What are the basics of Gladiator/Paladin?

[Enkidoh]

End-game Flash might suffer in usefulness, but early on (especially in the early dungeons), it's power cannot be underestimated. At level 15-20 you don't even have access to Rage of Halone, and have to rely on Fast Blade + Savage Blade/Riot Blade only.

In places like Tam Tara and Copperbell you'll be having to deal with lots of adds/links at once, and it is the only way to get all those extra mobs back onto you off your healer. I've been doing the early dungeon runs a lot lately (for a friend, to get her the Acolyte's Boots, so far without success ), and I normally open the fight with Shield Lob, Flash, then just repeat Fast Blade +Riot Blade (to recover MP), and repeat, until there's one mob left and I swap Riot Blade for Savage Blade.

Yes Savage Blade gives more individual hate than Flash, but given Savage Blade only affects one target where as Flash is AoE, it's not going to do much to hold the whole shebang onto you. Or at least, that's how things have seemed for me so far (as I haven't gotten to end game I have no idea how different tanking is there so I'll take your word for it on that.)

[ZenBear]

snip

You're right that at lower levels Flash has a much greater potency. I remember when I was leveling I made it just fine through Sastasha, Tam Tara and Copperbell relying mainly on Savage Blade for enmity, but when I hit Halatali where they start to regularly throw larger groups of mobs at you I had to use the Fast Blade -> Riot Blade -> Flash combo exclusively. The damage of Riot on top of Flash enmity was sufficient to hold single target enmity against a DD at that stage, so I didn't need to use Savage. But that didn't last for long.

Something in particular of note: you really don't need to use Riot Blade to regenerate MP, especially toward the end of a fight. Once combat is over, you regen massive chunks of HP/MP per second, so unless you're really hauling a$$ you'll usually have full bars by the next fight. In a pull of 3 trash mobs you can cycle Fast Blade -> Savage Blade -> Flash over and over and by the time you run out of MP at least one mob will be dead and you won't need to Flash anymore anyway.

This is what I love about FFXIV's dungeons; they teach you how to tank as you level up and gain new abilities. As you progress your tactics change and what worked for you before is no longer as effective, but the lessons you learned in those lower level dungeons guide you to discover those new tactics that will carry you through what lies ahead.