FINAL FANTASY XI Job Adjustments Manifesto: Paladin

[Kari]

What this fellow said.

DD tanks are nowhere near optimal outside abyssea. Especially if they aren't packing empyreans. Asuran Fists is nothing special, and you're not tanking Hahava with it. Or even Kholomodumo.

...you do know that plenty of people do Voidwatch with a SAM or MNK tank?
PLD isn't required, nor is it that much better, if at all.

I don't see why SE is so worried about making PLD better, half of the jobs in this game are already considered broken when compared to others.
PLD could really use some new tricks, and hopefully some enmity tools that aren't on cooldown forever.

And again, SE needs to stop thinking THF is an enmity master.
Just as well, nobody is going to use Enmity songs/spells/etc just to make PLD "work". Why would they if they could have a MNK [or whatever] tank, do damage, and be able to use songs/spells that don't suck?

Overall I want to see PLD be the most useful tank, but not a requirement.
Though sadly you want as many jobs as possible for Voidwatch's silly proc system anyway, so chances are if you play PLD you might tank anyway.

[Soidisant]

If you want to DD with PLD then you really need an Almace or at the very least a WoE version.

Atonement used to be great but nowadays it just doesn't cut it for three reasons.

1. DD's do far more damage on higher tier content than they once did whilst Atonements damage cap remains unchanged

2. The vast majority of newer NM's at least half resist Atonement damage whereas before virtually nothing did and some stuff even took increased damage from it

3. Most of the newer higher tier NM's have some form of hate reset

[Rorrick]

Okay I usually just sit back and read these forums and try to not have my head explode from the poor understanding of the job by the box burned people and or smn burned PLD's that seem to camp this forum. To those PLD's that actually xp'ed the job and by xp'ed the job I mean leveled it without the aforementioned horribleness as well as syninc it to 75 back in the day.

First off its not SE's fault that you don't have a cure kit build or enmity build for all of your actions towards mobs. Instead of being angry because everyone doing an empy weapon caps hate faster than you. Please get off your ass and use the time you spend here bitching to get an Alamce. Not a WoE ODD doesn't exist weapon an actual Almace where ODD Crits reach 500-600 dmg per swing.

Have all abbysites don't care how long you think it will take you just get them all. Get all atma's needed for getting Savior. By getting these you will have all important Atma's need for the next step. Use appropriate Atma's for CDC build. Either RR,GH, Apoc or RR, Savior, Apoc hell even Omni, RR, Apoc-- I think you get the idea.

Once that is done use actual dex + str + atk gear swaps--- for the love of all things sacred stop ws in the same gear you tank in and than bitch it sucks. In fact stop never changing gear period. If your not blinking enough to give your whm a seizure your not playing the job right. I do have sets for when I don't want my shit pushed in by a HNM and I also have my capped haste tp set both are appropriate use when needed.

Lastly, stop asking for more ways to get enmity. It won't help unless PLD is allowed to surpass the hardcap aka. like with Burtgang passing - PDT cap or Aegis with -MDT cap. I could have 40 job abilities to give me enmity but with the gear PLD has already there is no need for more JA's for enmity. We have plenty at our ready if people would just learn to build their kits right instead of taking the fast lazy way out of begging SE for shit we don't need.

Sorry if this angers anyone but really I don't care, I am just tired of seeing horrible PLD's making legitimate hard working PLD's look like shit. That is all continue to whine now.

I can rattle off the gear in every set I have if you want. Rampart enmity set, Rampart absorbtion set, Cover set, PDT with shield, PDT without shield, Cure IV set (cheat set, potency set and an enmity set), Cure III set (cheat set, potency set, and an enmity set), Flash enmity, Flash hybrid, Flash haste, Utsu Ichi, Utsu Ni, Enhancing, Divine, Holy, two-handed TP set, sword/shield TP set, Vorpal Blade/CDC/Torcleaver/Cataclysm/Flash Nova/Atonement sets, MDT with and without a shield, spell interruption down set, fast cast/haste set, Chivalry set, JA enmity sets, elemental resist sets, low accuracy set, shield skill set (lol), idle set, Refresh/Regen set, kiting sets, blah blah blah.

If you can hold the mob off your friends from the get-go, awesome. They either suck at their jobs or are holding back. The issues with the "I can tank fine you guys must suck" argument are that A) it relies on you having Almace to even be passably effective (which is not a legitimate solution. I don't care how easy you perceive it to be, some people can't devote three days straight to getting one), and it implies that either your friends are playing conservatively, or simply suck at their jobs.

