A simple tanking guide for Warriors

[Cieren]

I decided to start a thread about tips for warriors. I love warriors for the sole reason of being able to wield a bigass axe and for their AF set being awesome looking.

Mind my english as I'm not native to it.

I've spent from 15-50 only in dungeons and as well for my other classes. All the experience I had that I will post in here is in a dungeon minded way. And I must tell those aspiring warriors, FATEs will grant you little to no tanking experience.
I've only done FATEs when they were in the way of something I was doing and they happened to pop there. But pretty much my entire game life in FFXIV was inside dungeons.

Critique is very welcome to improve the guide.



-First Things to Consider

Main Stat and Gear
VIT. VIT. VIT. VIT. ALL points into VIT. Don't waste your points into STR as you want to get all the possible HP you can, specially as a warrior. Your trait is a huge hint for what main stat you should go for. You have to survive hits, not deal more damage, enmity is never a problem for a WAR. And I'm aware of the parry mitigation bonus STR could give you, but it's so little it's not even worth losing the HP you could get with 30 VIT points. You can replenish that through your gear stats and materia melding. But your main stat is VIT.

And you also want to gear yourself properly, because what's a tank without their armor? On my runs as a DD/healer I've seen a lot of tanks with their equipment nowhere near updated (this also goes to GLD and PLD). As a tank, you should gear yourself with main VIT, STR and parry in your gear. Crit is also pretty good for WAR but it's optional. Determination is okayish, but I would favor crits over determination.

For those between 15-20, the low level dungeons are your best friends for gear. Sastasha, Tam-Tara, Copperbell Mines and Halatali. Running those will for sure help you gearing yourself the best for the next dungeons and as well grant you tanking experience that I will explain later.


Weapon
Your weapon is the key. Without keeping your weapon updated you won't be able to hold enmity from other people without having a lot of trouble. YOUR WEAPON PLAYS A HUGE ROLE FOR TANKS! Always, always try to find a new weapon, even if it's a white item. If it's better than what you have right now, then get it, no question.


Cross-Class Skills (WAR)
Get GLD to 22 for Provoke. That's the first thing you should do. Work on that before you can start on the other stuff.

From GLD: you'll want Flash, Convalescence, Provoke and Awareness.

From PGL: Second Wind, if you don't have Mantra. Internal Release and Featherfoot, they can be swapped between themselves depending on the situation you're facing. Being Internal Release more focused on the damage if you have trouble keeping enmity or need to help the party to kill stuff (ie. Demon Wall).



-Basics for New Tanks

The UI
Most of you just fresh starting off as a tank might not be aware of all the useful tools in your UI. First off being the enmity table in your party.



The more that bar fills up it means how much enmity that person has. Being the one with the bar filled holding enmity from everybody else. The enemy list is also a big hint.



Green means that the target has no enmity towards you, orange being almost switching aggro to you and red meaning you have the aggro on that target. A kindly reminder that if anything in the enemy list is not red, it's very likely that somebody in your party is getting attacked by it.


Markings
This is a MUST for every tank. Marking your targets makes everything much much easier for DDs that can't tell which target you're attacking. And it's also a great tool for those who can cast Sleep or Repose.
To make it simple, marking your targets will let your party know what to attack first and also what to Sleep/Repose. It lets the healer in your party feel more safe to attack as they don't have to heal you so often.

Hotkey those marking for easy access because you'll be using that a LOT.

What you usually want to mark as a first target are mobs who can do AOEs. Those are the most annoying, killing them first is a priority.


Arrow Pointers and Target Circles
Whenever you walk up to a mob, you'll always see a bunch of arrows pointing to you. That means you're their first sight target. BUT. That doesn't mean you're currently holding their enmity. For example if the healer casts Cure on you right when you walk up to them, it's a 100% chance they will switch target to your healer instead.
Arrow pointers are a great way to tell when the mob switches targets as they will point towards one your party members when you lose enmity.



