Please give Paladin access to Pugilist skill tree instead of Conjurer.

[Duelle]

Really all they need to do is increase the Magic on Paladin weapons and Cure would be able to heal for more. But I know what you mean. MP is better off used for Flash and Curing yourself wouldn't give enough enmity compared to the damage you could do in the time it takes to cast and take effect on your character. Protect is mainly used for solo and since it's not based on Vitality in terms of the boost, its pretty blah. Stoneskin is really the only good one and becomes better with more HP. We need a reason to Cure ourselves and others if we're going to be using White Magic.

Not necessarily. Utility doesn't always have to be available in combat. Having access to Raise means you can help your group recover after a wipe or get someone back up that may have died during a fight. As I said, it's pretty clear why curing is as nerfed as it is.

Again, the FF Paladin has always been about weak white magic. We have weak white magic and a pretty damn good tanking model to boot, so we're actually quite fine.

PS: I don't understand why it's such a big deal that Raise can't be cast in combat. It's a way to prevent zombie tactics and a lot of the nonsense that was caused by them in FFXI. Hell, when I heard CNJ could cast in combat Raises through a trait, I panicked because in a modern MMO barring limited opportunities to cast (Death Knights and Druids in WoW had in-combat rez but on a long cooldown to prevent it being used more than once per fight), it's OP as hell and can break/trivialize encounters.