Warriors - When Do I Use Evasive?

[Arkanjil]

Hey guys! I see this question come up a lot with new warriors in our guild and figured I’d make a post detailing when to use this wonderful disc.

First off, when grouping, you should be using this disc almost every time it’s up. Especially when not facing higher lvls mobs that require Defensive, like the Temple Guards or Guardians of Zek in Kael. Evasive in grouping saves the healer sooo much mana every time it’s up that it dramatically increases the efficiency that pulls can come in
A few nights ago, I was in KC basement and using this on every cooldown when mobs were in camp. I needed a heal every 8+ mobs. I’m pretty decently geared, but regardless, it helps ever warrior!

In raids, there are several mobs that evasive is REQUIRED. These are:
Trakanon
Dracoliche
Venril Sathir
Nortlav the Scale Keeper

These mobs proc 1500hp lifetap on hit, so your goal is to get hit as little as possible!

After these, generally speaking, it’s more efficient to use evasive on mobs that are lvl 60 and under.

For everything else, use defensive. Hope this helps! [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] I’ll post a few other “guides” on certain tanking topics when I get around to them. “What items should be in my bags?” “What mobs rampage? And how do I efficiently set rampage?” “Aggro...should I ALWAYS click a full mallet?” etc. if you guys have other topics you want covered, just put them in the comments. I’m not some master of warriors, but I thought a few of these could help people who are new to warriors learn the basics, once you are 52+.

[Danth]

There are a handful of additional creatures which have a high damage bonus and low damage interval. Some of the Plane of Growth named come to mind. Evasive performs well against such targets.

Danth

[elwing]

All the 900+quadding boss also "require" evasive too...

[wagorf]

how nice to have an experienced raid tank sharing knowledge here!

my question would be, what is the rule of thumb on when to use evasive vs. def? there may not be one but one that covers 90+% of the scenarios is good enough

for example gwurms in skfyfire, i find def to be more effective than evasive for some reason and it contradicts with my past experience

[Troxx]

Originally Posted by wagorf [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

how nice to have an experienced raid tank sharing knowledge here!

my question would be, what is the rule of thumb on when to use evasive vs. def? there may not be one but one that covers 90+% of the scenarios is good enough

for example gwurms in skfyfire, i find def to be more effective than evasive for some reason and it contradicts with my past experience

Evasive will likely always result in lower total damage intake on average. For raid encounters where mobs hit extremely hard and you have an established complete heal chain, defensive is preferable as it will more reliably keep you save from being 1-2 rounded. For such encounters, the biggest goal is to minimize the your chances of that worst case scenario and defensive holds the advantage on mobs that don't have nasty dangerous procs (ie like the mobs referenced by the OP in the original post).

On raids the mobs 'dps' isn't what kills tanks. Damage spikes kill tanks. Defensive negates this.

[Jimjam]

I almost always use evasive when there is any doubt. On the monk epic quest bros; defensive and max damage shield so they kill themselves.

[Sonderbeast]

Evasive is useful against General in Kith since his 500 dd lifetap procs just about every other hit it seems.

Also I've heard that its good to use on glimmer drakes to limit dispel proc, but can't confirm it actually helps more than defensive.

[7thGate]

Evasive mitigates 25% of the damage you would take, on average, but with variance. Defensive mitigates 35% of the damage you take, with no variance. The rule of thumb is that Defensive is better unless:

1) If there is a proc on successful hits that is nasty enough that the procs are doing more than 15% of the total damage you're taking.
2) You are in a situation where the 3 minute lower cooldown is relevant. This is generally in XPing groups, where evasive mitigates more damage over time because when used on cooldown it is active for a larger % of the total time fighting, but could also be for any sort of very extended combat situation with few or no breaks.

Which is pretty much in line with the OP's suggestion.

[Naerron]

Originally Posted by 7thGate [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Evasive mitigates 25% of the damage you would take, on average, but with variance. Defensive mitigates 35% of the damage you take, with no variance. The rule of thumb is that Defensive is better unless:

1) If there is a proc on successful hits that is nasty enough that the procs are doing more than 15% of the total damage you're taking.
2) You are in a situation where the 3 minute lower cooldown is relevant. This is generally in XPing groups, where evasive mitigates more damage over time because when used on cooldown it is active for a larger % of the total time fighting, but could also be for any sort of very extended combat situation with few or no breaks.

Which is pretty much in line with the OP's suggestion.

Evasive - You have a 25% less chance to hit and a 25% less to be hit
Defensive - You deal out 35% less damage, you receive 35% less damage

This is why evasive is used for things that are more dangerous because of their proc on hit mechanic and not for just their massive amount of melee damage.

At one point on live they made AoW hit for a flat amount each time, i think 1100, so the game was to simply not be hit, and at that point a warrior would rather use evasive because you could not mitigate any hits.

If you would like to go down the rabit hole some more THIS post is a great jumping off point to understanding the titanium client. However, keep in mind it has been changed a lot and I personally have no idea how much or how little it has changed from this post on the emu forums.

Regardless it's still great info that will put you in the mindset of what is really going on and in the end will make you a better player.

[Ezrick]

Originally Posted by Sonderbeast [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Evasive is useful against General in Kith since his 500 dd lifetap procs just about every other hit it seems.

Also I've heard that its good to use on glimmer drakes to limit dispel proc, but can't confirm it actually helps more than defensive.

If you avoid 25% of the glimmer drake procs that just means they only proc about 132,763 times a fight. If you stand at max melee range opposite the tank you can avoid the dispell, but then you have to push them to keep them from gating anyway.