Provoke Merit for PLD to control Enmity

In thinking of how the merit Aura Steal was created for Thief, I want to recommend a merit to alter Provokes design when used by a Paladin.

The concept would be to convert Provoke from a direct action against the target monster to an area affect that targets party members for the purpose of transferring enmity from them, much like Accomplice or Collaborator. I'm not sure how potent the adjustment should be made if were worrying about game balance for other jobs. My initial mindset for this was for the merit to be broken down into 5 levels for 20% Enmity transferred per merit to the Paladin for a 100% full enmity wipe for party members in range at 5/5. At the recast rate for this ability it would make it possible for the PLD to hold mobs from other frontline damage dealers more reliably.

Two issues with this:
1) Provoke is a Warrior ability, not a Paladin ability.
2) Doesn't anything about your proposal seem a little unbalanced to you?

Provoke being a Warrior ability is an argument i've already heard, the option when we discussed this idea was either create a new ability for PLD that functions like this or a merit for it so that its behavior is adjusted for PLD.

Unbalanced, you'll have to clarify your concern for me to debate with you were the concept would hurt the game. If you're drawing a parallel to the Schs Caper Emissarius to Provoke in comparison of recast timers, I can understand that point. Unfortunately severe measures are necessary to deal with enmity if a PLD is going to take the field with DD's other then RNG and not consistently lose hate to buffed DDs that cap their hate in 20~30 seconds.

Just another band-aid slapped on to the broken enmity system. It'd be an effective band-aid, though, if completely broken in a different sense.

Thing is, it's not PLD that needs fixing. Nor is it PLD JA. It's the entire enmity system. The solution should be adjustments to the enmity system itself. Not the addition of broken as heck JA.

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Originally Posted by Castian

In thinking of how the merit Aura Steal was created for Thief, I want to recommend a merit to alter Provokes design when used by a Paladin.

The concept would be to convert Provoke from a direct action against the target monster to an area affect that targets party members for the purpose of transferring enmity from them, much like Accomplice or Collaborator. I'm not sure how potent the adjustment should be made if were worrying about game balance for other jobs. My initial mindset for this was for the merit to be broken down into 5 levels for 20% Enmity transferred per merit to the Paladin for a 100% full enmity wipe for party members in range at 5/5. At the recast rate for this ability it would make it possible for the PLD to hold mobs from other frontline damage dealers more reliably.

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In my opinion it would be too powerful and Paladin already has a similar ability (cover) that accomplishes nearly the same effect though for a limited duration. Though I'll gladly admit this ability needs to be made easier to use.

I think the real problem here is tanks have been groomed by other less strategic MMORPGs and feel as if they should always keep threat no matter what or they suck. That's just not how this game was designed (and shouldn't be in my opinion). Because games where the tank always has threat and the DPS never have to worry about enmity and just go all out safely become repetitive and boring.