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I've been looking at the threads about PLD, DRK, GLA and where PLD stands in the whole bi-partisan bit between themselves and WARs. Most of the discussions focus on some items that have been accepted as pivotal points of the discussion.
Paladins are seen as inferior tanks than WARs between DPS, survivability and ease (or difficulty) of enmity generation. What I plan to do with this post is look at GLA design, PLD design and try to make changes that allow PLD to be a little better at their job while giving GLA the leeway it needs to spread out (that and I like the idea of GLA being able to go PLD or DRK depending on what you're looking to do).
I. Gladiator
For a class that is supposed to be flexible, GLA is kind of boned in terms of design because it is being hammered into a tank-like role between ability spread and DPS. Of course, the focus on the word Gladiator and what it means in the west is kind of moot, since in the JP version the class is called Kenjutsushi (剣術士), or Swordsman. As such, the class should really be about the way of the sword in terms of raw combat. Thus, it would be better to shift the class down to the middle way, allow the abilities set from other classes to help decide the role and go from there. To solidify yourself into one specific role, you could then switch to a job.
Ia. Class Run Down - Daggers have been taken away from GLA and replaced with great swords. Great sword GLAs have the chance to graze incoming attacks, mitigating a portion of incoming damage. Due to GLA-native dodge rating being relatively low, grazing is more for self-preservation rather than a tank-like focus. Only direct attacks and physical AoE's can be grazed. New/changed abilities are in blue.
Ib. Abilities
1 Fast Blade
2 Rampart
4 Phalanx
6 Defensive Focus: Guarantees one shield block if equipping a shield, or one graze if equipping a great sword.
10 Savage Blade
14 Spinning Slash: Swing your weapon fiercely, dealing damage to nearby targets.
18 Shield Bash
22 Outmaneuver: Slightly increases block rate when equipping a shield. Slightly increases chance of grazing when equipping a great sword.
26 Flat Blade
30 Riot Blade
34 Sentinel: Moved down.
38 War Drum
42 Tempered Will
46 Rage of Halone
50 Goring Blade
Ic. Traits
8 Enhanced Physical Defense
12 Enhanced Rampart
16 Enhanced Physical Attack Power
20 Swift Defensive Focus: Reduces recast of Defensive Focus by 15 seconds.
24 Sword & Board: Occasionally attack with your shield.
28 Enhanced Flat Blade: when using a great sword, Flat Blade can interrupt spellcasting.
32 Enhanced Physical Crit Resilience
36 Enhanced Sentinel
40 Swift War Drum: Reduces the recast of War Drum by 25 seconds.
44 Enhanced Outmaneuver: Shield Blocks made while Outmaneuver is active restore MP. Grazes made while Outmaneuver is active grant TP.
48 (Tentative) Hilt Strike: 5% chance of striking an enemy with the hilt of your great sword before attacking them. Can only proc during auto-attacks.
II. Transition into Jobs
As evident above, Flash was taken away from GLA, the numerous defensive traits have been trimmed down and replaced with some offensive-oriented traits. Because of this, the meat of the roles chosen by the player will be part of the jobs available to the class. In this case, if the player wants to go full tank they will have to switch to PLD. Likewise, if they want to go full DPS they'll have to go DRK.
To give ourselves a starting point, what I propose is that aside from the five abilities gained when switching to a job, we also earn five traits relevant to the job in question.
IIa. Paladin
We seem to have lost sight of how Paladins normally work. Firstly because the devs have tried to copy the player-invented model from FFXI where the paladin would heal themselves in order to generate enmity by introducing things like Holy Succor and such. Emphasis should switch to and build on defense, while keeping in mind that tank enmity comes in part from DPS, and it is as important as enmity from abilities.
Abilities
30 Cover: Toggle effect. Protects one target party member until deactivated, reducing damage taken by that party member by 5% and transferring 10% of the enmity generated by that party member to you.
35 Flash: Generates large enmity on target and all enemies around it. Has a high chance to inflict blind. Costs 180 MP.
40 Holy Succor: Instant-cast self heal. 45-second cooldown.
45 Spirits Within
50 Hallowed Ground: Reduces all damage taken by 90%. 20 second duration.
Traits
30 Armor Mastery: Increases physical defense by 22.
35 Shining Armor: Grants an enmity bonus to all actions and attacks.
40 Divine Veil: Healing spells cast on you by other players give you 10% of the MP cost of the spell. (Example: A WHM casts a Cure spell that costs 200 MP. You gain 20 MP as a result.)
45 Shield Mastery: Greatly increases shield block chance gained from Outmaneuver.
50 Aegis Boon: Attacks blocked while Defensive Focus is active will restore HP based on the amount blocked.
I'm of the opinion that putting off-healing on a tank is a very bad idea. The tank already has enough to worry about to have to deal with doing part of the healing for his group. Thus, Holy Succor was changed into a semi-survivability cooldown. The MP dumps for PLD would therefore be cures if you want to do that in combat and Flash. I was also thinking of removing Hallowed Ground from the list of gained abilities and replacing it with Judgment Blade (yes, the one from Final Fantasy Tactics), but I couldn't think of a way to justify removing Hallowed Ground aside from creating a brand new category for moves like it. Instead, I opted for making it effective 90% mitigation rather than "immune to most attacks".
IIb. Dark Knight
Not much to say here. Darkness-based damage dealer with a big sword. Some drains, and has potential to play nicely with abilities gained from MRD and DRG (which I suggest be the two sub-classes for DRK). DRK would be using stuff like Riot Blade => Rage of Halone => Dark Slash, as well as Fast Blade => Savage Blade => Goring Blade.
Abilities
30 Dark Slash: Sacrifice HP to attack your opponent with a heavy slash, dealing physical damage and additional dark damage.
35 Umbral Symbiosis: Lowers target's Attack and Magic Attack by 3% and increases your Attack and Magic Attack by 3%. Costs 200 MP.
40 Night Slash: Drains TP from up to three targets in front of you. 400 MP cost. 20 second cooldown.
45 Asphyxiate: Interrupts spell-casting. 20-yalm range. 3 minute cooldown.
50 Last Resort: Your next three weapon skills consume HP in addition to their normal costs for additional darkness damage.
Traits
30 Great Sword Mastery: Increases attack power by 22.
35 Vampiric Blade: Attacks grazed while Defensive Focus is active will grant your next weapon skill the ability to absorb part of the damage dealt as HP and MP. Does not stack with Bloodbath.
40 Dark Osmosis: Using Night Slash on more than one target grants you a Regain (TP gain over time) effect for 10 seconds.
45 Bloodletter: Target takes additional damage from your attacks while under the effect of Goring Blade's bleed effect.
50 Serrated Blade: Doubles the bleed effect duration from Goring Blade.
My take on this is spike damage combined with some drains and emphasis on darkness-based damage. I also tried to play into the drain theme we got used to in FFXI but with less reliance on magic and more on abilities and attacks. Things like Umbral Symbiosis would requite the DRK to stay near the target at all times to benefit. What I'm not sure of is if US should be a toggle that consumes MP or TP, or whether it should be a debuff that the DRK should try to keep up as much as they can on the mob.
Questions, comments, flames, death threats and so on are welcome.