Guardian is a mediocre ability for paladin

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

Yaba, considering I remember you actually playing at Platinum and higher ranks based on you posting your personal achievement (still grats btw), I think you are a bit misguided on how impactful a good Guardian let alone PLD is.

First in agreement with you - Guardian value depends on the target understanding what the Cover effect does and what they can do with it (namely elixir for free), so due to the infrequent usage of the job at low ranks most players do not know how to make use of it.

However, once you hit ranks where people DO know how it works, Paladins will get focused early and forced to use their Guard for themselves, locking them out of Guardian-Guard. In matches where you don't/can't do so the team will get on-field Elixirs online after wasting a lot of burst resources. This interaction is match-swinging.

Guardian does not need additional mitigation unless they remove the safe-elixir interaction. If they do, the most sensible would be 20-50% at most for damage transfered by Cover, not directly dealt to the PLD.

PLD along with GNB (Junction: Tank) is one of the most difficult jobs to kill without a coordinated high spiking damage burst due to the multitude of sustain tools and Holy Sheltron. Shield Bash as the sole 3s stun on a CD has huge impact to deny a DPS' burst or to confirm a kill on targets without Purify (which you can potentially bait by Sheltron-bombing with Heavy).

Lastly, Phalanx is an incredible defensive Limit Break and a great counter to DRG's Sky Shatter and WAR's Primal Scream, provided they got killed once or twice or gets their LB delayed for other reasons. It also lets you cover someone else while under Hallowed Ground.

WAR and DRK are easier to get overall value with because they easily bring their own damage for pressure. PLD however in the right ranks and played well is far more obnoxious than most other jobs.

I'm sorry for my wall of text but I felt compelled to reiterate how strong PLD actually is, even without perfect Guardian usage.