Paladin animations

Hello everyone

First I’d like to say that english is not my first language, so apologies for incoming typos.


As the title says, some of PLD animations are kinda .. sorry for saying this but they’re boring. Atonement, holy spirit and holy circle specifically. Unlike WAR for example, you can feel the strength and rage in every skill or ability WAR does, or DRK’s flashy dark energy and how slow the swings are because of the huge sword the DRK holds, GNB fast and explosive attacks are so appealing and the sound effects are just amusing to hear, on the other hand there’s a swing followed by a thrust with lame sound effect called atonement, and holy spirit/circle are repetitive in an unsatisfying way. like imagine if holy circle was a huge light explosion like that AST AoE (forgot what it’s called) or holy spirit being a light beam or something you shoot like abyssal drain, that would be so much more impactful and feels good to use.


I’m a PLD main but i have to say that I’m also an all Tanks enjoyer, that’s why I addressed this topic in hand, I don’t know what other paladins and tanks think about this but i would love to look at it from different perspectives.

I don't mind them. I'm not a huge fan of over-the-top skill VFX like the Blade of Faith combo. I do wish PLD animations included their shield more, as it's just kinda... there..

You could look for animation swaps if you're on PC, but that's illegal so shhhhhh

true, the only satisfying feeling attacks of PLD are the blade combo at the end. The rest of the moves feel weightless, stiff and without impact.

I do generally love the PLD animations way more than other tanks's. Unlike say DRK animations that feel like the sword is way too heavy, or GNB with back problems.
But what I agree with is that we don't get anymore animations that actually use the shield, and that's a shame cause the shield is very much a big thing for PLD design.

I like the Prominence and PoA animations.

Hm...I guess I've always seen PLD's as swordmasters without peer, fighting with flawless skill. WAR swings their weapon wildly with raw, brute force, but PLD makes precise, exacting strikes, surgically taking the opponent apart piece by piece. PLD is like the old man swordmaster in stories/movies/anime that doesn't make a single wasted effort, with their sword strikes being flawless, representing peerless skill. At least, that's how I've always felt about them.

And like said old swordmaster, the strikes don't have "weight" because they aren't supposed to - they're precise and exacting cuts, expertly piercing the enemy's defenses to strike true through chinks in their armor.

That's always been the beauty of them to me. It's like a dancing art style, as awe inspiring as it is deadly.

Besides - people constantly complain about Jobs being homogenized, especially Tanks...so why ask for them to be made the same here?

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Originally Posted by Renathras

Hm...I guess I've always seen PLD's as swordmasters without peer, fighting with flawless skill. WAR swings their weapon wildly with raw, brute force, but PLD makes precise, exacting strikes, surgically taking the opponent apart piece by piece. PLD is like the old man swordmaster in stories/movies/anime that doesn't make a single wasted effort, with their sword strikes being flawless, representing peerless skill. At least, that's how I've always felt about them.

And like said old swordmaster, the strikes don't have "weight" because they aren't supposed to - they're precise and exacting cuts, expertly piercing the enemy's defenses to strike true through chinks in their armor.

That's always been the beauty of them to me. It's like a dancing art style, as awe inspiring as it is deadly.

Besides - people constantly complain about Jobs being homogenized, especially Tanks...so why ask for them to be made the same here?

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Woah that a bizarre statement Swordmaster never waste effort flawless eh... I'll let you keep that
Sorry I wasn't trying to sound mean

What is more bizarre is someone saying that Drk 123 combo looks good
I mean... If your into seeing your character's back break and all of a sudden then do wild swings and fly in the air
Oh lets not start with bubble parties. I could go on but this isn't about Drk

I do agree with one thing almost all the 123 combos have become stale
We had alot better animations for them in the past but I don't think bringing them back as a replacement would be a good solution
I would like more animation that suit the class but have a good flashiness with some practicality
though I understand its a fantasy game so more flash then realism
Riot blade was my close taste of this with the stab like a roman centurion or something but it being in the middle of a combo bugs me
since you go into a spinning swing or a flurry of swings after that and before you doing a double slash
just feels off to me like a break in momentum

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Originally Posted by Sazuzaki

I don't mind them. I'm not a huge fan of over-the-top skill VFX like the Blade of Faith combo. I do wish PLD animations included their shield more, as it's just kinda... there..

