Thread: Returning 2.0 PLD — 5.0 guide for low level tanking?

I've been playing PLD since 2.0, so I can give you a few tips. hope they help!

lv 50 content
At this level your rotation wont be too difficult for dungeons. use your aoe combo (total eclipse -> prominence) and circle of scorn on mobs of enemies, but try to focus more on getting down your tank fundamentals such as:
-mob positioning when doing pulls to help your DPS hit their aoes/positionals. this means also keeping boss centered and dodging well enought to not move it too much
-using cooldowns effectively, using them 1 by 1 until the mobs die. arms length and reprisal in particular are pretty powerful tools
-when fighting bosses, save your defence buffs for when they cast tankbusters to minimise the damage you take, or use reprisal for raidwide aoe damage to minimise the damage your teammates take
-testing how many mobs at a time u can pull (how many packs of enemies can u and the team handle) remember that you should trust your healer to keep you alive, and trust your dps to kill the mobs fast. if your team struggles, don't be afraid to take it slower.

lv 60 content
by this time your physical rotation will be solidified, and you can work on fitting in your gorging -> royal-> royal -> gorging combos into your Fight or Flight buff window, then making sure to keep gorging blade's bleed debuff up. You will also want to look out for raidwide damage from bosses and try to preemtively cast Divine veil so that your healer's spell activates the shield. use clemency only if the healer dies, and use it to keep your party alive as best as u can. u can also cast divine veil and then clemency on yourself before pulling bosses, or in between mobs to protect your party while you pull

lv 70 content
you should have requiescat and holy spirit. use req on bosses and then your next 5 spirits can be boosted. do note that if you're doing a big pull in a dungeon, you can use requiescat to boost the healing you receive too. your physical rotation should consist of mostly the same. try and use intervention on your healer before raidwide attacks, as it will help them survive a bit, or on any freshly revived party members that might still have the weakness debuff

lv 80 content
at lv 76 you should unlock atonement, which u can use after you hit your royal authority combo up to 3 times in 15 seconds. they are a gcd attack though so be careful not to use too many during your FoF melee rotation. at lv 80 you should also get confietor (i forget the name lol) and this is a big ender for your requiescat buff window, which at lv 78 will make all your spells instacast. use it at the end of your buff window, or you can use it to end the buff early in case you have to disengage the boss. also try and use your intervene skill to quickly move between the packs of mobs during dungeon pulls, or to move back to the boss after dodging an aoe to maximise the uptime of your attacks.

PLD is actually sort of flexible in how you play it, but at optimal levels it has a set rotation. either way I think just working on your fundamentals is the best way you can keep your party alive, and the mechanical skill needed for your rotation will come with time and practice. good luck!