A couple of newbie tank questions

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Originally Posted by tocsin

If I think an enemy is going to launch a stunnable AoE (ex. Gas Bomb self destruct in Halatali). is it worth it to not use skills to prep, or is there a sign that can be used to tell when to stop comboing and prepare to shield bash the ability away?

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Most of the time it's not necessary and you can simply run out of the AoE. Unfortunately there's not much telegraphing of the fact it's coming up so it's just something that comes with experience of the fights.

There is some 8-player content that benefits from interrupts, but typically this will be assigned to a DPS or the OT.

Later on you'll get Spirits Within, which is a Silence and, importantly, is off the global cooldown. Most of the interruptions (with a few exceptions) that you'll be assigned will use this rather than Shield Bash, which is a lot easier to manage. There are a couple of exceptions where things need to be stunlocked (Turn 5, Leviathan Ex) but these are relatively few.

Nice thread, very useful for me.

The only ability that I macro and announce to the group is Hallowed ground, but you do not get that until 50.

Here is some of the macro's I use :http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...9/blog/694670/

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Originally Posted by tocsin

Also, quick shield bash question. If I think an enemy is going to launch a stunnable AoE (ex. Gas Bomb self destruct in Halatali). is it worth it to not use skills to prep, or is there a sign that can be used to tell when to stop comboing and prepare to shield bash the ability away?

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To add to what others have said - in endgame content where stunning is important, it's often the job of the OT to do it, but PLDs are usually the OT in those cases. WAR can't silence, and their stun is off GCD which is both good (can use it while on global cooldown) and bad (can't use it repeatedly to stun-lock).

If you know the attack is coming extremely soon (example: the Haukke Manor handmaidens (or whatever they're called) use Dark Mist as their opening attack), you might want to wait for the stun. For the Haukke Manor example, you establish aggro by lobbing at range, then wait for the Dark Mist to start so you can stun it. If you don't know the attack is coming (ie: most of the time), avoid queuing attacks. If you hit an attack just before GCD ends, the game will queue it up to go off the moment it can. If the stunnable attack starts in that gap, chances are very high you won't be able to stun in time. So, wait for GCD to end completely, hesitate a half second, then do the next hit of your combo. I find that this vastly increases my chance of successfully canceling the attack.

Similarly, if you are interrupting with Silence (Spirits Within), which is off GCD, hesitate like mentioned above before doing Rage of Halone. You cannot use a skill during the animation of another skill, and Rage has a rather long animation. So, even if you jam on the key for Spirits Within, it won't go off until Rage finishes, which may be too late.

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Originally Posted by Bixby

You can also hold L1 and press up or down to cycle through the enmity list, if they're already showing up there.

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This can be such a crucial, accurate way of switching targets. Want to target the mob with the lowest health, because DPS decided to focus there? Boom. No left/right switching madness that can be janky because of how the camera is aligned.

I've been a 50 WAR since October and I'm still discovering the joys of up/down targeting.

So, besides the obvious Protect and Stoneskin, what are some must-have cross-class skills for paladin? Can paladins use Invigorate for TP regeneration, and if not, are there any skills to regain TP?

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Originally Posted by NorthernLadMSP

So, besides the obvious Protect and Stoneskin, what are some must-have cross-class skills for paladin? Can paladins use Invigorate for TP regeneration, and if not, are there any skills to regain TP?

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Not as such, though using Shield Swipe on proc is a de-facto regen ability since it costs less than you'll be generating during that GCD. It's a threat loss (but a DPS increase) compared to Halone combos but can be worth it on a long fight. As a result, Bulwark can be used as a pseudo regen spell.

For cross-class skills, you'll want Stoneskin (as you mentioned) from Conjurer and Foresight, Bloodbath, Mercy Stroke and Fracture from Marauder.

Only Stoneskin and Foresight are "essential" with Bloodbath moderately useful when paired with Fight or Flight. Mercy Stroke is an extra button to push off the GCD and it's free so why not and Fracture is a DPS increase (but drains TP kinda fast) and mostly useful if you're OT in Sword Oath for long periods.

