Where is the balance?

[Llana_Virren]

Provoke isn't the issue, When everyone is at the hate cap, provoke doesn't do squat.

Yes, I understand that. I'm speaking from a design aspect. If the job is intended to be a tank, it should not be relying on a subjob for (what used to be) a critical JA for hate control.

[Unleashhell]

Yes, I understand that. I'm speaking from a design aspect. If the job is intended to be a tank, it should not be relying on a subjob for (what used to be) a critical JA for hate control.

Unless that Provoke had a large Enmity number attached to it, it would be useless like the subjob version of Provoke. Provoke is really only good for the initial pop or claim on a mob where all party / ally enmity is 0. After that point Provoke doesn't give much enmity. Either way /WAR has some nice benefits and job traits attached to it. SE just needs to work on making enmity build slower for DD jobs or completely revamp the enmity system, which I believe they said they can't do.

[Czeph]

So~ 2 choices for paladin to become desirable to the general populous at the momment.
1) make it able to fill the room it was groomed for.
2) make it able to fill the role of damage dealer in some way shape or form.

With point 2 I feel the need to elaborate, increasing paladins offensive capabilities whilest wielding a sword and shield has been shot down by whoever actually looks into this stuff for SE. What I would suggest is that allowing paladin to gain greater offensive capabilities whilest wielding a great sword rather than feeling the effort to try dealing damage on paladin is futile compared to pretty much any damage dealer. Paladin's defense when wearing a greatsword will not make much difference and if they are wearing offensive gear they will more than likely take similar damage to warriors.
(and just to be clear, I'm including gearswaps in my thinking).

[Czeph]

A provoke-like ability for paladin with a high cumulative enmity and volatile enmity value attatched would be nice.
I mean ok, from a tactical stand point having paladin's primary role to hold single dangerous monsters or groups of weaker monsters to facilitate a victory has some merit to it, however being able to hold the big scary monster and protect others from harm seems more akin to the original vision for the job. I own an aegis, an ochain, an almace, and many shiny pieces of armor and they are tools to fit those 2 scenarios as there's no way a paladin can maintain the attention of a monster when it actually matters anymore.

Abyssea is the only place where I've been able to maintain hate with similarly geared players on paladin, and it feels shakey at best compared to the days where I would fire off atonement relentlessly to maintain hate and feel in solid control.
Atonement -was- the best thing to happen to paladin in a long time, now it sits there barely usable since everything resists it.
The greatest tool I have available to me now is damage mitigation in various forms (not to say I don't make effort to contribute to damage etc etc), the problem is there is no reason or inscentive for players to make a paladin stay at the top of the hate list, and barely any inscentive to invite one outside of legion and voidwatch where adds are involved.
I keep trying to to get my point accross, but I don't know what it will take to make the developers take action on the issues facing paladin rather than give a reply of "here's a token update".

Really, I love this game, and the job class paladin suited me perfectly when I began all those years ago.
I'm desperate for it to become relevant to more kinds of events again. I'm at loss for how to get accross how much those of us that love this job class and game long for a true revival of paladin.