FInally Free Time is Upon Me

So, I haven't gotten to seriously grind in a week, still 33.  Can't wait for 36 and Rage of Halone Class Quest, I really feel this ability will play a huge role in doing damage and maintaining hate on mobs later since its damage is proportional to the damage you take.

In my down time this week I did manage to level up some subs because I didn't have the time to log in for a full party.  First, if you are a glad and do not have punishing barbs then you are doing it wrong.  This ability is the reason you can complete hard rank 40 levequests at rank 33 solo or in a duo.  Kamikaze'ing yourself on those stupid "oh i'm going to heal myself for 400 hp with a drain attack every 10 seconds" wolves is the only reliable way of killing them. 

Also, the new rank 40 style levequest is so boring.  *SPOILERS* Why does SE consider standing by a node for 10 minutes waiting for 3 packs of mobs you kill in 30 seconds an entertaining experience?  The only danger of these quests is aggroing the high leveled mobs in the area and it just doesn't feel like something they should have saved for the new style rank 40 leve.  Rank 30 and the necrologos quests were entertaining, at least the one where you pick up the pages, not the one where you hope for random drops for 30 minutes and pray the spawn locations aren't far away.  Hopefully, the new style of quest at 50 is more entertaining.

There is an unconfirmed, in my own opinion that is, bug I keep hearing about that having DEX over 40 provides no benefit to any player.  That it is broken and the only way to increase your accuracy is a new weapon.  I can attest that using the Vitality bonus rings and Mind bonus rings provide no increased HP or MP, respectively, so I assume that the accuracy rings are having the same problem.  But, they are harder to test because accuracy in this game is a bit hard to guage because mob level, even of the same type, varies in an area (not a lot, but enough to maybe skew accuracy test results).  Same goes for STR rings, there may be some sort of placebo effect people are seeing on these.

What does this mean for glads, well personally I have sank my DEX down to 40 and put those points into STR and VIT (please remember that MND is also a stat you want a few points in, I have mine around 30 as it does curve magic damage taken).  Now, I will admit that with a few mobs I noticed no decrease in accuracy meaning that the rumor may have some merit.  I'd like to see hard data on this but do not currently have the time myself because I am trying to stick to a schedule to hit 50 that I have currently fallen behind on.

In other news, I now have a higher rank (glad 33) than my physical level is (32).  This seems so off to me but was bound to happen with me not getting a craft over 20 yet.  So, in my down time coming up I plan to rank up blacksmith instead of armorer.  I can repair none of my gear as either class so I just feel like switching.  As a rank 18 armorer I can repair none of the rank 38 bronze gear and as a 15 blacksmith I cannot even repair my Iron Dagger which I will be replacing next level with an Elm Macuahuitl +1 that a wonderful LS mate (shout out to Delicious Cocoapuffs) made for me.  After that I have 2 Iron Falchions (sexy as hell if you ask me, finally a sword I can be proud of in this game!) that I had made by another LS mate and our resident blacksmith Rhaegar Targaryen.

Well that's all for now guys, feel free to post questions or suggestions for entries below and I'll work on them, in the mean time I am still trying to quantify the data on how much enmity abilities generate, but there have been inconsistencies and I do not want to publish the data until they are accounted for.

Yours Truly,
Ventus Invictus, a Saronian Gladiator

Revitalization, Heavy Stab (an Ode)

Hello all,

Over the last week I had been a little disgruntled and not playing FF that much, well I've been busy as well.  However, today was extremely productive!

rank 30->32 and I have found the best exp spot for likely the 28-33 range!

I suggest making parties of 8-10 and heading over to Tam-Tara Deepcrofts just south of Bentbrush.  You are going to go down and touch the aetheryte then take a quick jog westward and slightly south.  There are wonderful little creatures called Black Efts, on said wonderful creatures i was getting 350-500 SP on about 75% of the kills, there are always those mobs where you will get 0-50, its just the randomness of the system.

