Why PLD needs solo buffs.

I like 2.4's changes to Flash and Circle of Scorn, however....

None of that fixes all of the various problems with PLD in solo situations.

Problems:

1). PLDs take way too long to kill anything.
2). PLDs have some of the worst (maybe right behind MRD? not sure) survivability of all the classes despite them being tanks.
3). What can easily be solo'd by others is incredibly difficult to solo as a PLD.

Let's use a Lv30-40 FATE Miniboss (one that can be solo'd by many classes) for comparison. I am going to leave out chocobos, just the person, solo, no outside help with normal equipment, nothing special. I'm going to compare BLM, WHM, and PLD altogether:

(cont)

1). WHM. The WHM will never die to the miniboss whatsoever. The only fear the WHM has, is running out of time and MP. It will take awhile to kill, but as long as they have their MP Regen skill (been awhile... Shroud of the Saints or something like that?), they don't really have any worries. Especially if they have Regen. These bosses usually take about 8-9 minutes to kill as a WHM.

2). BLM. The BLM is even better at this than the WHM! With Physick and Aetherial Ice, the BLM will never run out of MP and just by spamming Blizzard, he will do more damage than the WHM will and similarly never have any trouble whatsoever. His only fears mis-timing trying to keep some Fire damage going, but switching to ice when he needs self-heals and the occasional spell interruption. I've killed FATE Minibosses in 5 minutes or less as a BLM, solo with no chocobo.

(cont)

3). PLD. The subject of this topic. The PLD has to race against the clock (because his damage is so pathetic, even with Sword Oath), his self-healing is nil (each Cure cures roughly one attack from the miniboss), and he has to spam 3-4 cures at a time every other Rage of Halone combo that he does. Trying to kill one within the 15min timer is incredibly hard; usually takes at least 12 minutes because of the dirt poor damage output the PLD has.


How to fix it:

I propose a new ability, Lv30, for GLA and PLD. Not sure what to call it, maybe "Crusader" or something. It would work like this:

Crusader
GLA PLD Lv30
*Increases Cure potency by 80%.
*Increases damage dealt by 50%.
*Increases damage taken by 20%.
*Effects are removed when joining a Light or Full Party.
*Cannot be used while in a Light or Full Party.

(cont)

That would go a long way towards solving the various problems of Paladin solo. Currently, Paladin is one of the worst classes/jobs to do anything solo with whatsoever, and that's a shame. I was surprised when I leveled my White Mage, that we have something like Cleric Stance, but there's nothing similar for GLA/PLD except for Sword/Shield Oath... but Sword Oath only modifies Auto Attacks and nothing else.



I was also surprised at how easy and fast solo is with a WHM; I do more than twice the damage my PLD does, and there's no comparing the solo survivability; my WHM literally cannot die unless I pull 6+ enemies at once, or I try a major FATE boss or something like that.

(cont............again)

While on my PLD, I'm squirming nervously in my seat anytime I have 3 enemies on me of equal level trying to hurry and kill one as fast as possible, because once I'm wounded, I have no way to recover beyond spamming Cures on myself (which throws my DPS into the dirt). Meanwhile, my WHM can throw Regen on and I can tank 2-3 mobs without casting a single Cure, with Cleric Stance up.

Please consider this issue, and please consider helping Paladins out with their solo game. We shouldn't be so strongly pushed to change our jobs just to do solo work. We should be able to enjoy our favorite job in solo, no matter what it is, and that should include Paladin.

(yeeeeeeeeesh, how are you supposed to post anything meaningful with 1000 character limit!?)

At 50 I feel like PLD is very good at solo content. Put on STR accessories plus sword oath and I can solo most anything. (That would be considered solo content).

You can bypass the character limit by editing your first post.

You could always take your soul crystal off when soloing, which is how they planned in originally if I recall. Classes are for soloing, jobs for group. If you remove the soul crystal you would have access to more cross class abilities like raging strikes and blood for blood which would increase your DPS. Couple those 2 abilities with bloodbath and your survivability should increase as well.

That being said, I agree that PLD sucks solo.

There is a thread on how good pld dps is with correct setup. The tank guide is by Xenosys that should answer your questions about how to pld

I don't have any difficulty in solo things, when I put STR acr on and get my chocobo out. the only time I do have difficulty is when there is lots of Mobs in the area and are hard to kill due to PLD lack of AOE skills.

I do fine solo, I dont die or anything, and soloing FATEs are just fine. I'm not sure what the issue is.

Stop using Cure. Start using stoneskin.
The former is dependant on a stat you DO NOT HAVE. The latter scales literally with VIT.

troll?...or this guys serious.

