Pld cool downs and rotation

[Kiraoswald]

Hi there! I have been playing pld for a while and wax just wondering what order you pop your cooldowns. I know everyone is different so tell me how you do yours and your ot rotation.

[ChameleonMS]

Tank busters get Sheltron (30s means it is always available for the next one).
Convalescence if my life goes below 1/3.

All others are just rotated for bigger hits/cleaves when in SwO stance. Usually Rampart > Sentinel > Awareness > Bulwark
Divine Veil is used when Raid AoE damage is going to be incoming. Yes, most of the time Healers just Succor/Medica/Helios their merry way through it but once in a while a healer reads my Macro and puts a big heal on me directly.
Hallowed Ground - you know when, hp below 10%, sometimes it activates too late.
The other situation is when I am OT, there is tank buster or raid AoE coming and the MT or Healer just is not ready. At that point it is Cover + HG.

[Anubis_Nephthys]

Literally every fight is different

[Kiraoswald]

Do you activate Sentinel Awareness Bulwark at the same time or individually

[Februs]

That really depends on the circumstances.

For Mobs, the order of my CD's varies depending on the size of the pull. I usually run with a pocket healer, so big pulls are the name of the game. In the case of MASSIVE pulls, I typically want to start with my strongest CD's first, cycling down to your weaker ones as the mob starts to thin out. The concept is to have my highest defense for when the enemy is at their strongest, and my weakest defense for when they are at their weakest. For the first section of Gubal Ex, for example, I pull straight to the first locked door. My CD rotations starts off with Hallowed Ground > Sentinel > Rampart > etc depending on how fast or slow the dps are. 4 mobs or less is usually where I stop using CD's entirely (unless the healer is struggling for some reason), so that I can start resetting them.

A lot of people argue against using Hallowed Ground for stuff like this and prefer to save it as an "oh shit" button, but that's just a waste in my opinion. Even with its ridiculous CD timer, you can typically use it two to three times a dungeon, depending on the speed of the dps. That means you can plan ahead for two or three HUGE pulls in which you'll have ~10s of invulnerability followed by another ~10s of 40% reduction. Even the crappiest of healers can work with that kind of mitigation.

For PUG groups with smaller pulls, I just rotate CD's as needed, coupling them according to CD timer. [Rampart + Fight or Flight + Bloodbath] is the first combo pack. [Foresight + Convalescence] is the second. [Awareness + Bulwark] is the third. Sentinel and Hallowed Ground are on their own, though you'll rarely need them. Working the above combos in the order I've listed them ensures that you'll get through a second set of [Rampart + FoF + Bloodbath] before you run out of CD's. IF the mobs aren't dead by then, then the problem is with the dps.

As for Trials/Raids, my CD's are typically saved for big Tank Buster's. It varies for every fight, but in most cases it ends up being Shelltron + 1. Which CD ends up being that +1 depends on the fight and the timing of phases (for cooldown management), as well as the circumstances of the party. If the healer is too busy baby sitting the dps, then I might choose a stronger CD than is required, just to ease the load. Rampart and Sentinel are usually strong enough to stand on their own with Shelltron as a secondary. Foresight and Bulwark are weaker and one is RNG based, so they usually get slotted together and will occasionally require a secondary buff (such as convalescence) to ease the load on the healers if they're struggling. The only exception is if the TB is magical, in which case Bulwark/Shelltron and Foresight become useless.

Hallowed Ground, again, gets special note. Most people will opt for using it as a "oh shit" button. That's fine while you're still learning a fight; however, it's better used for planned mechanics. HG really shines for skipping specific mechs, such as Tank swaps, insta-kills, or even certain status effects. So it's much better to use it for a planned moment rather than an emergency measure. Cover and Tempered Will also fall into that boat, but they're uses are far more niche and are not seen in every fight.

[Ultimatecalibur]

Tankbuster timing, damage type and number of hits is rather important for determining cooldown rotations.

If a blockable single hit Tankbuster is coming every 30s or more then Sheltron will be up for each tank buster. You may not need to use any other cooldowns, but doing so is often helpful for the healers.

If an unblockable Tankbuster is coming roughly every 45s and there is no need for a tank swap a Sentinel -> Rampart -> Hallowed Ground -> Rampart -> Sentinel will cover the first 5 tankbusters.

