I know you've already gotten what you need, but as a longtime Paladin (From FFXI before 1.0 was even a twinkle, baby!) I thought I'd chime in.
Paladins are a tricky class for SE. In FFXI, they were perhaps the only class that SE really got right out of the gate. Just look at the original gear from 1-60, or the AF in FFXI. Some of the stat bonuses you got would just make you scratch your head and say 'What?'. Dark Knights needed accuracy, strength, etc, and they got buffs to their painfully useless (At the time) dark magic and... defense? Warriors got tons of enmity boosts, which they DIDN'T need, and none of the damage mitigation they DID need, etc.
Paladins were simple. Defense, healing, damage mitigation.
The problem is this makes them very much a one-trick pony. Warriors traditionally can tank or DD, but if Paladins aren't taking hits, one half of their arsenal (Their shields) are useless. Between FFXI and FFXIV, one common thread with most Gladiator and Paladin abilities was the need to get HIT for them to be useful.
In 1.0, for a while, marauders/warriors ended up broken. HUGELY broken. They could do bigtime damage, do bigtime AoE damage, had most of the best enmity-grabbing abilities (And could steal the rest from Gladiator) and could damage mitigate like pros. Eventually it evened out a bit, but SE has traditionally been very unwilling to give their 'Sword and Board' tanks any real damage-dealing potential. This means that not only did we NEED to tank to be useful to a party, there was someone out there who could do it vastly better than us.
Remember the Natalan parties? Remember all the Paladins? No of course you don't, stop lying!
ARR is better, and having done level capped missions as Gladiator/Paladin and Marauder/Warrior, I can say that Paladin does feel like it has the survivability edge, and definitely is more self-sufficient (Though in-combat self healing seems to be almost totally counterproductive now). and with Sword Oath and Survival Instinct, maybe we can pack a bit more punch. But I never in a million years see things being 'PLD Onry'. We've had far too much of that nonsense in the past, and with the obvious pains they went to to balance the two tank classes, I suspect keeping that balance will be a priority, and your tank choice will come down to personal preference.
Paladins are a tricky class for SE. In FFXI, they were perhaps the only class that SE really got right out of the gate. Just look at the original gear from 1-60, or the AF in FFXI. Some of the stat bonuses you got would just make you scratch your head and say 'What?'. Dark Knights needed accuracy, strength, etc, and they got buffs to their painfully useless (At the time) dark magic and... defense? Warriors got tons of enmity boosts, which they DIDN'T need, and none of the damage mitigation they DID need, etc.
Paladins were simple. Defense, healing, damage mitigation.
The problem is this makes them very much a one-trick pony. Warriors traditionally can tank or DD, but if Paladins aren't taking hits, one half of their arsenal (Their shields) are useless. Between FFXI and FFXIV, one common thread with most Gladiator and Paladin abilities was the need to get HIT for them to be useful.
In 1.0, for a while, marauders/warriors ended up broken. HUGELY broken. They could do bigtime damage, do bigtime AoE damage, had most of the best enmity-grabbing abilities (And could steal the rest from Gladiator) and could damage mitigate like pros. Eventually it evened out a bit, but SE has traditionally been very unwilling to give their 'Sword and Board' tanks any real damage-dealing potential. This means that not only did we NEED to tank to be useful to a party, there was someone out there who could do it vastly better than us.
Remember the Natalan parties? Remember all the Paladins? No of course you don't, stop lying!
ARR is better, and having done level capped missions as Gladiator/Paladin and Marauder/Warrior, I can say that Paladin does feel like it has the survivability edge, and definitely is more self-sufficient (Though in-combat self healing seems to be almost totally counterproductive now). and with Sword Oath and Survival Instinct, maybe we can pack a bit more punch. But I never in a million years see things being 'PLD Onry'. We've had far too much of that nonsense in the past, and with the obvious pains they went to to balance the two tank classes, I suspect keeping that balance will be a priority, and your tank choice will come down to personal preference.
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