Where is the balance?

[Czeph]

Currently paladin is not considered an essential job by the majority of the player base for 90% of content at least.
The huge number of posts in the paladin forums in all languages on the forums as best as I can tell..... ALL want to see paladin repaired in some way shape or form, so I am begging and pleading to the developers please, take a serious look at paladin compared to other job classes in the game.

TRY PLAYING YOUR OWN GAME ON PALADIN IN A PICK UP GROUP FOR CONTENT AIMED AT GROUPS OF 18 AT LEVEL 99.

Then tell me in all honesty that paladin doesn't require some sort of adjustments.
Give us something that helps us stay at the top of the hate list if we put in enough effort.

[Himrik]

I thought of something, which can be useful even if we don't stay always at the top.
"Drawn-in", with a very little recast and short unbreakable bind.

This way, you can at least temporarily save a mage's ass, even if you can't instantly surpass their enmity.

[Zerich]

least temporarily save a mage's ass

<<Cover>>

1

[Himrik]

Cover without:
- Need to move to the mages
- Need to stand still for you and the mage
- Mage in AoE

And it could be very usefull for kitting

[Babekeke]

This way, you can at least temporarily save a mage's ass, even if you can't instantly surpass their enmity.

Mages shouldn't be reaching top of the hate list anyway.

[Himrik]

Maybe they shouldn't, but in fact, they do quite frequently.

In Abyssea, when DDs wait for BLM to proc, they generally don't WS, so their enmity is pretty low.
Amnesia-aura tend to cripple them too, blocking abilities and weapon skills, while the mages can still cast full power, etc...

[saevel]

A quick and dirty solution would be to make Cover into an enemy targetable JA like provoke is. If you target an enemy that enemy is forced to target only the PLD for the duration of Cover.

Would be interesting.

[Babekeke]

Maybe they shouldn't, but in fact, they do quite frequently.

In Abyssea, when DDs wait for BLM to proc, they generally don't WS, so their enmity is pretty low.
Amnesia-aura tend to cripple them too, blocking abilities and weapon skills, while the mages can still cast full power, etc...

Which is why when I BLM/BRD in abyssea, I use Minikin, Allure and Apoc. Cap -enmity and don't pull hate, no matter how long it takes to land the right proc clean. Melees should generally take the mob down to ~80%, and BLM should nuke in haste gear with wrong element staff.

But then some people just like to see big numbers >.>

[Czeph]

So~ 2 choices for paladin to become desirable to the general populous at the momment.
1) make it able to fill the room it was groomed for.
2) make it able to fill the role of damage dealer in some way shape or form.

With point 2 I feel the need to elaborate, increasing paladins offensive capabilities whilest wielding a sword and shield has been shot down by whoever actually looks into this stuff for SE. What I would suggest is that allowing paladin to gain greater offensive capabilities whilest wielding a great sword rather than feeling the effort to try dealing damage on paladin is futile compared to pretty much any damage dealer. Paladin's defense when wearing a greatsword will not make much difference and if they are wearing offensive gear they will more than likely take similar damage to warriors.
(and just to be clear, I'm including gearswaps in my thinking).

[Llana_Virren]

A quick and dirty solution would be to make Cover into an enemy targetable JA like provoke is. If you target an enemy that enemy is forced to target only the PLD for the duration of Cover.

Would be interesting.

PLD should have always had a natural "Provoke"... just sayin.

[Teraniku]

PLD should have always had a natural "Provoke"... just sayin.

Provoke isn't the issue, When everyone is at the hate cap, provoke doesn't do squat.

[Llana_Virren]

Provoke isn't the issue, When everyone is at the hate cap, provoke doesn't do squat.

Yes, I understand that. I'm speaking from a design aspect. If the job is intended to be a tank, it should not be relying on a subjob for (what used to be) a critical JA for hate control.

[Unleashhell]

Yes, I understand that. I'm speaking from a design aspect. If the job is intended to be a tank, it should not be relying on a subjob for (what used to be) a critical JA for hate control.

Unless that Provoke had a large Enmity number attached to it, it would be useless like the subjob version of Provoke. Provoke is really only good for the initial pop or claim on a mob where all party / ally enmity is 0. After that point Provoke doesn't give much enmity. Either way /WAR has some nice benefits and job traits attached to it. SE just needs to work on making enmity build slower for DD jobs or completely revamp the enmity system, which I believe they said they can't do.

[Czeph]

A provoke-like ability for paladin with a high cumulative enmity and volatile enmity value attatched would be nice.
I mean ok, from a tactical stand point having paladin's primary role to hold single dangerous monsters or groups of weaker monsters to facilitate a victory has some merit to it, however being able to hold the big scary monster and protect others from harm seems more akin to the original vision for the job. I own an aegis, an ochain, an almace, and many shiny pieces of armor and they are tools to fit those 2 scenarios as there's no way a paladin can maintain the attention of a monster when it actually matters anymore.

Abyssea is the only place where I've been able to maintain hate with similarly geared players on paladin, and it feels shakey at best compared to the days where I would fire off atonement relentlessly to maintain hate and feel in solid control.
Atonement -was- the best thing to happen to paladin in a long time, now it sits there barely usable since everything resists it.
The greatest tool I have available to me now is damage mitigation in various forms (not to say I don't make effort to contribute to damage etc etc), the problem is there is no reason or inscentive for players to make a paladin stay at the top of the hate list, and barely any inscentive to invite one outside of legion and voidwatch where adds are involved.
I keep trying to to get my point accross, but I don't know what it will take to make the developers take action on the issues facing paladin rather than give a reply of "here's a token update".

Really, I love this game, and the job class paladin suited me perfectly when I began all those years ago.
I'm desperate for it to become relevant to more kinds of events again. I'm at loss for how to get accross how much those of us that love this job class and game long for a true revival of paladin.