Gladiator

[SephYuyX]

Mod Edit: Updated 8/30/10, credit for the 30+ abilities goes to Gulkeeva.

http://images.bluegartr.com/bucket/gallery/085a3e1bd5f3de57d00f2bb20fafc4b2.jpg The Best Defense

Gladiators specialize in the handling of all manner of one–handed blades, from daggers to longswords, be they single– or double–edged, straight or curved. A defining characteristic of the guild is its emphasis on diverse combat tactics, training its members to bring their martial skills to bear in any situation.
As such, there are practitioners who marry sword with shield, seeking to defend their fellow companions. Others opt for an empty off hand, choosing instead to focus entirely on their sword arm. The gladiator’s proficiency with blades also extends to those hurled at range, such as throwing knives.

http://images.bluegartr.com/bucket/gallery/565cb84cb08e6d6d8d0e5a67a05f3041.jpg


Abilities(Sword)
● Light Stab (Rank 1 - MP Cost: 0 - TP Cost: 0 - Cast Time: Instant - Recast: Instant )
◦ Attack with your sword, dealing piercing damage.

● Light Slash (Rank 1 - MP Cost: 0 - TP Cost: 0 - Cast Time: Instant - Recast: Instant )
◦ Attack with your sword, dealing slashing damage.

● Rampart (Rank 4 - MP Cost: 0 - TP Cost: 0 - Cast Time: Instant - Recast: 5m )
◦ Fight to protect yourself, increasing defense and magical defense.

● Provoke (Rank 10 - MP Cost: 0 - TP Cost: 0 - Cast Time: Instant - Recast: 20s )
◦ Gesture threateningly, increasing enmity and temporarily focusing the target's attacks on you.

● Still Precision (Rank 14 - MP Cost: 0 - TP Cost: 0 - Cast Time: Instant - Recast: 90s )
◦ Steady yourself, increasing accuracy and reducing evasion.

● Obsess (Rank 18 - MP Cost: 0 - TP Cost: 0 - Cast Time: Instant - Recast: 45s )
◦ Focus on a single enemy, increasing defense against the target while reducing defense against all other targets.

● Cover (Rank 22 - MP Cost: 0 - TP Cost: 0 - Cast Time: Instant - Recast: 60s )
◦ Come to the aid of another, positioning yourself between the target and an enemy to redirect damage to yourself instead.

● Cadence (Rank 26 - MP Cost: 0 - TP Cost: 0 - Cast Time: Instant - Recast: 60s )
◦ Control the pace of battle, increasing the power of your next attack while in battle regimen mode.

● Ambidexterity - Possibly bought with guild marks (Rank 30 - MP Cost: 0 - TP Cost: 0 - Cast Time: Instant - Recast: 5m )
◦ Focus on your off hand, halving stamina cost of your next action.

● Rampart II (Rank 34 - MP Cost: 0 - TP Cost: 0 - Cast Time: Instant - Recast: 5m )
◦ Fight to protect yourself, increasing defense and magical defense.

● Sentinel (Rank 36 - MP Cost: 0 - TP Cost: 0 - Cast Time: Instant - Recast: 60s )
◦ Thwart attacks to fluster your enemies, reducing damage dealt to you and slowing loss of enmity.

● Provoke II (Rank 40 - MP Cost: 0 - TP Cost: 0 - Cast Time: Instant - Recast: 20s )
◦ Gesture threateningly, increasing enmity and temporarily focusing the target's attacks on you.

● Still Precision II (Rank 44 - MP Cost: 0 - TP Cost: 0 - Cast Time: Instant - Recast: 90s )
◦ Steady yourself, increasing accuracy and reducing evasion.

● Tempered Will (Rank 46 - MP Cost: 0 - TP Cost: 0 - Cast Time: Instant - Recast: 90s )
◦ Harden your resolve, increasing magic resistance and removing bind and heavy effects.

● Obsess II (Rank 48 - MP Cost: 0 - TP Cost: 0 - Cast Time: Instant - Recast: 45s )
◦ Focus on a single enemy, increasing defense against the target while reducing defense against all other targets.

Abilities(Shield)
● Guard (Rank 1 - MP Cost: 0 - TP Cost: 0 - Cast Time: Instant - Recast: Instant )
◦ Guard with your shield.

● Aegis Boon (Rank 10 - MP Cost: 0 - TP Cost: 0 - Cast Time: Instant - Recast: 60s )
◦ Recover behind the safety of your shield, increasing defense against frontal attacks and converting blocked damage into HP.

● Shield Bash (Rank 14 - MP Cost: 0 - TP Cost: 500 - Cast Time: Instant - Recast: 30s )
◦ Slam an enemy with your shield, dealing blunt damage. May interrupt cats and temporarily render the target unable to cast again for sveeral seconds.

● Outmaneuver (Rank 20 - MP Cost: 0 - TP Cost: 0 - Cast Time: Instant - Recast: 60s )
◦ Strategize for survival, increasing defense against frontal attacks and increasing TP generated by blocks.

● War Drum (Rank 30 - MP Cost: 0 - TP Cost: 0 - Cast Time: Instant - Recast: 45s )
◦ Create a clamor, increasing enmity.

● Aegis Boon II (Rank 40 - MP Cost: 0 - TP Cost: 0 - Cast Time: Instant - Recast: 60s )
◦ Recover behind the safety of your shield, increasing defense against frontal attacks and converting blocked damage into HP.

● Shield Bash (Rank 44 - MP Cost: 0 - TP Cost: 500 - Cast Time: Instant - Recast: 30s )
◦ Slam an enemy with your shield, dealing blunt damage. May interrupt cats and temporarily render the target unable to cast again for sveeral seconds.

● Deflection (Rank 50 - MP Cost: 0 - TP Cost: 0 - Cast Time: Instant - Recast: 60s )
◦ Focus on your shield arm, increasing defense against frontal attacks and negating a portion of blocked damage.

Weapon Skills
● Red Lotus (Rank 2 - MP Cost: 10 - TP Cost: 1000 - Cast Time: Instant - Recast: 10s )
◦ Invoke the power of flame and strike, dealing fire damage.

● Circle Slash (Rank 6 - MP Cost: 0 - TP Cost: 1000 - Cast Time: Instant - Recast: 10s )
◦ Spin your weapon fiercely, dealing damage to nearby enemies.

● Phalanx (Rank 8 - MP Cost: 0 - TP Cost: 250 - Cast Time: Instant - Recast: 5s )
◦ Strike from behind the safety of your shield, dealing slashing damage and increasing enmity. Can only be executed following a block.
◦ Note: Requires equipped shield and use of Guard ability.

● Spinstroke (Rank 12 - MP Cost: 0 - TP Cost: 1000 - Cast Time: Instant - Recast: 10s )
◦ Feint and then strike, dealing slashing damage to the target. Increases attack power when the target is not engaging you.

● Howling Vortex (Rank 16 - MP Cost: 0 - TP Cost: 1000 - Cast Time: Instant - Recast: 10s )
◦ Sound a haunting howl with your weapon, dealing slashing damage and temporarily lengthening the target's cast times.

● Onion Cut (Rank 16 - MP Cost: 0 - TP Cost: 1000 - Cast Time: Instant - Recast: 40s )
◦ Feign weakness and then attack, dealing slashing damage.

● Luminous Spire (Rank 24 - MP Cost: 20 - TP Cost: 1000 - Cast Time: Instant - Recast: 10s )
◦ Imbue your blade with brilliance, dealing astral damage and reducing the target's magic defense. Blinds other nearby enemies.

● Red Lotus II (Rank 28 - MP Cost: 10 - TP Cost: 1000 - Cast Time: Instant - Recast: 10s )
◦ Invoke the power of flame and strike, dealing fire damage.

● Rage of Halone (Rank 30 - MP Cost: 0 - TP Cost: 1000 - Cast Time: 5s - Recast: 10s )
◦ Halone guides your weapon, dealing piercing damage. Increases attack power in the proportion to the amount of damage sustained while readying.

● Circle Slash (Rank 32 - MP Cost: 0 - TP Cost: 1000 - Cast Time: Instant - Recast: 10s )
◦ Spin your weapon fiercely, dealing damage to nearby enemies.

● Phalanx II (Rank 38 - MP Cost: 0 - TP Cost: 250 - Cast Time: Instant - Recast: 5s )
◦ Strike from behind the safety of your shield, dealing slashing damage and increasing enmity. Can only be executed following a block.
◦ Note: Requires equipped shield and use of Guard ability.

● Spinstroke II (Rank 42 - MP Cost: 0 - TP Cost: 1000 - Cast Time: Instant - Recast: 10s )
◦ Feint and then strike, dealing slashing damage to the target. Increases attack power when the target is not engaging you.

● Riot Blade (Rank 50 - MP Cost: 0 - TP Cost: 2000 - Cast Time: Instant - Recast: 10s )
◦ Unleash a shockwave, increasing attack power and dealing slashing damage at range. Increases enmity and renders the target incapable of using weapon skills for a short time.

[Aratharn]

So let's talk about Gladiator.

In phase 3 I was 21 gladiator 25 phys. Also leveled Pugilist to 11.

Found it near impossible to hold hate, especially from mages using Cure.

However, I learned the ability Taunt (basically Provoke) from Pugilist at rank 10 and also bought Heavy Slash with my Gladiator Guild Marks.

With Provoke, Taunt, Phalanx, and Heavy Slash I have no problem holding hate anymore. Now my biggest enemy is the delay in combat, pressing an action key and having it either not go off or go off 5-10 seconds later.

[Loaar]

This is the most complete skill listing I have from phases 2 + 3.

They are all incomplete in some way, so if you see anything wrong or have info I don't, let me know and I'll correct them.

Skills & Traits you buy with Marks:



A note on the skills/traits:
The skills that increase an Attribute temporarily on the gathering classes cannot be used on the combat classes.
So far, each combat class has 2 skills, a level 20 one and a level 40 one. The skills cost zero TP, zero MP and cost no Action Points to equip.
The skills that say "Increase TP generation" do less damage than a normal attack but give 150-200% more TP.
The traits that grant class affinity are designed to increase the effectiveness of your cross class skills. Equipping the CON affinity trait on another class will boost the effectiveness of the Cure spells for example.
The Attribute swap traits can be used to reduce the diminishing returns penalty when buying your stats.

For example:

You buy the +10 STR to +10 INT trait.

Your STR is 40, your INT is 15.

If you put 10 allocation points into STR your STR will now be 45 (it costs two points to raise a STAT beyond 40).

However, if you put 10 points into INT, and equipped the trait, your STR will be 50, and your INT still 15.

You get 5 more points of STR for the same allocation point cost, and have the advantage of already having some INT should you swap to a mage class.

The skills:


Gladiator 1-26
Known Skills and Traits (Subject to change)

1: Light Slash
TP Cost: 0
Action Cost: 0
Cooldown: TBC
Requires: Gladiator
Attack with your sword, dealing slashing damage.

1: Light Stab
TP Cost: 0
Action Cost: 0
Cooldown: TBC
Requires: Gladiator
Attack with your sword, dealing piercing damage.

2: Red Lotus
TP Cost: 1000
MP Cost: 10
Action Cost: 1
Cooldown: 8 seconds
Requires: Disciples of War, Disciples of Magic
Invoke the power of the flame and strike, dealing fire damage.

4: Rampart
TP Cost: 1000
Action Cost: 3
Cooldown: 5mins
Requires: Disciples of War, Disciples of Magic
Protect yourself, increasing defense and magical defense.

6: Circle Slash
TP Cost: 1000
Action Cost: 3
Cooldown: 8 seconds
Requires: Disciples of War, Disciples of Magic
Spin your weapon fiercely, increasing attack power and dealing slashing damage to nearby targets.

8: Phalanx
TP Cost: 250
Action Cost: 3
Cooldown: TBC
Requires: TBC
Move deftly from defense to offense, increasing attack power and dealing slashing damage. Increases enmity. Can only be executed following a block.

10:Provoke
TP Cost: 0
Action Cost: 3
Cooldown 20secs
Requires: Disciples of War, Disciples of Magic
Use a threatening gesture to increase enmity.

12: Spinstroke
TP Cost: 1000
Action Cost: 3
Cooldown: 8 seconds
Requires: Disciples of War, Disciples of Magic
Feint before attacking, dealing slashing damage to the target. Increases attack power when the target is not engaging you.

14: Still Precision
TP Cost: 0
Action Cost: 3
Cooldown: TBC
Requires: Disciples of War, Disciples of Magic
Steady yourself, increasing accuracy and reducing evasion.

16: Howling Vortex
TP Cost: TBC
Action Cost: 3
Cooldown: TBC
Requires: Disciples of War, Disciples of Magic
Sound a haunting howl with your weapon, increasing attack power and dealing slashing damage. Lengthens the target's cast times.

