Paladin Parity Suggestion Package

[Shurrikhan]

This is meant to give Paladin close balance with other tanks in every area, and much nearer to balance when not dealing with physical enemies (blocks wasted). Math has been run for each suggestion. Numbers are basically finalized. Gameplay effects almost all noted. It's long because it's meant to actually fix just about everything about PLD relative to the other jobs. It remains niched with lesser AoE, burst, etc., but fully capable and balanced. PLD AoE has traded the uniqueness of being the only class not to have a real AoE to having a truly unique AoE mechanic attached to each Oath, through weaponskill cleaves and charged Shield Bashes. My only concerns are listed in the Summary below.

Post not recently updated. Includes a couple different methods for ease of stance-swapping. (1) Sword Oath changed to a situational cleave mode, base potencies increased instead. (2) Stances give a short buff that makes up for the time spent casting them.

Summary: Improvements, concerns, possible areas of further revision

Improvements:
- PLD now holds its own in an enmity spam, but remains behind for burst enmity (by a much smaller margin than current).
- PLD now has sufficient AoE enmity (Flash scales with FoF)
- Sword Oath tanking vastly improved.
- OT dps has been improved by 1-3%.
- Now has actual AoE in Sword Oath.
- MT ST dps improved via refreshable Shield Swipe (worth about another 4-7%).
- MT AoE dps improved via Shield Swipe cleave.
- Certain utilities improved.
Concerns:
- MT DPS improvements depend on a physically attacking boss.
- Oaths still feel a bit lacking in integration.
- Sword Oath still feels like too big a buff. Even bigger, now.
- Divine Veil still feels lackluster.
- Bulwark still feels lackluster. (Though less so given its damage potential via Shield Oath modifications, it remains an awfully long cooldown to do no more than Dark Dance (160% of normal block chance may still well be less than DRK base parry chance +20%, and with three times the cooldown).
May be revised further:
- MT dps - may change the damage modifier to 'decreases weaponskill damage dealt'. That would give full AA, Shield Swipe spam, and Spirits/Scorn dmg, worth up to a ~9% dmg increase. Only if I got rid of refreshable Shield Swipe.
- Effects of Oaths on certain utilities.
- May attempt to remove Sword Oath as anything but its cleave component, adjusting potencies and the Shield Oath damage modifier instead, as to remove one Oath swap hassle. (This cleave-mode Sword Oath may or may not be stackable with Shield Oath.)
- Divine Veil (still slow and lame, though you can at least Cure/Clemency yourself now to make it pop. Would like to scrap it and replace with an Oath-related "Inspire" ability, especially if Oath swapping is facilitated.
- Fast Blade - may reduce to 60 TP cost if DRK gets Blood Weapon in Grit (likely using an inferior health drain during Grit instead of giving mana), to bring it within 2.5% of DRK's TP longevity in pure ST rotations (7.5% of WAR's w/o Equil).
- Shelltron (I'd still like to turn it into the ally-castable Aegis Boon, giving PLD a single mitigation support oGCD - can't be a true block though or it's value would be excessive vs. large TBs when supporting the MT (basically adding Shelltron to their CD set))
--> Shield Oath changes may bring about Sword Oath changes.

>>Core Changes: Enmity Fixes, Combo Adjustments, Shield Swipe Buff, Sword Oath Revision

The important part here is the Enmity Fixes. If you want PLD to have AoE or to be able to Sword Oath tank, then so too is the Sword Oath revision. Shield Swipe buff adds MT dps. The combo adjustment synergizes with the rest to remove any possible threat issues and adds ~1-2% OT dps and up to triple mana regeneration for more support functionality.

I. Enmity Fixes

• Shield Oath enmity modifier has been raised from 2.0 to 2.3, equal to Defiance and Grit.
  
  
• Savage Blade enmity modifier increased from 3.0x to 4.5x.

• Increases enmity generated from 600 to 900.
• Change occurs via the level 40 trait, Keen Savagery, which replaces Improved Rage of Halone. Rage of Halone now uses a 10% Strength Down debuff by default.

• Rage of Halone potency increased from 260 to 280. Enmity multiplier increased from 5.0x to 5.5x.

• Increases enmity generated from 1300 to 1540, equal to an unbuffed (no Maim) Butcher’s Block, or 70 greater than an unbuffed Butcher’s Block when comparing Shield Oath and Defiance.
• The combination of Savage Blade and Rage of Halone now does 2370 enmity. Compare to:

  2240 Skull Sunder-Butcher’s Block unbuffed (no Maim)
  2688 SS-BB with Maim
  2560 SS-BB with Maim when compensating for Defiance;
  2420 Spinning Slash-Power Slash
  2783 SS-PS with Darkside

• Paladin can now hold its own in average enmity. It remains slightly behind in prepared burst, however.

Compare:
Assume Maim activated on previous combo.
Both tanks share Slashing debuff, assuming perfect SE maintenance.
→ Refers to 5% loss via Defiance.)
(SE)-BB-BB-BB 8206 enmity = 7815
(SE)-BB-BB-SE 6588 enmity = 6274
(SE)-BB-SP-SE 4368 enmity = 4160

(Note that Defiance also loses 5% more damage than Shield Oath; e.g. 8206 -> 7815)

RoH-RoH-RoH 7320 enmity (7320)
RoH-RoH-GB 5760 enmity (5760)
RoH-RA-GB 4710 enmity. (4710)

• Flash enmity now scales with Fight or Flight.

Flash now also scales with Critical Strike. Flash potency has been decreased by 33% but now always counts as a critical strike.

• Flash should now be able to keep up with Dark Knight AoE threat where needed or with Warrior if without Berserk, and should be able to compensate for CD unloading by AoE dps or make up for separate focus targets while Fight or Flight is up.
• Not a huge increase to average AoE enmity, but now increases it according to the same factors all other tank AoE sources of enmity were already increased by, and should give it enough on command to suit its needs.

II. Combo Adjustments

• Royal Authority's combo bonus can now be triggered by either Riot Blade or Savage Blade.

  Up to triple the mana per GB, up to 60 more potency per GB (per 3 combos), and more enmity control as OT as not to rip hate from MT with the improved Savage Blade (meant to aid Sword Oath tanking)
  This also gives PLD rotations at least something unique.

III. Shield Swipe Buff (CD Refreshable)

• The cooldown of Shield Swipe may now be refreshed by blocks. Refresh chance varies with shield type (Bucklers-30%, Kite Shields-36%, Tower Shields-42%). Pacification increased from 6s to 8s.

  This should provide a decent MT dps boost--about 20 more potency per second (up to about a 7% bonus in Shield Oath) if usage rate were tripled--and brings it a bit closer to DRK's Low Blow value for trash mitigation.

IV. Sword Oath Revised

• Sword Oath - increases the potency of all weaponskills and abilities by 25, and causes weaponskills to cleave nearby enemies for 25% damage for 20% increased TP cost per enemy (to a maximum of +100% TP cost). Cannot be used with Shield Oath. Cleave component toggled on recast.[Cleave does not cause additional effects.]

  This still equates to about a 13.4% ST dps increase [current version ranges ~10 to 15%], or up to nearly a 15% increase when combined with the new Riot-Royal combo option [about equal to a 2.0s sword with current Sword Oath]. Better synergy and significant improvements to Sword Oath tanking compared to the current version, while contributing nearly equal damage. Also gives PLD similar AoE dps to other jobs.

Also has the side-effects of:

• increasing CoS burst by 25% and overall damage by 10%, [Note that the DoT component has no multiplier while the initial hit has a 3x multiplier, giving Sword Oath CoS 75 more enmity than its original (a 16.7% enmity bonus)]
• smoothing rotational threat while in Sword Oath
• making Royal Authority more usable and Rage of Halone more rewarding when tanking in Sword Oath
• slightly reducing the relative RoH-RA potency gap while in Sword Oath (705 vs. 765 (with SB) [8.5%] rather than 630 vs. 690 [8.7%], or 705 vs. 795 (Riot-RA) [11.3%], rather than 630 vs. 720 [12.5%])
• indirectly increasing Rage of Halone enmity by 9% (+125 enmity) and Savage Blade enmity by 12.5% (+100 enmity)
• increasing Shield Swipe spam dps by 16.7% while in Sword Oath,
• and even increasing uncomboed RoH enmity (725 from 500, or 45% increase, now significantly greater than current Flash).
• depending on Flash’s original [null] potency, could be a substantial enmity increase [may have flash ignore this, however]

As for the AoE component:

• A single Riot-RA combo will do about the same damage to a group of 3 or more mobs as 3 Overpowers with Maim or Unleash with Darkside, greater damage to 2 mobs, and less damage to 4 or more mobs.

