A Warrior’s Way

An advanced guide to Warrior
By Yuki Hellscythe

Last Updated: Guide out of date, new guide on the way soon. This one will be archived.

In this guide I will be talking a bit on how to play Warrior, and why it is played in this way. Warrior at first glance is a difficult class when compared to other tanks, but with a bit of understanding and practice, it can be the most potent tank both offensively and defensively in the game. With the help of the Balance Discord, I hope to be able to effectively teach you to play Warrior. I am Yuki Hellscythe of Leviathan and welcome to my guide, A Warrior’s Way.

Contents show

Disclaimer

This guide is aimed at 8 man content and will either rarely or not at all mention situations that can be applicable for 4-man and 24-man content
Tooltips, basic skill potencies and basic tanking skills will not be addressed. Everyone skips those sections anyway and it’s just padding the guide. If you need tooltips, refer to: https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/jobguide/warrior/
Initialisms used throughout this guide:
1. GCD – Global Cooldown: Weapon Skills, Spells
2. oGCD – Abilities
3. IB – Inner Beast
4. BB Combo – Heavy Swing, Skull Sunder, Butcher’s Block – Threat combo
5. SP Combo – Heavy Swing, Maim, Storm’s Path – Damage combo +30 gauge
6. SE Combo – Heavy Swing, Maim, Storm’s Eye – Buff combo +20% damage for 30s
7. FC – Fell Cleave
8. IRzerk – Berserk paired with Inner release
9. Mildzerk – Berserk with no Inner release
10. All further initialisms will be explained when they appear.
Certain parts of this guide, notably the layout, format, Tenacity, and Raid Buffs section are credited to Emiin Vanih[Lamia]. Please go check out his Dark knight guide!
This guide will be continually updated until the end of 4.x and Stormblood

The tl;dr Basics/Faq – I need to be good. Now.

This is a Tl;dr to the guide. You can read the following for a relative idea of what to do, and look at the specific sections for explanations.

Avoid using Defiance if you’re not on progression. Inner Beast makes Warriors gods at tanking sustained damage but should be saved for progression purposes as the damage loss is pretty significant. Others learning the fight can also count as progression.
Use Berserk on cooldown, even if you are forced to Defiance, have no gauge, or on bad GCDs. Your goal is the hit Berserk every minute and line it up with Infuriate, Inner release, and raid buffs (Trick Attack, Chain Stratagem) as much as possible. Misaligning Berserk once means you’re misaligning for the rest of the fight. Berserk is used preferably on the GCD you hit Storm’s Eye, or the Heavy Swing after that.
Optimally, you want to start at 100 Beast Gauge before any Berserk(other than opener). At minimum, Mildzerk can start at 60 Beast Gauge and IRzerk can start at 80 Beast Gauge without issues to your rotation.
Infuriate is to be used alongside Berserk. The enhanced Infuriate trait is only taken advantage of after an opener, and should be ignored otherwise.
The opener uses 4 FCs instead of 6. It’s better for aligning with opener and future Raid buffs : http://ffxivrotations.com/1430 (Pulling with Ninja)
4 FC Mildzerk and 7 FC IRzerk is bad. Don’t do it.
Your general GCD rotation is to start with an SE Combo, Berserk rotation, SE Combo, 3x any combo (Preferably SP Combo), SE Combo, Berserk Rotation, Repeat. Rotation map.
Try very hard not to let your Beast gauge overcap. Using Upheaval on cooldown and 1 FC every 2 minutes will prevent capping. Using Onslaught to dump gauge should be reserved for faster builds (2.39 and under). Max gauge for higher crit rate won’t outweigh the damage gained from actually spending the gauge. You can use a BB combo instead of SP combo for extra potency if you can’t spend the gauge.
How to AoE – Do I Overpower or build gauge? (3+ targets)
1. Keep SE Combo buff up for +20% damage
2. If IRzerk (not Mildzerk) is coming up, build gauge and Decimate once both buffs are available
3. Save Infuriate and Gauge for Berserk use only
4. Using Overpower is better than building gauge if IRzerk is not available soon.
5. If you are forced into Defiance, building gauge is not worthwhile at all unless the healing/defensive aspects of IB or Steel Cyclone is needed.
Other tidbits
1. Warriors are the best tank to pull with in the game and loses almost no damage compared to the other two tanks. (Defiance is only used for Tomahawk + Equilibrium as opposed to a full combo)
2. Gauge should be spent in the following manner(more details later):
  Upheaval > Fell Cleave > Onslaught
3. Thrill of battle can and should be used with IRzerk to make Upheaval stronger
4. Onslaught generates 10x aggro (more than Tomahawk, less than Overpower) and can be used to help with adds
5. In most cases, try to Sprint rather than Onslaught unless a full GCD is gained.

Part 1: Defiance, Inner Beast, and other Defensive cooldowns.

Probably the most important job of any tank is how they map out their defensive cooldowns. It is important for not only the tank to find a way to handle every single tank buster that comes their way, but also any possible high sustaIned damage scenario. Below are some of the defensive options of a Warrior and how you can utilize them

Defiance and Tank stance

Note that Defiance, and Tank stance in general should be treated as a progression tool and only progression tool. There are almost no situations in the history of FF14 raiding where sitting in Defiance was the best way to handle a fight so try to avoid Defiance once you start to understand where cooldowns can be applied.

Defiance on paper will mitigate nearly the same amount of damage as Grit or Shield Oath. For an example, let’s compare a 1k damage hit on two tank stances at 1k hp followed by a 500 cure.

1000 x 0.8 (Grit) = 800
1000hp – 800 + 500(cure) = 700hp/1000hp = 70% HP

1000hp x 1.25 (Defiance) = 1250hp | 500(cure) x 1.2 (Defiance) = 600(cure)
1250hp – 1000 + 600(cure) = 850hp/1250hp = 68% HP

So Defiance by itself is nearly as strong as any other tank stance as long as you are being healed, at least on paper. Defiance is still a weaker tank stance than Grit/Shield oath due to the fact that healing received buffs are not affected by abilities such as Lustrate, Indomitability, or Assize, so the effectiveness of such abilities plummet once more gear is obtained and abilities start doing the majority of healing rather than hard casted Cures.

An advantage of Defiance is that the ability is on an oGCD unlike the other two tank stances. However because you are locked to Defiance for 10 seconds after switching, you are forced to lose 20% damage on 4 GCDs. So while the penalty is not as great as the other two tank stances where you lose a full GCD, it still exists and is the equivalent of losing 80% of a GCD at minimum.

Inner Beast

Inner Beast is an ability that is only available to you when in Defiance. Just like the tank stance itself, IB should be preferably used as a progression tool. IB is 350 potency and costs 175 raw potency upfront from the warrior in exchange for a FC, and will cost additional potency from being forced into tank stance for 10+ seconds. There is also the high possibility of losing FCs in Berserk, which can be up to an additional 157.5 potency loss.

