If Paladin is "specialized in defense" shouldn't its defense be better always?

[Reynhart]

I would agree with you if any of these scenarios were relevant or vital to your survival.

Wow, wow, slow down. Nothing tied to Deliverance is "vital" to your survival. What you mentionned is how to push WAR in both mitigation AND dps.

- Doing your three combos, your GB and RoH are refreshed at least 1 GCD before they fall off. So you can Shield Swipe or change stances with no impact on DoT/Debuff timers.

On my PLD i184, I have 555 skill speed, which put my GCD at 2.42s. When I do RoH > GB > RA, STR Down falls during my next RoH and DoT is refreshed at 1s. So, another GCD and each would fall.

- You are not a self-healing tank, you are a pure mitigation tank.

Actually, the design team seems to disagree with you when they gave us Clemency...and PLD is still the one supposed to have knowledge of conjuring skill, mainly healing. And it's not like PLD's concept included healing spells in almost every FF entry.

Again, none of these impact your defensively.

Again, we're talking about pushing your job, not leisurely surviving encouters.

So WAR losing Inner Beast is forgiving when the other two tanks keep all their defensive toolkit.

Well, yes, because defense is supposed to be their specialty, and not WAR's...

It is also forgiving because it is the only one that locks you out for 10 seconds. Please.

Well, you don't stance dance on PLD or DRK for less than 10s too, it would be a DPS loss.

It converting Wrath/Abandon is just a side effect. DRK keeps the rest of its MP when it turns on Grit and loses no MP when it turns it off. Why should WAR lose all its resources?

Yeah, the "rest" of its MP...MP that are used for for a whole bunch of other skills and constantly drained. Ok, let WAR lose 1 stack. If would be enough to change stance dancing.

You do know Vengeance reducing damage by 30% was a 2.1 thing, right?

Yes, I know. And I specifically said to keep Vengeance as it is now. And with THAT Vengeance, T5 with swap tank "would have been" perfectly viable.

Defiance is useless if you're not at max HP or aren't receiving the heal. It has a more proactive nature than reactive.

Well, Defiance being useless "before" the damage is exatcly what a reactive skill heal. The major boost of Defiance is how it helps healing the WAR after he receives damage.
For example, if you don't have Defiance before the hit and put it on just after, it will help recovering from this hit with the healing boost. Thus, reactive.
Do the same with Grit or Shield Oath, you'd have taken the full damage and it doesn't help you recover from hit. Thus, proactive.