[dev1017] Make Cover a Job Trait?

[Rorrick]

You right there is stuff outside aby (thankfully) but still usually a mnk, nin or thf is all that is needed for most of it too, pld may have 1 maybe 2 of the new voidwatch NMs that make them desire again, but it still limited.
How would making cover a JT be any ore worth it, pld still won't be able to keep hate, and if a evasion tank or a mnk with counter and a ton of hp can do it well enough to be cured bombed? (and this is for in and outside aby)

You don't need to have the enemy's attention for Cover to work. You stand in front of everyone else and then regardless of who has the enemy's, you block the damage. Making it a job trait would just mean you can do this all the time, which would allow Paladin to be the shield SE seems to want it to be, despite its inability to draw the enemy's attention away from its allies.

Inside Abyssea, where you drown in MP and have enough HP to survive anything, it wouldn't necessarily matter (but it wouldn't make Paladin any less desirable than it already is). Outside, where you don't have 30MP/tic refresh and 4000 HP, an unlucky string of counters is all it takes for a MNK to die, and you can't cure bomb people forever. From my experience, the new Dynamis NMs and some of the later-stage Voidwatch NMs have impeccable accuracy against everyone, evasion sets or not. Currently, Paladin is no use here because it can't hold hate over anyone, but with a perpetual Cover effect that wouldn't matter. It could absorb the damage while still letting DD jobs do their thing.

Making Cover a job trait impedes no one, and makes Paladin, at the very least, situationally useful, which is several steps above "pretending to be useful IF you have Ochain and Almace", where it sits now.

[Lazus]

You don't need to have the enemy's attention for Cover to work. You stand in front of everyone else and then regardless of who has the enemy's, you block the damage. Making it a job trait would just mean you can do this all the time, which would allow Paladin to be the shield SE seems to want it to be, despite its inability to draw the enemy's attention away from its allies.

But cover as it works now you still lost more enmity from covering someone then you would if you threw a Cure IV on them instead and as I can see it be the same if it was a JT with this idea. And with it like it is now it near useless, this JT won't be enough of a improvement with how the OP describe it. It is a interesting idea, but would need adjustment, for example have decrease enmity lost when dmg is taken through it. Remember AoE in of itself anyone in range will lost enmity from the dmg as is, but dd will still get it back. honestly I which pld would have less to have to worry about using. beside JA we got a lot of magic, and then have to worry about sub job JA/spells too.
I think it not a bad direction to go, but it not really enough of a improvement to add as is.

Inside Abyssea, where you drown in MP and have enough HP to survive anything, it wouldn't necessarily matter (but it wouldn't make Paladin any less desirable than it already is). Outside, where you don't have 30MP/tic refresh and 4000 HP, an unlucky string of counters is all it takes for a MNK to die, and you can't cure bomb people forever. From my experience, the new Dynamis NMs and some of the later-stage Voidwatch NMs have impeccable accuracy against everyone, evasion sets or not. Currently, Paladin is no use here because it can't hold hate over anyone, but with a perpetual Cover effect that wouldn't matter. It could absorb the damage while still letting DD jobs do their thing.

Have done really anything inside Dynamis since the change, but as for Voidwatch the groups I been in usually have a mnk or thf or nin for main tank, maybe a mnk or nin for a backup, a whm for heal, and a blm and or rdm, rest with melee DD. As it stands now basically the DD can tank too well even if one go down another can take their place easy as usually kite or tank it until the main tank recover.
Also absorbing maybe 10% of the dmg would be out done by the fact that a dd can take out the mob at least 10%+ fast then if you had a pld in the party instead. And like you said a pld not going to keep hate anyway.

Making Cover a job trait impedes no one, and makes Paladin, at the very least, situationally useful, which is several steps above "pretending to be useful IF you have Ochain and Almace", where it sits now.

Perhaps, perhaps it would do nothing.

To take from the OP idea if it became a JT it should lessen enmity decay. And that still won't be enough, but it be on the right track.

If it stayed a JA then maybe when you use cover it would absorb all dmg from members of your party and a percent of that would covert to dmg for 15-30 seconds.