Newbie wants to be a better tank

[bounddreamer]

To get your paladin job crystal, go to Old Gridania to the conjurer guild and become a conjurer. You have to level that job to 15, which can be done easily in a few hours with the hunting log, FATEs, and guildhests. Although you must take it to at least 15, it's recommended you take it to 34 because stoneskin will be very useful to you later in higher level content.

You'll also want to pick up Marauder and level it at least to get foresight and bloodbath to cross class those skills. Though you may want to get it to 26 for Mercy Stroke at some point (don't need to do it right away).

After you get conjurer to 15 go back to the gladiators guild and talk to the receptionist, who will give you the quest to become a paladin.

[Astrelle_hyperion]

Some of the other things to keep in mind that I didn't see listed above -- especially important for GLA pre 30 and PLD pre-40:

1) Make sure your weapon is alwasy the best you can have -- HQ level appropriate or a pink/green within 2 levels of yours. The weapon damage stat is critical for keeping hate. (The MSQ is often giving you NQ versions of the weapon, and you've normally out leveled it anyways. Buy, craft, have higher level friends craft, whatever it takes. Your weapon is critical)

2) Your typical opener in this level is shield lob, flash x N (where n is the number of mobs, maybe plus/minus 1 depending on your gear and the parties), then start your enmity rotation. Fast Blade, Savage Blade [tab], Rage of Halone, [tab], repeat. Both Savage and RoH have large hate multipliers. This should keep up with a strong BLM (or other AoE) class.

3) Don't use Provoke for a ranged pull, use it to get a mob back if you lose it. All it does is put you to top of the hate list + 1. Ideally follow it up with either shield lob, or have your hate combo pre-prepped (ie fast blade, voke, savage (or fast blase, savage, voke, Rage). Rage gives you a bigger lead, but has a longer animation lock before the hate is actually tacked on.


The hardest thing in this level range is when you have both a strong target DPS (MNK, NIN, DRG) and a strong AoE (BLM, SMN, BRD, MCH). This will test your skills. Instead of the tab targeting around your hate combo, you might need to flash, hate combo on primary target, flash, hate combo on primary target, flash x2, etc. Watch the hate bars closely and learn how much lead you need. How fast the DPS are gaining. (Even if you aren't spreading the hate combo around, get use to tabbing between the mobs to check hate status)

Please let me know if you have more questions -- trying to provide the reasons for different things rather than just flat out advice as that's what helped me learn when I was in your shoes a couple of years ago.

[Ebonwings]

Well most of the key points have been mentioned anyway. Welcome to the path of the Paladin we PLD play tanking role on hard mode consider our shield oath is at Lv 40. Being a tank is not forgiving when it comes to gearing, since we tanks need to keep our gear up to date with the dungeons and contents. If we are doing our best and still lose aggro, that means we are outgeared by DPS. And for us PLD things get easier once we get Circle of Scorn, we use less Flashes, and clip DoTs to mobs around us, furthermore it is an ogcd so we can use it without worry of losing gcd combo.

[MahoSenshi]

Not quite... Paladins do not get Shield Oath until level 40. Many are the complaints about Paladins having trouble holding aggro until then.

I've checked OP's Lodestone before posting. Level 40 gladiator.

[OMega_ARcane]

If its a big mob I usually start with shield lob and follow up with like 3-4 flashes to get hate really up and then start the normal combo going from one enemy to another. I also just typically use the <1> marker and that works out fine, when we burn that <1> down I reapply it to the next target. Also, a little trick for when you are having trouble keeping hate is spamming "I think it's savage blade?" one of your attacks gives you more hate. Although spamming this takes away from the normal combo and other actions so I only use this if I have a really hard time keeping up with really good DPS..or if a healer is over healing...either way its my job to keep the hate and take those hits so gotta do what you gotta do

[Rongway]

If its a big mob I usually start with shield lob and follow up with like 3-4 flashes to get hate really up and then start the normal combo going from one enemy to another. I also just typically use the <1> marker and that works out fine, when we burn that <1> down I reapply it to the next target. Also, a little trick for when you are having trouble keeping hate is spamming "I think it's savage blade?" one of your attacks gives you more hate. Although spamming this takes away from the normal combo and other actions so I only use this if I have a really hard time keeping up with really good DPS..or if a healer is over healing...either way its my job to keep the hate and take those hits so gotta do what you gotta do

The fundamental problem with marking mobs is that you are effectively instructing everyone to focus their hate generation on a single target, but you yourself cannot do that. Because you have to keep things off the healer, you must necessarily generate hate on everything. This leads to a situation where if everyone does attack your #1 target (which they should absolutely not do unless specific mechanics call for it), their hate generation will be focused while yours is still spread out, giving others an opening to steal a mob from you. If you're flashing and your DDs are AoEing and spreading DoTs, there is no mathematical possibility of them outhating you. You open up the possibility when you unnecessarily call their focus to one mob.