In exchange for the enormous cost, IB gives a tremendous benefit. Using IB will give you both a 20% mitigation for 6s, and a self-heal to keep your hp up for the incoming hit. The ability to constantly mitigate, heal yourself, and fill gaps in between cooldowns makes Warrior the best tank to take sustained damage, regardless of the damage type.

A way to look at IB’s mitigation ability is to look at how it allows us to chain our cooldowns. For example:

Inner Beast (6 seconds)
Rampart (20 seconds)
Inner Beast (6 seconds)
Raw Intuition (20 seconds)
Inner Beast (6 seconds)
Thrill of battle + Convalescence (20 seconds)
Inner beast (6 seconds)
Vengeance ( 15 seconds)
Inner beast (6 seconds)
Rampart (20 seconds)
Inner beast (6 seconds)
Raw Intuition (20 seconds)
Inner beast (6 seconds)

This is 157 seconds of cooldowns that is equivalent to at least 20% mitigation. No other tank is capable of the constant, uninterrupted mitigation Warrior brings in progression, and this makes Warrior the undisputed king in this scenario.

Unchained

Unchained is another ability that is once again tied to Defiance. Unchained, just like tank stance, is considered a progression tool, and mostly used for aggro purposes. It also shares a cooldown with Inner Release, one of our strongest offensive cooldowns. To make matters worse, Unchained/Inner release lines up perfectly with Berserk, meaning any damage you lose from not using Inner release is boosted by Berserk. For example we will take a look at how much damage we lose from using Unchained instead of Inner Release in a rotation:

Unchained w/all relevant buffs:

HS (257.4) + Maim ( 326.04) + Storm’s Path (463.32) + HS (257.4) + Skull Sunder ( 343.2) + Butcher’s Block (480.48) + Upheaval (1206.56) + Fell Cleave (900.9) + Fell Cleave (900.9) + Fell Cleave (900.9) = 6037.1 Potency

Inner Release w/all relevant buffs:

HS (270.27) + Maim (342.34) + Storm’s Path (486.49) + Fell Cleave (900.9) + Fell Cleave (900.9) + Fell Cleave (900.9) + Fell Cleave (900.9) + Fell Cleave (900.9) + Fell Cleave (900.9) + Upheaval (648.65) + Onslaught (180.18) + Onslaught (180.18) = 7513.51 Potency

Calculations are done with Slashing, Storm’s Eye, Berserk, Deliverance buffs. Upheaval done swith Thrill of Battle, Unchained, and Defiance.

So Inner release is roughly a 1480.62 potency gain, or 24.4% extra damage. You give up +24.4% damage over 20 seconds in exchange for 20s of +25% HP, +20% healing and increased aggro. +25% damage in exchange for what is essentially the same as Thrill of battle + Convalescence is understandably undesirable.

In short, Unchained is an ability that should not be used in place of Inner Release unless high aggro generation and Inner beast usage is greatly desired, which can be a majority of progression situations.

~~Note that Unchained may or may not be currently bugged, and will increase the damage of Upheaval by 25%, or the same amount that Defiance would have reduced.~~ Not a bug

Holmgang

Holmgang deserves a mention in the guide as it is likely the best defensive cooldown in the game. Although the immediate effects are not as strong as the other two invulnerability skills, the short cooldown of Holmgang (180s) allows you to use it multiple times per fight. By abusing Holmgang’s short cooldown, a Warrior is allowed to use their cooldowns more creatively, stacking extra options for tank busters, or giving yourself extra mitigation for heavy raid wide damage where healers are too busy with the party to single target the tank.

Cross Role Actions

As Tank, our Cross Role choices are actually fairly limited. There are four high priority options:

Rampart – 20% mitigation for 20 seconds – necessary for obvious reasons
Provoke – Gives the player 1 point of aggro higher than the current highest player – Obvious for Tank swaps. Accidental deaths can also happen and can be used to recover. Even with no Tank swaps or deaths, it can be utilized to give free aggro when utilized with Shirk and therefore damage.
Shirk – Gives the target 25% of your aggro – Even with no tank swaps, gives free aggro when utilized with Provoke and therefore necessary.
Reprisal – Boss deals 10% less damage for 6 seconds – flexible, short cooldown, and can be used for mitigation on tank busters and raid wide aoe. Can even be used on adds.

The final slot has few key choices for us to take depending on the fight:

Awareness – Prevents receiving critical hits – Some bosses have high critical hit rate mechanics (O3s, A3s, A7s), and the ability pairs extremely well with Raw Intuition
Convalescence – Increases healing received by 20% – Good for 1 HP mechanics and Holmgang abuse. Not great as a general cooldown since it doesn’t affect healing abilities or let you live tank busters.
Anticipation – Increases Parry rate by 30% – has a high uptime (25s/60s), good for bosses that auto attack constantly although overlaps badly with Raw Intuition

And then we have some extremely situational choices:

Ultimatum – AoE provoke – Currently worthless outside of dungeons and even then it is questionable. Boss mechanics in FF14 have been designed around a single-target Provoke so it is currently unnecessary. Unknown if this ability will be useful in the future or not. Currently has some use in UCoB as a backup provoke or solo tanking adds.
Low Blow – 5s Single target stun – Raid bosses occasionally have mechanics that require you to stun them. Pld/Drg/Mnk all carry natural stuns however while other melee tend to have available slots for a stun. May be useful if long chain stuns are required
Interject – 1s Single target Silence – Same reasoning as Low blows, silence mechanics happen only occasionally and there are jobs with natural silences (Mnk/Nin) or have available slots (Brd/Mch)

General tips

Mapping your cooldowns is probably the most defining part of playing a tank. It is important to look at each specific fight and find the most efficient way to mitigate incoming damage on each situation. Remember that raiding is a group effort, and the goal is to mitigate properly so neither the tank, nor the healer comes out on the bottom from dps. Any monkey can hold hate on a boss and survive with tank stance, you should aim to do better.
Don’t always be the Main Tank. Don’t always be the Off tank either. When I refer to MT/OT I only mean who is currently tanking at the moment. Designating a single tank to handle the entirety of a fight is stupid. Utilize tank swaps for more cooldown options rather than just dealing with tank swap mechanics. If you sit there as an OT for an entire fight never using any of your cooldowns, then thats a lot of wasted mitigation that could’ve helped your healers do more damage. Tank swaps also give you an excellent reason to use Shirk more for better aggro control.
Your DPS have mitigation abilities as well. All Melees have Feint (-10% phys), Ranged have Palisade(-20% phys), Bards have Nature’s Minne(+20% healing)/Troubadour(variable 10/15% buffs), Machinist has Dismantle (-10%), Casters have Addle(-10% magic) and Apocatastasis(-20% magic). Don’t be afraid to ask for mitigation options from your dps.
Uptime is the key to high dps. Just like any job, constantly hitting the boss is the key to doing good dps. This is especially pronounced on Warrior as it is very obvious when you find yourself not having enough gauge when you’re about to Berserk. Hit the boss, deal damage, get orange FFlogs, easy game.

