Fine-Tuning PLD rotation - tips?

[Judge_Xero]

Get your DPS players to do the SSS for A10S if they havent already. Tell them to save their cooldowns for the steamroller phase if you need a little extra push.

Echoing this. If your DPS are above i255, instead get them to do the A12S Dummy.

[Mirateski]

Would you be open to experiment?

Always, but I think my healers would spontaneously combust if I tried it, lmao.

I'm now solidly topping 950+ dps in full shield oath, but when I try to switch to sword oath, I keep dying. I'm not 100% sure why? I start out with rampart, then use bulwark after the scrap bomb, use sheltron for every scrapline except fmf (where I use hallowed), then I use foresight for the second add set into sentinel then back into rampart, and basically rotate as they come up. Awareness I pop right at the start, conva I pop as it seems necessary. Sometimes I get crit like five times in a row which just seems silly?

I mentioned this to my group and they told me that clearing was more important than dpsing, which is of course true, but I feel quite stagnant. We're seeing a lot of phases and I want to help as much as I can.

As for telling dps to do anything, they already get a bit annoyed that I keep getting on at the blm about quelling, I can't see asking them to do SSS going down well. I was recruited to the static by someone the original 6 recruited so I'm a step removed from the rest of them, who are all friends, and it seems a bit rude to come in and be all demanding about stuff, haha.

Edit to add: I'm pretty sure we're all above 255. I'd hope so, considering! I'm at 260 bang on, and my MCH is at 255 with only like half the shire set, so...

Second edit: I'm opening with one halone combo to ensure hate from blm and mnk (I lose it otherwise), then go FB > spirits > RB > FoF > goring > CoS > FB > rampart > SB > bloodbath and into the 2xRA, 1xGB rotation, popping offglobals as they come up and keeping an eye on my cooldowns as much as poss. I wanted to try and drop DV on the party for acid rain but I'm not sure if that helps or hinders really. Especially when I swing around to fmf after scrapline they all get nervous, so I've just taken to hanging out over W and stoneskinning myself for shits and giggles.

[hakurou46]

Second edit: I'm opening with one halone combo to ensure hate from blm and mnk (I lose it otherwise), then go FB > spirits > RB > FoF > goring > CoS > FB > rampart > SB > bloodbath and into the 2xRA, 1xGB rotation, popping offglobals as they come up and keeping an eye on my cooldowns as much as poss.

Your opener should be Halone for aggro if you need it, then:
Fast Blade -> FoF -> (CoS, Spirits and Riot Blade in any order) -> Goring Blade -> 2xRA -> Circle of Scorn -> Goring Blade -> FoF ends and you go back to doing your normal rotations. For maximum dps you want to get a Shield Swipe in under this as well, and that gives you a little bit of threat anyway so it's good. I sometimes Sheltron just to get it in my opener rotation.

Moving in to Divine Veil the party during Acid is only worth it if you're offtanking, which since you need to maintain aggro you're obviously not.

[KorenA]

Shield oath is nothing but a weaker inner beast, even without a nin in a group you shouldn't lose aggro to anyone unless you have a monk.

Monk is the only class that cannot decrease enemity, and if your blm doesn't want to spend time getting quelling then he doesn't need to be raiding, point blank period.

Even in a pld/drk situation, most of the dos is going to come from your group, it only means that BOTH tanks can sit in off tank stance without a issue. As a pld you should MT because your combos generate more aggro naturally and the drk does not.

You don't need a nin or slashing to clear this content you just need to work as a group.

[LilLemay]

Shield oath is nothing but a weaker inner beast, even without a nin in a group you shouldn't lose aggro to anyone unless you have a monk.

Monk is the only class that cannot decrease enemity, and if your blm doesn't want to spend time getting quelling then he doesn't need to be raiding, point blank period.

Even in a pld/drk situation, most of the dos is going to come from your group, it only means that BOTH tanks can sit in off tank stance without a issue. As a pld you should MT because your combos generate more aggro naturally and the drk does not.

You don't need a nin or slashing to clear this content you just need to work as a group.

I'm curious as to your thoughts on how ShO is a weaker IB o.o

[Sarcatica]

I'm curious as to your thoughts on how ShO is a weaker IB o.o

If you are looking into the best scenario for tanks, ShO/Grit is a weaker IB indeed, you are losing damage potential from each gcd consumed when switching stance. In the highest lvl of play, WAR don't even use Defiance for too long when pulling, much less Unchained.

You are free to look at the top speedrun parses via FFlogs for convincing data.

[SpookyGhost]

It's very confusing to compare ShO/Grit and IB since the only crossover between them is the 20% damage reduction, and even that has a difference in that IB only lasts 6s and ShO/Grit can last as long as you keep them on for. It then gets even more confusing when you start considering that you need to be in Defiance to use IB and Defiance is a more direct parallel to ShO/Grit.

