Gladiator End Game Builds

[Radaghast]

Drama aside, keep in mind you can use WS during a BR and still get a damage bonus. So as a Glad, you don't necessarily have to be in the BR rotation to be able to do decent damage with it. In fact you can usually get 2 sometimes 3 WS's off during a BR for a damage bonus if you're out of the rotation.

[Draven]

Thanks for cleaning up this thread. I really appreciate it.

I haven't been on much since the earthquake/tsunami since I live here in Japan but things should be getting smoother and I'll participate more in the near future.

Please keep the constructive conversation flowing~

[Botosai]

whew....after reading every post (and learning a ton) i finally get to ask my question, since it wasn't asked already. (hope i didn't miss it, that would suck).

This is going to seem odd to a lot of people, so bare with me...Are their any reasons to train your stats for a lesser tank, and more damage based? i.e., less sta, more str. maybe? I sort of like the idea of a gladiator that isn't a tank, and again i realize that some of you are probably like...wtf? that's stupid...Just looking for some feedback, maybe someone has done it and is happy with their build. Thanks!

[wind]

A few reasons that would justify building more around STR(although stats kinda blow atm) would be you are low on numbers and you yourself need to do more dmg then just being a meat shield or You have more then 1 tank.

Honestly, the current NM's you don't need near cap stamina. This will probably change with battle revamping but currently you can tank all the mobs by rotating Aegis > Sentinel(shield up ofc) > Deflection and fill in the small windows where you don't have anything up with Feather Foot or Foresight. Continuously rotating that while still voking/taunting/raging/accomplice(etc.) + other situational abilities (ie Tempered Will /Rampart etc.) You can mitigate the majority of the damage incoming and if you know what you're tanking you can have sentinel being used when there is a WS coming.

So having cap'd stamina isn't entirely needed with our current 'end-game' fights. Just note with a smaller HP pool you have a smaller room for error. If you aren't confident you 'can' mitigate by keeping up the tools us glads have I wouldn't recommend lessening your HP pool

[Draven]

I'm going to be remaking my OP from near scratch soon since a lot of my ideas have changed about this kind of build.


EDIT: Mostly done. I'll come back to it again soon. Let me know if anything needs fixing.

[GreyJorildyn]

I'm not really clear on why you think rotations hurt more than help. There are absolutely those skills that you will use in a rotation and little variation would be required due to general efficiency.

Perhaps where the discrepency is is in the meaning. Typically (where dps'ing is considered), a rotation would be the order of execution of a set of skills which a player cycles through throughout the course of battle. In tanking, a rotation, at least how I define it, is the order of preference for skill use within a given theme or set of skills. Such themes for Gladiator tanking would include enmity building, damage mitigating, and support skill sets.

Naturally the advanced player would be required to make more educated choices for skill selection, however an order of preference still exists. For example, in two identical situations, if you had the choice to use deflection or aegis boon, you would always choose deflection. Taking it further: If in one of those scenarios you had low HP, you might choose AB for its healing component but lowering damage significantly with deflection still might be a safer bet. In a situation where a mob did high damage, you might go with Deflection. If you had tier III heals you would almost always go with Deflection. What I am trying to convey here is that a true order of preference ("rotation") is correct in almost all situations just the same and therefore will not ever "hurt you more than they will help you".

[Theonate]

Perhaps where the discrepency is is in the meaning. Typically (where dps'ing is considered), a rotation would be the order of execution of a set of skills which a player cycles through throughout the course of battle. In tanking, a rotation, at least how I define it, is the order of preference for skill use within a given theme or set of skills. Such themes for Gladiator tanking would include enmity building, damage mitigating, and support skill sets.

Generally speaking, what you are calling a tank rotation is referred to as a priority system. From a theory crafting stand point rotation implies a rigidness, such as "only use these abilities, in this order, and if you flub it pick it back up asap." Where as a "priority" system implies you know when and why to use your abilities in order to maximize your role and adapt to situations.

Having played and theory crafted a ton for various mmo's, experience has taught me most people will see "use rotation" skip to where the rotation is listed and then use it without ever concerning themselves with the why. Hence the spoon feeding.

Honestly at this stage FFXIV's combat isn't complicated enough to really even warrant worrying about something like rotations vs priority systems.