PLD is just boring

[Calypsx]

I agree the job is a total mess. It's got that aesthetic though.

[karateorangutang]

To be perfectly honest, if you're looking for an adrenaline rush you're playing the wrong role. Tanking is not about thrillseeking. It's about keeping 3 or 7 others from being slaughtered.

I dissagree, tanking is completely about the rush. It's the unpredicatability of the role that draws many to it. Thats also a big problem with tanking in this game. Barely surviving a big hit is absolutely about the rush...

Getting high numbers on a hit isnt unpredictable. It's cool... but not a "rush" in any way since it's expected. There's two major camps to tanking, those that see themselves as protectors and those who see themselves as optimizers ( I identify with the latter ), and dependent on which one you are it can alter how you look at tank rather profoundly.

Both, however, are very valid viewpoints and really shouldn't be looked down upon.

[Risvertasashi]

I dissagree, tanking is completely about the rush. It's the unpredicatability of the role that draws many to it. Thats also a big problem with tanking in this game.

Or... you know, for different people it's different things. It's great that there are tank jobs that do appeal to the crowd looking for a rush. That doesn't mean they all need to have that, however.

Bit of a stretch to call tanking unpredictable, though.

[karateorangutang]

Or... you know, for different people it's different things. It's great that there are tank jobs that do appeal to the crowd looking for a rush. That doesn't mean they all need to have that, however.

Bit of a stretch to call tanking unpredictable, though.

Yeah thats what I was trying to say, shoulda put the old "editing" thing in my post til i was done. Also thats my complaint... tanking is predictable... which is the problem here.

In alot of games you can get critted or something can do a move 2x in a row and that is missing in FFXIV. I love tank in most games because the thinking on your feet mentality that goes with tanking. Here it is entirely predictable though. It doesn't bother me because if I get bored then I go lvl something else for awhile, but it is dissapointing.

[Jpec07]

One of the easiest ways to make PLD compelling (while preserving the approachability of it) would be to make Sword Oath and Shield Oath more functional. For both DRK and WAR, the job feels very different in your DPS "stance" than your tank "stance," be it for buttons being more satisfying to push, a shorter GCD, or any combination of other things. It would not be out of the question to suggest that certain abilities behave a little differently between stances, and it would probably solve a lot of the "boringness" complaints out there.

Most jobs play differently in the open versus in group content, and tanks are no stranger. Except PLD. It's literally the exact same job no matter where you are. You just hit a little bit harder in Sword Oath, but not really enough to make it feel different.

PLD doesn't need boatloads of complexity to make it more compelling. It is very possible to make a simple job that is also fun to play - PLD is simple, but I feel like there's more at play here than just job mechanics.

[Kali-ka]

I have to agree that the job is pretty boring vs the other 2 tanks. I started out as PLD because I started this game on PS3 and was afraid to play a complex job on a dated system (this was after trying all of the jobs during 2.0 beta), but it is kind of funny that once I got RoH I thought it was the flashiest thing I had ever seen haha! I mean for a tank to have a 5 hit attack was a wild notion to me at the time (also coming from XI I don't think PLD had anything more than a 2 hit animation iirc). And despite from switching to PS4, I stayed faithful to PLD as my main up until HW (although I did do NIN to 50 and quite enjoyed it).

Obviously I got drawn to DRK like a lot of people when HW hit and enjoyed it far much more than PLD and then finally leveled WAR after getting those 2 to 60 just to see what the fuss was about. And I must say...as soon as I had it leveled I figured it out. There is a complete rush about tanking on WAR that I haven't felt since tanking and soloing random things in XI on nin, thf, and dnc (although to this day...WAR comes close to the fun I had on DNC but still not quite there) That feeling is something I never felt from PLD, so for me that says something. Yes I know some people who don't want the same rush and enjoy PLD for what it is will disagree and that's perfectly fine. But that pacing isn't for everyone...nor is the other side of all the WARs and DRKs out there is for everyone.

[Bravely_Default]

I honestly think they should just make sword and shield oath OGCD. considering it costs about 1/6th of your MP to swap between it would take good resource management to use efficiently in the long run. I think being able to dance without suffering such a big penalty would add a little bit more complexity and just a tad bit more damage while MT'ing to the class. As it is right now shield oath-MT, sword oath-OT. It would be nice to be able to swap to sword oath instantly and use RA while FoF is up and swap back without worrying about too much of a loss of enmity. Dark knight already can use darkside while in grit, so why can't we have some rapid switching at the expense of MP?

[Jandor]

I think only applying the oaths costs and interrupts, you can drop shield oath for free if you want a cheap and nasty damage boost.

Edit: I liked that idea about abilities having different additional effects under the oaths. Shield Swipe could get a small AoE cone effect, Tempered Will grants surecast, successfully blocking while under Bulwark does a 100 potency auto-attack, other ideas shamelessly stolen from around the tank sub-forum.
Sword oath is a bit tougher, maybe make Spirits Within do more damage the less health you have by default and Sword oath reverses it back to how it is now. The extra auto-attack damage is deceptively strong and PLD OT DPS isn't that bad really, I don't think suggestions that would encourage Sword being used while MTing are really going to gain much traction with SE.

Edit 2: I also don't see how the job is a mess or terrible, simple sure, boring maybe. But those are like the opposite of mess & terrible.

[Bravely_Default]

The problem with this is, yes you can drop the oath to to hit them, but the gained damage is only worth it if you stay dropped for a period of time since re-enabling shield oath is going to cost you a DPS drop from the GCD. this means a bigger enmity loss as well the longer you stay dropped.

[Jandor]

The problem with this is, yes you can drop the oath to to hit them, but the gained damage is only worth it if you stay dropped for a period of time since re-enabling shield oath is going to cost you a DPS drop from the GCD. this means a bigger enmity loss as well the longer you stay dropped.

Eh, I'm just not keen on being able to stance dance as freely as DRK and WAR. I like that the tanks stances are different, I think PLD just needs a little extra adjustment around our stances to differentiate them a bit in a way that you can feel rather than math (and also a bit of damage boost in Shield wouldn't go amiss .)