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- Wielding The Greataxe
- Rotations
- Off-GCD Actions
- Opener
- Equipment And Materia Management
With their mighty greataxe and excellent self-healing capabilities, the Warrior is one of the most overpowered jobs in Final Fantasy 14. From soloing parts of raids to protecting their teammates from fatal attacks, the Warrior can handle almost anything thrown their way, making them one of, if not the best Tanks in the game.
RELATED: Final Fantasy 14: Complete Guide To Playing Paladin
Furthermore, the Warrior can build up and exhaust their Beast Gauge to unleash devastating attacks onto their targets, dealing excessive amounts of damage. The Warrior's kit and unique abilities allow it to shine in practically every situation, making it an excellent choice for anyone looking to pick up a new role or job.
THEGAMER VIDEO OF THE DAY
Updated January 14, 2023, by Seth Parmer: Patch 6.3 is finally upon us, bringing in substantial changes to a handful of Jobs in addition to a large amount of new content to dive into. While the Warrior didn't receive nearly as many adjustments as the Paladin, the changes it received were needed, so we have updated this guide to include them as well as touch up the Job's Openers and Best in Slot sections!
Wielding The Greataxe
While it would be excellent to be able to start off as a Warrior, you -unfortunately- have to go through a prerequisite class. However, the good news is this class is the Marauder and is one of the many starting classes available in the game, allowing you to kick your journey off in Limsa Lominsa on the path of becoming a Warrior.
Though, if you do not pick the Marauder as your starting class, you can unlock it by heading to Limsa Lominsa Upper Decks and speaking to Blauthota (X:11.0, Y:6.3) to receive the quest "Way of the Marauder" and complete it to become the class. From here, you will have to reach Level 30 to specialize into the Warrior Job.
Becoming A Warrior
After achieving Level 30 as a Marauder, you can finally become a Warrior! For this, head back to Limsa Lominsa Upper Decks and speak with Wyrnzoen (X:11, Y:6) and start the quest "Pride and Duty (Will Take You From the Mountain)." Complete this quest to unlock the Soul of the Warrior soul crystal to become the job. Additionally, if you need more detail on how to unlock the job (or any of the others), please feel free to check out our complete job/class unlocking guide here!
From this point onward, you will have to reach Level 90 to get the most out of the Warrior. This can take lots of time and effort and can be tedious at times, especially if it's an alt-job. To speed the process up, follow our leveling guide!
Rotations
Since the Warrior has the ability to dish out large amounts of damage and heal themselves with several actions, they can stand their ground in almost any situation thrown their way. Additionally, since they're a Tank, they won't have to line up positional attacks for optimum damage. They will primarily stay locked in front of their target at all times. Below are the basic rotations of the Warrior that you will use quite often in every encounter. Note that these do not go over any Off-GCD Actions, as we will cover that later on in the guide!
Basic Single-Target Rotation
- Heavy Swing > Maim > Storm's Path
- Heavy Swing > Maim > Storm's Eye
Finishing the rotation with Storm's Path will increase your Beast Gauge and restore some of your health. However, ending with Storm's Eye will increase your Beast Gauge and provide extra damage.
Basic AoE Rotation
- Overpower > Mythril Tempest
Increases your Beast Gauge and damage dealt while hitting multiple targets.
Off-GCD Actions
With the Warrior's rotations outlined, we will now cover the essential Off-GCD Actions you will use in almost every encounter. The following actions are used throughout your Opener and will help you utilize the Warrior's kit to its fullest, allowing you to become nearly unstoppable on the battlefield if implemented correctly.
With Patch 6.3, the Warrior received a new Action along with some tweaks to previous ones, which have been included in the table below.
Action
Recast Time
Information
Defiance
2s
Your generated enmity increases significantly.
Release Defiance
1s
Removes the effects of Defiance.
Shake It Off
Instant
Generate a Barrier around yourself and your teammates that will absorb 15 percent of incoming damage equal to your max HP. Shake It Off also Dispels Bloodwhetting, Thrill of Battle, and Vengeance. Every Action canceled by Shake It Off increases the total amount of damage absorbed by two percent. This Action lasts for 30 seconds.
Regenerate is also applied during Shake It Off, restoring HP gradually over time with a Healing Potency of 100 for 15 seconds. When targeting an ally, their Healing Potency will be 300 and will also heal them over the course of 15 seconds.
Infuriate
60s
Your Beast Gauge increases by 50 points.
Nascent Chaos is granted for 30s. Infuriate has two charges.
Inner Release
60s
You gain three stacks of Inner Release, allowing you to perform Fell Cleave or Decimate without any cost. Fell Cleave and Decimate are guaranteed to be direct and critical hits.
Inner Strength is granted for 15s. Inner Strength nullifies the effects of Bind, Heavy, Sleep, Stun, and most Draw-in and Knockback effects. Surging Tempest is also extended by 10s, maxing out at 60s. Primal Rend Ready is also granted to you for 30s.
Upheaval
30s
Attack with a potency of 360.
Recast timer is shared with the ability Orogeny.
Onslaught
30s
Attack with a potency of 150 after charging your target.
Onslaught has three charges but cannot be used if you're bound.
Thrill of Battle
90s
Your maximum HP is increased by 20 percent, and you also recover 20 percent of your health.
Potency of self-healing actions are increased by 20 percent for 10s.
Equilibrium
60s
A self-heal with a cure potency of 1,200.
You will also gradually gain 200 HP back over the span of 15s.
Vengeance
120s
Incoming damage is reduced by 30 percent, and you attack with a potency of 55 anytime you receive physical damage for 15s.
Rampart
90s
Incoming damage is reduced by 20 percent for 20s.