18: Obsess
TP Cost: TBC
Action Cost: 3
Cooldown: TBC
Requires: Disciples of War, Disciples of Magic
Focus on a single enemy, increasing defense against the target while reducing defense against all other targets.

20: Onion Cut
TP Cost: TBC
Action Cost: 3
Cooldown: TBC
Requires: TBC
Feign weakness and then attack, dealing slashing damage.

TBC?: Red Lotus II
TP Cost: TBC
Action Cost: 3
Cooldown: TBC
Requires: Disciples of War, Disciples of Magic
Call upon the power of the flame, increasing attack power and dealing fire damage.

22: Cover
TP Cost: TBC
Action Cost: 3
Cooldown: TBC
Requires: TBC
Come to the aid of another, positioning yourself between the target and an enemy to redirect damage to yourself instead.


24: Luminous Spire
TP Cost: TBC
Action Cost: 3
Cooldown: TBC
Requires: TBC
Imbue your blade with brilliance, dealing astral damage and reducing the targets magic defense, blinds other nearby enemies.

Note: You can keep using this weapon skill 3 times in a row and deal more damage each time because its reducing magic defense while dealing astral damage.

26: Cadence
TP Cost: TBC
Action Cost: 3
Cooldown: TBC
Requires: TBC
Controls the pace of combat, increasing the power of your next attack while in battle regimen mode.

Skills & Traits you buy with Marks:


Skills

Heavy Slash
Attack with your sword, dealing slashing damage and increasing enmity

Heavy Stab
Attack with your sword, dealing piercing damage and increasing enmity

Traits
Self Preservation
Increases the lenght of the guard ability by 50%

Swordsmanship
Increases your affinity with gladiator based actions by 10, up to a maximum of 100

Mind over Matter
Converts DEX +5 into MND +5

Asceticism
Converts VIT +5 into PIE +5

Muscle Memory
Converts STR +5 into INT +5

Mind over Matter II
Converts DEX +10 into MND +10

Asceticism II
Converts VIT +10 into PIE +10

Muscle Memory II
Converts STR +10 into INT +10






Shield 1-10

10: Aegis Boon
TP Cost: 0
Action Cost: 3
Cooldown: TBC
Requires: TBC
Cost is 75% of your Stamina Bar. Works in the same manner as Guard, however you absorb a % of each attack you block as HP.

[Gulkeeva]

Shield lv 14 (bought from marks I imagine)
Sheild bash
Slam an enemy with your shield, dealing blunt damage. May interrupt casts and temporary render the target unable to cast again for several seconds.
Cast time 0
recast time 30
MP cost 0
Tp cost 500

Shield lv 20
Outmaneuver
Strategize for survival, increasing defense against frontal attacks increasing TP generated by blocks.
Cast time 0
Recast time 60
Mp cost 0
TP cost 0

Shield Lv 30
War Drum
Create a clamor, increasing enmity.Cast time 0
recast time 40
mp cost 0
TP cost 0

[Aratharn]

Swordsmanship
Increases your affinity with gladiator based actions by 10, up to a maximum of 100


Anyone know what that means?

Thanks for the clarification on the skills/traits swap ..

[miokomioko]

I could be wrong, but I believe those traits (one for every mage/melee class) just enhance your otherwise gimped Gladiator abilities/actions when you set them on other classes. I don't know how much an ability from a different class is naturally nerfed down, but "100 affinity" sounds to me like you would get the full effect.

[Gokulo]

^ exactly.
Those traits enhance the effect when you cross-class abilities. Having Conjury affinity will make your Cure work better on Thaumaturge or any other job.

[Callisto]

Updated. Will finish updating the other classes tomorrow.

[Callisto]

No differences between P3 and OB based on Gulk's list.

[Ratatapa]

For Glad I guess you should upper

STR VIT and DEX or some mnd too?

[aru]

For Glad I guess you should upper

STR VIT and DEX or some mnd too?

Yes, this has been my approach to it. I'm going heavy str and vit, slightly reduced dex and minimal mnd until we start fighting stuff that has dangerous magic attacks (I haven't really encountered any at this point in Ul'dah).

Has anyone noticed any tricks to ranking up shield skill? I started at lvl 1 GLD with a shield but it is skilling so much more slowly than sword that it's really quite frustrating. I'm rank10 sword but only rank5 shield and I'm worried about having it fall too far behind and losing potential benefits or sitting at rank50 sword and rank25 shield and having to sit at sword cap and tediously skill up shield to match.

Edit: Also, has anyone heard of an explanation on what "Wield Rate" and "Blocking" stats determine/affect?

[Dein]

I'm pretty sure they screwed up or intentionally lowered the rate shield levels up in Open Beta as I'm only rank 6 and I never seem to get above 200 shield skill per fight. The best way to level it though is to let a mob beat on you that isn't dangerous, and this works best during guildleves. It'd be much easier though to gauge how well your shield skill is going if they'd show us skill gains from blocks/parries again like in the beta.

[Aratharn]

Odds they will ever give GLD cure? Or will we have to level up Conjurer and put in 5000 guild marks to get that 100 affinity so it's worthwhile? As of now I had leveled Conj to level 2 just to get Cure and it's completely worthless at higher levels... at level 21 GLD taking the 8-9 seconds for the cure to go off just isn't worth the 117 hp I get back. Second Wind is my only life saver now if I am solo and with the recast you can't rely on it.

I know it's a new game but I can't help wanting GLD to be just like PLD in FFXI

[Lucavi]

Glad gets cure from aegis boon, giving them HP for successful blocks. If you're asking if glad gets the actual "cure" spell, then they probably will not, since no job has any ability that outright mirrors another ability.

We'll have to see down the road if SE starts overlapping spells and abilities, but for right now, I like the idea of each job getting completely separate abilities, as it really stresses the whole multi-classing thing.

[aru]

Anyone else annoyed that they cannot block mob weapons skills or ranged attacks?

[Ikarys]

I know it's a new game but I can't help wanting GLD to be just like PLD in FFXI

Highly unlikely. Even as a Paladin in XI, your cure was never as effective as a white mage. So, rather than having to get some of the functionality in one job class, you will most likely have to do exactly what you said and level CON for an effective cure, then use guildmarks to buy up the potency to 100%. Ideally, however, this would result in a more effective curing tank than Paladin ever was, because you are devoting a significant amount of action / trait space and guild marks to curing functionality, rather than just taking what you can get from the job.

[Ratatapa]

Can you get shield skill up without using Guard? or you have to guard to get skill ups?

[solracht]

Can you get shield skill up without using Guard? or you have to guard to get skill ups?

I don't think I've seen a single shield skillup without using Guard. I don't want to say I'm 100% sure since I have my shield up more often than not, though.

Also, Cure sucking at 21 is more than expected. There's Cure II at 20.

[aru]

Can you get shield skill up without using Guard? or you have to guard to get skill ups?

No, but you can still occasionally block, however this generates sword skill not shield.

[solracht]

No, but you can still occasionally block, however this generates sword skill not shield.

Pretty sure that's parrying, not blocking. You get skill ups for whatever weapon you use to parry (sword, hand to hand, axe, etc).

[Dein]

In phase 3 of the beta test I know for certain that I would occasionally get the message "You partially block" when my shield was down, but this was almost after my shield arm had fallen so I chalked it up to lag and the game messing up. Also, whenever I got messages like that (and even sometimes when I had my shield raised) I would always get sword skill instead of shield skill. I haven't seen the messages messing up in OB but I can't tell if it still screws up and gives sword skill on blocks sometimes or not due to them not showing the skill gained from parry/blocks.

Edit: As for the concern about wanting Gladiator to feel like a paladin, Aegis Boon will handle any concerns you might have. Presuming it has remained unchanged you gain temporary invincibility towards blockable attacks for the normal duration of guard (sadly the trait Self Preservation does not affect the length of Aegis Boon) and gain about 40~45% of the damage you would've taken back as hp. The only issue with it I saw was that I didn't gain shield skill because the game was acting like the enemies weren't attacking me when I absorbed their hits (this included not showing any attack animations from them).

[Ratatapa]

But yeah it'S true it's hard to skill shield i'm glad 8/shield 3

[aru]

In phase 3 of the beta test I know for certain that I would occasionally get the message "You partially block" when my shield was down, but this was almost after my shield arm had fallen so I chalked it up to lag and the game messing up. Also, whenever I got messages like that (and even sometimes when I had my shield raised) I would always get sword skill instead of shield skill. I haven't seen the messages messing up in OB but I can't tell if it still screws up and gives sword skill on blocks sometimes or not due to them not showing the skill gained from parry/blocks.

This may be what I've been encountering, then. Sometimes it's a bit ambiguous as to what is a bug or lag and what is intended by design.

[Black]

would like to know where to get the Gladiator guild marks

[Johndile]

Rank 20 leves.

[Ratatapa]

Dumb question i'm sure but can you learn skill with shield? or are you stucked with Guard?

[Amastacia]

Dumb question i'm sure but can you learn skill with shield? or are you stucked with Guard?

You can, but there's only 1 skill per 10 levels.

At 10, you get Aegis Boon, which, as Dein said, negates damage completely from all blocked attacks and returns a small amount of HP instead.

A higher level skill is apparently a Provoke-like effect, and there is eventually an Aegis Boon II as well.

Through level 50 there isn't currently a Shield Bash or equivalent, the few skills you get are either defensive or hate-generating only.

[Aratharn]

Through level 50 there isn't currently a Shield Bash or equivalent, the few skills you get are either defensive or hate-generating only.

Is the first post in this thread wrong then?


Shield Bash (Rank 14 - MP Cost: 0 - TP Cost: 500 - Cast Time: Instant - Recast: 30s )
◦ Slam an enemy with your shield, dealing blunt damage. May interrupt cats and temporarily render the target unable to cast again for several seconds.

[Ratatapa]

Ya lv 14 shield I guess, which is hard to lv up!

[Raytheon]

I've heard from a friend who's on the beta that you can equip the PUG ability that's like Chakra for MNK in XI on GLD for curing yourself. Is this worthwhile for self curing? I've never played so don't know, but it would seem that an instant ability like that would be more beneficial than an 8-9 second casting of cure.

[Dein]

I've heard from a friend who's on the beta that you can equip the PUG ability that's like Chakra for MNK in XI on GLD for curing yourself. Is this worthwhile for self curing? I've never played so don't know, but it would seem that an instant ability like that would be more beneficial than an 8-9 second casting of cure.

For a pinch it can be good but it tends to only heal for 90~100 hp in OB, costs half of your stamina bar, and has a 1:30min coold down when you sub it. It only takes me 3 to 4 seconds to cast Cure on myself so I use that if I'm really getting beat up, but once you get Aegis Boon it becomes easier to handle harder fights.

[Raytheon]

Ahh ok, I was never told how much it actually cures. Is spell interruption a huge part of spellcasting in XIV?

[Lucavi]

Its not too big, from what I've experienced as a 20+ conj. Every now and then you'll get your shit rock and the spell will "fail", but there's no recast timer if it fails so you can simply press it again, assuming you can cut through the lag.

[Raytheon]

Ok cool. Was wanting to know basically if investments in Fast Cast and/or interruption down gear/traits was going to be necessary. According to the description, Gladiators can choose not to use shields to focus on their sword hand. Does anyone know if dual wield is a possible unlock for Gladiators? With the ability to pretty much fully customize your traits for these jobs, Gladiator seems like it's going to have lots of play styles for tanking options. Does anything else look promising for tanking? I'd like to see more than just PLD, NIN, and the occasional RDM/NIN setups.

[Ratatapa]

Ok so repeating what I asked another time since we got more Info

Since dealing DMG seems important in this game for hate STR is a must

Dex is kinda useless exept for Criticals hit

Vit is Important for HP and DEF
MND is important for Magic DEF and MP (for some TP moves)

So I was planning going



VIT > STR > MND > DEX

as for Resist planning to keep them all even for Resists

Anyone object or sees it another way?

[Raytheon]

Judging from what you posted, it's looking like the game mechanics, in regards to stats, are almost parallel to how it worked in XI. Are you planning on making an elemental resist setup or are you just trying to find the most efficient way to keep hate through the distribution of your points?

You probably know more than me about it, as I've stated in another post, I haven't played the beta myself yet, so all my info is from various sites and heresy. With that in mind, weapon dmg wasn't very efficient in XI for keeping hate. At least not until PLD's got Atonement. If this is playing like XI (which it kinda sounds like so far), hate abilities and magic is probably going to generate more enmity than physical attacks.

