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An In Depth look at Paladin

An advanced guide to the class

Last update: 23 Jan 2019 (Patch 4.5) – Seiryu, O12S Added – Good luck everyone!

Hi! Emiin Vanih [Lamia] here. With the help of The Balance Discord server, I’ve decided to write a compendium on the information that is regularly disseminated therein, and give a general tips and tricks to utilizing Paladin. While Paladin is one of the simpler classes to play at a decent level, there are quite a large amount of optimizations one can make to perform better.

Available Translations – French translation by Murugen Mugen [Moogle]

5.0 guide can be found here! Thanks everyone for supporting me throughout the expansion!

Disclaimer

1. This guide will talk about Paladin at raiding (Level 70, 8-man) level. Some topics will be addressed that will spread towards other avenues of play within FFXIV, but raiding will be the primary focus.
2. Tooltips and basic skill potencies will not be addressed unless mathematically necessary. I expect anyone reading this guide to be able to understand how to read tooltips.
3. Initialisms used throughout this guide:
   1. GCD – Global Cooldown: Weapon Skills, Spells
   2. OGCD – Abilities
   3. RoH, RA, HS – Rage of Halone, Royal Authority, Holy Spirit respectively
   4. CoS, SW, Req, FoF – Circle of Scorn, Spirits Within, Requiescat, Fight or Flight
   5. All further initialisms will be explained when they appear.
4. Potencies listed will include slashing where applicable. Holy Spirit, and the DoT effects for Goring Blade and Circle of Scorn are not affected and will be addressed as such.

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Part 1: The Basics – How to achieve numbers in a general setting (non-optimization) – blue/purple on FFlogs

General rundown for anyone somewhat new to Paladin. If you’ve played the class to 70, you should have a general idea of what to do.

1. Avoid using Shield Oath when you are comfortable with a fight to understand the damage output, or not in imminent danger of getting face-rolled.
2. Use all offensive OGCDs on cooldown (Spirits Within, Circle of Scorn). 
3. Fight or Flight and Requiescat should be kept on rotation and on cooldown as much as possible. These will be discussed later in the guide on proper utilization.
4. Maintain Goring Blade DoT on your primary target – Goring combo should be started  every 5-6 GCDs in order to maintain this debuff.
5. Avoid using Clemency unless it is required for survival. Mana is best saved for Requiescat windows.
6. Use Sheltron or Intervention before capping gauge, in order to get the most out of Shield Swipe procs. Shield swipe is a free 100 potency/15 seconds, don’t ignore it.
7. Save Mana for Requiescat + Holy Spirit windows – you should get 5 Holy Spirit uses per window.
8. AoE – Spam Total Eclipse and Circle of Scorn. Not much too it.

Note that this list is a generic quick-list guide, and is not meant for optimization. This list will simply pump your numbers to a somewhat respectable level. Once you’ve familiarized yourself with the basics, we’ll go into specifics.

Standard 1m Rotation flows as shown on the left – 

The rotation itself is cyclical – every minute you will perform the same actions, regardless of the opener you use. The only thing that changes is the exact order of what happens. Maintaining this rotation (the benefits of each will be discussed in a later section) is the key to doing consistent and strong DPS as a Paladin.

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Part 2: Map Your Cooldowns – Offensive and Defensive utilization

Offense

A Paladin’s offense comes primarily from proper execution of it’s damage buffs, Fight or Flight and Requiescat. Paladin does not have any hard hitting abilities, but what it does have is consistency through buffs. A Paladin’s damage is boosted by one of these two abilities for around 60% of uptime, which is incredibly significant to their DPS, and maintaining good numbers. Ensure that you rotate through your buffs and keep them active as much as possible.

1. Maintain uptime in both Fight or Flight and Requiescat. Consistent usage of these buffs is key for your DPS, as they are the bread and butter of your contribution. Note that FoF and Req are not to be used together. They are completely separate buffs, and buff completely different outgoing damage. Read your tooltips and understand how they work.
2. Goring Blade is your most important offensive tool. The primary rule behind Goring Blade is that you should never allow it to drop. Certain mental gymnastics in fight scenarios can be used in order to get full uptime, but do your best to maintain it.
3. Shield Swipe is your largest DPS increase that is not often used as much as it should. Simply adding Swipe to your repertoire is an increase of up to 400 potency/minute, which is basically 2-3 extra GCDs on your target. If you’re tanking, this goes off effectively. If you’re off-tanking, this requires clever utilization of Sheltron in order to get the most out of your damage. 
4. Shirk is, technically, an offensive tool. While I’m sure its original intent was to make tank swapping easier, what it ended up becoming was a tool to enable optimizing tanks to avoid using tank stance and threat combos in their entirety. Throughout a fight, its usefulness increases, exponentially granting more and more threat to whoever it is cast upon.
   1. OT Vokes, MT Shirk – Standard Shirk usage, performed on every tank swap.
   2. OT Vokes, OT Shirk – Efficient for low-threat openers, so long as there won’t be 2 tank swaps within 2 minutes. 
   3. OT Voke, MT Shirk > MT voke, OT shirk – the “Circle Shirk”, generating you a total of 56% more total threat. Incredibly useful if for some reason you like to single tank raid fights.

Further detail will be discussed in the later sections of this guide.

