Warrior Tanks: Maximizing DPS Output

[bokchoykn]

This thread is about dealing damage as a Warrior. No, not as Marauder or as janky DPS wannabe, but as a Warrior Tank.

Conventional wisdom tells us that the tank's job is to:

1) hold aggro
2) mitigate damage
3) ensure proper positioning of enemies

However, one aspect to tanking that should be considered equally important but is often neglected or ignored:

4) Maximize DPS output.

If you aren't actively trying to deal the most damage you safely can, you're simply not playing your class to its full potential. This is particularly true of Warriors compared to Paladin. Warriors are a much more dynamic class in this respect and has many more opportunities to increase damage output. If you don't utilize these opportunities, you're not a Warrior. You're simply a Paladin without a shield.

Why is Tank DPS so important?

I see many arguments as to why Tanks don't bother: "When DPS classes push 300+ DPS and tanks can't come anywhere close, what's the point? Our group's DPS is good enough without me worrying about damage. I'll focus on my primary responsibilities, and they can do theirs."

When one Monk averages 270 DPS to another equally geared Monk's 230 DPS, you would probably consider the first Monk to be substantially better than the second, right? If a tank can push 40 DPS more than another equally geared tank simply based on technique alone, provided that there is no major compromise to his other tanking duties, is the overall benefit not the same? So, wouldn't you say that this tank is substantially better than the other?

The bottom line is this: Every fight is a DPS race in some way, shape, or form. This race isn't simply about beating an enrage timer either. It is also about shortening the length of the fight and pushing bosses through phases quicker. It is about quickly killing adds to reduce overall damage taken and maintaining the party's control and stability. It's about making up for dead DPS and giving your group the best chance at recovering from an otherwise lost situation.

Overall, it is about increasing the margin of error for your party to successfully clear the encounter.

How do I improve my DPS as a Warrior?

For starters, the most important thing you can do is drop Defiance when you're not tanking. Too many tanks unnecessarily stay in their tanking stance when they don't have to. Paladins need to be somewhat selective when doing this because switching to Sword Oath and then back to Shield costs you two global cooldowns and also breaks your combo. However, for Warriors, stance changes don't take up a global cooldown and does not interrupt your combo. Warriors have much more freedom in this area than Paladins do. One small cost for Warriors is that they aren't building Wrath stacks while not in Defiance, but that's what Infuriate is for.

Warriors have other opportunities to improve their DPS. They have three combos: Their enmity combo (Butcher's Block), their mitigation combo (Storm's Path), and their damage combo (Storm's Eye). Two of those combos give Warrior the Maim buff, which increases damage done by a whopping 20%. Knowing which combo to use in which situation is very important to safely maximizing your damage.

When tanking in Defiance, Warriors should recognize when aggro is solid and when is a good time to prioritize damage over enmity. One key realization that every Warrior needs to make: You don't necessarily need to generate as much enmity as possible. You simply need to have more than everyone else.

One way to look at it: Warrior has several different "gears", like a race car. Each "gear" serves a different purpose and determines which combos you are using. A good Warrior is constantly shifting gears to whatever is appropriate to the situation.

SnapEnmity: Butcher's Block combo only - This is what you want to be doing to start a fight in order to build a healthy enmity lead on the rest of the party. For tank swaps, a couple of combo'ed Butcher's Blocks is enough to solidify aggro.

Standard Tanking: Storm's Path, Butcher's Block x2, Repeat - This generates high enmity while maintaning while getting the damage boost from Maim and mitigation from Storm's Path.

High Damage: Storm's Path, Storm's Eye, Repeat - Alternating between these two combos maximize the uptime of Storm's Path and Storm's Eye. Use this when aggro is solid or when you're not tanking. A warrior played correctly will find themselves in this gear most of the time.

Max Damage: Storm's Eye, Butcher's Block, Repeat - In situations where applying Storm's Path for mitigation is not important. This does 40 more potency per 6 weapon skills than the above gear, which isn't groundbreaking, but there's no point putting Storm's Path on things like Granite Gaols, Infernal Nails and Conflagurations.

On top of that, you're squeezing in Inner Beast to mitigate bursts and to do big damage. As for Fracture, this is somewhat arguable but I keep Fracture up when not tanking (provided that the target won't die or become invulnerable for the next 30 seconds) and otherwise don't bother using Fracture when Defiance is up. The damage boost is small, it hurts your enmity generation, and it is a Weaponskill that doesn't contribute to Wrath stacks. When Defiance is down, Fracture becomes your highest damage-per-second and damage-per-TP ability.

