WARRIOR - In Heavensward

[Gooner_iBluAirJGR]

Butcher's Block-ga.

They need to make that a real skill.

[stoxastic]

I got WAR to 60 last night. Overall very pleasantly surprised with the new skills.

Deliverance: Amazing stance that gives +5% Damage plus Defiance's former Stacking Crit Buff. Makes all your skills stronger
Fell Cleave: 500 Potency Attack! We've been talking about our Inner Beast Crits in 2.0 but a Berserk'ed Fell Cleave does so much damage. WAR's ability to burst is so high now: Berserk -> Fell Cleave -> Infuriate -> Fell Cleave
Decimate: Similar ability to Steel Cyclone except no enmity but more damage. Very good in dungeon runs to finish off large groups of mobs after you've established aggro
Raw Intuition: Guaranteed parry from front, while taking critical damage from flank and rear. A bit trickier to use, as repositioning with this up will make you susceptible to crits, but you can mitigate it with awareness, so it's good to stack those together.
Equilibrium: Big heal (~3000K while leveling) in Defiance, 200 TP in Deliverance. This is a really versatile skill which I like, you get a mini invigorate or a decent heal at a VERY LOW 60s cooldown.

These skills are nice on paper, but what makes WAR absolutely amazing is twofold:
1) Ability to stance dance off the global cooldown without interrupting combo. You can seamlessly go from deliverance into defiance and vice versa. You can quickly switch from Defiance into deliverance without skipping a beat. I typically do this in dungeons when there are only 1 or 2 mobs left in the pull. It allows you to output more damage without really increasing your risk of dying. It works the other way around.

2) Stacks remain when switching stances. This cannot be understated enough. You can do so much with this. It allows you to build up stacks in one stance and quickly use them in another. You can build up Wrath while tanking, and then if you want some extra burst, quickly switch to Deliverance for a very fast Fell Cleave -> Infuriate -> Fell Cleave burst. Afterwards you can switch back to defiance without skipping a beat.

Overall I'm very happy with the WAR changes as the freedom of stance dancing off the global cooldown opens up a lot of powerful possibilities. This is something that the other tanks do not have.

[Seyra]

Maybe this will help you for the controller part. I play on PC but I like the controller feeling and I found the command /chotbar to be very useful.
You can basically change your ability on the fly when switching stances.

My macros are:

Defiance
/micon "Defiance"
/ac "Defiance"<me>
/chotbar set "Steel Cyclone" 1 LD3
/chotbar set "Inner Beast" 1 LD4

Deliverance
/micon "Deliverance"
/ac "Deliverance"<me>
/chotbar set "Decimate" 1 LD3
/chotbar set "Fell Cleave" 1 LD4

What it does is it sets Steel Cyclone to cross hotbar 1 on the slot L2 + right D-Pad and Inner Beast to cross hotbar 1 on the slot L2 + down D-Pad when I use Defiance.

Same with Decimate and Fell Cleave with Deliverance.

Here are the slots names (bold for PS controller):

LT(L2) + ← = LDL(LD1)
LT(L2) + ↑ = LDU(LD2)
LT(L2) + → = LDR(LD3)
LT(L2) + ↓ = LDD(LD4)

LT(L2) + X(□) = LAL(LA1)
LT(L2) + Y(△) = LAU(LA2)
LT(L2) + B(〇) = LAR(LA3)
LT(L2) + A(Ｘ) = LAD(LA4)

RT(R2) + ← = RDL(RD1)
RT(R2) + ↑ = RDU(RD2)
RT(R2) + → = RDR(RD3)
RT(R2) + ↓ = RDD(RD4)

RT(R2) + X(□) = RAL(RA1)
RT(R2) + Y(△) = RAU(RA2)
RT(R2) + B(〇) = RAR(RA3)
RT(R2) + A(Ｘ) = RAD(RA4)

Hope this helps.

[SpookyGhost]

- lvl 52 -

Deliverance: 5% damage increase, 10% crit increase @ 5 abandon. Great DPS stance on it's own, but only gets better with the next action.

- lvl 54 -

Fell Cleave: 500 potency attack, uses 5 abandon. You can get a minimum of 2 buffed Fell Cleaves in your opener as OT, and a maximum of 3. It is the strongest attack available to WAR.

- lvl 56 -

Raw Intuition: 20s Rampart. also gives 1 stack of Wrath/Abandon. Used in similar situations to when you would use Vengeance, IE on a big pull or before a tank buster. IB + Raw Intuition is nothing to scoff at.

Note: Currently this skill is bugged where all heals that hit you under the effect of Raw Intution will crit. Thus, for the time being, Conv + Raw Intuition is actually extremely powerful... but don't get used to it.

- lvl 58 -

Equilibrium: 1200 potency cure or 200 TP restore (stance dependent) with a 60s recast timer. With Fell Cleave taking up a good amount of GCDs, this can leave you with basically endless TP as OT. 1200 potency cure is also really strong, and being able to use it every 60s is verrrrry good.

- lvl 60 -

Decimate: 280 pot aoe attack. Good if you're OTing multiple mobs or if you can afford 10s of Deliverance stance while tanking multiple mobs.

What's Changed About WAR?: OT

Same as before, except now you use Fell Cleave whenever it's available.

If you pre-Infuriate -> 30s -> Raw Intuition -> 15s -> Opener then you'll be able to fit in 3 Fell Cleaves, if not you'll get 2. Something to keep in mind is that Raw Intuition sits on a 90s recast timer and can be used to build 1 stack, so it's not just a defensive tool but also an offensive one for building 5 Abandon faster. Same with Vengeance, though Vengeance sits on a 120s timer.

Equilibrium should be used as close to 800 TP as possible and then again every time it's up, unless you need to tank something soon and would like the heal instead of the TP.

Decimate will deal higher overall potency than Fell Cleave @ 2 or more targets, so if you have Deliverance up and there are 2+ things in front of you, use Decimate. Obviously if one needs to be burned quicker than the other, use Fell Cleave instead.

What's Changed About WAR?: MT

Instead of IBing in your opener, switch to Deliverance and Fell Cleave. Obvious exception to this is if you need the IB over the damage (IE: T9, T10, T12), so don't go too crazy.

Raw Intution is a strong defensive CD on a relatively short timer and Equilibrium is a strong heal on a 60s CD timer, so they fit neatly into a 40s tank buster rotation:

Vengeance + IB + Equilibrium

40s pass

Thrill + Conv + IB + Foresight

40s pass

Raw Intuition + IB + Equilibrium

(use Equilibrium every odd tank buster as long as it's available)

and a 60s tank buster rotation:

Vengeance + IB + Equilibrium

60s pass

Thrill + Conv + IB + Foresight + Raw Intutition + Equilibrium

Something important to note is that if the tank buster is magical, then Raw Intution isn't going to mitigate it, but will mitigate the following auto attacks. Equilibrium meanwhile will always give you the 1200 potency heal.

As always, if your tank stance isn't needed for certain phases, use Deliverance instead.

[Hundred]

Raw intuition is useless if the 'auto attacks' of the enemy cannot be parried.
Which is the case for spell casting enemies. Or would be useless if not for the fact that it provides crit heals.

[SpookyGhost]

There are enemies that cast magical tank busters but their auto attacks are physical, such as Akh Morn and the auto attacks in-between and after. But yeah, it's useless against a completely magical enemy like Ramuh.