What are the basics of Gladiator/Paladin?

[Hayward]

Although I am currently focusing on Arcanist and getting some cross-class abilities from other classes (Thaumaturge & Archer, specifically), I am curious as to what makes Gladiators and Paladins good at their jobs. I would like to level the class at some point and would also appreciate some basics that I'd need to get into the class and the job itself.

[Kashou]

They are good because they can press thundercl- I mean flash and win every encounter.

[James1213]

Ignore the guy above

Here are the things that make. Gld/pld good at their job:

-They have a lot of Dmg reduc CDs such as rampart and sentinal a 20% and 40% damage reduc respectfully
-plds have access to a constant 20% Dmg reduc from shield oath
-Gld/pld have access to both parrying and blocking attacks because they have shields compared to a mrd/war only having access to parry


Over all glds/plds have more damage reduc abilities and are easier to heal by healers because they are less spikey and smoother to heal. Or at least so I am told by my healers in duty finder

[ZenBear]

Kashou is wrong -- funny, but wrong.

James has the right of it. PLDs are strong because of their mitigation which is far and away the easier and more ubiquitously effective tanking mechanic over WAR's self-healing.

As for your actual question of what the basics of PLD tanking are:

1. Fast Blade -> Savage Blade -> Rage of Halone is your most effective enmity builder. Again I say; Kashou is wrong. You do not press Flash and win. Flash is a small enmity generator for keeping what mobs you aren't hitting with Savage/Rage, but it will not be sufficient to hold aggro against the concerted attention of a DD. At higher levels it wont even hold aggro against a healer, you have to rotate your Enmity Combo around on all of the targets in the fight to keep them on you.

2. Your defensive CDs are not "oh shit" buttons. The only one that qualifies for that moniker is Hallowed Ground, but even then you have to know a big attack is coming and use it beforehand. None of these abilities are reactionary; you must be proactive. The best times to use Rampart/Sentinel/Foresight/etc. is when your allies have taken hits and you know your healer has to turn his attention away from you for a few GCDs. Pop 20% damage reduction and you'll last long enough for the healer to finish his work and reorient on you.

3. Provoke does not build enmity. Nor does it force the target to attack you. What it does is put you at the top of the mob's hate list, which in hard numbers means your enmity = the highest current enmity value on the mob +1. If you have aggro, you gain nothing so don't use it. If your healer or a DD has aggro and you know it will take more than a single Flash/Shield Lob to peel it off them, pop Provoke and dump every threat generator you have on it to secure your position. It may seem a bit weak at first glance, but when your DD has been spamming hard on a mob and has massive aggro, you press one button and you get every bit of that +1. It's spectacular in the right situations.

[Enkidoh]

End-game Flash might suffer in usefulness, but early on (especially in the early dungeons), it's power cannot be underestimated. At level 15-20 you don't even have access to Rage of Halone, and have to rely on Fast Blade + Savage Blade/Riot Blade only.

In places like Tam Tara and Copperbell you'll be having to deal with lots of adds/links at once, and it is the only way to get all those extra mobs back onto you off your healer. I've been doing the early dungeon runs a lot lately (for a friend, to get her the Acolyte's Boots, so far without success ), and I normally open the fight with Shield Lob, Flash, then just repeat Fast Blade +Riot Blade (to recover MP), and repeat, until there's one mob left and I swap Riot Blade for Savage Blade.

Yes Savage Blade gives more individual hate than Flash, but given Savage Blade only affects one target where as Flash is AoE, it's not going to do much to hold the whole shebang onto you. Or at least, that's how things have seemed for me so far (as I haven't gotten to end game I have no idea how different tanking is there so I'll take your word for it on that.)

[ZenBear]

snip

You're right that at lower levels Flash has a much greater potency. I remember when I was leveling I made it just fine through Sastasha, Tam Tara and Copperbell relying mainly on Savage Blade for enmity, but when I hit Halatali where they start to regularly throw larger groups of mobs at you I had to use the Fast Blade -> Riot Blade -> Flash combo exclusively. The damage of Riot on top of Flash enmity was sufficient to hold single target enmity against a DD at that stage, so I didn't need to use Savage. But that didn't last for long.

Something in particular of note: you really don't need to use Riot Blade to regenerate MP, especially toward the end of a fight. Once combat is over, you regen massive chunks of HP/MP per second, so unless you're really hauling a$$ you'll usually have full bars by the next fight. In a pull of 3 trash mobs you can cycle Fast Blade -> Savage Blade -> Flash over and over and by the time you run out of MP at least one mob will be dead and you won't need to Flash anymore anyway.

This is what I love about FFXIV's dungeons; they teach you how to tank as you level up and gain new abilities. As you progress your tactics change and what worked for you before is no longer as effective, but the lessons you learned in those lower level dungeons guide you to discover those new tactics that will carry you through what lies ahead.

[Unaki]

Paladins are exceptionally strong tanks compared to Warriors when it comes to low-count fights, especially bosses due to them having a lot of mitigation.

As a Paladin with only level 10 in Marauder this is what you have access to:

-A permanent 20% reduction in damage received via Shield Oath
-20% reduction in damage taken for 20 seconds via Rampart on a 90second CD
-40% reduction in damage taken for 10 seconds via Sentinel on a 180second CD
-60% increased block rate via Bulwark on a 180second CD which is good for when you have enough enmity to be able to spam Shield Swipe, our most cost efficient damage available and can keep threat regardless.
-Cover which allows us to take all physical damage meant for another party member within 6 yalms.
-Foresight from MRD which is the same as Rampart but on a 120second CD for us.
-Bloodbath from MRD which gives us 25% of our damage dealt back as HP for 15 seconds. This ability alone can be used every time its up and at the beginning of the battle the enmity it generates is invaluable and eases any initial burst you might receive, lessening the chance of healers taking aggro from you.

That is just the list of mitigation. We also have [b]Convalescence{/b] which gives an extra 30% to any healing we receive that, as far as I can tell, doesn't give any extra enmity to the one who healed you. Our Flash is also traited which adds a blind effect tot he enemies it hits, something that MRD can never get.

[Kashou]

Foresight is not the same as Rampart. Foresight only increases defense while rampart reduces damage. Foresight is near useless.

[ZenBear]

Foresight is not the same as Rampart. Foresight only increases defense while rampart reduces damage. Foresight is near useless.

You are partially correct; Foresight and Rampart are different. You are incorrect, however, in saying Foresight is near useless. Any additional mitigation is fantastic. You pop Foresight during the times I advised and you will take such negligible damage from a boss's auto-attacks that your healer could afk for its duration and you'd still be alive. It does nothing to protect you from magic damage, but especially at lower levels most of those kinds of attacks are avoidable.

[Kerrath]

PLD also has a much smaller basic rotation which means that the skill requirement to play one is much lower--and this may be a big plus for people new to tanking.