As for target circles, it's always important to keep the mob still. Do NOT spin around. That's a PGL/MNK and LNC/DRG nightmare. Always keep your target in ONE place, only dodging AOEs, but you have to return to the same spot immediately so it doesn't mess up with those classes and jobs I just mentioned. Pull, position yourself so every monster is in one spot hitting you and tank away!
Their damage depends a lot on positioning, so if you spin around or run too much, you'll end up making their damage suck. And I mean it.

Always keep the mob facing a wall or just away from the party to avoid extra damage. Having the back and sides of the mob exposed is a huge help for them.




Removing Buffs
Sometimes you'll want to remove certain buffs off from your character like Regen before pulling something. Regen generates enmity towards your healer everytime it ticks, so if you still have that buff on you when you're going to pull, it's wise to remove it and also tell your healer about it.
On gamepad: Press select button until it switches to your buff icons and simply press A/X
On keyboard/mouse: Simply right click the buff icon.

This also works for people who want to remove The Echo buff during single-player instance and want to save the challenge.



-Playing the Tank

Class Quests
First off, keep your class quest updated. At level 30 you get the WAR unlocking quest, but you have to complete all the previous quests first in order to get that one. But first things first, Having that level 15 class quest is a must if you want to start running dungeons as I will explain why.

Explaining skills and rotation
When you've already got most of your cross-class abilities, it's time to polish those skills as a tank.

Defiance
This buff should always be used when tanking. It grants you more HP (25%) but also lowers your damage (25%). The damage lowered is not an issue. The sweet thing about this buff is that it increases the enmity generated by your combos and you'll have wrath stacks everytime you use them, making healing easy on you.
However, having wrath stacks will not increase the amount healed by self-healing abilities but only by curing magic.

Tomahawk and Provoke
Your pulls skills. Provoke has more range than Tomahawk, but it should not be used so often unless the mob is around another and you only want to pull that certain one. But that's not the only use to Provoke. Be very aware of your surroudings. A single pull could lead to getting your whole party wiped. Always watch out for patrols and learn your way into the dungeon. Tomahawk first, if you can't use it due to range, then Provoke.
One more thing to note about pulling monsters. If a mob is ranged, always hide behind walls to make them walk towards you. That will happen because the mob requires line of sight to attack you. So, before pulling a ranged mob, tell your party members about it and then proceed to pull and hide behind a wall.

Provoke should be used if you died and you have to get all that enmity back from your party members. ie: You died and your healer's enmity bar is now full. Provoke then use Tomahawk if target is running away from you or Heavy Swing if it's standing still. To get really far ahead on enmity: ready up your Butcher's Block combo, Provoke and then Butcher's Block.


Flash and Overpower
Flash is your main AOE enmity generator, if targets are being slept then that's even more reason to use Flash. If there's no THM/BLM or WHM to sleep your targets, you're free to use Overpower. I would only use Overpower if I run out of MP though. Keep in mind that Overpower is very position based. You'll most likely have to run away from the mob a little to get them all together in one spot to be able to Overpower them in a single hit.

My pull rotation with Flash:
Mark
Tomahawk/Provoke mark #1
Flash twice
Butcher's Block combo #1 until ahead of enmity then on everything else if they're not put to sleep.

Heavy Swing, Skull Sunder and Butcher's Block
This is your enmity combo. It's what you should be using during the fight to keep the most enmity on you and protect your party members. As a tank, you have to keep an eye on everybody. Try to cycle through your targets to check if you're ahead on enmity, hit every single monster with this combo(if no Sleep/Repose) and everyone will be safe for sure.


Maim and Storm's Path/Storm's Eye
Heavy Swing comboed with Maim is your damage buff (20% more damage) and with Storm's Eye grants a debuff to the target, lowering their slash resist. (10%) and HP recovery via cure magic (50%). Switching Storm's Eye for Storm's Path is a self-recovery attack (50% of the damage converted into heals). You'll probably find more use to Eye, since it grants the slash resist. debuff, your attacks will be stronger and help you to generate more enmity. But only use it when you're far ahead on enmity over your party.


