The Bottom Feeders: Moves You Never Use and Why.

[Sapphidia]

Well I can agree with that, but my point was a little different. I agree Paladin needs help of course, but I don't feel that looking at all the less used skills and comparing them to alternatives from other classes is the best way to do it. All skills don't have to be equal, and it's okay designwise if jobs have some skills that have very limited use as long as they're not -totally- useless.

Could Tempered Will be better? Of course it could. It could have a 60 second cooldown. It could give the paladin a heal when used. It could be another damage mitigation ability. It could even be a DPS cooldown that boosted Crit or something. However, as it stands it's still a skill that has some uses, and its existance doesnt really bear any connection to the overall usefulness of the paladin.

Boosting the power of a class is mostly done by increasing potencies, reducing cooldown amounts and generally just buffing numbers. You can do more creative things, sure, but if Paladins were doing 20% more DPS than they do right now you wouldnt have anyone really whining about Tempered Will and Divine Veil being niche abilities as the overall class is strong. But because the class is viewed as weak the eyes naturally fall on the weakest elements.

I think the only ability paladins have which I feel needs a big viability boost is Clemency. It -should- be class defining but its implementation makes it stupidly hard to use.

[Freyyy]

if Paladins were doing 20% more DPS than they do right now you wouldnt have anyone really whining about Tempered Will and Divine Veil being niche abilities as the overall class is strong. But because the class is viewed as weak the eyes naturally fall on the weakest elements.

There is also the fact that a lot of people want to see PLD improved in another way than just increased damage, by instead starting to look at their more support-like abilities. Look at BRD and MCH, they are the lowest DPS in the game, yet everyone wants at least one of them in their group for their incredible utility. PLDs could have comparable utility at a lesser extent (They shouldn't make PLD mandatory either, but at least as desirable as a DRK), while still dealing the same shit damage. It needs a better job design overall. They could get away by just increasing its damage, but IMO it's not the solution.

[Februs]

I think the only ability paladins have which I feel needs a big viability boost is Clemency. It -should- be class defining but its implementation makes it stupidly hard to use.

Clemency is definitely one of the most difficult moves to use in a Pld's kit, but it is also arguably the best active mitigation in the entire game. The only one real problem with with the move itself, and that is figuring out which Tank Busters/AoE's/Cleaves can cancel the cast and which do not. Once you know that, though, your Dmg mitigation goes through the roof. It's takes some timing practice, but AoE dmg is practically a mute point on Pld now. Healers can safely ignore a Pld when they see that Clemency cast bar. Even some Tank Busters can be busted if you just manage to get that timing exact. I'm pretty sure a well timed Tempered Will can have a similar effect for knockback cancellations as well, but I haven't tried it yet (something I'll be sure to try out next time I take a stab at Thor Ex. If Tempered Will secures the cast Clemency during Sacred Cross, then that Dmg would be outright nullified on Pld... Interesting idea. I just have to try it and see if it works).

I do agree, though, that there should be a way of surecasting Clemency in the event of emergencies. It's been mentioned on the forums before that they would be increasing the value of Tempered Will substantially if it just added surecast to it's effect. I'm inclined to agree.

[Iagainsti]

I think the only ability paladins have which I feel needs a big viability boost is Clemency. It -should- be class defining but its implementation makes it stupidly hard to use.

Not a Paladin myself, but when I read the tooltip at xpac launch, I thought right away Clemency should have an additional affect, "Grants any party member within a 5y range of target Protectra, preventing damage totalling 50% of HP restored". Now that would be class defining.