Opener
Now that the Rotation and Off-GCD Actions are covered, it's time we pair them together to create an optimized Opener for the Warrior. Openers are not only excellent for dealing large bursts of damage at the start of an encounter, but they also allow you to manage your cooldowns and abilities much more efficiently. To make things less messy, we have placed every Off-GCD Action in parentheses and bolded them to make them easier to spot amongst the other actions.
Standard Opener
- (Pre-Pull) (Defiance + Sprint)
- Tomahawk (Infuriate) > Heavy Swing > Maim (Grade 7 Tincture of Strength + Release Defiance) > Storm's Eye (Inner Release) > Inner Chaos (Upheaval + Onslaught) > Primal Rend (Infuriate) > Inner Chaos (Onslaught) > Fell Cleave (Onslaught) > Fell Cleave > Fell Cleave > Heavy Swing > Maim > Storm's Path > Fell Cleave (Infuriate) > Inner Chaos
Inner Chaos, Inner Release, Inner Chaos Opener
- (Pre-Pull) (Defiance + Sprint)
- Tomahawk (Infuriate) > Heavy Swing > Maim (Grade 7 Tincture of Strength + Release Defiance) > Storm's Eye > Inner Chaos (Upheaval + Inner Release) > Primal Rend (Onslaught) > Fell Cleave (Onslaught) > Fell Cleave (Infuriate) > Inner Chaos > Heavy Swing > Maim > Storm's Path > Fell Cleave (Infuriate) > Inner Chaos > Heavy Swing > Maim (Upheaval) > Storm's Eye
Inner Chaos, Inner Chaos, Inner Release Opener
- (Pre-Pull) (Defiance + Sprint)
- Tomahawk (Infuriate) > Heavy Swing > Maim (Grade 7 Tincture of Strength + Release Defiance) > Storm's Eye > Inner Chaos (Upheaval + Infuriate) > Inner Chaos (Inner Release + Onslaught) > Primal Rend (Onslaught) > Fell Cleave (Onslaught) > Fell Cleave > Fell Cleave > Heavy Swing > Maim > Storm's Path > Fell Cleave (Infuriate) > Inner Chaos > Heavy Swing > Maim (Upheaval) > Storm's Eye
Equipment And Materia Management
Finally, one of the most crucial aspects of getting the most out of your job is to learn how to manage your Equipment and Materia. While you can get by a large chunk of what Final Fantasy 14 has to offer with the bare-minimum gear requirements, you will have to come prepared in the game's more challenging offerings. Understanding Materia, how to use it, and what to pair it with can be more confusing than you might think, making people brush it off until they no longer can, leading to mediocre performance and build optimization. However, below is an example of a Level 90 Warrior with the "Best In Slot" for gear and Materia pairing. If you have yet to achieve Level 90, you can still see which stats we focused on bumping up via Materia to base your build around.
Equipment
Materia
Stats
Weapon
Flamecloaked War Axe
- Savage Might Materia X
- Heaven's Materia X
- DMG +124
- STR +339
- VIT +364
- CRT +196
- DET +280
Head
Hypostatic Hairpin of Fending
- Heaven's Eye Materia X
- Heaven's Eye Materia X
- STR +200
- VIT +214
- CRT +118
- TEN +168
Body
Hypostatic Mail of Fending
- Heaven's Eye Materia X
- Heaven's Eye Materia X
- STR +318
- VIT +340
- DET +268
- TEN +188
Hands
Hypostatic Gauntlets of Fending
- Heaven's Eye Materia X
- Heaven's Eye Materia X
- STR +200
- VIT +214
- CRT +168
- DET +118
Legs
Hypostatic Breeches of Fending
- Savage Aim Materia X
- Savage Aim Materia X
- STR +318
- VIT +340
- CRT +188
- TEN +268
Feet
Hypostatic Sollerets of Fending
- Heaven's Eye Materia X
- Heaven's Eye Materia X
- STR +200
- VIT +214
- DET +168
- TEN +118
Earrings
Augmented Rinascita Earrings of Fending
- Savage Aim Materia X
- Savage Aim Materia X
- Savage Aim Materia X
- Savage Aim Materia X
- Heaven's Eye Materia X
- STR +149
- VIT +158
- CRT +91
- DET +130
Necklace
Augmented Rinascita Necklace of Fending
- Heaven's Eye Materia X
- Heaven's Eye Materia X
- Heaven's Eye Materia X
- Heaven's Eye Materia X
- Heaven's Eye Materia X
- STR +149
- VIT +158
- CRT +130
- TEN +91
Bracelets
Augmented Purgatory Amulet of Fending
- Heaven's Eye Materia X
- STR +149
- VIT +158
- CRT +130
- DET +91
Left Ring
Augmented Rinascita Ring of Fending
- Heaven's Eye Materia X
- Heaven's Eye Materia X
- Heaven's Eye Materia X
- Heaven's Eye Materia X
- Heaven's Eye Materia X
- STR +149
- VIT +158
- CRT +130
- DET +91
Right Ring
Augmented Lunar Envoy's Ring of Fending
- Heaven's Eye Materia X
- Heaven's Eye Materia X
- STR +158
- VIT +169
- CRT +133
- DET +93
If you're still looking to make the overpowered Warrior even stronger, there are a couple of options you can implement to receive significant stat boosts that will help you out tremendously in encounters. First, as touched on in the Opener, consuming a Grade 7 Tincture of Strength at the beginning of your combo will give you a nice buff for the remainder of the Opener, allowing you to get more out of it. Lastly, eating food before diving into an activity is an easy way to get additional juice with little to no effort. Since the Warrior is a Tank, we recommend chowing down on some Carrot Pudding for the best results!