New PLD since SHB release

I have to admit, I am impressed with the new PLD build. I used to only use PLD for single target and would use my war for multiple target dungeons or. with the new build I won't have to do that any more since we can attack multiple targets at once where we would only have flash before.

I am noticing that the healers are having issues keeping up heals and as a PLD I am having to assist the healers In healing the party. I have no problem holding hate at all.

what is your take on the new PLD rotations?

Paladin feels complete. Shelltron feels good, full aoe magic and physical rotation and easy to recover mp.insta cast spells feel so good. Overall it’s a ton of fun in dungeons and is my new main after being war since 3.0

Welcome back paladin son. Even if it might not be as hig damage as war I just love the feel of cycling between expelling mp and recovering mp while using shelltron and cds for mitigation. Atonement is a wonderful addition to the fight or flight rotation and everything works in harmony at 78. Confiteor will be the icing on this cake.

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Originally Posted by BoazJochin

I have to admit, I am impressed with the new PLD build. I used to only use PLD for single target and would use my war for multiple target dungeons or. with the new build I won't have to do that any more since we can attack multiple targets at once where we would only have flash before.

I am noticing that the healers are having issues keeping up heals and as a PLD I am having to assist the healers In healing the party. I have no problem holding hate at all.

what is your take on the new PLD rotations?

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Former DRK main here, pulled a Cecil after seeing how Square Enix butchered my class. But yes, PLD is the sh*t lol.

I'm absolutely loving it, like another poster said, it feels COMPLETE. Very much so. Also, Holy Circle's animation is absolutely beautiful. I'm not stuck spamming one combo over and over like I had to do on DRK either; I feel like I have some freedom in how I play. Can't wait to hit 80, at 73 right now!

Has anyone else been experiencing an issue with Requiescat where you use it but don't get the buff? There's been a couple of trash pulls when I'll hit Requi to start my Holy Circle x4 > Confiteor, only for me to start hard casting Holy Circle. Could it be lag?

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Originally Posted by CorbinDallas

Has anyone else been experiencing an issue with Requiescat where you use it but don't get the buff? There's been a couple of trash pulls when I'll hit Requi to start my Holy Circle x4 > Confiteor, only for me to start hard casting Holy Circle. Could it be lag?

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I think you mana needs above 80% or something like that. If it isn't you don't get the buff if I recall correctly.

I am really enjoying Pally. Kudos to SE as I main Pally, and seems right fit for all the changes to other jobs. Also, I actually use heal a lot more now which I like and the rotations are simple. Lots of fun so far.

I'd say in reference to healers not being able to heal the party is largely due to either inexperienced players, you aren't pulling aggro fast enough, the pulls are too big for the healer, or they just aren't used to healing the bigger hits.
You can also help this a ton by making sure you are rotating cooldowns correctly and stunning hits that you can. Stufff hits a lot harder this expansion and Astro and Sch are having slight issues keeping up. Just do your best to mitigate what you can and make sure if you have party members that can help mitigate stuff like dancer's shield samba that they are using it.

I'm not sold yet, I gotta say. Level 77 now.
My problem with PLD has always been how set in stone and inflexible the rotation is, and unfortunately nothing has changed about that. That's why I enjoyed SB DRK the most out of all the tanks (RIP)
In SB, you switched between your physical phase with GB>RA>RA>repeat and your magic phase with Req>HS
Now in ShB, the phases are still there, with only difference being that you need 2 additional buttons to go through them - Atonement and Confiteor

Having to cancel a cast of HS or HC because some AoE landed under me is one of the most annoying aspects of the job for me (yeah, not gonna go BLM anytime soon) and that's going to end in one level's time, so maybe that'll tie the job together for me.
The job has actual AoE gameplay now, which is great. Spin to win is fun, I imagine Holy Circle will be as well after 78, and it's the one part where I can imagine Confiteor actually feeling good.
Shelltron is really satisfying to use now - would be nice if generating gauge was less dull and automated, but hey, it's a start

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Originally Posted by Freerider

making sure you are rotating cooldowns correctly

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are we playing the same game?
they took away all the CDs for auto attacks.

if you try to do this, you'll be out of CDs for the next pull.

if anything, pretty much one CD at the start of a pull, and then hope u have another by the 4th pull or so.
The only thing else u can throw up every time its up, is sheltron.
but even then u wont be able to keep up other CDs with sheltron 100% of the time.

