Quote Originally Posted by Instrumentality View Post
Haha, maybe for you. My favorite part of any fight as a tank is nailing down absolutely everything I need to do in order to maximize my survivability and find out new patterns to use my cooldowns in for both myself and my healers. It's very ill suited to the Warrior playstyle, which is fun if you like that sort of tanking style. I enjoy it about as much as I enjoy healing, which is to say not at all.
I'm not really here to change your mind (I like PLD too), but I will say that planning WAR's CD rotation is actually way more strict than PLD's. Usually, when you're figuring out your rotation for PLD, you're basically just figuring out what will be up when. So, say, you start with Sentinel on the first big hit, then Ramp + Conv for the 2nd, Hallowed 3rd, Sentinel again 4th... etc etc. With WAR it's quite a bit different, you have 4 major CDs to work with and combine together (IB, Vengeance, and Thrill + Conv). IB usage is basically what makes or breaks a good WAR - some WARs will hold onto 5 stacks until the tank buster is about to happen, hit it, build 5 more stacks, then save again. This isn't something you want to do. You want to know when and where you can freely use IB to mitigate other damage/deal more damage. You also have to consider when Unchained is safe, when you have Infuriate to get another IB off or to get 2 after an Unchained, when you need to prioritize Steel Cyclone over both of these, etc. Basically, WAR's CD management is GCD to GCD, whereas PLD's is a bunch of CDs that can be planned out just on the tank busters.

I will say, from experience, I've found it significantly easier to start fresh content with PLD due to being able to pop a multitude of CDs whenever. As an example, Odin is really quite strict on when he does what, but the first time you go in as WAR you're forced to hold your Wrath a lot because you don't know when stuff is coming. Once you do know then WAR becomes a lot better, you get 99-100% SP/SE uptime, you get IB + a CD for every tank buster, you can freely use IB without much worry, and you do more damage than a PLD solo. There's a lot of advantages to mastering a fight with WAR, and that's what I personally like about the job.

I do think both jobs have their merits, and it's really just down to what type of CD management you prefer.