A potentially better way to put it would be saying that you currently only go into your tanking stance for aggro (which isn't even necessary if you have a WAR and he pulls) as the damage reduction isn't necessary especially when it costs a large chunk of your DPS, which is king in XIV.

Anyway, to keep things on topic I'd recommend just not raiding. I know that seems blunt and probably pretty weird since you clearly care about DPS and are therefore more competent than the majority playerbase, but the thing that leads me to that statement is this:

Our static is kinda made up of folks who can't really fit regular raiding into their schedule, so our group comp is a little off, but I'm curious.

I imagine you're in a bit of a forced hand situation - you want to raid, but due to your schedule you're stuck with this really poorly constructed group. You care about your DPS and helping the group, but the healers don't want you out of tank stance, you don't have a NIN, you don't have a WAR, and the BLM won't get Quelling. So essentially you're left with 3 realistic options:

1. Level WAR and switch mains, letting you focus more on DPS as well as benefiting the group by applying Storm's Eye (and Storm's Path as necessary). I imagine you like PLD, or perhaps you don't have enough time in the day to level a whole new class, but realistically this is the only way to fix your group comp as-is and improve your overall experience.

2. Quit raiding. Let's be realistic here, if you care about working as a team and upping your group's potential while improving yourself and the rest of your team just kind of "shows up" then you're a bad match for eachother. I have been a part of a few raid groups with conflicting interests, and all of them fell apart because of it. Quitting all together and finding another game to play, or picking up a new hobby, will probably lead to a lot more fun.

3. Stop caring about DPS. Just do what they do and show up. Make friends with your other raid buddies and try to make the atmosphere relaxing and enjoyable. Maybe, eventually, this will lead to them thinking that working as a team is productive and more satisfying, though that's unlikely to click for awhile.

I realize you are one of the relative few who actually cares about his performance in the group and helping the group as a whole, but based on your circumstances these are the only options I see working out positively. Your slight increase to Shield Oath DPS is essentially a drop in the water. Your heart is in the right place, but your group is holding you back, and due to your scheduling I imagine you're not going to be able to find a group that has the same mentality as you.

But who knows I could be off the mark entirely. If you're having fun either way, then I'd recommend just not really caring about your DPS to an optimized level as being stuck in ShO will kill all the optimizations you make.

[dragonseth07]

Maybe you need to find a new group who is as serious as you are. Straight up.

[Nerael]

Savage level content has a lot of mechanics which you can skip with high DPS.
Staying in Shield oath the entire time is slowing you down and thus causing your static to deal with more mechanics.
The only time I am in Shield oath is when I do my pull or when we have multiple people down and I need to make the life easier for our healers.
A10S i only go into shield oath right after adds phase for a few seconds as I'm usually out of CD's then. (Hallowed ground middle button mechanic cheesing FTW!)

A WAR OT or NIN will greatly boost your DPS as well as others have said.

Our BLM pulls crazy levels of aggro even with quelling strikes and me in opening in shield oath. He. Must. Get. It. If your BLM is anywhere near that level of damage as ours, I feel for ya.

We use a BRD instead of MCH, both classes have their pros and cons. We have quite a few casters thus Foe's Requiem is a great damage booster for us. Bot are good and acceptable.

I seriously recommend not using FoF with RoH combo.
Especially if your healers are forcing you to stay in Shield Oath, you don't need that extra enmity. What you need is extra DPS.
As others have stated, always make sure you use it before Goring blade. This way you can use it 2x during FoF. Goring blade when it ticks for 75% is our biggest damage skill! Royal Authority might be our direct damage skill, but goring blade deals more damage.

Sword Oath tanking is a lot different than Shield oath tanking in savage, it is key to use cooldowns smartly, properly, plan ahead and mitigate the correct damage types at the right time.
A9S Scrapline? 1x RoH combo when he uses stockpile, Shelltron and a normal guaranteed Cd (Rampart, Foresight, Sentinel depending on damage levels and healers pre-shielding). Sometimes a CD isnt even needed depending on your healers and team. When i get a crit shield from our SCH, the AST uses disable and our SMN virus? CD is not needed as i'll be taking 0 damage anyways, so plan accordingly and keep an eye on the situation.

Also another tip i can give you is to Force proc your shield bash for a DPS increase depending on if you really need Bulwark/Shelltron or not. Start with bullwark, force a proc. Once it ends and shield bash is nearly off CD? Shelltron and force another. Like I said, smart use of CD's is key. You dont want to force a proc with shelltron for example when a physical tankbuster is incoming!

Your first and foremost job is to tank, this means keeping the party safe, you are that first and last line of defense. Once you got that down, maximize damage.

[SmallHobbit]

Given:
- Healers have requested I stay in Shield Oath 100% of the time

use rage of halone and change to sword oath the healer will not notice any diffrence ;-)

anyway even in shield oath you should be able to do easy 1k dps just never move away from boss/mob -> ~25% of your dps is just about stay close to boss without pressing any buttons xD

regards hobbit

PS: when you die -> first blame healer than pretend you were in shield oath :'-D