Overall pretty solid guide, while i use slightly different approaches, not going to quibble over details. I would like to address two moves you glossed over or even called useless: Shield swipe and fracture. Note: My experience is as main tank through turn 4.
Note: both skills are only useful in long fights (titan, coil 1, etc maybe ak final with a low dps group?) Though once you way out gear the content, you can safely use these even on shorter bosses like those in CM just to help shave those extra seconds off the fight.

On why you should use shield swipe:

Shield swipe is only 40 tp, so its actually less tp than you earn in the time it takes to use. It does not interrupt your ROH combo and does up your dps. You can use it twice without stopping your combo (combo would time out during third use). Because of this, using it when ever its up will both raise your max dps and prolong the life of your tp pool. Realistically, in these long fights, bards aren't going to paeon you as they'll use their mana to ballad.

How shield swipe affects enmity: its an enmity loss. Any gcd you use it, you are lowering your enmity potential. Therefore, you can only use it in long fights where you'll find enmity actually isnt' an issue. Once you have done a few roh rotations on a mob (keeping SW and COS on cd), you'll have a huge lead (except maybe during the first phase of titan when he is spamming stomps, but you'll only be in that phase for a meaningful amount of time if you are farming limit break, in which case you can safely ask for a paeon and you wouldn't want to up dps anyway). There is an arguement that it can be a long term enmity bonus (you have more tp longer for more total roh combos before reaching tp floor), but, that would take a lot of math to prove or disprove.

I know this sounds strange, "but i'm a paladin, I live to earn enmity" you say. Think of it this way, your'e actually there to make the fight as easy as possible for your team. If you already have a huge hate lead, does your group need you to build more enmity? Or would it help the group more to up your dps and shorten the fight a little? Its actually pretty great on turn 1.

Fracture: Same principle. Fracture is a dps increase but a threat decrease. For up time, you need to use it after every other roh combo, though shield swipes will push its uptime down. Unfortuantely it does stop your combo, so you'll just have to live with that and let it have down time.

These two moves are about refining your play, about getting that last little bit out of what you can do.


To those asking about mercy stroke: Even if it is a minor increase in your damage, it has no opportunity cost. It uses up no resources and is off GCD. The question isn't "how useful is it" but "why not use it." You should want to bring the absolute maximum contribution to the group you can, so why leave a little damage on the table?


OP: Final note about your cover macro. Add a /ac "Cover" <tt> line. Makes it much faster to use, as you dont' ahve to target the party member, it'll just auto cover the person with hate (and it can't go off on yourself so you can't waste it that way). Leave in the <t> line for manual targeting of course.