5 mobs:
::PLD 2(175+255+365) = 1590. ::WAR 110(1.2)(5)(3) = 1980. :: DRK 100(1.15)(5)(3) = 1725.
4 mobs:
::PLD .75(175+255+365) = 1391. ::WAR 110(1.2)(4)(3) = 1584. :: DRK 100(1.15)(4)(3) = 1380.
3 mobs:
::PLD .5(175+255+365) = 1192. ::WAR 110(1.2)(3)(3) = 1188. :: DRK 100(1.15)(3)(3) = 1035.

[RA used for the above example only because it’s sustainable damage and cleave targets often die quickly.]
Goring Blade deals more damage than Royal Authority when cleaving fewer than 5 mobs, if the mob will live for at least 15 seconds, or 7 mobs if it will live for the full duration.
4) GB: 320 + 2(175+255+245) = 320 + 1350 = 1670. RA: 2(175+255+365) = 1590.
5) GB: 320 + 2.25(175+255+245) = 320 + 1518.75 = 1838.75. RA: 2.25(175+255+365) = 1788.75.
6) GB: 320 + 2.5(175+255+245) = 320 + 1687.5 = 2007.5. RA: 2.5(175+255+365) = 1987.5.

Helpful Flavor: Shield Oath Adjustments, Cover Improvements, Clemency Improvements, Skill/Spell Speed Merged, PLD Mind Stat buff (+30% of STR&VIT), Stoneskin reverted to 2.5s, Shelltron given short lingering effect

Shield Oath adjustment adds a bit of identity, support, and MT AoE dps; Cover adjustments attempt to deal with suicide-by-Cover and similar flaws in original design; Clemency change gives immediacy without increased overall HPS/DPS/EPS output. Rest purely QoL/identity.

V. Shield Oath Adjusted

• Shield Oath now allows you to charge Shield Bash for an AoE nuke via blocks and casts (latter TBD).

  Shield Oath - Reduces damage received by 20%, while lowering damage dealt by 20%, doubling enmity, and increasing interruption resistance by 50% and hit chance by 5%. Effect ends upon reuse.
  While in Shield Oath, Shield Swipe does not require a block to use, and will cleave enemies within 5 yalms for 75% potency.
  Cannot be used with Sword Oath.

Note on interruption resistance: You’ll still need to pair cooldowns with your casts for enough mitigation to take a big hit without interruption, but most auto-attacks should no longer be able to interrupt you. This and the Clemency change below are my alternative to Surecast/oGCD/Swiftcast Clemency, especially as it applies to self-casting as MT.

VI. Optional (QoL/Identity/Futureproofing) Additions/Changes

• Cover has been improved for range and control.

• Cover range has been increased to 14 yalms, but now has reduced transfer strength beyond 8 yalms. Link color changes past 7 yalms, to a minimum of 70% at 14 yalms.
• The link from Cover can now be dropped off by clicking off the buff (caster or receiver) or hitting Cover again (after 1s), and may be re-linked by hitting Cover yet again at any time while duration on Cover remains (dropping link does not remove Cover from the PLD). However, each time the link is manually dropped, 2 seconds will be reduced from its duration. Link will automatically reestablish if drop was not manual (due to range).
• Cover will now mitigate incoming damage according to the higher Defense of the covering or covered player.
• Any blocks, parries, or dodges done by the covered player will trigger procs for both.
• Your defensive CDs are now applied also to the Covered player (e.g. to transferred damage), including Tempered Will. [Hallowed Ground alone remains the exception.]

• Skill Speed and Spell Speed merged into a single stat, Speed.

  The GCD of Flash will no longer lag behind your other skills, and Speed can now make a decently noticeable effect on Clemency.

• Clemency modified for more fluidity and immediacy without improving combined ideal healing+DPS.

Clemency is now a two-stage spell. After 50% progress, you can continue it from 50% mana cost and 50% healing up to 100% progress, with 100% healing and 100% mana cost. Any interruption by damage taken, knock-back, or movement will immediately use the charged portion of the ability instead of cancelling it.
[Using an actual cast-cancel will still fully cancel the spell and refund its mana cost. It will now only actually require 50% of its original mana cost to begin casting, but will continue to list the full mana cost.]

>Purely for support options and QoL:

• PLD automatically duplicates 30% each of his Vitality and Strength stats into Mind, and uses Weapon DPS in place of Magic Damage (DPS) for spell calculations.

Cure is now worth something, even if still not great. A PLD normally with 1000 Strength, 900 Vitality, and 220 Mind would now have 790 Mind. That would be about equal to a 1000 Intelligence SMN/BLM if they had access to Cleric Stance, or 60% of a real healer's Cure (given their 30% heal-increasing trait, Maim and Mend II).
This would allow a Cure of about 1700 compared to a Clemency of 5k for 440 mana instead of 2121, more mana efficient, but far less time-efficient. (3.86 healing/mana > 2.36 h/m, but 680 healing/second < 1667 h/s)

• Stoneskin has returned to being a 2.5 second cast universally. Conjurer's trait allows now allows them to cast Stoneskin for 20% less mana cost instead of with 20% greater speed.
  
  
• Shelltron now blocks all attacks for an additional second after its first guaranteed block.
  
  
• Divine Veil now merely requires a heal to be received. It can be your own or any PC's, rather than having to be a party member's.

> Edits:

• Slight adjustments to Shield Oath coming after sleep/work.
• Added a TP cost to cleaving via Sword Oath to keep PLD from having nigh-infinite (albeit typically slightly inferior) AoE. [Problem noted by GunsBlazing] Now requires an additional 20% TP for every additional enemy cleaved (i.e. every additional 25% direct damage dealt via cleave).

  (May adjust to 25%, but since the additional effects of Goring Blade and Rage of Halone are not spread with cleave, it would seem odd for it to cost double TP without doing double damage. This is a compromise for that. [Also to keep all TP costs as integers; 25% of 70 would leave me with 17.5., whereas 20% leaves me with TP costs of 14 or 12 per weaponskill])

• Stoneskin, Shelltron [Arannon]
• Factored in magic weapon damage for the PLD MND adjustment rq; forgot. [Problem noted by Brannigan]
• Casting Sword Oath applies both 'Sword Oath' and 'Sweeping Blade' (its Cleave component). Once Sword Oath is up, recasting Sword Oath only toggles the 'Sweeping Blade'; Sword Oath remains. All toggles while already in Sword Oath are done oGCD. Only swapping to or back from Shield Oath requires a GCD.[Problem noted by Februs]
• ^ Could otherwise move the cleave component to a new oGCD toggled ability, Inspirit:

Inspirit - adds an additional effect to each Oath (including no-Oath) simultaneously with a new penalty.
Sword Oath: Weaponskills cleave, for TP cost.
Shield Oath: Shield Swipe cleaves, for TP cost.
No Oath: TBD

Likely placed at level 54, replacing Goring Blade--(Goring Blade moved to level 42 GLD. Awareness now called Tempered Will. Improved Awareness changed to Improved Tempered Will, adding on the effects of Tempered Will over the duration (increasing TW's duration by 50% and frequency by 33%...doubling TW coverage)--or 58, replacing Divine Veil. Hard pick, considering both this and Goring Blade / Royal Authority seem like things we should have had by level 50 (AoE dps and more than a single combo). I'd probably take the prior just to deal with the bitching about Awareness being useless except with Raw Intuition...

Note: if you really wanted to push PLD support, it'd probably be 52 Boon (Aegis [oGCD mitigation]/Gladius [oGCD dps support]/Mortal [oGCD refresh]), 54 Inspirit (adds an additional aspect to Sword/Shield/Neither Oaths), 56 Clemency, 58 Inspire (sort of a utility wildfire [dmg,miti,healing] but increasing the buff as it goes rather than dealing it all at the end), 60 Royal Authority... with Goring Blade at 42.

Extra (Dark Knight and Warrior changes to keep par): (May be better updated in last section.)

Universal Changes:

• Stance-type spells can now be recast (dropped) oGCD. (No more Blood Weapon eating into next GCD when swapping out of Grit when it otherwise could have been dropped just before the GCD refreshed instead.)
• Skill Speed and Spell Speed turned into a single stat, Speed.
• TP regen (base and bonus ticks via Goad/Paean/RookPro) now ticks for 20% less but at the player's GCD rate. (Skill) Speed is no longer any less TP efficient for average ST rotations, though it will exhaust quicker during mass DoTing/AoEing and will regenerate faster when buffed than non-Speed builds.
• All healing, including by damage conversions or by Abilities, now scales with healing received buffs, e.g. Convalescence, Defiance, and Mantra). However, healing Abilities continue not to scale with the healer's own buffs (e.g. Divine Seal) - This is primarily future-proofing and a Warrior MT buff, to make up somewhat for the value of DRK/PLD improvements. (And the healing Ability non-scaling portion is because I feel like they should be near their stacked strength at all times, as not to healers to hold onto them for until buffs are up. If they did scale with buffs, they would have to be nerfed somewhat to make up for it, which would only worsen the situation.)
• Fending accessories now provide +Enmity and +Healing (generated). (This will allow them to keep up with Slaying accessories in all regards except damage itself until SE figures out how they'd most like to rescale tank Attack Power.)

