Warrior opener/rotation advice please!

[Seaninator]

Hello! I'm returning after taking a bit of a break from the game, and I'm pretty rusty on my Warrior mechanics. I'd like some advice on how to change my opener/rotation.
Currently, my opener looks like this:

Heavy Swing > Maim (BS) > Storm's Eye (Zerk) > Heavy Swing (IR) > Skull Sunder > Butcher's Block > Fell Cleave (Infuriate) > Fracture > Heavy Swing > Fell Cleave > Maim > Storm's Eye (Pacify)

1) How can I change my opener to get better DPS?

2) Is 100% uptime on Fracture a good idea? Currently, I don't reapply Fracture unless I have high stacks in order to take advantage of the crit buff, but should I change so that I have 100% uptime?

3) How should I use Internal Release and Infuriate? Should I pop them on cooldown, or wait to use them to sync up to Berserk?

I know a lot of these answers are hard to generalize because so much depends on the mechanics of the fight, but if I could get some general advice in order to practice, I would really appreciate it! Thanks!

[Sarcatica]

1. Look around at how to do 3x FC Berserk opener. Each fight will be different with how you open the fight, some allow you to do 3x FC Berserk, some only 2x FC Berserk. This will be on your part to adjust or maybe have a few WARs in Tonberry to give you advices on specific turns. This will be different if you are pulling as MT since you always almost want to use Unchained.

2. IIRC Fracture only on Berserks for the most part. Also useful if you are tanking add(s), so you can apply Fracture to boss before that.

3. IR has 60sec CD and Berserks has 90sec. 3 IR = 2 Berserk, Infuriate at 60sec as well. Still also depends on the fight, but that's the general rule.

Lastly, welcome back!

[SpookyGhost]

1. You're going to drop Eye doing that, instead just use Eye in place of Block.

2. Fracture is a DPS gain as long as you get the full ticks. The only time you shouldn't keep it up is if the boss is going go immune before it's finished. It is your second highest potency skill and all it does is push Fell Cleave back 1 GCD, it doesn't just magically get rid of FCs. Saw people spewing that Fracture is a DPS loss @ full uptime on Reddit for whatever reason so I thought I'd just throw that out there. If anyone out there has some actual math regarding Fracture as a DPS loss I'd be willing to be proved wrong but I've yet to see it.

3. If you're getting more than 2 Berserks over the fight then it's better to use IR on CD, but this largely depends on the fight. Generally you want to save Infuriate for 3x FC but that also depends on the fight. If you don't want to think about it too hard just save both for 3x FC.

[aleph_null]

As spooky said you'll drop eye debuff with that opener, just use eye combo, or push the fracture to the end, after reapplying eye.

[Seaninator]

Thanks for the answers everyone! Lots of helpful info.

[Sarcatica]

If anyone out there has some actual math regarding Fracture as a DPS loss I'd be willing to be proved wrong but I've yet to see it.

It's kinda strange actually. There are a lot of WAR parses with a very low Fracture uptime in a lot of the fights. Even in fight like A9S where you have 100% boss uptime, people aren't "abusing" Fracture. I think it has a very specialized use rather than trying to fit as many Fractures as possible, probably even following a certain condition where you have a priority list. There has to be specific reasons why these WARs aren't using Fractures as much as possible if it is indeed a DPS gain.

[SpookyGhost]

~Fracture~

Haven't really mapped out A9S GCD2GCD, but it is a bit of a special case where lining up your stacks with the adds is significantly more beneficial than Fracture ticks - so if Fracture is putting you at 4 stacks during adds you're looking at a pretty big loss. Here's some old math on Fracture usage: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...=1#post3321087

That said, though, you can easily play w/o using Fracture outside of Berserk windows and you'll only be looking at a minor loss. I guess using a catch-all like "keep it up 100% of the time" isn't entirely true - it's more about using Fracture in the right situations. Usually I'll forego Fracture until I know how the fight works, when I'll need what, where I can use RI for an extra stack, etc. etc.

It's just slightly grating to hear people say "don't use Fracture it'll push your Fell Cleaves back!!!!".

[Kitfox]

It's just slightly grating to hear people say "don't use Fracture it'll push your Fell Cleaves back!!!!".

But this is the carrying point why many WARs don't use Fracture much. If Fracture replaces a GCD that could've been a Fell Cleave in any given DPS window, it's a DPS loss. If not, it can be gain. Personally, I only use Fracture during Berserk.

As for general rotation/opener framework:
-Pull (as MT) with Unchained whenever possible, it's a raid DPS gain through OT.
-MT: Eye > Butchers > repeat, OT: Eye > Path > repeat.
-Fracture/Infuriate only in Berserk or to adjust/hold stacks.
-Don't waste stacks, always Fell Cleave / Decimate when possible.
-Triple Cleave in Berserk if stars align perfectly (but not at the expense of wasting stacks or delaying Berserk).

Then I go from there for fight specific optimization.

[Sweetgrass]

This is what I personally use, works out quite well. You can swap the second Storm's Eye in the OT rotation for Butcher's Block and delay the Fracture until your second-last GCD, but it's only an 11 potency gain at the cost of massive enmity.