Switching from PLD to WAR and need advice

[JTribal]

I know there is probably a thread somewhere on this forum that already adresses this, but I was hoping to get some more up to date advice. Also, I guess technically I'm switching from PLD to MRD, but eventually will be using the class as WAR.

I've played PLD since I started FFXIV, and have enjoyed every second of it. I have alt classes at 50, but my preference has always been running anything I can as PLD.

Well, I just joined my first static (which is really awesome btw!) and they need me to level and main as a WAR for our raids as soon as realistically possible. So I switch to my level 15 MRD yesterday and quickly realized that I had NO IDEA what I was doing.

So I need help understanding the differences. What should I be doing differently? I noticed it was alot easier to hold hate in the three dungeons I ran when leveling, but outside of that, I'm still not quite sure how comfortable I am using this class.


Beginner's and advanced advice would be appreciated!

[Vaala]

Most of the basics will still be there. The biggest differences off the top of my head are Overpower is a cone hate tool that works a bit better than Flash, and Brutal Swing is your stun but it is off the GCD but 20s recast. Past that, the core ideas you have from PLD will still apply for the majority of stuff. Oh and you have Maim which you'll want to mix in as the finisher 2-step combo (for now) to give yourself a damage buff.

We don't quite have the defensive abilities you're used to, but good gear and smart allocation should carry you just fine.

As you get up to 30 and get Defiance, and more so at 35 when you get Inner Beast and can start spending Wrath Stacks, things will expand a bit more.

EDIT: ohi...same server too. Feel free to bug me in game for any questions you have too

[JTribal]

Thanks! Gearwise, should I be equipping the same stuff on a WAR that i do the PLD?

Right now my PLD has a mix of Allagan, Soldiery, and Hero Armor.

[Remn]

as WAR you have 3 different combo, Aggro, Strom Path, Strom Eye.
normally you will be fine, just make sure you have enough agro lead before you start you debuff combo.
normally, BB > BB > SP (Damage debuff) > repeat, will do fine. you can start mixing in SE (resistance debuff) once you have high enough lead agro.

once you start raiding end game there a lot of tank swapping (old extreme Primal and T6 mainly), so make sure you start out with a few BB combo be using SP or SE debuff.

WAR inner Beast is you Bread and butter, it important that you know when to use it. (it get easier once you know the boss rotation.)

[Remn]

good thing about solidery armor. it can be use by both Tank class !!!

[Vaala]

Yeah Remn is talking about lvl 50 with the 3 different Combos...you'll have the basic aggro, one that reduces damage done by the mob by 10%, and one that increases slashing damage dealt to the mob. That'll flesh out more for you as you go.

As Remn said, Soldiery is great for both There really isn't any different gearing options...other than AF/Relic, the gear is for both tank jobs.

[juniglee]

I'll weigh in as well. I was a Paladin main in 2.0 and 2.1, and for 2.2 I've switched to Warrior as the other tank in my static wanted to continue maining Paladin, and I thought that 2 Paladins was a pretty outdated concept. Plus variation is always nice.

In terms of gameplay, you have a similar 123 aggro combo to Paladin. However that's where the similarities end. The Warrior 123 aggro combo is just an aggro combo and does nothing more out of that. You also have two more combos to Warrior - the Storm's Path (-10% damage debuff) combo, and the Storm's Eye (-10% slashing resistance) combo. When you have enough of an aggro lead, you can play around with the other 2 combos to increase your Maim uptime, and to provide some utility outside of spamming the aggro combo.

Overpower is a conal shape AoE aggro tool. It's superiority over Flash is that it does damage, and thus generates more aggro than Flash, however it consumes TP, and it's a conal shape AoE, compared to Flash being a circular AoE and using mana instead.