The lack of CDs to manage and keep up completely ruined tanking for me.
I like playing defensively, but I cant distinguish being a DPS or a tank.
I dont even need my tank stance on. Ive gone multiple pulls w/o my threat stance up, not even realizing its not on, because base DPS is high enough to hold hate over everyone else.
While I usually tanked in sword oath plenty before, I still had to throw it up in plenty of scenarios in 4man dungeons. Now it feels useless, ive yet to come across a group who can rip hate off a tank with it off. (Granted Ive main tanked in 24man fights with only sword oath, NOT being the 1st puller, not using any threat moves, and still holding hate over 24 other people before as well, but it wasnt the "usual".)

I'm sure more peopel will like new tanking, since its the literal blue DPS. But the lack of a proper defense job in this game, im not as invested. I like defense 1st and foremost.
Lack of CDs on tanks was the last straw.

That's why I say this game would benefit greatly from an active mitigation model.
Funnily enough, PLD is already almost there.

- make Sheltron also increase your block chance by 100% (as in double the strength of the block, not make it 120%)
- give us control over how much gauge we generate, with optimal play resulting in more. E.g. Confiteor could grant 10 for every HS you used during that Re

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Originally Posted by CorbinDallas

Has anyone else been experiencing an issue with Requiescat where you use it but don't get the buff? There's been a couple of trash pulls when I'll hit Requi to start my Holy Circle x4 > Confiteor, only for me to start hard casting Holy Circle. Could it be lag?

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Your mana must be above 8000 to get requiescat buff

Single target it feels like it hasn’t really changed at all, yes they added new buttons but they just replace the old ones, like instead of a royal authority combo you use atonement, instead of a 5th Holy Spirit you use confiteor. I guess if it ain’t broke don’t fix it, but I was hoping for something to mix the gameplay up a bit compared to Stormblood and intervene doesn’t really scratch that itch.

AoE feels great, definitely fits the theme set by the single target rotation and makes PLD feel like it’s actually contributing to large trash packs.

I’ll miss all our fluff mitigation, the thing that made PLD fun for me on that front was having so many options to nullify trash damage compared to the other tanks. Now it feels pretty much the same as all the other tanks, compounded by the cover nerf which was something that let PLD handle busters in a unique way.

And of course I’m sad to see shield swipe go, it was always a fun part of PLD trying to find places you could pop a sheltron whether you were MT or OT to try and get that extra damage boost. I really wanted to see more of that in tanking, not less.

Same with the enmity gameplay, I’ll miss that whole dynamic of trying to push out more damage while also keeping hate, I get that they want to lessen the skill gap but it does make tanking in general feel a lot more basic.

I'm only lvl 74, but so far I'm enjoying the changes over all. It's great that I no longer feel useless in AOE. I miss having shield swipe to weave in once in a while, and I feel bad for my healers what with losing so many defensive CDs, but it's a blast to play. I just got Intervene, so can't wait to give it a try in dungeons.

My only real complaint is switching over to Holy Spirit spam has always felt pretty clunky to me, and it seems with Holy Circle and Atonement they're just doubling down on this. I would think these types of things should be something you weave into your main combo, for the same overall DPS of course, just resulting in a much more active play style. But I guess that's what GunBreaker is..

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Originally Posted by Cabalabob

of course I’m sad to see shield swipe go

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me too but Atonement is better and a more reliable source of damage.

