PLD - Did gameplay improved?

[Zargan]

Hey guys,

just a simple question.

I played PLD some month after release of FFXIV and it felt like he has very long GCD because of short animations and just pressing 1,2,3.

Did PLD got some love in this way that you would say at level XY he starts to feel much more fun to play?

Thanks a lot for your answers. =)

Greetings

[Jandor]

Yeah it's alright.

Got your 1-2-3 aggro combo still, got a DoT combo as well, got a damage combo too, also got a short casting phase.

It's still pretty simple if fighting a dummy but I find it engaging enough in real content.

[Lambdafish]

At level 64 we get holy spirit, and it changes the job quite a bit. We now have 2 burst phases that we alternate, with requiescat (67) and fight or flight making up the backbone of these.

Larryzaur sums up my feelings pretty well: https://youtu.be/rKtxbPebvv4?t=138

[Kaedan]

Yes and no, OP.

Yes, it got some more skills and a few more options/combos, but IMO it still plays rather blandly. I mained PLD in 2.0, but switched to DRK in 3.0. I got PLD to 70, but I still prefer DRK as it's more active, IMO.

Hoping Gunbreaker is really fun, I want to main it in 5.0 if I can ^_^

[Daniolaut]

Two words:

Total Eclipse

Makes PLD way more fun at lower levels.

(Total Eclipse is a circle aoe around your character that deals damage. Basically instead of standing there essentially doing nothing "flash", you can now deal damage and also properly utilize flash to blind targets. In other words instead of Flash flash flash, rage combo. You can flash, wait 12 seconds, flash, wait 8 seconds, while doing total eclipse while you "wait." Making life for healers so great, and also dealing sizable damage.)



PLD over 50 is a blast too.

[ZellosWilder]

I've always been a PLD main here since ARR and I've just came back to game after 3yrs and I have to say PLD has improved, since you weren't around at HW you learn Clemency which is op af and allows PLD to cure itself for huge amounts, you can also now use Holy Spirit for magic dmg but tbh I think PLD should have more divine/white magic spells as it always seems odd that you only have 3, hopefully next expansion Total Eclipse makes the Job alot more fun now too as you can AoE big groups of mobs and you also get a nice animation skill called Passage of Arms which gives you 100% block-rate while reducing the dmg taken of everybody behind you by 85%.

Things to also note are that because the cross-class skill system has been removed PLD no longer can use Foresight, Bloodbath, Fracture Mercy Stroke, Cure, Stoneskin, Protect, Raise.

They have introduced a new Tank Role set of 10 skills which all tanks get but to me PLD lost out due to making the Rampart skill which was exclusive to GLA/PLD to all tanks now :/

The only thing I'm not really keen on is when I hear players saying that PLD is being made to be the go to OT now due to it's new support skills, as to me PLD always felt like it should be the MT due to having a shield and better dmg migration abilities, I'm not really sure how I feel about it as I haven't really done any of harder content yet in SB but it just feels odd-.-

[aodhan_ofinnegain]

I've always been a PLD main here since ARR and I've just came back to game after 3yrs and I have to say PLD has improved, since you weren't around at HW you learn Clemency which is op af and allows PLD to cure itself for huge amounts, you can also now use Holy Spirit for magic dmg but tbh I think PLD should have more divine/white magic spells as it always seems odd that you only have 3, hopefully next expansion Total Eclipse makes the Job alot more fun now too as you can AoE big groups of mobs and you also get a nice animation skill called Passage of Arms which gives you 100% block-rate while reducing the dmg taken of everybody behind you by 85%.

Things to also note are that because the cross-class skill system has been removed PLD no longer can use Foresight, Bloodbath, Fracture Mercy Stroke, Cure, Stoneskin, Protect, Raise.