You could look for animation swaps if you're on PC, but that's illegal so shhhhhh

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I can say I agree but
My current PLD glamour don't use any shield so this would be awkward to animate XD

Fast Blade and Riot Blade need better flowing animations, they don't feel like a combo like GNB and DRKs 123.
Holy Spirit needs a projectile.
Don't ever change Holy Circle tho, I love it so much the way it is.

Circle of Skorn feels pretty powerful to me :/

I think Atonement needs better visual effects but I love the attack animation and sound, very satisfying

Pretty sure PLD is everything but surgical or elegant. People seem to forget the PLD job literally has it's roots in Gladiator.

I think if anything one thing doesn't quite add up to the other. I don't see how some dude who's fighting in arenas for money or survival ends up as a holy more-caster-than-swordsman paragon of selflessness.

I understand it as far as the story goes. I just don't think these two things transition that well.

Or perhaps better, feels like PLD isn't really a defined thing. They started with this sword and shield guy... and over time they bent it to be more like the "paladin" meme, but there really is no solid or sensible explanation as to why it would be a caster that dresses like a holy knight without being an actual holy knight.

I'm not fond of quite a few tank animations in general (except for gunbreaker and maybe warrior whose kit feel solid to me).

DRK's Hard Slash feels like he can barely support the weight of his blade and pushes it forward in an awkward unbalanced pose so gently that it feels like he wouldn't deal much (if any) damage before he falls over.
Soul eater feels like the DRK jumps out of nowhere and with not much power behind it it looks to me like he just jumps while holding a slab of metal perpendicular to the floor kinda like a dolphin jumping for a trick.
It most of all feels too disjointed to be called a combo to me, like there is no continuity to the 3 gcds aside from the fact that they glow. These feelings carry over to PLD :

Aside from the lack of impact of holy spirit's cast and even it's vfx.
Fast Blade: it feels like you're pulling a lame scare on someone screaming "HA HAAAA ! got you there huh !?".
Prominence's jump feels unnecessary : We start with an attack on the ground and the next gcd we're levitating/floating whilst vigorously swatting flies before being gently put back down as if we were held up by cables in a theatrical piece.

Basically Fast Blade's brevity makes it feel disjointed with the following Riot Blade to me and Prominence's jump feels goofy. (Royal authority's slow 360 jump kinda makes it feels like a free real estate opportunity for a dragoon's spear to lodge itself into us but since it's the end of the combo I guess it serves to add due gravitas.)

i'd also like to use the shield more and see the animations of *burst phases* spam like holy spirit following requiescat or delirium be more varied like gunbreaker's continuation combo's animation diversity. Paladin's Blades of virtue combo following confiteor feels like a decent exemple of that too when I think about how the blood spiller and holy spirit spams don't feel as impactful as the fell cleave one.

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Originally Posted by Katsuragi_

I think if anything one thing doesn't quite add up to the other. I don't see how some dude who's fighting in arenas for money or survival ends up as a holy more-caster-than-swordsman paragon of selflessness.

I understand it as far as the story goes. I just don't think these two things transition that well.

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If I recall right, the other class you needed to have PLD back in ARR was Conjurer, so Gladiator + Conjurer = Paladin, which makes more sense tbh.
The fact is that once they removed each job being a combo of two classes, rather than just the continuation of one, a lot of sense was lost imho.

I guess the current logic is Gladiator = Ul'dah, Paladin/Sultanasworn also = Ul'dah, so it's more a location thing than anything else.

I don't play Paladin so, admittedly, I am not very aware of how your animations changed. HOWEVER. I can't believe you guys lost Rage of Halone. The initial 1-2-3 GLD combo had nice (if simple) animations with an impactful finish.

personally, I never liked it. feels like I'm waving a scissor around like an unsupervised 5 year old.

I don't dislike current animations, but I feel the flow between ogcd and gcd animations just isn't up to par with more modern jobs. Also, admittedly Holy Spirit does feel low impact.