I'd imagine if you were going toe-to-toe with a MAR, he's probably going to have higher STR than you, so that alone isn't going to keep your hate level above his. My guess is a combination of your physical attacks, magic, and hate tool abilities is going to be key in keeping the mob focused on you. My approach will be to level most of these jobs up to 10-12 to buy some traits and find combinations of said traits that generate a decent amount of enmity.

This is all purely outside perception, I may wooshing this entire thing. I'm excited to find out in 2 days though!

[Ratatapa]

I'm not necessarly saying that normal DMG does, but there is alot of TP moves that increase hate, so i'm sure that DMG dealt will help on Enmity

As for the resist, since reallocating points is annoying I gues it'S better to put points equal and try to find gear to enhance more.

But that can alll change overtime

[Raytheon]

I see. Is there a penalty for reallocating points, or do you have to pay an NPC gil or something? It would be pretty awesome if you could redo your points depending on what you're doing.

As an example, going balls out on a physical dmg resist build for tanking a mob that hits like a truck. Then, changing your points around for a more offensive build to solo or something. Can you do this or nay?

[Ratatapa]

No it'S just that it'S 5points per section per 30min RL

So exemple I set

10 in STR
20 in VIT


Well it's gonna take me long

first 30min will take off 5 in STR and 5 in VIT other 30min will take 5 in STR 5 in VIT, 30min after 5 in vit then another 5in vit

That is if you dont put pts in other stats before you finish taking them all out

Same for Lightining Fire etc

[Raytheon]

So there's only a time penalty on resetting the points then?

[Ratatapa]

Right


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Raytheon]

That's pretty cool, actually. Sorry to keep pestering you, but how advantageous is it to start off in the starting city that has the guild for the class you plan on playing? I want to start in Limsa Lominsa, which I believe is where the Gladiator guild is anyway? Does this matter in the long run, and if there are any advantages, what are they?

Thanks.

[darkepyon]

Gladiator guild's in Ul'dah, last I checked. I believe you're thinking marauder.

[Raytheon]

Oops, my bad! Well, if I wanted to play GLD, is starting in Limsa Lominsa going to screw me over for not having the GLD guild nearby?

[Raytheon]

PS, BLU ftw.

[aru]

Ok so repeating what I asked another time since we got more Info

Since dealing DMG seems important in this game for hate STR is a must

Dex is kinda useless exept for Criticals hit

Vit is Important for HP and DEF
MND is important for Magic DEF and MP (for some TP moves)

So I was planning going



VIT > STR > MND > DEX

as for Resist planning to keep them all even for Resists

Anyone object or sees it another way?

This is more or less how I'm going to be going early on, but I think it's going to be more complicated than your breakdown suggests.

But it really depends on what you're going to be doing not only with your gladiator build but also with your other classes, even beyond just combat classes. We might find that a GLD with THM abilities and spells is highly effective so you'll need to throw some PIE and INT into the mix at the expense of DEX and STR. We might find that fishing is super lucrative and pump stats to benefit that at the expense of tanking stats. Maybe you want to also level lancer so your GLD will have more STR and DEX than you might like. I really don't think that there is going to be as strong a cookie-cutter feel to stats as we might initially expect.

It's also going to depend on how much magic and what magic enemies are going to be using against us. If some of the really tough fights pretty much require a gladiator and those fights are heavy on the magic then MND would certainly become a much higher priority as well as focusing on the corresponding elemental affinities. We may also uncover that certain abilities/spells will benefit our survivability more with increased affinities, for example with a focus on lightening we might find that the stun duration on shockspikes lasts 10% longer. So there's still going to be a lot of testing, discovery and tweaking as we gain understanding of the game.


According to the description, Gladiators can choose not to use shields to focus on their sword hand. Does anyone know if dual wield is a possible unlock for Gladiators?
That's a possibility, although it was not mentioned or shown in beta. It's also possible that GLDs may use two handed swords to go fully offensive. It's tough to speculate when the beta build could have potentially held so much back for retail release.

[Yoli]

Well, if I wanted to play GLD, is starting in Limsa Lominsa going to screw me over for not having the GLD guild nearby?
You'd be ruined, and the mechanics SE has put in place would grind your character into the ground until you gave up and quit the game, or made a new character in Ul Dah.

... Apart from that, you'll be just fine. Be aware that you'll want to go to the gladiators guild at various points. But that's far from undoable. You can take the ferry and then walk there from limsa lominsa. It's a bit of long walk, but you can do it just fine if you have some time to kill. Alternatively, you can use up your anima to teleport to Ul Dah in the future. Anima's still precious, since it doesn't regen quickly, but if you're conservative w/ it its a quick way to get from point a to b. Travel will, if anything, speed up. I expect both chocobos and airships will make an appearance at some point, and will assist in getting around. Don't get hung up about picking the city with your guild in it if there's another you'd much rather be in. You'll have a better time doing the majority of your stuff in an area of the game you enjoy, rather than one that lets you get to your main classes guild a bit more easily.

[Ratatapa]

Not worth it to start in a town just for aguild

[Raytheon]

You'd be ruined, and the mechanics SE has put in place would grind your character into the ground until you gave up and quit the game, or made a new character in Ul Dah.

I honestly can't tell if you're being serious lol. If so, that sucks. If I only need to go to the GLD guild every now and then for stuff here and there, that's not such a big deal. But if it's a place you're going to hit once or twice a day, that's probably going to change the job I want to play.

More time having fun, less time traveling. I won't miss that about XI at all.

--------------
Thanks for answering my dual wield question.

[Yoli]

The first sentence wasn't serious. You'll be fine. The rest was.

[Raytheon]

lol kool thanks.

So, how many times do you guys think we'll hear Russel Crowe quotes?

"Are you not entertained?!"

[solracht]

Posted this in the old random thread, but it didn't really get any responses and it wasn't really the place to post it.

Am I the only one dissapointed with shields? Blocking doesn't seem to scale well against higher level mobs (the difference between blocking and not blocking gets smaller and smaller). Don't get me wrong, the damage reduction is still good, but I can't feel impressed because of how much stamina we're using to keep guard up all the time.

Then there are the TP moves: Blocking does nothing against TP moves, and using guard past certain point of the fight feels like gambling with your stamina, as your shield arm could go down without blocking a single hit. Aegis Boon has only been reliable for me before the mob starts using TP moves for this reason.

Maybe I'm not looking at the big picture or I just sucked or missed something during the betas, which is why I'm asking here. Anyone else feel like I do?


EDIT:

From the lodestone: http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com/pl/guide/gamescreen01.html

For certain classes, a secondary stamina gauge will appear when a shield is equipped in the off hand. All shield-related commands will make use of this gauge.
The stamina gauges of the main hand and off hand are entirely independent of one another.
Should a character have a shield equipped in their off hand, two stamina gauges will be displayed simultaneously.

There go my shield complaints. All the shortcomings shield has are acceptable now because guarding doesn't stop you from using other abilities. Happy tanking pals.

[aru]

I'm a bit dissatisfied with the shields as well for various reasons. I cannot comment on how well the damage reduction and rate is against higher level mobs as I was not able to party but if it's really as bad as you are making it out to be that seems like it will need to be adjusted. I also dislike that there is no chance to block a TP move or ranged attack. I could understand not being able to block magic-based moves at all, but you should always have at least a chance at the physical.

What you didn't mention that bothers me is gladiators not starting out with a shield. It really feels like other classes have a bit of an advantage early on since GLD's survivability is so closely tied to having a shield. This is compounded by the fact that shield skill increases so damn slowly that starting out without one is a serious setback, not to mention the financial setbacks of having to buy one as well.
Additionally, constantly having to put up Guard is an annoyance. While I think it's ok that you need to keep putting it up, I just wish the base duration was a bit longer, maybe 20-30 more seconds even if it meant proportionally increasing its stamina cost. It really feels like more of a chore than it should especially considering it is a core skill to the class.

[solracht]

If Shields get their own stamina bar then I don't think the current situation is bad at all. Like I mentioned, it's not that the damage reduction is horrible later on, it just didn't feel worth it with the old costs. Before I'd have to choose between doing damage or eating the next couple hits for a bit less damage. There's no choosing anymore. You can do damage and use all the abilities you want, and you're always going to have damage reduction against normal hits. Maybe it's only 10% or 20%, but it's always going to be there.

If Guard is going to be, as far as main hand stamina goes, free, then I don't think it has to be perfect. It's not competing with Sword skills anymore, you won't feel cheated by using Guard right before the mob uses a TP move.

[Lucavi]

Would be nice for shields to have their own stamina bar, and for blocks and abilities to drain the bar, but that won't happen.

[solracht]

Would be nice for shields to have their own stamina bar, and for blocks and abilities to drain the bar, but that won't happen.

It did, according to the lodestone, which is why I edited my complaint post: http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com/pl/guide/gamescreen01.html

[Lucavi]

Orly?! Ah, I see it right down at the bottom there. Interesting! Kuro and I were talking about that during OB. Nice to see that change!

Edit: I wonder what this means for shield duration and for the duration-increasing trait? WIth the shield having its own stamina gauge, theoretically the second duration should switch to a stamina duration, and that shield trait should simply lengthen the stamina bar to allow for your shield to be active longer. I hope it works that way so I don't have to press the shield button so many times.

I also hope that you'll be able to remove the "permanent" buttons, like the shield and throw icons, when you switch jobs.

[solracht]

It sounds like it's just an extra bar for shield actions only. We'll still have to press the Guard button often (less often with the trait), unfortunately.

[Lucavi]

Does that mean the bar constantly drains while the shield is up or only for blocks? Eh, I guess I'll find out soon enough.

[solracht]

I think you might be looking too much into it. Before, using guard used up a portion of your stamina bar. Now, using guard will use up a portion of the shield stamina bar, leaving your main bar untouched.

Don't think they changed anything beyond that, unless they're just not saying it. It's basically the way it was in the alpha, but with the stamina system instead of the queue system.

[Dein]

I swear that blurb about shields having a secondary stamina bar has been in the game manual since the alpha test. I won't get my hopes up for a sudden change until I get my CE tomorrow and I see a second bar pop up when I get a shield.

[Tanthalass]

I don't have a secondary stamina bar, at least not for Guard.

I suppose its possible once I get Aegis Boon, but I'm not holding my breath at the moment.

[Yoli]

Questions:

1) What's the difference between the pugilist taunt and provoke? I heard taunt worked like some ability from wow, where using it once simply catapults you to the top of the target's hate list at any point in time. Is that right, and is provoke basically the same, or different? Or do we not know yet? If that is how it works, does anyone know what the difference between those and provoke 2 would be? I mean, if the ability is just taking you to the top of a mob's hate list... how does it get better than that? Maybe a bad questions, since I'm sure people haven't had a chance to play with provoke two and such yet. I'm really curious though, about these abilities and their second levels.

2) You and a tiny party (let's say three people) are walking into an enemy party of three or four mobs. What's a good way to handle that? I had issues with that last night (which was my first time in a party really, since I didn't party with anyone in the beta). Part of it was just that I'm not used to switching targets in this game yet, but is there any generally good plan of action for dealing with multiple mobs at once? I assume that's going to be a really common situation, and I'd better figure out how to deal (maybe later abilities like aura pulse from monk would be good to open w/ some aoe damage. Anything at lower levels though?).

[Buddy]

Questions:

1) What's the difference between the pugilist taunt and provoke? I heard taunt worked like some ability from wow, where using it once simply catapults you to the top of the target's hate list at any point in time. Is that right, and is provoke basically the same, or different? Or do we not know yet? If that is how it works, does anyone know what the difference between those and provoke 2 would be? I mean, if the ability is just taking you to the top of a mob's hate list... how does it get better than that? Maybe a bad questions, since I'm sure people haven't had a chance to play with provoke two and such yet. I'm really curious though, about these abilities and their second levels.

2) You and a tiny party (let's say three people) are walking into an enemy party of three or four mobs. What's a good way to handle that? I had issues with that last night (which was my first time in a party really, since I didn't party with anyone in the beta). Part of it was just that I'm not used to switching targets in this game yet, but is there any generally good plan of action for dealing with multiple mobs at once? I assume that's going to be a really common situation, and I'd better figure out how to deal (maybe later abilities like aura pulse from monk would be good to open w/ some aoe damage. Anything at lower levels though?).

I would like to hear from others about this as well. When I did 2-3 man pt's on goats, our GLA would voke and when hp got low, I would Taunt on PUG and it was instant hate transfer. I know that sometimes if you had enough hate, it took more than one provoke back in the day (ffxi). I haven't tested this enough to be accurate though.

[solracht]

I don't have a secondary stamina bar, at least not for Guard.

I suppose its possible once I get Aegis Boon, but I'm not holding my breath at the moment.

Thanks for the info. Sucks that the lodestone lied.

[Arrmani]

I was wondering where you can get shields at? I'm trying to work my way up to craft one, but I haven't see anywhere to buy one in Ul'Dah.

