Warriors: Why do you love your class?

[AziraSyuren]

I loved it because it was the strongest. Now that it's not the strongest, I don't like it as much.

Inner Release is an absolute masterclass in job flavor, though. Nothing conveys the idea of a berserker quite like smashing someone with the same skill over and over, complete with BIG NUMBERS and EXCLAMATION POINTS. I just wish there was more to do in between.

[Anahlise_Auhn_Giinslai]

Warrior is not a Berserker, though... The main theme of its class quest stories is even all about "Taming The Inner Beast", for the very purpose of not going Berserk, and not being a out-of-control Berserker... Warrior is more like a anger, fury, and rage driven Adrenaline junkie, while the iconic Inner Release action is more or less the Warriors' Adrenaline rush.

[Vyrerus]

Warrior is not a Berserker, though... The main theme of its class quest stories is even all about "Taming The Inner Beast", for the very purpose of not going Berserk, and not being a out-of-control Berserker... Warrior is more like a anger, fury, and rage driven Adrenaline junkie, while the iconic Inner Release action is more or less the Warriors' Adrenaline rush.

It's literally got the skill, "Berserk." Which is rolled into Inner Release. Taming the Inner Beast is learning to control your berserk state. It's 100% a Berserker. In real life Berserkers only used their fury in battle, and the more supernatural aspect/stories of it had them shapeshift into a bear, wolf, or boar mid battle (turning into their beast, letting their beast out). That's the whole deal with Inner Release.

To answer the thread, I've loved Warrior since its FFXI incarnation. Its 2hr ability was called Mighty Strikes, 100% crit rate for 45 seconds. Worked on auto attacks and any physical-melee weaponskill. Amazing! Inner Release has turned into a small form of that every 90 seconds. I miss HW Warrior though.

It's also my favorite job currently in Save the Queen content. Being able to force crazy numbers on Lost Slash makes my day every time. Get upwards of 400k damage in DR frequently, without really wasting/overstacking buffs.

[Anahlise_Auhn_Giinslai]

It's literally got the skill, "Berserk." Which is rolled into Inner Release. Taming the Inner Beast is learning to control your berserk state. It's 100% a Berserker. In real life Berserkers only used their fury in battle, and the more supernatural aspect/stories of it had them shapeshift into a bear, wolf, or boar mid battle (turning into their beast, letting their beast out). That's the whole deal with Inner Release.

Eh, a fair point... Warrior is sort of fantasy Berserker, in that sense. But that is fantasy, and also a super popular misconception about "real life" Berserkers.
Real life actual Berserkers were not about the "anger, fury, rage" trope, that is pure fantasy. The "power" of real berserkers was insanity.
they would get high and drugged on "Battle-Weed" before battle, and then mid-battle, they would fall into hallucinations and panic-attacks, their adrenaline mixing with disassociation-from-reality insanity, while being drugged out of their minds is why they seemed to feel no pain and would even continue fighting with no regard to their wounds.
I do not refer to Warrior as a Berserker for this reason...
The anger stereotype is pure fantasy, and FFXIV Warriors' power is not from insanity, so I do not consider Warrior as a Berserker.

While on the other scale, as for FFXIV Warrior.. the current is fine, boring down-time, great self-healing, and I sort of like it?
I like Inner Beast animation a lot more than Fell Cleave animation, though, so that is one of my disappointments with Warrior, other than its boring down-time... I also sort of(?) liked 4.x Warrior more, because the old Defiance / Deliverance stance-dance, with the old Wrath and Abandon resources, felt a lot more like Warrior's "identity", than what Beast Gauge does, albeit that Beast gauge also fits, of course.
I created a Tank forums thread titled "A concept addressing Warrior's current in-game form lacking its story identity a bit", if you would be curious to read about a Warrior re-invented concept that I made, to remaster the old Warrior gameplay, and combine that with current Warrior.

[Khimer]

I love warrior because of it's berserker theme, insane healing, high damage attacks and satisfying burst. Sadly outside of all that good stuff it's not really fleshed out, it feels like playing a lvl 50 job amongst lvl 80 jobs, the fact that it barely changed and only lost parts of its kit going from 70-80 only makes it worse. After trying other tanks i find it hard to go back to playing warrior as it feels extremely boring compared to them.

Those that still play and enjoy it, i'm glad you do, but going forward i wish devs would make it more engaging to play, not necessarily add new ogcds to weave but at least add a new mechanic to it's kit to keep a track of. There's a high chance that they will remove storm's eye upkeep in the next expansion altogether and if they do that without replacing it with anything interesting there will be no hope for this job honestly.

[Colt47]

Insane healing and it's skill kit being more about when to use something instead of always using something when it is up. That's what kills every other tank job in Shadowbringers: Even gap closers on the other jobs must be weaved or you are losing DPS. Warrior is just about timing and understanding how to use the resources. That and it's sustain is still the highest of all the tank jobs, even paladin. Paladin is sort of 2nd best at sustain thanks to the clemency, and can cheese old content a bit easier.

