What WAR needs; compilation

[Quor]

It's common knowledge that Warrior needs some help. Not a lot mind you (imo) but there are some things that are rather lacking.

We've all heard the mitigation differences between PLD and WAR, so I won't tread on any of that well-worn ground. Suffice it to say, I've seen a lot of suggestions about what WAR needs to get on par with PLD, and I figured it was time to compile them.

First off, my personal suggestions.

1. Butcher's Block needs something else. If RoH reduces STR, I think BB should reduce INT. This way PLD debuffs physical damage and WAR debuffs magical damage.

2. Defiance works as it is for the most part, but the all-or-nothing of 5 stacks of Wrath hurts it. Change Wrath-using skills to scale based on the stacks of Wrath. I.e. IB would only require 1 stack of Wrath to use, but it would only heal you for 20% 60% of the damage dealt. Each stack would increase it by 60%, so you get the full 300% at 5 stacks (just like it is now). Steel Cyclone would add 20-100% extra threat, and Unchained could add 10-50% more healing for it's duration in addition to it's normal effect. Give Warriors more choice! As it stands now, the only choice we have is whether to IB or not IB, and that's decided by whether or not Infuriate is available.

Now, for the compilation of stuff we've all seen, from a variety of sources -

1. Making Defiance Better
It's not terrible as is, but it's needs something else besides just the raw HP. The most common thing I've seen floated is to provide some kind of damage reduction (10 or 20% seem to be the most commonly suggested numbers) on top of the current benefits.

Simple, easy to do, not terrible elegant (or Warrior-like) but it would get the job done. If we did this, I'd like to see 10% be the damage reduction, because we want to be put on par with PLD, not outclass them entirely.

2. Making Inner Beast Less Reactive
The most common idea floated here is to add some kind of shield component to Inner Beast. Whether it's replacing the heal with a shield that stacks (so it can be used proactively, and encourages Wrath usage) or else combining the heal with a shield effect (overheal adds a shield), Inner Beast needs something.

I'm partial to the heal + shield idea. It's fairly unique, doesn't change how IB works too much, and further differentiates WAR as the "meat" tank versus PLD as the "brick wall" tank.

3. Giving WAR's some actual defensive cooldowns
As far as defensive CD's go, WAR has Foresight and that's it. Bloodbath isn't a defensive CD so much as it is a means of sustaining during moments of tight healing (HM Garuda sisters for instance). The math is out there, and we all know Foresight sucks. It does what it's supposed to do, so it works in that sense, but the gain from it really isn't that much.

WAR needs something else. Whether it's to make Foresight worth more for us, or changing something we already have to also be defensive in nature, we need something. Bloodbath would be ideal for this, maybe adding a damage reduction component via the trait (in addition to the duration increase).

4. Giving WAR Some Utility
This ties into the BB suggestion I had earlier. PLD gets a silence off-gcd, a no-cd stun on the gcd, a blind, a silence off-gcd, and a strength debuff as a part of their main damage/aggro combo. That's a pretty nice suite to have for anyone.

WAR get's a single stun, off-gcd, with a 30s CD, and a slashing debuff that boosts the damage of WAR and PLD. WAR needs something else. The INT debuff added onto BB would be a great start for this, but more is needed imo. The best way to address this would likely be via MRD traits, such as adding some kind of extra debuff to Fracture in addition to the duration increase. Something like a -3% damage debuff, or a slow effect that only works on WS and spells but has no diminishing returns. Something unique that only WAR can bring but that isn't so strong as to be completely unbalancing.

[Prelat]

As far as defensive CD's go, WAR has Foresight and that's it.

???? Where is Featherfoot, Awareness and Convalescence?

[Quor]

???? Where is Featherfoot, Awareness and Convalescence?

I'm talking about strictly WAR stuff. Obviously you use those (or Internal Release or Second Wind in place of Awareness).

But they aren't WAR abilities. This thread is about WAR abilities. Specifically what can we add to the WAR class, that is unique to WAR, to help put them on the same level as PLD.