[Tanthalass]

Thanks for the info. Sucks that the lodestone lied.

Dunno. Keeping my fingers crossed though. Having to constantly use both Stamina stopping attacks to raise my Shield is really dragging down my damage, especially in party situations. 2nd bar would be amazing.


I was wondering where you can get shields at? I'm trying to work my way up to craft one, but I haven't see anywhere to buy one in Ul'Dah.

Right now you have to get one crafted. Square Maple Shields are rank 7? Carpentry. Several people have them on sale on my server (Mysidia) for 20-30k. Pretty much the only way you can go right now.

[Dein]

You can get an Iron Scutum (or w/e its called) from the "weapon" vendor for 400k (it's one of the marked shops on the city map with a sword and shield icon), and there's a npc in the Ruby Exchange alley that has a rank 11 Round Chestnut Shield for 42k. It might be a bit cheaper to level up Carpentry to make a shield since if you want a Bronze Hoplon you'd have to level Carpentry up as a subcraft for it anyway.

[Hyan]

I think the economic system for this game absolutely blows. Got Armorer to 8 just off leves and decided to try and..you know...craft some armor. Can't do it. Only things my level are suits of chainmail or a bronze shield, both of which require materials from either leathercrafters or weavers.

Like was said before, crafting is a career in this game, not just some "lol I'll do some crafting on the side of fighting to make my own stuff" activity.

The economy will set off sooner or later. Does not happen overnight.

[Dein]

I don't know why people are complaining about the stamina cost of Guard so much. It takes as much stamina as Light Stab but gives you some damage reduction which also opens up the use of Phalanx. Phalanx barely costs any stamina and you can easily make up 250 TP with a single attack + block and it hits for the same amount of damage of a normal 1kTP weaponskill. Making liberal use of Phalanx can really make fights easy due to this.

[Tanthalass]

Like was said before, crafting is a career in this game, not just some "lol I'll do some crafting on the side of fighting to make my own stuff" activity.

The economy will set off sooner or later. Does not happen overnight.

Economy isn't going anywhere without an easy way to find what you need. It'd be like trying to find a store that has neither a name or a sign in the middle of NYC. But I'm not trying to derail (thought I was in the random question thread for some reason when I posted, which is why I cut it out).


I don't know why people are complaining about the stamina cost of Guard so much. It takes as much stamina as Light Stab but gives you some damage reduction which also opens up the use of Phalanx. Phalanx barely costs any stamina and you can easily make up 250 TP with a single attack + block and it hits for the same amount of damage of a normal 1kTP weaponskill. Making liberal use of Phalanx can really make fights easy due to this.

Probably because we were explicitly told we'd get a second stamina bar for Guard.

Nah, couldn't be it.

[Hyan]

Economy isn't going anywhere without an easy way to find what you need. It'd be like trying to find a store that has neither a name or a sign in the middle of NYC. But I'm not trying to derail (thought I was in the random question thread for some reason when I posted, which is why I cut it out).

But people will make it so. Now it's like everyone bazaaring wherever they want in XI vs. everyone being in Rolanberry/Batallia for easier access.

People will figure out these things and make more sense of the Marketplace.

Of course the more SE would do to help us the faster this would happen, but it will happen regardless.

Ok OT aside (sorry)


Having to constantly use both Stamina stopping attacks to raise my Shield is really dragging down my damage, especially in party situations.

That's kinda the point I think?

[Dein]

Probably because we were explicitly told we'd get a second stamina bar for Guard.

Nah, couldn't be it.
So basically it's complaining for the sake of complaining if you're not going to focus on that. A second stamina bar with the current battle system in place would make things a little too easy while on GLA (aka hi2u relatively reliable damage mitigation with no sacrifices) so it's not hard to see why they took it out when they changed things from Alpha. I agree though that they should not have put that on the main website since the game doesn't even use that anymore.

[Hyan]

I hope they'll still add a second stamina gauge for dual wield :Q_

Maybe make the individual stamina regeneration slower, but with 2 bars it's not an issue.

I wonder if they'll make it like Sentinel skill. Just equip a second one-handed wep, and you gain the Dual wield skill.

[Tanthalass]

But people will make it so. Now it's like everyone bazaaring wherever they want in XI vs. everyone being in Rolanberry/Batallia for easier access.

People will figure out these things and make more sense of the Marketplace.

Of course the more SE would do to help us the faster this would happen, but it will happen regardless.

Ok OT aside (sorry)

I guess. It's still a clunky system with no good way of gauging the price of anything. I get crafting is supposed to be something you focus on, but it doesn't really work out that way (at least from my experiences). Completed like 6 total local leves, skilled my Armorer to a respectable rank (1/5th of cap you'd expect to be able to make some sort of finished product..). I'm high enough rank to craft some basic armor, but I need 2 other crafts at the same rank or higher to obtain the materials. It makes no sense. Am I supposed to focus on one and not make anything? Or dabble in all 3?




That's kinda the point I think?

Ya pretty much.


So basically it's complaining for the sake of complaining if you're not going to focus on that. A second stamina bar with the current battle system in place would make things a little too easy while on GLA (aka hi2u relatively reliable damage mitigation with no sacrifices) so it's not hard to see why they took it out when they changed things from Alpha. I agree though that they should not have put that on the main website since the game doesn't even use that anymore.

No, it destroys my damage. Doesn't seem like it'd be too huge of a deal, except I don't hold hate for shit in any party situation I've been in, and the damage mitigation doesn't mean a damn thing solo if I can't kill what I'm fighting. Open with a voke, raise my shield, and the mobs gone. Fuck. Maybe things get better with Taunt + Voke, but I think hate's really fucked up right now. Also, trying to group for muti-mob leves is retarded. I voke one, the other 2 run off and hit whoever initiated the leve (an archer or mage or whatever). My voke is down for 10 seconds.


I hope they'll still add a second stamina gauge for dual wield :Q_

Maybe make the individual stamina regeneration slower, but with 2 bars it's not an issue.

I wonder if they'll make it like Sentinel skill. Just equip a second one-handed wep, and you gain the Dual wield skill.

Is dual-weilding even an option at this point?

[Hyan]

Is dual-weilding even an option at this point?

Nah, don't think so although I saw a guy with offhand weapon in one of the beta pics before. So dunno. Nothing like real dual wield either way I guess.

Making a class based on the concept of dual wield sounds like a waste to me though. Classes are a bit more diverse now than "you do many SC's" "you absorb hp with your attacks" "you have a wyvern and jump". I think dual wield skill would fit GLAD quite nicely along with the Sentinel skill.

[Tanthalass]

Would be interesting, especially since they've grouped Swords and Daggers together into one weapon class. Would give it a little more offensive power if you're not going the tankish route as well. Pugs have 2 fists, other DD classes use 2 handed weapons. GLAD as a DD seems kinda lacking, but it doesn't seemed designed to be one either so idk.

[Hyan]

Yeah, I don't think you gain any offense by not having a shield equipped right now? DW would solve that issue I think.

They can actually do what they did with Sentinel and give few "DW" based skills as you get higher rank too. They wouldn't have to create an entire new class with 20+ "DW" abilities and weapon skills but you'd still get something DW specific from leveling it. A lot of offense but no defense.

[Lucavi]

I'm kind of surprised they haven't released any information for 2-handed swords yet. We've seen that they're listed on the main website, but if the secondary shield stamina bar has taught us anything, its that you can't trust anything SE puts on any website until its in the game.

Still, FFXI had the rusted greatsword available pretty much right off the back at a low level, so its a shock to not see at least a busted, crusted, cracked, weathered greatsword or at least a bronze version for like level 20 or something.

[Hyan]

Oh, where are they on the main website? :o

[Lucavi]

Under the description of Glad, I believe. Something about using 1-handed, 2-handed, or two one-handed weapons.

[solracht]

Under the description of Glad, I believe. Something about using 1-handed, 2-handed, or two one-handed weapons.

Single or double edged blades. It doesn't mention two handed swords.


Gladiators specialize in the handling of all manner of one-handed blades, from daggers to longswords, be they single- or double-edged, straight or curved.

[Lucavi]

Whoops, nevermind then! One-handed weapons for all!

[Hyan]

What really seems odd is that no class that was datamined seemed like a scythe user.

I could see few classes getting 2h swords but who is getting scythe then!

[Arrmani]

Like was said before, crafting is a career in this game, not just some "lol I'll do some crafting on the side of fighting to make my own stuff" activity.

The economy will set off sooner or later. Does not happen overnight.

Well right now I'm trying to do crafting on the side to make stuff because its so expensive. I figure if I can get to the point to make shields before everyone else starts, I can make a bit of gil to use to further craft.

[Lucavi]

I'd like to see those whips used as a weapon. We're far enough along with the CRYSTAL TOOLS ENGINE that they can animate whip physics.

[Dein]

No, it destroys my damage. Doesn't seem like it'd be too huge of a deal, except I don't hold hate for shit in any party situation I've been in, and the damage mitigation doesn't mean a damn thing solo if I can't kill what I'm fighting. Open with a voke, raise my shield, and the mobs gone. Fuck. Maybe things get better with Taunt + Voke, but I think hate's really fucked up right now. Also, trying to group for muti-mob leves is retarded. I voke one, the other 2 run off and hit whoever initiated the leve (an archer or mage or whatever). My voke is down for 10 seconds.


First, hate is pretty weird right now. I've seen Archers pull hate from just doing 1 or 2 normal attacks on the same mob I'm engaging so there are still adjustments SE needs to make in that regard. Also, if you're trying to tank a group of leve mobs you can get the group to attack you most of the time by being the first to engage. Second, if you're honestly losing a lot of damage from using guard then you're doing something horribly wrong. Make liberal use of Phalanx when you guard and you'll gain a good source of damage.

[Amastacia]

First, hate is pretty weird right now. I've seen Archers pull hate from just doing 1 or 2 normal attacks on the same mob I'm engaging so there are still adjustments SE needs to make in that regard. Also, if you're trying to tank a group of leve mobs you can get the group to attack you most of the time by being the first to engage. Second, if you're honestly losing a lot of damage from using guard then you're doing something horribly wrong. Make liberal use of Phalanx when you guard and you'll gain a good source of damage.

This.

Hate's been fucked up from the get-go, and at least at lower levels beyond engaging first, GLD is terrible at tanking multiple mobs.

Phalanx is a godsend, and it makes me very sad in the pants that more people don't abuse the hell out of it. Great source of damage while tanking, makes hate management easier (for your currently engaged target, anyway), and the occasional regular attack + blocks is enough TP to continuously feed your Phalanx habit.

[Tanthalass]

First, hate is pretty weird right now. I've seen Archers pull hate from just doing 1 or 2 normal attacks on the same mob I'm engaging so there are still adjustments SE needs to make in that regard. Also, if you're trying to tank a group of leve mobs you can get the group to attack you most of the time by being the first to engage. Second, if you're honestly losing a lot of damage from using guard then you're doing something horribly wrong. Make liberal use of Phalanx when you guard and you'll gain a good source of damage.

I am the first to engage. I voke, nobody else has done anything, the mob I targeted goes to me and the other 2 run off to whoever initiated the leve. If they do come to me, they don't stick around. Also can't Phalanx when the mobs run off.

[aru]

Why are you assuming using provoke as the first action is helping you?
I haven't tried it in retail, but in beta provoke was best used when you lost hate, not to initiate it. There's been a lot of speculation that it throws you to the top of the hate list instead of just adding X-amount of hate like in FFXI.

I've complained about shields in this thread before but I'm not sure why anyone is complaining about stamina costs. It hardly takes anything and is a great benefit. Now, not starting with one or having to deal with the annoyance of having to use it every 15 seconds I find to be more legitimate concerns, in my opinion.

I also really hope that GLD is able to somehow get an offensive bonus for not using a shield. Whether that comes in the form of using two hands on a one handed weapon for bonus str/dex or being able to dualwield two weapons or having access to higher damage two handed swords would all be fun, strategic choices that would add to the versatility of the class that is mentioned not only in the class description on the website but also through dialog in the game itself. Unfortunately, there really is only one obvious path to take at this point which is a disappointment for me. Hopefully they can flesh out the class a bit more before they start complicating balance by adding additional classes.

[solracht]

Lantern shields have +attack, GLA has access to heavy armor with STR and DEX, and unless they changed it since I tried it in one of the earlier betas, Spinstroke does a ton of damage if the mob is not attacking you (you just can't really tell when solo because the mobs are always on you).

Whether these things are enough for Gladiators to do ok damage in party play later or not, we'll see.

[sruon]

What are my fellow gladiators getting as subabilities?

Finished PUG (Taunt + SW) and CON (Cure), working on MAR for Defender next... what else am I overlooking? Assuming a completely versatile Gladiator in the future.

