Returning to game and need assistance...

Hey all,

I have recently just begun playing the game again. My last attempt was in January 2011, and am trying to learn how to play Gladiator. I have played Warrior and Paladin in FFXI and had no problems, this game is a little more confusing.

What skills should I be using?

Is it bad to use higher level gear over lower level?

What if any elemental resist should I put into?

I would also appreciate any constructive critism. I have been trying to spec this character like a Paladin in XI, Cure/Protect/Shell etc. Am I going the right direction or should I be focusing on something else?

Thanks for any input :)

The Abilities depends on what you are doing. You have in my opinion Turtle mode, Leve mode, Solo mode, and grind mode.

Solo/party you want to focus on quick killing and survival so mix some high dmg stuff with cures and defensive shield stuff.
Leves Go all out dmg mobs in that are a joke.
turtle Mode: What I consider the Pld of FFXIV atm is a focus on pure defensive abilities and hate control.

Gladiators Strength comes from its shields skills and cross class abilities mainly. Here is what I use for tanking most the NMS. Some abilities are traded in an out depending on if the mob is mainly magic based or Physical based.

Dmg Midigation: (Buff Rotation)

• Emulate (from thm) + Aegis Boon => Deflect => Sentinel + Outmanuever + Guard = This rotation will block almost all your physical dmg and around 90% of all magic dmg you take... it is massivly overpowered atm. Emulate is godly on anything magic related, that last about 50secs on glad.. and sentiel is 10sec so if you follow this cycle both phy and mag defenses will stay up.
• Defender: Increases Defense for 30mins (Mrd) Keep up full time when tanking nms

Mobs Special attack (WS) evading

• Feather foot: about a 70% chance to blink a Physical attack or WS (From PUG)
• Diversion: 100% blinks a physical attack or WS (From LNC)
• Decoy: Blinks a magic attack (From ARC)

Holding Hate

• Provoke: Same as XI Spike hate with fast decaying effects
• Taunt: Pugs version of Provoke (From Pug)
• Raging Strike and Furosity: These are att+ buffs but act like last resort and stuff from XI massive long term hate spikes (From Arc and Lnc)
• Accomplice: transfer enmity from a party member to you. (From Pug)
• War Drum: Aoe Provoke (Shield)
• Warmonger: Aoe Hate Increase (MRD)

Staying Alive:

• Cure 3: High Hp cure spell (without the hp cost to cast) (From Conj)
• Sacrifice 3: In my opinion not as good as cure 3 for glad due to you having to use 120hp to get 500hp. (from Thm)

Other Nice Things:

• Stygian Spikes: Reflect dmg back to the mob (thm)
• Siphon MP: Gives you mp back (SMP2 gives back around 120-130mp normally on gld) (thm)
• Contagion: Removes a Negative status effect from you and puts it on the mob (thm)

As for gear it is very bad to use gear above your level... in most cases it is Vasily weaker then the gear at the current level and it wears out almost 5 fold as fast. There are some cases where you might get more defense... like wearing plate armor due to its massive def, but you will lose a ton of everything else.

Gear wise stick with what is near your level.

And a side note on gear plate gear offers the most HP, Def, and dmg cut (The X% Something you see on armor... this means you take that % less dmg from that type of attack)

Full Plate Best for tanking, Haubs or Kokooron's body/conquistador's elmo best for DD.

Sheilds are somewhat similiar to XI:

• Buckler (Small shield): Lowest blockrate highest wield (stays up long... includes increased shield buff duration, this class of shield also has att+7 shields for increased DD potential)
• Kite (Medium shield): average Blockrate Average Wield Rate (Best for tanking anything hard, with this shield the buffs last the whole cycle without breaks in your def)
• Tower (Large Shield): Near 100% block rate Low Wield Rate (Best for leves and party where the mob does not last long, you will not be able to keep this up 100% of the time in the above rotation I listed)

Elemental Resistance depends on you. You could put alot in Earth and Wind this combined with emulate can help resist petrify and silence to things that can really suck.. esp petrify. Or you can put some stats to resist things like sleep.

Gld is a ton of work to turn into a great tank... but once you do you can actually tank mobs that are rank 90+ at 50 and keep everyone else alive while doing it.

This here is in my opinion what you should shoot for when leveling gld, Starting out on GLD you will defiantly want to focus on more DMG since you will not be fighting NMs/hard mobs for awhile.

Thanks for the info :) I will work towards all of those goals.

What about macros? What should I do for those? Also is protect and shell worth equipping or just let a Conjuror cast it on me? Also what about stats? Right now I am putting into all areas to be well rounded. But I see people saying you shouldn't and just do all VIT

The issue with everything besides Vitality and Mnd is the way the Stat Equations are setup. Atm the level difference part of the equation plays way way to big of a part of all the calculations.

So the difference between like 80str and having say 140 str might be like 2-5% dmg difference. Where the same in Vitality will be like 800hp and 2-5% less dmg taken... That 800 hp is a huge chunck and will help you tank where other stats will not really.

So Stacking Vitality does little for dmg negation but gives you alot of HP. Which is why you see people saying only get vit and Mnd... they give MP and Hp which is noticeable. The stats atm just are too negligable to matter much. SE says they are adjusting it do it might change in the future.

Protect and Shell are ok, issue is that is 4 ability points, so you will have to sacrifice something else ability wise... and they don't last very long. I would let mages cast it on you if you can if mages can't they are decent to equip.

Macro wise, I guess it depends on what you are doing. I use keyboard only so everything I do is with 1 button press more or less... outside gear/ability swaps when changing jobs, marking mobs, and a /targer npc macro I do not use macros at all honestly. Controler wise macros might be more beneficial.