Brand New Gladiator here, tips....go!

[PWilson]

Hey guys, just saw this and thought I'd ask some questions of my own. I just today (before the game went down) got WAR and PAL. Both are lvl 32 right now, and I feel like these jobs just got confusing with my more recent abilities. And I get nervous in dungeons playing tank as it is...

Can't speak to the Warrior. As PLD, I don't use Shield Swipe much. It doesn't generate aggro and I usually don't have too much of a cushion to spend on moves that don't generate emnity, at the moment. Before ninjas were in the game, I'd use it now and then. The Pacification is a nice effect, but the real value of it is the super low TP cost and high damage. 210 potency is your second most damaging skill, and it's just on GCD instead of the looong CD of Spirits Within. You shouldn't really rely on it in order to use the Pacification, because of course the randomness of when its up often means it isn't up when you'd need it - stick to Shield Bash instead.
It's super great for your solo content though, and you should use it whenever it is up.

The Cross-Class abilities you want as PLD is Stoneskin and Foresight. You shouldn't need Protect. Raise sounds super useful, right? No can do, you won't be able to use it during combat. Cure can be useful, but be aware it doesn't actually heal much, ever, because your mind stat is super low. But beneficially, it will help you keep aggro. There's honestly not really a point to taking Skull Sunder or Fracture. Mercy Stroke and Bloodbath can be useful, though.
As a WAR, you want Flash and Provoke, and three of: Featherfoot, Convalescence, Second Wind, or Mantra. You may also want to consider Awareness or Internal Release in certain instances.

[Danbo05]

Flash and number your kill order til you get Shield Oath. And only use Riot Blade combo when you're out of flash. When you're down to 1-2 enemies, you may proceed to using your Rage of Halone combo. Congratz, you're a Gladiator. Oh, and you can pop cooldowns (Rampart for example) every now and then too.

[Ceodore]

These threads make me glad I grew up Paladin. As someone who mains tank but also plays EVERYTHING else, I am pleased when I see people trying out this class for the first time. First, because I don't remember my job being so hard at the young level. Second, because it makes me realize how delusional I must have been back then to think my first thought now. Tanks have gotten massive increases in their enmity generation recently that it makes me question how I ever survived as a pre-50 paladin or warrior.Anyways, I have to agree AND disagree with the comment to just let someone die for being a 'l33t' idiot. Instead, I'd like to cut the middle ground here. If this is a big mob pull (2 or 3 mobs really at pre 50), and you lose 1 mob to a dps who it just tunnel visioning, there are usually only three possible scenarios that this happens. 1. They attacked a mob during your pull that had no agro to you, so of course you lost agro before you could ever even establish it. 2. They stole agro while you weren’t focused on the target they are tunnel visioning on. 3. They stole agro, even while you are doing your hardest to maintain enmity on that target, and things just aren’t working.

In scenario 1, shame on the dps, but all hope is not lost. First, take a moment to make sure that the mobs that did come to you after your pull are properly focused on you, then consider your options on the stray. Provoke, Savage Blade/Rage of Halone combo, whatever. Just make sure first and foremost that the main group still on you are properly handled. 99.99% of the time, your healer can handle a stray mob that a dps stole, so don’t freak out. Just be sure, as with any and all dungeons, that your healer is properly commended.

In scenario 2, do mostly the same as scenario 1. IF you just happened to lose agro to another dps, don’t freak out, it happens, especially before Rage of Halone and Shield Oath. Make sure the rest of the mobs are being properly handled, and then lay out considerations for the stray. Provoke, Shield Lob, Savage Blade/Rage or Halone, take your pick. But again, your healer is YOUR partner in this. The DPS are really just passengers, and your healer, as always, deserves your commendation.

In scenario 3, there really isn’t a whole lot you can do if you’re just completely unable to regain agro despite exhausting all your tricks. So, in the end, cut your losses and maintain order in what you can. AGAIN, your healer is your friend, and JUST for keeping you alive deserves your commendation.

So what ARE some tricks to regaining agro on a lost mob? Provoke definitely gets thrown out there a lot. However, to properly use the skill, you have to know how it works. Imagine the enmity meters as a pressure system using water. When your enmity is full, all the water is on your meter, meaning you have all the water. Now, to maintain that full, you have to maintain a higher pressure than the other people in your party. This is what increased enmity allows you to do. Now, when a dps take agro away from you on a mob, that means their pressure is now higher than the pressure you exerted on that mob. So what provoke does is allows you to copy that pressure and then boost it by just a hair. This means, you get the mob’s attention, but only just. In order to maintain that attention, you will have to increase the pressure further. This is why provoke alone is not enough and must be paired with another skill to really work. If a mob is at range, the skill of choice is usually Shield Lob, meaning a Paladin will use Provoke then immediately after use Shield Lob. However, the ultimate range enmity increasing combination is Fight or Flight, Provoke, Shield Lob, due to Fight or Flight’s increase in damage done (Not to be mistaken for an increase in JUST melee damage). For this reason, I suggest always trying to open fights with Fight of Flight (to establish enmity quickly) as well as trying to save it for if/when you might lose enmity on a target so as to not just re-establish enmity, but also solidify it. Generally speaking, a 30% (traited Fight or Flight) boost in damage output for 30 seconds will usually help when you’re an under geared tank going up against dps with superior gear, so always, ALWAYS, remember the cooldowns at your disposal.

Also, can anyone tell me, as I haven’t tested it yet, does the healing from Bloodbath cause enmity? I usually open many fights with Fight or Flight + Bloodbath (as a small bit of mitigation to begin things, plus they are both on 90 second cooldowns, and Fight or Flight increases the healing done as well).

[aisustrong]

bloodbath is very negligible for enmity gain
short of over power spam (in which case you'll be warrior anyway and hold all the things) it won't put out significant enough heals compared to the damage the mob is taking