PLD Question. Does this materia setup work?

[Mystrum]

So I recently healed a Malikah's Well with a PLD who had melded all Tenacity and Spell Speed. Barring the fact they were using X-Ether and Clemency more than Holy Spirit, is this an actual setup that is used?

I am legitimately curious as from my own thoughts, and PLD's that I know we all go with the DH > DET > Crit preference for 5.0+.

On a side note I can't help but feel we were being trolled. CD's on trash packs were nearly nonexistent aside from Sheltron.

[Licherous]

I think that PLD was memeing.

[Derio]

Trolling clearly. Considering PLD spells are based of skill speed not spell speed. If they were spamming clemency then they probably did not trust their healer.

[Mystrum]

Trolling clearly. Considering PLD spells are based of skill speed not spell speed. If they were spamming clemency then they probably did not trust their healer.

I hardly consider casting Clemency after being hit with Efface and being at 90% health not trusting your healer. Figured I was being trolled, seems I was right.

[Donjo]

The Tenacity isn't a particularly large problem - especially in dungeons - but the Spell Speed is definitely silly. Contrary to previous posts, it does reduce the recast time of a Paladin's Spells... but that benefit ends up adding up to even less than Skill Speed, which is already largely minimized due to it not affecting all of a Paladin's global cooldown attacks. Even Tenacity, the weakest stat among global damage increasers, is a better idea than either speed stat.

[Tex_Mex]

haha ya.... spell speed on PLD new meta!!!

[MistakeNot]

So I recently healed a Malikah's Well with a PLD who had melded all Tenacity and Spell Speed. Barring the fact they were using X-Ether and Clemency more than Holy Spirit, is this an actual setup that is used?

I am legitimately curious as from my own thoughts, and PLD's that I know we all go with the DH > DET > Crit preference for 5.0+.

On a side note I can't help but feel we were being trolled. CD's on trash packs were nearly nonexistent aside from Sheltron.

Tenacity for a Paladin makes perfect sense, even if it might not be the absolutely best choice.
Spell speed is pretty useless for a Paladin though. A Paladin might have some spell/ability that is affected by Spell Speed (not sure), but any of {Ten, Det, DH, Crit, SkSp} would have been a clearly better choice.

[Ultimatecalibur]

Tenacity for a Paladin makes perfect sense, even if it might not be the absolutely best choice.
Spell speed is pretty useless for a Paladin though. A Paladin might have some spell/ability that is affected by Spell Speed (not sure), but any of {Ten, Det, DH, Crit, SkSp} would have been a clearly better choice.

Only really reason I could see them using Spell Speed is to ensure that they get 4xHoly Spirits and a Confiteor into their Requiscat windows.

[VenKitsune]

Trolling clearly. Considering PLD spells are based of skill speed not spell speed. If they were spamming clemency then they probably did not trust their healer.

This is not true. PLD spells (Holy Sprit, Clemency) and DRK spells (Unleash, Stalwart Soul, Unmend) are all spell speed based.

Dont believe me? Boot up the game. Look at your GCD cooldown for...lets say...Goring blade, or souleater in the case of DRK. It's probably gonna be somewhere between 2.38 and 2.43 most likely. Now look at Holy spirit, or unmend in the case of DRK. See the GCD cooldown on those abilities? Its different, 2.5 seconds.

This is because they are scaled off of spell speed. This makes pulling with unmend an extremely stupid idea as it makes everything else take longer to come off cooldown by 0.1 seconds or so. (Pulling with holy spirit is fine. it takes 2.5 seconds to cast fully without requiestcat anyway)

their damage DOES scale off of STR however - It would be pretty silly if they scaled off of INT instead. Perhaps this is what you meant?

[Warkupo]

Paladin curing is not a completely absurd idea, and CAN save a bad group that's gone south. You're better off doing it with a mix of Crit and Skill Speed, however; Even if you're spamming clemency you're still spending most of your time with melee combos so skill speed is more relevant for refueling your mana supplies so you can keep Clemency spam going. Crit-Clemency is such a big heal that you can often "skip" the next clemency GCD in favor of another MP restoring melee combo.

Before Atonement was a thing I'd do a pseudo "combo" where I basically just spammed Riot Blade without finishing with Royal Authority or Goring Blade. This was mostly for sudden emergency situations where the healer either died or disconnected, or sometimes if the group just wasn't very good or familiar with the mechanics, ooor if I was just soloing things you really aren't supposed to be soloing and I just needed to out-endure the enemy. These days Atonement lets us keep our mana supplies fresh without completely neutering DPS, but it is worth noting that back to back Riot Blades do still technically regenerate more mana per GCD.

It's not a bad idea as a PLD (or any caster) to keep an emergency supply of Ether. While we're all pro-paladin on this forum and would never cast clemency, it's nice to be able to get your mana back if you DO have to save some hapless Dragoon swimming in AOE so you don't have to delay Requiescat or resort to cheesy Riot-Blade combos. I like to also keep Antidotes and Silence-Curing potions on me too because I don't fully trust my healers not to just ignore me when I get these debuffs.

I definitely do think the guy you were with was either trolling or just... trying something different at your expense. Everything I just outlined above is more of an emergency situation tactic you can do to MAYBE pull dumpster party out of a fire, and not a tactic I would generally expect anyone to be trying on purpose.