Pulling a boss as PLD: How I do it and why

So i have been experimenting with optimizing my boss pull as PLD and I have a pretty consistent burst pull that I have put to use on Susano Ex (which I will use as exemple). I am currently in a very laggy place for work and cannot do savage content but I would be interested to hear from savage raider if such a method could even be useful.

So here it is:

Start countdown....
Between 4 and 3,
-Bullwark+Awareness
-Start casting Holy Spirit
(start running forward at 0.3 sec before end of cast)
-Shield Lob as soon as in range
-Fight or Flight
-Circle of Scorn
-Fast Blade as I run through the boss
-Spirits Within + Savage Blade as I turn around facing the boss
-Shield swipe + Rage of Halone because by then it proc'd

Reasoning:
-Using Holy Spirit while countdown is still there is basically making it a free OGC ability. It has a much greater range than Shield Lob and OMG the Potency
-Popping Bulwark and Awareness at start of fight doesn't REALLY remove any big mitigation from your toolset... Plus, it makes the opening damage less so it`s a nice window for healer dots and whatnot
-All in all, we're talking about a 1760 potency pull (sorry, i'm not enough of a theory crafter to figure out exact potency with Fight or Flight)

All I know it, It works wonders for my initial Aggro as I pull and I do see a nice peak in damage which I obviously calculate on an old solar casio calculator and NOT using a third party software...

Care to discuss?

I prefer:

1. Goring Blade (Shield Lob, Circle, Spirits of course.)
2. Requiescat -> Holy Spirit x5 (RDM can make this x7. Which gives you 140 Oath Gauge to double Sheltron between casts for x8.)
3. Goring (Fight or Flight) -> Royal -> Royal -> Goring -> Royal -> Royal
4. Repeat from 1. (Restore MP with Sheltron at least once per rotation.)

Notes:
- If you're pulling in Shield Oath you never need to use Rage of Halone. I don't lose hate opening with a non-FoF Goring Blade.
- If you are opening with Fight or Flight you are wasting a lot of potency by not using Requiescat until FoF is done.
- Requiescat + Holy Spirit is your highest potency. The sooner you use it the sooner you can use it again.
- Pulling with a Holy Spirit forces you to refill your MP to full before using Requiescat (otherwise its weakened, or no buff at all.)


I like how smooth this rotation flows. It fills you to 100 Oath Gauge right away. It gives you one additional Holy Spirit rotation (depending on the bosses time of death.) It doesn't mess around with the timers of your Fight or Flight phase or your Requiescat phase. It maximizes Goring and Requiescat uptime. And your MP is always full when Requiescat is ready.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Galactimus

- Pulling with a Holy Spirit forces you to refill your MP to full before using Requiescat (otherwise its weakened, or no buff at all.)

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You'll get the MP spent on the precast Holy Spirit by the time you finish your Goring Blade combo. :)

Otherwise your opener is perfect as long as everyone in the group uses Diversion and/or have a Ninja.

The 2 main differences I draw from your answer is that our opening combo differs, and you use Req+Holy spam sooner than me (where I wait for the end of my first FoF).

If I switch to your rotation but implement my little holy spirit stunt, I'm well enough high in MP to Requiescat and cast 5 HS no problem... So it's still a gain there.

I don't know, seems like it's something to work with. Launching a goddamned truck at the boss as you pull seems logical.

I'll try the old Casio calculator again with your modification, but i'm not convinced Holy Spirit dead first is anything but good.

What do you think about fishing for shield swipe?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AeliaBlitz

Start countdown....
Between 4 and 3,
-Bullwark+Awareness
-Start casting Holy Spirit
(start running forward at 0.3 sec before end of cast)
-Shield Lob as soon as in range
-Fight or Flight

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Never pop a CD before a fight unless the fights mechanics dictate that you will need that CD for a mechanic and you wont have it unless you front load it ie using vengance pre pull in a10s so it would be back for the buster or popping bezerk prepull in a7s fo zerk was back up by the 1st jail.
never use holy spirit outside of requiescat, its a waste.
Also never use fight or flight at the beginning of the pull like that and never use fof in shield oath. wait till you do your first rage of halone drop shield and then use fof right before your goring blade. If the fight dictates that you start with fof due to mechanics. If there is no mechanical interference then roh>drop shield>goring>requiescat>holy spam>come back around and right before goring you pop fof.

For pulling with Holy Spirit I'll definitely need to try it out.

- Holy Spirit costs 1450ish(?)
- You regenerate 0 if opening with Halone. 400ish opening with Goring Blade.
- Plus auto-regen.

That puts you at like 6300-6500/7000? (which is more than 80%.) Then if you Sheltron after your second Holy Spirit cast during Requiescat (40 Oath Gauge + 20 from the pre-pull) it'll allow you to Holy Spirit x5 (as long as you get hit during those 5 seconds. It's risky.)

I'll give it a whirl.


