Paladins. How do you manage your cooldowns?

[keroo]

In some certain instances, you'll inevitably manage your cooldowns. What are your cooldown rotations for remarkable end-game contents like Coil?

[Ceodore]

Start with the CD with the highest down time, excluding Hallowed Ground, and work towards the ones with the smallest down time, taking into consideration the attacks coming up and the limits of all your CDs. For instance, Bulwark is useless against enemies that only deal magic damage, use Sentinel and Rampart instead. Foresight is also useless against magic damage. Convalesence is very versatile as well, but should not be used when a target inflicts you with infirmity, as the healing boost is after the infirmity decrease, meaning less of an overall healing boost. Use skills like Rampart, Sentinel, Foresight, and Bulwark instead. Pretty much take a moment to really study your skills and know their limitations and combinations. For instance, Fight or Flight + Bloodbath = more healing than Bloodbath alone.

[TheodoreMcIntyre]

I try to not use any cooldowns that directly stack to avoid diminishing returns. Since cooldowns are multiplicative, I avoid using things like Sentinel and Rampart at the same time. I usually split them up a bit. I only stack them if I'm really really against the wall. When I'm doing big trash pulls, I usually start with Hallowed Ground right off the bat, then follow to Rampart -> Bulwark -> Foresight, then when those wear off I use Convalescence -> Awareness -> Sentinel. That just depends on how good the healer is, though, I suppose.

[Rufalus]

I agree with what's said above, you just intelligently select what is right for the situation. And save the biggest one for when you seriously expect to die so you can cheat death. Sometimes while I am under the effect of Hallowed Ground, I will cast Stoneskin on myself since my casting can't be interrupted during that period of not taking damage, it will give me that little buffer when Hallowed wears off.

[SirTaint]

For Coil fights its all about having a plan. Most people want HG towards the end which means you can comfortably use it early in the fight and have it back up for the end.

The other thing to consider is what CDs the other tank is using if any and how often are you tank swapping.

Like t13 our OT WAR pulls and burns CDs for the first flatten.

Then for the next 3-4 its

Sentinel

Convalescence early to rampart

HG

Bulwark early to rampart

Then sentinel if we get a fifth.

All of my abilities will be up in time for ahk morhn in the final phase.

[Ceodore]

As every fight is different, and requires different tactics, I can't really say there is any one way to use or plan your cooldowns. Frankly, the much more important thing to consider is study time. Watch a video or two. Personally, I watch both MrHappy and Mizztech on Youtube to get two explainations (also, because MrHappy generally doesn't tank, so it's better to get a tank perspective from Mizztech) When you know the tactics and when the big hits are coming, you can plan accordingly. It's a very over used example, but it's a great example still, Mountain Busters from Titan HM. In the last phase, he opens with Mountain Buster, then does it after every rockslide (IDK if this is the name, it's the linear knock off ability. You would think I'd know the name after so many runs for FC members' relics.)

[radioactive_lego]

Since I'm using a gamepad, for everyday use I stuck most of my cooldowns on a single macro, starting with the ones that "benefit" the healer most (con, bul, ramp). Since it seems like Bloodbath is always viable regardless of the situation just like FoF, I have ithem macro-paired together, separately from the others (increased damage for increased HP soak).

HG being the one exception; it always has it's own button for those "oh crap" moments.

I have a separate hotbar for picking and choosing the c/d That is appropriate for the situation, but the two macros above are suitable for all but the most difficult content.

[SeraviEdalborez]

Situational based on fight. The basic skeleton for predictable routine burst (T9 Ravensbeak/Bahamut's Claw, T13 Flatten) is:

Ramp
Sent
Ramp
HG
Ramp (+Sent, if you won't need a 6th cooldown)
Sent

Lesser cooldowns can be paired with the above (especially Rampart), or used during raid heal-intensive periods to give healers breathing room. You can adjust the order in a few ways:

-WAR (or other PLD) can start the fight and use all/some of their cooldowns on the first big cooldown; this lets you have the HG hit delayed or skipped, allowing you to save it for special occasions instead of regular use.
-WAR (or other PLD) can tank swap in on hits where you plan on not having cooldowns up, either due to stacking them for some reason or just misfiring or whatever; this is a part of Akh Morn strategy in T13 to an extent, but can be used in other fights as well.

T13 (at least) has the extra caveat that once your DPS gets up to speed, you may find yourself 5-10 seconds away from your next Rampart when it comes time for Flatten if you tend to pop these cooldowns on the hit itself. What you need to do in these situations is actually pop your cooldown early, such that they will still be up for the hit you want them to mitigate.

You would have to ask on a turn to turn basis for a more indepth breakdown. The main things you'll be planning around are

T10: Critical Rip
T11: Reso -> Head -> Reso
T12: Revelation
T13: Flatten (P1,2), Death Sentence (P3), Akh Morn (P4, plan with co-tank)

T10 I do not main tank unless I need to swap in from Heat Lightning. I do not use any cooldowns for Wild Charge, and reserve pretty much everything but Hallowed for adds. Hallowed is reserved for final phase if I get Heat Lightning on Heat-Charge to allow us to skip one tank swap.

T11: Up to add phase, on Head-Reso I use Sentinel -> Ramp -> Bulwark+Foresight. This usually allows Ramp to just be coming up for add phase. Last phase, for Head -> Reso -> Head, I will use the Ramp-Sent-Ramp skeleton. Reserve Hallowed Ground for extreme emergencies where you need to eat Head solo (need to be quick/precise to do so).

T12: Ramp-Sent-Ramp skeleton for Revelations. Use anything else where you see fit.

T13:

Flatten
P1:
1: Warrior
2: Ramp+Foresight
3: Hopefully skip, otherwise Sentinel

P2:
1: Ramp (if up, otherwise Sent)
2: Sent (if up, otherwise HG)
3: Ramp (if up, otherwise whatever you have)

P3 (Death Sentence)
1: Foresight early, Ramp on cast
2: Sentinel as Pain pops

P4 (Akh Morn)
1: Rampart (WAR: Inner Beast/Vengeance if up)
2: WAR Holmgang
3: Rampart, Sentinel (WAR: IB/whatever is up)
4: Hallowed
5: Everything left, enrage is immediately after (WAR: Same)

Lastly, do not forget about Stoneskin or VIT pots.

[Ashkendor]

Since I'm using a gamepad, for everyday use I stuck most of my cooldowns on a single macro, starting with the ones that "benefit" the healer most (con, bul, ramp). Since it seems like Bloodbath is always viable regardless of the situation just like FoF, I have ithem macro-paired together, separately from the others (increased damage for increased HP soak).

HG being the one exception; it always has it's own button for those "oh crap" moments.

I have a separate hotbar for picking and choosing the c/d That is appropriate for the situation, but the two macros above are suitable for all but the most difficult content.

I kind of did something like this for T8. The spike damage there is predictable (dreads, lol) and far enough apart that I'm able to use multiple cooldowns for them and have them available again for the next one. Other than T8, though, I activate cd's manually. I did also macro FoF/BB together as the times when I need the increased damage, BB is a nice addition; the times when I need BB, FoF makes it more effective.

Situational based on fight. The basic skeleton for predictable routine burst (T9 Ravensbeak/Bahamut's Claw, T13 Flatten) is:

Awesome indepth advice. I'm going forward into FCoB, and that's very helpful to me. ^^