There is no reason to play this game conservatively. Paladin serves no purpose because of this, and hasn't for a long, long time. A competent SAM/DRK/WAR/MNK/NIN can tank just about anything in this game (barring perhaps T4 Voidwatch NMs, I haven't tried one on MNK yet), and take as little, or less damage than a Paladin (barring Ochain, which is, again, not a viable solution). Yet Square insists buffing Paladin's offense would be overpowered, while Monks counter 80% of melee attacks directed at them (70% outside Abyssea), and Ninjas or Thieves just evade them entirely. They also apparently refuse to even advance the job in a defensive capacity, which completely baffles me.

Enmity is not the problem. Paladin contributes nothing to 95% of the game.

[Andrien]

I remember sky party on statue golems at Ullikummi camp, and decorative weapon camps. Those were the days when people expect PLD to gear up defensively for one sole purpose. Tanking.

I see PLD as a enmity machine with all the defensive abilities. However people now don't desire that because its better to defeat monsters as quickly as possible with damage dealers that can take the role as tank. This way they're achieving maximum productivity with minimum wasted effort.

If the dev team don't want to give PLD an attack boost. Then I think it is best to boost our defensive abilities, curing and overall survivability. I think we have the best armor which proves that we're suppose to be best at surviving crippling physical attacks.

After taking sometime to think this through, I couldn't help it. I leave the rest to the devs. Here is my wishlist. (kind of)

Rampert, its basically a weak version of Stoneskin. I like the fact that its good at grabbing some enmity, but I don't like how the magic shield is so weak.

I like the idea of making Sentinel an area of effect ability.

Make Fealty area of effect.

I think Cure V will be a great tool for PLD. If we can merit it to generate enmity it would be fantastic.

I'm not to sure about this. Lower Divine Emblem, Fealty and Chivalry recast timers.

A magic spell for PLD on par with ninjutsu. The effect: lower an enemy resistance towards light/divine magic.

[Atomic_Skull]

Like an Almace is *so* hard to get. If it's so hard for you get the NQ WoE version. Trust me a PLD with Ochain and Almace (both of which are easy as hell to get, I see them everywhere on my server) is far stronger than a MNK or NIN in terms of overall survivability and damage output.

Counter can mitigate almost as much damage as Ochain and also does additional damage in the process. And Verethragna is much, much stronger than Almace.

[Ophannus]

You can't counter a TP move, but you can block it.

[Ziyyigo-Tipyigo]

However, since it would quickly become boring and lack any sense of challenge if party members were able to fight without fear of enmity as long as a paladin is present,

You're assuming players care about enmity to begin with.

[Ziyyigo-Tipyigo]

First off its not SE's fault that you don't have a cure kit build or enmity build for all of your actions towards mobs.

Ah yes, the eternal answer: MOAR GEAR SWAPS!

Instead of being angry because everyone doing an empy weapon caps hate faster than you. Please get off your ass and use the time you spend here bitching to get an Alamce.

First off, "Go get an empyrean weapon" only really works if nobody else in the group has one.

Secondly, this is a Catch-22: It's kind of hard to go out and get an empyrean when your job is completely useless in the process necessary to get an empyrean.

Have all abbysites don't care how long you think it will take you just get them all.

Same problems as above: only works if nobody else in the group has them, and effectively requires having another 90 job to be useful in getting those abyssites.

(and you'd need serious cajones to suggest just book/key burning another job to 90 after that elitist "old skool" rant you started your post with)

[Defiledsickness]

the only hate control issues pld has is that you cant keep hate over the healers in Abyssea (or i couldn't before almace, maybe i can now). but mnk can reach huge countering in abyssea and never get one shotted (plus do enough dmg to recap the hate lost from dmg taken).

outside abyssea (voidwatch) pld is awesome. even without almace and just using Atonement pld's are good. (of course aegis and ochain are awesome to have) not saying other jobs maybe cant tank, but they dont want to tank Ironclad :P

the only problem pld has is that it uses swords and swords (mostly) suck. the club weaponskill True Strike beats all sword ws's except for CDC. but dont act like SAM is good in abyssea or DRG or DRK. so pld's cant really complain.

[Ophannus]

I rememeber when PLD/NIN made a comeback in terms of usefulness and NIN's complained that PLD was too good and NIN were only for merit parties because PLD could mitigate damage through shield and shadows and hold hate with Atonement. Good old days.