Part 2: Berserk

The Warrior in effect, revolves around the ability Berserk. Learning to play a Warrior is the same as learning to use Berserk. Berserk is a +30% attack power for 20s every 60s, and as a result, is responsible for the majority of a Warrior’s damage.

Playing Warrior at a high level revolves around getting as much damage as possible out of Berserk. Your goal as a Warrior is to hit Berserk every minute, on the minute, so you not only get the maximum possible Berserk uses out, but also to line up with Raid buffs that happen on minute intervals.

Note that Berserk is best used on the GCD that you use a Storm’s Eye, or the Heavy Swing after a Storm’s eye.

Inner Release and Mildzerk

As a Warrior, you have two types of Berserk that we call “IRzerk” and “Mildzerk”. IRzerk is the Berserk you pair with Inner Release, and Mildzerk is the one one without an Inner Release to go with.

Your IRzerk will look something like this starting at 80-100 gauge: http://ffxivrotations.com/143b

Alternative IRzerk example: http://ffxivrotations.com/14hw

You do not necessarily need to follow this exact way of execution. The idea is to have Berserk, Inner Release, Infuriate, and Thrill of Battle to all be up at the same time. Onslaught early so it can be used a second time in the rotation, Fell Cleave 6 times total and Upheaval whenever convenient. Try to get Upheaval and 4 FCs into Trick Attack, but do not FC more than 3 times in a row if you are still in the middle of a combo or it will likely break. Start Berserk after a Storm’s Eye combo, and follow the end of Berserk with a Storm’s Eye combo. Each 10 Gauge lost is a loss of an Onslaught until under 80 gauge which you should try your best to avoid.

Your Mildzerk should look something like this starting at 100 gauge: http://ffxivrotations.com/14gv

Again, you do not necessarily need to follow this exact way of execution. The idea is for you to have 2 combos, 3 FC’s, and an Upheaval in your Mildzerk. You can add an Onslaught as well if you’re skipping the naked Fell Cleave later on. Start Berserk at the end of a Storm’s eye combo, and the combo after Berserk should be another Storm’s Eye combo. It is possible to execute Mildzerk with only 60 gauge as long as both combos are Storm’s Path, just be aware of how it affects your next Berserk and Rotation.

4 and 7 Fell Cleaves or Upheaval for our Berserks?

This is a pretty common question that many people ask, and can be easily solved through a little math. Let’s start by comparing 7 Fell Cleaves to the standard IRzerk. Remember that using 7 Fell Cleaves means we can not use Upheaval or Onslaughts. Note that all the calculations in this section will be done with Berserk potencies:

7 FC vs. 6 FC + Upheaval:
5148 7 FC potency
Vs.
5343 6 FC + Upheaval potency

So this is pretty simple to grasp. You can spend 25 gauge on Fell Cleave which is 500 raw potency, or you can spend 30 gauge on Upheaval + 2 Onslaughts which is also raw 500 potency. The difference between the two is that Upheaval and Onslaughts are oGCD while Fell Cleave is GCD, meaning you have to give up a GCD, specifically Heavy swing during Berserk for that extra Fell Cleave. Upheaval also has the virtue of being able to go into Trick Attack windows and being buffed by other factors such as Thrill of Battle, so the 7 FC option is clearly worse.

Now let’s compare 4 FCs and 3 FCs + Upheaval:

4 FC vs. 3 FC + Upheaval
3991 4 FC potency
Vs.
3926 3 FC + Upheaval potency

In this case, the 4 FC option was actually superior!… or is it? Because you don’t hit Upheaval in the Mildzerk, you can’t hit Upheaval on any Berserk anymore at all without losing a usage due to the misalignment. What seems to be a 65 potency gain ends up to being a 130 potency loss. The difference then gets larger when we consider that 4 FCs will leave us with 0 gauge while 3 FCs + Upheaval will leave us with 40. With this extra gauge, we could have gained either 2 Onslaughts (+260 potency) or an unbuffed Fell Cleave later down the rotation (+350 potency).

It is then apparent that even though 4 FCs will do more damage within the Berserk window itself, it will cause a damage loss further down into the Warrior’s rotation and should be avoided.

Berserk and 9 GCDs

A fresh Warrior player may have issues with hitting the 9 GCDs of Berserk consistently. There are two factors to hitting the 9 GCD Berserk: Skill Speed, and Activation delay.

The GCD that you need to be at to consistently hit a 9 GCD Berserk is 2.44, or 715+ Skill Speed. As our gear choices are loaded with Skill Speed it is generally not an issue hitting this amount.

In order to do a 9 GCD Berserk effectively, you want to hit Berserk at the last possible moment before your GCD comes up. The timing which you want to hit Berserk is illustrated in the following picture:

Waiting until your GCD is about 2/3rds of the way and then using Berserk will help ensure you get the last GCD needed for a 9-hit Berserk. This is important as there will often be cases where that last hit is a Fell Cleave, and losing a Berserk hit on Fell Cleave is quite a large damage loss.

Although 2.44 GCD is the minimum that we need for a 9 hit Berserk, this does not mean you have to use that specific amount of Skill speed. A lot of players will opt for higher Skill speed amounts due to latency, or just comfort. Play at the GCD that feels good to you, regardless of what the BiS might suggest for Skill speed.

Raid Buffs

Your goal for optimal raid buff usage is to have the majority of Berserk within as many raid buffs as possible. As Berserk is on a minute cooldown, you will be able to take easily take advantage of every raid buff excluding Brotherhood. Inner Release being on a 2 minute cooldown will often miss the 3 minute buffs unfortunately. A Warrior’s damage is almost entirely defined by their Berserk windows, and how you handle raid buff usage can easily move you up several FFlogs rankings! The list below are most of the raid buffs in the game that you can take advantage of with Berserk in no particular order.

