What if Paladins got a "Dragon Kick" ability?

[Steady]

Was talking about this randomly in FC chat the other day about what would happen in the game of if the Dragon Kick Affect (10% Blunt Resist/INT down) was made as the third part of the non-enmity combo following Riot Blade.

Thematically this could be justified by the third part of the combo involving the shield, or perhaps a Pommel attack, or Blunt side of the sword.

I'm told often by our Ninja as Warrior how much it improves his DPS if I keep the slashing up, I assume this could help Monk in similar ways, and make for an interesting bonus for Paladins in terms of having a full three part non-enmity combo while off tanking, helping contribute to reducing damage out, and make Paladins as valuable and synergistic with Monks as Warriors are with Ninjas and Dragoons are to Bards.

[Reinfeld]

The blunt resistance down has no synergy with his own kit (no enmity Bonus on that combo and PLD deal slashing damage) making it a mostly useless skill except in very specific circumstances. Then it kind of encroaches upon one of MNK's unique strengths. For the synergy I would rather just see DRK have Blunt damage, even though they used a giant sword. Also, PLD already have their own Unique damage reduction in Rage of Halone's STR down and an aoe blind.

[Slappah]

To be fair the blind is pretty close to useless in a raid environment.

[VargasVermillion]

Most of the party utility that PLD seemingly offers is useless: blind is useless, shield bash is useless, pacification is useless. Only thing it has is stoneskin (which isn't even one of their skills) and strength down, Cover is ok but would benefit more if it could protect against magic damage as well.

As for what abilities could be added I'll wait and see what they get in Heavensward first.

[Ultimatecalibur]

The Int down part would be advantageous in magic damage heavy fights where Rage of Halone's debuff doesn't do anything, but it would likely be unused unless the action that applied it had other uses.

[Zaft]

PLD definitely needs something in terms of utility or I don't see many serious FCs bringing it in Heavensward over WAR and DRK (whom I imagine will have SOME sort of utility).

[Rbstr]

Most of the party utility that PLD seemingly offers is useless: blind is useless, shield bash is useless, pacification is useless. Only thing it has is stoneskin (which isn't even one of their skills) and strength down, Cover is ok but would benefit more if it could protect against magic damage as well.

I agree that Paly could use some more utility, but you can't call can their utility useless, it's far from it. A repeatable GCD stun is very powerful. No one else can chain stun and it's been critical to strategy in many fights. They're the only tank with silence. And, while the pacify doesn't do much (IMO it should reduce autoattack damage), Swipe is atleast a DPS increase.

It's only really deficient in a world where it gains nothing from Heavensward or DRK replicates all of the currently unique aspects. But I don't think it will. It will probably be built to synergize well with either tank, like we've heard from Astrologian.

[rawker]

Why not a second combo out of Savage Blade. While Rage of Halone reduces STR, make this 3rd combo reduce INT and MND, not to mention increased enmity. I just feel that Fast Blade -> Riot Blade is already complete that I can only see it branching out of Fast Blade -> Savage Blade.

[Steady]

Why not a second combo out of Savage Blade. While Rage of Halone reduces STR, make this 3rd combo reduce INT and MND, not to mention increased enmity. I just feel that Fast Blade -> Riot Blade is already complete that I can only see it branching out of Fast Blade -> Savage Blade.

Well, it breaks the formula some, would be nice to have a non-enmity 3 part while off tanking.

[Zaft]

A repeatable GCD stun is very powerful. No one else can chain stun and it's been critical to strategy in many fights.

I'm curious what fights you're talking about. Leviathan is the only one I can think of where people chainstun, and that's really only in PUGs. Any group with competent DPS will burn the mob before it gets out of its first stun.

I'm not saying it's worthless of course, but it's far from useful. STR down is really all they have going for them, and that's minor compared to WAR's flat 10% down.