I'm Getting More Confused about a WAR's Ability to Tank

[kro]

Simply put, a WAR needs to pop Inner Beast and a defensive CD for the big hits while a PLD only needs to pop a CD. If a WAR goes into a fight with only a vague understanding of the timing of those big hits, then they will not be able to mitigate properly. PLD can mitigate everything on reaction as long as they are frugal with their CD usage.

You also tend to get a lot of WARs that spec STR and use (old i110) STR accessories without having the overgeared left side or healers to back it up. Random PLDs almost universally go full VIT.

[Giantbane]

Simply put, a WAR needs to pop Inner Beast and a defensive CD for the big hits while a PLD only needs to pop a CD. If a WAR goes into a fight with only a vague understanding of the timing of those big hits, then they will not be able to mitigate properly. PLD can mitigate everything on reaction as long as they are frugal with their CD usage.

Inner Beast is every bit as strong as a PLD's Rampart, it just doesn't last as long and requires better timing. If a PLD can survive a big hit with just Rampart, the WAR can survive the same hit equally well with a properly timed Inner Beast.

You also tend to get a lot of WARs that spec STR and use (old i110) STR accessories without having the overgeared left side or healers to back it up. Random PLDs almost universally go full VIT.

This is definitely part of it.

Another thing is the PLD's shield. A PLD standing still mitigates more than a WAR due to the shield and the ability to block. A stupid WAR that doesn't do anything is going to appear squishier than a stupid PLD because of this.

I also think random PLDs tend to cycle their cooldowns better to mitigate random damage. It's easy to cycle a PLDs defensive abilities by just using one after the other. PLDs seem to do this frequently because it's a pretty simple concept. However with a WAR, you don't have as many basic "press this to improve survivability" abilities as a PLD would, you're pretty much limited to Vengenace and Thrill of Battle+Convalescence (used together is almost as good as rampart) and a collection of lesser abilities you can stack to some benefit (bloodbath, defiance, awareness, mantra, second wind, etc). To properly cycle, the WAR needs to save his inner beast (and 2x inner beast when infuriate is up and you're not using it for vengeance) to use in between his other cooldowns, even better if you can time inner beast for when you're damaged to take advantage of the heal. Your average WAR will just fire off Inner Beast whenever it's up, which causes the damage mitigation to be very inconsistent, leading to times where no cooldown is up and the WAR will look to be taking more damage.

Finally many WARs will forgo defensive abilities in exchange for MOAR DAMAGE! Using Steel Cyclone instead of Inner Beast for AoE or not using their SP combo (choosing to go SE>BB or just BB because they think they're PLDs). By trading their defense for damage, it will give the impression that the WAR is squishier. In this scenario, the truth is that the WAR is squishier because he chose to be, not because he actually was.