Paladin. I dont feel I'm actually playing a Paladin.

[Hasrat]

My biggest gripe (as I level through HW), is how useless the gauge is for solo content. I think the only job that feels more useless in this regard is WHM, but lillies are pretty useless all around.

I obviously haven't hit 60 yet to experience DRK's gauge usage, but at least it has Dark Arts spam to switch things up. When I'm out playing PLD, it just doesn't feel remotely fun or engaging, because there's so little to actually do.

[IronP]

WAR and DRK get more offensive power outside of tank stance but they lose a portion of their defensive/self-healing kit, PLD on the other hand gains very little extra offense but they lose practically no defensive capability from being in that stance.

Sorry, I'm kind of new to paladin. I just came back to the game a few months ago and I rolled a new paladin.

Is it common to main tank in sword oath? I like the idea of a more aggressive play style like that, but I've always tanked trials and raids and such in shield oath since it seems like the passive damage reduction is worth it.

I'd be interested in giving it a shot, since it seems like with good use of cool downs and properly doing the mechanics you could pull it off pretty well, but it doesn't seem like the damage increase would be worth it as a main tank.

[Duskane]

Sorry, I'm kind of new to paladin. I just came back to the game a few months ago and I rolled a new paladin.

Is it common to main tank in sword oath? I like the idea of a more aggressive play style like that, but I've always tanked trials and raids and such in shield oath since it seems like the passive damage reduction is worth it.

I'd be interested in giving it a shot, since it seems like with good use of cool downs and properly doing the mechanics you could pull it off pretty well, but it doesn't seem like the damage increase would be worth it as a main tank.

if you can keep aggro there is no issue with it but shield oath still should be used with multiple enemies

[Hasrat]

High-level use has tank stance as mostly used for big dungeon pulls. I wouldn't consider myself an exceptional tank by any means, and even I'm comfortable enough to swap out tank stance early in a boss fight. I'd say enmity control, among all roles, is something skilled players all take part in. DPS and healers mostly have reduction skills to use, and in raids you can even have tanks Provoking and Shirking to dump massive enmity on the mt.

[IronP]

Oh yeah, that makes sense. For a single target like in a trial, it'd be easy to maintain enmity once you have it even in sword oath. It definitely makes sense to stay in shield oath when you need to hold down a group like in a dungeon. I'll try it out next time I main tank a trial or raid. Thanks for the tips!

[MistakeNot]

The problem here is exactly the representation of what the paladin should do as a holy knight. You are playing a Paladin with only one holy action, and it is a ranged magic spell at that. What's the point here? You are a Sword and Shield job and when you are not applying a single DoT over and over again, you are shooting white crystals... It is so simple and makes no sense.

Paldins aren't any kind of "holy knights" in this game.
Most paladins are members of the Sultansworn - the Sultanas bodyguards. Recently they have begun teaching their techniques to outsiders as well - which is why we could learn it.

So do not think of a paladin as a holy knight, think of them as royal bodyguards. They are melee fighters foremost, with some limited magic to enhance them.

[VCassara]

Paldins aren't any kind of "holy knights" in this game.
Most paladins are members of the Sultansworn - the Sultanas bodyguards. Recently they have begun teaching their techniques to outsiders as well - which is why we could learn it.

So do not think of a paladin as a holy knight, think of them as royal bodyguards. They are melee fighters foremost, with some limited magic to enhance them.

Exactly!!!! Everything you said is completly correct, and that is why I mentioned at the start of this discussion that I think the PLD lore is completly wrong. In my opinion (note that I said in my opinion, you can think different) Paladin is a holy class/job in any game (including FF AFAIK) and SE completly ignored that.

Currently we are a mix between a Knight and a Paladin, and that makes us have no unique gameplay mechanics like DRG, DRK, WAR for example, and this is why I started this discussion. I feel like i'm playing a generic class without an identity, i'm not enjoying it anymore.

[Otorinth]

To me, the real flavor comes in when you learn to optimize your defensive/utility kit. Intervention, Cover, Passage of Arms, Tempered Will, Divine Veil, etc.

Using a Cooldown + Intervention to help nearly zero-out the strongest of tank busters for your co-tank. Using Cover to cheese mechanics via general damage redirection and combining it Tempered Will to grant knock-back resistance to someone else. Helping cut back on the amount of healing needed for the raid through group-wide mitigation with Divine Veil and Passage of Arms, which in turn can let healers do more damage (even if it isn't a lot, 1% more is better than 0%). Being able to heal yourself or someone else in a pinch with Clemency.

[MistakeNot]

Exactly!!!! Everything you said is completly correct, and that is why I mentioned at the start of this discussion that I think the PLD lore is completly wrong. In my opinion (note that I said in my opinion, you can think different) Paladin is a holy class/job in any game (including FF AFAIK) and SE completly ignored that.

The term 'Paladin' existed long before any computer games existed. Long before the term "RPG" was coined.
It was originally (centuries after the fact) used for the knights at Charlemagne's court (the "Twelve Peers" of legend) as well as for the knights of the Round Table in Arthurian legend.

While all of these were supposedly highly virtuous knights, they were not holy people with supernatural powers.
They could easily be described as "knights in extra-shiny armour".

So the FFXIV version of a Paladin is no less correct lore-wise than that of other computer games.

[Reynhart]

So the FFXIV version of a Paladin is no less correct lore-wise than that of other computer games.

It's also worth noting that the japanese name for Paladin is ナイト, meaning that the correct translation should be Knight. If you look at previous Knights, there's really not much of a connection to anything holy.