FINAL FANTASY XI Job Adjustments Manifesto: Paladin

[Andrien]

A simple job trait that occasionally spikes enmity on normal melee hits. boom!

Make Sentinel area of effect, and increase aggression.

Tweak Rampart magic shield effect. Mitigate magical damage over time. Increase its enmity.

Shield Bash does Stun, occasionally Silence, and Amnesia.

Shell V

Cure V. Merit enmity on it

Weapon Skill: Lights Blade

Tweak Cover. Absorb MP on successful cover.

New Magic. Absorb HP on shield blocks.

Invincible: Lock enemies on Paladin for 30sec.

New Ability. sacrifice 100MP and TP to restore HP. Area of Effect. Cure IV potency or higher.

PS: I just woke up.

[Greatguardian]

Goodness gracious.

Enmity is not the problem.

Enmity.

Is.

Not.

The.

Problem.

Enmity is not the problem.

Being unnecessary is the problem. Being purely defensive-oriented when that defense is not needed to win is the problem.

Comparing a stupid Ukon to a smart Almace is fallacious. Comparing a perle WAR to a decked Ochain is fallacious. These comparisons are only used so that people can feel justified in their inadequacy by ignoring opportunity cost and shifting the focus onto how gimp other people are.

Want the truth? Any good, intelligent Almace PLD will always do more damage if they were a good, intelligent Ukon WAR. The correct comparison is not to other people, but to oneself.

Want Paladin to be useful again? Petition for content that's hard enough that Paladin's pure defense orientation becomes necessary to survive consistently. Create monsters that one-shot Counterstanced Monks. Make an Aegis or an Ochain absolutely vital to tank the absolute strongest 99-Endgame monsters in the game.

Fifth-string Paladins who don't know how Enmity works think they should be necessary in full NQ AF3 and a PDT sword? Tough bloody luck. No matter how much they buff Paladin, any good DD will tank circles around a clueless Paladin. Always.

[Ashael]

Stolen from the PUP thread:
An example of our ideas about adjusting attachments is changing the “Enhances Defense” of Armor Plate to “Reduce physical damage taken.”
Why can't PLD get rid of the useless Defense Bonus trait and gain PDT instead?

While also making us unkillable until the mob charms us, resets hate after amnesiaing us and raping our support, or casts Deathga, Terrorga and Bindga in one move, why can't we be given more support functions.
Change cover to a job trait, sphere like, that allows the PLD to absorb some set percentage of damage taken by party members in 5-8 yalms? Give the PLD half cost cures when cast on others that reduces the targets Enmity while enhancing the PLDs? Give the PLD some AoE cures.
Just give us some toys so we can pretend to be useful instead of the brick that survives until his support is raped and nothing remains.
Maybe a pianissimo-style JA with a short recast 10-12 seconds, that allows us to cast cures that alter enmity? Or a JA that uses TP to enhance Cures.
Something besides 5 minute JAs. Something that enhances our usability.
They're not going to adjust our offense, so lets focus on support and defense.
None of these ideas are as overpowered as a WAR with Ukon with Retaliation up. None are as overpowered as BLM with Enmity Douse and Mana Wall. It's okay to buff PLD to a usable level, even if it defends the DDs. It won't break the game!

[Andrien]

Want Paladin to be useful again? Petition for content that's hard enough that Paladin's pure defense orientation becomes necessary to survive consistently. Create monsters that one-shot Counterstanced Monks. Make an Aegis or an Ochain absolutely vital to tank the absolute strongest 99-Endgame monsters in the game.

@Greatguardian
Your suggestion about Aegis and Ochain is little over board. If a PLD don't have those items they'll be unnecessary for all 99 content in your example. In this case it'll leave players seeking other jobs to fell that tanking role.

There is absolutely no reason to rant. Its good to leave suggestions and ideas. I believe SE wants to boost Paladin current defensive abilities and add new ones. Anymore enmity would make a fight boring.

[Greatguardian]

With some jobs, there is little difference between the bare minimum and the potential maximum that can be reached via player skill and gear. With Paladin, there is a monumental difference between these two points. Ochain, and now Aegis as well, are positively game-breaking shields. Paladin as a whole has always been highly technical and the gap between the inept and adept has always been wide.

So long as this gap exists, and so long as good players exist, game balance will have to work keeping the maximum in mind throughout.

If something can be tanked without an Ochain, then any well geared DD can also tank it.

If something can one-shot a good Warrior, it can one-shot a non-Ochain/Aegis Paladin.

The Empyrean and Relic shields are what make Paladin stand out from the crowd. Any effort to make Paladin more naturally powerful will simply overpower those shields even further. Rather, the Devs have smartly chosen to simply make these shields [more] easily attainable.

