Cover - How does it work?

[Resolute]

Okay, so from reading the description of cover in-game, it says "Take all physical damage intended for another party member. Can only be used when member is closer than 6 yalms."

I have been using this when a healer or dps is taking damage to try to take that damage for them so they do not get hurt further. However, when I have used this I noticed that the other player will still take damage during the duration, even when I am standing right next to them.

So, I jumped on the Paladin guide thread and it states:
"Cover – Transfers physical damage from targeted player to you. 12 second duration. 120 second cool down. Must be within 6 yalms of the targeted player. Cast this on a player if your provoke is down and you are trying to gain aggro."

Does this ability actually transfer enmity that another player is producing to you, rather than allowing you to take damage for them? If so, the tooltip seems misleading and the name "cover" does not really make complete sense to me. It make more sense for it to mean that I am "covering" the other player by protecting them from harm.

[Tanaya]

Here's the procedure:

-Select Party member
-Stand within 6 yalms of that member
-Activate Cover

Keep in mind this only works for physical attacks, and any magic attacks will not be blocked. Cover does not redirect enmity generated from the party member to you. You still have to generate enmity yourself to get the aggroed mob to attack you.

[Raminax]

The buff is a bit misleading if you get out of range, as well. While the Cover icon won't disappear if you get further away than 6 yalms, Cover will stop functioning by that point, until you get back again within 6 yalms. And well, 6 yalms is pretty damn short.

[Sapphidia]

The only uses I've found for cover so far are in the bavarois fight in Wanderer's Palace (you can cover one of the party members when the boss randomly targets it, though cooldown only lets you do one. It still feels safer to just run though) and perhaps better, casting it on a melee during the Livia Sas Junius fight in Castrum Meridianum. As long as the melee doesnt -run- you should be able to mitigate all of the damage from the adds targetted on them and you can just pop a cooldown and let them dps as normal.

Neither of those fights are especially tough though so it's hardly needed. I would definitely use Cover more if the range wasnt so restrictive. I try to use it as much as I can but everyone just gets scared when bosses have random target periods and runs away from me.

[Sephirah]

The only uses I've found for cover so far are in the bavarois fight in Wanderer's Palace (you can cover one of the party members when the boss randomly targets it, though cooldown only lets you do one. It still feels safer to just run though) and perhaps better, casting it on a melee during the Livia Sas Junius fight in Castrum Meridianum. As long as the melee doesnt -run- you should be able to mitigate all of the damage from the adds targetted on them and you can just pop a cooldown and let them dps as normal.

Neither of those fights are especially tough though so it's hardly needed. I would definitely use Cover more if the range wasnt so restrictive. I try to use it as much as I can but everyone just gets scared when bosses have random target periods and runs away from me.

I agree about the Junius fight, if a healer gets targeted by the adds I'll always use cover on them when they run to the boss. I also found it quite useful on Caduceus to mitigate a little extra damage on the person running slimes to me.

I agree it would also be nice if the range wasn't so restricting.

[Quor]

Man this takes me back....I remember in FF11 when cover would only function when you had your ally directly behind you.

Be nice if they made the cover animation more prominent. Be easier for people to see that they shouldn't move. Another second or two in the duration wouldn't hurt either.

[GramkarSilverpaw]

Hmm, using it to take some heat of the other tank in a 2 tank situation could be useful, like handing out a Hallowed Ground (well... half a HG) if the MT is dropping low, it would buy the healers some extra time in any case. Plus you can break it by moving away if you take to much damage from it.

And making a macro to let the group know you are using it could be useful as well, to reduce the chances of them panicking.

Come to think of it... I got that skill today... gonna have to start working it into my play :P

[Sephirah]

Hmm, using it to take some heat of the other tank in a 2 tank situation could be useful, like handing out a Hallowed Ground (well... half a HG) if the MT is dropping low, it would buy the healers some extra time in any case. Plus you can break it by moving away if you take to much damage from it.

And making a macro to let the group know you are using it could be useful as well, to reduce the chances of them panicking.

Come to think of it... I got that skill today... gonna have to start working it into my play :P

You can also pop hallowed ground at the same time as cover so you can completely protect the other tank if they're about to drop.

[GramkarSilverpaw]

hehe, yeah ^^ well... not completely, it only transfers physical damage. But I guess that's enough on some fights.

[Sapphidia]

One tip for Cover is to put it in a macro. Mine looks like this:

/macroicon "Cover"
/ac "Cover" <t>
/ac "Cover" <tt>
/wait
/p Casting COVER - Stay close to Sapphidia!

This will cast cover on your target if you have a player selected. If you have a mob selected though it will instead cast Cover on whatever the mob is targeting, which means you can instantly press it if the boss you tank swaps target without needing to retarget the player it's swapped to, or simply tab target to one of Livia's adds and hit it.

The /wait command ensures the message in party will only happen one second after you release the key, so you can Spam the button until Cover pops up without worrying about 400 messages, as each button press resets the 1 second wait.