Thordan as PLD is Amazing

[Strident]

Sheltron+Halone every cleave. Divine Veil the limit break. Bulwark Holy Bladedance. Stoneskin during downtime. Sheltron+1 CD for Heaven's Heel. Proc Shield Swipe all the time.

Paladin is kinda amazing in this fight. I haven't had this much fun with a fight since ever as PLD.

[Ashkendor]

Yeah, I'm having a lot of fun with it myself. ^^

[wicked-one]

Meanwhile, on SE Headquarters...

"How do we fix PLD now..."
"let´s make a fight where he is useful"

Mission accomplished.

[Jim_Berry]

I'm still seeing tanks needing to use STR gear, though, due to dps check.

On a side note, I now go to learning parties as PLD (originally NIN). Why can't my PLD hit hard and use Bladedance? lol...

[eagledorf]

Meanwhile, on SE Headquarters...

"How do we fix PLD now..."
"let´s make a fight where he is useful"

Mission accomplished.

I really like Thordan EX as a tank in general. It allows me to make use of my entire set of skills on PLD (well, except my interrupts) and actually have decisions to make. I can also coordinate with both of my healers with things like Virus and Eye. None of that is possible on a magic-only fight; even DRK has like 4 useless skills when tanking one of the Manipulators legs so I think this is actually a better designed fight in terms of game play even for a DRK than that fight is, even though A4S literally caters to DRK buff durations and types.

I'm not entirely sure that making content like Thordan is a complete solution. This content was literally built for PLD+WAR (All physical tank damage, damage to mitigate when you can't target the boss, increased mitigation allowing you to ignore certain mechanics, muti-hit physical cleaves, lots of down time). Is SE always going to release content like this? Are PLD and DRK players just going to swap back and forth while the WAR remains a permanent fixture? What about casual tank players who only want to have one tank leveled?

However, Thordan is really fun in general and I think a promising sign. I do still wish SE would acknowledge that tank design and content design are intertwined and stop being in denial about DRK and PLD.

[Freyyy]

It's cool that PLDs have a fight where they're good, but the job still isn't fixed.

[Ashkendor]

I'm still seeing tanks needing to use STR gear, though, due to dps check.

I tried it in full slaying and actually ended up swapping to my melds while we progress.

[Ralvenom]

I'm still seeing tanks needing to use STR gear, though, due to dps check.

Yes, and they likely will keep using STR gear. I don't see an issue with this. Fending gear should be fixed, yes; but, for now, there's no problem with using STR gear as a tank.

[PetiteMalFleur]

Swiftcast cure on pld with divine veil up for bigger shield to mitigate ultimate? Yes please.

[Marxam]

Sheltron+Halone every cleave. Divine Veil the limit break. Bulwark Holy Bladedance. Stoneskin during downtime. Sheltron+1 CD for Heaven's Heel. Proc Shield Swipe all the time.

Paladin is kinda amazing in this fight. I haven't had this much fun with a fight since ever as PLD.

wait PLD is doing well in a fight!!!??? SE buff WAR and DRK so they can be equal with the PLD in this fight as well.


But seriously I'm currently working on clearing the fight as a war and outside of tanking its frenetic, insane and busy but all in a good way. I'm just disappointed in the axe design. I really wanted that giant double headed battle axe instead. SE take notes because this is how you do a fight right that is inclusive of all tanks and doesn't heavily favor one over the other.

Btw how's the enmity on RoH? was it increased in 3.1 or was shield swipe the only one that got that treatment?