Advice from veteran tanks

[Aurius]

Hello all! I just finished esoing up my warrior (main) and Im looking to gear my next tank! I have been tinkering with paladin and I really think that the class is awesome! My question basically boils down to a few things, and maybe some of my issues are lack of pally experience, in which case advice would be great!
1. I feel like I really have to try to hold hate from an equally or slightly higher geared team (pally is ilvl 184 currently) do those enmity issues subside with the eso weapon? (I currently have upgraded law)

2. What kind of dps do you guys pull in dungeons? I know that war and drk are more focused on dps just due to how theyre built, but i feel like my paladins shouldnt be 500 in dungeons.

3. For the long time pallys: What are some not so well known pally tricks or rotations?

I would really like to gear up pally next, just want to get some advice/knowledge before i blow 3 months of esos on another class. I know that the diadem offers far superior gear to esos on some drops, but I have not had very much luck there while gearing and will not depend on it for gearing up my tank classes. Thanks in advance!

[Jpec07]

Hi there! Glad that you're enjoying the game, and the Paladin job!

1. I speak from experience when I say that yes, the Esoteric weapon will help you hold hate better. Your weapon damage is your primary DPS stat, and your DPS contributes directly to your ability to generate enmity and hold hate. Any enmity problems I had (against i200+ SMN or BLM, in particular) all but went away with an Esoteric weapon. You'll still want to save Fight or Flight for Circle of Scorn whenever you can (because if you do it in quick succession, you can get two circles off before FoF ends), and some fights may have a mob or two get away, but that sword will really help.

2. You are a tank. Do not worry about DPS. Parsers and the discussion thereof are technically against Terms of Service, so be careful when talking about that here. But you've just struck on the heart of why a lot of people are disgruntled with PLD right now. If I remember my numbers right, in full Eso gear, with full slaying accessories, a PLD will only generally pull 600-700 DPS as MT. That number goes up if you can spend some time in Sword Oath, but it's almost not worth it in dungeons.

3. Diadem gear has a slight chance at being better than Esoteric, but it is by no means a reliable source of gear (unless you are very undergeared). As to tips and tricks, Paladin is literally the most straightforward job in the game. There is basically no complexity to it that is not done better or more engagingly on other jobs. That said, flash spam is kind of essential in any group with halfway decent AoE, and I've found that maintaining Stoneskin on myself helps out a lot against most bosses. Also, for more DPS, the general consensus right now is that much more HP than ~16k isn't worth it, so if you want to put out more damage (and generate more enmity), you can equip slaying gear in your accessory slots. Consult with your healer, though, as actual mileage may vary. You should also put a macro with Divine Veil to let the healers know to activate it (since Cure and Clemency can't touch it).

[SakuraHadoken]

Jpec07 pretty much answered your other questions but about PLD dps and rotations. Basically you would want to keep Goring Blade up as much as possible and use Fight or Flight, Shield Swipe, Circle Scorn, and Spirits Within right away at the beginning of a fight. And of course when you are comfortable use Sword Oath when you are comfortable with it, to push out more damage.

Make sure you abuse Sheltron so you can shield swipe off cd too to get the most out of it, and of course Bulwark too but the cd is so long its better off as a defensive skill or, if Sheltron is on cd then its completely fine to resort to that.

Other than using those skills off cd and keeping fight or flight up, you would want to establish good agro with with Rage of Halone and then use Royal Authority as much as possible.

[Ashkendor]

1. Paladin generates less hate than our other tank brethren, but your Eso weapon will definitely alleviate a lot of that.

2. The best I've done in a dungeon is 850-ish on the Curator; I did my initial pull in Shield Oath to establish hate (one of the DPS was a friend and I know he can actually peel hate off me) then swapped to Sword Oath for the remainder of the fight. PLD AoE DPS is very low so there's no point in making your life harder by pulling in Sword Oath for extra damage - I stick to Shield Oath for that. My best so far in endgame is 757 in A2S (I need to spend time in Sword Oath in A1S sometime and see what kind of numbers I can push there).

