^ Agreed. New content requiring Paladin is always helpful. Though really, and I'm always shot down whenever I say this, I'm of the firm belief that Almace/Ochain/Burtgang+ fixed the majority of what was wrong with Paladin.

Now, can just anyone get an Ochain? Well, yes, but for the sake of argument let's say no because it's a pain in the ass to get and a vast majority of people are lazy/unable to work well with others. So a lot of people don't like to consider an equipment-specific fix a fix to the Paladin job. However, Paladin has always been a particularly equipment-heavy job. Back in its hey-day, it was one of the most complex jobs around, and required easily 3-4x as much gear as any other job in the game bar a good RDM. A lot of that gear was R/EX and/or extremely expensive. None of that has changed.

Now, is that to say that Paladin can't be mildly effective without awesome gear? No. I've most definitely tanked Sandworm and other HNM-esque mobs with little more than AF, a turban, and 500k's worth of whatever I could find after my character was hacked in 2008. Kept pace with my Aegis co-tank too. But that doesn't mean I was anywhere near as good as I could and should have been without my equipment and working macros.

Anyone serious about Paladin and utilizing it post-Abyssea should start investing the time and energy into completing a 90 Ochain. If you want tips for making that nightmare easier? Feel free to ask. If you just want to complain about how hard it is and freak out about how gear shouldn't be required to make a job work? Well, it's your right to post, but I've honestly heard it all before.