Paladin

Paladin Primer

TBD

Paladin is a supportive powerhouse with a very strict rotation. Its tools for AoE mitigation and single target mitigation on other people are the biggest strengths of Paladin, allowing healers more freedom when compared to the other tanks.

In-depth Opener & Rotation Guide

Provided by AriNeedsAUsername

Looking to go deeper? Read here for an in-depth overview of the level 80 Paladin opener and rotational loops. This guide features buff alignment diagrams and explains the various options sometimes needed for encounter specific changes.

Gearing

Level 80 Gear Guide

Meld Priority

SkS to pref >= Crit > DH >= Det

6.05 Best in Slot (BiS)

2.45 Pumpkin Potage

Other GCD Sets

Tank Gear Manager

Build and simulate gearsets for tank jobs

Opener Overview

For more in-depth explanations check out the full rotation and opener guide.

Standard Opener

Encounter Rotations

For Eden's Verse Savage and TEA

Party Utilty

Cover

Upon using Cover, the targeted party member is tethered to you for 12 seconds. Most attacks and knockbacks against the covered target are redirected to you (except enrage, environmental damage, and certain scripted mechanics) as long as the target remains within a 10y radius.

Covered damage calculations ignore the target completely, and are instead based on your own stats, shields, buffs, debuffs, and cooldowns as if you were the original target, with the exception of Hallowed Ground; Hallowed Ground has no effect on covered damage, but you are still immune to personal damage received by regular means while Hallowed Ground is active.

Divine Veil

Upon using Divine Veil, you get a buff that has no effect unless you receive a GCD heal within the next 30 seconds. All healing spells with an on-hit potency and fairy Embrace will proc Divine Veil, but oGCD healing abilities will not.

Upon receiving a GCD heal, the initial buff on you is removed and all other party members within a 15y radius get a shield equal to 10% of YOUR maximum HP for 30 seconds. This shield stacks with all other shields and will not be removed by additional healing, despite the misleading tooltip.

Divine Veil does not affect the Paladin directly in any way.

Intervention

Upon using Intervention, the targeted party member gets a buff that reduces their damage taken by 10% for 6 seconds. Intervention also snapshots Rampart and Sentinel if either is active on YOU when the ability is used, increasing Intervention’s strength to 20% or 25%, respectively, or 35% for both.

Intervention does not affect the Paladin directly in any way.

Passage of Arms

Upon using Passage of Arms, you get a buff that blocks all incoming attacks (similar to Sheltron). This buff ends instantly when you stop channeling the ability. Attacking, moving, or using another ability will interrupt the channel.

All other party members in an 8y cone behind you get a buff that reduces their damage taken by 15% for 5 seconds. This buff is applied even if the ability isn’t channelled, but its hidden 5 second duration is refreshed whenever the server regen tick occurs while channelling (every 3 seconds on an independent background timer).

Passage of Arms can be channelled for up to 18 seconds if necessary, granting 20 to 23 seconds of party mitigation, depending on the alignment of the regen tick timer.

Passage of Arms snapshots your position and facing when its effects are applied, regardless of the client animation, which can make it appear to miss the party if you are moving or turning upon use (buffs will be displayed correctly on affected party members).

Frequently Asked Questions

Shield yourself from these common missteps

Can I use Fight or Flight after Riot Blade to make it easier to fit both Goring Blades?

Fitting 2 full Goring Blades into each standard FoF window is a high priority, but sacrificing a buffed GCD on a regular basis to make this easier is not a good practice outside of progression, and is only necessary if encounter mechanics force a disengagement during Fight or Flight. 10 GCD FoF windows are weaker and also limit the optimizations you can do with your rotation, such as fitting 4 Atonements into FoF.

Instead, ensure your FoF timing is precise (always in the second half of the GCD cycle, not immediately after the previous GCD) and you aren’t double-weaving during FoF with high latency (>100 ms). As long as you keep the GCD rolling, fitting 11 GCDs into FoF with proper timing is always possible at recommended skill speeds, regardless of latency.

Should I save oGCDs for Fight or Flight?

Following a standard opener, every physical oGCD will naturally line up with Fight or Flight if kept on cooldown (but Intervene should be stacked and used twice in each FoF window). If downtime misaligns an oGCD with FoF, consider whether delaying the oGCD will cost a usage before the end of the phase. Maximizing oGCD usages is always more important than fitting them into buffs.

For optimization, line up Circle of Scorn with multi-target opportunities whenever possible, use Spirits Within earlier in the opener if necessary to avoid lining it up with incoming burst damage, and prioritize keeping uptime with Intervene during movement-heavy mechanics.

Should I keep Goring Blade up at all times?

Goring Blade should be applied every 8 or 9 GCDs in a full-uptime situation to maximize the potency of each usage. However, if downtime will occur immediately after Royal Authority (and cause Atonement usages to be lost), it is usually preferable to skip the previous Goring Blade and use Royal Authority earlier instead, because 3 Atonements are worth more than a full Goring Blade combo if the total amount of Royal Authority combos in the phase doesn’t change.

Whenever downtime is involved, case-by-case adjustments to the rotation are recommended to avoid using inefficient Goring Blade combos which would prevent the use of Atonement (if Royal Authority must also be used) or Holy Spirit (if Requiescat is available).

I lost uptime/made a mistake. How can I recover the rotation as efficiently as possible?

Paladin’s rotation is deceptively easy to recover. As a general rule, the rotation can be fully reset by each Requiescat window as long as Fight or Flight and Requiescat don’t drift apart (even if they must be used sub-optimally). Losses cannot be reversed, but ensuring personal buff windows do not desync from each other will prevent problems from compounding for the rest of the encounter.

For unexpected single-GCD losses, the solution is simple: drop an Atonement so FoF and Requiescat don’t get delayed. If the loss occurs during the FoF window, dropping an Atonement will also ensure that the next Goring Blade is still buffed by FoF. The leftover Atonement should then replace a Holy Spirit during the next Requiescat window, if possible, due to its higher potency and shorter recast time.

For multiple-GCD losses (broken combos or long disengagements), the solution is to drop a Goring Blade combo at some point before the next Requiescat, because 3 Atonement/Holy Spirit usages are worth more than a full Goring Blade combo, if 3 GCDs must be sacrificed to prevent buff delays. Alternatively, dropping multiple Atonements (or forcing multiple Atonements into Requiescat) with standard Goring Blade timing still works, but is less efficient.

Log Analysis

xivanalysis

xivanalysis is a fantastic site for an overview of your endgame encounter performance.

Tank

Healer

Melee

Physical Ranged

Magic Ranged