Paladin: Possibilities

[Glamdring]

The new Grounds of Valor/Monster distribution is gonna help you a ton paladins (and bard, cor and rangers for that matter). Abyssea has given evasion tanks a false sense of their utility. Against normal mobs-without Atma, Cruor buffs and a Brew for fall back-they are going to get a quick reminder of Mortality. Expect to see a ton of whining posts from those players about how SE needs to "fix" the new content so they can tank. The reason is that most Aby-type players haven't fought the new level 90ish regular mobs in ToAU, Campaign and CoP areas to see that traditional party roles are needed, as well as hate control and all those party mechanics that veteran players actually miss. You know, when skill as a player actually played a part in this game...

[Kjara]

I'm afraid most of players will be too afraid of the world outside of abyssea to even try it, unless SE gives them very good reasons to do so (and I doubt they will release anything more rewarding than AF3/empyrean any soon).

[Ravenmore]

With most jobs hitting or really close to haste cap its going to be hard for SE to put in gear that would make people fight the new mobs outside of of abyssea. There will be the some who will fight the mobs to be some of the first to kill them but most will wait and see if they drop anything.

[AyinDygra]

Another idea came to me.

Job Trait: Righteous Heart
Level 50
Divine Magic is more effective when cast on Paladins.
* Cure spells get a boost to healing power when cast on a Paladin. The "extra" enmity caused by the "extra" healing is given to the Paladin.
* Cursna always removes doom from the Paladin.
* Paladin gets a very high natural resistance to doom and death.

[Arcon]

With most jobs hitting or really close to haste cap its going to be hard for SE to put in gear that would make people fight the new mobs outside of of abyssea. There will be the some who will fight the mobs to be some of the first to kill them but most will wait and see if they drop anything.

Haste is far from everything. Some jobs could cap haste before Abyssea, yet they completely reworked their gear. Why? Capping Haste in less slots means other slots can be used for something better. That's why high Haste gear will always be in demand, until we approach the Haste cap in a single slot.

[Ravenmore]

Haste and STP are what most DDs go for. With af3 capping both is easier then ever. Might be some sit gear but I really only see side grades coming. Thing is there is nothing better then haste followed by STP.

Now pld could get more enmity gear or cure pot gear with enmity on it. Maybe a new set of MAB gear to replace Iron ram. Though new DD gear for pld might be better. A slight DD update or JT/JA to boost emnity gained for cureing self and party members seeing how /rdm with the next update is really dead now. Subbing rdm was still best sub for tanking mobs that were really ga hppy outside of abyssea.

[Zumi]

If they aren't going to fix tanking they should just make Paladin into a melee dps job like everything else. You can play it like a melee damage job but it is middle tier at best.

[Zyeriis]

Modifications #2

3) Enmity

-3D) Taunt (Inspired by Yukichibi)
While Sentinel increases enmity, it's more prominent aspect is that is also reduces damage significantly. Then there's rampart which while producing enmity (because all actions produce enmity) increases defense and magic defense. Both of these abilities last for short amounts of time. The idea this time is a third job ability to complement cover and other abilities. Taunt's duration would be as long as it's recast. However, it would share a timer with one of Paladin's other job abilities (Sentinel or Rampart, etc.).

How would it work, what does it do? That is relatively simple, while under the effect of taunt, if you are hit, an animation goes off, much like a spikes spell. The enemy would not take damage like it would from a spike spell, instead, enmity for other players currently on it's enmity list would drop slightly and the Paladin's enmity would increase slightly per hit. Note that this does not involve removing the "if you get hit, you lose enmity". The amount of enmity gained/lost while this ability is up would be a static number not a number based upon the amount of damage taken. Thus, more damage taken means more enmity lost like it does right now. Tack on a stoneskin like capacity for damage taken to this job ability with a slight difference. Rather than an a damage capacity that increases upon each hit, it would be a damage capacity limit on the single attack. Meaning, the ability could wear off immediately if hit with, let's say an attack that deals 700+ damage, whilst if you take 100 damage 7 times in a row, the effect wouldn't wear off.

It is a complicated concept, I know, if this needs clarification, please let me know.

-3E) Steadfast
This is similar to the Taunt idea but with different aspects to it. Like the Taunt idea, damage dealt to the Paladin would result in slight enmity scaling toward the paladin from other party members. Here are the differences. While active, steadfast would disable your ability to move (with a non-erasable bind). It would also disable your ability to get knocked back by enemy attacks (in a way of "taunting" the enemy's attempts).


