Paladin Tanking Basic/how to gear up

This is a basic Tanking guide for paladins. i will explain how to get used to the tanking mechanics in end game and the best way to get geared up ready to start the fun stuff! this is my first guide and i will be updating it whenever i can so be gentle, its also a rough draft. i have yet to spell check or clean it up so im sorry for the terrible spelling and grammar

Basic mechanics to learn

So you are a fresh 50 paladin, ready to jump in to the mystical land of end game. but first you need to check that you know the basics.

step one is learning the Threat bars. at the top left of the screen you will see the party members hp and class icon. under the class icon is the threat bar. this bar indicates who the target will attack. you want this bar to always be full on you, if the bar is getting full on another party member then you should focus on that mob for a while. always check the mobs you are fighting to make sure the party is not pulling too much threat.

Step two is knowing what skills to use and when. The basic start to pulling a group of trash mobs (trash mobs are anything that is not a boss) is shield lob on the main target and then a flash to get threat on the rest, then what i like to do is use circle of scorn and fracture on the main target. after this inital rotation you then start your main rotation on the main target. fast blade,savage blade and then rage of halone. this will be your very basic combo. i will explain all the skills later.

step three is dodging stuff. you see a big orange cone on the floor? are you standing it it thnking what is this big orange cone? now your dead and the group is shouting at you. thats right you were just the victim of a dodgeable attack. the orange marks on the floor are indicators of a high damage attack that you can dodge, so stay out of them.

step four is always tank the mobs facing away from the rest of the group. now us tanks are very good at moving away from atacks but the damage dealers are not. if you tank mobs facing towards the group they will likley get hit by frontal aoe attacks and then blame you. so a general rule of thumb, face mobs away from the group.

those are the four basic pointers for tanking, congratulations, you are now a Tank not a damage dealer with a shield, good job buddy

Skills or Abilities

Here i will list all the skills of the paladin and explain how to use them.
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Fast blade.

the first skill you get and the back bone of your tanking rotation.
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savage blade

the second skill in your tanking rotation use this after using fast blade for a nice threat boost
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Rage of halone

the third and final skill in your combo. so the combo is fast blade then savage blade then rage of halone. after doing all 3 it will boost your threat a ton so make sure to do this a lot
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Flash

this is your basic AOE (Area of effect) taunt. it will build threat on all the mobs around you. a very very very important skill, should be used at the start of almost all fights
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Riot blade

this skill is helpfull as it gives you some mana when you use it after Fast blade, if you are pulling a big group of mobs spaming flash and fast blade then riot blade will help keep threat
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Shield Bash

a basic stun. if you lose threat on a mob use this so you have a chance to get it back before it runs away
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Shield swipe

a skill that can only be used after a block. it will stop the enemy hit from using any skills for about 2 seconds
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Shield lob

A ranged attack that will cause a nice amount of threat, use this in a mob is out of range for normal skills
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Provoke

This will cause a mob to attack you for a split second. if combined with shield lob it will pull the mob ong enough for you to use the normal combo
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Circle of scorn

A AOE damage over time skill. good to use when pulling a group of mobs
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spirits within

A silence Attack. this Attack will interupt a spell caster. Be ready to use this in some late game content like Coil
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Thats all of the Attacks that we get now we have our cooldowns
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Rampart

Reduces the damage you take by 20% use this if you know you are about to take a large amount of damage
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Sentinel

Reduces damage you take by 40% use this for a big damage spike. it might just mean the diffrence between life and death
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Awareness

This skill will Stop a enemy from criting you. not much to explain there
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Fight or flight

This skill will make you do 30% more damage, so use it when there is a dps race or whenever really, it has a very short cooldown
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Bulwark

makes you block 60% more often, very handy for big trash pulls
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Hallowed ground

in my opinion the best skill the paladin has, it will make you invincible for 10 seconds. sounds awesome i know. use it when you know you are going to die, gives a chance for healers to get you back up
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Convalescence

makes healing magic heal you for 30% more, use when you need a little boost to keep you going
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Cover

Take all the physical damage intended for who you place it on. i dont see many tanks use this but it is very helpfull for when a healer is getting smashed
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Tempered will

This will cure bind and heavy and make you imune to knockback, good to use if you know you cant dodge that big knock back the boss is throwing at you
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Shield oath

This skill is more like a stance, it will reduce the damage you take and you will cause more threat. keep this active at all times when tanking
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sword oath

this skill will put you in more of a dps stance, it will make your auto attacks deal more damage.use this when solo
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now for cross class skills, these are skills that you can take from another class
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War skills
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fracture

a damage over time skill. i like to use it with circle of scorn for some extra damage
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bloodbath

converts 25% of the damage you deal into hp. combined with convalescence it heals a nice amount of hp, good to use when you need a little boost
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Foresight

The same as our rampart. use in the same situatioons
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CNJ skills
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stoneskin

a shield that absorbs damage, usefull to have for when things get messy. use this if you are waiting for a boss to cast his big AOE
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raise

this skill will raise a player from the dead.can be handy sometimes ut not in combat. pick this if you like to raise people otherwise dont worry about it
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protect

a buff that reduces damage taken.usefull for solo play but useless in a group with a healer.
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Cure

a basic heal, i never leave home without it
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Thats is all you need to know about skills, phew i bet your glad thats over.

[Morwo]

outdated

[cartoons plural]

Let's see:

- Raise and Cure for Paladins are useless. You can't cross class Swiftcast to mitigate the 8 second cast time for Raise, and Paladin's MND stat isn't high enough for Cure to be remotely useful.
- Foresight does not do the same thing as Rampart. Foresight reduces damage taken by 20%, where as Rampart increases the caster's defense by 20%. It's a small difference, but it's not the same at all.
- Sword Oath is absolutely not useless "unless solo". The DPS raise when off-tanking or even if you're competent enough to use it with Strength accessories is more than noticeable for a PLD.
- Bloodbath doesn't stack with Convalescence because it affects outgoing heals, not incoming.

Most of these you would've known if you, you know, read the tooltips before making this guide.

[KazumaGShep]

You can also keep Sword Oath on when you are off tanking and not dealing with any adds. You never ever wanna have Shield oath on if you are not main tanking in an 8 player party.

[Aappo]

AFAIK, Bloodbath doesn't work with Convalescence.