Do you find the PLD rotation enjoyable?

[Hysorn]

So, I've been leveling every tank, the only one missing is GNB, and while I played through the EW campaign as PLD, and admittedly, Paladin is often one of my favorite "class fantasies" in most RPGs, I didn't find the rotation enjoyable at all.

One of my biggest gripes with the tanks design is the "Press the same button, but multiple times". So for instance, Warrior you have your Fel Cleave moment, however, Inner Release's effects + Crits + Inner Chaos make it quite satisfying, you are getting over the top effects + a different animation + of course Crits. Bloodspiller is way less satisfying in my opinion but at least it's just 3 times.

Then you have PLD... Press Atonement 3 times... Press Holy 4 times... Press Confiteor 4 times... But I don't know, Atonement and Holy reuses the same animation throughout their cycles with very little of special effects happening, it just feels boring. Confiteor looks great, but it lacks that "hmpf" that Inner Release has.

But yeah, that's my opinion, just wondering what you all thinking about the job. I know that it has a lot of utility and of course having a ranged phase is a godsend in many fights, but the class design feels so uninspired compared to the other tanks, at least to me.

[Lustre]

I enjoy it a lot. It's mega static but that's why I like it. Its very easy to know if youve messed up somewhere. I will preface and say, I dont do the weird f&f/ atonement skip thing. The ranged utility from magic spells can't be understated. Especially how Req isnt a forced burst phase anymore, and you can kind of drift things as you need to. I get what you mean about pressing the same button. I dont mind it for the holy spells so much, but I think Atonement lacks punch. If it were up to me, I'd lower potency of royal authority and add it onto Atonement. I liked SHB pld a lot, but all of my gripes were solved with EW. Magic cutting off your combos, weak gauge abilities etc. The oath gauge shield actually feels worth using on other people now.

I do a lot of old content with my FC and the carry potential on Pld is just on another level compared to the other tanks. Everyone can die at 40% and I'll just dance around the boss til its dead using clemency lol. That's what I like most I think

[Hysorn]

I enjoy it a lot. It's mega static but that's why I like it. Its very easy to know if youve messed up somewhere. I will preface and say, I dont do the weird f&f/ atonement skip thing. The ranged utility from magic spells can't be understated. Especially how Req isnt a forced burst phase anymore, and you can kind of drift things as you need to. I get what you mean about pressing the same button. I dont mind it for the holy spells so much, but I think Atonement lacks punch. If it were up to me, I'd lower potency of royal authority and add it onto Atonement. I liked SHB pld a lot, but all of my gripes were solved with EW. Magic cutting off your combos, weak gauge abilities etc. The oath gauge shield actually feels worth using on other people now.

I do a lot of old content with my FC and the carry potential on Pld is just on another level compared to the other tanks. Everyone can die at 40% and I'll just dance around the boss til its dead using clemency lol. That's what I like most I think

About the carry potential, it's very true, one of my favorite things about PLD is indeed the utility, it feels to me like the most traditional MMORPG tank in that regard, you have a tool for every situation. Also, I quite agree with Atonement, honestly, if it were up to me, I would love to see every oath stack have a different animation for atonement, to add more impact, the extra damage taken from Royal Authority would be good indeed.

But yeah, I don't know, maybe my biggest gripe isn't exactly just how static it feels to press the same keybind multiple times but how impactful it feels when you do it.

[aodhan_ofinnegain]

I do find Paladin's rotation extremely satisfying when you manage to execute the optimised rotations. Paladin being the most difficult to optimise out of all four tanks, kind of makes it rewarding when you do pull off the rotations for specific fights. Though I would disagree with the person claiming PLD is "mega static" that is furthest from the truth. It may be the case in casual content without trying, but when it comes to high end levels of play, you have three different opener, standard opener which is the weakest of the three but safe easy go to, -18 second Fight or Flight opener for 4 out of 5 of the savage fights, and the third fight requiring the -4 second Fight or Flight opener, it requires somewhat precise buff timings on some fights, you sometimes depart from the main rotational loop sometimes completely, just to line up your buffs with the fight better and even to get an extra use of Requiescat. You also have to drop an unbuffed Atonement every loop just to delay the rotation from drifting from raid buffs, bringing the rotation from 64 seconds to 61 seconds.

Sometime I feel PLD can be sorely underappreciated, since most people don't really know, how much work goes into trying to get the most out of the rotation while the other tanks just pop all their stuff in their opener, and then press off cooldown for the most part afterwards.

[EaraGrace]

Having played pld as my main for going on six years straight.

I’d say so

[DanielNegreanu_Adamantoise]

It can be simplified down to having two 60cd damage windows.

