Proposal for inner release change

[fulminating]

Guaranteed direct crit and infinite beast gauge, while a nice thematic touch, don't really make a compelling or complex ability. I propose to change inner release to something more in line with level 50 warrior's burst where you ideally wish to use 2 inner beasts and 1 storm's eye or path under it without overcapping.

To maintain this level amount of gauge engagement, I think the removing the unlimited beast gauge skills aspect from IR would be a good step. This would require the use of infuriate and 5 CGDs (HS > Infuriate (50) > Maim (10) >> SE (10) >> HS >> Maim (10)) before the opener to be in a good position with 80 gauge to start the burst.

As Fell Cleave, Inner Chaos and Inner Beast cost 50 gauge, this would only allow for Inner Chaos and a single Fell Cleave, so perhaps Inner Release should offer some kind of discount on gauge skills - 50% say - or buff to gauge generation for the duration/stacks. Assuming the discount option is chose, the burst would start with Inner Chaos and use at least one Fell Cleave to allow another Infuriate, followed up by emptying the gauge and then primal rend (4 Fell Cleaves, 2 Inner Chaoses and a Primal Rend). To allow for easier weaving, it could be beneficial to replace the gap-closing element of Primal Rend with a Damage over Time effect, something every other tank has at least one of (Sonic Break/Circle of Scorn/Living Shadow/Song of Torment).

The tooltip could ultimately look something like
Inner Release Duration 18s
For duration halves cost of Beast Gauge attacks.
Additional effect: increases damage dealt by 30%
Additional effect: grants Inner Strength granting immunity to all the statuses except the ones that are going to hit through regardless or the ones it doesn't.

This change would also have the added effect of quelling complaints about forced direct crits, which are effectively the same as being unable to crit. A potency adjustment may be in order to address this, but it might be fine.

[Marxam]

WAR is never going back to dmg or even atk power increases. Easiest way to balance a job is just to make it either 100% crit or dh to give the illusion of doing more damage when in reality its balanced. Also what you described was what IR used to be like at the start of 4.0. Berserk and IR were originally seperate with Berserk being a 20% atk power increase and IR just halving the costs of gauge spenders but that changed in 4.1 when ppl couldn't figure it out and ended up with 5 gauge at the end of it all.

[Ransu]

WAR is never going back to dmg or even atk power increases. Easiest way to balance a job is just to make it either 100% crit or dh to give the illusion of doing more damage when in reality its balanced. Also what you described was what IR used to be like at the start of 4.0. Berserk and IR were originally seperate with Berserk being a 20% atk power increase and IR just halving the costs of gauge spenders but that changed in 4.1 when ppl couldn't figure it out and ended up with 5 gauge at the end of it all.

Makes me sad really. I miss the ARR days when WAR was the "I'm going to beat you to a bloody pulp" type of tank. I mostly find tanking kinda boring, but old school WAR made it fun.

[fulminating]

Why do attack variation, direct hit and critical hits exist at all? They could make every skill and every ability and every auto guarantee the highest roll and a direct crit. It would make everything that little bit more boring, but it would be extremely easy to balance. Or better yet they could replace everything with an "attack" button, that way everyone would be doing their rotation correctly and there'd be no unexpected paradox magi, dragon kick monks or yukikaze samurais. I just don't buy making everything uninteresting for the sake of balance being remotely good in the long or short term. At 90 Warrior is currently the fifth most miserable job to play, and I'd like it to be better.

[ArianeEwah]

At 90 Warrior is currently the fifth most miserable job to play, and I'd like it to be better.

Then, I am curious, what are your top 4 for most miserable jobs? All 4 healers or is there SAM and SMN in between?

@OP: I share your urge to get WAR - and IR specially - away from its guaranteed direct crit interation. 5-7 GCDs per minute is without a doubt absurd and ludicrous. You would expect the dev team to rework WAR soon™ since they said that changing NIN raid buff from trick attack into 2 min mug was "because synergy", but WAR - and to some degree SAM, with the same patch mind you - don't benefit from litany, voice or chainstratagem. *eyeroll*

Your suggestion however bears the very same problems 4.0 WAR had - as others have already pointed out! Your opener starts rather weak (4 FC, 2 IC vs 6 FC, 2 IC later on), and can end in uneven gauge numbers. Missing e.g. one/three FC/decimate can occur in multiple situations - due to long duration, gauge generation variation or untargetable phases. This becomes more risky and unnecessary punishing by design, and not dependent on player skill.

Current WAR may not be perfect, but at least the last balance patch made it less klunky and more fluent than before.

[Amenara]

I agree that I hate IR being Crit/DH, especially now with how everyone's dps rotation is built around the 2 minute buff timer and not being able to take advantage of most of those buffs. I also agree that I don't see it getting changed in EW for sure, but probably not until SE changes secondaries to have more use than the current crit > everything else design. Hopefully secondaries get a big shakeup in 7.0 but I have no hope or expectation of that happening.

[Chopstix]

no ty

taking away even more dmg from WAR that is already hurting

[fulminating]

no ty

taking away even more dmg from WAR that is already hurting

Ideally it would be balanced to be an increase in damage by virtue of not being guaranteed direct crit, which currently neuters the damage potential

[Absurdity]

no ty

taking away even more dmg from WAR that is already hurting

Obviously they shouldn't just remove the direct crit from IR, but adjust the potencies accordingly. So what you'd end up with is slightly more variance in dps from the lower end to the high end depending on how well you took advantage of party buffs and rng... you know, like every other tank.


Right now if you burst during Chain Stratagem+Battle Litany+Battle Voice it does nothing for warrior's dps, because none of those buffs actually work on their main damage sources.

[Argyle_Darkheart]

So... you basically want 4.0 WAR?

It's not going to happen.

Play GNB?