Opinions on WAR stats

[LadyKairi]

Hello community.

My friend and I have recently had a discussion of sorts. A while back, he played warrior, and he would build full strength tank. He found it was an opportunity to play warrior in a different way.. More of a challenge to be good. Since the vitality changes, he has said that the amount of damage you do isn't as high, and it makes the class seem "cookie cutter".

I'm here for your opinions. I'm curious to see if other people prefer how it is now, or if other people share his same feelings as he claims. I do not play WAR, so I'm here to gather opinions of those who do (for I feel I could not make a proper argument with my lack of experience).

[vigioX-Sun]

At the launch of 3.0 str war became really popular.
I main war since 1.0 an i never feel as challenge as i did being a full str war.
It was really fun to play it an if you rotate your CDs it feels very rewarding .
after vit change the war did feel more slow but that never stop me from playing it.
If i have a choice i will go strength because it feels right on the job, war are not the wall tank neither magic defense..war are the beast tank. But having 40k is not bad..

[Galactimus]

It's important to know the various changes Tanking and Raiding has gone through as both sides of the argument were correct at some point in time. If you don't plan to do Savage raiding content then stacking Parry and Skillspeed isn't a big deal. But if you do want to bring out your classes potential than the meta of the game becomes pretty interesting to follow:


The Tanking Timeline
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bahamut T1 - T9: When 2.0 started Tanks spec'd full VIT and Parry. HP caps were balanced around this. And fights were designed around being as Tanky as possible. Enrage timers weren't really an issue; it was all about mechanic survival.


Bahamut T10 - T13: Tanks suddenly had more HP than they needed. Beating enrage timers and pushing phases early became much more valuable than 1,000 extra HP. Penta-melded Strength Accessories suddenly became popular as long as you had at least 9,000HP total. Tanks boosted their DPS by 200-300 literally overnight. Parry started being noticed as a worthless stat.


Alexander A1 - A4: Tanks (Paladins in particular) had to spec full strength, wear all Strength accessories, wear Crit and Det on everything, and even Tank bosses full-time in DPS stance just so the party could barely beat A3S's extremely strict enrage timer (for a first clear.) Parry officially became a useless stat after raid groups realized how much DPS is added by a full Crit / Det / Strength build. Skill Speed also became useless for Paladins due to running out of TP so fast in A4S.


Alexander A5 - A8: Changes to the Vitality stat finally made it superior to Strength. 1 VIT now adds just as much damage as 1 STR, but also increases your HP total at the same time. However, Tanks lost a good 10% of their total DPS due to these calculation changes. This sudden loss made hardcore Tanks upset; after all they just spent six months raising their DPS by every possible mean, only to be torn back down. However, this same patch also introduced the ability to meld all of your Raid gear. As soon as you stuffed Crit and Det into your left side, and Strength into your right side, that 10% loss vanished. Crit and Det still remained superior to Parry and Skill Speed.


Alexander A9 - A12: DPS checks have become incredibly easy to pass. Even when equipped in gear from the previous patch. Raiding as a whole is a little easier. The Meta of Tanking hasn't changed but it's no longer as strict as it used to be. More freedom is given to focus on mechanics rather then praying your RNG crit rate is 16% at the end of the fight instead of 12%. The total DPS of Melee and Ranged classes may be scaling up faster than Tanks, but the role itself hasn't lost any of it's edge. It's still important to do as much DPS as possible when raiding; and Warriors are still the Kings of the trio.


Current Meta:
- Meet the A12S accuracy cap of 700.
- Prioritize Vit > Str > Crit > Det
- Warriors have certain Skill Speed milestones to pay attention to
- Meld Strength into Vitality accessories.
- Use Vitality Potions for DPS (and good food for higher Vit)
- Ignore Parry
- Ignore Parry (seriously)
- Ignore Parry (until 4.0)

[Dualgunner]

That was...very informative Galactimus. I will link to your post whenever this topic comes up into conversation again ^w^

[Awful]

Great post Galaticmus couldn't have said it better myself it's worth mentioning A1S-A4S in particular as that's where Plds were thought of as garbage (not saying that they are that's what the general playerbase thought Plds were). And to this day Plds still have 5 less attack power vs Drks and Wars coupled that with Plds old threat design and damage and they were in a bad spot, as for wars and drks they've always been in a good spot. The current raid meta we have now all 3 tanks have a decent time clearing all the current raids with the same satisfaction.

Copy paste what Galaticmus said for any war/pld/drk tank (war in particular as that's what the threads about) because it's something everyone should be familiar with.

[LadyKairi]

Is there a way to customize your playstyle with warrior? My friend still claims he liked warrior because you could either play typical tank with vitality, but you could also do a damage build for a whole different feel. A new difficulty. I personally believe what the devs did with vitality was helpful, but he insists the devs ruined warrior because you are forced into one playstyle. No variety.

[Greedalox]

Is there a way to customize your playstyle with warrior? My friend still claims he liked warrior because you could either play typical tank with vitality, but you could also do a damage build for a whole different feel. A new difficulty. I personally believe what the devs did with vitality was helpful, but he insists the devs ruined warrior because you are forced into one playstyle. No variety.

Every single tank built as much strength as possible when it was better. It was't alternative, it was the right thing to do. Now that VIT is back into the limelight, it's the right thing to do and strength isn't an alternative. Your friend is mistaking choice where it never existed unless you were uninformed about STR/VIT. It's no more ruined/fixed than it ever was.

[MomomiMomi]

Every single tank built as much strength as possible when it was better. It was't alternative, it was the right thing to do. Now that VIT is back into the limelight, it's the right thing to do and strength isn't an alternative. Your friend is mistaking choice where it never existed unless you were uninformed about STR/VIT. It's no more ruined/fixed than it ever was.

This. They weren't playing WAR in an alternate way. They were doing what other informed players were doing.