Soloing Gladiator

[Chezen]

Since 1.18, I've had an issue with aquiring TP, and I find myself with long periods where I can do nothing but block with my shield. I waited to try it several times before asking about it here, thinking mybe I was just doing it wrong, but I haven't figured out any way to make it better.

The only reliable way to generate TP is on a 30 second timer. That means I hit Light Stab, and I have to wait, blocking with my shield. I will likely get enough TP to use Phalanx, but if I use it, it will be just that much longer before I can use something better.

That means I'm looking at a minimum of one full minute before I can do any sort of attack. Once I get the attacks going, it's a little bit better, but I can still find myself waiting quite a bit. And then I end up dying, not because of lack of mp, but because I can't hit anything.

It seems the devs are trying to make TP a resource to manage. That's a direction I like and I hope they keep it that way. But the downtime on Gladiator just seems too long. Am I doing something wrong? Operator error, or design? I also play archer, and I'm not having this problem with it.

Edit: I started a new character and tried gladiator from scratch, and I figured out my own error of using the shield instead of allowing auto-attack. Personally, up to this point I have ignored that auto-attack is even there and don't really consider it a part of gameplay. I still don't really think letting the game hit the target for me for several hits feels very much like I'm playing a game. I prefer to be active in the fight.

Anyway, I'll leave this here as a kind of feedback. Thank you for reading.