Defense

Defensive cooldowns can be interestingly utilized, and for the most part, are completely variable based on the fight, your co-tank, and what is best for your raid group. One static progressing through a fight will have a completely different skill rotation used compared to yours, and it may be just as viable. Work with your team in order to find out what works best for you.

1. Shield Oath, and utilization of it, is best utilized as a progression tool, and not an optimization tool. Once a fight is properly learned and optimized, tank stances are typically removed from the equation. Shield Oath itself is a very powerful tool, but is not necessary when you begin optimizing a fight.
2. Sentinel is the strongest single-button non invulnerable cooldown of the game, at 40% reduced damage taken. While this does not seem terribly great on its own with a short duration and long cooldown, it has incredible burst protection in tough situations.
3. Sheltron is an incredibly effective tool at reducing tank buster damage. At current best in slot, it decreases damage by roughly 25-30% of a single hit. Stacked with other cooldowns, and you reduce the danger of many tank busters tremendously. Use this ability well, and often.
4. In an optimal raid setting, Convalescence loses its effectiveness as healers will be using less heal spells, and more abilities. By all means, use Convalescence if it is effective for your raid team, but understanding how your healers are healing you is more important. 2500 health gained on a single cast of cure 2 within 20 seconds may not be an efficient use of a cooldown.
5. Hallowed Ground is the most busted ultimate tank cooldown in the game. While it doesn’t last as long as Living Dead, or have as short of a cooldown as Holmgang, the fact that damage is completely ignored is where it wins. The other ultimate cooldowns require at least a small amount of healing. Hallowed Ground can even cheese many debuffs that are attached to some tank busters, as they require the target to take damage to activate.
6. Map. Your. Cooldowns. If you want to be the big-dick tank that never enters Shield Oath and doesn’t afraid of anything, you need to understand the damage that is incoming in a fight, when to use cooldowns, tank swap, and what cooldowns are best utilized where. A good tank uses their cooldowns effectively so that their healers never notice they were out of Tank stance.
7. Tank Swapping both utilizes Shirk to its full effectiveness, as well as enables your co-tank to use his mitigation tools effectively. Your raid group has two tanks worth of cooldowns, use them to both make the fight easier, and give your healers a helping hand. Delete the thought of always Main Tank and Off Tank. Both tanks in an optimized setting will share equal burden. Main Tank and Off Tank terms should be used as a “Who is currently tanking the boss,” similar to how other languages use “First Tank” and “Second Tank.”
8. Your DPS have mitigation abilities as well. All Melees have Feint (-10% phys), Ranged have Palisade(-20% phys), Bards have Nature’s Minne(+20% healing)/Troubadour(variable 10/15% buffs), Machinist has Dismantle (-10%), Casters have Addle(-10% magic) and Apocatastasis(-20% magic). Discuss mitigation options with your raid group for optimal play.

Cross Role Actions

With the changes to Cross-roles in 4.4, we now have the option to take all cross-roles into a fight, doing wonders for a Paladin’s versatility, while murdering our hot-bar space. Here’s some of the more confusing cross-roles, and how they can be used effectively.

1. Ultimatum – AoE Provoke, but typically taken as a secondary provoke in a few scenarios. If your group can use it, then more power to you. It can be used as a pinch in saving wipe scenarios in longer fights, such as Ultimate Coil. Use this at your discretion.
2. Awareness – One of the more curious cross-roles, as its usefulness is technically questionable. A boss’ crit rate typically hovers around 5%, so it does not have an intrinsic value. The value of Awareness lies in the “Insurance policy.” Awareness can be used effectively in certain situations in order to ensure that a tank takes a specific window of damage, and does not get surprised by critical hits. Awareness will have more value on high-critical enemies or phases such as Shiva Extreme’s bow-phase, or guaranteed critical hit strikes and Tank Busters, such as Critical Hit in O3S, or Tera Slash in Shinryu Extreme.
3. Anticipation – A slightly less useful cross-role to Paladin, as shield blocks take precedence over parries. It is however, a free source of mitigation. Make use of it as often as you can, the uptime of this ability is tremendous.
4. Convalescence – I personally do not favor this cross-role, but a smart group can use it very effectively. My personal issue with Conva is that it does not work on what a healer primarily wants to use for healing – oGCDs such as Tetragrammaton, Excogation, or Essential Dignity. It does, however, work on Regens, and Fairy Embraces. Here’s a few ideal uses of Conva for your group to potentially plan around.
   1. Getting two uses of Regens while it is active, for 30-40 seconds of 20% more regen healing.
   2. Deployed Adloquium, if your group uses you as the primary source of the heal.

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Part 3: Specifics

The myriad defenses of Paladin

I decided to give this one its own section here because there is simply so much to cover (pun not intended). Both with Heavensward and Stormblood, Paladin received a hefty bonus to their mitigation toolkit. 

Passage of Arms

The level 70 figurehead of Paladin’s toolkit, and the one more often ignored when it comes to full bred optimization in current content (Ultimate is not considered, as it’s on its own level as far as difficulty and this game are concerned). The ability itself is amazing, as it reduces all damage by 15%. 

With the changes in 4.4, Passage now has had its activation time changed so that it activates its defensive bonus to the group immediately on cast, and for some strange reason lasts for around 5 seconds if you deactivate the ability. The effects of this can be shown in this video by Momo Sama. This causes the main drawback of using Passage defensively to be removed, and you can now use this ability much more effectively in progression.