[Jirah]

I like WAR but makes me quiver with dread when people say “it’s easy” as a selling point. My my have we gone soft

[Anahlise_Auhn_Giinslai]

well... some people like Warrior over the other tanks, just because it is more of ease than the other tanks.
...I myself am in the "I like Warrior, but it could be better" group, as I like most of Warrior, and there are only.. three?, I think.. things about it, that I do not like so much... I am too tired to think it through fully, but this is also a compliment Warrior thread, not a complain about Warrior thread, so.. eh...

[TouchandFeel]

... Real life actual Berserkers ...

The idea that "real life berserkers" used drugs, or "battle-weed" as you put it, in order to induce the berserkergang, the state of frenzy attributed to berserkers, is heavily debated and only one theory as to what the source of this state was.

When speaking specifically of Norse berserkers, there are three main theories.

There is the theory which you referenced in which different substances or concoctions with mind and pain numbing effects were imbibed.

Then there is the theory that the state was self-induced through the ritualist repetition of certain physical actions like hyper-ventilation, animalistic yelling or howling, stamping or striking things before a battle to basically flood the body with chemicals like adrenaline, dopamine, etc. causing the berserkers to enter a trance-like hyper agitated hysteria. Most simply put, they trained themselves to be able to flip out.

Lastly is the theory that there may have been connections between berserkers and mental health issues, trauma or brain injury; wherein a berserker was an individual who suffered from such an affliction and because of that was able to do things that were considered outside the ability of normal people.

With how limited the archeological data on these people is, we are left to try to discern the truth about berserkers from historical writings; most of which blend reality, religion/superstition and a storyteller's penchant for colorful falsities and dramatic hyperbole into one big folkloreish mess.

So what is a historically factual berserker and what is the source of their fabled berserk state? We don't actually know for sure. Honestly, I think it is highly likely that it is a mixture of all the prevalent theories and that the "how" of it all may have varied between different groups of berserkers or with the individuals themselves.

With all that said, the FF14 Warrior definitely plays off of or alludes to aspects typically associated with historical berserkers.

For starters there is the bear motif. Some scholars tie berserkers to ancient practices of psuedo-totemistic animal worship where warriors associated themselves with animals, predominantly the bear, and would wear their pelts and try to emulate these animals believing that they would manifest the strength of them in battle. Also this is believed to be where the word berserker comes from with the word roughly translating to "bear-shirt"

Along this same line of scholarly thought is that these berserkers believed that their battle-trance state was them drawing on and bringing forth the spirit of these animals that dwelled within the warrior, i.e. their "inner beast". This idea that the berserkers were letting loose the animal within them is shown in some of the Norse sagas in which it is said that the berserker turned into the actual animal during battle. It's honestly not a far stretch to see saga writers and storytellers describing warriors dressed in bearskins and entering a state of primal fury where they act animalistic as having "transformed into a bear".

So while the FF14 Warrior job is of course a fantasy creation, there are very obvious through-lines between the job and what scholars currently know of historical berserkers.

[Anahlise_Auhn_Giinslai]

A fair assessment, and reads to be within reason. My own comment was a little more of a rush, as I was to state only what I at-the-time could remember immediately, from my own research on the subject, and also as you said:

Honestly, I think it is highly likely that it is a mixture of all the prevalent theories and that the "how" of it all may have varied between different groups of berserkers or with the individuals themselves.

I agree with that, as well. I doubt that any theory is wrong, and they are probably all correct... Berserkers are also not unique to The Norse, as The Celts, Irish for a good example, also had Berserkers of their own. The way that Berserkering functioned, probably varied depending on culture, religion, and location; while...:

Some scholars tie berserkers to ancient practices of psuedo-totemistic animal worship where warriors associated themselves with animals, predominantly the bear, and would wear their pelts and try to emulate these animals believing that they would manifest the strength of them in battle. Also this is believed to be where the word berserker comes from with the word roughly translating to "bear-shirt"

Along this same line of scholarly thought is that these berserkers believed that their battle-trance state was them drawing on and bringing forth the spirit of these animals that dwelled within the warrior, i.e. their "inner beast". This idea that the berserkers were letting loose the animal within them is shown in some of the Norse sagas in which it is said that the berserker turned into the actual animal during battle. It's honestly not a far stretch to see saga writers and storytellers describing warriors dressed in bearskins and entering a state of primal fury where they act animalistic as having "transformed into a bear".

I also agree with that, as well.. and in this sense, FFXIV Warrior does indeed sort of match the Berserker.
But... FFXIV Warrior does not as much match some of the other theories, and the part that I was criticizing, was the way that FFXIV Warrior associates "Berserk" with Anger, Fury, and Rage, as that stereotype is a almost pure-Fantasy trope known as "The Barbarian", which is not related to Berserking. Warrior has some solid references to real berserkers, but it focuses on the Barbarian anger stereotype, in its story, so I do not consider FFXIV Warrior to be a Berserker, albeit that I do acknowledge that it is similar.

Side-note: the Battle-Weed thing that I mentioned, is a theory connected to Irirsh berserkers, rather than Norse berserkers.