PLD's Cover

[Enkonda]

I was looking for a thread that may have shed some insight on this particular ability but I couldn't seem to find anything on the forum that was related to the topic I wanted to discuss.
So a while ago (maybe like a month ago but I still remember it), I was tanking Titan EX and I was a OT PLD. We wiped a few times but I was in DF so I was okay with it since I was most likely running with newcomers at the time. What got me, though was when I glanced at the MT PLD and saw that his health was around 20% and dropping and so I said to myself "hm, I'll just be nice and hit cover since the boss is about to die and I've never really used the Cover ability before." So, we end up beating it.

The other tank that I covered immediately goes off and swears at me and questions "why the f*** would I use cover" and so I'm like "why the f*** not?" So he goes something like "you must be new or something, that's alright." And so I leave 'cause at that point I don't have time to explain why I used cover to someone I'll probably never see again and continued on with the night. But now it's come back and the question's more burning than ever and so I come here today to pose a few questions that I hope someone with experience can answer. So uh, do people actually use cover? Is it actually useful? Do people actually get offended if you cover them even if they're a tank?

[Canadane]

Honestly, you may be unaware but covering in Titan Ex is the best way to do it. You take a stack without having to tank swap. It let's you keep your sword oath dps going.

You unknowingly used an advanced strategy, just perhaps at the wrong time.
That other tank, I don't know. If a PLD wants to help my mitigation as I MT, be it Cover or Stoneskin or whatever, I'd always appreciate the team effort.

[Donjo]

Cover is... an odd beast. Sometimes you'll pop it, take some damage, and call it a day. Sometimes your healer(s) will get mad at you because the person they expected to have to heal suddenly isn't the one taking damage and now you're nearly dead. Other times you'll actually save someone's life and feel all fuzzy inside.

The best word for it is probably "situational". For example, Canadane mentioned that as Titan EX gives stacks to the current MT you can Cover that Tank to receive a stack in his place... thereby removing the need to swap Tanks. Your seemingly innocent thought of trying it to see if it would help is absolutely on the right track. As you experiment more you'll find additional situations where it comes in handy.

Just a tip, though: You might want to assign a macro to the action so that people have a chance of noticing that the big obvious line that's suddenly connecting you to them isn't something bad

[Malicewolf]

I have no clue why the other tank would be mad at you... Cover is fantastic. If I notice someone's hp is low in general and I'm OT I'll often cover just as a safe guard until they get healed back up. The only thing I would caution about is pushes.... when you use cover, YOU will be pushed... I've had my derp moments with cover before (like covering my healer who failed an auto death mechanic and then realizing I forgot to pop HG and so I die instead). But on another note, you have tempered will =) So if there's a push back mechanic (such as Titan Ex when he stomps down) you can use it to prevent yourself from being pushed and if you're REALLY good, cover and use to save someone from a push.

[Enkonda]

Thanks for the enlightening answers. I had no idea that cover had strategic utility outside of take damage for this person and hope the healer can pick up the slack but like Donjo said, it'll probably create a few more issues than prevention. In my opinion, it's an ability that I never really see tanks use but it's really fun to use 'cause who doesn't want to feel fuzzy from preventing someone from tanking damage. The macro idea does sound better than just hoping the person you're covering notices the cover taking effect.

[ChaozK]

Cover can also be a nice way to boost dps by covering a melee so they can stay in melee range for a bunch of mechanics like for example in ravanna. Another use can be to cover the healer when he gets aggro from healing, say when adds pop, for more comfortable pick ups.

Its one of those tools you have to get creative with but can actually be fairly useful.

[ChameleonMS]

When you cover, and cover you should, also use a CD to mitigate the incoming damage you are about to take (you are in SwO after all). There have been plenty of times I have used cover as the OT and coupled it HG, to take a buster when the healers are getting a little overwhelmed.

[GeekMatt]

Just know; most PLDs, even those in raids, really don't know what they're doing. You did the right thing by just brushing off his comment and then asking questions from other tanks when you felt unsure, it's the best way to go about it. There's more bad/misleading advice going around for PLD than any other job IMO, so take what you hear with a grain of salt. PLD doesn't have a bad or useless skill, just a number of situational ones.

The other tank should never have been "mad" and if he was then he's probably just an unsupervised kid, but a PLD may have thought it was ridiculous depending on the situation (such as he'd just popped Hallowed Ground).

[Hammerhorn]

save space :
/ac "shield bash"
/ac "cover"
/ac "cover" <tt>
As a ps4 player and a Pally main since launch I use this macro to save space , try it out.

[Hammerhorn]

oh and line 1 do:
/macroicon "shield bash"