Balance(AST) – 5% damage AoE, 10% personal, 15% full buffed – 30-60s duration
Spear(AST) – 5% Crit rate AoE, 10% personal, 15% buffed – 20-40s duration
Chain Stratagem(SCH) – 15% Crit rate on target, 15s duration, 2m CD
Trick Attack(NIN) – 10% damage, 10s duration, 60s CD
Brotherhood(MNK) – 5% damage, 15s duration, 90s CD
Battle Litany(DRG) – 15% Crit rate, 20s duration, 3m CD
Embolden(RDM) – 10% physical damage (drops by 2% every 4s), 20s duration, 2m CD
Hypercharge(MCH) – 5% damage, 27-30s duration, 2m CD
Foe Requiem(BRD) – 3% damage, 15-20~s duration, CD dependant on mana
Battle Voice(BRD) – 15% DH rate, 20s duration, 3m CD
Song buff(BRD) – 2% Crit rate, constant.
Radiant Shield(SMN) – 2% damage, 20-24s duration, 60s CD

In a regular fight, you should expect to use raid buffs and Berserk on these intervals:

Opener (11s-15s) – Openers, and the reason we use the 4 FC opener rather than 6 is designed to take advantage of raid buffs.
(60s) Trick Attack window – Flat 10% increase 10s, every minute. This should be your main focus when looking to align with raid buffs. Always attempt to Berserk here
(90s) Brotherhood – Upheaval should hit every Brotherhood, a Fell Cleave can fit here
(2m) “Second” opener – Trick, Embolden, and Stratagem will be active for this window. IRzerk is abused here
(3m) – Trick, Battle Voice, Battle Litany, Brotherhood. IRzerk can be held once for one of the 3 minute alignments if the fight will end on an odd numbered minute
Repeat ad infinitum

If you are ever forced to Defiance during a Berserk window, simply hit Berserk as per usual. The misalignment of raid buffs will lose a lot more damage than using Berserk in Defiance would.

Trick Attack Optimization

Trick Attack lines up with most cooldown windows, has the largest consistent damage increase, and is the most regularly applied buff to focus on for maximizing damage output.

Trick attack has a 10 second duration, meaning that we can land at least Four GCDs within its window.
Berserk shares the same cooldown as Trick Attack – Hitting them together will improve damage output to 1.43x during the window
For Mildzerk, you want at least 2 FCs and Upheaval during this window
For IRzerk, you will want to use 4 FCs + Upheaval
The easiest way to time Trick Attack with Fell Cleaves is to wait until you see the debuff before using Infuriate for the extra Fell Cleave(s)
Always take 2 FCs + Upheaval over 3 FCs, otherwise Upheaval will not fit into Trick Attack again in future Berserks barring some mistake from the Ninja or mechanic/fight related delays

Part 3: Rotation and other specifics

The Warrior rotation and Gauge has been a heavy topic of discussion since Stormblood due to the increase in difficulty. Here we will talk about the Warrior rotation, and how to keep track of or simplify it.

Openers

1. First let’s take a look at the openers (Potion potencies not included in total)
Warrior pulling with Ninja: http://ffxivrotations.com/1430 8366.74 Potency:
Warrior pulling without Ninja/DPS don’t diversion : http://ffxivrotations.com/1434
8222.6 Potency:
Warrior OT(Tomahawk optional) : http://ffxivrotations.com/14hh – 8399.24 Potency:

Heavy Aggro Unchained opener (Neo Exdeath, no NIN + WHM) : http://ffxivrotations.com/1435
6959.63 Potency

So there are a few observations we can make with all the openers:

1. Equilibrium on pull

Equilibrium counts as a casted heal ability and will actually generate aggro based on how much it heals. The amount of aggro generated is also boosted by Defiance and it’s purpose is to allow you to start with a SE combo and very often straight up ignore BB combos

2. There are only 4 Fell Cleaves, not 6

Building up to 6 Fell cleaves before IRzerk would indeed make it stronger, however, you must delay your opener by 22 seconds in order to make it possible (+3 combos). By delaying your opener for 22 seconds, all of your Berserks will not line up with opening raid buffs nor will they ever line up with raid buffs properly again excluding mistakes from others or holding buffs for burst windows. You will never again have Berserk at the same time as Trick Attack, Battle Litany, Chain Stratagem, Embolden, Battle Voice, any raid wide cooldown that come at minute intervals. They will all end right as Berserk comes up again, which is a far larger damage loss than the 2 Fell cleaves.

3. They’re actually all the same

With the exception of the Unchained opener, both the MT and OT openers are the same post Tomahawk. Even with the no ninja opener, there is only an Onslaught lost. This is thanks to Onslaught and Equilibrium giving us so much aggro that we can straight up ignore BB Combo in many situations, and this is the reason why Warriors are so much more desirable for pulling the boss.

4. Infuriate is used extremely early

This is the one time that we take advantage of the Enhanced Infuriate trait. By hitting Infuriate early, we can use Infuriate again when it’s off cooldown thanks to the trait allowing us to have an extra fell cleave in the first minute of the fight. Generally when Infuriate is up and Berserk is 28s+ away you may hit it for an extra Fell cleave. You are required to hit 4 Fell Cleaves in the opener for this to work.

5. The placement of abilities are to take advantage of Raid buffs

Trick Attack fits exactly in the window where 3 FC’s, Upheaval, Onslaught, and Storm’s Path all land. All other raid buffs should fit into this exact window as well.

Rotation explained

With all the openers, we end on a SE combo and 20 Gauge. Thanks to the infuriate trait, we can use it once in order to receive a free FC. After this you have approximately 4 combos depending on Skill Speed before the next Berserk comes up.

2. For these 4 combos post the opener, we will be doing:
2x SP combo > BB Combo > SE Combo = +100 Beast Gauge
Including the 20 gauge from the opener, we now have a total of 120 gauge, 20 of which we will spend on Upheaval.

3. So now the Mildzerk rotation should look like this starting at 100 Gauge: http://ffxivrotations.com/143a

At the end of the Mildzerk, we once again start our rotation after an SE Combo, but with 60 gauge this time. We now have another 30 seconds before the next Berserk, this time with IR.

4. With our 4 Combos post Mildzerk, we will be doing:
3x SP Combo > SE Combo = +110 Beast Gauge
Including 60 Gauge from the opener, we now have 170 Beast Gauge. We then spend 20 on Upheaval once again, and 50 on FC.

5. So now we once again start our Berserk, this time with Inner Release with 100 Gauge and at the end of an SE combo: http://ffxivrotations.com/143b (Alternative: http://ffxivrotations.com/14hw)

Note that although the GCD usage is flexible, your combo will break if you hit more than 4 FCs in a row. We once again end our Berserk with 20 Gauge. At this point, you may continue again from the opener without the extra Infuriate, and the rotation repeats.

Rotation Tl;dr

1. Opener: http://ffxivrotations.com/1430
2. Do 4 Combos + Fell Cleave (Infuriate) + Upheaval
3. Mildzerk: http://ffxivrotations.com/143a
4. Do 4 Combos + Fell Cleave + Upheaval
5. IRzerk: http://ffxivrotations.com/143b
6. Do 4 Combos + Upheaval
7. Repeat from 3. Mildzerk
Warrior Rotation map over 3 minutes (2.43 GCD)

Rotation Visualized:

100 Gauge and Deliverance

It should be noted that Deliverance will give you 0.1% increased critical chance per point of gauge. This critical hit chance is one of the reasons why we prefer starting at 100 rage at the beginning of each Berserk. The increased Critical hit chance will be applied onto the ability/GCD that we spend the gauge on. Please note that staying at 100 gauge and overcapping is ALWAYS a damage loss.

