IS WAR as hard as it seems?

[kensatsu]

and when you will be even better with your dark it will be a joke too ? because it's what happen when you know
at least it's funny to play for someone bored to play pld or war.
MP management is not that hard, the Defense CD is a little tricky, there are more offensive CD, CD combi.
I can tell the dark is more nervous to play, and have more CD involvement than the two others tank.
I personaly like to play it, my concern would be if a fight is 100% physycal the dark get a little screwed.

[SpookyGhost]

I personaly like to play it, my concern would be if a fight is 100% physycal the dark get a little screwed.

Not as much as you'd think. Rotate Shadowskin, Shadow Wall, and Living Dead in whatever order gets you the most CD usage, using Dark Dance between each buster to try and proc Reprisal, and using DA + DM for any magical party-wide AOEs that go out if it's got no other use. PLD, even in 3.0, is similar to this - Rampart, Sentinel, and Hallowed, but having access to Sheltron which gives them the ability to either combine it with other CDs or use it as it's own CD if none of the others are available (~29% mitigation with a tower shield, ~43% total with ShO), and Divine Veil for party-wide AOEs. WAR has quite a few CD rotations depending on the encounter, Thrill + Convo + RI [+ IB + Equilibrium] -> Vengeance + Mantra [+ IB + Equilibrium] for 60s, Thrill + Convo [+ IB] -> Vengeance [+ IB] -> RI + Mantra [+IB] for 40s, Vengeance + Thrill + Convo + RI + Mantra + [IB + Equilibrium] for 120s, etc. There are a lot of variations for WAR and ways to use CDs effectively depending on the fight, PLD/DRK do have a bit of variation similarly but not as much.

That aside, DRK is pretty straightforward for physical fights due to the limits on CDs it has available, but because of this SE has to design fights that accommodate this rotation so you should be in the clear unless some weird PLD/WAR-only strat comes out.

[MrTherm]

WAR is fairly simple to play. Knowing the fight and when to use stacks and when to save is probably the hardest part.

I personally find DRK the be the hardest to play, only because its a pretty busy ass job. The concept is simple/easy just like PLD, but just trying to spam thru all the oGCD attacks can get overwhelming at times.

[Riki_Namu]

PLD is a joke, WAR is a joke after you know how to play it. DRK requires management and skill... Most because its horridly designed.

Ironically I feel like DRK is the easiest.... outside of mana management its very simple. Warrior would probably be the one I am weakest on. That is at being amazing.

[lulunami]

WAR is probably the easiest tank to do well with since the job is really well designed. The DPS combo is also the enmity combo (Butcher's Block) for WAR, unlike DRK and PLD. AoE enmity and damage is really easy with Overpower. Maim, Berserk, Unchained, and Internal Release make it real simple for more DPS and enmity. Not to mention WAR gets access to Storm's Eye slashing debuff. About everything is on the GCD except Brutal Swing's stun so no oGCDs to keep track of like with DRK. Steel Cyclone/Decimate/Inner Beast/Fell Cleave are really good moves that also save TP. Oh yeah Equilibrium too. Storm's Path damage down is really nice during progression for those damaging boss attacks. WAR is a lot more intuitive to play than PLD or DRK.

WAR are also the best for doing hunts. It is always a WAR tanking an S-rank or A-rank hunt mob. Snap aggro is super easy with WAR.

[Merkava]

WAR is probably the easiest tank to do well with since the job is really well designed.

This is true, if you know how to play WAR. People seem to often forget that even though WAR has amazing synergy with its own entire toolset it's not quite as evident from the get-go, specially when you're a new tank. When playing DRK or PLD all you need are your tank stance, a cooldown here and there and spamming your AOE enmity generation as long as your resources allow it. WAR isn't as obvious from the get-go, its enmity generation isn't as amazing as DRK at low levels and crap cooldowns like foresight keep WAR on the loosing end, namely since Defiance does not give immediate eHP when used (unlike the other two stances). The first decent cooldown WARs get is Thrill of Battle and since it heals HP most people seem to use it as a self-heal instead of a defensive cooldown and most newer WARs don't immediately see the synergy it has with Convalescence. WAR is, without a doubt, the tank with the highest skill floor out of the three tanks. Not to say it's HARD but for new players it can be difficult to properly use your skills unless you have read beforehand about them and their respective synergies. That's why DF WARs are generally the hardest to deal with as a healer, unless you run into a skilled WAR, then it's a quick and efficient run.

