PvP advice for WAR/MRD?

[Aleisterz]

I'm trying to figure out how some WAR/MRDs are doing so much damage (10k+), is it having all the cross classes, timing which to use or stacking, materias like determination, etc. PvP is crappy atm in my opinion but its still a time killer and I want that R30 armor.

[bbt]

Getting the good cross-class abilities is a given and every tank stacks DPS in Striking/Maiming gear over Fending, but the secret to tank burst is just stringing your abilities together correctly and knowing when to use what.

Full Swing is the most critical one: 10%/20% increased damage for 15s/25s from all sources. You don't want to use this immediately as you can get locked in CC, they can purge or escape, and the healer can even cleanse it. Time this ability for when you know it will have the most impact on a fight. Immediately after a healer purges a long sleep means they will be sitting with this debuff for the full duration if their team doesn't lock you down. Use it during a burst call for maximum effect with 3 people hitting one person. Use it in conjunction with Blood for Blood to explode any careless DPS thinking they can walk on your support.

Second is your ability string. I haven't played a Warrior/Marauder but I imagine it's as simple as stacking Maim/Berserk/IR + Raging Strikes/BfB to enable 2500 damage hits with Full Swing. Paladin doesn't have as many damage-increasing abilities but they can still kill with strings like:

(initial combo) > Full Swing > Rage of Halone/Spirits Within (huge burst) > Shield Bash/Glory Slash > Circle of Scorn
## 150 + 560 + 250~310 + 100 = 1,060-1,120 potency

Now substitute Warrior/Marauder skills:

Full Swing > Inner Beast/Brutal Swing > Infuriate > Inner Beast/Defiance > Mythril Tempest
## 150 + 350 + 300 + 140~200= 940~1,000 potency

(initial combo) > Full Swing > Skull Sunder/Brutal Swing > Butcher's Block/Mythril Tempest
## 150 + 250 + 420~480 = 820-880 potency

These strings only initiate two global cooldowns while making the most of your off GCD abilities to frontload as much damage into a window as possible. The Warrior/Marauder ones are far from optimized as I've stated before, but the reason why they outpace a Paladin at a lower potency is due to the abundance of damage-increasing abilities exponentially increasing their output. It's how you see your healer drop unceremoniously from full health to the dirt when you leave them alone with a tank.

[Jamal]

Full swings debuff is called "physical vulnerability up" making me believe that it only increases physical damage even though the tooltip simply says "damage taken".

[blueblankets]

First, dye your armor blue.

2nd, Kill people until they fear the blue armor.

[Aleisterz]

I've noticed being in defiance stance isn't a great idea so Inner beast is kinda a nope. I've read and browsed the forums for a bit it seems like timing when to chain a person down and mixing all your CDs is key to bursting someone down? Couldn't find anything on materia though I'm thinking stacking determination is good?

[Aleisterz]

First, dye your armor blue.

2nd, Kill people until they fear the blue armor.

Blue I've seen some of your videos and read a little bit about that thread with the OP asking how to not get 2 shotted. I seriously would love to know how you go about playing MRD with skills and what materia you used and so on.

Naaah I can't take your sig color... How about purple? Can I rock that?

[Riyos]

I've noticed being in defiance stance isn't a great idea so Inner beast is kinda a nope. I've read and browsed the forums for a bit it seems like timing when to chain a person down and mixing all your CDs is key to bursting someone down? Couldn't find anything on materia though I'm thinking stacking determination is good?

IB->Infuriate->IB is a great burst damage, but personally i prefer MRD. Anyway yes, the secret is to mix all your cds and hit hard under stun/holmgang
About the materia, i'm always using the crit, just because big numbers are damn sexy

[blueblankets]

There are many ways you can burst down the healer.

When I was soloq'ing and people didnt notice me yet, I would randomly change my gear color and hide my weapon so they might think im a pld. Sometimes hide behind the wall then sprint out with all my CDs up while their healer is trying to save someone. This occasionally even surprised the better players. But as people get more experience it doesnt really work anymore. Still i find it hilarious when it works.