I think Fracture is terrible. I cross-class: Stoneskin, Foresight, Bloodbath, Mercy Stroke, and Protect (so, everything except Fracture, Cure, and Raise). Protect is mostly for soloing, but it's so nice for soloing, and also for healer-less Hunt groups (I do that all the time, just be careful not the MT an S rank :P). Foresight isn't amazing, but it's something. Bloodbath is even less amazing, but it's still something. I pop those two periodically in combat, solo or group. Stoneskin has its uses, but really, I only use it in dungeons under level 30 to give the healer some relief since CNJ/WHM won't be able to use it at those levels.

Mercy Stroke is my favorite of the cross-class skills. While nice, it's not utterly amazing or anything, I just really like it. When a dungeon is feeling boring, I make it a contest for myself. Can I time Mercy Stroke perfectly such that I get the healing from it? It's a fun minigame to pass the time! Also, some DPS (especially BLM since they only do damage a lot at a time) leave enemies at <1% health and switch to the next one, expecting dots or auto-attacks from others to finish them off. These make great targets for Mercy Stroke! In solo play or small groups (like when spiritbonding), I find Mercy Stroke to be extremely helpful if I time it right. It often heals me enough that I don't have to stop to let HP regen, and has saved my life multiple times when I pulled more than I should have. 20% healing is a fair amount of healing! And, obviously, it's good for bosses since it gives you an attack off GCD that does some damage.

On the topic of Cross Class skills for PLD, can we pleeeeeeaaaaaaasssse get Esuna as a cross-class skill? Pretty please? Or maybe a combat raise? I still don't get why SMN gets a combat raise and PLD doesn't :(

Fracture is the highest potency per GCD that you have available to you. While it's definitely not TP efficient there are fights where that isn't a concern because you either get plenty of time to regen anyway (Titan) or will likely get a Bard song at some point (Turn 8).

Due to the big threat loss I don't use it as MT as often unless we're trying to push a phase but for those fights like Turn 7 where the OT spends the majority of the time in Sword Oath then I definitely do make use of it.

It's not brilliant, true, but I still feel like it has enough use to justify taking up my fifth slot.

As an endgame Paladin myself, I feel there are a number of chat macros you should have. Macro a message for Convalesence, so the healers know, especially Sch, they can either use a lower tier spell and get the same amount, use a higher tier spell and save a benediction, or Aldo will give a bigger shield during the small amount of time convel is up.

Silence should be macroed to chat for the reasons that when you need to use it, someone else is most likely on silence duty with you, and it should be relayed that you either used it, or attempted to use it so everyone is on the same page. The primary reason I can think of is turn 1, the first enemy, whats-it-orb thingy.

Pre-shield oath, you're going to be fighting hard to keep hate, it's the nature of the beast. I suggest you mark at least 1 and 2, so that you only need to worry about the healer taking aggro. Flash is your best friend at this point since it's enmity generation is a set amount. You can skip your first move in the RoH combo and it'll work well, situationaly. As others said, switching mobs as you do your combo yields the greatest results, and that takes a lot of practice watching aggro, seeing how much your own generation of aggro works, ect.

Since there are new people looking at this thread, I'll explain how Provoke works, since I see a lot of newer tanks not understanding how it works. First, it takes the enmity of the person who has the most in your party/alliance, then adds 1 to yourself. For instance, let's say healer has Enmity of 50, and you have none. When you use provoke, you now have 51 enmity, and if the healer hasn't generated anymore, you'll have hate. If you already have hate, it does absolutely nothing, since you are already the max enmity of the group. It's also the longest hitting move you have as a Pld, you CAN use it to pull, but if anything else happens, someone buffs, heals, or damages the mob before you generate more enmity on the voked mob, they will pull hate.

Cross class skills, I use bloodbath for the hp regen, stoneskin for the damage mitigation if the whm is tied up, mercy stroke because it's a free attack with an added bonus if it kills and let's me know when the mob is at 20% hp, fracture because DoTs are always a good idea to speed kills along, and w/e else you want.

I don't warrior much, if at all, so I can't help anyone out with that. Tanking is an art, with practice and support, you can be the best meat shield out there!