Tips for a new PLD

[Akamukai]

Hey everyone, so I've been playing this game for almost two months now and have focused on tanking for the most part. My PLD is my first level 70 and as such is the thing I'll be using as I approach harder content.

So my questions:

1. What is some advice regarding raids that you wish you'd known as a new tank? Apparently my role in the trial static will be as an OT, though I'm used to doing solely MTing for EX trials and Dungeons.

2. What kind of materia should I be melding as a PLD and what level gear makes it worth it? So far, my iLvl is 337 but I haven't melded anything so far.

3. How much should I be in Shield Oath vs. Sword Oath?

[Hierro]

1. map out your cooldowns for raids. Encounters will go through the same sequence of mechanics and raid busters every time, on the dime. So you should plan when you'll be using rampart, sentinel, hallowed ground, and so on. You can go the extra mile and map out cooldowns for your co-tank, so then you can plan ahead and see when is the best time to switch for getting the most out of cooldowns for everyone.

2. str VI materia on accessories, and direct hit for your left-side equipment.

3. If you're OTing, you should be in sword oath the entire time unless adds are involved. When LEARNING encounters, it's acceptable to be in shield oath for extended durations, but once you have an encountered learned, you shouldn't be using shield oath for much, except maybe momentarily to grab adds and use a single RoH combo.

[Campi]

Guide

Don't forgert to Shirk your Co-Tank.
Shield-Oath isn't necessary in any Savage-Fight, unless you're doing it with minimum iLvl.

[Akamukai]

1. map out your cooldowns for raids. Encounters will go through the same sequence of mechanics and raid busters every time, on the dime. So you should plan when you'll be using rampart, sentinel, hallowed ground, and so on. You can go the extra mile and map out cooldowns for your co-tank, so then you can plan ahead and see when is the best time to switch for getting the most out of cooldowns for everyone.

2. str VI materia on accessories, and direct hit for your left-side equipment.

3. If you're OTing, you should be in sword oath the entire time unless adds are involved. When LEARNING encounters, it's acceptable to be in shield oath for extended durations, but once you have an encountered learned, you shouldn't be using shield oath for much, except maybe momentarily to grab adds and use a single RoH combo.

For #2, why STR/DH over like, Crit and Tenacity?

Guide

Don't forgert to Shirk your Co-Tank.
Shield-Oath isn't necessary in any Savage-Fight, unless you're doing it with minimum iLvl.

Thanks for that guide. I've started checking it out in my free time.

A question for the both of you: Do tanks just grab the highest iLvl gear there is, without paying attention to its substats? If so, why?

[KaldeaSahaline]

For #2, why STR/DH over like, Crit and Tenacity?

A question for the both of you: Do tanks just grab the highest iLvl gear there is, without paying attention to its substats? If so, why?

Not to me - but I will offer my insight.

To answer #2 STR in accessories (aka right side) because it is a main stat and most important to your DPS and tanks accessories aren't STR capped. Gear (aka Left side) being DH is because tanks have no inherent DH and such it's an easy slot because you're not capped on substats. Crit is viable, but can't put in any pieces of gear that have crit already. Tenacity offers a mix of offense and defense, but because defense is superfluous in the games combat system, you're already have more than enough defensive stats just by being a tank.

For the ilvl question: Barring accessories yes. Crafted and pentamelded (very expensive) is better than the 370 counterparts. There are other things to pay attention too as well. Skill Speed is generally your least useful stat. Tenacity doesn't provide much offense or defense, and Crit and DH are pretty close to even. DH is especially useful because it scales very linearly for tanks (not on WAR).

Certain pieces are better than others. Chest and Legs are very powerful on Paladin, and typically more valuable than your weapon pending substats. For instance, your first buy as a PLD starting raiding should have been your Mendacity Chest piece.

Hope this helps.

[whiskeybravo]

PLD was the defacto MT for a long time, but since they've got a lot of nice party utility skills now their role has mostly been shifted to OT. As an OT paladin you'll be responsible for stuff like:

Providing Cover (sometimes with Tempered Will) to ease damage on healers (and prevent knockback when necessary). For example in V5S the paladin will usually cover+tempered War (or Drk) MT to prevent ghost knockback a couple times in the fight. This helps your MT get uptime and increase damage. In V7S cover is used on the Prey mechanic to prevent DPS from getting hit with a nasty fire debuff. V8S uses similar mechanics again.

Additionally you'll want to use Intervention on your co-tank to ease tankbusters (and sometimes on DPS if they are taking damage you won't be able to Cover).

Other things to be aware of are the clutch Clemency. Even tho casting it will make most people's skin crawl, it's entirely possible for a run to be saved by a clutch clemency on MT or healer, or DPS, depending on the encounter. Don't focus on it but also don't forget about it. You also have a pretty nice party shield with Divine Veil. This can be stacked with other shields or you and a Warrior MT can alternate shields for various raidwide damage mechanics. Also don't forget you can alternate Reprisal with your co-tank. Alternating mitigation correctly will allow you both to stay in DPS stance more often and also help your healers get more DPS in since they won't be needing to heal for large amounts of damage.

[Campi]

For #2, why STR/DH over like, Crit and Tenacity?



Thanks for that guide. I've started checking it out in my free time.

A question for the both of you: Do tanks just grab the highest iLvl gear there is, without paying attention to its substats? If so, why?

STR is your Mainstat
It gains more Dmg and Aggro

2nd Stats like DH,Crit,Det,SkS,Ten aren't that high in SB.
So it's better to push your iLvl to get higher Def,MDef,HP and STR
until you get your BiS-Items

2nd Stats are most important for your BiS and Speedruns after you cleared the content

[Hierro]

PLD was the defacto MT for a long time

I don't think PLD has been the defacto MT since the start of HW, but I want to elaborate more so on why PLD is the defacto OT as of now. Every other tank does a more efficient job at pulling. By pulling first, PLD is delaying their opener by a large amount, especially since a GCD is required to switch back. By contrast, thanks to unchained, WAR loses no dps and thanks to DA, DRK only needs to do one combo at most. In both cases, both tanks generate more hate too during the opener.