WORK IN PROGRESS, v0.995

Quick and Dirty

4.55 Warrior DPS rotation

TL;DR - It’s a priority system. Better read it all.

To the reader:

I expect you to be a level 70 Warrior,

familiar with the basics of FFXIV.

There is no level <70 rotation (in here),

only suffering.

With love,

Mox Xinmagar of Ensemble,

Ragnarok

PS. Cross-class Shirk, or I will have

you hold the boss for the whole fight.

Table of contents and terminology:

Basics of the basics
Inner Release
Optimizations
Openers

Terminology

FC - Fell Cleave
IR - Inner Release
G, Gauge - Beast Gauge
GCD - Global Cooldown, also known as the weapon skill delay
CritC - Critical Hit Chance
Eye, Path, BBlock - basic combo finishers
Overcapping - going over the Gauge’s limit of 100, which is impossible
“On cooldown” - using a skill as soon as it’s up

Patch Notes:

-Changed the patch number from 4.2 to 4.3 4.3 to 4.5 4.5 to 4.55
-Adjusted the timer for specific gauge/infuriate cases

-Adjusted preferred gauge range for comfy. Optimal is still 40 to 100.

-Added a note regarding holding Upheaval at 22s-to-Inner Release

-Added Onslaught finally

-Fixed a typo which was killing me for like 15 seconds

-General fixing here and there, some diddly doodling

To-do:

-prettier formatting. A lot of work. Maybe one day...

Basics of the basics!

Storm's Eye

+10% damage for the next 30 seconds
Should never drop for more than a GCD, the refreshing Eye
General uptime is +95%, affected by mechanics
Generates 10 less gauge than Storm’s Path
Refresh, if less than 7 seconds left on the buff

Gauge management / Crit manipulation

Avoid overcapping. The most important thing about Warrior in 4.2+
Aim to stay between 30 to 100 gauge
Upheaval is used on cooldown 99% of the time
Fell Cleave at 90-100 gauge, or after a Heavy Swing

Fell Cleave

A tool to avoid overcapping, and to delay your rotation
Aim to hit at least one Fell Cleave inside Trick Attacks
Used as a filler right before Inner Release, in an optimal world
5 in Inner Release, 6 between Inner Releases!

Upheaval, Infuriate and Inner Release

Used on cooldown
Upheaval has a natural habit of sliding out of Inner Release, especially in 2.38 GCD rotation
Onslaught on cooldown is somewhat DPS neutral and works better with 2.43 GCD as opposed to 2.38 GCD. More on this in “Optimizations”

Butcher's Block

Used only when tons of aggro is necessary, or to get the gauge back in its usual tracks
Co-tanks have Provoke and Shirk for a reason. Rest of the party has their tools to manage aggro. WHY YOU HOGGING ENMITY IF YOU DONT WANT TO TANK?!
Butcher’s Block combo is +30 potency over a raw Path combo, but generates 10 less gauge
10 gauge is 50% of an Onslaught, which translates to raw 50 potency.
More gauge equals more Onslaughts/Fell Cleaves
Don’t use Butcher’s Block just to get the highest gauge for Fell Cleaves. Flat +1% CritC isn’t worth the trade-off against +10 gauge. BBlock also off-sets your gauge from a static rotation.

Onslaught (vs No-Onslaught)

Generally never used outside of pushback mechanics and Inner Release
Mostly used ONCE out of Inner Release, right after the opener-IR. This is to negate the 20 gauge gained from opener’s Storm’s Eye combo and is the ONLY Onslaught outside of IRs.
Spamming Onslaught on cooldown is DPS-neutral compared to NOT doing so. This is due to Gauge staying higher for longer, thus giving you a higher Crit Rate% bonus for more GCDs
Use it to stabilize your gauge when needed. There is no clear-cut answer to when you should do so
Using Onslaught in an unplanned way will mess up your Gauge, forcing you to use Heavy Swing, or even Maim, as a filler before IR comes up again. Nobody likes cutting combos or delaying IR, so don’t be silly with Onslaught.

Inner Release

(Only like 35-40% of a WAR’s damage yo)

“What do I do?!”

I usually like to stay at 0/50/100 gauge when entering IR!

