Paladin Opener (Max Threat)

Hello Everyone,

I don't really ever have issues with capturing or holding threat, just looking to see if anyone has a better rotation than the one I am using. Please post your openers and thoughts. Thank you.

Not much you can really do besides starting with with FoF > Shield Lob/Flash > Circle > Spirits > RoH combo/Flash spam, throwing in a Shield Swipe whenever it procs.

PLD just doesn't have any real way to generate high burst threat due to gated or poorly implemented mechanics.

I open with Provoke, people complain but hey-- They aren't intelligent to understand why. AS WELL.. It's my class, either shut up or pay me sub and I'll play your way. XD

Voke [SW/Scorn/Shield lob (Whatever I feel like throwing in)] Savage> > / flash. Never lose threat unless someone pulls before me.

Shield lob, flash, fof, CoS is my standard opener with more than one mob. if you can get away with it, doing a fast blade on the main target before FoF -> CoS is even better. Shield lob has horrible potency, so using FoF right before your second combo hit will let you get in the max amount of potency attacks before it fades.

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Originally Posted by Enesuia

I open with Provoke, people complain but hey-- They aren't intelligent to understand why. AS WELL.. It's my class, either shut up or pay me sub and I'll play your way. XD

Voke [SW/Scorn/Shield lob (Whatever I feel like throwing in)] Savage> > / flash. Never lose threat unless someone pulls before me.

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Provoke literally does nothing as an opener. You just wasted the CD.

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FoF -> SL -> Flash - > SoS -> Rotate combos

About the only reason I can think of to open with provoke is for an extremely rare case where you need to aggro a mob from further away than a shield lob would allow you to. However I can't recall a single instance since I started tanking where I needed to use it for this. In almost all cases anything you could single pull with provoke, could also be single pulled with shield lob/tomahawk.

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Originally Posted by zakalw3

FoF -> SL -> Flash - > SoS -> Rotate combos

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That rotation wastes a bit of FoF uptime. You are losing one GcD (2.5 seconds) of FoF uptime because Flash does not benefit from FoF's damage boost and you might waste a GcD or two during the run up to get into combat.

Technically the best starting single target enmity generating rotation for a Paladin with a 2.5 GcD is the following: (actions in () are offGcD)

Uncomboed RoH -> (FoF) -> FB -> (CoS) -> SB -> (SW) -> RoH -> RoH Combo -> RoH Combo -> FB -> SB -> (CoS) -> RoH

The "best" AoE enmity/mitigation starting rotation would be:

SL/Uncomboed RoH -> Flash x3 -> (FoF) -> FB -> (CoS) -> SB -> (SW) -> RoH target 1 -> Flash x2 -> RoH combo target 2 -> Flash -> FB -> SB -> (CoS) -> RoH target 3

The reason this opener is the "best" at mitigation is that it will keep all targets blind for a near continuous 21s while also applying RoH's Str debuff to 3 targets.

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Originally Posted by Bashum

About the only reason I can think of to open with provoke is for an extremely rare case where you need to aggro a mob from further away than a shield lob would allow you to. However I can't recall a single instance since I started tanking where I needed to use it for this. In almost all cases anything you could single pull with provoke, could also be single pulled with shield lob/tomahawk.

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The last dungeon that you could single target ranged pull something with provoke but not Shield Lob was Amdapor Keep NM and you would do so to stop the Succubi between the 2nd and 3rd bosses from fireballing you from a safe distance.

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Originally Posted by Enesuia

I open with Provoke, people complain but hey-- They aren't intelligent to understand why. AS WELL.. It's my class, either shut up or pay me sub and I'll play your way. XD

Voke [SW/Scorn/Shield lob (Whatever I feel like throwing in)] Savage> > / flash. Never lose threat unless someone pulls before me.

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I can't think of any reason to open with provoke unless you're trying to pick out a single enemy from a group of enemies from long range. Kind of like those Balloon looking monsters in The Sunken temple of Qarn (since they aren't linked to other mobs and can be Provoked and killed by themselves.) In that situation, trying to open with shield lob might get you the attention of other threats because of the reduced range.

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Originally Posted by Enesuia

I open with Provoke, people complain but hey-- They aren't intelligent to understand why. AS WELL.. It's my class, either shut up or pay me sub and I'll play your way. XD

Voke [SW/Scorn/Shield lob (Whatever I feel like throwing in)] Savage> > / flash. Never lose threat unless someone pulls before me.

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I mean, yes, you can play however you wish, but the provoke move itself will ALWAYS put your enmity as +1 higher than the highest before you provoked. So as an opener... this literally puts you at 1 enmity. ANY hit after will pull more hate than your provoke just did. On the other hand, if you die, someone pulls a crap ton of enmity, you get rev'd, your provoke will put you back on the top of the list. So it CAN generate the most hate possible. But it's purely based on how you use it. It doesn't hurt to use it to start a pull, but it doesn't help you either. Shield lob/tomahawk would prove much more useful. So, I'm not going to sit here and tell you you SHOULDN'T do this. But just incase you don't realize exactly what it is provoke REALLY does (as the description they give in game is kinda crappy).

And since this topic asked for strongest OPENER's for max threat, then yes, I would say FoF being set off immediately would do well for creating just that. The only problem about using FoF immediately is that in the long run, you end up generating less hate/DPS overall. The best results are always from using FoF right before you use RoH (or RA if you are just pushing out dmg as an OT).

Me personally, I usually go shield lob --> flash --> FB/SB/FoF/RoH --> CoS
I've not run into any issues with this as even if every DPS attacks a different target, i can hold and rotate my FB/SB/RoH combo around to hold all of them. Worst case, I'll have to put another flash in afterwards. Best case, I can just continue my RoH rotation to push out more dmg and generate enmity.

Why do so many use Flash? I would think this would be a loss in enmity for an opener. Unless, they have increased Flash enmity potency since last time I checked (I know in 2.3ish they increased it).

Anyways, I don't main PLD but the opener I like to do when I do play the class is: FoF > Lob > CoS > FB > SW > SB > Blood > RoH > RoH combo 1 more time > GB combo > RA combo (FoF falls off). I will usually have really high enmity with this combo. And if someone is catching up, then I do RoH combo a few times when FoF comes back up. As for Lob > Flash, I don't understand how this would generate more threat. You are delaying your RoH combo by 1 GCD when you do this.

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Originally Posted by Enesuia

I open with Provoke

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Simple answer to this, Provoke place you +1 over whoever has highest enmity. At the pull, no one has any anmity, so you are now at +1 enmity. If you open with shield lob, which enmity is generated, I think 1.5x your damage, you then have ~250-300 enimty when opening with just shield lob. The reason that being at +1 enmity at a pull is bad is because ANYTHING will rip hate and cause for a dirty pull.