Gladiator

[Biggie]

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

1. Horrible Accuracy (even with Still Precision)
2. A weapon I cannot repair myself (It's made of wood, up until now, the rest were metal! Thanks SE!)
3. Gladiator is capped at 500 total skill between Sword AND Shield (again, thanks SE!)
4. Smallest damage output ever, so skill gains, when they actually do proc, are like 15-21 SP a hit.
5. 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!)
6. Provoke is our "best" way to gain SP in a fight? Seriously SE? Please fix this...

this.

I will say though, now that I manged to get past rank 24, 25 has been a lot better. 24 was super slow for me. Took 3 days of leves, solo grinding, and grinding in PT just to get 24-25. Now that im 25, 1 hour in a group of 10ish people got me 11k skill... Maybe just dumb luck.

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);

Archer rank 12 gets Scourging Strike - Which will dispell buffs. IMO its a must have for tanks. Stun spikes fucking blow when trying to tank. I will say the acc when using cross class has been nerfed big time since beta, and now has a 60sec recast, so you better not miss! I save Still Per. for dispell on mobs that I know will need to be dispelled.

[Nevex]

Oh I didn't know about that ARC ability. Really hope they add an actual Dispel spell (as well as Haste) soon though.

[BerenTebogo]

Re: Brass Gladius over Brass Dagger:

Preliminary data lends support to the theory that our main GLA attacks and tp moves (which are slashing based - unless you purchase heavy pierce, etc) incur a damage penalty under daggers that do not occur under gladius or spatha types. Daggers are primarily piercing type damage with a minimal slashing bonus and spatha / gladius are primarily slashing with minimal piercing bonus.

I don't have the resources / time / caring to do full tests at this time, but my observations with bronze dagger vs. bronze gladius, after accounting for base damage difference, support this. It's mostly anecdotal at this point, so if others want to look into this it'd be great. As it stands now, unless the damage difference is extraordinary, I'll be avoiding daggers of all variety in favor of spatha / gladius types.

[solracht]

Re: Brass Gladius over Brass Dagger:

Preliminary data lends support to the theory that our main GLA attacks and tp moves (which are slashing based - unless you purchase heavy pierce, etc) incur a damage penalty under daggers that do not occur under gladius or spatha types. Daggers are primarily piercing type damage with a minimal slashing bonus and spatha / gladius are primarily slashing with minimal piercing bonus.

I don't have the resources / time / caring to do full tests at this time, but my observations with bronze dagger vs. bronze gladius, after accounting for base damage difference, support this. It's mostly anecdotal at this point, so if others want to look into this it'd be great. As it stands now, unless the damage difference is extraordinary, I'll be avoiding daggers of all variety in favor of spatha / gladius types.

More anecdotal stuff, but: I broke my Ash Macuahuitl (0% piercing damage) in a very short time by spamming Feint and other piercing abilities. Switched to Brass Gladius (40% piercing) after it broke and it took a lot longer. Lancer doesn't seem to break weapons nearly as quickly.

Maybe someone will eventually properly test this, but it definitely feels like there's a durability penalty there.

[Darus Grey]

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.

As a currently dedicated thaum tank(until it's shown one way or another to be inferior pre-100% thaum affinity), the other major issues between the term are:

THM:
-Hate management is a non-issue, gladiator's sub our spells for a reason.
- Damage mitigation. With the current WTFBBQ level of firm-convinction, THM is by far the best damage mitigator in the game, our low HP keeps this somewhat in check, because server delay makes it so keeping firm-convinction up fulltime is...random at best, but keeping it up 90%~ is a non-issue. Granted taking damage spikes as a tank isn't really that great, but it's just obscene at the moment.

Me and Grey are about the same level, stuff that hits him for 500-700 hits me for 150.

[Grey Jorildyn]

Yeah, that's plainly broken. I didn't even bother complaining about dmg mitigation past "it's PLD vs. NIN" anecdotes. It's stupid that a mage is, once again, an amazingly viable tank. It's like SE didn't learn jack or shit from XI. Gladiator is terrible in the role prescribed to it. It needs a massive amount of redesigning to be a true tank class at this point.

[solracht]

I don't think anyone can expect Firm Conviction to last past November. It's not like it's a THM issue, CNJ and any future class that can AoE spells benefits from this and will beat any melee-based class at tanking.

