PLD changes; thoughts?

[Zairava]

They aren't bad per say, I'm gonna miss the dots but I like Holy Spirit coming from combo finishers. As long as they don't remove circle of scorn I won't have much reason to be upset.

I'm really excited to have Bulwark back and the holy sheltron change is welcome. I await to see what they've done with the other CD's that are rough around the edges.

Unfortunately we didn't get many details aside of these so I'm remaining skeptical, but this isn't as bad as I was expecting so far.

[Duskane]

to me it sounds like holy spirit is cartridge combo with no continuation and Goring blade is storms eye
hard to say

[RyuuZero]

I wanna play the reworked PLD first before I make a Judgement.. I also looked that the announced Kaiten Removal in that Live Letter and thought like "..okay?" and then the 6.1 Patch Day turned out to be the worst day in my FFXIV Samurai playing Life.

currently the Clunk of the Paladin I see is that you can't have the Goring Blade DoT and the Blade of Valor DoT up at the same time, imo that would be cool. So we can't have it.

[Mikey_R]

I actually suspect, if they are adding Bulwark back, they will remove something to make it fit. A strong contender would be Cover. However, it would also depend on what other things get changed. Is FoF going? then they wouldn't need to etc.

There is also something to consider in regards to the Enhanced Holy Spirit. There are 2 things to consider. It is either going to be buff that doesn't stack, meaning you have to use it before you finish your next combo, or, it does stack. Now, the interesting thing to consider in this case is the fact all buffs that used to work like that have since moved to the job gauges. Considering the slide doesn't specify that it is a buff, just that you get Divine Might, it could mean this is either another gauge for the PLD separate from Oath, or, Oath has been reworked into Divine Might. That then leads into a myriad of possibilities. One thing to note however, MP. Does casting Holy Spirit actually cost MP to use? or do you automatically use the 'Divine Might' on your next cast/s? Even then, where would Requiescat fit into it all? We would still need a 60 second action to help align everything up and aid in planning. Does it just allow the use of the Confiteor combo, or is Confiteor now on it's own 60 second cooldown?

There is a whole rabbit hole we can go down but there isn't enough information to go off of to make an informed decision as to how the rotation would work. Goring losing its DoT means it is going to have some other buff/debuff attached to it so that it will actually see use, so that is another thing to consider.

[RyuuZero]

Nah Cover should stay since it's a Utility that fits the Job's Identity.. though Cover shouldn't have a Gauge Requirement.. and if it should have a Gauge Requirement then it should not have a Cool Down, either or, not both

[Rithy255]

I actually suspect, if they are adding Bulwark back, they will remove something to make it fit. A strong contender would be Cover. However, it would also depend on what other things get changed. Is FoF going? then they wouldn't need to etc.

There is also something to consider in regards to the Enhanced Holy Spirit. There are 2 things to consider. It is either going to be buff that doesn't stack, meaning you have to use it before you finish your next combo, or, it does stack. Now, the interesting thing to consider in this case is the fact all buffs that used to work like that have since moved to the job gauges. Considering the slide doesn't specify that it is a buff, just that you get Divine Might, it could mean this is either another gauge for the PLD separate from Oath, or, Oath has been reworked into Divine Might. That then leads into a myriad of possibilities. One thing to note however, MP. Does casting Holy Spirit actually cost MP to use? or do you automatically use the 'Divine Might' on your next cast/s? Even then, where would Requiescat fit into it all? We would still need a 60 second action to help align everything up and aid in planning. Does it just allow the use of the Confiteor combo, or is Confiteor now on it's own 60 second cooldown?

There is a whole rabbit hole we can go down but there isn't enough information to go off of to make an informed decision as to how the rotation would work. Goring losing its DoT means it is going to have some other buff/debuff attached to it so that it will actually see use, so that is another thing to consider.

Actually if Holy Shelltron is just a mitigation, wouldn't it make sense to remove intervention? right now it sort of acts like your "holy shelltron for a friend" ability, now obviously they should make it so Holyshelltrons can be used back to back (Like give it 1-2sec cd, so you don't accidently double tap it on yourself) so you can still use it on both you and the other tank.