Dark Knight:

Summary: MP costs adjusted for rounded/clean values at 60 instead of 50, mana efficiency increased (resultant small DPS buff, especially as MT), Reprisal buffed (resultant small MT buff), Reprisal OT utility improved, self-healing buffed slightly, Blood Price synergy increased, QoL changes, BP slightly stronger against bosses (faint MT buff).

• The cooldown of Dark Arts now scales with Speed.
• Dark Mind now also places a magic damage absorbing shield equal to 8% of your health, 12% in Dark Arts.
• Blood Weapon may now be used in Grit, but while in Grit it provides healing instead of mana. This is primarily meant to aid with TP issues. The MP cost change to Grit is the primary save for stance-dancing and MP issues. The healing done is generally inferior in value to mana generated.
• Living Dead now requires the DRK to be healed for 80% of its health, down from 100%.
• Delirium will no longer be removed by Dragon Kick, though their effects will still be incapable of stacking. -- New Coding
• Reprisal no longer requires a parry to be usable, but its duration has been reduced to 12 seconds. Using Reprisal also triggers the buff Revengeance, which gives a 20% chance for Reprisal to be usable regardless of cooldown (neither affected by or affecting CD) after a dodge or parry. Reprisals used under this effect will only deal 120 potency, however, and refresh the duration of Reprisal by 10 seconds, to a maximum of 20 seconds. Proc available for 5 seconds. -- New Coding
• Blood Price has been revised. Blood Price will now give mana per attack attempted against you, rewarding dodges and enemy misses, and its mana returns are averaged with an amount based on the mitigated attack’s original potency and its actual damage.

  It now returns more mana against strong single attackers, but slightly less mana against weak attackers. It will now provide mana against missed attacks, though it will return a third less than if the attack had hit. Returns even more mana against unmitigated attacks. Overall a decent buff to MT single-target mana generation. DA-DD is now far less disadvantageous to stack with BP. -- New Coding

• Darkside’s visual effect has been revised. It should now appear smaller and more concentrated around the Dark Knight’s eyes, right arm, and blade (when drawn).
• The Soul Devourer trait now improves Souleater’s damage-to-healing drain percentile both in and out of Grit by 50%. (After 48, Grit Souleater will heal for 100% of damage, but non-Grit Souleater will also heal for 50%.)

  OR Grit now increases self-healing generated by 33% and Souleater no longer requires Grit for its damage-as-healing component. -- Currently no coding that can buff self-healing done through per-damage effects, though it would be important for making Fending equally viable to Slaying in all ways outside of actual dps done, so I think it's well warranted.

• Losing Darkside will no longer remove the Dark Arts buff.

  The difficulty of reactivating Darkside and its associated Dark Arts-paired ability within the remaining duration should be limitation enough.

• Physical attacks that trigger but are immune to dodges will automatically force a parry while Dark Dance is up. (If the attack rolled a 'dodge', but the attack cannot be dodged, wasting the roll, it will instead be parried. DA-Dark Dance is no longer wasted against undodgeable physical attacks, but simply has a doubled parry effect instead).
  
  The mana costs of several abilities have been reduced:
• Grit MP cost reduced from (at lvl60) 1326 to 700. (53% of past value)
• Darkside MP cost reduced from (at lvl60) 442 to 350. (79% of past value)
• Unleash MP cost reduced from (at lvl60) 800 to 770. (96% of past value)
• Dark Passenger MP cost reduced from (at lvl60) 884 to 800. (91% of past value)
• Abyssal Drain MP cost reduced from (at lvl60) 974 to 870. (89% of past value)
• Dark Arts MP cost reduced from (at lvl60) 1764 to 1500. (85% of past value)
  This is partly for a bit more DRK dps, but also largely just to achieve rounded values at level 60 (where any DRK will be for 90+% of its HW lifetime...) instead of at level 50.

Ideally, DRK still deserves a bit more raid support functionality, beyond OT-usable Reprisal. It would excel against magic AoE spammers without a Monk and when parrying frequently, but has nothing else to offer. PLD should, by the end of the fix, have tons to offer, and Warrior a bit outside of just Storm combos, as well (see below). DRK probably should get something quick, situational, nuanced, and oGCD, to bring it up to par.

Warrior:

• The damage of Inner Beast and Steel Cyclone is again affected by Defiance, but their potencies have been increased 33%. Unchained burst increased.
• All healing taken, whether by Abilities done or received, or healing done through damage dealt, is affected by Defiance and Convalescence. [See above]
• Inner Beast is now about equally useful for self-healing or mitigation, increasing its timing versatility, role versatility, and soloing value. Effects depend on your % health. It now heals for [1.5|1.33-.01(%HP)|]% of damage dealt, while increasing Defense and Magic Defense by %HP+33% of damage for 6 seconds. [Compare to ~2.3k base Defense for an i200 tank(?).] Effects not affected by critical strike bonus damage. Any excessive healing done by Inner Beast will increase maximum HP for 6 seconds. For the next 6 seconds, healing received is increased by 10% of your missing %HP, and damage taken is decreased by 10% of your %HP at the time of each heal or damage received.
  Assuming a 3k hit: 100% HP = +4000 (m)Defense, +1500 max HP. 50% HP = +2500 (m)Defense, +3750 healing. 25% HP = 1750 (m)Defense, +4900 Healing. 1% HP = 6000, +1000 Defense.

  [Need to scale this back a ways for Berserk and Unchained.] May cancel the above Unchained buff (now affecting IB/SC). I would like for Berserk to tie into Inner Beast as one of Warrior's strongest defensive cooldowns, especially if paired with Unchained, but I do not want Inner Beast, on average, to be any stronger in new raid content than it has been thus far. I simply want it to be more versatile and unique, reminiscent of when Warrior was no-healing the last boss of AK when that was new. I realize that makes Warrior more OP, but that's not an area really touched by the actual raid meta. All three tanks will have received a bit more soloing/no-healing strength, though none to such an extent that they could do an Expert roulette faster without a healer by any means.

• Equilibrium's self-heal has been reduced by 25% (from 1200 to 900). (However, now works with Defiance and Convalescence; 10% weaker on average, 5% stronger with Convalescence.)
• [Only if buffing Divine Veil and something within DRK] The maximum HP increase of Thrill of Battle now fades over 10 seconds (at half speed, when in Defiance), but for the duration of Thrill of Battle you and your party gain max HP equal to 2% of raid damage dealt, to a maximum of 10% of your health. You can continue to increase your own max HP up to the original 120% cap, which will in turn increase the party's HP gain cap.

  A party dealing a raid dps of 8k would generate 160 more max HP per second, or up to ~2.8k by the end of the duration. However, you'd most likely have already capped at 2.6k or less bonus already due to Warrior health [~18k*(up to)1.45]. This provides a last ditch means of surviving an incoming nuke by blowing your dps cooldowns and having at the nuker. It is the game's least reactive raid mitigation support and requires a target to attack, hard.

___________________________________
What I'd like to see for next patch notes: (Also includes the most updated PLD suggestions)

Universal:

• Fading damage-per-target AoEs (Flare and Holy) have been revised to deal equal damage across all affected targets. Penalty has also been slightly reduced. Instead of decreasing damage per enemy hit in a chain, damage is now split evenly across all enemies. Each enemy that would be hit increases the AoE's damage by [100-<3*enemies hit>]%, to a minimum of 50% each. Damage increased at fewer than 13 enemies hit, decreased faintly at greater than 17. [Damage efficiency % = 100/97/94/91/88|85/82/79/76/73||70/67/64/61/58|55/52/50/50||50/50/50...]
• Macros are now capable of queuing.
• Macros now support a new command, /sswitch [Stance or buff condition] [ability to be changed] [ability changed into], e.g. /sswitch Defiance Fell Cleave Inner Beast; /sswitch Deliverance Inner Beast Defiance, OR /sswitch Sharper Fang and Claw Wheeling Thrust Fang and Claw; /sswitch Empowered Wheeling Thrust Fang and Claw Wheeling Thrust. Automatically adjusts tooltip and image. This should allow players intuitive control of their bars without giving access to the true automation of conditional statements.
• Pet orders may now be given mid-cast/animation.
• Using Sic no longer removes manual control of all pet abilities.
• Pets have a new modifier ability, Automate, which toggles the state of the next pet ability hit from Sic to Obey state individually. This can also be done by right-clicking the ability on PC.
• Pets now begin movement at 33% greater speed for up to 3 seconds, but this effect fades over time spent moving. Recharges over time spent stationary.
• Ground-targeted spells and abilities may now be queued.
• Stance-type spells now act as Abilities after activation and may be turned off / toggled oGCD (E.g. Oaths, Grit, and Songs)
• It is now possible to block while casting.
• Healing received bonus effects now affect all healing received, not only by Spells. (Including abilities and damage conversion effects)
• Skill Speed and Spell Speed have been combined into a single stat, Speed.
• Base and bonus TP refresh ticks have been reduced by 20% but now tick per player base GCD rather than on server tick.
• Animation timers are now reduced by half the effect of any reductions to the GCD timer. Animation "locks" are reduced by the full effect.
• The weights of Speed, Critical Strike, and Determination are now basically equal across all jobs depending on per-execute potency value range, DoT proportions, rotational plateaus and specifically stat-related mechanics (e.g. Crit on SMN or Bard).
• On average, the weight of Speed has been increased on physical classes.
• Speed now affects the damage of AAs and oGCDs, at lesser value than by Determination or averaged Critical Strike bonus effect, but greater than the effect of Speed on DoT damage.
• Speed now reduces your GCD by a percentage, rather than by a fixed amount, increasing its value at less than 12% bonus speed (2.2 from 2.5), but reducing its value thereafter. Speed still has less flat GCD reduction value per point when stacked with speed-increasing effects like Huton or Greased Lighting (though equal percent-of-remaining-GCD reduction).
• The cooldowns of the following abilities now scale with Speed: Cleric Stance, Dark Arts, Darkside, Fists of Earth, Fists of Fire, Fists of Wind, Gauss Barrel, Gierskogul, Meditation, Transpose, and Wanderer's Minuet.
• Abilities like Duality and Barrage no longer prevent critical strikes on the original ability. If the original strike hits critically, the duplicated potency will receive the same bonus from the Critical Strike stat.
• Base Stoneskin has been returned to a 2.5s cast. CNJ's trait, The Whispering Stones, now reduces its mana cost by 20% instead. Stoneskin II's cast time has also been reduced by 20%, from 5s to 4s, and its mana cost by 20%.
• A player who has been unable to receive base MP regeneration for more than one tick will receive one instantly upon again becoming able to receive them. (Transposing from Astral Fire if a tick or more's time since the last MP tick will cause a base mana tick instantly.)

Gladiator:

• Shield Swipe now calculates its damage based on Block Strength, rather than Weapon Damage. Blocks have a chance to refresh Shield Swipe's cooldown based on shield type. Blocks have a chance to refresh the cooldown equal to their % mitigation done. Additional effect: Pacify. [Tower 8s, Kite 6.5s, Buckler 5s].
  If the shield and weapon ilvls were equal, a tower shield would do approximately 230 potency, a kite shield would do approximately 180, and a buckler 130.
• Shield Swipe - Delivers an attack with a potency of 150. Damage modified by Block Strength. Can only be used immediately after blocking an attack.
  Additional effect: Pacification. X seconds.
  Additional effect: Chance to refresh cooldown each block based on % of damage blocked.
  Additional effect: Increased enmity.
• Fast Blade TP cost has been reduced from 70 to 60.
• Savage Blade enmity modifier has been increased from 3.0 to 4.5x. Potency increased from 200 to 220. (Potency up 10%)
• Rage of Halone potency increased from 260 to 290. Enmity modifier increased from 5.0x to 5.5x. (Potency up 15%)
• Riot Blade potency increased from 230 to 260. (Up 13%) Mana generation increased by 53.6%. (From 440 to 676 at level 60.) (Riot Blade + 2 in-combat MP ticks will equal enough mana for Protect/Stoneskin. 2.8 Riot Blades, down from 4.1, will restore a Clemency of mana.)
• Flash (enmity) now scales with Fight or Flight. Flash potency has been decreased by 25% but Flash will now always critically strike. (Enmity increased by 12.5%)
• Tempered Will now also prevents cast interruption from damage. Cooldown has been reduced to 2 minutes.
• The cooldown of Bulwark has been reduced to 2 minutes.

Paladin:
:: Base DPS increased to compensate for Sword Oath no longer providing dps. Shield Oath penalty increased to compensate. MT dps Paladin OT ST dps nearly unchanged. Paladin AoE dps improved hugely. MT dps up ~1-5% during frequent blocks. Sword Oath is now a situational "cleave" stance. Shield Oath and Sword Oath now provide unique AoE. Support improved somewhat.

• Goring Blade TP cost has been returned from 50 to 60.
• Goring Blade damage over time potency has been increased from 40 to 45. Total potency increased from 540 to 580. (Up 7%)
• Royal Authority potency increased from 340 to 350. (Up 3%)
• Circle of Scorn total potency increased from 250 to 300. Initial damage increased from 100 to 150. (Up 20%)
• Spirits Within potency increased from 300 to 400. (Up 20%) Potency decreases as HP decreases.
  Additional effect: restores 10% of missing HP and MP. Additional effect: Silence. Duration: 1s.
• Shield Oath enmity multiplier increased from 2.0x to 2.5x.
• Shield Oath - Ability - Recast 1.75s - Shares timer with other weapon skills. Reduces damage received by 20% while lowering your damage dealt by 25%. Increases your enmity by 150%, the damage necessary to interrupt your casts by 50%, and your hit chance by 5%. While in Shield Oath Shield Swipe requires no block and will cleave enemies within 5 yalms. Cannot be used with Sword Oath.
• Sword Oath changed to a situational stance. Simply dropping Shield Oath will already provide near-equivalent single-target dps.
• Sword Oath - Ability - 4 second cooldown - Causes 25% of your weaponskill damage to hit all enemies within 5 yalms at 25% additional TP cost per enemy hit. Effect ends upon reuse. Cannot be used with Shield Oath. [Additional TP cost cannot exceed +100%]
• Shelltron has been revised to Aegis Boon. Animation revised. Can now be cast on self or an ally within 22 yalms. Now absorbs damage equal to four times your shield's block value. Cooldown scales with shield type (18s Buckler, 24s Kite, 30s Tower). When cast on self, it will guarantee that you block the next physical attack against you and all incoming physical attacks within 1 second thereafter, but the mitigation caused by the variable block will take from the absorb effect. MP restored on block.
• The cooldown of Cover has been decreased to 5 seconds, but will drain mana over time. Drains 2% of base mana per second, increasing by an additional .5% for each second channeled. The increased costs remains after ending or canceling Cover, but fades by 1% per 3 seconds. Cover still cannot be used for more than 10 seconds at a time. Cover range increased by 2 yalms, and will use the higher Defense/Magic Defense of the Covering and Covered player. Link can now be toggled off/back on by the caster or target by right-clicking the buff or by toggling Cover. Any blocks, dodges, or parries done by the Cover target will proc effects for both.
  [Tempered Will now indirectly affect both of you. Blood Price will still recover MP for the covered DRK. Blocks done by a covered PLD can cause procs for the covering PLD as well.]
• Clemency is now a two-stage ability. After reaching 50% cast progress, it will continue to increase %ManaCost and %Healing per %Progress but can be released/used at any time. Interruption by any other means than manual cast cancellation will release/use the effect generated thus far.
• Divine Veil can now be activated by your own healing done.
• PLD now receives 30% of its combined STR and VIT as bonus MND upon equipping its job crystal, to a maximum of the greater value of either, and scales its spells based on Weapon Damage instead of Magic Damage. (A PLD Cure should now be worth about 60% of a true healer's Cure/Physic/Benefic.)

--OR-- [Just playing around with ideas]

Alternate Version - Gladiator:
:: Baseline potency increases at level 40 to get rid of the need for Sword Oath for single-target dps have been removed. Normality restored.

• Shield Swipe now has a chance based on block strength to refresh its CD on blocks. [~44% Tower, 37% Kite, 30% Buckler] (~4-8% MT dps increase) Refresh chance and pacify duration now scale with shield type. Tower Shields: 40% chance, 8s pacify. Kite Shields: 33%, Bucklers: 28%.
• Fast Blade TP cost has been reduced from 70 to 60 50. Fast Blade now causes only a two-third global cooldown, and causes the following weaponskill to cause only a three-quarter cooldown. (Overall action rate increased by 24%.) [Would need to reduce potencies in return. Not worth the added complexity. Revoked.]
• Fight or Flight restores 5 TP per hit over its duration.
• Savage Blade enmity modifier has been increased from 3.0 to 4.5x.
• Rage of Halone potency increased from 260 to 280. Enmity modifier increased from 5.0x to 5.5x.
• Rage of Halone now applies 10% STR down by default.
• Riot Blade potency increased from 230 to 250.
• Flash (enmity) now scales with Fight or Flight. Flash potency has been decreased by 33% but Flash will now always critically strike.
• Tempered Will now also prevents cast interruption from damage. Cooldown has been reduced to 2 minutes.
• The cooldown of Bulwark has been reduced to 2 minutes.

