Do you find the PLD rotation enjoyable?

[aodhan_ofinnegain]

Block from (Holy) Sheltron just feels awful, because you already get block via rng anyway.
Every time I use it I'm thinking "I might have blocked that anyway" so the skill feels borderline useless.

Compared to other tanks where it's a 100% additional 10-20% mitigation.

Then there's the Oath gauge, meaning you don't even have your on demand mitigation tool available unless you've hit the required number of physical GCDs.

As for the rotation, I've leveled to 89 now and I still don't understand it.
I get that you have three priorities, your Royal-Atonement combo, your Goring DoT combo, and you magic combo. But these don't have an intuitive order to them and don't seem to line up. You want your physicals during FoF which is obvious enough, but what about Goring? It's duration is pitiful so do I aim for 100% uptime or what?
By trying to feel it out logically, it seems like it should be Goring > Atonement > Goring > Atonement > Requiescat > Repeat. But that doesn't quite line up (Req ends up with 3-5s left on the CD by the time I'm ready for it) and it comes with the paradox of "do I open with my DoT or with the magic combo to make the most out of MP as a resource?"

Nothing about this rotation makes any logical, intuitive sense.
GNB on the other hand clicked instantly and always feels satisfying as every single cooldown gets hit on milisecond it's available again.

I wouldn't go so far as to call Block awful, it's nice to guarantee the 20% mitigation on most busters (exception for busters that are designed to Crit or during certain buster that afflict a stun or Down for the Count), and it still guarantees mitigation on consecutive autos for it's duration, especially on quick successive attacks it gets great value, but Holy Sheltron alleviates, the only removing RNG element, and adds more mitigation and regen effect to bolster the skill further. Also no it's not "additional 10-20% mitigation" since all percentage based mitigation applies multiplicatively in this game, and all are similar when you pair rampart and short mitigation, or 30% mitigation plus short mitigation, save of course DRK and TBN which is not affected by diminishing returns, as it's a set HP value.

Oath gauge is generated by Auto Attacks not GCDs...it takes 22.5 seconds of full uptime to generate 50 Oath Gauge...which is slightly faster than GNB and WAR's respective short mitigation at 25 seconds.

PLD's rotation doesn't have a priority system per se, and is the hardest tank to optimise at high levels of play, but at a casual level it's actually straight forward to play. As long as you're play at 2.45GCD or faster you can fit 11 GCDs under Fight or Flight, so you get your highest hitting physical weaponskills in under that 25 second window, just as straight forward as GNB. So typical, Fast Blade -> Fight or Flight at 2/3rds of you GCD coming off cooldown, Riot Blade, Goring Blade, Royal Authority Combo, Atonement x3, Goring Combo into Magic Phase, and continue.
Honestly MP is a non issue and should not be even considered. Optimised openers and rotations may lead with Requiescat first, but that's when at level 90. Overall PLD does require some actual thought compared to the other tanks, which is not a bad thing, as it can allow for a higher skill ceiling expression, the only draw back is, in PLD requirement for more effort than the other tanks to optimise, it is still significantly behind DRK and GNB in DPS who require less effort to play.

[Seraphor]

I wouldn't go so far as to call Block awful, it's nice to guarantee the 20% mitigation on most busters (exception for busters that are designed to Crit or during certain buster that afflict a stun or Down for the Count), and it still guarantees mitigation on consecutive autos for it's duration, especially on quick successive attacks it gets great value, but Holy Sheltron alleviates, the only removing RNG element, and adds more mitigation and regen effect to bolster the skill further. Also no it's not "additional 10-20% mitigation" since all percentage based mitigation applies multiplicatively in this game, and all are similar when you pair rampart and short mitigation, or 30% mitigation plus short mitigation, save of course DRK and TBN which is not affected by diminishing returns, as it's a set HP value.

Oath gauge is generated by Auto Attacks not GCDs...it takes 22.5 seconds of full uptime to generate 50 Oath Gauge...which is slightly faster than GNB and WAR's respective short mitigation at 25 seconds.

PLD's rotation doesn't have a priority system per se, and is the hardest tank to optimise at high levels of play, but at a casual level it's actually straight forward to play. As long as you're play at 2.45GCD or faster you can fit 11 GCDs under Fight or Flight, so you get your highest hitting physical weaponskills in under that 25 second window, just as straight forward as GNB. So typical, Fast Blade -> Fight or Flight at 2/3rds of you GCD coming off cooldown, Riot Blade, Goring Blade, Royal Authority Combo, Atonement x3, Goring Combo into Magic Phase, and continue.
Honestly MP is a non issue and should not be even considered. Optimised openers and rotations may lead with Requiescat first, but that's when at level 90. Overall PLD does require some actual thought compared to the other tanks, which is not a bad thing, as it can allow for a higher skill ceiling expression, the only draw back is, in PLD requirement for more effort than the other tanks to optimise, it is still significantly behind DRK and GNB in DPS who require less effort to play.