[Duskane]

I actually suspect, if they are adding Bulwark back, they will remove something to make it fit. A strong contender would be Cover.

shield bash and wouldnt be surprising if Req was axed in favor of the rework and conf/sword combo is just a sticker mechanic on PLD gauge

[Puremallace]

No comment until I can actually play it. Removing DoTs is more homogenization to me.

[ForsakenRoe]

Too soon, we lack critical informations.

Gauge generation?
Will it be changed to not punish PLD when it can't auto attack.

What's the point of Goring blade now?
If it has no dots, we'll just spam the highest potency combo.

There's way too much question and as long as we don't have the tooltip, we can't make a correct judgement.

The whole 'we will give exact values at a later date' thing is really annoying at times like this, but here's my copium: Goring>HS is a MP dump, and we're MP negative now (Riot Blade no longer gives MP). RA>Atonement is our MP restore combo, but is lower potency. Thus, our gameplay revolves around 'restore MP outside of burst windows, so you have enough to Req inside burst window (and to Goring>HS when needed). This would also allow for some tricks like 'I'll restore MP earlier, so I can get a Holy Spirit banked for this GCD of downtime here', potentially. FOF's probably dead to compensate for this, which is probably fine in this context.

Copium is that POA applies it's effect in a circle, because people L O V E to dodge that cone AOE when we OGCD weave it for a split second. With the change to Goring>HS we already know, we'll be able to get a HS (and therefore it's healing component) once every 10sec, which is a big buff to the PLD selfsustain, but also allows us to force-proc Veil every 4 GCDs, unless we're unable to cos MP.

Some are saying 'HS proc will just be GNB ammo spender' which I can see, but ironically, I'm actually hoping for it to be like Raiju, spend it on the next GCD or lose it. This would turn it into a sort of '4 step GCD combo', and assuming we're changed to get one Atonement instead of three from Royal, we'd have two 4 step combos to work through, where every other tank has 3 step combos, which would feel at least a little different. The DRG of tanks, as it were. It'd also mean that we've got a 10s long combo, so 4 of those is 40s, then 4 Holy Spirits, Confiteor, Blade x 3, that's another 20s for our burst window, and that's the full 60s rotation solved. Though, they might change things up a bit regarding Req, so it's easier to get the Blade part of the burst into the raidbuffs (it's a bit hard to get all 8 GCDs since they dont scale with skillspeed).

Maybe Req is deleted, and Confiteor is a flat 60s CD that triggers Blades, so that's a replacement 10s duration combo for the raidbuff window? So our combo use would either be Confiteor, 2 Gorings and 3 RAs, or Confiteor, 3 Gorings, 2 RAs, based on how much MP restore Blade combo and Atonement combo give us. This would also allow us to shift the RA and Goring's around within that 50s, to better accomodate downtime (assuming they don't just make the bosses 100% uptime for the rest of forever)

[dspguy]

I thought they said they were doing gameplay of the PLD lol, oh well...

I think In general Goring blade is going to give you a 10% general damage buff on a 30 seconds that can stack up to 60 like warriors, likely FOF removed or reworked into goring blade.

Hopefully they're making DV/POA more useable and less clunky Imo, now we know they're adjusting the defensive's I also hope they buff cover somehow making it actually a good ability, With bulwark being added in it's likely going to be your "block ability" as I think shelltron/holyshelltron are just going to become normal mitigation abilities from what we've heard.

Really confused on the finishing combo gives you a Holy spirit charge thing? I think it's going to be similar to how WAR can store up charges of fellcleave, instead of being tied to gauge it will be tied to doing your rotation.

Some of that seems like a good change. Sheltron (for example) goes from just buffing the innate block chance to 100% to possibly just being straight up mitigation while still having a chance of blocking. Or maybe they remove the shield blocking entirely and make the shield cosmetic only.

Making PLD's Holy Spirit/Circle into a FC/Decimate type ability (usable whenever it fits, possibly stackable) seems like a win.

Since Goring Blade is losing its DoT, they'll give it some purpose - whether it be a stack of Holy Spirit/Circle or a damage buff. But that will make it pretty much a WAR-clone if it is just Storm's Eye instead. Personally, I'll miss the DoT. Keep in mind that a damage buff from Goring Blade might just wind up being done in exchange for a potency increase. Developers in charge of balance likely assume that players will keep these buffs up at all times. So if PLD get a 10% damage buff from Goring Blade, they'll likely just not see a potency buff.