Alternate Version: Paladin [IN PROGRESS - EARLY DEVELOPMENT]
:: Sword Oath back, with a charge cast to make up for its window.
:: Playing around with the idea of Oath, a new PLD-specific resource, though I need to develop a way to display it. It'd be kind of like a second mana bar. Leaving either Sword Oath or Shield Oath removes all Oath, but it transfers between the two, much like WAR stacks, but a bit more fluid.
:: Shield Oath and Sword Oath now embedded in Invoke: Sword, and Invoke: Shield. Shield Oath and Sword Oath now provide unique AoE. Divine Veil replaced by Inspire. Cover replaced by Vow. Support improved. Base OT single-target dps decreased slightly.

• Shield Oath now embedded in Invoke: Shield.
• Invoke: Shield - 4-second cooldown. Charges your shield for 1 to 5 seconds, increasing block strength and rating per second of charge. Applies Shield Oath at end of cast. Additional Effect: While casting, enemies within 6 yalms are heavied by 20% and slightly drawn towards you. If targeting an ally, at end of the cast you will dash up towards them 10 + 3 yalms per second of charge to intercept the next physical attack aimed at them. This additional effect has a separate cooldown of 60 seconds. Regular cooldown triggers only after Shield Oath is activated. Secondary cooldown is reduced by 1 second for every 100 potency mitigated.
• Shield Oath - Decreases damage taken by 20% while reducing your weaponskill damage dealt by 24%. Increases enmity by 140%, interruption resistance by 30%, and hit chance by 5%. While in Shield Oath, your Shield Swipe ability will cleave enemies within 5 yalms. Blocks generate Oath. While in Shield Oath, Oath improves block strength, rating, and magic resistance. Oath transfers to Sword Oath. [Note: auto-attacks and abilities are not affected
• Invoke: Sword - 4-second cooldown. Charges your shield for 1 to 5 seconds, granting a bonus of 12% attack speed + 6% per second of charge, fading by 3% per second after your next weaponskill. Applies Sword Oath at end of cast. Additional Effect: At the end of the cast, you will dash up to 10 + 3 yalms per second of charge at the targeted enemy, dealing 30 potency per second of charge. This additional effect has a separate cooldown of 60 seconds. Regular cooldown triggers only after Sword Oath is activated. Secondary cooldown is reduced by 1 second for every critical strike you make.
• Sword Oath - Increases auto-attack damage by 50%. Critical strikes generate Oath. While in Sword Oath, Oath increases attack speed and damaging ability cooldown rates, while proportionately decreasing TP costs. [Sword Oath now relies on critical strikes and subsequent attack speed to make up for the reduced auto-attack contribution (down from 73-68%).]
• Cover replaced with Vow. [Name TBR]
• Vow - Consumes all current Oath in order to create an effect. Leaves Shield Oath or Sword Oath. Effects vary with the Oath canceled. [TBR]
  Shield Oath: (Default) If an ally is targeted, creates a shield over the ally, diverting the damage to you, while sharing defensive bonuses between the both of you. Will use the greater defense and %mitigation of you or your target. If an enemy is targeted, channels a heavy and slow while reducing outgoing damage based on Oath. If targeting self, consumes Oath to absorb incoming damage, and increase evasion and healing received.
  Sword Oath: If an ally is targeted, increases their attack power while reducing TP costs and chance of being interrupted. (Default) If an enemy is targeted, consumes all Oath to deal equal potency damage to an enemy within 15 yalms. If targeting self, consumes Oath to increase ability damage dealt by a % and to a maximum based on Oath spent.
• Divine Veil replaced with Inspire.
• Inspire - Consumes Oath to support your party. Charges for up to 3 seconds to increase Oath consumed.
  Shield Oath: Reduces the effectiveness of defensive cooldowns affecting you, but shares them throughout the party. [Sharing Bulwark will give all affected allies chance to block and block strength equal to your own. Their blocks will procs yours.] Range increased by Oath. Absorbs an additional amount of damage based on Oath.
  Sword Oath: For a duration based on Oath, your entire party will gain the benefit of your Oath generated. Their critical strikes also generate Oath for you at reduced effectiveness (1/party size).
• Shelltron has been replaced with Aegis. Animation adjusted. Now capable of quick support functionality.
• Aegis - Protects self or chosen party member. 25 yalm range. 30s cooldown.
  Blocks the next physical attack those for 1.5 seconds thereafter, or, if used on a party member, diverts incoming damage to you until having consumed 10% of your health. [Diverted damage is affected by your defense and mitigation tools.]
  
• Goring Blade TP cost has been returned from 50 to 60.
• Royal Authority may now also combo from Riot Blade, but does 30 less potency when combo'ed in this manner. Total potency unchanged between either choice.
• Royal Authority - Delivers an attack with 100 potency. Combo Action: Savage Blade | Combo Potency: 340. || Combo Action: Riot Blade | Combo Potency: 310
• Clemency is now a two-stage ability. After reaching 50% cast progress, it will continue to increase %ManaCost and %Healing per %Progress but can be released/used at any time. Interruption by any other means than manual cast cancellation will release/use the effect generated thus far.
• PLD now receives 30% of its combined STR and VIT as bonus MND upon equipping its job crystal, to a maximum of the greater value of either, and scales its spells based on Weapon Damage instead of Magic Damage. (A PLD Cure should now be worth about 60% of a true healer's Cure/Physic/Benefic.)

Dark Knight:
:: OT dps increased ~1.5%. MT dps increased by up to ~2%. Certain mana cost reductions provide slightly greater output. Reprisal utility improved.

• The cooldowns of Dark Arts and Darkside now scales with Speed.
• Grit may now be dropped off the global cooldown. No longer breaks combo.
• Blood Weapon may now be used in Grit, but while in Grit it provides healing instead of mana. This is primarily meant to aid with TP issues. The MP cost change to Grit is the primary save for stance-dancing and MP issues. The healing done is generally inferior in value to mana generated.
• Living Dead now allows the Dark Knight to fall into negative health without dying for the duration of the debuff requires the DRK to be healed for 80% of its health, down from 100%. Reaching full health at any time during Walking Dead will remove the debuff.
• Delirium will no longer be removed by Dragon Kick, though their effects will still be incapable of stacking.
• Reprisal no longer requires a parry to be usable, but its duration has been reduced to 12 seconds. Using Reprisal also triggers the buff Revengeance, which gives a 20% chance to allow Reprisal to be usable regardless of cooldown (neither affected by or affecting CD) after a dodge or parry. Reprisals used under this effect will only deal 120 potency, however, and refresh the duration of Reprisal by 10 seconds, to a maximum of 20 seconds. Proc available for 5 seconds.
• Blood Price has been revised. Blood Price will now give mana per attack attempted against you, rewarding dodges and enemy misses, and its mana returns are averaged with a flat value, an amount based on the mitigated attack’s original potency and the attack's actual damage.It should now give lesser returns against minimally damaging attacks but much greater returns against heavier attacks. Dodges now only waste 33% of mana returns.
• Darkside’s visual effect has been revised. It should now appear smaller and more concentrated around the Dark Knight’s eyes, right arm, and blade (when drawn).
• The Soul Devourer trait now improves Souleater’s damage-to-healing drain percentile both in and out of Grit by 50%. (After 48, Grit Souleater will heal for 100% of damage, but non-Grit Souleater will also heal for 50%.)
• Losing Darkside will no longer remove the Dark Arts buff.
• Soul Survivor may now be used on allies, and will apply a duplicate effect to you when doing so. If the allied target dies during the duration, you will gain Soul Survivor's normal amount of health and mana. If you die during the duration, the allied target will gain the health and mana instead.
• Physical attacks that trigger but are immune to dodges will automatically force a parry while Dark Dance is up. (If the attack rolled a 'dodge', but the attack cannot be dodged, wasting the roll, it will instead be parried. DA-Dark Dance is no longer wasted against undodgeable physical attacks, but simply has a doubled parry effect instead).
  
• The mana costs of several abilities have been reduced to provide slightly higher mana efficiency, improve stance dancing, improve Darkside prioritization/dropping, and provide more smoothly rounded values at level 60.
• Grit MP cost reduced from (at lvl60) 1326 to 700. (53% of past value)
• Darkside MP cost reduced from (at lvl60) 442 to 350. (79% of past value)
• Unleash MP cost reduced from (at lvl60) 796 to 750. (94% of past value)
• Dark Passenger MP cost reduced from (at lvl60) 884 to 800. (91% of past value)
• Abyssal Drain MP cost reduced from (at lvl60) 974 to 900. (92% of past value)
• Dark Arts MP cost reduced from (at lvl60) 1764 to 1500. (85% of past value)

Marauder:

• The potency over time of Fracture has been increased from 20 to 25 (220/300 to 250/350), but its TP cost has been increased from 80 to 90. (Potency per TP nearly equal, increased from 2.875 to 2.889.)
• Foresight now increases all defensive stats by 20%. (Now Includes Parry and Magic Defense)

Warrior:
:: Warrior remains basically unchanged, apart from one or two faint buffs. Equilibrium has been adjusted for universal changes. Universal changes provide a noticeable increase to Warrior MT survivability.