Shield swipe always annoyed me because it would proc when on cd...then when finally off cd the proc drops -.- so it was only used infrequently as i hated having to watch for it.

PLD feels great. Finally have some competitive AOE damage. I even end up doing more damage than the DPS jobs in some AOE situations.

Single-Target is still very similar to previous expansions outside of hitting FoF before Riot Blade instead of after, and one "new" button to hit through the Intervene ogcd for damage, while the rest of the new damage abilities are "replacements" for old buttons in the rotation. There is substituting a second RA Combo with Atonement, and replacing the the 5th Holy Spirit in the Magic Rotation with Confiteor. Sheltron feels amazing in packs AND single-target at all levels since it was changed to just "block everything for duration" and the trait only adding to the duration, making it a better Bulwark in every way. Requiescat Trait at 78 is bonkers, too. The entire leveling process from 70-80 is filled with great new additions to the kit every two levels.

This is just me, but whenever i tank a SHB dungeon on my paladin and i have either a SCH or a AST (no not the trust system
healers) they always struggle to keep me alive. I usually pull one group of mobs at a time unless the healer asks me to pull more. But when i get a WHM in my group, i barely take any damage at all.

Only 1 thing to say about the 5.0 PLD so far and that is A+

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Originally Posted by MaraD_

are we playing the same game?
they took away all the CDs for auto attacks.

if you try to do this, you'll be out of CDs for the next pull.

if anything, pretty much one CD at the start of a pull, and then hope u have another by the 4th pull or so.
The only thing else u can throw up every time its up, is sheltron.
but even then u wont be able to keep up other CDs with sheltron 100% of the time.

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I didn't tank with pld yet, can you elaborate further what the problem is? I tanked with DRK/WAR and i can see that having sheltron with gauge cost might cause a problem on the 1st pull, since you need to build up the gauge and cant just start with the lowest cd mitigation skills right away.

My theoretical rotation for pld would look like that(Pull 1): Rampart (to get the timer ticking so its ready by the 3rd pull)>(Hallowed Ground)*>Sheltron>(Sheltron)**>keeping 50 gauge for the next pull. Pull 2 : Sheltron>Sentinel>Passage of Arms>downtime***>Sheltron>keeping 50 gauge for next pull. Pull 3: Sheltron>Rampart>Sheltron>Sheltron>downtime>Sheltron>keeping 50 gauge for next pull. Pull 4: ****
*Hallowed is just really good for dungeons and together with GNB (which i also didnt play yet) might be the only tanks that need to incorporate their invuln skills into cd rotation, since it gives immunity to dmg for a period of time.
**May not be needet depending on the hp of the mobs, or there might be a slight downtime before you use it,or you may need 2 sheltrons depending on available gauge and hp of the mobs.
***cant dps during its duration which is bad,can take a downtime or Sheltron, all depending on ressources and cd timer.
****Depending on the dps and speed you kill stuff Sentinel might not be rdy and you will have a few more downtimes, but you repeat "pull 2"

Also Shield Swipe is great tool to mitigate dmg, thou you have to use a GCD which you could have used for more aoe :/
Is this what i theorize about practically doable or complete bu***t and is pld cd rotation that bad?

I’ve mained PLD since the start and I love everything about these changes!

This is probably what most don't want to hear... But I have been playing Knight since ARR wwlaunch.

I actually didn't like the changes in Knights (Pally). I miss Flash, and having Total Eclipse and its proc combo as a replacer felt very strange to me to get used to, and to actually use. I'm not sure if its just myself doing it wrong, but I had no problems with Flash. I understand that Flash and Total Eclipse has the same 5y radius... yet, I have the most hardest time gathering up mobs with Total Eclipse(than flash). I couldn't for the love of myself figure out why. The pulls are just very slow for me, and I suppose I'm more used to the "speed run" type of pulls with my friends. I have friends that do raiding, hardcore, and while I agree that it is useless in raid tier, I am retired. I have no problems with Flash (let alone keep hate before) in regular dungeon content at all until now... Which is quite embarrassing to watch myself.

