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

[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.