⚔️ Warrior Job Class Suggestions for Improvement (Patch 7.2 and Beyond)

[Nilsandres]

Warrior Job Critique – Final Fantasy XIV (Patch 7.2)

Summary:
Warrior (WAR) continues to dominate as the most self-sufficient and beginner-friendly tank in Final Fantasy XIV. Its identity as a relentless berserker is well-preserved, but the job's simplicity has begun to border on stagnation.

Strengths:

• Unmatched self-sustain: Bloodwhetting, Nascent Flash, and Equilibrium make Warrior nearly unkillable in many scenarios, easing healer pressure.
• Simple, powerful rotation: A clear, easy-to-execute burst window with Inner Release and Fell Cleave/Decimate ensures consistent damage.
• Best-in-class dungeon tank: High AoE damage and sustainability make Warrior the top choice for 4-man content.

Weaknesses:

• Stale burst window: The Inner Release window has barely changed since Stormblood, making the rotation feel repetitive over time.
• Underwhelming gauge interaction: The Beast Gauge functions more as a limiter than a meaningful resource system.
• Limited raid utility: Outside Shake It Off and niche uses of Nascent Flash, Warrior brings little raid-wide support compared to Paladin or Dark Knight.

Suggested Improvements:

1. Refresh Inner Release Window:

• Add a new Beast Gauge spender during Inner Release (e.g., Titanic Rupture – a line AoE cleave with bonus crits).
• Give Inner Release a secondary trait at higher levels: while active, each Beast Gauge spender buffs the next with bonus potency or utility (e.g., healing, DoT, or DR).

2. Rework Onslaught:

• Making it cost no gauge during Inner Release (to encourage strategic movement/DPS weaving) that applies a minor debuff or self-buff (e.g., "Increases next Fell Cleave potency by 20%").

3. Revamp the Beast Gauge:

• Introduce a passive trait that generates additional gauge when Warrior mitigates damage while Defiance is active.
• Create a new combo finisher (e.g., Mammoth Slam) that uses 50 Beast Gauge and does bonus damage based on missing HP (encouraging risk-reward play).

4. Shake It Off Evolution:

• At higher levels, allow Shake It Off to grant a 10s regen effect to party members or an additional short magic vuln down debuff to enemies hit.
• Tie it to the Beast Gauge: the more gauge you spend before activation, the more powerful the shield (rewarding active play).

Conclusion:
Warrior in 7.2 remains a tank powerhouse defined by comfort and resilience. Its simplicity makes it approachable, but also causes it to lag in complexity and raid value. A refresh of its gauge system, more variety in its burst phase, and added utility scaling would go a long way in maintaining its identity while giving veteran players new tools to master. Warrior should always feel like an unstoppable force — but with just enough nuance to make every swing matter.

[Mikey_R]

Suggested Improvements:

1. Refresh Inner Release Window:

• Add a new Beast Gauge spender during Inner Release (e.g., Titanic Rupture – a line AoE cleave with bonus crits).
• Give Inner Release a secondary trait at higher levels: while active, each Beast Gauge spender buffs the next with bonus potency or utility (e.g., healing, DoT, or DR).

SE did mention they could have changed the visuals of Fell CLeave for DT, but they felt the Fell Cleave spam was so ingrained into the identity of Warrior, they didn't want to take it away.
Which doesn't change how you use it, so I guess it is just flavour.

2. Rework Onslaught:

• Making it cost no gauge during Inner Release (to encourage strategic movement/DPS weaving) that applies a minor debuff or self-buff (e.g., "Increases next Fell Cleave potency by 20%").

Onslaught already costs no gauge and by making it buff Fell Cleave you will relegate it to the 2 minute burst window where you buff each Fell Cleave in Inner Release and 1 in the odd minute to, again, buff a Fell Cleave. You will lose all pretense of it being a gap closer as the damage loss would be too great.

3. Revamp the Beast Gauge:

• Introduce a passive trait that generates additional gauge when Warrior mitigates damage while Defiance is active.
• Create a new combo finisher (e.g., Mammoth Slam) that uses 50 Beast Gauge and does bonus damage based on missing HP (encouraging risk-reward play).