Once you get how it works though, you understand why people call the class "easy" and man it feels amazing.

And people are saying PLD is harder? Can't tell if they're being silly or just funny. PLD was the only class I have ever played in the game that has such a noticeable skill ceiling (at least during normal play).

Note TC, Don't let my words discourage you. Higher skill floor does not mean that the class is hard to play, just that it's not obvious from the get-go like other tanks. But once you understand how WAR properly works then it's an amazing game changer to discover the raw amount of versatility and synergy the class has. I highly recommend giving it a spin if you're interested in tanking, don't let people dissuade you that WAR is “only” a squishier tank that can DPS, it can tank AND dps extremely well.

[Riki_Namu]

snip.

That and its the only tank job that can solo ex trials .... such power and regen

[kensatsu]

i think people here confond easier to begin with, easier when you are exp and know everything with war or even the 3 tanks.
Both tanks is simple on the paper, but you need exp with to know how to use all the toolkit the better as possible.
Let's see any change at 3.2, i don't tell here tank don't need tweaks.
Regen is powerfull like you say, this is why "an exp war" can do extreme primals. the pld/dark lack regen for this, i think equilibrum is too awesome when buffed with berserk/str and possibly crit. (dark and pal don't have anything like this,)
but anyway all the war out there is not like this. This is so Many of OT Str dpsing war only forgeting the war is or was a tank.

I see comment tell dark is easy/war is easy or pld is easy, if it's easy you can focus to proggress with the job, i think it's a high progress marge with any job in the game even the OP one.
When it's easy, make it harder or it's not fun.

[Syzygian]

??????????????????? Delirium being reset early literally affects nothing. You apply the DoT when it falls off, you have 1 DoT. What. What?? WHAT?? Honestly. Honestly. Come on.

I know Path is a DPS loss for WAR, but DRK's have no excuses to not have their debuffs up as much as possible.

And yes, Blood Weapon lining up with your applications of Delirium and Scourge does affect your rotation; allow me to enlighten you...

If Blood Weapon comes off cooldown in such a way that you can Scourge>DE combo>Blood Weapon you can get off two DA-SEs and then re-apply Delirium and Scourge in that order without losing either of them. This is a thing you have to watch for, because it will not be same twice in a row due to BW's cooldown being 40s, duration 15s, Scourge's duration 30s, and DE's duration 20s, much like WAR with Berserk and Infuriate and/or RI/Vengeance not lining up perfectly twice in a row. For it to not clip Scourge you have to be at a point in your rotation where both Scourge and Delirium are about to fall, with Scourge sooner, and with BW coming off recast at almost the same time. If you simply alternate DE/DASE Scourge is always applied after the every other use of one or the other depending on extra DA-SEs you may have used. It is not simple to map this out at all and varies depending on the fight so it is a situation you have to watch for.

Furthermore, if BW is on cooldown and you can afford to let Delirium drop, you can <DA>-HS-SS-SE-<DA>-HS-<C&S>-SS-<DA>-SE for a pretty huge burst. You cannot do this with BW up cause your GCD is too fast, and you have to time DA perfectly because of its 5s recast to DA two SEs in a row with a DA Carve woven in between, in much the same way as you must pop Berserk late in the GCD to have it not pacify you in an untimely fashion. Again, this requires a decent chunk of MP and planning, and you obviously must use Scourge immediately prior and be able to let Delirium fall for a few seconds in order to pull it off, and it has to coincide with C&S' recast time to avoid saving the CD and losing DPS, obviously.

WAR doesn't have the tanking monopoly on rotational awareness and planning. Getting off bursts like this in accordance with the duration of your debuffs and when BW and C&S come off recast while maximizing DA SE usage is apparently completely unknown information. Never seen it anywhere on the forums, and there are still a plethora of people out there that just say "blah blah rotate DE/DASE ezpz". I'm sorry its not as well publicized as stuff like triple cleave but its still a thing. Countless people show their ignorance and lack of curiosity/motivation to learn about maximizing a job not named WAR. This oversimplication of other jobs isn't going to buy us more quality players that main them, that's for sure.

[Bashum]

Merkava -

Unless they changed something, thrill isn't affected by convalescence.