The Balance
FFXIV Resources / pld_resources
How to read: Execute the first line once, then keep repeating the entire loop section.
Which rotation should I use?
The damage between each is almost exactly the same. The standard rotation (infographic embedded above) is recommended over the looping rotations due to ease of learning, but you can pick whichever one you prefer.
Why no 
Holy Spirit during 
Requiescat?
Holy Spirit consumes Requiescat stacks, as do the 
Confiteor combo actions. The Confiteor combo actions are barely worth using with no Requiescat buff
Why is hardcast Holy Spirit not really 350 potency?
PLD auto-attacks are normalized to 90p every 3s, so with a 1 second cast time (1.5s tooltip cast time minus 0.5s slidecast window), auto-attacks are delayed by 1 second every hardcast. On average, hardcast Holy Spirit is equivalent to 320 potency. See 
!faq castauto in #bot_spam for more info. What GCD speed should I use?
2.50 is ideal (see the Best-in-slot section)
How do I play with a faster GCD speed?
Weave 
Fight or Flight late in the GCD like so: 
Why don't we want 9 GCDs in Fight or Flight? It's free potency.
You need to give up damaging substats to get a faster GCD, so it's not free. Plus, a significant portion of Paladin's rotation is made up of spells, which aren't affected by Skill Speed
At slow speeds like 2.48, it's possible to get 9 GCDs in FoF by clipping your GCD every minute, but the performance is identical to 2.50 and is infeasible unless you have <10ms ping
At faster speeds like 2.40-2.45, you need to add an extra GCD every minute, which causes oGCDs and buff windows to drift significantly
At even faster speeds (<2.40), you're giving up so many damaging substats to get an additional filler GCD and reduce drift by a tiny amount, it is never worth it.
I have very high latency (100+ ms), what speed should I play?
Getting 9 GCDs in Fight or Flight is highly execution and latency dependent, on top of being worse than 2.50 in almost all cases. Use 2.50 and avoid double weaving.
Spell Speed?
Spell Speed affects even less of the rotation than Skill Speed does
How does Paladin stack up in 6.3?
On an infinite simulation (aka worst case killtime, not suitable for any meaningful comparisons) it's ~3% worse. The stronger burst has made it so that it's likely the same or better than 6.2 Paladin in real encounters. It's about on par with WAR
Should I use 
Requiescat before or after Fight or Flight?
Requiescat does a decent chunk of damage and FoF buffs all damage. Use Requiescat inside of Fight or Flight
How do I recover the rotation if I lose uptime or make a mistake?
6.3 Paladin is easier to recover than ever.
- With the standard rotation, as long as your Fight or Flight, 
Goring Blade, and Requiescat cooldowns remain together, you can continue with the rotation as if nothing happened.
- With looping rotations, you can either add filler Holy Spirits, drop 
Atonements, or give up on the loop and switch to the priority based rotation. The exact number of fillers you need to add or remove is situation-dependent and requires both experience and a thorough understanding of the rotation.
· significantly affects all damage dealt
· always proportional to item level
· cannot be melded
2️⃣ Strength
· affects all damage dealt
· always proportional to item level
· cannot be melded
3️⃣ Critical Hit
· affects critical chance + critical damage
· often naturally capped on BiS gear
· priority meld (unless number turns red)
(red crit by 1 point may be acceptable)
4️⃣ Skill Speed
· reduces physical GCD recast time
· meld only to reach preferred GCD speed, then no more (usually this speed is 2.5, AKA 0 additional skill speed)
· see Rotation FAQ for more info
· #bot_spam !xivmath rspeed 2.44
· SkS cheatsheet: https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/277962582030155776/917596699684392960/unknown.png
5️⃣ Direct Hit Rate
· affects only direct hit chance
· meld remaining slots (filler stat)
6️⃣ Determination
· sometimes used in 1-2 slots for tiering
7️⃣ Tenacity
· rarely melded due to weak scaling
If you have the weapon from Omega Weapon (Oltimate), use the below best-in-slot with an extra Direct Hit meld in the sword.
2.50 GCD — Carrot Pudding (6.2)
2.45 GCD — Sunset Carrot Nibbles (6.2)
2.42 GCD — Sunset Carrot Nibbles (6.2)
2.40 GCD — Pumpkin Potage (6.1) (The Epic of Alexander)
2.40 GCD — Pumpkin Ratatouille (6.1) (Level 70 Ultimates)
Resource Navigation
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Passage of Arms
Paladin role is required to access other channels.
Click here to get it. 6.3 announcement
Spoiler policy: MSQ and EX trial spoilers should be marked using spoiler tags (
||spoiler text||) until 6.31, this includes stuff like mechanics, names, etc. The exception is in the dedicated EX trial post that will be created in #pld_encounter.
6.3 BiS: Best-in-slot sets for 6.3 Omega Weapon Oltimate prog will not change from what is already listed (preferred GCD speeds will be determined in the next few days)
✅ 
330 Resources Change Log (6.3)
*this gets reposted every time I add to it
Added 6.3 info
Added an FAQ entry explaining why hardcast Holy Spirit is not 350 potency. This is already taken into account when we say that the 60s and 120s rotations are basically identical in terms of dps
Updated to include information on the Standard Rotation. Info on looping rotations remains but aren't recommended to learn
Added a note for post-ulti bis