Offensive cooldown management is pretty much based on common sense. They are strongest when used in conjunction with each other. Use them as often as possible, but also make sure that you have them for the key moments in the fight. Unchained and Berserk are good for starting fights, for tank swaps, and snap-aggro on newly spawned adds.

Gryphonskin Accessories (& Rose Gold Ear Screws)

First of all, let's take a look at the stat differences of Crafted i70 vs Full Allagan Accesories + Hero Ring of Fending

If you're going for optimal melds (8 Vit, 6 Det/9 Crit, 6 Parry, 6 Parry, 2 Vit):

-25 Vitality, -15 Parry
+45 Strength, +45 Dexterity, +19 Accuracy, +32 Determination, +16 Crit Rate, +7 Skill Speed

The loss of Parry made up for by the increase to Dexterity, which increases Parry rate. Moreover, the Strength boost also increases the damage reduction from parries by roughly 1%. This actually mitigates more than any other jewellery set in the game. The main difference though, is that you're trading 25 Vitality for 45 Strength and a ton of other supporting damage stats. Even without optimal melds in which you'll lose some Det/Crit, the trade is still very worthwhile.

I consider these to be best-in-slot for half of the 8-man content in the game. The mentality amongst many tanks is that VIT is king and they should increase this stat at all times and at all costs. While it is true that VIT is definitely the most important tanking stat, HP increases are subject to diminishing returns. Depending on the encounter, once your HP has reached a certain threshold, further increasing your HP beyond that point has a reduced value and only serves as an additional safety buffer.

This HP threshold is an abstract number and it varies from encounter to encounter as well as your role in that encounter. On top of that, the importance in pushing higher DPS numbers also varies from encounter to encounter. Knowing which jewellery set (VIT vs STR) is best for each encounter depends on understanding the encounter and recognizing which is a greater benefit to your party: Increasing your HP from X -> Y or the DPS gains from your Strength accessories.

Garuda EX (MT): i90 VIT - As Main Tank, Double Wicked Wheel is the main hazard in this fight. Whether you try to dodge or mitigate it, it's safer to go with max VIT. This is somewhat arguable.

Garuda EX (OT): i70 STR - Nothing really does significant damage to you. I'd even take it a step further and use i90 Melee DPS accessories with 0 VIT.

Titan EX (MT): i70 STR - If Mountain Busters are properly mitigated with cooldowns and bombs are properly avoided, nothing should come close to testing your HP total in this fight. Damage is the bottleneck here. Pushing phases and ending the fight quickly is what's important.

Titan EX (OT): i70 STR - See above.

Ifrit EX: i90 VIT - Your damage is not important in this fight. Winning this fight is more about maintaining stability. The extra HP will come in handy.

Coil T1: i70 STR - The key is to burn Caduceus down before he gets strong and simply rely on your cooldowns and damage output to survive.

Coil T2 (Regular): i90 VIT - This fight has always been a battle of attrition more than it is a damage race. While there is value in ending the fight quicker, the real hazards that are associated with the tank's gear: missed High Voltage silences, bad tank swaps, and getting hit by dumb things. The extra HP comes in handy for each of these things.

Coil T2 (Enrage): i70 STR - Just kill him. Also, shame on you.

Coil T4 (MT): i90 VIT - Dreadnoughts hurt and the MT doesn't really play a significant part in the real DPS race in Phases 5 and 6. Hold the Dreads in place, don't die, and let DPS go to work.

Coil T4 (OT): i70 STR - Even if your strategy entails tanking four adds, the key to survival is staggering Soliders and killing quickly before your defensive cooldowns wear off. Dumping 1000 TP on Overpowers with Unchained, Berserk and Maim up while wearing STR Accessories is what being a Warrior is all about.

Coil T5 (MT): i90 VIT - Death Sentence. Enough said.

Coil T5 (OT): i70 STR - The DPS requirement for this fight is high. Especially since your stunning sucks on Dreadknights.

Is it necessary to carry an extra set of STR jewellery? Probably not. If you're content with using i90 accessories for everything, you'll be fine. If you're using a mixture between i70 craftables and i90, that's fine too. However, if you want to go that extra mile to make your Warrior godlike, this is the way to do it.


Questions? Comments? Criticism? Post away!