Berserk, Unchained, Infuriate and Internal Release
Berserk is GREAT, really really great. But it can also make things chaotic if the timing is bad. This skill will increase your attack power (50%) but after the effect is gone, it will put on you a debuff named Pacification which will prevent you from using skills for 5 seconds.

A good way to use Berserk is if you use Maim combo first for the damage buff, Storm's Eye for the slash resist. debuff, Internal Release for the crits, Unchained to nullify the penalty given by Defiance, Infuriate to get your Wrath stacks back and then Berserk.
There you go, you're a wall of pure devastation. Nobody will ever steal aggro from you if you pop all of them correctly. It's a great strategy for Demon Wall as well.


Mercy Stroke
It's awesome if you time it correctly. I can barely time it myself as things tend to die so fast. You can only use this skill when the target's HP is down to 20% and if timed correctly for the killing blow, it will heal you 20% of your MAX HP. It's mostly a DPS increase if you can't get the killing blow. It ends up being a win-win anyways.


Brutal Swing and Holmgang
Brutal Swing is your stun ability, it lasts for 5 seconds if you have the LVL 32 trait. It's off the global cool-down and you can use it every 30 seconds.

Holmgang binds your target to wherever it's standing for 6 seconds. A very effective way to use Holmgang is to stun your target first, move behind it away enough that it can't hit you, wait about 2-3 seconds and use Holmgang. Your target will stand still there not being able to hit you since it can't move to face you again. If everything is timed correctly, you have a helpless mob for 11 seconds.

Foresight, Thrill of Battle, Covalescence, Bloodbath, Second Wind, Vengeance, Inner Beast and Awareness
Your "Oh shit" abilities. Yeah, WAR is broken right now when it comes to cool-downs. Unlike PLD, we take full damage on anything. We're mostly for add control and we do it very good.
Though, to make it up a little it all requires a bit of technique. One time I've saved my entire party from wiping because I healed myself from almost death. Just enough time for my healer to get back at me since they were busy with other party members. Inner Beast has to be used very carefully as using it makes you get rid of all your wrath stacks. Though if you already have Infuriate you can use Inner Beast one time and have Infuriate get all your stacks up.
It's safe to use Inner Beast on easy content if your healer knows that you'll be using it. It all depends on how fast you're taking damage. If things hit you hard then it's better to keep your wrath stacks.

You gotta know when to pop those skills really. Probably good to have a macro with a set of them. Covalescence is always good to pop when your health is down to 50%. Bloodbath+Vengeance is the best way to combine those two. You get HP while getting hit. Second Wind(or Mantra)+Thrill of Battle for self-heals besides Inner Beast. Foresight+Awareness for a bit of reduced damage.

A thing to note, Mantra and Covalescence will not affect your self-healing abilities. It doesn't matter if you use Second Wind with Covalescence on. It won't increase the amount healed. Manta/Covalescence will only affect healing made by other people on you.


Steel Cyclone
It's very helpful on battles that have a lot of adds that can die quickly. Get the Maim damage buff, pop Berserk and Internal release and you'll be able to do good damage with it.
Don't use it unless it's really needed. Always save your wrath stacks unless you already have Infuriate.


Fracture
Pretty much the only DoT WAR gets. It's mostly a DPS increase, Fracture won't increase your enmity over the time it ticks for damage. Good to use when you're already far ahead on enmity. You can pop your buffs to try to land a crit Fracture for the most damage you could get.


That's it, my take on all the skills. I hope this guide can be helpful to anyone out there. I appreciate feedback to make it even better.

[Venruki]

To the top~ Every tank should learn/know this stuff.

[Murakami]

Thanks for this guide, very useful!