Gauge usage, Onslaught or Fell Cleave

Upheaval is very clearly the best Gauge spender, but one of the questions that is often asked is whether you should dump gauge into Fell Cleave or Onslaught. Here I will explain when to pick Fell Cleave or Onslaught as your gauge spender and why.

To begin, a lot of people mistakenly compare Fell Cleave to Onslaught + a GCD, using the following calculation:

60 Gauge comparison
500 Fell Cleave potency
vs.
503 Onslaught Potency (3 x 100 potency + 203 potency (average GCD potency))

On paper this makes sense. You gain a GCD by not using a Fell Cleave, so you add the average GCD gained to the total of the onslaught potency. However, this is the incorrect way to look at it.

At 2.43s GCD, you are allowed to use approximately 49 GCDs (actual number is 49.3) every 2 minutes. Assuming 9 Fell Cleaves every 2 minutes (spent in Berserk), you now have 40 GCDs left to spend and build Gauge. This is 13 combos + 1 GCD.

In 13 combos (9 SP combos, 4 SE combos) you will generate +350 Gauge = 350 Gauge
You will gain 2 Infuriates over 2 minutes +100 Gauge = 450 Gauge
You will use 9 Fell Cleaves over 2 minutes (6 are half cost) -300 Gauge = 150 Gauge
You will use 4 Upheavals in over 2 minutes (1 is half cost) – 70 Gauge = 80 Gauge
You will use 2 Onslaughts during IRzerk – 20 Gauge = 60 Gauge

With 60 Gauge leftover, we have the choice of either spending it on 3 onslaughts, or 1 Fell Cleave. If we spend it on Fell Cleave, then our rotation is complete. We use exactly 49 Gcds before our next Inner Release. Everything repeats at the same GCD, same time, and all buffs are aligned.

If we choose to spend our Gauge on Onslaught however, we run into the issue of having an extra GCD with nowhere to go. Our choice then becomes:

Delay Berserk by 2 GCDs to finish a combo
Heavy Swing twice so Berserk and Inner Release stay aligned

Delaying Berserk by 2 GCDs is the incorrect choice. Each time you delay Berserk, you stray further and further away from raid buffs, and the damage loss after delaying your Berserk twice will be much worse than simply Heavy Swinging twice.

So in an effort to prevent Berserk from misaligning with raid buffs, we can no longer use the average potency of a combo to compare with on the Onslaught option. Instead we have to compare it as such:

60 Gauge comparison (Heavy Swing)
500 Fell Cleave potency
vs.
450 Onslaught Potency (3 x 100 potency + 150 potency Heavy Swing)

If we optimise it slightly by using 1 of the Onslaughts in Mildzerk, and a BB combo to avoid overcapping, the result then becomes :

True 60 Gauge comparison (BB combo and Mildzerk Onslaught)
520 Fell Cleave potency (+20 potency from BB combo)
vs.
480 Onslaught Potency (100 potency x2 + 130 Potency (Mildzerk) + 150 Heavy Swing potency)

So even if we optimise a little bit, Fell Cleave still wins out, on top of being much easier to execute.

At 2.43s GCD, Fell Cleave is always the superior option

What happens if we have a slightly faster GCD at 2.38s, where we gain 2 full GCDs over 2 minutes rather than just 1?

We then encounter these 3 choices:

Fell Cleave and Heavy Swing twice
Onslaught, Heavy Swing, Maim, then Heavy swing to avoid delaying Berserk
Onslaught, Finish a SE combo and delay Berserk for 1 GCD

Assuming we don’t want to delay Berserk for the same reasons as above, let’s compare the first 2 options.

60 Gauge comparison (2.38s GCD)
670 Fell Cleave potency (+150 Heavy Swing, +20 BB combo)
vs.
670 Onslaught Potency (100 potency x2 + 130 Potency + 340 potency (Heavy swing + Maim))

In this case, we have both options at the same potencies after optimisations… at first glance. Unfortunately, there is a small loss to using the Onslaught option. Storm’s eye buff will fall off right before the next Storm’s eye application, resulting in a -54 potency loss. The Fell Cleave option does not suffer from this issue as it is placed elsewhere, while in the Onslaught option you are forced to: Storm’s Eye -> Heavy swing – > Maim -> Berserk -> Heavy Swing. The comparison then ends up as:

True 60 Gauge comparison (2.38s GCD with Eye loss)
670 Fell Cleave potency (+150 Heavy Swing, +20 BB combo)
vs.
616 Onslaught Potency (100 potency x 2 + 130 Potency +340 potency (Heavy swing + Maim) – 54 Potency (Eye buff loss))

So even at 2.38s GCD, the better option is still to Fell Cleave if you don’t want to delay Berserk.

A 1 GCD delay every 2 minutes however, is actually probably going to be inconsequential most of the times. A fight would have to be mostly uninterrupted by mechanics, and likely needs to be over 8 minutes long before the delay becomes significant. Smart placement of Berserk can also help alleviate this issue. Finishing your combo is going to be superior for damage no matter what, as long as you understand where raid buffs are placed and how delaying Berserk will affect you. We’ll do a final comparison with a finished combo:

Combo finished comparison (2.38s GCD)
670 Fell Cleave potency (+150 Heavy Swing, +20 BB combo)
Vs.
836 Onslaught Potency (100 potency x 3 + 130 potency + 203 x 2 average potency combo)

And we see that Onslaught potency has finally become king! Because we actually finish a combo, we can use the average combo potency as a comparison point instead of just Heavy swing. We also gain a full Onslaught from the finished combo. However, be aware that missing a GCD where you have both raid buffs and Berserk will be without a doubt, a DPS loss, consider your team when you consider which option to take.

So at 2.38 GCD, your options are to Fell Cleave and Heavy Swing twice, or finish an extra combo, Onslaught 4 times and delay IRzerk by 1 GCD. Pick the one that aligns best with your raid group.

Remember that the goal is always to align Berserk with raid buffs. Your decision around whether to delay Berserk by however many GCDs will always revolve around when raid buffs will begin and when raid buffs will end.

Gauge Tl;dr

1. Hit Upheaval on Cooldown
2. You get 1 extra GCD and enough gauge to FC somewhere every 2 minutes at 2.43 GCD
3. We don’t like spending Gauge on Onslaught to avoid delaying Berserk.
4. Things get really weird at 2.38 and using FC or Onslaught is up to the player
5. If you take the FC option at 2.38, you have to Heavy swing twice in a row before Berserk. If you take the Onslaught option, you have to delay IRzerk by 1 GCD to finish a combo
6. Pick that option that lets you stay aligned with the rest of your team
7. Double Heavy swing is a viable option. Breaking a combo after Maim is not.

