Paladin misunderstanding.

[Navnav]

Hello there,

This is my first Forum post since starting the game a few months ago. I currently have all tanks at 70+, with GNB at 80. I was copletely baffled with paladin as it only has ONE defensive ability, if you discount the 30% variant all other tanks have and role actions.
And with that ONE defensive ability, it isn't even on demand... You have to wait for multiple auto attacks to even use it.
I'm not a fan of clicking on party frames or using F1,2,3,4 etc.. to target party members, in order to use utility on them. Macros in the game are EXTREMELY unresponsive, and keybinds are a premium in this game. So using party defensives feels exhausting tbh.

I genuinely struggle to understand how this tank is considered the best of all of them, as I personally find it borderline useless. A tank with 2 baseline defensives... And all the others literally either don't work on you or preven you from moving or hitting abilities. I mean like holy crud...

I was soo looking forward to sword and broad, it turned out to be sword and bored /w a helpless undertone. It could be I don't understand it's strengths fully, but as a former WoW player, I never had to deal with a tank that literally had nothing to offer for itself. Clemency maybe extremely good, but it has a cast time and mana cost, and unfortunately tank damage is such a major thing in this game, that you almost feel disgusting for using it. However it can save fights in dungeons.

In shortm I am really disappointed with PLD defensive toolkit, with it being the tank posterboy and all. Also if PLD is meant to be OT, why would everyone keep saying that all are able to MT, it can't just be OT then, so where is the MT tools. Hollowed ground is great and all, but what about those other exponential minutes in between.

Vexxed.

[Canadane]

They have Hallowed Ground which is the top tier of defensive cooldowns.
Don't keep it for an "oh no bad things are happening" moment, use it as part of your planned cooldown rotations, especially in endgame fights.

So they have 6 total defensive abilities when you count everything including role skills.
Uh, 7 maybe if you count Divine Veil and 8 if you count Passage of Arms, though you cannot move during it.
Not to mention the chance of blocking on everything on top of parry chance like other tanks have.

They are very much otherwise the support tank, with skills the help bolster defense of other tanks. For years it's been regarded as the de facto off tank for the purpose, though fight mechanics these days have tanks swapping so much there really isn't a main or off.

[aodhan_ofinnegain]

Hello there,

This is my first Forum post since starting the game a few months ago. I currently have all tanks at 70+, with GNB at 80. I was copletely baffled with paladin as it only has ONE defensive ability, if you discount the 30% variant all other tanks have and role actions.
And with that ONE defensive ability, it isn't even on demand... You have to wait for multiple auto attacks to even use it.
I'm not a fan of clicking on party frames or using F1,2,3,4 etc.. to target party members, in order to use utility on them. Macros in the game are EXTREMELY unresponsive, and keybinds are a premium in this game. So using party defensives feels exhausting tbh.

I genuinely struggle to understand how this tank is considered the best of all of them, as I personally find it borderline useless. A tank with 2 baseline defensives... And all the others literally either don't work on you or preven you from moving or hitting abilities. I mean like holy crud...

I was soo looking forward to sword and broad, it turned out to be sword and bored /w a helpless undertone. It could be I don't understand it's strengths fully, but as a former WoW player, I never had to deal with a tank that literally had nothing to offer for itself. Clemency maybe extremely good, but it has a cast time and mana cost, and unfortunately tank damage is such a major thing in this game, that you almost feel disgusting for using it. However it can save fights in dungeons.

In shortm I am really disappointed with PLD defensive toolkit, with it being the tank posterboy and all. Also if PLD is meant to be OT, why would everyone keep saying that all are able to MT, it can't just be OT then, so where is the MT tools. Hollowed ground is great and all, but what about those other exponential minutes in between.

Vexxed.

First off it's very clear you are green with your rant. Secondly it does take time to get used to using your defensive cooldowns correctly. Further, discounting what is shared between tanks is a stupid way to say a tank hasn't got defensive when it in fact, does.

Dungeons mean nothing, in terms of mitigation rotate your cooldowns from strongest to weakest, while mixing in on demands as they come off cooldown (get gauge) and role actions like reprisal and arm's length. In 8 man content, you have two tanks so you have twice as many cooldowns between tanks that if played right can significantly reduce incoming damage, that can't be seen in solo or light party set up. Tankbusters in casual 8 man content is usually spaced out enough you'll always have a cooldown plus on demand up just about every time you need it. Also the GCD window is big enough to use support skill/ targeting macros smoothly, 90% of the time without issue, just don't use other oGCDs before it.

And it is worth taking on what Canadane has also said, paladin has passive blocking while yes rng, still happens pretty frequently. Worth noting following Canadane's point, there is no MT/ OT designation in ffxiv, all tanks are capable of pulling and holding aggro, and mitigating damage, though there is varying degrees of efficiency between the tanks, it's negligible at best.

