[Guide] Paladin Tanking Compendium (Last update 11/13/13)

[Carth]

First run of Turn 1.

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c1...ps6e7e86da.png

After hearing all the horror stories on here, I couldn't help myself.

[Belragga]

is 5400 HP and 460 acc geared enough to start coil?

[Meph]

stupid question but asking anyway. I've been putting all attribute points on STR, should I grind marks and get the reset-potion and move everything to VIT?

[Carth]

is 5400 HP and 460 acc geared enough to start coil?

5400 HP is fine. I've been hearing 470 acc is what you should have before coil, so get another DL piece then you'll be good to go.

stupid question but asking anyway. I've been putting all attribute points on STR, should I grind marks and get the reset-potion and move everything to VIT?

Full VIT is the best choice. All STR does is give you more DPS (which translates to more threat), which is actually very good, but your party members should be disciplined enough to know when to slow down if they creep up the threat ceiling. I know Eanae goes full STR in Coil so it's possible (I'm 20VIT/10STR myself), but I'd only go down that route if you know how to rotate your cooldowns efficiently and you have buddies that you know are good healers. At 5700 HP I've dipped below 300 HP a good number of times in Coil.

[Sapphidia]

I hear a lot of mixed discussion about paladins choosing to +1 their Sword over getting an AF2 piece. Obviously 300 to +1 the shield is a no brainer but what are the coil-clearing paladins feeling? With Allagan parts dropping but the weapon not appearing till Turn 5 it seems that the sensible thing is to +1 the weapon first to remove risk of wasted points, but it's hard to say no to the huge survivability stat boosts that upgrading from Darklight or Hoplite can be.

Does any paladin routinely tanking for a full group of +1 Relic dpsers who know what they're doing feel like the +1 relic sword is vital, or just a cosmetic fluff? Outside of this thread, most opinions I've read have been that upgrading the sword is pointless and a waste as you'll never need the bonus threat it gives. I tank for some good relic +1 dpsers on pre-coil content and do fine with a +0 Relic, but it's difficult to gauge how fast DPS threat ramps up with gear scaling. Yet here, in this thread, most of the veteran pallies are advocating +1 sword as the best use of tomes.

[Obsidian]

+1 sword.

[Abracadabra]

I personally chose to go with the AF2 vs the +1 sword. Even with all 4 of our dps using +1 weapons, threat isn't really an issue at all. (Up to turn 5 of Coil which I have not beaten yet.) I think a lot of it is personal preference right now. Our 2nd uses +1 sword and +1 shield and is a good 300 or so health below me. I think the +1 shield is still better than the turn 1 shield but I think I personally would wait on the +1 shield and pick up something your group may have trouble with if you haven't started coil yet. Turn 5 is Helm so for most that is probably something you want to get and AF2 gloves imo are better than the Turn 4 gloves so those would be my early choices for gear. Obviously you probably don't want to get the helm without having a chest lined up but the tank chest is Turn 1 as well so with a little luck you could get that without too much trouble even in a pug group.

[Jem]

Pre Allagan/AF2, what are people doing for Body/Head slot? Just Darklight to tide them by or quad/quint melded HQ Heavy Darksteel Armor and losing out on a decent chunk of gil? (I hate that both options cover the head and can't be disabled though )


AF2 head + Melded HQ Militia is something I've thought about but my myth points are currently tied up in +1'ing sword/shield which seems to be the way to go from what everyone else says.

[BerenTebogo]

Pre Allagan/AF2, what are people doing for Body/Head slot? Just Darklight to tide them by or quad/quint melded HQ Heavy Darksteel Armor and losing out on a decent chunk of gil? (I hate that both options cover the head and can't be disabled though )


AF2 head + Melded HQ Militia is something I've thought about but my myth points are currently tied up in +1'ing sword/shield which seems to be the way to go from what everyone else says.

AF2 head + hq militia is my combo and is the superior choice if you want to look fancy as fuck.

[Jem]

In that case, would you get AF2 head before +1'ing Shield or Sword? Would have to wait for Myth reset to get head (which is what I was planning on doing for Sword anyway)

[Eanae]

In that case, would you get AF2 head before +1'ing Shield or Sword? Would have to wait for Myth reset to get head (which is what I was planning on doing for Sword anyway)

Sword first. And Sath's combo looks sexy but is probably worse statistically defense wise while being a little more threat if you meld crit/det.

[BerenTebogo]

Stats are posted on previous page.

I'll take my extra 80-100 crit any day.

[Petitssk]

Stats are posted on previous page.

I'll take my extra 80-100 crit any day.

Out of curiosity, which materia did you meld exactly? Since I don't like Heavy Darklight, I also went with Militia, though I'm having some trouble figuring out which materia would be best to use. Eventually, I opted for DET and crit, as this combination was suggested in this thread, but seeing how the crit seems to cap at 7 and I can get 6 with a single materia, I was wondering if it might be better to use one ACC materia (depending on how much I have) instead of another crit materia that would only net me a +1 increase (assuming I'm getting the cap right, of course).