If you have a skilled and well geared Scholar or Noct Astro, Convalescence can become another effective mitigation cooldown rather than just a heal booster. This makes a Sentinel -> Rampart -> Convalescence -> Hallowed Ground -> Rampart -> Sentinel -> Convalescence -> Rampart rotation for 8 30s tankbusters viable.

[Claire_Pendragon]

As mentioned, it depends on the situation.
But for basic trash mobs in a leveling dungeon, where you're not making large pulls/overgeared, I usually do some of the following;

Combine weaker CDs together or use 1 strong CD at the start of a fight, unless I'm PLD, then I might wait a few seconds for Flash to do most of my mitigation before I throw up CDs.

Once the 1st enemy is dead, you'll have less enemies beating on you, so you wont have to worry about CDs as much then.

Starting with which ever has a shorter CD time, I'll use 1st, so its back up again sooner.

If I'm using Fight or Flight, I try to pop Bloodbath, to make its healing a bit more useful, otherwise I mix it with another weaker CD such as Awareness/Foresight.
Spread your Rage of Halone debuff on mobs for their lowered STR.
And if the mobs only use magical attacks, dont bother with physical buffs like Foresight. Convalescence and Blood Bath are also helpful, as being healed still helps against magic dmg to a degree.

Though, if you're not worried about mitigation (like most tanks) you can just do your DPS combo instead, as you'll still hold hate if you're in shield oath.

[Kitfox]

I typically rotate short cooldowns first for tank busters since it covers the most ground. My priority framework is basically: Rampart > Foresight+Convalescense > Sentinel > Hallowed Ground. Normally there's not quite that many bursters so I often pair Foresight with Rampart to get effectively another Sentinel strength CD. Convalescense and Bulwark I normally use for fluff damage, although Bulwark can be decent for multihit busters. Awareness, unless needed for a specific phase, I use with Bulwark since crits check before blocking. Convalescense can also be used paired with other CDs for bigger shields. Sheltron should obviously be paired with the other CDs for all the physical tank busters.

Typical CD rotations:
If saving HG: Rampart → Foresight+Convalescense → Sentinel → Rampart
Against magic: Rampart → Sentinel → Hallowed Ground → Rampart
Physical: Rampart+Foresight → Sentinel → Hallowed Ground → Rampart
Longest rotation (30+ sec between): Rampart→Foresight+Convalescence→Sentinel→Rampart→Hallowed Ground→Foresight+Convalescence→Rampart

Every fight ends up being slightly different. First map out where you need what amount of mitigation, and then fill in the holes between if the timers allow for it in order to not sit on unused CDs.

[Kiraoswald]

Thus has really been a better response than I thought I was going to get thank you all!

[Sarcatica]

For dungeons pulling, cycling CDs should be easy. Rampart should be used first. Most attacks should be physical so you can afford to cycle weaker CDs specifically to mitigate physical damage for every single pull. You also want to know how long is each dungeon to plan out the most efficient use of Sentinel and Hallowed Ground. You don't just pop 1 Sentinel and 1 Hallowed in a 15mins dungeon. You want to fit as many CDs in that period.

In harder contents, you will realize that PLD only has 3 reliable universal CDs, the rest are more of a situational CDs. Also heavily depends on fights that either has a lot of physical tank busters (PLD shines the most) or magical tank busters (PLD is decent but DRK shines much better).

There is no such thing as "universally correct use of CDs". You want to always tune your CD usage for the best output ratio. This is the dynamic part since you don't always end fights on the same time. Some groups will do 20mins, some groups can do 11mins run. That's on you to adjust.

Most of the times you want to start with using Rampart first. This is predominantly because it has the least CD for a strong effect. This is by far your bread and butter. The rest of the CDs will depends heavily on the duration of fights. The concept of this is mainly due to the long CDs Sentinel and Hallowed Ground have. In fights that last less than 3mins, you only have 2 Ramparts, 1 Sentinel and 1 Hallowed Ground. 10mins fight will have 4-6 Ramparts, 2-4 Sentinels and 2 Hallowed Ground.

Once you get the hang of it, your memory muscle kicks in and you don't have to think too much anymore unless if you raid on a more serious level.