The only reason why I think healers probably have a difficult time with knight is because they took out Convalescence and other cool downs. Not to mention, they also scraped a lot out of healers as well... I main WHM and PLD... I was also a bit sad with WHM, but not as much as PLD.

Going back on the point though, I also feel that with the Oath point system, they shouldnt have added Cover onto the Oath system. They should have kept it to where we can utilize it at any time we want as long as its within radius. Many times where I wanted to use Cover, but I couldnt because Sheltron. All of which, costs 50 points each to utilize: Sheltron, Cover, Intervention.

While I understand that there are reasons why a lot of people prefer the new knight setup due to raids, I suppose I feel like something is missing because they took out the uniqueness of each tank classes.

I understand that I also have no say in the matter and just adapt to these new changes anyways, so we'll see if I can just get comfortable with it. And if anyone can give me pointers on how I can utilize T.Eclipse while pulling would be great. Because its obviously not working for me if I use it how I would use Flash.

Maybe it's just that I enjoyed Tanking (and PLD specifically) for being a Tank, with personal DPS always taking a back seat, but I feel like the changes have turned 'Tanks' into little more than DPS with extra HP.

I am happy to see stance dancing gone though, and solo gameplay has certainly improved (ironic considering the state of Healers), I just would have preferred it didn't come at the expense of defensive cooldowns. (Oh, and the nerf to Block; #feelsbadman).

NB. I am glad so many people are enjoying the changes, and hopefully they hold up in Raid; however, as someone who has played and enjoyed all 3 roles (Tank, Healer and DPS) fairly evenly across a range of content in both HW and SB I am seriously thinking I may just stick to DPS in ShB.

I generally really dislike the tank changes. Tanks are now blue dps.
They also completely removed enmity management and it's shocking that people actually like that. That is akin to removing gcd heals from healers (since they never used them anyway) and give all healers a superbuffed eos so that they can focus on doing damage instead of healing...

As for PLD, they removed way too much PLD defeneses. I would prefer to get more defensive options instead of the new damage options we got.

I've been playing PLD since 2.0 but it seems it's either time to change class or change game...

PLD is the standard for tank design. Everything feels great, but the single Target needs some work. Something feels a little off to me. Otherwise my only issues:
Enhanced Shelltron: should be a 5 sec duration and made available much earlier in progression. Then give us a 10 second upgrade at higher level to sync up with our CDs. 6 seconds is all kinds of wrong.
Holy Spirit/Atonement is horribly out of wack. HS is hilariously weak now even with Req. It does almost half the damage as Atonement. Its use gets diminished into a ranged skill rather than a DPS increase. Either HS is too weak or RA/Atone is too strong.

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Originally Posted by Kazzoey

PLD is the standard for tank design. Everything feels great, but the single Target needs some work. Something feels a little off to me. Otherwise my only issues:
Enhanced Shelltron: should be a 5 sec duration and made available much earlier in progression. Then give us a 10 second upgrade at higher level to sync up with our CDs. 6 seconds is all kinds of wrong.

I'd say it needs to be 6 seconds standard and then enhanced needs to make it 8 seconds.

Holy Spirit/Atonement is horribly out of wack. HS is hilariously weak now even with Req. It does almost half the damage as Atonement. Its use gets diminished into a ranged skill rather than a DPS increase. Either HS is too weak or RA/Atone is too strong.

Ehhh... Feels fine for the most part. It attributes to the sustained DPS and the point to me is to bide till spending that req for Confiteor.

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Only other real change I would make is to give us a way to generate Oath via Holy Spirit or RA or maybe Holy Circle, by 5 Oath per use. Just something to help for those moments when you're dodging tons of aoes. Thats about it in my opinion other wise I'm really loving how Pally feels right now.