FINAL FANTASY XI Job Adjustments Manifesto: Paladin

[Zagen]

In all honestly PLD should have "Enmity Bonus" job traits, start at 30 as enmity +10 and then +5 at 50 70 and 90. That should help with maintaining capped hate, won't help the melee's who don't know how to ride under the cap though.

Except for any content where PLD isn't needed as the main tank the DDs aren't worried about the hate limit. Any content where a PLD is needed as the main tank the DDs know how to stay below the hate line already. This is true assuming you roll with competent players if not then fix that problem first.

[saevel]

Except for any content where PLD isn't needed as the main tank the DDs aren't worried about the hate limit. Any content where a PLD is needed as the main tank the DDs know how to stay below the hate line already. This is true assuming you roll with competent players if not then fix that problem first.

Hey you guys were asking for something to assist you in tanking. Tanking is about holding hate + damage mitigation, which one you want buffed lol.

[Zagen]

Hey you guys were asking for something to assist you in tanking. Tanking is about holding hate + damage mitigation, which one you want buffed lol.

You don't understand the problem. Neither of those will actually help much. The problem is on easy crap almost any job can hold hate and mitigate damage just as well as PLD meaning the only thing that is left is damage dealt which PLD sucks at. In other words unless you're in a Voidwatch shell PLD is useless when compared to a DD.

Ideally the game would be balanced so that PLD was beneficial against easy and hard stuff in the game but that wasn't how it was designed and to fix that wouldn't realistically be cost effective at this point in FFXI's life.

The easiest solution is more Voidwatch level of difficult content. That however excludes the casual market which at this point I'd imagine is quite larger than the hardcore.

[saevel]

You don't understand the problem. Neither of those will actually help much. The problem is on easy crap almost any job can hold hate and mitigate damage just as well as PLD meaning the only thing that is left is damage dealt which PLD sucks at. In other words unless you're in a Voidwatch shell PLD is useless when compared to a DD.

Ideally the game would be balanced so that PLD was beneficial against easy and hard stuff in the game but that wasn't how it was designed and to fix that wouldn't realistically be cost effective at this point in FFXI's life.

The easiest solution is more Voidwatch level of difficult content. That however excludes the casual market which at this point I'd imagine is quite larger than the hardcore.

Umm no,

Considering my shell usually use's two PLD tanks at events, PLD is definitely not dead. And no other jobs can't tank nearly as well. What your talking about is Abyssea, and inside Abyssea WHM's get so much MP / Refresh Atma that they can just Cure V - > Cure V -> Cure V over and over again on a single melee without any issues. A melee with DD flavored atma and a tricked out WHM can survive indefinitely against most NMs. In this situation a PLD offers nothing over a WAR for red procs, and you'll already have a WHM for yellow procs, so no PLD means more loot for everyone else.

Once you step outside abyssea all that changes, even now a MNK trying to "CS tank" will get his face stomped on anything voidwatch or even old school HNM (Gates of Hades and Fulmination can still wipe you at 90). PW / AV will still destroy you if you don't carefully plan, and yes bring along PLD tanks.

PLD's are the best tanks in the game, their mandatory for big alliance battles. Their just like DRK, DRG, SAM, ect.. in that their simply not needed in "low man" content of a party or less. Doesn't stop you from going, heck their still nice to have on those low-man battles.

[Greatguardian]

What the hell am I reading? PLD tanks on Absolute Virtue? Please go back to the Red Mage forums where your incompetence is at least par for the course.

Zagen knows as well as anyone else that Pld excels in Voidwatch, but that doesn't mean it's useful anywhere else. Paladin's niche is difficult monsters. The only difficult monsters in the game are Voidwatch NMs. By adding new content that is difficult, SE is fixing PLD's issues at the source.

Cerberus is not hard. Khimaira is not hard. PW is not hard and AV is most definitely not hard. Paladin does not excel in any of these fights. You have repeatedly mentioned on this and other boards that things like Dhorme Khimaira are actually difficult and involve Paladins/Alliances, so I will implore you now to quit while the readership of this board doesn't yet realize how far behind them you are.

Adding Enmity bonus traits will do nothing for Paladin, because Enmity has never been the crux of the problem. Good Paladins cap Enmity easily. Mediocre Paladins cap Enmity 90% of the time. That is what Zagen was driving at, and he is 100% correct.

[Zagen]

Considering my shell usually use's two PLD tanks at events, PLD is definitely not dead. And no other jobs can't tank nearly as well. What your talking about is Abyssea, and inside Abyssea WHM's get so much MP / Refresh Atma that they can just Cure V - > Cure V -> Cure V over and over again on a single melee without any issues. A melee with DD flavored atma and a tricked out WHM can survive indefinitely against most NMs. In this situation a PLD offers nothing over a WAR for red procs, and you'll already have a WHM for yellow procs, so no PLD means more loot for everyone else.

WHM Refresh Options:
Head 1
body 2
hands/feet 1
legs 1

That's 5MP/tick not counting Atma since this is for "outside", lets throw a BRD into the mix as they are nice to have with DDs after all. A decent bard will have +2 emp legs and the harp meaning 4/5 MP Ballads or 9 MP/tick.

That brings the total to 14MP/tick 4 more than MM gives in Abyssea.

If the WHM is /RDM there's another 3 for 17MP/tick. With a proper RDM that would be 21MP/tick.

Seriously MP is not an issue in large groups for the healer(s) anymore even outside Abyssea. It only affects small man groups and those wouldn't be doing content that's hard enough to make the WHM's MP pool a concern, well I should say they shouldn't be small manning those events.

Greatgaurdian covered everything else.

Edit: WHM can get more refresh from gear than I posted, I only posted what I considered to be good for an idle set while fighting.

[Neisan_Quetz]

Main/ammo slot should be counted as +1 imo, whether it's from owleyes + genbu's or Terra's + Oneiros grip. The last piece I know of is moonshade earring.

[Zagen]

Main/ammo slot should be counted as +1 imo, whether it's from owleyes + genbu's or Terra's + Oneiros grip. The last piece I know of is moonshade earring.

I don't count owleyes just because personally I'm not a fan of +Damage gear in combat but I completely forgot about Oneiros Grip!

[Ashael]

More questionable ideas:
New job trait, that gives PLD a, separate from gear, 50% Cure Potency on Cure spells cast on others. Doesn't give us Cure V and VI but allows us to prop up our DDs when we lose hate.
New job trait, somewhat like the Divine Benison boost, occassionaly a PLD's cures are AoE, make it like 20% proc rate.
Allow us to equip both a great sword and shield. Crappy WSs still... but it would be rather nifty XD

[Caketime]

More questionable ideas:
New job trait, that gives PLD a, separate from gear, 50% Cure Potency on Cure spells cast on others. Doesn't give us Cure V and VI but allows us to prop up our DDs when we lose hate.
New job trait, somewhat like the Divine Benison boost, occassionaly a PLD's cures are AoE, make it like 20% proc rate.
Allow us to equip both a great sword and shield. Crappy WSs still... but it would be rather nifty XD

Monkey Grip 2 Hander Paladin with Hospitaler Prestige. Nice choice, if a bit odd. Still, I can see how it would make a D&D session fun.