PLD vs WAR Popularity: The results are in

[Lemon8or]

Because everyone's idea of a tank is a knight in shining armor (PLD's AF armor) with a sword and shield not a guy in rugged cloth armor with an axe. I personally love the warrior and plan to take it to end game as the sole Warrior in my FC while other 4 tanks are Paladins.

[Hachiko]

It's a combination of all 3, I think.

I think Paladin has a more robust history in Final Fantasy, and that plus the design of their gear draws a lot of people to the class.

Paladins are better at mitigating damage due to more effective cooldowns, which actually makes them better tanks and less reliant on gear.

And finally, paladins are extremely easy to play compare to WAR. WAR has to cycle between 2 combos constantly, juggle a DoT, and worry about more DPS cooldowns, and manage Fury stacks, and try to cycle our 2 defensive cooldowns. Paladins have to rage of Halone spam, put Fight or Flight in a fast swing macro, and then cycle their damage reduction cooldowns.

Finally, paladins get 10 seconds of god mode.

PLD is a really compelling class. I love the warrior mechanics though, and I feel as a class it is designed in a more fun manner.

[Vod]

I played a paladin main in Diablo 2, tanked as a paladin in FFXI, and played paladin in wow from release to a few weeks ago (got bored of that game often, and quit after playing two month chunks and an 8 month break).


TLDR:

I have always been a paladin.

[Tronic]

I was asking Tronic

Nope, it's fine. Why?

[SwashBuccaneer]

What if you're playing both?

[Tronic]

What if you're playing both?

The lodestone shows you as the current class/job you're using, as far as I could tell.

[Stryker]

I've always played PLD also. I personally liked the fact that you could take damage, dish out a little yourself and heal.

PLD to me in this game is different and while different isn't always worse, in this case it's a turn off. It's total stone wall tanking with no real depth. If you're gear isn't good enough you're not much of a stone wall, but rather a rotting wooden fence just waiting for the next cat. 5 hurricane to hit. I'll take my PLD to 50 but I'll probably make something else my main. Obviously this is my personal opinion thus far so feel free to flame.

[Adamant]

I never played FFXIV until 2.0 and from prior research I noticed Gladiator would turn into a Paladin which was supposed to tank, and it used a sword/shield. My choice was based on that alone and I'm happy so far.
I think players should get used to the mechanics and their intended functionality. But it seems there's a lot of debate about "balancing" however everyone is trying to make the tanks play the same. I'm unsure if people really understand the archetype of what they are playing.

[Rockhard12]

In all MMOS I've played if there was a Paladin class I would play it, if not then the next similar class in most cases a Warrior.

I've always loved Paladins and the history around them. Also sword and shield is how I've always invisioned a tank to look like.

Mechanics and how a class is built or is supposed to be played was never a factor for me.

[TaranNos]

I like sword and board for tanking.

WAR AF is by far my favorite though, I'd definitely play one if it was DPS.