[aru]

You're overlooking THM and the higher level stuff from PUG, CON and MAR.

[sruon]

I don't have a very accurate idea of the time it takes to level any class post 10 so I've set my aim on <=10 abilities for now... but thanks, I'll check them out

[avelle]

How good is defender? I haven't touched Marauder yet.

[Tanthalass]

What are my fellow gladiators getting as subabilities?

Finished PUG (Taunt + SW) and CON (Cure), working on MAR for Defender next... what else am I overlooking? Assuming a completely versatile Gladiator in the future.

Haven't done a lot yet. Leveling seems to slow down a lot at around rank 10 (maybe its just me doing something wrong, idk).

[Dein]

Defender's ok but I didn't use it much since you lose some damage for a small defense boost and you have to be MAR main to get the enmity boost from it. Also, Phalanx now no longer costs any stamina to use and still deals equivalent damage to normal weaponskills. I'm so glad to finally have a shield again.

[Swampthing]

Defender's ok but I didn't use it much since you lose some damage for a small defense boost and you have to be MAR main to get the enmity boost from it. Also, Phalanx now no longer costs any stamina to use and still deals equivalent damage to normal weaponskills. I'm so glad to finally have a shield again.

How do you even get a shield? My Glad is lvl 6 and I've searched all around Ul'Dah, the only place selling one was the guild and it was for over 400k. x.x

[tol]

How do you even get a shield? My Glad is lvl 6 and I've searched all around Ul'Dah, the only place selling one was the guild and it was for over 400k. x.x

Try checking the market wards for a Square Maple Sheild, should be anywhere between 15-25k depending on server,ect.

[sruon]

Try checking the market wards for a Square Maple Sheild, should be anywhere between 15-25k depending on server,ect.

Yup, I just bought one for 15k near the repair NPC on Lindblum

[Caestus]

my Gladiator is level 11, how do I join the gladiator Guild?

[darkepyon]

You can't "join" any particular guild per say. At least not yet.

[SephYuyX]

I leveled MRD, PUG, and CON to 10 for their abilities to use on my GLD. Makes life a whole lot easier.

[Caestus]

How does one get Guildmarks then for abilities?

[Curcio]

I do believe Guild Marks are given on Level 20 Leves and higher.

[Ruin]

What is the best way to power level shield?

Do a leve with exp bonus and just keep tanking a target monster? Or any other good ways?

[Darkhavans]

What is the best way to power level shield?

Do a leve with exp bonus and just keep tanking a target monster? Or any other good ways?

You know, I tried this and had no luck. The exp just stopped after a little while, maybe I'm just doing it wrong.

[Ruin]

Yeah I dunno I think there is a set exp u can get from 1 mob. Hell some mobs I cant ever even get a shield skill up on.

[Darkhavans]

Yeah I dunno I think there is a set exp u can get from 1 mob. Hell some mobs I cant ever even get a shield skill up on.

Yeah, I've just been making sure I keep guard up 100% of the time on everything I fight. I'm about to hit 17 Glad and my Sentinel is about to hit 10. I'm not worrying to much about keeping it up with my Glad for now. If it proves it be worth it at later ranks then I'll figure out some way to power level it.

[Biggie]

Ok so repeating what I asked another time since we got more Info

Since dealing DMG seems important in this game for hate STR is a must

Dex is kinda useless exept for Criticals hit

Vit is Important for HP and DEF
MND is important for Magic DEF and MP (for some TP moves)

So I was planning going


EDIT: As Far as shield skill, go kill wolves! I was getting 500ish sword and any where from 100-500 shield every fight!


VIT > STR > MND > DEX

as for Resist planning to keep them all even for Resists

Anyone object or sees it another way?

I have done some testing with MND on elementals an so far it doesn't seem to lower Magic dmg at all. I need to test alot more but right now at my level, I will no longer put any points into MND.

EXP: 35 MND + Shell + stoneskin Fire 2 250ish dmg
17MND + SHell + stoneskin Fire 2 250ish dmg
40MND Fire 2 500-600 DMG
17MND Fire 2 500-600 DMG

It is a pain in the ass to test this because of the timer to reset points. But for right now, I have quit using MND and focus Mainly on VIT-STR-DEX

Anyone else done any testing on this? Would be nice to not have to pump MND at all.

[MitsurugiMyc]

My Glad is 12 and my shield skill will soon be 8. I found the best way to lvl shield is to do leves with the exp bonus and take the mob until you get one shield skill proc. I have found that shield skill procs suffer from MASSIVE diminishing returns after you get the first proc. I usually get 200-300 skill per mob in lvl 10 leves easy. I have had 3 procs while tanking a single mob (256, 51, 3 >< thus the diminishing returns.)
Also try to keep you shield above 50% durability, I found that my block failed more often against equal lvled mobs when my durability stays low.
LAstly, patience because while the shield skill in FFXIV seems to lvl faster than FFXI, it still takes a while. You may go 4-5 fights without asingle skill then fight 3-4 mobs and get 100+ skill on each fight.

[vivix]

I hit 10 Sentinel, and set Aegis Boon but it always seems to be greyed out. Am I missing something?

[SathFenrir]

Have you tried not sucking?

[Ruin]

yeah I wanna find trick to level shield!

[avelle]

I hit 10 Sentinel, and set Aegis Boon but it always seems to be greyed out. Am I missing something?

Think you're supposed to equip it using your offhand rather than mainhand.

[vivix]

Think you're supposed to equip it using your offhand rather than mainhand.

SOB, thats probably it. I just rushed through the settings and probably set it to main. Derp.

[Amiricle]

Anyone know if using phalanx give a chance of sentinel skill or gladiator skill? I ask because while it is a gladiator skill, it requires a shield and Im considering leveling glad to get it for con/thm to aid in skilling shield.

[Tanthalass]

Anyone know if using phalanx give a chance of sentinel skill or gladiator skill? I ask because while it is a gladiator skill, it requires a shield and Im considering leveling glad to get it for con/thm to aid in skilling shield.

Its sword skill. Gladiator ability and not a Sentinel one.

[lancaster]

Can anyone give their impressions of how much of a proportionate accuracy boost Still Precision gives, as well as what its duration might be?

[Darkhavans]

Can anyone give their impressions of how much of a proportionate accuracy boost Still Precision gives, as well as what its duration might be?

I really haven't used it enough to give my impressions on it's accuracy boost, my accuracy always seems so random anyway. As for the duration, I just tested it as 40 seconds.

[OWS_Tonx]

Sooo... I started in Gridania and can't find a shield for my gladiator or anything helpful online. Anyone know where I can grab one? I saw a post in forum that said there's a leve quest, but I can't find which.

[Darkhavans]

Sooo... I started in Gridania and can't find a shield for my gladiator or anything helpful online. Anyone know where I can grab one? I saw a post in forum that said there's a leve quest, but I can't find which.

Easiest way is to get a Square Maple Shield. Fairly easy to find in the Market Wards from what I've seen, it seems to be down to around 10-20k on Figaro at least. Not too difficult to craft either way. There's also the Bronze Hoplon which will last a while longer.

[Achitophel]

I have to add: the Square Maple Shield can be used on THM, too, helping to skill up Sentinel. The hoplon can't.

[avelle]

Has anyone found a decent way to level up shield? Shit seems dreadfully slow no matter what I try. >.>

[Lyramion]

Shit seems dreadfully slow no matter what I try. >.>

Welcome to 14 :)

[OWS_Tonx]

shield was slow to skill in 11 too, just got to get hit I guess >_>

[Lucavi]

Yeah, I'm going back to 2-handed canes for my casters. Shield was kinda fun in OB, but they promised a second shield gauge that would help with stamina, and as of now, its just easier to hope for parries than have to keep raising the shield. Plus its one less inventory slot I'm using, and I need them all since I'm constantly stuffed with at least 60 crafting mats.

[aru]

I really haven't used it enough to give my impressions on it's accuracy boost, my accuracy always seems so random anyway. As for the duration, I just tested it as 40 seconds.

You mean it doesn't show how much accuracy it adds in the gear/stats menu?

[Dein]

You mean it doesn't show how much accuracy it adds in the gear/stats menu?
Skills like Still Precision and Defender don't show changes to their respective stats in the attributes menu so we have to guess how much of a boost we're getting.


Has anyone found a decent way to level up shield? Shit seems dreadfully slow no matter what I try. >.>
Your best bet of getting shield skill is always going to be letting things hit you for awhile. You'll get better results if you do this during guildleves with guardian's favor up but it only helps ease the grind a small amount.

[Insanecyclone]

What crafting is everyone going for Gladiator? I'm going BS/ARM but I'm not sure if I'll need another crafting job to help with my main's mats.

[Buddy]

What crafting is everyone going for Gladiator? I'm going BS/ARM but I'm not sure if I'll need another crafting job to help with my main's mats.

Leather later probably

[Dein]

I'm going with BSM/ARM as well and I'd suggest Carpentry, Leatherworking, and Weaving as your big sub crafts. ARM needs all three of those leveled up just to attempt some recipes in the first place. BSM isn't very subcraft dependent when it comes to swords but I believe that some of the higher level swords (basing this off of the Alpha recipe for Iron Shortswords) will use wooden sword grips while you can make most of the components from BSM.

[shidobu]

Leather later probably

leather/armorer/bsm
^ those 3 i have Armorer @ 19 leather @ 13 and Bsm @ 12.
I can make my own bronze Chainmail gear. I accidentally made a bronze hauby @ 18 cuz im 1/6 since the 2nd try. think my def comes out @ 150 idk ill have to go check when servers come back up. Armorer Is a cash cow come rank 17-20 cause new people wanna look pretty but the gear gives little benefit at their levels. Sold a bronze celeta for 200k when prob cost 30k to make on my server . Buy copper cheap synth ore on your BS. Make ingots on Armorer to skill up.

[SathFenrir]

None until it's made perfectly clear that I cannot progress further without crafting or they fix the UI

[Grey Jorildyn]

Has anyone found a decent way to level up shield? Shit seems dreadfully slow no matter what I try. >.>

Haven't done this myself but I imagine guardian's favor on dodo leves would be great. Just keep blocking and curing self and that ought to boost it pretty well.

[Darkhavans]

Haven't done this myself but I imagine guardian's favor on dodo leves would be great. Just keep blocking and curing self and that ought to boost it pretty well.

Even doing this it's still a fucking pain in the ass. Just be very careful that the Dodo's don't go yellow on you and your lose all your skill you had gained. And also, remember that there's a hard cap of 500 skill per mob, but based on my experience there's absolutely no way you're getting that with shield. Personally, I'd say don't bother trying to JUST level your shield. Make a point to spend more time just letting leve mobs hit you, make sure you're keeping guard up 100% of the time on anything you kill, and you'll get some decent skill without bashing your head against the wall.

[OWS_Tonx]

Question, I started doin' my gladiator and at lower levels I was taking out orange and green no problem, now that it's 10-ish, it seems I can only kill blues because the orange whoop dat ass. Just wondering if I was having an off day or anyone else notice when you hit that level range shit seems to get a lot harder? Was in Camp Emerald Moss or w/e btw.

[Hyan]

Question, I started doin' my gladiator and at lower levels I was taking out orange and green no problem, now that it's 10-ish, it seems I can only kill blues because the orange whoop dat ass. Just wondering if I was having an off day or anyone else notice when you hit that level range shit seems to get a lot harder? Was in Camp Emerald Moss or w/e btw.

You're still using the rank 1 basic equipment aren't you?

[Darkhavans]

You're still using the rank 1 basic equipment aren't you?

Yeah, getting a brand new set of gear will help a lot. Even then it's still VERY mob-dependent. There are certain mobs that I can take even when they're IT, but others I can't really go past Tough. Hoverfly Swarms in Cassiopeia for instance are relatively easy to kill when IT, but I wouldn't stand a chance on Aldgoats past Tough. The main problem with Gladiators and soloing harder mobs is finding the right balance between incoming damage and how quickly you can kill a mob. In order to survive against anything past DC or so we generally have to use at least half of our stamina on Defensive abilities, so you can't fight shit with really high HP even it doesn't con very high.

[OWS_Tonx]

yeah. I can't really find anything online for gear selection, what do you recommend? also, I'm at work, so my search wasn't very thorough.

[plue]

Anyone wish your shield would just stay active full time, I was gonna level GLD, but was put off by the prospect of having to manually Guard all the time.

[OWS_Tonx]

>_> Yeah. Hate that shit, but it makes the job that much more fun to me. I have to actually pay attention and think about shit. We need a timestamp for abilities already, lol.

[Darkhavans]

>_> Yeah. Hate that shit, but it makes the job that much more fun to me. I have to actually pay attention and think about shit. We need a timestamp for abilities already, lol.

