What is the warrior job fantasy?

[-Magnai-]

In terms of fantasy, they are supposed to channel their inner beast (their rage) either into doing attacks (Fell Cleaves) or into defending others. In a real life context, you can think of it as having anger issues and finding positive ways to channel it, such as specific targets or protecting others.

The job certainly achieves that feeling if you get into it. Spamming Fell Cleave and doing as much Fell Cleave is a fun past time for many Warriors and it's still very much about that, except in one of the expansions they made a button that lets you spam Fell Cleaves instead of it all being about wrath stacks / gauge.

That they take that damage like an angry beast with abilities like Holm Gang or Thrill, but then heal it right back up. Whereas other tanks would actually mitigate it, such as PLD using Hallowed Ground/Sheltron/Bulwark/Passage plus PLD used to have a 40% mit instead of 30%, or DRK would have TBN for everything to prevent the damage in the first place.

But this kinda changed in Endwalker since now they have have a lot of mitigation and shield on Bloodwhetting (which is half as strong as TBN) and mitigation in general had a cooldown reduction over time (used to be less frequent, especially before 5.1).

Where it would often fall short is in a fight that needs constant heals that PLD can achieve with Clemency, because WAR's heals are limited to their cooldowns unlike Clemency which is unlimited if you can maintain MP. Or where mitigation could work better than heals. But again this has changed with Endwalker and there being more of a variety on Bloodwhetting. Their heal also only used to be this good if they used it on something like Inner Chaos or Fell Cleave, whereas now it's good on anything.

This! All of this~

[Pip_Chick]

What are supposed to be Warrior's defining characteristics?

I see WAR as a bloodthirsty barbarian. A cross between a Viking and a Mongolian warrior. Someone who will kill anything that stands in their way with brutal strength. Someone who would not put any emphasis on "fair fight" or "code of honours", if the adversary cheats, that means it's a challenge for their strength instead of a hindrance. Someone who would overemphasise their physical strength over literally anything else.

A pro would be: Killing machine
A con would be: Easily outsmarted/Not very smart

[Soge01]

Warrior: Offensive Tank - So long as it attacks, it reduces damage taken to self and heals self at the same time with a constant regen.

Paladin: Defensive Tank - Specializes in providing defensive spells and abilities to self and party members for near all situations in exchange for physical attacks being the weakest of all Tanks.

Dark Knight: Regen Tank - So long as it keeps attacking, it constantly heals itself and can provide regen spells and abilities for self and party members.

Gunbreaker: All Rounder Tank - Can switch between the three described above freely, but in exchange is not as strong/effective in anyone comparably.

This is just an example of how the devs should try to view not only Warrior, but all Tank jobs classes: Thinking up and sticking with a defining category that each tank uniquely represents and can perform that the others can't or at least not as well do.

[Denji]

fellcleavefellcleavefellcleavefellcleavefellcleaveFELLCLEAVE

CRIIIIIIIIIIIT

I miss the neurotransmitters you'd get for managing to sneak in a 5th fell cleave but I don't miss the carpal tunnel.

[TheOperator3712]

WAR's identity proper is being an HP sponge that builds up rage until they go berserk. Their self-healing comes from the euphoria of battle driving them onwards. In their current state, WAR's identity is haha fell cleave go burr.

[Denji]

WAR's identity proper is being an HP sponge that builds up rage until they go berserk. Their self-healing comes from the euphoria of battle driving them onwards. In their current state, WAR's identity is haha fell cleave go burr.

which, tbh, is pretty ideal imo. the class is pretty good and i have no major complaints. you feel, well, tanky. not much damage at first but the longer the fight goes on, the more damage you can put out until you're empty and then it just begins again. also fits into its story/canon as well.

[Renathras]

What are supposed to be Warrior's defining characteristics?
I see a lot of ''homogenisation bad'' talking points when it comes to tanks, so let's start with the developer's favourite tank; Warrior.

What are supposed to be Warrior's strengths and weaknesses? What sort of fights is it supposed to thrive in, and where should it fall short?

Mechanically or thematically?

Thematically, WAR's are SOMEWHAT untrained (compared to something like PLD), a bit more unga bunga where their training is more on basic but effective combat techniques and harnessing their inner beast/rage on the battlefield.

The playstyle is, in line with that, supposed to be fairly simple, direct, and too the point. Basic but effective.

The strengths are that it has a straightforward and slimmed down kit with straightforward, easy to use, and easy to understand abilities that largely just work. Few bells and whistles, "just the facts, ma'am" functionality. It's a unga bunga berserker, so it shouldn't have the lowest DPS of the Tanks (whoever said that, it makes no sense thematically), but it should be somewhat weaker in defenses and its healing should mostly be relegated to itself being "too angry to die".

In ARR, PLD was a more defensive Tank with a smooth damage profile while WAR was more a HP sponge with self-healing and HP inflation abilities. That is, PLD mitigated incoming damage where WAR just inflated its HP pool to eat it and then increased the HP restored so the healers could bring it back up so that, comparably, they'd need about as much attention from the healers to stay in shape.

.

I'm not sure why they decided to make WAR into the party healer. That's the part that's weird and makes no sense to me.

[Jeeqbit]

If we're gonna discuss all the tanks then...

WAR - Takes damage, but heals it right back up.
PLD - Raw, flat mitigation tank.
DRK - Magic shield/magic mit tank that absorbs damage into its powerful shield.
GNB - Jack of all trades, master of none. Although it has a regen.

But Endwalker blurred this a whole lot. PLD gets a regen on Sheltron and Divine Veil as well (which now applies to self), WAR gets a regen on Shake It Off and Equilibrium, as well as a magic shield on Bloodwhetting and more effortlessly strong heals, so now it is like all of them except DRK are a jack of all trades. GNB's changes at least were more in line with its idea of regens or responsive heals.

[vetch]

Warrior job fantasy is not having to deal with 20 oGCDs during burst in the 'deal with 20 oGCDs during burst' videogame.

In Watsonian terms I guess that would be 'slow, cumbersome, powerful hitter'.

[VerdeLuck]

According to devs, it seems it's supposed to thrive in every category because reasons.

Honestly, I'm okay with it being the easiest tank in the job to play, it gives it that unga-bunga feel that Warriors traditionally have. The falling short should be having the lowest dps of the tanks next to PLD, of course not to the point it isn't taken into high-end, but the lowest.

Obligatory nerf the hell out of Shake it Off, there shouldn't be any tank that heals the party this much. The eHP from the shield alone is sufficient.

I think, currently, the split between magic and physical damage negation is key if we want weaknesses and strong points.

DRK and GNB could provide magic defense, WAR and PLD could provide physical defense, for example. (Though...really it makes more sense for PLD to provide magical defense). Ideally this would only apply to party utility since issues would be ran into if, say, Vengeance only reduced physical damage.

oh god no please do not break up tanks into magic and physical tanks again, it would be DRK/GNB only in EX and above because those bosses do 90% magic attacks on raidwides and TBs