Divine Veil

One of the greatest tools in the Paladin’s arsenal. Stronger than most AoE shielding, and doesn’t actually cost the Paladin anything in order to cast it on the group. In optimization settings, either an AoE casted heal, or a fairy will activate the cooldown in order to spread the shield to others, costing the healers nothing important either. Activate it often, but talk with your healers before doing so. Don’t activate it yourself with Clemency – you need that mana.

Cover

With Stormblood came a much needed boost to the Cover mechanic, an additional 20% damage reduction. Every time Cover is used you basically gain a free Rampart on the damage covered. Map out clever uses with your co-tank and healers, and you can prevent many healing requirements when optimizing fights, or extend cooldown usages to smooth out a large amount of incoming damage. Experiment, and see what works best for your group. Note that cover blocks all incoming damage, and your mitigation tools work on it. Hallowed Ground does not work on Covered damage.

Intervention

By far the most interesting, and tricky to use cooldown in your arsenal. 10-40% reduction to damage for your co-tank is incredibly significant, especially when sharing tank busters, such as Akh Morn. In single-tank oriented fights, intervention can sometimes lose its flavor, depending on when it is used, and how. Considering that it costs a Sheltron to use, you may not want to use it as it costs you either your own personal dps/cooldowns, or would not change the fight in any significant manner. Use it wisely.

Fight or Flight vs. Requiescat

There is a large amount of discussion in many discussion channels about which opener is better. 

With all DPS cooldowns and rotations, there is a benefit on which to use, and when to use them. The most important thing of all, is whether or not you are comfortable with how they are used, and how the fight affects future uses of your cooldowns. Some fights prefer Req opener. Some group compositions favor FoF. The decision is completely up to you, and how you use your cooldowns.

When compared against each other, and considering the changes in 4.2, FoF and Req output similar damage while their windows are active. While Req wins in per-GCD damage, it loses out on auto-attacks. The general consensus has always been that FoF has great consistency, but loses out on smaller group buffs, such as Trick Attack. Here’s the rundown on how group buffs work, and how you can adjust your rotation to maximize your DPS.

Understanding Group Synergy

Multiple raid buffs will affect your personal DPS, and in order to optimize effectively, you must be aware of both how much you will gain with them, as well as when your raid members are casting them – this guide will list skills that directly affect damage multipliers or rates.

All Damage – 

• Balance(AST)  – 5% damage AoE, 10% personal, 15% full buffed – 30-60s duration
• Trick Attack(NIN) – 10% Damage, 10s duration, 60s CD
• Hypercharge(MCH) – 5% damage, 27-30s duration, 2m CD
• Foe Requiem(BRD) – 3% damage, 15-20~s duration, CD dependant on mana
• Devotion(SMN) – 2% Damage, 15s duration, 2m CD

Critical/DH Rates – 

• Spear(AST) – 5% Crit rate AoE, 10% personal, 15% buffed – 20-40s duration
• Chain Strategem(SCH) – 15% Crit rate on target, 15s duration, 2m CD
• Battle Litany(DRG) – 15% Crit rate, 20s duration, 3m CD
• Battle Voice(BRD) – 15% DH rate, 20s duration, 3m CD
• Song buff(BRD) – 2% Crit rate, constant.

Physical Damage – 

• Embolden(RDM) – 10%-2% Physical damage (drops by 2% per stack), 20s duration, 2m CD
• Brotherhood(MNK) – 5% Physical Damage, 15s duration, 90s CD
• Radiant Shield(SMN) – 2% Physical damage, 20-24s duration, 60s CD

Magical Damage (Holy Spirit)- 

• Contagion(SMN) – 10% Magic damage, 15s duration, 1m CD

Deciding on which opener to use revolves around two primary decisions:

1. What party buffs will affect my opener DPS?
2. How much will fight mechanics affect my ability to perform?

Thanks to the 4.2 changes, Fight or Flight will win out in raw DPS, in most all changes. While the damage/GCD is lower in the FoF opener (specifically in Trick Attack windows), Requiescat loses out on two fronts: It is specifically magic damage, and using Holy Spirits delay your Auto attacks, losing out on 2-3 autos depending on the timeframe. GCDs aren’t the only damage you’re putting out during your windows. Auto attacks and Sword Oath added potencies are a great contributor of your damage: don’t push them aside. Default to using FoF opener, unless mechanics align with Requiescat enough that you will not have disconnects in the fight. In the current build, I don’t see Req overtaking FoF for anything significant.

DPS Optimization in a group setting

There are numerous rules that a Paladin must follow, as its DPS is not as free-form as the other tanks. The most notable of which is to never lose a buff cast. Ensuring that Requiescat plays out for its full duration, and that you are able to get the most out of Fight or Flight, are the two crucial pivots of a Paladin’s arsenal. A Paladin’s DPS is less forgiving than the others if they miss a buff window, so ensure that you are able to keep your buffs on a set rotation. 

Mana and Holy Spirit

There will come a time in most rotations where you’ll find yourself at an odd decision. While we mentioned earlier that FoF in general wins against Req in a opener v. opener situation, but what about in general?

Holy Spirit does win out in a per-GCD basis in comparison to your melee damage. Adding HS to your rotation when not in buff windows falls under these general ideas.

