Or you could just learn to use it. I use it all the time in dungeons/group content.
It works fine now. Make it cover all the damage instead of just physical and that's it.
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Cover is only good in pvp. I think the OP is asking for it to be changed to Testudo, which is PLDs pvp only skill.
Huh... that's funny. I could've sworn I've used cover effectively in PVE... guess I didn't save any white mages or dps from being Dalamud Dived when a healer had failed to get me any healing when I was tanking the green golem prior to boulder clap.
And Cover must've completely failed to save that Warrior I protected from Bahamut's autoattack post Holmgang Akh Morn whilst I took control of the fight back.
And let's not forget the time I totally watched Captain Madison ignore cover when I was sparing the healer from his bullets when that DPS check mattered.
Hell, I certainly don't use it while Provoke is on cooldown to prevent incoming damage on a DPS that accidentally pulled a patrolling monster while I bring said monster in line. (This doesn't happen often, but I feel like a boss when I get to do this)
Cover is situational, yes, but it's not useless in PVE.
When theres a lot of adds coming from all over, easiest way to grab them is to drop cover on the healer as they will rush to the healer anyways because of healer enmity, Then AE them to grab aggro, Healer takes no damage because, cover. Melee LBiing, drop cover on them so they dont get killed by AE when they are animation locked.
Ive also saved the MT with cover when they were about to die from a tank buster.
So yeah, uses.
Does that work? I was under the impression that defensive buffs mitigated damage targeted towards you, and in the case of Cover, didn't affect damage towards the person being covered. I'm positive I take damage when stacking Hallowed Ground with Cover
It's been a while since I messed around with it, but as I recall as long as the person you are covering is facing the monster you can block. If they have their back to it then you cannot.
Some damage seems to just bypass Hallowed Ground, like a bosses super attack. I believe incoming damage from Cover fits in the same category. But you can use most of your cooldowns to help mitigate it otherwise. Like Brannigan said, if the subject of cover is facing forward you can and will block, so this can be used to get Shield Swipe procs off your MT if your healers are ready for you to suddenly take some damage. In addition, I believe Awareness can prevent you from taking extra critical damage.
Also, been using that trick to cover Healers when adds pop up. That takes a load off my mind during certain add spawns.