Thread: The biggest problem with the warrior buffs in 2.1

My main gripe isn't the buffs they are receiving, it's gap and distinction between the two classes will be ever decreasing. I truly believe Square needs to bring back both classes to their roots.

The Paladin needs more emphasis on his shield, low level white magic(self sustaining cures and holy magic. We have the biggest MP pool of the DoW, why not use it?) and a small support role while the Warrior needs a bigger emphasis on damage, wrath and rage.

The Warrior seems to be getting changed on the right path, I just don't want square to repeat themselves with 1.3 and render the Paladin null. Am I the only one who feels this way?

The patch doesn't null Paladin in any way. It gives war the proper mitigation needed, while still having paladins be the go to guys for mitigation. If you read over the abilities the cast timers are normally shorter compared to that of a paladin. This will make War's more viable as a Main Tank, not the "supposed "Onry Offtank" while allowing paladins to stay at the same level. Paladins and Warriors complement each other nicely, so there won't be the only war Go To Tank.

Originally Posted by Rattleh3ad

The Warrior seems to be getting changed on the right path, I just don't want square to repeat themselves with 1.3 and render the Paladin null. Am I the only one who feels this way?

There is literally no reason to think the PLD will be null after these changes. I can see a WAR being the preferred MT due to the IB changes and how they mesh so perfectly with how boss mechanics work currently, but PLD will still be extremely viable. I add on "extremely" here to differentiate between the current situation where the WAR, despite being viable, offers little advantage to bring over a PLD.

These changes seem to be moving the tank classes to be in line with how the healers are, where-in both have some advantages over the other but most groups will want one of each. This is a good thing.

Originally Posted by Rattleh3ad

We have the biggest MP pool of the DoW, why not use it?

Whilst I'd love for PLD to get a few decent self-cures (crossclassed 'Cure I' is pathetic on PLD even with Conv up. Perhaps when the level cap finally rises we can get some kind of Cure II/Cure III!) and I'm interested to see if they'll do any job-balancing to our abilities in 2.1, we basically do already have a decent ~550-700 point "cure" in crossclassed Stoneskin.

Very few PLDs think to cast SS mid-fight, whenever it's basically an extra +10% HP on the GCD (though it takes 3 sec to cast rather than the GCD's 2.5!) that can be freely used anytime you have an appreciable hate lead.

SS can technically be interrupted whilst casting (though it is rare normal enemy hits will do this - it usually only happens when they perform specific abilities) but it saves Healers a fair bit of MP any time you can cast SS on yourself without losing aggro. Having a buffer that stacks on top of you maximum HP also reduces your ability to be one-shot, and stops you from being affected by many "special abilities" which apply additional effects in addition to damage (such as The Demon Wall's repel and ADS's Paralyses + Resistance Debuffs. These effects only kick in if they break Stoneskin - I NEVER get repelled by Demon Wall before the bees spawn!!). I'll regularly use SS whenever I'm fighting anything that follows a scripted rotation and maximum hate generation isn't an issue, like early-phase Titan, or Garuda, or the last boss of AK, or even ADS on Turn 2 whenever you're tank-swapped. Really, the decrease in enmity generation is the only reason I don't spam Stoneskin all-fight every-fight.

I don't see much of them melding together. They play completely different, and the changes they are making still makes it so.

PLD is really simple, you have 1 combo, 2 if you need MP and only because you spammed flash. Outside normal mechanics every tank ever will have to do I just stare at my PLD's cooldown bar and keep up a cooldown rotation, and even then only for hard stuff because block + shield oath mitigation is pretty potent already for most trash.

WAR is a lot more about combos, with 2 currently, and soon 3 viable combos to perform for mitigation, threat, and damage. Our cooldowns are garbage for the most part so I hardly ever look at that bar. However what we do do is work on keeping up stacks of wrath, keeping up maim and storm's eye, while managing threat. And soon to keep up other buff/debuffs too.

The play style is completely different I can't even see how they are losing distinction.