GLD as Tank 30+

Thoughts & personal experience playing as a GLD tank 30+.

I'm doing some research & aiming to see if GLD can tank post 30, especially story mission & dungeons. I know there are the norm & drone followers, but I am looking for replies from that rare 20% who can tackle a role & take it 'outside the box' & do what the norm believe impossible. :cool:

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Originally Posted by Rowan_Moonkeeper

Thoughts & personal experience playing as a GLD tank 30+.

I'm doing some research & aiming to see if GLD can tank post 30, especially story mission & dungeons. I know there are the norm & drone followers, but I am looking for replies from that rare 20% who can tackle a role & take it 'outside the box' & do what the norm believe impossible. :cool:

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Not impossible, but good luck with end game gear if you're thinking that far.

Hi Rowan, it's Ritz. Didn't know you posted on the forums.

I think any true research would have to be done by a legacy player at this point in time because there's a tradeoff between cross-class skills and job stats/skills. Additionally, level 50 relic and AF gear is paladin-only.

The general consensus is that classes are for solo and jobs are for group content. You can do a lot of cool things with cross-class skills that could make soloing in things like story missions easier. Here's a link to the available cross-class skills gladiator has access to: http://xivdb.com/?skilltree/Gladiator

Although jobs are usually for preferred over classes for group content, here's a situation I could maybe see gladiator being more beneficial than paladin. You are in an 8-player group with 2 paladins/gladiators and only need 1 tank. The paladin only has access to the typical paladin skills and some cross-class skills from marauder and conjurer. The gladiator has access to all of those skills plus several other cross-class skills. Gladiator could do drastically more burst DPS by using a skill combo such as Fight or Flight, Straight Shot, Raging Strikes, Internal Release, and Blood for Blood. Additional DPS skills are Mercy Stroke, Impulse Drive, Quelling Strikes, and Invigorate. Mercy Stroke could help DPS during the last 20% HP of an enemy. Impulse Drive could allow for sustained DPS with much less enmity generation. Quelling Strikes could help the main tank maintain enmity if you DPS burst with Quick Blade, Savage Blade, Rage of Halone combos. Since a DPS gladiator wouldn't use flash and drain TP faster, Invigorate would help with TP management. I don't see a scenario like this happening often if at all and have no end-game experience, but maybe it could happen in a Titan hard mode duty finder group or when you have a static group that has 2 tanks with no secondary classes/jobs.

Originally I intended to stay as a Gladiator, but once I got the option, I realized that Paladin is simply intended to be the better version of Gladiator for tanking. It wasn't what I expected. I thought there would be tradeoffs and reasons to remain a Gladiator tank, but that's not how it's designed. I kept a gear set current for Gladiator for solo play, but I found that a Paladin can do that well enough. Even the story quests for Gladiator end at level 30, as you're expected to transition over to the Paladin quests at that point.

Anyway, you could probably keep tanking as a Gladiator. You'll just be less effective than you'd be as a Paladin. xRitzx's idea to try to focus more on Gladiator for DPS is probably a better way to go, but again, I suspect that being a DPS class would be more effective.

i once nuked titan SM as a whm, and had enough dps to take out the heart well ahead of time.

granted itbwas just story mode titan, but i believe w enough time, people would experiment with more things.

It's a bit of a shame really because it means the jobs don't actually make for a more varied class makeup in parties like they did in FFXI.

I found out at lvl 33 or so that warrior was totally essential for MRD to continue tanking. I was unhealable in brayflox's longstop until I got defiance.

Sadly, the job skills offered by paladin are just miles better for both DPS and tanking than any other cross class options.

The 20% damage reduction passive from Shield Oath blows away any combo of defensive cooldowns you can take for a Glad. Even chaining Featherfoot, Keen Flurry, Second Wind, and all the other emergency buttons that you can get, just flat out doesnt reduce as much damage as Shield Oath does.

And when DPSing, the huge personal dps boost gained by Sword Oath, plus the ability to use the strong Spirits Within off-GCD, is a far bigger increase than taking any combo of the DPS cooldowns offered by other jobs.

I wish Gladiator had a reason to be used, Paladin is just leaps and bounds better than Gladiator at both tanking AND dps.

You might be able to do higher DPS as a GLD but as a tank, I think Defensive stance will blow any cross abilities out of the water.

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Originally Posted by Sentinel

You might be able to do higher DPS as a GLD but as a tank, I think Defensive stance will blow any cross abilities out of the water.

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This.

