⚔️ Paladin Job Class Suggestions for Improvement (Patch 7.2 and Beyond)

[Atreus]

The original Flash for PLD was a small damage spell that could inflict blind. That's what I am suggesting is put back into the game when removing Cover. Cover is absolutely useless.

Flash was a zero damage spell, and Cover is not useless.

1. The Blade Combo is dated because it is physical and not magical. PLD already has enough physical attacks.

It's literally magic, as indicated by its damage type written clear as day through the in-game battle log.

[Carighan]

Don't worry, the guy will insist he didn't have ChatGPT write all of this, he seriously plays Paladin, and he just happens to know ~nothing about it because... reasons.

[Mikey_R]

1. The Blade Combo is dated because it is physical and not magical. PLD already has enough physical attacks.
2. The end of the rotation needs to be GCD. OGCD leads to button bloat and takes a spot from a future skill that may be more relevant.
3. Adding my suggestion to the Confiteor combo is completely different than what I am suggesting. The existing issue is the lack of a magical equivalent to the Confiteor combo which is physical in nature.
4. I main Paladin. I know it far better than most players; ergo the targeted suggestions that I am making. Please read. I did not say anything was wrong with the Blade combo. I said that PLD lacks a magical equivalent to the blade combo. The entirely identity of the PLD class revolves around its ability to cast (magical) and to hit (physical). This is literally what makes it different from the other three tanks. Leaning into this identity is what FFXIV should be doing with every class.

Thanks for your input.

1. The blade combo is already classed as a magic attack. They are literally aetherial swords being plunged into the enemy. Add into that the description which says 'unaspected damage', which tells you the attack is magic based with no elemental affinity.
2. Assuming we are talking about Blade of Honor, it replaces Imperator on your hotbar, it takes up no additional slots.
3. see 1.
4. Based on what you have posted, I doubt you have played Paladin to any serious degree, especially since you have posted various mistakes that haven't been true for PLD for a long time.

The original Flash for PLD was a small damage spell that could inflict blind. That's what I am suggesting is put back into the game when removing Cover. Cover is absolutely useless.

It never done damage, ever. This is why Total Eclipse was bought into the game in Stormblood, so that PLD had a way to deal AoE damage on the GCD, with the only other way of dealing AoE damage being Circle of Scorn. Again, you claim to have played PLD for years, but your knowledge says otherwise.

Homogeneity must go. Every job should "feel" like it has its own identity.

PLD is the only tank that can keep the majority of their burst going through disconnects from the boss, that is pretty unique. The problem is it would then drift away from the raid buffs, so the unique part about PLD can be seen as getting shafted because of the 2 minute meta. Not to mention other differences that make PLD stand out from other tanks.

[Brandr]

Clearly not a main PLD.
Paladin is already perfection

[Connor]

Despite having Paladin to level 100 I mostly just levelled it to have a tank and barely know anything about getting the most out of the job (shiny buttons go brrr?)

Even I feel like these changes are a little nonsensical frankly. Like what tangible difference would it actually make it Confiteor is physical or magical? Fight or Flight is for both types of damage output anyway, and Requiescat is a direct potency increase? Job Identity has absolutely nothing to do with gameplay anymore, by the dev’s own admission (see: Seraphism).

What’s wrong with Cover? If you ask me it’s one of the extremely few ‘unique’ skills we have actually have in terms of how it works mechanically (it’s slightly more involved than ‘press button for party-wide megashield). Seeing it removed would just make Paladin feel even more homogenised with other tanks, wouldn’t it? And replacing it with Flash ? By far one of the most shit on and despised skills of its generation?. Come on man, at least make the bait believable

[StarlessSky]

I'm surprised nobody's pointed out the reference to "Clemency spam" in the first post, like Clemency is a button Paladin literally ever presses except to cover for a dead healer.

[Emitans]

I'm surprised nobody's pointed out the reference to "Clemency spam" in the first post, like Clemency is a button Paladin literally ever presses except to cover for a dead healer.

I addressed the entire post and mods deleted it and from the way the thread looks I think I wasn't the only person with posts deleted.

[PyurBlue]

Remove Cover

I don't understand why so many people want to remove one of the most interesting skills in the game. Yes it's niche. That's why it's good. You can't reliably predict when you'll need to use cover and have to look out for situations where it's beneficial and work out how to use it on the fly. This makes it more interesting than 99% of other abilities. It's how most things should work. Cover isn't redundant either. Intervention has a completely different use case, as do healer abilities. Cover is the ultimate teammate defense and it has a cost to the the PLD that other abilities don't in transferring damage and maybe status effects.

To take this away and replace it with a button that exists solely to be pressed without any kind of thought (Flash) would be a massive step backwards. I don't want to sound overly harsh but if something like this happened I'd take it as a sign that classes have lost all meaning.

[Grimforth]

I don't understand why so many people want to remove one of the most interesting skills in the game. Yes it's niche. That's why it's good. You can't reliably predict when you'll need to use cover and have to look out for situations where it's beneficial and work out how to use it on the fly. This makes it more interesting than 99% of other abilities. It's how most things should work. Cover isn't redundant either. Intervention has a completely different use case, as do healer abilities. Cover is the ultimate teammate defense and it has a cost to the the PLD that other abilities don't in transferring damage and maybe status effects.

To take this away and replace it with a button that exists solely to be pressed without any kind of thought (Flash) would be a massive step backwards. I don't want to sound overly harsh but if something like this happened I'd take it as a sign that classes have lost all meaning.

Someone asking for the removal of cover obviously doesn't know what they're doing as a paladin and doesn't understand the value of it.

If you're OT'ing in a raid then what's stopping you from using it to take a hit for the MT so that can save their cd's? What's stopping the OT from using it to save a Healer? The OP has obviously never thought of using it like that. So I don't get why they want it removed. They want it removed because they don't know how to use it.

[Mercury_Grey]

Someone asking for the removal of cover obviously doesn't know what they're doing as a paladin and doesn't understand the value of it.

If you're OT'ing in a raid then what's stopping you from using it to take a hit for the MT so that can save their cd's? What's stopping the OT from using it to save a Healer? The OP has obviously never thought of using it like that. So I don't get why they want it removed. They want it removed because they don't know how to use it.

Honestly i kind of wish Cover didn't cost gauge cause then i could store 50 for holy shieldtron or usign it on intervention, i mean would htey make cover like lets say 5 second more CD. It might jsut be me but i'd take a 5 second extra coooldown on cover for it to cost 0 gauge