Things to note on these mobs:  TURN THEM AWAY FROM GROUP!!  They have a lightning breath that will hit DPS and mages without shell for about 1k, but if you are reading this blog chaces are that you are a tank and you laugh at this miniscule damage! HA-HA!  Other than the PWNbreath they mobs do an aoe bind, this is a waste of their TP and good times for healers.

Lastly, these mobs have the most screwed up aggro rules of any mobs I have ever encountered in frankly not just MMOs but RPGs in general.  They basically aggro you whenever the hell the feel like it because they are that damn cool!  Seriously, sometimes they would load up next to us and be spawned with aggro on us seemingly, other times I could run up, wag my tail, slap it gently on the face, and it thought I was the cat's meow.  Point being:  bring a spare glad or a pug for taunting, maybe even a diverse marauder (lolmar).

Lastly, get use to Tam-Tara guys!  After doing these efts I suggest taking your little group and going down stairs for...... more skeletons!!!!

The bats are also good fun because they heal, giving you more opportunities to skill up!  Just have enough group DPS to actually kill them.

Except for my last thing, thats about it for tonight's entry.  I've been working on preparing gear and once I ding 38 I am going to hit optimal rank on head/gloves/body/pants/feet and be great!

Also, an LS mate is working on making me an Iron Falchion so more awesomeness on the way. 

And to reiterate my "you should wear optimal rank gear" motto, quick notes:  Ripped Haubergeon R30 = 87 def,  Bronze Cuirass R38 = 111def but I receive 86def, so at 32 it is still better to wear Ripped Haubergeon, I will prolly make my switch at rank 35 though.  Cotton Trousers R28 64def, Canvas Trousers R38 84def, I receive 64 def, so I will also be wearing Cotton Trousers for a few more levels!  Again, wear optimal gear unless you have checked that it is an upgrade on the character stat sheet and that you can afford to keep it repaired!!! 

Lastly, A Poem About Heavy Stab, My Favorite Ability.

Oh Heavy Stab, I am sad we were apart so long,
For you can only be bought once the second class quest is done.

Oh Heavy Stab, you cost only a bit more stamina than Light Slash,
And when all is said an done you do a 50% larger gash.

Oh Heavy Stab, you are so good to me,
Because you provide Heavy Slash's amount of Enmity.


(P.S. If It is not obvious, Heavy Stab is superior to Heavy Stab on all counts, save a little less damage per use.  It should replace your "1" button once you're in a group.  Also, in Tam-Tara tonight I would receive SP ups of 85-130 with HStab and 40-65 with LStab, justifying the increased stamina cost, TP generation was about equal considering stamina is roughly 1HStab = 2LStab.)

Truly Yours,
Ventus Invictus, a Saronian Gladiator

WTF IS THAT THING, some exp locations, and Rank 30

Hey all,

Was helping out some sylphs today and this guy came around, they were all F*** that and turned us invis so it didn't decide to use our faces as toilet paper after it was done.

But anyways....

A couple of you now have asked about EXP suggestions, so here ya go:

Before 20 I would say grab a couple friends and do just any mobs that con green to the group or orange to you when solo.  The lighthouse I claimed as my own, which is south of bloodshore, has a nice little selection of puks to solo and just east there are many crabs you can take down in a small party 2-5 at ranks 16-19ish.

I would suggest soloing in cassiopeia on the jellyfish around 18ish, in groups feel free to go kill the sea puks or in large groups the orobons.

I suggest that RANK 20-25 is done in Cassiopeia hollow with a large group on the north crab room, and making the group smaller ther closer to rank 25 you are.  So, at 20 get 10 ppl or more, and by the time you are 25 your group should be around 5 ppl for the best EXP, in my experience anyways.

Alternative would be at 22-23ish go to copperbell mines and do the ants in the basement.  Muny-tai cellar sucks because of all the aggroing mobs, avoid it.

The best place I found for 25-30 is the skeletons on the North, Southwest, and Center Rooms in Nanawa mines.  I pretty much did 5 levels there with a group from 4-7 people.  Any more than that and you could possibly be overkilling the spawn rate.   And you could come here with a slightly lower ranked group with more people if you wish.

