So what is PLD good at?

[SovereignAegis]

I am asking seriously.

We have threads here saying they are (1) boring (2) can't even hold aggro (3) I made a thread where like most of the skills are insanely-long-cooldown buffs that last only a few seconds.

So why should a person play PLD? It sounds more and more like the summoner of tanks if anything else.


Note: I am trying to play tanking classes so I (1) get experience tanking for DRK (2) cross class skills for DRK.

[Rufalus]

Extreme damage mitigation. They are excellent at being a vanilla tank that sponges damage. Nice palette of mitigation moves to pick from.

In the right hands they can also hold agro fine and will arguably get less boring with the new skills they learn in the expansion.

edit: oh, and spam-able stun move, silence move, can stoneskin or cover allies, and soon bounce a new mitigation barrier onto them when receiving heals on self.

[Asierid]

Cooldowns and utility. That's it really.

The cooldowns on PLD are longer and stronger than WAR, but have longer CDs of course. Hallowed Ground, enough said. Then there's cover and the ability to stoneskin.

....And that's it? Oh, and they are regional 123 champions.

[Seku]

PLD is good for ignoring mechanics and making fights over all safer. A lot of their utility skills get over looked because in most normal dungeons they have no use. Their defense CD's are also safer than warrior, but really don't give too much, if any advantage if both warrior and healer are skilled.

[SpookyGhost]

Cooldowns. Shield. Immunity for 10s. Can't really mess anything up.

[Arkanethered]

[CGMidlander]

Chain stunning, Silence, Hallowed Ground, Strong cooldowns (Rampart & Sentinel)

(2) can't even hold aggro

If the PLD sucks, maybe.

[Marxam]

Short Answer: Hallowed Ground

Long Answer: Stable, reliable defensive cooldowns with tons of raid utility (especially with the new skills in Heavensward) and two passive mitigation through block and parry. Only downside is it is the weakest of the tanks in terms of pushing dps but that can be a pro or con give or take.

Also, what's the deal with all these "PLD is boring..." threads. In Heavensward it will be getting three full combo paths just like the WAR and DRK so I don't think that will be boring. It would be interesting to see how much pushing dps would matter in Alexander HM though since it will be taking into account healer dps and possible ot dps.

[Shurrikhan]

A huge set of ready-to-fire CDs. Warrior will require you to know your timings, when you'd need to weave Berserk or Vengeance, avoid Fracture, etc., in order to have Inner Beast up in time. Paladin just sees the telegraph or prior move and pops his CD - done.

The "boring" part will be fixed in 3.0.

:: Also, they have that fun little speed-running advantage; you don't need TP for your AoEs, so you can hold threat just fine while sprinting.

[Selli]

Paladin is fine as a tank.

Paladins can be seen as boring to some (as their DPS and enmity combo at the moment are the same three skills), but they offer a less confusing style than Warrior so they are easier to play for someone who is new to tanking or the game in general.

Paladins can keep aggro fine. They buffed Flash a while ago. The only way a Paladin wouldn't be able to keep hate is if they are 1) under-geared 2) don't know how to play the class 3) are out of MP 4) if they bothered to mark enemies and the DPS is not following the number order, the Paladin might lose hate if they're not paying attention. Paladin hate on a mob is Flash at least 3x (if you have a massive group just use all that MP), Fast Blade -> Riot Blade to get MP back to either 1) Flash more 2) have Flash for the next big pull. And if you don't need MP and you only Flashed a couple times, then you cycle your enmity combo through the mobs. Easy-peasy.

If anything, I think the biggest reason why lower level players have a problem with aggro on Paladin is because they don't get their "tank stance" until 40 while Warrior gets theirs at 30. I mean, Sword Oath is awesome in its own way, but I think they really should have saved the "off-tank/DPS" Oath for a later level.

All buffs have long cooldowns and short effects. ._. Even DPS cooldowns have cooldowns substantially longer than their duration (heck, if you really want to complain about "duration verses cooldown", might I suggest checking out Benediction which has a 5min cooldown for an instant ability. That's basically 300% longer cooldown than the "duration" :P (that was a joke for those who don't understand jokes)). The basics of tanking (in a dungeon anyway, it's a bit different in raids like Coil where you base your cooldowns more-so off the boss's phases and attacks rather than what you do/don't have on cooldown) is to use your buffs with a shorter cooldown first and save the bigger ones, which is the exact opposite of how DPS use their cooldowns. The reason why this is done is so you don't have all of your buffs on cooldown at the same time, a shorter cooldowned buff will come off cooldown twice before a bigger cooldown has come off once. That is ignoring the fact that buffs are situational (if you're about to die you're not going to pop Tempered Will, you're gonna pop Hallowed Ground).

Unlike Warrior, Paladin doesn't rely on Wrath Stacks (which are gained by being in Defiance and using specific abilities). They can use any cooldown they want without having the stack pre-requirement, which makes them really good at mitigating damage as they can pop their buffs quickly and effectively to handle the situation.

Maybe you should try the job. All the tanks offer different and unique play-styles and knowing how to play one will help you with the other two, in one way or another.