Once you get Warrior, managing your Wrath stacks are important, but for the most parts:
1. Steel Cyclone functions as a way better AoE aggro tool than Flash. It requires 5 stacks of Wrath to use, which is easy enough if you open your first pull with Infuriate, and try ending your group of trash mobs with 5 stacks of Wrath, so that you go into the next pull with 5 stacks up for an opening Steel Cyclone.
2. Inner Beast is your bread and butter tool against bosses. For most bosses you can use it to reduce all incoming damage by 20% for 5 seconds, however against certain bosses like Twintania, it allows you to almost always mitigate 20% damage off spike damage like Death Sentence. Call it something of a cooldown in demand.

In terms of offensive buffs, Berserk and Fight or Flight would be your 2 similar skills, however Berserk also applies a Pacification debuff on yourself at the end of its duration. When planning on how to use Berserk, just keep in mind if that 5 seconds of Pacification can be spared in battle. I usually chain Unchained and Berserk together for the biggest damage (and biggest opening aggro).

Warriors don't have as superior defensive cooldowns as Paladin, but Vengeance works as a huge long duration mitigation tool. I'd say the most important part of playing Warrior defensively is knowing when and how to use Holmgang as a pseudo-Hallowed Ground. Keep in mind that your HP cannot drop below 1 for its duration, but it has a shorter duration compared to Hallowed Ground, and both you and the target are rooted to the spot for the duration of Holmgang (unless the target resists rooting).

[Zeral]

I have both war/pld equally geared and can assure you there isn't a single moment where a warrior feels like a necessity.
You can use 2 pld for turn1-7 and EX but it can't be said the same for warrior. My point is, tell your Static War isn't needed unless they're stubborn and must playby the rulebook... Only level war if you personally want to but otherwise level something else for a different perspective(healer/dps).
War was only good for T5 cause of the extra hp/inner beast from death sentence, but now with echo buff, it doesn't even matter anymore. Whether you play pld or war, your job is just to hold hate and take damage so they're 1 and the same.

Basically a warrior is a 1 trick pony that should stick to MT, fun at the start but a chore to use. Warriors don't get an exclusive slot in party finder for a reason, 2 pld? Ok 2 war? No thanks. .
Just wanted to save you the trouble of leveling something unnecessary cause you can already do all those with pld.

[Kitru]

When you have enough of an aggro lead, you can play around with the other 2 combos to increase your Maim uptime, and to provide some utility outside of spamming the aggro combo.

BB spam is actually the worst possible rotation you can do as a WAR: it's got the lowest damage (barring just spamming SP) and isn't even the best enmity generator.

WAR has 3 basic useful rotations:

SE>BB>BB>BB: this is your highest enmity rotation. Use it at the start of the fight to generate your enmity cushion (if you're not doing the opening attack string that I use) or when you have someone riding your ass.
SE>BB: this is your highest damage rotation that also generates strong enmity. Use it when you damage taken isn't really an issue (re: when you don't need the SP debuff).
SE>SP: this is the rotation you use when you have your enmity cushion or when you are offtanking. It maintains both debuffs with 100% uptime and does the second highest damage of your rotations.

Overpower is a conal shape AoE aggro tool. It's superiority over Flash is that it does damage, and thus generates more aggro than Flash

Overpower generates more enmity not because it deals damage. Flash could just as easily generate more enmity than Overpower if the devs cranked up the enmity value on Flash but they didn't. In fact, against enemies with dramatically beefed up damage resistance, Flash actually generates more than Overpower because Flash simply generates enmity based upon your attack power (which also means that it doesn't benefit from FoF) whereas Overpower generates enmity based upon the damage you deal (damage absorbed by an absorb shield is still valued at its full value even if it throws up a 0).

Warriors don't have as superior defensive cooldowns as Paladin

WAR cds are weaker but on shorter CDs which does not mean that the WAR CD suite is inferior. If you use them like you would PLD cds (that is to say, holding on to them until you really need a CD) and using that as your point of comparison, you're doing it wrong. The best way to use the WAR CDs is to use them actively while staggering them. By staggering them, you can basically have some kind of CD active on you 100% of the time. PLD can't get anywhere close to that which is why they have to pick and choose when to use their CDs. A WAR that doesn't have 1-2 CDs on CD at any point in time (at least while they're tanking) is doing it wrong.

[Alazier]

No advice needed. You already made the right step.