Now, if the community could help me, I'm trying to find out how to get Rage of Halone, Ive done my class and storyline quest at rank 30 glad.  I know it tells me to find Geirnfell or whoever, but no site has his location and my searches are not helping.  So please assist fellow Gladiators.

Yours truly,
Ventus Invictus, a Saronian Gladiator

Playing Catch-Up

Hey guys,

So the gladiator I was going to do all the tests with ranked up to 30 Sunday and I am still 29 so that is going to be delayed a bit because I still have midterm projects due this week. :(

My appologies but those big updates are coming.  In the mean time I'm going to address some of the general questions I have received via email and in game.

1.  Why are some party members names blue and some white in the party menu?
Party members whos names are blue are at or above 1000 TP, this is in the game in order to basically let people know when BRs can be performed with WS, similar to a TP macro in FFXI.

2.  Do you always open with LPAS, what about timers?
No, I don't always open with the light slash > provoke > aegis boon > still precision.  This is the ideal opener when fighting a mob much greater than your level or when the party is catching up to you.  When fighting lesser mobs I typically light slash > guard > provoke > phalanx, this is a very good lock on hate in parties where the mobs die pretty fast.  Again light slash is used as a claiming tool not for hate and to get you enough tp for phalanx.

3.  What professions are most beneficial for gladiators?
Well, it comes down to 1 definite answer and 2 possible ones, first, armor breaks at a much slower rate than weapons so I suggest taking up something that can repair your weapon of choice.  Armorer is the obvious answer, I feel most glads should level this to a decent level because you can easily get ARM to 17 and repair basically anything bronze except a bronze celata.  As young as the game is this will save you tons of money and time.  It costs prolly around 200gil if u repair a bronze haub yourself.  Second, I suggest blacksmithing because there are a multitude of weapons of glads made by blacksmith, again, you don't necessarily need a ton of levels, but enough to keep yourself repaired is nice this early in FFXIV.  Possible differentiations of this would be taking up woodworking and using the Macuahuitl line of weaponry as your primary weapons of choice.  This comes down to 2 things, does WW better help your other possible classes (such as LNC and ARC) and personal preference.  The same argument can be made for Alchemy because they make and repair the status debuff weapons.  Again, personal preference and synergy are keys.
(Also, I wouldn't take clothcraft out of the race because they make some very strong defensive gear, not as good as ARM but it will be sufficient til late game in my opinion, like tabards and pants, etc.)

Well that's all I have for the moment, again feel free to post questions in the comments or if you are shy email them to me.

Yours truly,
Ventus Invictus, a Saronian Gladiator

Rough Week, Updates and Experimental Design

Hey guys,

Sorry entries are going to be light for the next couple days, applying to the JET program and trying to get everything in order IRL and midterms just ended, thank god. 

So, next week me and a colleague are going to do some extensive testing on the enmity generated by abilities.  Some of these include:  Provoke, Light Slash, Heavy Slash, and Phalanx.  Doing more than these abilities, for example rampart/AB/SP (which do generate hate), but I feel the focus should be on attacking abilities.

For controlled variables we are going to have the same amount of stats allocated to attributes (STR, VIT, etc) and equip the same gear with fresh repairs.  Also, we will be the same rank.

Now this is trying to eliminate as many random variables as possible; however, the mechanics of enmity bleeding, or the natural decay of hate over time a mob has against a tank is not yet full quantified. 

Therefore, conducting these tests will give us approximate values of hate generated by X number of attack Y compared to 1 attack Z. 

This will give us comparative fractions or ratios in which we can look at the enmity generated by abilities, as more data is added we can assign quantified values for each ability.  For example, starting out we could find that 1 Heavy Slash = 3 Light Slash in terms of enmity.  Through more testing we may find that 11 Heavy Slash = 37 Light Slash in terms of enmity.  Such high values cannot be determined without knowing the enmity bleed mechanic and its role.

Anyways, just wanted to give you guys an idea of what to look forward to and to put my test out there to try and get opinions on possible ways to improve it or maybe get others to try out similar tests so we have a larger sample size.

