Suggestion: Cover

Can this be change to not target a party member, but instead, take 50% of all damage caused to party members within 10 yalms.

It would be far...far better and easier to use in more situations than the current ability.

op much? The only way a skill like that would work is if they have to stand behind the pld to balance it out. Cover is not even that hard to use. I'm on PS4 and I manage pretty good through tab selecting.

Why would that be OP? Generally the only people within that range of you (given how big bosses are) are 1-2 melee and the off tank at most? It makes the power reactionary instead of generally only being used in a prep (t13 etc). Having it be able to protect everyone in a small circle around you would be nice while also requiring skill as to not kill yourself (i.e , using it during an aoe where you and many targets are going to be smashed).

Mouse over macro:

/ac (Cover) <mo>

Macro for covering a target your enemy is hitting:

/ac (Cover) <tt>

Macro for covering your target:

/ac (Cover) <t>

Macro for taking your bottom lip and slamming it against your top lip:

/ac (STFU)

The skill is exactly as it needs to be. Trouble using macros on a PlayStation? Hmm, seems like an issue with personal preferences to me, not an issue with the game. A skill that cover ALL the physical damage of one target will be much better than just taking half, even if it's for the whole party. What would I have done with a 50% damage redirect in T13 after my Warrior off tank just got pulverized to 1 HP by Bahamut's Ahk Morn, and immediately after his Holmgang dropped, he got killed by a stray dragon fart that I was only able to redirect half towards me? Too weak. Not OP.

Despite some childish smartassery, I'd have to agree with the above posts. Cover is a useful skill as-is, though personally I find skills that favour only magic or physical damage annoying because I don't always know what sort of damage is incoming.

I am a ps4 player and make use of this skill. It's true that most tanks (PC, ps4 or otherwise) tend to ignore it or struggle with it, but skills that require player ability to use affectively are my fav.

The only tweak I feel would be warranted for Cover is increasing its range. As it currently is it can sometimes be just too short when you have a really big boss and you want to use Cover on someone right on the other side of the boss. Other than that, I really like Cover. I always use it on the MT when I can if I am OTing as PLD and then pop FoF+Bloodbath to regain the health lost.

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Originally Posted by GeekMatt

...skills that favour only magic or physical damage annoying because I don't always know what sort of damage is incoming.

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This is the only change I would make to this skill. ALL damage should be redirected.

+ want Cover to work with Pets too cuz i dont need to worry when Eos have aggro ;D

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Originally Posted by Marxam

op much? The only way a skill like that would work is if they have to stand behind the pld to balance it out. Cover is not even that hard to use. I'm on PS4 and I manage pretty good through tab selecting.

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That's exactly how it worked in FFXI.

Cover is fine as is.

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Originally Posted by Twilite

That's exactly how it worked in FFXI.

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Wrong. Cover still targetted a particular member. That member had to hide behind you to get anything out of it however. I've used it recently in FFXI, so yes I know what I'm talking about.

As for the main idea of the topic:

My only issue with Cover is that it's physical only. But it logically makes sense, since thematically it's you jumping in the way and deflecting a blow using your shield (thus the shield imagery on the icon). It would just be incredibly disruptive to animate that and forcing someone to stand in the cleave zone to get the benefit of it would be counter intuitive at best.

Plus I've used Cover more than a fair amount to save someone under attack before. I don't like the idea of losing my ability to put a protective shell over a particularly overzealous DPS.

With the exception of specific endgame fights, cover really has no use in everyday fights. 99% of the time that you lose hate you can get it back immediately with provoke faster than you could use cover to target your ally. I imagine a large number of tanks have gone through the whole game and used Cover less than 5 times. Right now the skill is rather pointless because there are other things you could be doing that have a better effect instead of spending your time covering someone.

I see no issue to letting cover work for anyone near you. Its a slight buff imo for an ability that never gets used. Its not game-breaking in the least.

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Originally Posted by Kyant

With the exception of specific endgame fights, cover really has no use in everyday fights.

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That's cool with me, as PLD has a lot of other useful party abilities they use and mechanic ignoring abilities. Though would be nice if they extended the range on it and made it for all damage types.

aoe cover = dead pld lol

I don't think it's specific to endgame at all. If you use DF, you see people do stupid things all the time. Cover is the stupid-thing corrector. I'm sure I find more uses for it in everyday dungeons.

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Originally Posted by IskarJarak

aoe cover = dead pld lol

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I had that same image in my head when I read he OP XD

Extending it to magic would be very helpful in PvP.

The only QoL fix I would have is the ability to Cover people not in my party. Big boss fates like the ones in HW areas are good examples of when Cover can be useful to shield a tank not in your party.

Hihi. Just putting my 2 Gil in also.. Could we maybe make it block magic damage too? Thanks for your respect and have a nice day!

it should block all dmg, both magical/phys ...and can we please be allowed to cast it on non party members!!!

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Originally Posted by Kyant

With the exception of specific endgame fights, cover really has no use in everyday fights.

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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.

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.

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Originally Posted by Domira

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.

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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.

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Originally Posted by Wournsfeik_Untawhasyn

Snip.

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Then there's eating tank busters as an OT, or covering that poor newbie WHM that decided it was ok to continue to stand in front if Titan after the party stacked for an AoE.

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Originally Posted by GeekMatt

Then there's eating tank busters as an OT, or covering that poor newbie WHM that decided it was ok to continue to stand in front if Titan after the party stacked for an AoE.

