Warriors Viable?

[Instrumentality]

Warriors are great. They have Unchained so they do great dps in tank stance. That said they also have Inner Best which is basically the most boring Awesome Button I've ever encountered in an MMO for tanking since EQ. I play a Paladin because Warrior mitigation really bores me, but I'll be swapping over to DRK to see if it's anything really new/fun. Warriors work for everything as both MT and OT so do whatever you want.

[Darkseth]

I might be in one of the Only Raid groups, that runs double warrior (they both dont like pld so... well.). We have cleared T13 like 10/11 weeks ago.
i'm in that group since like 7 months now or so, and me, as a WHM, never had the feeling, that we're missing a PLD, or that our WAR maintank is noticeable difficult to heal. Even in T13, its totally fine, and more than doable. IT depends on 1. the healer skills, and 2. the war MT skills. Of both know what they doing, its not a tiny bit worse/more difficult than aPLD Maintank. i Know it, i healed a PLD maintank in T13 today, and it was not easier (but ok, was a complete different group).

So... Even if your friends/group doesnt like pld, 2x WAR works just fine, as long everyone knows their job.
If anyone's interested, first 2 Ahk Morns goes into Holmgang, every single after that is tanked together, and we just heal through it. not really much of a problem. So, its really really more than doable, and warrior does not fall behind Paladin at all. If you have any concerns.
(Maybe we're even the first group, that beat T13 with double warrior. Since double war seems to be pretty rare-)

[Abbul_Stonecleaver]

Warriors are great. They have Unchained so they do great dps in tank stance. That said they also have Inner Best which is basically the most boring Awesome Button I've ever encountered in an MMO for tanking since EQ. I play a Paladin because Warrior mitigation really bores me, but I'll be swapping over to DRK to see if it's anything really new/fun. Warriors work for everything as both MT and OT so do whatever you want.

This seems backwards to me. "Oh, here comes RandomTankBuster, ahh good ole Sentinel" vs "Oh, crap I have 4 stacks, do I have time to get this last one in? Thank goodness for that Vengeance stack! Boom Inner Beast! Oh hey it critted for 2.1k, sweet"

[Instrumentality]

This seems backwards to me. "Oh, here comes RandomTankBuster, ahh good ole Sentinel" vs "Oh, crap I have 4 stacks, do I have time to get this last one in? Thank goodness for that Vengeance stack! Boom Inner Beast! Oh hey it critted for 2.1k, sweet"

There are no random tank busters. Their timing is all meticulous and easily recognized. I like Paladin mitigation because I can have a workflow/plan for every buster without ever using the same CD twice in a row and still be perfectly fine. Warrior it's always the same CD + whatever else you feel like hitting.

Don't get me wrong I recognize why people like Warrior and I don't have any problem with the class. It's just not my style.

[Abbul_Stonecleaver]

I meant random as in there are many of them and I needed a universal name. Guess a tank buster would work.

Just saying Warrior is more proactive while a Paladin can be more reactive. Kinda the opposite of boring

[Martin_Arcainess]

not sure if it's been mentioned or not but one thing about PLD beining chosen more often for MT is it's random Midgate from Shield and Parry. Along side with Adlo and Stone Skin I reduced a Flattern by Bahamut to 0 mainly due to my Shield Blocking like 35% of it.

[Delorean]

what is this, 2.0? lol

yes warriors can MT. it doesn't really matter who MTs. I have main tanked a lot of Coil. But really, MT is just a fancy word for "stands in place and tunnels boss". there are plenty of times where it is more taxing to be an OT and more pertinent to be on your a-game.

there should be no problem "MTing" most of the game's content as a Warrior. It might be better to have a Paladin MT for some bosses but usually when you are at a level where it really matters you don't really even care so it's pretty irrelevant

This seems backwards to me. "Oh, here comes RandomTankBuster, ahh good ole Sentinel" vs "Oh, crap I have 4 stacks, do I have time to get this last one in? Thank goodness for that Vengeance stack! Boom Inner Beast! Oh hey it critted for 2.1k, sweet"

boss ability queues are generally pretty strict in FFXIV - they are not random at all

i.e, shortly after dropping bombs titan will do a mountain buster. every time. the trick is to know that window. it takes about 20 seconds to generate 5 wrath, but if you use it too soon you will waste it. the window for a mountain buster is probably somewhere around 22-30 seconds. and honestly dont quote me on that because that is a pretty rough estimate but it's meant to illustrate a point

once you spend enough time having your shit kicked in by a boss you will know when the big damage is going to come out

[Instrumentality]

I meant random as in there are many of them and I needed a universal name. Guess a tank buster would work.

Just saying Warrior is more proactive while a Paladin can be more reactive. Kinda the opposite of boring

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.

[SpookyGhost]

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.

[Gillionaire]

I might not be able to explain why very well, but experience tells me this is just not true. Maybe they have lower defense on their base stats or something?

Well, I don't realy tank high level content so I don't know for sure.. But I think most WARs that are not pure VIT put points into STR where as PLDs put points into DEX? I don't know if that would make that much of a difference though.