Anyone who cares to can get an Ochain or an Aegis. Anyone who does not will always be outclassed by a DD who chooses to pursue the best that they have available to them. The logical solution is to simply tailor the absolute strongest 99-Endgame content around people who have Ochains and Aegis' to tank.

Contrary to popular belief, every bit of Endgame content does not need to be inclusive to everyone. Abyssea was that way, and people seem to hate the massive bone the Devs threw them regardless. If there is not some content challenging enough such that the best players in the game will have to bring Ochain/Aegis Paladins to it, Paladin will never see a resurgence as a "necessary" job.

[Andrien]

SE recognize PLD is struggling with this, so if SE make more monsters with insane HP, unlimited hundred fist attack like speed, and can counter(there is one in sea). I can see a place where PLD is needed. I think its about time they make PLD go full defense and more efficient for the whole party.

[DebbieGibson]

With some jobs, there is little difference between the bare minimum and the potential maximum that can be reached via player skill and gear. With Paladin, there is a monumental difference between these two points. Ochain, and now Aegis as well, are positively game-breaking shields. Paladin as a whole has always been highly technical and the gap between the inept and adept has always been wide.

So long as this gap exists, and so long as good players exist, game balance will have to work keeping the maximum in mind throughout.

If something can be tanked without an Ochain, then any well geared DD can also tank it.

If something can one-shot a good Warrior, it can one-shot a non-Ochain/Aegis Paladin.

The Empyrean and Relic shields are what make Paladin stand out from the crowd. Any effort to make Paladin more naturally powerful will simply overpower those shields even further. Rather, the Devs have smartly chosen to simply make these shields [more] easily attainable.

Anyone who cares to can get an Ochain or an Aegis. Anyone who does not will always be outclassed by a DD who chooses to pursue the best that they have available to them. The logical solution is to simply tailor the absolute strongest 99-Endgame content around people who have Ochains and Aegis' to tank.

Contrary to popular belief, every bit of Endgame content does not need to be inclusive to everyone. Abyssea was that way, and people seem to hate the massive bone the Devs threw them regardless. If there is not some content challenging enough such that the best players in the game will have to bring Ochain/Aegis Paladins to it, Paladin will never see a resurgence as a "necessary" job.

Could not have said this any better.

[Alerith]

Take Counterstance away from MNK.
Double Utsusemi recast timers for NIN.
Make SAM take TP damage instead of HP damage.
Reduce DRK accuracy....well I guess that isn't needed.

To hell with changing PLD! Change other jobs to make PLD work!

[Rorrick]

SE recognize PLD is struggling with this, so if SE make more monsters with insane HP, unlimited hundred fist attack like speed, and can counter(there is one in sea). I can see a place where PLD is needed. I think its about time they make PLD go full defense and more efficient for the whole party.

Those mobs would likely kill Paladin as quickly, or quicker, than most DD jobs. Especially MNK, NIN and SAM. Paladin's defensive tools are arguably worse than many DD jobs' (Counterstance, Third Eye, Utsusemi), barring Ochain. If Ochain is the solution to Paladin's uselessness, I'd best be getting one for free, or the trials for it had best become much easier/less time consuming (the Colorless Souls are obnoxious, regardless of how you go about it). Requiring something the game regards as an ultimate weapon just to reach the baseline for usability is not a solution. Paladin's survivability should be buffed, with or without Ochain/Aegis.

[zell_]

A simple job trait that occasionally spikes enmity on normal melee hits. boom!

Make Sentinel area of effect, and increase aggression.

Tweak Rampart magic shield effect. Mitigate magical damage over time. Increase its enmity.

Shield Bash does Stun, occasionally Silence, and Amnesia.

Shell V

Cure V. Merit enmity on it

Weapon Skill: Lights Blade

Tweak Cover. Absorb MP on successful cover.

New Magic. Absorb HP on shield blocks.

Invincible: Lock enemies on Paladin for 30sec.

New Ability. sacrifice 100MP and TP to restore HP. Area of Effect. Cure IV potency or higher.

PS: I just woke up.

bolded text is what i was thinking of this morning. but going even deeper into why its harder for pld to keep up show that the attack speed(or rate i should say) of other jobs constantly keeps their enmity high.

i propose either the job trait listed by Andrien, or either a job ability that reduces enmity generation by surrounding party members. or dare i say both.

now this job ability would bar weapon skill damage, but i figure those are spike enmity situations in which the enemy would shift attention to the dd as if it used an ability similar to provoke.

when it comes to melee speed, pld isnt too bad. its just other jobs have ways to augment their speed: double attack, triple attack, dual wield and even the new hasso zanshin. if we could have lower enmity gained while meleeing under the job ability i proposed, then i think that would be a step forward in pld holding hate better.