Can someone give me a detailed comparison between PLD and WAR? Returning player here

[Themis]

Agreed except that a good warrior is only a better DPS than PLD, and can help meet DPS checks. A good PLD is a better party support if shot hits the fan, and has skills that make it a much better choice for certain mechanics. Both are equally capable tanks in that they both hold aggro and both stay alive.

When comparing in tank stance damage, this is true. WAR can do more damage in Defiance than a PLD can do in Shield Oath. WAR just has more offensive damage buffs, and paired with Unchained, they can unleash at pretty high power for a while.

When comparing in non tank stance, though, PLD can do the better damage in Sword Oath than a WAR can without Defiance, especially if the MT is a WAR who is keeping up the Storm's Eye debuff. The extra auto attack, even at a reduce potency, really starts to add up when you're throwing in Fight or Flight (and Strength potions if you really feel like it), and with the added debuff damage.

[ArdorGrey]

Agreed except that a good warrior is only a better DPS than PLD, and can help meet DPS checks. A good PLD is a better party support if shot hits the fan, and has skills that make it a much better choice for certain mechanics. Both are equally capable tanks in that they both hold aggro and both stay alive.

when I sit and fantasize about what a perfect raid group would be comprised of, I often wish it had a pld OT like you describe. The class has such great OT potential and can even hedge out warrior on ot dps, while WAR's have so much better MT damage. and yet every time I'm in DF with a Pld they try to MT -_- (my raid group actually just has 2 wars XD)

[Marxam]

hey guys, I'm just returning to the game and I have thought about DPSing.. and then I realised I didn't like it, so I am now turning to tank!

I know how you feel and we need more people like you lol.



In terms of tanking they are both on even footing with pros and cons to each side. A WAR can main tank the same content a PLD can with relative ease and vice versa. WAR can deal more dmg than PLD in stance and PLD can deal more dmg in Sword Oath (though they burn tp hella fast). WAR has better snap aggro than PLD (Circle of Scorn generates enmity now too). PLD has more utility than WAR, stun on gcd and silence. PLD still has the best last resort skill, Hallowed Ground and Holmgang still sucks unfortunately. WAR can survive in certain instances such as expert dungeons, longer than a PLD because of self heals. I survived Fenrir after our healer derped and died at 80% through Inner Beasts, Storms Path's and Bloodbath+Vengeance+Berserk.

Imo WAR is definitely more fun than PLD with 3 rotations. With the recent increase to Storm's Eye (now 20 sec) its now possible to rotate all 3 combos and keep both SP and SE up at all times but only do this if you have hate cause you can loose it. Plus War is great for aoe burns and speed runs and you get a huge ass axe.

[Steady]

War -

Less options off the GCD (Global Cooldown) to mitigate damage.
Inner Beast is on the GCD and is like a 6 second Rampart (20% mitigation) every 7-8 swings, and/or instant with Infuriate.

Where the skill comes in is timing your Inner Beast just so that your mitigating specific attacks (Ravensbeak/Death Sentence). Where the trick comes in, is that if you just did a regular attack, depending on your GCD timer, your Inner Beast may go off late and you still take full damage. Sometimes that just means anticipating attacks by pausing your own attacks to get Inner Beast off at the right moment.

A bit less tanking utility, in terms of Hallowed Ground and Tempered Will. Instead War's get Holmgang which is kinda the Spork of abilities.

PLD -

MANY Off-GCD abilities. Sentinel, Bulwark, Rampart.... then you also borrow Foresight from War. There's less concern with timing, because the GCD is not involved, so mitigating damage takes a bit less skill.

Stoneskin - Any time your not being attacked, you can cast stoneskin on yourself or others. Particularly useful during Turn 9. Though is only 10%, at 8k, that's still 800 extra HP assuming you got hte health for it.

As previously mentioned, Tempered Will prevents knock back and various controlling effects, while Hallowed Ground makes you impervious to most attacks for a short duration.

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Over all, Most people consider Paladin to be easier, because it's more forgiving. Even your Enmity combo does a STR Down debuff, while Warrior uses an entirely different combo set to produce a damage down debuff.

I find when I play Warrior, I'm memorizing fights to inner beast appropriately, but when on Paladin, I simply see the cast bar of the effect i want to mitigate, and hit a button.

I think similar lines can be drawn with SCH and WHM as there is with WAR and PLD.

Bottom line is... they are both tanks that tank. The world needs them both. They work synergistically together, and Warrior has a pretty strong bond with other slasher jobs, like Ninja. While PLD, can do minor things to reduce strain on healers, such as throwing out a protect for fallen people, and stoneskins. Though they are seldom called upon to do it.

Considering tanks are the easiest thing to level, AND share gear, level both play both, lean on the one you like best.

[Thistledown]

I started as a GLD then switched completely to MRD after level 22 because I found the swinging of sword to be not very satisfying.

When you wield the axe, do the skull sunder and stuff you have this definitive feeling of doing some awful awful lot of damage. Thwack! Is what I hear and is satisfying to use.

GLD's sword skills though... I can't tell the difference if I just autoattacked or did a 1-2 combo. RoH gets a tad better in terms of aesthetics but there's no sense of accomplishment.

You will end up trying both to a degree anyway so you can make up your mind later.