You have turned every defensive Warrior has into an offensive tool and made Warrior the best one to tank the boss. This is the very scenario SE wants to avoid.
Mammoth Slam would be competing with Fell Cleave for that 50 gauge and Inner Chaos if you use Infuriate. Risk-reward gameplay is not a good model when it is someone else you have to rely on to survive. Guarantee Fell Cleave would be the default, just for the consistency.

4. Shake It Off Evolution:

• At higher levels, allow Shake It Off to grant a 10s regen effect to party members or an additional short magic vuln down debuff to enemies hit.
• Tie it to the Beast Gauge: the more gauge you spend before activation, the more powerful the shield (rewarding active play).

Shake it off already has a regen and it is 15 seconds long, even better than you wanted /sarcasm. Seriously, this is the second topic I looked at and so far that is 2/2 for suggestions that are already in the game. Also, you have relegated Shake it Off to the 2 minute window.
That is the stupidest thing I have seen and no, I'm not going to sugar coat it. Ignoring the magic vuln you want to add to it, you cannot control when you want to use Shake it Off, it will be used for Raid Wides, so you have no control over how much gauge you have and subsequently, how strong it is, however, on top of that, you completely destroy Warrior's gauge and any offence that you get out of it. Stupid suggestion.

Conclusion:
Warrior in 7.2 remains a tank powerhouse defined by comfort and resilience. Its simplicity makes it approachable, but also causes it to lag in complexity and raid value. A refresh of its gauge system, more variety in its burst phase, and added utility scaling would go a long way in maintaining its identity while giving veteran players new tools to master. Warrior should always feel like an unstoppable force — but with just enough nuance to make every swing matter.

Conclusion, put some thought into your suggestions. I dread to think what the other 2 are going to be like.

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

All four of his tank threads are frankly written like ChatGPT AI slop. Whatever shreds of interesting things it may have its mixed with an onslaught of inaccurate information and design ideas that would clash greatly with FFXIV unless the entire combat design document was flipped on its head.

[Carighan]

All four of his tank threads are frankly written like ChatGPT AI slop. Whatever shreds of interesting things it may have its mixed with an onslaught of inaccurate information and design ideas that would clash greatly with FFXIV unless the entire combat design document was flipped on its head.

The em-dashes and the specific wording with conclusion and all kinda gives it away, yeah. Plus it explains the litany of factual errors in these four threads.

[Nilsandres]

I did not realize that a command of the english language make me an AI, but thanks. Try actaully giving your own thoughts or leaving anything them could be deemed as constructive criticism.

[Nilsandres]

I'll say this again. I did not use AI to compile my thoughts. I'll grant they would seem random to someone who believes the FFXIV is just fine the way that it is. I happen to not be on that opinion. I have always hated the move of job classes towards homogeniety and I would very much enjoy a return of jobs to having distinct identities within their subclass. I feel just as passionately about the imbecile play level of all healing jobs, the lack of multiple DoT skills across DPS jobs, the total evisceration of the identity of Summoner from being a pet class, the inclusion of limited jobs like Blue Mage and Beast master (both of which should have been developed as new jobs in the full game), etc.

[Brandr]

Well, if you insist that you didn't use AI to write your text, then stop formatting your text the same method as an AI would.

[StarlessSky]

I did not realize that a command of the english language make me an AI, but thanks. Try actaully giving your own thoughts or leaving anything them could be deemed as constructive criticism.

I don't know why you keep denying this—though I'll grant I'm not sure why you'd make the original AI posts either given it's not as if these forums have karma to farm. Your replies are written in a completely different style that contains odd turns of phrase and frequent typos. And as many others have pointed out, the suggestions you make are themselves nonsensical in several cases, with references to abilities that have been long removed from the game and changes that are at cross-purposes with themselves. In what world does it make sense to turn DRK, which already has the most mit of any job in the game, into the only tank without an invuln so it can gain *another* 20% DR cooldown? In this very thread, you suggest making Onslaught cost no gauge (which it hasn't baseline since 6.0!) during IR to make it usable for movement or something, only to then also say it should give a damage buff... meaning if you use it for movement when you weren't already going to use it for damage anyway, it's a DPS loss. What?

If this really is some big misunderstanding as you say, it would help for your posts to read like you'd played the game first.