1. Can I cast an extra Holy Spirit?
2. Can I replace a melee combo (2-3x HS casts, replacing Royal Authority)?
3. Will I still retain a 5 Holy Spirit Requiescat window?

Holy Spirit entering into your normal rotation follows the above rules, in general. There are obviously fight specific instances when you would want to cast an extra Holy Spirit, but in a fight that leans towards striking dummies. The key to catching these extra Holy Spirits falls under either clever uses of Sheltron, or Mana buffs, such as Refresh or Mana Shift. Refresh nets you around 6000 Mana, and Mana Shift somewhere in the neighborhood of 3-5k mana. 

Naturally, you will not regain enough mana to cast additional Holy Spirits. Some fights you will be able to use an additional one due to mechanics, but in general you will not, and should not cast extra Holy Spirits. This is an optimization tool that is best used cautiously, at your discretion.

• 6 Holy Spirit Requiescat – Attained through either a lucky Sheltron proc and mana tick, or Refresh/Mana Shift. The benefit of a 6th HS, while it does not fall under Requiescat, is that it will push back your Goring Blade refresh, gaining an extra tick of Goring, and possibly helping with future alignment.
• Melee Combo Replacement – If you gain enough mana through the tools mentioned above, timed correctly, you can replace a full Royal Authority combo with 2 or 3x Holy Spirits. 2x Holy Spirits can be used to cut your future FoF/Req rotation earlier by 2 seconds. 3x HS will be a raw DPS increase, but small. I personally recommend 2x HS, as it is less taxing on your mana, as well as help keep your alignment with raid buffs, such as Trick Attack.

The most important thing to remember about extra HS casts is that they do not ruin your Requiescat window. Always maintain your buff alignment.

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Part 4: What everyone asks about and the real reason you’re here

Openers

Sword Oath is assumed in all openers. The only difference between openers is which buff comes first. Two primary components are static throughout both –

• Potions are placed in order to gain the most from raid buffs. I’ve played with potion placement a few times, and the earlier the better in terms of activation.
• Spirits Within is placed in order to land in Trick Attack – Circle of Scorn is not placed as it would cause a longer delay which may lose a cast. Spirits Within will, typically, always land in Trick Attack. Circle of Scorn with its 25 second recast does not have this liberty.

As stated before, use the opener that best suits you, your raid group, and the fight. Fight or Flight usually pulls out ahead, unless forced downtime will align with Requiescat.

Note – Both openers include pre-popped sprint, and Cover + Bulwark. Since you’re not MTing the start of the fight, this is ideal for two reasons – It’s damage that your healers don’t have to heal, and it allows you to proc Shield Swipe for additional damage in your opener. In addition, if you have a Dark Knight co-tank, this allows for them to use The Blackest Night on you for an easier way to proc the shield for their opener. As always, if the fight demands cover use early on, forego the cover. Do not sacrifice your raid’s survival/group DPS for your own.

Default Fight or Flight Opener

Your default opener. This opener will outdamage all others in a striking-dummy scenario. Initial potion, Circle, and Spirits Within can be adjusted to your needs of the fight. 

Default Requiescat Opener

Opener used if a fight would align better with your rotation. Not significantly weaker than FoF, so if you prefer this, go ahead and use it. Of note is the shifted placement of Fight or Flight before Riot Blade. In the FoF opener, it’s placed one GCD later in order to also affect Requiescat. In the Req opener, it is placed in order to land the Riot Blade that has some party buffs, vs. the Fast Blade at the end that will have none.

Pre-pop Opener

This opener is used in very specific situations, such as short phase durations, or specific fight duration goals in speed running. Fight or Flight is popped 18 seconds pre-pull. Proceed as you would with the FoF rotation afterwards.

Why isn’t there a Main Tank Opener?

The answer is simple friends – Paladin should never start the fight. Dark Knight and Warrior have better openers regarding pulling the fight, and they should always be the first tank in any raiding scenario. They only lose potency. You lose your rotation.

• Shifting from Shield Oath to Sword Oath in your opener costs a GCD, delaying your actual damage start.
• Opening would require starting with Shield Lob into Rage of Halone, which would delay both utilization of the opener of your choosing, as well as the first application of Goring Blade, stunting your DPS.

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4.4 BiS Sets

Using both the Statistic Intervals Sheet created by Nemekh, and the Gear Stats Calculator by Mike Matrix, we’ve compiled gearsets that, will maximize DPS in the current setting. It is of note that all sets that will be listed here are within 1% DPS of each other. These numbers are close enough within standard variance that playstyle and efficiency will have a larger impact on your dps. Most notable is that the numbers provided are a DPS average – they do not represent actual performance. Pick the set and speed that you wish to play at.

The primary set is a 2.40 GCD and has the highest dummy DPS simulation. If you aren’t a fan of this specific speed, a few adjustments can be made to your GCD with minor DPS differences. What matters most when picking sets is two fold – what speed you want to play at, and what speed would fit best with the fight. Pick the set that best fits your needs, there is no correct answer.

2.40 GCD set http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/17C3Y	2.43 “Poorboye” Set http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/17C5Q

Stats, and Reasoning

Currently (4.4), we regard stats in the following manner –

CRIT=DH > DET > TEN > SKS

Crit Caught up! Finally! – It was bound to happen. The more Crit there is on gear, the better it gets. Crit and DH are so close to one another, that they self-adjust depending on group synergy. Crit has taken the lead, but even in a fully stacked crit-comp, they’re within 0-10 DPS of each other. I personally will be melding DH. Your melds are up to you.