Lastly, I wanna talk about updates.  Anyone who is a diehard and sticking with this game knew that FFXI had, in my opinion, the largest and most diverse content of end game PVE activities of any MMO on the market, so we knew we were waiting for SE to release content.  With the late november and december version updates they are promising us NMs and new leves.  This is exactly what the game needs and I cannot wait for it to be implemented.

Also, they are working on a CTRL+R for chat replies and have adjusted grouping exp.  SE is really listening to the community this time, something they didn't do much in FFXI i feel. 

And I am hopeful for what is on the horizon.

Yours Truly,
Ventus Invictus, a Saronian Gladiator

Gladiator Abilties and Helpful Sub Abilities

Hello again everyone,

Today were going to go over gladiator abilities as well as some important support class abilities that I feel every gladiator should have or be working towards.

First though let's have a quick comparison of light slash and stab.  The primary difference between the two is the their types of damage, Slashing and Piercing respectively.  The second difference is that Light Stab has slightly less stamina cost at the price of reduced damage and TP generation (in most cases).  Some monsters have a resistance to say slashing damage, making piercing the best option for every reason and vice versa.

Typically Stab is better to use because of the reduced stamina cost, Gladiator abilities all require 40%ish of the stamina bar so every little bit counts.

Gladiator:
2:  Red Lots Blade- this ability uses MP and is fine for early ranks but complete crap after you get Spinstroke.
4:  Rampart- Large increase in DEF and MDEF.  It simply is a must have on your bar for any Glad.
6:  Circle Slash- Mixed feelings on this ability, I keep it on bar 2 in case the group I am tanking for has pulled links or has aggro from multiple mobs.  Adequate damage and great for AoE threat, Caution when using though.
8:  Phalanx- 250tp, hardly any stamina, large amount of damage and enmity created.  Phalanx is an amazing ability and the key, in my opinion, to keeping threat without spamming Provoke.
10:  Provoke- ONLY USE WHEN MOB HAS A RED NAME OR ON A LINK.  This ability has been given some sort of negative stigma, but the fact of the matter is it is the largest enmity boost for the stamina cost I have found in the game.  The reason it has such a bad rap is that people tend to use its range in order to pull a yellow named mob and this just wastes the enmity and stamina for a claim on the mob.
12:  Spinstroke- High damage ability, especially good to start a fight with followed by provoke because if the mob is not focused on you it does additional damage.  Also good to use if provoke is down and a DPS or Healer has pulled the mob off you and you do not have a Phalanx proc up.
14:  Still Precision- Accuracy UP, Evasion DOWN.  Truly the definition of a double-edged sword; HOWEVER, when combined with Aegis Boon you negate the majority of the time you evasion is down.  Better accuracy means more attacks connect means better hate on the mob.
16:  Howling Vortex- Same damage and stamina as Spinstroke, personally i use this ability and Spinstroke quite often because if I'm getting more than 400 TP per hit on a mob I gain excess TP before either CD is reset.  Prioritize this ability on Imps or Elementals (Casters in General)
18:  Obsess- A noticeable decrease in damage taken when used on one target.  Situational ability and best for when large exp groups are killing 1 strong mob at a time.
20:  Onion Cut- Fun ability and name, crap for damage and stamina cost.
22:  Cover- I don't actually see a place for this ability in the current meta of the game. I have never seen a DPS or Healer pull so much hate that 1 voke or WS would not pull it back.  Therefore, this ability is sutational for protecting your partner on guildleve AoE moves from mobs.  Will likely play a huge roll later when HNM type scenarios come about and multiple tanks are on a mob.
24:  Luminous Spire- Caution: ability causes and AOE Blind on nearby mobs.  The MDEF DOWN is nice, my duoing partner Akara Lyna says he gets about 10-20% more damage when the debuff is on the mob.  I love the animation and the ability.  Also nice for AoE tanking.
26:  Cadence- Currently, having tried extensive tests with the BR system, I find it very clunky and therefore this ability is lackluster. Will likely be amazing for DPS on HNM scenarios.
---Gladiator is at 27, will update this once I have more experience with new abilities.  Looking forward to Rage of Halone.

