Wars - the Worst Frontlines Tank

[NyneSwordz]

Gonna be my last post - at least for a while because Nascent Flash not self-targettable is really, really annoying the heck out of me. Here's some feedback on the biggest issue imo regarding Wars in Frontlines PvP, the ridiculous party-target requirement for Nascent Flash...

NASCENT FLASH - The only targettable defensive buff that REQUIRES a target to use

My biggest gripe with Warrior in ShB Frontlines PvP has been its horrendous self-sustain compared to other tanks. 5.1 has rolled around, and Wars are still bottom of the barrel when it comes to self-sustain in frontlines because it is the only tank which cannot self target its 15/30 second targettable defensive buff.

Let's look at the actions:

Warrior - Nascent Flash

Nascent Flash Ability Instant 30s - 30y
0y Grants Nascent Flash to self and Nascent Glint to target party member.
Nascent Flash Effect: Absorbs 50% of damage dealt as HP
Nascent Glint Effect: Restores HP equaling that recovered by Nascent Flash
Duration: 6s

MUST TARGET A PARTY MEMBER to use - ALLIANCE MEMBERS CANNOT BE TARGETED

Dark Knight


The Blackest Night Ability Instant 15s 2500 MP 30y
0y Creates a barrier around self or target party member that absorbs damage equivalent to a heal of 3,000 potency.
Duration: 6s
Grants Dark Arts when barrier is completely absorbed.
Dark Arts Effect: Consume Dark Arts instead of MP to execute Edge of Shadow or Flood of Shadow

Paladin

Intervention Ability Instant 30s - 30y
0y Reduces target party member's damage taken by 20%.
Duration: 6s
Additional Effect: Increases target's damage reduction to 30% when executed while under the effect of Rampart

Gunbreaker

Aurora Ability Instant 30s - 30y
0y Grants Regen to target.
Cure Potency: 600
Duration: 15s
Additional Effect: Creates a barrier around target that absorbs damage equivalent to a heal of 2,000 potency
Duration: 10s

ANALYSIS

All four actions are strikingly similar in terms of heal/mitigation power, cooldown, and duration.

With the exception of TBN for darks, all four actions have a 30 sec CD, and prevent or heal (or both) around ~2600 - 3000ish potency. TBN requires resources, so I assume its actual use or cd is roughly 30secs like everyone else. Paladins Intervention is a straight 20/30% damage mitigation, which I assume in a Feast scenario will somehow work out to mitigate around the same amount of potency. I suppose in Frontlines, the Paladin's Intervention could mitigate way more than other similar actions, but if that was the case, I think the Paladin would be dead anyway soaking that much damage. So it doesn't matter. Also, I think it's self targettable. If it's not let me know! But even if it isn't, Paladins still have their 90 sec cd immune which is disgusting plus their Holy Spirit is pretty Warrior's old Inner Beast (which makes me especially sad). Anyway, Warrior's Nascent flash heals for 50% of damage dealt over 6 seconds. All the actions have a duration of about 6-10 seconds - very similar. Anyway, assuming the War hits any combination of 3 Fell Cleave/Inner Release, and if you add in Onslaught, heal pot comes out to roughly 3,500 during IR, and around 3,000 outside of IR (3 X 2,000 pot cleaves/IC +1000 pot Onslaught if in IR all divided by 2).

The only outlier factor or difference concerning the single-person targettable defensive buff is Warrior's Inability to use Nascent Flash without a party member

That's it. That's the only real difference. These single-member targettable buffs are incredibly powerful, mitigating and healing a ton of damage anywhere from 2600 to 3500ish potency every 30 secs.

Because they are so powerful, the inclusion of Vanward Potions don't make a lick of difference in terms of allowing a Warrior to not get stomped if he's caught without a party member and therefore unable to use Nascent Flash.

The potions do fix some annoyances with frontlines pvp, like having to have a healer in a group or just die. Or having to run out of combat to get healing ticks.

However, it feels frustratingly unfair that Warriors in Frontlines have to contend with an action that's dead at the most inopportune times. And not just any dead action. A dead action that accounts for a HUGE chunk of a tanks self sustain.

I'm sure this isn't nearly as big of an issue in Feast, if at all. So that's great.

But as primarily a Frontlines War main looking forward to the NEW cool looking Frontlines map, I'm very bitter that War is still the worst tank for Frontlines period.

So I'm taking a break. If SE fixes Nascent Flash by the time 5.15 rolls around for the new map, I'll be back and ready to go! If not, I'm done with War PvP this xpac, and PvP in general.

War Feasters have fun, I'm sure War is a beast in that mode.

For all my Frontline friends, I hope everyone else got the changes they wanted for their main, and that they find their main PvP jobs more enjoyable than I find Warrior.

Enjoy.

[Fannah]

I hear you, and I think kinda the same, but in a way, we could say no one should be alone. But maybe it would be a solution to have a macro like :

/merror off
/pvpac "Nascent flash"
/pvpac "Nascent flash" <3>
/pvpac "Nascent flash" <4>
/pvpac "Nascent flash" <mo>
/pvpac "Nascent flash" <2>

(I think <2> will be the healer by default in the 4 players team when you're playing as tank)
And you change the order according to your allies/preferences.
5th line is for "mouse over" so it will quickly target the ally you have your mouse over in FL if your team is dead.
2nd line is if you prefer to click on someone from another team to use it (with Battle fever, for exemple). (I don't know if you can target people from other ally teams, I'm just saying that in case you can).

I hope it'll help.

[NyneSwordz]

I hear you, and I think kinda the same, but in a way, we could say no one should be alone. But maybe it would be a solution to have a macro like :

/merror off
/pvpac "Nascent flash"
/pvpac "Nascent flash" <3>
/pvpac "Nascent flash" <4>
/pvpac "Nascent flash" <mo>
/pvpac "Nascent flash" <2>

(I think <2> will be the healer by default in the 4 players team when you're playing as tank)
And you change the order according to your allies/preferences.
5th line is for "mouse over" so it will quickly target the ally you have your mouse over in FL if your team is dead.
2nd line is if you prefer to click on someone from another team to use it (with Battle fever, for exemple). (I don't know if you can target people from other ally teams, I'm just saying that in case you can).

I hope it'll help.

Thanks Fannah, I already have a similar macro I use for Nascent Flash except instead of the mouseover target, I have one for focus target. It works well enough. My issue is that Wars need a party member to even use the action. None of the other tanks have this restriction. It really, really sucks that I get blown out of the water if I don't have party members nearby, even though I may have alliance members nearby. I don't know why they did this.

In a way, Nascent Flash is sort of like Clemancy. Imagine if you Paladins couldn't use clemency on themselves unless there was a party member. Or in PVE, imagine having to summon a chocobo just to be able to use clemency on yourself. It is so, so dumb. I'm tired of waiting for them to change it. If they aren't going to change it, I'm just gonna walk away and not have to be aggravated every time I get an error trying to use Nascent Flash in frontlines cuz my party members died.