Inner Beast Usage in Light of Recent Q&A

[CoryJason]

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...810-30-2013%29

The only reason I can think to use Inner Beast would be if you know that you aren't being healed because healers think you are in the safe zone (topped off-ish), and no special attacks or heavy hits are taking place (after a Hood Swipe or MB), maybe 75% or 85% max hp. Using Inner Beast as a cushion rather than an emergency heal. Coordinating with you healers to know your Inner Beast usage every fight. Of course, I think its still only worthwhile to use every minute in tandem with Infuriate, but maybe not considering how precious wrath is conveyed in the post.

It sounds like the devs felt that IB wasn't meant to be used as an emergency heal.

Maybe there's a delay in using IB + Infuriate combo for emergencies.

Maybe a bard sings to the warrior so he can spam Storm's. HA!

Just trying to think outside the box a bit.

[Hundred]

There's also the matter of Wrath and the use of Inner Beast. I believe that a lot of players are using Inner Beast to self-cure when taking a large amount of damage, but after becoming infuriated with five stacks of Wrath, players receive a 15% curing bonus, so instead of using Inner Beast right after taking heavy damage, I think it would be better to wait for heals from a white mage or scholar.

Well he says it right there bro. Wait for heal after taking heavy damage. If you *can not* wait (im going to die if I dont heal right now) then throw in your IB. You gain more health from Cure on 1.15 healing followed IB, then IB followed by cure on 1x modifier.

[CoryJason]

Well he says it right there bro. Wait for heal after taking heavy damage. If you *can not* wait (im going to die if I dont heal right now) then throw in your IB. You gain more health from Cure on 1.15 healing followed IB, then IB followed by cure on 1x modifier.

I'm under the impression that the devs believe that if you have to use inner beast because you have 100 hp left, it means your healers aren't reacting quickly enough. Healers get too used to healing paladins but don't realize they have to press their buttons a bit more frequently to get the full advantage of 15% healing extra healing.

[Eardstapa]

The problem is, even when YOU know fight mechanics, your healers may not. So maybe you know Ifrit Hard Mode for example, he will use Hellfire and then Incinerate one right after the other, followed by an auto attack that CAN kill you if your healers are too focused on healing others up from Hellfire. So what will you do in that situation where you are not getting immediate healing? Hold on for a 1.15x Heal, or use IB to buffer yourself and use Infuriate/Convalescence? Really, when you know your healers will be distracted, you CAN use Convalescence, IB, Infuriate, IB and build up 5 Wrath again all while keeping the healing bonus of Convalescence... So there truly is no reason to pray to God your healers are on point when you can make sure YOU live if you know the mechanics where your Healers don't know how to play with WAR or know the mechanic themselves.

[Quor]

The problem is, even when YOU know fight mechanics, your healers may not. So maybe you know Ifrit Hard Mode for example, he will use Hellfire and then Incinerate one right after the other, followed by an auto attack that CAN kill you if your healers are too focused on healing others up from Hellfire. So what will you do in that situation where you are not getting immediate healing? Hold on for a 1.15x Heal, or use IB to buffer yourself and use Infuriate/Convalescence? Really, when you know your healers will be distracted, you CAN use Convalescence, IB, Infuriate, IB and build up 5 Wrath again all while keeping the healing bonus of Convalescence... So there truly is no reason to pray to God your healers are on point when you can make sure YOU live if you know the mechanics where your Healers don't know how to play with WAR or know the mechanic themselves.

True, but I think the issue being addressed is when all that's not enough.

Case in point, as a fairly well-geared WAR, Mountain Buster will hit me, without any debuffs on Titan or buffs on me (aside from Protect) for about 4700-4900 damage. That's nearly 2/3 of my max life while in a party with Defiance up (7495).

Now, if everything is up and Titan has SE debuff on him, I can pop Foresight to drop that damage down to about 4300, and then I can hit Berserk and Internal Release, and if IB crits I'll get a heal for ~2400, and then I can Infuriate and do it again for another 1500-2400. And that will cover for most or all of the damage MB does, with extra to spare if both crit. But I can't do that every time he uses MB. I can do that maybe every 3-4 MB's. As a WAR, I need my healers to be on top of things. I need my DPS caster's to have a Virus rotation going. I need the WHM to be casting Stoneskin on me because it's going to absorb over a quarter of the baseline MB damage.

Meanwhile, a PLD would pop Rampart. MAYBE Conv if he needed it. And he'll still have cooldowns for the upcoming MB's that he can rotate through. This is the main issue with WAR that is (hopefully) going to be addressed in 2.1. PLD has more ability to "take care of themselves" compared to WAR. Thus, healers don't have to look after PLD as closely as they do WAR. This gives the good healers time to do other productive stuff, and let's the bad healers get away with being a bit lazier.

[CurlyBruce]

I'm under the impression that the devs believe that if you have to use inner beast because you have 100 hp left, it means your healers aren't reacting quickly enough. Healers get too used to healing paladins but don't realize they have to press their buttons a bit more frequently to get the full advantage of 15% healing extra healing.

You do realize that PLDs have an innate 25% healing boost from Shield Oath due to the 25% effective HP boost from -20% damage taken right? Before you even look at PLDs abilities, Shield Oath is just plain better than Defiance. Defiance needs to be a 25% healing boost and not be tied to Wrath. Let's start from there so we can at least have WAR and PLD on equal ground and then we can work on retuning our active cooldowns.