Making WAR More Diverse/Fun Again

[NefGP]

So, as most of us Legacy players will recall, WAR was a hell of a lot more fun in 1.23 and this was largely due to its dual nature - You could either tank or dps depending on the gear you had and what skills you took.

I'm not completely against the changes in ARR (though I'm not a fan of the system as a whole) however I do think a few things could be different to better distinguish WAR from PLD and make it a more exciting Job to play.


So the first obvious thing is to allow MRD/WAR to wear offensive gear again. In 1.23, PLD WAR & DRG could all equip the offensive Darklight Armor, with the Heavy variant being reserved for just WAR & PLD. Now it's LNC/DRG only, and that blows. It was fun being a high HP dps in 1.23, and it strikes me as a bit silly that a Job that wields such massive great axes can't double as a dps role, so that's step 1 (Allagan gear too of course).


The other (bigger) change is to rework Unchained. In its current form it simply allows you to deal full damage again for 20 seconds. I'd much rather it be changed to an alternate stance skill similar to Defiance, but with DPS buffs instead of tanking. Instead of gaining wrath with each attack as you do with Defiance, in this new form it gradually builds up over time/as you attack and grants bonus effects to your weaponskills based on how much wrath you have. Enmity is also lowered rather than increased.

Finally to make this work properly, certain skills would have to function differently in this new offensive mode, all your weaponskills that normally grant increased enmity had reduced instead as that would be counter-productive.

I haven't really worked out all the kinks, but this is just a basic concept I thought of the other day to spice things up a bit and to allow WAR to contribute more in situations where you're the Offtank and don't need to be soaking damage for the group. I hate how bland the armory system is in this game compared to XI's job system.

[Abigs]

your ideas on unchained are interesting

but i dont agree with the offensive gear..

the last thing you'd want to see are warriors tanking dungeons wearing offensive gear and blaming the healer for their deaths

also, dps wars will further increase the shortage of tanks

[Ryock]

the last thing you'd want to see are warriors tanking dungeons wearing offensive gear and blaming the healer for their deaths

Eh, lots of warriors do this anyways. I don't think being able to use that same armor would really change anything, anyways.

I like your thought on Unchained, though I must admit... when being thrown into a role, people expect that character to perform only that role. The warrior's dps would have to be lower than all the other dps, but still high enough to contribute. Otherwise, just because of their defensive abilities and the fact that they don't have to hit the enemy a certain way like monk and dragoon do, people would prefer to bring them along if given the choice.

[Gwaeron]

I loved Berserk and Rampage in 1.23! I feel like the huge Steel Cyclone nerf was enough, but they went ahead and ALSO completely removed Rampage (or rather, replaced it with defiance). The idea that you got better at tanking the more you were hit was pretty nice, so you couldn't just put rampage on, use Steel Cyclone and switch back to berserk. However, with the HP regeneration from critical attacks, it was a tiny bit overpowered...

I think 2.1 did a great job at making WAR fun again. It's still a bit to go to reach the 1.23 level of fun, but at least it's not like in 2.0 anymore. "Here you have a bunch of cool abilities, but you may NEVER use them!"

Also bring back the original Steel Cyclone sound please.

[Brannigan]

Rampage healing was a "tiny" bit overpowered? Haha.

Without old Steel Cyclone, though, it wouldn't be that bad. The healing component of Rampage as a MRD trait so that warrior can better take advantage of the 10% crit boost that Wrath grants would be pretty cool.

[abzoluut]

Another "I want to dps as a tank" thread. xD

On a more serious note, which FFXI tank meets your description, I'd very much like to know!

What SE needs to do is make WAR feel more like they're doing dps. They started out good with the self-heal path they chose. However, when they had to change WAR, they took the easy way out by just buffing us giving us more mitigation. They should have taken the time and redesign the self-healing skills (tweak, add). I guess that would also mean to change the content which would be far too much work since WARs did not scale with conten (<--- main problem right there).

I do like how WAR plays now and it's on par with PLD. I agree with you up to a certain point: it would be nice to have WAR play more like a berserker. No dps gear and stuff though.. We just need abilities/traits/side-effects which buffs our dps for short times or a "berserker stance" which buffs our dps a bit.

[Ehayte]

I think you just want a DPS job based off MRD? Which would be freakin' sweet.

If WAR could double as DPS, PLD better be able to double as a Healer, and MNK better be able to tank. Allowing one role to do 2 things really well would break the crap out of this game. WAR's already have a DPS stance in NOT having defiance on, and keeping Maim up all the time.

I know I am kind of sounding like a nay-saying jerk right now, but it would just be way too powerful.

[Caraway]

I think you just want a DPS job based off MRD? Which would be freakin' sweet.

If WAR could double as DPS, PLD better be able to double as a Healer, and MNK better be able to tank. Allowing one role to do 2 things really well would break the crap out of this game. WAR's already have a DPS stance in NOT having defiance on, and keeping Maim up all the time.

I know I am kind of sounding like a nay-saying jerk right now, but it would just be way too powerful.

"Please look forward to it."

Yoshi-P himself has stated hybrid jobs are coming. So we'll see this sort of thing eventually in one form or another. And I, for one, look forward to it.

[Ehayte]

"Please look forward to it."

Yoshi-P himself has stated hybrid jobs are coming. So we'll see this sort of thing eventually in one form or another. And I, for one, look forward to it.

Hybrids are usually along the lines of "journeymen of all, masters of none." Its totally fine if you have a class that's 70% as effective as a real tank and 75% as effective as a real dps, you just don't want 100% of both. : D

[Gamemako]

Hybrids are usually along the lines of "journeymen of all, masters of none." Its totally fine if you have a class that's 70% as effective as a real tank and 75% as effective as a real dps, you just don't want 100% of both. : D

WAR is already better than 75% of a DPS, yet nobody wants them in that role. WAR wasn't so gimped in 2.0 that it was unable to complete content, yet nobody wanted them then either. It's important to keep in mind that "hyrbid role" often means "sub-optimal for everything" -- there are pretty stiff disincentives to trying most of the time.