[dev1071] Job Adjustments: Paladin

[Unleashhell]

So today SE announces that Shield Bash recast will be lowered. IMO this is a good thing. At least they looked at PLD for some kind of adjustments. It might not be what we are all after as far as PLD adjustments go but hopefully there are more adjustments down the road. One of my posts I made a while back I am bringing to the table in hopes to once again have some dev team feedback and not just let an older post be forgotten. I figure since they are currently working on some kind of adjustment I might as well revive this post.

There are a lot of things wrong with PLD. But their are also a lot of things wrong with the actual battle system. For instance when 2 hand weapon jobs got massive damage dealing increases the enmity system was not adjusted. Damage dealers get tons (and I mean TONS) of food options for attack and accuracy. Paladins really do not have a lot of options. Tacos are still the best overall food for VIT and DEF. Granted we can use an attack food but what would be the point? Sword damage and delay cripples Paladin even if you use attack food. Almost all Paladin WS are low damage output with the exception of CDC.

What they need to do for Paladin is give a separate enmity cap. Something that exceeds the current max, even if it is an ability. This way a paladin can cap hate and then use this ability to further hate control. Now there has to be game balance along with this. We cannot have paladin have a hate lock, there has to be some sort of repercussion to damage dealers at times. If they do massive 2-3K weapon skills inside or outside of abyssea they should get hate. There is nothing wrong with that, its part of the risk / reward in fighting. If you are going to risk massive damage output you will suffer some sort of consequences. This issue now is paladin needs something to get that hate back, which cover now starts to handle that situation. Paladin still needs more and on a shorter recast time like the OP. Something that is two minutes would not be that bad.

Next paladin needs a meritable cure potency or an ability that increases the potency of cures for a period of time. It would be nice to see a 20-25% cure potency for paladin. Something that lasts maybe 2-3 minutes with a recast of 5 minutes would be perfect imo. At level 99 paladin cannot use cure V because of the less enmity generation that cure V currently has. They would have to adjust cure V so WHM could still use it without the enmity generation. This is assuming paladin would even get cure V which I would highly doubt. Keep in mind HP goes up at 99 as well as new gear that may increase HP even further as well as possibly further HP merits, so little old cure IV will not cut it. Keep in mind, not only is this a form of hate control for paladin but it can be very helpful when curing DD's in a pt that took hate from a massive weapon skill, again current cure IV will not cut it.

Damage output is another issue paladin has. Swords are just too slow and the damage / delay do not help at all. Base damage on swords needs increased. Some sort of Store-TP would be helpful as long as it is a worth while amount. SE took the empyrean set in the right direction with adding haste to the legs, feet and hands, but failed to add more VIT to that set. Granted the enmity accuracy and attack are very well needed. Not to mention the DEF is pretty nice also. Speaking of DEF, this also needs to be reworked. Currently once you hit a certain point of DEF going any higher will have very little to no effect. Paladin is known for having high DEF to help absorb some of those hard hits but what good is all that DEF if it becomes useless beyond a certain point.

Paladin also needs some kind of AoE ability that covers each party member much like rampart that while in effect will greatly decay enmity of party members over a short period of time. Granted this will be more helpful in endurance fights rather then a quick kill situation. This ability lasting 30 seconds with a 5 minute recast would suffice.

Keep in mind Abyssea is NOT all there is in FFXI. People need to think of level 99 without all of your Atmas and Abyssites.

Sorry for the wall of text, I have more ideas that I will post what I think out all the details.

[Hokuten85]

I'm officially retiring my PLD. Honestly it's a worthless job which is extremely tough for me to admit. I love what the job is supposed to be. The job only has utility after you get an upgraded Aegis/Ochain and Almace/Excalibur. And even then it's only really useful in maybe 5% of game situations. Which is questionable based on hearing about people taking VNMs down easier and faster with DD jobs tanking.

It's not worth the effort to gear it up. I don't want to hear it's not hard to get. It is hard. I don't have a huge number in game friends that will sacrifice their time to get me a shield...and the in game friends I do have are all struggling to get their own stuff. I've never had that. The entire time I've been playing this game I've never been able to "get in" with the groups that get the top gear. When I've started those groups, I've been so buried underneath people and so far back in line that I never get my stuff.

Oh yeah... and the job can't solo for the stuff. Correction...they can kinda, maybe solo stuff AFTER you get the top end gear. But why bother with PLD when a handful of other jobs can do it faster and easier?

It's healing potential is horrendous and the MP runs out way to fast for how much you can restore. It's damage output is horrendous. It's hate gain is irrelevant and completely linked to a subjob. It's damage mitigation is horrible compared to other jobs and only becomes borderline acceptable with top of the line gear.

