Paladin need to be review.

[Isala]

I find it funny that as a Warrior Main, I'm fine with PLD buffs, but there's a wall of no coming from every direction. Paladin is no longer the king of defense everyone thinks it is. It actually loses HEAVILY in that category when there is magic damage involved. You can neither block, nor parry magical damage, which negates several CDs on all tanks, but also completely nullifies any use a Paladin gets out of their shield. In addition, Rage of Halone affects STR, not Int, while a Warrior lowers all damage by 10%, and a DRK lowers Int by 10%. I'd even go so far as to say they're hardly even the best physical tank anymore, with both DRK and WAR gaining access to parry based CDs, in the form of Dark Dance, and Raw Intuition, making Bulwark look sad in comparison. In the time it takes a PLD to get Bulwark back, a DRK has used Dark Dance 3 times, and a WAR has used Raw Intuition twice.

Oh, but what about raw defensive CDs, you say? Oh yes, the PLD's bread and butter. Good old Rampart, and Sentinel. 20% for 20 seconds of 90, and 40% for 10 seconds of 180. Looks like the DRK might lose, with 20% for 20 seconds of 90, and only 30% for 10 seconds of 180. Except, oh, wait. They get an ability that reduces all MAGICAL damage taken by 30% for 10 seconds of 60. Where's PLDs magical damage stopper? They don't get one. Even the Warrior has more uptime on their raw mitigation CDs. Inner Beast is 20% reduction for 6 seconds, and can be up almost every 20 seconds, if you don't use CDs to bring it up sooner. It also heals. And Vengeance is 30% for 15 seconds of 120, which also gives you a Wrath stack to use on... Guess what, Inner Beast. And, it acts as a damage reflect, which can be combined with Bloodbath for healing. WAR gets the superior version of that, too, lasting twice as long as a tank that crossclasses it.

Speaking of Bloodbath, let's compare the crossclass Tank CDs. Obviously, Bloodbath, which is 25% of all physical damage you do as a heal, for 15 seconds on a non-WAR, who gets it for 30. Awareness, which stops critical damage you take, gives a 10 second boost to PLD, being 25 seconds instead of 15. Convalescence is also 30% boost in healing on a PLD, compared to 20% for DRK or WAR, except simply by virtue of being a WAR in Defiance, the WAR already has a base 20% boost to all healing taken. There is also Foresight, which is a 90 second CD on a Warrior, rather than the 120 second CD on any other tank.

Those are the tank CDs that all tanks get a chance to share. DRK gets access to both WAR and PLD abilities, allowing them to take from both tanks. But what do WAR or PLD get? WAR gains MNK abilities, such as Internal release, to increase critical chance, something a WAR is already very fond of. They also get Second Wind, for a self heal, that while not as powerful as Equilibrium is still nothing to sneeze at. A PLD? Stuck with CNJ abilities. For the sake of discussion, I'm going to assume we all realize how useless Cure, Protect, or Raise are. Which leaves Stoneskin. Which is an okay CD. 10% of your HP in a barrier. It's alright. Something to take the edge off a hit. PLD does get a nice ability there. The cast time, on the other hand, suffers the same problem as Clemency. It's too long. In the time it takes you to cast it, you could easily be interrupted, since it's your face that's currently being beat on.

So, tell me again, how the PLD is the king of all things defense. Because yes, for a time, they were the Alpha, and Omega of Main Tanks. The undisputed champion of getting their face beat in. But fights are shifting. And the tanks themselves are shifting. Both WAR and DRK bring a fairly massive toolkit to the fight, especially in a magical damage environment, something the PLD is not equipped to deal with. There are AoE fights, on top of that. Again, something the PLD is not equipped to deal with. This talk of "The Paladin trades off AoE damage for being the best defensive tank" is not only wrong, it's sad. Because they are no longer the best defensive tank, not with the balancing that SE did in 3.0. But while both WAR and DRK got ways to deal with the upcoming raids, and how they were designed, PLD got more of the same. More ways to be a physical wall. And finally, a way to cause fairly decent damage. Both of those were a GOOD thing. But the one thing that a PLD is horribly, horribly bad at, AoE tanking, was left in the dust. That's why we are asking for a little bit of damage. A PLD doesn't have to compare to DRK and WAR. It has its niche. But to completely exclude it from doing any damage during an AoE intensive fight? That just seems like an oversight.

[Gilthas]

Convalescence is also 30% boost in healing on a PLD, compared to 20% for DRK or WAR, except simply by virtue of being a WAR in Defiance, the WAR already has a base 20% boost to all healing taken.

This is a very poor comparison to make as it completely ignores that both PLD and DRK in their respective tanking stances take less damage.

[Isala]

This is a very poor comparison to make as it completely ignores that both PLD and DRK in their respective tanking stances take less damage.

A WAR also has 25% more HP in their tank stance, and a stacking Parry buff. I'd say the two together equals the reduction in damage taken, even before the 20% boost in healing.

[Gilthas]

A WAR also has 25% more HP in their tank stance, and a stacking Parry buff. I'd say the two together equals the reduction in damage taken, even before the 20% boost in healing.

Lolno. There's a reason why the healing boost was taken away from Wrath stacks and added to Defiance.

[Isala]

Lolno. There's a reason why the healing boost was taken away from Wrath stacks and added to Defiance.

Not trying to be a troll here, but have you tried tanking anything at 60 yet? Because according to what I see, you're a 58 Warrior right now. I have all 3 tanks at 60, and haven't had problems tanking with any of them. You cannot judge the power of the tanks at ARR power levels. There have been too many adjustments to gear, stats, and abilities to go with what you know from 2.55.

[Gilthas]

Not trying to be a troll here, but have you tried tanking anything at 60 yet? Because according to what I see, you're a 58 Warrior right now. I have all 3 tanks at 60, and haven't had problems tanking with any of them. You cannot judge the power of the tanks at ARR power levels. There have been too many adjustments to gear, stats, and abilities to go with what you know from 2.55.

You're right, I haven't. But you'll also notice that I have been mostly avoiding talking about stuff like that but instead addressing the bad math being thrown around constantly.

The parry buff from Wrath stacks doesn't come anywhere close to making up for the bonus healing of Defiance. For a lot of reasons.

[Launched]

A WAR also has 25% more HP in their tank stance, and a stacking Parry buff. I'd say the two together equals the reduction in damage taken, even before the 20% boost in healing.

Nope. The increased HP that WAR gets gives them identical eHP to PLD. The increased healing is only 20%, which means that WAR receives LESS healing in terms of eHP compared to PLD and DRK. Even if PLD didn't have the Convalescence trait, its Convalescence would still be more effective than WAR's. Defiance's parry is absolutely garbage.