Newbie (sort of) paladin help...

Hello! New to the forums.

So…. I need paladin help. I have a lv 70 paladin. But I got it that far mostly by doing beast tribes (bad idea…). I feel as if I should be lv 50-ish still, because I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing… I know the basics (throw shield at things to pull them, flash, circle of something when it’s up, aggro combo, dps combo, cooldowns…). I’ve tried tanking expert with a full party of friends a few times, but I always panic and mess up ☹ I have no issues being healer or dps in lv 70 stuff, but I feel panicky when I’m tanking (even at lower lever things). I tried tanking with one random player and two friends once (got Skalla) and I just lost aggro on everything… To be fair, I was about i310 with no melds at that point, and the random DPS was a i340 BLM fully melded....

I usually just stay in shield oath because I’m scared of losing aggro. I do a 1-2 aggro combos on the boss, then maybe 3-4 dps-combos, then I panic and do the aggro combo again or press all CDs at once… I know it’s stupid to do like that, but I just don’t get tanking. I’ve looked at guides, and I get the theory of it, but I just panic when I’m actually in a dungeon (obviously I’ve not tried anything harder than lv 70 dungeons yet…)

I have a friend who mains WAR, and she just says I have to tank more things with random people, but I’m super scared of signing up for anything because I’m sure I will be horrible… I really do want to learn tanking, but I can’t always wait for my friends to be online when I want to try… So right now I just don’t sign up for any roulette as paladin because I might get something 50+ and then I will just wipe the party (at least in my mind). How do I get more confident with tanking…?

It sounds like your defeating yourself before you even get into queue, give yourself some credit and go in with an open mind. If you explain at the start of a duty that you are still getting the grasp of your job then most ppl will offer advice and be understanding. Try going with a cpl tanks from your fc that also heal or dps so they can see what you are doing and offer advice. You can look me up as well and i can run a cpl things with you when i'm on.

As far as dungeons is concerned, it is perfectly acceptable you tank all the trash mobs in between bosses in shield oarth. In fact i would recommend that you do. As for bosses starting out with 1 enmity combo in shield oarth then swapping to sword oarth is usually sufficient, however if you are much lower geared than the dps, you might have to do 2 or even 3 to stay ahead.

As for getting confidence the answer is simple, keep at it, practice, you will get better at it and gain more confidence as a result. If things go bad don't take it to hard, explain to your group that you are new at the job and most people will understand. For bosses, rotation wise just practice it and you will get it, basically you can forget the enmity combo exists outside of the pull, once you have established enough aggro at the start of the fight, you should use only the dps rotation which is: Fast Blade > Riot Blade > (Fight or Flight) > Goring Blade > Fast Blade > Riot Blade > Royal Authority > Fast Blade > Riot Blade > Royal Authority > Fast Blade > Riot Blade > Goring Blade > Requiscat > Holy Spirit x5 > Start over from beginning. Use Circle of Scorn & Spirits Within whenever they are available, and shield swipe whenever it procs. Use defensives for tankbusters or periods where you take a lot of damage, but generally dungeon bosses won't hit you hard enough to make this an issue, you should however use defensives on trash pulls.

You really just have to do it more.
Learn to trust your healer and not use your CD's unless a bit hit is coming (and they're almost always going to give you enough warning).
Regarding being afraid of losing enmity, just keep a bar on the party list. There's a bar under everyone in your party that shows their current enmity on your targetted mob!

Thanks everyone :) I suppose I just have to try tanking more and don't be so afraid of messing up... and don't panic if I mess up anyway :P

Also when you're pulling trash remember to rotate your targets. It can be easy to lose aggro on a few when you're only focusing on one at a time. Use flash and Circle of Scorn wisely and rotate through all your targets on a regular basis. Doing this will show you any enemies that you're close to losing aggro on as well.

As far as shield oath goes (or any tank stance in general really), it's fine to stay in it until you feel comfortable. Only the worst of the worst are going to get aggravated about it. You should always keep it on when it comes to trash too, it's generally just not worth the trouble of dropping it as PLD (you can for War in some instances to inner release spam decimate). Like others have said, once you feel a little more confident, it's actually fairly easy to keep hate on single target (bosses) with just one or two of your enmity combo at the initial pull, from there you can go into sword for extra damage, but don't feel ashamed by going back to shield if things go south, you're better off alive anyway.