Usually any time purify is down, it is safe to try bursting the healer with a stunlock from brutal swing -> mythril tempest. With holmgang up, the target wont get knocked away. Assuming you arnt rank 30, try to queue with a friend who can throw in some extra damage with you as you start. With proper coordination, you can beat rank 30s with this kind of strategy in i70 gear. I even killed a guy wearing a full reindeer suit yesterday (it gets boring when people give up because they see a blue guy across and just sit down on the benches waiting for it to end).

you can fake popping all your CDs by just dropping internal release and blood for blood. Just click off blood for blood if they focus you. Sometimes this can force a cover or attunement. then you can do the real burst 30 sec later when DR's drop.

The best time to burst someone is when they pop equanamity or whatever its called. Healers don't want to waste it because its CDs are huge. If they attune during it. There is a good chance they will click if off right away to make use of it again. This works especially well if they popped it because another dps is dropping dangerously low. The pressure of your CDs will lead to him forgetting about himself or letting his teammate die. Which is why i tell random groups to focus the tank because they are easy targets and still require healing. They can be easily baited behind walls forcing the other healer to come to you instead of chasing him. tanks rarely sprint away, so its easy to stay on them. Most players are bad are using pillars to dodge casters so its a safe bet to just put out deeps on the tank.

Pop berserk last. Because it pacifies you at the end. You dont really need straight shot. Its just nice to have. Half the time i dont even use it. In fact, ive replaced it with a def CD recently. Probably gonna use Hawks eye instead because it counters blind.

Unless ur baiting the other team behind your wall, Run to the center of the stage in the beginning. Theres a good chance the pld will stun u on his way across, or you get slept/bound. This builds up your DR's for later. People apparently don't realize how long these things are cuz they continue to waste their CC immediately. If you're bound, just cast stoneskin on teammates till it drops. Get CC'd in the middle where its easiest to find u and esuna/leeches.

try not to start popping your CDs if the healer has a sprint ready. If you sprint before the healer (or your target does), then they can easily sprint and just kite your sprint the whole time. If this happens you should probably just hit something else, but you can avoid this if you pay attention to what the healer has available to him.

Things that you dont want:
smn using ifrit. The ifrit stun messes up your stuns DRs.
mnks/drg using their charge/stun jump to get to your target before you stun. Also messes with DRs. Pretty easy to drop an attunement inbetween your burst if your 5 sec stun becomes a 1 second.
the bot bard you got on your team wearing full pve gear (even though u know hes botted enough to have a ful pvp set) hitting the target your team wants to CC.


War vs mrd:
Actually War dmg is not that far off from mrd dmg. Raging strikes is more dmg, but you get more str as a war. Even without raging strikes. Berserk and full swing is enough to kill people. Inner beast is the ultimate solo play move though. The heals and dmg reduction it gives you makes you one tough cookie. But you lose so much team play without stoneskin or other useful cross class skills. But if you're soloing, then I recommend warrior. Its way better to have inner beast when its you vs 2-3 people. Unless they give warrior moves some kind of utility for teammates, its not worth playing in pvp.

warrior > marauder in 1v1's because of innerbeast and bigger hp pool.

Maybe if they gave the warrior aoe attack some utility like 40% slow for 6 seconds to help save the healer, or a 3 sec pacify. Like anything to make it useful....

Check out Zalera Watchmen forums. we have plenty of pvpers using the side chat system for little questions, just have to register to use it. Can't post link here cuz it gets deleted, but maybe you can find the site through searches lol.

[Pentara]

some sage advice right there

[Aleisterz]

Thanks Blue! This is really helpful! I stacked some crit on my armor and noticed a difference so I'll be stacking that a bit. I think I'll stick to MRD because of what you said. >_< I just need the patience now to get to Rank 30 haha.