[Nevex]

Yeah I did notice that Firm Conviction procs even when it shouldn't... I get hit for 80-150 when other people get hit for 600+.
I thought it was broken but then I realized it was a server lag thing since I would occasionally take normal damage.
I don't see the ability itself (i.e. not in its current state) to be THAT overpowered since most spells have rather high stamina costs, they just need to fix the lag thing and make it work when it's supposed to (maybe make it proc no more than once per cast so it can't be abused with spells with long casting times).

GLA would be very easy to differentiate from the current THM by giving it more low stamina cost, MP free enmity/defensive tools.

[BerenTebogo]

Yeah, that's plainly broken. I didn't even bother complaining about dmg mitigation past "it's PLD vs. NIN" anecdotes. It's stupid that a mage is, once again, an amazingly viable tank. It's like SE didn't learn jack or shit from XI. Gladiator is terrible in the role prescribed to it. It needs a massive amount of redesigning to be a true tank class at this point.

I've kinda slowed down on Glad and picked up armorer instead since it's easier to skill up and more rewarding at this point. I'm now only doing Glad in my lv20 leves and then switching right back to armorer. :\

It kinda sucks since I was having fun, but whatever, it's not worth the frustration at the moment and it's definitely not worth leveling up another DoW class.

[Ruin]

Is there a list somewhere that shows what stats cap at for certain levels?

Anyway im r26 and have 95 VIT/STR, 64MND and 55DEX. Am I wasting stats? Or does anyone have any suggestions on how I could reassign?

[plue]

They need to adjust Shield blocks to be able to block more than just normal attacks, and reduce the damage taken by more than such a marginal amount. There really is no difference at this point that I can see between tanking as a GLA and having a random melee tank, aside from being able to hold hate better as a GLA.

[Aratharn]

After leveling PUG for the last few days from 10-17 then switching back to GLA... I cannot believe how much worse the battle lag is for GLA.. it's damn near unbearable.. fix the battle lag and then who knows how the rest will play out. Definitely need to give a separate stamina bar for shield abilities.

It just blew my mind after not playing GLA for a few days, then coming back on, how much longer it takes to get any of your abilities to go off than other classes.

I'd also like to know what the VIT caps are, at 26 with 82 VIT I'm pretty sure I've hit cap as my HP went DOWN when I ranked up from 25 -> 26.

[Grey Jorildyn]

I think they ninja-updated something... Aegis Boon isn't lasting as long as it used to with either of my shield types. Something up? Anyone else notice this?

edit: Seems to last 20s instead of 30s. OR instead of lasting one "Wield Rate"/Guard cycle, it now has it's own set duration of ~20s. It seriously used to last longer, I can't be going crazy, right??

[Amastacia]

After leveling PUG for the last few days from 10-17 then switching back to GLA... I cannot believe how much worse the battle lag is for GLA.. it's damn near unbearable.. fix the battle lag and then who knows how the rest will play out. Definitely need to give a separate stamina bar for shield abilities.

It just blew my mind after not playing GLA for a few days, then coming back on, how much longer it takes to get any of your abilities to go off than other classes.

I'd also like to know what the VIT caps are, at 26 with 82 VIT I'm pretty sure I've hit cap as my HP went DOWN when I ranked up from 25 -> 26.

HP does sometimes go down, and you're probably not capped. Cap at 22 is 80, count on at least 2 per level, and quite possibly an extra 2 (since it seems to bump up regularly... quite possibly every level divisible by 4), so either 88 or 90.

[plue]

Gladiator question:

Can I buy Self-Preservation more than once?

[Grey Jorildyn]

If only.

[BerenTebogo]

I think they ninja-updated something... Aegis Boon isn't lasting as long as it used to with either of my shield types. Something up? Anyone else notice this?

edit: Seems to last 20s instead of 30s. OR instead of lasting one "Wield Rate"/Guard cycle, it now has it's own set duration of ~20s. It seriously used to last longer, I can't be going crazy, right??

Seems like it is lasting less time, yes.

[plue]

Another question:

During Aeges Boon, mob animations stop. I see the mob just standing in front of me, but I don't see it attacking. I have to randomly Phalanx and hope I time it right. Is this only me / does anyone know how to fix this?

[Grey Jorildyn]

Nope that's how it is. It negates mob attacks and converts some portion of potential damage to HP. The way I keep tabs on it is by watching my TP go up. Easy enough to see since I miss all the time...

[plue]

That's retarded. Yea, today I noticed the TP I get from the attacks and used that, but really SE?

I'm also kind of annoyed at the unresponsiveness of the mobs. Sometimes I have hate, and the mob is just looking at someone else in my party. I don't know if I have hate or if it's focused on someone else, what gives?