Warrior Rotation, Openers, and Abilities (Patch 6.5) - FFXIV

Final Fantasy XIV's tank jobs all require one fundamental trait to contribute as their role — survivability. While all four tanks in FFXIV have several options to mitigate damage and keep themselves alive, no other job can confidently refuse to die and survive through difficult odds like a Warrior can.

Paladins, Dark Knights, and Gunbreakers all have a handful of tools in their kits to sustain their health pool through healing-over-time (HoT) abilities or a small potency cure through their GCD combos. Meanwhile, Warriors have six separate abilities that provide healing effects to both themselves and party members, raising the question of whether a Warrior is actually just a healer wearing a tank costume.

Warriors rotate through their healing and damage mitigation abilities to shrug off incoming damage and stay in the fight while building their job gauge through a slow-paced rotation. The resource is then spent to unleash a burst of high-damage attacks, making a Warrior a frightening foe that builds up strength to cleave through enemies while keeping themselves and party members alive during even the most dangerous battles.

A level 90 Warrior is one of the most straightforward jobs to understand in Final Fantasy XIV's Endwalker's endgame, but that doesn't mean you should punch buttons and hope for the best. This guide aims to break down the job's level 90 damage and defensive rotations to lead you to the path of becoming the ultimate Warrior.

For those leveling their Warriors, check out the full Warrior job guide.

The basics of the Warrior job

Warriors follow a relatively simple rotation, focusing on the upkeep of Surging Tempest, a damage-increasing buff, while building their job gauge to spend on hard-hitting cleaves. Both the buff and the "wrath" that accumulates through Warrior's job gauge, the Beast Gauge, are earned from one of two attacks that end the job's core GCD combo. Raising the Beast Gauge to 50 grants access to new abilities to use in both single-target and multiple-target situations that deal a high amount of damage when combined with Surging Tempest. 

Warriors also gain three free cleaves packaged together with a few additional benefits every 60 seconds thanks to their Inner Release ability, and their two charges of Infuriate each grant instant access to a similar attack that has an increased damage potency over its base version. The Warrior can show off their strength in scenarios where they find themselves with a filled job gauge and both Inner Release and Infuriate available.

The job has two oGCD attacks that share a cooldown timer, one intended for single-target encounters and the other for multi-target. With the exception of having one additional GCD attack under the effects of Inner Release, the Warrior's creed is: Keep Surging Tempest active, build your job gauge, and hit them hard. Outside of their cooldown timers, Warriors have little to manage and track, leaving more room to focus on their many defensive abilities.

Warrior's rotation

Since Warrior doesn't have multiple colorful combos and few resources to track, the job doesn't have a rotation set in stone. Instead, its "rotation" is a priority system where the player can ask themselves a few questions to determine how to proceed:

• "Is Surging Tempest active and has more than 15 seconds remaining?"
• "Is my next GCD going to overcap the Beast Gauge?"
• "Are my oGCDs off cooldown?"
• "How many charges of Infuriate do I have?"
• "Is Inner Release available to use?"

GCDs, Surging Tempest, and oGCDs

Warrior's main focus is looping their standard combos to deal damage, build their job gauge, and upkeep the Surging Tempest buff, and ensuring that it's active should be your first priority when beginning an encounter. The job has four core GCD attacks used in two nearly identical three-part combos, their only difference being which ability is used to finish it. These two short and sweet combos cover two of the previously mentioned tenets a Warrior is expected to follow by granting the vital damage-dealing buff and steadily increasing the job gauge.

• Heavy Swing: The "opener" for both of Warrior's standard combos, Heavy Swing is a run-of-the-mill attack with a damage potency of 200 and no additional effects.
• Maim: This ability is the second part of both combo chains. When successfully combined with Heavy Swing, Maim delivers a 300-combo potency attack and increases the Beast Gauge by 10.
• Storm's Eye: Following Maim as the third attack in the chain, Storm's Eye delivers an attack with a potency of 440, increases the Beast Gauge by 10 and grants Surging Tempest, which increases your damage dealt by 10 percent for 30 seconds. The buff can stack twice for a maximum of 60 seconds.
• Storm's Path: Another option for the finale of Warrior's "1-2-3" combo, Storm's Path delivers identical damage to Storm's Eye when used as the third attack in your GCD combo. Rather than gaining a buff like its counterpart, Storm's Path grants a 250-potency Cure and increases the Beast Gauge by 20.