Why no Tenacity stacking gear? – Tenacity is an efficient stat for what it is – 217 points for 1% DMG, and mitigation. A gearset with full Tenacity, melded, at the moment is somewhere in the ballpark of only 8% added mitigation (364 is considered 0% for all intents and purposes). However, the overall cost sacrifices much of our personal DPS, and does not noticeably increase healer DPS in exchange.

Tenacity is currently regarded as a progression stat, in a similar vein to tank stance usage – helpful on occasion, but not enough to warrant future use. Most discussions revolve around a simple statement – Tenacity is fine on gear, but awful melded. Don’t go out of your way looking for it.

SKS, tiers, and Party Buff Alignment– Skill Speed has always been a tricky stat to wrap your head around. With the increased AA potency it has garnered some merit of thought, however Paladin is coupled with more problematic issues involving the stat than the other two tanks are concerned.

• Paladin’s rotation for the most part is a fixed number of GCDs per cycle. Adding speed to this will cause issues with the rotation, and cause massive misalignment while waiting for buffs to return.
• Sword Oath attacks are not affected by SKS, unlike the auto-attacks they are coupled with.
• Holy Spirit cast time and recast are not affected by SKS, meaning over 25% of your rotation is completely unchanged.

Paladin’s rotation comes in at just above 60 seconds, which is just outside of the range for being perfectly in line with most raid buffs. “Why not stack enough skill speed to maintain that alignment,” you ask? The issue with this ideal is stated above. Simply too much of your damage is not affected by skill speed for raid buff alignment to be a deciding factor. Holy Spirit and Sword Oath represent a combined total of 20-30% of your overall damage. The fact that these top contributors are completely blocked from benefits of skill speed is a notable loss whenever stacking it in any manner.

That being said, Skill Speed is not a completely wasted stat. It’s just the lowest tiered stat that we can use (One of them had to be worst, yeah?). There is a certain amount of Skill Speed that is viable, and useful – but not in any sort of stacked fashion. Most sets tend to aim for at least the 2.43 break point and figure it out from there. 

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Frequently Asked Questions, and Fight Optimization

F.A.Q.

– Who should pull in my party comp?

Not you. This is discussed in more detail in the openers section above. If anyone tells you to pull, yell at them in a nonchalant manner and probably pull anyways because convincing people to do things in Party Finder is pretty much a moot point. 

– How much DPS do I lose by staying in Shield Oath?

Somewhere around 25%. The losses are pretty universal across all tanks – you aren’t losing anything more than the other tanks if you are forced to stay in Shield Oath over them. Your rotation is fixed to remain very similar to what it would be in Sword Oath, so nothing changes for you outside of just a raw DPS loss. 

– How do I tank out of Shield Oath?

Oldest question in the book, and by all means the hardest to answer. In progression, tank stance is an incredibly effective tool to understand how damage works in a fight. Afterwards, however, it is completely unnecessary. Learning how a fight works is more important than turning on Shield Oath.

Tanking without utilizing tank stance is completely dependant on your entire raid’s teamwork. You are not the only person in the fight that can help the healing burden. Tanks, Healers and DPS need to learn how to use their cooldowns effectively in order to minimize all around damage taken. Learn to use your smaller cooldowns throughout the fight on places where you are difficult to heal, or Healers may be otherwise distracted. Have DPS mitigate certain mechanics, or help you with Palisade/Apoc. Just like how threat is a team effort, incoming damage is a team effort as well.

– Whose mitigation counts when using Cover?

Yours. While the description states that you take their damage, it does not work that way. You take the damage instead as opposed to take the damage they would take.

– Should I open with a single Holy Spirit cast?

This one is discussed pretty regularly and is a statement of contention across the board. There isn’t really a solid answer. Holy Spirit gains in raw GCD damage, but natural openers gain in starting their rotation much earlier. The main gain when casting Holy Spirit is specifically the delayed GCD. In some cases it will work out in your favor. In most cases, performing the openers as prescribed will do better. Do what you feel is best and lines up your fight/phase transitions better; neither one is the correct answer.

– Why didn’t I block that attack?!

There’s a few reasons you didn’t block something, despite the Stormblood buff to shield blocks in all directions, despite how little sense it makes (you can parry in all directions as well, but let’s ignore that for now). It all depends on what was going on at the time. Outgoing damage is checked in the following order – 

Critical > Shield Block > Parry  > Normal Attack

This order means that the damage table will check if an attack can hit, and then moves onto the next check. In FFXIV’s case, first the attack checks if it can Critical. If it can, then the attack table is done checking – Shields will not block the attack, even if Sheltron is active. This is specifically an issue in O3S – Halicarnassus’ Critical Hit will ignore Sheltron unless you have Awareness active.

The second issue usually relies on when you were casting Sheltron – specifically, during a Holy Spirit cast. Because you are actively engaged in spellcasting, you cannot block an attack. It’s as simple, and annoying, as you were busy doing something else so you couldn’t defend yourself. Either time the hit accordingly by delaying your HS casts, or change your rotation so that you aren’t casting while you need to block a specific attack.

