Why Nobody Plays Warrior

[NaoKith]

WAR sucks started with BCoB when Inner Beast only had a 3x dmg heal attached to it (no mitigation) and they were getting whomped by death sentence constantly, 2 PLD was the main group composition for the mid-core groups in BCoB progression. Oh yeah and Vengeance didn't have mitigation attached to it, and all Holmgang did was stick the mob to you, it did not save you from death. Also, Defiance only granted its healing bonus based on the amount of stacks of wrath you were holding, so using IB/SC/Unchained was dangerous. Everything was changed to how we know it now in patch 2.1 I believe.

Thank you, I am relatively new to MMO raiding (starting with T5 > T9, now working on the T13 clear) and this explains a lot of where the stigma seems to come from. I don't understand why it still persists, though.

If only we had an in-game parser you would see how truly truly bad some DPS are at their jobs, but right now its hard to tell : D

The fact that tank mistakes frequently result in a wipe and DPS mistakes are largely invisible is a large part of the problem. Although if you compare the frustration of mechanics like divebombs to tank swaps, I can understand why SE designs around the competency of two players rather than eight ...

WAR's actually have to plan further ahead for their mitigation than PLD's do, ask any progression WAR and they can probably tell you when they need to start building wrath to mitigate an attack when they are MTing, or when they need to switch back on defiance to be able to infuriate to mitigate an attack. All a PLD has to do is go, "Oh shit! Critical Rip... Rampart! I choose you!"

As an experiment in overall effectiveness, I had the opportunity to tank T9 as both a WAR and a PLD a few weeks ago with the same group. We were mostly concerned that Ravensbeak wasn't being mitigated too well as a WAR, so I switched to PLD. The mitigation was exactly the same.

The major result of this experiment, for me, was that I noticed how much more fun I was having as a PLD without the stress of predicting attacks and working with the GCD.

[Ehayte]

The major result of this experiment, for me, was that I noticed how much more fun I was having as a PLD without the stress of predicting attacks and working with the GCD.

Some people like that, some people don't - theoretically, you should also be doing more DPS as a WAR in defiance than a PLD in Shield Oath.

However I have to echo the sentiments that I don't think there is an in-game perception that WAR sucks, at least not that I have seen.

[Abbul_Stonecleaver]

Many people think double War is bad, that is definitely still a thing.

Like a T11 farm recently: we got in, WHM said "No, not healing double Warrior" (only because one war could switch to lesser weapon Paladin.. she would have tolerated it otherwise).. and we had to back out so the other could switch.

Then, a couple days ago.. a group in PF needed just a tank. I sent a tell inquiring about the Drg head and ring. Then I saw it was reserved for paladin, and he said "Yea we need a Paladin."

I mean, I'm sure the str debuff from Rage of Halone helps.. but really..

Same thing with T10. In T10 I'd expect it's even less meaningful due to only Critical Rip being affected by RoH debuff. I see parties all the time with one War slot and one Pal slot.

[TheMurrkin4]

I love Warrior over Pally. With Paladin's, it just "HIT ME". Feel a lot more accomplished holding the mobs and dealing some crushing blows.

[Abbul_Stonecleaver]

Oh and back in 2.3 (when I started raiding), I was the solo tank for T9 as Warrior. Early when I was learning P1 Ravensbeak timing (back then it was brutal), we had a PUG. He just kept going on and on about how a Warrior can't do this, and Paladins are strictly better. I was afraid of my group really listening to them. (It was stressful for everyone on the third Beak, when the explosion occurs at same time as other damage, and is very high spike damage.. I died twice here before I decided I should use ToB instead of Vengeance here, and Infuriate to IB again at a few seconds left on debuff.. dying there ruined our best attempts to that point).

[rawker]

and then, something like this happened. http://youtu.be/WPV6taZUrPI

[LuceliaUltima]

Not that long ago, while farming Brayflox Hm.

Before we start I'm asking the healer if he' s ok with the big pulls to be cool with him and not force the speedrun. He answered, and i remember, I would if u were a pally, but wars sucks and are unhealable.

Rude!

[Risvertasashi]

Many people think double War is bad, that is definitely still a thing.

Like a T11 farm recently: we got in, WHM said "No, not healing double Warrior" (only because one war could switch to lesser weapon Paladin.. she would have tolerated it otherwise).. and we had to back out so the other could switch.

While I would be reluctant to do progression (farm could maybe double pld) without a war... yes, in all honesty would have also refused to heal it with double war. Kaliya freaking hurts at times.

Re: 10, add phase hurts and prey really has to be shielded. That's one healer occupied for 7 seconds or so during a high damage phase on both tanks. Double war, if they aren't i130, would be tap dancing in the rain on a slope.

[Ehayte]

Just remember folks, not very many WARs VIT spec - most of the notion that WARs are hard to heal is because we intentionally drop our HP to do more damage because we don't take that many hits, then we get addicted to 1900 pt IBs and don't want to switch back.. In full i130 VIT with dread weap I think I have like 12,700 hp with shitty food.

[stoxastic]

People get too hung up in party composition in PUG groups when honestly it doesn't really matter when everyone is so overgeared. A lot of PUG groups are pretty stubborn in having both PLD and a WAR and while that's ideal, its not really necessary for any of the turns outside of maybe T13. You can go double PLD or double WAR just fine, it just comes down to player skill.