3. Paladin is really very straightforward. My advice would be to make sure that Rampart is your go-to cooldown. It's a solid 20% reduction on a nice short (90s) timer, so you can really stretch out your cooldown rotation if you use it first and use it often. Also, don't forget that Sword Oath + Rampart is the same reduction as being in Shield Oath but without that nasty damage penalty!

As for the Diadem gear, I've seen a couple of decent pieces but nothing spectacular as of yet. Honestly, you could always grab some stuff from Alexander Normal to tide you over until you can get Void Ark gear if you aren't interested in spending Esoterics.

[Aurius]

Thank you for the responses! I'll be able to get my eso weapon next week so I'll start there. The support dynamic of paladin is just amazing. I love that I can cover a low hp teammate, pop a cd, and protect them or clemency them. There's just so much utility that sometimes it's hard to decide HOW to help and its so much fun! Thanks again guys/gals!

[Freyyy]

Don't use FoF before your Shield Lob. It's the most frequent error I see most PLD doing. Shield Lob is your lowest potency move (lower than Fast Blade), it's absolutely not worth FoFing. With Eso weapon, you should most of the time be able to open with a Goring Blade combo right away, use FoF only after the Riot Blade, right before Goring Blade, and use your CoS right after this Goring Blade. This way you can fit 2 Goring Blade, 2 CoS, and 3 RA/RoH (depending on threat needed to hold aggro) during your FoF window. If you time it well, your FoF will end right after counting the damage of your very last RA. Abuse Sheltron in order to get as much Shield Swipes as you can. If you feel short on aggro in the opener, you can start with a RoH combo (and same here, only FoF right before RoH), and use Goring Blade as your 2nd combo. You'll still fit 2 Goring Blades in your FoF window, you'll just lose a little bit of overall DPS because you start applying it 3 GCDs later.

[Immut]

The biggest advice i can give to an aspiring paladin is USE HALLOWED GROUND. It's not a precious gem to be kept for a special occasion, it's something to be used early and often. You get 2-3 of them in your average dungeon, use them on big pulls so the healer can AOE shit down for you. Use it the very INSTANT you get a spear card thrown at you, which is probably going to be never. Use it at full health. Shit ain't like Holmgang. It isn't something to keep you from dying, it's something to give the healers 10 seconds where they can just ignore you. If you see the party just got fucked up by something and the healers seem distracted, use HG. If a healer dies, use HG. Hell use clemency too. They aren't taking you for your mad dps.

[Ralvenom]

Do NOT fear using your CDs. Use them early and often.

[Malicewolf]

fudge, i accidentally re-copied over my deleted message... instead of pasting when trying to edit post.

well, long story short, be careful with that hallowed ground advice. In dungeons, yes, you'll be able to use a few times. Use it on bigger mob pulls. Just be sure to save one for the last boss (unless you know he's a joke and won't be needing it). But in trials and such, timing is everything. Blowing a HG on something not needed and then needing it later is heart breaking. I often wait for 1 healer to fall (if there's no SMN) so the healer can focus first on getting their co-healer up. 10 seconds is plenty of time for that.

[Marxam]

1. I feel like I really have to try to hold hate from an equally or slightly higher geared team (pally is ilvl 184 currently) do those enmity issues subside with the eso weapon? (I currently have upgraded law)

2. What kind of dps do you guys pull in dungeons? I know that war and drk are more focused on dps just due to how theyre built, but i feel like my paladins shouldnt be 500 in dungeons.

3. For the long time pallys: What are some not so well known pally tricks or rotations?

1. This is a fact of life as PLD naturally have weaker enmity (especially for aoe). Best you can do is Flash with FoF at the start of pulls. Until SE decides to give PLD an enmity buff it going to be a struggle but that will only make you a more competent tank.

2. As a WAR main myself its nice to see large mobs melting before your eyes but its not what tanking is about. As long as A) enemies aren't attacking the party/healer and B) your hp isn't dropping fast you can pull as much as you and your party can handle.

3. Combo splitting is a good skill to have for any tank but more so for PLD. Also really understand the range of your Flash as in some cases it may be better to Flash an enemy who is within range than to spend 120 tp for Shield Lob.

Nope nope nope. FoF doesn't increase Flash's enmity. FoF increases physical damage. Flash's potency is treated as magical.

This right here is why Flash sucks compared to Overpower and Unleash.