Here you’ll learn how to be that knight in shining armour your healer doesn’t have to worry about.
The Paladin or PLD for short is one of Final Fantasy’s classic jobs. It big acclaim to fame is not only being Cecil’s job, the protagonist of Final Fantasy IV, but now its also the poster child of Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker.
But honestly, who in seven hells plays Paladin? It’s like so boring, it’s just a dude with a sword and shield! Have you seen Warrior or Gunbreaker?
Wait, they can heal themselves and their party members? Have great overall utility as an off tank and sustainability? Have you seen Blade of Faith, Blade of Truth and Blade of Valor go off?! People.. I think I’ve found my new main.
So yeah, the Paladin. They fall into that ‘careful who you call ugly in high school’ category of jobs and are probably the closest Final Fantasy XIV has to a traditional tank. Your healers will love you, or be jealous because of your big heals. And while you might be slacking just a little bit in damage. You are the Swiss army knife of tanks. Especially for progression its always great to have someone who pick up the pieces and prevent a wipe. Here you’ll be learning all about what it means to be that Paladin that has their party wipe in dungeon. Only to have them watch for 5 more minutes while you solo the last boss. Lets go.
What about the Lore though?
Don’t worry, we have you avid Role-players covered. Paladins come in two flavours; The free Paladin’s only bound by duty to their creed. They wander about and do knight stuff. You know, help the innocent and never demand a reward. The clean cut super heroes of the world of Final Fantasy XIV. On the other hand, there are the Sultansworn. Loyal servants to the sultanate of Ul’dah and protectors of the sultana Nanamo Ul Namo. You’ll get more familiar with their ways once you start the Paladin Job Quest’s at level 30. But first on how to get there.
From Gladiator to Paladin
Lucky for you, Gladiator is one of Final Fantasy XIV’s starting classes. That also means you’ll start your adventure in Ul’dah and you lock yourself into being a tank. Don’t worry, you can start looking for other classes once you unlock after a few of the class quests. As always it is integral for you to do those and the later unlocked job quests along the main story scenario. Those will not only reward you with new gear, but also new abilities. Once you finish up your endeavour with the Gladiator guild, you’ll be offered to join the Paladins. This will reward you the jobstone and even more abilities to toy around with.
How to Tank as Paladin
We have a general guide to tanking in Final Fantasy XIV here. But it can’t hurt going over the basics right? Your most essential tool is the skill Iron Will, you’ll get after reaching level 10. Whenever you are in group content you should have that activated. You do a pull with multiple enemies by using the skill Total Eclipse, an AoE attack that hits multiple enemies. Later you’ll get Prominence which is just your combo ability for that. You want to use those whenever there is more than one enemy for you to attack. Use Shield Lob, your ranged attack to pick up any enemies you didn’t get or pull them from far away. You can check your enmity or aggro on the enemy list. In an ideal case those symbols next to the enemy names should always be red. That mean’s that you are their top priority right now.
Multi Target
Once you have your pull, make sure to group them up nicely so everyone else can hit the pull with their AoE attacks. You should also, always face them away from the party and dodge as many ground targeting attacks as possible. Depending on how confident you are, you can either pull one enemy group at the time or pull wall to wall in dungeons. Which is usually two to three groups of enemies. Of course your healer has to keep up with you on that, but if you use your damage mitigation it should be fine.
Single Target
Single target encounters work just a little differently. You just do your regular rotation and try to keep the boss steady in the middle of the arena. Facing away from the party and ideally facing north. Now different bosses require different strategies but this is what you should always default to.
Damage Mitigation as Paladin
As a Paladin, you have an array of tools to keep damage far away from your health bar. In addition to your shield of course which will do a decent amount of legwork for physical damage. But don’t forget that you also get a powerful single target heal. Use that whenever you find your party in a pickle.
Multi Target
In situations where you fight multiple enemies, you should circle through Rampart, Sentinel, Reprisal and Divine Veil in any order. Just make sure they don’t overlap with each other. Use Arm’s Length as soon as you your pull situated, that will apply a slow status effect to them for 15 seconds. During all of that, you should use Sheltron/Holy Sheltron every time you can to give your healer breathing room to do damage instead. Use Hallowed Ground only as a last resort, it will make you invincible in most situations for 10 seconds.
