3.1 PLD Changes

[Cheraa]

Than we should rename Warrior to Paldin and Paladin to Warrior? Because currently, Warrior can heal himself way, way, way, way better, than Paladin.
Actually we have a crappy Heal (Clemency) and a medicore Divine Veil (that gives an absorb to the raid but not us). Damn Warrior is even a better Raid Supporter than us.

[Reynhart]

If we're looking at the past of the franchise, PLD should have been the self-healing tank.
But, scratch that, this is FFXIV, not "mandatory Final Fantasy concepts"

Problem is, in 1.x, PLD WAS the self-healing, self-sufficient tank. The only real downside was a garbage enmity generation...and WAR damage that was even better than actual DPS jobs...
And still, lorewise, PLD is the tank that dwells in magic, requiring the basic knowledge of healing from its CNJ training.

And, if they don't want to make it a self-sufficient MT, make it a really potent back-up healer as an OT. Make Clemency's potency increase based on the target's enmity, and they would become the very best friend of any WAR or DRK..and, judging by the animation, Sheltron should block any attack in front of you, even if you're not the target, and even on AoE.

[Duelle]

Clemency is far too long to cast to be an emergency heal, and no healer will really count on you for healing someone else.

There are reasons Clemency is inconvenient to use. Firstly so that raids don't start forcing their tanks to start healing (this is something I absolutely hated in 1.0, so I'm happy it's gone). Secondly because the heal is relatively strong and even when not used on someone else, easy use of Clemency would notably bump PLD survivability. I'm not entirely against changing Clemency, but if you want to make it easy to use then it needs a cooldown or some other limitation (like consuming your entire MP bar and letting you only be able to cast it when your MP is at 50% of your total MP). Turning it into something akin to Lay On Hands would also be an option (provided they keep the cooldown).

Awareness was...useful (I guess) in T11...except than since the ensured critical hit was an AoE, the party had to mitigate the damage anyway, and it was after an add phase, not really damage heavy on the tank.

I got nothing on this. Awareness is a wasted ability slot, but most of us know that already.

Blind ? Most bosses are immune.

Blinding boss mobs would be overpowered.

Pacification ? Same.

This would also be overpowered.

Chain Stun ? Either immune, or only requires one precise Stun less often than 30s, so other tanks are better since they're not delayed by GCD.

This is largely a result of the poor way the developers have implemented interrupts into the game. They also have to space out interrupts where applicable because of stun diminishing returns/immunity (an issue that wouldn't exist if we had real interrupts).

I didn't play PLD on A3, but I wouldn't be surprised if Ferrofluid just plain ignores Tempered Will, like Typhoon does.

Eh, I'm willing to make concessions on mechanics not allowing me to cheese them, so I wouldn't be too heartbroken if that were the case.

[Cheraa]

Oh yeah. Clemency with 1.5 sec Casttime would really be sooo overpowered. I could heal the entire Raid myself until...

...oh wait, I'm out of Mana after two Clemency? Can't heal again for ~6-7 GCD.
Clemency with 1.5 sec Casttime would be a great tool against Magical DMG and to WTF heal a DD/Heal/MT at 20% HP left.

[Reynhart]

There are reasons Clemency is inconvenient to use. Firstly so that raids don't start forcing their tanks to start healing (this is something I absolutely hated in 1.0, so I'm happy it's gone). Secondly because the heal is relatively strong and even when not used on someone else, easy use of Clemency would notably bump PLD survivability.

Isn't survivability...supposed to be our thing ? And frankly, raids force their tank to DPS, so, why not heal ?
We could legitimately say "You don't want to play a tank that heal ? Then don't play PLD" like you wouldn't play WAR if you don't want others expecting you to do great DPS.

Blinding boss mobs would be overpowered.

No, it wouldn't. It's not like Blind makes everything automatically miss. It's exactly like an Evasion boost, but for the other part of the equation. It was useful against Titan HM, to dodge Moutain Buster (God, it felt so satysfying ), but not to the point of breaking the game.

pacification would also be overpowered.

How ? It's only a form of interruption, and you can't spam it. But if you really think it's too much, replace it with a few seconds of reduced damaged, like reprisal. Again, reducing damage is supposed to be OUR thing.

They also have to space out interrupts where applicable because of stun diminishing returns/immunity (an issue that wouldn't exist if we had real interrupts).

You see, the fun part is that bosses build absolutely no resist on some debuffs. Storm's Eye and Path are always fully applied, Reprisal, too...

...oh wait, I'm out of Mana after two Clemency? Can't heal again for ~6-7 GCD.

Fun fact : Riot Blade and Syphon Strike have exactly the same purpose. But, not only is Syphon Strike stronger, it also gives back the exact cost of one Unleash, whereas one Riot Blade does not compensate for the cost of one Flash...just...why ? (Keep in mind that Flash and Unleash cost the same)

[Seku]

snip

PLD's heal spell even being made instant wouldn't be OP and instead probably would be used for tank busters moving forward and would be a nudge in the right direction to get PLD's to enable healer's to DPS a lot more as other people actually want to claim. Also you're already limited in the use of the spell as it can only be used to times.

As for the rest being OP as you stated, I've no doubt that the development team sees it that way as well. But that is in fact the problem. If they believe that the skills are OP, then they should strip them away and instead place in abilities that we can use in a consistent tactical manner instead of giving us abilities that are cut out from a portion of the game due to "balance". I'd actually like that, because as it stands now it means that the development team instead of making fights that everyone can clear will instead have to make content that panders heavily to PLD's current abilities to make it stand out and that's horrible game design

[Jican]

I'd actually like that, because as it stands now it means that the development team instead of making fights that everyone can clear will instead have to make content that panders heavily to PLD's current abilities to make it stand out and that's horrible game design

Like they did with Dark Knight?

[Jonnycbad]

Did the changes to PLD make Shield Swipe an oGCD without needing to proc? Or, in addition to a 15sec recast, it also requires a successful shield block to proc. If it does need proc, then eh, I guess it's fine-but makes it worthless when offtanking.

[Isius]

Did the changes to PLD make Shield Swipe an oGCD without needing to proc? Or, in addition to a 15sec recast, it also requires a successful shield block to proc. If it does need proc, then eh, I guess it's fine-but makes it worthless when offtanking.

still needs a block proc

[Jpec07]

still needs a block proc

So it's functionally very similar to Reprisal.