Blocking Attacks
Successfully blocking an attack in FFXIV means you will take a reduced amount of damage from it. Normally, the chances of blocking an attack will depend on your Block Rate stat, but using Sheltron will guarantee that all attacks directed towards the Paladin will be blocked for 4 seconds. The amount of damage reduced will then depend on another stat called Block Strength. On average, blocked attacks will deal 20% less damage. Blocking attacks is unique to Paladins as it can only be done with a shield equipped. Other tank jobs will parry attacks instead. You’ll know an attack has been blocked when “(-20% blocked)” appears beside the amount of damage that shows up on screen when you take a hit.
Filling Up the Oath Gauge
Once you are done with the quest “Honor Lost” you will unlock the passive ability “Oath Mastery” along with Sheltron. This trait will unlock a Paladin’s Oath Gauge and lets you start building up Oath during battle. Oath is a resource that is exclusive to Paladins. It allows you to use certain abilities like Sheltron and Cover. So, what do you need to do to fill up your Oath Gauge? Nothing specially, really. Your Oath will go up by 5 points every time you land an auto-attack. So, all you really have to do is make sure you are standing close enough to the enemy to be able to do auto-attacks. As a tank, this shouldn’t be a problem.
Traits That Affect Sheltron
Traits are passive abilities that are constantly active as long as you meet the level requirement for them. As you level up your Paladin, you will learn traits that upgrade the effects of Sheltron. Upon learning Sheltron Mastery at level 82, Sheltron will be replaced with Holy Sheltron. With this upgraded version of Sheltron, the guaranteed block effect will have its duration extended to 8 seconds and grant 2 additional effects – Knight’s Resolve and Knights Benediction. Knight’s Resolve reduces the damage taken by the Paladin for 4 seconds. This is on top of the damage reduction from blocking attacks. Knight’s Benediction gives the Paladin a regen effect that gradually heals HP over 12 seconds. It has a cure potency of 250. Despite being a huge upgrade to Sheltron, Holy Sheltron maintains a cost of 50 Oath.
When To Use Sheltron
As the main tank in the party, it would be best to use Sheltron as often as possible without being wasteful. Sheltron is a great damage mitigation tool, so use this during large pulls or during boss abilities. Since the Oath Gauge can fill up rather quickly, you can also use Sheltron in tandem with your other damage mitigation skills like Reprisal or Rampart for tankbuster abilities. Off-tanks don’t have to worry about using Sheltron as much, since the Main Tank should be the one taking most of the damage. An off-tank can use Sheltron if he or she needs to pick up any adds that spawn, during raid-wide AoE (area-of-effect) attacks, or when taking over as the Main Tank during tank swaps. When not directly taking damage during the fight, the off-tank should consider its other moves that use Oath such as Intervention and Cover. Intervention applies a damage mitigation buff to a target party member while Cover redirects damage taken by target ally to the Paladin.
