PvP tips for paladin

[SenSaitoru]

Hello everyone, I was wondering if I could get some tips for PvP for paladin? I tried something called front lines. I announced that it was my first time there, all that I saw were a few complaints that there were a few new players there. I thought I would just ask for tips here. I'm not sure which guides would be valid or invalid, an example of this is back when I first started the game I read a guide that said to put all my attribute point into strength, only to find out later on, that the guide was outdated, and that I was supposed to put all my points into vitality. I appreciate any tips you guys are willing to give, I'll read everyone of them before attempting any PvP again,so I'm not a burden to my team. Thanks for reading.

[Lambdafish]

Paladin is CC king, your job is less about killing things and more about providing support to your party, and crowd control to the enemy. This is harder in frontlines because it is just chaos, but in the feast you have shield bash (very important), flash (for blind) cover, clemency, divine veil, spirits within (for silence), shield swipe (for pacify) and arguably rage of halone as supportive tools, as well as the best arsenal of mitigation in the game so that you don't die and provide sufficient distraction for the enemy.

As for strength vs. Vitality, back in 3.1/3.2 vitality was changed so that it also provided strength bonuses, but only for tanks, meaning that putting points into strength gave you the exact same bonus as vitality, but without the extra health. Vitality all the way (materia is a more complex story, but always go vitality if you can)

[Kai_Lee]

Use your pvp skills, testudo is great to use at big ice to provide protection for your dps especially melees, pld don't do a lot of damage so run around and flash plus stun the other teams dps, make sure to use cover on players being focus target and don't forget your tank LB.

[Llus]

Start of push: Testudo
Target Enemy Healer ->, Tempered Will, Sentinel, Shield Bash, wait 3s, Shield Bash, wait 2s, Shield Bash, wait 1 s, Spirits Within, Glory Slash (toward your team)
Target Friendly Healer -> Cover, Rampart
Target Friendly Combatant -> Clemency
Target Self -> Divine Veil, Clemency


Beyond the meme PLD there's a ton you can do, flash to blind (for those that go min accuracy)
Sheltron &/or bulwark to proc shield swipe so you can pacify those pesky DPS going after your team
Goring blade combo, Royal authority combo both are good DPS rotations
Rage of Halone combo on MNK and DRG (diminishing returns on tanks since only .45 of str is used for dmg calc), worthless on anyone else
Stunlocking healers or escaping DPS
Stay in sword oath unless your healers are having a hard time keeping you up
bloodbath + push back if you're being targeted

Learn your pvp skills, what they do and when to use them

Glory Slash will do a knock-back, but it's best use is removing a beneficial effect from an enemy.
Testudo gives everyone on your team in range a 30% damage reduction
Push back does up to 180 potency attack each time you suffer physical damage, so when you're targeted DPS will be hitting themselves
Weapon throw is great for sprinting targets/targets sprinting to escape

The biggest help a PLD can give their team though are the stun locks, defense buffs and protecting your healers. As a new player to PVP, focus on those above trying to get kills.

[kensatsu]

all is said, you will got your kill anyway, i got a lot when stun locking someone, tanks to mercy stroke.

[SenSaitoru]

Sorry, for the late reply, but thanks for all the tips guys. I've read over all of them several times already, I'll likely try front lines tomorrow. Thanks again everyone.

[Praesul]

The best tip I can give you is to not rely on a pattern or rotation. Doing the same thing every single match will make you predictable and will eventually stop working. The best skill you can work on as a PLD is awareness (no, not the ingame ability...) and reaction. Don't use Testudo at the beginning of a match, every match. It will just go to waste because everyone is going to hold off on their cooldowns until it runs out. Glory slash has both offensive and defensive utility, how you use it depends on the current situation. Sometimes you'll want to finish your goring blade combo for the damage, other times you'll only want to repeat the first 2 GCDs of the goring blade combo because you quickly need MP. It depends.

Just keep practicing and don't be rigid.

[SuperZay]

Start of push: Testudo
Target Enemy Healer ->, Tempered Will, Sentinel, Shield Bash, wait 3s, Shield Bash, wait 2s, Shield Bash, wait 1 s, Spirits Within, Glory Slash (toward your team)

Why would you use Sentinel here. It's an emergency skill on 3 minute cooldown when you are focused but don't want to use Hallowed yet.
Push Back grants immunity to Fluid Aura so it's better to use it first before approaching a healer, and use Tempered Will to clean second bind without using Purify.
Mercy Stroke should be cross classed as it's a great ~5% finisher when melee LB does not do enough damage.

[Cabalabob]

I tend to mark an enemy healer, pop rampart, charge them, shield bash, full swing + FoF, shield bash, bloodbath + circle of scorn, shield bash, pushback, spirits within (at this point they try to fluid aura me or w/e the SCH AoE one is called and stun themselves), sprint after them and glory slash them towards my team or off a cliff if there is one, then if by some chance they're still alive by this point weapon throw (assuming they try to sprint) and then hound them with goring blade, circle of scorn spirits within and royal authority until stun resistance resets.

While I do this I'll be keeping an eye on my team and if I see anyone in trouble I'll abandon the healer I'm attacking and go on the defensive with divine veil, clemency, cover, tetsudo and stoneskin.

PLD in my opinion is the most OP class in pvp, closest thing to an actual tank with cover and tetsudo, great support with stun lock, and pretty damn unstoppable in 1 on 1 duels with shield swipe and hallowed ground.

Only downsides to PLD are:
It's not too great at ranged having no bind or native heavy and only a GCD stun, so if they don't have weapon throw, just run, all they can do is shield lob you for pitiful damage.

Long CDs, not so much an issue against melee since you have a lot more available, but against magic we only have 4 effective CDs, 1 is tetsudo which is better off being used tactically, 1 has a 3 min CD and short duration and 1 has a 7min CD.

These 2 things combined make SMNs particularly annoying to PLD due to their mobility and ranged magic damage. Your best bet if you can't catch up to a SMN is to go on the defensive and retreat. Once they blow all their big nukes they can't do much more to you, so survive that with a CD, heal up with clemency and just retreat to your team.

[Llus]

Why would you use Sentinel here. It's an emergency skill on 3 minute cooldown when you are focused but don't want to use Hallowed yet.
Push Back grants immunity to Fluid Aura so it's better to use it first before approaching a healer, and use Tempered Will to clean second bind without using Purify.
Mercy Stroke should be cross classed as it's a great ~5% finisher when melee LB does not do enough damage.

because in frontlines you're going to be focused hard when you go after the enemy healer and if you use push back healer will get pushed back if they fluid aura you, either way push back or tempered will will work but tempered will will also prevent you from getting holmganged