Are gladiators useless now?

[Lebannen]

I am a rank 47 gladiator, and I have heard that with the many tweaks and changes done in 1,19 has made gladiator the lesser class compared to marauder and pugilist. Is this true?

[kro]

It's not useless. It makes an excellent sub for your 50 MRD.

Joking aside, GLA is more than capable of tanking single target NMs such as Ifrit - with it's main advantage being slightly higher base HP than the rest. If you got to 47 already, you might as well finish it.

However, GLA cannot compete with MRD in AoE tanking - which is the norm in exp/spiritbond parties nowadays. Storm's Path is probably the best WS in the game now. Against bosses, MRD deals significantly more damage and generates more enmity than GLA. MRD survivability isn't really compromised either since parries seem more effective than blocking to reduce damage and they have access to the same armor.

PUG is an exceptional single-target tank if fighting something you can evade. However, it's lack of a spammable high TP WS, lack of AoE WS, low base HP, and poor selection of armor keep it from being as useful as MRD for tanking or LNC for damage dealing.

1.18 was the era of the ARC. 1.19 is the era of MRD and LNC. Maybe 1.20 will be the era of GLA and PUG.

[Aratharn]

I've put mine on the shelf for the time being. The nerf to shield blocking makes skills like Aegis Boon/Deflection almost worthless as you're lucky to get more than 1 proc off in the 30 seconds they are up.

GLA can still work just fine, however. Not only do they now have the most HP (MRD had ~270 more pre 1.19) they also have a much larger MP pool over MRD.

[Xatsh]

Glad is still viable on 1 vs 1 mobs they, if you give them time to get hate, are still the best tanks. Highest dmg mitigation and hp.

On multiple mobs/fast killing mobs MRD just slaughters Glad in tanking due to massive quick hate gain that glad lacks, and the ability to deal large amounts of dmg to all mobs in Aoe radius.

Atm honestly Glad needs a buff, because glad is now a limited job. Everything glad can tank so can mrd, and mrd can also tank the things glad can't and be a respectable dmg dealer at the same time.

[Physic]

I am a rank 47 gladiator, and I have heard that with the many tweaks and changes done in 1,19 has made gladiator the lesser class compared to marauder and pugilist. Is this true?

glad probably needs a rebalance, the auto block thing basically made them a lot weaker, and their dmg potential is extremely low, they probably have slightly better dmg absorbing ability, but their enimity isnt that great especially compared to the loss of DD of mrd.

Pugilist isnt really a tank any more, they took away its acess to high defense armor, it almost always has to use the all jobs/disciples of war/10 job average gear. Its hp is also now the same as lancers. I think in most situtions lnc is just as survivable if not more so. Single target dmg wise, i hear its about even with lnc, but ehhh being even with lnc on single target, and inferior on multiple targets, basically equals not as good DD.

[Taaliph]

Yup, useless.

Any more, what little HP advantage they have over a MRD, MRD more thank makes up for it in the dps/aoe enmity generation department, as well as access to more useful class specific skills. Riot Blade was useful still up til 1.19a when paired with Contagion, capable of leaving an enemy pacified for 15+ seconds, but now any enemy where such a tactic would be useful is almost guaranteed to resist it. What that leaves gladiator as is a sub par single target tank with non-existent damage output, comparable damage mitigation to a MRD, and a longing for the days when that hunk of metal on your left arm actually served a purpose.

[Molly_Millions]

1.18 was the era of the ARC. 1.19 is the era of MRD and LNC. Maybe 1.20 will be the era of GLA and PUG.

PUG was 1.0, remember when you would have a random chance of SP per contact with the mob? CON and THM getting no SP regularly, etc. PUGs ranked faster than any other class at launch.

[Viridiana]

glad probably needs a rebalance, the auto block thing basically made them a lot weaker, and their dmg potential is extremely low, they probably have slightly better dmg absorbing ability, but their enimity isnt that great especially compared to the loss of DD of mrd.

Pugilist isnt really a tank any more, they took away its acess to high defense armor, it almost always has to use the all jobs/disciples of war/10 job average gear. Its hp is also now the same as lancers. I think in most situtions lnc is just as survivable if not more so. Single target dmg wise, i hear its about even with lnc, but ehhh being even with lnc on single target, and inferior on multiple targets, basically equals not as good DD.

True. Biggest indicator of this: +Enmity materia goes on GLA and MRD weapons only. . .

[Raikki]

I am a rank 47 gladiator, and I have heard that with the many tweaks and changes done in 1,19 has made gladiator the lesser class compared to marauder and pugilist. Is this true?

GLA is in a pretty bad place. The good news is that you can tank effectively on it and you have a massive HP pool. The bad news is, MRD tanks just as well if not better and does way more damage, so there's no point in using a GLA over a MRD. They have yet to get shield right since launch, so don't hold your breath for a fix until 1.21 at the earliest when we get PLD.

[Radiator]

Yeah I sure hope Paladin rocks, because Gladiator does kinda suck unless you can get good hate at the start on a single mob. Based on the emnity calculations, other jobs just blow by you too fast in the damage category (especially with materia gear).

Example- in Ixali camp party, I'm not using emnity gear because spiritbonding, but am using every other emnity action I have. I loose hate in about 2 secs to lancers and marauders (even PUG). If I use taunt II ,it goes back to yellow. If I use Taunt II AND Provoke II it goes back to flashing read and lasts about 2-3 secs before losing it again. When the other jobs are doing 1K+ weaponskills so its a bit hard to keep up with that.

There are ways to keep hate (hate materia yes theres accomplice and cover etc) but overall I think that Provoke and Taunt just need to be adjusted to give a higher emnity number.