So i've seen some posts asking for some Warrior stuff, i've played a warrior for many years so here's some stuff for ya. Group: in my experience there's 2 ways to tank as a warrior, there's tank tanking (1h/shield) and there's dps tanking (2h), with the 1h/shield I rarely use any abilities/discs unless there's 2 or more mobs, in my case I tank TBM mostly at the moment, so 2-3 tends to get a bit iffy, so I'll pop Pain Doesn't hurt, or if you aren't 102, it's No Time To Bleed,, to grab the multiple aggro you can either wade or use stormwheel or similar, or if you really want to lock it use both and area taunt. (only use area taunt if there is no other mobs around or you will train yourself). For nameds you want to lock aggro so you can let your team burn, for this I recommend starting with Blast of anger, into Flash of anger to block all damage so you can get the rest of your abilities out, after these 2 you'll want to use phantom aggressor to lock it down, and pop your defensives, for nameds i only use Pain doesn't hurt and Last stand, sometimes warlords tenacity if they have a nasty DD/dot, then I will pop imperator disc for group attack speed, or if it's casters I will pop the caster one. If the named isn't dead after all this, you can use Third spire, Auspice and anything else you have left, 3 discs you should be spamming is Pain Doesn't Hurt, brace for impact and blade guardian. as these will last a while and you won't be waiting long for cooldown. Raid: For raid tanking you will want to lock aggro as fast as possible so no one takes from you and dies, for this I do, blast of anger, flash of anger, All basic anger abilities, phantom and projection of fury, then I will start with Fortitude for my first disc, and work on setting the rest off. if you are 2nd in line for tanking, ageless emity I think is it's name? it will put you to the top of the aggro list, then spam all your aggro discs. Swarming/PLing : this is something a lot of people doubt, Warrior PL'ing / swarming. if the warrior has a decent 2H and 1h/shield, he can PL all day long, I often sit in grounds PLing my own toons, to do it effectively you will do this. 2h : just spam Pain doesn't hurt, and Brutal onslaught and Furious discipline. 1h/shield : once pain is down, you can pull a pile and tank with no discs with 1h/shield and slowly beat that pile down, and keep spamming stormwheel to slowly kill them quicker with that. there's is tonnes more to explain , but I cannot think of it off the top of my head, so if there's any questions, ask away and I will answer to the best of my ability. Tankii - Firiona Vie
If you tank a Boss mob, or an add or a mini in a raid, if you don't use an invul disc before dealing some aggro you can be dead in no time, being one rounded. Always use flash or fortitude before clicking a 100% taunt ability (deflection or shield flash if you are a knight) Even when I'm first to tank, i click a 100% taunt ability at start like Ageless to be 100% sure the mob is on me. Also, I don't use Projection of Fury and Phantom Aggressor at same time, I start with projection of fury, and when the pet disappear, i click Phantom Aggressor. This allows me to apply a longer big phase of aggro power on the boss. Make sure to keep aggro over Projection of Fury pet, so that you get more hate bonus when the pet fades.
this is just how I do it and I prefer it personally, but opinions from all warriors willing to give would be great, and I use both pets at once because more aggro and they actually take some of the damage from the mob for a little period of time. like in Meastro raid in plane of hate, i'm front line for like 3-10mobs a time, if i don't flash first i'm toast, flash, storm/area taunt, let chanter/bard do their mezzing job. everyone plays different, another reason i made this thread, for inputs )
Pain Doesn't Hurt should be constantly on cooldown, no matter what you're doing or what else you're doing. It covers 3 out of every 5 minutes, so if you're "picking your spots" for it, you're likely wasting a ton of your potential tanking power. PDH (née NTTB) is a core power, not a special trick. Instead of firing it up in response to dicey pulls, fire it up always and then actively look to pull aggressively while it's on. The agro that Phantom Agressor gives you scales up by the agro you already have, so it's much more powerful if you run it after the buttons that don't scale. On mobs that will last a minute, put out your Projection of Fury, Taunt over it (Ageless or AET if you're in a hurry, but the skill Taunt works fine too), run the regular buttons, then Phantom.