Both combos begin with Heavy Swing followed by Maim, but which ability you pick next depends on your answer to one of the previously mentioned questions. "Is Surging Tempest active and has more than 15 seconds remaining?" If not, which is likely at the beginning of an encounter, you'll use Storm's Eye as the third attack in the combo for its damage increase, making the chain:

1. Heavy Swing
2. Maim
3. Storm's Eye

To avoid missing the benefits of Surging Tempest, you'll ideally want to refresh it within seven to 15 seconds before it expires to have plenty of room to extend its duration while staying under the 60-second cap. If Surging Tempest has more than 15 seconds remaining, you can replace Storm's Eye with Storm's Path to focus on your job gauge instead, making the combo:

1. Heavy Swing
2. Maim
3. Storm's Path

With Surging Tempest active and your resources spent, you'll loop the Storm's Path combo to build your job gauge until more resources become available or your buff needs to be refreshed. You have three different oGCDs to weave between these combos, though two share a timer and are used interchangeably against single or multiple enemies.

• Upheaval/Orogeny: Sharing a recast timer of 30 seconds, Upheaval is a single-target oGCD attack with 400 damage potency, and Orogeny is its AOE counterpart that delivers a 150 potency attack to all enemies in range.
• Onslaught: Your tanking gap-closer that delivers an attack with a potency of 150. While it's useful in chasing down a pesky, mobile boss, your gap closer can be used effectively during GCD attacks to supplement damage.

The Beast Gauge and related abilities

The Beast Gauge houses some of Warrior's most potent attacks, and some abilities in the job's kit allow instant use of the attacks and increase their power while providing other benefits.

• Fell Cleave/Decimate: The resources you build through the Beast Gauge will be spent on these two abilities, with Fell Cleave being used for single targets scenarios and Decimate for multiple targets. Both attacks spend your Beast Gauge's resources by 50, or they can be used up to three times for free when under the effect of Inner Release.
• Infuriate: Using Infuriate immediately increases the job gauge by 50 and puts the Warrior under the effect of Nascent Chaos for 30 seconds. While Nascent Chaos is active, both Fell Cleave and Decimate become Inner Chaos and Chaotic Cyclone respectively. These have a nearly doubled increase in damage potency over their base versions, with the potential to increase further if under the effect of an ability that raises critical hit or direct hit rate, making them incredibly potent attacks if used during party buffs. Nascent Chaos ends after either ability is used or 30 seconds has elapsed, so it's possible to waste a charge. Try to always have Infuriate ticking, as you never want to be capped.
• Inner Release: This ability immediately grants the Warrior three stacks of Inner Release. Each stack can be spent on a free Fell Cleave or Decimate, which are guaranteed to be critical and direct hits. These stacks last for 15 seconds, so you'll need to ensure you get all three off in time before the ability's effect ends. In addition to the three free attacks, using this ability offers additional advantages by increasing Surging Tempest's duration by 10 seconds and granting Inner Strength for 15 seconds, negating any Stun, Sleep, Binding, Heavy and a majority of knockback and draw-in effects.
• Primal Rend: The last benefit that Inner Release offers is the "Primal Rend Ready" effect for 30 seconds, which allows one use of Primal Rend before ending. Using Primal Rend will launch you toward your target and deliver a critical direct hit to all nearby enemies for massive damage. While Primal Rend requires use of Inner Release to become available, its 30 second timer is independent of any stacks of Inner Release.

Warrior opener

1. Tomahawk
2. Infuriate
3. Heavy Swing
4. Maim
5. Pot
6. Storm’s Eye
7. Inner Release
8. Inner Chaos
9. Upheaval
10. Onslaught
11. Primal Rend
12. Infuriate
13. Inner Chaos
14. Onslaught
15. Fell Cleave
16. Onslaught
17. Fell Cleave
18. Fell Cleave
19. Heavy Swing
20. Maim
21. Storm’s Path
22. Fell Cleave
23. Infuriate
24. Inner Chaos

In breaking down Warrior's opener, your first priority is to complete the Storm's Eye combo to gain Surging Tempest after preparing and holding on to your first Inner Chaos. Once your buff is active, you'll move to Inner Release and begin the process of getting your enemy familiarized with your axe. Thanks to the damage increase Surging Tempest provides and the additional buffs gained from other party members' openers, unleashing every possible attack in this window will maximize their potential damage output. You'll work to get off both charges of Infuriate/Inner Chaos and all three Fell Cleaves that Inner Release provides before its stacks expire, weaving Onslaughts between your attacks. Once your resources are empty, you'll move to the Storm's Path combo, building your job gauge and using your abilities as they become available.