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Fight Specific Optimization and Tips

Most of these tips are a work in progress, and fairly incomplete. Major cooldown usage is dependant on yourself, your co-tank, and your group. Learn the fights and do what is best for your team. Refer to full strategy videos for timelines, group mechanics, and how to do the bulk of the fights. These tips are relegated to tanking and  Paladin specifically, and are meant to be complementary to those guides.

Past Trials and Raids (non-content-relevant) will be found in the historical section at the end of this guide.

Trials

Seiryu

1. The buster after swap is Magical. All autos are Physical. Because the busters are typically by themselves and not surrounded by autoattack sandwiches, you will not need to do terribly much to mitigate them. They do however, hit hard enough that you shouldn’t ignore them, either. 
2. Hallowed Ground works for nullifying the damage that would explode from Cursekeeper, but should not be relied upon as it doesn’t really gain you much for the fight. Seiryu does not hit nearly as hard as Suzaku does, and tank swaps are not as necessary here as it’s more of a mechanics-based fight. Hallowed Ground can be used in a pinch if your cotank drops, though.
3. Tempered Will works on the Elemental’s Fist knockback, but not on the snakes. It might help if you’re tanking in order to allow for more optimal positioning after the Fist > Snake push combo, but not much more than that.

Omega – Psi/Alphascape

O9S – Chaos

1. Chaotic Dispersion is Physical. Orbshadows are Magical. Plan cooldowns accordingly. Due to the forced tank swaps in this encounter, for the most part you can use your cooldowns incredibly efficiently and often. 
2. Do not use Tempered Will to negate the Wind Knockback! Due to how the fight is programmed, you need to be knocked back in order to remove the debuff, preventing you from being hit by a damage down.

O10S – Midgardsormr

1. Tail End, as you can imagine, is incredibly scary. It’s also Physical. Coordinate with your raid group on how to best use party mitigation as opposed to simply relying on yourself. Tail End does a baseline 105k damage, and in a worst case scenario, you can get four of them in a 3 minute timespan. Plan for the worst, and make sure your group knows effective strategies.
2. Midgardsormr’s auto-attacks are Magical in the air, and Physical when on ground. Make sure you utilize your fluff cooldowns effectively. Don’t pull and Emiin and spam Anticipation in phase 1!
3. The Dragon add’s damage is magical – at least, the damage that matters. Use a FFLogs link to learn the timing of his Breaths, so you can utilize your cooldowns more effectively. 

O11S – Omega Weapon

1. Mustard bomb is Magical. Technically, this ability can be zeroed out with extreme mitigation to reduce the damage of the follow-up bleed effect, however the bleed does not do enough damage to worry about. The initial hit of Mustard Bomb however, is quite spicy.
2. As a Paladin, you have an additional option in regards to the Tether > Atomic Blast combo. One of the more popular methods is an uptime strat which involves having a ranged grab the tether, and Paladin covering for Atomic Blast. Keep in mind that you will still need to use cooldowns, as you’re now taking two hits instead of one. Note that this is not possible for the final 3 casts of Atomic, as one cast will be outside of Cover’s duration. 
3. Despite what guides and party finder tells you, having a tank bait the super-missles during Pantokrator 2 is a huge loss for the group! Here is a video of a bard executing it flawlessly, and easily. For both Paladin and Dark Knight, it is an incredible uptime and DPS loss to do this mechanic, and there is nothing lost by doing it in the intended fashion. Some bards in fact tell me it’s easier than short-missile baiting.

Omega M & F

1. Solar Ray is Magical. Optimized Blade Dance is Physical. Adjust your cooldowns appropriately in order to deal with these. Hallowed Ground is a viable option as OBD hits incredibly hard and not incredibly often. 
2. Not much specific to this fight comes into play for Paladin. Practice different openers depending on the fight in order to line up your rotation properly. 

Final Omega

1. All tank busters are Magical. Defensively, Sheltron allows for some breadth of cooldown usage across the board – if you’re off-tanking, all busters are survivable with Sheltron if you wish to use defensives elsewhere. Savage Wave Cannon will be close if not topped off, but doable.
2. Cover can be used effectively to “cheese” the Target Analysis > Savage Wave Cannon buster mechanic. Timing is tight, but if you cover the designated target after the target analysis hits, you can then take the buster damage by yourself without any need to share damage. This tactic can be used in the initial opener to avoid provoke/threat memery with DPS, or further on in order to allow for more cooldowns on later mechanics. 
3. As always with final fights, comfiness is made with your group. My best suggestion is to ask around in some places for cooldown maps, or develop your own strategy to make the best of your situations. This fight requires a lot of teamwork and strategy to do effectively. Good luck!

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Credits

Emiin Vanih – Lodestone || FFLogs || Twitch || Twitter || Discord – Emiin#0178
Find me on my Discord Server!
Feel free to message me for any questions on this guide, or things you’d like added.

Tank Guide Trifecta

Emiin Vanih – Dark Knight Guide
Ny Cro – Warrior Guide

Thanks to The Balance Discord Server for all help building this guide. I am no longer associated with The Balance, and cannot be located there.

