I'm a level 67 paladin... Who does not know how to tank.

[Super_Bee_Brian]

Is this a serious thread?

It was meant to be...

[MoroMurasaki]

If you're going to make a serious thread asking for advice you probably wouldn't then dismiss said advice due to your own experience as you did with the first suggestions that face-pulling is pointless and you should always open with Shield Lob in 4man content.

I'm assuming, based on your level of reception to the advice you asked for, that this is bait.

[InkstainedGwyn]

You'll thank yourself in the long run.

[whiskeybravo]

It was meant to be...

Sometimes doing things the wrong way can still work out, which makes it difficult to understand why it's a problem. It'd be a good idea to try and pay attention to what other tanks are doing when you are on your main. Another thing that would help is to take some FC/static/friends with you on alt runs. Chances are if they notice something amiss you'll take it a lot better from them than you will from random strangers.

[Maeka]

Leveling a PLD currently, the amount of flag I have gotten for switching to Sword for bosses is amazing. It is like every second dungeon run the healer -while not contributing any damage- will show an amazing APM typing something along the lines of "Shouldn't you be in Shield Oath?" the second I turn blue. I am at a point where I just politely excuse myself that my tanking style doesn't fit the Healers comfort zone and leave the dungeon. Really no need for that kind of discussions anymore.

IMO, it's really not worth it, to stop a dungeon midway through over something stupid like Sword/Shield Oath.

It'd be faster to just complete the dungeon in Shield Oath than it would be to leave, re-queue and then get back up to where you were. You're really not gaining anything by dropping group for something so petty. It's a freaking 4man dungeon, for crying out loud. The difference between Sword and Shield is maybe 60 seconds to the total time of the dungeon.

Now, for the OP:

1). Please use Shield Lob. As others have said, pulling with Provoke is 100% useless.
2). I like to drop Flash then Circle of Scorn (Lv50+) as all the mobs are within range.

At this point, it really shouldn't matter what you do, as long as you do something, on Trash pulls. I'll usually throw a 2nd Flash, then maybe an Eclipse (the AoE physical attack or two) and then pick the lowest HP mob and start on it.

On Trash Pulls, I'm not really of the opinion that I care about Goring Blade, because it'll die within 3-5 seconds anyways. That leaves Rage of Halone, and Royal Authority. For Trash, I'll just go with RA, should be plenty. Also, you should be weaving in that attack that gives you the damage buff, Circle of Scorn, Holy Spirit, etc. Just throw the stuff out as you like, you should keep aggro.

Now for Bosses...

Definitely start with Shield Lob; the DPS like to blow all of their cooldowns right from the get-go. You want to get threat as soon as you can, and Shield Lob is the best starter. Immediately after Shield Lob, I like to flash as I'm running up to the boss, and then I will do a Rage of Halone combo. I know you think it is "Wimpy", but hear us out: The tooltip says "Additional Effect: Increases Enmity" . Well obviously if you lose threat on the boss, it's because you did not have enough enmity. Well, go get more enmity, and RoH is the best enmity around. After the first RoH, somewhere in there I'll dump a Circle of Scorn. Then the damage buff, and then Goring Blade.

After Goring Blade, I'll do Royal Authority combos until the damage buff wears off. If anybody is in the brown (30% enmity or more), I'll do another Rage of Halone at that point. If not, keep Goring Blade debuff on it, and keep up with the Royal Authority.

Of course, weaving in some holy spirits, and sometimes if you got a DPS crazy healer, some Clemency can let them DPS more and gets you more aggro.

If you do that in your 4mans, people will be more than happy to dump comms on you.

[Vahlnir]

You're genuinely new, so I believe you deserve a pass on this. I'm no expert at tanking, but I plan to level one soon. All I can say is this: practice makes perfect. I would also suggest looking up a guide for PLD specifically so you can get some rotations going and also receive some general tanking information. There is nothing wrong with going to an outside source for help if it helps optimize your performance.

You'll thank yourself in the long run.

This does not help them improve. If they are receiving criticism, they should be open to it so long as it is constructive. It's best to not ignore everyone who criticizes you. The forums are another story though and trolls should indeed be ignored.

[InkstainedGwyn]

The forums are another story though and trolls should indeed be ignored.

That was indeed my intent. Past posts about "how to earn money by begging from others", "why are all miqo'tes trolls", "I hate faithless FC members who won't stay in my FC", etc. build up and point to a troll, not someone actually looking for advice (as does the inflammatory way they address things.)

If they're truly looking for advice, then yeah. Most of what they're being given here is good advice. I'm convinced that wasn't the purpose of this thread in the first place, however.

[SenorPatty]

Pull or mass pull basics:

-If they're all spread out from one another, shield lob then flash
-If they're pretty close together, run in then flash
-Say the mob pack you encounter has like 2 targets real close but the third is far. Run into the cluster of 2, flash, then lob the remaining last one.


If these basics seem unorthodox(for mass pulls), that's because as a war, I don't have the luxury of radial aoe moves like pld or drk to tag most things without needing an actual target. Nonetheless, these tactics work fairly well even with Pld or Drk.

Now for something a little more in-depth:

-Your enemy list will let you know how many mobs you tagged or they have tagged you and believe me, there's a very distinct difference. Say for example, you tag a cluster of 3 mobs but a roaming enemy comes along and one of your party members tag it and you don't, your enemy list will remain at 3 mobs until you attack it or it attacks you.

In another example, say you tag 3 enemies and then a roaming one comes along, attacks you, you don't attack it, and then another party member tags it, it will show up with a grey circle next to its name. That means the enemy is recognized but it's in combat with someone else. As a tank, that's your cue to tag it.

Speaking of colored icons...

Your enemy list will display one of the 3 colored icons next to their name:

-Red Square: This tells you that you have the main aggro. This is what you want at all times as a main tank.

-Yellow Triangle: This means you're in the second spot. This is not what you want. Provoke that dingus and steal back your first place aggro glory with enmity moves/combo.
-Small grey circle: The monster is across the hallway, slapping your friends. You see it. It saw you. It's still slapping your friends silly, usually the healer. You might actually want to tell it something controversial to get it's attention (Provoke) or just straight up punch it in the face and immediately cause enmity. Either way get it to attack you.

And now for some boss tips:

-As a pld, shield lob to start 100% of the time. I actually wanted to say 99% but you don't have a gap closer enmity move like drk or war have so you're stuck with shield lob.

-The enemy list ia not the only special snowflake feature to have icons. Your party UI as well. In a party of four, you should be at "A" while everyone else will have numbers 2-4. That is your aggro list. Provoke is the skill to use when you're not a "A" anymore. It will put you back there BUT only if you attack AND solidify your enmity. If you just use provoke and do next to nothing, you will stay down and it'll be an uphill battle from there.

[Doki]

For pulling packs of enemies: flash flash then start 1,2,3 combo-ing them to solidify hate. For boss, shield lob, 1,2,3 combo once or twice then DD. Provoke, and the AoE variant are just for getting hate BACK if you lose it, and only put you at top of hate just barely. Have to do hate combo afterward to solidify hate. Once you are more comfortable with how hate is working out, move on to learning where to squeeze in damage abilities.

That said, 99.9999% of all "you are....bad" people are just entitled little shits that want everything to be a speed run.

[Moogly]

I learned almost all my tanking from this : https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes.../blog/2013446/ and some further reddit reading.
It has pretty much everything, except the newer stuff like the req + holy spirit spam or total eclipse addition during john F.madden mode, but follow this and you'll be able to pose proudly like the PLD in the pic.