Do we even need potency bumps with expansion abilities?

[Melethron123]

Ehhh. That's a very simplified version of how Heavensward Warrior played.

The whole Wraith/Defiant stack system required you sacrifice defenses to feed into Fell Cleave. In other words, you actively needed to make a choice on using your defensive kit for offensive power with the inherent risk being whether that left you lacking CDs for potential busters. Early Stormblood Warrior dropped this in favor of a gauge system where IR simply cut the cost of your abilities in half. This meant it functioned similar to how Berserk does now. If you just activated IR without thinking, you could lose Fell Cleaves as you lacked enough gauge. Both are widely more complex in execution than present day Warrior. There were risk factors with huge drawbacks if you messed up. Compare that to now where the only consideration you give IR is whether you have Storm's Eye up.

except the cause of most wipes was not meeting DPS checks, so you'd pretty much always use fell cleave as soon as it was ready