Single Target
In boss fights/raids/trials/ect. you should use Rampart or Sentinel on any kind single target attack aimed at you. Use them literately but don’t waste them on a bosses auto-target attacks either. Use Sheltron/Holy Sheltron as often as you can if you are the main tank, or Intervention on the other tank. Cover is great to help someone out in a pinch and take the damage for them. For big raid-wide damage use Reprisal or Divine Veil. And if there is a stack mechanic, use Passage of Arms. For that skill, you need to stand infront of your party, and make sure they stand between the skill effect’s wings for damage mitigation. Hallowed Ground is normally used in sticky situations. But with some coordination and confidence, you can use to ignore certain tank-buster mechanics.
Fighting as Paladin
Multi Target
Fighting group is as straight forward as it gets. You simply use Total Eclipse and Prominence. Then you weave your off global cooldowns like Circle of Scorn and Spirits Within/Expiacion between those skills. You should also make sure to use your buff Fight or Flight whenever it comes off cooldown to maximize your damage. If you have at least 5000 MP use Requiescat and cast Holy Circle 4 times (5 times if you aren’t 80 yet) then Confiteor. And you finish off with your Blade of Valor combo. Go back to using Total Eclipse and Prominence until Requiescat comes off cooldown. Since using Holy Circle without it will just bleed some potency and restrict movement.
Single Target
For single target encounters you obviously use your single target combo. Don’t forget the always be casting mantra either. Till level 54 you’ll only have to worry about your three skill combo: Fast Blade, Riot Blade and Rage of Halone*(*Royal Authority from level 60 onwards). At level 54 you’ll get Goring Blade, a combo ender that will also apply a damage over time effect. You’ll have about 6 global cool down skills that you can now use before you have to reapply it. That means two full Rage of Halone/Royal Authority combos or one full Atonement combo. This is your bread and butter combo.
In-between that combo you’ll weave first Circle of Scorn and then Spirits Within/Expiacion on the weave window. That way you have some breathing room for weaving. On the opener, you want to weave Fight or Flight after the first Fast Blade. That way you don’t waste any potential damage buffs, after you’ll weave it whenever it comes off the cooldown.
Then we have the Requiescat, Holy Spirit, Blade of Valor combo. Weave Requiescat (best between Royal Authority and Atonement), after your next Goring Blade start casting Holy Spirit four times (5 times if you aren’t 80 yet) then Confiteor. Use your Blade of Valor after and it should line up perfectly to replace the Goring Blade damage over time effect with its own. Now you can transition back into your bread and butter combo until Requiescat comes back up.
Other stuff about Paladin
Here are some of the hot tips YoshiP doesn’t want you to know about. If you aren’t in melee range for the boss and have 5000 MP to waste (note you need 5000 MP) for your Blade of Valor combo; use Holy Spirit to maximize your damage output, it has quite the range. And with a cast time of only 1.5 seconds its very generous for slide casting! (You can find some info on that scrolling down here) Only after, use Shield Lob to save resources for uptime. Outside of Requiescat, you can do your whole Holy Spirit + Blade of Valor combo at range. And since there is no cast time under Requiescat you are open to movement.
If your healer gets busy, you can weave in Clemency in your Requiescat + 4 Holy Spirit/Circle casts for some healing. Clemency is a very powerful heal, all things considered but you should only use it when the situation absolutely demands it to keep you or your co tank alive. Just make sure it doesn’t mess with having to reapply Goring Blade whenever it comes up again.
If you feel confident about your uptime, weave Intervene for extra damage. If you don’t feel confident in a fight however. Make sure to always have at least one charge in store to quickly get back to the boss again.
And that’s how you play Paladin. A very versatile Job with lots of utility. The Swiss army knife of tanks that you don’t wanna miss out on while progressing in a fight or solo content. While its not as busy as other tanks, its clean cut and offers lots of defensive options. You also get to spin your sword around and with the Heroic Spirit Shield glamoured, it looks like you’re blocking attacks with just your forearms. And that’s pretty cool.
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