Let's talk about Paladin, Block Rates, and High Level Content

Guys, it's time to face reality. The last time this was addressed was 2016 and everyone seemed to live on the page of "Ochain and Aegis are already OP". This isn't even close to the case any longer and PLD as faded out favor because let's face it - it's gimp now. It's a hindrance on any alliance.

I've been running a wildly successful linkshell for the last year and a half. On lower level content, paladin was a great tank. It's why I picked it up, I liked it. It was a fun job. As higher level content comes out, I see how it just cannot keep up with Rune Fencer. RUN has too much utility and on top of it all takes very little damage when geared properly. It's time we spoke candidly about the most glaring problem with Paladin.

Here's the deal. We're not talking about tanking item level 119 ~ 130 content anymore. We have 145 and 150 content in the game and right now, paladin takes a ton of damage compared to its RUN counterpart. Shield Block Rate decays at a rapid pace as Content Level of mobs increase.

Let's look at the realities. Tanking in Dynamis [D] on Wave 3 mobs, this are you average block rates.

• Srivasta: *~18% chance of blocking 55% of incoming damage
• Aegis: Just don't, you're not blocking shit.
• Ochain: *~60% chance of blocking 40% of incoming damage

* - An approximation, but matches all data collected currently

Of these three shields, Aegis is the only one that's considered "Passable". Before everyone jumps in say "Well, just use Priwen, it's ilev and has shield skill!". It's a Size 3 shield guys. It's really bad, don't tell me this stuff.

Ok, so surely the "Shield Master" job will have a bunch of gear to increase their shield skill right? WRONG For whatever reason, you guys are intent on putting paladin gear in this game that makes no sense. Give us Shield Def Bonus, Give us Shield Skill, Give us anything to actually MITIGATE damage on high level content.

Now, can anyone in the class tell me what happens when you're taking a ton of damage as a tank and your Damage Dealers are putting out heat? DING DING DING Your enmity decays at a pace faster than which you can recover it, therefore losing hate on stuff because your DD will be far outpacing you. "Well Shoz, don't yall have those fancy Chevallier's Pants +1??????" - Yes, yes we do. We also have way better gear options for that slot, so taking a huge stat hit just for 11% less enmity decay when getting bopped is silly.

While we're doling out job updates. Paladin needs some love guys. If you provided literally just shield skill on Ochain, Aegis, Paladin would be super relevant again in high-end linkshells. 242 Shield Skill would turn Paladin from being a mediocre "only port in a storm" tank to being a true rival to Rune Fencer.

Before we all jump in with the "But Shoz, Paladin IS relevant, we use one in our linkshell!!!!!", just chill man. I'm not saying you can't tank with paladin, I do it personally. I play both Rune Fencer and Paladin at the top level of all content in the game. Master Trials, Dynamis [D], all the new HTBFs, I have the experience on both jobs man. I'm saying if you tank anything high level for just a few minutes you realize that Paladin gets smashed. Burtgang is a 100% requirement because your shields are so weak that you can't afford to tank with anything else.

Paladin is so far beyond just needing shield skill. It's in a hole that cannot be filled short of changing the entire game or deleting RUN.

It's not that bad. But it for sure needs to be able to mitigate damage. Every other aspect can be out-played with decent gear sets and will-power.

You're right, it's not that bad, it's worse.

As a long time Paladin, I had always hopeed SE would add the following improvements to Paladin:

1.) Paladin needs Reprisal to have the same Recast as Foil.
2.) Rampart needs to be as good as Valiance/One for All, or provide a significant buff to the rest of the party.
3.) Paladin needs improved Damage capablities (Without WSD+10% armor, this is going to be a challenge, so I recommend improving atonement CONSIDERABLY).
4.) Invincible, should really make you invincible. Period.
5.) The Cover ability used to be a very important play-style in level 75-era, but these days, you cannot convince any DD player to patiently position themselves behind a Paladin.
6.) Yes, Shields do need a significant upgrade. Instead of augments to shields, which have been done to REMA weapons, I would like to see ilvl Aegis and Ochain shields with a unique USABLE effect. Using an ochain on oneself, could bestow Paladin with the a new "Reflect" spell. This Reflect effect could be more potent if a PLD has a certain amount of Magic Evasion, when used, for example.

Come on SE, help Paladins be great again!

This is a Quote from the May FFXI Digest thread that i placed a large reply to. Below is what i said about PLD.

Potential improvements to unadjusted jobs!