They are afraid of buffing it's ability to put out damage because there afraid it will be too strong. But they already have nin, mnk, dnc, and thf, and war that can all out tank PLD in a huge majority of situations. AND they deal a crap ton of damage. Nearly every other job in the game actually has utility for a wide range of tasks. Nearly every other job can go get stuff off the AH and do their job to an acceptable level. They can contribute. I sit back while other jobs tank and toss out flashes... b/c I would feed to much tp to be worth swinging a sword.

There is something clearly wrong with the game when a PUP completely blows PLD damage out of the water. I'm not talking about PUP+puppet... I'm talking just the puppetmaster. Surely we should be able to keep up with a PUP at least with damage. I'm talking about an AH PUP here... not one with Empy gear.

NINs and MNKs tanking and killing NMs essentially duo with a WHM. A LOT of NMs. NMs that I would die fighting within seconds. They've pretty much given NIN the ability to do just about everything.

BST pets that take damage better than a PLD and deal better damage, have considerably more HP and are super easy to keep alive.

You gave Drk a huge buff to Last Resort with the 3 minute duration... but the PLD mirror ability is still stuck to 30 seconds of crap that fades as those 30 seconds go on.

Giving us a 3 minute timer on Shield Bash is laughable and a slap in the face. Putting added effects on Ochain and Aegis based on shield bash is also laughable. I good DD should be able to get a WS off easily in under a minute. So they put an equal amount of effort into their weapon and they get to reap the benefits of it considerably more frequently.

Wanting to give us more hate generation or slower decay isn't going to fix anything. Your system is broken. If you don't want to fix the system, then you work AROUND what you have. Giving us more enmity does nothing when everyone is at the cap...and it's not hard to hit the cap. It would be slightly different if it was actually hard to hit this cap. It's not. Asking players to hold back to the point where PLD can keep hate is asking them to spend half the fight not engaged...while anyone in range gets pummeled by the NM for an extended period of time b/c the NM survives longer.

Giving us more defensive abilities only effects the arguable 5% of the time where we might be needed. The rest of the time that added defensive ability does jack-sh*t because Zero dmg > reduced damage ALWAYS.

People bitch about the zerg mentality. It's there for a reason. It's the easiest, most effective way to do a huge majority of this game. Is it what the developers intended? Surely not...but regardless...their broken systems allow it to happen. Again, if your not going to directly fix what's broken...then you need a work around. Don't ask your gamers to do things the difficult, less efficient, way when there is a considerably easier way to accomplish stuff. Why use a PLD when it's easier to go without?

People that defend that PLD is fine are clearly delusional to the experience of the majority of those who have played it or have been exposed to the tactics necessary to make it "work". You don't need it and it's easier to do without...go get off your high horse with your superior gear...and experience the easier ways of doing things you claim you need PLD for.

I love what a PLD is supposed to be. I loved what it used to be able to do...even though it never did it particularly well. I prefer the PLD playstyle, which is why I even care to make this post. I REALLY REALLY REALLY want to play PLD. It's just not worth it...and hasn't been for a while.

[hideka]

i hate to agree, but paladin is pretty crappy if it isnt perfectly geared, and honestly no job in this game should have to be perfectly geared as a requirement to efficiently operate.

[Saiken253]

Aye, the handful of jobs that SE does like is taking up all their time and resources and all other jobs are seeing little to no attention/love.... PLD being part of the no attention/love group :<

[NZXSHADOWS]

Think about PLD with its Invincible being a ja with a recast of 5mins duration 15~20sec with current effect. An the new 2hr would be invincibility for the whole pty duration 30~40sec. Sounds crazy right? And how about a ja that will swap you from a Defensive PLD to a Offensive PLD. Or just maybe give a player the ability to unlock 5~10 ja/ma from any 99 job to the character itself at 99, so anyone could mod in what ever they wanted for what ever job, That would be extremely crazy.

[GIJO]

And how about a ja that will swap you from a Defensive PLD to a Offensive PLD.

I was thinking the same thing. But something more then just Warrior's Defender and Berserk. For the offensive side give PLD separate powerful sword skills similar to Final Fantasy Tactics were it does good damage and weakens the enemy in someway (like it could do defense down, evasion down, lower attack, etc.).

Also they should add Job Traits to the Merit Point system. For example I could merit "Attack Bonus I" for 4 merit point, then "Attack Bonus II" for 8 merit points, "Attack Bonus III" would be 12 Merit Points etc. This would open up all jobs to more customizing as well letting players adjust their playstyle for what they want. To keep balance limit it so that a player can only merit 4 catagories of Job Traits (such as if I choose Attack Bonus, Max HP Boost, Fencer, Store TP then I couldn't merit any more Job Trait sets like Duel Wield).