FINAL FANTASY XI Job Adjustments Manifesto: Paladin

[Rorrick]

They'll get back to us once they're finished adding Warrior to the Creed set.

[Andrien]

They'll get back to us once they're finished adding Warrior to the Creed set.

This made me roflmao... seriously, true story.

[DebbieGibson]

What can you do to make pld more desirable than sam on something that can be tanked by sam?

1) Make having a pld do more damage to the mob compared to having a sam (very unlikely)

2) make the usage of rampart increase item droprate (very unlikely)

3) ? suggestions please

[Rorrick]

Make Cover a job trait. Hate resets are no longer an issue, enmity loss is no longer an issue, and even TP feed is no longer an issue, as you can just disengage tank. This would also allow Paladin to make use of what little offense it does bring to the table in the form of TP from shield blocks. This allows Paladin to absorb damage without forcing DDs to restrict their damage output on tougher enemies (the only place where having a Paladin to begin with is even remotely plausible).

The rebuttal of "we want you to have to balance enmity" floats with me about as well as the Titanic post Iceberg-lovemaking. There's already no reason for front-line jobs to control their enmity, since most of them are more than capable of tanking (while doing incredible damage. See the theme of inequality developing here?) everything to begin with. Having an enemy bounce all over the place does not add any tactical value to the game whatsoever, it offers instead the minor inconvenience of losing TP every so often.

Further, the development team contradicts itself with this argument, and we need only to look to the Manifesto for proof.

We respect the unselfish and bold nature of the paladin, so we plan on further developing their ability to maintain control of battles and keeping others out of harm's way, if only temporarily.

You want Paladin to control the battlefield, but you don't want it to always have the attention of the enemy? That makes no sense. At least if you reinvent Cover as a job trait you'd add some positional play back to the game. At the very least, you'd make Thief's life easier. It doesn't necessarily add desirability to Paladin, but at least I'd be getting some use out of my shield.

The development team's unwillingness to commit to any direction for Paladin is incredibly frustrating. They argue that throwing us an offensive bone would make us overpowered while simultaneously they consider how to enhance Seigan? Come on. Logically, the other way to make Paladin more desirable would be to stop giving defensive bonuses to every other job, enhance Paladin's own defense (there's a clear inequality between shield blocks, barring Ochain, and the uberness that is Counterstance, Utsusemi, and Seigan/Third Eye), and introduce some content that makes use of this mystical defensive advantage.

But, instead of considering either of these options (the only two options there are; more offense or more defense), they've chosen to try and see just how far they can push their own contradiction by adding more tools to "control" the battlefield, without actually giving us any more control, when the solution I proposed above (make Cover a job trait) would not only give us the control we deserve, but have zero impact on parties that choose not to bring a Paladin, all the while ignoring the 35 or so pages of feedback in this thread alone and leaving us in the dark. If the development team wishes to keep us forever bogged down in the mire of irrelevance, allow me to refund all the EXP I've put into Paladin and reallocate it to a job I will actually have occasion to play.

Camate, please address some of the feedback in this thread, instead of ignoring us or pulling ridiculous suggestions from the Japanese forums. We have legitimate ideas too.

[Cursed]

well said Rorrick. I second your sentiments.
The thing about PLD in particular, when it comes to job utility, is that it appeals to a lot of us.
Its not some wacky quirky job like PUP or BST or DNC. Its one of those jobs that has a huge amount of followers and fans.

Some people play THF because they like the idea,concept and traditional role it has played throughout FF games. Others like BLM and nuking. A great many of us feel that way about PLD. Its more than just tanking to us, its playing the role we would like to in a fantasy game.

But SE you have shat on it for too long. FFS fix the damn job.

[Alerith]

well said Rorrick. I second your sentiments.
The thing about PLD in particular, when it comes to job utility, is that it appeals to a lot of us.
Its not some wacky quirky job like PUP or BST or DNC. Its one of those jobs that has a huge amount of followers and fans.

Some people play THF because they like the idea,concept and traditional role it has played throughout FF games. Others like BLM and nuking. A great many of us feel that way about PLD. Its more than just tanking to us, its playing the role we would like to in a fantasy game.

But SE you have shat on it for too long. FFS fix the damn job.

It's as if you took my feelings and put them into words. It's for this reason that I will always play PLD. Because I enjoy it. Because it's my kind of job. It goes so far beyond tanking and endgame.

[AldielQuetz]

Bump

We need Defense Bonus switched out for a damage taken reduction trait, make it different than Def Bonus if you are worried about WAR getting 2 of them.

Give us some attention please!

[Anucris]

i agree with rorrick and cursed up there. also rorrick made a really good point about them not giving defensive buffs to other jobs. they could also, if they didnt want to change defense bonus to -DT, change defense to something more potent, its what pld has so make it good!

[AldielQuetz]

I support the above post.

Thank you!

[vausabant]

I have said before and i will say it again, yes SE you CAN raise the hate cap, but do it only for pld. So say the cap is 1000, simply make plds 1200, yes before everyone screams they will never loose hate thats broken, make it so after the pld has had above 1000 hate for like 30 secs the game forces his hate back down below 1k for atleast 10 secs. Its idea and imo a way to give pld back some ability to i dunno TANK