Unchained...nothing stays the same (but how do YOU use it?)

[Twilite]

The animation already wastes 2 seconds.. Vengeance is better.

[Tsilyi]

As I don't know the exact threat amount for each ability, and just blindly listened to people when they said overpower>tomahawk on single target pulls because it's "more threat," can someone enlighten me? Both abilities list "increased enmity" as their bonus effect, and tomahawk is 10 damage potency more as the tooltips say.

[whiskeybravo]

As I don't know the exact threat amount for each ability, and just blindly listened to people when they said overpower>tomahawk on single target pulls because it's "more threat," can someone enlighten me? Both abilities list "increased enmity" as their bonus effect, and tomahawk is 10 damage potency more as the tooltips say.

I'm not sure how people figured out the exact threat modifier, I haven't really see anything in game one way or the other. For a long time I think the common belief was Overpower/Skull Sunder/Storm's Eye/Tomahawk being a 3x threat modifier and BB having a 5x multiplier, and approx a 2x multiplier for tank stance. Of course the devs have made a lot of adjustments, but this is "rule of thumb" I've always used. How anybody get's more specific multipliers (or even the original ones) I'm not clear on.

[Kuwagami]

But you waste what could be damage for something that isn't damage. If Unchained also added 50 potency to each attack for example it WOULD be worth it. However right now your just spending your stacks for something that doesn't do damage.

You can use your attack instead, do damage and become a tank for 6 seconds, instantly switch to deliverance and do tons of damage and switch back to defiance instead.

Just doing that and not doing anything else nets you more damage.

Using it that way gives 10 seconds of +40% damage when unchained is 20 seconds of +33% damage. Not sure that's really more effective unless you can stay in dps stance longer.

[bounddreamer]

The effective use of Unchained differentiates a skilled Warrior from one who's still learning.

It's not all about what's going to give you max damage all the time. It's about balancing your top job as a tank with your ability to do damage.

[Thunda_Cat_SMASH]

I'm curious who/what/when/where/why you thought this skill was needless or unhelpful? o.o Its a pretty self-evidently good CD.

It was a much stronger and more useful CD in 2.X. In 3.X so far you can pretty much take it off your hot bar entirely, as no Warrior will ever be MTing a raid, progression or otherwise, and Defiance is largely neglected by the player base at large. It'd be better if they made Unchained useful again, cause it's basically as situational as Clemency.

[Launched]

as no Warrior will ever be MTing a raid, progression or otherwise

So? Were you in Savage on release? Because no WAR was doing 100% Deliverance uptime then. You have an Oppressor to tank in A1S, double dolls and a few other groups in A2S, you spend half of the last phase of A3S tanking, and Straf Dolls in A4S. There are plenty of times for a WAR to use Defiance, especially when undergeared and learning a fight.

[Praesul]

If you're taking a DRK or PLD, it's better to have the WAR pull in Defiance with Unchained and then swap out to Deliverance and let the other tank take over. This allows the PLD or DRK to turn off grit or shield oath since they never have to use their enmity combos afterwards. It's a DPS increase if your concern is maximizing tank DPS and you're not taking 2 WAR.

[Brian_]

In the current meta, you want to be in Deliverance as much as possible. For a lot of fights, that's basically the entire fight now. To compensate for the lack of Defiance, you need to properly use the defensive CDs that you aren't saving for an incoming tank buster. That leaves you with very few dCDs. So, while Unchained is in theory an offensive CD, I don't view it as such because that's not how it fits into this meta. It's kind of the same idea with using defensive CDs to allow you to stay in Deliverance to push DPS. Your defensive CDs essentially become offensive CDs in a way.

I think of Unchained as Thrill of Battle + Convalescence but costs 5 stacks and doesn't heal you.

From that point of view, it's 2 major defensive cooldowns rolled into one and considering that, it's pretty evident how strong a defensive CD it is.

The design of Unchained is very deliberate. It's 20 seconds for a reason. If you dance to Defiance and pop Unchained after your Heavy Swing, you have 7 GCDs until you are back at 5 stacks. With a 2.4s GCD, that's ~17s. At 5 stacks, you can then IB within your Unchained window and dance back to Deliverance for ~26 seconds of buffed eHP at minimal DPS loss. That's roughly 22% uptime. That's a huge deal when you are not trying to be a complete dick to your healers.