WAR or PLD?

[SantaClaw]

I think people really over exaggerate the difficulty of Warrior vs Paladin. They're both pretty much the same in my opinion, when it comes to difficulty. Not like hitting hotkeys is difficult to begin with either.

In your opinion? Did you ever play and cleared all the contents with both?
Because I do, all contents, including all Primal fights as well as T9 with Paladin and Warrior. And I wasn't over exaggerate the difficulty of Paladin Vs Warrior at all.
Ask a Paladin switch to Warrior and a Warrior switch to Paladin instead, make sure they never play the other job before and have them tell you the difference.

Both jobs have the same amount of abilities.

This is not true if you really play both jobs, have you?

[Amused]

This is not true if you really play both jobs, have you?

They do. Just because Warrior presses different ones more often doesn't change the number of skills they both get.

I will agree with the notion that Paladin is easier to pick up and play at a basic level, but I think when the person understands both classes, they're completely similar in difficulty.

I played and leveled Warrior before Paladin by the way. Ended up going with Paladin because it's what I played mainly in XI.

Warrior is definitely more fun to deal damage with though. I wish they had given Paladin more combos but it can't be helped. I guess I'll just enjoy my shield swipe... (not saying it's bad)

[Melinabean0]

snip

Thank you for those points! The bit about DPS differences is good to know too. I could see how both would be good in their own ways, and that it would be mostly reliant on ones preference.

Le snip as well!

Well, I didn't think there would be THAT much of a difference in terms of difficulty, maybe more of a learning curve, I just figured after all the comments that a purely tank role like PLD would be easier for someone like me to get used to tanking with. No, hitting hotkeys isn't very difficult but, I know I've said this already, I'm a super newbie when it comes to tanking. Thank you for your input as well!

[Laerune]

I have started leveling both PLD and WAR side by side. I am level 45-46 on both of them and from personal experience I can say:


Warrior:
Pro
- Has more HP
- Easier to tank trash mobs
- Because of Overpower (and if you get flash aswell) keeping agro at low levels its very easy
- Does alot of damage for a tank role
- Defiance mechanic is fun and there are options on which final skill you want to use.
- Has alot of debuffs, preventing HP regen or less dmg.
- Skills have self heal or shield buff.

Con
- More skills so longer rotation
- Alot more skills that can be used in combat to maximum preformance, so this might be harder for some players.
- At lower levels your TP will go down fast.
- Need to level alot of the other classes to learn some of the must have cross - skills.

Paladin:
Pro
- More defense
- Slow and steady playstyle.
- Is amazing for 1 vs 1, aka boss fight
- Alot of defensive skills and a strenght debuff skill.
- Lots of stuns, silence etc.
- You dont need to use alot of skills to get agro.
- Alot easier to use for newcomers then the warrior.
- Does not need any cross skills, compared to the warrior.
- Because of flash and riot blade you wont ever get out of mana.

Con
- Rotation can be boring, making the paladin a boring class
- Keeping agro with alot of mobs is harder then the warrior.
- No fun mechanic


This is my personal experience and this is the first game where I am tanking. Do note that both classes are great and aside from minor stuff, they are the same.

[PapaSteel]

I'm 100% with Velvet Velour on this one. As someone who has tanked savage coil on both jobs, I also believe them to take (roughly) the same amount of skill - just in different ways. Paladin requires you to be calculating and know the timing of every mechanic in a fight. Warrior requires you to be able to adapt on the fly.

However, yes - paladin is by far the more forgiving of the two and is far easier at first glance, which has in turn created a faulty perception within the community. A terrible player can still be successful on paladin just by pushing 1-2-3 and never know it. A player who is pushing themselves to be exceptional, however, will find both jobs to be more or less equally difficult to master.

[SummonerSenah]

I disagree that gladiator is better for new tanks than marauder. Paladin may be easier than warrior, but at low levels I think marauder is the way to go. Gladiator at low levels has a harder time keeping aggro even if you're doing everything you're supposed to, so if you start with gld it can be discouraging. I think if you start out as marauder and learn the dungeons and pulls, it will make it easier to do on gladiator.

[Lemuria]

I disagree that gladiator is better for new tanks than marauder. Paladin may be easier than warrior, but at low levels I think marauder is the way to go. Gladiator at low levels has a harder time keeping aggro even if you're doing everything you're supposed to, so if you start with gld it can be discouraging. I think if you start out as marauder and learn the dungeons and pulls, it will make it easier to do on gladiator.

Sure, it's easier to keep aggro. No one can fault Marauder for that, but at the same time you have ZERO defense buffs. You might as well be a squishy Dragoon for all the help you're giving to the poor WHM. This makes it much harder to do larger pulls and survive. At low levels you don't have the bonus to HP restoration, nor any skills which regen HP aside from Second Wind from monk and a weak HP gain from Bloodbath.

Furthermore, to actually keep aggro at those low levels you'll be using Overpower a lot. This eats up TP like crazy. Until I played Marauder I *never* ran out out of TP in lower levels dungeons, but when I was tanking I found it happened consistently.

I found tanking on Marauder much harder than on PLD for that reason alone. A good player won't have many issues keeping aggro using Flash at low levels anyway, so it's rarely as much of an issue compared to survivability.

[nugglets]

I found tanking on Marauder much harder than on PLD for that reason alone. A good player won't have many issues keeping aggro using Flash at low levels anyway, so it's rarely as much of an issue compared to survivability.

This is why you cross class Flash at low levels. And if you're abusing OP, either your DPS are targeting different enemies(which happens way too often in low level dungeons) or you're doing something wrong. One OP and changing targets during the enmity combo worked just fine for me, with the occasional Flash just to be certain.

[Lemuria]

This is why you cross class Flash at low levels. And if you're abusing OP, either your DPS are targeting different enemies(which happens way too often in low level dungeons) or you're doing something wrong. One OP and changing targets during the enmity combo worked just fine for me, with the occasional Flash just to be certain.

Paladin at least gets the benefit of an added Blind effect when using Flash at 20+, while Warrior is left defenseless until level 30. At least, unless you count Foresight. I don't, as I've never seen it make much difference to the damage taken, even on a level 50 Paladin.

I CC Flash on Marauder, and can keep aggro relatively well, but considering that the one benefit they have at low levels (Overpower) is such a TP guzzling move, it's not a particularly great incentive to use it too often. That means you're basically a Monk with Flash for all the help you're giving the party in terms of defense.

[nugglets]

Purely anecdotal opinion incoming:

WAR is just more fun to play in my opinion. Both are totally viable, so I stuck with the fun one.