Paladin Shield/Sword Oath Usage

[Kazzoey]

Lol tanking in FFXIV is a can of worms in any discussion. There's always two philosophies that people hold as tanks:
1. You're an enmity holding DPS
2. Mitigate the damage and let the healer DPS

As someone who has played both styles and been in this game since 2.0, both sides are correct. Most people seem to find option #1 to be the most fun though because the DPS mechanics and rotations are generally more entertaining than the mitigation side. Holding high amounts of mitigation and self healing opens up your healer to dishing out much more potential damage than you could if the healer isn't stupid and knows how to DPS. But unfortunately that's not always the case and more people are familiar with DPS tanking so most healers are on high alert and often spend the time to heal you regardless if you needed or were about to heal yourself. But, like everyone else (including me), you're sure to find your preferred playstyle and hold it as god honest truth whether it really is or not.

But the best OVERALL playstyle for most given situations is running Shield Oath to ramp up aggro and for trash pulls (But you can run Sword Oath if you know what you're doing), and in bosses you only get into Shield Oath when you need aggro (which is usually the start of a fight).

[Galactimus]

Depends on the content really:

In Savage Raiding, Paladins are in Sword Oath for 99% of the fight. Sometimes you'll open the fight in Shield Oath if you don't have a Ninja to help you manage enmity. Sometimes you'll switch to Shield Oath when a heavy hitting add appears or if one of your healers die. However, MOST of the time you can just activate Rampart for 20 seconds and stay in Sword Oath. "Provoke + Shirk" has made enmity management far easier these days. Also, dealing 3,800 DPS as a Tank in Sword Oath is quite the enmity generator on its own.

In Dungeons it's usually a good idea to stay in Shield Oath on trash mobs. But that's assuming you are pulling 6-12 mobs every single pull, which also involves using almost every cooldown you have (including Shield Bashing when you run out of cooldowns, Convalescence + Requiescat + Clemency spam, and even popping Sprint and running in a tight circle to avoid auto attack damage when things get real desperate.) Bosses you treat the same as Savage Raid bosses. Sword Oath after getting an enmity lead; which is usually a single Rage of Halone combo. (Assuming your gear is top notch and melded.)

[InnerBeastMode]

...really it will come down to feel once you notice what your healer is capable of.

This 1000 times. Don't listen to DPS who want you to pull everything if you don't feel comfortable. You're the tank. In the 1.5 years I spent only tanking, I've run into my fair share of DPS who should have queued as tank if they wanted to tank. But they didn't. Now, my motto is (mostly) you pull it, you tank it. Once you get more comfortable with the instance/party, pull more and test yourself and your cool-down management and stance dancing. And thank your healer.

[RopeDrink]

Nothing annoys me more than, say, a DPS player waltzing into a dungeon and assuming they know the tank & healers limits better than they do.

I'm a DPS-WHM main who is happy enough with tanks pulling everything. However, just because I'm fine with it doesn't mean I won't tell off a DPS player who starts screaming "PULL MORE". If they do this when I'm tanking (and I've decided not to mass-pull for some reason), I'll inform them that if they want it done a certain way, they can sign up as tank and do it themselves, otherwise I'm going to tank what I *KNOW* I can hold without making Healer DPS too difficult (NOTE: This is a point that relates to Sword/Shield oath later). The first thing a team needs to acquire is trust (especially in randomized Duty Finder/Roulette). If a tank is unsure/wary, then let them pull something more comfortable so they can see how the party ticks and judge for themself. If the tank trusts the Healer, the Healer trusts their aggro-grab and mitigation (and that the DPS won't constantly eat random mechanics), and the DPS trust that they will be saved from aggro/kept alive by the Tank/Healer, everyone wins.

Regarding Sword/Shield Oath, bear in mind that a tank trying to DPS during huge damage intake (be it a huge pull or just something that hits mega hard), this forces the Healer to DPS less to compensate. The optimal setup is a Tank who doesn't need to be constantly healed (when trying to do damage) so that the Healer, too, can contribute without fear. If it boils down to a choice, Healer DPS will typically beat Tank DPS in most cases, at least in terms of trash (eg. WHM Holy Spam), so if they can't do this because you're zerging into a triple-pack hoping to smite evil with your potential 2k ST DPS while the Healer is stuck spewing out CureII trying to keep your silly bum alive, that isn't worth it. Sure, they can QC Holy and maybe force their own opportunities if they're good, but the fear/caution will be a problem.

When I enter a dungeon, regardless of role, I consider the first pack(s) as a party test. From there it is often very easy for each role to tell how things go from then on. If the mass-pull lasted too long (let's say lack of solid AoE damage) and/or the tank is a bit squish, you'll know that a Healer will have to compensate (either with more healing or by adding DPS, usually both). In such a case, you're better off sitting in Shield Oath compared to Sword. Honestly, a lot of it is just common sense, so just make a point of getting to know your team and their limits (through actions, not word-fuelled macros or life-stories).