Warrior Tanking

[Paikis]

When I am at 5 Wrath Stacks,,

Bloodbath - Berserk - Unchained - Infuriate

My Bloodbath and Berserk are macrod in this manner:
/ac Bloodbath
/wait 0.5 (still lost on whether or not we can do half seconds, but worse case scenario, it get rounded up to 1)
/ac Berserk

ill sit on 5 Stacks for the crit bonus until Bloodbath has ran out. If im in a big mob, ill use Steel Cyclone for that nice AoE damage and healing.

Always use Unchained before Berserk unless you are using Berserk to give you the 5th Wrath stack. Berserk first will see you potentially waste a GCD of Unchained while Pacified. I also wouldn't blow Infuriate just for a few percent of extra crit hit chance. Save it for an extra Wrath spender.

Also just to note, I added/changed the section on Rotations and Pulling, does anyone have anything they'd like to add to this section? Any feedback would be great! I imagine most of it will center around the AoE pulling, as I've found most people do it differently.

[Giantbane]

I'm not a big fan of macros for my abilities.

Macroing Combo Abilities:
My understanding is that triggered combo abilities are queue'd up on the server as long as you press them near the end of their cooldown. However, when in a macro they don't benefit from this. In my own experience, I have found this to be true. I used to have heavy swing macro'd, when I switched to using just heavy swing (no macro), there was a noticeable increase in the rate in which I burned TP. The result is that all your combo abilities are delayed by a fraction of a second when you include them in macros. That may not sound like much for a single swing, but it will add up very quickly over the course of a fight.

Macroing Buffs Together:
I don't like this either. I do not know if buffs can utilize the same "queue'd" functionality (since they delay till the end of an animation instead of waiting for the GCD), but I have found macros with multiple abilities to be somewhat unreliable in their order of execution. For instance, I had an offensive macro:

/Berserk
/Internal Release
/Second Wind

Where I would want berserk first, internal release next and then while both buffs are active try to find a useful point to use second wind. However, when used too close to the end of an animation (particularly with some lag), it would sometimes execute out of order, sometimes second wind going first (when I don't need it). This was much worse when in a party with a SCH and the Selene skill speed buff was active.

When I bit the bullet and pulled all of my grouped abilites out of macros, there was an adjustment period, but I find that I am now much more responsive with my abilities so they are used when I intend them and I can better time them so they will be most effective.

[juniglee]

Thanks for this! I'm getting into Warrior tanking, and all the different combos are pretty overwhelming for a new player to try and incorporate into their rotations. Will be keeping a close eye on this one.

[The_Funeral]

The guide is great but it doesn't go over certain things like that awkward moment when your experincing pacification or when your migrating more damage than you can self heal for

[Paikis]

The guide is great but it doesn't go over certain things like that awkward moment when your experincing pacification or when your migrating more damage than you can self heal for

Pacification should be filled with either Flash, or waiting. You should be able to generate enough threat during Berserk that losing 2 GCDs should be no problem. If you know there are about to be spawns that you will have to pick up, using Berserk is not something you should be doing. I might add a section on berserk usage if enough people think it would be worth it, but honestly it's fairly straight forward.

[SpookyGhost]

Also, if the mob happens to be immune to stun, use Brutal Swing during pacification. Tiny bit of extra damage, but at least you're doing something besides auto attacking.

[Giantbane]

Also, if the mob happens to be immune to stun, use Brutal Swing during pacification. Tiny bit of extra damage, but at least you're doing something besides auto attacking.

If the enemy is immune to stun, Brutal Swing should be used every time it's off cooldown for extra damage. It's not on the GCD so it doesn't prevent you from doing something else.

The only GCD ability you can execute during pacification is flash.

[bokchoykn]

I agree. However I know a lot of people have trouble remembering to use foresight while keeping their rotation going. It is probably better for them to get used on cooldown no matter what than to not get used at all because the WAR does have a lot going on just maintaining their rotations.

In many fights, particularly Extreme Primals, the Warrior spends a lot of time NOT tanking.Your proposed macros would blow your defensive cooldowns during periods where you aren't even being attacked.

I realize that this guide is for Warrior basics and aimed towards novice players, but I don't think any guide should encourage macro shortcuts as a substitute for proper management of cooldowns and skillful play. Guides should encourage proper play, not lazy shortcuts. Warriors should learn how to weave off-GCD cooldowns between their weapon skills and manually activate abilities that fit the situation and not glue abilities together for convenience.

Warriors reading this guide: Every ability should be on its own spot on your hotbar, not glued together with macros. Manually activate each ability appropriately to each situation.

[SpookyGhost]

If the enemy is immune to stun, Brutal Swing should be used every time it's off cooldown for extra damage. It's not on the GCD so it doesn't prevent you from doing something else.

The only GCD ability you can execute during pacification is flash.

Yes... but if Brutual Swing happens to be coming off cooldown while you're pacified... I was pointing out that you can... you know... use... it...

[bokchoykn]

Pulling - Multiple Targets

A point I totally disagree on is your use of Flash and your methodology for handling AoE aggro.

• When it comes to enmity-per-GCD, Overpower vastly outperforms Flash. If your aim is to gain maximum snap-enmity when establishing aggro multiple mobs, Overpower is always the superior choice. That early aggro is critical, and you want to seal it with Overpower as soon as possible.
  
• Overpower also has many other benefits that Flash doesn't. It actually deals damage, it scales with gear, it can crit and it benefits from Maim, Unchained, Berserk, Internal Release. Each time you use Flash over Overpower, you're missing out on significant AoE damage.
  
• One benefit Flash has over Overpower is that it's omnidirectional and will hit multiple mobs in situations where Overpower may not. However, Warriors have another ability that is omnidirectional: Steel Cyclone. It has the same range as Flash, generates way more enmity, it actually deals damage and benefits from Maim/Berserk/Internal Release.
  
• The only time you'd want to use Flash is to start the pull in situations where mobs are too spread out for Overpower and you want to spend the Infuriate/ Wrath stacks on something other than Steel Cyclone, such as Inner Beast or Unchained. I find these situations to be rare, but WP Speed Runs and Turn 4 are such examples where you want that Inner Beast for the damage reduction instead of using Steel Cyclone.
  
• If you must start with Flash, you only need to cast it once. Get that initial aggro, take a couple steps in any direction to gather the mobs a bit, and start Overpowering.
  
• Aside from that, the only time you want to use Flash is if you need to hold multiple mobs and you really need to conserve TP. The only situations that fits this description for me is the fourth phase in Turn 4 (Rooks + Spiders). In any case, you still want at least a 2-3 Overpowers here.

Anyway, the only encounters where I spend Flash on one of my cross-class skills is for:
-4-man dungeons
-Garuda EX (for rare situation where I need to take back the Spiny without using Provoke and without causing damage to the Spiny)
-Coil Turn 4.

For everything else in the game, I don't bother cross-classing Flash. In light of the upgrades to Overpower (animation speed & enmity) it's not nearly as necessary as this guide implies.