Whats up with pali?

[Garnix]

If you die so fast, it must mean that either your gear is not level-appropriate, or broken.
Even without mitigation skills you should be able to survive easily in most dungeons.

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

Snip

Considering you're using Squadrons, I can imagine several unfortunate situations that could've lead to your wipes. But the most glaring of all issues that I can think of would be their AI, particularly speaking: the healer's.

The most common cause of wipe in Pharos first boss is due to the damage taken from crystalline combustion stacks. Squadrons do not do mechanics nor dodge bad stuffs, at all. Their healer AI does not interrupt casts & adjust very poorly to the situations unfolding, i.e. Medica I/II too far back to reach you and/or prioritizing Esuna to cleanse trivial debuff over topping you up from certain death in next 3-5s. They're just that slow. I even had few times when my ACN squadron would Physick (lmao) the tank/me instead because how terrible their AI is.

For Aurum's Coincounter, you can dodge virtually every of their attacks besides auto attacks and their occasional frontal cleave (non-telegraphed). The only way you can get pounded hard here as a tank is if you eat up the large circle AoE. It's guaranteed to take away almost all of your health even as a tank and possibly one shotting your squishier squadron members. My best guess is the healer AI simply do not react accordingly and left you to die, or you just happened to take one of those telegraphed AoE. Another possibility is your other squadron members eats up their lightning AoE and your healer AI decides to neglect you by trying to Esuna all those Electrocution & Paralysis off your squadrons.

Under normal circumstances, as squishy as PLD can be in ARR content, they should -not- have too much trouble so long as cooldowns are rotated well and healers are not sleeping.

Paladin is possibly the worst tank for ARR, as they the only TANK that doesn't have a heal baked into their rotation.

Also wanting to add: GNB also have an edge over other tanks for ARR contents for having way more self preservation means. Discounting invulns, they have Rampart, Camouflage, Nebula, Aurora(!!), and on top of that like you've said, there's a heal+shield baked into their 1-2-3. PLD truly feels more dependent at those levels to their healer.

[Nishira]

I haven’t played GNB at all, and my paladin is only 46 so uh… this may not be helpful But Sheltron doesn’t block everything, from what I remember when I read up on it, it’s 15-25% iirc, and then on top of that some things are just not mitigated by it at all. So that may explain why you concluded it must be bugged. I could imagine you might be pulling with the idea that overall you’ll have stronger mitigation than you factually do, pull big and kill yourself that way. As I am completely clueless as to how GNB plays, I can’t estimate at all whether it is just stronger at that level.

That said, to me paladin feels decidedly chunky with reprisal, rampart and sentinel + sheltron, and my chocobo has had no issues with fates and such. But from what I remember early HW content hits quite a bit harder than late ARR content, maybe that’s causing it? I won’t even comment on the squadron healer, it definitely feels like living on the edge at times! If GNB is more self sufficient at those levels, I would understand your differing experiences on the two tanks. Paladin does need a heal now and then. If you think you’ve got the hang of the class, tbh I’d just give it a go in DF because I’m guessing with a player healer it may feel more like it should.

[Jeeqbit]

The first boss of Pharos quickly spawns a lot of adds and you need to kill them quick or they build up and wipe you. I've wiped there many times in DF because of people thinking they can ignore them. Sometimes ignoring them does actually work but not always.

In Aurum Vale, there are some geysers that shoot up and hit you. You might also be standing in the yellow area which reduces your health until you move out of it. You might still have the damage over time from the first boss if you didn't cleanse it with the fruit.

All leveling dungeons hit hard too and require frequent healing without mitigation (these are dungeons 1-49, 51-59, 61-69, 71-79), but you shouldn't die in one hit so check your gear and that you repaired.

Paladin has a problem where it lacks both mitigation and self-healing compared to other tanks (unless they use Clemency), but that will be improved in EW.

[Kes13a]

I only took my squadrons out a couple times personally and wouldnt trust them to boil water and not get hit by it

make sure your gear is repaired, that will make a huge difference if its broken. make sure it is up to date

are squadrons handy if you dont like people? sure... but they also fail to anticipate

coincounter used to be worse before they put in the telegraph areas instead of just the boss windup and you hoping you can get out of the way. I would say unless your party is a bit on the dim side, should be little reason to wipe after the changes. so I am leaning towards gear and, well, your party of AI's