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.

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.

Updated December 17, 2024, by Seth Parmer: We haven't touched this guide since Dawntrail was released, and a lot has changed since then, allowing us to add even more information on the much improved Warrior Job in Final Fantasy 14. You can find its new best in slot gear and Materia pairing at the tail end of the guide, along with an even more optimized rotation that will surely help you get the most out of it!

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 100 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.

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.

Warrior 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 7.0, the Warrior received new Actions 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	90s	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, Damnation, and Thrill of Battle. Every Action canceled by Shake It Off increases the total amount of damage absorbed by two percent. This Action lasts for 30 seconds and covers a radius of 30 yalms.
Infuriate	60s	Your Beast Gauge increases by 50 points.
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.
Upheaval	30s	Attack with a potency of 400.
Onslaught	30s	Attack with a potency of 150 after charging your target.
Thrill of Battle	90s	Your maximum HP is increased by 20 percent, and you also recover 20 percent of your health.
Equilibrium	60s	A self-heal with a cure potency of 1,200.
Vengeance	120s	Incoming damage is reduced by 30 percent, and you attack with a potency of 55 anytime you receive physical damage for 15s.
Holmgang	240s	Prepare for incoming damage, causing most attacks to be unable to bring your HP below one for 10s, keeping you alive in crucial situations.
Rampart	90s	Incoming damage is reduced by 20 percent for 20s.
Damnation	120s	Incoming damage is reduced by 40 percent, dealing an attack with the potency of 55 anytime you receive physical damage for 15s.
Primal Wrath	1s	Attack with a wide AoE, dealing 700 damage to the first target and 70 percent less for all remaining enemies in the area.

Best Warrior Opener For FFXIV Dawntrail

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.

Basic Opener

• Pre-Pull: Tomahawk
  • Cast Tomahawk with a second remaining on the countdown.

• (Infuriate) > Heavy Swing > Maim (Grade 1 Gemdraught of Strength) > Storm's Eye (Inner Release) > Inner Chaos (Upheaval Onslaught) > Primal Rend (Onslaught) > Primal Ruination (Onslaught) > Fell Cleave > Fell Cleave > Fell Cleave (Primal Wrath Infuriate) > Inner Chaos > Heavy Swing > Maim > Storm's Path > Fell Cleave (Infuriate) > Inner Chaos

Burst Rotation (At Least 50 Beast Gauge)

• Maim (Inner Release) > Primal Rend (Upheaval) > Primal Ruination > Fell Cleave > Fell Cleave > Fell Cleave (Primal Wrath Infuriate) > Inner Chaos > Storm's Path (Infuriate) > Inner Chaos

Best Gear For Warrior In FFXIV Dawntrail

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 for the game's more challenging offerings.

Below is an example of a Level 100 Warrior with the "Best In Slot" for gear and Materia pairing. If you have yet to achieve Level 100, you can still see which stats we focused on bumping up via Materia to base your build around.

	Equipment	Materia	Stats	How To Obtain
Weapon	Dark Horse Champion's Labrys	Heavens' Eye Materia XII Heavens' Eye Materia XII	DMG 146 STR 628 VIT 667 CRT 393 DET 275	Can drop during AAC Light-heavyweight M4 (Savage) or purchased from Hhihwi in Solution Nine (X:8.7, Y:13.7) for x8 AAC Illustrated: LHW Edition IV.
Head	Dark Horse Champion's Bandana	Heavens' Eye Materia XII Heavens' Eye Materia XII	STR 371 VIT 391 CRT 236 DET 165	Can drop during AAC Light-heavyweight M3 (Savage) or purchased from Hhihwi in Solution Nine (X:8.7, Y:13.7) for x4 AAC Illustrated: LHW Edition II.
Body	Augmented Quetzalli Mail of Fending	Heavens' Eye Materia XII Heavens' Eye Materia XII	STR 588 VIT 621 CRT 374 TEN 262	Upgraded by giving x1 Surgelight Twine and the corresponding Quetzalli Armor to Theone in Solution Nine (X:8.5, Y:13.6).
Hands	Dark Horse Champion's Halfgloves	Heavens' Eye Materia XII Savage Aim Materia XII	STR 371 VIT 391 CRT 165 DET 236	Can drop during AAC Light-heavyweight M3 (Savage) or purchased from Hhihwi in Solution Nine (X:8.7, Y:13.7) for x4 AAC Illustrated: LHW Edition II.
Legs	Dark Horse Champion's Breeches	Savage Aim Materia XII Savage Aim Materia XII	STR 588 VIT 621 CRT 262 DET 374	Can drop during AAC Light-heavyweight M3 (Savage) or purchased from Hhihwi in Solution Nine (X:8.7, Y:13.7) for x4 AAC Illustrated: LHW Edition II.
Feet	Augmented Quetzalli Sollerets of Fending	Heavens' Eye Materia XII Heavens' Eye Materia XII	STR 371 VIT 391 CRT 236 DET 165	Upgraded by giving x1 Surgelight Twine and the corresponding Quetzalli Armor to Theone in Solution Nine (X:8.5, Y:13.6).
Earrings	Augmented Quetzalli Ear Cuffs of Fending	Heavens' Eye Materia XII Savage Aim Materia XII	STR 292 VIT 308 CRT 130 DET 186	Upgraded by giving x1 Surgelight Glaze and the corresponding Quetzalli Accessory to Theone in Solution Nine (X:8.5, Y:13.6).
Necklace	Dark Horse Champion's Choker of Fending	Heavens' Eye Materia XII Heavens' Eye Materia XII	STR 292 VIT 308 CRT 186 DET 130	Can drop during AAC Light-heavyweight M1 (Savage) or purchased from Hhihwi in Solution Nine (X:8.7, Y:13.7) for x3 AAC Illustrated: LHW Edition I.
Bracelets	Augmented Quetzalli Bracelets of Fending	Heavens' Eye Materia XII Heavens' Eye Materia XII	STR 292 VIT 308 CRT 186 DET 130	Upgraded by giving x1 Surgelight Glaze and the corresponding Quetzalli Accessory to Theone in Solution Nine (X:8.5, Y:13.6).
Left Ring	Augmented Quetzalli Ring of Fending	Heavens' Eye Materia XII Heavens' Eye Materia XII	STR 292 VIT 308 CRT 186 DET 130	Upgraded by giving x1 Surgelight Glaze and the corresponding Quetzalli Accessory to Theone in Solution Nine (X:8.5, Y:13.6).
Right Ring	Dark Horse Champion's Ring of Fending	Heavens' Eye Materia XII Savage Aim Materia XII	STR 292 VIT 308 CRT 130 TEN 186	Can drop during AAC Light-heavyweight M1 (Savage) or purchased from Hhihwi in Solution Nine (X:8.7, Y:13.7) for x3 AAC Illustrated: LHW Edition I.

As touched on in the Opener, consuming a Grade 1 Gemdraught 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 Roast Chicken for the best results!