in 1.0 and is trash in 2.0. The only thing that made WAR amazing in 1.0 was AoE Steel Cyclone. Single target damage output relative to dedicated DD classes like MNK and DRG in 1.0 is pretty similar to 2.0.

Ah, but that's only partially true. For content that required huge and quick enmity generation (Garuda comes to mind), PLD was the goto tank. I also saw PLD used in Aurum Vale most of the time, for Coincounter. WAR did only really excell when there were multiple targets or when the enemies weren't that strong. For weaker stuff like Ifrit, the choice of tank didn't matter much.

Warrior had better burst enmity generation than PLD thanks to Antagonize. It was far more difficult to keep hate as a PLD during a MNK burn of the marlboro compared to WAR. The main reason people used PLD on Garuda was for Riot Blade's Defense Down effect and its ability to self-sustain via Aegis Boon and Holy Succor.