You can tank fine up to level 39 sacrificing Sword Oath and Cover, but Shield Oath at level 40 is just too good to ignore. I think that without it you would be obliterated, or at least your healer would have a harder time keeping you up with less max HP and no damage reduction..

Norm/Drone here! Any cross-classes you pick up:

1 - Just plain cannot make up for your PLD abilities
2 - Other classes will have them in an 8 man or 4 man party

For instance, you pick up the Lancer 20% slow attack because that should reduce enemy dps right? Well, the SMN/SCH/DRG in your group already has that covered.

I would argue that you probably can do more dps as GLD, but it would be about 75% (at the absolute most) of what any true dps class could accomplish.

Its certainly a fun idea, but SE built the game to make you specialize. However, there could be a dps job released from the GLD class in the future if we are lucky! I'd rather see a Thief > Assassin class though! Duel wield!

There is no point in trying to tank as a GLD at 30+. It may be possible, but it would only be possible because people are carrying you harder in the same way that it would be possible for a Lancer or dragoon to tank at 30+.

There is simply no realistic benefit to going back to GLD.

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Originally Posted by Sentinel

You might be able to do higher DPS as a GLD but as a tank, I think Defensive stance will blow any cross abilities out of the water.

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Nope. You won't do higher DPS as a GLD. Losing access to Spirits Within and Sword Oath will tank your DPS, and getting access to Blood for Blood, Internal Release, and Raging Strikes (and straight shot) aren't going to come close to making up for losing those two skills.

There is no point in ever going back to GLD once you unlock PLD.

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Originally Posted by Hachiko

There is no point in trying to tank as a GLD at 30+. It may be possible, but it would only be possible because people are carrying you harder in the same way that it would be possible for a Lancer or dragoon to tank at 30+.

There is simply no realistic benefit to going back to GLD.



Nope. You won't do higher DPS as a GLD. Losing access to Spirits Within and Sword Oath will tank your DPS, and getting access to Blood for Blood, Internal Release, and Raging Strikes (and straight shot) aren't going to come close to making up for losing those two skills.

There is no point in ever going back to GLD once you unlock PLD.

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While I strongly agree with Sword Oath melting any CC options that GLA gets, what about for Burst DPS? PLD isn't particularly strong in that at all, and I would believe GLA gets enough abilities from other classes to trump PLD in burst phases.

Circle of scorn into spirits within while using rage of halone is kinda bursty.

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Originally Posted by xRitzx

Although jobs are usually for preferred over classes for group content, here's a situation I could maybe see gladiator being more beneficial than paladin. The gladiator has access to all of those skills plus several other cross-class skills. Gladiator could do drastically more burst DPS by using a skill combo such as Fight or Flight, Straight Shot, Raging Strikes, Internal Release, and Blood for Blood. Additional DPS skills are Mercy Stroke, Impulse Drive, Quelling Strikes, and Invigorate.

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PLD gets mercy stroke. You're also losing almost an entire cooldown by popping FoF, Straight Shot, Raging, Internal Release and BfB at the same time. While it might be good burst, losing out on sword oath is HUGE if you are just wanting to DPS. Character limit sucks on these forums

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Originally Posted by Thyrllan

PLD gets mercy stroke. You're also losing almost an entire cooldown by popping FoF, Straight Shot, Raging, Internal Release and BfB at the same time. While it might be good burst, losing out on sword oath is HUGE if you are just wanting to DPS. Character limit sucks on these forums

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Yes, I absent-mindedly forgot about sword oath's factor in DPS when I posted lol. I doubt a GLD could beat PLD on sustained DPS (anything longer than 1 minute) because of sword oath. GLD might be able to beat PLD on burst DPS for anything shorter than a minute. Going back to the Titan example, you could prep all or at least most of the DPS buffs before the heart phase which would probably result in GLD having higher burst DPS where it is needed. If you need burst DPS at the beginning of a fight, GLD and PLD both aren't going to help much.


By the way, you can edit your post after you post it to bypass the character limit.

If you have all the cross class skills leveled up then yes, stay GLD until 40 and then switch for shield oath

I want to thank everyone who commented on my thread. :D We did go thru & complete story as class not jobs & then switched.

I see & understand the popular consensus of jobs. Just wanted opinions if any had tried, considered or entertained the idea of post 30 GLD tanking. I know it is possible now, & hope to actually see more uses for classes post 30 in the future.

Experimenting can be fun & I'm grateful my guildies support such challenges. :cool:

Hands down paladin tanks better then glad.

As for dps...
I think the true problem is lack of iLVL90 gear for gladiator.