-Me, 2018

Prepare

Storm’s Eye is up for >16 seconds
Gauge is 50 or less, or Infuriate is over 42 seconds away
Target stays targettable for the next 10 seconds

All good? Release the uhh Inner Release

Drop the combo, unless refreshing Eye. You shouldn’t have this issue if you pushed the right buttons in the right order.
Use IR on the last third of your GCD window (see image below)
5x Fell Cleave, 1x Upheaval and 1x Onslaught, priority in that order
Don’t delay it. You want to hit all the possible party buffs as often as possible
Never double-weave Inner Release and Upheaval, or Inner Release and Onslaught

Upheaval

Should always land in Inner Release window
Between the Fell Cleaves, as early as possible
Save Upheaval if Inner Release is less than 22 seconds away.

In this case, replace Upheaval with an Onslaught to keep the gauge count the same.

Onslaught

Weave it between Fell Cleaves
Maybe even double-weave with Upheaval if you have the ping for it

Infuriate

Usually comes up mid-IR
If you followed the rules above, the gauge should be at 50g or below
Use it on cooldown, unless you’re above 50g, in which case: Good luck. Time to do basic math to fix your rotation and gauge! You’re on your own.

Inner Release sweet-spot (stolen from Dame’s picture)

Optimizations

Beast gauge

+1% flat Crit Chance for every 10 gauge
Should stay between 40-100 at all times as this maximizes the damage output and Crit Chance bonus. Going as low as 30 is okay too, at times.
Burning it cleverly in big buffs (Trick Attack, potion) or at the end of the fight is preferred

Infuriate trait

-5 seconds from Infuriate’s cooldown for each GCD Gauge spender
100 gauge and Infuriate is <15 seconds away? Burn that gauge with two Fell Cleaves
Prioritize using Upheaval before Fell Cleave(s) for the burn

Thrill of Battle

A 20 seconds defensive cooldown
Buffs Upheaval’s damage due to MaxHP changes
Use offensively in the opener
Often hits Upheaval windows
Use as an offensive cooldown once comfy with the fight

Vengeance

“Reduces damage taken by 30% and delivers an attack with a potency of 55 every time you suffer physical damage.”
The attacks Direct Crit under Inner Release’s effect
No snap-shotting

2.37 GCD, 2.38 GCD and 2.43 GCD rotations?

Base theory: 90 seconds divided by GCD-time equals the amount of GCDs between Inner Releases
Difference is a single GCD going from 2.37 to 2.43

90s / 2.37 = 37.97~, rounding up to 38 GCDs

90s / 2.38 = 37.82~

90s / 2.43 = 37.04~, rounding down to 37 GCDs

The extra GCD is the filler Fell Cleave (or Heavy Swing), depending on your gauge generation and usage
The 2.37 and 2.38 rotations require maximizing Storm’s Path usage to avoid filling with a Heavy Swing, while 2.43 rotation generates 50 gauge more (doing the same skills) than you can spend without delaying Inner Release

Openers

Stolen from Emiin Vanih’s pins in The Balance™, #war_questions!

4.2 Openers listing - You are the pulling tank.

Generic Main Tank opener

http://ffxivrotations.com/1ws6

Shift Deliverance as required. First Fell Cleave used to delay IR for Trick/buffs. The secondary Onslaught is used to ensure that you do not overcap gauge, and maintain Eye. Best for slower GCDs. Substitute a Fell Cleave within buffs for the 2nd Onslaught for more DPS overall if you have Fey Wind / Faster GCD.

Memeheaval Opener

http://ffxivrotations.com/1m1i

DPS increase suggesting you literally have no raid buffs to work with, or due to fight rotations need IR/Upheaval on cooldown one GCD earlier.

Editor’s note: This is due to Upheaval’s bugged interaction with Defiance and Unchained.

Retarded amount of Threat Opener

http://ffxivrotations.com/1p5u - Samurai/Ninja providing slashing

http://ffxivrotations.com/1u6c - You are the slashing source

Requested and created for the most amount of threat with the least amount of DPS lost.

Videos

Showcasing 2.37 and 2.38 gear sets’ dummy rotation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuHdkw-B5Ro

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vos4B3JGLwU

Other guides:

Nycro’s guide - Warrior, the Berserkless

https://goo.gl/Kv8ULn

Sources:

https://invite.gg/thebalanceffxiv

https://xivdb.com