Tofurkey Meepers [Lamia] (Co-tank buddies4lyf)
Aya Liz [From FFlogs]
Voxfall Valerie [Ragnarok]
Raffter Senpai [Ragnarok]
Eureka Instrumental [Excalibur]
Damelia Lhea [Gilgamesh]
Sky Ikaza [Balmung]
Sarangerel Ura [Ragnarok]
Jam “Fuck Paladin” Valesti [Leviathan]
Ari Aquitane [Excalibur]
Nemekh / Velinas Dar’Korsalar [Exodus]

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Historical Information

Trials

Susano

1. First Phase Assail timing for CD/Sheltron usage
   1. After 3rd auto
   2. 2nd auto after the first stack mechanic
   3. 3rd ish auto after the 2nd stack mechanic (skippable with high dps)
2. 2nd phase – Tank swaps happen once a minute. One cast of Ukehi per tank swap. Both tanks having Shirk is a must. Reprisal on both tanks will have the debuff for each tank buster, and each Ukehi.
3. Hallowed Ground can skip the scheduled tank swap from Stormsplitter. Plan for it, or use it in a pinch.
4. This fight is training wheels for how to properly mitigate busters, and provide utility.

Lakshmi

1. Screw this fight.
2. All busters, including the 2nd threat cleave, are magical. Sheltron will be your bread and butter for this fight, and used regularly regardless of whether you are MT or OT.
3. Voke > Shirk from the OT has the potential of driving them farther down in threat than #2. Be careful with its usage in the first phase. Circle Shirk is optimal before/during the first tank buster in order to make sure the tanks are #1 and #2, respectively.
4. Vril2win

Shinryu

1. Tempered Will will resist the pushback with Tidal Wave. 
2. Rumours floating around that threat on the Heart is duplicated to Shinryu himself. Swap targets if you have to, you won’t have issues.
3. Early use of Hallowed Ground for the Ahk Morns should be usable for Terra Slash later in the fight.
4. Intervention is amazing if your group plans to share Ahk Morns. 

Byakko

1. Byakko’s tank busters are Magical. Hakutei’s swipes are Physical. Plan cooldowns accordingly.
2. State of Shock, and the position of the follow-up stack, Highest Stakes, is determined by the wall closest to where the target is when grabbed. Byakko will pick the farthest wall, and throw you there. Know this, and position accordingly so that your dps can maintain uptime, and stack positions don’t target the far wall.
3. Keeping Byakko centered in the arena will assist both positioning for Highest Stakes, and Unrelenting Anguish. There’s no reason to tank him against the wall.
4. “Tank LB Cheese Strat” – by ignoring the second Hakutei, and simply using Tank LB3 for the ultimate, you can increase overall DPS output for the raid. Be warned, that this is slightly more dangerous while Hakutei is alive, as he swipes at the ST more often.

Tsukuyomi

1. Auto-attacks, and Busters, are Magical in Phase 1 and 3. She then switches to Physical after her final transition.
2. Torment Unto Death is a forced tank swap – you will die to the next auto-attack immediately after it, regardless of phase. Ensure you tank swap properly.
3. Casting a slightly-early Spirits Within will allow you to gain an extra cast before the end of the first phase.
4. If your group does not push the final Reprimand cast, utilizing the Prepull FoF Opener will gain you a significant DPS boost while losing no buff casts to the boss (Not added to guide yet, will add soon).
5. Using Cover during the first phase transition to intermission will prevent one member from gaining the “Down for the Count” debuff. Useful for DPS such as Dragoons, Black Mages, or Samurai who can utilize the downtime to prevent buffs from falling or gain resources.

Suzaku Extreme

1. Cremate, the initial buster is Magical. Use your tools wisely.
2. The first phase lasts for almost exactly 1m50s. There’s a few tips and tricks you can use to maximize damage until the Female phase – 
   1. Personally I found that opening with the Req opener, or the Prepop FoF opener is ideal, as it allows you to get 2 full casts of both Req and FoF (specifically more FoF uptime).
   2. When Suzaku jumps, she continues to take DoT damage. Try to ensure you get one last Goring Blade off before she jumps for DDR.
   3. If you follow the standard rotation in P3, you will find that Req lines up disastrously with one of the Suzaku Says portions of the fight. Learn how to dance and weave between two platforms so you can ensure uptime.
3. Phantom Flurry is Physical. It also locks her position for the duration of the entire cast, as well as the cleave afterwards. Move as soon as you see the cast bar and prepare to shirk as necessary.
4. Tempered Will works against the push/pull casts throughout the fight. It’s best used to your discretion – personally I only used it whenever I was also in Req phase.

Omega – Deltascape

Universal timeline guide can be found here. Originally created by m1s3ri and found here.

O1S – Alte Roite

1. Intervention is a good tool to use while learning to double up on cooldowns for Twinbolt.
2. Tempered will does not work on Clamp, or the pushback associated with Downburst. Clever uses of a healer’s Rescue and slides are your best friend here.
3. My group felt that Reprisal was best used for AoEs (Blaze specifically). It can be used to effect on the Twinbolts following Charybdis, as well.

O2S – Catastrophe

1. All Busters are magical.
2. Reprisals are best saved for Gravitational Wave, unless your strats revolve elsewhere for healer dps uptime.
3. Cover for the tank cleaves is a clever way to either prevent tank swapping, or delay it. Free mitigation is free mitigation, use it as you wish.
4. Tempered Will can be used to negate the knockback from Long Drop, if you need to due to accidental Gravity Limbal usage.

