Sword AND Board: Looking at Paladin in a different light

[SpookyGhost]

WAR is definitely better at going in and out of tank stance since it costs them 0 GCDs, PLD basically has to make a decision on whether or not they want to be in Sword or Shield for an extended period of time which makes things a lot rougher. With gear, a lot of content (pretty much all) can be tanked in Sword alone, so swapping back and forth isn't actually that necessary. If you're forced to stay in Shield for some reason, you're in a situation where Oath swapping isn't ideal to begin with. If you're Hallowed and there's no mechanic damage coming out after Hallowed fades, then you're fine to swap to Sword there for awhile, but otherwise it's not entirely worth it simply because you may end up killing yourself or you may end up costing your healers DPS. Staying in Sword has them maximizing their DPS/healing for that Oath, whereas dancing around has them unsure when they'll need to prepare for more or less damage. I personally just pick one Oath and stick to it unless I'm going from MT -> OT and I'm in Shield, obviously then I'll take the GCD to swap to Sword.

[Wintersandman]

This.

He basically stated it.

[Shurrikhan]

@Shurrikhan
The calculations are pretty good, although they change if you factor in the stuff listed above, but also don't forget the damage ticks from Circle and Fracture, iirc those are affected by the ShO damage debuff as well and FoF too I think, been a while since I last checked that.

Since all damage(application is snapshotted, there will be no damage loss to a Fracture/CoS applied in Sword and ticking in Shield.

And I agree that in anywhere but bleeding-edge content one ought to swap Oaths before hitting HG, but it was just a place to start calculations from.

The point at which Sword Oath becomes reasonable will then be one step earlier, and the lead greatly increased each time the player has a multiple of 3 + 1 offset GCDs in Sword.

Edit: 4 GCD sample of swapping oaths after HG up.

[zeroaru]

Wait what? Did you mean Warrior? Because the PLD stun is on the GCD, with a fairly hefty TP cost to boot.

Nope. Meant On GCD. I like that I can use it pretty much whenever I want, great for shorter fights/small trash pulls if I want to save my longer defensive CDs for a bigger pull/nearby boss fight - tp isn't generally an issue if the above criteria is met, if I know I'll need it I wont waste the TP on stuns unless it's to specifically nullify an attack. Personal preference.

I do the same with the warrior stun if applicable, juts not as often as I'd like.

[Fyce]

I would totaly do a 1 > Fight or Flight > 2 > Sword Oath > 3 > Circle of Scorn > 1 > Spirit Within > 2 > Shield Oath > 3 rotation, if switching stances was not on GCD and did not break our combo.
But as it is, I just don't bother with stance dancing at all outside a swap tank fight.

---

However, regarding PLD "boring gameplay" I find that, thanks to this aspect of the job, I'm clearly not paying as much attention to my skillbars and combos as I do with any other job in the game.
I absolutly do have the "brain time and attention" to look at the overall encounter, party list, positionning of everyone and enmity list... while keeping a near-perfect rotation and CD usage. Something I find more difficult to do while playing any other class.

Long story short, I think that PLD have a better time being raid leader and/or overall leading their party because their gameplay allow them to have a global sight of the encounter without focusing on their own actions completly.

So, while I agree that the PLD gameplay is boring in itself, I very much appreciate the overall awareness (deal with that pun, I'm not taking it back (⌐■_■) ) it grants me.
It's close to a healer point of view, but without the healing side of things.

[zeroaru]

So, while I agree that the PLD gameplay is boring in itself, I very much appreciate the overall awareness (deal with that pun, I'm not taking it back (⌐■_■) ) it grants me.

Gotta wonder if that was the main intent. I was main healer for my first class, I ran dungeons countless times and made it past turn 5 before switching main to warrior. It was only when leveling War that I noticed so much in dungeons that I hadn't seen/was not aware of simply because I'd been too busy keeping an eye on HP and cool downs. I wouldn't say the simplicity of the tanking roles is boring but rather elegant in their design. I can build enough hate in any fight to stop concentrating too much on the boss and take stock of the situation around me (So long as I don't stop dealing DPS) and adjust as needed. If I tunnel vision in as I was likely to on healer until the later levels of my experience I'd more than likely miss add spawns 9 times out of 10.

[Shurrikhan]

As much as I'd like to see improvements to the oaths in some way, taking them off GCD is not what I hope for. I like the foresight the GCD usage requires.

[ZDamned]

First phase of T13 can be totally tanked in Sword Oath. So I don't know ANY fight where there is no opportunity to Oath swap. =P

[VargasVermillion]

First phase of T13 can be totally tanked in Sword Oath. So I don't know ANY fight where there is no opportunity to Oath swap. =P

That goes back to what I said about you either being in SwO or ShO, you rarely swap constantly in a rotation which is what some people are trying to say PLDs should do more often.

[VargasVermillion]

On that note about being aware in dungeons, this should be the case for every class in the game, the only reason you wouldn't be aware of your surroundings while playing another class is because you just aren't used to the abilities they have and where they come into fights. Once you play them enough it should be practically second nature.

My issue is PLDs seemingly large amount of utility is too situational for fights that it needs to actually be designed for those mechanics. Compared to WAR PLD has bad design, all of warriors skills have good uses with holmgang being debatable, PLD has 4 abilities that are too situational to even matter that most players forget they exist.

I'm not saying these abilities should be changed, it's fine for what we've done so far I just hope Heavensward will add something to spice up PLDs game play.