Yeah, let's not make this game fucking easy mode like most other MMOs out there now. It is somewhat frustrating with the lag that I seem to get with the stamina system though.

[Ruin]

Ive reached level 20, now I can do a quest at the gladiator guild?

How hard is it and what is the reward?

[Lyramion]

Guildmarks and should be rather easy

[avelle]

Anyone wish your shield would just stay active full time, I was gonna level GLD, but was put off by the prospect of having to manually Guard all the time.

I kinda wish shield skill was just a random proc like most other MMO's but I guess this adds more to do. It really doesn't take much skill or thought to put guard up every time it goes down though, so not sure what the design decision was there. It's not particularly fun or engaging, it's just repetitive. Not to mention how slow shield levels up...

[SathFenrir]

Anyone figure out the difference between blocking and wield rate stat?

[Darkhavans]

Anyone figure out the difference between blocking and wield rate stat?

Maybe blocking has something to do with average damaged blocked, and wield rate is the chance of blocking? I really have no fucking clue, that's just my guess. I definitely want to figure this out as well though.

[solracht]

I was under the impression that Blocking was the chance to block when the shield is up, that Wield Rate was related to the time the shield stays up after using Guard, and that blocked damage was just calculated by adding the shield's defense to your defense.

Don't quote me later though.

[Darkhavans]

I was under the impression that Blocking was the chance to block when the shield is up, that Wield Rate was related to the time the shield stays up after using Guard, and that blocked damage was just calculated by adding the shield's defense to your defense.

Don't quote me later though.

That's an interesting thought, could be it. It would be pretty easy to test if you can get two shields with significantly different wield rates.

[Ruin]

Guildmarks and should be rather easy

what you mean rather easy, I dont wanna fail it and miss out on the guild marks, or is repeatable until u win? I cant find any info on the quest

[miokomioko]

I'm almost certain you can repeat any quest you fail. 20,000gil + 2,000 guild marks

[Lyramion]

Yes you can repeat it on fail and by easy I mean - easy as soloing 1 Star Leves. SE designed this for you to do SOLO and they designed it for you to do it at the level it gets avaiable.

[SathFenrir]

Just PM'd this to Lyra but I'll post here too since I play too infrequently to really contribute with any speed - help me out with this theory if you can Gladiators:

Also have lv11 Bronze gladius instead of the lv9 bronze dagger since I'm working on a theory about damage type + attack type + how fast your gear gets damaged. I'll let you know if it yields any results but if you wanna help me test since I'm ultra casual right now it goes as follows:

Bronze Dagger GLA 9 Piercing 80% Slashing 20%
GLA main attack = light slash -> deals slashing damage

Weathered Gladius R1->R9 60% slashing 40% piercing
Light slash only -> R1 -> R9 no need for repairs

B Dagger using light slash -> R9 -> R15 repair 7 times (below 50%)

B Gladius R15 (just bought last night, no testing) slashing 60% piercing 40%
Hopefully I'll need to repair far less using slashing affinity with slashing weapon

Helpful ways of testing would be to count number of battles from 75% to 50% with Bdagger using light slash -> repair -> count battles from 75% to 50% using light thrust

Anything like that could help put together a better picture of efficiency since our class has different weapon types and not a lot is known about the game yet.

[plue]

Yes you can repeat it on fail and by easy I mean - easy as soloing 1 Star Leves. SE designed this for you to do SOLO and they designed it for you to do it at the level it gets avaiable.

This is one thing that frustrates me. The quests and missions in this game are so easy it's stupid, how about some group work or challenge?

[Lyramion]

5 Star some leves for "challenge" aka rape.

[plue]

So I was thinking of picking up GLD again since there seems to be a shortage of tanks sometimes. Any advice as to which sub-classes to use? I was thinking Conj for Cure, Thaum for Stygian Spikes, and Maraud for Defender. Am I missing anything?

[SathFenrir]

I've yet to ever actually use defender because there seems to be a very delicate balance between holding hate and dealing damage. If you can't put up the numbers you're kinda fucked.

Edit: It's especially iffy for soloing too

[Ruin]

How do you know where to find leves that give GLA guild marks?

Can you only find 1 per 36hrs?

[plue]

How do you know where to find leves that give GLA guild marks?

Can you only find 1 per 36hrs?

Marks are just a random reward from level +20 leves. Just run around the cities and check what rewards they offer, at least that's what I do on my Archer.

[ayjis]

What level can a Gladiator solo rank 20 leves? I'm 14 now and really bored of rank 10 ones.

[Caiti]

I started right at 13. <- Sath, wrong PC

[Podginator]

Here's what I did to level up Shield, it's still tedious, but it felt a bit faster to me. Start any easy leve, it can be however many stars, I usually did 1 or 2. Get to the mobs, and use Shock spikes, attack once, then spam guard, using cure and second wind when necessary. The mob should die from the spikes, and you should get around 200-500 shield skill. I got to 10 this way fairly quickly.

Between leves I did this with blue Marmots and Rats. This was noticeably slower, however, and took much longer. I got a max of around 250 shield skills, mostly around 100-150. I wouldn't recommend it outside of leves.

[avelle]

Here's what I did to level up Shield, it's still tedious, but it felt a bit faster to me. Start any easy leve, it can be however many stars, I usually did 1 or 2. Get to the mobs, and use Shock spikes, attack once, then spam guard, using cure and second wind when necessary. The mob should die from the spikes, and you should get around 200-500 shield skill. I got to 10 this way fairly quickly.

Between leves I did this with blue Marmots and Rats. This was noticeably slower, however, and took much longer. I got a max of around 250 shield skills, mostly around 100-150. I wouldn't recommend it outside of leves.

I've been doing pretty much the same thing but hitting Phalanx every once in a while rather than using Shock Spikes. The stun means a longer delay between their melee swings and I get bored easily. :/

[Darus Grey]

Just PM'd this to Lyra but I'll post here too since I play too infrequently to really contribute with any speed - help me out with this theory if you can Gladiators:

Also have lv11 Bronze gladius instead of the lv9 bronze dagger since I'm working on a theory about damage type + attack type + how fast your gear gets damaged. I'll let you know if it yields any results but if you wanna help me test since I'm ultra casual right now it goes as follows:

Bronze Dagger GLA 9 Piercing 80% Slashing 20%
GLA main attack = light slash -> deals slashing damage

Weathered Gladius R1->R9 60% slashing 40% piercing
Light slash only -> R1 -> R9 no need for repairs

B Dagger using light slash -> R9 -> R15 repair 7 times (below 50%)

B Gladius R15 (just bought last night, no testing) slashing 60% piercing 40%
Hopefully I'll need to repair far less using slashing affinity with slashing weapon

Helpful ways of testing would be to count number of battles from 75% to 50% with Bdagger using light slash -> repair -> count battles from 75% to 50% using light thrust

Anything like that could help put together a better picture of efficiency since our class has different weapon types and not a lot is known about the game yet.

Not scientific by any means but I'm 100% positive you're correct based on observation.

For mage weapons it seems like durability loss is multiplied by number of targets(healing a legion= weapon breaks in 5 minutes), so it seems like durability is a set amount based on number of actions.

[OWS_Tonx]

Can't really find a guide or any sort of info. online yet, what gear should I be wearing at lvl 11? shit's frustrating, mobs beating my ass etc

[lancaster]

Can't really find a guide or any sort of info. online yet, what gear should I be wearing at lvl 11? shit's frustrating, mobs beating my ass etc

Go to yg or ffxivarchives or ZAM and look for gladiator-specific gear (or gear that gladiators are favored by) close to optimal rank 11. Off the top of my head, the biggest upgrade you could probably land is a suit of bronze chainmail.

[Noob]

This.

Hate's been fucked up from the get-go, and at least at lower levels beyond engaging first, GLD is terrible at tanking multiple mobs.

Phalanx is a godsend, and it makes me very sad in the pants that more people don't abuse the hell out of it. Great source of damage while tanking, makes hate management easier (for your currently engaged target, anyway), and the occasional regular attack + blocks is enough TP to continuously feed your Phalanx habit.

Yes please! SE please fix hate! Been doing alot of PTing and finding hate to be so screwy it means lots of random death on levequests of all levels :o

[Grey Jorildyn]

Can't really find a guide or any sort of info. online yet, what gear should I be wearing at lvl 11? shit's frustrating, mobs beating my ass etc

Sheepskin Harness, Copper Barbut, Bronze Hoplon, Sheepskin Subligar, Sheepskin Jackboots. Hands idr.
Bronze Chainmail @12, Bronze Sallet@15, Sheepskin Armguards@15 are good upgrades.

[Null]

What level can a Gladiator solo rank 20 leves? I'm 14 now and really bored of rank 10 ones.

I had a rank 20 leve off glad points so I tried it with my level 10 glad. Took it out easy. Ended up doing two rank 20 leves at 10.

[Grey Jorildyn]

Just picked up Heavy Slash (http://db.ffxivarchives.com/ability/26858). No cooldown, just like the other slash/stab moves. Uses the same amount of Stamina as Provoke (approximately 2/5th of bar). Also does about 25% more damage than Light Slash.

Bumble Beatle damage
Light Slash: 181 167 177 175 164 155
Heavy Slash: 243 255 257 255 251 246

Haven't gotten to see what the enmity boost on it is like, but if it's even half what Phalanx gives, it'll make a huge difference. Will find out later tonight during LS faction leves.

[Aratharn]

I am main GLA but have been getting a shit ton of PUG guild marks... anyone have any suggestions on whether to upgrade the PUG ability that gets you +10% from Healing Abilities OR increasing the affinity by 10 so second wind gains more? Leaning towards the 10% since cures and whatnot will heal for more but I am not even sure if this will work if you aren't on PUG main.

Also anyone know for sure whether or not these abilities will actually still work when not being PUG main?

[Dense]

I am main GLA but have been getting a shit ton of PUG guild marks... anyone have any suggestions on whether to upgrade the PUG ability that gets you +10% from Healing Abilities OR increasing the affinity by 10 so second wind gains more? Leaning towards the 10% since cures and whatnot will heal for more but I am not even sure if this will work if you aren't on PUG main.

Also anyone know for sure whether or not these abilities will actually still work when not being PUG main?

According to yg, both Seasoned Veteren (increased PUG affinity by 10), and Prime conditioning (healing effects +10%) are suited for all classes...

[miokomioko]

The only Pugilist skills you wouldn't be able to use on any other class are:

Light Strike
Heavy Strike
Seismic Shock
Seismic Shock II
Pummel
Flurry
Simian Thrash

Pretty much just the basic attacks and the obviously unique abilities don't carry over between classes.

Traits are traits and wouldn't make a whole lot of sense if they didn't carry over between classes when each class only gets two traits.

[Grey Jorildyn]

Heavy Strike seems to generate a decent amount of enmity. It has such a high stamina cost though. I've made a blog post (http://grey.5thedition.net/?p=29) with some solo/party setups and am wondering what other kinds of abilities would be worthwhile to have going into the 20s on Gladiator. Post here or there doesn't matter to me. Thanks ahead of time.

[SathFenrir]

Good guide as expected. Only thing I would note is that the stun effect from shock spikes and slightly less overall damage countered than from PB makes it a more viable solo-grind defensive spell in my opinion.

Although, the stun effect does come at one heavy cost, which is of course a decrease in shield skill rate. Seems stuck choosing between slower sentinel skill or slower gladiator skill.

I also keep Rampart equipped full-time when soloing guildleves and save it for when I'm approaching a mob that has run away and stopped since it will save you a headache when you get ambushed. I also don't use Phalanx at all when soloing guildleves since it kills mobs too fast and wastes my favor :(

[Grey Jorildyn]

I see your points. I will have to level up to get Shock Spikes and see that for myself; sounds really cool!

I actually have been utilizing rampart in place of Ferocity during my guildleves. I probably should have included that tidbit. A guildleve set is another good idea... this game is becoming just as 'shit's situational' as the last one. If it's not gear, it's action bar setups! Oy...

Thanks for the feedback Sath!

[SathFenrir]

Np. I probably have a slightly different perspective since I've only been in party play twice and both times were for < 30 minutes each. From a completely solo angle it definitely changes what you prioritize as a gladiator.

Biggest example off the top of my head at 6am is that I'll be hopefully getting the shield duration +50% buff first (tonight, if leves don't suck) instead of the enmity generation hit.

Also, all accuracy, all the time. It's something that I need to continually keep my eye on and temper my use of still precision judiciously.

Edit: Actually I've been looking for a Bronze Pelta and haven't seen any in bazaars. Are they found at a NPC by any chance?

