Rotations: Making them DIFFERENT

[Renathras]

Maybe I'm being excessively technical but I don't really feel like this is true. The burst is a different shape (at 50 it's a DPS gain to put your third combo hit under Berserk instead of a third Inner Beast), you don't have your 'lol just burst whenever buffs go up' Inner Release button so you actually have to build to spend with your builder-spender, and the mitigation is far and away the *worst* of any tank's.

PLD is still the god of 50 MINE raid tanking (same as it ever was) but DRK and GNB are respectable too, with DRK lately getting an invuln that's tricky to maximize but excellent and GNB having extra mits and heals. Meanwhile WAR has less mits than every other tank and its "invuln" is extremely underpowered due to the empty healer kits. Sure, the WHM can Bene it at the last second or the AST can Synastry spam it, but, er, they can also just do that to any other, better tank. Oh, but WAR gets to pop Thrill of Battle for a Hi-Potion's worth of eHP. Yay.

Note that I'm not talking about MINE.

I'm talking about people leveling a Job for the first time learning how to play it.

WAR has all of its basic abilities by level 50 in terms of its main rotation and basic mechanics. It has both Storm's Eye and Storm's Path, and thus has the Surging Tempest upkeep buff established. Likewise Overpower and Mythril Tempest for AOE. It has Inner Beast as a low level Fell Cleave that works identically to Fell Cleave. It only lacks its oGCDs and Primal Rend, mechanically, and the pooling Beast Gauge is a bit more wonky, but is also a high end optimizing technique, not a basic "learn the rotation" staple.

In terms of its defensive toolkit, the only thing it's missing (though this isn't insignificant, don't get me wrong) is Raw Intuition/Bloodwhetting, Nascent Flash, and Shake. Inner Chaos and Chaotic Cyclone are functionally reskins of their non-Chaos versions, and Orogeny/Upheval are use on CD oGCDs. I suppose so is Onslaught (well, use on burst, rather).

Point is, the basic mechanics of the Job in a general rotational sense - 1-2-3, -4 to upkeep buff; build gauge, spend gauge; burst phase every 1 min - are all established by level 50.

CONTRAST PLD. PLD doesn't even have a self-heal by level 50. It doesn't get that until a trait at level 84 for Holy Spirit/Circle, abilities it doesn't get until levels 64 and 72, respectively. It doesn't have Requiescat until 68, Atonement until 76, Confetior until 80, or Swords combo until 90. Each of these things completely alters its base rotation. Level 64 is the first time it can be said to have something resembling it's level 90 filler rotation, though not really until 76 with Atonement, and it doesn't have any rotational upkeep/self-healing until 84, having to rely on Clemency (58) for that. It gets Divine Veil first (56).

Granted, this isn't as bad as before 6.3, but it's still pretty bad.

If we're talking about "someone progressing the story", MINE isn't really the conversation.

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Though I will agree with you that raids were designed differently back then. Something I wish more people did realize these days.