Shield:
10:  Aegis Boon- This ability is simply game-breaking.  It is 15 seconds of possibly 0 damage on top of getting heals and Phalanx Procs.  Use it constantly or save for emergencies, both ideas have their merits.  Will touch on this later below.
14:  Shield bash- Lackluster damage, can give serious shield skill ups, interrupts and silences for 5 seconds.  If, for example, fighting Imps with their OMG1SHOTAOE move, this move is invaluable.  On regular mobs it is really up to personal preference.

Marks Abilities:
Self-Preservation-- Buy this first, it is amazing.  15sec Guard+additional 7.5sec means you are guarding once less per minute, even more when considering a 5minute fight.  Saves you stamina and allows you to do other things.
Heavy Slash/Stab-- Some swear by these abilities, I personally use them sparsely.  Fact of the matter is I simply keep hate with my LPAS opener and using Light Slash/Stab.  Yes, heavy versions do about 50% more damage but cost almost double the stamina, so it is up to the individual.  At least buy one of the abilities and keep it on bar 2 for standby.

OK, I am not going to analyze all abilities individually or in as great detail from the support classes.  Everything can have a situational purpose; however, I am looking for general use, soloing, grouping, and for guildleves.  Typically, unless the WS has a bonus effect, I am not going to list it.

Archer:
4:  Raging Strike- an OK ability, good for solo, doesn't really come into effect in large group play.
That's really almost it for archer, Hawk's Eye is diminished in value due to Still Precision.

Lancer:
4:  Ferocity- See Raging Strike, does not stack with.
8:  Moonrise- Possibly a good weapon skill when soloing mobs a bit tough for you or when there is no LNC in group.
14:  Invigorate- If you are using Phalanx I doubt this is really necessary.
18:  Comrade in Arms- Such a good buff you would think some other person, say a DPS, would have this, if not a LNC.

Marauder:
6:  Bloodbath- Good for solo,  not really necessary in party environment.
10:  Defender- Defense boost for some time, a nice ability especially if rotated with Rampart and Aegis Boon, you could create quite a bit of time to take reduced damage so your healers can catch up or restore MP.
12:  Foresight- An OK ability but not great, pass.
18:  Disorient- Increased enmity on this ability makes it an OK WS to equip.  Evasion down also a bonus.  If you've gotten MRD this high I suggest equipping this if you have hate issues and using it over SS/HV/LumS.

Pugilist:
*Pugilist have a large amount of tanking abilities and are a good choice for second main class for gladiators.
2:  Concussive Blow- I suggest getting this ability for early soloing, decent damage and helps survivability with the stacking blind.
6:  Second Wind- A simply must-have ability for every class.  250TP for a decent heal is nice even for caster types.  Not as useful in parties, but solo or small groups, this ability is worth its weight in gold.
10:  Taunt- An extra Provoke, large stamina cost.  OK to use if you expect multiple adds per fight, but single target, you really should not have hate issues while using Provoke on CD.
12:  Featherfoot- See Foresight.
14:  Jarring Strike- Shield Bash with extra enmity.  A nice ability but not a must-have IMO.
20:  Presence of Mind- Nice only IF you are not the main tank.

Conjurer:
4:  Cure- Early levels and later soloing, this ability is nice and a good reason to not use abilities like Red Lotus Blade.  Learn it.  Use Guard and Cure, then Phalanx after Cure is over, Repeat haha.  Great combo for killing strong monsters.
6:  Stoneskin- Situational really and not worth it while subbed as a melee class.
8:  Shock Spikes- For soloing this is a great tool in your arsenal, if groups you are not going to need to cast this on yourself.
16:  Protect and Shell- you should really have a CNJ if group but solo, these abilities arent bad to have for yourself.
20:  Cure II- See Cure, this is a great ability if ur CNJ is that high.

