PLD's Cover

[Hammerhorn]

oh and cover negates Earth Shaker btw in T13 and Sepiroth X

[Hammerhorn]

its also great to give your Whm and let him/her pull healing agro to force fresh spawned enemies into a certain location

[GeekMatt]

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.

As a PS4 player (previously PS3) I don't understand this. I see that you can target a player with this to avoid using Shield Bash (because shield bash during every cover would be inefficient in many/most cases) but with this you have to blow Covers CD time needlessly every time you want to stun something which is making a situational skill unavailable when you need it. If you really want to macro to save space then I'd recommend getting rid of the <tt> line altogether. Also I'd use /micon "Cover"—you don't need to see Shield Bashes CD because it's on the GCD meaning you can see when it's ready by looking at any other skill, whereas Cover is unique.

But I don't recommend macros in general aside from their novelty because they don't allow you to queue up skills, they cause delay due to /wait requirements, and if used recklessly they may not activate at all.

When I draw my sword and shield I get a crossbar that has my primary combos, my urgent abilities (Hallowed Ground, Provoke) and a few skills that see infrequent use due to longer CD. Tap R1 and it's an identical crossbar but the less frequent abilities are swapped out for abilities that are used even less frequently. (Trading CoS/SW for SwO/ShO, for example). Hold R1 + L1 (pressed in any order) at any time to have instant access to all my defensive buffs. These are all I see in battle. It gives me consistent access to my general combos and my urgent abilities while keeping my defensive buffs always in reach. Cycling my two crossbars just hides my skills that are on CD timers anyways. With this I'm able to fit every single skill including crossclass.

My general use skills for the open world like Teleport and gear sets only show up when my weapon is sheathed.

[Iracy]

Cover is a great skill, it's situational tho. It shouldn't be used whenever, only when you feel it'll help.
I personally only use it on my healers, or on rare occasions, the MT, if I'm off tanking.
On DPS? No, never.

There is ABSOLUTELY NO REASON for DPS to take damage.

I might sound a bit rude towards DPS, but it's really just that.
If a healer doesn't get out of AoE, it's 90% of the time to heal someone else, I will Cover and take his damage, gladly.
If a MT can't get out of AoE, it might be due to his weird positioning as MT, not a good excuse, but if it's reasonable and manageable HP wise for me, I'll Cover and soak the damage.
If a DPS doesn't get out of AoE it's because of... There is no justifying for that. I don't care what spell you were casting, how much damage you could've done. If you're dead, you do 0 damage, that should be clear to you. I will not take additional damage because of people being ignorant.

[ErikMynhier]

I use Cover alot when helping low level people in the lower dungeons that I can use it in. Sort of a safety net ability to allow for mistakes.

My most amazingly fun use was in ExBug. The team slowly wiped and at the end Rav had like 1-2% health left. The WHM and I was all that was left. He finished the MT and turned on us, so I figured why not and ran to the healer and hit cover and HG and we used those 10 seconds wisely and beat him. After that I was like... "wooooo! That was fun!"

[Malicewolf]

Cover is a great skill, it's situational tho. It shouldn't be used whenever, only when you feel it'll help.
I personally only use it on my healers, or on rare occasions, the MT, if I'm off tanking.
On DPS? No, never.

There is ABSOLUTELY NO REASON for DPS to take damage.

I might sound a bit rude towards DPS, but it's really just that.
If a healer doesn't get out of AoE, it's 90% of the time to heal someone else, I will Cover and take his damage, gladly.
If a MT can't get out of AoE, it might be due to his weird positioning as MT, not a good excuse, but if it's reasonable and manageable HP wise for me, I'll Cover and soak the damage.
If a DPS doesn't get out of AoE it's because of... There is no justifying for that. I don't care what spell you were casting, how much damage you could've done. If you're dead, you do 0 damage, that should be clear to you. I will not take additional damage because of people being ignorant.

Well, i will say this. In fights that have DPS checks, this is a very bad mentality to have. Weakness on a DPS can sometimes be the difference between passing and failing. I think I'm pretty good, but I'm not perfect, I've been caught in some AoE's before. Sometimes it's just very bad luck on placement and you simply don't have enough time to respond. Like on final steps, I was tank and caught on edge of map with the big line AoE on me. As I was exiting out of it, my quickest route had ALL 3 circle AoE's and that was the only way for me to make it out in time. So I had to choose, take 3 circle AoE's or 1 Line AoE (thank god I was a tank, if I was DPS or Heal, I would of died regardless of choice).

Not saying it should always be a bail out, but it's there to be used and I wouldn't automatically not use it on a DPS just because they're a DPS who got hit with an AoE. And sometimes, it's simply party wide dmg that the healers haven't gotten around to healing that particular person yet. A cover and clemency could be the difference. Once again, especially when a DPS check is coming later in the fight. I'd rather waste a bit of DPS during a NON check to ensure my entire party is full strength when the DPS check comes.

[Iracy]

But listen, being a DPS, would you rather get that 1 last hit in and die, then do 0 damage until the healers revives you, spending time on that instead of keeping others alive? Even with swiftcast. AND the weakening which you also mentioned.

Or would you rather stop dpsing for 3 seconds, then continue, without causing the healers to spend time reviving you and overall damage loss compared to dying?

And this is only meant for Cover btw, Clemency I also use whenever I can to help keep people alive.

[Sarcatica]

If unsure, just don't ever touch Cover at all. Unless if you wanna quickly kill yourself.

[Neophyte]

Cover is a great skill, it's situational tho. It shouldn't be used whenever, only when you feel it'll help.
I personally only use it on my healers, or on rare occasions, the MT, if I'm off tanking.
On DPS? No, never.

There is ABSOLUTELY NO REASON for DPS to take damage.

That's wrong. It was a common strat to cover a melee with earthshaker in T13, so he has more uptime on boss.

In the vault I usually cover the first charge (animation of Thordan Ex's knights tankbister) just for fun. It's damage they can't prevent.


You can cover a dps using a necessary LB3 with its long animationlock.

You can cover the lowest health dps in Sephiroth when he does his punchbacks and healers can't heal enough.
Mistakes happen: You could eat a misplaced pillar in SephEx and then die to pushbacks.
Is it better to not use cover and have a dps down (even if it's their 'fault') or to use it and save them? Remember a dead dps is dealing no damage.
So if you could have saved them and didn't do it just because 'i'll never ever use it on dps' you're not better than a healer saying 'i won't heal damage which is taken cause of mistakes'.

[Jpec07]

So to sum up: "Cover; good for covering other players' butts for mistakes and mechanics alike!"

That MT was a jerk, though. Heals might have been about to come in, but as OT, all of your CDs were available, and you were probably pretty close to full health.

I'll use Cover if there's a situation where I know I can help someone mitigate damage, and it looks like they might need the help. I'll also use it to grab the second add in Lost City of Amdapor HM's last boss. Thing is a pain in the neck to build hate on (Provoke isn't quite provocative enough), and if I add Cover, I can save the add's target a little bit of damage while I pull it towards me.

Also, the only macro I think should be used for Cover:

/micon Cover
/merror off
/ac Cover <mo>
/ac Cover <f>
/ac Cover <tt>
/ac Cover <t>

In order, it tries to cover mouse over, then focus, then target's target, then finally the target. Makes it always do what I want it to do.