I'll throw my 2 cents in for any warrior just starting out, I just recently started to learn how to play a warrior, and these are the threads I found useful: http://forums.eqfreelance.net/index.php?topic=2973.0 https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/help-me-understand-the-warrior.216767/ https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/armor-class-and-you.160/ https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/ac-vs-acv2.210028/page-12 https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/how-does-damage-mitigation-work.966/ https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/warrior-ability-stacking.230888/ https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/how-to-play-a-warrior.215631/ https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/any-warrior-guides-out-there.233452/page-4 For a new warrior, those threads are basically gibberish and it's impossible to understand everything without a lot of time testing, playing, training ingame, and re-reading those guides with regularity. I found the below quote cogent and wise: Playing a warrior in modern EQ is one of the more technically challenging roles in gaming I've ever experienced. Once you get more comfortable with the game and the ideas, those threads and others will ring true and reading them will feel like putting on an old glove. I'll add a quick note on something I'm in the middle of working on: utilizing Gina triggers to maximize buff uptime and minimize buff conflicts. Keeping the correct self-buffs up is a massive part of playing a warrior because if you mess up you'll tread into "frequently one-rounded territory". We have a buff/short buff window, but even with my buff mod that shows the names it's a lot of information to process quickly. I'm basing my gina triggers off Zakknaffein's here: http://forums.eqfreelance.net/index.php?topic=2973.0 I am creating multiple areas for different types of buffs. That way I can quickly see how long (or if it dropped) Pain Doesn't Hurt has left so I know when to follow it with Brace of Impact. Or whether I have a Cleric's Third Spire of Divinity up so I know not to pop my Third Spire yet. I'm able to more easily keep 100% uptime on field protector / Commanding Voice because I have a couple timers clearly displayed on screen. I have a notification for when DI drops, so I can start begging for it. I haven't gotten my gina triggers perfected, but the next thing I'm pondering is how to know when my healers are interrupted in some way. In some fights it's obvious, ex: Vim and Vigor when clerics can get DA'd (invulnerable and unable to act via Protection of Sul) and have to run to the yellow aura. When I see this on one of my clerics I'm able to pop dichotomic/warlord's bravery etc. If I see this on two of my clerics I can get prepped to hit flash, fortitude. But what about other fights that aren't so obvious? It'd be nice to see what my healers are targeting in the extended target window, not sure if that's an option? Or maybe a gina timer that shows up whenever a healer heals me, such that if that timer is old, I know that healer is MIA? That might be too slow to be useful.
It can be constantly on cooldown on raid bosses too, since now the game calculates what effect takes the min dmg, and can be used outside of defensive disc, when before it could be more detrimental to your dmg mitigation as hits were over the threshold Have it been checked that it was actually working right after the patch that allowed this ? I remember having clicked PDH outside defensive disc one time, and I had the feeling i was taking more dmg than Brace for Impact alone. It's way likely a bad feeling as I base this only on my HP bar spiking and not number data, but has it been tested number wise after patch ? I'm still cautious atm to use it outside defensive disc on raid bosses.
I've found Zak's GINA set to be a bit too complete. Having every bit of information highlighted just creates a new baseline that important things have to (and have no way to~) rise out of. I don't, for instance, use a GINA timer for Pain Doesn't Hurt. The button's on my hotbars, it naturally shows how long until it's ready (with an exact number via tooltip); I know it lasts 3 minutes so I'm headed to the next +tanking ability at 2-minutes-to-go. Ditto Dichotomic Shield and Guardian's Plate Chestguard of War and Diplomatic Papers, which I use in rotation with PDH for full "something extra going on" coverage. I keep those five minute cooldown things adjacent on my hotbars. I also don't use a GINA timer for Field Protector or Commanding Voice, just a regular audio trigger for Field Protector fading. I refresh Commanding Voice sometimes when I refresh Protector (longer duration, doesn't need to be every time). The Protector audio also twigs on Brell's aug proc, but I'm okay with that since it's not too frequent. I definitely don't want to hear from GINA about most buffs. If players have buffs they can cast on me and they're not, then it's because they have something more important going on. Likely I do, too, if I'm too busy to look at my actual buff bar to see what's missing. DI is all I let it tell me about - specifically I have a trigger Zak doesn't have for when other folks are being rescued by their DI, as a bellweather for a situation being serious. The one thing tanking related I do let GINA help me track is Imperator's cooldowns. Three grouped warriors should have Command (or Charge if SAotI is on) full time. Having the ready visualization of three staggered timers I find helpful.