Thank you in advance for any input!

[Weltall]

Across all FFXIV sites, I've read about a 50/50 split on PLD Relic Shield+1 or Sword+1 being more important. I would like to hear more thought on which is better and if anyone is picking up AF2 instead first. I have no no trouble at all holding hate through Coil.

I went with AF2 Body and Sword+1 first. I am going to either +1 Shield or get AF2 Crown tonight based on Coil drops today.

[Avarice]

Maybe someone can explain this to me, but I'm literally failing to see any reason in upgrading Curtana +1 before getting AF2 (or even Shield+1), because as its base, all it does is increase your damage done by a marginal amount, which only helps with aggro (are people with regular Curtanas having trouble with this?) and making the fights go ever so slightly faster. I'd personally much rather focus on survivability, especially so in Coil.

Spoiler: show

Sword is not upgraded. Shield is not upgraded. Replacing Hoplite Ring is my next planned move.
With this, I've been able to clear through Turn 4 without any problems at all, and never have problems holding hate on mobs. Meanwhile, by increasing my AF2, I'm getting huge increases in HP, my accuracy is staying close to the softcap (I use HQ Lava Toad Legs to compensate and bring myself entirely there, until I get better accessories), and with the Strength from AF2, I've also been able to go up two tiers in block strength to mitigate damage even further.

And while we're on the topic of survivability, I'd like to remind people that while Shield Oath's supposed enmity increase is indeed questionable, don't forget that it gives you a flat Damage Taken -20%, which is alone worth it.

[pixelshader]

Maybe someone can explain this to me, but I'm literally failing to see any reason in upgrading Curtana +1 before getting AF2 (or even Shield+1), because as its base, all it does is increase your damage done by a marginal amount, which only helps with aggro (are people with regular Curtanas having trouble with this?) and making the fights go ever so slightly faster. I'd personally much rather focus on survivability, especially so in Coil.

Spoiler: show

Sword is not upgraded. Shield is not upgraded. Replacing Hoplite Ring is my next planned move.
With this, I've been able to clear through Turn 4 without any problems at all, and never have problems holding hate on mobs. Meanwhile, by increasing my AF2, I'm getting huge increases in HP, my accuracy is staying close to the softcap (I use HQ Lava Toad Legs to compensate and bring myself entirely there, until I get better accessories), and with the Strength from AF2, I've also been able to go up two tiers in block strength to mitigate damage even further.

And while we're on the topic of survivability, I'd like to remind people that while Shield Oath's supposed enmity increase is indeed questionable, don't forget that it gives you a flat Damage Taken -20%, which is alone worth it.

Jesus your gear is awesome. Mine isn't half as good and I'm on turn 5 at 55% if that means anything to you on gear choices. I just have shield sword +1ed and a ring. lawls. My luck is terrible.

[Avarice]

Jesus your gear is awesome. Mine isn't half as good and I'm on turn 5 at 55% if that means anything to you on gear choices. I just have shield sword +1ed and a ring. lawls. My luck is terrible.

Well the only Allagan there is Legs and Waist, but I do agree that RNG is just god awful, moreso when you can only run the place once per week. Every single accessory my group has ever gotten has been DPS; we've never seen a single Healer/Tank accessory. For that reason, I'm probably gonna replace my Hoplite with a Rose Gold Ring (not sure how I plan to meld it just yet), and then my Darklight Ring with the Hero's Ring next week. The week after that, I'll probably then do my Shield +1 since I'd rather just hold out for Allagan accessories since they're generally best in slot (for parry/acc).

On that note, is there a chart anywhere that shows Dexterity and its tier amounts for affecting block/parry rates?

[Weltall]

Avarice, your Avatar/Sig is fucking awesome. I was going to go more AF2 pieces before Sword/Shield+1, but people kept arguing me against it -.- Wish I did for looks alone, but too late.

[Eanae]

Maybe someone can explain this to me, but I'm literally failing to see any reason in upgrading Curtana +1 before getting AF2 (or even Shield+1), because as its base, all it does is increase your damage done by a marginal amount, which only helps with aggro (are people with regular Curtanas having trouble with this?) and making the fights go ever so slightly faster. I'd personally much rather focus on survivability, especially so in Coil.

Spoiler: show

Sword is not upgraded. Shield is not upgraded. Replacing Hoplite Ring is my next planned move.
With this, I've been able to clear through Turn 4 without any problems at all, and never have problems holding hate on mobs. Meanwhile, by increasing my AF2, I'm getting huge increases in HP, my accuracy is staying close to the softcap (I use HQ Lava Toad Legs to compensate and bring myself entirely there, until I get better accessories), and with the Strength from AF2, I've also been able to go up two tiers in block strength to mitigate damage even further.

And while we're on the topic of survivability, I'd like to remind people that while Shield Oath's supposed enmity increase is indeed questionable, don't forget that it gives you a flat Damage Taken -20%, which is alone worth it.

Did you get a double myth reset?

[Avarice]

That one time, back during the first couple weeks of the game where they took the servers down for maintenance and said they'd reset? Yea.