Can't Win

I recently came back to game to prep for Stormblood and have been poking at the Garo achievements from my dailies, but for some reason Maelstrom haven't been able to win a Frontline in the last 12 matches. As a PLD I'm doing everything I can to protect our healers and stick to the enemies backline to keep them from casting, but it seems every single match its always just a landslide victory to one of the other factions with twice as many points. So often I see zero focus fire on any target whatsoever and far too much fighting over an empty field.

All I want to do is get these achievements done in the next 2 months, but it seems like there is absolutely nothing more I can do to help my team win and its extremely dull just hitting the Queue over and over again for a seemingly sub 33% chance at victory every time.

It's worth mentioning that these achievements will remain obtainable past the end of the event, as long as you've obtained one of the garo titles.

It might also be worth queuing up as freelancer.

Stick with one team. You've been very unlucky but your luck will turn! Try to queue a lot of primetime.

Is it confirmed that you can do the Garo achievements after the NPC leaves? That would definitely make it a lot less frustrating to deal with losing streaks like this.

I remember it being confirmed in one of the recent live letters, not sure which one, though.

I'd like to think I'm a pretty solid PLD in Frontlines, so here's a few tips (in general; note that I'm not commenting on your culpability for wins/losses in any way):

-Don't stun willy-nilly. That four seconds of initial stun from Shield Bash is AMAZING, and if you just spam it on every random you see you've already seriously hindered it's efficacy. Nothing drives me battier than seeing other PLDs stunlock full-HP enemy healers on the other team when everyone is focused on big ice. If you can't lock someone down long enough to guarantee they die (or in the case of healers, prevent them from healing people about to die), then don't use Shield Bash.

-Learn the other ways you can distract or disrupt the enemy team. Bad/mediocre healers will run squealing like little girls just from a Goring Blade or Royal combo. If they Blizzard II/Fluid Aura/Repose you, find another target because odds are they know how to handle uppity tanks and you won't scare them off from babysitting their team.

Sometimes I'll just start whacking a melee at ice, too. If they get down to half health-ish, I'll Glory Slash/stun them into our GC, out of range of their healers, with the idea that our ranged will pick them off. If you don't plan on going for ledge punt kills, using Glory Slash with the initial 4-second stun on Shield Bash is a great way to chuck an overextender into your team for a free kill - this goes for any circumstance, whether at big ice or just brawling in mid.

Silence has no diminishing returns, so if you see a healer casting a big heal (Adlo/Cure II/Benefic II) on someone with super-low HP feel free to silence it - with any luck their heal target will croak and worst case scenario you won't be able to try again for another 30 seconds. Spirits Within has a long-ass animation delay though so be quick about making the decision to push it.

-If you can proc Shield Swipe, it's a great way to shut down a physical attacker for a solid 6 seconds or longer. I have successfully 100-0'd BRDs who think they have me with their wombo-combo burst, only to Shelltron-->Shield Swipe them then finish them off as they try frantically to get to a healer lol. Also great to use on NIN who sometimes come to your back line to pester your healer(s). Pacification DOES have diminishing returns but iirc the only other job that has it is MNK, so as a PLD you can largely use it with impunity. Note that it doesn't affect healers or casters, and using it on tanks 90% of the time is a waste (if a Berserk WAR is smashing your squishies though by all means put a stop to it).

-Flash can SEEM useless, but it has some value. Nothing like a DPS missing their CC or a heavy-hitter like Fire IV because they're blinded. I prefer to run in and use this when our team is actually PVPing - wasting blind DR for a few missed ice hits I don't think is worth it.

Your defensive abilities are god-tier, no joke. You'll only likely get to use Hallowed Ground once per match (MAYBE twice if you sack it early), so make it count. You are 100% immune to everything with it up, with one caveat - damage taken through Cover (so it's inadvisable to use them together). LBs, CC, dot damage - you name it, it's not damaging you. Take advantage of that to either Clemency yourself and get back in the fray, or get to safety if you think the heat won't let up after HG is over.