[shidobu]

Edit: Actually I've been looking for a Bronze Pelta and haven't seen any in bazaars. Are they found at a NPC by any chance?

http://ffxiv.yg.com/item/bronze-pelta?id=4100702
Should be easy to make. find a armorer on your server thats worth a damn. NP

[Grey Jorildyn]

I wanted to grab that one first but a conjurer in my shell was saying one of his guild mark abilities was remaining greyed out, possibly because it was much higher optimal rank than he was. I was in the middle of something so I really didn't get details on it (will later). Seems strange based on how the rest of the game is designed to allow you to equip whatever, whenever.

I'm up to 7k marks again myself so self-preservation in next on my list. When choosing between it and Heavy Slash, I went with the latter because it brought something brand new to the class rather than just a convenience. Although S-P is no doubt total winsauce.

[lancaster]

The second tier of guild mark-purchased abilities is unlocked through class quests, beginning at rank 30 (the first class quest is at 20, but this does not unlock anything).

[Grey Jorildyn]

I didn't see any new Guild Marks become buyable after I completed my class quest.

Just picked up Self-Preservation and slapped that baby on. Made my Bronze Pelta (Wield Rate 13) Guard last 20-21s. Same effect for Aegis Boon. It is indeed +50% duration on blocking just as the trait states it is. Also, guess I wish I did grab this one first (8000guild marks)

[Ruin]

GLA23, pretty well geared should I have a problem soloing r30 leves?

Also anyone know how high carpentry needed to repair the r25 sword..? Or have any craft recipies for the r21 or r26 swords? Its so useless not being able to repair ur own sword on the go.

[shidobu]

GLA23, pretty well geared should I have a problem soloing r30 leves?

Also anyone know how high carpentry needed to repair the r25 sword..? Or have any craft recipies for the r21 or r26 swords? Its so useless not being able to repair ur own sword on the go.

imps will eat you alive, their spirit bomb move 1 shots every fkin time.. im Rank 21 + shell/protect i still take 1600-1700 dmg on 1 stars. I i have 1350 ish HP last time i did leves. Now im @ 1400+ with some more mnd stacked behind me to test if that helps. Id avoid trying to do some missions till around rank 25-26 solo. Shits random
And the ash sword can be repaired by 19+ carpentry.

MY carpenter Pepe Lepew on Lindblum made it and can repair it @ 19

[SathFenrir]

I hit the hp/vit cap for my rank vs. Phy level it appears so I've been training mind for a while but been crafting too mjuch to test. How much do you guys cure for?

[ArchDizzle]

Loving GLD so far only real complaint is that when using abilities on it especially guard/phal/etc. the input lag is a lot worse at times then on any othe DoW classes I've played.

[Grey Jorildyn]

I cure for 156HP.

[Amastacia]

Np. I probably have a slightly different perspective since I've only been in party play twice and both times were for < 30 minutes each. From a completely solo angle it definitely changes what you prioritize as a gladiator.

Biggest example off the top of my head at 6am is that I'll be hopefully getting the shield duration +50% buff first (tonight, if leves don't suck) instead of the enmity generation hit.

Also, all accuracy, all the time. It's something that I need to continually keep my eye on and temper my use of still precision judiciously.

Edit: Actually I've been looking for a Bronze Pelta and haven't seen any in bazaars. Are they found at a NPC by any chance?

From as far back as beta, I've been telling every GLD who asks to get Self Preservation first.

Heavy Slash/Stab are not bad by any stretch, but single-target hate management is something GLD is already very good at (and with some SJ goodness, multiple targets get easier, but I often trio with another GLD and a CNJ, so second GLD just helps corral parties of mobs).

Extra shield duration means more time and more stamina for DDing, fewer unblocked hits (and thus more Phalanxes if you want them), and one less pain in the ass little thing to worry about.

Doesn't matter if you mainly solo or mainly party, it's by far the best of the GLD guildmark buyables.

[Ruin]

I hit the hp/vit cap for my rank vs. Phy level it appears so I've been training mind for a while but been crafting too mjuch to test. How much do you guys cure for?

Wait there is a VIT/HP cap for a rank level? Ive been just pumping STR/VIT and a little DEX into my 24 GLA. How can I tell if im at this cap? Does this mean that I am possibly wasting stats?

[miokomioko]

Does this mean that I am possibly wasting stats?

Very possible. Reassign and see if your HP even moves.

If your physical level is something ridiculously high and you go to a lower-rank class, you're not going to be insanely overpowered, it has to cap out your attributes somewhere. Thus, the caps are based on your current rank.

If it's your first and only class for the most part, I don't think your physical level is going to be overdeveloped enough to be hitting the caps if your points are going into 3 different attributes.

[Ruin]

Very possible. Reassign and see if your HP even moves.

If your physical level is something ridiculously high and you go to a lower-rank class, you're not going to be insanely overpowered, it has to cap out your attributes somewhere. Thus, the caps are based on your current rank.

Yeah I understand that but now I wonder how can you tell? Something to do with the ( )s beside ur actual attributes on ur lodestone profile?

[miokomioko]

I think the (#) is just your attributes after gear bonuses. Pretty certain. The only way you can truely find the cap is remove points until you see your HP drop, then start adding VIT one at a time, until it stops going back up... I think.

[SathFenrir]

That or just eyeball next time you put vit in. Just make sure you do it starting at max hp

[Aratharn]

So I got Shield Bash the other night.. has anyone else tried playing with this?

I thought it would be great for stopping the annoying TP moves that puks do, etc.

However with the current horrendous battle lag it's not even worth equipping during party play! Puk winds up for it's TP move.. I hit my macro instantly..... nothing happens.. nothing happens... puk's tp move gets off... nothing happens.. THEN my shield bash goes off.

Very disappointing.

[Amastacia]

Shield Bash still does pretty decent damage (not as much as a sword WS, but still, not like FFXI) and can give you shield skill ups.

Reason enough to equip and use it regularly.

[Ryoii/Nonomii]

Vitality stops giving you HP when you are above 28+Rank*2. I only tested this up to rank 10.

HP Per VIT varies across class:
Marauder ~18
Pugilist ~15
Lancer ~15
Gladiator ~14
Archer ~14
Thaumaturge ~10
Conjurer ~10

Also it appears you get less per point of vitality the higher your vitality or the higher your rank. Still need to figure this out.

Gladiator
Rank VIT HP DIF
7 12 493
7 13 507 14
7 14 522 15
7 15 536 14
7 16 550 14
7 17 564 14
7 18 579 15
7 19 593 14
7 20 607 14
7 21 621 14
7 22 636 15
7 23 650 14
7 24 664 14
7 25 678 14
7 26 693 15
7 27 707 14
7 28 721 14
7 29 735 14
7 30 750 15
7 31 764 14
7 32 778 14
7 33 792 14
7 34 807 15
7 35 821 14
7 36 835 14
7 37 849 14
7 38 864 15
7 39 878 14
7 40 892 14
7 41 906 14
7 42 921 15
10 43 933 12
10 44 947 14
10 45 960 13
10 46 973 13
10 47 987 14
10 48 1000 13

Marauder
Rank VIT HP DIF
1 12 508
1 13 526 18
1 14 544 18
1 15 562 18
1 16 580 18
1 17 598 18
1 18 616 18
1 19 634 18
1 20 652 18
1 21 670 18
1 22 688 18
3 23 706 18
3 24 723 17
3 25 740 17
3 26 757 17
3 27 774 17
3 28 792 18
3 29 809 17
3 30 826 17
3 31 843 17
3 32 860 17
3 33 877 17
3 34 894 17

[Ryoii/Nonomii]

I also took some data with how shield blocks reduce damage, and it appeared they reduced the damage by a fixed amount similar to Phalanx from FFXI. The Worm-Eaten Square Shield I used to do the testing in open beta only reduced damage by 17.

Also parrying reduced damage by nearly half, so it made shield blocks really suck for hard hitting enemies since you could not parry. Additionally you can fail to block if your vitality is too low.

Anyone else taken any data?

Primarily I continue to use a shield because Phalanx does great damage and later I get Aegis Boon.

[Ruin]

Any advice for improving accuracy...?

I have 4 brass rings, 55DEX, using a dagger, and yeah all my gear has full durability. Its pretty annoying missing 6 times in a row sometimes on a Blue mob...

[Grey Jorildyn]

Dex doesn't have any apparent effect on accuracy. People really need to stop applying logic to this game in this way.

That said, accuracy is terrible. It's been discussed in at least two other threads thus far. Nothing we can do about it short of finding a food item that boosts it.

[SathFenrir]

Great job on VIT testing and just upgrade your weapon every chance you get for ACC.

Since my VIT is capped for a decent amount of time and it would be safe to assume that other stats follow a similar cap guideline, I may start fully dumping points into MND as long as my physical continues to grow much faster than my rank. I love the extra MP / HP cured.

[Ruin]

As 24gla, would I get more acc using the r19 or the r29 dagger?

[Amastacia]

Somewhere above 10 the VIT cap increases.

18*2 = 36 + 28 = 64.

I had 65 VIT and 1228 HP.

I respec'd to 64 VIT and wound up with 1216 HP.

Late edit: I didn't remove HP gear for this test because i r dum. Current gear has a total of +31 HP and 1 VIT.

[SathFenrir]

In a party right now and have R19 70 VIT and just dumped 10 points into MND that I can spare to test. Will update in a bit.

[SathFenrir]

72 VIT @ R19 is my cap. 1318 HP. So 3x Rank +15 or 2x Rank +34? It's hard to really tell. Will have to test next physical level up.

[Amastacia]

70 VIT @ R18 is mine. 1257 HP with no +HP gear (and tested to be sure... VIT on gear doesn't help surpass cap).

So it looks like 2x rank+34.

Edit: Physical level 23 here.

[SathFenrir]

So we have (purportedly) (2*R)+28 between (let's make wild assumptions for a second) R1-R10 and maybe (2*R)+34 for R11-R20? It could be smaller and subdivided into R's of 5 and +3 instead of R of 10 and + of 6 but we don't really have enough info. Need someone R21 to test if it is (2*R)+40 or (2*R)+37 for them.

[Achitophel]

Was a 16 GLA at level 24 with 62 VIT. Dinged 17. Did not increase in physical level, still did not incur wear on my gear: immediately went from 1206 max hp to 1195. Any guesses why?

[aru]

Food wear off?

[Obiron]

Was a 16 GLA at level 24 with 62 VIT. Dinged 17. Did not increase in physical level, still did not incur wear on my gear: immediately went from 1206 max hp to 1195. Any guesses why?

Just to add to this (sorry I won't have exact numbers for any of this, I haven't played for a couple weeks due to a broken arm). I have three DoW jobs at rank 10, and I noticed a similar situation on all three jobs. About 40ish VIT, all three jobs had over 1k HP at rank 9. All three jobs fell below 1k when I dinged rank 10. Actually, Lancer has the least HP of the three, might have been above 900 at rank 9, then below 900 for rank 10. Sorry again for not having exact numbers, but I am 100% sure that all three jobs had a decrease in HP. I am still using starting gear, is it possible that at a certain point above optimal rank you lose the benefits of your gear? I can test that when I do log on again, see if changing gear still changes HP. Aside from that possibility, I haven't come up with any theories as to why I would see a decrease.

And for my situation, food was not involved.

[Ryoii/Nonomii]

I believe HP gained per point of VIT changes with rank, so you can go down in overall HP some ranks. I've actually observed this quite frequently when below the vitality cap.

I didn't take the time to level any job with a fixed amount of VIT below the cap, but I'll do it while I'm leveling Alchemy and Cooking to get a clearer picture.

Also I'll check the VIT cap for my rank 11-14 classes tonight.

[Ryoii/Nonomii]

Vitality is also important for your rate of failed shield blocks. I did some parsing which showed 35% failure rate against Rank1-3 Bumble Beetles as Rank 10 Gladiator with 17 Vitality. My failure rate went to 0% (perhaps 5% in a longer parse) when I increased vitality to the cap.

[SathFenrir]

Err, wrong thread!

[Naruto3]

At 22 gladiator my vit cap is 83 @1399 HP. At 21 my HP was 1367 without any HP gear, so I assume the vit cap at 21 is 80.

[Aratharn]

For example:

You buy the +10 STR to +10 INT trait.

Your STR is 40, your INT is 15.

If you put 10 allocation points into STR your STR will now be 45 (it costs two points to raise a STAT beyond 40).

However, if you put 10 points into INT, and equipped the trait, your STR will be 50, and your INT still 15.

You get 5 more points of STR for the same allocation point cost, and have the advantage of already having some INT should you swap to a mage class.

This doesn't work that way.

If you get the +10 STR to +10 INT and equip the trait.. it will take 10 STR away and give you 10 INT.

[Yoli]

Basic hate question.