Thaumaturge:
4:  Sacrifice- Some people prefer this to Cure because of the HOT, I do not.  Up to you which you use, but I would consult a career Disciple of Magic for an in-depth comparision.
8:  Slow- Decent solo ability; however, slows skill ups.  Up to the individual, pick your poison so to speak.
10:  Punishing Barbs- I can not tell you how many leve quest failures this ability has prevent on those pesky Imps, Get it.  Huge damage when Fighting high level mobs, although it caps out.  Great for solo, groups it is up to u if you can afford the MP.
16:  Stygian Spikes- IMO a must-have for gladiators since we have no natural MP restore.  You don't need it right now probably, but this ability will play a big roll in later grinding I am positive.
20:  Sacrifice II- See Cure and Sacrifice.

Well, There are the abilities up to 20 for every class guys, yes I left out most damage spells and things like poison or dia.  You should be able to see that a Gladiator WS is better than a non-Gladiator WS unless that WS has a nice effect.

The amount of character customization in this game is sheerly amazing, you should do what seems fun for you.

Sometimes I equip Cure, Dia and Banish to pretend that I am back in 11 being the Paladin I once was lol.

If you have any questions or suggestions for future entries please add a comment or shoot me an email if you're embarassed.

Truly Yours,
Ventus Invictus, a Saronian Gladiator.

P.S. Linkshell Plug #2, I forgot to add our address. www.premogaming.com.  Come check us out, apply or just look at our public section to see posts like these with helpful hints in game and out for optimizing your FFXIV experience.

P.P.S. Thanks to some of you for sharing my blog on websites and generating a lot of hits in such a short period.  If you find an entry particularly good I ask that you continue to do this.  I feel my entry on Optimal Rank for weapons could be particularly good for starting a lot of research and discussion.

Optimal Rank, What does it mean?

Good Evening all,

In spite of going through and discussing situational abilities in battle and what are good support skills to learn from other classes I wanted to address another apparent problem I see effect not just gladiators, but everyone in FFXIV.

A lot of people are confused about if they should use the highest level gear possible or gear closest to their level?

As A rank 26 glad I just wanted to compare 2 items in order to give people a general idea of the system.

We are going to compare 2 gladiator weapons, Ash Macuahuitl (R25) and Iron Dagger (R29).

Here are the stats on the weapon descriptions:

Ash Macuahuitl
Attack 92
Accuracy 111
Crit Rate 130
Parrying 99

Iron Dagger
Attack 93
Accuracy 129
Crit Rate 138
Parrying 141

Now clearly by these values we believe that the Iron Dagger is vastly superior, but let's look at an example on the character sheet of a rank 26 glad.

Stats with Ash Macuahuitl
Attack 92
Accuracy 111
Defense 213

Stats with Iron Dagger
Attack 74
Accuracy 117
Defense 213

Quick math to see what % of benefit the dagger provides with 3 levels under optimal rank:
Attack 74 / 93 = 79.57%
Accuracy 117 / 129 = 90.70%

I performed this test without any accuracy boost equipment on.

So from this we can tell that by looking at the attack on character sheet that Ash Macuahuitl is the clear winner in terms of what you should equip.  I find that I typically upgrade a piece of armor after I have passed its Optimal rank by 3-5 levels.  Weapons are typically upgraded much more than armor pieces because I try to only keep the most defensive type of war garb on my character (minus the eye patch in the picture below).
 
I believe the interesting find here is that different attributes on the weapon are effected different on the character sheet when equipping something higher than your rank. This could make equipping higher ranked weapons particularly good for damage dealers because healers do not really need accuracy and tanks do to a lesser degree than melee DPS.

And at the moment I do not have the information to back up the next bit of text, I will do more once I have gained a few more levels and a new set of armor:  When I was rank 22 glad I had both Sentinel's Chainmail and Bronze Haubergeon.  Now, by the above example I just wanted to further prove a case for the opposite situation; however there is a difference here. 

Sentinels Chainmail gives 56 defense, it is on the item sheet and on the character sheet as the same value.

Bronze Haubergeon (R27) gives 81 def on the character sheet and 56 on the character sheet at 22.  However the other bonuses were better than that of the sentinel's chainmail, therefore, i wore the bronze haubergeon and sold my sentinel's chainmail asap. 

