Warrior Guide/Heavensward
- See also: Tank Guide and Guides
An up-to-date Warrior job guide is provided by The Balance.
Rotations
Enmity Generation
It is best practice to enter Defiance stance while generating enmity.
Single Target Enmity
Tomahawk > Brutal Swing > Heavy Swing > Skull Sunder > Butcher's Block
This rotation assumes you've entered Defiance stance prior to the pull. Additionally, this rotation may not be optimal for all encounters, but is given as a basic entry-level opener.
Multi Target Enmity
Tomahawk > Brutal Swing > Overpower > Switch Target > Heavy Swing > Skull Sunder > Switch Target > Butcher's Block > Switch Target > Heavy Swing > Skull Sunder > Switch Target > Butcher's Block > Heavy Swing > Maim > Steel Cyclone
This rotation assumes you've entered Defiance stance prior to the pull. Additionally, this rotation may not be optimal for all encounters, but is given as a basic entry-level opener.
Damage Output
It is best practice to enter Deliverance stance while dealing damage. However, Defiance should be your active battle stance if you're tanking adds as the OT (off-tank) or acting as the MT (main tank) in a full-party instance. If there are no adds in the fight and you're in the OT position, you may instead remain in Deliverance stance.
Basic Damage
Heavy Swing > Brutal Swing > Maim > Storm's Eye
Although the Storm's Eye combo is lesser overall potency than the Butcher's Block combo, this sequence does not run the risk of taking enmity away from the MT, while also applying a 10% slashing resistance down debuff on the target that lasts for 20 seconds. Reducing slashing resistance will enable both you, the MT, and any Ninja players in the party to deal increased damage to the target for the duration of the debuff. Note that this does not stack with a Ninja's Dancing Edge.
High Damage
Heavy Swing > Berserk > Maim > Brutal Swing > Storm's Eye > Heavy Swing > Skull Sunder > Butcher's Block > Fell Cleave
Please note that use of this damage combo at the outset of a pull can potentially rip enmity off the MT if they are not prepared. It is generally not recommended to use this combo at the start of combat. Further, once the 20 second duration of Berserk expires, you be inflicted with the Pacification debuff for 5 seconds, which prohibits the use of weapon skills.
Fell Cleave Chain
Heavy Swing > Brutal Swing > Maim > Storm's Eye > Heavy Swing > Skull Sunder > Butcher's Block > Heavy Swing > Berserk > Fell Cleave > Infuriate > Fell Cleave > Vengeance > Maim > Raw Intuition > Storm's Eye > Brutal Swing > Heavy Swing > Skull Sunder > Fell Cleave > Butcher's Block > Fracture
This is an advanced damage combo that will enable you to land three successive Fell Cleave attacks within the span of the 50% attack power boost conferred by Berserk. Note that this rotation requires that the oGCD (off-global cool down) abilities listed here must be weaved in-between your regular weapon skills. Performing this technique requires practice and specific timing, as well as the capacity to remain within melee range of the target for the duration needed to land each attack. Depending upon your skill speed stat, you may also not be able to fit in the final Fracture attack prior to being inflicted with Pacification.
Observe that this same rotation can, however, also be used in large multi-group pulls if and only if you and your party are comfortable with you entering Deliverance stance after the initial pull, replacing each Fell Cleave in the combo above with the AoE attack Decimate. Additionally, doing this assumes you understand to establish a large enmity lead against the group with use of Overpower and the cross-class skill Flash, as well as properly positioning yourself to avoid the auto-criticals incurred from rear and flank attacks after using Raw Intuition.
Damage Mitigation
Cross Class Skills
Tips and Tricks
- Managing available TP (tech points) to use your abilities effectively and consistently is a large part of playing Warrior well. Making use of the special attacks granted at five stacks of Wrath/Abandon, which cost no TP to use, will help your native TP regeneration. Conservative use of Tomahawk and Overpower to establish enmity leads at each pull will assist in this area, as well as knowing when it is prudent to enter Deliverance stance to use Equilibrium for an extra 200 TP.
- Learning when to switch between your stances is key to maximizing Warrior's overall potential. As you grow more comfortable and confident with the play style of the class, it becomes easier to understand when you can switch to Deliverance for extra burst damage, and when it is necessary to re-enter Defiance, either for mitigation or building up further enmity.
- Although tanks do not make use of positionals for their attacks, Warrior is the only tank class where understanding how you are positioned in relation to enemies can affect your defenses. Knowing the exact boundaries of your front arc is will ultimately lead to frequent and more intelligent use of Raw Intuition, and greater mitigation. Further, learning the exact reach and arc radius of the cone on Overpower will allow you to move effectively use it as you position your own forward arc during group pulls.