[Lucy_Pyre]

Sentinel - 30% mitigation
Rampart - 20% mitigation
Sheltron - 20% block guaranteed
Reprisal - 10% AoE damage debuff to enemies
Arm's Length - 20% slow to non-bosses in most content

Between these PLD has more than enough beefiness, especially when you factor in its passive block chance.

[QooEr]

while pld has the worst personal mitigation/sustain for boss autoattacks, it has the best party mitigation. wings and divine veil are huge. pld gets to mitigate aoe AND shield the party, while other tanks only get one or the other.

[Renato]

Hello there,
And with that ONE defensive ability, it isn't even on demand... You have to wait for multiple auto attacks to even use it.

Sentinel - 30% mitigation
Rampart - 20% mitigation
Sheltron - 20% block guaranteed
Reprisal - 10% AoE damage debuff to enemies
Arm's Length - 20% slow to non-bosses in most content

Between these PLD has more than enough beefiness, especially when you factor in its passive block chance.

There's also Divine Veil that places a barrier on the party for 10% of the tank's HP. At level 80, tanks have over 100k HP. That's a pretty decent shield granted it's timed right with a heal.

Intervention - 10% Damage reduction for another party member.

Passage of Arms - Guaranteed 100% block rate for PLD. 15% damage reduction for party.

Hello there,
Clemency maybe extremely good, but it has a cast time and mana cost, and unfortunately tank damage is such a major thing in this game, that you almost feel disgusting for using it. However it can save fights in dungeons.

Honestly, you shouldn't be using Clemency THAT much. It's nice for when the healer is down and you and a DPS are burning down an enemy with 10% health and you become the designated healer/DPS for a clutch finish. It's also good for solo play but other than that, you shouldn't be healing at all during dungeons. I've seen some healers get offended by PLDs using Clemency. Let them do their jobs.

[Lucy_Pyre]

There's also Divine Veil that places a barrier on the party for 10% of the tank's HP. At level 80, tanks have over 100k HP. That's a pretty decent shield granted it's timed right with a heal.

Intervention - 10% Damage reduction for another party member.

I was listing their personal mitigation toolkit, and neither Intervention nor Divine Veil benefit the PLD, so I didn't include those.

[Hierro]

First off it's very clear you are green with your rant.

I think his argument has some validity. It isn't fair to dismiss it because of a rant. In a sense, he's right. PLD has a very small pool of pragmatic mitigation.

The other tanks get at least one other CD, ToB and Equilibrium for WAR, camo and aurora for GNB, DM and AD for DRK (although weak, TBN more than makes up for it). PLD doesn't have that option, unless you're desperate enough to stop all outgoing damage and resort to PoA. Instead, once either rampart or sentinel's been used, you don't have much else except to what's available to the other tanks, and that's not saying much.

Of course, Hallowed Ground is that special exception. However, since he is green, it can be easily forgiven that he hasn't thought to use it as a regular CD. Still, you can only realistically use it about twice a dungeon for pulls, after which you go back to relying on primarily sentinel and rampart, but those have to be spread out thinly for other pulls. Sheltron kinda sucks until higher levels, and even then, doesn't block nowhere near enough to consider a suitable replacement for a CD.

[Lucy_Pyre]

I think his argument has some validity. It isn't fair to dismiss it because of a rant. In a sense, he's right. PLD has a very small pool of pragmatic mitigation.

The other tanks get at least one other CD, ToB and Equilibrium for WAR, camo and aurora for GNB, DM and AD for DRK (although weak, TBN more than makes up for it). PLD doesn't have that option, unless you're desperate enough to stop all outgoing damage and resort to PoA. Instead, once either rampart or sentinel's been used, you don't have much else except to what's available to the other tanks, and that's not saying much.

Of course, Hallowed Ground is that special exception. However, since he is green, it can be easily forgiven that he hasn't thought to use it as a regular CD. Still, you can only realistically use it about twice a dungeon for pulls, after which you go back to relying on primarily sentinel and rampart, but those have to be spread out thinly for other pulls. Sheltron kinda sucks until higher levels, and even then, doesn't block nowhere near enough to consider a suitable replacement for a CD.

Dark Mind doesn't really apply here, since most of the time trash mobs are primarily auto attack based and that's physical damage. Aside from that, don't forget that Sheltron can be used back-to-back if you have a full gauge. That's a not-insignificant factor in PLD's cooldown suite, especially if you're pulling a huge group and start the pull with Hallowed Ground as this gives you an extra buffer window of auto attacks to build up said gauge.

[Vyrerus]

Clemency doesn't have a cast time under Requiescat, and also heals 50% more of its huge potency heal. Also, despite its cast time without Req, PLD has a trait that makes casts uninterruptable, meaning you only lose out on block and parry chance if you choose/have to hard cast. As long as you don't miss out on Confiteor, and are only using Clemency when you're sure that the healer can't keep you up(see: Rare/easy to misjudge), then it's fine to use.


Passive shield blocks on PLD are almost like full time Camoflauge from GNB. Aurora ticking for its full duration only heals roughly 27k HP on average, depending on your gear. PLD is much more survivable, you just need to spend more time with it.