I feel like I am taking too much damage as WAR

[Erghiez]

I am probably doing something wrong, so I figured I'd ask around a bit.

I main as an SCH so I am accustomed to staring at HP bars. Some tanks fair better than others and some surprise me with how much damage they don't take.

Recently I've been running Turn 1 and while I know Caduceus can hit for some big numbers, I feel like I am taking too much damage regardless of stacks.

I am fairly new to playing WAR (only capped a little over a week ago) and so far I have seen other Warriors during the sacrifice pulls last significantly longer than I can manage. I assume it has more to do with proper use of CDs and/or positioning.

If I am AoE pulling (sacrifice pulls for instance) I wait til I am about 3/4 to my destination before popping Infuriate and then unchained. After popping those two I start to go through my other CDs as I continue to run. Berserk, Bloodbath, Vengeance, foresight and Featherfoot. Once my HP gets dangerously low I throw down Holmgang. All the while I'll be spamming overpower for HP returns. I still find that I die incredibly fast. I'll last maybe 10 seconds, 15 at most. (no innuendos there)

During single target boss phases I'll start the fight with Infuriate - Unchained - Berserk - Tomahawk - Then go into my Butchers block combo until Berserk Debuff. I use Inner Beast liberally as I intuitively feel that wasting wrath stacks is well, a waste. I tend to 'stagger' my CDs. The only two CDs I tend to use in tandem are Berserk and bloodbath. I'll typically pop bloodbath first and try and pop berserk when Bloodbath has around 15-17 seconds left. Outside of that its rotating CDs and spamming Inner Beast when its up and keeping vengeance on CD for High damage phases.

Like I said I know I am probably playing WAR right, so I have no delusions that I am perfect. Just trying to isolate where I am going wrong so I can fix it. Tips and advice are mucho appreciated =D

[MythToken]

Save your Inner Beast for his giant attack, don't remember the name. Whatever one has the cast bar. This is one of those fights where you save Inner beast for that specific attack only, its not a waste.
I try to use 1 or 2 crappy defensive Cooldowns in between each of these big attacks. Saving Vengeance for when i get more stacks. (3-4)

[Orophin]

Warriors take more damage in general, but they receive higher heals to compensate.

I thought all of Caduceus's attacks were instant? Hood Swing and his auto attack are instant. His tail swipe has a cast time but that doesn't affect the tank. (apart from taking away an attack that would have normally hit them)

[Remn]

for WAR tanking T1, just pop IB when you can. there no cast bar for Hood swing (there might be CD on the skill, but that never been an issue)
from 1-3 Stack you will want to survive by not pop any CD with 120 sec or longer, save those for when he hit 4 stack. (assuming that you group DPS is normal, not high or low.)
normally I can survive 1-3 Stack fine with just IB. (if you not geared tank, I recommend poping CD between 3 and 4 stack +)

[Erghiez]

I'd say I am over-geared for Turn 1. Bravura Atma, WAR i90 set and a combination of i100 and i90 accessories. My ilevel is 94. As far as waiting to pop CDs goes. I tend to wait until around stack 4 or 5 to start cycling through CDs. Depends on how fast the snakes are being DPS'ed down.

All in all my concern is more of a broad one. I seem to have this issue in a lot of content I may be over geared for. I've seen videos of WARs speed running brayflox and going through their Infuriate - Unchained - Berserk - Bloodbath - Vengeance - Overpower rotations and keeping their HP topped off on a door pull. If I try that it doesn't seem to work out the same. My HP falls fast, and the heals from IB and spamming overpower don't really seem to make much of a difference.

Like I said before; Just trying to pinpoint where I am going wrong so I can fix it, and always, tips are mucho appreciated =D

[Zaero]

Combo of IB and Storm's Path combos (Heavy Swing -> Maim -> SP). IB reduces damage taken by 20% for a few secs, SP will reduce damage dealt by enemies by 10% for 20 secs. You can splash in the SP combo after a couple main combos if you're tanking.

Overall though, WAR tanking is about sacrificing some "survivability" (in the form of CDs like Hallowed Ground) for self heals combined with heal buffs/enemy debuffs. You're going to take more damage, period. Having a lot stacked into Vit/parry help you in that case, since you can also use Thrill of Battle like a CD (heal buff and bout 1k more HP).

I splash in Convalescence with my Vengenance (for my "Oh snapples" combo) personally. You'll probably only last up to 5 stacks on Cad (tested with i90 WAR tank), but it's also dependent on who's healing you. Some healers are practically precognizant on heals (or feels that way), so they have the heal out as the attack hits. Otherwise, there is Mantra (10% heal buff)

Definately a finesse tank, but if you know how to cycle what and when, you can last (heck, I ended up soloing the last 25% of Chimera in Cutter's the other day as a result haha).

Side note: Cad's attacks for tank are instants. Only cast bar is Tail Swipe (which you'd only see if you're OT for the start). It's all in the CD's, which I tend to save till about 3 stacks, when it gets real.

That said, OP spam for Bloodbath doesn't necessarily do it for me (but I'm not gonna crunch the numbers).

[Erghiez]

Snipped for Size but appreciated nonetheless.

Very nice to know and thank you. I like that Convalescence and Vengeance combo. Never thought to do that. As far as having 5+ stacks on Cad, I've actually held 8 stacks for about 30 seconds with both healers focusing on me. It wasn't pleasant but I managed. I just kept popping inner beast when I could. I seem to do fine in most single target fights. Its the mass AoE pulls that really get me, but overall I just feel as if I am taking too much damage that could be mitigated. My typical rotation after a pull is to spam BB combo 2 to 3 times followed by Storms Path and Storms Eye. Usually by then I can synchronize IB with Storm's Eye.

[Skull_Angel]

With incoming damage you have to realize you're not the only one that determines how quickly your HP will drop in a heavy damage instance; I first realized this early on with the update to Inner Beast, helping others with Titan HM. There's only so much you can do to mitigate damage and once you've optimized your CD usage on a per-fight basis it's up to your healers to pre-shield for heavy incoming damage phases/attacks. Going into Levi EX I can tell if our pick-up healer is fully experienced or not, it normally means the difference of taking a normal attack + Dread Tide combo for somewhere around ~4700 or ~3000 [sure it really isn't much, but that's still the difference of an auto-attack and it keeps me from dropping below 50% hp (most healer's "panic" zone, haha

edit: I'm basically saying that when you're familiar with your CDs, the particular fight you're in and know how to lay them out, you start to really see the difference in healers of different caliber. I'm sure you know that though, haha.

[givemeraptors]

With incoming damage you have to realize you're not the only one that determines how quickly your HP will drop in a heavy damage instance;

edit: I'm basically saying that when you're familiar with your CDs, the particular fight you're in and know how to lay them out, you start to really see the difference in healers of different caliber. I'm sure you know that though, haha.

This. Definitely. A lot depends on a healer's playing style an their "safe zone" i.e. how low they're willing to let a tank's health drop. It might also help to have someone precast Eye For An Eye on you for sac pulls. Definitely Cad.

[sheepysheepy]

i tried both sides like you and my conclusion was that a good healer can keep a bad tank going a lot longer than a bad healer keeps a good tank going, so i swapped back because i don't like praying someone else is good

also in high dmg fights like caduseus your health is definitely gonna dip and i didn't like the anxiety of it, as a tank you're thinking 'woah woah woahh' every time you get smacked, as a healer you know everythings gonna be fine and your tank should calm down