[Paikis]

1. I'd like to see Defiance be 25% more HP and 25% more health regained from all sources. Keep the damage buff on Wrath stacks, but make everything that uses Wrath stacks (Steel Cyclone, Inner Beast, Infuriate) based on the number of stacks you have. That way we can use 3 stacks for a heal if we need to, but only get 3/5th of the potency. I'd also like to see the damage reduction reduced to only 15%. Give us a real damage increase over using a Paladin.

2. Inner Beast is fine as is, although making it heal based on a % of your HP rather than your damage would be nice.

3. Agreed. Maybe make Foresight also grant 60% parry rate, similar to PLD's Bulwark would be nice.

4. I don't think we really NEED utility. God knows I'm glad I don't have to play stun-bitch anymore

[Ledarius]

4. I don't think we really NEED utility. God knows I'm glad I don't have to play stun-bitch anymore

If both Tanks were able to relatively fulfill the same role, what would be the deciding factor between the two? It's always going to come down to utility, whether you like it or not. Given that Warriors seem to be the "Bruiser" job, why don't we have more stuns/interrupts in our toolkit? If WARs swapped "Brutal Swing" for PLD's "Shield Bash", this would not only help our mitigation, but also improve our usefulness to the party.

I mean, would you really be satisfied with chaining the same combos and keeping yourself alive rather than helping out the party? If so, you may be playing the wrong game.

[OrganizationXIll]

If both Tanks were able to relatively fulfill the same role, what would be the deciding factor between the two? It's always going to come down to utility, whether you like it or not. Given that Warriors seem to be the "Bruiser" job, why don't we have more stuns/interrupts in our toolkit? If WARs swapped "Brutal Swing" for PLD's "Shield Bash", this would not only help our mitigation, but also improve our usefulness to the party.

I mean, would you really be satisfied with chaining the same combos and keeping yourself alive rather than helping out the party? If so, you may be playing the wrong game.

It isn't. It is a self sustaining tank. (Heal focused) I think steel cyclone was poorly implemented because as it is it is only a damaging ability and makes people focus on dealing damage.

[PessimiStick]

1. I'd like to see Defiance be 25% more HP and 25% more health regained from all sources. Keep the damage buff on Wrath stacks, but make everything that uses Wrath stacks (Steel Cyclone, Inner Beast, Infuriate) based on the number of stacks you have. That way we can use 3 stacks for a heal if we need to, but only get 3/5th of the potency. I'd also like to see the damage reduction reduced to only 15%. Give us a real damage increase over using a Paladin.

This single change would mostly bridge the gap in the two classes on its own. The only meaningful difference would be PLD cooldowns and Block vs. WAR damage and bursty self-heals, which might not be *completely* on-par, but would go a long way towards a level playing field. Give WAR cross-class Rampart and call it a day.

[Yagrush]

I think there's a design flaw on Defiance Warriors. SE made us scale our lifesteal from our damage, yet our tank stance nerfs our damage even more than Paladin's Shield Oath, thus hurting our life-steal mitigation. Sure, non-IB lifesteal is neglible right now anyway but, let's be honest, it shouldn't be, and Defiance's damage reduction doesn't make it any better.

[Kirth]

I'd like to see some synergy between PLD and WAR in a party so it promotes bringing both tanks to events. Things like buff to slashing damage are in line with that. I'd like to see WAR and PLD working side by side effectively so that they work well on their own, but even better when paired up.

[glen7187]

From what I've been reading in the forums, one of the most convincing arguments for me is the static vs dynamic mitigation. It seems most logical that the trouble WAR faces is that they can't scale their way of tanking against incoming damage like PLD can. I think all a WAR really needs is something that scales against incoming damage. Maybe some kind of CD buff that lets you take a percentage of incoming damage and heals you for that much. Or maybe each stack of Wrath gives you a percentage of incoming damage as a heal or something. That way, even if newer content comes out with bosses hitting harder and harder, WAR will still be able to dynamically handle it just as a PLD can.