[Opener/Tips/Advices] How to play PLD

[Februs]

Highest Damage: Shield Lob(Spirits Within*) -> Fast Blade -> Riot Blade(Fight or Flight) -> Goring Blade(Circle of Scorn) -> Royal Authority Combo -> Royal Authority Combo -> Goring Blade Combo -> FoF ends.

It should be emphasized that this opener (while fantastic for Pld dmg) is more of an OT opener. It can be used while MT, but I don't recommend it until you are over-geared for the content and only if your Dps are lacking.Pld has the lowest enmity gen of all three tanks, so even though Goring Blade and Royal Authority have wonderful potency, it is possible for the high burst dmg from Dps or War's to steal enmity from you if you skip Rage of Halone. So take Donjo's advice to heart about establishing enmity before prioritizing dmg.

More food for thought is the type of fight you are going into and how much dmg you expect to mitigate (especially physical). A standard MT opener for Dmg mitigation/threat management (rather than Dps output) would be:

Shield lob > (FoF - Bloodbath + CoS) Fast Blade > (Spirits Within) Savage Blade > (Shelltron and use Shield Swipe as it becomes available, if it hasn't already) RoH (apply strength down debuff)

Depending on your enmity, gear level, and the skill level of the OT/Dps team, you may need to apply the RoH combo a second time. However, I find that once is usually enough to secure hate unless there are some extenuating circumstances. That Shield Swipe is essential though. Make sure to use it. After your initial pull you can rotate to:

Fast Blade > Riot Blade > Goring Blade (applies DoT) > Fast Blade > Savage Blade > RoH (Re-apply str down debuff) > Fast Blade > Savage Blade > Royal Authority.

This might seem excessive, but again, this is an opener designed for prioritizing hate and Dmg mitigation, NOT DPS. The way this rotation works (Basically RoH > GB > RoH > RA > GB > RoH > RA etc) is to ensure that the Str down debuff never falls off. The timer for the str down debuff does not survive 3 complete combos. So it is necessary to apply it again before using RA. After the initial pull, you'll notice that your rotation falls into a rhythm (RA > GB > RoH > repeat), during which both your DoT and RoH debuff never expire (unless boss fight mechanics force an interruption of some kind).

You'll find a rotation like this comes in handy for fights that require high physical dmg mitigation (Ie: Thordan Extreme). You'll be suffering a Dps drop, but, in all seriousness, if your Dps team can't meet the Dps checks then you have a bigger problem than your tanking on your hands.

I should also note that this rotation grants additional enmity over a more aggressive GB > RA rotation, which frees you up on hate generation earlier in the fight. Meaning that when Fight or Flight becomes available again on CD, you can drop Shield Oath and swap to Sword Oath to take greater advantage of the Dps increase without fearing any loss in hate.

I'd mention the occasions in which RoH is not necessary or the str down debuff is not useful, but I think Donjo's original post has that covered pretty well. Use your judgment. As you gain more experience as a Pld in the different boss fights you'll know when and where to take advantage of the different rotations.