GLD as Tank 30+

[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.

[Zeila]

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.

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

[xRitzx]

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.

[IndigoHawk]

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.

[Shuon]

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.

[Teth]

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.

[Sapphidia]

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.

[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.

[Kenka]

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.

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..

[Ehayte]

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!