How would you improve the Paladin's Cover skill?

[ataren3]

I think Cover as a skill is fine. It's one of the unique (albeit niche) skills PLD can bring to the group.

However I think the cost should be removed with the 2 minute CD remaining, or vice versa. I'm of the mind of removing the cost and making it only usable once every 2 minutes because I can see people able to abuse it if it costs 50 gauge but I can, in essence, spam it.

[Zarkovitch]

bring 20% mitigation back you see more usage.

[Fryfor]

Unironically rip the PvP version 1:1 and just replace the current gap closer. If you wanted a gap closer for the 100 potency you're probably not playing into the fantasy at all

Any job that has buttons you can safely go 'yeah that doesn't need to be on the hotbar' is a design failure. Pretty shameful it got no pass when the rework came, especially considering it's iconic to Paladin.

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

Unironically rip the PvP version 1:1 and just replace the current gap closer. If you wanted a gap closer for the 100 potency you're probably not playing into the fantasy at all

Any job that has buttons you can safely go 'yeah that doesn't need to be on the hotbar' is a design failure. Pretty shameful it got no pass when the rework came, especially considering it's iconic to Paladin.

Wow god forbid I want a gapcloser with low potency to work like a gapcloser with low potency, guess shame on me for not playing into the job fantasy and wanting something that I can use without having to use on a teammate and royally f*** me over the moment anything applies vuln up and oneshot me because I wanted to move close to the boss.

I've read some cursed posts in this thread like wanting to make the tether like Dragon Sight so it can't be broken (terrible idea btw), but replacing Intervene entirely is a terrible idea.

[aodhan_ofinnegain]

Unsure why people think Guardian is anyway good lol most of the time it's a death sentence in PvP, unless you have Hallowed Ground active to offset its weakness. There is so much AoE that you take 4 hits from 1 AoE attack, but people think this would be a good thing to add into PvE. Guess people think it's cool, but don't think about the practicality of it being implemented.

Honestly, Cover is kinda fine as it is, I guess, though personally think with fight design and what not, the cost to use, and the lack of defensive benefit it provides compared to SB, might be time to say goodbye to Cover, devs have actively devalued Cover from the end of SB preventing Cover + Tempered Will working on o12s, to removing the 20% DR and adding Oath Gauge, and stopped certain debuffs to pass through Cover iirc, it's better to lay Cover to rest, and remove it from PvE. It's primary use is now emergency situations, and tbh with an animation lock before Cover applies, it's kinda crappy as a knee jerk reaction skill also. Maybe covering second threat in double tank auto fights I guess where co-tank dies.

[Fryfor]

Yank a gap closer from intervene and throw it on Cover then. Done. Maybe even have them run on the same resource pool so you get the choice!

I know you can enable these devs to get a bit more creative in the job design. It was obviously very busted when it worked with Hallowed so we don't need to go back that far. Well, I say that, but Cover barely even blocks debuffs anymore so I don't know why they're so skittish about this skill in the first place.

[Mikey_R]

If you make it so that Cover yeets yourself to the one you are protecting, congratulations, you have just made it WORSE. You would never use it when main tanking, which reduces it effectiveness, and if your cover target happens to be far away, you lose uptime, especially if you want to remove the gap closer to the boss. COvber is already bad, but this idea just makes it objectively worse.

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

Yank a gap closer from intervene and throw it on Cover then. Done. Maybe even have them run on the same resource pool so you get the choice!

Don't drool on your keyboard too hard man. I know you can enable these devs to get a bit more creative in the job design. It was obviously very busted when it worked with Hallowed so we don't need to go back that far. Well, I say that, but Cover barely even blocks debuffs anymore so I don't know why they're so skittish about this skill in the first place.

Holy sh**, no.

Why on earth would you put additional restrictions on the cooldown that currently shares a resource meter with two objectively better options (Holy Sheltron + Intervention) by making it work like PvP AND make it share uses with your normal gapcloser??

And Cover with exceptions you could count on two hands at most NEVER WORKED with Hallowed Ground. This was never an actual thing. It was strong because in Stormblood it was:
- only gated by a 120s CD and no gauge
- had 20% mitigation after damage redirection

They nerfed it by both putting a gaugecost on it and removing the mitigation, making it a hollow cooldown to use vs both Sheltron and Intervention.

I get your wish for more creativity, but your ideas are terrible man.

[HyperiusUltima]

Here's a simple fix to Cover:





Even if you add the 20% Mit back, it still is awful to use regardless of whether you take the 50 Gauge cost off or not. We lost all interactability with our Defensives back in Stormblood after Kefka's Tier.

They should just scrap it and give the slot to something else because right now even if you think something is 'iconic' to PLD, the only thing really 'iconic' is its blocking ability, not Cover.

[Renathras]

...

Remove the gauge cost. There's no reason for it as Cover was BETTER in the past without a cost, and has a long CD timer already. Gauge cost should be for things with no CD to limit use. If a thing has a long CD, it shouldn't be competing for gauge with your shorter CD mitigations. I've never seen anyone argue in favor of the gauge cost + the CD for it, and I don't think there is a really good argument. It just happened one day, and to this day, no one understands why.

Hot take, but I'd make it a tank role skill for all tanks to utilize. It would free up PLD with an open spot,

Wait, how? If you move it from Job to Role and then all Tanks equip it, then PLD would still have the button on their bar. So how does this open a spot? It's like when Esuna went from being WHM only to a Role skill and WHM's put it...back on their bar in the same place.

All this would do is reduce PLD's flavor and make more homogenization. While you could then design fights around its use, that's part of what would make it bad. It's like when a fight requires a Tank LB3. That's cool an all the first time or two, but after that, it just becomes the button you push when X happens.

The problem with removing Rampart is that leveling still exists in this game. DRK already has issues since it doesn't get TBN until late. You'd need to give them all those things like Shelltron early to make that work.