Looks like PLDs are clearing A4s.

[RiisWolf]

You're very involvement there as a Paladin means everyone has to work harder or it will take longer, no matter how much you wanna pretend that it doesn't.

PLD is like a sinking boat peeps say is OK while they drag it across the shallow river -hell it might be a wet road-, and they intended to bring it to the raging sea as is. So they did and it snapped in half under all the weight!

[Nadirah]

Are they forced to use our alphabet for their names? I've never seen one without English characters. Maybe there is no distinction then.

But what I meant was that the JP speaking groups might have their own space for this stuff.

I *want* to say that Roman letters for names are enforced, but I'm not 100% of that.

Other games are different, WoW's Asian clients support Korean and Chinese. Not sure if there's much of a playerbase in Japan.

[Nadirah]

I think those videos are a good example of how PLD should be played in Alexander, compared to how people are actually playing them. PLD Sword Oath DPS isn't far off from WAR/DRK OT, and those PLDs are sitting in Sword Oath for a lot of the fight. They're also having the WAR open the fight instead of the PLD, so when it's time to swap the PLD doesn't need Halone for enmity. There isn't going to be much of a difference in DRK/WAR vs PLD/WAR in damage, and the PLD group has access to 2 Halloweds in such a long fight.

Now if only my threat in Sword Oath wasn't garbage and my oaths didn't trigger GCD and break combos.

[eagledorf]

Hello,

I'm the Paladin in the first video. I thought I'd make a few comments.

First of all, I do still believe PLD needs an adjustment. I also think Dark Knight and WAR need some adjustment; DRK works well in Alexander, but they could never really design a fight like Twintania and pretend it's balanced for DRK and WAR is the only tank you'll see in every clear. I've made a thread talking about the types of changes I would like to see, but it was better received in Japanese...

Regarding A4 specifically, because most attacks don't actually come from the Manipulator I think that the INT debuff only works on 4 attacks: Hydrothermic Missile, Seed of the Sky, Perpetual Ray, and Mortal Revolution. You can use Divine Veil on the last of these and the other three should not hit the party at all, but of course there was no way to know that until we saw all of the fight so you still have to bring the debuff along. The main physical attack, Katstrahl, can be dodged, so all the debuffs are almost entirely useless in this fight. I personally think this is bad design and they should have made the jobs so that they don't have to design fights in a way that removes the value of almost all utility skills.

[Seku]

snip.

I hope they add statis sword. Would be pretty bad ass.

[eagledorf]

I hope they add statis sword. Would be pretty bad ass.

It would be the dream, but there's no way SE cares enough about the players...or has the money lying around to make a new animation until an expansion. I am hoping for a PLD version of Scourge or Fracture that uses MP instead of TP with a recycled animation while realistically expecting some half-assed fix that doesn't work half the time like they did for DRK with Blood Weapon.

[Seku]

It would be the dream, but there's no way SE cares enough about the players...or has the money lying around to make a new animation until an expansion. I am dreaming of a PLD version of Scourge or Fracture that uses MP instead of TP while realistically expecting some half-assed fix that doesn't work half the time like they did for DRK with Blood Weapon.

Would be, I'd personally like to see a different stance on PLD since they already started pulling away from past versions of WAR and DRK. As for the money, it actually kinda makes me wonder how much they put into development and keeping the severs up.

[Syzygian]

I think you're underestimating how much of a coordinated song and dance A4S is. DRK only makes things marginally easier with DA + Dark Mind, it doesn't take away the stress at all. Every mechanic has to be handled near flawlessly to meet the DPS check and allow for the sacrifices in the last phase, on top of the healers having very little mana to work with to rectify any mistakes. PLD certainly isn't optimal in terms of mitigation for this floor, but it's by no means a massive detriment.

Its not a question of mitigation but the DPS check, and DRK outdoes PLD DPS by a decent amount out of tank stance and by a landslide in tank stance (outdoing even WAR, if the slashing debuff is up on the DRK's target). I'd also say that Delirium is a much bigger deal there than DA DM.

[Jayjohn]

DRK is a god as a DPS MT right now because they have infinite mana, hence why the dps is going to be way higher as an MT.

On A3S though if I go PLD, my WHM will dps for the first 2 mins of that fight until the hand splits which compensates a little bit for the missing DRK damage.

[Valkyrie-Amber]

but in a fight that lasts longer than 5 mins whm dps and pld dps cannot match what a drk/whm or war/whm can do and still tank and heal each other like their roles imply.