4) Light-Based/Divine Magic

-4A) Banish/Holy
These two spells are probably the most useless "nuking" spells in the game. Why is that? Why can't they be on par with nuke spells of the other elements (Fire/Blizzard/Aero/Stone/Thunder/Water)? These massively underpowered spells need more tiers, and more power to begin with. Why not give them to Paladin since Paladin already has access to Banish 1 + 2 and Holy? Banish III goes to WHM, why not PLD? There is even Banish IV, however Banish IV is only usuable by Summoner at level 90 with light spirit(who the hell uses spirits for anything other than siphon?), which weird enough in itself, is completely bizarre that Summoner gets it yet WHM and PLD do not.

Naturally, this "solution" wouldn't change much. Unless of course, they added banish/holy to yellow procs in abyssea but that is besides the point. Paladin is lacking on it's light-based/divine attacks aspect. Enlight slightly corrected this flaw in Paladin's design but it is simply not enough. PLD (and WHM) need an overhaul on light-based spells that damage enemies.

-4B) Dia
Even more so than Banish and Holy, what Paladin really needs on a light elemental attack side basis is Dia. Dia was originally Divine Magic, which RDM has an E in while PLD has a B+ (only beaten by WHM with an A-). Why they changed Dia to enfeebling magic is beyond me, seeing as it's opposing force: Bio has always and still is considered dark magic. The matter is simple: Return Dia back to being a divine magic spell and give it to PLD.

Naturally, just like Banish/Holy, simply doing this would not actually fix PLD. It would be a mere stepping stone to re-purposing/returning to PLDs true concept: A Holy Knight. On top of Dia being added to PLD, they need to create newer divine magic spells to give to PLD, to further differentiate it from RDM (admittedly adding Dia to PLD is a step in the wrong direction on this but I digress and re-iterate that it's a stepping stone idea).


5) Shields

-5A) Retro shields back to 0 damage while blocking (Courtesy of Kjara)

SE could just bring shield blocking back to how it originally was. Back when shield block = 0 dmg taken. SE changed that because it was too much game breaking but I think now it would be wise to reinstate it to compete with all those evasion/counter tanks. The game as it is now just screams "if you get damaged gtfo" and this is why people will take eva tanks over blood tanks.

[TybudX]

1. Make PLD single wield DD on par with real DDs, including access to a high damage WS that isn't CDC.

2. Give PLD native pdt- and mdt- traits so that they can do what they were designed to do without gimping up their damage.

3. ???

4. Profit.

You need the first one for PLD to be a realistic 'tank' under the current FFXI paradigm. You need the second to make PLD a desired 'tank' under the current FFXI paradigm. Maybe give them access to a couple more Stuns with the shield and such. Adjusting Shield Mastery to be more meaningful (at least make it affected by sTP) couldn't hurt, either.

edit -
The new Grounds of Valor/Monster distribution is gonna help you a ton paladins (and bard, cor and rangers for that matter). Abyssea has given evasion tanks a false sense of their utility. Against normal mobs-without Atma, Cruor buffs and a Brew for fall back-they are going to get a quick reminder of Mortality. Expect to see a ton of whining posts from those players about how SE needs to "fix" the new content so they can tank. The reason is that most Aby-type players haven't fought the new level 90ish regular mobs in ToAU, Campaign and CoP areas to see that traditional party roles are needed, as well as hate control and all those party mechanics that veteran players actually miss. You know, when skill as a player actually played a part in this game...

What is this I don't even...
Look. I've tanked everything a PLD can stand in front of and swing at on WAR, long before Abyssea was a twinkle in anybody's eye. I've tanked everything PLD can't stand in front of and can't swing at on RDM. What you nostalgic 'veterans' need to understand is that 'traditional party roles' were never needed, and the only skill required was understanding how to use food, stack buffs, stack debuffs, and kill faster. Abyssea is just a gross exaggeration of what the game was before; now everybody knows it works.

[Arcon]

-4A) Banish/Holy

They have very situational uses, but I don't know if they should be there in the first place. PLD is not a nuker and personally I wouldn't want them to be.

5) Shields

-5A) Retro shields back to 0 damage while blocking (Courtesy of Kjara)

Permanent Invincible? A little overpowered in my eyes. Even Ochain is quite overpowered in my eyes.

1. Make PLD single wield DD on par with real DDs, including access to a high damage WS that isn't CDC.

Can't really agree here. PLD was never a DD, and imo it shouldn't be. What needs revamping is said current FFXI paradigm. Make survival an issue, and give PLD better survival options, along with a change to the current enmity system. Higher HP would be another thing, better curing options. Reprisal was a very nice addition, something like that, something that boosts PLD's native strengths is just what the job needs.