• Equilibrium's self-healing has been reduced by 25%, from 1200 to 900, but now synergizes with Defiance and Convalescence. (9% weaker on average, but 5% stronger with Convalescence.)
• Inner Beast has been revised to see substantial usability whether in taking large or small hits, before intense damage or after. Rather than a flat 20% mitigation, it now provides a combination of healing and increased Defense and Magic Defense for 6 seconds depending on the warrior's current health. Any overhealing done by Inner Beast will extend maximum HP. [No longer exempt from Defiance's damage reduction.]

  Inner Beast - Delivers an attack with a potency of 400. Can only be executed when Infuriated. All Wrath is lost when used. Any overhealing done by Inner Beast increases your maximum HP for 6 seconds. Additional effect: duplicates a percentage of your damage dealt as healing based on twice your missing %HP + 33 and increases your healing received by a 10% of your missing %HP. Lasts 6 seconds. Additional effect: duplicates a percentage of damage dealt into Defense/Magic Defense based on a fifth of your %HP + 15 and decreases your damage taken by 10% of your %HP. Last 6 seconds.

Ninja:

• The leniency in maintaining or reapplying Huton via Armor Crush has been increased. If the animation began while Huton was up, Huton will be gained with 30 seconds atop its previous duration even if it briefly disappeared.
• The cooldown on Smokescreen has been reduced to from 180 to 120 seconds. For 4 seconds, the movement speed of the target will be increased by 30% and increase evasion vs. AoEs and cleaves by 30%.
• The range of Shukuchi has been increased from 20 to 24 yalms. The cooldown of Shukuchi has been reduced from 60 to 45 seconds.
• The potency of Dancing Edge has been increased from 260 to 270.
• The flank potency of Armor Crush has been increased from 280 to 290.
• Duality no longer prevents its original hit from striking critically. Duplicated strikes are still unable to strike critically but are affected by Critical Strike's bonus critical damage percentile if the original was a critical strike.

Pugilist:

• Mantra's %Healing received bonus has been increased from 5% to 8%. Traited version remains the same.
• The default effectiveness of Internal Release has been increased from a 10% increase to critical strike chance to a 12% increase. Traited version remains unchanged.
• The shared cooldown of Fists of Earth and Fists of Wind have been reduced to 2 seconds and now scale with Speed.
• The activation speed of Fists of Earth and Fist of Wind has been improved. Their animation lock has been reduced.
• The TP cost of Twin Snakes has been reduced to 50.
• The initial potency of Touch of Death has been reduced from 20 to 0. Its damage over time potency has been increased from 25 to 30. (Now deals 300 potency total, up from 270 and no longer breaks CC.)
• Haymaker potency has been increased from 170 to 180. Now deals an additional 20 potency if the attack fails to cause Slow.

Monk:

• The shared cooldown of Fists of Fire has been reduced to 2 seconds and now scales with Speed.
• The activation speed of Fists of Fire has been improved. Its animation lock has been reduced.
• The recast time of Meditation now scales with Speed.
• Similar to Meditation, Form Shift now has a global cooldown component smaller than one's base GCD. It now cools at 2 seconds, scaling with Speed and Attack Speed.
• The cooldown on Tornado Kick has been removed and its potency has been increased from 330 to 350.
• The TP cost of One-Ilm Punch reduced from 120 to 90.

Dragoon:

• The cooldown of Elusive Jump has been reduced to from 180 to 90 seconds. Enmity reduction has been reduced from half to a third.
• Losing Blood of the Dragon no longer removes procs of Enhanced Wheeling Thrust or Sharper Fang and Claw that have already been generated. However, both will still be removed by using another weapon-skill.
• The cooldown of Gierskogul has been reduced to 9 seconds and now scales with Speed.

Archer:

• Repelling Shot potency has been increased from 80 to 100.
• Blunt Arrow potency has been increased from 50 to 70.
• Bloodletter potency has been reduced from 150 to 140.
• Heavier Shot trait has been renamed to Keen Quiver. Heavy Shot now has a 25% chance, up from 20%, to generate a stack of Keen Arrow, which causes your next Straight Shot to be a critical strike and, in Wanderer's Minuet, require no cast time. You can carry up to 2 stacks of Keen Arrow.
• Barrage no longer prevents its original hit from striking critically. Duplicated strikes are still unable to strike critically but are affected by Critical Strike's bonus critical damage percentile if the original was a critical strike.
• Quick Nock range increased to 10 yalms.
• The level 36 trait, Enhance Quick Nock, has been replaced by Hail of Arrows, which faintly increases your attack speed for every action you make that hits at least one enemy for 7 seconds. [Increases attack speed by 1% per successful attack. These buffs have no icon or display. Each instance of the buff will fade separately. New instances do not refresh old instances of the attack speed bonus when stacking.]
• Wide Volley now extends finite slow and heavy effects by 4 seconds. (This effect is halved with each occurrence.)
• The time it takes for Heavy Shot to trigger Straighter Shot, when successful, has been reduced.
• Straighter Shot and River of Blood now each produce an additional sound effect.

Bard:

• The cooldown (duration for which you cannot leave) Wanderer’s Minuet upon activation has been reduced to 8 seconds and now scales with Speed.
• Warden's Paean is now an oGCD, but costs 10% of base maximum mana. Cost doubles after each use, with this penalty fading over 30 seconds (150% cost 15 seconds after use).
• The mana cost of all songs has been decreased slightly, to 3% of base mana per tick. (Down from ~3.2%)
• The damage penalty from Mage's Ballad and Army's Paeon has been decreased from 15% to 12%.

Machinist:

• The cooldown (duration for which you cannot leave) Gauss Barrel upon activation has been reduced to 8 seconds and now scales with Speed.
• The level 20 trait, Increased Action Damage, has been increased from 10% to 13%.
• The level 40 trait, Increased Action Damage II, has been increased from 20% to 23%.
• The TP cost of Hot Shot has been reduced to 50. Hot Shot no longer increases damage dealt. Each time Split Shot or Slug Shot fail to trigger a new proc, they temporarily increase the damage of Hot Shot by 20, shown in stacks of 'Gun Heat', to a maximum of 8 stacks. Stacks fade at 1 stack per 6 seconds. Hot Shot has no cast time in Gauss Barrel. [TBR]
• The potency of Gauss Round has been increased from 180 to 200.
• The effectiveness of Rook Auto-turret and Bishop Auto-turret's Promotion effects have been increased by 16.67%.
• The duration of Hypercharge has been increased from 15 to 20 seconds.
• The time it takes for Split Shot and Slug Shot to trigger Enhanced Slug Shot or Cleaner Shot, when successful has been reduced.
• Procs generated from Split and Slug Shot now each produce an additional sound effect.

Thaumaturge:

• The cooldown of Transpose now scales with Speed.
• The activation speed of Transpose has been increased. Its animation lock has been slightly decreased.
• Transpose will now check for Astral Fire or Umbral Ice at the start of activation, rather than upon animation completion.
• The activation speed of Swiftcast has been increased. Its animation lock has been slightly decreased.
• The casting speed benefits of Astral Fire and Umbral Ice now last for an additional .5 seconds after their buff fades, allowing a second quickened elemental cast.
• Blizzard II potency has been increased from 50 to 70.
• Astral Fire and Umbral Ice duration increased to 11 seconds.
• Astral Fire and Umbral Ice are now applied on cast release, rather upon dealing damage. Both consequently now work misses and against invulnerable targets, and apply faintly sooner.
• Astral Fire now increases Fire spell mana costs by 50/30/20% per stack, to a maximum of +100%, instead of costing double immediately.
• Astral Fire now increases Ice spell casting speeds by 12/15/23% per stack, to a maximum of +50%, instead of only affecting cast times at AF3.
• Umbral Ice now increases Fire spell casting speeds by 12/15/23% per stack, to a maximum of +50%, instead of only affecting cast times at UI3.
• After having missed one or more ticks of MP regen due to effects that prevent base MP regeneration, leaving those effects (e.g. Astral Fire) will cause you to regain a base MP tick of mana instantly.
• Surecast is now consumed on spell completion, rather than upon starting your next spell.
• Level 16 Enhanced Surecast adjusted. It now causes Surecast to also require you to take damage equal to at least 15% of your HP for you to be knocked back while casting while Surecast is active, and gives it a 30% chance not to trigger its cooldown.