Now why is this the case?  Because even though the are both classified as "War Garb" Bronze Haubergeon is a heavier type of armor.  A chainmail is something you have a little bit more movement in and I suspect that if a chainmail piece were optimal rank 27 then it would still have considerably less defense than a haubergeon piece.  This means that equipping only items at your optimal rank is not a solid rule of thumb, it will take some intuation and testing on your part.  And that is the kind of thinking that makes good players great.

Just wanted to point out, yes this test was very basic and I am only taking a quick look at the results; however, the current purpose of this blog is to bring the general populus, especially gladiators, up to a certain level of knowledge so that it will be easier to discuss more complicated choices and strats later.

Lastly, wanted to give a shout out to my Linkshell Premonition, formerly Event Horizon of Bismark.  We have tons of fun together exploring the world of Eorzea and finding nice spots to grind in groups of 12-15 haha.  And a shout out to Kuroki Kaze of Saronia, he cut me a deal on some armor and we discuss various gladiator topics with one another, his insights are pretty helpful.  Now I need to get going to cassiopeia hollow to exp with my LS. Later!

Yours Truly,
Ventus Invictus, a Saronian Gladiator

P.S. Here's a treat for you all, my duo partner Akara Lyna 26 CNJ, very good at his class (I suggest all you glads find a duoing healer to pair with for level 20 leves and higher, more stars = higher skill ups).

Day One (or rather night one haha)

Creating this a bit late considering I began the game nearly 3 weeks ago.  (Yes, I shelled it out for the collector's edition, and it was soooo worth it!)

Let me introduce... well me.

IRL I am a Senior in college getting a BS in Biology and a BA in Japanese Studies.  I know this seems an odd pairing but it is for 2 reasons.  1, I have always had a deep desire to become a doctor and am well on my way to that path and 2, I hope to join the JET program and teach english for a year in japanese high schools in order to gain a unique life experience before I go into the medical field.

But let me introduce my other self...

I am Ventus Invictus, a Gladiator from Saronia.  At the time of writing this I am nearly rank 27 and have some insight for current and future Gladiators.  Although, I'm not about to give away all my secrets just yet, you're going to have to keep coming back for more!

Tonight though, well its 3AM and I have class in 7 hours but.. oh well, tonight I am going to go over the very basic mechanic in this game that troubles many gladiator's in the party environment.

Here goes the simple version:

If a mob's name is YELLOW it has not yet created its threat table, therefore, OPENING WITH PROVOKE OR TAUNT IS WASTED.

Once a mobs name is RED it has said threat table and provoke will generate a large amount of threat.

So,

This seems to be the chief complaint I hear from people who are in groups not being tanked by me ;).

What is the easiest way to solve this:

Personally, in large exp groups (5+ people) I tell everyone that it is important to be a couple steps behind me when I go to initiate a fight.  I find the best opener to be Light Slash/Stab >>> Provoke (only if the mob has a red name, yes bugs happen and mess this up).  The reason I do not use Heavy Slash/Stab which gives increased enmity is because this enmity is wasted because the threat table is not yet created.

After that, your own style really comes into effect, but let me assist you in the best way to stay alive and keep hate.

After the LS>>>Provoke opener you are going to use Aegis Boon>>>Still Precision.

Aegis Boon is a shield level 10 skill so you need to work on ur shield rank immediately to be an effective tank!!!  What it does is this, and this works for multiple targets:  It CANCELS MELEE ATTACKS and GIVES HEALTH.  Now, this means your healers have a large window to get in position, rebuff, and be ready to heal.  Note:  Ranged and Special Attacks will not be cancelled by AB.

Still Precision grants you more ACC at the cost of EVA, however, this EVA loss is negated by AB.  Making my opener the BEST for SURVIVAL and THREAT GENERATION for a few moments after the fight has began.

Next time I will go into what you should do after this opener.

I hope you will forgive me, this is my first blog entry so please do not be too harsh internet, I am trying to help and not trying to come off as conceited or elitist.  This is a learners tool.

Yours Truly,
Ventus Invictus, a Saronian Gladiator

(One last note: if you have specific questions or would like to ask for a write up on a mechanic or encounter please feel free to ask below.  I will either answer your question or prepare to address it in a future entry.)