New tank looking for tips.

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Originally Posted by Bigcat9715

I'm at lvl 32, but I'm looking for tips on tanking as a paladin

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The biggest problem with baby paladins and AOE tanking, is that they're really stingy with flash. Two flashes and rotating through the enemy list with the halone combo won't cut it in any dungeon where you can't use shield oath, especially if you prefer not to mark. To borrow a bit from the acting philosophy of Tug Speedman, if you want to have a good time with your pally at early levels, you need to go 'full retard.' By that, I mean total commitment. Use flash until your mana bar is empty then alternate between one riot blade combo and one flash per GCD until only one enemy is left, then just use your riot blade combo until your mana bar is full again. Stick to that, and it's doubtful you'll ever get something peeled off you.

Do not be afraid to use your cooldowns. I cannot stress this enough: DO NOT. Be AFRAID. To USE your cooldowns! We aren't warriors that have a massive pool of HP to absorb damage with. We have a shield and a bunch of defensive cooldowns at the cost of that health. USE THEM. 90sec-180sec means you're able to use them every fight/every other fight. No, don't save them "for emergencies." because we have a skill for that, it's called Hallowed Ground. 10 second invulnrability. This is even more important before you have shield oath. Rampart: 20% less damage taken. Sentinel: 40% less damage taken. Convalescence: 30% more HP gained from curative effects. Bulwark: +60% chance to block. USE THEM! Shield Oath will give you an innate 20% less damage taken. What does that mean? Rampart: 40% less damage taken. Sentinel: 60% less damage taken. Bulwark: up to 40% damage blocked (PLUS THE 20% LESS TAKEN FROM SHIELD OATH).

This is the biggest issue I see with paladins: They don't use their cooldowns. This isn't an other MMO where you should ONLY use cooldowns against a boss (and even then I rarely, if ever, see paladins use their cooldowns against bosses). Use them. All the time. Love them. Then when you're leveling a healer silently curse all the paladin tanks that are taking so much unnecessary damage because they aren't using cooldowns.

If you're on the PS4 and lack the buttons to hold all these cooldowns: Macros are your friend. Set up macros for your offensive cooldowns so they cycle through. Defensive cooldowns, utility cooldowns. You just put 8+ cooldowns on three buttons.

And for the love of god, face your enemies so you can actually block and parry their attacks!

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Originally Posted by PinnyAerani

If you're on the PS4 and lack the buttons to hold all these cooldowns: Macros are your friend. Set up macros for your offensive cooldowns so they cycle through. Defensive cooldowns, utility cooldowns. You just put 8+ cooldowns on three buttons.

And for the love of god, face your enemies so you can actually block and parry their attacks!

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god no dont make that many macros
use extended hotbar and youll have more than enough space for pld

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Originally Posted by aisustrong

god no dont make that many macros
use extended hotbar and youll have more than enough space for pld

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I ended up going with her advice a little. What I did was put 2 defense buff together depending on the recast timer, so whenever I need a buff I press it once for the first buff then press it and for the second. Rampart with Convalescence, foresight with awareness, etc. The macros I did truly helped alot, plus Shield Oath truly makes a difference.

I think marking target and rotate combos through enemies are equivalent things. In my opinion, its enough to do just one of those things.

I prefer to rotate Halone combo: Some dps will aoe enemies, others, such like bards, will begin to swap dot all enemies. For that reason, I prefer to let dps do what they supposedly know how to do.

But, in some dungeons, it's better to take down a specific enemy quickly, so don't forget to yell in party chat "Guys, kill X enemy first", and then, you spam your 2x flash in mobs, then help to bring that enemy down.

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Fight or flight. 90 sec cd, 30 sec duration, 30% more power. More power = more enmity. Use it. Seriously, use it!

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Don't eat aoes. If you can avoid a aoe, avoid it. ( brayflox boss will be your first "trial" on this ).
If you have problems avoiding aoes (lag issues or something else), let your healer aware of it, so he can focus you.

But, after avoiding a aoe, return to your original position. Why? See below.

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Don't move enemies too much. Melees are positional dependents. Make their lifes easier.

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If you can, stay against a wall. Like: Wall | You | boss. Of course, be aware of circular aoes. Be double sure to have space to avoid them.
Plus, don't let enemies facing your whole team. Hold aggro and turn enemies around. If enemies do a cone or linear aoe, your team will not need to avoid it.

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Someone above said it already, but this is important, so I will say it again.
Face your enemies. Block only procs if you are facing your enemy.

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Just some very newbies tips and basic knowledge, I know, but hope that helps.
World need more tanks. :)

It may be best to put some of your bonus attribute points in to some str till you get shield oath also once you get to the high item levels if you mainly use just tank gear its best to put most of your bonus into str it can help alot.

Macros are bad on almost everything in this game. use the L2>R2 / R2>L2 double hold to get an addition 16 slots. It takes a little getting used to but its great once you can do it.

I leveled my PLD after maining MNK for a while, and now it's my main. Like everyone says, Lv 30 ~ 40 were a nightmare. Heck, with a trigger Happy Ninja and Black Mage, you'll likely lose aggro even at iLv 100.

What I've learned is that at Lv50, attack cooldowns are the key to holding aggro.

As a PLD you have several aggro gaining actions, but note that most of them share cooldown time: the halone combo, flash and shield lob. You can't do them one after another.

On the other hand, Circle of Scorn and Spirits Within have each their separate cooldowns, so you can do them right before or after any of the actions noted above.

So for the initial pull I normally use

Shield lob > ( cooldown while enemies get in range ) > Flash > Circle of Scorn > Spirits Within on my "main" target > Flash ( cooldown ends while you do Circle of Scorn & Spirits Within )

This normally buys me enough time to see what the DPS are doing and react accordingly.

Just some things that came to mind:

1. DPS like to see a$$es, so turn the mobs around and give them a good gander.

2.The indicators on the floor coming outta the mobs faces...they will turn into hurt if you don't get out of the way....on that note...YOU CAN RUN THROUGH MOBS. I hate seeing tanks back up, side step, try to run away/out of AoE's. You are right there, just run through.

3. Stun things. Take that shield and bash that mo fo's face. Aside from stunning, they don't like it.

4. Be mindful of your DPS, positionals sukk at times ( see 1).

5. Communicate with your party. If you wanna be all ballz gung ho and grab an entire room, make sure you say so.

6. Be nice. Sometimes it's nice to do low level roulettes and run the whole dung for lowbies.

7. Laugh and learn from your mistakes. Sword oath on Speed Run pulls is the best.... :-/

I too was a MNK until I decided-foolishly-to try Paladin. I was enjoying myself until I became a fresh 50 trying to do dungeons for tomes. Now there are people who are ilvl 9001 and I am ilvl 54. There is no such thing as maintaining hate. I've tried your combo, tried doing the 123 combo on separate mobs (learned that little trick long ago and it used to work) I go OOM trying to flash things and still end up losing hate and turn into just being a crappy dps that just lets the BLM tank because no matter what I can't get hate back. How is someone supposed to learn to tank when you're outgeared so damn badly?

Telling people, "hey I'm a fresh 50, my I'm ilvl54 if you pull it off me I can't get it off you", does nothing. Marking does nothing to quell the aoe mindset players have, and I don't even want to think about going into an 8 man like this.