They have introduced a new Tank Role set of 10 skills which all tanks get but to me PLD lost out due to making the Rampart skill which was exclusive to GLA/PLD to all tanks now :/

The only thing I'm not really keen on is when I hear players saying that PLD is being made to be the go to OT now due to it's new support skills, as to me PLD always felt like it should be the MT due to having a shield and better dmg migration abilities, I'm not really sure how I feel about it as I haven't really done any of harder content yet in SB but it just feels odd-.-

PLD is a sultansworn, not a holy knight, it's white/ divine magic should be limited, but one final skill which upgrades Flash for damaging magical AoE will be perfect, as Total Eclipse spam takes a chunk out of TP currently but no way to offset, like you can in single target. (TP/MP consolidation will hopefully fix this). Also Passage of Arms only reduces 15% of damage taken by party members behind you not 85%, PoA isn't stronger than tank lb3 lol.

PLD didn't lose out on anything with the cross role being added it still has access to rampart, literally only WAR gained anything with rampart being added to the cross role, as before it only had foresight as equivalent, we still have access to awareness, provoke, convalescence as we always have, while gaining likes of ultimatum and shirk which has eased the burden of tank swapping.

So PLD fills the OT role better than WAR/DRK for a number of reasons, primarily, it's ability to generate aggro is just plain awful for the dps cost it sacrifices, compared to WAR which can have a slight dps gain with it's opener, and DRK is DPS neutral, to minor insignificant loss when pulling. PLDs toolkit, Cover, Intervention and Passage of Arms, all are ineffective or of limited use while MT. After the boss has been pulled you may organise a tank swap so you can be the MT but most high end duties will require both tanks to share the burden of tanking bosses, to maximise defensive CD usage.

[Phoenicia]

The only thing I'm not really keen on is when I hear players saying that PLD is being made to be the go to OT now due to it's new support skills, as to me PLD always felt like it should be the MT due to having a shield and better dmg migration abilities, I'm not really sure how I feel about it as I haven't really done any of harder content yet in SB but it just feels odd-.-

It is not "odd". Just because you carry a shield doesn't mean you should be the main tank. Thaumaturges and Conjurers carry shields at lower levels, they're not suddenly tanks. It's a theme and that's it. MMOs in general have been shifting away from the whole "shield = MT" thing.

PLD has, and always had since 1.x and since 2.1, a less effective "Main Tank" toolkit.

Not only because its ability to snap aggro is utter shite compared to WAR and DRK because of the DPS you "pay" to get that aggro and it is STILL less than what they'd have, but also the extremely long cooldowns on its defensive abilities when handling tank busters puts a PLD in a position where it doesn't want to tank all day. PLD's "shield", due to its dependence on gear and reliance on RNG, does not make up for the mitigation you lose in comparison to the WAR or DRK's ability to stack cooldowns due to their number and short recharge times. (Regular cooldowns like Sentinel and Bulwark have the same cooldown as Holmgang, the WAR's ULTIMATE CD, while DRK and WAR have multiple 1 and 2 minute CDs to throw at busters).

Also, nothing about the PLD's mitigation abilities is "better" than their counterparts on the other tanks. Holmgang and Living Dead can be used to cheese mechanics or busters twice as many times as Hallowed through most encounters. This alone is a deal breaker when it comes to main tanking. Also once you mitigate 30% and survive a buster, having an extra 10% on Sentinel is worthless. Specially when all tanks have on demand things to throw on top of the 30% (TBN/Sheltron/Inner Beast).

Sheltron is great, but it comes with many limitations. First being it only blocks 1 hit makes timing it an issue. It's bad at dealing with no-cast tank busters (like the dragon add in O10S) and multi-hit tank busters like Akh Morn which have been commonly seen in Stormblood. It's also a "block" which won't work on critical hits as game checks for criticals before block. This also removes the possibility to parry. Block also depends on your shield and can be worse than parry at lower item levels (18% while parry is fixed at 20%). And now that PLD has spells to cast in its regular rotation, it is worth mentioning you can't block while casting, which makes Sheltron clunky during the Holy Spirit window.

Do not get me wrong, I am NOT saying PLD is a bad main tank, on the contrary, it is fully capable, but the other two tanks are simply better at it, however slight that gap may be, it is there. Not to mention, PLD already functions as the best OT.