Gladiator FAQFollow

Hey guys closed and open BETA tester here and have been primarily focusing on the Gladiator job so far, the GLD forum is dead so I thought I would try to spruce it up with my experiences, I hope everyone else can add here with information to really help the GLD community!

Shield!!!:
The big question, WTF I'm a tank that doesn't start with a shield? Thanks SE, feelin the love!
Best option, save 43,000 GIL and go to Uld and buy a shield from there.
Other option, be a Carpenter, or find a friend who's a carpenter, I have a feeling that people are gonna exploit our cries for a shield and over price the first basic shield they can make which is the Square Maple Shield.

(Square Maple Shield: Maple Planks x2, Sheet of Bronze Plate x1, Uncolored Sheep Leather Strap x1, Handful of Bronze Nails x1, Handful of Bronze Rivets x1 )

This has not been confirmed by myself but there is supposedly a rank 1 Regional Battlecraft leve in Gridania that will reward you a low level shield. From what I have been able to dig up it is either the "Moles vs the Pilgrims" leve or the "Bees vs the Pilgrims" leve.

In Limsa there is a rank 1 Regional Battlecraft leve called "clean sale" which will reward you a square maple sheild.


Easiest thing for me was to just finish my story quest which resulted in 30,000 GIL. I then proceeded to grind my LEVEs on Legion diff and grind marmots and shrooms. Once I hit level 8 I already had around 40,000 GIL. Grinded to 10 and had roughly 50,000 GIL and proceeded to run from GRD to ULD and bought my shield.

Races

This game differs with FFXI where yes there are stats associated with your race, but you have much more liberty to customize your character. But the best stats for GLDs starting right now are Roegadyn and Hyur.

Starting Town:

Believe it or not, traveling from town to town isn't that rough, so far from Gridania to Ul'dah is just a straight shot south down the given path. No mobs in GRD really are aggressive to you except for Chigoles, but on the path to Ul'dah watch out for the Ants, they aren't too friendly. I will update this once I make the trek from Limsa to Ul'dah.

Ul'dah: Best place for GLDs to start since the first shield (as of BETA) is sold, and the home of the GLD guild. 1st in my opinion.

Limsa Lominsa: Nothing too special, I would rank this 3rd on the starting because it takes longer to get to Ul'dah for your shield than starting in Gridania.

Gridania: Less populated due to the forums expressing how cool ULD is, maze type atmostphere, and an easy run to Ul'dah. I would rank this #2 for starting GLDs.

Stat Points

STR: Increases your damage output

VIT: Your Hitpoints

DEX: Your chance to hit

So far I have just been balancing these 3 stats and have been breezing through mobs with no troubles really.

Gladiator Abilities

Once again only going to focus on the things I have a strong grasp on

(1) Light Slash: Basic Attack move. 100% Slashing dmg

(1) Light Stab: Basic Attack move. 100% Piercing dmg ( For now, almost every mob takes more dmg from Slash)

(2) Red Lotus: 1000tp/10mp move. Really kind of random to give us a Fire based ability that takes MP. I use it in moderation in the beginning because we hardly start with any at all. It deals good damage but soon gets replaced by spiral. Have not found any mobs where this deals an increased amount of damage against.

(4) Rampart: 5 minute cooldown Defense buff. I mainly use this to just keep my grind going, some people keep it for a "Oh Crap!" button, but I like to use to before the beginning of a fight to take minimal damage. It seems to last roughly 30-40 seconds.

(6) Circle Slash: This is when you finally start doing damage, and finally start pulling adds ;). A 360 100% Slashing dmg attack.

(8) Phalanx: Bread and Butter right here, after a block you attack for 100% Slashing dmg. It's a great ability ONCE you FINALLY get your shield.

(10) Provoke: Increases Enmity with a mob, your basic Taunt.

(12) Spinstroke: This is an ability that lets you feel like you can do some damage if you are in a group and NOT tanking. You deal increased damage if you are not the target of the mob. 100% Slashing dmg.

Shield Skills ( Sentinel Level)

(1) Guard: Raises shield to block attacks

(10) Aegis Boon: Recover behind the safety of your shield, increasing defense against frontal attacks and converting blocked damage into HP.

Sentinel Level?

Sentinel skill is your shield level and your shield gets its own pretty great abilities that can be used with the 2 caster classes. In order to raise shield skill you must be hit while in guard. Guard for the most part right now is more of an annoyance than anything. It is a 10 second fixed duration in which you need to start your battle, put up guard, then counter attack with Phalanx. You will most likely reapply Guard 2x in solo battle versus a mob your level. The nice thing about guard is once you start leveling up your Sentinel level you will see some very nice reductions in damage. Bust your butt to try to get that early shield so you can level up both of your skills together, I started with my shield at rank 10 and it was always far behind.

Weapons:

The first weapon I have found so far is the bronze dagger crafted by blacksmith. It is recommended level 6 and 80% piercing damage to 20% slashing. What your going to want to do with that is use Stab instead of Slash for more damage.

Trades:

I am not going to really list trades here because Trades in this game are not a secondary profession, you need to put your work in to really get the reward. Any Trade works very well for this class, some more than others.

Supporting Jobs

For now this section will only Focus on the 1-15 leveling aspect.

Conjurer:

Stoneskin 6 Hardens the skin of allies within area of effect, absorbing a certain amount of damage.
Shock Spikes 8 Armors party members within area of effect with spikes of lightning, granting the ability to stun and deal lightning damage to attacking enemies.

Thurmaturge:

Punishing Barbs 10 Channel your pain to an enemy, redirecting a portion of damage dealt to you back to its source.

Pugilist:

Second Wind 6 The thrill of battle exhilarates you, restoring HP.
Taunt 10 Whistle jeeringly, increasing enmity and temporarily focusing the target's attacks on you.

Marauder:

Bloodbath 6 Revel in the blood of an enemy, converting a percentage of the damage dealt by your next successful attack into HP.
Defender 10 Tighten your guard, increasing defense and reducing attack power. Increases enmity generation while under the effect of steadfast.

Archer:

Raging Strike 4 Strengthen your grip, increasing the attack power of your next attack.

Lancer:

Ferocity 4 Trigger an adrenaline rush, increasing the power of your next attack.

Thanks again for the read, all of this is subject to change while stuff gets put out. Any feedback would be great and I will update this regularly. We have to start getting these GLD forums moving!


Edited, Sep 20th 2010 10:19am by Sherrick96

Edited, Sep 20th 2010 10:20am by Sherrick96

Don't disregard Archer's Raging Strike or Lancer's Ferocity. Good for a damage boost. Keep in mind that Ferocity will cost you 20 HP.

Will be able to give more feedback when I can actualy get ingame, for now a small correction.

Grinded isn't a word, you mean ground.

You can get a shield by two methods that you didn't mention.

(1) This has not been confirmed by myself but there is supposedly a rank 1 Regional Battlecraft leve in Gridania that will reward you a low level shield. From what I have been able to dig up it is either the "Moles vs the Pilgrims" leve or the "Bees vs the Pilgrims" leve.

(2) In Limsa there is a rank 1 Regional Battlecraft leve called "clean sale" which will reward you a square maple sheild.


Edited, Sep 10th 2010 4:28pm by Raionn

Thanks for all the help so far guys

Yeah, any debuff skill can get points... so if it is a skill that does damage an adds a debuff you can get points for the damage and points for the debuff (I.E. Howling Vortex adds a slowcast debuff.)

Something to consider with stat points, mnd is magic defense. I put atleast one point in mnd per physical level, it makes a noticable improvement when fighting things that use magic, like imps.