Testudo if traited is basically half a tank LB for 150% as long. Use it if your group is under fire and outnumbered; it can really make a difference. Staggering it with tank LB can sometimes mean the difference between getting out of a scrape okay and getting sent back to the rez point.

Cover won't protect a player from LB damage (even the physical melee LB), so use it when a priority target is about to get reamed by 2+ melee (priority targets being Battle Highs/Fevers in your party or one of your healers). The best part of Cover is that it soaks the CC aspect of physical damaging moves like Leg Sweep/Jugulate/Weapon Throw so rather than your healer or Battle High getting chain CC'd you do instead - and with cooldowns up you're much better equipped to handle it than anyone else.

On that note, if you CAN, turn on Shield Oath and use Rampart, Sentinel, or Convalescence while using Cover. HG won't absorb Cover damage but Rampart/Sen will lower the damage you take (and Convalescence helps the healer keep you afloat, because you'll be taking a lot of pain).

-Mark targets you plan on punting/stunlocking. I really can't stress this enough - if you choose your lockdown targets wisely your team WILL melt them even if they're mediocre at PvP. Make sure you pick someone close enough for most of your team to hit, including your melee. If a target isn't QUITE close enough don't be afraid to Glory Slash/stun like I mentioned earlier. But I found that my efficacy as PLD shot through the ROOF when I marked and then subsequently stunlocked targets. No other CC can immobilize someone so handily while NOT being broken by damage. Learn when to use it and love it.

-Use Full Swing wisely. The first thing good players will do is cleanse it or Purify it, so I try to watch for people who have already sacked their Purify. If an enemy Battle High/Fever is being focused, put it on them if there's a healer even within THOUGHT range - a crit Lustrate or quick Benediction can undo your team's hard work in an instant, so that 20% extra damage they take from your DPS can mean the difference between a kill or not. If there's no scenario like that about to play out anytime soon, putting it on a fleeing healer can help too if you have some decent DPS playing chase.

-I prefer to save my Purify for other people. Target someone in your party and use it to purge all their negative status effects. There's not much that can kill a full HP PLD if you play smart, and I'd rather assist a more vulnerable target in getting to safety if the need arises. Healers are good targets for Purify, especially if your party has just one - there's no second healer to help cleanse their sleep or cornucopia of nasty dots/debuffs!


I'm sure I forgot some stuff here, and maybe some other PLDs will have criticism or corrections for my tips, but hopefully as a starting point this is helpful. Your role as a PLD is primarily disruptive/defensive, but Fight or Flight into some solid DPS maneuvers can help you score some kills too, or help you get some clutch points on ice. PLD's toolkit is easily one of the best ones for group endurance in PVP, and with FoF, Sword Oath, and your DPS combos you can put out some decent hurt too. You don't have the burst for mega kills, but you can sustain on a target really well and make some of them think twice before coming right up to your front line.

Best of luck with your Garo achievements! Hope your win rate perks up soon!

Play mercenary instead of maelstrom.

If you can't win, switch Grand Company or check Frontline Freelancer option in settings. Paladins are useless in Frontline generally, can't mitigate enough to prevent people from dying, and can't contribute enough damage to help win, either on ice or enemies. If you think about it in a nutshell, what's needed for victory? Whoever did more damage on ice (primary target) and kills (secondary target) wins, how exactly a paladin can help with it? Enemies will ignore you when going for ice, and you can't prevent them from killing when they'll go after your team, only annoy with occasional stuns and covers.

It's probably because you're playing with bots. Botting in Frontlines has spiked immensely in the past few months. They're so easy to spot if you know what to look for. Get used to seeing them and seeing them often. Apparently there was a new program just released specifically for Shatter and a simple Google search will provide you an eye-opening account of how intricate this new program actually is.

You can try to report these players, as they are often seen with the AFK icon displayed, running listlessly between party members and always mounting/dismounting at awkward time. Nothing usually comes of it as I still see these players often enough doing exactly the same thing.

Or if they are queing in the same window every day getting unfavorable match ups. Bots have been a little better on aether earlier in the day.