Are gladiators useless now?

[Nyls]

They should be fixing skills for all the classes in 1.20 so all classes should be set from there. I hope.

[syntaxlies]

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.

actually mages got he most sp if they knew what they were doing. remember when they made that official letter asking mages to report their sp abuse and that theri sp was gonna be rolled back. lol, what a joke.

I didnt do it cause i just recently lvled mage, but i believe the trick was to keep casting debuffs on the mobs fore huge sp gains.

[Darkrose]

Yes they are useless, more like they been nerf. I read all of this and the only positive thing I heard from people respond is that "They have more HP then all the class" Really? The different is actually not that much, they have like 400 ore more HP then Marauder. Marauder + Gladiator skill combine = Better tank. Gladiator got nerf with damage, their DPS is now even more laughable. Their skill hit for 120 - 200 while Marauder Skill go off for 450 - 680 and it AOE hit everything. But Gladiator have shield!! But Shield have been nerf too. Auto block don't go off that often, but when it finally does the damage reduce is very little to be worth it. Gladiator depend on shield skill to make them better tank then any other class, but with the shield nerf too most of their skill is useless. Not only that their provoke is broken. Cure will generate more Enmity then it, and other DPS class you will continue to loose Enimity.

I just hope Paladin is better because right now Gladiator is a big insult of a class right now.

[PSxpert2011]

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.

I'm currently at 31 Pug and enjoy my class. My Gla is at 19 with meh gear. Further down the line and higher in levels, what's it like with selections of gear and abilities?

Will you predict pug counter attacking and gla taking dmg more to improve as tanks ?

[PSxpert2011]

GLA fix is simple, Make parry work with shield (dunno if it was intentional but it seems like it was a mistake) up block rate signifigantly. However GLA is fundamentally flawed in the class system itself the same way CON is. It is my understanding that classes have defined roles but are supposed to be able to be flexible in way that allows them to bend the rules. I've seen some talk about GLA dual wielding and two handing weapons but putting that aside thier main role is to be the toughest SoB in the group. Holding hate isn't the problem with them it's dmg output vs damage mitigation and recently they lost alot of both. So here's to hoping 1.20 brings a fix to the parry and block rate issues and we see GLA's taking the frontline for thier dmg mitigation skills since MRD will always be desired for it's dmg output in situations where it's more effective.

Before the BETA had ended, they've mentioned that Gladiator was capable to going down multiple paths including that of a tank. The other is obvious: a Damage Dealer.

As gladiator has the potential of sword and shield, do you think it'll have the potential of Katana or do you think that'll be an entire other class?

Beastmaster! It's like a warrior/ summoner hence a pet class. I'm sure it'll take the path of a support job one day.

[Ethir]

Here is some problem. People often use rampage of Gladiator as buff to help other class and it's quite easy to get; you just need to be level 4 gla; So it seem that MRD could tank all the the others the same as GLA since they have rampage + defender or at least with rampage they have higher def and dont have to worry about losing atk power; however if you put defender from MRD to GLA; and including rampage + obsess ; no class can over tank GLA, and please dont tell me that you guys use obsess in a group ?

I dont understand much about block rate; but i believe that i often get 4-5 block during 30 sec.

Beside that if you use Luminous Spire i believe that you can survive event if 1 vs 5 same level

[Halvaard_Vidan]

Gladiator's biggest problem right now is they cannot block Ifrit's attacks at all from what I hear.
And while equipped with a shield, they do not parry or evade (or it is greatly reduced.)

[LunaTimaeus]

Attacks they can block, skills they cant, might as well take off the shield at around 70% of ifrit's health. Gla does evade, about as much as a brick wall is expected to, but it cannot parry >.>

[Alerith]

Eh, in the end, they are both made for different tanking purposes.

Gladiators excel at tanking a single, heavy hitting target. Paladin will expand on this even more.
Marauders excel at tanking groups of less damaging enemies. Warrior will expand on this even more.

I think Gladiator is more efficient at reducing damage and keeping the focus of a single mob. On the flip side, I think Marauder's AoE damage is better suited to keeping groups of enemies on them.

When it comes to Ifrit, I would prefer a Gladiator. For an EXP party, a Marauder would probably be better.

Apples and Oranges.

[Tman]

I think Gladiator is more efficient at reducing damage and keeping the focus of a single mob.

The shield, believe it or not, makes gladiator superior to marauder defensively. its an extra materia slot if nothing else, slap on a defense materia and try for a specific veil and you'll boost your stats beyond what a marauder can with full affinity to defender. However with patch around the corner things may change, once jobs hit things will definitely change.