Paladin is the new hotness!?

[JackFross]

So yesterday I was messing around in A5N (Fist of the Son) on Paladin because I got pretty bored of it and had another Paladin who wanted to main tank the boss. I'm used to MT, so I was like huh, I wonder if...

So I tried it.

Tank got Headache, boss rears back a fist, I popped Cover. Not only do I then take the damage I would have taken had I provoked, I ALSO got knocked back according to the direction the boss was facing.

Further, you can Cover + Sheltron and get a free Shield Swipe proc every time. The best part? Each tank buster is ~2 minutes after the previous one, meaning you can do this for every one of them, without ever having to use Provoke.


I would love to test this out in Savage and see if you can just Cover the MT to eat the damage (and obviously have the party stack on the MT if it's a stackbuster) without having to deal with Provokes.


This couples very well with A7N (Arm of the Son) where you can simply Cover the MT for Uplander Doom to eat the stacks (since the stacks don't apply to the tank if the tank takes 0 damage) and then it'll fall off and let the MT resume tanking without any janky swaps mid-cat nonsense.

I was the main tank in this (Tsukige Malqir) and he covered me for all of those except the one at ~6 minutes, where he provoked for the stacks and then let me take it back, since Cover wasn't back yet.


tfw Cover is finally useful for something other than saving a Warrior's ass after Akh Morn. ;-; Yay, Paladin!

[Ragology]

PLD are quick to volunteer for main tank position and so they don't often get to use cover this way.

From reading forums, I think peoples main issue with cover are:

1) short range
2) not working for magic damage
3) cooldown a bit longer than people would like

I haven't experience much of the raiding content yet I've seen off tank PLD use cover in titan EX. Good to know it has other opportunities.

[Astrelle_hyperion]

I'm trying to remember, but I think cover at theee stacks is even cooler. You get one, no one gets knocked out, more dps uptime. Keeps provoke available for emergencies. Can be tricky to time the second set with the snake adds. ( with a co PLD MT, hallowed that one is complete cheese.

[Kabooa]

"Cover is useless because everything is magic damage."

"Cover is overpowered because it bypasses a boss mechanic."

The 24 hour patch cycle is a cruel mistress indeed.

[Malicewolf]

i will say, be careful to think things through fully with cover though... for that exact reason! On Sephirot NM, I covered our healer who didn't do the jump mechanic to avoid the auto kill, didn't think things through fully though... i got killed, she lived... didn't think about popping my HG. It can be an amazing feature, it can also cause a big "whoops!" moment.

[Canadane]

Back in 2.x people would do Titan Ex without tank swaps because Cover would just eat the stack instead. It was fun times.

[Dante_V]

It not even worth swapping on nm. The MT can blow a cool down before the stun and mitigate the attack regularly having it healed thru on the backside.

[JackFross]

PLD are quick to volunteer for main tank position and so they don't often get to use cover this way.

This is mostly the reason I made this thread. Cover is really useful if used properly. Fewer swaps means fewer times you need to swap stances which means overall higher dps (at least for the OT PLD).

And those three issues are pretty major. I still kinda wish it was a gap closer that brought you to the target and then had you in the shorter radius to keep the cover going, but meh. It also makes sense to not work for magic damage, though I won't say I don't wish it did. And I think - with the way it works - the cooldown is already nice. If it was much shorter, it'd be pretty OP.

I'm trying to remember, but I think cover at theee stacks is even cooler. You get one, no one gets knocked out, more dps uptime. Keeps provoke available for emergencies. Can be tricky to time the second set with the snake adds. ( with a co PLD MT, hallowed that one is complete cheese.

The stacks last 3 minutes - the punches happen every 2.

If you provoke in this way, the stacks won't wear off before he starts again, which will result in the main tank taking 1 -> concussion -> 3 more stacks while concussed. It's a LOT more incoming damage on the tank. If you cover after the concussion, you'd just end up getting concussed, too, which works fine, since the MT's will wear off before he gets punched, but Cover might not, and you won't be able to move to break the line.

It's a lot safer to just cover the punch. I like it since it means less stance-dancing as the OT - I never turn Shield Oath on, since I get to provoke > RoH every add I need to grab and never have hate issues even without turning ShO on.

It not even worth swapping on nm. The MT can blow a cool down before the stun and mitigate the attack regularly having it healed thru on the backside.

Less damage taken from the tank buster = fewer heals used up by the healers = more overall dps from the group = faster kill all the way through.
This was intended to be a discussion of optimal strategies, not sub-optimal ones.

[Galgarion]

A tank swap's not even needed for A5 imo. Whenever I offtank it, I just let the MT eat the hit without taunting. However much the crunch is, the healers always have him topped off again in like two seconds.

This was intended to be a discussion of optimal strategies, not sub-optimal ones.

The healers don't care who takes the hit. You're talking about shaving seconds off of a loot pinata match that most of us are going to pug. That sort of optimization for a duty finder group is comical.

[The_NPC]

Just fought all of Midas Normal as OT PLD & cover was fun (even saved a wipe in A8 with Clemin's when both healers died, till SMN raised 1) all this with SOLO-QURRY Duty Finder (doesn't mean some of my teams weren't a group thou) I mean we can't expect the skill bar to raise higher if we don't start showing it ourself right? (not saying I'm uber Savage raid skilled, cause I'm not haven't done 1 savage ever... haven't even beat all EX primals or T9 of Coil for that matter -_-!)