So what is PLD good at?

[Dynalon]

snip

In current state of the game block doesn't play crucial role, but it might in the expansion since we won't be overgearing content and healing output of healer won't be greater than raw damage taken by tanks, therefore anything which reduces damage taken by tank will count.

Holmgang is a terrible skill, it leaves you at dangerous hp levels, where even single aa swing will kill you. You won't make me thing otherwise, it's nowhere close Hallowed Ground period.

Comparing combination of IB+Vengeance with single cd (Sentinel) makes sense ..., Sentinel + Rampart says hello. No idea why are you comparing IB+Thrill with Bulwark, but for pure physical damage I would say Bulwark mitigates slightly more, depending which shield you use.

PLD cds are stronger, aside from those mentioned above, Convalescence on PLD has higher healing bonus, Awareness on PLD has longer duration, WAR can get them too but they are weaker.

Just to point out, war can cross class the 20% convalescence, making it 45% healing potency. Anyway, carry on.

I must have missed some elementary math lessons long time ago, but according to me Shield Oath (20% DR) + Convalescence (30% healing) > Defiance (20% healing) + Convalescence (20% healing)

No idea why people think that Defiance gives 25% healing bonus, while it is only 20%. Defiance is skill which is equal to shield oath, it just works bit differently, so it doesn't make sense to bring either of them to comparison. There is minor difference (it gives WAR bit more effective HP, 5% more to be precise, but that influences only skills like stoneskin or lustrate).

[Launched]

Stuff

Block's never been important in coil progression, and it won't be important in Alexander because fights will be designed for all 3 tanks.

You've clearly never used Holmgang right, so I'm not going to argue about it besides saying that if you don't pop it early your healers will have around 5s to heal you up, and autoattacks after a tankbuster aren't going to outdamage those heals.

PLD can't afford to use Rampart and Sentinel at the same time, because . IB's only cooldown is Wrath, so WAR always has it to stack with another cooldown. It's why they're so good: 20% mitigation on every tankbuster PLUS an extra effect. PLD can't just use Convalescence, Awareness or Foresight as cooldowns because of how weak they are, but WAR can use them along with IB.

[Dynalon]

...

I did not have coils in mind, WARs might struggle more than PLDs in new dungeons. But if you want an example where the block or so called "weak awareness" shine then for instance T5, those little snakes crit a lot and can be blocked, back in the days of progression awareness + block was definitely better than anything what WAR could bring.
PLD can't afford to use Rampart and Sentinel at the same time why exactly? PLD can do it and will do it if situation requires it. No idea why Convalescence is weak, if I use your logic against you then Defiance is weak as well, because it provides "only" healing bonus. Healing bonus and damage reduction are just different sides of the same coin ...

Anyway you will understand when you melt to some trash pack in the new dungeon.

[Launched]

I did not have coils in mind, WARs might struggle more than PLDs in new dungeons. But if you want an example where the block or so called "weak awareness" shine then for instance T5, those little snakes crit a lot and can be blocked, back in the days of progression awareness + block was definitely better than anything what WAR could bring.
PLD can't afford to use Rampart and Sentinel at the same time why exactly? PLD can do it and will do it if situation requires it. No idea why Convalescence is weak, if I use your logic against you then Defiance is weak as well, because it provides "only" healing bonus. Healing bonus and damage reduction are just different sides of the same coin ...

Anyway you will understand when you melt to some trash pack in the new dungeon.

Dungeons aren't going to be any problem for WAR. Leveling dungeons were fine, all the dungeons added since 50 were fine. "Back in the days of progression", WAR was a completely different job. It was an awful tank, which was fixed in 2.1, which made it the better main (or solo) tank for T5 because you had IB for every single Death Sentence.

PLD can't use Sentinel and Rampart at the same time because of their cooldowns, and because of how mitigation stacks. If you popped both for the first Flatten in T13, you'd reduce the damage by 52% (not 60%), and then have no reliable cooldown except Hallowed for the next. During progression that's a big problem because phases go on longer and you'll take more tankbusters. WAR stacks IB with every single cooldown because its only limit is Wrath.

Defiance has nothing to do with Convalescence. It's functionally identical to Shield Oath: you have the same eHP as a PLD, you lose the same percentage of your eHP when you get hit, you get healed for the same percentage. Anyone that thinks WAR takes more incoming damage simply doesn't understand the maths behind Defiance. Convalescence does nothing to affect incoming damage on PLD, you can't use it before something like Flatten and expect it to keep you alive while WAR can use it with IB to reduce incoming damage AND increase healing after.

[Instrumentality]

words

In any fight with physical auto-attacks a Paladin will by default take a noticeable percent (greater than 5% variance on auto attack damage) less amount of damage. On a fight like turn 13 where that adds up to thousands of HP not needing to be healed that leaves plenty of room for your healers to DPS harder and for them to handle not baby sitting your tank.


Tank busters have never been an issue to survive for any tank. I don't know why people think it's a big deal that you can mitigate them one or three or even five percent more efficiently when a tank's greatest contribution to any fight outside of damage on target is smoothed damage income and predictability of damage income. Paladin mitigation is not dependent on someone else. They provide the absolute smoothest damage income of the current tanks and that's fantastic for both healing and healer dps.

Is Paladin tanking boring? Yeah. Is Paladin MT dps bad? Yeah? Is Paladin the best MT for damage income? Yeah. Is WAR the best MT for DPS? Yeah.

Edit: Unless you main tank in sword oath for everything now, which you should.