Pld Emnity/hate distribution chages?

[Arcon]

After reading and responding to enough of your walls of text I'm going to be brief this time. Monk, Dark Knight, and Red Mage all have better defensive gear and take less damage than Paladin when bloodtanking (bar Ochain, the exception is not the rule). This is cold, hard fact.

No, it's arguable. The "taking less damage" part, that is. The better defensive gear part is just wrong. Paladin's have the best defensive gear of any job available. Why you fail to see this I don't know. What does DRK have on PLD? Nothing. What does PLD have on DRK? AF3+2 body and legs, a shield and generally higher defense gear. What does RDM have on PLD? Umbra Cape and, depending on how you play, a weapon to mitigate damage (which PLD can also use in the form of sword/shield, maintaining its usefulness, or even staff (and Eisen Grip), if shield blocks aren't required). What does PLD have on RDM? AF3+2 body and legs, Ruffian Leggings and Nierenschutz. Not to mention Metallon Mantle is almost as good as Umbra Cape. What does MNK have on PLD? Arhat's Jinpachi +1 and Black Belt. What does PLD have on MNK? AF3+2 body and legs, Metallon Mantle, Ruffian Leggings, Heavy Gauntlets. That's just the job-exclusive slots, of course there's more overall, but since all jobs can share those, it hardly matters. And it's not even taking the absorb rate into account, strictly PDT. With the additional absorb rate could save even more damage (and it goes over cap too, which may also apply to the AF3+2 body's effect).

The question is now if shield blocks (which, alone, almost make up for most damage mitigating abilities from other jobs), almost equally strong Phalanx (4 damage less absorbed, considering generous RDM gear, not to mention Phalanx gets more useful, the less damage players take), Reprisal, Flash, Sentinel, Rampart, Shield Bash, Defense Bonus, Shield Defense Bonus, Critical Defense Bonus and Shield Mastery outweigh a marginally stronger Phalanx, Stoneskin, Aquaveil, Haste, Refresh II and Fast Cast (Haste and Refresh or Refresh II are usually cast on the PLD as well, at least in a group situation), or Dread Spikes, Stun, Drain and Weapon Bash in the DRK's case, and Counterstance in MNK's case (although that may be considered blink tanking, as you're sacrificing defense for a chance to not take damage at all). And that's where the terms "arguable" and "situational" come in.

It should be noted that I never even said those jobs aren't great tanks (we had a RDM main tank in our LS, I was co/backup-tank as a career PLD, and a MNK that would put most PLDs to shame in terms of survival). I just find your (repeated) dismissal of PLD as a worthless tank a completely groundless statement. Not to mention misinformation about gear and taking damage. If you find anything wrong with the gear I posted above or any alternative pieces I missed, feel free to correct me.

That said, considering pretty much every single fix you've advocated for Paladin involves changing fundamental game mechanics instead of actually adjusting the Paladin job, I'm sure this will just fall on deaf ears. Let's just assume you and I will never agree. I want a realistic job change that addresses the issues Paladin has inside its current working environment. You want to change the working environment of the game in order to make Paladin more favorable. That's that. They're not compatible.

Honestly, right now I can't even remember reading what you suggested for PLD. The reason I advocate changes to the game is because I feel that nothing is inherently wrong with PLD itself. Defense on the other hand is simply underrated as a defensive stat (as you admitted yourself). Enmity issues cannot be solved by simply doing more damage or getting higher enmity spells. That's why I wanna change those two aspects, it's nothing PLD specific in either case.

I'm wondering why there are Paladins out there who don't want to do damage. What benefit is there to not doing it?

Because I'm looking at it from a role-playing point of view. Paladins are meant to be defensive, not offensive. I'm not saying they shouldn't be doing any damage at all (they are knights after all), I said they shouldn't be comparable to actual damage dealers, which is what they would be required to be, if they wanna keep up on tanking these days. I was perfectly happy with Atonement, it was a moderate attack, way above PLD's average, yet below good damage dealers' capabilities. That beig said, I wouldn't mind something similar again, I just don't want them to be just another DD.

[Darka]

No, it's arguable. The "taking less damage" part, that is. The better defensive gear part is just wrong. Paladin's have the best defensive gear of any job available. Why you fail to see this I don't know. What does DRK have on PLD? Nothing. What does PLD have on DRK? AF3+2 body and legs, a shield and generally higher defense gear. What does RDM have on PLD? Umbra Cape and, depending on how you play, a weapon to mitigate damage (which PLD can also use in the form of sword/shield, maintaining its usefulness, or even staff (and Eisen Grip), if shield blocks aren't required). What does PLD have on RDM? AF3+2 body and legs, Ruffian Leggings and Nierenschutz. Not to mention Metallon Mantle is almost as good as Umbra Cape. What does MNK have on PLD? Arhat's Jinpachi +1 and Black Belt. What does PLD have on MNK? AF3+2 body and legs, Metallon Mantle, Ruffian Leggings, Heavy Gauntlets. That's just the job-exclusive slots, of course there's more overall, but since all jobs can share those, it hardly matters. And it's not even taking the absorb rate into account, strictly PDT. With the additional absorb rate could save even more damage (and it goes over cap too, which may also apply to the AF3+2 body's effect).

Outside of shield blocks, almost every job can match and some beat PLD in defensive abilities. Plenty of options for most jobs to hit 50%PDT and MDT. MNK has counterstance, which procs a lot more than shield does (Ochain being an exception of course), SAM has Seigan and Third Eye, RDM has Stoneskin, DRK has Stun for reliable recasts, all of which can /NIN, even /SAM for 2 handers is a reliable defensive tool. Shield blocks are too much of a variable even with capped skill to compare it with those abilities, unless of course Ochain. Also the set bonus is around ~5%, and using the full set over PDT swaps is in the long run less optimal.

Sentinel is a whole 30 seconds of diminishing PDT, used more often for it's enmity boost rather than defense unless it's a critical situation, shield def bonus relies on the shield variable, and crit def bonus is small. I'm not saying PLD doesn't have a lot of defensive abilities, but most of them are minimal gains, and don't set it apart significantly from other jobs, besides shield (which kinda loses some value if /NIN).