Pld > Reduce reuse timers of Sentinel to 180 seconds, Rempart to 120 seconds, Palisade to 120 seconds. Create new divine magic Area of Effect spells: Banishra recast 30 seconds, Banishra II recast 30 seconds, Banishra III recast 45 seconds, Holyra recast 45 seconds, Holyra II recast 60 seconds, Flashra recast 45 seconds, Reposera base duration 15 seconds recast 60 seconds all of which would have +additional enmity properties to them. Reduce reuse timer of Shield Bash to base 60 seconds. Reduce recast timer of Flash to base 30 seconds. Reduce recast timer of Reprisal to base 120 seconds + increase duration to base 90 seconds. Create new spell Crusade II: Duration 900 seconds, Cost 50 MP, Recast 30 seconds.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

And honestly let's be realistic and additionally stop forcing players to choke on cookie-cutter equipment mandatory requirements concerning item selection. It's total garbage essential components of a party or alliance have a singular uniform item requirement to be considered "competent". Here's two intelligently logical itemization fixes to change this "tank preference" issue.

#1: on ALL PLD JSE gloves place +242 shield skill on +1/+2 and +250 shield skill on +3 reforge; on Sulevia's Gauntlets +1/+2 place +242 shield skill; Place +242 shield skill on https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Volte_Moufles Volte Moufles.

#2: develop and add Tokko Ajja Eletta Kaja and a Final upgraded shield from Ambuscade. The final upgraded Ambuscade shield should be viably competitive with Ochain.

Another quote from the May FFXI digest topic:

I chose -ra spell class for the suggested pld aoe divine spells because it would be a 10' {10 yalm} area from the casting character same as the geomancer specific -ra spell class elemental magics.

I don't see why they can't give Paladins a job trait that would "increase chance to block" since Rune Fencers have Inquartata, a increase parry chance. I was thinking like every 20 levels block rate bonus is 5% so like 20/40/60/80/99 is 5%/10%/15%/20%/25%. Make this job trait add to shield's block rate and surpass each shield sizes block cap. I feel this would boost the relic, empyrean, and aoenic shields to the proper content levels without making major changes to the gear itself. I also feel we should have another job trait that slows our enmity decay rate.

Adjust the shield mastery job trait by adding your suggested block rate % bonus effect tiers. No need to create a newly named trait and that could be implemented simply via program coding.

Give them 100% blockrate. They deserve it and it changes absolutely nothing.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Isola

Give them 100% blockrate. They deserve it and it changes absolutely nothing.

---

I'm in complete agreement. 100% BR was totally fine in the past, so why's it such a problem now? Reducing all incoming damage by a % is basically what RUN does, so what's the problem? If they want it to be tied to a JA, then make Palisade better...

The honest answer to that question is that Ochain was "overpowered" and instead of "fixing" it, they left it and then punished PLD for 8 or so years to make up for it.

The funny part is, it wasn't, it still wouldn't be, and it's still being "punished"

There's a really thorough and thoughtful thread on PLD on the FFXIAH site that goes into a lot of ideas and thoughts about PLD's current lackluster state. From my personal point of view, I think it can all be summed up by the following: RUN has better job abilities, REMA weapon, utility, threat generation, and damage than PLD, with roughly the same damage mitigation (passive or otherwise) overall. In a world where this is true, there's no incentive to take a PLD over a RUN for any content. The issue isn't necessarily mitigation (although I'd love to see shield block rate become a part of an overall PLD adjustment), it's that RUN is so much better in almost every regard that when you're trying to run as efficient a group as possible, the choice is easy. I really do hope the developers read these forums, because as it is, they've done nothing to help PLD since they've elevated RUN to such a powerful job, and that's really disappointing design.

I'm level 75 and maybe what i will say change with higher level.

My concern for paladin is his skill rate compared to other guarding, parrying and evasion skill rate.
Evasion skill rate is the faster to cap, and even faster with monk's dodge ability.
Then parrying and guarding have almost the same rate, but it's faster to skill guarding as monk because of his job ability dodge.
At last we have shield skill ..... The way they did, put it last to skill up. If i'm correct, the priority is Evasion first, then parrying, then guarding or shield. So before you skill up your shield, the game first will check if your evasion skill then parrying skill and then shield as palaidn or guarding as monk.

To make things right they should, depending on the job prioritize one skill instead following the same rule :
For thief and Nin : evasion skill should be the first used when a monster hit you
For Rune : parrying should be first, and second skill if evasion fail for Ninja, thief
For paladin well .... shield should be the first skill used before everyhting else.

Another thing i find weird .... Paladin has the higher skill on club and staff but he canoot do some weapon skill .....