Paladin is the new hotness!?

[Ragology]

PLD are quick to volunteer for main tank position and so they don't often get to use cover this way.

From reading forums, I think peoples main issue with cover are:

1) short range
2) not working for magic damage
3) cooldown a bit longer than people would like

I haven't experience much of the raiding content yet I've seen off tank PLD use cover in titan EX. Good to know it has other opportunities.

[JackFross]

PLD are quick to volunteer for main tank position and so they don't often get to use cover this way.

This is mostly the reason I made this thread. Cover is really useful if used properly. Fewer swaps means fewer times you need to swap stances which means overall higher dps (at least for the OT PLD).

And those three issues are pretty major. I still kinda wish it was a gap closer that brought you to the target and then had you in the shorter radius to keep the cover going, but meh. It also makes sense to not work for magic damage, though I won't say I don't wish it did. And I think - with the way it works - the cooldown is already nice. If it was much shorter, it'd be pretty OP.

I'm trying to remember, but I think cover at theee stacks is even cooler. You get one, no one gets knocked out, more dps uptime. Keeps provoke available for emergencies. Can be tricky to time the second set with the snake adds. ( with a co PLD MT, hallowed that one is complete cheese.

The stacks last 3 minutes - the punches happen every 2.

If you provoke in this way, the stacks won't wear off before he starts again, which will result in the main tank taking 1 -> concussion -> 3 more stacks while concussed. It's a LOT more incoming damage on the tank. If you cover after the concussion, you'd just end up getting concussed, too, which works fine, since the MT's will wear off before he gets punched, but Cover might not, and you won't be able to move to break the line.

It's a lot safer to just cover the punch. I like it since it means less stance-dancing as the OT - I never turn Shield Oath on, since I get to provoke > RoH every add I need to grab and never have hate issues even without turning ShO on.

It not even worth swapping on nm. The MT can blow a cool down before the stun and mitigate the attack regularly having it healed thru on the backside.

Less damage taken from the tank buster = fewer heals used up by the healers = more overall dps from the group = faster kill all the way through.
This was intended to be a discussion of optimal strategies, not sub-optimal ones.