Warrior potency

[Lieri]

I honestly DON'T like complex DPS rotations. Call me bad or casual or whatever insults, but it's why I left PLD and picked up WAR. That and I REALLY hate that PLD's transition from magic to melee phase does a 180 (leading into Royal instead of Goring) at level 90 vs doing literally any synced content where you want to go into Goring if I que for anything on PLD that isn't Expert Roulette. Screwing with muscle memory on that level is just beyond obnoxious. PLD's damage rotation is on par with many of the DPS Jobs now. While one can argue it isn't hard, per se, 1-2-3-1-2-4-5-5-5-1-2-3-1-2-4-5-5-1-2-3-6-7-7-7-7-8-8-8-8 then 1-2-4-5-5-5-1-2-3-1-2-4-5-5-1-2-3-6-7-7-7-7-8-8-8-8 for the rest of the fight (dropping off the initial Goring) as just the GCDs and ignoring oGCD weaves or mitigation oGCD weaves is hardly "simple". I would argue this is more complex than SMN, RDM, MCH, and possibly BRD and DNC (maybe some of the Melees, too, but I don't play Melees)

A tank with a rotation that is as involved as DPS Job rotations I don't consider simple. Tanks have additional duties and things they're responsible for, which is why they're supposed to have somewhat simpler rotations. And this is before getting into PLD's cursed opener and weird Skill Speed cutoffs that MIGHT make you use all Atonements or might leave you dropping 1 per cycle so your buffs continue to align, nor that weird early FoF opener that is highly counterintuitive.

WAR, by contrast, is about right for an "easy" tank. It's not one button spam like healers, has an upkeep buff, several CDs, and some stuff you want to not overcap while also pooling as is practicable for burst. GNB kind of hits the midpoint between the two while being rigid like PLD while DRK hits the midpoint being high APM burst and a bit more flexible.

Honestly, I think, in terms of rotation, all the Tanks right now are in a pretty good place as there's a wide appeal to different skill and combat style of players. Some people legitimately can't do high APM Jobs due to latency or mental/physical issues (e.g. carpel tunnel), and likewise long and involved or rigid rotations vs not. So right now we have a good spread across all four Tanks.

Contrast healers, where every one has basically an identical damage kit, and Tanks look fantastic by contrast.

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And as far as "DPS loss!" goes: The biggest DPS loss is a dead DPS Job. One Clemency is a DPS gain over a dead DPSer.

PLD playstyle is not complicated or harder than WAR in my opinion. Where as a WAR you need to keep attention to Storms eye timer, as a PLD you need to keep attention to Dots timers. Those are the only two things you really need to be careful about. The combos are basic and the weavings are easy.

One thing that is annoying about PLD magic phase is how Requiescat and Holy Spirit animations are so underwhelming. Theres no satisfaction when pressing those where as WAR burst feels impactful.

[Absurdity]

PLD playstyle is not complicated or harder than WAR in my opinion. Where as a WAR you need to keep attention to Storms eye timer, as a PLD you need to keep attention to Dots timers. Those are the only two things you really need to be careful about. The combos are basic and the weavings are easy.

One thing that is annoying about PLD magic phase is how Requiescat and Holy Spirit animations are so underwhelming. Theres no satisfaction when pressing those where as WAR burst feels impactful.

Paladin is by far the most complicated tank, that is however only the case when you try to optimize it because paladin's rotation has vastly more potential to be optimized around specific fights compared to every other tank.


If you only look at paladin's basic rotation it is incredibly simple, but you will also never reach the full potential of the job.

How? You really need to quantify this statement, because PLD has two raid mitigation abilities to the other tanks' one, a spammable targeted heal, and Cover (lol). I won't mention the nuances of Intervention, since each tank has a counterpart ability with its own nuances that make it better or worse than the others in certain situations.

Paladin does certain have some issues with it's mitigation, some have always been there and some are specific to this raid tier.
Sure, you have 2 party mitigation abilities but at the same time they are more restricted than every other tanks'.


-Passage of Arms can really only be used by triggering it for the quick 3 second mitigation, channeling it for the entire duration is too much of a dps loss even if you would be able to catch multiple aoes with it. On top of that you need to actually be able to have the entire party stacked up for the mechanic you want to mitigate which further limits it's flexibility.

-Divine Veil is good but the fact that it still requires a GCD heal to trigger the shield and doesn't apply to the paladin itself isn't great. Being able to trigger it with Holy Spirit is a double edged sword as well. While it allows you to apply the shield yourself during your magic damage phase at the same time it limits the flexibility of Veil because depending on the timing of your rotation and upcoming mechanics you can't make use of it's unique benefit, being able to cast it early but delay triggering the barrier for almost 30 seconds.

-In exchange for more party mitigation paladin lacks personal mitigation which is rather noticeable with how much tank damage there is this tier.

-Holy Shelltron suffers from unique restrictions despite not offering much more mitigation than the other tanks' equivalents. Because block doesn't work on damage over time effects, crits or while you're stunned it is significantly weaker in both DSR and the current raid tier.

That said warrior suffers from similar issues this tier.

-Thrill of Battle is currently quite terrible because the DoT strength of current tank busters is dependant on how much damage the initial hit does, since Thrill just increases your eHP but doesn't offer any additional mitigation it does literally nothing to reduce the bleed damage you're going to take.

-Holmgang suffers from the exact same problem. If you use it to solo shared busters for example you will survive the initial hit but take significant bleed damage without combining it with additional mitigation, somewhat defeating the whole point of using Holmgang in the first place.