If people are peeling mobs off you, the answer is absolutely not to mark targets. Flash more, don't worry about your own personal damage output, and restore MP with Riot Blade as necessary.


The advice for spamming uncomboed Savage Blade is very bad, and here's the math. Savage Blade uncomboed is 100 potency with a 3.5x enmity multiplier. This is only 350 enmity per GCD.

Flash generates 600 enmity per target per GCD.
Fast Blade (150 x 1.0) → Savage Blade (200 x 3.5) is 850 enmity, or 425 enmity per GCD.
Fast Blade (150 x 1.0) → Savage Blade (200 x 3.5) → Rage of Halone (260 x 5.0) is 2150 enmity, or 716 enmity per GCD.

For reference, uncomboed Rage of Halone is (100 x 5.0) = 500 enmity.

[Dreggit]

This is a lot of good information. One of the problems I had at the start of the game was how slow it was to unlock stuff as it was tied to quests and I didn't understand the difference between story quest/side quest/side quest+ that unlock stuff. I know the difference now but it was a sludge fest at the start. It's more enjoyable now though. The other thing too was that at times I felt like I was taking in too much information to retain everything that was being delivered through the game text.

So today my primary goal should be unlocking the paladin class and then go from there. I'mean thinking I'd do some mob grinding to get used to the paladin job before doing some dungeon runs with it.

There have been times were I've told the party. " Hey. I'm new, I don't know everything to do in this dungeon so if there's something Important to know let me know ahead of time please." And when I mess up I'm scolded harshly for it. At those times I just kind of am at a loss as to what to say.

[AmeliaVerves]

So today my primary goal should be unlocking the paladin class and then go from there. I'mean thinking I'd do some mob grinding to get used to the paladin job before doing some dungeon runs with it.

This is a good thing to start with. Just grab your Paladin crystal and you can move on with the story much easier, ever since you will get sword oath which will increase your damage output. ^^ Very handy!
But! I don't think you need to practice your Paladin, it is just the same as your gladiator, just read the explanation of your skills and then try to use them in the dungeons (needs practice, but thats what leveling dungeons are for).

[Only1zbro]

Get PLD, mark mobs, open with lob to flash, flash once or twice more after a full halone rotation so that heals / smn don't steal from you. If DPS steal from you out of kill order, let them have it. Never let DPS dictate how you run a dungeon, that is between you and the healer. That being said don't let a dbag DPS that is pulling everything because you're new rattle you, for they are dbags.

[Artemiz]

Other people have given you plenty of advice to think about so I don't feel the need to be too specific but I would like to say that in this game the tank progression is not the best, especially PLD. It's harder at low levels than it is in anything up to end game. Once you've got PLD unlocked and you're rocking Shield Oath you will be amazed at the difference. Use flash a few times at the start of the pull then spread the love with your combo and for the most part you will be good. The hardest bit is when you get a group that splits (i.e. strong single target and strong AoE at the same time) but with your PLD tool set and a little practice it's very managable unless you're undergeared which I wouldn't recommend for any tank.


The hardest thing to do with tank jobs in this game is dealing with the occasional prat, the tank is front and center and as a result gets a little flack from time to time but the pendulum swings both ways, I've lost count of the amount of times I've gotten far more comms than I thought I deserved. Being a role with lots of...... social power though is nice at times and people will notice if you have a good attitude and are accomodating to other players. Try playing the game as other jobs for either cross class skills or a little variety and you'll see what I mean. In fact it's generally a good idea to try out all 3 roles at least because it will help you understand the needs of the party much better and make you a much better tank overall. I was leveling MNK the other day for example and the tank would not stand still and it was driving me insane. Little things like that can make a big difference.