When everything goes to shit

Sometimes mechanics don’t allow you to finish your combos. Sometimes you’re forced to spend gauge on Onslaught everywhere. Sometimes you walk off the edge of the arena because your controller disconnected. In these cases your rotation has become a mess and nothing makes sense anymore. Learning to adjust to these situations is the key to not only making you a better Warrior, but a better player. The following is a list of a couple of ways you can help keep your damage up even when things look bleak.

Keep Storm’s Eye up as much as possible

Sounds simple but sometimes it can cause a lot of headache. Sometimes a mechanic can delay you in finishing a combo. Sometimes there will be an add that spawns that you need to pick up with a Butcher’s Block. It is important to look at these situations ahead of time and try to prevent Storm’s Eye from falling off. Sometimes you have to skip a combo and go Eye > Path > Path > Eye. Prioritize keeping the Storm’s Eye buff and clip it if you need to. 60/80 gauge is the secondary priority for building up to Berserk in comparison.

You can use the Berserk cooldown as a way to track how many combos you have left until the next activation

You can use multiples of 7.5 (or less if you’re sanic) to keep track of how many combos you have left until your next Berserk. For example, a Berserk with 15 seconds left on the timer means you have two combos to use. That means you can generate up to 50 gauge for a Fell Cleave, or 40 Gauge for an Upheaval and Onslaught. Remember to account for Upheaval!

If you miss a Berserk window, it might be better to simply hold the buff until the next set of raid buffs are happening.

Sometimes you might end up dying because of unfortunate accidents and you couldn’t hit Berserk on time. When you raise you now have 0 gauge and a misaligned Berserk. In these situations consider just holding off on Berserk until the next window you were supposed to use it. This way you regenerate the gauge you’ve lost and can continue to align with raid buffs. Also consider simply re-doing your opener with 4 FCs. That is also an option if you are scrambling to fit it into the ongoing raid buffs as you raise. If something like a mechanic screwed up your ability to Berserk, that means it likely screwed it up for everyone else. Pay attention to when everyone else uses their raid buffs and act accordingly.

Consider using Butcher’s Block or Storm’s Eye during IRzerk if you need aggro during or immediately after the window

Sometimes you’re in the middle of an IRzerk when you’re about to need aggro (I’m looking at you Apanda and Grand Cross Delta). These situations can suck but Warriors aren’t completely bound by their rotation. In cases where you are at 90+ gauge, you do not need to use a Storm’s path for 6 FCs and an Upheaval.

The biggest goal is to have 100 Gauge and hit Upheaval by beginning of the next IRzerk. There are a couple ways to achieve that based on how you end your Mildzerk.

The following section is credited to Damelia Lhea[Gilgamesh] on the Balance Discord for his excellent write-up. The following is a scenario of what to do when you Mildzerk at what gauge start amount and end amount

a. Start at 100, end at 40: Best case scenario is generating 130 for 170 total Rage; 70 of this can be expended outside of Berserk. 20 is reserved for Upheaval, leaving 50 for a Fell Cleave.

b. Start at 90, end at 30: Best case scenario is generating 130 for 160 total Rage; 60 can be expended outside of Berserk. 20 is reserved for Upheaval, leaving 40 for 2 Onslaughts. Consider that we basically have 2 Onslaughts in our pocket for the entirety of this 60s Berserk-windup sequence. Move 1 into Berserk.

c. Start at 80, end at 20: Best case scenario is generating 120 for 140 total Rage; 40 can be expended outside of Berserk. 20 is reserved for Upheaval, leaving 20 for an Onslaught.

d. Start at 70, end at 10: Best case scenario is generating 130 for 140 total Rage; 40 can be expended outside of Berserk. 20 is reserved for Upheaval, leaving 20 for an Onslaught.

e. Start at 60, end at 0: Best case scenario is generating 120 for 120 total Rage; 20 can be expended outside of Berserk. 20 is reserved for Upheaval.

So basically, there are two cases: either you generate 130 (3 Path) out of Berserk or you generate 120 (2 Path) out of Berserk.

Enhanced Infuriate

With Stormblood came the Enhanced Infuriate trait which reduces the cooldown of Infuriate every time we use a 50 cost gauge spender. The conditions for taking advantage of the Enhanced Infuriate trait for a free Fell Cleave requires Berserk to be at least 28s+ away from the next activation the moment you hit Infuriate. Unfortunately in a proper rotation, this doesn’t happen and we will only be taking advantage of this trait once every fight regardless of length. Otherwise, Infuriate should always be used during Berserk.

Upheaval

Upheaval is your most efficient gauge spender and should be used on cooldown. It is 3x stronger than Onslaught for the same cost, and nearly as strong as Fell cleave when you consider the fact that you gain a GCD from using Upheaval over Fell Cleave.

Upheaval decreases in damage as your hp goes lower. In most cases you should ignore this mechanic and simply hit Upheaval as it comes up. At worst Upheaval will be 100 potency at anywhere under 33% HP, which is the same as an Onslaught.

Upheaval will increase in damage as your max hp increases. This mechanic only works with Defiance and Thrill of Battle, and will increase the damage by the same % amount that your hp increases (Defiance +25% HP, Upheaval +25% potency). Note that Unchained will increase the damage of Upheaval by another 25%, and Defiance will also add another +25% damage on top of the HP increase. It is unknown if these interactions are a bug or not.

Equilibrium

It would probably not be an understatement to say that Equilibrium is amongst the best skills in the game. The ability to generate aggro and give Warriors the ability to pull without being in tank stance for more than 1 GCD is absolutely amazing to say the least. Thanks to this ability, both tanks can enjoy next to 0 dps loss in the opener.

The TP restoration aspect of Equilibrium is pretty limited in usage. Warriors are already enjoying a TP positive rotation. Along with the easily spammable Tactician and the lack of TP consumption from Sprint, most Warriors will find little use in Deliverance Equilibrium outside of dungeons or failing mechanics that will consume TP.

The HP restoration aspect of Equilibrium is actually quite powerful, although it requires you to be in Tank stance which is unfortunate. As you are forced into tank stance, it is extremely rare that the self-heal from Equilibrium worth the damage loss from the Warrior as opposed to simply committing resources from your healer. It can be quite a good ability for progression however, and is excellent for providing heals after tank busters or clutch situations where your healer may have died.

Shake it Off

Warriors received an incredibly useful party mitigation tool in the form of Shake it Off in patch 4.1. The Shake it off shield is based on the receiver’s HP, starts at a base 8% and will increase by 4% for each defensive buff you remove with this skill. You do not need to have any buffs to remove in order to use this skill. This shield will also apply on the Warrior.

Shake it Off ends up being quite useful since many bosses in this fight follow up tank busters with raid wide abilities which you can then mitigate with Shake it Off. Raw Intuition, which shares a cooldown with Shake it Off, and Thrill of Battle, which is primarily used for Upheaval, are prime candidates for usage with Shake it Off. Vengeance can be used to improve Shake it Off’s shield, but as Vengeance itself is an extremely powerful cooldown, you should wait until the duration is almost over before using Shake it Off.