Jobs that avoid this or at least fall into 60cd and 30cd windows, fall into a "priority" based damage window structure in where you still have a 60cd window but it lines up fine with 120cd raid buffs and your 30cds aren't a problem, they might "drift" being the only issue.

PLD simply put, has two 60cd damage buff windows that don't complement each other.

This leads to stuff like super-one-punch-man -18s fofs on paladin which is ideal when burst is all that matters.

Another irksome thing for penny pinching raiders is that PLD's rotation isn't actually 60s but varies from 63s to 64s rotation. Not my problem but can cause feelings of the bad in long fights when you misalign with the drugs.

Now to answer your question "Do you find the PLD rotation enjoyable?;
Yes, its my secondmost favorite rotation of tanks.
Drk rotation I like more due to the interaction with dark arts, but PLD rotation is more engaging and interesting than warrior's, and less annoying than gunbreakers tbh

For a non-raider like me the only thing that really exists is a -18s fof and then standard rotation, or just fofless gore into req, which is just -18s anyways
Yeah I find PLD rotation more interesting than WAR, less annoying than GNB, less interesting than DRK

At 90 it is great I love it especially the self healing probably out-paces warrior in practical healing

[ValKryz]

Pld was my first tank since ARR and ive never really hated it, yeah it feels slower but each button press and static rotation makes it feel like a goon which is one of other favs.

Honestly i wish cover was added into intervention. cover is just an xtra unused button to me

[ThorneDynasty]

PLD took a long, long time to click for me while leveling. I personally hate the base design of "regular dumb ol' 1-2-3 but every once in a while you have to remember to hit 1-2-shift+3". I don't know why, I just find it really annoying. But once you get the fully developed req phase with free movement it's like the stars align and how you have to rhythm the dot-refresh feels really natural, and the Confiteor combo just elevates the whole thing. It's now up there with GNB as a tank you should play if you still want to feel like a DPS.

[Naoki34]

So, I've been leveling every tank, the only one missing is GNB, and while I played through the EW campaign as PLD, and admittedly, Paladin is often one of my favorite "class fantasies" in most RPGs, I didn't find the rotation enjoyable at all.

One of my biggest gripes with the tanks design is the "Press the same button, but multiple times". So for instance, Warrior you have your Fel Cleave moment, however, Inner Release's effects + Crits + Inner Chaos make it quite satisfying, you are getting over the top effects + a different animation + of course Crits. Bloodspiller is way less satisfying in my opinion but at least it's just 3 times.

Then you have PLD... Press Atonement 3 times... Press Holy 4 times... Press Confiteor 4 times... But I don't know, Atonement and Holy reuses the same animation throughout their cycles with very little of special effects happening, it just feels boring. Confiteor looks great, but it lacks that "hmpf" that Inner Release has.

But yeah, that's my opinion, just wondering what you all thinking about the job. I know that it has a lot of utility and of course having a ranged phase is a godsend in many fights, but the class design feels so uninspired compared to the other tanks, at least to me.

The answer is simple, I stopped playing PLD when I tank since ShB, it's just a job with nice glam.

But I don't come to create a topic to say that this or that job has become just passable.


Same for WHM, but for another reason, no changes or gameplay improvements in Endwalker.
SGE is much more fun to play when I don't usually play mitigation based heals.

[Lustre]

I do find Paladin's rotation extremely satisfying when you manage to execute the optimised rotations. Paladin being the most difficult to optimise out of all four tanks, kind of makes it rewarding when you do pull off the rotations for specific fights. Though I would disagree with the person claiming PLD is "mega static" that is furthest from the truth. It may be the case in casual content without trying, but when it comes to high end levels of play, you have three different opener, standard opener which is the weakest of the three but safe easy go to, -18 second Fight or Flight opener for 4 out of 5 of the savage fights, and the third fight requiring the -4 second Fight or Flight opener, it requires somewhat precise buff timings on some fights, you sometimes depart from the main rotational loop sometimes completely, just to line up your buffs with the fight better and even to get an extra use of Requiescat. You also have to drop an unbuffed Atonement every loop just to delay the rotation from drifting from raid buffs, bringing the rotation from 64 seconds to 61 seconds.

Sometime I feel PLD can be sorely underappreciated, since most people don't really know, how much work goes into trying to get the most out of the rotation while the other tanks just pop all their stuff in their opener, and then press off cooldown for the most part afterwards.

I dont believe a slight variation in the opener (only in certain situations) makes it non static. Because if you do your rotation perfectly (the way intended and leave out the tryharding), it literally loops back on itself. -18s f&f is not an intended play style. If people wanna do weird stuff for the sake of a minuscule damage increase, then they can but that still doesnt mean it's intentional. That's what I meant by static. I think you're being slightly disingenuous here. Nice humble brag though.