Black Mage:

• Flare potency increased to from 280 to 300. Damage now split evenly; see universal changes.
• Freeze mana cost decreased from ~15.5% base MP to ~11.7% base MP (Equal to Fire II). Potency increased from 100 to 140.
• Fire IV now checks for Astral Fire only at the start of its cast. AF falling off mid-cast will not prevent the cast from completing.
• Blizzard IV now checks for Umbral Ice only at the start of its cast. UI falling off mid-cast will not prevent the cast from completing.
• Fire IV and Blizzard IV casts now end instantly when Enochian falls off, rather than completing their casts and being unable to fire at upon completion.

Conjurer:

• The cooldown of Cleric Stance now scales with Speed.
• Stoneskin cast time reduced from 3.0 to 2.5s.
• Quick Stoneskin trait changed to Whispering Stone, reducing the MP cost of Stoneskin by 20%.
• Stoneskin II cast time reduced from 6 to 5 seconds and mana cost reduced by 20%.

White Mage:

• Holy potency increased from 200 to 210. Its mana cost has been reduced by 14% (from 1768 to 1503). (Now equal to that of Medica II, reduced from 15.5% base mana to 13.2%.) Damage now split evenly; see universal changes.

Astrologian:

• All Astrologian mana costs have been increased by 5%.
• Diurnal Sect now additional decreases mana costs by 5%.
• Nocturnal Sect now affects the potency of all magic, not only healing magic.
• Multiple cards may now be present on a single party member.
• Draw will cool at half-speed even before the drawn card is used.
• Spread and Royal Road no longer have cooldowns.
• The duration of Lumiferous Aether has been increased from 15 to 21 seconds, but its potency has been reduced from 80 to 60. (5% buff. Improved enmity reduction window.)
• Shuffle can no longer draw the same card that was Shuffled. Renamed to Redraw.
• The AoE radius of Gravity has been increased from 5 to 7 yalms.
• Spire now creates two effects, both for 15 seconds: TP Refresh (of 15 per tick), and TP Cost Reduction (20%). Together, they can save a maximum of 250 TP, at which point both effects will disappear. Doubling the duration of Spire will double both durations and make the TP Refresh immune to fall-off. Empowering Spire will increase both effects and the maximum TP that can be saved. (It is now ideal in
• Ewer now creates two effects, both for 15 seconds: MP Refresh (of 20 potency per tick), and MP Cost Reduction (20%). Together, they can save a maximum of 20% of base MP (roughly 1900 to 2,280), at which point both effects will disappear. Doubling the duration of Spire will double both durations and make the MP Refresh immune to fall-off. Empowering Spire will increase both effects and the maximum MP that can be saved. (It is now potentially worth using on a BLM.)
• Spear now both reduces the cooldowns of all abilities activated during its duration and increases the cooling rate of all abilities by 20% while Spear is active.
• Bole now decreases damage taken by 10% and immediately duplicates 10% of all periodic healing received while Bole is active. While Bole is active, shields on the target are counted in addition to maximum health by ability that create %HP healing, max HP, or absorption.

Arcanist:

• All stats which affect you now also affect your pet.
• The base movement speed of pets has been increased by 33%, but this bonus fades over movement, to a maximum of 3 seconds of movement before returning to normal speed. This duration recharges, up to 3 seconds, while stationary.
• At the distance at which your pet would otherwise disappear due to range, it will now reappear at your side after a short delay (based on distance, roughly equal to the time it would take to reach you at mounted speed).
• You can now issue pet commands mid-GCD, mid-cast, and mid-animation.
• Shadow Flare may now be queued like any other Spell. It can now be targeted during your GCD. It will begin casting at the previously targeted area once your GCD has completed (once queue is readied).
• Enhanced Pet Actions trait chance to trigger increased from 20% chance to 25% and its bonus to skill speed increased from 20% to 30%.

Summoner:

• Dreadwyrm Trance now has a unique lingering animation that surrounds the caster, reminiscent of but much smaller than Summoner's 3-bar Limit Break.
• Dreadwyrm Trance now additionally increases casting speed by 10% during its duration.
• Ruin III potency has been increased from 120 to 150.

Recent Edits:

• Went for increased base potencies instead of a permanent Sword Oath. Sword Oath changed out for a situational cleave mode. Still exclusive with Shield Oath, which carries Shield Swipe cleave. I want something to maintain in exchange for no longer having to deal with the Sword Oath window, though.
• I'd still prefer to keep a real Sword Oath, but I just feel it needs to be more unique, in that case, and with another way of paying back its window cost (barely sub-optimally, as not to make dropping and reapplying stance ever rotationally optimal). E.g. via the brief attack speed increase idea using a charged-up Oath (12% + 6% attack speed bonus per second of charge for up to 5 seconds' charge, diminishing at 3% per second, such that time lost casting the ability is roughly 90% made up for).
  
  
• May remove the buff to AF/UI-checking on BLM.
• May nerf Fire IV from 280 to 260 while increasing Enochian's general damage increase to 13%, and return Flare to 280 potency.
  
• And the instant Astral Fire / Umbral Ice is already confirmed. Much like the change to GL this may end up an effective duration loss, though, unless they're increasing that at the same time? Any recall if the duration is being buffed?

[Jpec07]

/signed

This seems incredibly well-thought-out, and I would be thrilled if SE did something like this. Unfortunately, I think we'll have to wait for at least 3.3 before they acknowledge that PLD needs help.

And before anyone says "if you want stacks, play WAR", please note that the PLD here is not in control of the stacking itself, as it depends on block rate (this would make PLD a powerhouse in lower-level content, as five blocks would be easy to achieve with a buckler-style shield, and PLD AoE could actually become viable again (with a moderately "spammable" AoE attack).

[Shurrikhan]

And before anyone says "if you want stacks, play WAR", please note that the PLD here is not in control of the stacking itself, as it depends on block rate (this would make PLD a powerhouse in lower-level content, as five blocks would be easy to achieve with a buckler-style shield, and PLD AoE could actually become viable again (with a moderately "spammable" AoE attack).

Still looking for anything a bit smoother that I could offer instead for MT dps with a similar level of entertainment value, especially since it won't work on magic in the current state of the <You can't block Giant Boulders, but can parry shockwaves> physical blocking only game. This just came to mind when imagining what a drunk PLD gamer might yell at his screen, e.g. "2! 2! ...2! 2!2!" to spam 290 potency per GCD when stacks are up against 3 enemies, for the (marginally) most efficient damage-dealing after GB's up. The stacks were just a way to make it a bit of gamble when taking advantage of the unbreakable combos vs. max efficiency on Bashing, for a bit of the DRK-twitchiness >.>

I have yet to think up anything else that can do that for Shield Oath with more concise language, though I have a highly complex version of Sword Oath that uses stacks according to the PLD's control, but very differently from how Warrior uses its stacks, if I wanted to go the route of making the Sword Oath description equally long.
>> Combo moves provide stacks that you can use to rush future combos or duplicate combo'ed moves. Rushed/duplicated abilities deal lesser damage but their crits give Crit/Speed (as portion of stat)/Cleave benefits, such that there's practically a strategic minigame in just prepping your combined stacks and buffs for a particular window or add's appearance. Shakes up the rotation a lot though, and would likely make PLD even harder to perfect than... well, whichever job you think is currently hardest to perfect.

Edit: Noticed a miscalculation in my Shield Oath idea. At present it is best to use Shield Bash only at 5 stacks, whereas I would like it to be used at [enemy count - 1] stacks or at [enemy count] stacks, so that there's some value you want to be intercepting. I still don't want to give Shield Swipe a stack generation effect of its own, as that would cause you to have to delay Bash further to spam it, etc. I'd like for Defender to give Shield Bash significance against a single-target as more than just a filler (an actual nuke), as well, for a bit more MT dps bonus. I just don't want PLD to do quite as much MT dps as the other two on average (though it can be damn close).

[Arannon]

My biggest concern is there are a lot of effects in here that we've not really SEEN before. Stacking buffs? Yeah, but a stance that makes your attacks aoe?

A spell with two stages to its casting, interrupted or cancelled after the first causes a scaling effect based on how long you kept it going?

These may not be things their code is currently capable of...

At least, I don't know that I've ever seen similar effects out of any other ability in the game.

What you suggest may be nice, and well thought out, but could it be implemented quickly, efficiently, and with ample testing? I'm really doubtful...

[Shurrikhan]

My biggest concern is there are a lot of effects in here that we've not really SEEN before....a stance that makes your attacks aoe?

A spell with two stages to its casting, interrupted or cancelled after the first causes a scaling effect based on how long you kept it going?

These may not be things their code is currently capable of...