Part 4.0: Stats and Sets

These gear sets are compiled using both the Statistic Intervals Sheet created by Nemekh, and the Gear Stats Calculator by Mike Matrix.

BiS Sets

2.44 GCD Genji Legs BiS Gearset created by Voxfall Valerie [Ragnarok]

Meld 2x Quickarm V for 2.44 in one of the accessory overmelds. This is the standard set for Tanks and can be used if you plan to play other tanks who don’t like Crit or Skill Speed quite as much.

2.38 GCD Crit Focus BiS Gearset created by Damelia Lhea [Gilgamesh]

As with the above set, this set is also melded for 1x Quickarm V for 2.38 on one of the accessory overmelds. Has much better distribution of stats, including Crit/Sks and is the set that I personally use. 2.38s GCD can be more difficult to play with though.

2.38 GCD Genji belt+Necklace

Slightly better Crit for less Direct Hit. An option for those who want to save a little bit of money on Pentamelds and Tomes for gear or got lucky with drops.

2.38 GCD no Crafted
2.43 GCD no Crafted

For those of us that have no money. These sets will do less damage due to the lack of Direct Hit, but sometimes we don’t have much choice.

Stats, and Reasoning

Currently (4.0), we regard stats in the following manner –

DH > CRIT > DET > TEN > SKS

Why Direct Hit? – Unfortunately Tank gear contains no DH, and we are forced to meld it if we want to utilize it. The reasoning for this relatively simple. In SB, most of the stats are fairly equal, and stacking a single stat for damage output will not work as well as before. Instead, having an equal distribution of stats will often be better for damage output and unlocking DH as an extra multiplier for us will increase our damage quite a lot.

Why no Tenacity stacking gear? – Tenacity is an inefficient stat for what it is – 217 points for 1% DMG, and mitigation. A gearset with full Tenacity, melded, at the moment is somewhere in the ballpark of only 8% added mitigation (364 is considered 0% for all intents and purposes). However, the overall cost sacrifices much of our personal DPS, and does not noticeably increase healer DPS in exchange.

Tenacity is currently regarded as a progression stat, in a similar vein to Tank stance usage – helpful on occasion, but not enough to warrant future use. Most discussions revolve around a simple statement – Tenacity is fine on gear, but awful melded. Don’t go out of your way looking for it.

Skill Speed is actually the worst stat – With Stormblood came a much needed buff towards Skill Speed. Unfortunately for Warriors, we can’t really make use of this buff. As outlined in the gauge section, we have 2 desireable GCD breakpoints for Warrior: 2.43(-2.44) and 2.38(-2.39). Any GCD that is more or less than these breakpoints will do absolutely nothing for you. You must always align your rotation to the cooldowns of Berserk and Inner Release and thus the standard Skill speed breakpoints are often not a gain until you receive a full GCD every 2 minutes.

There is an additional breakpoint for Warriors are 2.33(-2.34) but the current choice of gear does not allow us to use that GCD in any meaningful way.

Fight Specific Optimization and Tips

Trials

Susano

First Phase Assail timing for CD usage
1. After 3rd auto – Vengeance
2. 2nd auto after the first stack mechanic – Rampart + Raw Intuition
3. 3rd ish auto after the 2nd stack mechanic – yell at dps to do more damage
2nd phase – Tank swaps happen once a minute. One cast of Ukehi per tank swap. Both tanks having Shirk is a must. Reprisal on both tanks will have the debuff for each tank buster, and each Ukehi.
Liberal use of Holmgang on Tankbusters allows you to use cooldowns during parts where you must go back and forth the arena which is otherwise more difficult to heal due to possible Healer stuns

Lakshmi

You could probably 6 cleave opener this fight depending on dps
All busters, including the 2nd threat cleave, are magical. You can Holmgang the Vril busters instead and use your Vril for a different tank buster as a better cooldown and heal.

Shinryu

Aggro generated on the Worm’s Heart is added onto the boss, so feel free to hammer it
Make sure Infuriate is used after the Heavy swing in your opener, even if it delays you going into Deliverance.
If you Holmgang the first Akh Morn, you can Holmgang the Aerial Blast later in the fight
You can hit Berserk for the start of the add phase, but don’t use Inner release if it’s available until you can attack Shinryu again
You can parry Shinryu’s auto attacks, but the attacks don’t come directly from Shinryu and are angled slightly, so be sure to use Awareness if you are to use Raw Intuition for mitigation

Omega – Deltascape

Universal timeline guide can be found here. Unknown author.

O1S – Alte Roite – Speedkill VoD(Patch 4.06)

Alternate between Vengeance and Rampart + Raw Intuition for tank busters
You can Reprisal the Wyrm Tails that follow Double Roar and Double Blaze
Onslaught can be used to effectively cancel downburst (except for the one where Clamp follows it) for maximum uptime. If you screw up you can also Onslaught Clamp although the success rate of that is low

O2S – Catastrophe – Speedkill VoD(Patch 4.06)

Use every cooldown for the cleaves before tank busters, and then Holmgang the actual buster. Tank swap AFTER the tank buster.
Reprisals are best best used on Gravitational Waves or Long Drops
Raw Intuition works on Long Drop and is honestly the only good place to use it
Onslaught should have little use in this fight outside of IRzerk

O3S – Halicarnassus – Speedkill VoD(Patch 4.1)

Warriors are the only Tank capable of efficiently solo tanking the boss in this fight thanks to Holmgang being available every other Critical hit. Alternate between Holmgang and Awareness + Raw Intuition on Tank busters for an easy game.
Hold the first Onslaught in your opener. If you do not get 4 Fell Cleaves in the opener you will lose the extra Infuriate post-opener. Holding Onslaught ensures you will have enough Gauge to use Fell Cleave a final time under Inner Release if you are stunned.
Don’t pick up the White Flame unless you run double Warrior. Fuck that shit.
You can deal with Dragon (Rampart + Vengeance) and Apanda (Rampart -> Raw Intuition -> Vegeance) quite easily and efficiently.
The best spots for Onslaught are during the Forest Tethers, and whenever the boss jumps extremely far away in the final phase. Anywhere else can be dealt with using Sprint. Using Onslaught on adds are also an option.
If you need to pick up Apanda, use a SE combo for the Inner Release before Apanda rather than a SP combo so you can freely Butcher Block Apanda without dropping the Eye buff.

O4S – Exdeath – Speedkill VoD(Patch 4.06)

At 2.39 GCD, if you burn cooldowns for double cast Thunder 3, you can double weave Onslaught -> Holmgang before the second hit
The second Berserk should be used as Vacuum wave is casting.
The second IRzerk should be used as the second Thunder 3 is casting.
Hit Vengeance for the Meteor if you plan on tank swapping there.
Wait for the knockback animation to start before using Onslaught to cancel Vacuum Wave.