(Side note: I only open with Bulwark + Awareness in O3S. You can't block a "Critical Hit", but you can if Awareness is up.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Galactimus

I prefer:

1. Goring Blade (Shield Lob, Circle, Spirits of course.)
2. Requiescat -> Holy Spirit x5 (RDM can make this x7. Which gives you 140 Oath Gauge to double Sheltron between casts for x8.)
3. Goring (Fight or Flight) -> Royal -> Royal -> Goring -> Royal -> Royal
4. Repeat from 1. (Restore MP with Sheltron at least once per rotation.)

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I will test this out and apply a new rotation to my PLD. Thank you! <3

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dizzy_Derp

Snip

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Understand all your points, still no valid argument against precasting Holy Spirit. ''Its a waste outside of Requiescat'' is vastly debunked by the fact that it's pre casted before the fight and acts exactly like and OGCD insta cast 400 potency FU to the boss.

The only issue I'm seeing is that going, goring -> req hs spam, doesn't generate much aggro. So any high level dps will rip off of you quite easily, unless all are always using diversion, or you have a ninja.
Speaking from experience here.. Some of my static dps are very high on enmity even after my opener Lob > Scorn > Goring combo w/ FoF > Spirits > Halone combo > RA combo > Goring > Req+HS spam
And I do that literally just for the enmity, if I know I'll be fine with enmity I'll do basically what everyone else is saying

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Galactimus

For pulling with Holy Spirit I'll definitely need to try it out.

- Holy Spirit costs 1450ish(?)
- You regenerate 0 if opening with Halone. 400ish opening with Goring Blade.
- Plus auto-regen.

That puts you at like 6300-6500/7000? (which is more than 80%.) Then if you Sheltron after your second Holy Spirit cast during Requiescat (40 Oath Gauge + 20 from the pre-pull) it'll allow you to Holy Spirit x5 (as long as you get a hit during those 5 seconds. It's risky.)

I'll give it a whirl.


(Side note: I only open with Bulwark + Awareness in O3S. You can't block a "Critical Hit", but you can if Awareness is up.

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When you try it, see if you can remove shield lob... it's the awkward one to time.... Sometime it feels like a waste of GCD, sometimes GCD is up when I get in melee range. HS pulling may render lobbing useless, unless its low aggro bonus is required....

I feel much more comfortable opening up with a Rage of Halone, so here is my opener

- Pre-cast Holy Spirit
- Shield Lob > Spirit Within (since potency is scaled with HP)
- Fast Blade > Circle of Scorn (extra Enmity cause RDM Dual Cast)
- Savage Blade
- Rage of Halone
- Fast Blade > Riot Blade > Goring Blade (getting dot up ASAP, Chain Stratagem/Trick Attack should be up at this point)
- Requescat > Holy > Holy > Holy + Shelltron > Holy > Holy
- Fast Blade
- Riot Blade (getting MP back to switch oath)
- Sword Oath > Fight or Flight (the reason is you can get 2 Goring Blade within 1 Fight or Flight)
- Goring Blade (by this time, Circle of Scorn / Spirit Within are off CD, weave them though)
- Royal Authority Combo x 2
- Goring Blade combo (getting the second one in your Fight or Flight)

Personally, I open with 2 HS (slidecast the second one for positioning) as it's more aggro and DPS than a shield lob and you get to full MP by the time you start your Requiescat burst.
Then 1 RoH combo before switching to Sword Oath and starting your standard rotation with FoF goring.
Haven't had aggro issues even from RDM.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Shinkyo

Personally, I open with 2 HS (slidecast the second one for positioning) as it's more aggro and DPS than a shield lob....

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More DPS, agreed, but correct me if i'm wrong, the aggro generation wise, Holy Spirit generates 400 potency of enmity, while shield lob have a 7x modifier (equates to 840 potency of enmity generated). (source: https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/wiki/enmity)

Also, are you doing 2 Rages of Halone? One at the pull, and one more after your holy spam?

Edit: my group RDM usually pre-cast a VerThunder/VerAero at -5 second and follows it up with a VerFire/verStone. So on pull, at 0 second, that guy is generating 600 potency of damage/enmity. Without diversion up, there is no way i could get that much over him. That's why i opted out for a Shield Lob there. I hope that clears it up... (also, my WHM pre cast an Aero 3, follows up with an Assize... which heals the party AND deals damage)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Deus_ex_Machina

More DPS, agreed, but correct me if i'm wrong, the aggro generation wise, Holy Spirit generates 400 potency of enmity, while shield lob have a 7x modifier (equates to 840 potency of enmity generated). (source: https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/wiki/enmity

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My bad, i had very old outdated values for the aggro multiplier on Shield Lob.
Well with RDM using their aggro mitigation skill, 2 HS + one RoH on the opener is still enough for me to keep aggro. You're still generating 1080 aggro potency on each HS so that's enough unless the RDM direct crits their first cast :-)
In Susano, I do need a shirk from the OT during the first phase or I'll have to do a halone combo early in the second phase as Healers/SAM would be very close (that's assuming Hallowed the first Stormsplitter and I keep the boss).