Cover should be a Role Action

[bundythenoob]

I actually wouldn't mind cover being moved to a role action. in its current form, it is very costly in terms of oath gauge, with a lengthy cooldown to boot, and it sometimes doesn't get used by PLD due to the distance from the person they're trying to cover unless the PLD is offtank.

there have also been plenty of times that I would wish I could give some form of mitigation to others when playing DRK below lv 70, and this would be a really solid way of giving all tanks a way to mitigate team damage while not being so strong that it can be abused. maybe its cooldown would have to be lengthened to accommodate for two tanks being able to use it in the same instance for trials. perhaps 180 sec cd?

as for the hole left in PLDs kit, i'm not too sure what could be added. I wouldn't want to see another defencive cooldown, as i believe changing sheltron to a base 8 second duration at lv 35, and giving it a trait to decrease its cost to 30 gauge at level 66 or so would be much better for its kit, but i guess replacing cover with another defencive cd would ease that issue. maybe bring bulwark back?

[Ultimatecalibur]

there have also been plenty of times that I would wish I could give some form of mitigation to others when playing DRK below lv 70, and this would be a really solid way of giving all tanks a way to mitigate team damage while not being so strong that it can be abused. maybe its cooldown would have to be lengthened to accommodate for two tanks being able to use it in the same instance for trials. perhaps 180 sec cd?

It could be on a 60s cooldown and the current version wouldn't be problematic in most fights. Most cover usage in previous expansions was either to forestall a tank swap (by giving the non-PLD MT another defensive cooldown or to transfer a damage up debuff) or prevent a knockback on another character. The former is covered by a combination of tanks having more than enough defensive cooldowns now and tankbuster mechanics targeting both MT and OT. The later was covered by all jobs now having access to Arm's Length/Surecast.

If they made it a role action they could design fights around people actually wanting to use it.
That's an interesting idea.

That would likely just lead to them doing what they do with interrupts: Once per tier there is a ability (usually cast by a add) that requires an interrupt to avoid a wipe.