But yeah, most solo boss fates have a telegraphed attack, dodge out of the way,put up stoneskin, get back in, jut keep dodging, and by the time it is worn off by the normal attacks it will do its telegraph again. that plus bloodbath keeps you up. Also, sword oath is lovely.

I laughed so hard at "Paladin has one of the worst Survivability skills set" .... Excuse me sir, do you even know what you are talking about??? Hallow ground, Sentinel, Stoneskin to the face....

Hmmmm never had trouble soloing on my pld.....

I don't want to disregard the OP perspective but.....what PLD uses cure? I'm not trying to troll.

Why would anybody solo while leveling in this game?

I solo everything on my WAR without even seeing my HP bar going down. The only thing that is annoying to solo is any quest where I have to protect an NPC from dying, I kill things so slowly that while I'm slowly whittling the quest mobs down one by one, the NPC is busy committing suicide. The most recent example of this is the story quest "Reason Raoille" where you have to fight waves of mobs in a story instance while they kill the NPC. I failed it 3 times on WAR because I couldn't kill the stupid enemies fast enough before they killed the NPC. I switched to my BRD and spammed my AoEs instead and beat it in 2 minutes by just melting everything in seconds.

I take issue with the OP's assertion that BLM can outlast a PLD.

OP said BLM can heal, that is true, but no better than PLD can. And since BLM has MUCH lower defense and health, they can't last nearly as long as a PLD.

Yes, PLD does suck solo, but only because of how long it takes to kill mobs.

Try this set up:
Left side: All Vit/Str (mainly Noct) gear.
Right side: All Str (mainly Gloam) gear.

I was Criting my RoH and SW from 900-950 (was constantly hitting RoH and SW for 500-600 damage).

Simply put, I take down thing quicker and easier than any other class I have played thus far (with this DPS set up).

And for those whom would argue: MNK/DRG need to be at the flank/back for good damage and BRD/SMN need long periods opf time... BLM still beast-mode with damage at any point.

Edit: Plus, your first 4 level of your Choco need to be a healer... trust me.

Pretty much all been said but yeah, using STR accessories and sword oath you get decent damage. Using fight or flight is also a great boost every DD would kill for a free +30% damage.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with PLD's survivability. I have yet to come across a regular FATE boss I can't kill solo (or at least last til time is up) stoneskin takes quite a few hits to break and you can pretty much keep it up indefinitely with riot blade. If you ever do find your health has dropped to critically low levels, shield bash > stoneskin > rampart > convalesence > cure spam til you feel safe then bloodbath and riot blade to keep your HP up while recovering the MP you used. Bulwark is also a great skill, decreasing incoming damage while also giving you access to a decent damage attack that prevents the enemy using any skills.

Heal spec Chocobo is your friend.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Thistledown

Heal spec Chocobo is your friend.

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Yup specially when your are still in leveling process, and as an tank why wouldnt you want to ride with your own WHM? :3

What comes to topic there has been no single thing i couldnt solo as an PLD if anything its the best class after WAR when it comes to soloing if not the best, when still leveling Healer choco will keep you up just fine with regen so you can actually keep him on free stance instead healer stance. I can already see that when we are hitting ilvl130 mark even PLD's are starting to see 1k+ crits as its already not that far from it when using STR accesories.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SirTaint

At 50 I feel like PLD is very good at solo content. Put on STR accessories plus sword oath and I can solo most anything. (That would be considered solo content).

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Yup yup. All STR accessories + Sword Oath = killing things outside of dungeons as quickly as I do on a Monk. It's how I did all of my Alexandrite gathering completely alone and I not only did it quickly, I never once came close to dying.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Donjo

Yup yup. All STR accessories + Sword Oath = killing things outside of dungeons as quickly as I do on a Monk. It's how I did all of my Alexandrite gathering completely alone and I not only did it quickly, I never once came close to dying.

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Yep, this. When doing the Alexandrites, or SB'ing gear, or need to do leves or anything really, I would rather load up my "dps" gear PLD or WAR and do that, rather than any other normal DPS Class/Job. Although sometimes ACN for Carbuncle is a plus. Healing Chocobo is a nice little boon regardless of job as well.

I can only echo the views of most of the posters so far. Whenever I'm doing anything solo (especially when I've forgotten to bring my Chocobo out of the Stables with me) I'll use my DPS spec Warrior or Paladin, and never once have I died.

Except on Gorgimera, but that's a different story and isn't exactly what I'd consider a soloable FATE boss.