Warrior's damage mitigations and healing abilities

While some of the abilities in Warrior's kit are only responsible for reducing any incoming damage, no other tank has the healing capabilities that a Warrior possesses. A player well-versed in playing the tanking job and rotating through their mitigations properly can feel like an unstoppable force without much need for the healer's intervention. Here are the abilities specific to Warrior that you'll use to shrug off any incoming damage:

• Vengeance: A powerful tank mitigation that reduces incoming damage by 30 percent for 15 seconds while delivering an attack of 55 potency to whichever enemies deal physical damage to you. In a sense, Vengeance combines two forms of damage mitigation, as one of the more obvious ways for a party to help prevent being hurt is by defeating the enemies faster.
• Holmgang: For 10 seconds, Holmgang prevents attacks from lowering the Warrior's HP to less than one. While you won't die under the ability's effect, you'll likely need to make a quick recovery once Holmgang's duration expires since it doesn't provide any healing capabilities. If you happen to be targeting an enemy when Holmgang is activated, they become chained and unable to move. This is your tanking "panic button," and while there are no negative effects to using it, its long recast timer of four minutes means that using it prematurely could prevent you from having it when you really need it.
• Thrill of Battle: Thrill of Battle increases the Warrior's already hefty maximum HP by 20 percent for 10 seconds and restores the amount of health it increased by. Additionally, any healing actions used on the tank for those 10 seconds have their potency increased by 20 percent. This ability makes an excellent counter to a tank buster, but can also be used when your healer doesn't have many actions to spare in a difficult fight.
• Equilibrium: This ability starts by giving the Warrior a flat cure with a potency of 1,200. After the initial heal, Equilibrium then grants a 200-cure potency regen for the next 15 seconds. Equilibrium is powerful enough on its own to keep a Warrior alive during heavy trash mobs, but if used in conjunction with another damage mitigation ability, their defense could be classified as "overkill."
• Shake It Off: Shake It Off grants a barrier to you and your party members for 30 seconds that absorbs all damage up to 15 percent of the party member's HP. The percentage of how much damage it can withstand is increased by two percent for each instance of Thrill of Battle, Vengeance and Bloodwhetting that's active. Additionally, Shake It Off restores the target's HP with a 300-potency cure and follows it up with a 15-second, 100-cure potency regen. Shake It Off can be the difference between life and death for any already injured party members before a party-wide attack delivers the final blow.
• Nascent Flash: This ability can't be used on yourself and must be used on a party member instead. After using Nascent Flash, the Warrior gains the Nascent Flash buff while the target receives Nascent Glint. Nascent Flash restores the Warrior's HP with a 400-potency cure for each successful attack. For the recipient of Nascent Glint, any incoming damage toward them is reduced by 20 percent for four seconds, then 10 percent for the following eight seconds while their HP is restored one-to-one with healing provided by the Warrior's Nascent Flash. If you thought the damage mitigation and healing wasn't enough, Nascent Glint also grants the buff Steam the Tide, which nullifies damage equivalent to a 400-potency heal for 20 seconds.
• Bloodwhetting: If you were jealous of the benefits Nascent Flash gave to another party member, there's no need to worry. Bloodwhetting provides the same benefits that the Nascent Glint buff grants to another party member. Incoming damage is reduced by 20 percent and tapers off to 10 percent, health is restored each time you land an attack, and you have a barrier that nullifies damage equal to a heal of 400 potency. Nascent Flash and Bloodwhetting's effect of being healed by attacking doesn't just grant a singular heal whenever an attack is pressed, meaning if an AOE attack lands against five enemies, you'll get that 400-potency heal for each enemy. During trash pulls, using Bloodwhetting or Nascent Flash can bring a Warrior from near-death to full HP in the blink of an eye when used in multi-target situations. Neither is as effective for healing during single-target encounters, but their additional effects shouldn't be ignored and can be used in conjunction with other abilities. Both Bloodwhetting and Nascent Flash share a recast timer, so while they both provide the powerful effect of regaining health by attacking, you'll have to decide in the moment who needs the additional protection more – yourself or your party member.

With the level of self-healing available in their kit, Warriors can solo certain fights, albeit slowly. There have been many occasions in the history of Final Fantasy XIV where a battle has gone terribly wrong, and the party is wiped out with only the Warrior remaining. Too stubborn and angry to die, the Warrior continues the fight on their own, using their many heals to sustain themselves throughout before finally defeating the boss and celebrating with their recently resurrected party. Thanks to their simple offensive rotation and many defensive options, it doesn't take long to get a good handle on the job and work towards becoming the ideal tank.