I was duoing a leve with a friend on conjurer, and we were killing a party of two ... gnats I think. We were both 20ish. I was getting hit by one, and I'm ~95% sure she was getting hit by the other (which was fine, because they didn't hit for much, and stoneskin, etc.) Then suddenly the one poking her changed to me, and I'm not sure why it would have done that. I didn't use any obvious aoe like circle slash, or something that seems like it might generate hate on everyone like rampart (rampart does that, right? or is that in my head? I have such a bad grasp of the basic mechanics here).

I don't mind that it decided to come towards me, but I'd like to figure out why so I can try and make that happen intentionally in other situations.

Or maybe this is just a case of slightly bugged mechanics? I kind of think I've noticed this stuff happening in other spots though.

(And off topic while I'm here: any good solo spot - preferably in limsa - that has mobs I can solo on a 20 glad for "decent" xp and wind crystals?)

[plue]

Basic hate question.

I was duoing a leve with a friend on conjurer, and we were killing a party of two ... gnats I think. We were both 20ish. I was getting hit by one, and I'm ~95% sure she was getting hit by the other (which was fine, because they didn't hit for much, and stoneskin, etc.) Then suddenly the one poking her changed to me, and I'm not sure why it would have done that. I didn't use any obvious aoe like circle slash, or something that seems like it might generate hate on everyone like rampart (rampart does that, right? or is that in my head? I have such a bad grasp of the basic mechanics here).

I don't mind that it decided to come towards me, but I'd like to figure out why so I can try and make that happen intentionally in other situations.

Or maybe this is just a case of slightly bugged mechanics? I kind of think I've noticed this stuff happening in other spots though.

(And off topic while I'm here: any good solo spot - preferably in limsa - that has mobs I can solo on a 20 glad for "decent" xp and wind crystals?)

I've noticed some random enmity changes in the game as well. I was tanking a mob, and my THM friend would randomly take hate with just dart spam.

I think they mentioned enmity system adjustments coming up in one of the updates though, hopefully it'll make things more stable.

[Soap]

Has anyone unlocked Rage of Halone? I hit 30 but was not giving the ability. I think it might involve the NPC in our rank 30 class quest.

[Ryoii/Nonomii]

Soap,

How many skill points are required to go from Rank 30 to 31?

Thanks,
Ryo

It is the last one I'm not sure about in my table:

Rank/Level | Skill Points | Exp. Points
0 0 0
1 570 2700
2 700 3400
3 880 4400
4 1100 5800
5 1500 7600
6 1800 9500
7 2300 12000
8 3200 14000
9 4300 17000
10 5700 20000
11 7300 24000
12 8500 28000
13 9600 32000
14 11000 36000
15 12000 40000
16 14000 45000
17 15000 51000
18 17000 57000
19 18000 62000
20 20000 69000
21 22000 75000
22 24000 82000
23 26000 89000
24 28000 97000
25 30000 100000
26 32000 110000
27 35000 120000
28 37000 130000
29 39000 140000
30 42000 150000
31 45000 160000
32 47000 170000
33 50000 180000
34 ? 190000
35 ? 200000
36 ? 210000
37 ? 220000
38 ? 230000
39 ? 240000

[Soap]

Your chart is correct up to 33.

[Kaelan?]

One thing I noticed recently playing ARM: at R28/P35, I'm already at (or possibly beyond) the VIT cap at 100 base VIT. I just got 4 VIT rings (for a +20 total), which I'm actually not really getting anything from and probably won't for several ranks. I'm kind of wondering now how useful stat boosts of this sort will even be as we get closer to end-game (and thus, end-game gear) if we can easily cap at least one (two?) stats just by leveling.

[solracht]

VIT and MND from gear don't actually raise HP/MP unless I'm seriously blind.

[Lyramion]

Nop, bought 2x 5 VIT Rings today and there is no raise in HP. Yet when I counter tested with reasign, every VIT point still gave me HP. Also the GuildMark abilities suffer from the same effect. Shifting 5 Piety to VIT will not raise your HP at all.

[Grey Jorildyn]

For that test a few pages ago... Rank 23 glad, 1458 HP is max with 84 VIT. bumping to 85 VIT did nothing.

[plue]

So does VIT basically just increase block rate and reduce damage taken?

[ArchDizzle]

Anyone else having skill up glitches with shield? I never noticed them before but since last night I will get multiple sword skill ups when doing nothing but blocking and getting very few shield skill ups at all, either by just getting nothing or getting sword skill ups in place of them. Before last night I never has this issue. Also Camp Tranquil leves seemed to be bugged for me no matter what Leve I choose I get foraging does as my enemies ; ;

[SathFenrir]

Merona has mentioned it before, but I just want to echo: Damnation is pretty much the best WS you can set for GLA in my opinion. Low stamina cost, good damage, and good way to replenish MP so you can cure / cast for hate / self-buff, etc.

If you aren't using it currently, try it out.

[Amastacia]

The only downside being having to take another DoW/DoM job past 10.

I've expressly avoided doing so because lv 20 leves will not offer marks for jobs under rank 10, and I've been trying to buffer up on GLA marks.

[SathFenrir]

The only downside being having to take another DoW/DoM job past 10.

I've expressly avoided doing so because lv 20 leves will not offer marks for jobs under rank 10, and I've been trying to buffer up on GLA marks.

Need 10THM for Punishing Barbs anyways. I prefer shock spikes for most stuff but PB is nice for soloing harder stuff / farming. I hit R20 GLA with about 13000 marks, which is fine, since there's only one thing I want before the level 30 traits and I already bought it (self-preservation).

[Grey Jorildyn]

Just hit 24. Gonna spend the next couple of days working on Protect/Shell and Stygian Spikes. Transitioning Gladiator into more of a Paladin type doesn't seem to difficult but definitely requires the effort! I'm not sure it was me who mentioned Damnation as a great WS for MP recovery, but I wholeheartedly agree in any case :)

[SathFenrir]

I'm not sure I care enough to go for Pro/shell at the moment. Duration is very, very short and leveling CNJ is boring :(

[plue]

Just hit 24. Gonna spend the next couple of days working on Protect/Shell and Stygian Spikes. Transitioning Gladiator into more of a Paladin type doesn't seem to difficult but definitely requires the effort! I'm not sure it was me who mentioned Damnation as a great WS for MP recovery, but I wholeheartedly agree in any case :)

Stygian Spikes is definitely worth it, I haven't run out of MP once on Gladiator with this skill.

[Grey Jorildyn]

Glad to hear it! These r30 leves offer a crapton of guildmarks btw.

[Nevex]

Might as well get THM 20 for Firm Conviction if you intend to play GLA in a PLDesque way.
Without that it's completely outclassed by THM otherwise (except for... slightly better defense when not casting I guess?). Casting single-target cures that heal 200 HP is pretty pointless if you get hit for more than that meanwhile.

[SathFenrir]

I couldn't imagine leveling THM to 20. Although, I think most of the damage taken while casting problems would be solved by having servers that aren't complete ass. *click cure -> wait 5s -> yell at the TV that my stamina bar is completely full -> wait another 5s -> cure for 1/10th of the damage I've just taken*

Love it.

[Amastacia]

Need 10THM for Punishing Barbs anyways. I prefer shock spikes for most stuff but PB is nice for soloing harder stuff / farming. I hit R20 GLA with about 13000 marks, which is fine, since there's only one thing I want before the level 30 traits and I already bought it (self-preservation).

Yeah, just rolled the 8k I need for Self Preservation, so I might push a few jobs to 10 for their goodies.

[Black]

what kinds of food you guys using and what stats it give?

[SathFenrir]

None since I play with gamepad and can't figure out how to bind the usable item list.

[Amastacia]

So long as SE releases no data, and the character sheet doesn't update stats, there seems to be little point to food, since there's absolutely no way to know what it's actually doing.

On the HP front, 20 seems to be another level where it drops. Lost 10 HP when I dinged, with no changes to stat or gear.

[Black]

happend to me when i dinged rank 22 i lost like 10hp i dunno why p-p;

[Ryoii/Nonomii]

Unfortunately forgot to do the HP rank testing while leveling Alchemist, so I'll be doing it when I get a chance to level Culinarian. Thank you all for providing more information on VIT caps.

[Jojimbo]

None since I play with gamepad and can't figure out how to bind the usable item list.

Best bet would to be Xpadder or some other similar program and bind U to an unused button on the controller.

[SathFenrir]

I just don't see the option in the gamepad config list. I may be retarded. I use PS3 controller so I'd just use like R3 or something for it.

[Amastacia]

VIT cap at 20 is 76.

Pattern change for sure, I'm surprised it's at 20 and not 21.

[Jojimbo]

There is no option with SEs config, you would have to use an external program to bind the key 'U' (opens the usable item list in FFXIV) to a gamepad button. There might be a way after SE introduces the ability to completely rebind controls though.

[aru]

Has anyone been able to find an Iron Spatha or at least the recipe for one? This thing exist or is it just floating, unimplemented, in the .dats?

[Amastacia]

There's a known recipe for the blade, unknown if the spatha recipe isn't implemented or isn't documented. If it does exist, it's 30+ craft rank to make.

[iamspartacus]

where can i buy the lvl 1 gladiator sword at limsa lominsa >.> ?

[Grey Jorildyn]

where can i buy the lvl 1 gladiator sword at limsa lominsa >.> ?

Today I teach a man how to fish: http://ffxiv.yg.com/

Anyway, I am really struggling to solo and also earn SP in groups. Here are the glaring issues I am facing now, just at Rank 24...


Horrible Accuracy (even with Still Precision)
A weapon I cannot repair myself (It's made of wood, up until now, the rest were metal! Thanks SE!)
Gladiator is capped at 500 total skill between Sword AND Shield (again, thanks SE!)
Smallest damage output ever, so skill gains, when they actually do proc, are like 15-21 SP a hit.
Weapon skill accuracy AND damage are terrible, except Luminous Spire, but of course that's AoE right? (I just grounded into a Triple Play. I love you so much SE!)
Provoke is our "best" way to gain SP in a fight? Seriously SE? Please fix this...


How are mid-20s gladiators dealing with this utter crap? I mean seriously... our solo capability is horrible without some kind of thing to gimp our sword/shield skills up (barbs/spikes, respectively), and we deal hardly any damage as it is. I cannot keep up in parties because I can swing about 20-25 times if I'm busting my ass off (and thus NOT tanking), and hit hardly a handful of times. Even Phalanx isn't accurate when I DO get to tank. Furthermore, too many of our abilities are horrible...

Obsess is terrible, it does nothing. Rampart is better, and it uses too much Stamina and has a ridiculous cooldown. Cover is worthless just like in FFXI lol. Still Precision does not grant a good amount of accuracy on party mobs. The only reliable WS we have is Red Lotus and it uses MP, which we have no natural way to get back (stygian spikes is THM16, FML). Having to use main hand stamina bar to use offhand skills (Guard, Aegis Boon, Shield Bash) totally kills our DPS capability in parties.

Something's gotta give here with Gladiator. It is the most gimp job for earning SP thanks to the 500 SP cap between our two weapons. The Stamina bars are whacked out for us and too many abilities use almost half a bar. There's no flow to Glad right now and I feel that we're useless in parties because we don't bring anything unique to gameplay in that area. THM tank is looking pretty good right now TBH. Seems like it has the best stuff for tanking, and when coupled with gladiator HP/DEF/Shields, it might turn out we're actually good because of that other class. It's PLD/NIN all over again :(

[Nevex]

I wouldn't even bother leveling shield right now to be honest. Higher sentinel rank doesn't really seem to affect anything except learning new skills, which I doubt you'll be using over Guard for grinding purposes.

The accuracy problem is something every class seems to have right now and DEX doesn't seem to help at all.

I expect THM vs GLA tanking becoming a a central debate in this game like PLD vs NIN was for a while back in FFXI if things stay the way they are now.

Right now GLA's advantages over THM include:
-better direct damage output;
-much higher HP;
-significantly better tanking equipment;
-lower stamina costs/no casting times on most abilities.

On the other hand, THM:
-has immunity to Spikes since Phantom Dart doesn't trigger it (which is significant against the mobs that use them right now since there is no Dispel);
-can tank a few mobs from distance without drawbacks;
-generally better magic defense;
-AoE spells;
-no MP issues whatsoever.

They'll probably buff GLA over time like they did with PLD in FFXI. Right now seems to be a functional class with solid basis on paper, but lacks any sort of "trick" to get the job done.

[SathFenrir]

The only way I can level at the moment is under favor in level 20 leves -> solo green / blue / yellow mobs as fast as possible without shield for 20-25 minutes and then finish the leve. I did two of them yesterday where I got 3500~ SP each at level 21.

I also refuse to use ash maca exclusively. I carry my brass gladius and brass nuggets with me all the time. I use ash until 50% then switch to brass and repair the ash next time I'm in town.