O3S – Halicarnassus

1. With regular tank swapping, every buster can have Awareness, reducing the damage to near negligible. Use the strat that works best for your group.
2. Some people prefer to open with Requiescat due to how it lines up for the initial Game cast. Do whichever opener you are comfortable with.
3. With a Ninja, Shadewalker will be up for up to 3 sets of adds. Work with your co-tank and Ninja to best figure out which would be used where.
4. Additionally, diversion is up for up to 3 adds as well. Remind your DPS they can actually use this ability to help you.

O4S – ExDeath

1. Spirits Within on pull will allow you to gain an extra cast before Decisive Battle. Timing is tight, ride that cooldown hard.
2. Tempered Will is effective on the first Vacuum Wave, and you can cover someone who does not have gap closer / knockback resistance in order to prevent them from being knocked back as well. Due to the long cooldown on Tempered, you can only do this once.

O4S – Neo ExDeath

1. Sheltron is enough of a cooldown to survive every tank buster that you will be taking in this fight, if you are topped off. Use cooldowns that you feel are necessary. 
2. Reprisal best used for every Almagest, and Aero 3s. Work with your cotank on what to use and where. One tank can handle every Almagest cast.
3. Hallowed is typically used strategically fit the first and last Double Attack. Your cotank should be issuing their invuln on Delta Attack. 
4. Tempered Will does not work on the planned knockbacks in this fight. It does work on Vacuum Wave, but you should not be hit by this.

Omega – Sigmascape

O5S – Phantom Train

1. Head-on is Physical. All other damage in this fight is magical.
2. Tempered Will can be used against all of the knockbacks in this fight. I prefer the Remorse, but use them as you wish. Cover your cotank during knockbacks to help them maintain uptime.
3. Overall, it is recommended to eat Head-on, as opposed to run away to avoid the damage, because of the tether caused from distance (if you are tanking at the time). Cooldowns as necessary.
4. Sentinel should be enough to survive the Agony Ghost.

O6S – Chadarnook

1. All damage in this fight is Magical. 
2. Ensure you save cooldowns for busters depending on your role and incoming damage – Demonic Shear is rather weak and requires little, while Last Kiss hits incredibly strong while the Goddess continues auto-attacks. Utilize cooldowns accordingly. Timing Sheltron for the Last Kiss hit is difficult, but doable.
3. Hallowed Ground can be used very effectively on the Flash Gale (Wind/Stack marker) in order to ignore it. 

O7S – Guardian

1. Tempered Will can be used on Dadaluma’s Shockwave. As this is the only knockback in the fight, you’ll have it up for both occurences.
2. Cover should be used to mitigate the Prey/Missile burn on DPS, as you take significantly less damage than a DPS would. Plan ideal uses with your healers.
3. Hallowed Ground can have two uses in this fight. The only predetermined use is during the final phase Bibliotaph. One additional use can be during the first Dadaluma spawn, allowing you to eat some damage from Dadaluma, and the Arm and Hammer, effectively negating healing during this part of the encounter.

Kefka – Clown

1. Hyperdrive is magical. Despite this, most strategies revolve around using invulnerabilities to ignore the damage. With any tank composition you can invuln 3 of the 4, and will have to “super cooldown” one of them. 
2. Tempered Will will have one effective use during this encounter – Shockwave, or Aero Assault. I prefer Aero Assault, as the knockback from Shockwave can be negated by clever movement beforehand. Aero Assault can also be “ignored” as you will have Requiescat active at the time, preferably. Do what is best for you and your group, and whether you will be tanking at the time. 
3. Make sure to Tank Swap to full effectiveness, and not simply to negate Hyperdrives. You can mitigate a great deal of damage by swapping and using both of your cooldowns to their full effectiveness.
4. Spirits Within cast early in the fight will net you an additional use during the first phase.

God Kefka

1. This fight is incredibly heavy on tank busters, and tank mitigation. Make sure you and your cotank are swapping effectively, getting the most out of your cooldowns, and have a plan. Map your cooldowns. Here is one written out map to the fight. Or if you like, you can make your own cooldown map with this tool. 
2. Ultimate Embrace is Physical, and most are mitigated with Invulnerability cooldowns. Wings of Destruction and Hyperdrive are Magical.
3. Hyperdrive has two components – a 40,000 damage hit, and a 60,000 damage bleed applied afterwards. If you are able to completely nullify the damage from the initial hit, the bleed damage does not apply. There are many options for cooldown uses to ensure this is nullified. If your group’s strategy does not benefit from this, then don’t stress too much about it. A White Mage’s Benison is a strong addition to this option if you choose to do so.
4. Cover can be used to “Cheese” the range requirement of Wings of Destruction, having a Bard or other ranged player go outside instead of yourself, for uptime. 

Change/Editlog

• 08/01/2019 – O12S Added.
• 01/10/2018 – Suzaku, O9S, O10S added. Adjustments from 4.4 added. 4.4 BiS added.
• 29/05/2018 – Tsukuyomi, God Kefka, Prepop openers added.
• 17/05/2018 – Up to Clown Kefka added; some light clarification in wording.
• 11/02/2018 – 4.2 edits to Opener preference, O5S, O6S, Byakko added.
• 21/12/2017 – Wording changes, clarification issues.
• 18/12/2017 – Initial creation of guide.