To be honest, looking back on what I've written, you can almost consider those particular changes being given to PLD, while in my mind the ideal fit, excuses for their development. I honestly feel that if FFXIV wants to be any sort of forward-leading game, it needs at least be capable of the combat code complexity done in competing games. We don't even have fading debuffs here (e.g. a heavy starting at 80% and fading (completely/to 20%/to 40%/whatever) over, say, 2 seconds), let alone roll-over debuffs, or cleaves that splits damage among all hit but deals bonus damage per enemy hit (where that bonus may scale up or down with each bonus given), or channeling spells, or charge spells, or multi-stage spells, or dynamic abilities (with different effects and accordant animations conditionally)... all these just from examples that stuck with me from other MMOs).

Sorry if it sounds like I'm just trying to defend my post. I'm honestly not. Rather, this is a stance I've been kind of hard set on since I ARR came out, and refreshed when Heavensward stuck to the same relatively shallow path. It seems I took the opportunity here (though unaware at the time) to push that within my suggestions...

Hard to grasp how balance many of these changes would be on pld, since some don't have comparable counter parts ingame. But I will say be careful on a refreshable shield swipe with no cd. In the early life of 2.x life Shield Swipe was refreshable after every block with no cd, and also ogcd, but costed tp. I could nuke mobs faster then dps classes while in Shield Oath, but also nuke my tp. The dps increase was very noticeable on trash, and on bosses. Idk when they changed it be on gcd in 2.x. Since I was just casually playing the game at the time and playing/leveling several jobs at the time.

I honestly don't remember any time when Shield Swipe was refreshable and oGCD. I primarily leveled my GLD first (carried over at ~level 26) as soon as the game was released, too. Granted, that was a long time ago. If I wasn't watching a particularly good movie or anime during the run, I'd be unlikely to remember any run that far back... let alone what happened during said run.

As for balancing it, though, that has been a place of concern for me. What I'd consider ideal, though, takes more new coding than either of my suggestions that already have no counterpart (Clemency and Sword Oath)... I suspect adding an internal cooldown (individual or per x procs) or adjusting the proc chances would suffice, however. Right now it's simply set slightly higher than Low Blow rates without Dark Dance (unless using a Tower Shield), a fair bit more than with Dark Dance when using Bulwark and a kite shield or buckler, or a bit less than with Dark Dance and no Bulwark, etc., as to make up a bit of PLD's MT dps gap with WAR and DRK in a way that the Defender stacks could not on its own (being, as it is, concerned primarily with MT AoE dps). Both are adjustable, of course, though I feel that even in combination they're unlikely to have any greater MT dps, ST or AoE, than the other tank jobs. I'll run the math again after I finalize Shield Oath / Defender.

[Isius]

Hard to grasp how balance many of these changes would be on pld, since some don't have comparable counter parts ingame. But I will say be careful on a refreshable shield swipe with no cd. In the early life of 2.x life Shield Swipe was refreshable after every block with no cd, and also ogcd, but costed tp. I could nuke mobs faster then dps classes while in Shield Oath, but also nuke my tp. The dps increase was very noticable on trash, and on bosses. Idk when they changed it be on gcd in 2.x. Since I was just casually playing the game at the time and playing/leveling several jobs at the time.

[Reynhart]

My biggest concern is there are a lot of effects in here that we've not really SEEN before.

That's exactly what would greatly help PLD feel more unique.

These are really interesting suggestions all and all. There is just one thing that seems a little odd.

The cooldown of Shield Swipe may now be refreshed by blocks.

Shield Swipe is already tied to block, so refreshing the cast by also a block is weird.

[Arannon]

Oh no, I can understand defending what you've thought up...

I'm just not sure the class can really wait for the level of development it might take to implement these changes. These are the sorts of changes you'd expect at version upgrade, 4.0 for instance...not something to see come down the pike during the 3.X series...Then again, they did implement Rogue and Ninja during the 2.X series...

Always been a fan of the old adage "Keep It Simple Stupid"...why build something elaborate when something simple will do just as well?

Anyways, for the sake of throwing out my OWN ideas...if I was king for a day, here's what I would change.

Royal Authority - Grants a buff that reduces cast time by 1.0-1.5 seconds (Like Lightspeed off Astrologian, but used on cast). This fixes Clemency, and improves the usability of Stoneskin, and gives us a unique casting style for future expansions and future spells we might be given (Long cast time, reduced by using our melee combos).

Divine Veil - Buffs the paladin for 10-15 seconds, storing 5-10% of incoming healing. Pushing the button again eats the buff and shields allies for the amount of healing stored or a minimum of 10% of the paladins max HP. Yeah, this ones not so simple, but I like the idea of the ability, but dislike the lack of personal control I have over it...fixing that while keeping the flavor was what I would want...Alternatively make the buff increase the paladins max hp by 5% for every heal that lands on him, using the ability again eats the buff and shields everyone else...

Shelltron - Just a personal pet peeve of mine, I'd change this to just block everything over the span of 2-3 seconds and restore MP as it fades. I absolutely despise going to block a Blinding Blade for 13-16k damage from Ravana, only to have the block eaten by a random 2-3k damage autoattack a split second before the tankbuster smacks me in the face...

Sword Oath - Switches Vit and Str like Cleric stance switches Mnd and Int on healers. Higher damage for the trade off of lowered Max HP while you're focusing on hitting hard. Also makes Fending accessories less of a "bad choice" when gearing out...

I would adjust threat values on our threat combo abilities, and I'd like to see Flash a little more "Threatening" than it is...though i imagine that's just a simple change in its numbers. Having it scale would be nice though, just not sure how possible that is. Flash is a bit of an odd duck without any real "damage" of its own.

[GunsBlazing]

The only issue i can perceive is that this would give paladin enormous resource management for aoe dps, well beyond warrior or dark Knight. They would be dealing comparable aoe dps with only single target tp consumption with the proposed changes. It would allow pld to spam aoe dps for a much longer period of time - - nearly indefinitely if they had a bard, mch or ast helping with tp regen. It is almost as unfair as scholar is to whm and ast. Both other healers are nerfed in aoe (holy/grav damage scaling and huge mp costs) while scholar only casts single target dots for very little mp (i think all 3 dots + shadowflare are almost equal in cost to about one holy) , then spreads them to all targets free of charge. This makes scholar vastly superior in aoe damage cuz it can do it forever, nearly. Pld would be in the same place with just a LITTLE bit of help.

[Shurrikhan]

Shield Swipe is already tied to block, so refreshing the cast by also a block is weird.

First block allows Shield Swipe (unless you're in Shield Oath, in which case it's already available). You Swipe.

Second block allows it to be used again, and has a chance to refresh it (and of course allows it). Assuming good RNG, you Swipe again.

Without that refresh component while maintaining the original cooldown I'd be limited to a 100% refresh chance (Swipe usable once per block), and Shield Oath would be able to spam it infinitely. Or, if I removed that component from Shield Oath, it would lose a bit of the supportive identity I wanted to give it in the form of break-less combos (for easier healing and stunning) and immediate pacification access. (Ideally I wanted Shield Oath to be a stance that, in a pinch, an OT or especially co-tank could sit in despite its damage loss or when the enmity is unnecessary, for party convenience, especially in encounters like Levi Ex when adds are spawning and AoEs are hitting hard [a healer D/Ced], etc.)

Always been a fan of the old adage "Keep It Simple Stupid"...why build something elaborate when something simple will do just as well?

Funnily enough, this was my staunchest attempt to keep things simple. Any other version I could think of either cost identity (e.g. using Flash for dps instead of Oath cleaves) or imbalanced something else that would, to the best I could simulate, have cost greater complexity to fix (such as a faster Clemency).

That's actually why two of my pet peeves were even left out of this version: Divine Veil (which I can accept only because it can be used without anything to attack and with relatively little preparation (personal buff activation time, 2-4s to get a heal, buff activation time for party), and Shelltron. The latter I think has more to do with the idea that a boss can auto attack while using a massively telegraphed ability that outright removes any animations for auto-attacks, but the fix I had suggested for it before, for in the meantime (really hoping those will eventually be taken out), was almost identical to yours. I simply used a 2-second duration of block everything, with, if possible (given coding), a maximum amount of damage blocked (based on your AP or combined Vit/Str)--exceeding that maximum, it breaks early and you don't get any further guaranteed blocks (really strong AAs can still get through).

Your Divine Veil would be awesome if we just had stacking buffs in this game (not the 'stacks' kind, but the rolling number kind, if that makes sense). Though, it would work a lot like a funneled Deployment Tactics, which may cause overpowered levels of mitigation when used fully, but would be lackluster otherwise if not for the appended minimum value. Each healer could probably heal you for 50k or so in that time, after all, given CDs/Aetherflow stacks at the ready, and 12-15k party-wide mitigation would make anything that didn't explicitly require tank LB3 a joke.

Your Sword Oath, however, would cause PLDs to have to spec (in their +35 and accessories) into either MT or OT though. If MT with sufficient eHP, they'd want pure Strength. If OT, they'd want pure fending regardless of eHP needs. It doesn't allow for as much cross-over as they currently do after achieving the minimum health pool.