By "using MP as a resource" what I mean is not letting it sit there at full for over 30 seconds. Coming from other resource centric jobs it just feels like I'm wasting something, especially if the Magic combo is supposed to be the most powerful part of the rotation.

But then there's the DoT, which feels equally "wasteful" when it's not ticking.

And the cooldown on FoF.

It's too many competing elements, instead of mechanics that synergise like GNB.
Even WAR can now use Infuriate during Inner Release so that's smooth as hell.

[aodhan_ofinnegain]

By "using MP as a resource" what I mean is not letting it sit there at full for over 30 seconds. Coming from other resource centric jobs it just feels like I'm wasting something, especially if the Magic combo is supposed to be the most powerful part of the rotation.

But then there's the DoT, which feels equally "wasteful" when it's not ticking.

And the cooldown on FoF.

It's too many competing elements, instead of mechanics that synergise like GNB.
Even WAR can now use Infuriate during Inner Release so that's smooth as hell.

I mean it's literally been a non issue since SB using Fight or Flight into Requiescat, this is very much a you problem trying to pick issue with it. As it is, the cost of Requiescat phase is 5k and you make significantly more MP back before your next Requiescat phase, so either way you will have to sit on excess MP. Further, the -4 second and -18 second openers, and the new slowboi rotation for GCDs at 2.46 and slower, will all use Requiescat earlier so it won't "sit there at full for over 30seconds". Also, not every job needs to be so resource centric, it's part of not making every job play exactly the same.

And during certain points when DoTs aren't ticking isn't wasteful if you're gaining more DPS by delaying it's refresh or you won't get a sufficient amount of ticks to break even or gain, before the boss jumps, but otherwise on the standard loop, you DoT is never off really long enough that you really lose much in the way of DoT ticks.

PLD is about managing two 60second recast buffs rather than resource, and neither element is competing against each other, as both buffs do 2 similar but different things.

Personally, I feel you actually need to take a bit of time to finish levelling PLD and put a little effort into playing and understanding PLDs gameplay from a less biased view, and dabble in some of the possible optimisations before trying to criticise the job.

[Seraphor]

I mean it's literally been a non issue since SB using Fight or Flight into Requiescat, this is very much a you problem trying to pick issue with it. As it is, the cost of Requiescat phase is 5k and you make significantly more MP back before your next Requiescat phase, so either way you will have to sit on excess MP. Further, the -4 second and -18 second openers, and the new slowboi rotation for GCDs at 2.46 and slower, will all use Requiescat earlier so it won't "sit there at full for over 30seconds". Also, not every job needs to be so resource centric, it's part of not making every job play exactly the same.

And during certain points when DoTs aren't ticking isn't wasteful if you're gaining more DPS by delaying it's refresh or you won't get a sufficient amount of ticks to break even or gain, before the boss jumps, but otherwise on the standard loop, you DoT is never off really long enough that you really lose much in the way of DoT ticks.

PLD is about managing two 60second recast buffs rather than resource, and neither element is competing against each other, as both buffs do 2 similar but different things.

Personally, I feel you actually need to take a bit of time to finish levelling PLD and put a little effort into playing and understanding PLDs gameplay from a less biased view, and dabble in some of the possible optimisations before trying to criticise the job.

No I think I'll get my last level funished then not touch it again until about 7.2.

[Curisu]

No I think I'll get my last level funished then not touch it again until about 7.2.

Okay, then miss out on the complete rotation.
The simplicity of casual PLD and the situational optimization of the rotation.
Max level PLD rotation is in my eyes the best of all tank's.
Not to busy but entertaining enough to not fall asleep.
The chance to give your static RDM the melee position during your lengthy magical burst phase.

[baklava151]

I've always enjoyed its playstyle for not being super bursty like the other tanks and being more about keeping dot uptime and doing sustained damage. Think it flows quite nicely too.

[Absimiliard]

Unpopular opinion: if PLD is going to have the weakest mitigation, it should have the highest damage output of the tanks.

[Illmaeran]

No, I don't find it enjoyable after leveling WAR. I did find it fun to play before that though.

[Undeadfire]

[SilverSkyway]

2cent: I'm leveling a paladin to level a tank and hope to main it. Now I'm still leveling and don't have all my abilities. I also don't do EX. Before I before tried Pally, I tried war. Got to 63 and wasn't a fan. I went into Paladin thinking I would hate it but, I like it over War. It not super busy. I don't have a million ogcd. Again, I don't do EX or high end content. So I wont comment on what needs change so I wont get cried at. I will say, I enjoy the rotation of what I have. lol.