So i tanked for the very first time today and i've made up my mind.

[Varyntheos]

I just started playing FFXIV this weekend and jumped right into tanking on Warrior *just hit 30* And has been fun up to doing a Thousand Maws which I died for the first time on final boss, part of it was because the pre-video watched going into it said you had to kill all the pods *but that is a different story lol. But coming from WoW I think I am getting confused with all the talk of Stance dancing and most Warrior guides I find are for level 70 but after switching to the Warrior upgrade I guess I got confused on what CDs to use and rotation in general.

[ksuyen]

I just started playing FFXIV this weekend and jumped right into tanking on Warrior *just hit 30* And has been fun up to doing a Thousand Maws which I died for the first time on final boss, part of it was because the pre-video watched going into it said you had to kill all the pods *but that is a different story lol. But coming from WoW I think I am getting confused with all the talk of Stance dancing and most Warrior guides I find are for level 70 but after switching to the Warrior upgrade I guess I got confused on what CDs to use and rotation in general.

IMHO, stance dancing is not compulsory. But if you want to be a good tank, as a warrior you may opt to dps harder to kill faster, so i guess this is where you need to switch between Defiance and Deliverance.

Dungeons - Trash] For trash DPS AOE has gotten really strong to the point it can be tough to maintain threat if you mess around too much in Deliverance, especially against Red Mages. I try to keep ~50 Beast Gauge available at the end of each pull so I can open pulls with Steel Cyclone rather than Overpower, which is typically enough to establish threat indefinitely (and is easier to target when running through enemies). I find healers are able to contribute more reliable AOE DPS against trash when I'm in tank stance and using Equilibrium + Cooldowns -- I can go Deliverance to use Decimate every few GCDs, but the extra incoming damage means the healer needs to be 100% focused on keeping me up and can't contribute as much to DPS. So I don't think Stance Dancing is something you really need to worry about on trash pulls unless if your healer is dpsing their heart out and still looks bored.

[Dungeons - Bosses] I try to enter boss fights with 100 Beast Gauge if possible. Start in Defiance, run in, Tomahawk, and weave in Onslaught for a huge and instant burst of enmity. That'll put you at 80 Beast Gauge -- do one Storm's Eye combo to get your damage buff (and 100 Gauge), then swap stance to Deliverance. Heavy Swing, weave Berserk/Inner Beast, Fell Cleave, Fell Cleave, Infuriate, Fell Cleave, Maim, Fell Cleave, Storm's Path, Fell Cleave, Fell Cleave. Depending on Skill Speed you might be able to fit in the magical 7th Fell Cleave, if not just weave in Thrill of Battle + Upheaval to finish the combo. After that I usually just swap back to Defiance until Inner Beast's cooldown is back up to make things a little easier on the healer, but you should have such a massive Enmity lead that if the healer is comfortable you can probably spend the rest of the fight in Deliverance.

[Raids] I wouldn't bother stance dancing when you are still learning raid content, especially in Savage mode. Save it for progression and when you're up against a DPS Check/Enrage, and then do the same as above under Dungeons - Bosses. Stay in Defiance until you're up to 80 Beast Gauge, get to 100 gauge with your Storm's Eye combo, do your crazy Fell Cleave combo, then back to Defiance (unless you're very confident in your healer). If you are planning to spend more time in Deliverance I would make sure your OT knows to use the Provoke + Shirk combo frequently so you don't fall behind on aggro; even with all the Fell Cleaves and the early opening aggro spike it's easy for RDM and SAM to rip stuff off of you if you have to miss a GCD or two when avoiding mechanics.

In general, if you are going to be staying in Deliverance because you trust your Healer, you're going to have basically unlimited TP in boss encounters, so it is still worth swapping to Defiance briefly to pop Equilibrium in a pinch (Saving Equilibrium in OS1 helps a lot after Charybdis so the healers can focus more on picking up the offtank for that upcoming Twin Bolt).

[Kalise]

I just started playing FFXIV this weekend and jumped right into tanking on Warrior *just hit 30* And has been fun up to doing a Thousand Maws which I died for the first time on final boss, part of it was because the pre-video watched going into it said you had to kill all the pods *but that is a different story lol. But coming from WoW I think I am getting confused with all the talk of Stance dancing and most Warrior guides I find are for level 70 but after switching to the Warrior upgrade I guess I got confused on what CDs to use and rotation in general.

Ahh yeah, guides for level 70 (Especially end-game stuff) will be confusing.

Basically, for leveling up to 70 (Also, at level 70 until you get pretty good gear) you'll want to be mainly having Defiance active while you're tanking.

Rotation should be Heavy Swing > Skull Sunder > Butcher's Block against single targets and Overpower against 3+ enemies.
Upon level 35 you'll gain access to Inner Beast, which you'll want to use as you fill up your Beast Gauge (You'll find out more about this as you hit level 35 so don't worry) ideally waiting until your next attack will put you over 100 gauge before using it (Though, if you need its healing/damage reduction use it earlier!)

Upon level 38, you'll get the skill Storm's Path which will take over as your main rotation. So you'll be using Heavy Swing > Maim > Storm's Path for single targets. Unless you notice that someone in your party is very high on enmity (Next to the members of your party, you'll see the enmity bars so if one of the people in your party has one that is very full they're at risk of getting aggro) then you'll use a Butcher's Block combo for the enmity.

Finally, upon level 50 you'll get the skill Storm's Eye which will then supplement your main rotation. Essentially you'll alternate between Heavy Swing > Maim > Storm's Path and Heavy Swing > Maim > Storm's Eye to maintain the damage buff provided by Storm's Eye (Typically it's about 2x Storm's Path combos 1x Storm's Eye combo. Generally is about what the duration allows for)

For CD's your main ones are:

Rampart (Role Action skill learned at level 8)
Reprisal (Role Action skill learned at level 32) - This one is for use when a boss does an AoE attack.
Vengeance (Obtained at level 46)

You'll also have some less generally useful ones that will provide you with some nice benefit in certain situations:

Anticipation (Role Action skill learned at level 24) is useful against groups of enemies and basically can be used as and when available. It's not guaranteed mitigation nor does it affect spells, so it has limited use to counter boss abilities.
Thrill of Battle (Obtained at level 26) will mostly be useful to you for the heal it provides. In end-game content its use becomes to help counter specific boss skills that burst for high amounts of damage.
Raw Intuition (Obtained at level 56) this is an awkward CD. Since often you'll want to use it alongside Awareness (Role Action skill learned at level 36) and much like Anticipation, it does not affect spells. Giving it limited use to counter boss abilities. Though it's great against trash mobs, provided you use Awareness (If you don't use awareness, this thing will kill you faster than you can say "Oops")

Have fun