O4S – Neo Exdeath – Speedkill VoD(Patch 4.06)

Warrior is the strongest tank for aggro related mechanics in this fight, but also the worst defensively without the use of Inner Beast
The best way to use Warrior in this fight is to have the Warrior control aggro for Grand cross mechanics, while getting the other tank to handle most Aero 3’s
Assign one tank to Reprisal Almagest and another for Aero 3’s/Double Attacks/Earthshakers
Warriors do not have enough cooldowns for this fight without Inner beast. Get your Co-tank to take some of the Aero 3’s or request an Apoc
Onslaught can be used generously in this fight. Remember to count your gauge.

Unending coil of Bahamut

~~Nael is a Bully~~
~~Bahamut is a bigger bully~~
~~DDoS Trio WutFace~~
IT’S FINALLY OVER

Twintania

Using Onslaught during a Twister cast will likely kill you
You can Holmgang on the Shirk-less tank swap to make it safer, this likely prevents you from using Holmgang on the first Raven’s Beak however (depends on push time). Holmgang at the end of the cast so you can survive Plummet as well.
If your group’s DPS is adequate, you can save the second Inner Release use for Nael, and combine it with 3 minute raid buffs for a second opener. If you do use Inner Release a second time, try not to Onslaught until you can Shirk your co-tank again
You can hold the second usage of Shirk if you see a fourth Death Sentence, and Shirk your co-tank back during the phase transition so he can take the Bahamut’s claw instead for consistency
The aggro for Twintania, Nael, and Bahamut are all shared, so they will attack the tank who had aggro of the previous boss the moment they appear
Shake it off is best used on the second Fireball if you don’t skip it, as your group can pre-pull shield for the first Fireball. Only the first and second Fireballs have Twisters right before it, making it harder for your healers to shield it

Nael deus Darnus

The most important place to use Shake it off is during the dive bombs of Nael, which can lead into Meteor stream or Thermionic beam (which will usually only have a 6 person stack)
Bahamut’s Claw will do 50k-55k unmitigated while Raven’s Beak will do 77k-80k unmitigated. Vengeance will return damage for each hit of Bahamut’s claw
Like Twintania, you can hold the last usage of Inner Release for Bahamut (even Berserk) if your Dps is good enough.
If you see the Final Ravenbeak/Bahamut’s Claw, use Inner Beast as a cooldown so you have things to use at Bahamut

Bahamut

Bahamut drop
1. Use Rampart + Raw Intuition for this Flatten if you are taking it
2. Use IR/Unchained as early as possible so you can use it again in a later phase
3. Bahamut DPS check is actually quite easy once you get used to the Trios, nor does Bahamut phase if you push a certain % so don’t worry too much about pushing tank dps here.
4. You can end this Phase at 0 gauge
Quickmarch Trio (1st Trio)
1. Use Shake it Off as you spread for the Dive here
2. Use Vengeance as a cooldown for the Tempest Wing + Flare Breath
3. Use Holmgang for the Flatten here
4. Tank swap if you can after this
5. You want to end this phase at 80+ gauge after using Upheaval
Blackfire Trio
1. Use Berserk as early as possible here (after 1st/2nd GCD)
2. You want to end this phase at 50+ gauge
3. You don’t want to tank Bahamut here so you have cooldowns for Fellruin Trio. Try to get your co-tank to swap or cover here
Fellruin Trio
1. Be in Defiance and use Rampart + RI for the Tempest wing + Aetherial Profusion + Meteorstream
2. Use Shake it off for the Gigaflare here so it will be buffed by Shake it off. Thrill of Battle is optional
3. You should have IRzerk at the end of your second combo (path combo) if you used Zerk right away on Blackfire trio. You can make a full 100 Gauge IRzerk here if you ended the previous phase at 50+ gauge.
Heavensfall Trio
1. The Berserk in this phase should be 2 FC + Upheaval
2. If you tank Bahamut here, you can use Vegeance + IB/Apoc for Triple Flare Breath
Tenstrike Trio
1. Use Shake it off with RI here for the Meteor streams. It should come up on time if you used it for the Gigaflare at Fellruin
2. If you tank Bahamut here, only use Vengeance and/or IB or Holmgang as a cooldown for Flatten -> Flare Breath. Save Rampart and RI.
3. You may use Berserk here with no issues, but it is best to save IR for Nael+Twintania Phase if you can

Nael and Twintania, Adds Phase

You want to use Rampart + RI for the first Claw/Plummet, regardless of which boss you tank. Decimate is the stronger Raw option, although you may want to opt for Fell Cleave if your group wants to focus the bosses down one at a time.
For any Nael mechanic that goes Dive -> Thermionic, you want to move to the middle as quickly as possible to place Shake it off in time
Using Vengeance near the end of the Megaflare cast will let you mitigate the Megaflare, Tank buster, and follow up Claw/Plummet
If you did not get a chance to use Shake it off for the Nael mechanics, do not try to use it on the second Megaflare
You may Berserk a third time in the adds phase as the transition will last 52 seconds

Golden Bahamut

You can use Shake it Off once the ball of fire that Bahamut comes from starts shining gold if that is your group’s mitigation plan
Use your first Berserk as quickly as possible, you may hold on to IR for a little bit to establish aggro in Defiance
The Equilibrium pull does NOT work for Golden Bahamut. The extra damage from the Phoenix buff does not apply to Equilibrium and your DPS will quickly pull off you.
IRzerk and Potions are used on the 3rd minute of the fight so you can combine it with 3 minute buffs
You can Vengeance as soon as you finish dodging to first Exaflare. It will allow you to cover the 2nd Akh Morn and will come off cooldown again for the 4th Akh Morn
If you’ve actually read and gotten all the way here, you’re about as crazy as I am

Credits

Author: Yuki Hellscythe – Lodestone || FFLogs || Twitch || Twitter || Discord – Yuki#0195

Again, thanks to The Balance Discord Server for all the help maintaining and building this guide.

Emiin Vanih [Lamia]
Pasquale Omega [Ragnarok]
Voxfall Valerie [Ragnarok]
Damelia Lhea [Gilgamesh]
Sky Ikaza [Balmung]
Nemekh / Velinas Dar’Korsalar [Exodus]
Aya Liz [Gilgamesh]
Mike Matrix [Ragnarok]
Aria Freya [Sargatanas]
Achnolis Erizor [Leviathan]

Change/Editlog

27/09/2017 – Created
28/09/2017 – minor editing, added placeholders for Shinryu and Bahamut
30/09/2017 – Fixed Upheaval Potencies
13/10/2017 – Added Speedkill VoDs, Shinryu tips, and Shake it Off
19/10/2017 – Added O3s Speedkill VoD
29/10/2017 – Added some Bahamut Ultimate tips
31/10/2017 – Removed catgirl glamor shot since too thotty for google
9/12/2017 – Finished Bahamut Section
16/1/2018 – Minor edits