So...Why was Shield Oath level 40?

[RubenSnizzle]

I never understood the mind behind such a stupid mistake.

What do Paladin get at 30?

Sword Oath Increases the potency of auto-attacks by 50. I mean, what the hell? I get it that paladin is a "experienced" tank before level 40, and you have to know how to switch between targets to keep aggro, but this is ridiculous.

Who the hell would want to run as a PLD, when WAR is almost the same (minus dmg mitigation and receive more DMG), but gets defiance 10 LEVEL LOWER than PLD's Shield Oath.

In term of dungeon/fate run/grind, this is a lot of time, where, if under geared or not having the best HQ wpn (if you have the money for the over priced garbage on the MB) for your level or dungeon gear.

I have no problem tanking, and i always wanted to level up a PLD, but this always turns me off so bad when i think about having Shield Oath at 40 and having to deal with dungeons like Haukke, cutter's cry, Brayflox, which all have A LOT of enemies in them, and when you have a BLM/SMN, it makes it even worst for that class to attain it's maximum DPS, because OOPS, the little Mr/Ms Paladin can't keep aggro that good.

[Dualblade]

Setting up which targets to attack in order helps a bit since then its mostly just healer aggro you have to worry about. It isn't really that difficult, rather more of the same of what you have been doing since before you got Sword Oath, only now you have a little more power to help keep enemies on you. Yes it is somewhat strange even before you throw in WAR getting their tank stance 10 levels earlier, but it isn't quite that big a deal overall. There shouldn't be any mass pulls being done before 50 anyways leaving mostly wandering mobs as the big problem when it comes to "alot of enemies".

Note this is coming from someone who started out as a GLD/PLD and was also the first job to hit 50.

[Carstien]

Pld was the first tank I levelled. With the exception of toto rak, war was easier till 40 but then it flipped. Then war was the red headed step child, pld is suddenly easier to keep up and with more, stronger cooldowns.

Either way, just do it. At 50 it won't matter who got the tank stance first, you'll still have it in any content after that.

So who would want to level it? People who wanna play pld.

[T2teddy]

Should get both sword and shield oath at the same time imho.

[Brannigan]

Sword Oath used to have double enmity on the extra attack, so it wasn't much worse than shield oath (which was only 50% bonus) against a single target for hate. I agree with T2teddy though - Sword/Shield Oath should be acquired at the same level. They really should be on the same button, too.

[Chiramu]

It is a pretty steep learning curve for PLD in low level dungeon, but it teaches you different ways of dealing with the problem. From the problem I've gotten better at PLD tanking ^^.

[Vandril]

They really should be on the same button, too.

They can be. Do what I do and macro them together.

Pressing the button the first time will activate one of the buffs, and the other will be caught by GCD. Pressing the button a second time will cancel the first buff and cast the second. Thus, this macro will essentially add both buffs to one button and allow you to cycle through them. Just add the one you use more often as the first one in the macro and you're golden.

I do the same thing for my NIN poisons.

[JimboTCB]

I'm OK with them being different skills, even though there's not really any possible scenario where you wouldn't want either of them up, it's one of those things that makes PLD and WAR subtly different to each other.

What I'm not OK with is PLD getting their stances the wrong way round - WAR gets their tank stance at 30, Sword and Shield Oath really need to be switched round to make for an equal levelling experience between the two. You could argue that not having ShO for another 10 levels forces you to get good at managing aggro when you don't have all the tools to do so, but in practice it's just annoying and makes you a sub-par tank for a big chunk of the game.

Also, for the love of god please take them off the GCD and stop them breaking combos.

[Ultimatecalibur]

I believe that SE figured by math with equally geared tanks and dps that the 1.5x/1.6x Enmity stance was not needed until level 40. The problems that Paladins have in Hakku, Brayflox, Qarn and Cutter's Cry happen usually from level and gear disparity.

The only reason Warrior gets its 1.5x Enimity stance at 30 because the jobs mechanics are all built off of the Wrath buff granted by the stance.

Sword Oath Increases the potency of auto-attacks by 50. I mean, what the hell?

It doesn't increase auto attack potency by 50, it makes an additional 50 potency attack every time the Paladin auto attacks. Subtle difference that makes the Dreadwyrm Blade (auto attack delay 2.08 auto attack damage 40.21) slightly better than the Excalibur Zeta (Delay 2.32 Damage 44.85) in Sword Oath even though they have the same average auto attack damage (19.33).

[Martin_Arcainess]

See the thing is about having a blm or and SMN in your party is that most PLDs will still use single combo where as they need to use flash and riot blade combo for AoE holding.