Some of these questions have already been answered satisfactorily so I'll stick just to the questions with answers that either I disagree with or feel need to be qualified.

Quote Originally Posted by Seaninator View Post
2) How should I use my cooldowns on bosses without spikes?
Use them actively but don't layer them on top of each other. Since there are no spikes, you should be using IB on or near CD. Since it provides you with ~25-30% uptime, you can manage to have either 1 CD (from ToB, Foresight, Vengeance, Convalescence, or Featherfoot) or IB up at all times. This will reduce your incoming damage on a constant basis. You should be using Bloodbath basically on CD anyways since there's no other way for it to really contribute appreciably.

If you don't have spikes, I don't really see a reason to hold your CDs in reserve given that CDs are most effective when they're used to preempt an emergency rather than helping you get out of one.

3) In what situations should I be using Berserk and Unchained?
Always use them together (Unchained then Berserk so that you don't waste the final GCD of Unchained on Pacification). Because of Berserk's Pacification, you actually get less out of it using it on CD than you do using it with Unchained (Unchained is a 33% increase in damage and delaying Berserk by 30 secs to link it with Unchained is a 33% decrease in effective value over time; delaying it decreases the Pacification penalty by 33% so you're getting the same benefits with a lower cost).

Unlike those previously mentioned, I've never had issues with aggro in the first 2-3 rotations whenever I'm MT. The fact that the MT gets into combat 1-2 GCDs before anyone else and opens up with a 3x enmity attack (your OT should not be doing this; if they are, they're being bad) means that, even without using Berserk/Unchained, I've got no problems keeping aggro for that time frame.

As such, my goal with Unchained and Berserk is simply to maximize their enmity contributions over time. My highest enmity opening attack string is Tomahawk>BB combo>SE combo(Vengeance)>HW(Unchained)>SS(Berserk)>BB(Internal Release)>BB combo>BB combo>Inner Beast(Infuriate)>Pacification>Inner Beast. The enmity it generates is obscene. Using it, I've actually stolen aggro from other tanks who have had 30-40 seconds to generate aggro on a target without ever using Provoke (on t4, it's something of a game for myself to try to pull aggro on the final dread during the final burn; it's basically a 50/50 chance as to whether I'll do it and, even if I haven't, I'll generally be right on the dread tank's ass).

Doing this actually allows me to use lower enmity combos that do more damage or are simply more useful in general (like SE>SP and SP>BB) throughout the rest of the fight because it generates such a massive enmity cushion. For Levi EX, I don't even touch BB outside of this attack string. If I see that people are riding my ass, I'll just use the attack string again the next time that Unchained, Berserk, and Internal Release are up since it basically provides me an enmity cushion so large that it will last me for 2 minutes.

6) How should I be using Infuriate, and Wrath stacks in general?
You should be using Infuriate as much as possible and immediately after using an existing Wrath consumer so that you're not "wasting" Wrath stacks. If you use it on CD, it basically increases your number of available Wrath consumers per minute to 4 from 3, which is nothing to sneeze at.

As for your Wrath stacks in general, you should generally be using them immediately (the increase crit rate isn't as valuable as the simple increase in damage you get from one of your Wrath consumers) unless you have a specific need to hold them in reserve. Examples of the value of holding them in reserve would be preparing for the snake to split in t1 if you're OT (as soon as the snakes split, use SC and you won't have to worry about healers pulling off of you or figuring out which snake you should be tanking), preparing for an AoE phase in t4 if you're the add tank, or any time you're able to predict a nice big damage spike (EX primals, t5, etc.). Any time you're holding your Wrath stacks "in reserve", unless you know that there will be a *significantly* more valuable occasion to use it within the next 17.5 or so seconds (re: the time it would take you to build back up to 5 Wrath stacks), you're wasting them.

Though some people only believe in using IB, don't be afraid to use Unchained or SC. SC is absolutely *incredible* for every AoE scenario in the game because of the enmity and damage it provides, on top of the significantly lower cost compared to Overpower, and, as I said before, if you use Unchained properly, you can generate incredible enmity over short periods of time, allowing you to coast along with lower enmity rotations. Also, don't be afraid to use IB for damage purposes. In any fight where it's simply high sustained damage, the increased damage is going to be just as valuable as the short duration of decreased damage taken.

7) Which cooldowns, if any, should I be using against trash packs?
All of them (except Holmgang, but that should be self explanatory; the only time I'd use it on trash is if you have a single ranged enemy that just refuses to move where you want them to, at which point you're using it for the pull and not for the survivability it affords). Vengeance is amazing for damage purposes on top of the mitigation when you're AoE tanking; ToB and Conv will give your healer some leeway and, if they're not bads, some time to swap into CS and throw out some damage; Foresight, Featherfood, and Bloodbath are all relatively low burst value contributors so there's no real reason to hold them in reserve. In all likelihood, by the time you get done with the trash packs and on to the boss, one or more of them going to be recharged anyways and most, if not all, will be recharged by the time you actually *need* to use one of them in order to survive.

It's important to remember that all of the WAR tank CDs are on exceptionally low timers compared to the PLD tank CDs. The only way that they're going to provide the same value as the PLD tank CDs, over time, is if you're using them as much as possible. Your tank CDs are much like what I discussed earlier about Infuriate and your Wrath consumers: unless you are confident that you're going to *need* to have a CD available or that there will be a significantly more valuable time for that CD to be used, you're wasting the value of that CD by letting it stay unused.

PLDs have to be comparatively conservative with their tank CDs because they have long CDs. WARs don't. Use them liberally. About the only restriction about using them that I can recommend is that you shouldn't layer them on top of each other since, most of the time, you're simply decreasing the value of the other CD.

As an addendum, Thrill of Battle is different from the rest of your CDs. Every single other one has value in that it allows you to decrease the amount of healing your healer has to provide you with. Thrill of Battle doesn't. Thrill of Battle is *all* about letting you survive for longer before you get healed. As such, you should hold it in reserve until either you know there's some risk that you could die without an extra 2.3k (or so) hp.