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Or when you want to use Bulwark to recover TP in a long drawn out fight as an OT. So you cover the MT and start shield swiping. Used that trick to Pacify Ifrit HM after he'd gotten Stun Immunity.

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Originally Posted by Kyant

I see no issue to letting cover work for anyone near you. Its a slight buff imo for an ability that never gets used. Its not game-breaking in the least.

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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.

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Originally Posted by GeekMatt

I'm sure I find more uses for it in everyday dungeons.

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Cover was beast in Mythflox nonstop, give it to BLM and let him go nuts with flares while you go afk :P

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Originally Posted by Wournsfeik_Untawhasyn

Or when you want to use Bulwark to recover TP in a long drawn out fight as an OT. So you cover the MT and start shield swiping. Used that trick to Pacify Ifrit HM after he'd gotten Stun Immunity.

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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.

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Originally Posted by GeekMatt

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

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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.

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Originally Posted by Wournsfeik_Untawhasyn

Cover is situational, yes, but it's not useless in PVE.

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Situational is never useful.

I like cover as is I just wish it could be used in more situations. I think the best usage in recent memory is preventing holy shield bash in a certain dungeon and let's not forget on earthshakers but that's old content.

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Originally Posted by GeekMatt

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

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It works. Tested today when covering the MT on Floor 3 Alexander. Was pretty nice to mitigate some damage off of him since our DPS let some adds get into the water.

Not sure about other cool downs though.

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Originally Posted by Domira

Situational is never useful.

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How is situational not useful? There are even fewer times where I would want to use the proposed changes to it.

PLD finally feels like it has a complete toolkit. Sheltron, and even Divine Veil were nice additions. Saved several groups with Clemency and RA/GB are no brainers.

Cover is just one of those tools in a toolkit. It's like saying Holmgang is not useful as again it is situational.

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Originally Posted by Wintersandman

How is situational not useful? There are even fewer times where I would want to use the proposed changes to it.

PLD finally feels like it has a complete toolkit. Sheltron, and even Divine Veil were nice additions. Saved several groups with Clemency and RA/GB are no brainers.

Cover is just one of those tools in a toolkit. It's like saying Holmgang is not useful as again it is situational.

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But Holmgang has a definitive purpose, that can be applied to a variety of circumstances in both pve and pvp. Cover in comparison is very niche in pvp, there aren't many if any times that one needs to use cover. In pvp cover is a must since healers are the primary target. In pve this type of circumstance rarely happens since the tank maintains control over mobs. Maybe it would be a bit more useful if it could also redirect magic damage as well.

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Originally Posted by Domira

Situational is never useful.

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That's silly. It's a life-saving ability, how is saving the party from wiping not useful? I think what you mean to say is "situational skills are where player ability matters"

There are also planned applications for Cover, such as to avoid having to tank swap, or the aforementioned letting someone else (healer) gather mobs.

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Originally Posted by Domira

But Holmgang has a definitive purpose, that can be applied to a variety of circumstances in both pve and pvp. Cover in comparison is very niche in pvp, there aren't many if any times that one needs to use cover. In pvp cover is a must since healers are the primary target. In pve this type of circumstance rarely happens since the tank maintains control over mobs. Maybe it would be a bit more useful if it could also redirect magic damage as well.

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I have used Cover many times in PvE. We had a healer DC in the story mode trial. The main tank was getting hammered and the sole healer couldn't keep up with healing everyone. I was able to cover and clemency without having to tank swap. It took far less coordination on the fly and it was able to keep the group going. This is just an example and other people in this thread have provided their own. I have used Holmgang far less than Cover.

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Originally Posted by Domira

But Holmgang has a definitive purpose, that can be applied to a variety of circumstances in both pve and pvp. Cover in comparison is very niche in pvp, there aren't many if any times that one needs to use cover. In pvp cover is a must since healers are the primary target. In pve this type of circumstance rarely happens since the tank maintains control over mobs. Maybe it would be a bit more useful if it could also redirect magic damage as well.

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Right, and in the same vein Cover has a definitive use. Or did you not bothering reading the last whole page of posts? I mean, that would be silly right, all these Paladins naming perfectly viable uses for their skill and you just know so much more than their own applications.

Give up man, it doesn't matter how many times your repeat it, evidence doesn't support you.

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Originally Posted by Wournsfeik_Untawhasyn

Right, and in the same vein Cover has a definitive use. Or did you not bothering reading the last whole page of posts? I mean, that would be silly right, all these Paladins naming perfectly viable uses for their skill and you just know so much more than their own applications.

Give up man, it doesn't matter how many times your repeat it, evidence doesn't support you.

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Just because I do not agree with you or anyone here about Cover being useful, doesn't mean I did not read the experiences of others or even respect their opinion. The examples they provided I already knew about, but this doesn't change my opinion that the skill isn't that great in pve due to how often its utilized.

@OP that sounds like an idea for a new Pld raid cooldown that wouldn't necessarily be a bad one. WoW's paladin had a simialr move, but it also had a secondary effect where once the pld took 40 or 50% (I forget the exact number) of their max hp, it ended prematurely, that would stop it from being an instant death on the paladin.

As for Cover, it's situational and an ability I rarely find myself needing, there are only two situations where I use cover with any regularity:

Saving someone that fails to get behind the icicle in Slowcloak, it saves them from Fenrir's Bite attack that he follows up with to finish off whoever gets frozen but you can only do it once or twice before the fight is over. The second time is in Fractal when you're dpsing the node that spawns adds, I usually just pop Cover on the healer as the adds get close so I can absorb the first few stray hits while I round up everything.