WAR Advice / What makes a good tank?

[Vaala]

Is Featherfoot of much use at 60 doing higher end things? Currently I have that and Flash still on my cross class abilities, but finding myself doing more tanking on things like Sophia Ex and wondering if it's time for me to swap out for Awareness and Second Wind?

Also, how potent is Second Wind on WAR as a self-heal?

[Dement]

I run Second Wind over Featherfoot. It can be a decent heal, nothing huge but it's guaranteed over featherfoot which doesn't guarantee you'll evade when you need to evade, just increases the probability of it. I try to to play in absolutes so parry and evasion don't ever really sit well with me. Also Second Wind scales with attack power and Berserk is a direct increase to attack power so berserked second winds can be pretty decent.

I also still run with Flash because my static uses a MCH and healers can't always drop what they're doing to remove my Pacification. If you get pacified right at the moment of a tank swap with no flash, there's a high chance that swap is going to get messy while you try to establish aggro over the other tank. On the other hand, pacification doesn't affect flash. It's pretty situational but it has saved potential wipes on occasion.

[SpookyGhost]

Featherfoot vs Second Wind for dungeons is up to personal preference, I personally use SW since I never feel like I need the dodges whereas having a heal available in Deliverance is pretty valuable and I can always get some use out of it. Outside of dungeons Featherfoot is useless.

[aleph_null]

At around ilv 260, second wind is anywhere between 3k to 7k depending on whether it crits and whether berserk is on (its heal is based on atk power, so berserk would boost the heal by 50% too). It's a nice heal to have when you tank in deliverance.

Awareness is very situational but it was pretty important in midas savage, since there's an add in a5s that has 100% crit rate and the tank buster in a7s is a multi hit tank buster and every hit has relatively high crit chance, but I don't think it's that important in creator savage. I have never used featherfoot so idk about that one.

Flash does have that kind of situational use, but as you learn a fight with a warrior, timing your berserk such that your 20s berserk duration is uninterrupted by mechanics and that the 5s pacification doesn't prevent you from doing something important is a part of the learning process, just like learning when to drop tank stance without panicking due to tank busters. I used to have flash too but over time I felt that the number of times I need to use flash for tank swaps during pacification is rather negligible compared to the number of times I felt like second wind would help me and the healers when I tank in deliverance.

[Vaala]

I've tanked pretty much since go live off and on, but as I enjoy the progress and varying experiences of new jobs, I never really did much other than dungeons/24 Man Raids/non-fresh Coil/Alex. But this patch I've tried to get on a bit more for tougher stuff and attempting to break out of what I'm used to and more into more efficient choices.

Example, I'm getting a bit better at stance dancing, although it still is a bit unnatural to tank in Deliverance (working on it!), and using berserk much more often as a useful tool. So I'll have to get used to the timing feel of when that Pacification will hit!

Thanks for the info guys. I'll definitely swap out Featherfoot for Second Wind, and Flash may or may not go depending on what I end up doing

[Dement]

I would never take Flash over Second Wind. I do take Flash over Awareness usually, though. I never had a problem tanking the crit add in A5S with Vengeance and Thrill of Battle which were pretty much always up at that point since I was only swapping in for busters and then back out again and I tanked the Minotaur in Defiance with Inner Beast and Equilibrium since there wasn't really anything I could attack at that point. I did take Awareness for A7S and will continue to take it for any fights that have busters like that; although, I haven't really seen much of a need in A10S despite it being a multi-hit buster. Like you said the benefit of Flash goes away the more you know the fight, I just like it as a safety net in case things get a little off. Also in mass dungeon pulling, I've found Flash more useful to get the initial hate while you run through a pack of mobs whereas Overpower sometimes misses one depending on where they are positioned when you aggro them.

[aleph_null]

snip

If you want to keep flash, maybe leave awareness out but keep second wind (unless I'm missing something awareness doesn't seem to be essential in the current raid tier, but cmiiw).

For stance dancing you first need to know how much dmg you're going to take (auto attacks, cleaves, raid wide aoe, tank busters) and then plan how much you can mitigate or recover with your self heals. Don't forget that defiance alone doesn't mitigate incoming dmg (it does help healers with the heal bonus), so timing your equilibrium and inner beast helps too. If your group is still new to the fight staying in defiance longer may help your healers in case something goes wrong (you forgot to pop def cds, healers running low on mp, others dying or taking avoidable dmg and requiring healers' attention).

[SpookyGhost]

unless I'm missing something awareness doesn't seem to be essential in the current raid tier, but cmiiw

It's really good in A11S, but that aside Flash doesn't have much use in any of the current floors. Maybe 12 for picking up the first set of adds, but you can just Cyclone/Decimate/Overpower those. Same goes for Alex Normal.

[aleph_null]

It's really good in A11S, but that aside Flash doesn't have much use in any of the current floors. Maybe 12 for picking up the first set of adds, but you can just Cyclone/Decimate/Overpower those. Same goes for Alex Normal.

Does anything in a11s have high crit rate? I can't seem to notice any part where awareness would be really good.

[Hierro]

Getting nice damage on WAR is pretty simple, and you just have to know that for dungeons and bosses, you want to avoid tank stance as much as possible. That isn't to say you want to never touch it, but that the less time you're in it, the better.

You only need to be in tank stance if a tank buster can kill you and you need IB, or when keeping hate is an issue. Sophia Ex 3rd phase is a great example of when you'd want to be in tank stance more often while MTing cause the TB hits like a truck.

For dungeon boss fights, once you do your tank stance opener (unchained, SE, zerk, BB in that order or so) you SHOULD be fine to cruise in deliverance the whole fight. Prioritize your SE combo, but do alternate it with BB when you can.

A hard rule I like to follow is that you hold onto internal release and infuriate for berserk only. This way you can ensure double or triple fell cleaves. That said, use berserk whenever you get the chance and keep it on cooldown always. DPS is lost when people hold onto cooldowns.

for trash pulls, I've seen some WARs stay in tank stance the entire time and still make good overall dps, but I like to dip in dps stance for double decimate and OP spam, assuming bloodbath is on so I can at least self sustain.