So, after the patch, how goes it with Paladin?

[Brian_]

snip

It's a reliable increase to PLD damage and while it's a small buff, it's still a step in the right direction. You're basically also saying that crit is a worthless stat because it's RNG when it's the best point for point secondary. Over a 10+ minute fight, you will have a consistent damage contribution from shield swipe that will be quantifiably higher if you make an active effort to increase Swipe's up-time. It might not be the perfect scenario where you get it to proc before the 15 second recast is up every time but it's entirely extra damage because it's oGCD and costs you effectively nothing.

And my point about stat budgeting is only utter nonsense to you because it went straight over your head. If you still haven't realized, our off-hand shares combined stat budgeting with our main-hand. In order for a DRK to have a higher parry rate, they actually need more parry on their gear and that parry comes at the cost of another stat. All a PLD has to do to see their block amount / block rate increase is increase their ilevel because block rate is not linked to secondary stat budgeting. It's like people have totally forgotten how strong block was in 2.5.

I don't know why I would have to go back and try Ramuh EX to experience the issues PLD has. I find that pretty laughable because I farmed the crap out of Ramuh for Markab. The strengths and weaknesses of PLD are apparent enough in current content -- if I want to feel the weakness of PLD, I can just play PLD in A4S.

Your description of Divine Veil sounds like you basically don't do any meaningful end-game progression content and makes me think having this conversation is pointless. Just look at A3S or Thordan EX. There is enough raid-wide mechanic damage that an extra shield is incredibly meaningful because like I said before, it stacks. There are scenarios in progression content where if you do not have enough shielding, people essentially get one shot and succor is not consistent enough and adlo-deploy has a 90s CD. In the early period of A3S progression sluice protean in p4+ was A LOT easier with divine veil. Mass splashes was A LOT easier with divine veil. Having an extra shield to factor into the overall healing rotation during p4+ made a big difference.

Like I said, the only downside is that its long CD means its up-time is horrible and it has a somewhat bothersome activation condition. The meat of the skill itself is hardly "impractical," "superfluous," and "a waste to the toolkit." Just because you fail to use it correctly doesn't mean it sucks.

That same logic applies to SS. Again, the way you describe it makes it sound like you don't do any meaningful progression content and don't try to get the most out of your job. There are openings to cast SS in virtually every fight. It's extra free max HP. This has been true since 2.X. As a PLD, if there is nothing to do because a boss is phasing, can't be targeted, or there is some other scripted down-time, you always want to be casting SS on someone. You can cast it before Hyper Compressed Plasma in A1S (which mattered during week 1 clears) and during jump downtime. In A3S, you can cast it during the gap in man>hand phasing in A3S, before p3, during the gap between p3 and p4, etc. In A4S, you can cast it before Mortal Revolutions. In Thordan EX you have tons of opportunities to cast it during down-time. There are plenty of opportunities to give people extra free temporary max HP without it costing you anything but MP.