I always start with Fortitude > Unflinching attention > warlords fury for aggro lock and hate modifier, then other aggro and defensive abilities, using flash of anger to bridge the gap between fortitude and last stand. Dichotomic shielding and warlords tenacity can be used as needed. I'm not an expert raid tank by any means, and noticed no one else mentioned unflinching attention (18 second aggro lock, plus AC boost) so wondering if there's some reason people don't use it
I use gina triggers to see all heals and melee and spell damage instead of eq chat scrolling. It works quite wonderfully. I also trigger important buffs with timers like armor of the inquisitor , bear , spires. And of course all of my own important stuff I basically have 4 places where Gina stuff runs . 1 spot for Melee and spell damage , 1 spot for heals, 1 spot for my timers and buff timers, and lastly one for the raid mechanic emotes. You can send me a tell in game and I can share the heal and damage triggers btw. [tell Finalstand.Firiona
I use it in a little different order after using ageless , have seen taunt fails with unflinching running even instant taunts.
Fortitude is a crisis tool, for when healers have real reasons for not being able to get you heals in time. Like they're all dead, or all mana drained, or all super distracted because everyone else is dead, etc. If they need longer to get started casting spells than the free tick off Shield Flash, then your raid has a cleric problem, not a warrior one. Save Fortitude for when it can rescue a raid in peril. Unflinching is fine. Since agro multipliers don't stack, though, it's basically just a long-cooldown backup to Warlord's Grasp. Distraction, from rogues, is the best agro multiplier. It's up full time if you fight with competent rogues. Dichotomic Shielding is the highest warrior one, then Rage of the Forsaken, then Unflinching, with Warlord's Fury being substantially weaker than Voice of Thule buff we get from SKs.
I dont use unflinching because it shares timer with something i often use, can't remember which one exactly. i've never had a rogue a rogue cast Distraction on me, ever. I constantly use PDH because I like to make clerics life a little easier lol, if I end up with more mobs than I hoped for i'm sure you're all aware a warrior almost always has a trick up his sleeve for messy situations. I guess I'll look into what flinching shares timer with so I can use it more, I usually spam Field protector and commanding voice too, but a lot of the time i'll forget, not sure how much it actually helps, bit a fair bit of AC boost if you stack it with Stout.
You're thinking of Forceful Attraction, which busted when Warlord's Grasp was busted so doesn't enter into discussion any more. Unflinching Attention is on its own timer. Then I expect you've never grouped or raided with a rogue? It's one of their spam buttons...
Why still using actively Commanding Voice ? Every raider has access to the same dodge effect with passive AA Myrmidon Skill XI.
Great, I didn't know it. Once I had Myrmidon Skill XI to click (it was an active click for some time) I never looked back to CV. And i was wondering why we were receiving more CV AA to increase his duration in new expansion. Will put it back asap in my line up,+ 40 % is nice
One thing I love about the warrior is there are so many layers of stacking abilities, items and buffs. It seems like every week I either learn something that helps me add a little bit of HP/mitigation or save some endurance by ditching an ability that doesn't stack anyway. Until last week that's how I played it. Some people are good at hitting protector every 28s or so to keep 100% uptime without wasting endurance, but I'm not one of them. And it's much harder to keep up when it counts and you're at a critical point in a raid or there's a bad pull. I think for a lot of warriors who feel good about keeping protector /commanding voice up, checking their log and seeing the interval they cast it at might be enlightening. EoK extends the duration of commanding voice and field protector dramatically, but I'll probably get those AAs after about 7000 AA points later, just because it's so easy for me to keep 100% uptime already.
One thing that I did for FP and CV is to make a single hotkey that casts both and then uses the in game cooldown timers to count down the 45 or 48 seconds or so that FP lasts (with extension duration aa's). So if the button is available, I can hit it and know how long the buff will last. You can hit it again if needbe and cast the abilities again, or just wait on the /timer command in game macros have. CV is longer duration but with such a low endurance cost, I didn't mind spamming it extra times without waiting for it to fade. With the extension aa's for both of these, I am considering changing up my strategy for them because 10 minute durations will take them out of my "need to spam" keys.
