PLDs Circle of Scorn Question

[KittenJitsu]

I am currently lv 36. I haven't hit end-game yet so I was curious about our GLD counterpart ability: Circle of Scorn. How useful is this ability? At my level if my party wants to throw some AoE dmg I must cycle through each mob to make sure I am holding agro. It requires more work but I think it adds a little more excitement to our tanking capabilities. I am wondering that once I hit 50 will Circle of Scorn make my life easier? Or will I have to continue cycling through mobs to make sure heals or crazy dps are not pulling agro? Mind you this is in a group where dps are focusing on my targets and not fighting random mobs I pull. I always mark my targets anyway. I am purely talking about healer agro and AoE dmg/summoner dots. And we all obviously know flash alone can never hold group pulls alone.

Thoughts?

[CianaIezuborn]

It's not a huge amount of aggro, but it's off the global cooldown with no tp/mp cost so you'll be using it pretty much everytime it's up. It helps as an aggro boost and to pick up mobs during run in (has a slightly larger radius than Flash) but it's not a silver bullet to AE tanking.

That being said, spamming Flash at high levels will keep mobs on you against AoE damage, however you'll quickly run out of mana if you're spamming nothing but flash. So you'll still be cycling through mobs running RoH combos even at 50. I'm not sure, but I think this is a function of Flash getting full benefit of aggro mod on Shield Oath with no loss from the damage reduction that comes with it? I did notice that Flash is much more effective at higher levels though.

[Kenji1134]

Circle of Scorn has no enmity modifier, so sadly it will not magically make aoe aggro "easy". It does help you give a small ticking buffer vs healers, but it wont really help against dps.
Flash will always be relevant, and depending on the number of mobs, may be the most viable option.

At 50, in AK/CM/Coil, if there are 2 mobs, its easiest to Flash 2-3 times, then full RoH on 1, Fast-Savage on 2, RoH on 1, Fast-Savage on 1, RoH on 2, Flash... and just see how aggro looks and how the mobs are going down.
If you are doing larger pulls, generally more than 3 mobs, dps is tempted to AoE, and splitting the RoH combo across 3+ mobs is simply not as effective as Flash.
Later on, once you get fairly well geared, mostly DL, and have a good weapon... maybe even earlier, dunno... then your best bet for quickly clearing dungeons is to find a willing bard, tell your healer NOT to put up any HoTs, pull a number of mobs, then have the bard run Manasong and just spam the hell outta Flash.

Edit:
And as mentioned before, once you get Shield Oath, the value of RoH vs Flash changes a bit. All parts of the RoH combo generate hate based on damage, which is reduced to 80% with Shield Oath, but the hate is doubled, so you should see a +60% net gain.
Flash uses a calculation that is "similar" to a damage calc, mostly affected by your weapon damage, then str, then det, however it does not take a hit from Shield Oath's damage penalty, but get the entire double aggro bonus, so Flash is literally TWICE as effective with Shield Oath than without, unlike RoH which is 60% better.

[KittenJitsu]

Ah so shield of oath does not affect abilities with no enmity modifiers?

[PessimiStick]

Edit:
And as mentioned before, once you get Shield Oath, the value of RoH vs Flash changes a bit. All parts of the RoH combo generate hate based on damage, which is reduced to 80% with Shield Oath, but the hate is doubled, so you should see a +60% net gain.
Flash uses a calculation that is "similar" to a damage calc, mostly affected by your weapon damage, then str, then det, however it does not take a hit from Shield Oath's damage penalty, but get the entire double aggro bonus, so Flash is literally TWICE as effective with Shield Oath than without, unlike RoH which is 60% better.

This is outdated and incorrect, FYI. Shield Oath gives enough bonus threat to essentially offset the damage penalty. It's more like 1.4x than 2x. A PLD in Shield and a PLD in Sword generate nearly the same threat.

[Tanaya]

Ah so shield of oath does not affect abilities with no enmity modifiers?

It does, it's just not nearly as big as it was in Beta.

You should always be using Circle of Scorn regardless. It's essentially free damage.

[Lord_Zlatan]

It's not a huge amount of aggro, but it's off the global cooldown with no tp/mp cost so you'll be using it pretty much everytime it's up. It helps as an aggro boost and to pick up mobs during run in (has a slightly larger radius than Flash) but it's not a silver bullet to AE tanking.

That being said, spamming Flash at high levels will keep mobs on you against AoE damage, however you'll quickly run out of mana if you're spamming nothing but flash. So you'll still be cycling through mobs running RoH combos even at 50. I'm not sure, but I think this is a function of Flash getting full benefit of aggro mod on Shield Oath with no loss from the damage reduction that comes with it? I did notice that Flash is much more effective at higher levels though.

The Mother of the Iezu

[Kal-El]

Shield lob - circle of scorn - flash.

Cycle through RoH combo. Tab attack a few times.

Circle of Scorn. Flash.

Rinse and repeat.

Easy

[PiedPiper]

This is outdated and incorrect, FYI. Shield Oath gives enough bonus threat to essentially offset the damage penalty. It's more like 1.4x than 2x. A PLD in Shield and a PLD in Sword generate nearly the same threat.

That said, moves like flash wich don't actually suffer a damage penalty are markedly more potent when in sheild oath. Just as a helpful tip.

Also, assuming your gear is relatively close to that of your dps, and they are actually aoeing (not one person derping on just single target), you can hold hate by just standing still and spammign flash and cos. Easy to hold off smns and blms this way (again, as long as they are actually aoeing, not casting one aoe and then pewpewing a target).